Cupray, the eclipse of dread. As malice incarnate, this demon rules over the other Kunne-Kamuy. While his origins are unclear, what is known is that Cupray is a massive monster, his immenseness being able to easily envelop the celesial bodies. Behind his dark form spewed a great fiery aura, with dark lightning cascading off of him. Living at the epicenter of Tenei-Pokna-Moshiri’s mire, cupray commands the Kunne-Kamuy atop of a pile of obsidian.
Cupray watched Kotan-kar-Kamuy create the world in envy. Loathing the world Kotan-kar-Kamuy made, Cupray devised a plan. The demon noticed the light that emanated from the sun goddess Tokapcup-Kamuy, this light bringing the life and warmth that graced the living beings of Kotan-Kar-Kamuy’s world. So late at night, Cupray waited for sunrise, and when Tokapcup-Kamuy arose into the sky upon the break of dawn, Cupray burst forth from the depths, opening his maw in an attempt to devour the sun. Kotan-Kar-Kamuy had noticed this however, and quickly created the crow god Kararak-Kamuy. The crow bravely flew into Cupray’s jaws, choking the demon and stopping him from consuming Tokapcup-Kamuy. Cupray was subsequently banished back to the abyss of Tenei-pokna-Moshiri.
Many other Kunne-Kamuy have tried to imitate Cupray and capture Tokapcup-Kamuy, such as Moshirechik-Kotanechik who captured the goddess and fled to his castle in Tenei-Pokna-Moshiri, only to be felled by Okikurumi. The fox demon Sitonpichironnop once tried to replace the sun goddess, but was foiled by his own daughter. The giant whale demons Shokina are sometimes also said to swallow the sun. When Tokapcup-Kamuy is injured or abducted like this it causes a solar eclipse and all the beings in the world begin to lose their life force. But with the aid of the prayers made by the Ainu, Tokapcup-Kamuy can regain her strength.
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The reoccurring eclipse myth is an incredibly prolific archetype among the indigenous Ainu, being just as well circulated as Okikurumi. Due to how cemented they are within the Ainu mythos, the eclipse myths could’ve originated from the Jomon, the Ainu’s ancestors. Some have even theorized that the Shinto myth of Amaterasu hiding away in the cave could’ve been patterned off of these myths.
The name Cupray is purely a tentative one, as I have not concretely found the figure’s real name. The name itself means “sun death” or “the sun is dead”, it’s the word for solar eclipses in the Ainu language. Other words and titles for the solar eclipse include Chupu Kamui Tasm meaning “the sun is sick”, another being “the dead black sun”. In the sources that detail his myth he’s only referred to as the devil, demon, or evil god. The missionary author John Batchelor, who lived with and advocated for the Ainu, equated Cupray with his own Christian Devil, Lucifer and Satan, and actively referred to him as “the devil”. I have however found names that could potentially correlate with the figure, such as Moshirishinaisam and Alaen-Kamuy. Moshirishinaisam is a demon recorded within the Ainu mythos who not only also takes up the role of the leader of the kunne-Kamuy but was also conflated by John Batchelor with his “devil”. However in modern times, Moshirishinaisam seems to have been appropriated into becoming more of a Yokai.
The origin of the Kunne-Kamuy varies widely across Ainu culture. Some myths state that after Kotan-Kar-Kamuy finished shaping the world, they left their 60 obsidian axes. These Axes rotted into a swampy mire that the Kunne-Kamuy emerged from. In another legend, Kotan-Kar-Kamuy attempted to create a fire drill from a mud tree, but when the drill failed to ignite, Kotan-Kar-Kamuy blew the shavings produced into the wind, birthing the first of the Kunne-Kamuy. While in other stories the Kunne-Kamuy are just violently disposed heavenly Kamuy. Each of these could even be used in tandem with one another.
John Batchelor believed that the Ainu held a kind of dualistic belief in their mythology, describing his “devil” as functionally the opposite of the creator Kotan-Kar-Kamuy, heading his own force of gods, the Kunne-Kamuy. In his writings, John Batchelor alleged that this “devil”, who he seemingly conflates with Moshirishinaisam, was self created and existed before anything was created like Kotan-Kar-Kamuy, almost mirroring the Zoroastrian cosmology with Ahriman and Ahura Mazda. Other sources state that Moshirishinaisam was one of the first Kunne-Kamuy created by Kotan-Kar-Kamuy with the failed fire drill.
The actual leadership of the Kunne-Kamuy is ill defined in myth, with figures like the aforementioned Moshirishinaisam, Uesoyoma, and Moshirechek-Kotanechek all described as commanding the Kunne-Kamuy. Ultimately, it seems that while there was a general idea that the Kunne-Kamuy had a powerful leader, the character itself was subject to change within stories. It’s also theorized that John Batchelor’s own Christian beliefs could’ve influenced the Ainu he was staying with, resulting in the Ainu adopting some of his ideology, creating a more dualistic view within their culture.
The solar eclipse was an especially frightening event in Ainu culture. Villages would all gather and perform rituals in order to empower Tokapcup-Kamuy. Such rituals entailed the usage of Inao, the splashing of water upward towards the sun, the banging of boards, and the firing of arrows. The villagers would chant encouraging phrases for the sun until the eclipse lifted.
