Relationships between humans and nature reflected in myths : An ethno-religious study of East Asian folk cultures

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The present study yielded four major results that follow. First, the concept of master of animals, which forms the core of the hunting-fishing worldview, has been given a fundamental reassessment on the basis of accumulated preceding studies. Second, the master of animals of the Ainu has been reconsidered from their mythological narratives, and compared with parallels of North American and Siberian peoples. Third, myths concerning the relationships between humans and nature in a broader sense, such as oral traditions and ideas about astral bodies, natural catastrophe like flood, and swidden cultivation, have been investigated. Fourth, along with the above mentioned three points, theories and methodologies of mythology have been re-examined and its results have been made open to the public.