"Mashiho Chiri and Poets, Part I: Kunio Oda and Yukar Appreciation"
SATO-ROSSBERG Nana
last update: 20151224
Mashiho Chiri and Poets, Part I: Kunio Oda and Yukar Appreciation
SATO-ROSSBERG Nana
Abstract:
Yukar Appreciation (1956) is a collaborative work of the Aynu researcher Mashiho Chiri(1909-1961) and
the poet Kunio Oda (1912-1965). This work contains translations of Aynu myths with many annotations. Chiri
often wrote papers with researchers from different fields than his own. Oda was a poet, who learned Aynu
language and Aynu myths from Chiri who was the editor of the booklet Kamuy Yukar by Chiri, and who
became the co-author of Yukar Appreciation. In the context of understanding and interpreting Aynu myths as
poems, Oda influenced to Chiri.
Taking Hegel's aesthetic theory into consideration, especially regarding the relationship between poems and
history, and using concepts from translation studies theory, this paper analyzes Yukar Appreciation. The
central questions of this paper will be how Chiri, supported by the poet, tried to interpret Aynu myths and what
massage he tried to send to the readers through the translation and annotation of the myths.
Based on an interview with Oda,s wife, this paper also sheds some new light on the biography of Oda, and
the relationship between Chiri and poets in Hokkaido.
Keywords: CHIRI Mashiho, ODA Kunio, Oral Narrative, Aynu, Translation Studies
REV: 20151224