Ainu : spirit of a northern people

1. Ainu : spirit of a northern people

2. . L

3. Table of Contents

4. Table of Contents

5. A QUEER PEOPLE,

6. Making It Ainu

7. Transitions: Forests, Bears, and Modern Art

8. A New Beginning

9. The Northern Ice-Age Land Bridge

10. The Destruction of Hokkaido's Natural Resources

11. Honshu

12. Hokkaido-Sakhalin

13. The Paleolithic Period

14. The Mesolithic Period

15. The Neolithic Period:

16. Jomon Culture

17. Epi-Jomon Culture

18. inn

19. Modern Meaning of Ainu-e

20. The Movement Against the Protection Act

21. Historical Contacts: Drift Vessels

22. Bear and First-Salmon Ritual

23. -.

24. ■H

25. The Earliest Ainu Films

26. The Earliest Japanese Films

27. msi

28. Ainu Speak of Whales

29. Kotan

30. The Bear-Sending Ceremony

31. Bear-Sending Ceremonies and Ainu Culture

32. Types of Ainu Shamanism

33. 38/Life and Death

34. x t ? I

35. S1S1SI

36. Coiled Basketry

37. Twining

38. Coiled Basketry

39. ** $5

40. The Ainu Shinpo and the Nibutani Decision

41. Checklist of Artifacts Illustrated in this Volume

42. A

43. B

44. E

45. F

46. G

47. H

48. K

49. L

50. P

51. R

52. ..

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Ainu : spirit of a northern people

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Contents

Preface

Introduction

PART I

Theories of Ainu Origins

PART II

Historic

Period

PART III

Ainu "Discovery": Collectors, Museums, and the Public

J

0

e

PART IV

Ainu Mosir : Land, Spirits, and Culture

Jiro Sasamura, Ainu Association of Hokkaido /7 Shigeru Kayano, Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum /7

Ainu Ethnicity: A History /9 William W. Fitzhugh, Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian Institution

1. Ainu Origin Theories /29

S. A. Arutiunov, Institute of Ethnology, Moscow

2. Ainu Homelands: Natural History from Ice Age to Modern Times /32 Yugo Ono, Hokkaido University

3. Prehistoric Hokkaido and Ainu Origins /39

Kiyoshi Yamaura, Rikkyo University, and Hiroshi Ushiro, Historical Museum of Hokkaido 4 Ainu Ties with Ancient Cultures of Northeast Asia /47 Toshihiko Kikuchi, Hokkaido University

5. Ancient People of the North Pacific Rim: Ainu Biological Relationships with Their Neighbors /52 Hajime Ishida, University of the Ryukyus 6 Ainu Language: Features and Relationships /57 Suzuko Tamura, Waseda University

7. Ainu History: An Overview /67 Richard Siddle, University of Sheffield

8 Early Ainu Contacts with the Japanese /74 Isao Kikuchi, Miyagi Gakuin Women's College

9 Ainu-e: A Historical Review /79 Toshikazu Sasaki, Tokyo National Museum

10. Trading Brokers and Partners with China, Russia, and Japan /86 Shiro Sasaki, National Museum of Ethnology 1 1. Tourism, Assimilation, and Ainu Survival Today/92 Kazuyoshi Ohtsuka, National Museum of Ethnology 12. The Ainu and the Early Modern Japanese State, I 600-1 868 /96 David L. Howell, Princeton University 1 3. Foreign Contagions, Ainu Medical Culture and Conquest /102 Brett L. Walker, Yale University

14. From Assimilation to Indigenous Rights: Ainu Resistance Since 1869 /108 Richard Siddle, University of Sheffield

15. Ainu and Northwest Coast Peoples: A Comparison /I 16

Motomichi Kono, independent researcher, and William W, Fitzhugh, Smithsonian Institution

16. The European Image of the Ainu as Reflected in Museum Collections /125 Josef Kreiner, University of Bonn

17. The St. Petersburg Ainu Collections /132 Shinko Ogihara, Chiba University

18. Ainu Collections in North America: Documentation Projects and the Frederick Starr Collections /1 36 Yoshinobu Kotani, Nagoya University

19. Romyn Hitchcock and the Smithsonian Ainu Collection /148 Chang-su Houchins, Smithsonian Institution

20. Batchelor, Starr, and Culin: The Brooklyn Museum of Art Collection /155 Amy Poster, The Brooklyn Museum of Art

21. An Enthusiastic Quest: Hiram Hiller and Jenichiro Oyabe in Hokkaido, 1901 /162 Adria H. Katz, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

22. From Snowshoe to "Corn Mortars": Early Ainu Collections at the American Museum of Natural History /168 Laurel Kendall, American Museum of Natural Histoiy

23. Japanese Ainu Collections/176

Nobukatsu Aoyagi, Asahikawa City Museum, and Koji Deriha, Historical Aluseum of Hokkaido

24. The Ainu Museum Foundation/183 Shigeki Akino, The Ainu Museum at Shiraoi

25. The Ainu in Ethnographic Films /1 87 Kazuo Okada, Tokyo Cinema Shinsha

26. Kamuy. Gods You Can Argue With /193 Hisakazu Fujimura, Hokkai Gakuin College

27. The Ainu Ecosystem /198 Hitoshi Watanabe, University of Tokyo

28 Foods of Choice /202

Toshihiro Kohara, Hokkaido Ainu Culture Research Center

( ,.n. • ,

PART V

Even Without a Word for Art...

PART VI

Ainu Present and Future

29. Technology, Settlement and Hunting Rituals /208 Hans Dieter Olschleger, University of Bonn

30. The Ainu on Whales and Whaling /222

Masami Iwasaki-Coodman, Hokkai Gakuin College and Masahiro Nomoto, The Ainu Museum at Sbii 3 1 Home and Settlement: Cbise and Kotan /227 Masahiro Nomoto, The Ainu Museum at Shiraoi

32. Village Work: Seasons and Gender Roles /234 Mitsunori Keira and Tomoko Keira, Yay Yukar Park

33. Ainu Sociality/240

Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, University of Wisconsin-Madison

34. Ainu Children's Play /246

Miyuki Muraki, The Ainu Museum at Shiraoi

35. Spirit-Sending Ceremonies /248 Shigeki Akino, The Ainu Museum at Shiraoi

36. The Archaeology of lyomante /256 Hiroshi Utagawa, University of Tokyo

37. Ainu Shamanism /261

Kan Wada, Otaru University of Commerce, edited by Igor Krupnik, Smithsonian Institution

38. Life and Death /268

Hisakazu Fujimura, Hokkai Gakuin College

39. Mythology and Animal Tales /274 Shinko Ogihara, Chiba University

40. Yukar: Epics of Heroes /278 Mie Oginaka, independent researcher

41 To Live is to Sing /282

Kazuyuki Tanimoto, Hokkaido Ainu Culture Research Center

42. Ainu Art: The Beginnings of Tradition /287 Chisato O. Dubreuil, Smithsonian Institution

43. Saranip and Tenki. Ainu Basketry and North Pacific Affinities /301

Nelson Graburn, University of California, and Molly Lee, University of Alaska-Fairbanks

44. A Personal Rebirth through Traditional Ainu Basketry/309 Nobuko Tsuda, Ainu Association of Hokkaido

45. Clothing and Ornamentation /31 3

Mari Kodama, The Ainu Museum at Shiraoi and Hakodate City Museum

46. Ikupasuy: It's Not a Mustache Lifter! /327

Fosco Maraini, ethnologist, edited by David Dubreuil, Smithsonian Institution

47. Ainu Journey: From Tourist Art to Fine Arts /335 Chisato O. Dubreuil, Smithsonian Institution

48. Shishirimuka: A Saru River Tale / 355 Koichi Kaizawa, Farmer and Ainu Cultural Leader

49. Ainu in the International Arena /359 Kelly L. Dietz, Cornell University

50. The Ainu Shinpo: A New Beginning /366 Teruki Fsunemoto, Hokkaido University

51 Beyond the Ainu Shinpo: An Ainu View /369 Jiro Sasamura, Ainu Association of Hokkaido

52. Ainu Language: Present and Future /371 Hiroshi Nakagawa, Chiba University

53. Itaomachip. Reviving a Boat-Building and TradingTradition /374 Kazuyoshi Ohtsuka, National Museum of Ethnology

54 The Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum /377 Hideki Yoneda, Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum 55. The Heart Fuchi Conveyed /379 Tomoko Keira, Yay Yukar Park

Checklist of Artifacts Illustrated in This Volume /382

List of Illustrations /389

Bibliography /393

Credits /405

Acknowledgments /407

Index/410

Preface

O N BEHALF OF THE Ainu, the indigenous people of Japan, I would like to express gratitude to the people who have visited and will visit the exhibition.

We, the Ainu, have lived in the northern part of the Japanese islands—from northern Tohoku on Honshu and Hokkaido to Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands—since ancient times. We spoke the Ainu language, which is completely different from the Japanese language, and have cultivated our own distinctive culture. In early times our ancestors nurtured our culture through a strong respect for, and interaction with, the environment, and through trading with the Chinese, Koreans, and Russians, the northern indigenous peoples of Asia and Alaska, and of course with the Yamato race (ancestors of the majority of Japanese today).

Although we had many disputes with the Japanese goverment in the past, it is time to look forward. Today we mainly live in Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island. While surveys conducted by the Hokkaido government put the Ainu population at 24,000, there are several tens of thousands of Ainu who don't claim to be Ainu because of the fear of discrimination, or who were not included in the government survey because they live in other parts of Japan.

Many Ainu have been economically disadvantaged due to our ethnic and social background. Today, however, many Ainu have begun to feel pride and confidence in their cultural identity. Like the Indians of North America, we are trying to preserve and gain respect for our traditional culture and to achieve social and economic independence.

The purpose of this exhibition is to present excellent Ainu ethnographic collections from the various museums of North America. The exhibition will also present the revived oceangoing itaomachip, the canoe Ainu used for trading, and the Ainu house, chi se, which was the scene of many spiritual rituals, including the most important Ainu ceremony, the sacred iyomante (bear-sending ceremony). Although many aspects of Ainu traditional life, ceremony, and spiritual culture are described, the reader should understand that this is not dead culture,- contemporary Ainu art is therefore featured to demonstrate the creative strength of the Ainu spirit as an indicator of a "living" culture. We hope museum visitors and readers of this volume from all over the world will enjoy and understand the Ainu voices of the past, present, and future.

JlRO S AS AM LIRA

Executive Director, Ainu Association of Hokkaido

I WAS BORN in a country of the Ainu—Nibutani Village, which is the basin of the Shishirimuka. I had parents whose names were: Arekainu (father) and Hatsume (mother). As it happens, the exhibition will be held in the far away country. 1 am very honored and thankful that I will be able to send my words to the exhibition. 1 also wish and pray that your exhibition will be successful, without any accidents, and will bring you to a successful conclusion.

yaykurekarapa

kani anakne ainu mosir itak=an yakka Sisirmuka petruoroke pipaus kotan

koapamaka p ku = ne ruwe ne. ona ku = nu wa Arekainu unu ku=nu wa Hatsume sekor

rekorpa utar ne a ruwe ne. kunine ne wa tuyma mosir ta an marapto

kurkasike un koytakeciw ku=ki easkay hi ramossi wano ku=yairayke kor

Shigeru Kayano

Director, Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum

m

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iCUEa

1

1

Ainu

Ethnicity:

A History

William W. Fitzhugh

1.1 Man and Woman of Shari

The Smithsonian's Romyn Hitchcock was one of the first Westerners to conduct ethnographic research among the Ainu, whom he visited in 1888. In addition to acquiring contemporary artifacts, linguistic data, folklore, and historical information, he conducted archaeological excavations and made a photographic record of Ainu people in the Kuriles and Hokkaido. He photographed this elderly couple outside their home in Shari, Hokkaido. (NAA 28-380)

1.2 Blessing Ritual

In the past Ainu traveled throughout their corner of the world as traders, and in the modern era Ainu people have joined other indigenous peoples far from their homelands in northern Japan to educate the world community about their ancient traditions. Here, Masahiro Nomoto, David Dubreuil, and Chisato Dubreuil conduct a ceremony to the god of the tree through Fuchi, the fire goddess. They blessed with inaw and sake a yellow cedar log Nomoto used to build a boat for this exhibition.

< ISHU RETSUZO (PORTRAITS OF EZO

Chieftains)

Hakyo Kakizaki, a member of the Matsumae clan that ruled Hokkaido as a fiefdom of the Tokugawa regime, began painting portraits of Ainu chieftains in 1783. The first to be completed was a portrait of Tobu (fig. 9.6). Kakizaki’s portraits are among the finest works in the Ainu-e genre, technically and artistically. The Ainu they depict are dressed in silk robes imported from the Asian continent and have a near-regal demeanor and attitude of authority. Some scholars (Takakura 1960:10) have questioned the authenticity of these images as accurate depictions of eighteenth-century Ainu leaders, noting that the twelve chiefs who are depicted had been loyal supporters of the Matsumae during the Ainu revolt of 1789; they surmise that the paintings and the garments the chieftains wear were a reward for their loyalty. (Y. and M. Kitao Collection)

T HE NATIVE PEOPLE OF NORTHERN JAPAN (who also formerly inhabited the Kurile Islands, southern Sakhalin, and part of northern Honshu) call themselves "Ainu," meaning "people" or "humans" in their language. Today Hokkaido remains the only homeland of the Ainu people, most of whom live in small villages scattered in different areas of this island. The size of the current Ainu population lies somewhere between 25,000 and 50,000, with the lower figure representing the census count of those who identify themselves as Ainu. The discrepancy reflects the feeling of many Ainu that they must conceal their ethnic identity to escape discrimination and social stigma. Although this gulf of discrimination is slowly closing, Ainu children continue to be harassed by their Japanese classmates, and discrimination exists in many other areas of social and professional life,- for these reasons, throughout this century many Ainu parents have not revealed their ethnic identity even to their children.

Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People is an effort to broaden understanding about Ainu history, culture, and contemporary life in North America and among English-language readers. Most people in North America and Europe today are ignorant of Ainu history or culture. Few of the public visitors to the Smithsonian we surveyed about the Ainu knew anything about this culture and its people. Those who volunteered information mostly misidentified Ainu as American Indians or Eskimos or thought they were extinct. Most who recognize the word "Ainu" knew it only as a four-letter answer to the popular crossword puzzle clue, "a northern native people of Japan." The causes of ignorance are many,- they include a lack of English-language literature, the absence of museum presentations and exhibitions, a paucity of Ainu scholars outside Japan, and infrequent European and American visita

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i.i

tion to Hokkaido. This exhibition and book

seek to redress the lack of information by presenting a traveling exhibition together with an illustrated compendium on Ainu history, culture, arts, and modern affairs. We have been motivated especially by the fact that, due to Ainu efforts and political and social changes in Japan, Ainu culture is beginning to experience transformation and renewal,- as it emerges from this painful period, it heeds to be recognized for its historical tenacity, for the beauty of its art and literature, and for the important message that its religion and philosophy, which call for spiritual balance between humans and nature, bring to the wider world at a critical moment in human history (fig 1.2).

In 1868, a year after the United States purchased Alaska from Russia, a political upheaval in Japan brought to power a progressive government known as the Meiji Restoration. Modernization was a major goal of the new administration, and one of its first acts was to give Ezo, Japan's large, undeveloped northern island a new name, Hokkaido. Access to Ezo had previously been controlled by the Japanese Matsumae clan, under charter from the Tokugawa Shogunate. With the Meiji Restoration, control reverted to Tokyo,- foreigners were permitted entry,- and Japanese citizens were encouraged to emigrate to exploit Hokkaido's natural resources. The resulting northern land rush flooded the island with newcomers and brought a new way of life to a huge territory that until then—except for the Matsumae enclave and a few Japanese fishing stations—had been the sole province of the native Ainu people (fig. LI). The Meiji government and most Japanese immigrants saw Ainu adherence to their traditional life as an obstacle to progress, and policies were instituted to force

1.3 Traditional and Modern Ainu Territories

Like many other indigenous peoples around the world, the Ainu lost lands, resources, and independence to larger nations that absorbed them. This map shows changes to Ainu territories between 1400 and 1945: parts of northern Honshu were lost to Japanese expansion, while the Kurile Islands and southern Sakhalin were lost to Russia. Hokkaido, with a population of between 25,000 and 50,000 Ainu, is the only remaining homeland for Ainu people today.

rapid Japanese colonization and "civilize" the Ainu. Within a few years most Ainu lands, resources, and native rights had been taken away, and in 1899 these actions were codified in a "protection act" whose actual intent was to terminate Ainu culture and force assimilation into Japanese society (Siddle 1996).

Meiji policies brought a harsh new reality to Ainu life, which had already suffered three hundred years of military defeat, territorial loss, political and economic subjugation, and social discrimination at the hands of Russians and Japanese. Nevertheless, despite these losses, Ainu people and culture survived the twentieth century and in 1997 were rewarded by the passage of a new piece of legislation, the Ainu Shinpo, which for the first time provided positive support for Ainu culture and language.

Geography

In the nineteenth century, before Ainu territories began to be absorbed by Russia and Japan, Ainu mosir (the world of humans) comprised a huge territory stretching from central Sakhalin Island and the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula to the northern Tohoku region in northern Honshu, and the Ainu population must have been considerable (fig. 1.3). Although scholars have described the Ainu as having a single language and culture, the Ainu before 1850 occupied such different ecological habitats and had such varied adaptations and linguistic dialects (Hattori 1964,- Nakano and Kobayashi 1967, Kodama 1972,- Ohnuki-Tierney 1976a) that they were essentially three distinct territorial subcultures or cultures. Among the Ainu living in Hokkaido today, this variation has

INTRODUCTION / W. FITZHUCH

1.4 Villagers of Shikotan,

Kurile Islands

Kurile Islanders were successful maritime hunters and traders who ranged between Hokkaido and Kamchatka. After the Treaty of St. Petersburg settled claims between Japan and Russia by giving the Kuriles to Japan and Sakhalin to Russia, the northern Kurile Ainu were resettled in the southern Kuriles, and Sakhalin Ainu were removed to Hokkaido. The final blow came in 1945 when the Soviet Union took the Kuriles and expelled its remaining Ainu population as well as the returned refugees who had moved back to Sakhalin from Hokkaido. (NAA 72-9183)

contributed to marked contrasts in speech, vocabulary, oral history, artifact styles, and ceremonial life (as well as politics), for in addition to regional divisions among Hokkaido Ainu one also finds the descendants of Kurile and Sakhalin Ainu. Despite these differences, all Ainu living in Hokkaido are participating in a lively cultural renaissance.

Formerly Ainu occupied all of the islands in the Kurile chain, where they lived as maritime hunters and fishermen in sod-covered pithouses until 1875 when the northern Kurile (Chishima) islanders were resettled in Shikotan (Hitchcock 1891a, Landor 1 893,• Takakura 1955,- Siddle 1996 and this volume) after the Kuriles were obtained by Japan from Russia in exchange for Sakhalin (fig. 1.4). Although the Kurile Ainu had a small, dispersed population, they occupied a vast region and shifted seasonally between winter villages on the larger islands and summer hunting and fishing camps on the smaller islands. Because the central and northern Kuriles lacked wood, Kurile Ainu traded sea

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mammal hides and thong, falcon feathers, and other maritime products with Hokkaido and Sakhalin Ainu and Japanese traders in exchange for forest and industrial products from Japan and Manchuria. Like the Aleuts, who inhabited the Alaskan Island chain that now carries their name and who suffered drastic population losses at the hands of Russian traders in such maritime products as sea otter pelts, Kurile Ainu also lost population and territory to Russian and Japanese intruders intent on the lucrative sea otter trade. When Russia took the southern Kuriles in 1945, the remaining Kurile Ainu were resettled in Eastern Hokkaido and the unique aspects of their social and cultural identity were gradually subsumed within the Ainu traditions of northeastern Hokkaido.

The Sakhalin Ainu (fig. 1.5) also once had an extensive territorial base. Early in the historical era they occupied much of the island of Sakhalin, but by the nineteenth century Ainu villages were found primarily in southern Sakhalin (Ohnuki-Tierney 1974, 1976a). The

1.5 Ainu of Sakhalin

Living near the border between Japan, Russia, and Manchuria (China), Sakhalin Ainu have had a tumultuous history. They shared Sakhalin with Nivkhi and Orok, traded with mainland Oroch and Ui’ta, and used their intermediate position between the continent and the Japanese islands to their advantage. Their culture and physical type reflects Siberian influence and Okhotsk heritage. (NAA 98-10370)

Sakhalin Ainu were considerably influenced by the Manchurian-dominated cultures of the lower Amur River and by the Russians (fig. 1.6). Their houses were log constructions,- they had greater access to manufactured materials from the continent than did Hokkaido and Kurile Ainu,- and their subsistence and spiritual beliefs, reflecting boreal forest conditions and traditions, were more like those of Siberian peoples than of Hokkaido Ainu. In 1945 the Sakhalin Ainu were forced from southern Sakhalin by the Russians and were resettled in Hokkaido.

The Hokkaido Ainu, whose population of about 15,000 represented less than 7 percent of the total number of people, 226,200, living in Hokkaido in 1888 (Hitchcock 1891b), were the largest of the Ainu subgroups. Great diversity marked the Ainu populations within this region, in part because each group responded to extremely different environmental conditions, and in part due to varying influences of Japan in southern Hokkaido and continental influences in northern Hokkaido. Environmental gradients

Crossroads of Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska (Fitzhugh and Crowell 1988,- see also Fitzhugh and Chaussonnet 1994,- Chaussonnet 1995) explored similarities and differences in the history, culture, and art of native groups living around the northern rim of the Pacific and adjacent Bering and Chukchi Seas (fig. 1.7). Of these northern cultures, one—the Ainu—was excluded for political reasons: Crossroads was organized under a bilateral arrangement with the Soviet Union, which did not want its political history involving the seizure of the Kuriles and southern Sakhalin and the expulsion of Ainu peoples aired broadly to the public. Crossroads proceeded, but the absence of the Ainu left a conspicuous gap in our roster of North Pacific peoples.

Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People corrects this omission. Our work has grown out of an eightyear collaboration that began in 1990 with discussions between curators in American museums and a team of Japanese scholars, organized by Yoshinobu Kotani, who were inventorying American Ainu objects and archival documents.

1.6 Sea-Lion Hunters of Moneron Island, Sakhalin

In addition to hunting and fishing in the interior of the islands they inhabited, Ainu hunted sea mammals until such productive enterprises were prohibited by the Japanese in order to reserve these resources for themselves. Oral history suggests that early Ainu hunted whales, seals, and sea lions with floats and toggling harpoons similar to those of Eskimo technology. Sea-mammai products like thong (hide rope), oil, and dried meat were valuable trade commodities. Stomachs (seen drying here) were often used as containers to store renderered fat. (NAA 98-10364)

here were extreme: arctic sea ice and northern sea mammals are present in winter on Hokkaido's Sea of Okhotsk coast, whereas temperate ocean conditions and swordfish are found on its Pacific and southern coasts (Nakano and Kobayashi 1967,Ohnuki-Tierney 1976a,- Ono, this volume). Their homelands in Hokkaido offered inhabitants a diverse coastal ecology of long sandy beaches, salmon rivers, and lowland and highland forests with temperate and boreal tree species and many different types of flora and fauna. By comparison with the Kuriles and Sakhalin, Hokkaido was a continent unto itself. Its proximity to Honshu, Sakhalin, and the Maritime Territory of the Amur offered even more resources, although acquiring them required delicate negotiations with powerful neighbors.

A Celebration of Ainu Culture

In 1988 the National Museum of Natural History opened a special exhibition featuring the traditional cultures of the North Pacific region from Vancouver Island to the Amur River and Sakhalin.

During this multiyear survey, which eventually identified more than 3,200 Ainu specimens in North America (Kotani, this volume), curators of several museums holding the largest collections, including the American Museum of Natural History, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the University of Pennsylvania Museum, and the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, decided to cooperate on an exhibition that would highlight these "rediscovered" Ainu collections.

The idea of a special Ainu exhibition in North America was an exciting prospect for many reasons. First, there was the beauty of Ainu material culture, whose distinctive and unique styles incorporated elements of Japanese and Asian Amur River traditions. Our interest was also sparked by the fact that the North American collections had never been viewed or studied as a corpus from which to draw broader understandings about Ainu history, culture, and art. For reasons peculiar to Ainu studies in North America, none of these collections, except for the Smithsonian's, had been published

i.7 Native Peoples of the Greater North Pacific

Despite differences in culture and history, peoples and cultures of the greater North Pacific region have more in common with each other than with the cultures and peoples of adjoining regions to the south.

1.8 Ainu Documentation Team Japanese and Ainu scholars inventoried Ainu collections in North America during the early 1990s, discovering more than 3,200 specimens. An earlier survey in Europe revealed 5,700 objects. With recent inventories in Russia, the total tally outside Japan is more than 13,000, which is about one-third the number of Ainu specimens held by Japanese museums. Here the team inspects Romyn Hitchcock’s Ainu collection of 1888 at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

scientifically and none had been used for a major exhibition. Only a few of the two dozen collections unearthed by the Japanese Ainu Collection Documentation Project had ever been taken out of their storage cabinets, and none, as of 1990, had received conservation treatment.

There were other important reasons for doing an Ainu show. Although European and North American inventory projects had produced new scholarly information (see edited volumes, Kreiner 1993, 1996) and, in Europe and Japan, three exhibitions (Kreiner and Olschleger 1987,- Ohtsuka 1993; Munro 1994), North Americans knew almost nothing about the Ainu. Gathering a team of Japanese and American scholars and museum curators, we quickly began to see the exhibition as more than a display of old Ainu collections and archival materials,- rather, we thought it important to present the unexhibited traditional collections in the broader context of Ainu history, archaeology, traditional ethnology, modern life, and arts with an emphasis on Ainu culture as a living tradition. The American team was especially interested in having Ainu people participate in the curatorial work. Fortunately, Chisato Dubreuil, a woman of Ainu ancestry who had recently com

pleted a master's degree in native art history at the University of Washington in Seattle, joined the project. Chisato had a deep interest in Ainu culture and knew many Ainu cultural leaders and artists in Japan. In addition to her background and Ainu community contacts, she brought expertise in modern Ainu art. With her assistance we were able to reconnect the museum objects with modern Ainu art and the living tradition of Ainu people today.

In the fall of 1995 Chisato joined our project as coordinator (later to become co-curator) together with her husband, David Dubreuil, an American Indian (Mohawk/FJuron) who became our project manager, fund-raiser, and advisor, and we began communicating with Ainu organizations and communities in Hokkaido and discussing the project directly with Ainu artists and cultural leaders. As our work progressed, the advice of Ainu civic, cultural, and artistic leaders added an important new dimension to the views of Japanese, American, and European scholars on the project team, and many of them contributed important chapters to this book.

Presentation

Over the course of two years during which the curatorial team inspected collections in Washington, Philadelphia, New York, and Brooklyn, and held seminars and workshops with Ainu experts (fig. 1.8), the concept of ethnicity emerged as the intellectual core of the project. In the early stages of our work, as we pored over the beautiful but dusty remnants of Ainu tradition in museums, "ethnicity" seemed a fairly academic issue, but once Chisato and David Dubreuil and the Ainu community became involved in the process, the living tradition of Ainu art and culture enlivened our study and gave a broader purpose to what had previously been an esoteric enterprise. Suddenly the meaning of the objects and archival materials was transformed from "specimen" into "treasure," from nameless photographic images into someone's grandmother or grandfather, and

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1.9, 1.10 AiNU Design Ainu express their unique cultural lineage in their distinctive implements, clothing, and art. The language of Ainu design is understood as “Ainu" because its motifs follow an Ainu design grammar. Similarities in the design system are seen in this carved wooden platter, collected by General Horace Capron in 1875 whife on a U.S. development mission in Hokkaido, and a detail from a retarpe (nettle-fiber) robe. (NMNH 19415; BMA 12.690)

the show took on a living dimension. The "unknown" North American collections began to reconnect with their Hokkaido past. We became something more than curators inquiring into a remote culture and began to understand how these materials could contribute to the Ainu cultural renewal underway in Japan.

In time, the concept of ethnicity as it relates to "Ainu-ness" at different periods in history and from different thematic perspectives became the organizing principle behind Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People. Unlike other past exhibitions that have emphasized spiritualism or diversity, the central theme in Ainu is the development and expression of a culture's identity over centuries of time. The book presentation combines scholarly essays and Ainu community views illustrated by museum collections and informed by archival materials, including ethnographic photographs and historical illustrations of the Ainu painted by Japanese art

ists ( Aimi-e ). The material is organized along two different dimensions: informational (or thematic) perspectives and chronological horizons. On one hand the question "What is Ainu?" explores Ainu ethnicity through the perspectives of anthropology, geography, history, spiritualism, art, and community life. The question "How has being Ainu changed?" explores Ainu ethnicity as it has evolved through a sequence of chronological or historical "horizons" recognizable in archaeology, history, traditional ethnology, and contemporary life. It is difficult enough to organize a book in two dimensions, but we also ask the reader to consider the data provided here in a third dimension—space—because historically the Ainu have had diverse origins and great regional variation.

Fifty-five articles organized in six sections present an overview of the evolving Ainu tradition, raising questions and summarizing the current state of knowledge about each topic. Part I (chapters 1-6) includes essays on anthropological theories about Ainu origins, historical geography and environment, biological theories and relationships, and linguistics. Part II (chapters 7-15) discusses the history of Ainu culture and its relationship with the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Ainu's northern trading partners as seen in historical records and Ainu-e illustrations painted over a several-hundredyear period (fig.1.1 1). Part III (chapters 16—25) provides a view of Ainu as they were perceived by museum collectors and anthropologists, who preserved Ainu material culture and photographic images in museum collections in Europe, Russia, North America, and Japan (fig. 1.12). Part IV (chapters 26-41) is an ethnographic outline summarizing the Ainu belief system, including the ritual sending ceremonies and shamanism, as well as aspects of its lifeways—the technologies of hunting, fishing, and procuring food—and its forms of performance art ( yukar [epic stories], song, and dance). Part V (chapters 42—47) is devoted to Ainu arts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—notably textiles, basketry, woodcarving, and modern art. Part VI (chapters 48-55) takes up issues of contemporary social, political, and cultural change,- chronicles changing relations between the Ainu and the modern Japanese state,- and includes personal statements by Ainu cultural leaders.

The "Ainu Enigma”

Other than a lack of specific knowledge of the Ainu, our informal survey of visitor attitudes revealed something else about this cross-section of our museum public: those visitors who knew something about the Ainu spoke about bear festivals and racial origins. Museum curators a century ago had been lured to Hokkaido

L12 Prayer Stick

Ainu men used a prayer stick ( ikupasuy) in rituals for the gods. Early observers often referred to these sacred objects as "mustache lifters" because the Ainu also used them to hold up their long mustaches when drinking sake during these rituals. This ikupasuy decorated with five flying birds was collected by Benjamin Smith Lyman, an American geologist dispatched to Hokkaido from the University of Massachusetts between 1871 and 1881 to help develop Hokkaido's mineral resources. (NMNH 22261)

1.11 Bringing the Bear to Iyomante

Ainu-e, literally "Ainu illustrations,” are a major source of information about early Ainu life and customs. Some, dating as early as the thirteenth century, depict people who can be recognized ethnically as Ainu. Most Ainu-e were painted in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such as this illustration from Scenes from Ezo Island by Teiryo Kodama showing Ainu exercising the bear before the iyomante ceremony. While its style is lively and the image depicts Ainu clothing relatively accurately, negative Japanese attitudes toward the Ainu are clearly conveyed by the use of such stylistic features as bulging eyes, hirsute bodies, and somewhat simian features. (HML)

by similar fascinations. The "Ainu enigma" had been a popular scholarly puzzle that tantalized nineteenth-century explorers, museum collectors, and anthropologists researching the origin and spread of human "races."

Europeans have had a long history of interest in the Ainu, beginning with Dutch and Jesuit contacts in the Dejima (Nagasaki) trade entrepot in the seventeenth century and continuing with the early nineteenth-century work of Europe's premier (and first) Japanologist, Philipp von Siebold, whose multivolume opus, Nippon, brought knowledge of Japan to the Western world for the first time (Kreiner 1993 and this volume). After Commodore Matthew Perry, with his I 854 visit, forced the Japanese to lift their exclusionary ban on foreign travel within their archipelago, Europeans and Americans began to visit Hokkaido, both as tourists and for official reasons. They discovered the native Ainu culture in drastic decline and were convinced that the Ainu would not survive more

about the Ainu's striking dress, elaborate ceremonial life, and unusual physical appearance sparked the interest of American scholars and museum directors. The long flowing beards, hirsute bodies, large stature, deep-set eyes, facial features (which most foreigners thought resembled Caucasoids more than Mongoloids), and striking lip tattoos worn by women made Ainu appear very different from other Asian populations. Although it is unclear where the idea originated, by 1868 Albert Bickmore, President of the American Museum of Natural History, was in the habit of commenting on the bearded "Aryan appearance" of the Ainu, and in the decades before 1900 this idea had become a major focus of public interest in the Ainu (Bickmore 1868,- Baelz 1900,Arutiunov, Ishida, this volume). Earlier the romantic European notion of the Ainu as the representative of the "noble savage," more so even than the American Indian, had captured public imagination. For the next four decades, most of the large natural history museums in eastern

than a few decades. This view was also held by the Japanese, whose official policies were directed to hasten assimilation (Hitchcock 1891b: 433). The views of these visitors reflected their awareness, and sometimes their experience, of Indian cultures of the American West, which were also thought to be on the verge of extinction. Among the early visitors to the Ainu was the intrepid Englishwoman Isabella Bird, who wrote a book about her 1878 experiences (Bird 1881,Dubreuil, this volume). Others came during the 1870s as representatives of the United States government, which had pledged technical assistance to the new Meiji government for the development of Hokkaido's natural resources (Kotani, this volume).

Reports by these travelers and officials

North America sent collectors to Hokkaido to gather Ainu objects, study its culture and population, and make photographic records of this "peculiar" people (figs. 1.13,1.14).

To Western eyes the exotic nature of the Ainu was reinforced by their many curious customs and beliefs. Their practice of capturing, raising, and killing bears for ceremonial purposes before sending their spirits home to the god world with gifts and prayers seemed brutal to those who did not understand its religious meaning,- their most sacred artifacts, ikupasuy (fig. 1.12), were insensitively labeled "mustachelifters",- their technology was described as among the most "primitive" in the world (Hitchcock 1891b: 432),- and to top it off, early anthropologists tended to see the Ainu as an ob

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collected for the Smithsonian in 1888, spoke for many holding these views:

Formerly, it is said, the Ainos [sic] were subject to a powerful and wealthy chief, who lived at Piratori and received tribute from all the Ainos in the land. This is related by the Ainos themselves. . . They number among their household treasures old Japanese swords and curios, which have been handed down from past generations. They now use Japanese knives instead of stone implements and metal arrow-heads in place of flint. But it is scarcely a century since they emerged from the stone age, and otherwise they have not passed beyond it.

We have here a remarkable instance of the close association of two distinct races, one superior and powerful, the other degraded and weak, working together day by day, living in contiguous villages, intermarrying more or less, and yet, after a century of such intimacy, as distinct in their character, habits of life, superstitions and beliefs as though they had never come together. The Aino has not so much as learned to make a reputable bow and arrow, although in the past he has had to meet the Japanese, who are famous archers, in many battles. It is a most remarkable example of the persistence of distinct types together, when the conditions are apparently favorable for the absorption of

1.13 Ainu and the “Caucasoid Hypothesis”

This Ainu elder, dressed in a ceremonial robe with a woven sword carrier over his shoulder and wearing a headdress decorated with wood shavings (inaw-kike), epitomizes the image of the “Caucasoid” race that was promoted when Europeans first gained access to the Ainu. Although scholars no longer claim Aryan ancestry for the Ainu, their biological history is still elusive and differs from that of recent Mongoloids like Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese. Most specialists now believe the Ainu are a remnant of an ancient Paleo-Asian population that occupied parts of the Japanese archipelago before the ethnic population now dominant in Japan arrived.

1.14 A Queer People

On 15 March 1890, with this quizzical title the Washington Evening Star announced the opening of a Smithsonian Ainu exhibit based on Hitchcock’s 1888 collections. In those days, racial and cultural differences fascinated the American public and were trumped up in the media, which sensationalized anthropological “discoveries.”

ject of geographic curiosity—"an island of Caucasoids in a sea of Mongoloids" (Fdarrison 1954: 278) — rather than as a culture worthy of respect on its own terms. All of these views, including those of well-informed local observers like John Batchelor, who lived almost sixty years with the Ainu (Batchelor 1892), are now recognized as being based on superficial or flawed anthropological reasoning.

Few of these collectors were trained in ethnology or anthropology, which were embryonic sciences until the late 1890s, and they brought a variety of interests and biases to their work. The idea of systematic museum collecting had barely begun, and the interrelation between cultural subsystems (e.g., archaeology, ethnology, linguistics, physical anthropology, and folklore) was not understood. The museum strategy that dominated these efforts was twofold: to gather and record data from vanishing "exotic" peoples and to present it in displays and exhibitions to a public that had become voracious in its appetite for nonWestern curiosities. The museum and exposition displays that followed carried a clear message: as a culture (and in part, as people) the Ainu, like the American Indian and native peoples in many other areas of the world colonized by Europeans, would soon become extinct. Romyn Fditchcock, who

A QUEER PEOPLE,
They Live in the Kuriles and Northern Japan.
BY SOMETH' HITCHCOCK.

r“S.> E who In distant lands leaves the beaten paths and seeks for adventure or discovery, may often And either nearer than he thinks. The far East ia not all unknown, yet it teems with unstudied problems of the deepest interest to those who will bat think of them and pass bat a few steps beyond the narrow bounds of tbe foreign settlements. Tbe small group of Islands known as Japan is inhabited by a people ef unknown origin. Wo are content to speak of them as Japanese, and for oar present purpose it is not required to know more concerning them. Bat scattered along the coasts from tbe north as far as to the extreme southern end of Kinsfain, there are found traces of a different people, who must have occupied the country in prehistoric times.

Be cent explorations have led to tbe concluiion that these aborigines are representatives of a race known as Ainos, who are dow confined to tbe island of Yezo, in the north of Japan.

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l/AIN LI ETHNICITY

15

1.16

1.15 Twined Basket

Ainu used the bark of the Japanese elm to make a strong fiber ( ohyo) that was woven into baskets or, with the aid of a backstrap loom, a durable cloth (attush) that was the basis for Hokkaido Ainu clothing. Both types of Ainu baskets— woven baskets (saranip) and coiled baskets (tenki, present only in the Kuriles)— are similar to Alaskan Eskimo and Aleut basketry forms. (AMNH 70.2.932)

1.16 “All the World’s a Stage”

Anthropologist Frederick Starr brought a group of Hokkaido Ainu to the Louisiana Purchase Centennial Exposition in St. Louis in 1904. Both Starr and photographer Jesse Tarbox Beals documented the experiences of the Ainu in St. Louis. As “live” exhibits, Ainu demonstrated arts and technology while living in an Ainu house on the fairgrounds. Here Shutratek weaves a grass mat while her shy daughter hides from the visitors. (NAA 98-10289)

one by the other. The Ainos, being unable to affiliate more closely with the Japanese, remain distinct and apart, and are therefore doomed to extinction from the face of the earth (Hitchcock 1891b: 432-33). Hitchcock had heard of a more glorious Ainu past from Ainu oral history but understood their decline only as a social evolutionary failure in the face of more advanced civilizations. The case of the Ainu was also instructive to Americans who saw the Ainu in much the same light as they saw the American Indians, whose societies also seemed to be vanishing as the nineteenth-century American frontier advanced. The decline of the Ainu may even have been seen by some as justification for the righteousness of Western colonial policies supported by notions of social superiority and technological progress.

A considerable number of these early travelers, scientists, and museum collectors published scientific reports (Bickmore 1868,- Morse I 879,- Bird 1881,- Hitchcock 1891a, b,- see also

works by Batchelor, Chamberlain, Munro, and others in bibliography). These publications and results of anthropological collecting that appeared in museum exhibits, expositions, and media accounts reinforced the popular idea that the Ainu would soon cease to exist. Despite the trappings of contemporaiy social bias, popular accounts by travelers read as stark pronouncements on the desperate, impoverished situation of the people they met and villages they visited, of discrimination practiced by Japanese officials, and of the need for medical attention and schooling. By this time many Ainu had already been displaced from coastal villages and prime agricultural lands and forests that were coming under cultivation by Japanese farmers and American-trained foresters.

Where scholars first ventured, the media soon followed, sensationalizing Ainu presentations at expositions and museum exhibitions. The first such presentation took place in Europe (Vienna 1873), and others soon followed in North America, at the Smithsonian in the 1890s and elsewhere, reaching a climax in North America in the living Ainu village (fig. 1.16) presented at the 1904 Louisiana Exposition in St. Louis (Starr 1904 ; VanStone 1993,- Breitbart 1997). One of the more egregious titles of this era appeared on a book written by A. Henry Savage Landor (1 893), Alone with the Hairy Ainu. Or 3,800 Miles on a Pack Saddle in Yezo and a Cruise to the Kurile Islands. Once beyond its provocative and objectionable tone, however, the book contains useful early descriptions of the Ainu and their lands.

While North American museums could not resist the allure of the "mysterious Ainu," most institutions found themselves conflicted by their obligations to publish and curate Ainu collections they had acquired. Because Ainu culture was considered a native society and not an Asian "high civilization," Ainu collections held by fine art museums tended to be neglected until recently. Further, Japan was far from North America, and the staffs of North American natural history and anthropology museums gave priority to their growing collections of North American Indian materials. Because the primary motivation for building Ainu collections was tied more closely to public curiosity, institution building, and world fair expositions than to scholarly research, most of the Ainu collections gathered between 1885 and 1920 soon went off display and were relegated to deep storage. In those natural history museums where Ainu exhibits remained, they were sensationalized with descriptions of the "enigmatic" or "disappearing" Ainu, and in most North American museums Ainu collections did indeed "disappear" into the curatorial void for most of the twentieth century.

0 5 cm

1.18 ---J

1.18 Early Ainu Art

Some of the earliest artifacts with ethnic Ainu designs come from the Bibi-8 site near the modern-day Chitose Airport. Among the well-preserved wooden finds were a paddle bearing images of killer whales and engraved spiral designs (known to Ainu as morew) similar to patterns embroidered on Ainu garments, (after Ohtsuka 1993)

1.17 Population History Model

Marked physical differences between the Ainu and Ryukyu people (who live at the southern end of the Japanese archipelago) and the Japanese and other Asian peoples have raised puzzling questions about their biological histories. Kazuro Hanihara believes Jomon to be the ancestral culture of Ainu, Ryukyu, and Japanese peoples, but sees Honshu Jomon as influenced by Yayoi migrants with a more Mongoloid physical type who arrived more recently in Japan, (after Hanihara 1991)

Theories of Ainu Origin

The dominant informational perspective on Ainu culture that emerged from these early decades of museum collecting is that of anthropology, which, during the past century, explored the "Ainu enigma" from the vantage points of physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, and ethnology (H. Watanabe 1972). Despite a century of study, however, surprisingly little progress has been made in achieving definitive conclusions about Ainu origins—the very question that stimulated scholarly interest in the Ainu in the first place, even before it became possible for foreigners to conduct field studies in Hokkaido. Other scholars update the inquiry into these issues in Part 1, but a cursory review in this introduction may help the reader find topics of particular interest.

First there is the issue of "racial" or what is now generally known as "biological" origins (fig. 1 17). Who are the Ainu, and how and where did their physical type develop? Are they derived from Mongoloid, Australoid, or Caucasoid populations, and what is the significance of their physical differences from other East Asian populations like the Japanese, Koreans, Chinese, or northeast Siberians who, while each population is physically distinct, resemble each other more than any of them resembles the Ainu? Although Europoid or Aryan origins were stressed early on, modern biological studies have converged toward the consensus that the Ainu represent descendants of relatively undifferentiated East Asian tipper Paleolithic populations whose gene pool remained geographically isolated for thousands of years during which the development of more specialized Mongoloid features took place in mainland East Asia (Kozintsev 1993,- Arutiunov, Ishida, this volume). It is therefore likely that older Ainu populations were once more distinct from Japanese and Amur River populations with whom they have been mixing increasingly during recent millennia and centuries. The question still remains whether Ainu ancestry might include eastern Siberian or East Asian populations or their ancestors, who moved into the Americas at the end of the Ice Age. Archaeological evidence from Alaska and the rest of the Americas suggests that the earliest peoples to enter the Americas were not members of a single homogeneous group but carried different cultural traditions originating from northern, central, and southern maritime sectors of northeast Asia (Mochanov 1980,- Hoffecker, Power, and Goebel 1993).

Equally perplexing issues have arisen with regard to Ainu linguistic affiliations. These theories are as diverse and wide-ranging as those proposed for biological ties and include IndoEuropean, Austronesian, Altaic, Chinese, and

even North American Indian and Eskimo relationships (Tamura, this volume). The difficulty in determining linguistic origins has much to do with problems in reconstructing and tracing linguistic change over thousands of years, during which linguistic borrowing can obscure even dominant strains of heritage and ancestry. Contact and interchange with Japanese over two thousand or more years makes this particular relationship hard to decipher. Scholars no longer seriously consider Indo-European ties, but Altaic and Austronesian links, as well as ties to North Pacific and American Indian languages, are still being discussed. The word "unknown" still remains the most cogent summary that most Ainu linguists can agree on.

One line of inquiry that was initially pursued as a means of determining Ainu cultural origins has effectively been removed from the table. In the early years of anthropology it was believed that ethnology—the study of living cultures and its material, behavioral, and social forms—could offer insights into the deep history of cultures. This approach was taken at the turn of the century by the Russian ethnologist Leo Shternberg and others who believed that similarities between Ainu material culture and customs and those of southeast Asian and Austronesian peoples pointed toward a southern origin of Ainu culture (reviewed in Arutiunov, this volume). However, anthropologists today generally consider ethnological parallels, trait-list comparisons, folklore, and other types of ethological data as incapable of providing reliable evidence for reconstaicting cultural history, believing these data to be too malleable and susceptible to borrowing or reinvention, besides being impossible to verify. Ultimately, the problem for ethnological reconstruction is the lack of chronological depth, because ethnological evidence exists only within the range of written or oral history.

It is for this reason that archaeological re

Paleolithic

1.17

1.19 Ainu Chieftain

This Ainu-e (-e means picture in Japanese) is one of a series of Ainu chieftains painted in the late 1700s by the Japanese artist Hakyo Kakizaki. Kakizaki had access to Ainu chiefs who came to the Matsumae seat for trade and official visits. His illustrations have great artistic and ethnographic merit and also reveal Japanese curiosity, repulsion, and fear of the Ainu. This chieftain, Nishikomake, has dressed to impress his Japanese overlords by wearing a valuable Santan silk robe over his Ainu retarpe (elm-bark) garment. (Y. and M. Kitao Collection)

search has come to the fore as the primary historical method for researching cultural origins (Utagawa 1989,- T. Kikuchi 1988,- Yamaura and Ushiro, and S. Sasaki, this volume). In this field, some of the earliest scientific shell-mound excavations conducted in the 1870s by Heinrich von Siebold in Omori, Edward Morse in Tokyo Bay, and Romyn Hitchcock (1891a) in the Kuriles and Hokkaido provided a foundation for modern archaeological studies by Japanese archaeologists by suggesting for the first time ties between living Ainu people and the prehistoric Jomon culture of Japan. Today there is nearly complete agreement that Ainu origins lie with the Jomon culture, which occupied much of the Japanese archipelago throughout the Holocene and persisted in an evolved form in Hokkaido until circa A.D. 500. On Honshu, Jomon culture was replaced by the forerunners of the modern Japanese state about 2,000 years ago, while in Hokkaido it was replaced by Okhotsk and Satsumon cultures, which, however, retained el

ements of the Jomon tradition. Most archaeologists see Satsumon as the most likely immediate ancestor of modern Ainu culture in northern Honshu and southern Hokkaido, while Satsumon-influenced Okhotsk culture, a northern culture, is believed to be the source of Sakhalin and Kurile Ainu culture (fig. 1.17).

Despite progress in understanding the broader cultural outline described above, much work is needed to fill the conspicuous gap from about A.D. 1000 to 1400 that exists between archaeological evidence and historic Ainu peoples. This is the crucial period in the emergence of Ainu culture, and its study has proved difficult because of the near "invisibility" of archaeological evidence dating to this period. Following the previous period in which Satsumon and Okhotsk cultures are recognizable archaeologically by their distinctive pithouses and settlement types, ceramic traditions, midden deposits, and art forms, the subsequent shift to surface dwellings, short-term occupations, lack of middens, replacement of ceramics and stone tools by metal vessels and iron implements obtained by trade, use of wood rather than more durable ceramics or bone, and abandonment of most types of figurative art resulted in a major reduction in archaeological traces. So far, only a few sites, such as the Chitose Airport site near Sapporo, contain artifacts with Ainu-like designs (fig. 1.1 8) documenting the transition between earlier archaeological horizons and "Ainu" as known ethnologically (Ohtsuka 1993: 19—20).

Today the "Ainu enigma" continues to elicit speculation and controversy, not least among Ainu who are actively participating in the search and do not hesitate to express their own ideas about their origins as a non-Japanese ethnic people. It is fair to say that proprietorship of "the Ainu problem" no longer lies exclusively with nonAinu historians, archaeologists, and anthropologists,- Ainu are also joining the scholarly ranks and are participating in public debates over such issues as the appropriateness of studying Ainu human-skeletal remains and the ownership of archaeological finds. The social and political issues connected with "when Ainu became Ainu" and "who the Ainu are" are rapidly becoming as complex politically as the studies are scientifically.

Ainu Ethnicity as Historical Process

Hitchcock's interest in Ainu history was not shared by many other museum collectors or early anthropologists. The latter, who in any case could not read Japanese, were more concerned with comparing Ainu culture and physical type with other known groups than with poring over archival records for information about the Ainu, who first appear in Japanese his

INTRODUCTION / W. F1TZHUGH

1.20

1.20 Making It Ainu

Creating objects with a distinctive Ainu character from iocal and foreign materials is typical of Ainu cultural production. This smoking kit collected by E. Odium in Shana, the Kuriles, is a modernized version of the traditional form (see fig. 1.21) but includes such traditional elements as the large blue glass bead and a bearskin pouch. (ROM 888.6.13)

1.21 Traditional Tobacco Box This old tobacco box made in traditional Ainu fashion displays the fine carving done by men to adorn their most treasured possessions; it was collected in Okotsonai by Frederick Starr in 1904. Tobacco boxes were often inlaid with antler, especially in Sakhalin, but in this piece the inlay is ivory, a northern trade item. Men wore their smoking gear at their belts. An old Ainu story tells of a man defending himself from a bear attack using only his sturdy pipe holder and tobacco box. (BMA 12.661)

torical accounts in the seventh century. Nevertheless, the oral history Ainu people presented to Hitchcock about their once-powerful status as a regional power linking northern Japan with the Asian coast is now more accessible and is the subject of numerous presentations in Part II This history presents a surprising new view (considering previous stereotypes of the Ainu as a forest-dwelling people) of the Ainu as a maritime-based trading power whose political and social organization bore little resemblance to the Ainu lifestyle encountered by late-nineteenthcentury visitors and scholars (Harrison 1954, Howell 1994, 1995, and this volume). An inkling of this past is suggested in the Ainu-e portraits of Ainu chieftains painted by Hakyo Kakizaki between 1783 and 1800 (fig. 1.19), which show Ainu leaders as powerful figures who, almost until the end of the eighteenth century, waged war, governed their people, managed lucrative trading empires between the Asian mainland and Japan, and conducted their business as local sovereigns. The details of this Japanese-Ainu contact history were first made available to English readers in Shinichiro Takakura's important work, The Ainu of Northern Japan: A Study in Concjuest and Acculturation (I960).

