Koropokkur (Hokkaido)

Koropokkur (also Koropokkuru, koro-pok-kur) is a small people in the Ainu oral tradition of Hokkaido. The Ainu term means "people beneath the leaves of the butterbur (fuki)," and the people are said to have lived in Hokkaido before the arrival of the Ainu. In modern Japanese anthropology, a "Koropokkur debate" between Tsuboi Shogoro and Koganei Yoshikiyo over the question of predecessor inhabitants became a symbolic moment in the history of the discipline. In Ainu oral tradition the koropokkur are described as small, diligent, and kindly neighbours who would leave fish and game at Ainu settlements by night. When a young Ainu seized the arm of a koropokkur woman to see her face, the offended koropokkur left and never returned. Hokkaido has many Stone Age pit-dwelling sites, and oral tradition often associates these with koropokkur habitations. Sources include the classics of Ainu studies by John Batchelor and Chiri Mashiho, Tsuboi Shogoro's Koropokkur Fuzoku-ko (Meiji period), modern Hokkaido folklore, Murakami Kenji's Nihon Yokai Daijiten (Kadokawa, 2005), and the Nichibunken Strange Phenomena and Yokai Folklore Database. Adjacent small-neighbour and predecessor traditions include the Okinawan Kijimuna and Bunagaya, and the mainland short-stature traditions of Issun-boshi and zashiki-warashi. The Koropokkur debate occupies an independent place in the history of anthropology and archaeology.