Ikupasuy resting on Tuki - Prayer Stick Resting on Ceremonial Cup and Stand
Stick: Collected in 1928. Cup and Stand: Purchased in 1904 at Louisiana Purchase Exposition
Stick: Wood, Cup & Stand: Lacquer on wood
Stick: 34.7 cm. Cup: 12.7 cm diameter. Stand: 15.5 cm diameter
Top to bottom: Cat. 235091, 88109, 88106
© The Field Museum
One of the most popular - and misunderstood - artifacts in Ainu collections around the world is the "mustache lifter", or prayer stick. This particular prayer stick was donated by Mrs. A. W. F. Fuller in 1964. A wife of a British naval officer, she donated her late husband's collection that contained nearly 700 items from around the world. Seven of these artifacts were Ainu pieces and were collected in 1928. The lacquer cup and stand, however, were purchased from a visiting Ainu group in St. Louis in 1904.
Shown here as it would be used in ritual, the prayer stick is pointing to the left and resting over the cup. The stick would be taken with the right hand and the cup with the left. The carved stick would be dipped in the cup, which held sake (Japanese rice wine) or millet beer, and drops would be sprinkled from the stick in an offering to the spirits. Drops were sprinkled in the general direction of the spirits or onto an inau (an example of which can be seen here).
Edward S. Morse, a naturalist who traveled around Japan in the late 1800s, visited with an Ainu family and described his experience in his 1917 book, Japan Day by Day: "We gave them twenty cents to replenish their vessel of sake, and when it was brought we had to drink with them. ... The Ainus, in turn, poured out a large lacquer cup full of sake, and, resting a long, thin piece of wood resembling a carved paper-cutter across the cup, sat down and went through a series of movements, first taking the stick and dipping the end of it into the liquor and sprinkling a few drops in front of them. They made a movement such as one would make in removing a speck or a fly from milk. This they did several times, offering the drops to different points of the compass; but I observed how slight were their offerings of the precious liquor to the gods. They then stroked their full beards and made a peculiar upward movement of the hands toward their beards as a sign of thankfulness. After this long introductory they raised the cup toward the mouth, and taking the stick lifted the heavy mustache away from the wine as they drank. These sticks are known as mustache sticks, and many had interesting Ainu designs carved upon them."
The Ainu believed that they could not pray directly to spirits and that an intermediary was necessary. The prayer stick, like the inau (seen here), was used by worshippers to speak to the spirits. What Morse saw were offerings of sake being made to the many spirits present in the Ainu home.
Researchers have noted that chopsticks could be used in lieu of a prayer stick, but only in a pinch. Lacquered bowls, attained by trade with Japanese merchants to the south, were almost always used in ceremonies in the home. Hunting groups, however, were known to use carved wooden bowls for impromptu ceremonies in the field. Travelers would bring only their bowl, leaving their stand at home.
It is unclear how, or when, the use of prayer sticks began, but the first mention of their use in western literature occurs in 1565.
(Commentary by Stev Weidlich)