Essays in Part II of this volume document the history of Ainu relations with the Japanese at different points in time,- they also illustrate the importance of northern cultural and economic ties to the Ainu, the gradual eclipse of Ainu capabilities in the face of growing Russian and Japanese competition, and adverse effects on the Ainu from changes in market forces, weap

onry, and shipping technology that forced them to take a subservient position when their southern neighbors grew more powerful and advanced into northern Honshu and eventually into Hokkaido. In the meantime, spurred by the threat of Russian imperial advances, the Tokugawa Shogunate began to take a more active role in promoting its national interests by placing its undefended northern territories under political control. Ainu resisted and attempted to maintain their independence using military means,- but in each case—for instance, Shakushain's War of 1669, and lastly, the battle of Kunashiri-Menashi in 1789 —the Ainu lost more and more until they were forced to submit in every respect to the central government's interests operating through the Matsumae seat at Hakodate in southwestern Hokkaido. By the eighteenth century the Ainu had lost direct control over almost all of their former territories and resources, with the exception of fur and other products of the forest. By this process the Ainu lost a major portion of their subsistence-resource base, their external economic opportunities, and, with the spread of introduced diseases (Walker, this volume), much of their demographic base. Other essays in this volume (Siddle and Part VI) carry this changing historical image of the Ainu forward into the late twentieth century, with a storyline that follows the same basic trend toward denouement.

Making It Ainu

The Ainu did not lose control of their culture or their symbols and trappings of Ainu ethnicity. Despite losses to Russia and Japan, the Ainu were not powerless in the face of their declining economic and political fortunes. Rather, history reveals that they utilized a variety of techniques and resources to maintain independence, deal effectively with neighbors, and reaffirm cultural identity: while they suf

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1.22 Woman with Weaving Instrument

Frederick Starr collected a volume of Ainu-e during one of his trips to Japan, and after his death his widow donated it to the Smithsonian. In this image from Curious Sights of Ezo Island, painted by Shimanojo Murakami in 1799, a tattooed Ainu woman wearing beaded necklaces and holding a weaving shuttle is shown. (NMNH 392,023-25)

fered increasingly negative rates in their trade exchanges with Japanese and mainland Santan traders, Ainu continued to manage independent trade into the late eighteenth century (S. Sasaki, this volume). The Kakizaki paintings clearly document the results of accumulated power and wealth, but Ainu-e show that underneath the prestigious Santan silk overgowns they wore for formal occasions were traditional bark-cloth ( attusb ) leggings decorated in Ainu patterns (fig. 1.19),- they also carried Ainu knives, pipe holders, tobacco cases, bows, and other implements decorated with Ainu designs.

The political decline of the Ainu can be attributed to strategic, structural, and organizational circumstances. Given the geography of Ainu territories, dependence on natural renewable maritime and forest resources, limitations enforced by the lack of industrial technologies, a low and dispersed population base, and other factors, it was inevitable that the Ainu would eventually be forced to relinquish regional power and accept a new political and economic reality. Hokkaido, the Kuriles, and Sakhalin were rich in natural products, but once the Ainu had become engaged in trade with the expanding regional powers in Manchuria, Japan, Korea, and Russia, their dependence on industrial products ensnared them in the economic mesh of expanding nations and they could no longer maintain a favorable trade balance. Iron products, rice for food and sake, cotton fabric for clothing, lacquerware, Japanese knives, axes, hoes, swords, and a host of other goods had become indispensable to Ainu identity and survival. The Ainu gradually became inextricably linked to the Japanese economic system, and to a lesser extent, in northern regions, were dependent on Manchuria and Russia for silk, glass, brass, and other products Nevertheless, even as opportu

nities for renegotiating these relationships with other societies diminished, the goods and materials received were put to use in creating private and public manifestations of Ainu culture.

One aspect of external relationships has recently been illuminated by a new type of archaeological evidence: charred seeds and husks. Ethnography and historical data describe the Ainu diet for several centuries as based on hunting, fishing, and foraging (Kohara, this volume). Intensive agriculture was not practiced, although small homestead gardens produced potatoes, millet, and various legumes. Rice was not grown locally even though it was an important supplement and was used later in ritual contexts as sake and rice cakes. It has been supposed that the modern Ainu diet faithfully represented the economic activities of early Ainu, or pre-Ainu peoples like the Satsumon, who probably were also Ainu. However, new data from tenth-century Satsumon sites (Crawford and Yoshizaki 1987,- Crawford and Takamiya 1990,- Crawford 1992) reveal a much wider assemblage of cultigens of local, Japanese, and continental origin, including various strains of rice. These finds have been interpreted as indicating that Satsumon people were more agriculturally oriented than the historic Ainu and may have had a larger and more stable population base, more extensive political organization, and greater military capabilities. If so, the Ainu economy and settlement patterns may have developed their more nomadic characteristics since Satsumon times to obtain fur and other forest products to exchange for Japanese trade goods, foods, and tobacco (figs. 120, 1.21). Changes in domestic architecture favoring surface building over pithouse winter dwellings would also fit the pattern of the shift from Satsumon to Ainu culture in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries. These and other changes are consistent with the increased economic specialization that came as Ainu dependence upon the Japanese market economy intensified

The Ainu practice of incorporating foreign elements—be they foods, materials, styles, symbols, or words and concepts—into the social and spiritual heart of its culture and "making them Ainu" by redefining them in an Ainu way is both a striking and a curious feature of Ainu culture. Even an informal inventory of Ainu material culture reveals a welter of goods and concepts obtained through trade, political and social contacts, or replication of foreign goods. Many such objects, materials, and ideas are seen in Ainu-e paintings (fig. 1.19). Japanese swords were an important part of a man's formal attire and had important ritual functions in exorcism and curing ceremonies. In its Ainu adaptation, the sword had to be worn across the back rather than at one's side (Japanese fashion) and

1.24 Maxim with Bead and Bear As with their smoking gear, men decorated their knives and sheaths with highly individualistic carvings that advertised both the value they placed on these possessions as well as their artistic skill. Despite their great diversity, such designs fall within an Ainu design universe that includes such foreign elements as the use of glass beads and netsuke-like ornaments, in this case, a bear, a rarity in nonritual Ainu art. (MPM N17058)

was tethered with a specially woven halter and strap (fig. 12.1). Lacquer cups and saucers ( tuki) of Japanese manufacture became a principal object in the offering of sake (also imported) with Ainu prayers to the gods, together with the completely original and distinctive Ainu ikupasuy (prayer stick,- Maraini, this volume), while large lacquer containers were regarded as family treasures that were displayed in the sacred corner of the house and were believed to host gods of their own. Inaw, the shaved sticks that symbolize birds and help deliver human prayers to the gods, resemble the sacred shavings of Japanese Shinto ritual and Siberian concepts of birds as spirit-helpers,- even words central to Ainu religion like kamuy (deity), nomi (prayer), onkami (worship) are thought to have Japanese origin (Kindaichi 1944, 1993: 238-39,-Obayashi 1997: 9,- Tamura, this volume). Among many other items central to Ainu identity were glass beads (obtained first from the Manchurian and Russian trade, then from Japan, and finally secretly manufactured in Hakodate for the Ainu trade),bronze and copper medallions, beads, wire, and small ornaments,- silk robes from Manchuria and cotton garments from Japan,- and many other materials and objects. Using a variety of design styles (Dubreuil, Kodama, this volume) the Ainu combined and refashioned these foreign materials or gave them new social or ritual purposes, making them distinctively Ainu. This ability to create Ainu-ness out of foreign materials is a remarkable feature of Ainu culture. While one's attire may have been nearly exclusively of foreign origin, it still maintained an unmistakably Ainu ethnic character. In this way style and ceremony have been central to the changing, evolving defi

nition of Ainu-ness. Even as their territories diminished and population declined, their material world expanded and incorporated increasing amounts of foreign imports, redefined as Ainu.

Ainu Ethnicity in Spirit and Art

Despite—or perhaps because of—economic and political setbacks, the Ainu maintained strength in the parts of their lives that continued to identify them as Ainu: their formal clothing,- their woven baskets and sword straps,their yukar, storytelling, and music,- their prayers to the gods, offered with tuki (sake cup and saucer), ikupasuy (prayer stick), and maw (shaved sticks that serve as messengers to the gods),- and their social and ceremonial events, of which the iyomante and other spirit-sending ceremonies (described here by Watanabe, Akino, and Lltagawa) are the core element of traditional Ainu social identity. Watanabe believed that sending back the spirit of a captive bear to the god's world, with all the elaborate ritual that it entails, was the essential core of Ainu identity,Utagawa believes the iyomante is the institution that helped Ainu culture survive centuries of economic and political oppression.

In traditional Ainu belief every living thing, every being whether animate or inanimate, is a god and a visitor to earth from the god world (Fujimura, this volume). These gods spend time on earth and make their bodies— their material forms—available to people for food, timber to build houses, grass to make mats, and elm bark for weaving attush clothing. People are meant to use these godly gifts but must do so with respect, and after using them, must return the spirit to the god world with a ritual spirit-sending ceremony. The most elaborate sending ceremonies are reserved for the chief Ainu deities—bears, owls, and foxes— but even spirits of small animals like songbirds or seemingly inconsequential objects like a broken kettle or knife may have its spirit sent off to the god world with a special prayer, an inaw, and ritual observances. Ainu believed that were these rituals to be denied, the earth would soon become barren and lifeless, for the gods would no longer be willing to visit to offer their material bodies, and life would not regenerate.

In this way Ainu pay respect to all worldly beings and treat them as living entities, as partners in human existence. Modern Ainu reaffirm these beliefs in traditional ceremonies as well as in private prayers during their daily lives. This Ainu philosophy of reverence and partnership with nature is worth reflecting upon today as we contemplate the hubris of mankind's destructive relationship with planet Earth.

The Ainu spirit is also evident in the exuberance of its artistic expression, not only in the design of clothing and the creativity of its liter

1,26 Eskimo Spirit Carving

Faces of spirits and spirit-helpers are common motifs in ancient and ethnographic art of the Bering Sea Eskimos. This beastly semihuman image from a harpoon counterweight excavated at the 1,500-year-old Ekven site on the Russian side of Bering Strait is thought to represent the spirit-controller of animals. Nearly identical images appear on nineteenth-century Bering Sea Eskimo harpoons, suggesting an unbroken 2,000-year tradition of art and belief. (MAE 6479-9-208)

1.23 Nanai Motif

Ainu traded with the Nanai of the lower Amur River area and knew their costume designs. Nanai fishskin robes carry embroidery showing beastlike images that resemble ancient Chinese t'ao-t'ieh designs. Cryptic ‘‘faces,’’ some resembling owls—the Ainu god of the village—occasionally appear in Ainu art, but Ainu, like their Amur neighbors, say these images are only decorative and do not represent animals, gods, or other beings. (MAE 313-18/7)

1.25 Morew Pattern

This detail from an attush (elm-bark) apron displays the spiral designs known to Ainu as morew and the embroidered “thorns’’ that protect the spiral's corners. Both motifs are thought to have powers that protect one’s back. They are found near openings and edges of garments and such vulnerable areas as turns in the design where evil gods can gain entry. Ainu yukar (oral tales) refer to these designs as “flaming borders” and assert that they give ancient heroes power and protection from their enemies.

1.26

ary tradition but in the everyday production of Ainu woodcarvers and artisans. Traditionally, religious beliefs prohibited carving or using images of animals or humans, for Ainu believed that this would bring danger or bad luck. Ainu carvers and seamstresses today deny (Dubreuil, this volume)—as Nanai and Nivkhi seamstresses of the lower Amur denied in 1900 (Laufer 1902)—that their carvings and clothing decorations contain images of animals or beasts (figs.

1.23, 1.25); except in the special case of human dolls (nipopo) traditionally used in Sakhalin for healing and shamanism and carvings of animals (especially bears and fish) on ikupasuy used by men for sending ceremonies, the Ainu did not use human or animal representations in their art. Debate even exists among the Ainu about statements by some Ainu seamstresses that the spikes appended to "turns" in Ainu morew (spiral) patterns (fig.

1.25) represent "thorns" that protect the wearer's back and other vulnerable spots of one's clothing (neck, shoulders, and garment margins) from evil spirits. Suffice it to say that Ainu garment artists have employed a complex set of spiri

tual concepts behind their creations, even though many of these concepts are not verbalized or accessible to outsiders.

Perhaps the most explicit acknowledgment of spiritual involvement in women's art is found in the sacred woven belts and straps (fig. 31.10) that women wore as personal amulets to safeguard virtue and fertility,similar beliefs may have been incorporated in the wearing of beaded necklaces and metal medallions, for such belief was common among Siberian tribes from whom many of these adornments were obtained. Similar protective powers were inherent in the woven strap and harnesses ( emusbat ) used to hold a man's sword (fig. 7.2). In the days when Ainu traders braved dangers abroad and fought enemies at their doorstep, a man's sword was a treasured weapon,- later, after the sword became more important as a ceremonial object than as a weapon, its harness still retained great spiritual power and was used for exorcism and for healing. Even if we never know their precise meanings, the patterns and imagery Ainu artists use give spiritual meaning, life, and power to many forms of their material culture.

Ainu men had an equally complex and spiritually rich domain that centered around their role as woodcarvers. Men produced all manner of objects from wood, using axes, knives, and chisels. In addition to serving functional purposes, knives, tobacco boxes, food-serving implements, trays, containers, and weaving implements were also decorated with complex carved patterns ranging from geometric to floral and abstract de

1.27 Sealskin Boots

Like other North Pacific peoples, the Ainu of Sakhalin Island utilized sea mammals for food, oil, and many types of clothing. Sealskin boots were more durable and waterproof than any other type of footgear until the invention of rubber and were usually worn with grass insulation. This pair, collected from Sakhalin before 1893, seems never to have been used.

(FMC 32104)

1.28 Kurile Needlecases

This group of tubular needlecases ornamented with whale-tail forms was collected from the Kurile island of Shikotan in 1875 or 1893 by Alexander Agassiz. Kurile Ainu artifacts are quite rare. The form and designs on these needlecases, like Kurile basketry traditions, are similar to Alaskan Eskimo styles, suggesting northern contacts. (PMC 51631)

signs. While all of these items became objects of great interest to museum collectors, decorated bowls and trays became important in the growing Ainu tourist-art trade. Some of the objects obtained by the first Americans and Europeans who traveled in Hokkaido after 1868 show little or no use or patina, suggesting that market art was already an established feature of Ainu economic life (see Dubreuil, this volume). This skill, seen both in carving and artistic expression, is best demonstrated in the carving of ikupasuy, the sacred prayer sticks employed by men for sending their prayers to the gods (Maraini, this volume). Here, and only here, men indulged their creativity in a wide range of subject matter, including the only culturally sanctioned representations of animals and objects otherwise forbidden in the Ainu artistic repertoire.

Ainu as a Northern People

Ainu artistry in woodcarving and garment design continues to attract the attention of anthropologists and art historians and has been one of the features of Ainu culture, like bear ceremoni

1.27

1.28

alism (Hallowell 1926), that suggested northern cultural continuities into Siberia and around the North Pacific rim. While some design systems and motifs originated from contact with Japanese, Korean, or other East Asian groups, the fundamental design of most Ainu art is most closely related to northern styles. The use of spiral or meander ( morew ) patterns and of the "Escher-like" positive-negative image-shifting approaches is basic to Ainu traditional textile art; it is also a dominant pattern in the traditional clothing styles of the Nanai, Nivkhi, and Oroch peoples of the lower Amur River region (fig. 1.23). The stylistic Ainu-Amur connections are quite direct and are observable geographically as style gradients. Similar systems (including transformation and cryptic animal-based art) underlie the ethnographic art of Northwest Coast cultures and prehistoric Eskimo art (fig. 1.26) of the Bering Sea (Fitzhugh 1988, 1993). Similar masked images are also sometimes found in Ainu art, where owls (the protecting deity of the Ainu village) seem to peer out from carved platters and textile designs. Future archaeological work will eventually determine if such designs are related to the widespread North Pacific art tradition (which seems to be manifest also in Chou and Shang art) that is based on spiritual transformation, hunting magic, and ceremonialism. A more specific argument for Ainu connections to the north may be seen in comparisons of Ainu and southwest Alaskan Eskimo coiled and twined basketry, which are nearly identical (Graburn and Lee, this volume), as well as needlecases and a few other objects (fig. 1.28). Some of these similarities may have been inherited by Ainu artists through traditions of the Okhotsk culture, while others, like coiled basketry, may result from more recent historical contacts, for instance, between the Ainu and Aleut hunters brought from Alaska by Russian fur traders (Shubin 1994).

These are some examples of the material manifestations of northern cultural influence or

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1.30 Sea Otter

Takeki Fujito, one of the finest modern Ainu artists, calls himself kumahori (“bear carver”) and prides himself on his naturalistic renditions of bears and other animals. Although as hunters the Ainu were astute as observers of nature, they did not make representations of animals, except in certain ritual contexts, until the twentieth century, when the production of tourist art became necessary for economic survival.

(Takeki Fujito Collection)

heritage in Ainu culture. Similar features of ceremonial traditions include the first salmon ceremony that is common to both Ainu and most Northwest Coast Indian cultures (Kono, this volume), and a host of spiritual and social customs that Ainu share with other native peoples of the lower Amur River and eastern Siberia, including shamanism, the feeding of spirits and spirit figures, dog sacrifice, use of nipopo (human figurines) and other amulets, and other traditions. Many of these beliefs are expressed more prominently among the Sakhalin Ainu than among the Hokkaido Ainu due to the Sakhalin Ainu's closer relations with Asian mainland cultures and the Hokkaido Ainu's proximity to Honshu. More far-reaching ethnological comparisons between Ainu and Athabascan cultures have also been made.

Because the Ainu have been excluded from their former northern territories for much of the past two hundred years, this northern strain in Ainu culture has weakened and is less obvious today than it was in earlier times. The Ainu living in Hokkaido also have not been immune to erosion of their former maritime subsistence and traditions. Losses resulting from competition with the Japanese for coastal resources and living space have been continual since the fifteenth century, such that by the mid-twentieth century few Hokkaido Ainu had direct experience with their former life as seal, sea lion, whale, and swordfish hunters. Today this aspect of their life is known only through Japanese historical sources, Amu-e, Ainu memory culture, and their oral history genre known as yukar (Iwasaki

Goodman and Nomoto, Oginaka, this volume). These northern and maritime traditions are mostly absent from the object record in North American museums, which primarily represent Hokkaido Ainu who lived in forest and river settings,- this perspective differs radically from the usual Western image of the Ainu as described in ethnographic accounts since the 1860s (Batchelor 1892,- H. Watanabe 1973,- Hilger 1971).

Transitions: Forests, Bears, and Modern Art

The final section of this book (Part V and VI) brings into focus the more recent history of Ainu in Hokkaido in articles by historians, artists, leaders, and elders discussing modern events, political resistance, cultural preservation and rejuvenation, and cultural visions. This century was no easier on the Ainu than others had been, for it coincided with their total subservience to Japanese administration, beginning with the passage of the Former Hokkaido Aborigines Protection Act of 1899. This act was meant to promote rapid Ainu assimilation into Japanese society (Siddle, this volume) and imposed harsh and restrictive conditions on Ainu existence and cultural expression. Ainu were forced to attend segregated schools, were refused access to game and fish, and could not participate as regular members of Japanese society.

The results were variable. Although the Ainu population did not become extinct as Hitchcock and others had predicted, neither did it grow dramatically,- by today's official count the Ainu population has grown by only 10,000 since 1 886. During these years many of those born to Ainu abandoned their impoverished villages and moved to the rapidly growing cities where they attended high schools and universities, took jobs, and melted into the larger Japanese population. Women married Japanese men and disguised their Ainu backgrounds in the hope that their children would escape the stigma of discrimination against Ainu that was prevalent among Japanese in Hokkaido and elsewhere in Japan.

Those who remained Ainu expressed their ethnicity in different ways. Some maintained Ainu traditions as subsistence or small-scale farmers, hunters, trappers, and fishermen who continued to practice the Ainu religion and customs,- they held periodic bear ceremonies, buried their dead in the Ainu way, and engaged in traditional carving and weaving for home consumption. But as Hokkaido began to fill with Japanese immigrants and cities began to grow in the late 1800s, economics forced the Ainu to develop new sources of income. Some Ainu earned money from harvesting timber (Kayano 1994), while others, began to replicate decorative wood platters or other material-culture

1.29 Ki-men (Woodem Masks) Abandoning such traditional Ainu subjects as bears and introducing new forms—like masks in the series Kimen, which were not part of Ainu tradition—Bikky Sunazawa explored Ainu themes and designs in media ranging from jewelry to monumental wood sculpture. He was among the first of the Ainu artists whose work transcended tourist art, forcing the establishment to recognize Ainu fine art.

He also used his art to fight for Ainu political rights. (HOVO)

items for collectors and the growing numbers of tourists attracted to Japan's new "wild north," whose attractions included the Ainu themselves (Dubreuil, this volume). As tourist centers in Asahikawa, Akan, Shiraoi, and elsewhere began to develop, a new industry and a new trade took form providing seasonal income for Ainu who carved, sewed garments, and performed Ainu rituals and dances for the public, first in their villages for those visitors interested in truly rustic adventures and later in prepared sites that advertised Ainu attractions and catered especially to tourists (Nomoto, Ohtsuka, Dubreuil, this volume). By the end of the twentieth century acting as a "museum" Ainu had become an established profession and the sales of Ainu crafts had become an important economic activity for some families.

Essays in Part VI document changing conditions in the twentieth century as Ainu responded to these new opportunities. On the one hand, tourism itself demanded a new definition of Ainu culture as a conscious form of living history and culture, but on the other, it was artificial and reenacted for the public, with Ainu-ness marketed as a commodity, a fact that disturbed many Ainu who preferred to maintain their culture in a more private manner.

Art in particular allowed twentieth-century Ainu to express their beliefs and ethnicity while producing income. Art also created internal cohesion for Ainu people, just as it had in earlier periods. As Ainu carvers began to transfer their skills from persona! objects to mass-produced tourist art—especially their signature bear carvings—they laid aside long-held prohibitions against the representation of animals and people

for secular purposes. New economic and artistic opportunities were created that eventually led to the transformation of Ainu art from its traditional personal and religious base to function as commercial and fine art. This remarkable story is chronicled here by Chisato Dubreuil in biographical profiles of Ainu artists (notably, of Bikky Sunazawa) who pioneered the breakout of Ainu art from its traditional encumbrances and from its commercial shackles as tourist art into the international fine-art realm (fig. 1.29,- Dubreuil 1995).

Essays in this section also document the continuing struggles that Ainu have faced during the past century to maintain their access to traditional subsistence resources, lands, and religious rights. Losses in these areas continued long after the passage of the 1899 Protection Act, which in reality denied Ainu the ability to control their destiny, placing it instead securely in the hands of Japanese officials. Even as access to lands and resources diminished throughout the century, an equally strong force of cultural revitalization materialized as Ainu like Shigeru Kayano, among many others, fought to document, preserve, and teach Ainu language, culture, carving traditions, dance, yukar, and many other forms of culture to Ainu, Japanese, and any others who were interested (Kayano 1978, 1985, 1987). At times theirs truly were voices crying out in the wilderness as political and economic forces aligned against any and all forms of Ainu expression.

The fight against the Nibutani Dam (Kaizawa, this volume) was in this sense as crucial an element in cultural survival as efforts to preserve Ainu language. These efforts and the internationalization of the Ainu cause (Dietz, this volume) reveal new aspects of the importance of ethnic identity to cultural survival.

This political struggle has recently met with some success, as judged by the court's decision in the Nibutani Dam-construction case which affirmed the Ainu as the indigenous people of Hokkaido,- by the passage of the new law, Ainu Shinpo of 1997,- and the support achieved by the Ainu in gaining recognition for their native rights in the United Nations (Tsunemoto, this volume). None of these achievements would have been possible without public recognition of Ainu commitment to their culture and heritage as demonstrated by political engagement, maintenance of traditional rituals and beliefs, a strong work ethic, and a level of excellence in art and literature.

In the difficult years of the twentieth century strong pressure was brought upon the Ainu to discontinue their periodic celebration of the iyomante, or bear-sending ceremony, which was considered cruel and barbaric to many who did not understand its central place in the Ainu worldview. Like Eskimo whaling in northern

Alaska or the Northwest Coast Indian potlatch (in which valuable property was given away by individuals to members of the opposite clan with expectation of future reciprocity) which was banned by the Canadian government in the early twentieth century as being "wasteful" and un-Canadian, the Ainu iyomante was also discouraged by the Japanese and survived into mid-century only as a secretly held family-based ceremony. But as with other cultural touchstones, Ainu elders reinstigated the iyomante, and it has once again become an important focus for the preservation of Ainu tradition. The ceremony pays respect to elder tradition-bearers and provides an opportunity for people to express their culture through music, dance, and oral presentations. The resurgence of the iyomante (fig. 1.31) has not only helped revitalize Ainu culture it has also brought new understanding to Japanese society and the world about Ainu attitudes toward nature and the reverence for life (Fujimura, Utagawa, this volume,- Aiga 1985). The iyomante expresses the belief that life and nature can be renewed continuously as long as there is human commitment to reciprocity with nature: what is taken must also be given back in equal measure, and with reverence.

1.31 Ainu Cultural Rebirth

After centuries of political and cultural represssion, Ainu efforts to preserve their culture and language have stimulated a cultural rebirth. Ceremonies that were discouraged or banned during the past one hundred years are now being performed and passed on to younger generations. (AMS)

A New Beginning

On July I, 1997, the Japanese government for the first time gave official recognition to Ainu culture and language through the passage of the Ainu Cultural Promotion Law, popularly called Ainu Shinpo or "The New Ainu Law." This statute establishes a new relationship between the Ainu people and Japan and replaces the Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act, a 1899 Meijigovernment decree that actually promoted economic and political decline and encouraged Ainu assimilation into Japanese society. The Ainu Shinpo (Dietz, Tsunemoto, this volume) reverses the former policies of the previous Japanese governments that controlled Hokkaido and provides a modicum of funding and official support for the preservation and promotion of Ainu language and culture. It also, for the first time, recognizes the "indigenous nature" of the Ainu people, but stops short of an explicit statement that the Ainu are "an indigenous people." Whatever the outcome of the new legislation on the ultimate outcome of Ainu culture, its passage reverses centuries of official and unofficial cultural oppression that,

together with economic competition and loss of lands and resources, nearly led to the extinction of Ainu culture. By the end of the twentieth century, the Hokkaido Ainu population (about 25,000) is probably only a fraction of what it was in the fifteenth century when the Ezo (Ainu) of Ezogashima (Hokkaido) were a regional economic and political power presiding over Hokkaido, the Kurile Islands, and southern Sakhalin.

In the end, Ainu ethnicity is what the people themselves make of it, but it is not just an internal process, for Ainu ethnicity has also been shaped by the forces that surround it. Ainu culture is remarkable as an example of a tradition that has existed as a recognizable ethnic construct for at least eight hundred years. During this period it coalesced and emerged as a dominant regional trading power whose advantage was its control of communication and trade along the margins of the expanding nation-states of Manchuria, Russia, and Japan. During the past four hundred years the Ainu have seen their star eclipsed, and many of their homelands have been lost to foreign encroachment. Just as nautical prowess and trading abilities proved crucial in the establishment of an Ainu world in the medieval period, Ainu of the past two centuries have survived confrontations with competing societies by finding strength in other areas. Though they lost territories and suffered economic and social hardship, they did not lose their culture — their Ainu society, customs, beliefs, and material forms. Because their struggles have been rewarded by survival, they remain a viable people with much to teach the world

* * * *

I T IS A GREAT CHALLENGE and a primary goal of anthropology and art history to document cultural change through time and space and to seek to identify the cultural forms, sources of innovation, trends, and traditions that affect the history of cultures. By bringing together a large body of data on the Ainu, this project has provided a rare opportunity to explore how these processes have influenced the development of a particular cultural-historical tradition. While this format does not allow an intensive analysis of the diverse sets of data presented here, by bringing together a large corpus of information it may assist future integrative studies of Ainu history, culture, and art. We also hope to have advanced international recognition of the Ainu as well as a better understanding of one culture's quest for survival. And we hope to have shown that the Ainu—and their ancestors and their descendants—have a permanent place among the peoples of the North Pacific rim.

Historical Sources and Ainu-e

The view of the Ainu as an impoverished but mysterious people living as "children of nature" persisted throughout the early part of the twentieth century and left the impression that the Ainu were a cultural remnant that one might meet only occasionally in the pages of National Geographic (Hilger 1967). For most of the public, knowledge of the Ainu and their putative Caucasoid links survived only as a brand of anthropological esoterica encountered in crossword puzzles as "a northern [or mysterious,- or hairy,- or extinct] people of Japan." This view was promoted by early travelers, museum collectors, missionaries, and doctors, primarily in Hokkaido (Bickmore 1868,Batchelor 1887 etsecj. ; Chamberlain 1887 etsecf.; Landor 1893,- see Kreiner 1993, 1996, and this volume). Kurile Ainu and their origins were studied initially by Hitchcock (1891a) and Torii (1919). Anthropological studies of the Ainu began in Sakhalin with Bronislaw Pilsudski (1906) and were pursued more recently by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, who has written on the resettled Sakhalin Ainu in Hokkaido (Ohnuki-Tierney 1969 etsecf.'). The most recent anthropological treatment of the Hokkaido Ainu in English is Hitoshi Watanabe's Ainu Ecosystem (1973),- a more popular anthropological account is Sister M. Inez Hilger's Together with the Ainu (1971). All of these works treat the Ainu as forest-dwelling hunters, fishermen, collectors, and gardeners, and they tend to emphasize anthropological views of a traditional culture rather than the everyday struggle the Ainu faced as they sought to maintain their language, religion, traditions, economy, and land. One work that breaks this pattern is Songs of Gods, Songs of Humans (Philippi 1979), which presents translations of the Ainu epic poetry known as yukar ; this work has a long introduction describing Ainu culture written by the editor, Donald L. Philippi, and a preface by poet Gary Snyder. Ainu history has recently been fully explored by Richard Siddle (1996 and this volume), and its trade and economic relationships by Howell (1994 etsecf. and this volume).

In contrast to Western research, which has primarily emphasized anthro

pological approaches, Japanese scholarship is far more complex thematically and reveals a different intellectual tradition, especially regarding the Ainu language and oral traditions (see H. Watanabe 1973: 165—70 for a bibliographic review of Ainu studies),- unfortunately, iittle of this information is available in English. Among the highlights are works by the following authors: Mashiho Chiri, the great Ainu linguist and lexicographer,- Shiro Hattori, also a linguist and lexicographer,- Kyosuke Kindaichi, who transcribed Ainu tales and yukar ; Sakuzaemon Kodama, who wrote widely on Ainu history and culture,- Mari Kodama, who has recently illuminated Ainu textile art,- and Takamitsu Natori, Ryuzo Torii, Shigeru Kayano, Yoshikazu Ohtsuka, Toshikazu Sasaki, and many others. Only a few of these scholars have published in English, but we are pleased to include some of them as contributors to this volume.

For Europeans, the key to Ainu literature is to be found in the voluminous works of Josef Kreiner who has published widely on Ainu culture and history (Kreiner 1993, 1996,- Kreiner and Olschleger 1987).

Among Japanese sources, the most important work for English readers interested in Ainu origins and history is Shini'chiro Takakura's Ainu of Northern Japan ( 1 960). This work presents the history of Ainu-Japanese relations in a process-oriented exposition, beginning with the earliest written Japanese records on the Ainu (from the seventh century) and continuing to modern times. This history documents the devastating effects that Japanese contact and competition have had upon the Ainu over more than one thousand years, the impact of defeat in wars and rebellions, and the various terms that imposed new restrictions on Ainu movement, settlement, economy, and education. Exploitative treatment of the Ainu persisted well into the present century, as seen in the biography of Shigeru Kayano, Our Land Was a Forest (Kayano 1994).

Shini'chiro Takakura also wrote fine works on other aspects of Ainu studies,

including A Collection of Ainu-e, which presents a pioneering analysis of the illustrations of the Ainu known as Ainu-e. These genre illustrations of Ainu subjects have been drawn and painted by Japanese artists over a period of six hundred years (Takakura 1973,- T. Sasaki 1993a, b and this volume). Ainu-e are an important source of knowledge, for they include detailed and often highly accurate illustrations of Ainu life, customs, and material culture, including clothing and implements,- they are especially important ethnologically because of the detailed descriptions—marginalia added by the artists and learned associates—that accompany the drawings. While Ainu-e constitute a visual cultural and historical "handbook" of Ainu culture, they are not immune to bias, especially in their distortions of Ainu physical appearance, which is frequently shown to be bearded, tattooed, and barbaric. These images must be interpreted in relation to Japanese-Ainu history at the time they were created. The fact that they have been compiled as Japanese-Ainu relations evolved through various political stages make them both an exciting and problematic source. The history of Ainu-e and the challenges they raise for Ainu historiography are explored in this volume by Toshikazu Sasaki.

The history of early Ainu research and collecting has been compiled in two volumes edited by Josef Kreiner. Papers in the 1993 volume present data on the European image of the Ainu (Kreiner), language studies (Voss, Dettmer, and Refsing), ethnographic studies (Kato, Majewicz, and Olschleger), Ainu collections in European museums (Wilkinson, Teague, Thiele, Warthol, and Spevakovski), Ainu-e pictures (Sasaki, Prunner), with appendices on Ainu collections in Japanese, European, and American museums. The 1996 volume includes essays on the important museum, archival, and library collections of Philipp Franz and Heinrich von Siebold (Kreiner, Forrer, and others). Finally, Irimoto (1992b) has compiled a voluminous bibliography of Ainu literature in all languages.

I /AINU ETHNICITY

27

1/ Ainu Origin Theories

S. A. Arutiunov

1.1 Abashiri Ainu Romyn Hitchcock took this 1888 photograph of an Ainu group in Abashiri, a town on the Sea of Okhotsk in northeastern Hokkaido. Unlike photos made by many scientists visiting later who had their subjects dress in ceremonial robes, Hitchcock usually showed people in relaxed groups wearing everyday clothes. (NAA 98-10383)

< Ikorikayani, Son of Ikotoi

1843 copy by Teiki Kojima after Hakyo Kakizaki’s work, Portraits of Ezo Chieftains. (Y. and M. Kitao Collection)

EPORTS ABOUT AiNU—OR EZO (Yezo)—people abound in Japanese chronicles and semi-mythological literature of medieval times. The question of their origins is never raised in these sources, but they do contain priceless data about the Ainu before their contact with Western researchers. Especially valuable are sources of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by Tokunai Mogami (1790,- fig. 16.9), Rinzo Mamiya (1855), and Takeshiro Matsuura (1851). The earliest reports by Western European and Russian scholars and voyagers to the area also contain some very detailed and interesting descriptions,- these individuals include Philipp Franz von Siebold (1832,- fig. 16.3), Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff (1812), Adam Johann von Krusenstern (1810-12,- fig. 16.1), Georg Wilhelm Steller (1774), and Stepan P. Krasheninnikov (1776).

Intensive scholarly research on the

to various institutions and places throughout Japan for purposes of educating its people and modernizing its practices, laid the foundation of modern scientific studies concerning the origins of the Japanese and various local populations in Japan. Among the many people to be mentioned with gratitude and due respect are Neil G. Munro (1908), Edward Morse (1 879), John Batchelor (1901), and Erwin E. Baelz (1900), all of whom greatly contributed to the pioneer studies in Japanese prehistory and Ainu cultural and physical anthropology.

Baelz was the first to compare the physical and cultural similarities between Ainu and Ryukyu islanders and to propose a hypothesis that identifies them as vestiges of the original population of Japan prior to the penetration of ancestors of the modern ethnic Japanese to this archipelago. Although the ethnic history of Japan seems

origins of various people and tribes of the earth developed only in the second half of the nineteenth century and was connected with evolutionist trends in history and anthropology, fostered by similar trends in biology.

This interest coincided with both the opening of Japan, following the visit of the American Naval Commodore Matthew C. Perry and his fleet to Tokyo in 1853, and with the beginning of western anthropology. A deep and penetrating curiosity about Japan's history and traditional cultures resulted, affecting the then-fledgling fields of archaeology and physical anthropology. These early anthropologists, as well as missionaries and practical advisors invited by the Japanese government

to be more complex, Baelz's basic theory of a dual population structure for Japan is corroborated by recent research (Hanihara 1991,- Kozintsev 1993). On the other hand, Baelz was among the first to interpret the racial peculiarities of the Ainu population as evidence of a certain group of "Caucasianlike" (i.e., Europoid) population that allegedly preceded the spread of Mongoloid (Asianoid) racial types in East Asia (fig. 1.1).

This thesis of "Caucasianness" of the Ainu was rather uncritically accepted and taken for granted by many European and Japanese scholars. It was, however, rejected by scholars of physical anthropology in Russia who instead preferred to believe in

1/ ORIGIN THEORIES

the Australoid affiliation of the Ainu physical type and in their southern origins, supposedly from somewhere in southern China, Indochina, and Austronesia. The ideas of a southern origin of the Ainu race were first postulated by L. Vivien de Saint-Martin (1872) and soon gamed wide acceptance among Russian anthropologists who studied mainly skeletal collections in museums (Anuchin 1876,Tarenetzky 1890). Later on, one of the leading authorities in early Soviet anthropology, Leo Shternberg, who as a revolutionary exile had worked among Nivkhi (formerly known as Gilyak) and Ainu groups of Sakhalin in the early 1900s, added much new data on religion, material culture, and Amu art, which in his opinion corroborated the theory of their southern origins (Shternberg 1933).

More or less simultaneously with Shternberg, important contributions to Ainu studies were made by a number of Polish schol

1.2 Ainu Men of Sakhalin

Physical and economic differences are evident between the Abashiri group and these wealthy Sakhalin Ainu traders photographed by Bronislaw Pilsudski between 1902 and 1905. Sakhalin formal garments differ from Hokkaido styles, and the men, who still wear beards, have Mongoloid features.

(NAA 98-10361)

ars like Izydor Kopernicki (1 882), I Radlinski (1892), B. Dybowski (1902), and Bronislaw Pilsudski (1912,- fig. 1.2). Among Russian scholars, perhaps only M. M. Dobrotvorskii, who worked among the Ainu of Sakhalin and published many valuable materials on their ethnography and language, did not share ideas either of Europoidness or Australoidness of the Ainu,- he held that their physical features are not strikingly different from their neighbors and concluded that the Ainu could be included in the Mongoloid race, a viewpoint that has largely been corroborated (Dobrotvorskii 1873, 1875).

All Soviet physical anthropologists of the first half of the twentieth century who had a chance to study living Ainu or cranioIogical collections (Trofimova 1932,- Debets 1935, 195 1, Cheboksarov 1947, 1951,-and Levin 1958) rejected the thesis of their Europoidness and basically followed the view taken by A. 1. Tarenetzky and Shternberg.

The idea of the Europoidness (Caucasoidness) of the Ainu continued to prevail in Western scholarship for some time and was strongly influenced and supported by George Montandon (1927, 1937), for whom, as he stated, this Europoidness was "de clarte'de s oleil," that is, as clear as the light of day. The reasons for such a declarative statement were, however, rather insufficient. Montandon based his opinion mostly on such features as the form and development of hair, the form of nose and eyes, eye color, etc. Dental features, genetic markers, blood-group factors, nonmetric cranial characteristics—all of which place the Ainu definitely outside the limits of the Europoid physical type — were not yet sufficiently known in Montandon's time.

In the twentieth century the greatest contribution to Ainu studies was made by Japanese scholars who emphasized collecting extant ethnographic and linguistic data, which were in danger of disappearing—a danger that has become a tragic reality. Luckily, Japanese scholars succeeded in gathering an enormous amount of data, which documented the Ainu cultural and linguistic legacy down to minute details. As the most important contributors one must mention Shin'ichiro Takakura (1940, 1947, 1949, 1960), Sadaka Nishizuru (1942), Kyosuke Kindaichi (1943, 1961), Yuko Yamamoto (1943, 1944), Genzo Sarashina (1955, 1968), Hiromichi Kono (1958), Motosuke Ishikawa (1962), Hitoshi Watanabe (1973), and many others. There have also been native Ainu contributors, such as the outstanding linguist Mashiho Chiri (1942, 1953-62, 1957), and the most important modern Ainu author who has written about the history and culture of his native people, Shigeru Kayano (1994).

The aspect of Ainu origins most vividly discussed by Japanese anthropologists was the Jomon-Ainu relationship. The question was whether the Neolithic people of the Jornon culture, known through archaeological research, should be considered direct ancestors of modern Ainu while being only marginally important to the formation of the modern

ethnic Japanese physical type (Wajin) or whether the Jomon people are to be placed among the most important ancestors of modern Japanese but not the Ainu.

The development of dental studies shed new light on these discussions. In particular, Christy Turner II has demonstrated that the teeth of Jomon people, as well as those of the Ainu, belong to an archaic type labeled by Turner as Sundadontic, whereas the teeth of modern Japanese (and many other modern populations of Eastern Asia) belong to a type of a more recent formation labeled Sinodontic (Turner 1976,- Kozintsev 1993,- Ishida, this volume) Introduction of dental material into the scope of the discussion was especially important because, as many physical anthropologists (Cheboksarov 1951) have noted, there is no single craniological trait (with the possible exception of eye orbital height) that would allow one to distinguish precisely between Ainu skulls and eastern and southeastern Mongoloid skulls, in spite of the obvious difference in appearance that can be observed among the living populations. Therefore, all previous arguments and comparisons, which were based exclusively on cranial features without examining the dentition, remained indecisive.

There is still not total agreement among anthropologists concerning the problem of Ainu origins, but a more or less prevailing point of view was formulated recently by Alexander Kozintsev (1993). According to Yamaguchi's and Hanihara's views and in accordance with Baelz's previous findings, Ainu and Ryukyuans represent more-or-less direct descendants of the Jomon populations, although during the last two or three millennia both have experienced continental Mongoloid admixtures, more clearly visible among Ryukyuans than among Ainu. Any Caucasoid resemblances of Ainu or Ryukyuans are to be considered accidental or, rather, ascending to a proto-Australoid heritage common to all humankind. The

modern Japanese are, to the contrary, basically descendants of various continental Mongoloid migrants, although they also possess about 10 to 20 percent of genes inherited from the Jomon people.

The Jomon people were Australoid not in the sense that they had migrated to Japan from somewhere in Indochina or Indonesia, let alone Australia, but in the sense that they, like some "Australoid" tribes of India, were extant representatives of those archaic, undifferentiated protoAustraloid types from which all more-specialized racial types, including Africanoids and Europoids, gradually developed on different continents. In other words, the Jomon people were related to and resembled those remote ancestors of the Asian Mongoloids who had not yet developed specific Mongoloid features. This point of view basically agrees with Tatyana Trofimova (1932). According to Kozintsev (1993), Ainu are extant Upper Paleolithic Australoid ancestors of recent Mongoloids. Essentially similar views have been expressed by several Japanese authors, such as Bin Yamaguchi (1967) and Keiichi Omoto and Shogo Misawa (1976).

Based on the current theory of Ainu origins, it is no longer necessary to search for a proto-Ainu homeland in the remote south, either in Indochina or even further south. The continental ancestors of the Jomon people might have lived anywhere in southern or eastern China and/or the Amur River area as well The later genetic and cultural influences from the Russian Far East Maritime/Amur/Manchuria region to northern Jomon peoples and the Ainu occurred for the most part shortly before or soon after the time of Christ. These influences have been documented beyond any doubt (Kiyono 1955,- Oba 1955, 1956,Chubarova 1957,- Levin 1958,- Kozyreva 1967,- and Befu and Chard 1964).

1/ ORIGIN THEORIES

31

Ainu

Homelands:

Natural History from Ice Age to Modern Times

Yugo Ono

A lthough there are different opinions on the origin of the Ainu, archaeological research confirms that they represent the end of a long chain of aboriginal settlement that began more than 20,000 years ago during the last and coldest phase of the Ice Age. Knowledge of a Paleolithic occupation of the Japanese archipelago has come to the attention of Japanese archaeologists only during the past few decades, when research accelerated rapidly because of an increase in salvage excavations resulting from development projects. The discovery that Japan had a lengthy Paleolithic settlement has also stimulated new interest in the early environments of these Late Ice Age hunters. As a result we have learned much about the evolution of

landforms, changing climate and its influence on vegetation, effects of lowered and rising sea levels on adjacent seas and on the Japanese islands, and animal extinctions and introductions—to say nothing of the many ecological changes that occurred during the Holocene, the post-glacial period from 10,000 years ago to the present, when human activities increasingly affected envi

2.1 Ice-Age East Asia and Today

Permafrost was more extensive than continental glaciation in eastern Asia because lack of moisture sources kept snow and ice from forming ice sheets that insulated the earth. This map illustrates the extent of permafrost in the Late Glacial Maximum (ca. 18,000 years ago) and today. Late Glacial and modern shorelines are also shown.

1-5 Present permafrost distribution

1. continuous

2. southern limit of discontinuous permafrost

3. southern limit of sporadic permafrost

4. southern limit of 50cmdeep seasonal frost

5. southern limit of seasonal frost

6-8 Permafrost distribution in the Late Glacial Maximum

6. southern limit of continuous permafrost

7. southern limit of discontinuous permafrost

8. extent of alpine permafrost 9. Present soil wed6e

ronmental change.

°E

glacial maximum shoreline

present

shoreline

120°E

140°E

100°S

Tens of thousands of years 2.2 Sea-Level History

This graph shows fluctuations in sea level for the past 140,000 years. Sea level rose rapidly as the global climate warmed, and then fell for 100,000 years, only to rise again during the last ten millennia. Hatching denotes period of Hokkaido-Sakhalin land bridge.

This essay provides a brief description of the early landscapes and environments of Japan, focusing on its natural history as the context for the earliest human settlement in this region. We examine the natural history of Hokkaido, the northeastern island of the Japanese archipelago, where Ainu people live today, as well as the northern part of Honshu, where they may have lived in the past, to reveal why human-environmental interactions are crucial to understanding Japan's paleoenvironments and the changing role of humans as "ecological actors" through time.

Ice Ages and Paleolithic Japan

Archaeological remains of settlements that are more than 20,000 years old have been found in Hokkaido, providing evidence of a population that survived the coldest phase of the late glacial period. These people made various kinds of hunting and processing tools from obsidian, which was easily accessible from the volcanic regions of eastern Hokkaido. Their culture is known as Shiritaki, named for the modern village where the best-quality obsidian is found.

By the end of the glacial period, about 10,000 years ago, Shiritaki Paleolithic was replaced by a Mesolithic culture with similarities to cultures of the Lake Baikal region in southern Siberia. Their small "microlithic" tool industry was based on a new method of producing blades from small cores, and from these bladelets a wide variety of tools were made, including many believed to have been used for arming arrows for hunting large animals like deer and mammoth.

These Paleolithic and Mesolithic peoples seem to have had no direct connection with the Ainu, unlike the pottery-making Neolithic Jomon culture. The Jomon culture is known either as Epi-jomon (reflecting its modified form) or Zoku-Jomon in Hokkaido

("Zoku" means northern), where it persisted until about 2,000 years ago. It was replaced in southern Hokkaido by Satsumon culture and in the north by the Okhotsk culture. Jomon culture spread widely throughout the Japanese islands in the warmer period that followed the melting of glacial ice. Although the origin of Jomon culture has never been clear, it probably originated from regional variants of the earlier Paleolithic and Mesolithic cultures, because regional varieties of Jomon are known throughout Japan.

In Honshu and the southern islands, Yayoi culture replaced Jomon about 2,000 years ago and led to the formation of the Japanese state during the first millennium A.D. Yayoi did not penetrate Hokkaido mainly because its severe climate did not permit rice cultivation, the

2.3 Bathymetry of Soya Strait

Shallow waters in Soya Strait ensured a land connection between Sakhalin and Hokkaido for much of the last Ice Age.

economic base of this culture. Ainu culture seems to have originated from the earlier Jomon and Epi-Jomon cultures whose peoples had developed special adaptations to the

natural resources of the Hokkaido environment and persisted in this essentially nonagricultural tradition, with only limited growth of garden farming, until the nineteenth century.

45°N

The Northern Ice-Age Land Bridge

The Hokkaido Ice Age was characterized by major changes in coastline and natural environments. Figure 2.1 illustrates the coastline of the entire Japanese islands and eastern Asia at the Late Glacial Maximum about 40 1 8,000 years ago,- at that time, most of northern North America was covered by a continental-scale glacier called the Laurentide Ice Sheet whose surface and ice volume were approximately the same as the present Antarctic Ice Sheet. Northern Europe, 35 o England, and Ireland were also covered by a similar ice sheet, and the total volume of ice on earth was three times larger than at present.

Because the water on earth circulates in a closed system in which there is no new source inside or outside the earth and no water leaves the system, the volume of seawater decreases 30 ° enormously when a large ice sheet builds up on land. Most of the water that evaporates from the sea falls on land as snow, where it contributes to glaciers and ice sheets. Because glaciers and ice sheets flow extremely slowly compared

2.4 Late Glacial Fauna

Ice-Age Japan had many cold-adapted mammals. Throughout much of this time Japan was a peninsula of Asia, and the Sea of Japan was connected to the Pacific Ocean at Korea Strait. (Ono and Igarashi 1992)

with rivers, water on the land cannot reach the sea for long periods of time, and the volume of seawater thus decreases, causing a remarkable change in sea levels throughout the world (fig. 2.2). The sea level was decreased by at least

2/AINU HOMELANDS

33

2.5 Present Vegetation Zones of North and East Asia

(after Ono and Igarashi 1992)

2.6 Phytogeography of Japan at Late Glacial Maximum (18,000 Years Ago)

(after Ono and Igarashi 1992)

340 feet (100 meters) during the Late Glacial Maximum, effecting great changes to the coastline of the Japanese archipelago (fig. 2.1).

The most significant change occurred in Hokkaido, which was completely connected to the Asian continent by a land bridge or a relatively narrow strip of land that emerged from the sea during this period of lowered sea level (Ono 1991). During the same period that Hokkaido was connected to the Asian continent via the island of Sakhalin by two land bridges—at the Soya Strait and the Marniya Strait—the Bering Land Bridge, one of the largest land bridges of the Ice Age, connected Asia and North America at the northwestern edge of present-day Alaska.

