Prayer stick, "kike-ush-pasuy"
date: label: Accession Date
content: 16 Jun 2005
name: label: Donor Name
content: National Museum of Natural History
notes: label: Notes
content: Long flat stick with one pointed end. Small shavings carved out, but still attached. Lines and notches cut near ends and center. According to Chisato Dubreuil, the "kike-ush-pasuy", a winged-tufted prayer stick, is usually made of willow. It is used only for the bear "iyomante" for sending the bear's spirit back to the god land. A patrilineal ancestral sign was incised in the stick to identify the prayer sender to the gods. Made for the 1999 NMNH exhibit "Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People" using traditional Ainu materials and techniques.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 1 Dec 2014
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Japan, Asia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Ainu
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 2026093
label: USNM Number
content: E430628-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Prayer Stick
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 34.5 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 6 cm
label: Height - Object
content: 5 cm