Korpokkur

The Korpokkur are a little people in the oral tradition of the Ainu, the Indigenous people of northern Japan. The Ainu tell that the Korpokkur lived in the land before them. They were short, quick and skilled at fishing, and lived in pit houses roofed with butterbur (coltsfoot) leaves. The name is popularly explained as 'people under the butterbur leaves', though the missionary-linguist John Batchelor argued it really means 'people who dwell below', with no idea of small size.

Long ago the Korpokkur were on good terms with the Ainu and brought them deer and fish, but they hated to be seen and left their gifts at night. One day a young man grabbed a Korpokkur by the hand as she left a gift at his window and pulled her inside. She was so angry at his rudeness that her people left and have not been seen since. Their pits, pottery and stone tools are said to remain in the landscape.

In the late 19th century some Japanese scholars argued the Korpokkur were a real people the Ainu had displaced. Later research showed the pit houses and artefacts belonged to earlier cultures of Hokkaido and to the Ainu themselves. The story is best understood as part of Ainu tradition, not as evidence of a lost race.

What witnesses report

• Small figures under large leaves
• Gifts left at a window overnight
• Old pit-house hollows and pottery

Famous cases