Golden Kamui Episode 3: "Japanese are Miso after all" "Wow...this guy is happy to eat poop" "Hinnaa hinnaa"

Set in Hokkaido at the end of the Meiji Era, ...... is an adventure in search of "buried gold stolen from the Ainu". The TV anime "Golden Kamui" is sure to excite everyone just by hearing the setting. This time, we will introduce the third episode, "Kamuimoshi(re).

Sugimoto, who has parted ways with the escaped king Shiraishi and joined up with Ashi(ri)pa, decides to have dinner at a hunting lodge. What a surprise! You can enjoy today's "Ainu rice" from the very beginning of this episode! (Yay!

The menu this time was "Rabbit chitatapu nabe," a dish of rabbit meat mixed with dried ezo matsutake mushrooms, shimeji mushrooms, and dried ascetic's garlic (pukusa). Mmmm! It's delicious! It's lighter and less oily than squirrel meat. It warms me up and brings me back to life," said Sugimoto, who ate the dish in a hearty appetite. It's good enough as it is, but wouldn't it be better if I put miso in it? Sugimoto suggested, "It's good enough as it is, but wouldn't it be better if you put miso in it? Sugimoto said, "Let's try it out." When Ashi(R)pa saw the miso paste Sugimoto pulled out, he said, "Wow, that's good! Sugimoto, that's ...... osoma (feces)! Sugimoto said, "That's not feces! Sugimoto persuaded him, "It's not poop, it's miso. It's good, try it." Sugimoto tried to convince her, but she replied, "You're not going to make me eat poop! I'll never eat it!

Sugimoto gave up trying to persuade Ashi(ri)pa to try the miso and poured some into his own bowl (rice container)! It goes perfectly with miso, just as I thought it would. I knew Japanese people like miso. Sugimoto looked at him coldly and said, "Wow...this guy is happy to eat poop. Sugimoto, who was enjoying the pot with a funny expression on his face, said, "Hinnaa hinnaa," while retorting, "You shouldn't talk about people like they're perverts. In the third episode, Sugimoto and Ashi(R)ipa's marital comedy has already become a part of their lives.

Sugimoto and Ashi(R)pa continue on their way through the forest at dawn, and discover a den, which brown bears use for hibernation. The brown bears dig their own dens, but they also reuse old dens that someone else has dug. Go check it out," said Ashi(li)pa. Sugimoto retorts, "Why should I...?" "If there are any furrows at the entrance or if it smells fresh, there is a good chance there is a brown bear in there. Approach quietly, Sugimoto." He knocked him down and said, "He's hibernating soundly, isn't he? They're just holed up in a daze. They are just hibernating in there. If you make too much noise, they will jump up and down.

There was a Japanese Judas tree at the entrance of the den, and the inside of the den was carefully covered with Kumazasa bamboo, which seemed to be a brown bear resting inside. Sugimoto said, "There might be a brown bear in there," to which Ashi replied, "Do you want to catch it? Asipa said, "How do you catch it? Sugimoto was surprised and asked, "How? Sugimoto was surprised. "We drive a stake into the entrance of the hole and block it, and when the bear is alarmed, we shoot a poison arrow through the gap in the stake. My father, who was very brave, grabbed the poisoned arrow, dug into the den, and killed the brown bear by himself. According to an Ainu legend, a brown bear will never kill a person who enters its den," Sugimoto muttered in his mind, "Absolutely not," but he argued correctly, "If we don't eat a brown bear right now, we won't starve to death, so let's go.

Along the way, he asked, "Do brown bears taste good?" In the midst of the promised exchange of "It's good if you put salt on the brain and eat it," he asked, "Sugimoto, what's that? Something is shining. That's the area where we stayed until this morning," said Ashiopa. Oh no! Sugimoto realized that the light was from the binoculars that were pointed at him and started running with Ashi(R)pa in his arms. The binoculars were being chased by the 7th Army Division, to which Ogata, who had fought Sugimoto in the second episode, belonged. Sugimoto and Ashi(R)ipa try their best to escape, but Sugimoto, realizing that they will not be able to outrun their pursuers who are on skis, entrusts Ashi(R)ipa with the tattooed human skin and they split into two groups.


