Ainu people

The Ainu are the native people of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kurils. Early Ainu-speaking groups (mostly hunters and fishermen) also migrated into the Kamchatka Peninsula and into Honshu, where their descendants are today known as the Matagi hunters, who still use a large amount of Ainu vocabulary in their dialect. Other evidence for Ainu-speaking hunters and fishermen migrating down from Northern Hokkaido into Honshu is the Ainu toponyms which are found in several places throughout northern Honshu, mostly along the western coast and in the Tōhoku region. Evidence for Ainu speakers in the Amur region is found through Ainu loanwords in the Uilta and Ulch people.[14]

Historical homeland and distribution of the Ainu people

Research suggests that Ainu culture originated from a merger of the Okhotsk and Satsumon cultures.[15][16] According to researchers Lee and Hasegawa, Ainu-speakers descend from the Okhotsk people, who rapidly expanded from northern Hokkaido into the Kurils and Honshu.[17] These early inhabitants did not speak the Japanese language; some were conquered by the Japanese early in the 9th century.[18] In 1264, the Ainu invaded the land of the Nivkh people. The Ainu also started an expedition into the Amur region, which was then controlled by the Yuan dynasty, resulting in reprisals by the Mongols who invaded Sakhalin.[19][20] Active contact between the Wa-jin (the ethnically Japanese, also known as Yamato-jin) and the Ainu of Ezogashima (now known as Hokkaidō) began in the 13th century.[21] The Ainu formed a society of hunter-gatherers, surviving mainly by hunting and fishing. They followed a religion which was based on natural phenomena.[22]

During the Muromachi period (1336–1573), many Ainu were subject to Japanese rule. Disputes between the Japanese and Ainu developed into large-scale violence, known as Koshamain's Revolt, in 1456. Takeda Nobuhiro, the ancestor of the Matsumae clan, killed the Ainu leader Koshamain.

In the 15th century, Manchuria in northern China came under Ming rule. As part of the Nurgan Regional Military Commission, the Ainu and Nivkh peoples of Sakhalin were subjugated and became tributaries to the Ming dynasty.[23] Women in Sakhalin intermarried with Han Chinese Ming officials when the Ming took tribute from Sakhalin and the Amur river region.[24][25] Due to Ming rule in Manchuria, Chinese cultural and religious influence such as Chinese New Year, the "Chinese god", and motifs such as dragons, spirals, and scrolls, spread among the Ainu, Nivkh, and Amur natives such as the Udeghes, Ulchis, and Nanais. These groups also adopted material goods and practices such as agriculture, husbandry, heating, iron cooking pots, silk, and cotton. [26]

During the Edo period (1601–1868), the Ainu, who controlled northern Hokkaido, became increasingly involved in trade with the Japanese, who controlled the southern portion of the island. The Tokugawa bakufu (feudal government) granted the Matsumae clan exclusive rights to trade with the Ainu in the northern part of the island. Later, the Matsumae began to lease out trading rights to Japanese merchants, and contact between Japanese and Ainu became more extensive. Throughout this period, Ainu groups competed with each other to import goods from the Japanese, and epidemic diseases such as smallpox reduced the population.[27] Although the increased contact created by the trade between the Japanese and the Ainu contributed to greater mutual understanding, it also sometimes led to conflict, which occasionally intensified into violent Ainu revolts. The most important Ainu rebellion against Japanese authority was Shakushain's Revolt from 1669–1672. Another large-scale revolt by Ainu against Japanese rule was the Menashi-Kunashir Battle in 1789. However, throughout this period and thereafter, the Ainu-Japanese relationship continued to be marked more by trade and commercial interactions than by conflicts.

From 1799 to 1806, the Tokugawa shogunate took direct control of southern Hokkaido. During this period, Ainu women were separated from their husbands and either subjected to rape or forcibly married to Japanese men. Meanwhile, Ainu men were deported to merchant subcontractors for five- and ten-year terms of service. Policies of family separation and assimilation, combined with the impact of smallpox, caused the Ainu population to drop significantly in the early 19th century.[28] In the 18th century, there were 80,000 Ainu,[29] but by 1868, there were only about 15,000 Ainu in Hokkaido, 2,000 in Sakhalin, and around 100 in the Kuril islands.[30]

Despite their growing influence in the area in the early 19th century as a result of these policies, the Tokugawa shogunate was unable to gain a monopoly on Ainu trade with those on the Asian mainland, even by the year 1853. Santan traders, a group comprised mostly of the Ulchi, Nanai, and Oroch peoples of the Amur River, commonly interacted with the Ainu people independent of the Japanese government, especially in the north part of Hokkaido.[31] In addition to their trading ventures, Santan traders sometimes kidnapped or purchased Ainu women from Rishiri to become their wives. This further escalated Japan's presence in the area, as the Tokugawa shogunate believed a monopoly on Santan trade would better protect the Ainu people.[31][32]

Contrary to popular belief, it is now thought that the Ainu were not the first settlers of the island of Hokkaido. Archeological evidence suggests that ancient Japanese Jomon people inhabited Hokkaido early on, and the Ainu people may have only appeared after the 13th century. They likely migrated from more northern islands and what is now Far East Russia.[33][34][35][36][37][38][39]