A bathymetric map of the Soya Strait (fig. 2.3) illustrates that the land bridge here appears when the sea level is 150 feet (fortyfive meters) lower than its present level. The Marniya Strait, separating Sakhalin from the Asian continent, is very shallow—less than thirty-two feet (ten meters) deep—thus the Sakhalin land bridge emerges with a relatively small reduction of current sea levels. On the other hand, the Tsugaru Strait between

Honshu and Hokkaido is very deep, exceeding 435 feet (1 30 meters), so a land bridge would not be created there even when Ice Age sea levels reached their lowest point. This geographical situation gave Hokkaido a different geographical orientation during the Ice Age: it was a peninsula of the Asian continent for a much longer time than it was an island, as today.

These conditions have contributed to similarities between the fauna and flora of Hokkaido and the Asian continent on the one hand and on the other, to differences between biota in Honshu and Hokkaido. Biogeographically, the Tsugaru Strait corresponds to a remarkable boundary, the Blakiston Line, which separates northern fauna from southern fauna (fig. 2.4). Many species of fauna that once lived or are still living in Hokkaido cannot be found in Honshu, whereas fossils of mammoth and northern types of deer are found only in Hokkaido.

The corresponding boundary for flora lies in the middle of Sakhalin, where a northern conifer forest (taiga) that exists throughout Siberia is replaced by a mixed forest that char

acterizes the flora of Hokkaido (fig. 2.5). This vegetation boundary, called the Schmidt Line, migrated southward during the Late Glacial Maximum to the middle or southern part of Hokkaido, and Siberian larch (Larix tpndini ) mixed with the more southern Alpine pine (Pinas pumila ) to produce a taiga forest (fig. 2.6).

The Ice Age-Hoiocene Change

When the late glacial period of the Ice Age ended about 10,000 years ago, the natural environment of Hokkaido changed quickly. The Ice Age taiga forest and forest tundra disappeared and were replaced by a mixed forest in the island's lowlands. A pollen diagram that indicates the percentage of different tree species living in lowland northern Hokkaido (fig. 2.7) shows these dramatic environmental changes. The diagram clearly records the replacement of the northern taiga forest by the mixed forest between the Ice Age and the Holocene, that is, between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago. The Siberian larch forest completely disappeared from Hokkaido about 8,000 years ago, and the tundra vegeta

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Age BP.

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B siit ES peat H clay I—I sand

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2.7 Vegetation History This diagram shows changes in the vegetation of the Furano basin in central Hokkaido for the last 32,000 years. The end of the Ice Age and beginning of the warmer Holocene is indicated by the decline in tundra species and rise of forest shrubs and trees, (after Ono and Igarashi 1992)

tion survived only on higher mountains such as Mount Taisetsu in central Hokkaido. In southern Hokkaido, a cool-temperate deciduous forest dominated by beech (Facjus) spread north from its Ice Age refugium in Honshu.

Although the climatic change from the cold Ice Age to the warm Holocene began more than 10,000 years ago, the arrival of the first beech forest in Hokkaido was retarded: sea levels had risen, and the Tsugaru Strait between Honshu and Hokkaido became wider. Because beech seeds are not tolerant of sea

water, seeds transported into Hokkaido may have depended on birds and humans. Findings of beech seeds in the food remains at Jomon sites seem to support this possibility. Although no boats have yet been found in Jomon sites in Hokkaido, humans were certainly moving between Honshu and Hokkaido by 8,000 years ago, and beech seeds would have been traveling in their stomachs and in the guts of birds.

The Early and Middle Jomon periods (ca. 5,000-6,000 years ago) correspond to the so-called Holocene "climatic optimum." The climate by this time had become the warmest of the postglacial era, and sea levels rose to their maximum. Recent finds from large archaeological sites on both sides of the Tsugaru Strait—Sannai-Maruyama in Aomori Prefecture on the Honshu side and Nakano-B and Ofuna-C sites near Hakodate in southern Hokkaido—suggest a much more active cultural interaction between the two locations during this warm climatic period. Although a direct link between these Jomon people and the Ainu has never been proven, the natural environments in which their cultures developed show many similarities. This, along with genetic and other similarities proven by physical anthropological studies, seems to indicate the intimate relationship between the Ainu and the first jomon peoples who lived in Hokkaido.

The Natural History of the Hokkaido Jomon and Ainu Peoples

Even though Ainu appeared later than the Jomon and differ from them in many respects, the habitats in which they thrived show remarkable similarities. These are due to the fact that their natural environments during the Holocene were basically the same, although obviously some physical and climatic changes occurred over time.

Two very basic elements were most important for the lifestyles of the Jomon and Ainu people in Hokkaido: the broadleaf forest (including a cool-temperate beech forest in southern Hokkaido and a mixed deciduous forest in other parts) and rivers. The broadleaf forest provided not only beech seeds but also oak acorns, both crucial foods for Jomon and Ainu people. Recent excavations at Sannai-Maruyama and Ofuna-C suggest that early-to-middle-period Jomon people had already planted chestnut trees ( Castanea ) near their villages in order to

2.8 Hunter’s Bearskin Pouch

The bear, which the Ainu revered as god of the mountains ( kimun-kamuy ), provided the Ainu with food and necessary materials for life. To thank it for providing these resources, people honored the bear with ritual and ceremony. This bearskin pouch holds a hunter’s flint, steel, and tinder, as well as tobacco, used for kamuy-nomt —prayers to the gods. It was collected in Okotsonai, Hokkaido, by Hiram Hiller in 1901. (UPM A454)

2.9 Salmon and Ainu Today

Salmon was a principal food resource for many Ainu, and its skin was used for waterproof boots and other articles. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, the Ainu were prohibited from catching salmon; that right was given to Japanese commercial fishermen. Even today Ainu must obtain special permission to catch fish needed for their annual first-salmon ceremony. Traditional fishing rights are one of many political issues dividing the Ainu and the Japanese government.

harvest their nuts. Acorns were also an important source of food for various forms of wildlife, especially the brown bear, one of the most important animal resources for the Ainu. According to the animistic beliefs of the Ainu, the brown bear spirit is the most important god in their cosmology, and many ritual ceremonies have been developed related to hunting this animal (fig. 2.8). Broadleaf forests also supply many kinds of vegetable foods used by the Ainu from spring through fall, such as the roots of wild lilies, rhubarb, berries, and mushrooms. The Ainu make use of nearly all kinds of trees as materials for housing, boats, and clothing, and many kinds of medicines were prepared from the trees, herbs, and animals of the broadleaf-forest zone. This forest was, in essence, the central life-support system for the Ainu.

The Ainu have traditionally been people of the rivers: their settlements are always placed along waterways, and river products once provided much food and many other materials central to Ainu life. Probably the most important of river resources were salmon,

which returned in the fall: salmon provided not only food but also materials for boots and clothing (fig. 2.9). These fish were (and are still) considered to be the most precious gift of the gods, and even today the Ainu celebrate their appearance and capture them with elaborate ritual in their "First Salmon" ceremonies (Roche and Fdutchinson 1998), although now they must procure a special license in advance to do so. The intimate link between the Ainu and rivers is shown clearly by the abundance of place-names that they have given to river locations: even small tributaries are named, and every bank and cliff that has any relevance to their lives is recognized with an Ainu word. Although mountains are important to the Ainu—they penetrate deeply into this realm for trapping and hunting deer, bear, and other animals— they never gave names to the mountains themselves but rather named them after the rivers that originated there.

Fdokkaido has harsh winters even though it is located farther south (42 to 45 degrees north latitude) than Alaska or Canada. It receives heavy snows because of a winter monsoon wind that blows from Siberia and draws humidity as it passes over the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk, which lies along the northern coast of FJokkaido and freezes in winter.

Basic winter nourishment for the Ainu was provided by salmon, which return to the rivers in the fall, and the brown bear, which hibernates, making it easy to capture. Migrating herds of deer also provided winter food (fig. 2.10). Hunting and fishing, together with the collection of a wide range of vegetative foods from the broadleaf forest, enabled the Ainu to utilize Hokkaido's natural environment and maintain their unique culture and lifestyle. In modern times, the brown bear population has continued to decline as a result of the loss and fragmentation of forests due to logging and agriculture.

The Destruction of Hokkaido's Natural Resources

Two maps (figs. 2.1 la, b) clearly illustrate changes to Hokkaido that have occurred since the arrival of outsiders from Honshu after the Meiji Restoration. Although the colonization of Ezo (Hokkaido's former name) was attempted by the shogunate in the Edo period (1615-1868), systematic development began only after the Meiji Restoration,these works have included agricultural devel

ANCIENT ROOTS / Y. ONO

2.10 Chief Noshikosa of Shamokotan Together with salmon and other fish, deer was an important subsistence resource for Ainu people nearly everywhere in Hokkaido. In Sakhalin, reindeer was the principal quarry. Deer-hunting was a common theme for Ainu-e painters; this painting of an Ainu chieftain with his quarry by Teiki Kojima is a 1843 copy after Hakyo Kakizaki's series Portraits of Ezo Chieftains. (Y. and M. Kitao Collection)

opment, intensive lumbering, and fishing offshore along the Hokkaido coast. Within a century, most of the broadleaf-forest cover has disappeared from the island. Wetlands along the rivers have been filled or dried to expand the agricultural landbase. Rivers have been straightened and their banks cemented to protect new rice fields along the lowlands from erosion and flooding. These river works, which include the construction of dams and embankments, completely changed the ecology of the rivers on which the Ainu have built their economy, life, and culture.

Salmon still ascend the rivers, but many cannot reach their spawning grounds because of dams. The salmon catch is conducted by

Japanese officials, and the Ainu were excluded from salmon fishing—even though the official government policy held that Ainu were "Japanese"—until the passage of the new law, or Ainu Shinpo, in 1997 (Roche and Hutchinson 1998,- Kaizawa, Sasamura, this volume). A highly symbolic infringement on the Ainu ecosystem involved the construction of a major dam on the Saru River at Niputani in the early 1990s. Two Ainu leaders—Shigeru Kayano, who later became a member of the National Diet, and Tadashi Kaizawa—filed a lawsuit opposing the construction of this dam in their home village, for the dam not only prevents salmon from swimming upstream but has

2.12

2.12 Kingfisher Owl,

Guardian of the Village The kingfisher owi is important to the Ainu, and like bears, salmon, and many other animals, it is featured in ritual and ceremony. Modern development practices threaten its habitat, and Ainu have asked for regulations to protect this and other species endangered by Hokkaido's rapid and ecologically harmful development program.

2.11 a, b Land-use Change from WIeui Period to Present One hundred years of industrial-scale development, especially in forestry and agriculture, have brought major changes to Hokkaido’s natural forest ecosystem. Destruction of the broadleaf forest, construction of dams, and channelization of rivers threatens the livelihood of not only the Ainu but of the huge Japanese population that now resides in Hokkaido.

also destroyed the site of salmon ceremonies. The case was under consideration in the courts for a long time, and eventually the Ainu won, but by then it was too late because the dam had already been constructed.

Another instance of the continued environmental destruction of the Ainu homeland involves the kingfisher owl (Bubo blakistoni; fig. 2.12). This existence of this owl, the largest in Japan, has become endangered by channeling projects and agricultural development along the rivers (Ono 1997). Because the owl's habitat is restricted to riparian forests, where they primarily eat fish from rivers, the cutting of trees and catching of large numbers of salmon (to obtain fish for artificial breeding purposes) have threatened their survival. The owl's circumstances offer an ironic parallel to the plight of the Ainu themselves, who effectively lost their way of life when their right to catch salmon was prohibited by the Japanese government. The rapidly disappearing kingfisher owl is an Ainu god: it guards the village ( kotan ), and its decline may be read as a parable of recent Ainu history.

2.11a

2.11b

Prehistoric Hokkaido and Ainu Origins

Kiyoshi Yamaura and Hiroshi Ushiro

3.1 Duck-Effigy Flute (replica)

This ceramic figurine was found at Bibi-4 site, Chitose, Hokkaido, and dates from the Final Jomon period (1,000 b.c.). Most Japanese archaeologists interpret this ceramic effigy as a duck in flight, but it is clearly not exactly a duck but rather some kind of transformational spirit (duck/sea otter?) whose form is not fixed in nature. Nor is its function understood: holes in its bottom, chest, and lower body make it useless as a normal vessel, but it could have been used as a kind of flute. It is covered with Jomon designs and has red ocher pigment around the eyes, mouth, and vessel openings. (HMH: Japanese National Important Cultural Property)

W HERE DID THE AlNU PEOPLE come from and how was their culture established? Scholars in linguistics, ethnology, history, biological anthropology, and archaeology have tried to answer these questions for many years and have made major advances. Because the Ainu did not have written language, archaeological studies play a crucial role in explaining their origins. This essay explores Ainu origins and antecedents largely based on evidence from Hokkaido, which is the homeland of the largest Ainu population and seems to have been central to its evolution in prehistory (H. Okada 1998; Utagawa 1980a, b ; Yamaura 1998).

Archaeological surveys in Hokkaido have been conducted for nearly one hundred years. In the beginning, it was a small-scale effort, but after the 1970s larger surveys and excavations were required to mitigate infrastructure developments, including road construction, house-building, dams, coastal engineering, and airport growth. The number (seventy-nine) and total area (about thirtyone square miles, or 50,000 square meters) of these excavations in 1997 alone make public archaeology in Hokkaido one of the most extensive such programs in the world.

In order to clarify the origin of the Ainu and their prehistoric culture it is also necessary to study areas surrounding Hokkaido. The history of archaeological study in Sakhalin, the lower Amur River region, northeastern China, eastern Siberia, the Kurile Islands, Kamchatka, and the northern coast of the Sea of Okhotsk also dates back almost one hundred years, as in Hokkaido. But because only

a few researchers are working in these areas today and their excavations are for the most part small-scale efforts, archaeological information is still quite limited.

Examining the prehistoric cultures of Hokkaido beginning with the oldest stage, with a focus on the emerging phases of each era and culture, provides a clearer understanding of both the independent origins and development of prehistory in Hokkaido (Amino 1990,- Nihon Kokogaku Kyokai 1994) and its close relationship with surrounding regions (figs. 3.1, 3.2).

Paleolithic Cultures

The Paleolithic or "Old Stone Culture" dates to the Ice Age, which ended about 14,000 years ago. Global temperatures cooled, the sea level dropped more than 300 feet (100 meters) below todays oceans,- and Hokkaido was connected to the Eurasian continent by a land bridge across Sakhalin It is also possible that the Korean peninsula and the presentday islands of Kyushu and Honshu were connected to the Asian mainland (fig. 2.1). Hokkaido was covered by tundra, and mammoths, moose, elk, and probably reindeer migrated to Japan over the Sakhalin land mass.

It is assumed that humans moved to Hokkaido as hunters who followed the movements of these animals into this newly accessible territory, but to date there has been no clear consensus about when such a movement occurred. The oldest archaeological sites in Japan date to about 50,000 years ago and have been found near Sendai in northern Honshu and in Tokyo. Although sites of this age have not yet been

3.4 Ceramic Vessel The Japanese ceramic tradition is among the earliest in the world, having begun as early as 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. This conical vessel with its scalloped, shell-impressed rim is one of two Incipient Jomon (6,000 b.c.) pottery types that are found in different regions of Hokkaido, which suggests that cultural differences already existed among the island's Jomon population.

It was found at Narukawa, Narukawacho. Hokkaido. (HMH)

discovered in Hokkaido, they probably will be found in the future, because Hokkaido may have been the only land passage between the Asian mainland and Honshu at that time.

At present the earliest Paleolithic sites in Hokkaido (fig. 3.3) belong to the Hokkaido Microlithic ("small tool") culture and date to about 20,000 years ago. Several hundred such sites are known, and many are also present in other islands of Japan. Microlithic technology spread into Japan from Siberia and northern China. It appears that the oldest Microlithic culture sites are in the region between Lake Baikal in Siberia and northeastern China (H. Kimura 1997). After originating in these areas, Microlithic culture spread south into Hokkaido from Sakhalin and into Honshu and Kyushu from the Korean peninsula. The fact that Microlithic culture existed across vast areas of Northeast Asia, including Siberia and Japan, shows that these early people had excellent hunting skills and were adapted to a variety of northern forest, tundra, and coastal conditions during the coldest

phase of the Ice Age. 1 hese skills allowed them to cross the Bering land bridge and colonize Alaska quickly when conditions began to improve 15,000 years ago.

Jomon Culture

Archaeologists throughout the world see the emergence of pottery as an important milestone in cultural development. Whether a culture had ceramics was a major criterion that scholars used in the nineteenth century to separate the Paleolithic and Neolithic ages. On the islands of Japan, ceramics appeared during the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene epoch, 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, and is the hallmark of Jomon culture fig. 3.3), whose sites are found throughout Hokkaido and Honshu (Chiyo 1984a, b). Jomon's existence in Japan for almost 10,000 years makes it one of the longest-running single cultural traditions in the world, whose hunting-andgathering economy was so well adapted to the environmental conditions that few economic disruptions seem to have occurred.

3.2 Archaeological Cultures of Hokkaido

AMD SURROUNDING REGIONS

3.3 Geological Stratigraphy and Culture Periods of the Misawa River Region in Chitose and Tomakomai Regions (HACRIC)

Present «=

A.D.1200

A.D. 700 A.D. 600 A.D.250 250 B.C.

5,000 B.C.

10,000 B.C.

30,000 B.C.

Honshu

Historic

Period

YAMATO

Japanese state formation

KOFUN sta te forma tion

YAYOI agriculture

Hokkaido-Sakhalin

HISTORIC

AINU

EPI-JOMON

hunting

gathering

fishing

Final

Late

Middle

Early

Initial

Incipient

F

JOMON m

E

hunting i gathering

fishing Incipient

PALEOLITHIC

hunting-gathering-fishing

3.5 Killer Whale (replica)

The Ainu know the killer whale (orca) as the god of the sea ( repun-kamuy). In the past orcas were both feared and revered as the most powerful predators in the ocean. Although they endangered fishermen, they also drove whales ashore into human hands. This sculpture was probably used for rituals involving this animal; it dates from the Middle Jomon period (3,000-2,000 b.c.) and was found at the Kikyo-2 site, Hakodate, Hokkaido. Effigies of bears, deer, and turtles also date to this period. (HACRIC)

Jomon development is most easily traced through stylistic changes in its ceramic tradition, which produced, at various stages, highly flamboyant and distinctive pottery types.

How did the Jomon culture develop in Hokkaido? The origin of pottery in Japan has been argued for some time, and the debate— whether it began in Japan itself or in China or Siberia—has not been settled The Jomon culture is divided into six periods according to changes in ceramics: Incipient, Initial, Early, Middle, Late, and Final. It is unclear whether immigrants brought Jomon culture from Honshu or whether people who had lived in Hokkaido since the Pleistocene epoch acquired Jomon characteristics indirectly by trade and social contacts with Honshu peoples.

In what way did the lifestyle of the Jomon people differ from that of the Paleolithic people? Obviously, their lives were deeply affected by environmental changes occurring at the end of the Ice Age, most importantly from climate warming. In Hokkaido this resulted in a change from taiga (forest-tundra) to coniferous forest and later to a mixed coniferous/broadleaf forest. In addition, rising sea levels caused the warm Tsushima current to flow into the Sea of Japan from the south, and the warmer seasurface temperature brought heavier winter snowfalls and conditions that were generally warmer and more moist.

In this environment the Jomon people

continued gathering wild foods, hunted large game, and caught salmon, ocean fish, and sea mammals as in the Paleolithic (fig. 3.5), but their way of living changed significantly. Their more settled village life made it possible to utilize pottery, and pithouses quickly replaced the briefly occupied hunting camps of Paleolithic times. Through time, these pithouse villages grew larger and cemeteries appeared (Watanabe 1990a). By Late Jomon, circular cemeteries 100 to 300 feet (30 to 40 meters) in diameter surrounded by ten-foothigh earthen embankments were being used. Evidence of social stratification also appears, indicated by groups of individuals buried with elaborate grave goods found around the edge and outside the embankment, whereas those in the central locations had more simple interments.

Although Jomon people utilized a hunter-gatherer economy like that of their Paleolithic predecessors, their subsistence activities diversified and became more regionally focused. Brown bears and deer took the place of Ice Age animals that had become extinct,- hunting of fur seals, sea lions, and common seals with toggling harpoons began in coastal areas,- and fishing with poles and nets and gathering of shellfish began. Gathering nuts, such as acorns and beechnuts, was another new activity that came with the appearance of mixed coniferous-broadleaf forests in Hokkaido. In short, the Jomon people devised a way of life in which they effectively utilized all available resources in the environment surrounding their villages.

Just as there were regional differences among various Jomon groups in Honshu, Jomon culture sites in Hokkaido also did not have a single unified expression. Ceramics from the northern and southern parts of the Ishikari lowland were very different during the Early and Middle phases, whereas ceramics in southern Hokkaido were similar to those found in the Tohoku district of northern Honshu but differed from those from northern and eastern Hokkaido. During these periods, southwest Hokkaido is assumed to have had strong cultural ties with the Tohoku district through trade and marriage.

Although many sites exhibit ties to Honshu, evidence of northern contacts and material exchange with cultures of the lower Amur River region via Sakhalin is seen at various stages. The strongest links appear to be during the Early Jomon period, when Sites

3.6 Ceramic Mask (replica)

This Final Jomon (ca. 400 b.c.) ceramic mask was found in 1986 in almost perfect condition near a Jomon cemetery in the Mamachi site, Chitose, Hokkaido. Photogrammetry reveals careful rendering of the face, whose open mouth suggests a death figure or a shaman in trance. Edge perforations show that it was attached to something else, perhaps to a grave post. Death masks are found in Shang and Chou burials in China, and in Ipiutak Eskimo burials in Alaska; Koryak and other ethnographic groups of northeastern Asia used leather masks to cover the faces of the dead. (HMH; Japanese National Important Cultural Property)

Owl Eyes

This ceramic fragment (Final Jomon, 1,000 b.c.) is one of the few archaeological pieces that show the kingfisher owl, whose face is molded into the vessel rim. Although the owl’s role in Jomon culture is not known, the Ainu revere it as kotan-kor-kamuy (guardian of the village) and honor it in ceremony and ritual. This was found at the Bibi-4 site, Chitose, Hokkaido. (HPGBE)

3.9 Stone Rod (replica)

This stone rod (Final Jomon, ca. 1,000400 b.c.) was pecked from hard igneous rock; it comes from the Kashiwagi-B site, Eniwa, Hokkaido. Two rings are cut into one end and three in the other, and both ends are colored with red ocher. Its function is unknown, but lack of wear suggests that it had a ritual function. Ornamented clubs were used by Eskimos for killing seals, and Ainu and Northwest Coast Indians had special decorated clubs for killing salmon for their first-salmon ceremonies. (HMH)

in northern and eastern Hokkaido contain ceramics, lithics, bone, ivory, and antler artifacts (figs. 3.6-3.10) that are so similar to Amur region cultures that an actual migration of people is the most plausible explanation.

ZoK.ii -Jomon Culture

Around 300 B.C., agricultural people with iron tools began to move into southern Honshu and Kyushu from the continent. As this new culture, known as Yayoi, expanded, its agricultural techniques were adopted by the Jomon people, and this agricultural society gradually expanded into northern Honshu By 100 B.C., Yayoi culture appeared in Aomori prefecture, across the strait from Hokkaido. Yayoi led directly to the initial stages of Japan's first statelevel society, which emerged in the Yamato region in southwestern Honshu (today's Nara prefecture) at the end of the third century as social stratification and regional integration progressed. This culture is called Kofun (Tumulus) after its practice of burying prominent individuals in large mounds. These changes were not immediately felt in Hokkaido, where a northern variation and an evolved stage of the earlier Jomon tradition developed,it is known either by the compound ZokuJomon, which recognizes its regional character because "Zoku" means northern in Japanese, or by the term Epi-Jomon, which points to its later, modified nature.

Several hypotheses have been presented

3.9

to explain why Yayoi culture was not introduced to Hokkaido. One posits that its economic foundation, rice farming, could not be practiced there because of the harsh northern environment, whereas another claims there was no need for rice farming because the hunting-and-gathering society established in Hokkaido was already economically selfsufficient. Both theories are probably correct.

Epi-Jomon culture did not simply replace the Jomon hunter-gatherer society, for some characteristics particular to early Epi-Jomon tradition have been observed in southwestern Hokkaido where they are recognized as Esan culture. Esan ceramics show similarities to the Yayoi earthenware

found in northern Tohoku, and its people used iron knives brought from that area. They also carved spoons with images of bears and sea animals reminiscent of the carvings seen on Ainu ritual prayer sticks ( ikupasuy ), and some ceramics have bearlike images, suggesting a special religious and ceremonial interest in this species.

Fishing techniques also advanced, and new types of toggling harpoons (figs. 3.123.14) made from iron were developed for sea-mammal hunting. These changes can be explained by trading relationships with the

3.11 Bear-Effigy Vessel (replica) Effigies of animals have been found in many Okhotsk sites, whose pithouses sometimes have ritual altars. This bear head (ca. a.d. 800) was carved on a large wooden bowl that was carbonized in a house fire; it was recovered from the Matsunorikawa Kitagishi site, Rausu, Hokkaido. The presence of a design resembling the Ainu itokpa (ancestral mark) of repun-kor-kamuy, the killer whale and god of the sea, suggests the vessel had a ceremonial function. Similar effigy vessels (without itokpa) were used by Northwest Coast Indians. (RTBE)

new Yayoi agricultural society of northern Tohoku that provided these Hokkaido people not only with iron tools but with rice and other southern products that were exchanged for sea-mammal products and other valuable northern materials.

Epi-Jomon influence from Hokkaido extended south into the Tohoku district of northern Honshu, and by A.D. 400-500, during its late phase, its influence is seen even in the Sendai region near the northern boundary of Kofun (Tumulus) culture. This has been interpreted as evidence of Epi-Jomon interest in obtaining goods from the Kofun culture,

which was advancing northward. Epi-Jomon people also obtained goods from the Kinki (Kyoto-Osaka) area, including swords, armor, harnesses, precious-metal products, and glass.

Okhotsk Culture

In A.D. 400-500 an important new development occurred with the appearance of Okhotsk culture in southern Sakhalin (Yamaura 1998). Okhotsk people engaged in sea-mammal hunting, shallow- and deepwater fishing, as well as hunting of land animals,- they also raised pigs—a rather unusual practice for a maritime-hunting society. The techniques used to hunt sea animals originated with the Epi-Jomon culture of Hokkaido, whereas pig farming was introduced from the lower Amur River region and China. Okhotsk ceramics show a complex mix of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and Amur River styles.

These people spread from southern Sakhalin to the Okhotsk coast of eastern Hokkaido and further east and north into the Kuriles during A.D. 600-700. A major stimulus for this expansion seems related to political disorder in the lower Amur River region, resulting from the imposition of a tributary system by the Manchurian Sui and Tang dynasties and their allies in the lower Amur. Okhotsk culture had difficulty advancing along the Sea of Japan side of

< 3.8 Ceramic Figurine (replica)

Jomon ceramic figurines reveal ethnographic information through hairstyles, clothing, and garment designs. This figurine (Final Jomon, ca. 700-400 b.c.) from the Motowanishi site, Muroran, Hokkaido, establishes that Jomon clothing utilized spiral-band ornamentation at the base and shoulders of their garments similar to the morew patterns produced by Ainu seamstresses. Such figurines were probably used for protection against illness, infertility, and the dangers of childbirth. (HMH)

3.10 Pedestal Vessel This elaborate Epi-Jomon (ca. 300 b.c.) ceramic vessel from the Minamikawa site, Setana-cho, Hokkaido, has the shape and design of Final Jomon ritual vessels. The open-work pedestal may have facilitated its use for ceremonial cooking. (HMH)

3/ PREHISTORIC HOKKAIDO

3.12, 3.13, 3.14 Fishhook and Harpoons (replicas)

Maritime hunting and fishing required specialized equipment. This hook and the engraved toggling harpoon with an agate blade were found at the EpiJomon (ca. a.d. 1) Esan site in Hokkaido. The latter was used for hunting sea mammals and swordfish. The barbed harpoon with the serrated base is made of deer bone and dates to the Okhotsk period, ca. a.d. 500, from Kafukai-A, Repun, Hokkaido. Because a small fish is engraved on its base, it was probably used to harpoon salmon or trout. Eskimos used such decorations as a mark of respect that enhanced a weapon’s power. (HMH)

Hokkaido and into the Hokkaido interior because these areas were already occupied by Epi-Jomon and Satsumon people. Nonetheless, they did enter Japan's northern territories and in most places found sea-mammal hunting more productive than raising pigs, with the result that sea-mammal hunting intensified (figs. 3.13, 3.14, 3.18, 3.19). Advancing maritime capabilities also resulted in expanded trade contacts in which sea-mammal products were exchanged for Japanese swords and knives through Satsumon intermediaries and for bronze ornaments and glass beads from northeastern China through contacts in the lower Amur.

Okhotsk people, who may have been the first permanent residents of the Kurile Islands, spread throughout the chain, where their pithouse villages are found in protected bays and coves, and even reached the northernmost islands and perhaps even southern Kamchatka. In addition to fish and sea-mammal bones, their sites sometimes contain reindeer bones and antler, indicating contact or trade with the predecessors of the native Itel'men peoples of southern Kamchatka, for reindeer are not known to have occupied the Kurile Islands.

Okhotsk pithouses were either pentagonal or hexagonal in shape and had a diameter of about 30 to 35 feet (10 meters). Upon excavation, a deposit of bear and sea-mammal cranial bones is often found inside the back wall opposite the entrance. These bones are

3.17 Wide-Mouth Vessel

This pot (ca. a.d. 800) was reassembled from broken fragments found at Futatsuiwa site,

Abashiri, Hokkaido. It is typical of vessels found at Hokkaido Okhotsk sites with a flat bottom, plain body, and wavy lines around the rim. Okhotsk was a maritime culture that appeared in Hokkaido from the north, displacing the previous Epi-Jomon culture. (HMH)

interpreted as evidence that the residents conducted "sending ceremonies" as did many northern cultures in which the spirits of killed animals were returned to their home worlds with special rituals (figs. 3.15a, b, 3.16). Detailed examination of the bear skulls (tooth wear, muscle attachments) shows that these animals were probably raised in captivity, as was the case in the Ainu bear-sending ceremony and similar ceremonies conducted by Amur-area cultures. Several hundred years later, around A.D. 1000, the Okhotsk culture appears to have been absorbed or replaced by Satsumon culture, which moved into their coastal territories in Hokkaido.

Satsumon Culture

The Satsumon culture first developed in Hokkaido around A.D. 700-800 (Yokoyama 1990). The ceramics of this period reflect contemporary Honshu production methods, and other aspects of Honshu influence can be seen. Hokkaido Satsumon people lived in squareshaped pithouses with fireplaces, used spindles and spindle whorls, and built round cemeteries like those known in the northern part of Tohoku,- there is little doubt that southwestern Hokkaido, including the Ishikari lowland in southern Hokkaido, was strongly influenced from the south at this

44

ANCIENT ROOTS/ K. YAM AURA AND H. USHIRO

3.15a

3.15b

3.15a, b, 3.16

Effigy Spoons (replicas)

Two of these spoons, from the EpiJomon Esan site, are of bone and have a killer whale and a bear on their handles; they date from ca. a.d. 1. The spoon below, decorated with a bear with outstretched paws, is from Usu10 in southern Hokkaido and is made of antler. All were probably used in animal-related rituals; the bear spoon suggests use in an iyomante (bearsending) ceremony. Siberian peoples used similar effigy spoons to feed spirits until modern times. (HMH)

time, probably by actual migrations from Tohoku that were themselves induced by expansion policies of the Yamato Imperial Court. Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan) (720) indicate that fortified stockades were built in A.D. 647 and 648 on the Sea of Japan side of northwestern Honshu and that three naval expeditions were sent along the Sea of Japan coast to Hokkaido, beginning in A.D. 658. Meanwhile, on the Pacific coast, relics thought to belong to an administrative office of the Yamato nation—a stockade or castle dating to about A.D. 700 — were discovered in the Sendai plains. These stockades were built by the immigrants themselves who were brought in to secure food and to fight as soldiers. This expansion of territory and the accompanying immigration policy encouraged northward movement of local residents from northern Tohoku and were major factors contributing to the establishment of Hokkaido Satsumon culture.

Hokkaido Satsumon culture, which was influenced by its sister culture in Honshu, also brought agricultural practices, including cultivation of barnyard millet and wheat, to Hokkaido for the first time. With this development, trade with Honshu became even more important in order to acquire iron tools, fabrics, rice, and sake in exchange for local products, including the meat and hides of bear, deer, seal, and fur seal, as well as kelp, salmon, and other materials.

Such active trade naturally promoted social stratification,- the emergence of tumulus graves venerating the memory and power of local and regional chiefs is evidence of this phenomenon. Their prominence must have been enhanced by the growth of trade networks in which Satsumon peoples exchanged manufactured goods from Honshu for Okhotsk-culture raw rtiaterial products from Hokkaido and the Sea of Okhotsk, and for Chinese manufactured goods via lower Amur middlemen. Eventually this relationship resulted in the absorption or replacement of Okhotsk peoples by their Satsumon trading relatives to the south.

Post-Satsumon Culture

By A.D. 900-1000, a major change took place in northern Tohoku. As agriculture grew more efficient, people released from direct food-production activities gradually shifted into the growing crafts-production market, and men began making wooden implements, lacquerware, iron goods, and pottery to sell. About the same time, the power of the samurai class that had originated in southern Honshu reached the north of Tohoku and their control over local residents was tightened,- production of export goods to Hokkaido became more organized, and the life of Satsumon people changed accordingly.

Then, suddenly, about A.D. 1200, production of ceramics ceased, and housing styles changed from pithouses to surface dwellings resembling those of the Ainu culture as known from ethnographic studies. Although an incipient form of iyomante was present in the Okhotsk culture, traces of this ceremony for sending back spirits of bears, which has become central to the ethnic identity of the Ainu, have not been found in Satsumon sites. This important link between Satsumon and Ainu remains to be made.

Japanese migration to Hokkaido accelerated about A.D. 1 300 (Kikuchi 1984,Kikuchi and Fukuda 1989,- Kitagamae 1991). Documents show that Hokkaido was a deportation site for criminals, who were sent there by the Kamakura Shogunate, and it is known from the Okawa ruins of Yoichi city that fishermen and merchants began residing there, although perhaps only seasonally, around A.D. 1200-1300. During the 1400s, Tosaminato in Honshu's Aomori prefecture became a port of trade with Hokkaido. Historical literature as well as archaeological evidence indicate that in the 1500s samurai interested in the commercial potential of the area built large establishments stretching from Tsugaru Strait to the Sea of Japan coast in southwestern Hokkaido, and military confrontation between the Japanese who had moved into Hokkaido and the Ainu people accelerated, leading in A.D. 1457 to the Battle

3.19 Engraved Needlecase (replica) Prehistoric evidence of large whales being hunted is often difficult to find, but this Okhotsk-period birdbone needlecase (ca. a.d. 650) leaves little to the imagination. A boat with six paddlers and a standing harpooner is being towed by a large animal—almost certainly a whale—with lines attached to two harpoons protruding from its side. This artifact was found at the Bentento site, Nemuro, Hokkaido. (HMH)

of Koshamain, the first significant revolt of Hokkaido Ainu against the Japanese (Kudo 1989; K. Tsuboi 1986,- Y. Suzuki 1996).

During this period of increasing contact between Hokkaido and Honshu, Ainu contacts with the Asian continent to the north also intensified. According to Chinese records, the Ainu fought several times in the I 300s with the forces of the Yuan dynasty on the lower Amur and Sakhalin. The battles apparently began when the Yuan military responded to the request for military assistance by the Nivkhi (former Cilyak) tribe living in Amur River delta, where Ainu traded Honshu goods for local commodities and Chinese trade goods including silk. A reciprocal trade from the Amur into Sakhalin and Hokkaido was also conducted by the Santan peoples of the lower Amur. This exchange of goods through Hokkaido had a substantial impact on Ainu society that is reflected in hundreds of fortified stockades ( chasbi ) the

3.18 Sea-Otter Figurine (replica)

Sea otters were present in the Kuriles until they were hunted to extinction by the Russians in the mid-1800s. Recovered from Tokoro Fort, Hokkaido, this sea otter (ca. a.d. 700) which was carved in the Okhotsk period from a large canine tooth and bone remains of a brown bear, indicates that these animals were found in northern Hokkaido waters more than a millennium ago. Aleut hunters tied similar carvings of sea otters inside their kayaks to help protect them from misfortune. (HMH)

Ainu built around this time to provide emergency refuge from raids and attacks from Japanese and northerners. Apparently trade disputes and heightened tension had become the social norm of the times.

Conclusion

Archaeological and historical data present a fairly clear picture of developments in Hokkaido over the 2,000 years since the beginning of the Epi-Jomon period. By contrast, little is known about the preceding 20,000 years of Paleolithic and Microlithic occupations or about the origins of the 8,000-yearlong Jomon period. Nevertheless, we do know that the Jomon period was characterized by neither cultural stagnation nor biological isolation. Jomon sites in Hokkaido contain ample evidence of artifact types, raw

materials, and cultural complexes—including movements of people—that show influence from or have been imported from Honshu or the Russian Maritime Provinces.

Biological mixing between Honshu Yayoi and early Epi-Jomon peoples is also indicated, and during the formation of the Satsumon culture, contact with the people called Ernishi, who were an Ainu or Ainurelated group in northern Tohoku known in early Japanese written records, must have occurred. Contacts with the Satsumon and Okhotsk cultures also introduced population diversity in the region. It is by this process that the Ainu physical type, as it is known archaeologically and historically, emerged.

The ethnic image of the Ainu as presented in the Ainu-e depictions and ethnography—of a hairy, independent, hunting and gathering people who practiced animal spiritsending rituals and had a distinctive style of clothing and artifact ornamentation—seems to have emerged circa A.D. 1200-1 300. Although there is as yet no direct evidence from this period for existence of the Ainu iyomante ceremony, the fact that sending rituals were practiced with bears and other animals by the Jomon and Epi-Jomon people suggests that evidence linking early cultures with the historic Ainu will eventually be revealed.

Nevertheless, it is certain that Ainu culture was influenced heavily during its formation process by northern tribes through contacts with the people in Sakhalin and the lower Amur River region. Meanwhile, development of the Japanese culture on Honshu affected the formation of the Ainu culture as well; in particular, the ripple effects from political and economic development in Japanese Honshu were strong forces of change. With this understanding of their development, the Ainu people are in the process of reaffirming their identity as known from circa A.D. 1200-1 300 based on a heritage of more than 10,000 years in Hokkaido and neighboring regions.

4/Ainu Ties with Ancient Cultures of Northeast Asia

Toshihiko Kikuchi

T he Ainu and their ancestors who lived in northern Japan, Hokkaido, the Kuriles, and the southern Sea of Okhotsk area have occupied a region that has been a geographic and ecological border zone for thousands of years. Anyone who has experienced a near-subtropical Tokyo summer and a Siberian Sakhalin winter (fig. 4.1) can appreciate the extreme climatic and environmental diversity that characterizes this maritime East Asian zone and can more easily envision the power that geography has played on the history of the Japanese archipelago In effect, the Ainu homelands straddle three worlds: temperate East Asia, the eastern Siberia taiga, and the maritime western Pacific and its productive peripheral seas, the Seas of Japan and Okhotsk. In many respects, however, the Ainu homelands are unique unto themselves, and their environmental and cultural histories

ronments, and other North Pacific cultures have had a strong influence on the foundations of Ainu culture.

The northern orientation of the Ainu is most fundamentally expressed in its geographical relationships. The islands of Hokkaido and Sakhalin, separated by Soya Strait, are only twenty-six miles (forty-two kilometers) apart. Sakhalin in turn is separated from the Asian mainland at Tatar near the mouth of the Amur River by only 12.5 miles (twenty kilometers). Moreover, Tatar Strait is extremely shallow and is covered by floating ice during much of the winter, which makes it easy to cross. Migrations and dispersals of animals and plants are known to have reached Hokkaido across these land bridges, and in historic times various ethnic groups in Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Amur region maintained contacts across these narrow bodies of water. Archaeological

4.1 Winter in a Sakhalin Village

(Pilsudski, USNM 047414)

reflect this transitional status. Ancient history, revealed through archaeological remains, clearly shows the influence of southern cultures on Hokkaido, whereas the northern Ainu territories in Sakhalin and the Kuriles have a prehistory closely linked to the Amur River region, Siberia, and Kamchatka (S. Kato 1985,- Kikuchi 1984,- Kikuchi and Fukuda 1989,- Kikuchi 1995). In this essay we consider the relationship of the Ainu and their ancestors to these northern regions. Indeed, the Ainu themselves feel a strong pull in this direction and see their culture as closely related to the cultures of North Pacific peoples, even the North American Eskimos and Northwest Coast tribes. As we will see, the northern resources (especially salmon, sea mammals, and bears), the North Pacific envi

evidence demonstrates that this connection was also active in ancient times and that Asian mainland and Sakhalin cultures had important impacts on the formation of ancient cultures in Hokkaido, including the Ainu. Influences have been noted from as far west as the Trans-Baikal region,- from the south, cultures of the Sungari River were introduced. And archaeological work is now beginning to reveal the impact of cultures of Siberia and the Eskimo region. These influences contributed to the formation of various cultures in Hokkaido that developed features distinct from the ancient cultures of Honshu. Finds indicating the ancient linkage between Hokkaido and northeast Asia have been discovered especially from the Paleolithic era and in Okhotsk-culture sites.

4.2 Microlithic Industries of Siberia and East Asia

The Paleolithic Period

Paleolithic-era remains from Hokkaido, dating from 20,000 to 12,000 years ago, are divided into three chronological and cultural stages (H. Kimura 1997). Sites of the first stage, which are assumed to be about 20,000 years old, include Shukubai Sankakuyama of Chitose city, Shimaki in Kamishihoro township, and Seo in Sarabetsu village. At Sankakuyama and Shimaki, knife-shaped tools similar to ones found in Honshu sites of the same period have been discovered.

In Shimaki and Seo, microblade cores and boat-shaped stone implements characteristic of far-off sites on the Yenesei, Angara, and Lena rivers in northern Siberia have been found. These discoveries suggest that by 20,000 years ago Hokkaido shared cultural links with both Honshu and northeast Asia.

During the second phase of the Paleolithic era, which began about 17,000 years ago, the sites of Horokazawa 1 at Shirataki and Shirataki 13 were occupied. Large blades, boat-shaped stone implements, and Horuka

type burins (chisel-like tools for carving bone and antler) have been found at these sites; similar stone tools have been discovered in Ustinovka in the Maritime Provinces of the Russian Far East (Primor'ye) and at Sokol' in Sakhalin (fig. 4.2). These finds suggest that during this period Hokkaido was part of the same culture zone as those regions.

The third stage dates from about 15,000 to 12,000 years ago, with Shirataki 32 and 33 of Shirataki village being important sites. The microblades, wedge-shaped microcores, and Angara burins found here are similar to those found in Diuktai-culture sites (Mochanov 1980), which date from 16,000 to 12,000 years ago in the Russian Aldan River region and are widely distributed in northeast Asia, ranging from the Yenesei, Angara, and Lena river basins to Baikal, eastern Mongolia, Kamchatka, and Sakhalin (fig. 4.3). During this period people from interior northeast Asia migrated into new lands, including Hokkaido, in response to the warming climate and subsequent changes in animal distribution and the rise of the sea level.

The Mesolithic Period

Toward the end of the Ice Age, people learned to develop new technologies that provided them with light and more efficient weapons. These changes usher in the Mesolithic period, which in Hokkaido dates from 12,000 to 8,000 years ago Its characteristic stone tools have tanged points and probably were used for arming arrows. Similar points have also been found in Tatekawa of Rankoshi, Tachikarushunai of Engara, and elsewhere. Such lithics characterize the Osipovka culture of the Russian Maritimes, dated from 10,000 to 8,000 years ago, and have also been found in Sakhalin, suggesting a continuation of the types of cultural links found from Hokkaido throughout much of northeastern Asia during the Mesolithic era.

The Neolithic Period:

Jomon Culture

Throughout Japan, including Hokkaido, the culture of the Neolithic period (Chiyo 1984a, b) is called Jomon (fig. 3.2). Blade arrowheads have been found in 7,000-year-old Early Jomon sites. Similar arrowheads have been discovered in Neolithic sites in many areas of northeast Asia, and blade arrowheads are characteristic of the Novopetrovka culture (7,500 to 6,000 years ago) in the middle Amur River basin. This widespread dispersion of similar artifacts suggests that people who

4.3 Upper-Paleolithic Artifacts from Sakhalin

This assemblage of tools excavated in 1973 by Valerii Shubin from Takoie II in southern Sakhalin has been dated to 16,000-14,000 b.c. Its conical and wedge-shaped cores and unifacial points are the kind of assemblage that could have been a prototype for American Paleo-lndian cultures of 10,000-8,000 B.c. The brown obsidian characteristic of Shirataki in eastern Hokkaido indicates early contacts between peoples in Sakhalin and Hokkaido. (SKRM)

4.4 Late-Neolithic Artifacts from Sakhalin

This collection from Nevelsk II. Imchin II, and Sadovnik II illustrates Neolithicperiod artifacts from Sakhalin Island. Peaked-rim ceramics resemble early Jomon styles and points show careful bifacial technology. Although many different types of harpoons have been recovered from these sites, none resemble those found in other North Pacific types. (SKRM)

utilized blade arrowheads spread across northeast Asia into Hokkaido. Late Middle Jomon culture (4,500 to 4,000 years ago) in Hokkaido is characterized by Hokuto-type pottery. Similar pottery has been found at the Imchin Site II in northern Sakhalin, which suggests that cultural exchanges took place between Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the lower Amur in this period as well (fig. 4.6).

Small fragments of iron tools have been discovered in the ruins of tombs from the Final Jomon period (200-100 B.C.) at the Kaizukacho 1-Chome site of Kushiro City in Hokkaido. By the last stage of the Jomon culture, 3,000 to 2,000 years ago, the Amur River basin and the Maritime Provinces of the Russian Far East had already entered the Early Iron Age, and various types of iron tools and weapons were being used. Many items crafted from iron have been found in sites of the Uril culture (eleventh-seventh centuries B.C.) and the Pol'tse culture (seventh century B.C.— fourth centuries A.D.) in the lower and middle Amur River basin and in Yankovskii (ninth-fifth centuries B.C.) and the Krounovka cultures (fifth-seventh centuries B.C.) in the southern Maritime Provinces of the Russian Far East It is thought that the iron tools found in the tombs of Kaizukacho in Kushiro City were brought by the people of the Pol'tse culture.

Epi-Jomon Culture

In Hokkaido, Jomon culture continued to follow its own trajectory for nearly a millennium after it was replaced in Honshu by the Yayoi culture, which advanced north gradually as its rice-agriculture lifestyle usurped the previous Jomon hunting-and-gathering economy. This Jomon "extension" culture in Hokkaido is called Epi-Jomon, although Japanese archaeologists have sometimes used the term Zoku, which means northern, to characterize it. Epi-Jomon culture dates to the first to seventh centuries A.D., corresponding to the Middle Yayoi period of Honshu. Iron knives have been found in tombs of the Rausuchou Llebetsugawa ruin, which date from the early Epi-Jomon period (first to second centuries A.D.), and small traces of silver were found on fragments of an ornamented knife case. A number of silver ornaments have also been found dating to this period in tombs of nomads in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, Shanxi Province, and in Heilongjiang

4.5 Lacquered Comb (replica)

Early use of lacquer Is shown in this ornamented Late Jomon comb (ca. 2,000-1,000 b.c.) from the Bibi-4 site, Chitose, Hokkaido. It must have been used both for combing and decorating hair. Lacquer technology, based on building up repeated applications of pigmented sap from certain trees, became a long-standing artistic tradition in East Asia. (HMH)

4.6, 4.7 Evocative Women Small ceramic figurines served as house deities or charms to protect women from disease and the dangers of childbirth and were used for thousands of years in northeast Asia. The figure (4.6) with the swept-back forehead and Asian features was called “Nefertiti of the Amur" by its excavator, A. P. Okladnikov, and dates to ca. 4,000 b.c. Her Final Jomon companion (fig. 4.7) of a later millennium (1,000300 b.c.), from Ohnakayama Site (Nanae, Hokkaido), wears a necklace, reveals something of her hairdo, and also seems to have Asian features. (HMH; MIHPP Kn-63-48090, replica)

4.9 Needlecase with Geometric Engraving (replica)

Found at Kafukai-a site, Rebun, Hokkaido, this Okhotsk birdbone needle case (ca. a.d. 500) has a carefully executed geometric design whose motifs evolve from panel to panel. It not only resembles the needlecases of the Kurile Ainu but also those made by Aleut and Central Yup'ik Eskimos of the Bering Sea coast. (HMH)

Province in China, so it seems likely that silver reached Hokkaido by trade with the Amur River region.

Okhotsk Culture

The formation of Satsumon culture was influenced by the Kofun-period culture of Honshu, which coincided with the final period of the Hokkaido Epi-Jomon culture,- many scholars believe that the Satsumon culture (sevenththirteenth centuries) is the ancient culture of the Ainu. From the latter half of the Epi-Jomon period and during the Satsumon-culture period (fourth-thirteenth centuries) people of the Okhotsk culture lived on the east coast of Hokkaido on the Sea of Okhotsk (figs. 4.8,

4.9). According to studies of human bones excavated from burials, Okhotsk people were of a different biological group than the Ainu.

Sites of the Okhotsk culture have produced various types of iron-, silver-, and bronzeware (fig. 4.8), which have been found in sites of the Mohe culture (fourth-ninth centuries) in the lower and middle Amur region, in the succeeding Jurchen culture, and in the Tongren culture (fifth-tenth centuries) in the lower and middle Sungari River basin.

In short, metal products of the Okhotsk culture came from the Amur and Sungari River regions.

There are various theories about the

origin of the Okhotsk culture. This author believes that Okhotsk derives from an ancient culture of the lower Amur River, when one of this region's ethnographic peoples, the Nivkhi (previously known as Gilyak), formed a distinct culture in the third century in Sakhalin. The range of the Okhotsk culture extended to Hokkaido when probable ancestors of the Nivkhi people migrated into that region about 1,000 years ago.

According to the ethnographic literature of Japan and Russia written after the seventeenth century, Ainu people lived in Sakhalin

and the Kuriles, in addition to Hokkaido, although the date of their arrival has rarely been discussed. Based on studies by this author, Ainu people advanced into Sakhalin in the middle of the thirteenth century and to the Kuriles from the fourteenth to fifteenth centuries,- as a result of this movement, the Ainu in the historic period inhabited southern Sakhalin, Hokkaido, and the Kuriles.

