Obihiro Centennial City Museum

9

Plant Gathering

pukusa [Siberian onion]
pukusakina [Flaccid anemone]
makayo [Butterbur sprout]
korkoni [Butterbur]
sikerpekina [Eastern skunk cabbage]
sikerpekina [Eastern skunk cabbage] leaves and stems (right)
turep [Heartleaf lily]
sikerpeni [Amur cork tree] fruit
Dried sikerpeni [Amur cork tree] fruit
pekanpe [Water chestnut]

Hundreds of plants were eaten and used for medicinal purposes in the Ainu tradition. The stems and leaves of Siberian onion, flaccid anemone, butterbur, and eastern skunk cabbage, and the bulbs of cardiocrinum and Corydalis fumariifolia were gathered in Tokachi during the spring and summer. In the summer and fall, the fruits of walnuts, Amur cork tree, crimson glory vine, water chestnuts, and hogpeanut, and the bulbs of jack-in-the-pulpit, and mushrooms were gathered.

turep [Heartleaf lily] bulb
toma [Corydalis fumariifolia] flower and tuber
rawraw [Jack-in-the-pulpit] tuber
ninum [Japanese walnut fruit]
eha [Hogpeanut] seeds underground
Women extracting water from itaya (mono maple) trees
Meiji Shoki Ainu Fuzoku Emaki (“Picture Scroll of Ainu Customs in the Early Meiji Period”) by Hokuyo Nishikawa
Hakodate City Central Library Collection

Ainu Language in Use

The Ainu Language

プクサ アフンパ ワ アサッケ。

pukusa a-hunpa wa a-satke.

Translation

The Siberian onions are chopped up and dried.