A film inspired by the story of a young Ainu woman who translated into Japanese an epic poem passed down orally among the indigenous people of Hokkaido will soon have a wide domestic release.

The protagonist of “Kamui no Uta” (Songs of Kamui) named Teru is modeled after Yukie Chiri (1903-1922), who devoted herself to releasing the published version of the poem “Kamui Yukar,” until she died suddenly at age 19.

The film will be screened nationwide from late January to show how Chiri lived a century earlier to a wide audience.

“Kamui no Uta” is primarily set in Japan’s northernmost main island during the Taisho Era (1912-1926).

Teru does well at school and takes an entrance exam for a girls’ high school, but she is rejected due to being of Ainu descent.

She becomes the first Ainu student to enter a vocational education institute for women. However, she is looked down upon as a “savage” there.

Teru starts recording “Kamui Yukar” one day at the recommendation of an Ainu language researcher who comes from Tokyo.

She turns out to have such excellent Japanese translation skills that she heads for the capital to work on the poetry’s publication in earnest.

SAVING A PIECE OF AINU CULTURE

The story is based on the biography of Chiri, who created the Japanese editions of 13 poems from “Kamui Yukar” that are told by Ainu deities. She transcribed the pronunciations of Ainu words in the oral literature into Romanized characters and then translated them into Japanese.

Chiri abruptly died of heart failure in September 1922, four months after her relocation to Tokyo. As the proofreading process of her poem collection had just been finished, however, the Japanese version of “Kamui Yukar” was released the following year under the title of “Ainu Shinyo-shu.”

Marking the 100th anniversary of its publication in 2023, the translated title is still available under the Iwanami Bunko paperback series.

The book is deemed as the first Ainu folklore put into print directly by a member of the ethnic group, which does not have its own written language system.

In the work’s preface, Chiri describes the Ainu people as the “losers” who are left behind regarding social changes.

“Our name is being lost,” she wrote of her culture and language disappearing.

At the same time, Chiri expressed hope that readers will learn about Ainu through the publication.

“This very preface has taken shape as a film,” said Hiroshi Sugawara, 68, who directed and wrote “Kamui no Uta.”

SHEDDING LIGHT ON DISCRIMINATION

Sugawara decided to make the movie after he met with Kenichi Kawamura, the late director of the Kawamura Kaneto Ainu Memorial Museum in Hokkaido’s Asahikawa, a few years ago.

The director had been commissioned to film an Ainu ritual, but the idea made him feel uncomfortable.

His view was that few works cast light particularly on the history of discrimination against the Ainu, although the hit manga “Golden Kamuy,” starring an Ainu heroine in the closing days of the Meiji Era (1868-1912), has led to growing public interest in the ethnic group and its culture.

Thus, Sugawara asked Kawamura for advice.

“I did interviews totaling dozens of hours over the course of several days,” recalled Sugawara. “It was a great opportunity to listen to the real feelings (of Ainu) at the time.”

Sugawara heard a range of stories, including how under the assimilation policy into Japanese society, the Ainu’s language had been forbidden alongside hunting and other traditional customs.

Also among Kawamura’s accounts were tales about Chiri.

Sugawara said he became aware of how Japanese overwrote and erased the history that Ainu had woven.

“The notion struck me that I must make a film in a quest to make people understand that,” he said.

He chose Chiri as the inspiration for his main character because he learned that she had stated she was proud to be an Ainu at the end of her short life while working on “Kamui Yukar.”

Retracing Chiri’s story, Sugawara wanted to contribute to the realization of a society where all individuals can be proud of their identities, lives and roots.

FILM AS A RESPONSE

As Higashikawa town in Hokkaido asked him to shoot the Ainu ceremony footage, he proposed to the town officials that a film themed on Ainu should be developed, too.

Situated at the foot of the Daisetsuzan mountain range, Higashikawa has touted itself as “the town of photography.”

Sugawara had formed deep bonds with Higashikawa since he directed “Shashin Koshien: 0.5 Byo no Natsu” (Shashin Koshien: Summer in 0.5 Seconds), a 2017 film set in the town.

Thus, the town government decided to extend financial support and other forms of assistance to the project to create the movie. It solicited 250 million yen ($1.7 million) in donations through the “furusato nozei” (hometown tax payment) framework.

Higashikawa is also looking to take advantage of the central government’s subsidies under the Ainu policy promotion law. The aim is to register the film as an educational material in accordance with the state’s curriculum guidelines for schools following the commercial showing of “Kamui no Uta.”

The town owns the rights to screen “Kamui no Uta” and will allow social engagement organizations and other entities to show it, per their request, for free.

Plans are alike afoot to make “Kamui no Uta” accessible not only in Japan, but abroad. Town officials are moving to make the film available in 12 languages.

It has already won awards in film festivals in four countries, such as India and Canada.

The foreword of the book that inspired “Kamui no Uta” has been enjoying major acclaim overseas as well.

The preface has been translated by non-Japanese volunteers into 33 languages, including English, Swahili and Basque, at the Chiri Yukie Memorial Museum in her hometown of Noboribetsu, Hokkaido. It can be read likewise in Ainu through Romanized characters.

Toru Matsumoto, 69, chairman of a nonprofit group called Chirishinsha that operates the museum, appreciated “Kamui no Uta.”

“It is among the works created to respond to the question raised by Chiri in the preface,” he said.

“Kamui no Uta” features actress Mizuki Yoshida, who appears in the TV drama “Dragon Zakura” (Dragon cherry blossom) and other titles, and veteran actor Masaya Kato.

The film was shown in a sneak preview in November in Hokkaido.

“Kamui no Uta” will then be screened in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Sendai and elsewhere from late January.