Ainu Origins: A Northern View

Scholars have presented various theories about the origin and lineage of Ainu people (Arutiunov, Ishida, this volume). To understand their origin it is necessary to know that the ancient culture of northeast Asia extended to Hokkaido from the Paleolithic to the Okhotsk period. The repeated influence of

4.8 Bronze Belt Ornaments (replica) This set of bronze belt ornaments (ca. a.d. 700) was found at an Okhotsk site at Menashitomari in northern Hokkaido. Belts with similar decorations were used for curing rituals by Siberian shamans from the mainland, where bronze technology was considered powerful. These ornaments probably found their way to Hokkaido for a similar purpose. (HMH)

4.11 Mixed-Race Family of Sakhalin

Bronislaw Pilsudski's notes indicate that this Sakhalin family had Ainu, Russian, and Ul'chi roots. By the time Pilsudski arrived in 1903, a penal colony had been established on Sakhalin and with it had come an influx of Russian “outlaws" and political exiles sent to populate this newly acquired territory. Sakhalin’s geographic position in the most populated segment of the vast North Pacific Rim kept it at the center of human movements and change. (NAA 98-10365)

'if i

northeast Asian cultures on Hokkaido brought stone tools, metal products, and other materials (including Santan silk robes in the early modern period) to Hokkaido (Harrison 1954,Tezuka 1998). Those items probably were introduced both by actual movement of peoples (migrations, casual contact, slaving, and genetic contacts) as well as by trade. The Ainu physical type was gradually formed through interracial marriages with the residents of Hokkaido and the northern (Okhotsk) peoples who were moving into the region. Hokkaido was also constantly influenced by the cultures of Honshu throughout the periods of its Paleolithic, Jomon, Epi-Jomon, and Satsumon

cultures,- nonetheless, it would appear that the ancient cultures of northeast Asia had a major impact on Hokkaido people and cultures, and the Ainu ethnic group must have formed in part f through contacts with

.VAT those northern immi

grants.

Recent political events have had their own influence in this

regard. After many hundreds—if not thousands—of years of interaction, Ainu people have been barred from contact with their northern neighbors since 1945 when the Russian government expelled most of the Ainu residing on Sakhalin to Hokkaido and evacuated Ainu from the southern Kuriles. Since then, Hokkaido has become the only remaining Ainu "homeland" and the keeper of Ainu traditions from Sakhalin, Hokkaido, and the Kuriles (fig. 4.11). Travel and communication with other Sakhalin and Amurarea groups ceased, and many Ainu ethnological treasures that had been collected in the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries remained inaccessible in the Sakhalin Regional Museum in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Japanese contacts with Sakhalin are beginning to be restored, and many Sakhalin Ainu now living in Hokkaido would like someday to return to visit their old homelands and see the artifact collections and records that document their past. Archaeological exchanges are also now taking place, and excavations conducted by Japanese and Russian archaeologists have the potential to resolve the many questions still remaining about Ainu origins and their ancient northern connections.

4.10 Sakhalin Okhotsk Assemblage Okhotsk, a northern culture with a strong sea mammal-hunting economy, employed a technology that was both efficient and beautifully manufactured. This group of implements from the Solov’evka and Promyslovoe II sites in southern Sakhalin reveals exquisite workmanship in the antler and bone harpoons. The tiny seal in the middle of the picture is evidence of forms and modeling that seem organic and alive. (SKRM 5081-82, 5395, 3756)

4/ANCIENT NORTHEAST ASIA

Ancient People of the North Pacific Rim:

Ainu Biological Relationships with Their Neighbors

Hajime Ishida

5.1 Ainu Woman on the Amur

To make full descriptions of cultures and their history, early anthropologists gathered biological as well as cultural, linguistic, and archaeological data on cultures they studied. Photographic records, considered crucial for documenting “racial types,’’ included both full-face and profile views; body measurements and head and bust casts were sometimes taken as well. (NAA 98-10380)

I T IS NO EXAGGERATION TO SAY THAT THE search for human history on the islands of Japan—in other words, Japanese anthropology—began with studies of the Ainu and questions about their origins. During the Meiji era (around the end of the nineteenth century), scholars debated whether people of the Japanese Stone Age, i.e., the Jomon people, were Ainu. Shogoro Tsuboi (1 887) asserted that the "Koropokguru," as the indigenous population of Hokkaido was referred to in an old Ainu legend, were the indigenous population of all the Japanese islands. He believed they were Japanese, not Ainu, because Ainu, unlike Japanese, made neither ceramics nor stone tools and did not live in pithouses.

On the other hand, Yoshikiyo Koganei,

(1 893) an anatomist, made an anthropological study of Ainu skeletons and compared them

with Stone Age skeletons that had been collected from a shell mound. Although no complete cranium sample was available, Koganei found common characteristics between the Stone Age people and the Ainu, principally a llatness of the shafts of the long bones in both groups. Based on this, he insisted that Japanese Stone Age people were Ainu, thus refuting the koropok-gum theory, which soon faded away with the death of Tsuboi and the discovery ol Ainu pithouses during a Kurile Island survey by Ryuzo Torii in early 1899. The purpose of these studies was not to learn the origin of the Ainu,

but rather to ascertain the lineage of the mainland Japanese (fig. 5.1). The Ainu who lived in Hokkaido were used simply as a reference point toward this end.

In the Taisho era (1912-1926) the theory that the Jomon people were the ancestors of the Ainu began to be questioned. This was the result of knowledge gained from human bones of the Jomon period collected by Kenji Kiyono (1949) and Kotondo Hasebe (1949), as well as comparative studies using statistical tools, which were relatively objective and detailed for the standard of the time. In addition, the flatness of the long bone shafts was shown to be a common feature among hunting-gathering populations worldwide, thus weakening the Jomon/Ainu connection.

The Ainu "Race" Theory

In seeking to establish the origins of the Ainu, scholars all over the world have commented on or written about their "racial" characteristics. It is important to define what is meant by the word "race” before examining the history of the search for the biological origin of the Ainu. In the past, race was seen as a biological category of humankind, and various classifications were made. Humans were commonly divided into three or four categories: "Caucasoids" who are seen mainly in Europe,"Negroids" who live south of the Sahara Desert in Africa,- "Mongoloids," found primarily in Asia,- and "Australoids," common to New Guinea and Australia. However, the standard for this categorization was extremely vague, and its regional borders were unclear. Now it has become clear that all of humankind belongs to one species whose biodiversity reflects regional characteristics, and the traditional concept of "race" has been superseded by a more complex view of population biology and biogeography. In studies on the origin of the Ainu that began in the nineteenth century, however, the word "race" was frequently used, so in my discussion of these studies this term will therefore appear in quotation marks.

As to which "race" the Ainu belong, scholars had vastly different opinions. The "Caucasoid" and "Mongoloid" theories were the most common, but Russian and Polish anthropologists like Shternberg and Pilsudski, who were more versed in ethnology than in physical anthropology, tended to advocate the "Australoid" theory. The anatomist Yoshikiyo Koganei (1893) believed that the

Ainu did not belong to any of these "races" and used a different term altogether:

Rasseninsel, meaning an islandlike or isolated race. Kiyono criticized all these theories by introducing a new method of inquiry that may betray the influence of the American anthropologist Franz Boas and his approach to the study of North Pacific Rim peoples at the turn of the century:

We need to divide Hokkaido into several areas and examine the physical constitution of the Ainu by area. Obviously Karafuto [Sakhalin] and Chishima [Kuriles] will be treated in the same manner. After the differences by area are noted, as well as the relationship between the shape and condition of ancient human bones and their relevant period becomes clear, surveys of neighboring ethnic groups would be desirable. Only after these steps, will the search for Ainu origin be complete.

Further, he concluded, "Many years of effort by scholars would be required." Fdis words remain true today, and our task continues.

The theory that the Ainu are "Caucasoid" or are descendants of "Caucasoids" was most popular from the beginning to the middle of the twentieth century. For example, E. von Eickstedt (1934), a German anthropologist who believed that the Ainu were a surviving group of ancient "Caucasoids," stated, "The Ainu provide important evidence that Caucasoids were widely spread in northern Eurasia and are survivors of those who used to live in the east of this region."

W. W. Fdowells, an American physical anthropologist at Harvard University, also considered the Ainu to be holdovers from the ancient Caucasoids, claiming in Mankind in the Making (1959) that the existence of the Ainu showed that "Caucasoids" once extended fully to the Far East. Henri V. Vallois in his Les races humaines (1967) took the same view. These theories were based almost exclusively on the physical appearance of the Ainu, especially their hairiness and the "deep" features of the face, including large and long noses, deep-set eyes, and a prominent brow.

Subsequent Ainu Study

Most Japanese scholars were more interested in the origins of the Japanese than in the physical anthropology of the Ainu. For this reason, after the Second World War, Kotondo Hasebe's (1949) and Hisashi Suzuki's (1969) theory that the Jomon people became the Japanese found broad support. According to

this view the Jomon people, whose culture existed throughout the Japanese islands from 1,000 to 8,000 years ago, became today's Japanese through changes in living environment and physical transformation under the influence of the Yayoi culture (200 B.C. to A.D. 200). Neither Hasebe nor Suzuki, however, expressed views on the Ainu. The theory that "Ainu equals Caucasoid" suggested by many—including the two authorities, Sakuzaemon Kodama, an anatomist, and Tanimoto Furuhata, a forensic scientist—was accepted as the norm (S. Kodama 1970c,■ Furuhata 1962). Nevertheless, many scholars believed that the Jomon and the Ainu were totally different groups, and this presented a problem in examining the population history on the Japanese islands as a whole. It should be noted that at that time the term "Japanese" referred to ethnic Japanese, not to all the people who lived on the islands of Japan,- throughout these early discussions the difference between the Ainu and the Japanese was always emphasized.

In the 1960s, two physical anthropologists, Kazuro Hanihara and Bin Yamaguchi, made an important discovery in Hokkaido, where they had been examining bones from Jomon sites. Yamagachi came to the conclusion that the Jomon skeletons from southern Hokkaido were similar to those from mainland Jomon sites but that the bones from the eastern part of Hokkaido clearly showed Ainu characteristics. This was surprising to many scholars who held the belief that Jomon and Ainu people were totally different. Based on these findings, Yamaguchi wrote, "The Ainu were living in Hokkaido since very old days, and they might have had a strong relationship with the Jomon people of the mainland" (Yamaguchi 1962).

Hanihara commented, "The important point is that the Ainu issue has always been closely connected to the origin of the Japanese." Almost at the same time, Kunihiko Kimura (1962) revealed similarities between the Ainu and other neighboring groups of East Asia, based on fingerprint-pattern research.

Kazuro Hanihara (1970, 1979), a dental expert, studied physical characteristics of teeth of "Mongoloid" peoples and identified the "Mongoloid dental complex" with the aid of data collected in Japan and the United States. He determined that Ainu teeth were part of this Mongoloid group, thus becoming the first to question the "Ainu/Caucasoid"

5 / BIOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS

UPPER JAW

SUNDADONT

5.2 SlNODONT AND SuNDADONT TOOTH TYPES Christy Turner’s dental research shows that Asian Mongoloid teeth occur in two types: Sinodont North Asians or Sundadont Southeast Asians. Sinodonts have incisors with scoopedout or "shovelled” faces, single-rooted upper first molars, and triple-rooted lower first molars. Most Ainu teeth are Sundadont, which suggests that Ainu originated from a southeast Asian population that moved north into Japan before North Asian Sinodont peoples appeared there. Today’s Japanese, like Chinese, Koreans, and Amur populations, have Sinodont teeth, (after Fagan 1990).

theory. Later, a 1979 study based on toothcrown measurements showed that the Ainu, the ethnic Japanese, the Aleut, and the Pima Indians all could be categorized as one "Mongoloid" group.

As studies of human bones from the Jomon period continue, many similarities with the Ainu have been reported. However, since the Second World War relatively few ancient skeletal collections have been discovered in Hokkaido, the

location most closely connected with the Ainu. The situation is even more difficult in Sakhalin, which was occupied by the Soviet Union. As mentioned previously, Bin Yamaguchi (1981) pointed out that human bones of the Early Jomon period found in northeast Hokkaido revealed Ainu characteristics, and bones of the Epi-Jomon period (a late Jomon culture in northern Honshu and Hokkaido) show these features even more clearly. In fact, such close similarities in the physical features of the cranium—such as the high nose, a low facial center, and the shape of the postcranial skeleton—between the Ainu and Jomon is not seen in other comparable groups from East Asia.

Based largely on their historical distribution, the Ainu have often been grouped into three regional types: Hokkaido Ainu, Sakhalin Ainu, and Kurile Ainu, and their diagnostic physical differences have been confirmed, to varying degrees, by specialists from Kyoto and Hokkaido Universities. Kenji Kiyono of Kyoto University discussed the Sakhalin Ainu in his 1949 book, stating that the Sakhalin Ainu were "purer" because they lived farther away from the main Japanese island of Honshu and because Sakhalin Ainu have the smallest variation between individuals in cranial measurements. Meanwhile, Sakuzaemon Kodama of Hokkaido University, drawing his conclusions from their large, flat faces, assumed that elements of Nivkhi and Orok populations were mixed in with the Sakhalin Ainu (S. Kodama 1970c). This view of mixed blood with northern populations was supported by statistical studies on the

shape of the cranial and postcranial skeleton conducted by Bin Yamaguchi and others, who have reported (Yamaguchi 1973,Yamaguchi, Ishida, and Matsumura 1993) that the Kurile cranium shape is similar to that of the Hokkaido Ainu and that their relation to northern peoples is limited,- however, their findings of similar tooth shape between northern Ainu and Aleut did point to northern admixture in this regard.

If there had been no influence of foreign cultures in Hokkaido from Jomon to Early Modern periods, the formation process of the Ainu would move from the Jomon period directly to the Ainu cultural formation phase,- however, no history of a human population could be so straightforward due to the very nature of human activities. Although a few human bones have been found that indicate a mixture of some northern "Mongoloid" elements in the Early Jomon period, the issue cannot be resolved because of the limited number of skeletal samples. Facial bones of the southern Honshu Yayoi period (250 B.C.A.D. 250) that were assumed to belong to the Epi-Jomon Esan Culture of southern Hokkaido in the first millennium A.D. do show some changes: 'This group maintained characteristic qualities of the Jomon people while going through significant diversification. As a whole they approximated Ainu forms of the modern period in southern Hokkaido," according to Bin Yamaguchi (1981). As is typical of other regions in the world, scholars continue to debate whether this diversification was brought about by genetic influence or by changes in living environment.

Around the fifth century A.D., the sudden appearance of the Okhotsk culture along the Sea of Okhotsk coasts of Sakhalin, the Kuriles, and northern Hokkaido indicates a major migration of new peoples from the north, bearing a culture that differed greatly from the Yayoi-influenced Epi-Jomon and Satsumon groups of Hokkaido. Okhotsk people possessed features of northern populations—wide, high, flat faces and stocky bodies. These people probably originated from near the estuary of the Amur River, but their relationship to the current Nivkhi peoples of this region is unclear. The influence of the Okhotsk people on Ainu physical character during the period of Okhotsk culture decline (after A.D. 1 300) cannot be ignored. Rather, the possibility of an Ainu advance into Sakhalin at this time,

5.3 Jomon Teeth

Jomon people were hunters, fishers, and gatherers rather than agriculturalists. These incisors from an adult male show ablation wear (a common feature of Southeast Asian teeth), chipping, lack of caries or abcesses, and some evidence of peridontal disease. The accompanying molars show the customary Southeast Asian four-cusped M2, no enamel extensions on Ml or M2, and both molars have two roots. (Turner 1979)

laying the biological and cultural foundations of the Sakhalin Ainu, is one of many disputed questions arising from controversies relating to the origin of regional cultural and biological differences seen among the Ainu.

As mentioned previously, Kazuro Hanihara (1970) has asserted that the Ainu belong to the "Mongoloid" cluster based on his studies of Ainu teeth. Christy C. Turner II has also studied "Mongoloid" teeth morphology and found that there were two types of "Mongoloid" peoples: Sinodont ("Chinese toothed") and Sundadont ("Southeast Asian toothed") (figs. 5.2, 5.3). In the 1980s the theory that the origin of the Jomon and Ainu was in Southeast Asia emerged from the following logic: the Sundadont characteristic is common to human populations in Southeast Asia, and because the Ainu as well as the Jomon people are categorized as Sundadont, it was assumed that the Sundadont cluster from Southeast Asia had moved north into the Japanese islands. This theory was an important factor supporting Hanihara's (1991) proposed "dual structure model" for the population history of the Japanese. Hanihara supported both the multiorigin theory and the phylogenetic affiliation between the Ainu and Ryukyu people. This supposition is also similar to one advocated in the nineteenth century by the German scholar Erwin Baelz (1883), who postulated that the people of the Jomon period were originally from Southeast Asia and that during the Yayoi period other East Asian peoples arrived and spread over the Japanese islands. The populations in Japan that today retain traits from the Jomon era are the Ainu and Ryukyu people.

C. L. Brace and K. D. Hunt (1990) introduced a concept called the "Jomon-Pacific cluster," which stressed the similarity of the Ainu and Jomon to groups of Pacific Islanders based on cranial measurements,- further, he suggested a relationship with Native Americans. In his view, the Jomon are the common ancestors of groups in the Pacific and of American Indians, a concept that differs from Turner's findings. The common assumption, however, is that Ainu ancestors were Jomon and that they were part of the East Asian group.

Genetics and Morphology

Buntaro Adachi (1937) studied types of earwax and found that Japanese earwax is dry, while Ainu wax, like that of "Caucasoids," is wet. (Although such findings may seem odd,

certainly characteristics of populations have clear and direct genetic control and can be used to trace population histories. Today such studies are seen as complexes, not as discrete traits.) In 1966 the Japanese Committee for the International Biological Program conducted a biological study of the Japanese and Ainu under a research grant from the Ministry of Education. This was the first project in which Ainu physical characteristics and physiology as well as genetic factors obtained from blood samples were examined. Keiichi Omoto and Shogo Misawa (1976), who conducted research on protein polymorphism in blood, reported that genetic markers of the "Caucasoid" type were not observed among the Ainu,- rather, many Ainu genetic traits were common to the East Asian group of peoples. Even after taking into account the high degree of mixed blood between the Ainu and the Japanese in 1966, the results were the same. As a result of a group genetic study by Keiichi Omoto (1972), it was determined that the Ainu were part of the "Mongoloid” group. Although significant differences between the Ainu and Japanese are recognized, genetic research placed the Ainu closer to East Asians, which includes Japanese and Koreans, than to other recognized groupings of world populations.

Today there can be no doubt that the Ainu and Asian populations are related, based on morphologic and genetic studies, despite questions raised by cranial and teeth measurements that strongly suggest a connection between the Ainu and Southeast Asian groups. On the other hand, Ainu relationships to the north Asians are quite strong. For example, in the area of genetics, the distribution of immunoglobin haplotypes has been studied by Hideo Matsumoto (1987), and his "Lake Baikal Theory of Japanese Origin" suggests that the Ainu share elements with northern peoples. Other factors suggesting connections with northern populations have been found in genetic studies, notably nine base-pair deletions in noncoding region V of mitochondrial DNA, and in morphological work, seen in a large, high occipital lambda measurement and a distinctive cheekbone suture known as the transverse zygomatic suture vestige. Of course, one character alone is certainly not sufficient to identify phylogeny in any case.

Recently, Omoto and Saito (1997) conducted a phylogenetic study based on a large

A Neighbor-Joining Network of 15 Populations

(a part of the network of 25 populations; Da distances were used)

0.01, \

Ancestral Ainu

Korean. \ Japanese-Vt

_ ' (subtracting 40% gene

flow from Japanese)

r~ Mongolian

Tibetan /

\ /Southern Chinese

/ KC'^Thai

-Negritos (Aeta)

Polynesian-^ /

' lndcr^\

RhpmOnesian ^Negritos (Mamanwa)

Micronesian'

'Australian

Papuan /

5.4 Ainu Genetic Distances

This nearest-neighbor diagram shows the gene-frequency relationship of a reconstructed Ainu population to other groups in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Little relationship between Ainu and southeast Asian populations is indicated, (after Omoto 1995)

5.5 Ainu Cranial Distances

Supporting evidence for northern origins is seen in studies of cranial morphology, which show Ainu to be more closely related to Neolithic and modern populations of Central Asia, Lake Baikal, and the Amur Basin than to southeast Asians.

dataset of genetic polymorphism among all people on all the Japanese islands, i.e., the Ainu, Hondo-Japanese (those on the Honsho mainland), and people on Ryukyu, as well as Koreans, using the most recent statistical techniques. The results showed that the Ainu and Ryukyu people constitute one cluster and the Hondo-Japanese and Koreans another, supporting theories of Ainu/Ryukyu affiliation and indicating that new people probably moved into the Japanese islands in the Yayoi period Based on phylogenic studies of all other world population groups, the research concluded that the Ainu, Hondo-Japanese, and Koreans belong to the cluster of groups of east and northeast Asians,- affinity between the Ainu and Southeast Asia groups was not observed (fig. 5.4). This result directly demonstrates the origin of the Ainu in eastern or northeastern Asia, although the issue of admixture was not resolved or seriously considered.

In terms of morphological studies, Yukio Dodo and 1 (1990) and Nancy S. Ossenberg (1986) reconstructed phylogenetic relationships among human populations by examining detailed morphogenic cranial changes. They confirmed the assumption made from previous morphologic research that the Jomon and Ainu shared similarities and that the two groups were separate from the Japanese of

post-Yayoi periods, and they did not find similarities between the Jomon/Ainu and Southeast Asia group. This author recently looked into the relationship between the Ainu and neighboring groups by studying cranial morphologic changes. Results showed that the Ainu are closer to Neolithic people around the Central Asian region of Lake Baikal and peoples of the Amur River basin and that similarity with Southeast Asians was limited (fig. 5.5).

As the result of biological study on the Ainu people over the past one hundred years, the so-called "Ainu/Caucasoid" theory has largely been disproved, whereas the supposition that the Ainu were descended from the Jomon of the Japanese islands has been supported, both by morphological and genetic studies. For example, Satoshi Horai extracted mitochondrial DNA from ancient human bones and demonstrated that the base order of four samples of Jomon DNA and two of Ainu DNA were the same. He also found a DNA resemblance between Jomon and Southeast Asian peoples. However, more detailed research will be necessary to answer remaining questions about Ainu origins and relationships, and for this the discovery of more human fossils, as well as further genetic research, will be required.

Ainu

Language:

Features and Relationships

Suzuko Tamura

The origins of Ainu language and its relationship to other linguistic groups, like Ainu cultural and biological ancestry, have long been both a scholarly mystery and a source of speculation. Unlike knowledge gained from historical and archaeological studies, in which incremental gains are made through the acquisition of new data, linguistic information available to scholars will not increase through time because the Ainu language today is spoken only by a handful of traditional speakers who inherited it from their parents and villagers. It seems likely that the stewardship of Ainu language will soon pass into the hands of speakers who learned it from linguists and other indirect sources, thus breaking forever the chain of inherited knowledge that forms the backbone of "living languages." If this does come to pass, the documentation that currently exists, including the recorded information obtained from the few remaining speakers, will form the corpus of future knowledge. This essay presents a status report on Ainu language and outlines its chief lexical and grammatical features, its current status and prospects, and the long history of investigations that have been conducted to determine its origins, affinities, and legacies. [W.F.]

6.1 Map of Hokkaido Ainu Dialects

T he word "Ainu" means "human" in

the Ainu language. Because Ainu was always a spoken rather than a written language, an alphabet was never developed, and the language has therefore been expressed by the alphabets used by transcribers who recorded it. Currently, both Katakana (one of three types of Japanese characters) and Roman letters are used. In this essay, Roman letters are employed and accent symbols are omitted to facilitate nonexpert appreciation.

An Ainu -Language Primer

Phonology

Ainu has five vowels {a, e, i, o, u) and only twelve consonants: c, h, k, m, n, p, r, s, t, w, andy, and ('). Ainu has no distinction between voiceless (k, p, t, etc.) and voiced (b, d, g, etc.): for example, the word that means "mother" is expressed as hapo but can be pronounced either “hapo" or "habo." The sound of the letter c is an affricate similar to the sound of ch in English There is only one fricative sound, s, which is never voiced. The sound of the letter r is similar to a Japanese r, namely, somewhere between English d, l, and r. In many Sakhalin dialects, p, k, r, and I cannot be placed at the end of a syllable, and h is used instead. This results from regional phonetic changes, as is demonstrated in the following:

Hokkaido kap set tek utar sik

Sakhalin kah seh teb utah/utara sis

Definition skin bed hand people eye

Ainu syllabic structure is simple: in some syllables one consonant is attached to one vowel either at the front or end or both sides of a syllable,- in other cases, no consonant is attached. There are no consonant clusters as, for example, the str in the word "strike."

Word Order

The Ainu language has a so-called "SOV" pattern (subject, object, verb). The subject comes before the predicate and the object/ complement is placed before a related verb phrase. The verb comes at the end of the sentence, for example, hapo kekachi nukar (literally: mother boy see/saw, or Mother saw the boy). The adjective comes before the word modified,- for example, poro chise means "big house," whereas chise poro means "the

6/ AINU LANGUAGE

house is big." In addition, there are no articles, and a postpositional adverb or a postpositional particle is used instead of a preposition, as in apa kari ahun (he entered through the door, with kari meaning through), or tan kotan ta an (it is in this village, with ta meaning in or at).

Verb Tense

The verb does not change according to the tense. For instance, the sentence bapo kekachi nukar can mean "Mother will see the boy [tomorrow]" or "Mother is [now] seeing the boy/ Mother sees the boy” or "Mother saw the boy [yesterday]." The meaning is derived from the context and situation.

Vocabulary

Ainu has few words that express abstract concepts or properties frequently associated with complex societies. However, terms closely related to daily living activities (hunting, fishing, and gathering) and important items such as animals and plants are abundant. For example, salmon, a major component of the Ainu diet, was simply called cbep (fish) or kamuy-cbep (god/fish),- male salmon was called cba and female salmon os. Salmon caught in the autumn was called sipe. The ragged tail of old spawning salmon was called oysiru (when parsed, literally o [its tail], y- [things], siru [scrub]).

Ordinary nouns often became taboo depending on the season or place, so other expressions had to be used. For example, according to Mashiho Chiri (1957), while trout was often called icban-iw (dig spawning hole/person who digs a hole), it was called sak-ipe (summer/fish) during the salmon season. This switch occurred because salmon, which also digs a spawning pit, was more important than trout, and people did not wish to offend it and thus cause a poor catch. In order to avert an evil spirit, words that the spirit hated were used. Taboo words were especially common while the Ainu were in the animal domains in the mountains and at sea, and code words were used frequently in these situations. Special words were also used when praying to the gods, and some particular expressions were used depending on the age group of the speaker.

Numerals

The manner in which the Ainu language expresses numbers is also distinctive. The following shows forms of counting in the Hokkaido dialect.

1 sinep

6 iwan

I 1 sinep ikasma wanpe

2 tup

7 arwan

12 tup ikasma wanpe

3 rep

8 tupes

20 hot

30 wanpe etubot

4 inep

9 sinepes

40 tubot

50 wanpe erebot

5 asik

10 wanpe

60 rebot

70 wanpe einebot

The consonant ending of numbers one to four {p) means "thing," and the letters preceding it are adjectival forms expressing "of one," "of two," "of three," and "of four." The origin of the word for five is probably the Ainu word for "hand" (aske in the modern language). The words for six to nine mean "with four, ten" and "with three, ten." In other words, six equals "minus four plus ten," and seven equals "minus three plus ten," and so on. From eleven on, the phrases mean "excess one, ten," "excess two, ten," etc., up to nineteen. The word for twenty is a different word, and forty, sixty, and eighty, etc. are expressed in the vigesimal (twentybased) system, as in 2 x 20, 3 x 20, 4 x 20, etc. rather than in the decimal (ten-based) system used nearly universally today. The number thirty-seven is expressed in Ainu as:

arwan pe ikasma wan pe e- tu- hot

seven thing excess ten thing with two twenty

In short, thirty-seven is (7- 10) + (2 x 20).

By using this system it was possible to count to two hundred, but because there was little reason to ever count to such a large number, Ainu elders in the 1950s did not understand what "two hundred" meant,- it was not customary to count large numbers, including people's age. However, in Sakhalin Ainu language there was a term indicating the unit of one hundred. The expressions of figures also varies depending on the region,- for instance, the Sakhalin Amu employed the decimal system, not the vigesimal system.

Current Language Situation

In recent historical times—about two hundred years ago—Ainu speakers occupied the region from Hokkaido north to Sakhalin's 51° latitude and throughout the Kurile chain as far as southern Kamchatka. Other records from that time note that people in the lower Amur River region claimed to be descendants of the Ainu, but whether they were indigenous to that area or moved there for some reason is not known.

Evidence of earlier Ainu occupations has also been adduced by the study of place-names. The earliest records of Ainu words are found in

eighth-century documents, in addition, Ainu vocabulary still exists among hunters in northern Honshu. Place-names also reveal Ainu roots in Honshu, especially north of Sendai. There are place-names that suggest Ainu once lived in Niigata and perhaps further south, but these latter claims need further study. To the north, a nineteenth-century Russian encyclopedia mentions that the Ainu language was used in the Russian Primor'ye and in the lower Amur River region, but these cases are not well documented.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Ainu was spoken in three major dialects: Kurile, Sakhalin, and Hokkaido. When the Soviet Union took over Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands in 1945, most of the Ainu people moved to Hokkaido,- today there are no Ainu speakers left on these islands. In the 1950s two dialects remained in the residual Hokkaido Ainu homeland, Hokkaido and Sakhalin. The Hokkaido dialect was further divided into northern and southern regions, or into three sections: north, east/middle, and south (fig. 6.1). Within each of these areas there were further regional differences. At that time, some of these dialects had more than ten fluent speakers, but currently there are only a few speakers of the east/middle and south Hokkaido dialects,- of those, only one fluent speaker is left in each district. However, with some training, some older people who used the language when they were young might again become fluent. The estimated number of these "candidates"—the most optimistic potential for survival of indigenous Ainu language—is twenty to thirty people.

The Ainu people have shown a great interest in reviving their language and culture, and Ainu language classes given by the Hokkaido Ainu Association (see Nakagawa, this volume) are currently held in fourteen locations. Although traditional culture can be learned in classes, these venues have not yet been adequate for an effective language program. It is hoped that the Ainu Shinpo passed by the Japanese Diet in 1997 will improve the social and financial environment for Ainulanguage preservation and use.

History of Ainu-Language Studies

Apart from several Ainu proper nouns in eighth-century historical accounts and Ainu words in various texts later on, the first small Ainu glossaries did not appear until the seventeenth century and were written by foreigners and Japanese. Larger glossaries and dictionar

ies appeared in the eighteenth century, written by a Russian, a Frenchman, and a Japanese. The first vocal recording was made by Bronislaw Pilsudski, a Pole, in the early twentieth century, using wax cylinders. Also noteworthy is Ainsko-Russkii Slovar (1875), an Ainu-Russian dictionary prepared by a Russian, M. M. Dobrotvorskii. The first Ainu grammar, "Grammar of the Ainu Language," was written by the English missionary John Batchelor (1 887),- Batchelor also published an Ainu-English-Japanese Dictionary and Grammar, whose first edition appeared in 1889. His fourth edition (1938) is still being used despite the enormous number of errors that have had a negative impact on later scholarly studies (see below).

More reliable linguistic study began in Hokkaido with A Study ofYukar.- The Ainu Epics (1931) by Kyosuke Kindaichi. Mashiho Chiri, a student of Kindaichi, developed further his teacher's grammar theory and extended it to the Sakhalin Ainu language,he focused on words and their origin and compiled the well-received Classified Dictionary of the Ainu, which appeared in three volumes (Man, Plants, and Animals) (Chiri 1953-62). The work done by Kindaichi and Chiri established the foundation for all later serious research on the Ainu language. Itsuhiko Kubodera, another student of Kindaichi, also did detailed research on Ainu yukar, or oral epic poems. In the latter half of the twentieth century, building upon the study conducted by Chiri and Shiro Hattori on the basic vocabulary of Ainu dialects, intensive research on dialect vocabularies was conducted by Hattori and his colleagues and students. The first achievement of their efforts was the publication of the Ainu Dialect Dictionary (Hattori 1964).

In more recent times a growing number of people have contributed to Ainu-language studies. These include some of Hattori's students, who were motivated by the imminent threat of Ainu language becoming extinct, and their students at Hokkaido Llniversity, including Ainu and foreign students who are conducting studies of dialects and written records of folk literature, music, ethnology, history, and archaeology,- some are assisting in the revival of the language. The publication of books containing grammar descriptions, dictionaries, video materials, and vocal records with explanatory texts increased sharply in the 1980s and has accelerated in the 1990s.

6/ AINU LANGUAGE

6.2 Preparing Inaw

Cultural leader Shigeru Kayano carves inaw for an Ainu display at Kokuritsu Minzoku Hakubutsukan (National Museum of Ethnology) in Osaka.

Among these are three practical Ainu dictionaries (Nakagawa 1995, Kayano 1996, and Tarnura 1996),- Ainu Gmmatik (two volumes, 1989-97) by Hans A. Dettmer, which introduces the entire corpus of Ainu grammar to date in German; and two works on European Ainu studies edited by Kirsten Refsing, The Ainu Library L Early European Writings on the Ainu Language (ten volumes, 1996) and The Ainu Library II: Origins oj the Ainu Language: The IndoEuropean Controversy (five volumes, 1998).

In addition to studies by professional academic linguists, one cannot fail to mention the lifelong efforts of Shigeru Kayano, who is Ainu,- Kayano (fig. 6.2) also collected (and sometimes built) artifacts and tools used by the Ainu, and he also published Ainu Folk Crafts (1978). Kayano is a unique traditional speaker who has also written a dictionary and made numerous oral recordings.

Japanese-Language Influences

Because the Ainu people have long been familiar with the Japanese language, it is only natural that the two languages have influenced each other (fig. 6.3). Many Ainu words are clearly borrowed from Japanese. Examples include (Ainu/Japanese): tampaku/tabako (cigarettes), tenonkoy/tenugui (hand towel), umma/uma (horse), puta/buta (pig), peko/beko (Japanese Tohoku dialect, cow), and tuki/tuki (Old Japanese for wine cup); Japanese words became known to the Ainu people when the products themselves were introduced by trade. The Japanese influence is not limited to nouns and covers other elements of grammar, from verb to adverb. Cases of Ainu-language influence on Japanese are fewer, and the majority of them also deal with trade materials: for instance (Japanese/Ainu), rahko/rakko (sea otter), tonakai/ tunakkay (reindeer), shishamo/susam (a kind of fish), and ruibe/ruype (frozen salmon: ru [thaw], ipe [food—in this case, fish]).

As previously mentioned, Ainu means "human" in Ainu. The word menoko (Ainu women) was borrowed from the Tohoku dialect of Japanese, and it was reimported to the Japanese language. According to Kyosuke Kindaichi, the words Ernishi (an old word for Ainu people), and Ezo (meaning "different northern people" and the term by which Ainu were known in Hokkaido before 1868), which often appear in Japanese history, derive from the old Ainu words emciw or enciw (meaning human),- enciw is still used by the Sakhalin Ainu. Shichiro Murayama (1992a), an advo

cate of the Austronesian theory of Ainu-language origin (see below and Arutiunov, this volume), states that the origin of enciu (enciw) is ' mpoltiw (person respected) of PAN (the reconstructed language, Proto-Austronesian) and that Ebisu, a synonym of Emishi, comes from this word. The Ainu language, especially the Sakhalin dialect, has also borrowed words from Orok, Nivkhi, and Russian, while the Kurile dialect contains more terms borrowed from Russian.

Place-Names

Many place-names of Ainu-language origin, although transformed by Japanese pronunciation, still remain in Hokkaido and northern Tohoku,Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands also have many names whose origin is Ainu (fig. 6.4). Travelers to Hokkaido will often hear place-names ending with -betsu or -nai ; the meaning of the Japanese suffix -betsu is the same as the Ainu term pet (river). The alternate term for river, -nai in Japanese, is nay in Ainu, but its meaning changes to stream in the southern dialect. Because rivers and streams were important Ainu travel routes and resourceprocurement areas, these words appear frequently in place-names. Many other place-names also originate from geographical features.

Kyosuke Kindaichi (1932) assumed that the southern limit of former Ainu occupation is Shirakawa-no-Seki in southern Fukushima because names ending in -betsu and -nai decrease south of this point. Unfortunately, many people who study place-names do not know the Ainu language well and simply compare words that seem similar to Ainu and make their own interpretations. Linguists, however, have found the task to be more difficult, and definitive explanations of placenames are few. Even Hosei Nagata's wellknown Interpretation of Hokkaido Ezo PlaceNames (1891) contains numerous mistakes according to Mashiho Chiri, who is highly respected for his work on place-names.

Hidezo Yamada also did excellent work on the subject and identified the Ainu origin of many place-names (four volumes, 1983). Yamada did not depend simply on word composition and knowledge of Ainu vocabulary,he visited locations carrying Ainu placenames and confirmed the geographical features described in the names. By repeating such visits many times, he gained a rapport with the local people who used these names, and he became familiar with the geography that had particular names. In this way, the

origin of many names in Hokkaido and northern Tohoku were explained. Although there are quite a few place-names whose origins have not been identified, the table below provides examples of well-known Ainu placenames in Hokkaido.

Place-names ending in -sonai or -sbonai are also found in both Tohoku and Hokkaido.

When simply looking at the word, it appears to be an Ainu place-name, and John Batchelor, working in the nineteenth century, attributed all such names to the Ainu. However, the town of Shonai in Yamagata prefecture has a Japanese name which means "inside of (Oizumi) village." Looking at the word without visiting the location itself is not sufficient to determine whether the name is Ainu. Because the syllable structure of both Ainu and Japanese is simple, the probability of finding similar word forms in place-names and general terms is high, but similarities alone do not signify shared origins.

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6.3 Entertaining Japanese Officials Protocol called for feasts and other hospitality when Japanese and Ainu paid visits to each other’s villages. This copy of an Ainu-e from Shimanojo Murakami's Curious Sights of Ezo Island illustrates two Japanese officials being entertained in the Ainu style. (NMNH 392,023-25).

Hidezo Yarnada went to one of the villages called Sonai, which is located in Akita prefecture, with an old map and observed the topography. He found that the region had many Ainu-sounding names and discovered a village where some Ainu words were still in use in their dialect. When he also found a stream and a waterfall, he determined that the characteristics of the area matched perfectly its Ainu name, sonai, meaning "fall-stream."

Generally, the place-names cluster geographically,- the areas north of Sendai and Yamagata have many Ainu place-names. However, one name in Niigata, which is south of this cluster, has been confirmed to have Ainu origins,- some places south of Niigata and in northern Kanto may have had Ainu names, but this has not been confirmed.

Ainu-Lancuage Origins and Affinity

The fact that the physical characteristics of the Ainu people differ from those of neighboring populations made a strong impression on foreign visitors encountering them for the first time and triggered speculation about their origin. Noting their resemblance to Russians, many people thought the Ainu were Caucasians: some believed this and thought that there were Ainu with blue eyes, which is false. Some say that the people living in Okinawa (the southernmost Japanese island) resemble the Ainu. Some Ainu and Okinawans themselves say this, and in fact, results of dental structure and genetics, including blood-group and DNA tests, do show a close relationship. Some speculate that both groups were linked through Jomon ties to the original native inhabitants of Japan before the spread of the Japanese people, which was enabled by rice agriculture. However, recent scholarship shows that the determination of ancestral links is far more complicated than previously believed. Anthropologists long ago showed that the language, culture, and biology of any particular people may have separate and quite different histories.

Like other areas, Ainu language has also been studied for clues about its history and relationships. Reverend John Batchelor, an Englishman who lived in Hokkaido from 1877 to 1940, published Ainu grammar books and dictionaries during his tenure there as a missionary. He believed that Ainu was related to the Aryan (Indo-European) languages (Batchelor 1905, 1926, 1938,- see also Refsing 1998). Although Batchelor believed that the chief evidence for an Aryan origin of the Ainu language would be found in the grammar rather than in vocabulary, no evidence of this has since been found. It must be remembered that he did not know the Ainu language well,that his grammar and dictionary contain many mistakes in word forms,- and that he had "stretched" Ainu to fit it into a western-language grammatical framework. Batchelor's views continued to be argued by later European scholars advocating Ainu-Aryan affinity, who referred to Batchelor's dictionary and picked out Ainu words similar to Aiyan ones. Pierre Naert made many such matches in arguing for an Indo-European theory (1958), as did Ivar Lindquist (1960). The controversy, which can be reviewed in works collected and reprinted by Refsing (1998), continued until 1965.

6/ AINU LANGUAGE

61

6.4 Ainu Place-names

The extent to which Ainu people formerly occupied Honshu and Sakhalin is not fully known, but Ainu and Ainu-derived place-names exist as far south as Sendai and Niigata as far north as central Honshu, and in central Sakhalin, which suggests that Ainu once held large areas of these islands.

In the nineteenth century Yonekichi Miyake, a historian, discussed the relationship between the Japanese and Ainu languages after studying their pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary from written records (1884). In the end he concluded that "the two languages cannot be identified as the same kind of language," because similarities in grammar were limited to "factors generally found in undeveloped languages." Basil Hall Chamberlain was the first scholar to introduce European philology to Japan, and he began the first extensive comparison of the Ainu and Japanese languages. Although there are problems with his work because it also used Batchelor's data, the linguistic analysis was his own He disagreed with Batchelor's Aryan theory and concluded there was no evidence to place Ainu in the same language group as Japanese or Altaic languages,rather, he suspected that Ainu was in fact an isolated language and noted that the issue needed further study. Chamberlain assumed that similarities in Ainu and Japanese sentence structure and phonology were probably the result of mutual association of speakers over thousands of years.

In the early twentieth century Kurakichi Shiratori, a historian, compared Ainu, Japanese, and Korean numerals in relation to other languages. He wrote: "Korean ... is not at all similar to Japanese .... Ainu . . . which has been thought to have no resemblance with any language in the world has numerals that are closest to the northern Ural-Altaic group such as FinnoUgric and Samoyed" (Shiratori 1909).

Later, Kyosuke Kindaichi, who champi

oned Ainu epic poetry ( yukar ) as great works of literature, studied the Ainu language for the first time from a linguistic point of view. He supported Chamberlain and determined that Ainu had no affinity with Japanese, based on his analysis of word structure and the numeral system (Kindaichi 1927, 1935). He emphasized important differences between Ainu, Japanese, and the languages of the surrounding peoples, based on the language found in the yukar, which was known to preserve ancient Ainu language structure. His conclusion was that "Ainu is a completely different language from Japanese, Korean, and Altaic languages and is an isolated language of the world At the same time, he pointed in a new direction, noting similarities in the usage of numerals between Ainu and the Eskimo, Native American, and Basque languages.

After Kindaichi's definitive conclusion about the separateness of Ainu and Japanese, Ainu was rarely mentioned in studies of Japanese-language origin. Mashiho Chiri, who produced the remarkable Classified Dictionary of the Ainu, seldom touched on the issue of Ainu origins and affinity, except in a seven-line statement in an encyclopedia entry (1964): "No language with relationships to Ainu has yet been found. While some languages share a few important characteristics, such as phonological organization and grammar, basic linguistic elements do not connect them at all. Today's study has not reached the stage of discussing its genealogy. One can only state that its affinity is unknown "

In 1955, however, Shiro Hattori re

Japanese name

Old Ainu names

Translation

Sapporo

sat-poro- (pet)

dry-big-(river) [pet is assumed]

Wakkanai

yam-wakka-nay

cold-water-river [yam is dropped]

Kamuikotan

kamuy-kotan

god-village [terrible place with rapid stream and cliffs,- exists in many places]

Shiretoko

sir-etoko

earth-edge of [cape,- exists in many areas]

Erimo

enrum

cape

Biratori

pira-utur

cliff-between

Osachinai

o-sat-nay

end of river-dry-stream

Toya

to-ya

Iake/pond-of shore [exists in many areas]

Noboribetsu

nupur-pet

strong color-river [river is whitened with hot spring water]

Horobetsu

poro-pet

large-river

Honbetsu

pon-pet

small-river [exists in many areas]

Soobetu

so-pet

fall-river [exists in many areas]

Islands ofe the tip of Kamchatka:

Shimushu

si-mosir

major-island

Poromoshiri

poro-mosir

big-island

Paramushiri

para-mosir

wide-island [the same island as above, different name]

searched the basic vocabulary of various Ainu dialects and expressed the probability that Ainu and Japanese had the same origin based on vocabulary comparisons with Japanese, Korean, and the Altaic languages. Quite a few words of the basic Ainu vocabulary seemed to share similar roots with Japanese words. Hattori criticized Kindaichi's conclusion, saying,

Such resemblance in basic vocabulary should not be ignored by citing accidental resemblance or mutual borrowing.... The grammatical structure of Ainu is not different to the extent that one can determine no affiliation with Japanese. Such conclusion is unproductive even if it is a working supposition. It is unfavorable also in the sense that it discourages Japanese from studying Ainu (Hattori 1957).

James Patrie of Canada presented "evidence" showing many "sound correspondences" between Ainu and Japanese as well as "morphological and lexical evidence" (1982), and he also discussed his theory of Ainu-Altaic language affiliation. Patrie's efforts in gathering many pairs suggesting correspondences were followed by other similar efforts, including, for instance, Shichiro Murayama (1992b).

As Shiro Hattori had found, quite a few words in Ainu, Japanese, Korean, and the Altaic languages have similar roots,- however, similarity in word form does not necessarily signify affinity. By using a "glottochronological" method based on the assumption of shared origin, the split between Ainu and Japanese has been calculated to have occurred 6,000 to 10,000 years ago (Hatton 1959). What would happen to a language after 10,000 years? Some calculations suggest that only 1 percent of the basic vocabulary would still be in use. If this is taie, it is rather questionable that so many similar words could remain If the phonological correspondence in nonsimilar word forms is found it would be more reliable as evidence, but such examples have not been identified.

Besides the linguists mentioned so far, there are many who have pointed out the similarities between Ainu and Japanese or Korean/Altaic languages, including Chili (1962), Haruto Oni (1957), and Alexander Slawik (1982). Masachie Nakamoto developed a more specific reconstruction:

The ethnic group with the Ainu language must have advanced to the East China Sea coastal area a long time ago and made contacts with those populations living on the coastal line. The Ainu words which show connection to the language of the

Korean Peninsula and Ryukyu Islands seemed to have been introduced around that time. . . . The language which had weak contact with the East China Sea region survived to date as a language with a different lineage. This is the Ainu language (1985).

Another major supposition presented by researchers is the Austronesian theory of affinity with languages of southeast Asia, Indonesia, and Australasia (figs. 6.5, 6.6). This view was first advanced strongly by Leo Shternberg, a Russian ethnologist who had been associated with Franz Boas's Jesup North Pacific Expeditions of 1897-1902 and worked extensively among the Sakhalin Ainu in the early 1900s. He believed that Ainu could not have originated from Siberia or other northern places or from Korea or China, because it had no linguistic or cultural relations in these directions. He concluded (1929) that the Ainu had an Austronesian lineage based on the accumulated strength of multiple lines of biological, ethnological, and linguistic data. Arguments similar to Shternberg's were made later by Gjerdman (1959) and Shichiro Murayama (1992a), who compared Ainu words with Austronesian-language terms. Gjerdman, who was critical of the Indo-European language theory, also proposed that Ainu might have come from the south, citing similarities with Malay-Polynesian (today's Austronesian). He was not strongly convinced, however, and called for further analysis. Murayama's research presented more than thirty Ainu words that were similar to Proto Austronesian (PAN). In these comparisons the Ainu words is given first, the PAN second: ape ((ire)/apuy (fire),- cbikir (leg and foot)/tic)uel (leg),pirka/pirika/pilib (to select, being selected).

How do we resolve these analytical problems? Because the Ainu language has few consonants and its syllable structure is simple, there are many homonyms. For example, Ainu pa can mean "year" (and from this, "seasons"),- "air” ("steam," etc. — from this, "epidemics," etc.),- "head/upper side," "mouth," "down river",- "to find",- and "to go."

It is also easy to find similarities in other languages that could suggest sound correspondence,- in short, the probability of coincidence is high. Moreover, because Ainu and Japanese share the characteristic of many words beginning with k and f, similar word forms are easily found in both languages. In

6/AINU LANGUAGE

6.5, 6.6 Carrying Children

Ainu women used special headstraps to carry their babies, who were supported on a wooden seat, as this nineteenthcentury photograph documents. This carrying method, which is also found among Southeast Asian peoples, was cited by early anthropologists as evidence that the Ainu had southern origins. The headbands of these straps carry intricate designs and are among the most complex objects woven by Ainu women. This strap was collected from the Kurile Islands by Romyn Hitchcock in 1888. (NMNH 150768; AMS).

general, even in core vocabulary, the borrowing and replacement of words take place.

Thus, when the presumption of a genealogical relationship is based on similarities of vocabulary, if the rules of the sound correspondence are not clear it is necessary to prove that such similarities do not occur due to coincidence or borrowing. It is not easy to determine the true nature of such similarities in the case of a language without historical records.

Some methods to deal with this issue were developed by mathematicians, who used statistical techniques to describe the frequency of matches and similarities in a core vocabulary. From among these techniques Biten Yasumoto employed the "shift test method" developed by R L. Oswalt (1964) to test the probability of coincidental matches

among Ainu, Japanese, and fifty other languages, and he compared them with the number of actual matches. The resulting statistics showed the matches among Japanese, Ainu, and Korean to be highly significant (Yasumoto 1972, 1985).

Although statistical studies indicate that a close relationship in core vocabulary exists among Japanese, Korean, and Ainu, how should this be interpreted? Yasumoto interpreted it as genealogical descent from an ancestral language he named "early Far East language," which he thought might have come from the Asian continent. Of the early Far East languages postulated by Yasumoto, it has been theorized that the one based in northern Kyushu was influenced by southern languages and then spread to the Japanese islands to become the ancestral Japanese language (Yasumoto 1985).

The other possible explanation is that these matches result from influence, i.e., borrowing. Although statistical analysis shows that the number of similarities is too high for all the matches to be coincidental, it cannot be concluded that similarities indicate common origins, for matches may also result from influence due to geographical proximity or social relations. Because there is no reason to think that the extensive borrowing of Japanese and Amu words in the modern era is unique, Ainu, Japanese, and Korean must also have affected each other in the past. In the case of a language without historical records, an effective way to decipher the earlier forms of words is by examining place-names,- for this reason the place-name work being conducted by FTdezo Yamada and others may lead to important new findings.

Conclusion

Kyosuke Kindaichi's conclusion that Ainu and Japanese had separate roots greatly influenced

6.6

later linguistic thought. As Chamberlain showed, however, Ainu language structure is not vastly different from that of Japanese,- in fact, when compared with the Indo-European and other language groups, Ainu word structure is quite similar to Japanese. Much has been made of the difference between the Ainu numeric system and the Japanese system, but this may not be significant because such usage can change with time, as it has in the Ainu dialects in Hokkaido and Sakhalin. Such differences also exist between Indo-European languages.

