Huki leaves are a spring food that can be eaten raw.
Ainu children enjoy them as snacks when they're out playing.
But the area around your lips turns black when you eat them,
so people can tell you did.
To the Ainu, there are only really two seasons: winter and summer.
Winter is the men's season, when they go into the mountains to hunt.
And when the ice melts and turns to water,
the women's season, matnepa, comes.
That's when you pick lots of herbs and vegetables to preserve.
You prepare during summer, so you won't have to worry
about starving in the long winter to come.
From now on, the women in every kotan are about to be very busy.
Golden Kamuy
Yuubari
Oh, looks like somebody's here.
You can stay seated.
Who could be here this early?
Hello.
Do you need something?
Good morning.
I've heard you deal in taxidermy.
Yes, that's right.
Please, come inside.
I have a lot I can show you.
Edogai Taxidermist
Thank you.
I was hoping to get some mounts for the 7th Division's guesthouse.
You're as good as the rumors say.
Episode Thirteen Edogai-kun
There are so many good pieces, I don't know what to choose!
Even a polar bear.
Sometimes I just import the pelts and put them over models I make here.
Is this one still being worked on?
Why is it upside down?
If you hang them like that, the skin and feathers plump up and make it more realistic.
The true test of a taxidermist's skill is how well
he can recreate what they looked like in life.
If you don't mind my asking,
is there sufficient demand for taxidermists in Yuubari to sustain your business?
A kitty!
It's a kitty!
No, most of my business comes from overseas.
Wealthy people all over the world want taxidermy mounts
of animals you can only find in Japan.
I was born in Nara originally,
but I moved to Hokkaido, where the temperature is low and the air is dry,
in an attempt to improve my craft.
You live alone here in Yuubari?
No, I live with my mother.
I'm afraid she has a bad hip,
and stays in the back.
Oh no, don't worry about it.
I see.
The most important part of a good mount is having fresh materials.
In other words, you need fresh corpses.
You're very particular about your work and take a great deal of pride in it.
The ideal craftsman!
No, I...
Edogai-kun...
I came to give you your glove back.
Oh, what could that sound be?
Something seems strange.
Yasaku-san, did you hurt yourself?
Are you all right?
It's nothing!
I just dropped a mount!
I've never seen that glove before.
It's not mine.
You thought you'd escaped us last night, correct?
We pretended we'd lost you, and then followed you here.
Edogai-kun...
Think he's got it?
There was a rumor several months ago about a coal miner who'd died in an accident,
a man with a strange tattoo.
We dug up the grave, but it was empty.
Which means it was stolen by a grave robber.
Drifters often end up working as miners, and they often don't survive long.
The air here is cool and dry, and bodies don't rot even when buried.
Which means that Yuubari is an excellent source of fresh corpses.
I don't know what you're talking about.
Leave!
Night after night you dug up fresh corpses from the graveyard,
stripping off their skin to make this glove, didn't you?
Wonderful!
Can I have one, too?
What?
Even after heavy use, it's still comfortable and soft against the skin!
And it fits perfectly, right down to the tips of the fingers,
so your fingers can move freely enough to pick up tiny coins!
I've never seen a leather glove like this before!
You didn't come to arrest me?
Catching grave robbers isn't my job.
I'm sorry.
That glove isn't made from human skin.
It's pigskin.
Pigs?
The "nails" were made from pig hooves and glued on.
To tell you the truth, I'd gone to the graveyard
to dispose of a large amount of waste products from my work.
I thought you'd found me.
All right.
If you like it that much, you can have it!
I have more. I'll go get one.
You seem to be having a good time out there.
Yes, I am.
But you just met him, right?
It's not a good idea to trust him easily.
That's not true.
Yasaku-san's a great judge of character!
No, it's better to be careful!
That's why you have no friends. You talk like that.
Quiet, everyone.
Hello, everyone.
Are these all made from pigskin, too, Edogai-kun?
Kill him.
He's seen us.
Kill him.
Stuff and mount him.
Kill him.
Kill him!
They look like they could come to life at any moment!
You're a genius, Edogai-kun!
Don't trust him, Yasaku-san!
He's a bad man!
But, Mom, he's...
Are you the only one who can hear her voice?
Kill him!
Now that he's seen us, he cannot leave alive!
That's what you always say! You try to drive everyone away from me!
You killed Dad, and he was my friend!
