Bear Skull
date: label: Accession Date
content: 16 Jun 2005
name: label: Donor Name
content: National Museum of Natural History
notes: label: Notes
content: Bear skull, mounted on Y-shaped stick. Another stick is tied perpendicular to the first stick, just below the mandible of the skull. According to Chisato Dubreuil, this is a symbolic display of the bear-sending ceremony, "iyomante". After a bear is killed in the ceremony, its spirit ("kimun-kamuy") is enshrined in its skull for the duration of the ceremony. On the second day, the skull is mounted on the altar ("nusa") and the bear's spirit leaves the skull to return to the god world. The skull remains on the altar as a permanent reminder of the spirit's visit. This skull was obtained and decorated for the 1999 NMNH exhibition "Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People". Made using traditional Ainu materials and techniques. The skull was cleaned--not bleached-- by True Life Taxidermy, Middletown NY(see purchase order in accession file). Decorated by Masahiro Nomoto, curator at the Ainu Museum at Shiraoi.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 11 Jun 2020
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: E430749-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Religious Item
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 78.5 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 32 cm
label: Height - Object
content: 23 cm