The four pursuers of the 7th Division, led by Corporal Tamai, decided to assign Tanigaki to pursue Ashiopa, while Sugimoto and his men split into two groups. Tanigaki, who was born in the northeastern part of Japan, carefully retreated in his own footsteps to throw off the pursuers, and spotted Ashiopa, who was hiding in a tree branch, by spotting his "stop foot" as he flew to a nearby bamboo grove. Come on down," he said, "I won't hurt you. We won't hurt you. Tanigaki spots Ashi(ri)pa and, pretending to speak only Ainu, replies, "Kutura shisamu ohau o(lo)si omare wa'e" (The man with him eats poop in his soup). I guess anything in Ainu would have been fine. ...... Ashi(li)pa, miso is delicious, right? (Holy shit!)

Ashi(ri)pa hid the tattooed human skin Sugimoto had given him in a branch and surrendered, but when the squirrel jumped onto the branch, the vibration caused the skin to fall behind Tanigaki, and Ashi(ri)pa was in a desperate situation, but it was the Ezo wolf "Leta(la)" who saved him from that predicament.

On the other hand, when Sugimoto was caught up by Tamai and the others and asked why he was running away, he replied, "Because ...... you guys are here to catch poachers, aren't you?　We were shooting deer, which is forbidden. I let the Ainu kid show me around," he said, posing as a poacher. However, "That face...I've seen it before in the field hospital in Lushun. It's Sugimoto who was in the 1st Division... 'Sugimoto the Immortal'" and he was immediately exposed. It's hard to be famous, isn't it, ...... Sugimoto?


Sugimoto the Immortal? Corporal Tamai said, "Private Ogata, once he regained consciousness, used all his strength to write a letter. 'Fujimi'. You were the one who attacked Private Ogata, weren't you? The air in the room changed drastically at the word "Sugimoto. "Get down on your stomach and put your hands behind your back. Listen to me! Sugimoto was in a big pinch. Luckily (?), Sugimoto was behind him. Sugimoto was lucky (?) to see the den of the brown bear that he and Ashi-pa had found earlier. Let's remember the Ainu legend that Asiipa had told us.

Brown bears will never kill a human who enters their den."

Even so, Sugimoto could not find the courage to jump into the den, but Corporal Tamai said, "It's too much trouble. Shoot him in both knees!" Sugimoto finally decided to take the plunge and said, "Damn it! I am immortal! he shouted as he jumped into the brown bear's den.

What? He ran into the den." "It's unsightly," said the 7th Division's pursuers, who were disgusted by Sugimoto's actions. When one of his men said, "Shall we smoke him out?" Corporal Tamai replied, "Oh... let's just shoot him. But...if he dies, we won't be able to find out," said Tamai to his worried subordinate. Let's see," Corporal Tamai fired a shot toward the den. Well, I don't dislike your witty lines and action ......, do you? (**Oh, I'm sure I'm not the only one.)

At that moment, with a roar, the thick paws and sharp claws extending from the den strike Corporal Tamai in the face. Yes, the hibernating brown bear has awakened. The brown bear, which had been in hibernation, woke up. Corporal Tamai, who had his face blown off, mistakenly shot one of his men with the impact of the attack. The brown bear then attacked the remaining one, and the three pursuers of the 7th Division were killed by the brown bear.

Sugimoto escaped and joined Ashi(ri)pa with a cub he had found in a den. Sugimoto was worried that the cubs would be turned into chitatapu and eaten, but he was told that the Ainu have a custom of carefully raising cubs caught by hunters in the village. So the two went to Kotan, the village where Asi Pa was born and raised, to take care of the cubs.

