noasobi essey scene05“ Koropokkur”
When I started attending kindergarten, my mother told me about the Koropokkur.
The Koropokkur is a forest-dwelling dwarf that has been passed down in the stories of the natives of Hokkaido known as the Ainus.
When collecting mountain vegetables, the Ainus put salt and rice cakes into dishes and put them in places where they will not get wet even if it rains.
That is a sign of gratitude to the Koropokkur.
And when they go back to retrieve the dishes after a few days, they find that pretty rocks or fossils are left inside them.
And when my mother told me this story, she placed a tiny ammonite fossil in my hand.
And that fossil still sits on my desk today.
Published "Snow Peak Outdoor Lifestyle Catalog" in 2008.
This series reprints the articles published in the Snow Peak Outdoor Lifestyle Catalog since 2004.