The point has been made that the Ainu verb incorporates the person indicator responding to the subject and object (Kindaichi called this the "incorporating character"),- this differs from Japanese but is a common trait in the languages of the Eskimo (Yup'ik, Inupiat, Inuktitut) and other northern and American indigenous peoples. Does this mean that these are vastly different languages from Japanese? No—in fact, they share close structural similarities with Japanese, and a large number of these similarities also occur in Altaic languages as well as in Ainu. Moreover, polysynthetic characteristics, namely, the feature that one verb is fonned by combining many morphemes, is seen not only in Ainu and Eskimo and other northern and American indigenous languages but also in Japanese to some extent. Japanese in a sense can be said to be similar to Ainu and Eskimo in terms of its structural characteristics, but a conclusion about a genealogical relationship should not be drawn from the comparison of structural characteristics alone.

Japanese and Ainu (and also Eskimo) are languages with a simple phonological system and word forms,- the probability for coincidental similarities is high, because the borrowing of

basic vocabulary words could not have been avoided. Not only is it difficult to ascertain if correspondences result from genealogy or borrowing, but there are cases in which words with a common origin cannot be considered "common remaining words," for they have assumed totally different forms in each language as a result of phonetic changes. Many people categorize words that have even small similarity in forms in Ainu and Japanese (or other languages) as "holdovers from common basic words," but one must move beyond the preconception that such words have a common origin: attempting to establish proto-language from sound correspondences does not make sense.

As previously stated, numerous theories abound about the origin of the Ainu language. Linguists have cited similarities and affinity relationships among Japanese, Korean, and Altaic languages, and between Ainu and Austronesian languages. Structural similarities have also been pointed out with Siberian, Eskimo, and Native American languages, and Mashiho Chiri once thought that Ainu came from the north via Kamchatka. Nevertheless, scholarship proving or disproving historical relationships between any of these groups has been inconclusive. It has been more than one hundred years since Chamberlain wrote that "a thorough study of other languages" and "discoveries of new facts” should illuminate the mystery,- remarkably, the situation today remains the same. As Chiri stated long ago, the genealogy of the Ainu language is, for the time being, unclear. Unfortunately, with the imminent disappearance of the few remaining indigenous Ainu speakers, the answers to these questions may never be known.

6/ AINU LANGUAGE

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Ainu History: An Overview

Richard Siddle

A inu history itself has a history, and it is not straightforward. Since the 1970s the politicization of the "Ainu problem” has turned the past into a locus of struggle between the state and Ainu activists,- until that time, Ainu history was regarded by the Japanese academic establishment as merely the history of native policy (Takakura 1972) or a largely irrelevant prelude to the Japanese development of Hokkaido. Nationalism and cold war politics effectively isolated Japan from the continent and encouraged scholars to focus inward on the Japanese archipelago as a natural, rather than political, unit. Despite the fact that Hokkaido is, in terms of its geography, flora, and fauna, as much part of the Sea of Okhotsk rim area as the Japanese archipelago, Ainu history was subsumed within Japanese national history as a minor local theme.

Ainu activists and their supporters have

constrains the emergence of an autonomous Ainu history.

Leaving aside its politicization, Amu history presents other problems, not least the fact that documentary sources for the premodern period are almost exclusively Japanese because the Ainu had no written language of their own. Historians are therefore reduced to viewing Ainu history through the distorted lens of Japanese sources while attempting to flesh out a wider picture through the use of archaeological and, in some cases, ethnographical evidence. The images of Ainu life and customs that were produced by Japanese travelers and are known as Ainu-e are valuable sources (fig. 7.1), although such works also reflect occasionally mistaken and prejudicial views of Ainu society.

Certain debates have continued to attract the interest of historians. For example, what are the origins of the Ainu? What is the

7.1 Uimam Ceremony

This Ainu-e illustrates the uimam, the formal trade and administrative meeting held annually between the Ainu and their Japanese overlords at the Matsumae headquarters in Hakodate. As Japanese control replaced the free-market trade of the earlier era, the uimam was staged to display Ainu subservience. This illustration is from Scenes of Ezo painted by Teiryo Kodama in the mid-eighteenth century. (HMH)

< Ikotoi, Chieftain of Atsukeshi

1843 copy by Teiki Kojima after Hakyo Kakizaki’s work, Portraits of Ezo Chieftains. (Y. and M. Kitao Collection)

challenged this view since the early 1970s with their own version of rapacious colonialism and racist aggression by the Japanese state in the Ainu homeland (Yuki 1980). Others have attempted to break out of the mold of Japanese history by redefining the colonization of Hokkaido and the dispossession of the Ainu as part of a wider late-nineteenth-century pattern of imperialism, recognizing groups of indigenous peoples that stretch from North America to Australasia (Siddle 1996). On the other hand, some conservative scholars have reacted to assertions of Ainu nationhood by reviving old arguments of the Ainu as original or proto-Japanese (Umehara and Hanihara 1982). In many ways, the tension between these two overarching meta-narratives still

relationship between the Ainu and the peoples, known as Emishi, who lived in the north of Honshu until the twelfth century? When did the ethnic formation of the Ainu people occur? How have acculturation and assimilation progressed, and been reversed?

Origins

The fact that populations on both sides of the Tsugaru Strait were exposed to considerable cultural change and probable migration in the prehistoric period makes it difficult to pinpoint the origins of the "Ainu people." Archaeological evidence from Hokkaido points to longstanding cultural continuities with the peoples of maritime Siberia and the Amur River basin, as well as links with Honshu and

7.2 Ainu Sword and Hanger

Lacking the ability and materials to manufacture steel, Ainu obtained swords from the Japanese. Rather than carrying them at their belts Japanese-style, they carried them across their backs or over their shoulders with specially woven straps ( emushat ) made by Ainu women. In time swords became valued more for social and ceremonial functions than as weaponry. (BMA 12.692)

the south (Utagawa 1980b), but by the late thirteenth century the culture complex we know as Ainu had replaced that of the bearers of the Satsumon and Okhotsk cultures.

There has been a persistent theory, encountered even now in Western-language scholarship, that the Ainu are the remains of an aboriginal Japanese population who were pushed northward by an expansive Japanese state until finding a final refuge in Hokkaido. The Ainu are thus equated with the Emishi (literally, "barbarians" who were not under Japanese political authority) who appear in Japanese records of the north between the seventh and twelfth centuries. Despite the efforts of scholars to prove racial connections on scanty skeletal evidence, little is known of population movements during this period It is clear, however, that there were cultural discontinuities between Hokkaido and Honshu, rice cultivation and horses, for instance, were not found in Hokkaido. Other

scholars have argued on the basis of placenames for the use of the Ainu language throughout northern Japan, but historical records only tell us that the language of the Emishi was different without recording it. That the diverse populations grouped under the term "Emishi" spoke only one language, which they shared with the inhabitants of Hokkaido, also seems unlikely. Rather than being displaced aboriginal Japanese, it is more probable that the Ainu were the inheritors of the distinct Satsumon culture of Hokkaido and the northern tip of Honshu.

Trade and Warfare

For the Japanese (usually known as Wajin), who regarded the inhabitants of the northern regions through the prism of Chinese notions of civilization and barbarism, the inhabitants of Ezogashima (Hokkaido) were little more than a variety of demon. These barbarians, however, controlled natural resources that the Japanese desired, and a flourishing trade developed in furs and sea products. Exiled criminals and Japanese fleeing from warfare crossed over the Tsugaru Strait, and by the fifteenth century Japanese trading settlements were dotted around the southern tip of the Oshima Peninsula in southern Hokkaido. Both Ainu and Wajin in this region had come to rely on each other: the Wajin needed the Ainu to harvest and exchange the natural products of the region, while the Ainu relied on Japanese trade goods—iron, rice, and other items—which were incorporated into Ainu society as symbols of wealth and power (fig. 7.2).

In 1456 friction between the Ainu (known as Ezo) and the newcomers flared into warfare after a Wajin blacksmith killed an Ainu in a quarrel over a blunt knife. The following year, Ainu, led by Koshamain, destroyed all but two of the settlements and almost drove the Wajin out of Ezogashima altogether, initiating a century of intermittent warfare. A feature of Ainu-Wajin conflicts was the use by the Japanese side of feigned peace negotiations, feasting, and offers of compensation,- after the Ainu had been lulled into a false sense of security, they would be ambushed and killed. In 1514 the Kakizaki family had emerged as the leader of the Japanese in southern Hokkaido, and they played the leading role in such incidents,

which occurred in 1515, 1529, and 1536. In 1551 Suehiro Kakizaki, convinced that

7.3 Shakushain

In 1669 Shakushain, leader of the Shibechari (modern Shizunai) Ainu, organized attacks against trading posts and vessels, and hundreds of Wajin (Japanese) were killed. Several hundred Hidaka Ainu then marched west to confront the Matsumae near their domain in Hakodate but they were defeated, and Shakushain and his chief supporters were assassinated.

continued warfare was not beneficial for trade, sought an accommodation with the local Ainu. The resulting agreement split the profits of trade between Ainu and Wajin leaders, but it gave Kakizaki monopolistic control and established Japanese territorial control over a small area of southern Hokkaido.

In 1591 the first encounter between a European and an Ainu took place. On a visit to the palace of Hideyoshi, the Jesuit Ignacio Morera recorded a meeting with an Ainu accompanying a Kakizaki delegation from the north. The man told Morera that he came from from a place called "Ainomoxoriz," a reference to what contemporary Ainu call Ainu mosir. This is the first time that the word Ainu appears in any historical record.

The part of the island situated near this place is called Yezo by the Japanese and Ainomoxori by the indigenes. According to what we learned from an inhabitant of that area they used to travel to other islands in the west and also to another land called Rebunkur [Sakhalin] that extends to the north of Yezo (S. Kodama 1970c: 15).

Ainu mosir was obviously not a territorial nation-state in the modern sense of a nation as an "imagined community" (Anderson 1991); although the Japanese had a state and the Ainu did not, a sense of nation was equally lacking among both Ainu and Japanese during the premodern period. The Ainu mosir of 1591 was not the expression of an ethnic homeland but more likely "the place where the Ainu people live." Nevertheless, it is clear from other records that Ainu distinguished between their lands and Wajin territory.

In 1599 the Kakizaki family took the name of Matsumae, and in 1604 their small domain was incorporated into the Tokugawa state as a minor fief. The black seal edict of Ieyasu Tokugawa that legitimized the Matsumae domain, following an earlier edict of Hideyoshi in 1593, limited Matsumae political authority to the domain. The rest of the island and surrounding areas remained a foreign land, known as Ezochi (Ainu-land). The same edict granted a trade monopoly to the Matsumae. Although the Matsumae domain possessed rich fishing grounds, there was little agricultural potential, so trade remained vital for the economy. Rice (more than 55,000 bales annually) and other foodstuffs were imported from the Tokugawa state to Matsumae, which shipped back the products of Ezochi in return.

To impose control on trade, the Matsumae set up a series of trading posts in Ainu territory and the Amu were discouraged from freely trading where and when they wished. Products from the trading posts were exchanged with Honshu traders who were limited to certain ports where they were subject to control and taxation. After 1644 Ainu boats were no longer to be seen in Tohoku ports, an indication of the success of Matsumae attempts to monopolize trade. The domain was becoming increasingly dependent on traders from Honshu, especially those of Omi (modern Shiga Prefecture). Omi trading houses such as Ryohamagumi and Yawatagumi began setting up branch offices in Matsumae from the 1630s. Motivated by risk and profit, the traders increasingly began to exploit the Ainu. The size of the etotawara, the special small rice bales used in the Ezo trade for convenience of transportation, was reduced while rates of exchange were maintained, in effect raising prices for one of the staple Wajin goods on which Ainu living around the trading posts had become dependent. Ainu settlements in areas where trade was conducted had become much larger groupings than in the traditional kotun, and they were controlled by powerful leaders who gained their wealth and status from the trade. As tensions mounted, disputes between groups sometimes escalated into armed conflicts. Japanese historical sources indicate that the feud between two powerful Ainu groups, the Menashkur and the Shumkur, which took place between 1648 and 1668 in what is now the Hidaka region, was a major source of political instability. Although the trading and gold-panning interests of the Matsumae were threatened, they could do little more than offer to mediate.

Although Ainu political organization was based on the local or regional group, there probably also existed a more general sense of commonality among those who spoke the Ainu language or shared the same cultural traditions. Identity for the Ainu appears to have been framed primarily in terms of their customs (or religion, because the two were virtually synonymous). Many observers recorded the resistance and distress shown by the Ainu after many of their customs, including tattooing, the wearing of beards, and the bear ceremony, were banned by the authorities in an attempt to promote

7.4 Invasion of Ezo by Russians

Russian explorers and sea-otter hunters began encroaching on Ainu territories in Sakhalin and the Kuriles in the early eighteenth century. Shumushu in the northern Kuriles was colonized by Russians in the 1730s, and by 1749 most Ainu and Kamchadal natives had been baptized as Orthodox Christians. As Russians penetrated farther south, the taxes they imposed on fur angered the southern Kurile Ainu, who rose up and massacred a Russian party on Urup Island in 1771, freeing this area from Russian control for a brief period. This woodblock print, which shows Ainu and Russian forces preparing for battle, is from a series called "Publication on the Ainu People of Japan”; its place of publication, date, or the reason for its creation are not known. (PEM E75190/23.350)

assimilation after 1799,- most feared the resulting wrath of the gods that would come if they abandoned their religion. Even though Ainu identity may have actually been reinforced by Japanese practices of prohibiting Ainu from adopting Japanese language or customs, such historical events as Shakushain's War nevertheless illustrate that this outside force did not compel the Ainu to unite on the basis of a common identity.

This conflict broke out in 1669. Led by Shakushain, leader of the Ainu of Shibechari (modern Shizunai), many Ainu attacked trading posts and vessels over much of Ezochi, killing hundreds of Wajin. The Ainu army, a few hundred strong, then marched west to confront the Matsumae near their domain, but here they were defeated (fig. 7.3). The Matsumae initiated a pacification campaign to regain control of their domain, and during feigned peace negotiations later in the year

Shakushain was assassinated. One result of this political turmoil was that Matsumae exerted control over previously autonomous regional groups in western and central Hokkaido, including the Ainu of Ishikari, who were led by Haukase and had refused to participate in the fighting. Ainu communities in the outlying areas to the north and east, however, still remained independent or maintained a tribute relationship with Matsumae. With the rise in Matsumae dominance, the trading posts and trade vessels gradually began to penetrate into their territories as well, reaching Karafuto (Sakhalin) in 1679 and the island of Kunashiri

in 1754. In 1774 Kunashiri became the trading territory of the merchant Kyubei Hidaya, although the establishment of permanent commercial operations in this area was impossible until 1782 due to the intransigence and power of the local Ainu leaders.

From the early eighteenth century the trading territories, now numbering around seventy and known as basho, began to come under the direct control of mainland traders. Domain expenses were increasing and the Matsumae were deeply in debt to the mainland merchants. The Matsumae hoped that letting merchant contractors operate the basho after paying a fee would increase trade volume and profits and therefore tax receipts. This arrangement gradually developed over the course of the eighteenth century and has come to be known as the basho ukeoi (subcontracted trading post) system. To pay these taxes and fees (along with forced loans to the Matsumae, of which there was little chance of repayment), the traders had to move away from barter trade to a more rationalized system. This was aided by the development of mainland agriculture, which led to a subsequent increase in demand for fish fertilizer and an interest in the fisheries of Ezochi. According to a contemporary source, by 1740 more than half of the rice paddies in western Japan were using fish-meal fertilizer from Ezochi, and goods from the region entered international trade routes through Nagasaki (M. Kaiho 1979). These developments, introduced gradually until the nineteenth century, were made possible by the systematic exploitation of fishing grounds using merchant capital, technology, and management, as well as Ainu labor. Contractors introduced advanced fishing methods and equipment, built processing facilities and barracks for the Ainu laborers, and shipped the products directly to markets in Kansai (Howell 1995). Risks were high, and high fees and forced loans to the Matsumae put pressure on the contractors to make the highest profits possible. One result of this system was cruel treatment of the Ainu.

Emphasis had shifted from obtaining the products of Ainu labor through trade to the direct exploitation of that labor itself. Ainu around the basho, who were dependent on Wajin goods and whose leaders derived authority from their relationship with the basho, were coerced into working for rations and goods. Conditions varied, but in the worst

bcisbo the situation was often harsh. In 1789, after some years of suffering an exceptionally cruel regime, Ainu attacked and killed seventyone Wajin on Kunashiri and in the Nemuro area. This final act of armed resistance was eventually suppressed by the Matsumae with the help of local Ainu leaders under their political control. After an investigation, thirtyseven Ainu were executed at Nokkamappu.

The appearance of Russians in the north around this time meant that Ezochi and the Ainu became a matter of utmost concern in Tokugawa political circles (fig. 7.4). In 1792 Adam Laxman, an official from the court of Catherine II, landed at Nemuro requesting the opening of trade relations with Japan. Although he was rebuffed, the Russian threat to Tokugawa's tenuous control over the northern territories bolstered arguments for the annexation of Ezochi. In 1798

7.5

7.6

7.5 Ainu Northern Regions Before 1868 (after Siddle 1996)

7.6 Hokkaido and Surroundings, 1869-1945 (after Siddle 1996)

the Bakufu (a military caste that enforced the shogunate's rule) sent a large expedition to Ezochi, including Sakhalin and the Kuriles,in 1799 over Matsumae objections, the Tokugawa government annexed part of the region, simultaneously introducing a policy that aimed to "civilize" the Ainu by converting them (often forcibly) to Japanese customs and lifestyle. By 1807 all Ezochi had been placed under direct Bakufu control through offices established in Matsumae and Hakodate (fig. 7.5). This was the first time centralized Japanese political authority was extended to the whole region, but it was too vast and rugged to administer in the same way as other Tokugawa lands. The Bakufu

stationed garrisons around the coast and intervened in the Ainu trade to alleviate the worst injustices, but most Wajin still lived in the Matsumae domain or at the various fishing stations around Hokkaido.

When the Russian threat receded the Bakufu abandoned Ezochi and handed it back to the Matsumae in 1821 , and the border area reverted to its previous ambiguous status. The Matsumae and the merchants, on the other hand, were keen to reassert their economic control in Ezochi as well as their authority over Ainu labor in the fishing stations. The assimilation policy was scrapped, and forced labor and resettlement became a feature of Ainu life. Ainu labor was used for road-building, transportation, and servicing the fisheries, in addition to direct economic production. Ainu were brought down from the mountains to work on the coast or were transferred between basbo run by the same trader, and the sexual exploitation of Ainu women by Wajin migrant workers became commonplace. The recruitment of labor was accomplished by the use of physical coercion if necessary, leaving the elderly and infirm behind. These practices were all recorded in detail in the journals of a sympathetic Japanese explorer, Takeshiro Matsuura ( 1818 - 88 ), who conducted six official surveying missions in Ezochi and Karafuto (southern Sakhalin).

Diseases introduced by the migrant workers also contributed to the destruction of Ainu society (see Walker, this volume). As the Ainu ceased to be the main economic producers in Ezochi, the movement of immigrants increased, encouraged by the easing of travel restrictions and tolls. As these immigrants began to yield political power in Ezochi by the 1850s, the hands-off policy that the Tokugawa government had previously maintained toward the Matsumae domain began to break down, and in 1 855 the Bakufu reasserted control over the area after the Treaty of Shimoda established the RussoJapanese border between Etorofu and Uruppu.

Colonization and Dispossession

With the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and the establishment of the Colonization Commission ( Kaitakusbi ) in 1869, Ezochi was renamed Hokkaido and transformed into an internal colony of the new Japanese state (figs. 7.6, 7.7), a strategic "empty land" to be settled by Japanese immigration and developed along

7/AINU HISTORY OVERVIEW

capitalist lines,- both of these policies required the dispossession of the Ainu as a prerequisite. First Ainu land was appropriated as terra nullius under the Land Regulation Ordinance (Jisho kisoku) of 1872,- the salmon and deer upon which the Ainu depended were soon depleted by uncontrolled exploitation,- and the land was surveyed and partitioned for settlement. Mass immigration, a market economy, and administration by local officials who answered to a distant power created a new colonial society in F4okkaido. The authorities began in the 1880s to round up and relocate Ainu communities onto reservations, of sorts, to clear them out of rich lands designated for agricultural settlement and to make them easier to control. Ainu communities from Sakhalin and the Kuriles were also relocated, the former after the Russians took 7 7 Modern Hokkaido control in 1875 and the latter in 1884. Life on

(after Siddle 1996) these reservations was grim, and in some

cases the communities were moved yet again. By the end of the century, the 17,000 Ainu accounted for around 2 percent of the population of Fdokkaido (Emori 1987: 126).

Modernization was accompanied by new concepts of “race" and "nation" that became the basis for relations between Wajin and Ainu. The barbarian was transformed into a member of a primitive race, a wandering savage incapable of using the land or progressing to higher levels of civilization and

thus doomed to die out in the survival of the fittest. As officials commented in 1 883, the Ainu had no history:

From olden times [the Ainu] . . . have no knowledge of time. If they see snow they know that winter has come,- if they see flowers they realize that spring has arrived,- herrings mean it must be summer,when the salmon come they think it is autumn. They have no fixed place, when they go out they wander aimlessly . . . they have no writing, no methods of teaching, no inherited sensibility.

(Takakura 1972: 524)

A humanitarian movement to halt the physical extermination of the "dying race" resulted in the enactment in 1899 of the F4okkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act (Hokkaido kyudojin hogo bo). Linder this act the Ainu were granted small plots of land in an attempt to turn them into farmers,- assimilation was also encouraged through a special system of native education. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the activities of scholars, educators, colonial officials, and journalists ensured that the image of an inferior "dying race" informed both government policy and public opinion.

Traditional ways of life survived into the Meiji period until the resources of land, fish, and game upon which this lifestyle depended were appropriated or destroyed by the development of FJokkaido,- by the early twentieth century most Ainu were sunk in chronic destitution and only barely managing to survive. Poverty and isolation, coupled with the lack of education, money, or any other resources, hampered the Ainu from mounting any concerted response to the social stresses created by rapid change in the new colonial situation. Isolated acts of individual violence were the most conspicuous attempts to come to terms with their situation, but a few Ainu succeeded in overcoming many of the constraints imposed by the colonial order to obtain an education or even achieve economic prosperity.

Ainu Resistance

In the 1920s and 1930s younger Ainu like Fdokuto iboshi, Yukie Chiri, and Torazo Ega became the forerunners of a movement to better the condition of those they perceived as iltari, "their people." Lacking resources and dependent largely on Wajin allies in positions of authority or Christians associated with the British missionary John Batchelor, they sought

assimilation within the dominant society. Their movement therefore concentrated on selfhelp, the eradication of alcoholism, the revision of the 1899 Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act, and the refutation of the image of a "dying race." In 1930 the first organization for all Hokkaido Ainu, the Ainu Kyokai (Ainu Association) was formed. Although headed by a Wajin bureaucrat and operated as a government program, the Ainu Kyokai provided an important forum for like-minded young Ainu from previously isolated communities to come together. Despite their ultimate objective of assimilation, these men and women remained proud of their heritage and helped create a new, though fragile, sense of Ainu unity.

The failure of their efforts to assimilate became clear in the decades after the collapse of the Empire in 1945. Local prejudice continued to deny those identified as Ainu the opportunity to participate equally in Japan's economic and political renewal. Many Ainu were reduced to working in tourism, one of the few avenues available for them to earn a cash income. Tourism aroused complex emotions among Ainu,- many saw it as degrading or as encouraging the continuation of prejudice against them The production of tourist art had, in fact, been going on for a long time,- even during the days of the basho some Ainu had carved articles for sale, and the carving of bears had been encouraged as a self-help exercise in communities like Chikabumi in the prewar period.

Although the Ainu Kyokai continued, the momentum and vitality of the prewar movement were never regained. However, in the 1970s, radical social and political currents in Japan contributed to the emergence of a

new Ainu politic. Influenced by domestic and international movements for civil and human rights and the struggles of indigenous peoples elsewhere, young radicals challenged the comfortable institutional position of the Utari Kyokai, the successor of the Ainu Kyokai, as a distributor of government largesse, and they also launched an attack on the assimilation policies of the government itself. In common with other indigenous populations around the world, cultural symbols were activated to encourage a sense of identity around which to mobilize politically. A flag, a history, and a homeland (Ainu mosir ) legitimized the existence of the Ainu people and underscored their claims for increased access to wealth and power.

By 1984 Ainu demands for recognition by and participation in Japanese society were codified in a proposal to replace the Protection Act, and the movement was greatly stimulated in 1986 by anger over the declaration of then Prime Minister Nakasone that Japan had no "racial minorities." In 1987 Ainu demands were aired at the Llnited Nations, and the Protection Act was finally repealed in 1997 and replaced with a cultural promotion law (Ainu Shinpo). With the demise of the Protection Act and the associated notion of a "dying race,” a chapter in Ainu history was finally closed. Although many Ainu remain unsatisfied that this law would produce real progress because it did not address political, resource, or territorial rights and did not explicitly grant the Ainu indigenous status, it has nevertheless opened a new relationship between the Ainu and the Japanese government. It thus appears that a new era of Ainu history has begun.

7/AINU HISTORY OVERVIEW

73

8/Early Ainu Contacts with the

Japanese

Isao Kjkuchi

E arly historical records of the

Yamato nation, a state of Japan that ruled a large area from Kinai (near today's Kyoto) from A.D. 552 to 710, identify the people living in the northernmost part of the Japanese archipelago as Ezo. Written in Kanji (ideographic characters adapted from the Chinese system), this term differentiated these people from Emishi (a word describing natives of northern Honshu that was sometimes used to refer to Hokkaido natives) and Honcho-jin (Japanese). Ezo had political meaning throughout the medieval and early modern periods, beginning with these seventh-century references in chronicles of the Yamoto nation and ending when the Tokugawa Shogunate identified the people of Ezo as aborigines in 1 856 and the Meiji government changed the name of their lands from Ezogashima to Hokkaido in 1869. Abolishing the official use of Ezo signified

considered: first, the history of the term "Ezo", and second, the formation of Ainu identity. During the Edo period (which began in 1615), the terms "Ezo" and "Ainu" were becoming synonymous, but the fact that the ancestors of the Ainu were collectively called Ezo does not necessarily mean that they were a group with an ethnic identity at that time. The name "Aino/Ainu" appears in historical literature in the last half of the eighteenth century as a selfascribed ethnic name. It thus appears that by the eighteenth century the native people of today's Hokkaido preferred Ainu and were offended by being referred to as Ezo.

In ancient Japan, the character for Ezo was often pronounced with its alternative reading of Emishi. Emishi was also a man's name, one used especially to designate a brave man, but when Emishi was pronounced with a provincial accent, it became Ebisu, which meant a violent group of people. There is no

8.1 Historic Map of Northern Tqhoku and Hokkaido This map, produced by the Edo Shogunate government, shows its regional administration centers for Ezo, ca. 1600.

assimilation: Ezo people were supposed to become Japanese. With this action Japanese governments attempted to shore up their northern border, projecting a more unified presence to the Russians, who had begun to expand south into Sakhalin at the end of the eighteenth century (!. Kikuchi 1994,- see also M. Kaiho 1987, T. Takahashi 1963).

Can one assume that the people called Ezo in ancient times are today's Ainu population? There are two complicated issues to be

doubt that this linguistic ambivalence had an effect on attitudes toward the people who inhabited the Tohoku area of northern Honshu and were not integrated into the political world of the Japanese (Yamato), who had by then established a centralized state. The Yamato people were an immigrant group who came from the Korean Peninsula after the early Yayoi period (250 B.C.-A.D. 250), while the Emishi were longtime residents who dated back to the Jomon period (see Yamaura and

HISTORIC PERIOD/ I. KIKUCHI

8.2 A Fishery Scene from Ezo Country

As the Japanese state expanded northward. a maritime trade developed with the Ainu for fish products and such Asian goods as cloth, metal, and glass. While Japanese were eager to obtain seal and sea-lion products, eagle feathers needed for arrow-fletching, and other northern materials, oceangoing Ainu traders from Ezo (as Hokkaido was known until 1868) supplied the Japanese with materials obtained from the Kurile and Sakhalin Ainu and from the native people of the Asian mainland. This undated illustration by Teishin Kodama shows Japanese and Ainu vessels exchanging fish at sea. (HMH)

Ushiro, this volume). In the eyes of the Yamato people, the Emishi must have appeared foreign, for they had a vastly different language, culture, and religion.

The existence of similar material cultures shared by peoples from the Ishikari River valley in Hokkaido south to the Tohoku district has been established by archaeological data. The fact that many Ainu-language placenames are still used in those parts of Emishi that were once identified with the Tohoku— the north and northeast in particular—bolsters the theory that the Emishi, like the Ezo, were Ainu. Although the word "Emishi" may also have been a self-ascribed name, it is not yet certain exactly what they called themselves. From their own point of view, the word may just have been a name used to distinguish themselves from the Yamato.

The Emishi were a group with a different ethnicity and culture who lived east and

national culture, the Emishi remained outside this national framework. By definition, if the Emishi were to be assimilated as Japanese, they could no longer be Emishi. Including non-Emishi people, for instance, Ezo/Ainu, under the political classification of Emishi would not inconvenience the Japanese.

That the people who lived in the northernmost part of their archipelago were described as Emishi reveals Japanese attitudes toward foreigners and the state of its policy in relation to East Asia. For example, in the middle of the seventh century a Japanese mission to the rulers of the Chinese Tang dynasty presented Michinoku Emishi (people from northern Tohoku) to the Chinese as Japanese subjects. This reveals Japan's desire to emulate Imperial China by modeling itself after the Sui and Tang nations. Although the Emishi who resisted Japanese expansion were to be suppressed, they were nonetheless useful

north of the Yamato people. The rulers of the centralized state now called Japan regarded the Emishi as outsiders who did not acknowledge the emperor's rule and accordingly, for political reasons, were defined as uncivilized people. Those who lived within the framework of the Japanese nation were thought of as citizens of the country, regardless of race and ethnic origins. But although these Japanese developed a unified identity that eventually coalesced into a single ethnic

as political pawns to enhance the authority of the Japanese ruler. The concept of Ezo as a subject state ruled by Japan greatly affected the Japanese people's political and cultural awareness of the Ezo for generations.

In the middle of the twelfth century, the way to read the character for Ezo clearly changed from Emishi/Ebisu to Ezo, which became the term used to refer to the residents of the Tsugaru region of Tohoku and Hokkaido. What caused this change? The

ancient Japanese nation was aggressive in its campaign to subjugate the Emishi from the end of the eighth century to the beginning of the ninth century, evidenced by the punitive expedition against the Ainu led by Tamuramaro Sakanoue in A.D. 801. After this period, the belligerent strategy was switched to one of appeasement, a policy whose effect was to play one group against another.

During this period, some Emishi in the Tohoku region took steps to become Japanese. They were called Fushu or Ifu, and were in essence people who became naturalized Japanese,- some powerful Fushu clans married aristocrats from the capital, Kyoto, who were stationed in Tohoku, and these clans became powerful in the region as a conduit between the central government and northern societies. The Abe clan, who dominated the Kitakami River basin (Okuroku-gun) in the middle of the eleventh century, and the

then called Ezo, developed the Satsumon culture, which was known for its ceramic ware and based on salmon- and trout-fishing with some hunting and gathering—practices that fit the ecosystem specific to Hokkaido. As any common identity as Emishi faded away, the Ezo in Hokkaido and the nation of Japan were connected largely by local power brokers at the border of their two cultures (figs. 8.2, 8.3).

By the end of the twelfth century, the dominant Fujiwara clan, which had acted as managers or rulers of the Ezo, was defeated by Yoritomo Minamoto, a member of a samurai clan who founded the Kamakura Shogunate. Thereafter, the Tohoku region was governed by a vassal of the Kamakura, and all elements of the Emishi culture and local tradition disappeared, only the northern part of Tohoku (current Aomori Prefecture) maintained close relations with the Ezo. A

8.3 The Japanese Ezo Fishery

With Ainu uprisings suppressed by samurai and the Matsumae in charge of Ezo trade, Japanese fish-processing plants were established in southeastern Ezo to exploit salmon rivers and inshore fisheries. Dried fish, roe, oil, fish starch, and preparation of the fish fertilizer needed for Honshu’s rice paddies produced good profits for the Japanese owners, but not for the Ainu, who lost their livelihood, were forced into indentured service, and saw their villages overrun by alien populations. This photograph of a Japanese fishprocessing plant was taken at Akkeshi, Hokkaido, in 1871 by G. Noguchi, a photographer associated with Charles Appleton Longfellow during his sojourn in Japan in 1871-73. (NPS/LNHS)

Fujiwara clan, who inherited the Abe clan's power, are examples of such powerful families. Of them Hidehira Fujiwara was appointed Chinjufu Shogunate/Lord of Mutsu, a national post, and he exercised great power as a ruler of the Tohoku area. The source of his wealth was trading to the Japanese in such goods as eagle feathers, seal skins, horses, and placer gold, which he obtained from the northern residents.

Between the ninth and twelfth centuries, the ancient Emishi culture split and took two largely different paths: the Tohoku people became Fushu and were integrated into Japanese society, while those in Hokkaido, by

local administrator from the Ando clan of Tosaminato in the Tsugaru area, appointed by the Hojo clan, controlled all trade with the Hokkaido Ezo as well as regional affairs. Although the Fujiwara clan's power was seized by the Kamakura Shogunate and the Hojo clan, the Ando clan became a direct successor of the Fujiwara and Abe clans in terms of control of northern trade and in fact regarded itself as a descendant of the Abe clan. Their prosperity during the Kamakura (1 185-1336) and Muromachi (1 336-1573) periods is indicated by the wealth of foreign goods found at the Ando residence site, which was recently excavated in Tosaminato,- these imported items

HISTORIC PERIOD/I KIKUCHI

8.5 Lacquered Cups and Saucer Stands Japanese-made cups and saucer stands, called tuki by the Ainu, had a central role in Ainu ceremonies in which millet beer or sake was shared by men and gods. Tuki became an important Ainu-Japanese trade commodity and were one of many foreign items incorporated into Ainu culture and belief. They continue to be used in ceremonies today. (BMS C18752, C18755, C18756, C18757)

8.4 Trade Goods and Ceremonial Life

Lacquerware—ranging from large storage vessels to drinking cups—was one of many types of trade goods obtained by Ainu from the Japanese. This detail from a mid-nineteenth-century painting of an iyomante (bear-sending) ceremony by Byozan Hirasawa (full view, fig. 9.8) shows many of the large containers that the Ainu considered "treasures.” (HML)

8.6 Mutual Influence

Trade had impact on the Japanese as well as on the Ainu. Along with marine and other natural products, Japanese received attush garments woven from elm bark by Ainu women. This drawing by Shimanojo Murakami, from Curious Sights of Ezo Island (1799), shows Japanese women wearing tough and durable attush for agricultural work. (HML)

included white and celadon porcelain and Chinese coins. During the development of trade on the Sea of Japan, Tosaminato— where Hokkaido's kelp, dried salmon, and sea otter skin were received—played an important role in managing trade with Korea,

China, and Hokkaido (which was called Ezogashima at the time). The economically strong Ando clan called itself "Hinomoto Shogun" during the Muromachi period, hinting at its desire to be an independent power in eastern Japan.

What did the Ezo people on Ezogashima with whom the Ando clan traded look like? According to texts on the picture scroll Suwa Daimyojin ekotoba compiled in I 356 by Enchu of Suwa Shrine at Shinano, three types of Ezo were living on Ezogashima: Hinomoto,

Karako, and Watarito. Hinomoto were residents of the Pacific coast of Hokkaido and had connections with eastern Hokkaido and the Kuriles. Karako were thought to live on the coast of the Sea of Japan and be related to peoples of Sakhalin and northeast Asia. The bodies of Hinomoto and Karako people were described as ogrelike. They ate animals and fish, were unaware of farming, and could not communicate in the Japanese language. In the minds of medieval people, who believed in the virtue of the center, the farther away from the capital, the less clean things became, and the ogre represented this impurity, which would bring misfortune to humans. Thus, it was natural that the Ezo, who lived on the border or even outside of Japan, were considered to be inhuman ogres.

8.7 Cloth Mittens

Cotton cloth was one of the most popular Japanese items imported to Ezo. These mittens, collected by Romyn Hitchcock in 1888 in Piratori, were probably made from a used Japanese kimono. The cloth has one of the many blue resist-dyed patterns that were popular in the midnineteenth century. (NMNH 150688)

The Watarito lived on the Oshima Peninsula in southern Hokkaido, and are described in texts as traders who crossed the Tsugaru Strait to conduct business in Tosaminato. Judging from descriptions of maw (sacred shaved sticks) and poisoned arrows, the Watarito were undoubtedly the early modern-era Ainu.

Those who moved to the area after the fall of the Fujiwara clan or were deported by the Kamakura Shogunate to Ezogashima were also called Watarito, and traders from Honshu must have been part of the group. While southern Hokkaido was occupied by people of various backgrounds, the Ando clan of Tosaminato controlled the entire area.

Oshima Peninsula created tension with the Ezo and led to the Koshamain uprising in 1457. The year before the revolt, the Ando clan moved its headquarters to the Oga Peninsula of Dewa. After the battle with the Koshamain

forces, the Kakizaki clan obtained ruling status: although they were vassals of the Ando clan, they promoted themselves to the top of the Tatenushi class and seized trading rights with the Ezo. With the emergence of a centralized government led by the Toyotomi and Tokugawa Shogunates, however, the Kakizaki clan was forced to integrate into the system as their subjects. The Kakizaki clan, which changed its name to the Matsumae clan, was granted trade rights with Ezo by the Tokugawa Shogunate and was named its daimyo (feudal lord) in the far north (figs. 8.3-8.7). Ezogashima, an area where people with vastly different backgrounds had once lived together in a trade entrepot, finally was occupied by only the Matsumae clan and the Ainu people. This can be seen as a forced repudiation of the successful coexistence of multiple groups among the Watarito Ezo in the medieval period.

HISTORIC PERIOD/I KIKUCHI

Ainu-e: A Historical Review

Toshikazu Sasaki

A lthough the Ainu did not

practice painting, mostly due to their religion, several sets of paintings nevertheless exist that illustrate the Ainu lifestyle from the eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century,- the subjects are generally limited to Ainu culture, manners, and customs. These works, usually called Ainu-e, were painted by shamo (a word derived from Ainu sisam meaning "neighbor",it was originally used by the Ainu as a derogatory term for the Japanese, but after the eighteenth century it lost its negative meaning) who had frequent contacts with the Ainu. One of the earliest Ainu-e appeared in 1720 (Kyoho 5) with the publication of Ezosbi, an illustrated gazetteer of Ezo compiled by the celebrated Japanese historian and man of letters Hakuseki Arai (1656-1725). Ezo-sbi contains a wealth of Ainu ethnographic material obtained through records compiled

Tfg-M/

9.1 Pictorial Biography of Prince Shotoku

The earliest depictions of the Ainu are found in the first renditions of the Pictorial Biography of Prince Shotoku, illustrated accounts of a seventhcentury hero, which appeared as early as 1069 in a version of this series painted by Hata no Chitei. This illustration from a screen painting of this subject shows attention to cultural themes like clothing, hairstyles, and physical features. (TNM)

by the Japanese Matsumae clan, which ruled Hokkaido at that time from their seat in today's Hakodate region.

The term Ainu-e has been used broadly to define any painting that depicts the Ezo (Ainu) without concern for dates, subjects, or artists. Since the medieval period of Japanese history, the term "Ezo" equates fully with "Ainu," but in more ancient uses Ezo did not necessarily refer to the Ainu but was used to describe many non-Japanese minority groups of the surrounding area, including the Lll'ta, Orok, and Nivkhi. Many of the earliest artworks within the Ainu-e genre, broadly defined, do not always provide information that can be reconciled with traditions and

culture of the Ainu as documented more recently. Some paintings of the Ainu reveal that the artists had no firsthand knowledge of the Ainu,- these materials reflect the s bcnno view of a different race, and their images of the Ainu suggest that these people were not widely known to the artists who created them.

Japanese pictorial art historically concerns itself with various styles of paintings depicting all aspects of Japanese life. Because Ainu-e on their most basic level are artworks depicting Ainu life, it might seem logical to categorize them as genre paintings: however, they are not truly genre pictures because they were not created by the Ainu themselves as depictions of their own lifeways. Because they were created by nonAinu, certain elements of falsehood and prejudice are reflected in some Ainu-e. Some scholars of Ainu culture suggest that the Ainu-e genre can be divided into two distinct groups based on the motives of the artists. The first group consists of works that sought to record ethnographic details about an unfamiliar people for those who could not observe them firsthand. These artists based their paintings on direct experience of Ainu life, documentary sources, and real Ainu people, situations, and artifacts. The second group approached the Ainu primarily from an artistic point of view, discovering in them a fascinating and exotic subject that offered artistic challenges and opportunities. This dichotomy is problematic, because artistically superior Ainu-e can provide valuable ethnographic material, and carefully researched works can certainly be artistically rendered. This essay is primarily concerned with those works of high artistic merit.

Ezo Illustrated Before Ezo-shi

Among the most interesting paintings of this genre produced before the Ezo-sbi are those dedicated to the legend of Shotoku Taishi (574-622), a heroic figure whose seventhcentury exploits attracted artists for nearly a millennium Many illustrated versions of the Sbotoku taishi denryaku, or collected tales of Prince Shotoku, comprise the series Pictorial Biography of Prince Sbotoku, starting with a version painted by Hata no Chitei in 1069 (Enkyu 1), which is now in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum. Collectively these are presented in a biographical style that differentiates them from many other

works that sought simply to glorify the Prince Shotoku legend (fig. 9.1). Shotoku's legendary role in suppressing a revolt directed by Ayakasu, a leader of the Ezo, was a popular subject in the Pictorial Biography of Prince Shotoku. In one version, "The Subjugation of Ezo by Prince Shotoku" is portrayed as an achievement of the ten-year-old Prince, embellishing upon the "Events During the Tenth Year of Emperor Bidatsu's Reign (572585)" in Nihon shoki (Chronicles of Japan), tales of ancient Japan from its origins to 696, which was compiled in 720. In this painting Ayakasu is seen swearing his loyalty to the emperor before Mt. Miwa in Nara. Although the depictions of the Ezo and their leader for the most part conform to contemporary stereotypical images of these people, a close analysis reveals certain accurately depicted aspects of Ezo manners and customs.

Hata no Chitei painted the oldest

9.2 Seisuiji en'gi (History of Seisui Temple)

This early illustration depicts the story of Tamuramaro Sakanoue (758-811) and the origins of Seisui Temple. The painting shows Japanese forces battling a rebellious northern people who are portrayed here without any recognizable Ainu characteristics. Rather than being based on ethnographic reality, these images conform to ideas about demons and goblins popular in the sixteenth century. (TNM)

known depictions of Ezo people including the screen in the Tokyo National Museum, referenced above. Illustrated therein are three half-naked, beardless men with their long hair tied in hack,- one man wears a skirt made of bird feathers. The next depiction of Ezo people, also held by the Tokyo National Museum, is a piece in the Prince Shotoku series dated to 1305 (Kagen 3). Several works dating from around I 323, considered to he the 700th anniversary of Prince Shotoku's death, still exist, including one at the temple at Shitenno dated 1 323, (Genko 3), another of the same date held by the Jogu Temple in lharaki, and one dated I 324 (Genko 4) in a private collection in Kyoto. The depictions of Ezo in these four pieces done at the end of

the Kamakura era (1 1 85-1 336) to celebrate the anniversary of Prince Shotoku's death are different from the work of 1069 by Hata no Chitei. It is hard to say whether the Ezo illustrated in Hata no Chitei s piece are Ainu or people of other tribes, although they do possess some elements of Ainu ethnicity. By contrast, the Ezo illustrations from the Kamakura period, especially the piece done in 1 324, are distinctly Ainu. Although the portrayals of the Ezo in these three picture scrolls have a distinctly Chinese character, it is possible to find Ainu elements in the details. The Prince Shotoku series continued to be painted through the Edo period (16151 868), but the pieces that offer the clearest contemporary view of the Ezo materials were painted during the Muromachi period (1336— 1573). The British Museum has excellent examples of this series from this period, and although they are fragmentary, their depictions of the Ezo are highly informative.

Ryuzo Torii was the first scholar to examine depictions of the Ezo in the Pictorial Biography of Prince Shotoku in relation to Ainu manners and customs (Torii 1926). He asserted that the version in the Jogu Temple in Ibaraki showed the most ancient manners and customs of the Ainu and that this painting was the most trustworthy substitute for the lost originals of the Suwa Daimyojin ekotoba (see below). Bolstered by Kyosuke Kindaichi's support (1926) for his views on the authenticity of the Jogu Temple painting, Torii (1926) maintained that this rendition is the oldest Ainu-e. Sakuzaemon Kodarna (1971) disagreed that the painting depicts Ainu manners and customs but expressed no doubt that it is the oldest Ezo painting. It has been my contention (Sasaki 1972) that the Pictorial Biography of Prince Shotoku be viewed as the oldest Ainu-e, which renders these materials invaluable as a starting point for studying Ainu culture.

The number of early Ainu-e outside the Pictorial Biography of Prince Shotoku series is quite limited, which only adds to the interest in these depictions of the Ezo. In chronological order, the most important scrolls for their descriptions and images of northern ethnic groups are Suwa Daimyojin ekotoba (Pictures and commentaries in the Suwa Daimyojin shrine), Seisuiji en’gi (History of Seisui Temple), and Wakan sansai zue (An illustrated encyclopedia).

The Suwa Daimyojin ekotoba, which describes the illustrious family whose power is

represented by the Suwa Shrine in Shinano (now Nagano Prefecture), was completed by Tadataka Suwa in 1356 (Embun 1) and incorporates text written by eight people, including Son'en Hoshinno. In its original format as an illustrated handscroll this work featured paintings done by four people, including Takamori Fujiwara, but these have been lost and only the text survives today. Although the loss of the paintings removes the Suwa Daimyojin ekotoba from direct consideration as Ainus, the text provides good information on the Ainu of the Middle Ages and has been studied from the literary point of view,- landmark studies of this work have been done by Kindaichi (1925) and Kodama (1971).

9.3 Illustrated Gazetteer of Ezo Among the first accurate ethnographic renditions of Ainu clothing and material culture appeared in drawings appended by an unknown artist to a version of the Ezo-shi fuzu (Illustrated gazetteer of Ezo). This image depicts an Ainu man wearing an attush robe with border designs. (TNM)

The Suwa Daimyojin ekotoba exists in many manuscript forms. After collating nine different copies of this manuscript to reach an adequate interpretation of this work, I concluded that

each has transcription errors due to misinterpretation or misreading of ancient characters,- these errors, as well as the loss of the original paintings, make it difficult to interpret these documents. The Suwa Daimyojin ekotoba remains valuable as historical material, however, because it describes the existence of three regions of Ezo— Hinomoto, Karako, and Watarito—in the Middle Ages. Descriptions in other passages are reminiscent of more recent Ainu religious ceremonies and of one of the most important ritual artifacts, inaw.

Other good materials on the Ezo were created during the half century between 1305 and 1356, more than at any other time during this early period, culminating with the release of the Suwa Daimyojin ekotoba. One factor in this productivity was increased Japanese knowledge about the Ainu as a result of the mid-fifteenthcentury Tsugaru Ando Rebellion, which took place in present-day Aomori Prefecture and involved warfare between the Matsumae and Esashi daimyo families and in which the Suwa

family played an important role in suppressing. Information about the northern territories was collected by the ruling Japanese families who responded to the revolt of the Ando, and their familiarity with that part of the archipelago revealed information about the Ainu.

There is good historical documentation that another rebellion in a remote northern region was suppressed by Tamuramaro Sakanoue in about 801. Seisuiji en'gi includes this legend in its recounting of the beginnings of Seisui Temple in Kyoto, where Sakanoue was buried. It was recorded in 1517 (Eisho 14) that this document was given to the painter, Mitsunobu Tosa (1434-1525). The work is now kept at the Tokyo National Museum. The Ezo depicted in this artwork have very strange appearances,- neither specific characteristics of the Ainu nor elements common for the Ezo discussed above are apparent. In these pictures the Ezo, depicted as fiendish enemies of Buddhism, are being trod upon by a military figure rendered as a godlike superior (fig. 9.2). Painters from the Tosa school, lacking any knowledge about the Ezo, used these fiendish figures to represent them. Even these paintings can, however, provide valuable information about Japanese impressions of Ezo in the sixteenth century, and a closer look provides insight into legends about Ezo revolts and their suppression.

In modern Japan, knowledge about the Ainu began to increase with the publication in 1712 of the Wakan sansai zue, a pictorial encyclopedia in 105 volumes by Ryoan Terashima. Although I assert that the Ezo-shi stands as the beginning of the Ainu-e tradition (see below), the illustrations that were published and circulated in Wakan sansai zue were pioneering Ainu-e, and its content (especially the accuracy of information about Ainu language) is superior to that of the Ezoshi. Scholars still question where Ryoan Terashima obtained his information about Ainu language and wonder why that same accuracy was not reflected in his paintings, which in comparison to the written content of this work appear less convincing as factual representations of Ainu. For instance, although there is a depiction of a man with long hair and a beard, he does not physically or by dress look like an Ainu. This man wears patterned silk clothing obtained from the Santan traders in the Amur area over garments with tapered Ainu-style sleeves and

9/AINU-E HISTORICAL REVIEW

9.4 Hunting

Shunri Chishima (also known as Shunri Matsumae) painted Ainu-e in a romantic lateeighteenth-century style, but his production was limited and his work is poorly known. This scene of an Ainu family hunting shows attention to detail but is more evocative than ethnographic. (HMM)

9.5 Problems with Ainu-e

This is a detail from a copy by Bunrei Hayasaka of a scene from Curious Sights of Ezo Island by Shimanojo Murakami. At that period it was customary for Japanese art students to copy original works by the masters, but most copies were not exact reproduction. In this scene the student added a Japanese screen behind the Japanese guests, changing the ambience of the original, which is shown in figure 6.3. These content modifications are troublesome as they often alter the mood, information, or message of the original. Although the viewer must exercise caution in interpreting Ainu-e, they remain invaluable records of traditional Ainu life. Without such recordings of the lives of indigenous people as these by Japanese artists—or those created by American artist Paul Kane or the Irishman George Catlin of North American Indians—much information about these wonderful cultures would be lost forever. (BMS Archives)

leggings made of Ainu bark cloth ( attush ), but the depiction is unconvincing as a direct observational record of an Ainu wearing Santan trade goods. It seems likely that Ryoan Terashima obtained written sources only, with the images coming from his imagination (Sasaki 1992).

Ezo-shi and the Era of True Ainu-e

Ainu culture developed rapidly between the eighteenth and earply nineteenth centuries. While the Ainu suffered at the hands of the Japanese during this period, they continued to produce many fine material objects and oral literature. Religious practices were developed, and such rituals as the bear-sending ceremony (iyomante ) had become established by this time. Most artwork produced after the Ezo-sbi is corroborated by written documents describing Ainu culture at that time. However, not all Ainu-e illustrate Ainu culture faithfully,- there may be more fallacious works than faithful ones, and so it is necessary to examine each carefully to derive an accurate rendition of Ainu culture during this period.