In Kotang, Sugimoto and Ashi(li)pa stay with Huchi, Ashi(li)pa's maternal grandmother. Huchi, who did not understand Japanese, told Sugimoto, "Asi(li)pa is always in the mountains and cannot do women's work. A woman who cannot do women's work, such as sewing and weaving, cannot have an Ainu husband. Sugimoto's husband, please take this girl as your wife. I am so worried about my grandchildren that I cannot even leave this world," he said, speaking in Ainu. Sugimoto asks, "Grandma, what did you say to me?" Sugimoto asked in Ainu, "What did you say to me, Grandma?" Ashi(ri)pa blushed and replied, "I told you not to eat poop..." Ashi(ri)pa then asked Sugimoto, "What did you say to me, Grandma? Sugimoto, who had no idea that he was being asked to marry Ashi(ri)pa, misunderstood that he was eating feces, and said to Huchi, "It's not feces, Grandma. It's miso. He made an impassioned speech. Is this the Ainu tsundere? Ashi-pa, you are too cute!


Sugimoto was then approached by a curious Ainu girl who said, "You have strange ears. Asi(li)pa said, "Ainu ears are round and thick. The girl said, "My name is Sugimoto. What's your name, little girl? She replied, "I'm Osoma. She replied, "That's poop, isn't it? Sugimoto sneered at her, "You make fun of me. The Ainu call their babies by dirty names to keep them away from diseases, and when they reach the age of six or so, they give them proper names based on their personalities and the events that have happened to them. Sugimoto was convinced that Asipa was called "Ekasiotompui" (grandfather's butt hole), which would make the sick run away from him.


Sugimoto asked Ashi(ri)pa, who did not want to touch the cubs he had brought with him, "Are you not good with cubs?" Sugimoto asked her if she didn't like cubs, to which she replied, "It's nothing...but if you love them too much, they'll get attached to you, so don't do it. He asked, "You're going to send him back to the mountain when he grows up, right? But Ashi Pa's reply was, "We will send him back to the land of the gods according to our traditional rites.

Sugimoto was disappointed, but Ashi (Ri) Pa replied, "It's more like 'sending them back' than killing them. The Ainu people consider everything around them as kamui (gods) and send them back. For those of us who hunt for a living, animal kamui are important gods. Animals take the form of human beings in the land of the gods, and they come to our world with animal skins and meat. Among them, the highest in rank is the bear, Kim Khamui. It is an honor to raise its cubs, which are carefully nurtured for one to two years. When we send off the cubs, we hold a village-wide ceremony called 'Iomante' to let the other gods know that our world is a joyful place. If we do this, the kamui will visit us again and again," he said.

Does Ashi-pa-san believe in that? Sugimoto replied, "Our faith includes the art of living. For example, I think we raise cubs we catch because the bigger they get, the more fur and meat we can get. We have lived this way and I believe it is the right thing to do. But I can't help the sadness of separation, so I keep my distance so that I don't ever become emotionally attached to them," said Ashi. He said, "You have a realistic way of thinking. I guess you are a little different from the rest of the Ainu people, aren't you? Sugimoto said. My father gave me the name Asiipa, which means 'New Year. It means 'New Year,' but it can also be interpreted as 'future. I am an Ainu woman of the new era! Ashi-Li-Pa says. I am sure that the person who can say this is the one who will really open up a new era.

Tanigaki regains consciousness and, while administering first aid to his broken leg, thinks about the Ezo wolf that attacked him. It was a beautiful wolf. I want that silvery white fur...I want it...," he said, his Tohoku matagi blood boiling, and he vowed, "I'll chase it everywhere and make sure I catch it. On the other hand, Lieutenant Tsurumi of the 7th Division, who was seeking "Ainu reserves" to reward his men and their bereaved families who had been treated unfairly for their achievements in the Russo-Japanese War, killed his superior, Captain Wada, who had accused him of overstepping his authority. Then there is Toshizo Hijikata, the leader of the escaped prisoners who gathers tattooed prisoners in anticipation of an eventual confrontation with the 7th Division. The three forces of "Sugimoto," "Tsurumi," and "Hijikata" begin to move with their own ambitions in mind.


From the "rabbit chitatapu nabe" and the "miso≠osoma incident" at the beginning of the story, to the thrilling escape with the 7th Division's pursuers, to the Ainu culture told through the events in the kotan (village) they visited, episode 3, "Kamuimosi (Ri)," was packed with a lot of content. As a fan of the original comic, I was pleased to see that the Ainu culture was introduced well (albeit in a rather rushed manner). We are looking forward to the next episode, "Shinigami" (God of Death)!

(Editor S.)