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= Ainu creation myth = The Ainu creation myths are the traditional creation accounts of the Ainu peoples of Japan. Their stories share common characteristics with Japanese creation myths and earth diver creation stories commonly found in Central Asian and Native American cultures. The Ainu creation myth involves sending an animal to assist in the creation, as seen in Earth-divider myths, and involves a connection with the devil, seen in Central Asian myths. Ainu mythology divides time into three tenses: "Mosir sikah ohta" ("when the universe was born"), "mosir noskekehe" ("centre of the world"), and "mosir kes" ("end of the world", about which there are no detailed concepts recorded from Ainu mythology).

Wagtail myth
The Ainu creation myth suggests that there are six skies and six worlds. In the beginning, the Earth was just mud and water with no inhabitants. In the highest heaven, there lived a God named Kamui. Below him were the lesser gods and on the lowest level lived the Demons. In one version, the creator deity sends down a water wagtail to create habitable land in the watery world below. The little bird fluttered over the waters, splashing water aside, and then he packed patches of the earth firm by stomping them with his feet and beating them with his tail until some parts became dry and the waters created the ocean. . In this way, islands where the Ainu were later to live were raised to float upon the ocean. This is how the world was raised and floated above the water, thus the Ainu called the world Moshiri which means 'floating Earth'. According to the myth, the universe was a mixture of mud and water that existed on the back of a giant trout. English missionary John Batchelor related a myth the Ainu told him wherein before the first kamuy created the world, there was only a vast swamp in which lived a large trout, and the creator placed the world upon the trout, so that the fish sucks in and spits out water from the sea, causing the tides.

In another version of this story, the devil tried to destroy God's work by swallowing the sun. Kamui then sent a crow to stand in for the sun. The world was so beautiful that the animals begged Kamui to let them live in it. He agreed and using the earth and sticks, created the Ainu.

Another version of this myth according to John Batchelor, is based on the legend that God made the world with stone tools. Thus when God was creating the world with mattocks and axes, he called upon the wagtail to make the rough areas level by jumping and hopping on it. Many suggest that this is why in the present day whenever we see a wagtail, it its sure to be beating the earth with its tail.

Ainu myths and Japan
The Ainu are an indigenous group that live in the northern islands of Japan. As Japanese culture began to grow in the south, the Ainu were confined to the north with their local ways. This is why they differ in many aspects from modern day Japan. However, an alternative version tells of Kamuy sending a heavenly couple to earth called Okikurumi and Turesh, said to be influenced by the Japanese myth of the deities Izanami and Izanagi. This couple had a son, whom some consider the first Ainu, and he is believed to have given the people the necessary skills to survive. The myth suggests his name was Aionia. Aionia was sent by the Gods to create the first Ainu and taught the people how to live and survive and worship the Gods. He is known by some as 'Ainu rak guru ("a person smelling of the Ainu"). However, when he returned to heaven, the gods were repulsed by his human smell as he still had his earthly garments on. So, he left his clothes on Earth, which the myth suggests became the first animals.

Because Ainu tend to be somewhat hirsute, at least in comparison to other East Asian populations, many Ainu stories maintain that their first ancestor was a bear. Ainu religion is viewed as being animalistic and sees divinity in everything, similar to that of early Shinto beliefs.

Bear myths
The Ainu have a number of other myths pertaining to animals common to the regions where they live. The most common myth is that they descended from bears, an animal that they honour and is invoked in several of their rituals. They believed that their hairiness indicated that they had descended from bears. A myth suggests that there lived two people who were husband and wife. The husband fell ill and died, leaving the wife alone. However, one day she was approached by the god who possessed the mountains, a bear in the form of man. He informed her that she would bear a child, his gift to her. She bore a son and he became a strong hunter who bore many children. It is proposed that the Ainu that inhabit these mountains today are descended from bears.