Group items tagged

The Ainu usually hunted bear during the time of the spring thaw. At that time bears were weak because they had not fed at all during long hibernation.

The Ainu usually used arrows to hunt deer. Also they often used traps, including spring traps loaded with arrows. Furthermore they drove deer into the river or sea and shot them with arrows.When aiming at a large catch, a whole village would drive a herd of deer off a cliff and club them to death.

The Ainu hunted with arrows and spears whose points were coated with poison. The poison, called "surku," was obtained from the roots and stalks of aconites. The recipe for making this poison was a household secret, differing from family to family. To enhance the effect of the poison, roots and stalks of dog's bane boiled juice of Mekuragumo, Matsumomushi, tobacco, and other ingredients were mixed. Furthermore stingray's deadly poisonous stingers or skin covering stingers were used.

1400's The first contact with Japanese from main island and the Ainu engaged in peaceful trade with the Japanese 1457  The Battle of Kosyamain: 1669  The Battle of Syaksyain 1789  The Battle of Kunashiri-Menasi: Japanese succeeded to integrate the Northern island by defeating the Ainu for previous three battles 1869  Mass immigration of Japanese to Hokkaido started with the encouragement of the new western ideal government to develop the Hokkaido, Sakhalin and Kuril became under control of Russian 1871  Enactment of the registration; The Ainu became the common with prohibition of their traditional way of living and enforcement of use of Japanese 1878  The Ainu is given the status of former aborigines

The Colonization of Ainu Moshir Until the middle of the nineteenth century, "Ainu moshir" ["the land of the Ainu"] covered most of the island of Hokkaido, as well as the southern half of Sakhalin and the islands of the Kuril Archipelago (which are now part of the Russian Federation). Earlier, Ainu occupation had extended further south, into the main Japanese island of Honshu. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Ainu society felt the growing impact of the gradual northward expansion of the Japanese state. Japanese merchants established trading posts along the Hokkaido coastline; exchanging goods like rice and ironware for fish and seaweed, and for the Chinese brocades which Ainu traders bought from the Asian continent. Gradually, however, the Japanese presence became more intrusive, provoking several waves of armed resistance from the Ainu. The last major conflict, the Battle of Kunashir-Menash, took place in 1789. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, most Ainu people continued to speak their own language and maintain their own spiritual and material traditions, even though a growing number were persuaded or forced to work for Japanese-run fishing enterprises.

While asserting Japan's right to independent nationhood, Japanese scholars adopted notions of "progress" and "civilization" which defined the Ainu as "prehistoric hunter gatherers," destined either to extinction or to assimilation into the majority population. As in other parts of the world so too in Hokkaido, the land occupied by the original inhabitants was seen as "terra nullius" to be claimed by the state and distributed to colonial settlers. Ainu were required to adopt Japanese names and speak the Japanese language. Ainu communities were also often moved to remote areas to make room for new Japanese towns and villages. By the early 1880s, the Ainu population of Hokkaido, officially estimated at around 17,000, was already vastly outnumbered by a Japanese settler population of approximately 250,000. (It is worth observing though that given high levels of intermarriage, adoption, and social prejudice, official counts of the Ainu should always be treated with some caution.)

The Ainu, however, have never been passive victims of colonization. By the early twentieth century, a number of Ainu leaders were voicing resistance to the prejudice that they were experiencing in Japanese society. One of the more interesting instances of protest took place in 1927 when Kaizawa Hiranosuke, an Ainu villager from Nibutani, wrote to the government demanding the right for Ainu and other Indigenous people to be represented at the Congress of Asian Peoples in Nagasaki, an event being organized to promote Japan's status as a leader in the Asian struggle against colonialism.

It was not until the 1950s and 1960s that Ainu activists began to place growing emphasis on the maintenance or revival of disappearing craft skills, rituals, and modes of Indigenous knowledge.

Among them was Kayano Shigeru, who put together the large collection of Ainu artifacts now displayed in the Ainu Cultural Museum at Nibutani.

In 1987 Ainu representatives participated for the first time in the deliberations of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations. Interaction with Indigenous peoples worldwide gave encouragement to the Ainu cause, and promoted renewed debate amongst activists about issues such as Indigenous knowledge, resource rights and self-determination.

So began a prolonged campaign, which led to the passing of the 1997 Cultural Promotion Law.

So far, the law's most obvious result has been to focus attention on the fundamental question, "how and by whom is `Ainu cultural heritage' defined?" The whole notion of "cultural heritage," as embodied in the new law, implies notions of continuity rather than change, stability and order rather than conflict.

But as Ainu commentator Tahara Ryoko points out in a recent collection of essays on the new law, "Ainu culture is not limited to language or ceremonies or dance. It is Ainu life itself. Whatever happens every day within the household is Ainu culture."