In 1869, the imperial government established the Hokkaidō Development Commission as part of the Meiji Restoration. Researcher Katarina Sjöberg quotes Baba's 1890 account of the Japanese government's reasoning:

... The development of Japan's large northern island had several objectives: First, it was seen as a means to defend Japan from a rapidly developing and expansionist Russia. Second ... it offered a solution to the unemployment for the former samurai class ... Finally, development promised to yield the needed natural resources for a growing capitalist economy.[40]

1843 illustration of Ainu

As a result of the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875), the Kuril Islands—along with their Ainu inhabitants—came under Japanese administration. In 1899, the Japanese government passed an act labelling the Ainu as "former aborigines", with the idea that they would assimilate. This resulted in the Japanese government taking the land where the Ainu people lived and placing it from then on under Japanese control.[41] Also at this time, the Ainu were granted automatic Japanese citizenship, effectively denying them the status of an indigenous group.

Photograph of Tatsujiro Kuzuno, an Ainu individual famous for being a promoter of Ainu culture

The Ainu went from being a relatively isolated group of people to having their land, language, religion and customs assimilated into those of the Japanese.[42] Their land was distributed to the Yamato Japanese settlers to create and maintain farms in the model of Western industrial agriculture. It was known as "colonization" (拓殖) at the time, but later by the euphemism, "opening up undeveloped land" (開拓).[43] Additionally, factories like flour mills and beer breweries, along with mining practices, resulted in the creation of infrastructure such as roads and railway lines during a development period that lasted until 1904.[44] During this time, the Ainu were ordered to cease religious practices such as animal sacrifice and the custom of tattooing.[45] The same act applied to the native Ainu on Sakhalin after its annexation as the Karafuto Prefecture.[46]

Sakhalin Ainu in 1904

The Ainu have historically suffered from economic and social discrimination, as both the Japanese government and mainstream population regarded them as dirty and primitive barbarians.[47] The majority of Ainu were forced to be petty laborers during the Meiji Restoration, which saw the introduction of Hokkaido into the Japanese Empire and the privatization of traditional Ainu lands.[48] During the 19th and 20th centuries, the Japanese government denied the rights of the Ainu to their traditional cultural practices such as hunting, gathering, and speaking their native language. [49]

The legal denial of Ainu cultural practices mostly stemmed from the 1899 Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act.[50] This law and its associated policies were designed to fully integrate the Ainu into Japanese society while erasing Ainu culture and identity. The Ainu's position as manual laborers and their forced integration into larger Japanese society have led to discriminatory practices by the Japanese government that can still be felt today.[51]

Intermarriage between Japanese and Ainu was actively promoted by the Ainu to lessen the chances of discrimination against their offspring. As a result, many Ainu today are indistinguishable from their Japanese neighbors, but some Ainu-Japanese are interested in traditional Ainu culture. For example, Oki, born as a child of an Ainu father and a Japanese mother, became a musician who plays the traditional Ainu instrument tonkori.[52] There are also many small towns in the southeastern or Hidaka region of Hokkaido where ethnic Ainu live, such as in Nibutani (Niputay).

From the early 1870s, Christian missionary work was conducted amongst the Ainu. The Anglican Communion missionaries included the Rt Rev Philip Fyson, Bishop of Hokkaido, and the Rev John Batchelor. Batchelor wrote extensively in English about the beliefs and daily life of the Ainu in Yezo (or Ezo), and his publications are a source of photographs of the Japanese and Ainu close to the missions.[53]

The discrimination and negative stereotypes assigned to the Ainu have manifested in lower levels of education, income, and participation in the economy as compared to their ethnically Japanese counterparts. The Ainu community in Hokkaido in 1993 received welfare payments at a 2.3 times higher ratethan that of Hokkaido as a whole. They also had an 8.9% lower enrollment rate from junior high school to high school and a 15.7% lower enrollment into college from high school.[48] Due to this noticeable and growing gap, the Japanese government has been lobbied by activists to research the Ainu's standard of living nationwide. The Japanese government will provide ¥7 million (US$63,000), beginning in 2015, to conduct surveys nationwide on this matter.[54]

The existence of the Ainu has challenged the notion of ethnic homogeneity in post-WWII Japan. After the demise of the multi-ethnic Empire of Japan in 1945, successive governments forged a single Japanese identity by advocating monoculturalism and denying the existence of more than one ethnic group in Japan.[55]

Following the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, Hokkaido politicians pressured the government to recognize Ainu rights. Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo answered a parliamentary question on May 20, 2008 by stating,[56]

It is a historical fact that the Ainu are the precursors in the northern Japanese archipelago, in particular Hokkaido. The government acknowledges the Ainu to be an ethnic minority as it has maintained a unique cultural identity and having a unique language and religion.