It's not healthy to spend all day talking to stuffed corpses.
Shut up, plate-for-brains!
Your father was a bad man, just like all the other men!
Nobody loves you!
Shut up!
That's why I castrated you, because you looked like your father down there!
Edogai-kun, listen to my voice.
It was all for you!
Stop it, please!
I did it all for you!
Edogai-kun!
Incredible...
That's human skin, isn't it?
Yup. What do you think?
I made it by ripping skin off from bodies myself.
Don't open your heart to him!
Shut up, Mom!
Shall we talk in your workshop?
You may not have done the "sen" process correctly during tanning.
"Sen"?
The process of scraping off pieces of fat and meat that are still stuck to the skin.
If you're not careful when you do it, the work won't last.
Your skin's a little rough here.
Did you use alum when you tanned it?
Yes.
That's not good for people with sensitive skin.
I recommend tannin!
It's plant-based, so it's easy on the skin.
Edogai-kun, if you have any more of your work,
would you try it on for me?
Really?
What do you think, Tsurumi-san?
I love it!
It's wonderful, Edogai-kun!
I love it!
That's cutting-edge fashion, Edogai-kun!
I want to see more!
I want to see more of your wonderful clothing!
A kitty! Walk like a kitty!
It's so cute!
What the hell is going on?
Huh?
No dice.
It's gotta be Lt. Tsurumi's.
Oops... Youhei's ear.
Huh? Wait, what?
So much fun!
Mom!
No!
There's the ear!
What are you doing to Mom?
Here, take it.
Shoot your mother.
What sort of terrible son points a gun at his mother?!
Decide! Of your own free will!
No...
No! Don't shoot!
You have to leave your nest.
Your nest was a twisted place,
and that's why you grew up twisted!
Don't do it!
The voice... stopped.
My mother died of a heart attack.
I should've ended things while she was alive.
Thank you.
By the way, I wanted to make a deal with you.
What is it?
The tattooed skins that you and I are wearing right now are part of a code.
I want to make false skins, bearing nonsense.
I want you to make several clever fakes that only we can identify.
We're going to bring real chaos into this war for the tattoos.
Otaru
We've got tattoos from me, Ushiyama Tatsuuma, Ienaga here,
Hijikata Toshizou, and two copies made on oiled paper.
And the one Ogata Hyakunosuke acquired in Barato.
That's six in all.
So the goal's to get a bunch of weirdos, old men,
and thugs together to restore the Ezo Republic?
If this is some petty dream of revenge,
that's not fair to the people who are following you.
Nopperabo is an Ainu, right?
Did Lt. Tsurumi know that?
There was one thing in common about the belongings
of all seven of the men Nopperabo killed.
They were damaged.
Ainu funerals involve destroying or damaging the items the dead are buried with,
ending their role in this world so that they can be used in the next.
He ripped the bodies apart, but took time to damage everything they owned.
It feels, in a way, like atonement.
The seven who were murdered were sent from villages from all over Hokkaido.
They were going to use the gold to buy weapons to fight the Japanese.
If Nopperabo was trying to help the Ainu gain independence for Hokkaido,
why did he kill them?
Did he betray them because he wanted the gold for himself?
My guess is that Nopperabo is a partisan from the far eastern part of Russia,
who was pretending to be Ainu.
Russia is far from a unified place.
There's the forces of the czar, Lenin's Communist Party,
and then there's the partisans, composed of some of the ethnic minorities.
Each one of these groups is fighting the others.
So Nopperabo was a partisan, trying to gain funds for a war of independence.
He tried to move the money out via Sakhalin, but failed.
And that's how this whole thing got started?
You never trusted Nopperabo at all, did you, old man?
Which means that No-Face's allies outside the prison...
...are very likely to be partisans pretending to be Ainu, too.
Golden Kamuy
The masu salmon have come back to the rivers again this year.
Sugimoto, you were eating huki, weren't you?
So were you!
So were you, Asirpa-chan.
You're kidding me.
How?
Asirpa-chan, you ate too much!
This is masu salmon ohau,
the most delicious food you can eat in spring.
Let's eat!
Hinna, hinna.
It's great!
The pukusa is so sweet!
We survived the long winter by eating dried foods,
so it's wonderful when spring comes and you can eat fresh foods again.
The huki's a little bitter,
but it's sweet and delicious.
It's the taste of spring, sweet and bitter!
