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The Ainu of Japan: The History, Culture, and Discrimination Against this Aboriginal Group

© Andy Thomason

The Ainu (ì´n¡) are aborigines of Northern Japan. Estimates vary on the age of Ainu people and culture, but it reached its height in the 13th and 14th centuries. Today, it is close to extinction.

Centuries of oppression, racism, and forced assimilation policies have contributed to the annihilation of the Ainu culture. Modern socialization and the fear of marginalization has led recent generations to deny their Ainu identity. Urban Ainu in particular face problems of alcoholism, homelessness, and violence.

The Ainu People – Culture, Appearance, and Homeland

"Ainu" means "human." They live by hunting, fishing, farming, and selling crafts to tourists. They have an animistic spirituality that regards all things, including inanimate objects, imbued with life and spirit.

Ainu are heavily bearded and have thick wavy hair. Their mix of European and Asian physical traits contrasts so sharply from other indigenous peoples of Asia that their origin is uncertain. Some theories hold they are of Caucasian descent; others think their distinct features are a result of isolation that allowed them to remain racially unchanged.

The Japanese chronicles "Kojiki" and "Nihonsyoki" refer to them as descendants of an ancient people called Emishi. Today the term Ainu is used to denote the indigenous people of Hokkaido in Japan and Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, in Russia.

Spirituality, Death and Afterlife in Ainu Culture

The Ainu people regard death as the separation of soul and body. The body remains in this world and the soul goes to the other world where it is met by ancestors. The other world is underground, and a mirror image of this one, with the same structure but reversed space and time.

Souls stay in one world until they are ready to return to the other. Then they are reborn back into this world. All living creatures repeat this eternal shifting between the two worlds.

There is no distinction of Heaven and Hell, but the souls of extremely bad persons may be rejected by their ancestors. A shaman is summoned to convince the ancestors to accept the soul. Extraordinary attachments to or profound grudges against this world can cause the deceased to cling to strongly to this world. Again a shaman is called, to convince the recalcitrant soul to let go.

The Beginning of the Threat to Ainu Culture

The threat to Ainu culture began in earnest in the 15th century when Hokkaido came under the control of the Bakufu shogunate seeking to prevent Russian advances into Southern Japan. The shoganate instituted trade policies that favored the wajin (Japanese who emigrated to Hokkaido) and exploited the Ainu.

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