On June 6, 2008, the National Diet of Japan passed a non-binding, bipartisan resolution calling upon the government to recognize the Ainu as indigenous people.[57][58]

In 2019, eleven years after this resolution, the Diet finally passed an act recognizing the Ainu as an indigenous people of Japan.[59][60] Despite this recognition of the Ainu as an ethnically distinct group, political figures in Japan continue to define ethnic homogeneity as key to overall Japanese national identity. For example, politician Tarō Asō notably claimed in 2020, “No other country but this one has lasted for as long as 2,000 years with one language, one ethnic group and one dynasty”.[55]

The claim that the ancient Emishi were Ainu has been largely disproved by current research, although it is still under dispute.[70] The term "Emishi" in the Nara period (710-794) referred to people who lived in the Tohoku region and whose lifestyle and culture differed markedly from that of the Yamato people; it was originally a highly cultural and political concept with no racial distinction.[71]

From the mid-Heian period onward, Emishi who did not fall under the governance of the Yamato Kingship were singled out as northern Emishi. They began to be referred to as "Ezo" (Emishi).

The first written reference to "Ezo," which is thought to be Ainu, can be found in Suwa Daimyōjin Ekotoba, which was written in 1356. Indeed, Ainu have lived in Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, Hokkaido, and the northern Tohoku region since the 13th century.[72]

Thus, "Ezo = Ainu" is a concept that was accepted in the medieval and early modern periods, and it is not accurate to apply it to ancient Emishi as well.

Source:[7]

The Ainu Caucasian theory was proposed by Siebold, a physician and naturalist at the Dutch trading post in Nagasaki in the 19th century; he claimed that the Ainu were Caucasian (Caucasoid) and that the Ainu were a long-lost white people.

Early European Ainu researchers considered the Ainu to be Caucasian because they were an ancient culture and based their lives on a lifestyle that could be compared to the Paleolithic period in Europe, i.e., gathering plants and hunting animals in the mountains and sea, and because their facial moats were deeper than those of the mainland Japanese.

This theory was popular until the 1950s. Followers of the theory include French ethnologist Georges Montandon and P.Wilhelm Koppers of the Viennese school of historical ethnography.

Three Ainu from Hokkaidō in traditional dress

Genetic testing has shown that the Ainu belong mainly to Y-DNA haplogroup D-M55 (D1a2) and C-M217.[73] Y-DNA haplogroup D-M55 is found throughout the Japanese archipelago, but with very high frequencies among the Ainu of Hokkaido in the far north, and to a lesser extent among the Ryukyuans in the Ryukyu Islands of the far south.[74] Recently it was confirmed that the Japanese branch of haplogroup D-M55 is distinct and isolated from other D-branches by more than 53,000 years.[75]

Several studies (Shinoda 2008) suggest that haplogroup D originated somewhere in Central Asia.[76][77][78] According to Hammer et al., the ancestral haplogroup D originated between Tibet and the Altai mountains. They suggest that there were multiple migration waves into Eastern Eurasia.[79]

A 2004 study suggests that fourteen out of sixteen Ainu (or 87.5%) belong to YAP+ lineages (Y-haplogroups D-M55* and D-M125), with 13/16 (81.3%) belonging to D-M55 and 1/16 (6.25%) belonging to D-M125 (the latter is much more typical of mainland Japanese males than Ainu). The presence of haplogroup C-M217 in the Ainu suggests a degree of genetic admixture with the Nivkhs. Two out of a sample of sixteen Ainu men (or 12.5%) belong to C-M217*, which is the most common Y chromosome haplogroup among the indigenous populations of Siberia and Mongolia.[80] Hammer et al. (2006) found that one in a sample of four (25%) Ainu men belonged to haplogroup C-M217.[79]

An analysis of a sample of 51 modern Ainu showed their mtDNA lineages consist mainly of haplogroup Y (11⁄51 = 21.6% according to Tanaka et al. (2004), or 10⁄51 = 19.6% according to Adachi et al. (2009), who cite Tajima et al. (2004)), haplogroup D (9⁄51 = 17.6%, particularly D4 (xD1)), haplogroup M7a (8⁄51 = 15.7%), and haplogroup G1 (8⁄51 = 15.7%).[73] Other mtDNA haplogroups detected in this sample include A (2⁄51), M7b2 (2⁄51), N9b (1⁄51), B4f (1⁄51), F1b (1⁄51), and M9a (1⁄51). Most of the remaining individuals in this sample have been classified definitively only as belonging to macro-haplogroup M.[81]

According to Sato et al. (2009), who studied the mtDNA of the same sample of modern Ainu (N=51), the major haplogroups of the Ainu are N9 (14⁄51 = 27.5%, including 10⁄51 Y and 4⁄51 N9 (xY)), D (12⁄51 = 23.5%, including 8⁄51 D (xD5) and 4⁄51 D5), M7 (10⁄51 = 19.6%), and G (10⁄51 = 19.6%, including 8⁄51 G1 and 2⁄51 G2); the minor haplogroups are A (2⁄51), B (1⁄51), F (1⁄51), and M (xM7, M8, CZ, D, G) (1⁄51).[82]

