A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

After six nights adrift, a fisherman reaches land and follows a stream to a populous settlement. An old chief of divine appearance offers shelter and passage home with people travelling to trade. He orders the guest to lie with his head covered and avoid looking. A fleet of about a hundred boats departs to song. Peeping, the traveller sees the company tasting river water and praising it; half the fleet turns upstream while his boat continues to his home coast. The sailors throw him into the water and disappear.

At home he dreams of the chief, who explicitly says that he is the chief of the salmon and that he drew the endangered man to safety. What seemed a single night in his household was a whole year. He asks for rice-beer libations, divine symbols and worship, warning that neglect will bring poverty. This is a narrated sacred encounter recorded from Ishanashte, not proof of an observed transformation, a universal ritual requirement or a zoological migration account. The passage shows a humanlike host and company but does not describe a visible change from fish bodies into people or supply the chief with an Ainu personal name.

Humanlike divine appearanceRescue from the seaDifferent passage of timeDream revelation
01

Origins & earliest records

Ainu oral narrative in Chamberlain’s historical English collection

02

Records & interpretation

Complete numbered tale, ending, attached notes, title and collection introductions read; teller and recording method retained.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Aino Folk-Tales

    Basil Hall Chamberlain, collector and English translator; narrative by Ishanashte · 1888

    xxxiv, The Worship of the Salmon, the Divine Fish, pp.39–40; Ishanashte, 17 July1886; labelled translated literally. Folk-Lore Society XXII. Page markers from English transcription, not independent scan collation.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Primary records and illustrations

Complete English narrative and edition context read

Aino Folk-Tales

Basil Hall Chamberlain; Folk-Lore Society XXII,1888; introductionEdwardB.Tylor. xxxiv, The Worship of the Salmon, the Divine Fish, pp.39–40

Complete cache chamberlain-aino-34.txt; master chamberlain-aino.html/.txt. Ishanashte, 17 July1886; labelled translated literally. Actual Ainu original not collated. Sacred narrative scoped to named historical telling; original English prose public domain, no image reuse.

Inspect the digitized plate · Source collection manifest

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical English record of a named Ainu tellingChamberlain, Aino Folk-Tales — xxxiv, The Worship of the Salmon, the Divine Fish, pp.39–40Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

FT·2136 · RESEARCH EDITION 01Back to top ↑