The Kamuy-Ekasi of Mount Rukotsudake

Tales from the Yakumo Area

There is a mountain called Rukotsudake. Long ago, Ainu people from Saru came to live nearby, in a place called Pon-shirara. One day, an old man, who was the eldest brother of this clan, was invited to a celebration in another Kotan, and did not return. The worried members of the clan searched the mountainside, where they found his footprints. When they followed his footprints into the mountain, the old man’s prints changed into those of a bear, which continued up the mountain. One night, the old man appeared in a dream, and told the clan that “the lord of the mountain had become elderly and ascended to heaven, so I have taken his place as the lord of Mount Rukotsu.”