Studies published in 2004 and 2007 found the combined frequency of M7a and N9b observed in Jōmons, which are believed by some to be Jōmon maternal contributions, to be 28% in Okinawans (7⁄50 M7a1, 6⁄50 M7a (xM7a1), 1⁄50 N9b), 17.6% in Ainu (8⁄51 M7a (xM7a1), 1⁄51 N9b), and from 10% (97⁄1312 M7a (xM7a1), 1⁄1312 M7a1, 28⁄1312 N9b) to 17% (15⁄100 M7a1, 2⁄100 M7a (xM7a1)) in mainstream Japanese.[81][83]

In addition, haplogroups D4, D5, M7b, M9a, M10, G, A, B, and F have been found in Jōmon people as well.[84][85] These mtDNA haplogroups were found in various Jōmon samples and in some modern Japanese people.[86]

Ainu man performing a traditional dance

A study by Kanazawa-Kiriyama et al. (2013) about mitochondrial haplogroups found that the Ainu people (including samples from Hokkaido and Tōhoku) have a high frequency of N9b, which is also found among Udege people of eastern Siberia and is more common among Europeans than Eastern Asians. The N9b haplogroup is also notably absent from geographically close Kantō Jōmon period samples, which have a higher frequency of M7a7, commonly found among East and Southeast Asians. According to the authors, these results add to the internal-diversity observed among the Jōmon period population and show that a significant percentage of the Jōmon period people had ancestry from a Northeast Asian source population; this is suggested to be the source of the proto-Ainu language and culture, which is not detected in samples from Kantō.[87]

A study by Adachi et al. 2018 concluded,[88]

Our results suggest that the Ainu were formed from the Hokkaido Jomon people, but subsequently underwent considerable admixture with adjacent populations. The present study strongly recommends revision of the widely accepted dual-structure model for the population history of the Japanese, in which the Ainu are assumed to be the direct descendants of the Jomon people.

A 2004 reevaluation of cranial traits suggests that the Ainu resemble the Okhotsk more than they do the Jōmon, though there are large variations.[89] This agrees with the hypothesis of Ainu as a merger of Okhotsk and Satsumon populations, referenced earlier. Similarly, more recent studies link the Ainu to the local Hokkaido Jōmon period samples, such as the 3,800 year old Rebun sample.[90][91]

Genetic analyses of HLA I and HLA II genes as well as HLA-A, B, and DRB1 gene frequencies link the Ainu to indigenous peoples of the Americas. The genetics of a variety of Asian groups show Ainu and Native Americans can both be traced back to Paleolithic groups in Siberia.[92]

Hideo Matsumoto (2009) suggested, based on immunoglobulin analyses, that the Ainu (and Jōmon) have a Siberian origin. Compared with other East Asian populations, the Ainu have the highest amount of Siberian immunoglobulin components, higher than mainland Japanese people.[93]

A 2012 genetic study revealed that the closest known genetic relatives of the Ainu are the Ryukyuan people, followed by the Yamato people and Nivkh.[5]

A genetic analysis in 2016 showed that although the Ainu have some genetic relations to Yamato Japanese people and Eastern Siberians (especially Itelmens and Chukchis), they are not directly related to any modern ethnic group. Further, the study detected genetic contributions from the Ainu to populations around the Sea of Okhotsk, but no genetic influence on the Ainu themselves. According to the study, the Ainu-like genetic contribution in the Ulch people is about 17.8% or 13.5%, and about 27.2% in the Nivkhs. The study also disproved the idea of a relation to Andamanese or Tibetans. Instead, it presented evidence of gene flow between the Ainu and "lowland East Asian farmer populations" (represented in the study by the Ami and Atayal in Taiwan and the Dai and Lahu in Mainland East Asia).[94]

A genetic study in 2016 of historical Ainu samples from southern Sakhalin (8) and northern Hokkaido (4) found that the samples were closely related to the ancient Okhotsk people followed by Ainu samples from southern Hokkaido, pointing to some substructure among the ancient Ainu population.[95]

Recent autosomal evidence suggests that the Ainu derive a majority of their ancestry from the local Jōmon period people of Hokkaido. A 2019 study by Gakuhari et al., analyzing ancient Jōmon remains, found about 79.3% Hokkaido Jōmon ancestry in the Ainu.[96] Another 2019 study, by Kanazawa-Kiriyama et al., found about 66% Hokkaido Jōmon ancestry.[97] A genetic study in 2021, by Sato et al., found that the Ainu probably derived about ~49% of their ancestry from the local Hokkaido Jōmon, ~22% from the Okhotsk (represented by Chukotko-Kamchatkan peoples), and ~29% from the Yamato Japanese.[69] Population genomic data from various Jōmon period samples show that their main ancestry component split from other East Asian people at about 15,000 BCE. Following their migration into the Japanese archipelago, they became largely isolated from outside geneflow. However, geneflow from Ancient North Eurasians towards the Jōmon period population was detected along a North to South cline, with a peak among Hokkaido Jōmon.[98]

An Ainu from Shiraoi, Hokkaido, c. 1930

Physical differences can be observed between various Ainu subgroups and clans. According to anthropologist Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney,

