Aino Folk-Tales


Read by Expatriate

(4.7 stars; 21 reviews)

Not for the squeamish or for children, these folk-tales are from the Ainu, the somewhat mysterious indigenous people of Japan, thousands of whom still live in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. Ranging over all of the usual themes of folklore, from creation to marriage to war, these stories have a pungent, ribald frankness concerning all aspects of human life that offended their scholarly collector Basil Hall Chamberlain (his apologies to the reader are themselves entertaining) but that make them fresh, provocative, and amusing to the twenty-first century reader. Attention to the Ainu is especially timely because of the revival in Japan of Ainu activism on behalf of indigenous rights, pride, and culture, but are well worth reading for their purely entertainment value. (2 hr 21 min)

Chapters

Introductory Material 23:11 Read by Expatriate
I.a. Tales Accounting for the Origin of All Phenomena (01-10) 17:08 Read by Expatriate
I.b. Tales Accounting for the Origin of All Phenomena (11-20) 20:21 Read by Expatriate
II. Moral Tales (21-27) 19:26 Read by Expatriate
III. Tales of the Panaumbe & Penaumbe Cycle (28-32) 14:09 Read by Expatriate
IV.a. Miscellaneous Tales (33-37) 16:52 Read by Expatriate
IV.b. Miscellaneous Tales (38-43) 19:53 Read by Expatriate
V. Scraps of Folklore (44-54) 10:40 Read by Expatriate

Reviews


(5 stars)

LOVE these quirky folk stories! many have mature unusual themes, which I found greatly interesting! not smutty, but bit odd in a fun way.