Kunne cikap

( "black bird") is a mythical bird in Ainu tradition.

Description According to tradition the kunne cikap (black bird) was the monstrous bird of the (Black River) in the northern parts subjugated by the hero , while the (red bird) was the monstrous bird of the (Red Forest).

As for the said Black River, there is a village by the name of in Yamakoshi District, Hokkaido, about which onomastic folklore exists that connects it to the Red Bird (hure). The also flows through the village.

Yaeko Batchelor mentions the Black Bird[s] in a waka (poem) which reads: "Ainu child, in you lives on the blood you shed, why fear the kunne cicap-po and the rest "

This is included in her anthology (1931). The bird, here called , symbolizes false images and evil according to literary commentators. This kunne cicap-po is also explained to be "black birds that flock together and peck at cadavers... yōkai birds (yōchō)" in Taijun Takeda's novel ("The Festival of the Forest and the Lake", 1957). Such an explanation recurs in commentary on the poem or the poetess by other commentators.

See also List of legendary creatures from Japan

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