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Playground of the Gods
Monday, May 16th, 2005 by GetawayBC.com
Most who live on Canada’s West Coast are familiar with totem poles.
But atop Burnaby Mountain is a collection of carved poles unlike any other in B.C.
Named Playground of the Gods, this exhibition was created by Nuburi Toko, a renowned sculptor of the Ainu people, and his son Shusei Toko. The Ainu are Japan’s aboriginal people who inhabited the northern island of Hokkaido.
The poles tell an Ainu story of people, gods and creatures living together on the Earth in peace and harmony.
These sculptures commemorate 25 years of goodwill between the Sister Cities of Kushiro, Japan and the City of Burnaby.
The large sculpture of bound poles symbolizes the strong ties between the Ainu people and their gods. On Earth, many of the gods assume the shapes and spirits of animals such as the bear, orca and owl.
There is a strong connection to the sea for the Ainu, and the orca is their god of the sea. According to Ainu mythology, the orca chases other whales to the ocean’s shores, thereby providing food to the people.
Three pairs of poles located along the lower lawn represent the orca. The pair to the far left symbolizes the adult male and female orca and the next pair to the right represents a young boy and girl orca.
The post-and-beam structure is called Whole Ocean. On top of the piece is the orca, with a carved hole to represent its heart. The tall single pole to the right of Whole Ocean represents the tree god.
The poles with the animals on top represent the Ainu gods and the smaller poles represent the people.
The owl god lives in the lower part of the heavens, and looks after the people and their villages.;