…features considered to distinguish the Ainu from other populations in the area, especially the Japanese, are the tendency to dolichocephaly (long-headedness), a well developed glabella, a deeply depressed nose root, widely projecting cheekbones, a comparatively massive mandible (lower jaw), and an edge to edge bite,

as well as more body and facial hair. Many Ainu men have abundant wavy hair and often wear long beards.[99][100]

The book Ainu Life and Legends by author Kyōsuke Kindaichi (published by the Japanese Tourist Board in 1942) contains a physical description of Ainu:

Many have wavy hair, but some straight black hair. Very few of them have wavy brownish hair. Their skins are generally reported to be light brown. But this is due to the fact that they labor on the sea and in briny winds all day. Old people who have long desisted from their outdoor work are often found to be as white as western men. The Ainu have broad faces, beetling eyebrows, and sometimes large sunken eyes, which are generally horizontal and of the so-called European type. Eyes of the Mongolian type are rare but occasionally found among them.

A comparative study by Brace et al. (2001) argues for a closer morphological relation of the Ainu with prehistoric and living European groups, compared with other East Asian groups. The authors concluded that some of their ancestors may have descended from a population, dubbed "Eurasians" by the authors, that moved into northern Eurasia and eastwards in the Late Pleistocene, significantly predating the expansion of the modern core population of East Asia from Mainland Southeast Asia.[101]

Overall anthropometric characteristics and cranial features group the Ainu people most closely together with Native Americans, especially Eskimos, followed by other East Asians, rather than with Europeans.[102]

A study by Kura et al. (2014) based on cranial and genetic characteristics suggests a mostly Northern Asian ("Arctic") origin for Ainu people. Thus, despite the Ainu sharing certain morphological similarities with Caucasoid populations, the Ainu are essentially of North Asiatic origin. Genetic evidence support a closer relation to Paleo-Siberian Arctic populations, such as the Chukchi people.[103]

A study by Omoto has shown that the Ainu are more closely related to other East Asian groups (previously mentioned as "Mongoloid") than to Western Eurasian groups (formerly termed "Caucasian"), on the basis of fingerprints and dental morphology.[104]

"Ainu men". Department of Anthropology, Japanese exposition, 1904 World's Fair

A study by Jinam et al. (2015), using genome-wide SNP data comparison, found that some Ainu carry two specific gene alleles associated with facial features commonly found among Europeans but generally absent among Japanese people and other East Asians.[105]

Ainu men were first recruited into the Japanese military in 1898.[106] Sixty-four Ainu served in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), eight of whom died in battle or from illness contracted during military service. Two received the Order of the Golden Kite, granted for bravery, leadership or command in battle.

During World War II, Australian troops engaged in the hard-fought Kokoda Track campaign (July–November 1942) in New Guinea were surprised by the physique and fighting prowess of the first Japanese troops they encountered. One medical officer recounted,

During that day's fighting [30 August 1942] we saw many Japanese of large physique, powerfully built men of six feet and over. These tough assault troops came from Hokkaidō, a northern Japanese island of freezing winters, where the bears roamed freely. They were known in their own country as "Dosanko", a name for horses from Hokkaidō, and they withstood splendidly the harsh climate of the Owen Stanley Range. A 2/14th Battalion officer said to me: "I couldn't believe it when I saw these big bastards bearing down on us. I thought they must be Germans in disguise.[107]

Bear hunting, 19th century

The Ainu traditionally hunt from late autumn to early summer.[121] The reasons for this are in part because in late autumn, plant gathering, salmon fishing, and other activities of securing food come to an end, and hunters readily find game in fields and mountains in which plants withered.

A village typically possesses a hunting ground of its own, or several villages use a joint hunting territory, called an iwor.[122] Heavy penalties were imposed on any outsiders trespassing on such hunting grounds or joint hunting territory.

The Ainu traditionally hunt Ussuri brown bears, Asian black bears, Ezo deer (a subspecies of sika deer), hares, red foxes, Japanese raccoon dogs, and other animals.[123] Ezo deer are a particularly important food resource for the Ainu, as are salmon.[124] They also hunt sea eagles, such as white-tailed sea eagles, along with ravens and other birds.[125] The Ainu hunted eagles for their tail feathers, which they used in trade with the Japanese.[126]

Ainu people, c. 1840

The Ainu hunted with arrows and spears with poison-coated points.[127] They obtained the poison, called surku, from the roots and stalks of aconites.[128] The recipe for this poison was a household secret that differed from family to family. They enhanced the poison with mixtures of roots and stalks of dog's bane, boiled juice of Mekuragumo (a type of harvestman), Matsumomushi (Notonecta triguttata, a species of backswimmer), tobacco, and other ingredients. They also used stingray stingers or skin covering stingers.[129]

They traditionally hunt in groups with dogs.[130] Before hunting, particularly for bear and similar animals, they may pray to the Kamuy-huci, the house guardian goddess, to convey their wishes for a large catch, and to the god of mountains for safe hunting.[131]