There is no need to introduce the Ezo-shi of Hakuseki Arai to scholars. This book, which appeared in 1720 (Kyoho 5), is the origin of modern Japanese studies of the Ainu and had a great influence on its later development. Surprisingly, although many copies of the Ezo-shi exist, a complete revised edition has never been published, despite its importance as basic reference material. Although the Ezo-shi indisputably marks the beginning of the greatest epoch in the evolution of Ainu-e, it is problematic to call the Ezo-shi itself an Ainu-e because its pictures were based on actual sketches of Ainu subjects,- these were appended to it by an anonymous artist in Ezo-shi fuzu (Illustrated gazetteer of Ezo). No one is certain whether illustrations were appended to the original edition of Ezo-shi, but even without illustrations it contains a wealth of information. There may have been sketches of a few easily transported objects such as swords or clothing in an early version of the Ezoshi, but no images of Ainu are shown: it would

have been extremely unlikely that Ainu would have been physically present in Edo, the capitol city, where Hakuseki Arai worked. As Ezo-shi copies continued to be made, more sketches may have been added, but this is merely conjecture because no artist has been identified as the illustrator of the Ezo-shi (fig. 9.3).

The Ezo-shi sketches of Ainu men and women, clothes, utensils, and implements present an excellent version of eariy-eighteenth-century pictorial ethnography. Clothes and materials are very well illustrated, which suggests that actual ethnographic materials were used as models. In the accuracy achieved in the illustrations, the Ezo-shi is far superior to the Wakan sansai zue. Even though Arai had never visited Ezo, he made good use of the materials available in the Edo Shogunate library, and his book is full of valuable information. Although some depictions of people are problematic—physical attributes are distorted or are otherwise non-Ainu-like—the section titled "Elegant Ezo" appears to be a highly accurate rendition of an Ainu man wearing Santan clothes and Japanese swords. These images are a convincing portrayal of contemporary Ainu formal dress, which utilized many imported goods as luxury and prestige items,this can be verified in other sources. One measure of the influence of this work is seen in the technique of rendering facial characteristics, including hairstyle, beard, and eyebrows produced by straight lines, which set a stylistic precedent followed in most Ainu-e after 1720.

Ainu-e After Ezo-shi

Several decades after the Ezo-shi first appeared, Teiryo Kodama created a series of artworks that are considered to be the first authentic paintings (as opposed to the

HISTORIC PERIOD / T SASAKI

9.6 Tobu

Tobu, chief of the Monbetsu Ainu, was one of the first subjects painted by Hakyo Kakizaki in his Portraits of Ezo Chieftains, 1783. This particular image is known to have been painted by Kakizaki, who was one of the most prolific and talented Ainu-e painters and a member of the Japanese family (later named “Matsumae”) who governed Hokkaido from the seventeenth century. His series depicted leaders of Ainu groups who traded with the Matsumae, and so provides insight into the society of high-status Ainu ca. 1800. Kakizaki painted from living models and was attentive to features important to the Ainu like curly hair (a sign of beauty), and venerated artifacts, like the warrior’s helmet crest seen here. (TNM)

previous scroll illustrations) to depict the Ainu. Although the dates of his birth and death are unknown, Teiiyo Kodama was a painter active betv/een 1751 and 1764 in the Matsumae domain within the Ainu Hokkaido homelands,- his painting techniques reflect those used by the fifteenth-century school of Masanobu Kano. The masterpiece MatsumaeEsashi Folding Screen is his best-known work, but he also left numerous scroll paintings, all entitled Ezo Customs and Manners despite their having different content. In recent years Satomi Igarashi has studied Teiryo Kodama's artworks and reported on his accomplishments (Igarashi 1991).

In the following generations certain Ainu-e deserve to be valued as paintings as well as research information. Among the artists who are known for the quality of their painting in addition to the accuracy of the content regarding Ainu culture are Shunri Matsumae (also known as Shunri Chishima,

dates unknown) (fig. 9.4), Hakyo Kakizaki (1764-1826), Gentan Tani (1778-1840), Shimanojo Murakami (1760-1808), Teisuke Murakami 1780-1846), Bunrei Hayasaka (dates unknown) (fig. 9.5), and Byozan Hirasawa (1822-76). The University of Oregon Museum in Eugene has a fine original hanging scroll entitled Ainu jimbutsu-zu (date unknown), as well as Ezo People by Shunri Matsumae,- a good-quality manuscript of the Record of Ezo Trip by Gentan Tani is held by the University of Pennsylvania Museum.

In 1783 (Temmei 3), Hakyo Kakizaki painted one of the earliest of the few Ainu portraits that exist, and it is often considered to be the finest Ainu-e. His subject was known only as "Tobu" and was identified as a leader of "Ezo chi monbetsu,” a reference to a location that is difficult to identify today.

The painting of Tobu (fig. 9.6) is from Ishu retsuzo (Portraits of Ezo [Ainu] Chieftains),painted in extremely vivid colors, it is verified as Kakizaki's genuine work and is now in the collection of the Musee des Beaux-Arts in Besangon, France. Although it was made as a decorative painting and contains some technical exaggerations, it reveals Kakizaki's schooling in the Chinese Nan-pin style, which emphasizes realism and the use of Western perspective, as does the similar Maruyama style in Japan. The painting of Tobu is somewhat crude but has a lifelike quality because it was sketched from a living model,- Kakizaki used only a few models for the people he illustrated in his Ainu-e, and they are recognizable. In his hand Tobu holds a decorative crest for a warrior's helmet, a highly valued artifact that the Ainu handed down from generation to generation. This is a very accurate rendition of an Ainu man, showing curly hair, which the Ainu hold as a mark of personal beauty, and detailed patterns on the attush clothing. This illustration can be taken as a credible depiction of actual Ainu people in the Temmei period (1781-89).

Similar artworks appeared in the Bunka and Bunsei periods (1804-30). Compared with Kakizaki's painting some are poor-quality reproductions, and, even worse, some are the artists' own creations and lack ethnographic truth: for example, the Kita Ezo zusetsu (Illustrations of northern Ezo) by Rinzo Mamiya in 1855 (Ansei 2), which was originally edited by Teisuke Murakami using materials reprinted from Rinzo Marakami's Douchu Yoroku of 1811.

Hokui bunhai, a record of the Karafuto (Sakhalin) frontier exploration, is an excellent body of work containing ethnography of the Karafuto Ainu in narrative and illustrations. But when this work was published under the title Kita Ezo zusetsu, the illustrations were done by Gyokuransai Hashimoto and Tansai Ju, who reinterpreted the subject in the ukiyo-e style, known as "pictures of the floating world" and identified with woodblock prints featuring geisha, beautiful courtesans, Kabuki actors, and other worldly or popular imaginary figures or scenes. In this rendering the Ainu materials are unfit for scholarly use, proof that painters who were not aware of Ainu reality cannot be trusted as reliable ethnographic sources.

One should not consider Ainu-e to be simply paintings that depict queer manners and customs of a little-known people of a northern island: it is necessary to understand the works' content in order to appreciate

9.7 CATCHiNG AN EAGLE Shimanojo Murakami (1760-1808), a shogunate official living in Ezo, had great access to Ainu people over an extended period. His Curious Sights of Ezo Island, completed in 1799, offers the most extensive description of Ainu culture and society presented in the Ainu-e format, and many copies are found in collections outside of Japan. This image, which presents cultural practices and Ainu objects in an environmental setting, is typical of Murakami’s style. (HML)

them properly. In reality, Ainu-e are useful as materials to clarify the understanding of people who share a history on the Japanese archipelago, as well as revealing the culture of the Ainu. From this point of view, the series of illustrations by Shimanojo Murakami are the most reliable source.

Shimanojo Murakami (1760-1808), who is also called Hata no Awakimaro, had direct contact with the Ainu people and experienced their culture as a shogunate official living in Ezo. Ezo-shima kikan (Curious Sights of Ezo Island), completed in 1799 (Kansei 12), contains his recollections and observations. This book has great value today as the most complete description of the Ainu,

HISTORIC PERIOD /T. SASAKI

and it expresses the most accurate understanding of Ainu culture among Ainu-e materials of this period (fig. 9.7). For this reason, many copies of this manuscript have been circulated, and many are now found in the United States and Europe,- images derived from this work are the main source of Ainu-e found in the United States. Among the materials in Europe, the small booklets kept by the Folk Museum of Keel University, Germany, are excellent. In the United States, there are copies of Curious Sights of Ezo Island by Bunrei Hayasaka at the University of Oregon,- a higher-quality specimen at the Brooklyn Museum of Art (fig. 9.5),- and three scrolls with many fine illustrations under this title by Shimanojo Murakami, which were acquired in 1952 from the estate of Frederick Starr, at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

Ezo-shima kikan was not the end of Shimanojo's plans. He had intended to work on a more ambitious Ainu book but passed away in 1 808 before it was completed. His adopted son, Teisuke Murakami, and Rinzo Mamiya took over and completed Illustrations of Ezo Life in 1855, which took as its thesis that both Ainu and Japanese culture had the same origin,- it is a laborious work that delves deeply into Ainu culture. The content of its illustrations are of high value. The Berlin Folk Museum has one page of this work, which was collected by Heinrich von Siebold. Both Rinzo Mamiya and Shimanojo Murakami lived in the Ezo region and had close contact with the Ainu, and they responsibly reported the situation in the Ezo region to Edo,- they also had excellent artistic skills with which to depict Ainu life. Their works are very reliable, but when others copied them mistakes and erroneous interpretations of the originals occurred. Therefore, one must always exercise caution in evaluating Ainu-e, because even works by careful artists may be distorted when they are copied or reproduced.

Byozan Hirasawa (1822-76) was the most recent of the Ainu-e artists, and it is not an exaggeration to call him the finest Ainu-e painter (fig. 9.8). His numerous works of diverse Ainu subjects have high value for research. There are more of his works overseas than in japan, and others are still being discovered. His pupils, Hako Kimura and Sekkei Sawada, whose works are numbered among extant "Byozan-style" works, used his rough copies as models and painted with a feel similar to that of Byozan. The British Museum

Modern Meaning of Ainu-e

Ainu-e have value as materials for reconstructing the history and content of early Ainu culture. If the contents depicted show manners and customs that have been handed down successively to later generations, in different periods, its authenticity as ethnographic documentation is enhanced. For example, the Ainu used to hunt seals, and information about this activity was passed down in Ainu villages in the Volcano Bay area of southern Hokkaido, but today even elders do not remember the details. The picture scrolls of Shimanojo Murakami and artworks of Masumi Sugae (1754-1829) contain illustrations of seal hunts that are depicted so precisely that they help restore knowledge about this forgotten aspect of Ainu culture. Masumi Sugae was a travel writer from Mikawa (now Aichi Prefecture) who in 1783 traveled

9.8 Iyomante

Byozan Hirasawa (1822-76) was one of the most recent and best of Ainu-e artists, partly because of the diversity of his work, which covered many aspects of traditional Ainu life, and partly because of his prolific output. His Painting of a Bear-sending Ceremony is a good example of his work, much of which is in museums outside of Japan. (HML)

has a scroll and a rough sketch of Byozan's works, and the Scotland National Museum owns several excellent largescale works, including Painting of Omusha and Painting ofllimamu. In the United States, the Peabody Essex Museum of Salem, Massachusetts, owns important pieces like Painting of Ezo Playing the Tonkori and Painting of a Bear-sending Ceremony. The University of Oregon Museum also owns his painting entitled Ainu Hunters on a Hunting Trip to the Mountains in Autumn.

through the northeastern region of mainland Japan and Ezo and created a valuable illustrated ethnography. He returned to Ezo again in 1788 and lived there for the next four years, writing about the Ainu lifeways and making paintings of the Ainu.

Ainu-e depict aspects of old Ainu culture through the eyes of Japanese artists, thus making it possible to reconstruct otherwise unrecorded features of Ainu culture and, by comparing period illustrations with photographs and contemporary practices, to evaluate how it has been transformed through time. The artworks of Teiryo Kodania, Shimanojo Murakami, and Byozan Hirasawa play important roles in this examination because these Japanese artists had contact with Ainu people while they either worked in Ezo or lived there over long periods of time. Their firsthand experiences allowed them to understand at least some aspects of Ainu culture, and even though their depictions are sometimes exaggerated, their works cannot be considered fabrications. This is also true of the woodblock prints of Matsuura Takeshiro (1818-88), which were published in 1869. Takeshiro was a scholar hired by the Japanese government,he traveled all over Hokkaido and produced a number of well-written documentary works about the contemporary social problems and living conditions of the Ainu in addition to wonderful drawings and woodblock prints.

This accuracy is important and makes Takeshiro's work valuable: many Ainu-e reveal a general lack of understanding about or even prejudice against Ainu people, and so Ainu-e must be carefully evaluated for accuracy. In addition, recent legal issues concerning portrait rights in Japan have made it more difficult to publish contemporary photographs of Ainu people, and so although Ainu-e are more readily available than photographs, care must be taken to select Ainu-e that illustrate faithfully the culture they represent so that misunderstanding and prejudice are not spread

Translated by Ritsuko Howson with assistance from Chang-su Houchins ,- edited by William Fitzhugh.

9 / AINU-E HISTORICAL REVIEW

10 Trading Brokers and Partners with China, Russia, and Japan

Shiro Sasaki

10.1 Ainu Maritime Traders

By the fifteenth century Ainu mariners had become influential traders linking Japan, Korea, China, Russia, and Kamchatka. Chinese silk, bronze, and glass beads moved south into Hokkaido and Japan, and Japanese iron, rice, and sake flowed north into Hokkaido, the Kuriles, and Kamchatka. Meanwhile, the latter supplied reindeer, eagle feathers, and marine-mammal products to the Japanese, and seaotter pelts to the Russians.

10.2 Amur Santan Trade

After 1689 Chinese trade goods— especially Nishiki silk brocade, glass beads, and metal ornaments—reached the Ainu by routes operated by Santan (Ul’chi) and Nivkhi peoples of the lower Amur River. Nivkhi traders supplied the western coast of the Sea of Okhotsk and northern Sakhalin. Santan dominated the Sakhalin trade and supplied the Ainu, who also conducted direct trade with the Amur.

10.3 Cultural Impact of Trade

This mid-eighteenth-century painting by Teiryo Kodama shows the impact of Japanese and Santan trade on Ainu clothing and the material culture of Ezo. The man wears a foreign-style hat and a silk robe obtained from Santan traders, but his sword, which is Japanese, is carried Ainu-fashion across the back. The woman wears an Ainu robe, but her hoop earrings with silk tassels, her necklace and medallion, and her basket were obtained through trade. (AMS, Kodama Collection)

T he Ainu people, particularly those who lived in Sakhalin, have a history of close contact and exchange with the people in the lower Amur River basin and the Primorskii region on the Asian coast (figs. 10.1, 10.2). Although the beginning of such contact is uncertain, it goes back to prehistoric times: archaeological evidence indicates that the inhabitants of Hokkaido and Sakhalin had contacts with the inhabitants of the continent at least since the late Paleolithic era. Archaeology can provide material evidence of these contacts, but it leaves unanswered such questions as what the exchange brought besides goods and how it proceeded.

When Mongol forces established control of the Amur River and began military expeditions to Sakhalin, exchange between the ancestors of the Ainu and residents of the continent increased dramatically. According to

the official historical records of the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368), the Mongol expeditions to Sakhalin were initiated to resolve a conflict between the Kugi and the Gilemi who inhabited the area from the Amur River delta to Sakhalin. The success of the Mongolian expedition forced the Kugi into a tributary relationship with the Yuan dynasty, which had considerable impact on the economic and social structure of Sakhalin and the Amur River basin. Instead of wiping out the population or forcing them out of the territory, the Yuan dynasty demanded tribute in fur. Because tribute from one side was always accompanied by rewards from the other, a traffic in goods became established under the supervision of

the Yuan dynasty, which appointed a local tribal chief to administer the region. By these actions the local hierarchy and tribal relationships were significantly altered, and trade became increasingly formal and regulated.

The Amur River basin, which was ruled by the Yuan dynasty until the middle of the fourteenth century and then by the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) into the fifteenth century, becomes less prominent in historical literature after 1435. However, trading activities probably continued, and the main product, fur, continued to be supplied by the people in the Amur and Sakhalin. Later, beginning in 1616, the Qing dynasty revitalized this trade to an unprecedented degree, extending its power downstream on the Amur River each time they won a minor regional dispute with Russia, the first being in 1652. In 1689 the dynasty officially took control of the Amur River basin with the Nerchinsk

10.2

Treaty. The following year they sent forces to the estuary and demanded that the residents, including the Sakhalin Ainu, pay tribute. The dynasty continued its island campaign by sending mandarins and soldiers, and they eventually succeeded in seizing all but the southern tip of Sakhalin.

The Qing dynasty ruled these regions by imposing upon them a fur tribute system, just as had the Yuan and Ming dynasties. Residents who were required to pay tributes had to register according to their hala (the clan of the father's side) and gashan (village), and a designated chief of each unit was put in charge of district security as well as the annual collection and delivery of fur. By 1750,

Mainland China

Manchuria

Northern Song

960-1127

Liao

916-1125

Southern Song

1 127-1279

Jin

1115-1234

Yuan

1280-1368

Mongol (Yuan)

1234-1368

Ming

1368-1644

Qing

1644-1912

Qing

1616-1912

fifty-six hala and 2,398 households were registered as fur tribute payers,- those who paid with fur were rewarded mainly with Nishiki silk brocade, and every year the dynasty supplied the chief of each clan and village with official silk clothes ( mangpao , duanpao), which were the gowns of the mandarin (fig. 10.3). Those who offered especially large fur tributes were granted the right to create a familial relationship with officials of the Manchu eight-banner organization (at the time equivalent to Chinese aristocrats) by marrying an official's adopted daughter. Further, the tribute payers were allowed to engage in trade with officials and merchants at the tribute location. By these policies, the Qing dynasty brought political stability to the region and established the basis for commerce and economic development.

The Qing dynasty initially established an office in Ningguta, which is situated midway along the Mudan River, to handle fur from the lower Amur and Sakhalin. The payer of the tribute was obliged to bring the fur to regional offices, except for remote areas like the lower part of the Amur and Sakhalin, where officials were dispatched every year to collect tribute and present rewards. During the regime of the emperor Qianlong (173695), such a post existed at Kiji Lake, which was a major crossroads for the trade from Amur to Sakhalin, and after 1798 at Delen, upstream of Kiji Lake. Delen is known from Rinzo Mamiya's Amur exploration in 1809 and 1810 . The local office was used for the ritual of the fur tribute, as a trading place, and a market, which attracted many people from various regions of Amur and Sakhalin, operated every summer. Rinzo Mamiya reported that when he was there, 500 to 600 people were present at the market and trade was very active.

Initially the Sakhalin Ainu were active participants in the growing trade activity, which was supported by the Qing dynasty's rule over Amur and Sakhalin. In 1732 six hala, eighteen gashan, and 148 households were registered as giving fur tribute in Sakhalin,- of the hala, three were ancestors of the Sakhalin

10/TRAD INC BROKERS AND PARTNERS

10.3

Ainu. Because Ainu society did not have higher-level political organizations, like the hala, Ainu chiefs from the villages at Taraika and Kotankeshi on the east coast and Nayoro on the west coast were appointed to manage the trade. Chiefs often accompanied their villagers when they traveled to the local office of the Qing government to make payments in fur as well as to trade with Manchurian officials and others from neighboring areas. By the 1780s the Tokugawa Shogunate, threatened by Russia's growing power in the region, began to assert its political and economic influence in managing Ezo. The influence of Japan on the lives of the Ainu in southern Sakhalin increased sharply around this time, and by the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Japanese economic zone on Sakhalin extended as far north as Taraika, midway up the east coast. With this political change most Ainu ceased to offer tribute to the Qing dynasty,- only the Nayoro Ainu, whose position on the west coast put them in close proximity to China, continued paying tribute, although sporadically.

The Matsumae clan, although it was in charge of Sakhalin, did little to protect and govern the Ainu there. Instead, the clan demanded that the Ainu surrender the Chinese-made silk (the so-called Ezonishiki) they had obtained through trade, which was then resold for a high price in Honshu, where it was identified as the Matsumae's special product. To procure the silk, the Ainu fell into debt, owing much fur to the Santan, a group indigenous to Kiji Lake where the local office of the Qing dynasty was located, who came from the continent to Sakhalin to trade.

Today the descendants of the Santan are said to be members of the Lll'chi people. The Santan, who paid a tribute in fur to Manchurian officials every year, used silk to exchange for fur because they had learned that silk, traded through the Sakhalin Ainu, was priced high in Japan.

During the last half of the eighteenth century increasing demand for the Ezonishiki silk in Japan gave the Santan dominance in political and economic affairs over the Ainu, who had previously been trading entrepreneurs between China and Japan. At that time, the Qing dynasty had a strong hand in governing the Amur and Sakhalin region and reacted quickly to any infringement of their tribute and trade benefits. By contrast, the Japanese government did not yet have such power, and the Ainu operated in a somewhat

parallel manner to the Santan, as trading middlemen in the southern Sakhalin and Hokkaido sector. While the Santan enjoyed strong backing from the Qing dynasty, rival Ainu traders could not yet get Japanese financial or military support even after they gained independence from Qing dynasty rule. Tokunai Mogami of the Tokugawa Shogunate, who was assigned to survey the Sakhalin trade, understood this point and recommended direct rule of Sakhalin and Ezo by the government to stabilize the area.

In time, the Tokugawa regime became aware that they could not depend on the Matsumae clan to effectively govern Ezo, and so in 1807 they took control of western Ezo and Sakhalin as they had eastern Ezo and the Kurile Islands in 1799. Further, the Tokugawa government realized that the mounting debts owed by the Ainu to the Santan might discourage indemnities or seizure of lands and resources. They were also concerned that they might lose Ainu assistance and loyalty because of their impoverished condition and decided to pay Ainu debts to the Santan. Government funds were used to procure otter pelts from the Sakhalin and the Hokkaido Ainu, and the debts were paid off in a series of meetings between 1809 and 1812. The person who represented the government in this effort was Denjuro Matsuda, a former member of Rinzo Mamiya's Sakhalin exploration team.

Matsuda not only solved the Ainu debt problem but also regulated the commercial activities of the Santan in Sakhalin. He permitted only those people licensed by the shogunate to trade with the Santan and prohibited ordinary Ainu from trading. The trading place was also subject to regulation, and the only site allowed was Shiranushi, on the southern edge of the island. To supervise the commercial activities the Tokugawa Shogunate built a lookout station at Tonnai, situated about halfway between Shiranushi and Nayoro, where the arrival of Santan boats could be monitored. When an arrival of a boat was reported, officials were dispatched to inspect it, put seals on all the merchandise, and then let the ship go on to Shiranushi where all Santan goods were placed in storage. The leaders of Shiranushi and Nayoro were called, and the seals were cut in front of the government officials,- only then could trade with the merchants begin. Although Denjuro Matsuda used Sakhalin sable as the rate of exchange, actual trade was conducted using

10.4 Wealthy Sakhalin Ainu

Contacts between the Asian mainland and Hokkaido, Japan, and the Kuriles were controlled primarily by Sakhalin Ainu. This wealthy man, photographed by Bronislaw Pilsudski about 1905, wears a different style of clothing than that identified with the Hokkaido Ainu. Sakhalin Ainu spoke a separate dialect, and their culture was quite different from Ainu culture in Hokkaido and the Kuriles. (NAA 47368)

sable, fox, otter, and badger, as well as such iron products as pots and tools.

During the first half of the nineteenth century, the Tokugawa Shogunate's influence had not reached north of Nayoro on the west coast (on the east coast, the area to Taraika Bay was already under their control), so the Santan could conduct their business freely in these areas. Later, however, when they traded on Sakhalin, they chose to go to Shiranushi and thus were willing to put themselves under the government's control,- obviously, doing business directly with shogunate officials was attractive, the main benefit being that the Japanese paid high prices for fur. The trading rules that Denjuro Matsuda set were maintained even after 1822, when Sakhalin was returned to the Matsumae clan, and after I 853, when it again came under the government's direct rule. The Santan contin

ued to go to Shiranushi for trade until 1868, when the new Meiji government of Japan ceased official trade with them. Throughout this period the number of the Santan boats arriving at Shiranushi ranged from one to more than ten annually and averaged five to six boats per year.

Although the Ainu were relieved of their debt to the Santan thanks to Denjuro Matsuda's scheme, they also lost their leading role in trading activities in Sakhalin, for Matsuda's rules also prohibited the use of advanced loans and restricted Santan business to Shiranushi. Although the shogunate and the Matsumae clan confined trade to the limited region facing the Soya Straits, because they preferred conducting business directly with the Japanese, Santan merchants' exclusive trade with the Ainu disintegrated. The dependency of the Ainu on Japan in terms of trade and cultural exchanges and the regulation of Ainu fishing under Matsumae rule also diminished the Ainu potential and enthusiam for continental trade by the middle of the nineteenth century.

At the end of the nineteenth century, the Santan who had seized political and economic leadership in Sakhalin lost that power after ceding to the Chinese and Russian merchants. However, trading relationships between the Sakhalin Ainu and the Santan continued: it was told in Ainu legends and in Lll'chi stories. Some of the Ul'chi are told they are of Ainu origin, specifically, the Kuisali and Duwan clans, whose ancestors immigrated from Sakhalin. Other groups on the continent also have Ainu blood, resulting from men who went to Sakhalin and returned home with an Ainu wife. After 1945 the relationship between the continental populations and the Sakhalin Ainu was cut completely when the Sakhalin Ainu were forced to relocate to Hokkaido when the Japanese lost control of this area to the Russians at the end of World War II.

In conclusion, historical sources reveal a long history of Ainu involvement with continental trade, as middlemen between the earlier Chinese trade operated through Santan voyagers and later with Russians as the latter began to take over an increasing share of political and economic control in the late nineteenth century (fig. 10.4). Ainu, who had been masters of their coastal environment and had developed successful maritime adaptations, seized upon the new

10.6 Young Girl Wearing Necklace

Most early visitors photographed Ainu men and women in formal poses wearing ceremonial costumes. In this photograph by G. Noguchi, who was a member of Charles Appleton Longfellow’s entourage of 1871, a young girl who has the first phase of a lip tattoo shows off her necklace and medallion. (NPS/LNHS)

10.7 Necklace with Figure Medallion Strips of red silk tied to earrings and necklaces added accent, beauty, and spiritual value to ornaments such as this necklace, which has an old brass medallion. Although the earliest beads and medals came from Chinese sources, they were also later supplied by Japanese traders and by the Matsumae, who misrepresented beads they had produced and sold them to the Ainu as imported goods. (NMNH 150706)

10.5 Necklace with Flowered Medallion Beaded necklaces with medallions were worn by women for ceremonial occasions. Flowered rosettes, originally a Taoist motif, were made of brass.

The earliest beads and medallions to reach the Ainu were of Russian and Chinese manufacture. Blue, white, black, and banded beads were the most popular. Women treasured their necklaces and handed them down for generations. (BMS C18766)

opportunties to facilitate trade between China and the developing Japanese nation (figs. 10.5-10.7). During the medieval and early modern periods, Ainu culture flourished in its new capacity as an economic broker,- but by the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the Ainu lost their competitive edge to the expanding maritime skills and financial capabilities of Japanese and Chinese-supported Santan traders, who provided silk, iron, and other commodities to a increasingly fashionconscious and consumer-oriented Japanese society. Eventually, the Ainu were completely dispossessed of their involvement in the maritime trade, partly as a result of the loss of maritime subsistence resources (salmon and

coastal fisheries) to Japanese fish barons sponsored by the Matsumae enclave and partly as a result of the related loss of coastal territories. Decimated by introduced diseases, without a viable economy, and increasingly persecuted by Japanese overlords, the Ainu were forced to retreat from their former coastal demographic strongholds into the interior of Hokkaido, where they took up a different economy. Some Ainu remained living permanently on the coast to pursue their former maritime traditions and the economic contacts that had, for several centuries, given them a prominent role as independent maritime traders of the Seas of Okhotsk and Japan.

Tourism, Assimilation, and Ainu Survival Today

people were assigned to the Ainu without acknowledging their existence as a native people,- and an aggressive assimilation policy was established that imposed Japanese culture and educational systems on the Ainu. By designating Hokkaido for the first time as a land "without owner," Japan sanctioned a massive resettlement of Japanese to take possession of lands previously occupied only by Ainu. Armed with advanced technologies and capital, these new settlers brought an exploitative and industrial ethic into a land that for generations had been managed according to the traditional worldview of the Ainu people. Within thirty years, the forced assimilation and policies fostering Ainu naturalization into the imperial Japanese nation had destroyed the symbiotic ecological balance that had existed between the Ainu and their traditional natural resources and lands.

As Hokkaido became more integrated into the everyday life of the Japanese as a source of important industrial and food resources, it assumed a new role in the minds of Japan's southern citizens as the nation's wild and exotic northern province. At first this image was based on the perception of "wilderness" and "nature," but soon the Ainu began to play an indispensable role in the "scenery" of Hokkaido (fig. 111). Large numbers of illustrations and postcards illustrating Ainu manners and customs were sold, and woodblock prints and photographs began to appear as the first stage in the commercialized promotion of Ainu culture. Typically, when members of the imperial family and other high officials visited Hokkaido on inspection trips, their schedules included visits to Ainu areas, and these regions gradually began to be seen as tourist attractions.

After the Russo-Japanese war in 1904-05 —when Japan solidified its national boundaries to include Hokkaido—the Hokkaido tourist industry began to develop rapidly. Railroad companies from Osaka and Nagoya sent groups of tourists to Hokkaido to view the "primitive" manners and customs of various Ainu groups in their natural "wild and untamed" setting, which were as exotic and fascinating to southern Japanese as western North America and its native peoples were to Easterners and Europeans in the late nineteenth century. Some of the earliest albums of souvenir photographs of the Ainu date to this period.

K.AZUYOSHI OHTSUKA

A lthough the Ainu people and their lands were severely exploited during the shogunate period (before 1868), much of Ainu culture, including language, handicrafts, and religious and ceremonial beliefs, survived intact into modern times because the shogunate and its local Ezo (Hokkaido) governors, the Matsumae clan, did not allow Japanese immigration into what the Ainu knew as Ainu mosir (the land of humans). This regulation was not meant to protect the Ainu,rather, it was enforced to prevent other Japanese from competing with the profitable Matsumae monopoly of Ezo products. In addition to enriching the Matsumae clan, this policy also produced large profits for the merchants who operated the Kitamae shipping trade bringing such Ezo products as salmon, dried herring, fish fertilizer, abalone, sea-mammal products, timber, and other

materials into Japan.

When the modern nation of Japan was established during the Meiji Restoration, various actions were taken that dealt an even harsher blow to the Ainu: by official decree, the name of the land was changed from its traditional Ainu term "Ezo" to "Hokkaido",- civil duties like those given to Japanese

11.1, 11.2 Bear Carving The most stereotypical image of early Ainu tourist art is the carved wooden bear. There are different theories as to whether bear carving was introduced to the Ainu by Japanese tourists returning with examples from Switzerland or whether it was developed by the Ainu themselves. Once the concept caught on, tourist sales became a steady income for the best Ainu carvers. This specimen, produced in the 1920s, shows a relatively early style; the form was later refined. This photograph of a carver’s workshop was shot by Sister Inez Hilger. (NAA T-8; K. Ohtsuka)

11.3 a, b, c Towel-Hanger This towel rack and its carrying case are some of the earliest Ainu items known to be made for sale to Japanese. While most Japanese towel racks are made to hang on a wall, this one stands on a base of walnut arches carved with intricate Ainu designs. The chain links are also of Ainu manufacture. The Japanese cedar storage box is fastened with bamboo nails and was probably made by a Japanese carpenter in Honshu. The buyer has written an inscription on the front, which reads “Towel-hanger made in Ezo," and on the back is written “Bunsei 12 [1829] purchased on a winter day.” (K. Ohtsuka Collection)

Souvenirs and Ainu Tourism

To most people the concept of Ainu tourism is linked closely to the wooden carvings of bears and other items (figs. 11.2-1 1.4) that travelers purchase when visiting Hokkaido and the Ainu. These carved and painted figurines that capture the movements and habits of bears have become a trademark of the Ainu, illustrating their economic and cultural relationship with Japan in the modern context.

Surprisingly, the making of carved wooden bears as tourist souvenirs actually originated outside the Ainu sphere in Europe. In 1922 Yoshichika Tokugawa, who was a descendent of the Tokugawa family in Obihiro and ran a large farm in Yakumo on the Oshima Peninsula, traveled to Europe and discovered Swiss farmers making bear carvings for sale to tourists as a means of supplementing the meager earnings from their crops. He brought some samples home to Japan and encouraged Ainu farmers to begin carving bears during the winter. The idea took root, with the bear seen as an appropriate way to represent Hokkaido's abundant nature, and the production of bears as tourist

souvenirs became part of the Ainu seasonal calendar.

The exhibition of Ainu manners and customs in expositions designed to promote industry, which were held beginning in the Meiji period in such cities as Tokyo and Osaka, made the public more aware of the relationship between Ainu and bears. At the same time, news of bear attacks

began to appear more frequently in the newspapers as industrial deforestation displaced bears from their former forest habitat,- in one tragic incident an entire family of farmers was killed, adding terror and mystique to the primeval image of the untamed northern territory. The establishment of nationwide transportation systems including roads, rail lines, and ferries between Honshu and Hokkaido made it possible for southerners to visit Hokkaido in large numbers for recreation as well as for business, thus producing a boom in the Hokkaido tourist industry. People who went to Hokkaido often returned with bear carvings as souvenirs to illustrate tales of their travels.

These tourists rarely realized the religious significance of bears to the Ainu or how serious an issue it was for the Ainu to carve wooden bears for profit. Bears are called kimun-kamuy (god of the mountain) by the Ainu and were among their most sacred animals, and the carving of images of bears and other animals considered to be spirits was previously restricted to religious implements, especially to a man's prayer stick ( ikupasuy). The creation of animal images in paintings or carvings, especially the image of bears, was never taken lightly, and it certainly was not done for commercial purposes. Hokkaido Ainu did not even have a word for "bear" but rather referred to this species as "god" or "figure of a human being." In addition to bears, the tourist industry soon began to produce dolls wearing traditional Ainu clothing, these were initially made by Japanese, but the practice was later taken up by Ainu craftsmen.

II / TOURISM AND ASSIMILATION

11.4 Japanese Clogs

As with the towel-hanger (fig. 11.3), an Ainu woodcarver was commissioned to decorate these Japanese clogs ( geta) and their straps with Ainu designs. (Shin Mouri Collection)

11.5 “Museum Ainu”

Ainu began modeling costumes, creating artifacts, and performing dances for Japanese tourists who flocked to Hokkaido to visit Japan's “Wild North" after railroad construction began in 1880. Today, Ainu centers and museums like the Ainu Museum at Shiraoi continue to present Ainu culture to the public and have initiated programs to preserve Ainu culture.

The steady commercialization of the Ainu that began with bear carvings later produced permanent tourist areas called "Ainu kotan." At such centers as Shiraoi and Akan, traditional Ainu songs and dances are performed daily. By touring exhibitions of traditional Ainu clothing and viewing demonstrations of Ainu beliefs customs, tourists developed a version of the daily life of traditional Ainu which then entered public consciousness, even though few, if any, Ainu have actually lived their lives in this manner in recent times. Despite government policies that encouraged touristic enterprise among the Ainu and helped preserve some aspects of traditional Ainu culture within a commercial milieu, other aspects of Ainu life, including the use of tattoos, earrings, and the Ainu language itself, were suppressed or officially banned

HISTORIC PERIOD / K. OHTSUKA

An Ainu Boom

In 1950 the Marimo festival, named after an unusual aquatic "duckweed" that grows as a free-floating ball in Akan Lake, Hokkaido, was held for the first time at Akan and has been held there every year since. The festival has become a tourist event advertised with the composite Japanese and Ainu title "koi [love] Marimo." Another event that helped promote "the exotic Ainu" as a tourist attraction was the literary work Whistle of Kotan written by Nobuo Ishimori in 1957 and later made into a popular film. Japanese society, which was then in the midst of a postwar revival, discovered something fresh and new in this story of an Ainu brother and sister, and its popularity was a boon to Hokkaido tourism

In the 1960s the Ainu tourist industry collaborated with Japanese travel agencies to develop a new tour route that featured Ainu destinations. Travel by Japanese to Hokkaido entered a boom phase, and for the first time many young people backpacked and trekked around Hokkaido during the summer. Noboribetsu Hot Spring opened an area featuring the Ainu called "Bear Meadow" in about 1959, and the Ainu became substantially involved in tourism. Shiraoi, which had long been known as an Ainu settlement, became a tourist destination, and in 1965 an Ainu heritage village, Shiraoi Poroto Kotan, consisting of traditional houses and souvenir stands, was established. In 1966, Village of Yukar opened with reconstructions of a traditional Ainu house and recitations from the mythic oral tradition (yukar). In this way, songs about the Ainu, including the popular songs "Iyomante no yuro" (The Night of the Bear Festival) by Hisao Ito and "Pirika menoko" (Beautiful Girl), became known across generational boundaries.

As commercialization of the Ainu image progressed, the Ainu kotan became an indispensable part of the Hokkaido tourism enterprise: performances staged to replicate expressions of traditional culture in the Ainu kotan became important attractions to promote the sale of goods. Wood carvings of bears and other animals, goods made from traditional Ainu elm-bark fabric (attush), and other articles seen in staged Ainu performances were sold to the tourists. Although the sale of souvenirs contributed to the economy of those Ainu people associated with the tourism industry,

souvenirs, reconstructed kotan, and performances of Ainu dance, song, and ceremonies strengthened the view held by many Japanese and foreign visitors to Hokkaido that even modern Ainu people continued to live in a traditional—i.e., "primitive"—fashion.

Tourism and Ethnic Identity

11.6 “Ainus Ride Usually Without Saddle”

Not only natural resources were harnessed when Japan began to develop Hokkaido—the Ainu, once considered fearsome and enigmatic, had become a “domesticated’’ tourist attraction; a similar conception arose about Indians in America’s “Wild West.” The question raised by this postcard image is whether the Ainu was playing a joke on a naive Japanese photographer (because no such riding style was practiced) or whether the photographer staged the scene. Sets of photographs featuring Ainu, bears, and landscapes were marketed as tourist souvenirs from Japan’s “Wild North.” (NAA 98-10404)

Today, with worldwide interest in the survival of aboriginal cultures, the transmission of traditional Ainu culture through tourism and heritage museums has become an effective means for arousing interest in ethnic identity. The tourist center has become more than a place to demonstrate traditional culture: for the Ainu it provides a context in which to reassert one's cultural and ethnic identity and to pass on this knowledge to other Ainu and to visitors (fig. 1 1.5).

Recently the public has begun to gain a broader appreciation of traditional culture through education and political actions by native peoples elsewhere in the world. This exposure has allowed visitors to better understand—and express complaints and concerns about—the more commercial and fabricated aspects of the Ainu tourism industry. As the dichotomy grows between the economic

motives driving Ainu

tourism and the need to reevaluate the role

of Ainu culture within Japanese society, concerns about the image of the Ainu that is presented to the public are likely to increase.

In the 1980s the Ainu were influenced by the growing international campaign for native rights,- they began to question their lives as a "folk" people and to criticize the idea that their culture should be used as an educational or promotional instrument of the tourism business. At the same time, Japanese policy toward Ainu culture was changing,- for example, the Agency

for Cultural Affairs (Bunkacho) designated Ainu traditional dances, including those performed in tourist areas, as "important intangible cultural property." This action helped the Ainu recognize the value of the traditional culture that had been passed down from their ancestors for generations, and this pride in Ainu heritage helped stimulate the cultural revival now underway. The new policies also helped reorient museum presentations, such as those in Shiraoi and Akan, toward a more modern and accurate perspective that found broader support among Ainu people.

The established view about the Ainu naturalization policy enacted by the Japanese government is that it caused their traditional culture to disappear,- the purpose of this policy, as decreed in the Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act of 1899, was to replace traditional Ainu culture with Japanese culture. Although these policies certainly had a devastating impact, I maintain that the rise of tourism and the commercialization of various aspects of Ainu life have ultimately helped protect them from an even worse erosion of their identity.

As noted, many aspects of Ainu culture, including ceremonies, songs and dances, and handicraft techniques that have been passed down among the Ainu, were continued and passed on as part of the activities of museums and tourist areas. A few elders insisted that even those rituals staged as demonstrations at tourist areas were legitimate traditional ceremonies. Their support has allowed Ainu culture to continue even though it was rarely maintained by individual families.

Japanese people sometimes disparagingly call the Ainu who work in tourist areas "tour Ainu," and many Ainu agree that work in tourist areas is not ideal employment. One must consider, however, that the energy they bring to this activity has helped them preserve their heritage and even acquire a new sense of Ainu identity within a human-rights framework. When I see them working with such devotion and ethnic pride, I am impressed by the strength of an ethnic tradition that has resisted destruction even under the harshest forces of assimilation and repression. It is not inaccurate to say that much of the extant Ainu culture consists of those traditions that have been maintained and passed down over the past hundred years within the context of touristic enterprise, most recently within Ainu museums and tourist centers.

The Ainu and the Early Modern Japanese State, 1600-1868 David L. Howell

N o Japanese Columbus ever

"discovered" Hokkaido, nor did Ainu culture ever exist free of influence from the south. The peoples of Hokkaido and Honshu traded, fought, and occasionally lived together for centuries before the Tokugawa shoguns established indirect control over the Ainu homeland at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The onset of the early modern era marked the beginning of a new relationship between the Ainu and the Japanese state—new not for the fact of contact but for its scale and political and diplomatic significance.

The "Japanese state" in this essay actually refers to two distinct entities whose attitudes toward the Ainu often diverged. The Tokugawa Shogunate exercised central political authority but administered only about a quarter of Japan's territory directly,- some 270 autonomous daimyo domains, including Matsumae in southern

12.1

Hokkaido, controlled the rest of the country. Unique among early modern domains, Matsumae held no land in fief from the Tokugawa Shogunate but rather gained its legitimacy by acting as intermediary in trade and other contact with the Ainu. This role derived from the shogunate's seclusion policies, which severely restricted the ability of Japanese to travel beyond the core polity.

In general, Matsumae functioned as the Japanese state vis-a-vis the Ainu, although for a time in the nineteenth century (1799-1821 and 1855-68) the shogunate assumed direct control over parts of Hokkaido in response to a perceived threat from Russia.

The Tokugawa regime was the first in Japanese history to demarcate clear boundaries for itself. These boundaries were not the lines on a map that separate modern nationstates,- rather, the core polity was surrounded by buffers of ambivalent sovereignty, nominally autonomous but in fact subordinate to the state. Japan's northern border was the Oshima Peninsula in southern Hokkaido, which separated Japan proper from the realm of the Ainu. The territory on the Ainu side was called Ezochi, "land of the eastern barbarians." Its borders (aside from the one with Japan) were not well defined until the mid-nineteenth century, although in practice Ezochi was usually identified with Hokkaido, the Kuriles, and southern Sakhalin—all areas inhabited by Ainu but not by significant numbers of other indigenous peoples.

The border separating Ezochi from the core polity ostensibly served to exclude the Ainu from the Japanese state, but in fact it drew them decisively into the early modern Japanese world order. The act of drawing a political boundary upon Hokkaido of necessity left some people on the "Japanese" side of the border and others on the "Ainu” side. Had the boundary been perceived as a natural one—if a strong sense of the Japanese and Ainu as essentially different people already existed—the demarcation of a political boundary might have signified nothing more than a confirmation of the status quo, but such was not the case. The Japanese at the time were conscious of differences between themselves and the Ainu, but when they sought to make sense of Ainu identity they did not think in terms of seemingly immutable characteristics like race or even culture. Instead, they employed a much more fluid conception of difference, Juzoku (T. Kikuchi 1988,- Howell 1994).

HISTORIC PERIOD / D HOWELL

12.1 Ainu Man with Bow and Sword

Most Ainu-e were painted in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when the image of the fierce, independent Ainu was still fresh in the minds of the Japanese. This illustration from Curious Sights of Ezo Island (1799) by Shimanojo Murakami was painted only a decade after the last Ainu armed rebellion on Kunashiri in 1789. (NMNH 392,023)

12.2 Sword and Hanger

Ainu men treasured swords (emush) above all other possessions but used them only for ceremonial and ritual purposes. Most swords had complicated histories. The blades were imported from Japan and were then often engraved with special personal symbols (shiroshi), such as this killerwhale symbol, by Japanese metalsmiths in Hokkaido. Hafts and scabbards were made and decorated by the owner or Japanese artisans, and the Ainu man’s wife or a close female relative would weave the hanger strap (emushat). (BMS C18783A/B)

The termfuzoku is often translated as "customs," but here it refers specifically to elements of outward appearance, such as hairstyle, clothing, and personal ornamentation. Fuzoku were interpreted in relation to Japanese ideas of civilization ( kn) and barbarism (i), which were connected in turn to notions of social order within the core polity (fig. 12.1). One's fuzoku marked one as either "civilized" or "barbarian" and hence either a member of the core polity or alien to it: to be civilized was to be "Japanese" in the sense of being the shogun's subject. More fluid than ethnicity yet less simple than a reflection of subjecthood,/nzokn incorporated elements of both ethnic and national identity without being completely equivalent to either. Because fuzoku were explicitly superficial markers of dress and deportment, the boundary they marked between "barbarism" and "civilization" could be displaced relatively easily and hence manipulated and reinterpreted for political purposes In fact, this occurred in the 1850s and 1 860s, when many Ainu were summarily

"assimilated" into Japanese society.

The shogunate's recognition of Matsumae as its proxy in southern Hokkaido transformed a relatively equal balance of economic and military power into one heavily favoring the Japanese. After the demarcation of the boundary between the Japanese and Ainu realms in Hokkaido, the Matsumae authorities forced the Ainu to exchange their salmon, bear pelts, and other goods for Japanese commodities at trading posts established along the Hokkaido coast that were accessible only to boats belonging to the lord, his leading retainers, and their merchant agents. By monopolizing Ainu contacts with Japan, the domain sought not only to maximize its economic advantage but also to secure its own legitimacy within the early modern state as the sole custodian of relations with the Ainu (Walker 1996).

This restriction of trade naturally caused great dissatisfaction among the Ainu,- indeed, trade conflicts had long characterized relations between the two peoples. Beginning with Koshamain's Rebellion of 1456-58, significant hostilities occurred in 1512-15, 1528-31, and frequently throughout the period from the mid-1620s to the mid-1650s. At the same time, competing regional groups of Ainu fought frequently among themselves between the late 1640s and mid-1660s. This intermittent conflict culminated in Shakushain's War of 1669, a largely unsuccessful attempt to assert economic independence from Japan.

Shakushain, a chieftain from the Hidaka region, led a loose alliance of Ainu in a series of battles against Matsumae during the latter half of 1669. The purpose of the conflict was not to sever relations with Japan—imported commodities were far too important to the Ainu economy for that— but rather to break Matsumae's monopoly on trade,- the domain had closed off access to northern Honshu, raised rice prices, and otherwise pressed its advantage against the Ainu. The war effort was hampered by Shakushain's inability to unify the Ainu under his leadership, but it was probably doomed from the beginning, inasmuch as the shogunate, with its massive military resources, stood ready to intervene on Matsumae's behalf. In any case, the defeat resulted in a new relationship between the Ainu and the state, in which both political organization and economic activity were subordinated to Japanese power.

Relations between Matsumae and the Ainu after Shakushain's War were organized around rituals that originated in Ainu culture but were reinvented to fit the political needs of the domain. One of the most important rituals was the uimam, in which Ainu leaders presented gifts to the lord of Matsumae at his castle and received Japanese commodities in exchange. The Japanese assumed that the word uimam was a corruption of the Japanese omemie (audience). They saw the relationship as a tributary one in which the Ainu presented themselves before the lord in a display of submission and received gifts as signs of the lord's munificence. In contrast, in Ainu the word refers simply to trade, without any of the subservient overtones of the Japanese omemie. The contradiction between the Japanese and Ainu interpretations of the uimam and similar rituals was never resolved,- instead, constructive mutual misunderstanding guided relations (fig 12.3). The

12.3 Defeat and Oppression

After Ainu autonomy in Ezo was suppressed by Japanese military power, interactions between the Ainu and Japanese were structured by regular meetings. The Japanese called these uimam (audiences), while the Ainu interpreted this term to mean "trade" as it had in previous centuries. However, this detail from Curious Sights of Ezo Island by Shimanojo Murakami leaves no doubt about political reality. (HML)

Matsumae authorities were able to confirm the legitimacy of their role as intermediary between the Ainu and the Japanese state by playing the role of benevolent overlords, while the Ainu could play down the hard realities of Japanese political dominance and instead emphasize the economic benefits of trade (Howell 1994).

Trade—or at least the acquisition of Japanese commodities—was critical to the maintenance of Ainu society. Imported ironware and cloth were indispensable elements of everyday life,- swords and lacquerware (figs. 12.4-12.6) were prized as treasure ( ikor) ; and sake was used in many religious practices. For centuries the Ainu had maintained a dual economy marked by the

physical separation of subsistence activities and trade. Inland kotai i (communities of no more than a handful of households each) served as the focus of basic subsistence activities such as salmon fishing, deer and bear hunting, and the gathering of edible plants. This is the Ainu economy familiar to readers of the classic ethnographic literature, which generally recreates the world of the kotan as it existed in the late nineteenth century. In a similar way, trade was centered at points of contact with neighboring peoples: in addition to their trade with the Japanese, the Hokkaido Ainu obtained goods from Manchuria and China via the Sakhalin Ainu and sea-mammal pelts from the Kurile Ainu. While they retained some of these trade goods for themselves, most were exchanged for Japanese commodities (H. Watanabe 1972,- Iwasaki 1998).

Under the post-Shakushain order, the balance between the two parts of the Ainu economy shifted considerably as trade took on a new and very different character. Change began in the early eighteenth century as Japanese entrepreneurs established commercial fisheries at the domain's coastal trading posts (Howell 1995). The fisheries relied upon Ainu labor to process kelp, salmon, and most importantly herring, which produced a commercial fertilizer for use on farms in western Honshu. By century's end the fisheries and the tax revenues they generated had become the backbone of the Matsumae economy and their operators among the most powerful figures in the domain. Although Ainu in northern and eastern Hokkaido remained at the center of interregional trade networks, for most others wage labor at the fisheries replaced the exchange of commodities as the principal form of economic engagement with Japan. Rather than cash wages, Ainu workers— the men operating boats and nets and the women processing herring-meal fertilizer— received payment in kind, mostly rice, tobacco, cloth, and sake.

The fishing industry expanded rapidly after the 1 830s, attracting tens of thousands of Japanese immigrants to Hokkaido. By the time the Tokugawa regime collapsed, there were perhaps 60,000 Japanese permanently resident in Hokkaido, mostly in Matsumae's home territory but increasingly in Ezochi as well, several thousand more came from Honshu each spring to work for two or three months in the herring fishery. (In contrast,

12.4 Lacquerware Container

Early in their contact with the Japanese the Ainu adopted the Japanese custom of storing their possessions in large lacquerware containers, which were acquired by trading fish, fur, and other products. These containers were so important that Ainu considered them to be treasures, and they displayed them prominently at feasts and ceremonies. (BMS C18759)

the Ainu population at the time was about 20,000.) The steady influx of Japanese into Hokkaido rendered the political border between the Japanese and Ainu realms nearly meaningless, particularly after 1855 when travel restrictions between the two parts of Hokkaido were eliminated. To an extent the Ainu were able to maintain their dual economy even in the face of this development because the Japanese newcomers settled exclusively on the coast, leaving inland districts to the Ainu and their traditional subsistence patterns. This changed, however, once the Meiji regime took power in 1868 and encouraged hundreds of thousands of Japanese to colonize the interior.

