Published papers

This article argues that Tsushima Yuko's novel The Golden Dream Song（2010） enters into dialogue with the oral literature and myths of Eurasia, and through this lens takes up the topics of memory and mourning. The complex interplay of the grammatical person, especially the frequent change between the first person and the second person in the narrative, echoes the Aynu oral narratives, leads to the questioning of boundaries between humans and animals, and creates an erasure and reversal of the flow of time through the recurring refrain “totto totto tan to.” This enables the female protagonist to enter into dialogical relationship with both her deceased son and with all the boy protagonists of Eurasian hero epics.

This article offers a reading of Tsushima Yuko’s Jakka Dukhuni: Stories of Ocean’s Memories from a close examination of the intertwined relationship between the text and the aynu oral literature cited within. I attempt to demonstrate that, as the narrator begins to hide behind the text, the oral literature and oral history comes to the fore connecting the plural stories and histories in two divergent moments of time, and that the personalities in these stories find their life pathways through a process of remembering based on imperfect memories. This leads to a conclusion that this work is an ambitious and successful endeavor linking the contemporary issue of the inheritance of indigenous cultures with the colonial experiences a few centuries apart.

This article forms part of a series of efforts by the author to make accessible the oral texts written down in the Aynu language by KANNARI Matsu, in the notebooks that were passed on to KINDAICHI Kyosuke and CHIRI Mashiho. Here we publish the prose tale “sine esukopitce retar cima koeyanrasne menoko mosirpa wano ek uepeker” (A Woman with Bald Head Covered with White Scab Comes from East). The main protagonist is the village leader of Uraspet who receives the aforementioned woman, who turns out to be the woman deity chief (kamuy tonomat) of giant lily (turep). By receiving the deity respectfully and eating what seems to be her scab cooked in hot water, she discloses her real identity to the village leader, and transmits the techniques of preparing turep food to his wife. In the introductory section, we lay out the philological details of the text and possible interpretations of the story, followed by an outline of the story in Japanese. After some remarks on the Aynu orthography employed here, we present the main part of this article, which is a page-by-page transcription of the original written Aynu text, followed by a modified text with contemporary Aynu orthography and its translation to Japanese.

This article publishes in an accessible form the prose tale “upas cironnup” (ermine or white weasel) performed in 1919 and 1925 by NABESAWA Kopoanu and written down by KINDAICHI Kyosuke. The main protagonist is this small animal known in Japanese as “okojo” or “ezo itachi,” who becomes aware of the famine in the human world around him where both kamuy (deities) and aynu (humans) live, and sets out to solve the problem. These two stories are related to the prose tale written down by KANNARI Matsu for KINDAICHI Kyosuke, published in Fujita (2024). While the former stories come from the Saru region, the latter comes from the Horobetsu region, which offers us an interesting opportunity to compare and examine the regional differences and commonalities. In the introductory section, we lay out the philological details of the text and possible interpretations of the stories, followed by an outline of the stories in Japanese. After some remarks on the Aynu orthography employed here, we present the main part of this article, which is a page-by-page transcription of the original notebook, followed by a modified text using contemporary Aynu orthography and a Japanese translation.

The purpose of this article is to provide a deeper understanding of the current state of Spanish language education in secondary schools in Japan. Published studies in Spanish on this topic are extremely scarce, almost nonexistent. This article is part of a broader research project, which will be explained in the first section. Subsequently, we will present an overview of Spanish language education and analyze the impact of the implementation of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages in the curricula. Among the various factors influencing second language education, we focused on the role of the teacher of Spanish as a Second Language. A survey was employed as the main research instrument, covering a range of topics, including academic aspects (training and academic background), educational institutions (type of institution, methodological approach, class organization, level of instruction, and subjects taught), and employment conditions (contract type and duration). The findings reveal an eclectic profile, highlighting certain contradictions in teaching methodologies. Additionally, an overview of employment conditions is provided, with most contracts lasting only one year.

This article focuses on Tsushima Yuko's 1999 collection of short stories, “I”, which has reference to shinyo stories (chants of the deities) of Aynu oral literature, and attempts to trace the dynamics in which such a reference invites the narrative features of oral literature into the novel text and develops a complex system of remembering and creation. The use of two first-person singular personal pronouns, “I” and “I (with dot notation)”, is characteristic in this collection of short stories. Based on a more detailed understanding of Ainu grammar and oral literature, the “I (with dot notation)” used in quotations and reminiscences exhibits complex behaviour in each short story, such as showing ambivalence and oscillation, splitting and diffusing into different narrators in multiple periods, and through dreams becoming indefinite person. This article attempts to clarify each linguistic mode.