The Ainu traditionally hunt bears during the spring thaw. At that time, bears are weak because they haven't eaten during their long hibernation. Ainu hunters catch hibernating bears or bears that have just left hibernation dens.[132] When they hunt bear in summer, they use a spring trap loaded with an arrow, called an amappo.[132] The Ainu usually use arrows to hunt deer.[133] Also, they drive deer into a river or sea and shoot them with arrows. For a large catch, a whole village would drive a herd of deer off a cliff and club them to death.[134]

Fishing is important to Ainu culture. They largely catch trout in summer and salmon in autumn, as well as ito (Japanese huchen), dace, and other fish. Spears called marek" were often used. Other methods were "tesh" fishing, "uray" fishing, and "rawomap" fishing. Many villages were built near rivers or along the coast. Each village or individual had a definite river fishing territory. Outsiders could not freely fish there and needed to ask the owner.[135]

Lacquer stored in cise（Hokkaido Museum）

Japanese lacquerware[136] was used in everyday life as tableware and often used in ceremonies (ritual utensils), such as the cups used to offer alcohol when praying to the kamui. Lacquerware was often treated as treasure, and it was also used as containers for storing other treasures.

One of the characteristics of Ainu lacquerware is that it is almost entirely imported from the south of Honshu. Some pieces may have been lacquered in Matsumae in southern Hokkaido, but since the technique of lacquering is from Honshu, lacquerware can be considered an introduced item among Ainu folk implements.

There are examples of spatulas and other objects used by the Ainu people for ceremonial purposes that remain in clusters of the same size, and some are specifically produced for trading with the Ainu.

Traditionally, Ainu men wear a crown called a sapanpe for important ceremonies. Sapanpe are made from wood fibre with bundles of partially shaved wood. The crown has wooden figures of animal gods and other ornaments on its centre.[137] Men carry an emush (ceremonial sword)[138] secured by an emush at strap to their shoulders.[139]

An Ainu woman from Hokkaido, c. 1930

Ainu women traditionally wear matanpushi, embroidered headbands, and ninkari, metal earrings with balls. Matanpushi and ninkari were originally also worn by men. Furthermore, aprons called maidari now are a part of women's formal clothes. However, some old documents state that men wore maidari. Women sometimes wear a bracelet called a tekunkani.[140]

Women may wear a necklace called a rektunpe, a long, narrow strip of cloth with metal plaques.[137] They may also wear a necklace that reaches the breast called a tamasay or shitoki, usually made from glass balls. Some glass balls came from trade with the Asian continent. The Ainu also obtained glass balls secretly made by the Matsumae clan.[141]

Ainu house in Hokkaido

Ainu traditional house. Ainu: cise

A village is called a kotan in the Ainu language. Kotan were traditionally located in river basins and along seashores where food was readily available, particularly in the basins of rivers through which salmon traveled upstream. In early modern times, the Ainu people were forced to labor at Japanese fishing grounds . Ainu kotan were also forced to relocate to near fishing grounds, so that the Japanese could secure a labor force. When the Japanese moved to other fishing grounds, Ainu kotan were forced to accompany them. As a result, the traditional kotan disappeared, and large villages of several dozen families were formed around the fishing grounds.[142]

Cise or cisey (houses) in a kotan are made of cogon grass, bamboo grass, bark, etc. The length lays east to west or parallel to a river. A cise is about seven by five meters, with an entrance at the west end that also serves as a storeroom. A cise has three windows, including the rorun-puyar, a window located on the side facing the entrance (i.e., on the east side), through which gods enter and leave and ceremonial tools are taken in and out. The Ainu regard this window as sacred and are told never to look in through it. A cise has a fireplace near the entrance. A husband and wife would traditionally sit on the fireplace's left side (called shiso). Children and guests would sit facing them on the fireplace's right side (called harkiso). The cise has a platform for valuables called iyoykir behind the shiso. Ainu place sintoko (hokai) and ikayop (quivers) there.

• 
  Ainu cises (from Popular Science Monthly, Volume 33, 1888)
• 
  Plan of an Ainu cise
• 
  Gathering place around a cise fireplace
• 
  Interior of a cise in the Saru River basin

A traditional Ainu marriage ceremony

The Ainu people have various types of marriage. A child is traditionally promised in marriage by arrangement between their parents and the parents of their betrothed, or by a go-between. When the betrothed reach a marriageable age, they are told who their spouse is to be. There are also traditional marriages based on mutual consent of both sexes.[143] In some areas, when a daughter reaches a marriageable age, her parents allow her to live in a small room called a tunpu, annexed to the southern wall of the house.[144] The parents choose her husband from the men who visit her.

