The Ainu: Japan’s Indigenous Population

Figure 1: Ainu Elder (Photo Credit: The Ainu Museum)

You probably have heard about American Indians, indigenous populations that existed in North, Central, and South America before colonization, but you probably have heard very little (if anything) about indigenous populations that exist around the globe.  There are several of these groups that exist globally.  Today’s blog post will discuss one such the group: the Ainu (Figure 1).  Through this blog post you will learn more about the Ainu, their culture, and their continuing struggles to gain and maintain their identity and freedoms.

The term Ainu means “human”.  For those of you who have studied cultural groups or are familiar with the series of posts that cover specific ethnic groups on this blog you may have noticed that this is a recurring them among various groups, to refer to themselves as people.  Sometimes this is because the group wants to differentiate itself from other foreign groups, but in the case of the Ainu it is actually to distinguish themselves from the animistic spirits and gods that exist around them.  The Ainu believe that spirits and gods exist in various natural and man-made forms, and much of their ritual life revolves around this belief.

The origins of the Ainu are imprecisely known, largely due to a lack of focus of study on their past, but based on linguistic studies of the Ainu language they are be a unique linguistic and cultural group with no relationship with other Asiatic groups.  Today, the Ainu can be found in Japan (on the islands of Hokkaido and Honshu) and Russia (on Sakhalin Island) (Figure 2).  A few thousand Ainu exist today, although the exact population numbers are unknown.  This is in part due to no accurate census data being taken over the past decades, as well as a known steep decline in their populations due to the ravages of disease, murders, and the forced assimilation and family separations promoted and practiced by the Japanese government.

Figure 2: Ainu Occupation in Japan Today (Photo Credit: Ainu Museum)

While many Ainu exist today they often practice little of their original culture.  Traditions, such as tattooing girls who reach puberty and the abstention of shaving among men of a certain age, are no longer practiced, and very few Ainu speakers exist, making their language critically endangered.  Also gone are many of the traditional Ainu ceremonies that involved bears.  The iyomante was a ceremony involving the capture of a bear cub, which was raised in captivity before being ritualistically sacrificed in adulthood.  This ceremony was meant to mimic the role of the Bear God, who would sacrifice himself to feed the Ainu residing in the afterlife.  While little is known at this time it is known that the Ainu traditionally had a great fondness and affinity for bears as demonstrated in their iconography, dress, and their presence in the zooarchaeological records of Ainu sites.

From ethnohistoric records it is known that the Ainu were traditionally hunters and foragers, who were also involved in long distance trade.  They were adept seafarers who would sail from the Japanese Islands to China to initiate trade for themselves and others (e.g. Wajin, the term the Ainu used for the Japanese).  Atypical of hunting-gathering groups the Ainu were sedentary, residing in permanent villages that they called kotans.  They lived in nuclear-family residences, where they paid homage to their ancestral spirits and their gods, specifically the Bear God.  Each village was led by a Village Head. 

Beginning in the 1400s the Ainu began to suffer at the hands of the Wajin, who began to systematically oppress them.  The Ainu attempted to fight these oppression, but they lost the numerous fights they undertook with the Japanese.  In 1789 the Japanese had fully conquered the Ainu, and they institutionalized prejudicial practices against them.  The first of these were forced assimilation practices that were intended to culturally and biologically wipe the Ainu out.  Eventually these practices gave way to more informal, social means of prejudice against the Ainu, which led to issues with Ainu being able to marry outside of their group, to be employed, and to receive educations.  Many Ainu and Japanese-Ainu individuals would purposefully lie about their ancestry to avoid being discriminated against. 

Recently, though, the Ainu have made great strides in gaining rights and privileges in Japan.  This was largely led by various Ainu throughout history, but it was the work of Shigeru Kayano, who sued the Japanese government and eventually became the first Ainu individual to serve in the Japanese Parliament, who began to make political headway on behalf of the Ainu.  It was only earlier this year, however, that the Japanese government officially recognized the Ainu as an Indigenous population.  This came about from growing pressures both within and outside of the country, as well as a desire to provide a favorable outlook on both the Ainu and Japanese as a whole for the upcoming 2020 Olympic Games, which will prominently feature Ainu culture.  These are positive steps in improving Ainu culture and the livelihood of the Ainu people in Japan.

Bibliography

Ainu Association of Hokkaido. "The beginning of history." No Date. Ainu Association of Hokkaido. Electronic. 5 June 2019.

Ainu Museum. The Ainu People. No Date. Electronic. 5 June 2019.

Isabella, Jude. "The Untold Story of Japan’s First People." 25 October 2017. Sapiens. Electronic. 5 June 2019.

Minority Rights Group. "Ainu." April 2018. World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples (Minority Rights Group). Electronic. 5 June 2019.