Kotan-kar-kamuy

Kotan-kar-kamuy (コタンカㇻカムイ, lit. 'village-making-deity')^{[1] [2] [failed verification]} is the creator deity of the Ainu people. He should not be confused with god of the land Kotan-kor-kamuy,^[3] or the god of the sky Kandakoro Kamuy.

According to missionary John Batchelor, all kamuy are intermediaries responsible to Kotan-kar-kamuy in the Ainu religion, who is regarded as the almighty and eternal ruler of the universe.^[4] This led to assumptions that the Ainu faith had originally been monotheistic.^[3] Although he stands on top of the hierarchy of gods in Ainu mythology he is only rarely worshipped.^[3] Therefore, Norbert Richard Adami criticises the monotheism theory, and holds that Batchelor's views leading into this direction resulted from a straitened and sometimes misinterpreted mode of perception based on his faith, through which they would lose in value.^[5]

One etiological myth explains the spawning of two bad deities and two good, when Kotan-kar-kamuy tried to invent fire making to make a gift of it to mankind. When he first tried using a poplar (Populus suaveolens, Ainu: yai-ni)^[a] the attempt failed and the poplar "pestle" (fire drill) became kenas-unarpe (the evil "marsh aunt") while the "mortar" base became mosir-sinnaysam [ja] ("monster of the land"). Then he switched to using an elm (Ulmus davidiana var. japonica, Ainu: cikisani)^[b], and was successful. From from the white shavings appeared the huntress goddess Hasinaw-uk-kamuy, and from the black shavings appeared the Mountain God (the bear, or kimun).^[6][7][8]

Explanatory notes

1. The Ainu name means "just ordinary tree"; the Japanese name doro no ki means "mud tree".
2. Japanese name of this elm tree is harunire.