Inau usually is a little baton more often made of willow tree but it can be quiet long pole (longer than human height). Its wooden pivot is crowned by plume of curly shavings in most cases. Different inau (dedicated to different kamuy) were arranged different ways. Pivot covered by carving or notches. Different parts of inau were named: head, hair, mouth, back, legs et c. Inau can be deprived its pivot at all and consists of shavings’ interlacing only. But there existed also inau without any shavings.

Here you can see my own home inau

Inau is an inseparable part of Aynu rites and Aynu life. M.M. Dobrotvorski thinks that inau are rudiments of human oblations. And A.B. Spevakovski thinks so.Bronislaw Pilsudski writes that inau is mostly mediator between Aynu mosiri ( world of Aynu ) and kamuy mosiri ( world of kamuy). Practically the same interpretation is offered by L.Ya. Sternberg. But Neil Gordon Munro like above mentioned Dobrotvorski and Spevakovski writes that inau can be substitutes of dogu – Jomon epoch Aynu sacral figurines which were substitutes of more ancient human oblations.

A typical middle-Jomon dogu about 7000-5000 years old

As for me I believe that inau is evolution of dogu and that inau and dogu is closely connected to the honi pere Aynu ritual. Japanese hara-kiri grew up from such ritual, which was borrowed by Japanese people from Aynu in eighth – ninth centuries of our era. But really I still misunderstand what inau is and what does it mean. This artifact of Aynu culture is waiting to be seriously explained.