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Ikupasuy are wooden, carved ceremonial sticks used by Ainu men when making offerings to spirits.
Beloit College digital collection of IkupasuyBritish Museum digital collection of IkupasuyHorniman Museum digital collection of libation sticks
Ainu culture Libation {{ainu-stub
Ikupasuy are wooden, carved ceremonial sticks used by Ainu men when making offerings to spirits.Background
The central section of an ikupasuy is decorated, featuring animals, floral motives as well as abstract designs. The ends of an ikupasuy bear designs that represent the patriarchal lineage of the owner. The Ainu believe that the designs on the ends of the ikupasuy help the spirits in identifying the person who made the offering. The underside of the ikupasuy may on some occasions be carved with various symbols called shiroshi. A common shiroshi is symbol representing thekiller whale
The orca or killer whale (''Orcinus orca'') is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Orcinus'' and is recognizable by its black-and-white pa ...
. The pointed end of the ikupasuy is known as the 'tongue'. The libation process is performed when the ikupasuy's ‘tongue' placed into a lacquerware cup or saucer, containing millet beer
Millet beer, also known as Bantu beer, malwa, pombe "Tchouk" or opaque beer, is an alcoholic beverage made from malted millet that is common throughout Africa. Its production process varies across regions and in the southern parts of Africa is ...
or sake
Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indee ...
. Drops of the liquid then fall upon the venerated object. The Ainu limited their representation of animals and to the ikupasuy. Ainu men occasionally used the ikupasuy as a mean to lift their moustache
A moustache (; en-US, mustache, ) is a strip of facial hair grown above the upper lip. Moustaches have been worn in various styles throughout history.
Etymology
The word "moustache" is French, and is derived from the Italian ''mustaccio'' ...
s, leading non Ainu observers of this habit to call them moustache lifters.
Another name is "libation sticks"
See also
*Prayer stick
A prayer stick is a stick-shaped object used for prayer. Background
In the rituals of the Pueblo contain many prayers; thus the Zuñi have prayers for food, health, and rain. Prayer-sticks, that is sticks with feathers attached as supplicatory of ...
*Sacrifice
Sacrifice is the offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity as an act of propitiation or worship. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and possibly exi ...
*Ainu people
The Ainu are the indigenous people of the lands surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk, including Hokkaido Island, Northeast Honshu Island, Sakhalin Island, the Kuril Islands, the Kamchatka Peninsula and Khabarovsk Krai, before the arrival of the Y ...
References
External links
Beloit College digital collection of Ikupasuy
Ainu culture Libation {{ainu-stub