The age of marriage is 17 to 18 years of age for men and 15 to 16 years of age for women,[137] who are traditionally tattooed. At these ages, both sexes are regarded as adults.[145]

When a man proposes to a woman in traditional fashion, he visits her house, and she hands him a full bowl of rice. He then eats half of the rice and returns the rest to her. If the woman eats the remaining rice, she accepts his proposal. If she does not and instead puts it beside her, she rejects his proposal.[137] When a man and woman become engaged or learn that their engagement has been arranged, they exchange gifts. The man sends her a small engraved knife, a workbox, a spool, and other gifts. She sends him embroidered clothes, coverings for the back of the hand, leggings, and other handmade clothes.[146]

Chishima Ainu working

The worn-out fabric of old clothing is used for baby clothes, because soft cloth is good for their skin . Additionally, worn-out material was thought to protect babies from the gods of illness and demons, due to these entities's abhorrence of dirty things. Before a baby is breast-fed, they are given a decoction of the endodermis of an alder and the roots of butterburs to discharge impurities.[147] Children are raised almost naked until about the ages of four to five. Even when they wear clothes, they do not wear belts and leave the front of their clothes open. Subsequently, they wear bark clothes without patterns, such as attush, until coming of age.

Ainu babies traditionally are not given permanent names when they are born. Rather, they are called by various temporary names until the age of two or three. Newborn babies are named ayay ("a baby's crying"),[148] shipo, poyshi ("small excrement"), and shion ("old excrement"). [148] Their tentative names have a portion meaning "excrement" or "old things" to ward off the demon of ill-health. Some children are named based on their behaviour or habits; others are named after notable events or after parents' wishes for their future . When children are named, they are never given the same names as others.[149]

Men traditionally wear loincloths and have their hair dressed properly for the first time at age 15–16. Women are also considered adults at the age of 15–16. They traditionally wear underclothes called mour[150] and have their hair dressed properly, with wound waistcloths called raunkut and ponkut around their bodies.[151] When women reached age 12–13, the lips, hands, and arms were traditionally tattooed. When they reached age 15–16, their tattoos would be completed, indicating their qualification for marriage.[145]

Ainu religion consists of a pantheistic animist structure, in which the world is founded on interactions between humans and Kamuy. Within all living beings, natural forces, and objects there is a Ramat (sacred life force) that is an extension of a greater Kamuy. Kamuy are gods or spirits that choose to visit the human world in temporary physical forms, both animate and inanimate, within the human world. Once the physical vessel dies or breaks, the Ramat returns to the Kamuy and leaves its physical form behind as a gift to the humans. If the humans treated the vessel and Kamuy with respect and gratitude, then the Kamuy would return out of delight for the human world. Due to this interaction, the Ainu lived with deep reverence for nature and all objects and phenomena in hopes that the Kamuy would return. The Ainu believed that the Kamuy granted objects, skills, and knowledge to utilize tools to humans, and thus deserve respect and worship. Daily practices included the moderation of hunting, gathering, and harvesting to not disturb the Kamuy. Often, the Ainu would make offerings of an Inau (sacred shaved stick), which usually consisted of whittled willow tree wood with decorative shavings still attached, and wine to the Kamuy. They also built sacred altars called Nusa (fence-like row of taller Inau decorated with bear skulls) separated from the main house and raised storehouses and often observed outdoor rituals.[161]

The Ainu people observed a ritual that would return Kamuy, a divine or spiritual being in Ainu mythology, to the spiritual realm. This Kamuy sending ritual was called Omante. A bear cub would be captured alive during hibernation and raised in the village as a child. Women would care for the cubs as if they were their children, sometimes even nursing them if needed. Once the bears reached maturity, they would hold another ritual every 5 to 10 years called Iomante (sometimes Iyomante). People from neighboring villages were invited to help celebrate this ritual, in which members of the village would send the bear back to the realm of spirits by gathering around it in a central area and using special ceremonial arrows to shoot it. Afterwards, they would eat the meat. However, in 1955 this ritual was outlawed as animal cruelty. In 2007, it became exempt due to its cultural significance to The Ainu people. The ritual has since been modified; it is now an annual festival. The festival begins at sundown with a torch parade. A play is then performed, and this is followed by music and dancing.[161][162][163]

Other rituals were performed for things such as food and illness. The Ainu had a ritual to welcome the salmon, praying for a big catch, and another to thank the salmon at the end of the season. There was also a ritual for warding off Kamuy that would bring epidemics, using strong-smelling herbs placed in doorways, windows, and gardens in order to turn away epidemic Kamuy. Similarly to many religions, the Ainu also gave prayers and offerings to their ancestors in the spirit world or afterlife. They would also pray to the fire Kamuy to deliver their offerings of broken snacks and fruit as well as tobacco(Ainu, Everyculture).

Traditional dances are performed at ceremonies and banquets. Dancing is a part of the newly organized cultural festivals, and it is even done privately in daily life. Ainu traditional dances often involve large circles of dancers, and sometimes there are onlookers that sing without musical instruments. In rituals these dances are intimate; they involve the calls and movements of animals and/or insects. Some, like the sword and bow dances, are rituals that were used to worship and give thanks for nature. This was to thank deities that they believed were in their surroundings. there was also a dance in Iomante that mimicked the movements of a living bear. However, some dances are improvised and meant just for entertainment. Overall Ainu traditional dancing reinforced their connection to nature, the religious world, and provided a link to other arctic cultures.[164]

Funerals included prayers & offerings to the fire kamuy, as well as verse laments expressing wishes for a smooth journey to the next world. The items that were to be buried with the dead were first broken or cracked to allow spirits to be released and travel to the afterlife together. Sometimes a burial would be followed by burning the residence of the dead. In the event of an unnatural death, there would be a speech raging against the gods.