This article forms part of a series of effort by the author to make accessible the oral texts written down in Aynu language by Kannari Matsu, in the notebooks that were passed on to Kindaichi Kyosuke and Chiri Mashiho. Here we publish the prose tale “yuk mat ne kor wen aynu (a poor man who comes to have a deer as his wife)” where the main protagonist who is a poor man in the Iskar region (Iskar un wenkur) has a wife and a child, becomes rich, but finds out that his wife was a deer. He kills the wife and the child, eats them, and then is punished by the former wife (deer kamuy), resulting in a miserable death himself. In the introductory section, we lay out the philological details of the text and possible interpretations of the story, followed by an outline of the story in Japanese. After some remarks on the Aynu orthography employed here, we present the main part of this article, which is a page-by-page transcription of the original written Aynu text, followed by a modified text with contemporary Aynu orthography and its translation to Japanese.

This article starts from the recognition that area studies and language teaching have always had a fragmented and precarious relationship, and explores the possibility of a more fruitful engagement between area studies of the Hispanic world and Spanish language teaching, where various emerging research areas in Spanish applied linguistics and sociolinguistics are important also in terms of area studies of the Hispanic world. This synergy brings new challenges and perspectives to Spanish language teaching. To this end, we will focus on five areas of research: Spanish as pluricentral language, decolonisation and representation, inclusive language, heritage language education in immigrant societies, and new speakers of regional and indigenous languages, and examine how the latest research trends bring about new interconnections between area studies and language education.

This article forms part of a series of effort by the author to make accessible the oral texts written down in Aynu language by Kannari Matsu, in the notebooks that were passed on to Kindaichi Kyosuke and Chiri Mashiho. Here we publish the prose tale “upas cironnup (white weasel or earmine)” where the main protagonist is this small animal known in Japanese as “okojo” or “ezo itachi,” who becomes aware of the famine in the human world around him where both kamuy (deities) and aynu (humans) live, and sets out to solve the problem. In the introductory section, we lay out the philological details of the text and possible interpretations of the story, followed by an outline of the story in Japanese. After some remarks on the Aynu orthography employed here, we present the main part of this article, which is a page-by-page transcription of the original written Aynu text, followed by a modified text with contemporary Aynu orthography and its translation to Japanese.

Este artículo forma parte de la iniciativa desarrollada por Fujita para publicar textos en aymara, transcripciones de narraciones de tradición oral e historia oral, con su traducción al castellano andino y al japonés. Los textos presentados aquí fueron contados por Julián Tapia y Asunta Tapia de Álvarez sobre cómo la hacendada de Quillihuaya (provincia Murillo, departamento de La Paz) maltrataba a su abuelo, y cómo la abuela recurrió a su hermana que vivía en la ciudad de La Paz y al esposo de la hermana que era militar (coronel) para presionar a la hacendada para que pare este maltrato. Es una historia oral transmitida dentro de la familia. El capítulo I ofrece una explicación sobre qué tipo de relación colaborativa entre Fujita y la familia de lxs narradores posibilitó esta investigación. El capítulo II presenta el resumen de lo narrado. El capítulo III analiza la narrativa sobre qué tipo de relaciones existen entre lxs aymaras (jaqi) y la clase dominante se expresan en el texto, los diferentes énfasis que dan lxs narradores a sus respectivos contenidos y sus puntos en común, así como las características estilísticas y gramaticales de estas narraciones. El capítulo IV reflexiona sobre el proceso de transcripción, la ortografía del idioma aymara, y la variante del castellano que se emplea en la traducción, seguido por el texto y su traducción. El capítulo V concluye el artículo con las perspectivas hacia el futuro.

This article forms part of a series of effort by the author to make accessible the oral texts written down in Aynu language by Kannari Matsu, in the notebooks that were passed on to Kindaichi Kyosuke and Chiri Mashiho. Here we publish the prose tale “esaman i=sinere uepeker” where the main protagonist (Otasutunkur) battles with the evil otter (esaman) that tries to steal his betrothed partner in the village of Otasam, followed by conversations with different deities (kamuy) about the battle, the fate of the otter, and of the protagonist himself. In the introductory section, we lay out the philological details of the text and the notebook, followed by an outline of the story in Japanese. After some remarks on the Aynu orthography employed here, we present the main part of this article, which is a faithful page-by-page transcription of the original written Aynu text, followed by a modified text with contemporary Aynu orthography and its translation to Japanese.