During the fishing season Ainu workers lived in camps set up near the fisheries. These communities, with populations ranging from several dozen to several hundred inhabitants, were much larger than the inland kotan, and their

authority structure was modeled after that of Japanese agricultural villages. Over time the camps evolved into permanent settlements,indeed, many of the best-known modern Ainu communities, such as Shiraoi, were originally founded alongside Japanese fisheries. These coastal communities became the focal point of all relations with the Japanese. Ainu headmen performed the umusa, or "greeting," ritual (a local counterpoint to the uimam ) with the fishery operators and traveled to the castle town annually for uimam with the Matsumae lord. Thus, although inland kotan remained intact (if sparsely populated much of the year), they became thoroughly invisible to the Japanese authorities. This worked to the Ainu's advantage insofar as it allowed them to maintain a realm autonomous of Japanese interference, but at the same time it meant that the fisheries were the sole legitimate

12.5 “Treasure”

This handsome container is one of the finest from Ainu collections in North American museums. Most museum collectors working before 1920 did not collect lacquerware because they considered them Japanese rather than Ainu, but collections made after 1920 often contain such pieces. By this time the Ainu had already sold most of their traditional artifacts that were perceived as "Ainu" and were forced to sell their last "treasures.” (BMS C18799)

point of contact with the Japanese state and economy. Dominated as they were by Japanese entrepreneurs, the fisheries were hardly ideal institutions upon which to build a stable economic relationship. Without alternative sources of necessary commodities, however, the Ainu had no choice but to accommodate themselves to labor at the fisheries.

Although fishery labor gave the Ainu access to a far greater volume of Japanese commodities than in the past, gaining this access exacted a heavy toll on their society. Living in relatively large groups and in close proximity to Japanese fisheries meant that epidemic diseases like smallpox and measles could wipe out entire populations in a very short time. Ainu women were vulnerable to the sexual predations of Japanese supervisors, and all Ainu were subjected to physical abuse and other mistreatment. Moreover, remaining

on the coast for months at a time necessarily disrupted traditional subsistence patterns at the inland kotan —so much so that Matsumae officials became seriously concerned that Ainu would starve when rice shipments to Hokkaido were curtailed during a period of crop failures in the 1830s (Howell 1995: 45). This is not to say that Ainu culture became less vital as a result of its growing engagement with the Japanese commercial economy,- on the contrary, there is ample evidence that the culture underwent remarkable development during the period of greatest Japanese pressure. A case in point is the evolution of the iyomante (bear-sending ceremony), considered by some anthropologists to be the defining ritual practice of the Ainu people. In its best-known form, a bear cub was captured and raised in a kotan for a year or more before being returned to the land of the gods laden with gifts,- Ainu from nearby kotan and neighboring river systems gathered for the festivities, which lasted for several days. Archaeological and documentary evidence suggests that this variety of iyomante did not emerge until around the end of the eighteenth century—about the time that commercial fishing began drawing significant numbers of Ainu into wage labor. The iyomante may have evolved as an expression of cultural solidarity in response to the loss of political organization that followed Shakushain's defeat and the threat to regional ties that accompanied the rise of the fishery (H. Watanabe 1972,- LItagawa 1989,Sasaki 1990,- Irimoto 1992a).

The integration of Hokkaido into the Japanese economy was paralleled in the nineteenth century by a move toward political integration. Russian ships began appearing regularly in the waters off Hokkaido during the last quarter of the eighteenth century, and the shogunate became sufficiently concerned about Russian ambitions in northeast Asia to assume direct control over much of Hokkaido in 1799. The threat quickly subsided, thanks to Napoleon and other troubles in Europe, and the shogunate discontinued its direct administration policy in 1821. However, it took over again in 1 855, shortly after abandoning its "seclusion" policies in the face of Western pressure. Hakodate, a port in southern Hokkaido, was opened to foreign ships, and a treaty was concluded with Russia that set a border between the two nations in the Kurile Islands but left Sakhalin held jointly. (A second treaty, in 1875, gave Russia all of Sakhalin in

12.6. “A Couple of the Chief”

This Japanese postcard shows an Ainu man and his wife posed in ceremonial garments with mats, hanging inaw, and lacquerware “treasures.” Such indoor photographs were rarely taken by museum collectors, who usually lacked flash equipment and fast film. This image was probably shot ca. 1900 by a Japanese photographer who was better prepared and could afford to stage scenes and pay the subjects. (NAA 27707.02)

exchange for Japanese sovereignty over the entire Kurile chain.)

The treaty with Russia notwithstanding, the shogunate felt compelled to assert Japanese sovereignty over Hokkaido in a way that the Western powers would understand—that is, by eliminating the distinction between Japan proper and Ezochi and instead incorporating all of Hokkaido into the core polity. Insofar as the core polity represented the realm of Japanese "civilization," making Ezochi "Japanese" required civilizing it first. This was accomplished through the nominal assimilation of the Ainu, a feat accomplished by adjusting their "barbarian "fuzoku to conform to Japanese notions of "civilized" appearance. Beginning in 1855, shogun officials traveled along the coast of Ezochi offering material rewards to Ainu men who would consent to "assimilate" by shaving their beards and pates, wearing their hair in topknots, and taking Japanese-style names. A

similar program had been implemented briefly in areas of possible Russian contact (such as Etorofu in the southern Kuriles) during the first period of direct administration. Although the officials sometimes succeeded in getting half or more of the members of a community to cooperate, most quickly reverted to their accustomed ways after the officials had departed, and many others fled inland rather than risk the forced assimilation that occurred in some areas. Needless to say, the policy did not succeed in getting significant numbers of Ainu to assimilate into Japanese society—but complete assimilation was never the goal (Howell 1994).

The collapse of the Tokugawa regime in 1868 transformed both the Ainu place in the Hokkaido economy and their relationship to the Japanese state. Ainu continued to work in the fisheries, but with the arrival of thousands of new Japanese fishermen every year their labor was no longer necessary to the industry's survival. Inland kotan eventually came under assault from Japanese immigrants who occupied Ainu lands as part of the state's agricultural and industrial development policies. At the same time, the new regime cut off all ritual relations with the Ainu, including the uimam, and instead declared them to be "former aborigines" ( kyudojin ) and as such the object of policies designed to deny the validity of their non-Japanese identities and hasten their eventual integration into Japanese society as loyal imperial subjects. As a result, the Ainu lost the measure of autonomy they had enjoyed during the early modern period and came instead to occupy a new position as an ethnic minority (Howell 1997).

Foreign Contagions, Ainu Medical Culture, and Conquest

Brett L. Walker

13.1 Exorcising Illness The exorcism of evil gods thought to cause sickness is the subject of this Ainu-e from Curious Sights of Ezo Island (1799) by Shimanojo Murakami. The ritual includes singing, dancing, and vertical slashing of swords meant to ‘‘cut evil spirits from above.” (HML)

M uch of the modern research on the Ainu explores the political and commercial implications of early contact between Japanese and Ainu in northern Japan. But one important aspect of this early contact has remained basically ignored in historical literature: the ecological and cultural impact of foreign contagions in Ainu lands. Environmental historian Alfred Crosby has observed (1986: 2 14) that "disease can tag along with commerce just as effectively as with any other kind of human intercourse," and as Japanese penetrated Ainu lands to acquire animal skins and fish products for trade, they introduced such contagions as smallpox, measles, and syphilis, which decimated Ainu populations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These foreign contagions did more than simply affect Ainu demographics,- they also killed Ainu elders and ritual leaders who were the repositories of cultural traditions, folklore, and hunting techniques and thus weakened the ability of the Ainu to withstand Japanese economic and military pressure (Walker 1997). Similar to what Richard White (1983: 208) has observed of some Native American nations, with the onslaught of such foreign contagions as smallpox, "people were dying, but so too were the basic elements of their cultural order." The same might be said of the Ainu during this early period of political and commercial contact with the Japanese.

Foreign contagions influenced Ainu society and culture both ecologically and culturally. Foreign contagions hastened social dislocation within Ainu communities and transformed traditional Ainu medical culture. The Ainu believed contagions to be kamuy, or to possess godlike qualities (albeit an evil god, nitsue kamuy), and this belief shaped the rituals and medicines Ainu healers used to combat afflictions (fig. 13.1). Indeed, the effect of foreign contagions and the transformation of Ainu medical culture was an important outcome of early contacts between Japanese and the Ainu and had a major role in shaping the history of this region of northern Japan.

Foreign Contagions and Ecological Contact

Medical historians have traced a basic chronology and a somewhat blurry geographic pattern of disease dissemination in F4okkaido (Matsuki 1973: 124-31,- T. Takahashi 1988: 78-98,- Walker 1997: chap. 5). This pattern reveals that foreign contagions first appeared—possibly as early as the fifteenth century—in Japanese population centers called Wajinchi (literally, "Japanese land") or Ningenchi ("land of human beings [i.e. Ainu]") located on the southern tip of the Oshima Peninsula. By the mid-seventeenth century, epidemics like smallpox occurred more frequently and slid into a deadly twenty-year cycle. Moreover, between 1624 and 1862, about nineteen recorded epidemics broke out in F~lokkaido, leaving scores of both Japanese and Ainu dead. A series of memorandums concerning a smallpox epidemic that hit the Shizunai/ Mitsuishi region in 1845 reveals that death rates could easily exceed 60 percent in an Ainu community even when steps were taken by physicians to stem the tide of the epidemic (Walker 1997: 284, Appendix C).

Denjuro Matsuda, a Japanese official, offered a glimpse of the social dislocation sparked by such epidemics as smallpox as well as the relationship between trade and the dissemination of foreign contagions in Ainu lands. In the case of an 1800 epidemic in eastern FJokkaido, he noted that smallpox had been introduced to the village of Usu by a low-ranking Japanese warrior and an Ainu trader from Oshamanbe who were trading fur seals there. One common Ainu response to smallpox (and to death from other diseases) was to burn the house where a

13.2 Spiny-Blowfish Amulet

The spiny blowfish (ikaripopo) carries a fatal poison, but this does not deter Japanese from eating blowfish prepared by trusted master chefs.

This deadly fish was known also to the Ainu, who used its desiccated body as an amulet against disease. Other animals and herbs were also used as amulets against sickness or such natural disasters as earthquakes and tidal waves. (AMS, Kodama Collection 61049)

victim had died, but the Ainu in Usu allowed ten days—about the incubation period for smallpox—to elapse before burning the house where the two men had died, and the disease spread quickly throughout the village. Matsuda wrote that once the disease began to spread "without exception [the inhabitants of Usu] took cover in the surrounding mountains, dispersing in various directions" to escape the deadly scourge, but many simply "died in their tracks." In the neighboring village of Horobetsu, he observed Ainu frantically smearing kettle soot on their faces and running frantically into the mountains. Matsuda estimated that of the 250 Ainu living in Usu, about forty (or 16 percent) died in the epidemic (Sakakura 1943: 4: 98-99). This pattern of hiding in the mountains would become a standard response to foreign contagions in Hokkaido.

Smallpox was not the only contagion brought to Ainu lands by Japanese traders. The normalization of contact between Japanese and Ainu in the seventeenth century also facilitated the emergence of other infections as well. Commercial growth in ports located in southern Hokkaido—such as Esashi, Matsumae, and Hakodate—led to a rise in prostitution and a subsequent increase in such sexually transmitted diseases as syphilis. Recently, archaeologists have pointed out that syphilis might have been introduced to Hokkaido even earlier: some skeletal remains excavated from Katsuyamadate near Kaminokuni reveal lesions on skulls suggesting that syphilis might have been introduced into the Ainu population as early as the mid-sixteenth century (Tanda 1996: 50).

Syphilis spread easily in Hokkaido due to both prostitution and rabid sexual exploitation. Kenji Kimura, a Japanese observer, wrote

in 1793 that Ainu prostitutes in the Ishikari region sold themselves to Japanese traders, while in Hakodate Japanese prostitutes sold themselves to Ainu men (K. Kimura 1983:

83,- Kaiho 1992: 210). Like epidemic diseases, sexual exploitation appears to have transcended ethnic and cultural boundaries along these northern contact points. Rape was also fairly common and frequently contributed to the spread of foreign diseases. Takeshiro Matsuura, another Japanese official, noted in 1858 how a Japanese fishery supervisor infected a twenty-nineyear-old Ainu woman with syphilis after forcing her husband to work at a distant herring fishery. He then refused to grant her medical attention or even basic sustenance (Matsuura 1977b: 3: 19). Matsuura noted elsewhere that of forty-one Japanese fishery supervisors in Kushiro, thirty-six had taken Ainu women as "concubines" after sending their husbands to work at the neighboring Akkeshi fishery (ibid. 158). Alfred Crosby has observed (1986) that syphilis is "important in the history of a people in jeopardy, because it cripples their ability to reproduce," and no doubt it thrived in the exploitative environment of Hokkaido. Foreign contagions such as smallpox and syphilis were among the first exchanges between the Ainu and the Japanese.

Foreign Contagions and Cultural Contact

The Ainu response to such contagions as smallpox and syphilis can be traced to how they contextualized diseases within their cultural order. The Ainu believed diseases were kamuy, or cognate godlike essences, that communed between Ainu mosir, the temporal world, and kamuy mosir, the metaphysical world inhabited by gods and ancestors. The natural world, as the Ainu construed it, was teeming with kamuy, which assumed many forms. Such rituals as the iyomante or the "sending away" of a bear cub's or owl's spirit were not viewed as acts of cruelty,- rather, they were portals through which Ainu could directly participate in a metaphysical plane by liberating the kamuy essence that was trapped in the temporal guise of all living things. And contagions were no different. John Batchelor, an English missionary who lived among the Ainu in the Saru River area for half a century, from 1877 to 1940, compared contemporaneous western and Ainu notions of disease and found striking

13/FOREIGN CONTAGION

i 03

13.3 Influenza Amulet

Because Ainu believed that illnesses were caused by specific evil gods, protection also had to be specific. Bronislaw Pilsudski photographed this Ainu amulet against influenza in Sakhalin, ca. 1903-05. The amulet consisted of a carved tree stump combining aspects of inaw, the shaved sticks used to carry messages to the gods, with ikupasuy, men's sacred prayer sticks. The tufted upper part identified the god of influenza; the horizontal cuts at either end of the vertical slash identified the Ainu sender. (NAA 47446)

differences between them. Unlike nineteenthcentury Western medical culture, which portrayed disease as an "adventitious, blind, irrational force," Ainu understood diseases to possess a "personal and spiritual existence." Similar to other kamuy, he wrote, diseases could "think, will, and act" (Batchelor 1901: 108).

Of the kamuy that dominated the metaphysical and temporal landscapes of Ainu cosmology, payoka kamuy (literally, "punishing god") was among the most feared (Sekiba 1 896: 29). The Ainu were defenseless against the payoka kamuy who swooped into their lives bringing the ultimate punishment—ravaging disease. That some Ainu folklore (uepekere) identifies human abuse of certain small birds as the source of smallpox outbreaks indicates how seriously such transgressions against nature were viewed (Batchelor 1924: 29). To deal with payoka kamuy, shamans, called uepotarakur, who were diviners and physicians, administered medicines, carved special inaw (sacred shaved

sticks), and oversaw the process of exorcising dangerous kamuy from the bodies of victims. The shaman-curers believed that the effectiveness of medicines depended on their ability to repulse contagions from the body, and these various remedies included both plant and animal by-products (Sekiba 1896: 5).

In 1688, for example, Japanese aboard the Kaiju-maru, a ship dispatched by the lord of Mito domain, observed Ainu who were infected with disease eating bear gallbladders. In 1715 Norihiro Matsumae, the lord of Matsumae domain, noted that Ainu used furseal gallbladders and even whale feces to combat certain afflictions (Matsumae 1982:

1 35-36,-Tsuda 1988: 26). In his 1858 report, Takeshiro Matsuura, who had observed a

pattern of sexual predation among Japanese workers in Hokkaido, also listed Ainu medications to treat colds, eye infections, "dizziness from childbirth," mouth sores, spasms, chest pains, abscesses or boils, and even nosebleeds (figs. 13.2, 13.3, 13.4). He noted that the Ainu also commonly used eburiko, a lichen that grows on pine trees (Ainu siw karus or kuykarus, Fomes officinalis ) and ikema, a milkweed (Ainu ikema,- Cynancbum caudatum ) to combat certain contagions, including such epidemic diseases as smallpox. John Batchelor and his research collaborator Kingo Miyabe wrote that Ainu believed ikema to be among the most effective remedies against smallpox. Ikema was so potent that if it was chewed up and the juice was blown from the mouth over the victims or even blown throughout the infected area, it could drive away payoka kamuy (Batchelor and Miyabe 1893: 208). Although it is not known where the knowledge of these medicinal plants originated, some medical historians argue that eburiko, which was widely used by Chinese, was likely introduced to the Ainu through early contact with the East Asian continent (Yamagishi 1996: 82-85). As other essays in this volume suggest, the Ainu communicated with people throughout Northeast Asia and the North Pacific via cultural and commercial networks.

Along with administering medicines, shamans played the dominant role in exorcising contagions from the bodies of the afflicted. Norihiro Matsumae noted in a 1715 letter to the central government that to combat dangerous diseases, Ainu "priests" conjure up "miracles" through elaborate "exorcisms" (Matsumae 1982: 135-36).

Later, in the early twentieth century, Neil Munro, a Scottish physician who lived for many years among the Nibutani Ainu and who researched Ainu exorcisms, offered more detailed observations. He wrote that Ainu used such terms as kasikik, "striking down from above," to describe the process of exorcising payoka kamuy from the body. In preparation for exorcisms, Ainu shamans crafted sinna inaw (abnormal ritual pieces) and constructed "houses of evil" from sticks, which they used to hold the payoka kamuy after it was expelled from the victim. Shamans also built traps from hollow plants like kuttar (Polygonum sachalinensis ) for the purpose of capturing evil spirits, in other cases, they beat infected people with switches of bush clover ( sinkep ) and sometimes made cuts in the body to "let

13.5 Prayer Stick A man’s prayer stick ( ikupasuy ), used in rituals to send messages to the gods, was carved with precise markings and forms. Images in the central panel were left to the carver’s discretion, but the transverse cuts at the ends were special clan or family markings that allowed the gods to recognize the sender of the message. (BMA 12.229)

the bad blood out" (Munro 1962: 99-102). John Batchelor, a contemporary of Munro's, described an exorcism he had observed first hand: the shaman "was in a trance and much excited. His eyes were wide open, but they appeared to be glazed over with a sort of film, and he seemed to be looking far away into the world of spirits, without seeing anything material" (Batchelor 1927: 277).

Shamans needed to gaze "far away into the world of spirits" to deal with smallpox because the cosmological and ancestral implications of this form of death were so high. Munro wrote that the Ainu understood

people who died from smallpox were destined 13.4 Smallpox Amulet to wander the earth in the form of ghosts,

Pilsudski took this photograph of two (tukap), touching off other epidemics rather

Sakhalin Ainu standing beside an ,i , • • . i ui j r, u . »

6 than resting in the land of the ancestors

amulet against smallpox in about

1905. The specific form of the inaw (Munro 1962: 99-102). This concept has at the top identified the god who was been incorporated in folk legend that is

being petitioned, in this case, the expressed in a story from the Nibutani region

god who brought smallpox, carvings recounted by the Ainu cultural and political like those on an ikupasuy identified

the petitioner. (NAA 47425) leader, Shigeru Kayano:

Long ago an outbreak of smallpox in Nibutani killed so many Ainu that the village of Kankan was virtually annihilated. Among the survivors was an elderly man

named Iruekashi who, with little regard for payoka kamuy, wandered through the devastated village, surveying the widespread death and social dislocation touched off by the epidemic. He came across some children who had also survived the epidemic, and he cautioned them that "people who die of this disease called smallpox are not like the people who die from other ailments. People who die from smallpox do not go to the place of our ancestors." He said that they roam the earth in the form of ghosts, spreading disease to other unsuspecting villages (Kayano 1987: 53).

Once somebody had succumbed to payoka kamuy —as they almost always did with death rates over 60 percent—family members took care to dispose of the body and burn the house where the victim had died, while still showing some reverence toward the dead (figs. 13.6, 13.7). In 1737, for example, Genjiro Sakakura, a surveyor from a Japanese gold-mining firm, wrote that when threatened by epidemics, Ainu abandoned the infected and ran into the mountains. They did not return, he added, until the victim had died,family members then covered the body in attush, a fabric made from elm bark, and carried it into the mountains. Upon returning to the village they burned the house to the ground and built another in its place (Sakakura 1943: 4: 410). Because the Ainu understood smallpox to be a wrathful kamuy, it is hardly surprising that they chose to evade contagions by hiding in the mountains and then burning the home.

Payoka kamuy transcended the boundary between temporal and metaphysical worlds, and exorcising them required a combination of linking to the spiritual world, experimenting with a variety of medicines, or finally simply hiding in the mountains. Even while in the mountains, however, Ainu were constantly threatened by starvation and death from exposure. As they viewed it, they were not hiding from diseases, but from spirits who terrorized the realms of their consciousness with no regard for human life or their ancestors. Payoka kamuy left even the

13.6 Caring for a Corpse

In Sakhalin, caring for the dead was a task usually assigned to a low-ranking woman; it generally required at least a year of attention and monitoring. In this illustration from Rinzo Mamiya’s Illustrations of Northern Ezo (1855) a woman approaches a burial scaffold containing a corpse wrapped in a birchbark shroud. (HML)

13.7 Burning the House of the Deceased

Burial customs varied regionally among the Ainu. In some areas the deceased's house was burned and the dwelling site was abandoned. This illustration from Shimanojo Murakami's Curious Sights of Ezo Island (1799) shows mourners grieving beside the deceased’s possessions. (HML)

most powerful elders feverish and in pain and littered the faces of the young with festering pustules. There seemed to be no defenses from such diseases at their disposal; the Ainu increasingly began to realize that they were powerless against this invisible spiritual and physical scourge.

The dramatic social and cultural effects of breeching the epidemiologic boundaries in northern Japan is reflected in population data: between 1807, when a government census estimated the population of Hokkaido Ainu at 26,256, and 1854, the population declined 43

percent, nearly 1 percent per year, to 15,171 (Shirayama 1971: 35-36). These numbers are even more striking at a regional level Akkeshi, once a thriving Ainu community in eastern Hokkaido, experienced a 75 percent decline between 1809 and 1856, from 874 to 217 inhabitants (Matsuura 1977b: 3: 424). Akkeshi had been recognized as a powerful community because it had challenged the Japanese in 1789—with the help of neighboring groups seventy-one Japanese were killed in two quick assaults—but it evoked an entirely different image by the end of the

13.8 Ritual Sword

In some areas Ainu men owned small ritual swords (pon emush) that they kept under their pillows to ward off illness; such swords were also charms, believed to ensure that one’s wife gave birth to a son. Some of these swords were simply pieces of carved wood encased in a birchbark sheath. (MPM N17053)

nineteenth century. A. Henry Savage Landor, a self-proclaimed English adventurer, wrote of the Akkeshi Ainu that "few of them are left now, and those few are indeed poor specimens of their race. They have nearly all become bald, and they seem to suffer very severely from Rheumatism" (1893).

This epidemiological history reveals that Ainu society underwent widespread upheaval and dislocation as a result of foreign contagions, compelling scholars to reexamine the early contact between Ainu and Japanese to understand how native Ainu lands were conquered by the Japanese. Nineteenthcentury descriptions of the Ainu, many by foreign observers, stress their "amiable," "submissive," and even "loathsome" physical traits (Capron 1875: 266,- Landor 1893: 42), but their history suggests that, to the extent such characterizations were valid at all, these attributes may have developed partly under the influence of rampant diseases. The Ainu vigorously contested Japanese expansion in southern Hokkaido on nine different occasions between 1456 and 1536, before such diseases as smallpox could get a foothold (Takakura 1942: 26) ; however, foreign contagions dismantled any hope of Ainu resistance in the face of Japanese conquerors, despite new efforts by Ainu medical experts to treat these deadly infections. Ainu culture proved dynamic, reinventing itself to meet the needs of a changing disease ecology in

the north, but it was not enough to stem the painful effects of disease on Ainu society.

Gradually, over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Ainu began to lose faith in the medical practices devised over centuries to deal with "native" infections. These practices were found to be insufficient to combat the new contagions that were introduced through increased contact with Japanese and other populations with whom the Ainu were in contact for trade on the Asian continent. At risk was more than their health alone: faith in their traditional cosmology, in the ability of their shamans to protect them from disease or to exorcise evil spirits, and in the ability of their elders and their ceremonies to find accommodation with the gods were all factors that contributed to the accumulated cultural erosion from loss of maritime trade, of lands and subsistence resources, and of a stable population. So weakened, having lost their independence and capability of self-determination, the Ainu were increasingly unable to resist the growing Japanese power over their lives and lands. Although much work remains to be done to clarify Ainu medical practice, historical demography, and epidemiology as it relates not only to Japan but to contacts with the continent, it is now apparent that disease and foreign contagions played an important role in the Ainu decline and the Japanese domination of their native lands.

14/From Assimilation to Indigenous Rights:

Ainu Resistance Since 1869

Richard Siddle

I n 1899 the Japanese government

enacted the Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act. Informed by social Darwinist perceptions of a "dying race'' of "former natives," this legislation aimed to manage and control the hapless Ainu who had been swept aside in the "struggle for survival." It was no coincidence that such discourse and legislation resembled "native policy" in North America and Australasia,- Japanese colonial officials had investigated such measures, and popular social Darwinism was a permanent feature of the Japanese intellectual landscape (Siddle 1996). Colonial policy had destroyed the Ainu way of life as immigrants moved into Ainu lands and traditional settlements were broken up and relocated and as deer and salmon were hunted almost to extinction. The consequent destitution, apathy, and despair of Ainu communities only served to reinforce official and popular perceptions of a "dying race." The Ainu did not appear to have the energy to resist their extinction.

14.1 Protest March

During the twentieth century the social and economic conditions of the Ainu have worsened, but beginning in the 1960s a new activist generation took to the streets to gain rights that had been denied in the endless struggles to revoke the 1899 Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act. Protest marches like this one, which took place in Sapporo in November 1989, attracted wide public attention. Ainu costumes were worn to assert identity: previously Ainu had sought to blend into Japanese society rather than accentuate their differences.

The Movement Against the Protection Act

Most Ainu settlements were small and scattered, and protest against early Ainu policy under such conditions was not easy, even when whole communities were affected. When the authorities were determined they acted firmly. In 1884 the ninety-four Ainu residents of Shumushu island in the Kuriles were forcibly relocated to the distant island of Shikotan. After being ordered to slaughter all their dogs, they were herded on board the vessel sent to transport them, and from the deck they watched their village go up in flames. On unfamiliar Shikotan these northern

hunters were forced to become farmers, and half of the evacuees died within five years. The survivors found what solace they could by stubbornly clinging to their Orthodox Christianity (itself a legacy of Russian colonialism dating from the 1730s) despite attempts to convert them to Buddhism.

The largest relocation involved 841 Ainu from Karafuto (Sakhalin) who were transported to Hokkaido after their homeland became Russian territory as a result of the 1 875 Treaty of St. Petersburg. Contemporary accounts record Ainu anger at being forced to settle in swampy ground at Tsuishikari near Sapporo and take up farming, but despite their numbers they were unable to resist the move. Disease soon took its toll, especially the smallpox and cholera epidemics of 1886 and 1887, which claimed more than three hundred lives. The attempt to turn the Ainu into model citizens in Tsuishikari eventually failed, however, in the face of passive Ainu refusal to cooperate. Many men left to work as fishermen or returned to Russian Sakhalin, with or without passports. When 336 Ainu returned to Karafuto after victory in the Russo-Japanese war in 1905, only twenty-seven remained in Hokkaido (M. Kono 1996).

There was considerable passive resistance to farming and acculturation. Unfamiliarity with farming techniques was not the only reason why many Ainu failed to work their granted lands. Practices such as manuring, for instance, offended religious taboos on cleanliness, and most Ainu men preferred to continue in their traditional seasonal patterns as hunters or work on the colonial survey teams in the interior. Although the mode of life that underlay the traditional animistic spirituality had been destroyed, the Ainu were reluctant to abandon their beliefs. Even when certain ceremonial practices were discontinued they lived on in children's games (M. Ogawa 1993). In a survey as late as 1931, the Hokkaido government reported that nearly half of all Ainu households—1,648 out of 3,417—still adhered to "natural religion" (Hokkaido-cho 1934: 343).

Organized Ainu political resistance did not emerge in the early colonial period. Individuals reacted to the stress of their collapsing world in different ways: many sought refuge in alcohol, some were provoked into outbursts of violence. A few men, like Monsuke Ota (Montereku), adapted to the colonists and their ways and became land

owners, and some even became wealthy. Only one educated young Ainu, Taro Kannari, was influenced by the currents of liberal political opposition in 1880s Japan, and he attempted to campaign for improved education and welfare for the Ainu people. His efforts were rewarded with opposition from traditionoriented Ainu elders, and he sank into alcoholism and despair, dying in 1897 at the age of thirty. The only real exception to this trend was the successful political struggle in 1900 of the Ainu community of Chikabumi, near Asahikawa, to protect their reservation from powerful business interests.

It was not until the 1920s that a small group of educated young Ainu, united by Christian faith and a commitment to work for their people, began to form a small movement under the wing of longtime British missionary John Batchelor and his Japanese Christian allies. Not surprisingly, their agenda was not radical activism but the incorporation of the Ainu into Japanese society through self-improvement. In particular, the shoddy native education system established by the Protection Act of 1899 (and subsequent regulations) was seen as a means to perpetuate Ainu subordination. Under these influences Ainu activism in the 1920s and 1930s focused on the abolition of native education, the eradication of alcoholism, the improvement of general social and economic conditions, and the removal of the legal inequality enshrined in the Protection Act.

This movement for educational reform and the talented young men and women it fostered found intellectual and emotional expression through poetiy and essays published in the magazine of Batchelor's Ainu Mission. Milestones in Ainu literature include Ainu monocjatari (Ainu tales) by Tokusaburo Takekuma, 1918,- Ainu shinyoshu (Collected songs of the Ainu gods) by Yukie Chiri, an Ainu girl from Chikabumi who had tragically died of illness at the age of nineteen before her work was published in 1923,- and Kotan (Village) by Hokuto Iboshi, 1927. Iboshi had devoted himself to his people but died, worn out and wracked by tuberculosis, in 1928 at the age of twenty-seven, but his youthful anger against his people's subordination lives on in hundreds of short poems. In some he attacks colonization and its consequences, while others display the pride he felt in his Ainu identity. In one telling poem he hints at the impermeability of racial barriers that doomed attempts at assimilation:

Adjusting my necktie, I glance at my face The mirror tells me You are Ainu, after all (Iboshi 1930: 53)

At a time when few Ainu looked much beyond their immediate communities, Iboshi clearly regarded the Ainu as a unified group linked by common ancestral and cultural bonds and sharing common political aspirations: a nation. Moreover, he saw the Ainu as an indigenous people dispossessed by a colonial state and drew parallels with the extinction of the Tasmanian aborigines.

An important further step was taken on July 1 , 1930, with the formation of the Hokkaido Ainu Kyokai (Hokkaido Ainu Association) by 1 30 Ainu delegates organized by the Kyokumeisha, a Tokachi Ainu self-help organization, to discuss revision of the Protection Act. John Batchelor was involved, and Masaaki Kita, a Japanese and Hokkaido Government Welfare Section bureaucrat, became the first chairman. Kita was a champion of Ainu assimilation through intermarriage and the fusion of blood (yucjo ), and he was able to keep the agenda largely confined to issues of social welfare. Nevertheless, over the next few years, more Ainu from other areas began to participate in the movement and contribute articles to the journal of the Association, Ezo no Hikiiri (The light of Ezo).

Under the wing of the Hokkaido government, the Ainu Kyokai was led by successful Ainu, some of them wealthy, who sincerely believed that their example of assimilation and loyalty was the best way forward for all Ainu. Even such a small and powerless movement had not escaped the eye of the repressive security apparatus of the imperial Japanese state and some Ainu were under police surveillance. Despite the fact that their views on the means of Ainu progress—assimilation—coincided with those of Hokkaido government bureaucrats, Ainu leaders were motivated by a genuine determination not to be beaten by Wajin. Even while urging an end to their heritage they maintained their pride in it, and they felt considerable anger toward the institutions and attitudes of majority society. As one Ainu author concluded:

The yellow race, the white race, the black race and the Ainu are all equal before God. We have no need to despise ourselves. . . . Rather, we must come to have pride in ourselves as Ainu (Hiramura 1930: 158).

1 4 / AINU RESISTANCE SINCE 1869

So assimilation remained the objective of the Ainu Kyokai, its activities were actually fostering a growing awareness of Ainu identity and common purpose. The Ainu Seinen Taikai (Convention of Ainu Youth), for instance, held in Sapporo on August 2, 1931, and organized by John Batchelor provided an opportunity for seventy young Ainu to come together, exchange views, and commit themselves to improving the position of their people. Other Ainu intellectuals also founded small groups within the overall parameters of the self-help movement.

In March 1937 the Protection Act was finally revised: native schools were abolished, restrictions on property ownership were eased, and welfare measures were extended. But soon the outbreak of World War II ensured that no further gains would be made. Many Ainu were forced to display their loyalty by joining the armed forces, and thirty-nine Ainu soldiers were killed in the Battle of Okinawa in 1945.

14.2 Chikabumi Ainu Protestors Ichitaro Sunazawa and his wife Peramonkoro were leaders in the protest movements of the Chikabumi Ainu from the 1930s to the 1960s. The Sunazawas are seen here (center and right) with their young son, Bikky, and Michi Arai, Genjiro Arai, and Kamegoro Ogawa in Tokyo in June 1932. They staged a protest arguing in favor of abolishing the 1899 Protection Act and seeking the return of land taken from the Chikabumi Ainu. Bikky carried on his parents' passion for Ainu rights and became an influential political leader and artist.

Chikabumi

The Ainu community of Chikabumi near Asahikawa holds a special place in the history of Ainu resistance. The Ainu leaders of the Ishikari region have maintained a fiercely independent attitude that can be traced back through resistance in the 1860s to relocation to coastal fishing stations to the refusal to participate in Shakushain's War of 1669. The twentieth century dawned in Chikabumi with a land dispute that politicized the community and provided it with an agenda often at odds with other organized Ainu movements.

The Ishikari Ainu had been moved to a reservation at Chikabumi in 1890, but with heavy Wajin (Japanese) immigration and the arrival of the Imperial Army's 7th Division their lands were wanted by the Okuragumi, a large firm contracting with the military, and

110

the Hokkaido government ordered the Ainu to leave in February 1900. Instead of docile compliance, however, local Ainu leaders joined forces with local Wajin and opposition politicians and took their campaign to Tokyo. After the Tokyo press exposed the shady dealings of the Okuragumi, the government canceled the order to avoid a scandal,- despite their victory, however, the Ainu were not granted the land and the Hokkaido government finally leased it to Asahikawa in 1906, ensuring that discontent among the Chikabumi Ainu would continue to simmer.

In the 1930s Ainu anger erupted once more with the expiration of the lease and the attempt by Japanese tenants of Ainu plots to gain the land for themselves.

Renewed activism in Chikabumi took a somewhat different form than that of the Ainu Kyokai and its agenda for revision of the Protection Act. After the brief appearance in 1926 of the Kaiheisha, an overtly socialistinspired organization led by Ichitaro Sunazawa, the Chikabumi Ainu activists formed another group in 1932 called the Kyudojin Hogoho Teppai Domei (Alliance for the Abolition of the Protection Act). While most Ainu lived in dire poverty, by this time Chikabumi had also produced strong-minded and talented individuals like Genjiro Arai, a judicial clerk, and Kaneto Kawamura, who had overcome many obstacles to become a successful railway surveyor. In June 1932 Arai led a group of Chikabumi Ainu to Tokyo to campaign directly at the center of power. The delegation included Ichitaro Sunazawa and his wife Peramonkoro and their young son Bikky, who was later to become a reknowned artist and activist (figs. 14.2, 14.3). Although Arai and his group were harassed by the Special Higher Police, Tokyo media coverage and the support of some Parliamentarians encouraged the central government to consider the matter. Arai visited Tokyo again in November. In March 1934 the Act for the Disposal of the Former Native Reservation in Asahikawa City was enacted, but this legislation was even less generous than the Protection Act had been. Arai and his small group continued to meet in Chikabumi but were suspected of being aka ("Reds"), and they were kept under surveillance by the community agricultural instaictor, an ex-policeman who acted as an informer (Arai 1984). As Bikky Sunazawa later recalled (1988), even to sing the "Internationale" after a few drinks was risky, and his mother sometimes had to smother her husband Ichitaro with bedding

HISTORIC PERIOD/ R. SIDDLE

14.3 Portrait of Ichitaro Sunazawa Ichitaro Sunazawa (1893-1953) was one of the most important Ainu activists from the 1920s until his death. He became increasingly vocal in his anti-war sentiments after one of his sons was drafted to serve in World War II. A traditionalist caught in the political and cultural upheavals of the period, he greatly influenced his sons Bikky and Kazuo to become artists and political activists. This carving by his youngest son Kazuo captures some of the wisdom of this Ainu statesman.

to prevent his being overheard. Arai, a skilled hunter, was later conscripted and sent to China, where he survived dangerous missions as a scout, a duty imposed as punishment for letting a Chinese POW escape execution (Hokkaido Shinbum, 14 January 1989). The Chikabumi Ainu had been defeated once again by the power of the state, but their independent attitude and opposition to the Protection Act would emerge once more as a major force in the new Ainu movements of the 1970s.

Karafuto

There was one other group of Ainu even more disadvantaged than most in that they were not Japanese citizens: the Ainu of Karafuto (southern Sakhalin), who were not descended from those relocated to Hokkaido after the 1875 treaty. Despite their segregation into "native villages," a handful of educated Karafuto Ainu made efforts to improve education and living standards, and there was also a movement for granting citizenship to all Ainu and transfering state-controlled fishing grounds to Ainu ownership. Saburo Kawamura, a young Ainu from Tarandomari, was inspired by the actions of the Chikabumi Ainu to petition the Karafuto colonial government and also travel to Tokyo to petition the central authorities on these issues.

Citizenship was finally granted to the Karafuto Ainu on January 1 , 1 933,• it did not mean equality, however, and the Karafuto government continued to manage native fishing grounds. The other indigenous peoples of Sakhalin, confined to a settlement near Shikuka since 1926, were not considered for citizenship, which had tragic consequences for some Ul'ta men who later served in the Japanese Special Forces on the border with Russian Sakhalin. Treated as spies by the Russians in 1945, they were given long sentences in Siberian labor camps. Some survivors eventually found their way to Japan, where the government refused to pay them any pension or recognize their wartime service. As for the Karafuto Ainu themselves, their newly obtained citizenship ensured that only twelve years later they would, as Japanese, have to leave their homeland on Sakhalin forever (fig. 14.4).

Occupation and Land Reform

The defeat of Imperial Japan in 1945 and the new atmosphere of democratization under the Occupation seemed to herald a new dawn for Ainu activism. Encouraged by the tolerance of

the authorities, some Ainu ran in elections for Parliament, the Hokkaido Assembly, or the governorship of Hokkaido. Makoto Takahashi of Kushiro set up a small newsletter, the Ainu Shinbum, that occasionally angered the Ainu elites by reporting on Ainu issues from a radical political perspective. In February 1946 Ainu met in Shizunai to reform the Ainu Kyokai.

It soon became clear that little had changed for the Ainu in the new Japan. Despite lobbying by the Ainu Kyokai and a direct petition to General Douglas MacArthur, the Ainu lost heavily in the Occupation's land reform. Classed as absentee landlords, 1,271 Ainu lost their holdings. Japanese scholars of the Ainu resumed their business from within the structures of institutional power, despite the presence at Hokkaido University of the Ainu scholar, Mashiho Chiri, who produced ethnographic studies and a noted dictionary on his way to becoming a full professor. Sakuzaemon Kodama of the Faculty of Medicine, for instance, resumed his quest for Ainu bones after the war. In one incident in the 1950s a university team enlisted the help of local authorities and police to excavate an Ainu cemetery against the opposition of the Ainu villagers (Siddle 1993). Chiri, a man as argumentative and difficult as he was brilliant, was unable to get along with such men, and eventually quarrelled with most of the famous "Ainu scholars."

Ainu continued to be identified on the basis of blood. In the words of one Ainu, "however much you mix blood, if you have just a fraction of Ainu blood you are Ainu” (Gonai and Wakabayashi 1972: 201). Such categorization was, of course, not neutral but was accompanied by the negative stereotypes of popular social Darwinism (Siddle 1996). Given the difficulty of escaping such categorization, Ainu were forced to hide their ancestry or flee their local communities for the day-labor markets of Japans rapidly growing cities. Others found work in tourism. Although some, like Shigeru Kayano, saw tourism as an opportunity to educate ignorant Wajin, most found it a degrading experience (Kayano 1994,- Sugawara 1968). Meanwhile, the Ainu Kyokai attracted little support from poor Ainu who were suspicious of the motives of the conservative leaders and were attempting to divest themselves of any Ainu identity. Renamed the Utari Kyokai in 1961, the Association was, however, instrumental in

persuading the Hokkaido government to improve housing and other facilities in poor Ainu communities in the 1960s.

From Welfare Politics to Indigenous Rights

The agenda of such Ainu groups as the Kyokai, which only served to reinforce majority perceptions of a subordinated and marginalized people attempting to hasten their own extinction, began to change in the final years of the 1960s as new groups of young Ainu activists emerged who were sharply critical of the Ainu establishment and its links with the authorities (fig. 14.1). Many of these young men and women had moved to the cities and took their inspiration and tactics not from their rural elders but from such radical elements in Japanese society as the Burakumin, an outcast "untouchable" class that allied with revolution

poor" (Cornell 1964). The new pride and emphasis on Ainu identity served to create a sense of community that could overcome the often wide divisions of class, gender, or generation in Ainu villages. As an assertion of difference it challenged the assimilation policies that aimed at the eventual extinction of the "Ainu problem" through complete absorption of all Ainu into majority society. Through identification with indigenous movements in other states, the new Ainu movement attempted to redefine the relationship of the Ainu to the state in terms of a culturally and historically unique group with distinct rights. The Ainu, as an indigenous people, were not just another disadvantaged social group in need of state welfare but a "nation" desirous of decolonization.

New political trends first began to appear around 1968, with the celebration of the centennial of the "history" of Hokkaido.

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14.4 Sakhalin Ainu in Isuishikari, Hokkaido

Sakhalin Ainu, even more than the Kurile Ainu, suffered from territorial disputes between Russia and Japan. Nearly 1,000 Sakhalin Ainu were forcibly resettled at Tsuishikari, swampy land near Sapporo, when Russia took possession of Sakhalin in 1875. Survivors returned to Sakhalin after the 1905 Russo-Japanese war, only to be expelled and resettled again in Hokkaido in 1945. This photograph, taken by Benjamin Smith Lyman, shows Sakhalin refugees at a Tsuishikari netmaking factory in 1876. (UML)

ary students and anti-Vietnam war activists. The new Ainu activists were leftist, and their early writings and policies were permeated with references to class struggle and revolution. These ideas were soon joined by a far more radical development in the history of Ainu resistance—a new emphasis on Ainu identity. In a reversal of the flight of Ainu youth from Ainu identity, these young men and women rejected assimilation and actively undertook a search for their roots.

The "Amu problem" was redefined It was no longer a case of cultural extinction or administering social welfare to the "frontier

Considerable sums were spent on public celebrations, yet the Ainu were ignored. In official and popular imagination the story of Hokkaido was a heroic struggle against Nature as pioneers brought the beneficial effects of "progress" to a "natural" extension of Japanese territory. Protesting this denial of their existence, one young Ainu from Kushiro called for Wajin not to forget that the ground under the new commemorative tower was "soaked with Ainu blood" (HokMido Shinbum,

I 3 May 1968, evening edition).

Debate was also stimulated among Ainu by a government proposal in June 1968 to

HISTORIC PERIOD / R SIDDLE

revise the Protection Act and a unanimous vote by the mayors of Hokkaido for its abolition in June 1970. The Lltari Kyokai overwhelmingly favored the continued existence of the Protection Act on the grounds that it could be used as a convenient umbrella to enact special welfare policies, as it had in the early 1960s. This stance annoyed many Ainu, especially in Chikabumi, who saw the Protection Act as the institutional expression of discrimination and inferiority. The Asahikawa Ainu were further irritated in August 1970 when the city celebrated eighty years since foundation with a statue depicting four young Wajin colonizers surrounding an elderly Ainu. Bikky Sunazawa handed out leaflets during the inauguration ceremonies to protest this symbolization of Ainu subordination (Sala 1975). Sunazawa was himself on his way to becoming a sculptor and artist of some repute. Although he rejected being labeled an

"Ainu artist," his pride in his heritage was not only a crucial element in his art but also underlay his activism (fig. 14.5).

Such developments stimulated the formation of activist organizations, and many small groups emerged, often with overlapping membership. Urban Ainu also moved to find a place within the Utari Kyokai, from which they had been largely excluded. The voice of this movement was a bimonthly newspaper, Anutari Ainu (We human beings), which began publishing in 1973. The first issue reported in detail on the struggle of Ainu fisherman in the village of Usu against construction of a thermal power station. During its three-year existence, Anutari Ainu

14.5 Ainu Organizational Meeting, 1973

Escalation of rhetoric and campaigns of political violence in support of Ainu liberation led to a meeting in Sapporo on January 21, 1973, which was attended by 150 Ainu. Although the meeting was opposed by conservative Ainu leaders and those engaged in tourism, it helped solidify the Ainu movement and set a new course for political action.

provided news and analysis of the Ainu struggle and contributed to the search for Ainu roots by seeking out elders and publishing lengthy interviews with them. There was often little unity among and between various groups, however, and these divisions were reflected in a variety of political ideologies.

In late 1972 tensions were heightened dramatically by a violent terrorist campaign carried out in the name of Ainu liberation.

On January 21, 1973, 150 Ainu gathered in Sapporo for the Zenkoku Ainu no Kataru Kai (National Ainu Discussion Meeting) organized by Bikky Sunazawa and younger Ainu but open to all. Conservative leaders and those engaged in tourism were suspicious of the motives of the younger activists, who insisted, for their part, that it was a "people's meeting" to discuss issues faced by all Ainu (Sala 1975). National attention remained focused on the "Ainu problem" as terrorist outrages continued, culminating in the bombing of the Hokkaido Government Building on March 2, 1976, in which two people were killed and more than ninety injured. Despite intensive surveillance and harassment, the police were unable to prove Ainu involvement, and the bombings proved instead to be the work of a small cell of radical Wajin terrorists who were later sentenced to death (Chikap 1989). Although Ainu leaders condemned the terrorists, these incidents contributed to the increasing politicization of Ainu communities as the issues that underlay continued Ainu marginalization became difficult to ignore.

Some Ainu groups, such as Shoji Yuki's Ainu Kaiho Domei (Ainu Liberation League), adopted forceful tactics of confrontation and denunciation, particularly against the activities of academics, forcing public apologies on several occasions (Siddle 1993). Protests were also made against tourist organizations and media companies that conveyed discriminatory stereotypes of the Ainu. Some television broadcasts were canceled, apologies were screened, and offending publications were recalled. Courtrooms also became the scene of confrontation between Ainu activists and the state. Some criminal cases involving Ainu defendants, for instance, were politicized and turned into showcases revealing the discrimination faced by the Ainu, thus generating publicity for the cause.

Within a few short years, Ainu politics

14/AINU RESISTANCE SINCE 1869

14.8 Ainu Flag

As a young artist and political activist Bikky Sunazawa designed the Ainu flag, which first appeared in the 1973 May Day parade in Sapporo. The emblem consists of a red arrowhead (ay) whose color signifies aconite hunting poison, while the white pattern signifies the snows of the Hokkaido winter.

had undergone a dramatic transformation. The Utari Kyokai could not remain unaffected as the authority and assimilationist orientation of the more elderly and conservative leaders were directly threatened. The Association had to accommodate some of the demands of the younger activists and moved to distance itself from the state by transferring in May 1974 to an "independent" office, but its close ties with the Hokkaido government continued through annual subsidies and staff interchanges. On the other hand, the Utari Kyokai was well placed to act as the established institutional channel for Ainu negotiation with the state when the "Ainu problem"—and the interest in it by opposition political parties—became too much for the authorities to ignore.

The state's response was to attempt to bring the "Ainu problem" back within the confines of welfare policy. In August 1973 the authorities drew up the Hokkaido Utari Welfare Countermeasures, a package of welfare measures and infrastructural projects similar to the policies that had been proposed to assimilate the outcast Burakumin minority within the larger Japanese society. The policy was administered largely through the Utari Kyokai, and the membership and influence of the Association began to revive. For the state, this welfare policy did not damage their official stance that there are no minority populations in Japan—a view publicly aired by the government in its first report to the United Nations after ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1979.

The genie of Ainu nationhood, however, could not now be stuffed back into the bottle. Although some conservative elders still favored assimilation, for most activists the political struggle was now informed by a sense of identity and pride in being Ainu. The cultural manifestations of Ainu-ness— embroidered traditional costumes, prayers in the Ainu language, oral literature, dance— became increasingly in evidence at Ainu events, and festivals and ceremonies, such as those enacted each year before the new statue of Shakushain in Shizunai, became occasions to celebrate this heritage and link the present struggle to the feats of past heroes. Although much of the expertise in traditional culture came from elders in rural or tourist communities, the initiative for these events often came from the politically active, younger, urban Ainu Such occasions, reflected leading activist Tokuhei Narita, "lit the lamp of the solidarity that the Utari have long lost”

(Narita 1972: 38-39). New symbols reinforced the sense of the Ainu as a nation: an Ainu flag, designed by Bikky Sunazawa, first appeared at the 1973 May Day parade in Sapporo (fig. 14.6), and there was a strong identification with Aim mosir, the homeland.

Ainu nationhood was greatly stimulated by contacts with indigenous peoples in other countries. Yoshimi Hiramura, the young founder of the Ainu newspaper Anutari Ainu, consciously identified with Native Americans after a trip to the United States in 1972, and the first issue of the paper devoted a page to the confrontation at Wounded Knee between activists of the American Indian Movement and

federal authorities. Ainu began to travel and actively seek out other native peoples, from China to Alaska. In May 198 1 Tokuhei Narita became the first Ainu to attend the World Conference of Indigenous Peoples when he traveled to the third meeting in Canberra, Australia. Not only were political strategies borrowed as a result of such interaction but also the symbols of a common underlying aborigi-nality: "We all have things in common, on the level of feelings too," commented Narita on his return (Egami 1982: 304).