In the afterlife, recognized ancestral spirits moved through and influenced the world, though neglected spirits would return to the living world and cause misfortune. Prosperity of family in the afterlife would depend on prayers and offerings left by living descendants; this often led to Ainu parents teaching their children to look after them in the afterlife (Ainu, Everyculture).

On 27 March, 1997, the Sapporo District Court decided a landmark case that, for the first time in Japanese history, recognized the right of the Ainu people to enjoy their distinct culture and traditions. The case arose because of a 1978 government plan to build two dams in the Saru River watershed in southern Hokkaidō. The dams were part of a series of development projects under the Second National Development Plan that were intended to industrialize the north of Japan.[170] The planned location for one of the dams was across the valley floor near Nibutani village,[171] the home of a large community of Ainu people and an important center of Ainu culture and history.[172] When the government commenced construction on the dam in the early 1980s, two Ainu landowners refused to agree to the expropriation of their property. These landowners were Kaizawa Tadashi and Kayano Shigeru—well-known and important leaders in the Ainu community.[173] After Kaizawa and Kayano declined to sell their land, the Hokkaidō Development Bureau applied for and was subsequently granted a Project Authorization, which required the men to vacate their land. When their appeal of the Authorization was denied, Kayano and Kaizawa's son Koichi (Kaizawa died in 1992) filed suit against the Hokkaidō Development Bureau.

The final decision denied the relief sought by the plaintiffs for pragmatic reasons (the dam was already in place), but the decision was nonetheless heralded as a landmark victory for the Ainu people. Nearly all of the plaintiffs' claims were recognized. Moreover, the decision marked the first time Japanese case law acknowledged the Ainu as an indigenous people and contemplated the responsibility of the Japanese nation to the indigenous people within its borders.[171]^: 442 The decision included broad fact-finding that underscored the long history of the oppression of the Ainu people by Japan's majority, referred to as wajin in the case and discussions about the case.[171][174] The decision was issued on March 27, 1997. Because of the broad implications for Ainu rights, the plaintiffs decided not to appeal the decision, which became final two weeks later. After the decision was issued, on 8 May, 1997, the Diet passed the Ainu Culture Law and repealed the Ainu Protection Act—the 1899 law that had been the vehicle of Ainu oppression for almost one hundred years.[175][176] While the Ainu Culture Law has been widely criticized for its shortcomings, the shift that it represents in Japan's view of the Ainu people is a testament to the importance of the Nibutani decision. In 2007, the 'Cultural Landscape along the Sarugawa River resulting from Ainu Tradition and Modern Settlement' was designated an Important Cultural Landscape of Japan.[177] A later action seeking restoration of Ainu assets held in trust by the Japanese Government was dismissed in 2008.[178]

There is no single government body to coordinate Ainu affairs. Rather, various advisory boards are set up by the Hokkaido government to advise on specific matters. One such committee operated in the late 1990s,[179] and its work resulted in the 1997 Ainu Culture Law.[175] This panel was criticized for including no Ainu members.[179]

In 2006, another panel was established, which notably included an Ainu member for the first time. It completed its work in 2008 issuing a major report that included an extensive historical record and called for substantial government policy changes towards the Ainu.[180]

On 21 January, 2012, the Ainu Party (アイヌ民族党, Ainu minzoku tō) was founded [181] after a group of Ainu activists in Hokkaidō had announced the formation of a political party for the Ainu on 30 October, 2011. The Ainu Association of Hokkaidō reported that Kayano Shiro, the son of the former Ainu leader Kayano Shigeru, would head the party. Their aim is to contribute to the realization of a multicultural and multiethnic society in Japan, along with rights for the Ainu.[182][183]

The "2019 Ainu act" simplified procedures for obtaining various permissions from authorities in regards to the traditional lifestyle of the Ainu and nurture the identity and cultures of the Ainu without defining the ethnic group by blood lineage.[184]

On 12 July, 2020, the National Ainu Museum was opened. It had originally been scheduled to open on 24 April, 2020, prior to the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games scheduled in the same year, in Shiraoi, Hokkaidō. The park was planned to be a base for the protection and promotion of Ainu people, culture, and language.[185] The museum promotes the culture and habits of the Ainu people who are the original inhabitants of Hokkaidō. Upopoy in Ainu language means "singing in a large group". The National Ainu Museum building has images and videos exhibiting the history and daily life of the Ainu.[186] The Ainu cultural contribution is also recognised by a UNESCO listing,[187] in consequence of a UNESCO decision to list non-physical cultural assets, including songs and dancing.

In July 2023, it was reported that a group of Ainu from Hokkaido was suing the government to reclaim the right of salmon river fishing. This has been outlawed for a century, except for an exemption of a limited number of salmon for ceremonial purposes. The group claimed the Japanese government did not abide by the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, which it had signed.[188]

These are unofficial sub groups of the Ainu people with location and population estimates.

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