【亚洲·日本】阿伊努人的传统舞蹈 Traditional Ainu dance（2009年）

阿伊努人是一个土著民族，如今主要居住在日本北部的北海道。传统的阿伊努舞蹈在仪式和宴会上表演，作为新组织的文化节日的一部分，并在日常生活中私下表演；它以各种形式与阿伊努人的生活方式和宗教密切相关。传统风格包括一大群舞者，有时围观者在没有乐器伴奏的情况下唱歌。有些舞蹈模仿动物或昆虫的叫声和动作；其他舞蹈，如剑舞和弓舞，是仪式；还有一些是即兴创作或纯粹的娱乐。阿伊努人相信可以在他们周围的环境中找到神，他们经常用舞蹈来崇拜和感谢大自然。他们在正式的仪式中也扮演着一个由奥曼蒂熊吃掉的角色，比如奥曼蒂熊。对阿伊努人来说，舞蹈加强了他们与自然和宗教世界的联系，并与俄罗斯和北美的其他北极文化建立了联系。

2009年度列入人类非物质文化遗产名录。

来源：联合国教科文组织亚太地区非物质文化遗产国际培训中心

The Ainu are an indigenous people who today live mostly in Hokkaidō in northern Japan. Traditional Ainu dance is performed at ceremonies and banquets, as part of newly organized cultural festivals and privately in daily life; in its various forms, it is closely connected to the lifestyle and religion of the Ainu. The traditional style involves a large circle of dancers, sometimes with onlookers who sing an accompaniment without musical instrumentation. Some dances imitate the calls and movements of animals or insects; others, like the sword and bow dances, are rituals; and still others are improvisational or purely entertainment. Believing that deities can be found in their surroundings, the Ainu frequently use dance to worship and give thanks for nature. Dance also plays a central role in formal ceremonies such as Iyomante, in which participants send the deity embodied in a bear they have eaten back to heaven by mimicking the movements of a living bear. For the Ainu, dance reinforces their connection to the natural and religious world and provides a link to other Arctic cultures in Russia and North America.

Included in the list of human intangible cultural heritage in 2009.

Source: UNESCO International Training Center for intangible cultural heritage in the Asia Pacific Region