Tell me about Mommy.
Again?
She was a beautiful woman, just like you.
We met in Otaru.
She taught me all the things I didn't know.
The words of the Ainu who lived here,
and everything they believed.
My blood, and the blood of the Ainu who live here...
You're a mix of both, so you'll be a new kind of Ainu woman.
And you'll be the leader of the Ainu.
Your eyes are the same as mine.
Never forget what I'm about to tell you.
Shiraishi, wake up!
How long are you going to keep sleeping, you pig?
We're leaving.
Yuubari's still a long way off.
You seem upset this morning.
Your breath probably stank while you were asleep.
It's no good.
I can't get the same color this way.
It won't fool anybody!
You can only get that color off of a living human.
Damn it! I can't do it!
I just can't do it!
Keep at it, Edogai-kun.
Concentrate! Concentrate!
Okay, Tsukishima-san! Should I tattoo you and then rip off your skin?
Where's Tsurumi-san? I want to see him!
Lt. Tsurumi returned to Otaru.
I'm only taking orders from him, got it?
Bring Tsurumi-san here!
Bring him here!
Otaru
Takagi Arms Shop
Your friend there doesn't look Ainu.
Are those soldiers' clothes underneath that jacket?
Just give me bullets for this Murata gun.
You know, an Ainu woman was here not long ago.
She asked if I knew of a village where an Ainu girl with blue eyes lived.
Didn't your niece have eyes like that?
What was she like?
She was pretty.
I think she said she was a fortune-teller.
You're walking a lot better now.
Yeah.
It barely hurts at all now.
What will you do now, Tanigaki?
Want to kill it before we go home?
It'll make a nice present.
That bird's ripping off its winter coat to take back to its nest.
Good... the deer hasn't noticed us yet.
Yes!
I was going to aim for the neck.
We got interrupted.
Still, nice job getting it in a single shot.
Is that a boy from the village?
I've never seen him before.
He's a weirdo.
He never plays with the rest of the village kids.
But he's interested in the hunt.
Tanigaki's kid, Genjirou, put on a straw coat and followed the hunt again!
If you want to watch from up closer,
gather up some pine boughs.
The front legs of a yuk are only connected by muscle, so they're easy to detach.
This is yours.
Really?
I can see you were born an Ani Matagi.
You know just how it's done.
Why was this tiny yuk all alone?
It's a male, so it must've just left its parents.
Or maybe they died.
Then it's just like me, huh?
His siblings and parents all died.
All the old people in the village take care of him.
His real name is...
Your parents gave it to you before they died, right?
Cikapasi!
Great name, huh?
Yeah.
Cikapasi? What does that mean?
"He who makes birds fly."
But it also means "to get an erection."
In other words, "boner"?
You really do have a good name, Cikapasi.
It's a great name, "boner."
Ayapo!
Anpene!
Iyainuman.
Oh, look at this wonderful Nispa.
I love men with scars on their faces.
My name is Inkarmat.
It means "the woman who sees."
You there, the handsome Nispa.
Shall I tell your fortune?
No, I'll pass.
Did you lose your little sister?
The thought came to me as I looked at you.
I'm very sorry.
Who are you?
I came here in search of someone.
Is there a girl with blue eyes who lives in this kotan?
My Sirakki Kamuy says this is the right place.
We met in Naganuma.
She said she was traveling to accomplish a certain goal.
She had three Nispa with her.
One of them is going to betray Asirpa-san.
He's a very dangerous man.
If he's not stopped, her life may be in danger.
I'll bring back Asirpa safely. I promise.
Osoma, you have something to give him, right?
She spent a long time trying to make you tekunpe, with Huci's help.
She only managed to get one done in time, though.
When an Ainu woman's in love, she makes a pair of tekunpe and gives them to her man.
Thank you, Osoma.
I promise I'll come back.
So make me the other one.
Gods, protect Tanigaki Nispa!
Shall I tell your fortune to help find where Asirpa-san is?
No. I'm not going because I believe your fortune-telling.
The problem is that the villagers do.
The Sirakki Kamuy tells me that good fortune lies to the east.
Let us go, Tanigaki Nispa.
Why are you coming with me?
I have a weakness for men with scars on their faces.
I see.
Use the man named Tanigaki who's at the kotan.
His leg should have healed by now.
Next Time Fakes
Next Time: "Fakes."