Sarashina Genzo’s Ainu Densetsushu ("A Collection of Ainu Legends"). Introduction, Selected Translations from Japanese and Comments by E.E. Uzhinin
The article is a Russian translation of some Ainu legends from the book Ainu Densetsushu (‘A collection of Ainu legends’) by Sarashina Genzo, a Japanese poet and ethnographer born in Hokkaido. The legends are collected and recorded in various regions of the island of Hokkaido. The studies and papers on Ainu folklore published in Russian deal mainly with Sakhalin Ainu, so the material of the article could be interesting for ethnographers and folklorists in a comparative aspect. Besides that, Japanese influence experienced by the folklore of Hokkaido Ainu makes its study interesting in terms of the history of Japanese-Ainu contacts. Each legend is followed by the translator’s comments.