By the early 1980s, such awareness of nationhood resulted in a stronger, though still troubled, sense of unity among Ainu groups. This was reflected in a new item on the political agenda around which Ainu of most persuasions were able to rally. In May 1984 the Utari Kyokai, recognizing that welfare benefits were no longer sufficient currency for the Ainu-Japanese relationship, adopted a proposal for a New Law for the Ainu People to replace the 1899 Protection Act. Nevertheless, the actual draft of the New Law retained a distinct welfare orientation, reflecting the assimilationist feelings still held by many ordinary Utari Kyokai members who sought improved access to education and wealth in majority society. Although it made strong demands for respect and support for Ainu culture and human rights, this proposal for a New Law lacked a clear formulation of indigenous rights. There was no mention, for instance, of the right to self-determination or land rights. This weakness has become increasingly obvious in recent years as Ainu activists have come to participate fully in the international gatherings of indigenous peoples, where land rights have had prominent focus.

The late 1980s and 1990s saw a further strengthening of Ainu identity and ethnopolitics. Notable victories included the court action brought against noted scholars by Mieko Chikap in 1986 over violation of portrait rights involving the publication of personal images. Action was also taken against Hokkaido LIniversity over the Ainu remains held there, and in 1984 the university agreed to return some remains and hold an annual Ainu memorial service for the rest.

This was not the first time that the desecration of ancestral gravesites aroused fierce resistance. In 1867 Ainu protests, supported

by the Japanese authorities, forced the return of remains looted by British officials of the Hakodate Consulate (Siddle 1993). Another incident of protest resulted from the excavation of Kurile Ainu graves on Shumushu Island by anatomist Sakuzaemon Kodama in July 1937. On reading of this in a newspaper, the leader of the surviving Kurile Ainu on Shikotan demanded that Kodama return the bones because they were the remains of their ancestors, but he was eventually persuaded to donate them to Kodama's laboratory after a memorial service was held in the Sapporo Orthodox church. Memorial services were held annually for three years and Kodama erected a memorial stone at the cemetery on Shikotan (S. Kodama 1971).

Since 1987 Ainu representatives have been attending the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations, and Ainu participated in many activities at home and abroad during the United Nations International Year of the World's Indigenous People in 1993. In 1994 Shigeru Kayano became the first Ainu politician at the national level, entering Japan's parliament after the death of an incumbent member. Kayano was also involved in the bitter opposition to the construction of a dam in his home village of Nibutani. Although the dispute polarized the community, the Sapporo District Court ruled in March 1997 that the government was at fault for not taking Ainu concerns over ancestral sites into consideration (Sonohara 1997). The ruling was also a landmark decision in that the Ainu were recognized for the first time by the judiciary as senju minzoku, an "indigenous people." On July 1 , 1997, the Protection Act was finally repealed and replaced with the Ainu Shinpo, a cultural promotion law. Not all Ainu are satisfied, however, because there is no mention in this legislation of indigenous rights, political representation, or other legal guarantees.

The Ainu struggle for full recognition as an indigenous people seems set to continue, and days when Ainu leaders argued for assimilation are long gone. Perhaps Tokuhei Narita best sums up contemporary Ainu resistance: "[We] are now editing our history, claiming our rights, understanding our identity, beginning to walk for ourselves" (Narita 1984: 138).

14 /AINU RESISTANCE SINCE 1869

115

Ainu and Northwest Coast Peoples:

A Comparison

Motomichi Kono and William W. Fitzhugh

15.1 Ainu Totem Pole

Ainu tourist centers began displaying carved poles resembling “cigar-store” Indians and small versions of Northwest Coast Indian totem poles soon after the end of World War II. These poles were carved with Ainu motifs and often had an owl, the Ainu god of the village, on top. Later these owls began to be carved with outstretched wings— as on this pole photographed in Otoineppu in 1998—making them resemble Northwest Coast Indian ‘'thunderbirds." Ainu artists have adapted the totem-pole concept into a unique form of modern Ainu art.

P ERCEIVED SIMILARITIES AND A BROAD

sense of understanding between the native peoples who occupy the southern coasts of the North Pacific in Asia and North America—which derive from recent cultural exchanges between Ainu artists and cultural leaders and their counterparts among Northwest Coast Indian groups —have aroused interest in the question of whether these groups had cultural contacts or other relationships in the past. Curiosity about Asian-American links arose as soon as Europeans began exploring these regions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Golder 1914). Early explorers like Stepan Krasheninnikov, who investigated the Kamchatka peninsula in 1735-41, and naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller, who described the Pacific coast of Alaska and the Aleutians in 1741, were surprised to discover cultural parallels—notable in customs,

language, and folklore—between Asian and American peoples living thousands of miles apart on either side of Bering Strait. Anthropological studies did not begin until 1897 when Franz Boas launched the Jesup North Pacific Expedition (1897-1902) to investigate and compare the cultures and history across this vast region (Boas 1903, 1905). The results of these expeditions and subsequent twentieth-century research on Asian-American relationships were reviewed in various

programs related to the Crossroads of Continents exhibition (see introduction, this volume) and at a centennial conference on the Jesup project, Constructing Cultures Then and Now, held in 1997 at the American Museum of Natural Fdistory (Kendall forthcoming).

Although the Ainu were initially included in Boas's research agenda, his plans failed to materialize. The absence of an Ainu study in the multivolume series on the Jesup Expedition that Boas compiled gave the impression that the Ainu were not among the family of North Pacific cultures. Research since then demonstrates quite the opposite: similarities in subsistence practices, clothing, technology, shamanism, ceremonial life, art, and folklore suggest that the Ainu (and probably the prehistoric Jomon and Okhotsk cultures as well) share a common history with cold water-adapted cultures of the North Pacific rim. These ties were strongest with peoples of Sakhalin and the lower Amur with whom the Ainu had extensive contacts during the past several thousand years (Yamaura and Ushiro, S. Sasaki, T. Kikuchi, this volume), but to a lesser degree there are parallels with more distant peoples of the Bering Sea and the Northwest Coast as far south as the Columbia River. Some parallel traditions, like basketry (Graburn and Lee, this volume), may have evolved as recently as the European exploration period, while other features (firstsalmon and bear ceremonialism, sea mammalhunting technology, and spiritually based art) may have spread with the first Asians who moved into the New World at the end of the Paleolithic period 10,000 to 20,000 years ago.

Historical Contacts: Drift Vessels

This paper compares Ainu and southern Northwest Coast cultures in terms of geography, general cultural categories, and recent history. History and archaeology both indicate that contacts between Japan and the Northwest Coast have occurred. Evidence of prehistoric contact with Japan in the form of glass fishnet floats and iron tools of Japanese origin has been found at the fifteenth-century Ozette archaeological site located on the Olympic Peninsula near the mouth of Puget Sound (Daugherty and Friedman 1983). It is believed that these materials came from fishing vessels that were periodically disabled by storms off the eastern coast of Japan and drifted with their crews across the North Pacific following prevailing currents and wind

until they reached the shores of northwestern North America. Historical records of vessel losses in eastern Japan and eighteenth- and nineteenth-century reports of drift vessels and wreckage finds on the Northwest Coast (Brooks 1876; Quimby 1985) suggest that hundreds of such voyages must have occurred between A.D. 1400 and 1800 before Japanese ship technology improved, making such accidents less common. Although no vessels are known to have reached America with live crews, such a possibility exists, which would have allowed for direct transfer of both Japanese and Ainu material culture as well as socio-cultural concepts to northwestern North America native peoples long before the arrival of Europeans. Such a mechanism would not require contacts or diffusion through geographically intermediate groups around the North Pacific rim.

The appearance of Asian drift vessels has been most frequently reported in western Vancouver Island and the coast between Puget Sound and the Columbia River delta. The recent reevaluation of the importance of maritime transport and trade in Ainu culture and the routine Ainu nagivation that existed between Hokkaido and Kamchatka makes it seem possible that not only Japanese, but Ainu as well may have been unwitting participants in this intercontinental exchange. Although previous literature has emphasized the source of drift vessels as Japanese, it seems likely that Ainu vessels and crews also occasionally took part in accidental drift voyages, and because the distance would have been shorter for them, the chance of survival of Ainu crews would have been greater than for Japanese.

Despite such intriguing evidence for Asian-Northwest Coast contacts, our primary intent here is to establish a framework for understanding relationships between Ainu and Northwest Coast peoples. Whether future historical, anthropological, and archaeological studies corroborate the evidence of earlier contacts or not, Ainu today have developed a modern kinship with Northwest Coast peoples and seem to acknowledge a mutual cultural attraction or magnetism (Chisato Dubreuil, personal communication).

The recent history of Ainu contacts with North Americans began after the Meiji Restoration in 1868 when Japan invited U S. government officials, technicians, scientists, and university professors to help modernize the country and develop Hokkaido's natural

15/AINU AND THE NORTHWEST COAST

resources. Although the first known contact between Ainu and native peoples of the Americas began when an Ainu group was invited to perform at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1904 (Starr 1904, VanStone 1993,- Kotani, this volume), it was not until the 1970s that direct and continuing exchanges between Ainu and native peoples of the Northwest Coast were initiated. Since then, Ainu and Northwest Coast artists including Bikky Sunazawa (see Dubreuil, this volume), craftspeople, dancers, and cultural leaders have participated in many cultural exchange programs. These interactions have resulted in educational and research opportunities in science, arts, humanities, law, museology, and library and native studies. They have increased cultural awareness of the other group among both populations, and native participants discovered common bonds in their shared experiences of cultural, political, and economic repression. Finally, these contacts produced a cross-fertilization of contemporary native art, dance, and music traditions. One of the more surprising testimonials to cross-cultural communication (from the perspective of a North American visitor) is the twentieth-century adoption of a foreign art form, the Northwest Coast-style totem pole, which are found at many Ainu museums and tourist centers in Hokkaido (see Dubreuil, this volume).

Geography and Natural Resources

Although the Ainu and Northwest Coast peoples were located at the opposite ends of the North Pacific geographic continuum, these cultures adapted to similar climatic and coastal regimes and used similar biotic resources. Greater environmental and cultural homogeneity exists within the greater North Pacific region from Hokkaido to the Columbia River than within the Asian or American coastal regions themselves (Boas 1905,- Kroeber 1939,- Suttles 1990a). Although each culture anchors the ends of their respective distributions, their latitudes do not exactly correspond: the greatest extent of Ainu territory in the early nineteenth century fell between latitude 41° to 55° north, from southern Hokkaido to the northern Kuriles, whereas the Northwest Coast region extends from 45° to 60° north, from the Columbia River to Cook Inlet, Alaska. This is one reason for the many geographi

cal differences within each region, as well as the many differences among them. Except for the extremely oceanic environment of the Kurile Islands, other Ainu areas in Hokkaido and Sakhalin have relatively harsh winters with deep falls of snow due to the influence of cold Siberian air masses and predominantly open seas,- much of the coast of Sakhalin is frozen in winter, and pack ice reaches northern Hokkaido (Nakano and Kobayashi 1 967,-Ohnuki-Tierney 1976a,•

Ono and Igarashi 1992,- see also Ono, Watanabe, Olschleger, this volume). In southern Hokkaido and northern Honshu ocean and terrestrial conditions are much more temperate. By contrast, the Northwest Coast receives little snow at sea level,- its coastal waters are completely ice-free,- and its vegetation patterns (temperate to subarctic rain forests at sea level) are dominated by altitude more than by latitude (Suttles 1990b). Summer climates in both regions are more similar,- the northeastern coast of Hokkaido lacks the oaks and beech that are present in the broadleaf forests of southern Hokkaido, again because of altitude and the influence of cold maritime waters. Both peoples occupy islands and cold-water coasts that require extensive inshore and open-ocean travel and utilization of maritime, riverine, and terrestrial resources.

The natural resources of both areas also display both similarities and differences. Both have the same or similar species of land game, including moose, bear, deer, wolves, foxes, and a variety of smaller fur-bearers. There are also differences, however: elk, mountain goat, and mountain sheep, present on the Northwest Coast, are absent in the Ainu area, whereas the latter has several mammals absent from the Northwest Coast, including reindeer (present only in Sakhalin) and the raccoon dog. Many marine mammals, including seals, sea lions, porpoises, orcas, and whales, are found in both areas, as are many species of ocean fish, of which halibut and salmon were most important for both groups,- trout and swordfish were important resources in Hokkaido, but these were less important or absent (in the case of swordfish) on the Northwest Coast (Nakano and Kobayashi 1967,- Suttles 1990a, b). Salmon was the most important food for most groups in both areas because of its relatively predictable arrival, its abundance, and its capacity to be preserved for later consumption.

Bear and First-Salmon Ritual

It is not surprising that in adapting to similar environments and resources each group developed similar solutions that inform their cultural complexes, such as their extensive wood-working, grass and fiber use, and fishing technologies. Some cultural elements, like the toggling harpoons used by the Ainu and Eskimo peoples, while stylistically different, must have a common ancestry in North Pacific marine mammal-hunting technology. Similarities between Ainu and Amur River garment patterns and decorative arts are more difficult to assess but might be explained by mutual influence between peoples who have had contact for centuries or may simply be derived from a deep pool of ancient beliefs and religious concepts shared by early northeast Asian cultures. Similarities between these East Asian design styles and those found in prehistoric Bering Sea Eskimo and Aleut ivory carvings and body art seen on ivory figurines and human mummies (Fitzhugh 1988) and with Northwest Coast (especially Tlingit) art suggest that the Ainu also have an as-yet unspecified share in these deeply rooted North Pacific artistic traditions and beliefs. Other similarities—for instance, those seen in tubular needlecases with whale-tail ornaments among the Kurile Ainu—suggest derivation from Okhotsk culture or contacts with Eskimo groups in the Bering Sea.

Religion and ceremonial life are often thought to be more significant indicators of cultural relationship than material culture because they are less likely to result from environmental influence, casual trade, or independent invention. In this regard, the Ainu bear and first-salmon ceremonies may provide stronger evidence of shared heritage between Ainu and other circumpolar peoples (Hallowell 1926). Like the Ainu, most circumpolar cultures honor the bear as the chief deity of the gods of land and pay it respect by offering elaborate rituals in its honor when it is killed. The Ainu iyomante practice involves capturing and rearing a cub for a year or more before killing it and sending its spirit with human gifts of inaw and sake off to the god world in an elaborate ceremony,- this process not only demonstrates human respect for knmity (gods), but the offerings petition the gods to return to visit humans on earth again in the future (Watanabe 1972: 71-73,-Akino, Utagawa, this volume). There is little doubt about Ainu connections with Aruur-area Siberian bear

rituals (Black 1973,- Ikeya 1997), and some believe its appearance in Ainu culture originated from the intrusion of Siberian-oriented Okhotsk culture into Hokkaido (Utagawa 1989). Northwest Coast bear ceremonies take different forms but have a similar purpose and have strong ritual linkages to shamanism and salmon ceremonialism (Boas 1894: 92-101),rock art at Kitselas Canyon on the Skeena River in British Columbia that illustrates shaman spirits communicating with bear spirits at a major salmon-fishing location appears to illuminate this mythology and the importance of ritual concerning the replenishment of this crucial human resource (MacDonald 1983:

1 18 ; Crowell 1988: 140).

A comparison of first-salmon ceremonies conducted by Ainu and peoples of the Northwest Coast reveals more specilic parallels than do bear rituals. Like Northwest Coast peoples, Ainu believe the salmon is a messenger of the

15.2 Named Ainu Groups in Hokkaido

This map shows the location of named Hokkaido Ainu groups from information recorded on Ainu grave markers.

gods. The first salmon to appear in the streams each year is caught and killed with a special, ritually decorated club (Watanabe 1972: 7377,- Roche and Hutchinson 1998: 127-29,Ono, Olschleger, this volume). In both regions, the first and sometimes the last salmon (and occasionally other important fish) are given ritual sending ceremonies to return them to the god world bearing evidence of human respect and gratitude for the yearly renewal of this resource. The fish is shared with the community and is ritually dressed (in inaw-kike among the Ainu,- in cedar bark on the North

west Coast), and at the conclusion of the ceremony both groups return the remains (the mandible, in the case of the Ainu) to the river. Although other details of these rituals (such as the manner of cutting and dressing, use of inaw sticks, and absence of bear and shamanistic elements in the Ainu salmon ritual) differ, these ceremonies seem to be variations on a common theme. Unfortunately, prehistoric evidence of salmon ritual, which is common in British Columbia, is rarely found in northeastern Asia, although it has been suggested at the lowest levels (Level VI1, 14,000 B.C.) at the LIshki site in Kamchatka (Dikov 1968).

Similarities in ritual associated with whaling as well as in technology and hunting practices among Indians of the Vancouver Island and Olympic Peninsula region,

Alaskan Aleut and Eskimo groups, and Northeastern Siberians also exist (Lantis 1938,- Rousselot, Fitzhugh, and Crowell 1988). Ainu whaling, which ceased to be practiced before the era of ethnographic reporting, was inherited from earlier Jomon and Okhotsk predecessors and involved the taking of both large and small whales (Iwasaki-Goodman and Nomoto, this volume). Lack of information precludes direct comparisons with other whaling traditions, but Ainu oral history suggests that it followed the general North Pacific pattern. To date none of these important ritual systems (bear, salmon, whale) have been explored in depth, so it would be premature at present to do more than point out congruences and possible historical affinities.

Comparative History:

Diversity and Assimilation

Cultural geography is one area where Ainu and Northwest Coast peoples display great differences, for although each occupies relatively similar maritime coastal regions, the Ainu today display more linguistic and cultural cohesion, even considering strong regional subdivisions (see below and Ohnuki-Tterney references), than do Northwest Coast groups over a region of comparable geographic size. The Ainu of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuriles spoke dialects of a single language family and shared many aspects of a common culture, by contrast, the Northwest Coast culture region has seven different language families and an equal or greater number of divergent

cultural complexes (Krauss 1988,- Suttles 1990a). The reasons for these differences between the Ainu and peoples of the Northwest Coast can probably be attributed to geography, culture history, and politics.

The Ainu appear to have been at least partially unified by descent from a northern Jomon cultural tradition that was somewhat isolated from other centers of cultural development in southern Japan, Korea, and the lower Amur. More recently, southern Hokkaido was occupied by Satsumon culture, whereas northern Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuriles were transformed by a Siberian-derived Okhotsk culture (a.D. 500-1000), which intruded during the late Jomon from the north, endowing a northern cultural stamp to these northern Ainu regions. With the decline of the Okhotsk culture, a resurgent Satsumon culture, fueled by contacts with the rapidly expanding, agriculturally based Japanese state, intruded from the south, forming the basis for historic Ainu culture. Satsumon expansion probably provided a unifying force for the development of historic-period Ainu culture after A.D. 1400. Additional cohesion came from the central position taken by the Ainu in the northern maritime trade that developed between Japan and Asia. Thus, Japanese encroachment during the past thousand years into Ainu territories in northern Japan—and more recently into Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuriles—as well as nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian incursions into the Kuriles and Sakhalin and recent Japanese policies of assimilation forced a reduction in regional cultural diversity and contributed to a more cohesive Ainu identity today than existed in the past.

Th is diverse cultural and geographic environment was the theater for the formation of various ancient Ainu ethnic groups which, despite the presence of a basic Ainu core, displayed many subregional and local differences. Until one hundred years ago traces of several ethnic groups remained on the islands of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuriles. On Hokkaido there were the Shumuun-kuru, Sar-un-kuru, Menashikuru, Peni-unkuru, and various groups in the Tokachi and Kitami areas to the south (fig. 15.2). These were not self-described names but were the names they were given by others, primarily the Japanese. The Menashikuru lived in the southernmost Kuriles,- the rest of the Kuriles north to Kamchatka was occupied by the Kurile (Chishima) Ainu. The east and west

coasts of Sakhalin had two groups who called themselves Enchiw,- outsiders called them the Karafuto (Sakhalin) Ainu, and some of these people also lived in northern Hokkaido.

These differences suggest that there never was a single homogeneous Ainu culture or language and that the Ainu region was occupied by a variety of local and regional groups that had their own distinctive features,it is therefore hardly appropriate to subsume them all under the term "the Ainu people."

Restricting our comparison more specifically to Vancouver Island as a subregion of the Northwest Coast, several groups or bands may be identified, all of which continue to be known today by their selfdescribed native names: the Kwakwaka wakw in the northern part of the island (known as Kwakuitl in southern regions),- Nuu-chahnuth, Dididaht, and Pacheenaht (Vancouver "Nootka") on the west coast,- Halkomelem (Coast Salish) on the southeast end of the island,- and many other groups in southwestern Vancouver Island (Suttles 1990a).

Self-described names for Ainu groups on Hokkaido and in the Kurile Islands disappeared when names used by Wajin (the ruling Japanese) and Russians were given priority. Only the Enchiw of Sakhalin kept their own name, until the 1930s when they came to be known as the Karafuto Ainu after they were incorporated into modern Japanese society. Wajin called the Ainu of Sakhalin, Kuriles, and Hokkaido collectively "Ezo," and by so doing they ignored the reality of the constituent social groups. Later, the collective term "Ainu," which referred to the three regional groups in Ainu language, replaced "Ezo" when the Ainu were officially adopted into the Japanese state,- nevertheless, in official circles, following a decree of 1899, Ainu were called simply "former aborigines." Only in the Ainu Shinpo, a 1997 law, was the term "Ainu" reinstated and given full governmental approval.

In Canada, on the other hand, even though the English collective term "First Nations" has come to be widely used in recent years (in the United States the corresponding term "Native American" is employed), native groups are generally known by their selfdescribed names. Another difference between the Ainu and the First Nations of Canada is the frequent loss among the Ainu, due to relocation, schooling, and administrative procedures, of their social lineage, which in Canada and the LInited States has been retained despite changes in group affiliation

by individual bands and reservations. In most cases it is impossible for ethnic Ainu to live today in their traditional social groupings, as many Canadian and American native groups do. Thus, to a degree, native people in North America still maintain a separate ethnic and social identity (with regard to the state nationality) that has been lost to most Japanese Ainu.

The reasons for these differences may be found in different political histories. Historically the Enchiw of Sakhalin were influenced by the invasion of the Yuan military force, albeit briefly, in the latter part of the 1200s, whereas Russian contact with Ainu in central Hokkaido did not begin until the mid-1700s. Meanwhile the Ainu in southern Hokkaido had been strongly influenced by the Wajin (proto-Japanese) in Honshu because trading bases were established in northern Honshu in the mid-1400s. The finds of southern agricultural cultigens in Satsumon sites in Hokkaido dating to the ninth century A.D.

15.3 Skidegate Village Although the Ainu were evicted from most of their coastal settlements by Japanese, they have not entirely lost coastal interests, and environmental similarities have prompted the Ainu to seek contacts with native peoples of northwestern North America. Many Ainu also see parallels in Native American and Ainu political history. This Haida village in the Queen Charlotte Islands was photographed in 1900 by John Swanton during the Jesup North Pacific Expedition.

(AMNH 330387)

(Crawford and Yoshizaki 1987,- Fitzhugh, this volume) and the appearance of Japanese iron, lacquerware, and other southern trade goods in early archaeological sites in Hokkaido indicate more than 1,000 years of contact, influence, and acculturation between Ainu and Wajin peoples. By contrast, contact between the first European explorers like Vitus Bering (1741), La Perouse (1786), and James Cook (1778) in the northern Northwest Coast, and by Esteban Jose Martinez (1789) and other Spanish explorers in the Vancouver Island region was extremely late. American traders reached the Columbia River only in 1811, but in Vancouver Island the first contacts with the Hudson's Bay Company did

not take place until 1828,- the first HBC post on Vancouver Island was established by James Douglas in 1849, and the colony joined the Canadian Federation as the Province of British Columbia only in 1871. Similar late chronologies of early European-native contacts are found in other regions of the Northwest Coast and Alaska.

The history of the Ainu and the First Nations of Vancouver Island reveals that the incorporation of native societies into modern states occurred at about the same time,- the dates of subsequent settlement by large numbers of non-native immigrants and their gradual dominance over native residents is also comparable. In other respects, however, the history of the Ainu and the Wajin is quite different from that of native peoples and Europeans on the Northwest Coast Unlike the latter, contact between the Ainu and the Wajin extends back at least 2,000 years and intensified in northern regions after A.D. 800. By the sixteenth century the Ainu were involved in major trading activities with Japan and the Asian continent (Harrison 1954,- Howell 1994, 1995, and this volume,- S. Sasaki, this volume), and by the mid-1 600s these groups were involved in significant intermarriage and racial mixing. Wajin, Ainu, Sakhalin, and Amur River peoples also shared many common cultural elements—use of similar tools forms and technologies, materials, and even similar religious and ritual expressions (Obayashi 1997)— whereas Northwest Coast and Europeans did not,- in these respects and many others, the political history of Ainu and Northwest Coast peoples and the states that subsumed them are entirely different and have produced different outcomes for their respective indigenous peoples.

Ainu culture, especially in Hokkaido, began to become noticeably "Japanized" beginning in the thirteenth century, which is when Ainu culture first became ethnically identifiable. About this time, pithouses were replaced by above-ground houses more similar to Japanese housing styles of this period, iron tools and pots began to be introduced by trade, mainly with the Japanese. More extensive Japanese influence was felt in the midsixteenth century when trade with the Wajin was formalized by the establishment of a network of trading posts in northern Honshu (Takakura I960,- I. Kikuchi, this volume). As a consequence, Ainu began to have ready access to rice and other southern food products,

15.4 Chosama, Chief of Uraashibetsu

Hakyo Kakizaki painted in a contemporary Japanese style, and his portraits captured those characteristics of the Ainu that were of particular interest to a Japanese audience. This image is a copy by Teiki Kojima of a Kakizaki original. (Y. and M. Kitao Collection)

cotton fabrics, earthenware and porcelain, lacquerware, glass and metal beads, mirrors, and metal ornaments also became available. As a result, local forging of iron ceased and many other manufacturing procedures that had been present were no longer practiced in Hokkaido,the Ainu instead began to rely on imported materials produced by the Wajin. These changes were so profound that one could almost describe Hokkaido Ainu culture of the thirteenth to fourteenth centuries as "halfWajin," at least in terms of material culture. Nevertheless, some aspects of Ainu culture remained in place, like the tradition of ornamental wood carving found on men's tobacco boxes and knives and the "whorl and thorn” designs—whose ancestry can be traced back archaeologically more than 1,000 years in

Hokkaido—that ornamented ceremonial clothing, which were produced by applique made with imported Japanese trade cotton and Asian silk thread rather than native materials.

In this way, Ainu and Japanese culture mutually influenced each other over a long period of time. Corresponding Ainu influence on Japanese culture, restricted largely to northern Honshu, is seen primarily in placenames, language, and oral history (I. Kikuchi, Tamura, this volume). Evidence for the direction of borrowing, for instance, the use of wood shavings for ritual purposes or certain ornamental design motifs, is unclear. This history is vastly different from that of native peoples and Europeans in northwestern North America, Europeans arrived there only 250 years ago, and since then cultural influence has been largely unidirectional, from European to native.

There are also many differences between Ainu and Northwest Coast societies, especially in traditional and contemporary arts. Large sculptures like house posts and totem poles ornamented with inherited family animal crests were not made by the Ainu, and the artistically elaborate mask traditions of Northwest Coast and Eskimo societies were not traditionally known among the Ainu, who never wore masks or produced animal carvings of any kind until contemporary times. Similarly, the potlatch—a grand-scale social ceremony held by most Northwest Coast cultures which, like totem poles, has become a signature social emblem of these groups—had no parallel in Ainu culture (although the iyomante had a similar central role in ceremonial life). A host of other dissimilar material culture characteristics could be listed: Northwest Coast hierarchical social structure and warfare, representation of spirits and ancestors, woven blankets, horn spoons, fish-hook types, and Ainu use of prayer sticks ( ikupasuy ). Nonetheless, parallels for many traits characteristic of North Pacific cultures can be found in the Ainu region. These links, noted previously, exist not only between Ainu and Northwest Coast Indians but also between Ainu and Eskimo, Aleut, and Alutiiq peoples who are geographically closer to the Ainu.

Such historical comparisons must be treated with caution, considering the distance and different cultural contexts. Geographic and ecological similarities make it likely that cultural patterns linked to subsistence and adaptation to natural resources could have

arisen due to convergence and independent invention. When one considers, however, the obvious relationship between the art of the Ainu and the Amur peoples and the more distant and generalized similarities between Ainu culture and prehistoric art of the Bering Sea and Northwest Coast (Fitzhugh 1988,1993), basketry and harpoon technology, and similar spiritual beliefs and ritual forms (including bear and first-salmon ceremonies), there is need to wonder if deeper historic structure and meaning are involved. New research is likely to show whether similarities in basketry techniques and sewing kits arose from recent European-assisted contacts in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Given that the strongest northern relationships are found in the pre-Ainu Okhotsk culture and that northern maritime traditions are also found in the Jomon period, further research is likely to strengthen the evidence for these

affinities in Ainu culture. It is also clear that development of these ideas needs to be undertaken incrementally through study of the intervening coastal cultures and peoples of northeastern Asia and the Bering Sea rather than by direct comparisons with the Northwest Coast.

Of more immediate impact today is the new relationship that has emerged in recent decades as Ainu and Northwest Coast people began to explore each other's cultures and modern histories. These contacts are enabling cultural leaders, students, and other members of these groups to discover common interests in culture, dance, art, language, and music and to share their different experiences of political and social history. Both sides have benefited from these contacts, and it seems likely that the Ainu-Northwest Coast connection will continue to create a lively new trans-Pacific axis of native communication.

15/AINU AND THE NORTHWEST COAST

123

16 /The European Image of the Ainu as Reflected in Museum Collections

Josef Kreiner

< Mautaroke, Grand Chieftain of Uraashibetsu

1843 copy by Teiki Kojima after Hakyo Kakizaki's work, Portraits of Ezo Chieftains. (Y. and M. Kitao Collection)

16 . 1 , 16.2 Early European Views Early European exploration voyages to the North Pacific produced some of the first images of the Ainu to be seen by Europeans. Adam Johann von Krusenstern's visit to Sakhalin in 1805 and William Robert Broughton's in 1796 to Volcano Bay and the Kuriles produced illustrations (below and above, respectively) imbued with the contemporary European concept of the noble sauvage. These images, which frequently contain spurious ethnographic detail—for instance, the clothing and recurved bow—offer interesting comparisons with Ainu-e painted by Japanese artists of this same period, (courtesy of J. Kreiner)

E uropeans had learned about the Ainu at a very early stage of PortugueseJapanese contacts. Yajiro, or Paul of the Faith, the translator for Francisco Javier (1506-52)—later and better known as St. Francis Xavier—had reported the news of a white people with long beards and bobbed hair, large in build, who were fearless fighters like the Germans. About fifty years after this first account, Father Louis Frois (1532-92) wrote a letter from Kyoto, dated March 1, 1565, that provided many more details (Bickmore 1 868: 366). Fdis is one of the earliest European descriptions of such characteristic elements of Ainu culture as prayer sticks (which he misinterprets, beginning a long tradition, as moustache lifters), forehead-supported burden straps, and the swords and breastplates made of metal.

His mention of the hairiness of this people may have stimulated European imagination because of the widespread medieval European belief in "wild men," half-human and halffairies, who lived in the woods and were represented in performances and works of art.

Frois's reference to the Ainu was included in several editions of letters from Jesuit missionaries and was widely used by contemporary European scholars like Bernhardus Varenius in his Descriptio Recjni Iaponiae (1649). There were also firsthand descriptions like that of Ignacio Morera da Virigue, who met with an Ainu at Hideyoshi's court in Osaka in 1591, the missionaries Girolamo de Angelis and Diego Carvalho, who stayed in Hokkaido in 1618, 1620, and 1621,- and the Dutch captain Maarten Gerritz de Vries, who explored the

16.1

16.2

East Asian coasts in 1643. But even while these reports contained great detail, the Ainu did not stir the European imagination as did the Japanese during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The latter were the model par excellence of an enlightened, innovative people, who were peaceful but fearless in the martial arts.

Suddenly, at the height of the Enlightenment, this positive picture of Japan changed to an entirely negative one: Japan was included among the backward, noninventive, despotic "Asiatic" cultures, of no interest whatsoever to European thinking. At the same time, Japan's role as a model for Europe was replaced by two other native cultures of the Japanese island chain, namely the Ryukyuan and the Ainu. The latter were "rediscovered" at the turn of the nineteenth century by the great explorers of the North Pacific, Jean Francois de Galaup, Comte de la Perouse (1787, in Sakhalin), Adam Johann von Krusenstern (1805, in Sakhalin,- fig.

16.1) , and William Robert Broughton (179697, in Volcano Bay and the Kuriles,- fig.

16.2) . All three, influenced by the idea of the noble sauvage as redefined by Rousseau and disappointed by the current social unrest in Europe, were looking for other social models and gathered collections from the societies they encountered.

The new image of the Ainu conveyed to Europe by these men was that of a people living in eternal peace and harmony ("no loud talking, no immoderate laughter, and still less any disputing," observed Krusenstern), who were very honest and hospitable, gifted and

16.3 Philipp Franz von Siebold

Through his association with the Dutch East Indian Company in Dejima, near Nagasaki, Philipp Franz von Siebold, a medical doctor and naturalist, was one of the first Europeans to live in Japan for an extended period (1823-39). His voluminous collections and publications founded the European field of Japanology and introduced Ainu culture to the outside world, (etching by Edoardo Chiossone; courtesy of J. Kreiner)

16.4 Heinrich von Siebold

Philipp’s son Heinrich (1852-1908) followed his father’s footsteps into Japanology and Ainu studies and lived in Japan as a diplomat at the AustroHungarian legation from 1869 to 1896. His excavations at the Omori shellmound in 1877 led him to propose that the Ainu, not the Japanese, had been the original inhabitants of Japan.

(photo courtesy of Sekiguchi Tadashi, Tokyo, and J. Kreiner)

talented, cultured, and of so captivating a character that they were considered the best of all people with whom Europeans were hitherto acquainted. This image of the Ainu was widely distributed all over Europe by the newly published encyclopedias and various eagerly read descriptions of the world,accompanying engravings by European artists who had never seen the Ainu depicted them as Greeks with short clothing and reflex bows on Aegean beaches. Some fifty years later, the British admiral Paul B. Whittingham remarked upon meeting a Sakhalin Ainu that he "was a far nobler creature than the Red Indian, who I always fancied was the pride of wild men."

Philipp Franz von Siebold (fig. 16.3), the German-born scholar of things Japanese and physician to the Dutch outpost at Dejima in Nagasaki from 1823 to 1829, added another important facet to this image: he asserted that the Ainu are a people with a history going

received not only maps of the northern islands (as a foreigner, his possession of them later brought about his arrest by the Japanese and the international "Siebold incident") but also manuscripts such as Rinzo Mamiya's Totatsu kiko (Travels to Eastern Tartary, which Siebold translated in Nippon) and Ainu-language material from his friend Tokunai Mogami. Mogami escorted Siebold on his return journey to Odawara, providing him with information about the Ainu language all the while. The Ainu collection amassed by Siebold during this trip (133 items now in Leiden, Munich, Berlin, and Mannheim,- Kreiner 1996) was largely acquired from Mogami and other Japanese friends and students.

Siebold's second son, fdeinrich (fig.

16.4), stationed in Japan from 1869 to 1896 as a diplomat with the Austro-Hungarian legation, tried to complete his father's studies. He discovered and excavated a shell mound

16.3

16.4

16.5

16.5 Erwin Baelz

Scholars like Albert L. Bickmore and Bernhard J. Davis began discussing Aryan theories of Ainu origin in the 1860s, but the fullest explication of this idea came in 1900 from Erwin Baelz, professor of medicine at the Imperial University of Tokyo, who believed the Ainu were the last remnant of a Caucasoid race that once occupied all of northern Asia, (courtesy of J. Kreiner)

back thousands of years on the Eurasian continent and that their culture represented a very old stage of human civilization In the course of his studies of the history, culture, society, physical environment, and economy of Japan and its neighboring countries, he collected a vast amount of material that he later used to compile his famous multivolume series, Nippon (fig. 16.6), which for twenty years (1832-52) he self-published after he settled in Leiden. Siebold's interest in the Ainu began in early 1826 when he took part at the audience of the Dutch chief-merchant in Edo,there he met some famous members of the expeditions to Japan's northern frontiers, sent out by the shogunate around the turn of the nineteenth century. From these explorers he

in Omori in 1877, simultaneous with his morefamous competitor, Edward S. Morse,- however, contrary to Morse's theory, he believed the prehistoric remains to be Ainu settlements. He postulated that the Ainu were the original inhabitants of Japan, thereby starting a heated discussion not resolved even today. In 1878 both Morse and Siebold continued their research, and both did fieldwork among the Ainu of Hidaka in Hokkaido. Heinrich Siebold's new collection, some 177 catalogue entries, was donated in 1888 (together with a large Japanese collection) to the Austrian Emperor. It includes a hoxchiri —a beaded amulet worn on the forehead by boys in Sakhalin (see fig. 31.3)—an object so rare that only one other such piece is known to exist,- it

is in the collection of the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne.

Heinrich von Siebold—as well as nearly all of his contemporaries—insisted that the Ainu were an openhearted, communicative, generous, honest, and happy people in contrast to their Japanese rulers, who were harshly criticized for their suppression of the Ainu. The German ethnographer Wilhelm joest, who was in Hokkaido from 1880 to 1881, went so far as to compare an Ainu to Saint Peter or Sarastro in Mozart's Magic Flute, and he condemned the "tyrannical" Japanese for teaching the Ainu to lie and deceive.

It is not clear who first theorized about a possible Caucasian, European, or protoEuropean origin of the Ainu, but one of the earliest proponents was Bernhard J. Davis in 1870. He examined Ainu skeletons and expressed the view that Ainu skulls do not differ much from those of Europeans,- he also

16.6 Bear Ceremony This lithograph was published in von Siebold’s multivolume 1832 series, Nippon, and introduced Ainu ceremonial life to Europe. The painting was probably done by Shunri Chishima between 1790 and 1820. The bear ceremony with its exotic form of dress, use of swords, inaw, ikupasuy, and other unusual materials, and its dance, praying, and sake drinking— all performed before the venerated remains of a dead and “dressed-up” bear—fascinated Europeans. (Dubreuil Collection)

found that the weights of Ainu brains he studied were far greater than those of all other Asian races. Two years before Davis's work, Albert L. Bickmore noted that the Ainu "call to mind the bearded peasants in Russia of . . . the Aryan family . . . they must be regarded as a branch of our Aryan family" (Bickmore 1868: 360). Other researchers reached similar conclusions when they compared certain traits of Ainu culture with European ones: after visits to the Ainu of Tsuishikari and the Saru valley in 1881, David Brauns (1883) noted that Ainu songs reminded him of Norwegian folksongs. Joest (1882) was impressed by the fact that the Ainu used knives in the same way as Europeans—that is, they cut with strokes away from the body— and that Ainu men (unlike Japanese) folded

their clothes left over right like Europeans.

The hypothesis of a Caucasian origin for the Ainu fascinated physical anthropologists. Naval officers, diplomats, and travelers from various European countries disturbed Ainu graves to procure skulls for measurements, thereby creating diplomatic incidents,nevertheless, in 1880 the famous German anatomist Rudolf Virchow issued an appeal to his compatriots in Japan not to lag behind in the procurement of such important scholarly materials.

The ultimate statement of this school of thinking was left to the venerated Erwin Baelz (fig. 16.5), professor of medicine at Imperial University in Tokyo, who wrote in 1900 that the Ainu are the last remnant of a Caucasian race that had once occupied the whole of northern Asia. At last Europe, at the height of its domination of the world, had found a people of common origin living in eternal peace with themselves and nature, thereby serving as an important model for Europeans. Ainu culture was thought to resemble distant common ancestors of Europeans. This, of course, meant a very intimate, emotional view of the Ainu on the one hand and a harsher critique of what was seen as suppression of "our white relatives" by the "yellow peril" of Japanese imperialism on the other. The latter point was only slightly mitigated by the notion that the Ainu were also the first inhabitants of the Japanese islands and were thereby involved with the development of Japanese language, culture, and the Japanese people themselves. Baelz's student, Yoshikiyo Koganei—Ogai Mori's son-in-law and founder of Japanese physical anthropology—formulated the idea that "the Japanese empire once was the empire of the Ainu" (Koganei 1893).

For the historical evolutionist school within ethnology, especially the so-called Vienna school, this assumption that the Ainu culture represented an extremely old stage of human development meant that studying the present-day Ainu religion, for instance, would enable one to interpret paleolithic findings in Middle European caves, as was done by Wilhelm Koppers (1938) and George Montandon (1937). This initiated a new wave of collecting Ainu material (figs. 16.7, 16.8).

Fifty-eight museums in seventeen European countries—excluding Russia— hold about 6,773 items of Ainu culture. Of these, 5,706 items (84 percent) have been

Table 1 . European Ainu collections by country

Number of

Size of Ainu collections

museums by country

Recorded

count

Percentage of total European collection

Verified

count

Germany

24

3,486

5 1.46%

2,952

United Kingdom

8

864

12.75%

619

Italy

1

498

7.35%

498

Sweden

2

426

6.28%

426

Hungary

2

327

4.82%

169

Austria

3

243

3.58%

211

Switzerland

4

241

3.55%

208

Denmark

3

240

3.54%

238

France

2

195

2.87%

155

Netherlands

2

170

2.50%

160

Norway

1

36

0.53%

32

Vatican

1

29

0.42%

26

Belgium

1

7

7

Romania

1

6

0

Spain

Czech Republic

1

I

3

1

3

1

verified by a survey conducted between 1983 and 1986 by a group of scholars at the Institute of Japanese Studies (University of Bonn) supported by grants from the German Science Foundation and Toyota Foundation in Tokyo. There are another 4,766 items in the museums of St. Petersburg (see Ogihara, this volume) plus some 800 more in the Russian Far East, in Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, and Yazhno Sakhalinsk (Kreiner 1993).

Compared with the vast number of objects held in Japanese collections— estimated at 30,000 items—this number seems small, even though it is double the number of some 3,000 objects in U S. and Canadian collections. A more thorough analysis of European collections, however, reveals some special characteristics of these holdings that make them extremely valuable in reconstructing the wider panoply of Ainu culture. First, the majority of the European collections were assembled at a very early stage of contact between Ainu, Japanese, and Western cultures. The oldest collections, assembled during the first half of the eighteenth centuiy and once part of Czar Peter the Great's Kunstkammer, are now at the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology (MAE), St. Petersburg. The Rijksmuseum foor Volkenkunde at Leiden, the Netherlands, also holds Ainu collections from the nineteenth century, which were made by Jan Cock Blomhoff, who directed the trading facility in Dejima (Nagasaki) from 1817 to

1823 (thirty-seven entries), and by Phillip Franz von Siebold, who served as the physician in Dejima from 1823 to 1829 (eightyone entries). Both collectors received items for their collections from Japanese friends like Tokunai Mogami (fig. 16.9) and from various members of the expeditions sent out by the Tokugawa Shogunate to explore the northern frontier at the turn of the nineteenth century. Most European Ainu collections were assembled during the second half of the nineteenth centuiy, some—like that of the Prussian diplomat Max von Brandt (fifty-two entries at the Museum fur Volkerkunde,

Berlin, and others at Liibeck and the Museum of Mankind, London)—were formed even before the Meiji Restoration. In contrast, most Japanese Ainu collections were not assembled until the 1930s.

Another major difference is that many of the Japanese holdings—because the collections were assembled relatively late— were bought through dealers and from curio shops, whereas their European counterparts were to a greater degree gathered by scholars of ethnology and anthropology (4 1.6 percent versus 12.2 percent of material purchased from dealers). Among the more well-known scholars who gathered Ainu items are: Erwin Baelz, German professor of medicine at Imperial University of Tokyo (eighty-four entries at Linden Museum, Stuttgart,- ten entries in Berlin), and his colleague Hans Gierke (sixty-five entries in Berlin),- the

16.7 Ainu Exhibitions Begin Curiosity about the Ainu in Japan and Europe grew into a program of collecting that resulted in exhibitions at the Satsuma-yashiki in Tokyo in December 1872 and at the Vienna World's Fair in 1873. This photograph shows a Hokkaido display in Tokyo from a photograph in The Far East, An Illustrated Fortnightly Newspaper, 4 January 1873. (courtesy of Prof. P. Pantzer, Bonn, and J. Kreiner)

16.7

from all over the world. In 1889 his widow opened Umlauff's Weltmuseum, which later provided Fritz Lang and other filmmakers with exotic outfittings.

In 1906-07 Umlauff bought a collection in two parts comprising nearly seven hundred Ainu items (two-thirds from Sakhalin),- individual pieces were well documented in the firm's stock book. The Ainu name for each object is noted, resulting in the curious entry fushiko-ampe (item of no value) for a broken stick! One theory to explain these Ainu-language notations is that the Norwegian captain Adrian Jacobsen— who worked for Umlauff's brother-in-law Hagenbeck and once toured the East Asian island chain from Sakhalin to Indonesia (acquiring an Ainu collection of 172 entries for Berlin in 1884-85)—had researched Umlauff's collection at the Ainu villages he visited. One of the first museums to buy

16.8

ethnographer Wilhelm Joest of Cologne, who did research work in FJokkaido in 1880-81 (155 entries divided in Berlin, Dresden, Copenhagen, Cologne, Leiden, and Munich),and the famous linguist Basil Hall Chamberlain (123 entries given to the Pitt-Rivers Museum at Oxford in 1892). Last but not least, the Hungarian Benedict Balogh von Barathos, searching for the roots of his people, toured northeastern Siberia, Bering Strait, and Alaska, and was in Sakhalin and Hokkaido in 1913-14. Unfortunately he was there at the outbreak of World War I, and his collection of 82 1 entries was confiscated by the Japanese government. When it was returned in the early 1920s, Hungary sold a large part of it (223 entries) to the Museum of Ethnology at Hamburg, including such unique items as a coat of mail, only three examples of which exist (in the collections of the Tokyo National Museum, Tohoku Univer

16.8 Ainu Dwelling Display During the latter part of the nineteenth century museums developed new methods for cultural presentation, and the unorganized display of “curiosities" gave way to life-groups with cultural and psychological context. This life-group from a postcard (ca. 1925) was constructed in the Roemer Museum, Hildesheim, Germany; displaying a moment in the domestic life of a Sakhalin Ainu husband and wife was intended to make Ainu culture seem less exotic and more understandable to European viewers, (courtesy of J. Kreiner)

sity in Sendai, and in Hamburg). Because most such items were gathered by researchers themselves, at the very least the villages where the items were bought or exchanged are known, this is also true for pieces collected by travelers (22.7 percent of the total) like the well-known Isabella Bird, who toured Hokkaido on horseback in 1878 and collected five pieces now in the Royal Scottish Museum.

One of the biggest collections of Ainu artifacts was formerly owned by Llmlauff's "world-museum” in Hamburg. Johann Friedrich Gustav Umlauff had been a ship's carpenter, and when he married the sister of Carl Hagenbeck (later famous as an animal hunter, zoo director, and circus manager), he settled down and opened a curio shop in Hamburg in 1868, which grew into a well-known trading firm specializing in ethnographica collected

from Umlauff's stock was the RautenstrauchJoest-Museum in Cologne (210 Ainu catalogue entries in 1907), and they were thus able to acquire the most valuable items (Kreiner and Olschleger 1987). Other museums all over the continent followed, including institutions in Stockholm, Leipzig, Hildesheim (lost in World War II), Copenhagen, St. Gallen, Frankfurt am Main, Freiburg, London, Bucharest, Dresden,- the last collection, acquired by Hamburg, was bombed in 1944.

Diplomats, naval officers, and missionaries account for only a few collections (about 4 percent). Missionary collections of Ainu items can be found at the Museo Missionario Etnologico at the Vatican (assembled by R Kinold, eighteen entries in 1928), and also at the Horniman Museum, London (from the

16.9 Tokunai Mogami Philipp Franz and Heinrich von Siebold both obtained Ainu collections from Japanese friends, including Tokunai Mogami who was a member of various northern expeditions sent out by the Tokugawa Shogunate to explore the northern frontiers, ca. 1800. (courtesy of J. Kreiner)

Church Missionary Society, fourteen entries in 1952) and the Pitt-Rivers in Oxford (gathered by P. Rousseau, in Muroran, eighty-four entries in 1900).

While there are thousands of items from the Hokkaido Ainu in Japanese collections, there are astonishingly few from Sakhalin (mostly in Hakodate, Asahikawa, and the National Museum of Ethnology) and even fewer from the Kuriles (primarily in Hakodate and at the Tokyo National Museum). European holdings, on the other hand, are divided in equal parts between Hokkaido and Sakhalin,Russian collections naturally center on the latter and include a great number of items from the Kurile Islands. Kurile artifacts are nearly nonexistent in Western European collections, although there are some small plaited baskets in Siebold's collection at Leiden, and also in Berlin and the Musee de l'Homme, Paris.

Another interesting characteristic of

European Ainu holdings is that they primarily center on weapons, hunting and fishing gear, baskets for food-gathering, and objects of religion and cult—like prayer sticks ( ikupasuy ) of which about four hundred are found in the marvelous collection of the doyen of European Ainu studies, Fosco Maraini, at the Museo Nationale di Antropologia e Etnologia in Florence (Maraini 1942,- and this volume). Japanese collections have a greater emphasis on clothing and usually include at least a few items

connected with agricultural activities, which are entirely missing from European museums.

Finally, a map (fig. 16.10) showing the distribution of Ainu collections in Europe (again excluding Russia) reveals an interesting pattern: 5 1.5 percent (i.e., 3,486 entries) of the holdings in Western Europe are to be found in German museums. Collections in Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, bring the total amount to 4,467 entries (66 percent). This pattern-—a number of well-documented collections brought together by researchers at a comparatively early time, the focus on objects that show the Ainu as hunters and gatherers, the prominence of material from Sakhalin, and collections concentrated in the German-speaking areas of Middle Europe—seems to need further explanation.

The great attention the Ainu attracted in Europe resulted in the political use” (and misuse) of Ainu ethnographic materials. In 1872 the Japanese government had commissioned the Austrian photographer Raimund von Stillfried to procure Ainu photos for the Viennese World Exhibition of 1873. In 1910 a joint Japanese-British exhibition, which celebrated the successful entente between the two great empires, was held in Shepherd’s Bush/Hyde Park in London. From May 14 to October 29 more than six million visitors saw what the Times (4 April 1910) described as "no exaggeration to say that nothing like the Japanese collections . . . will ever have been seen before . . . [in] any country." Not to be outdone by the British Empire, Japan was eager to present its "aborigines" and brought to London not only a group of Taiwanese but also five men, four women, and a child from the Ainu village of Nibutani to be shown side-byside with the cannons of Port Arthur. Perhaps it was reasoned that by presenting the Ainu— then assumed to be a Caucasian people at the roots of Japanese culture—the victory of an Asian nation over a European empire (Russia) might be more palatable to Europeans.

The Ainu were a major attraction and were reported upon in every English newspaper. One Japanese writer, Toshihiko Nishimura from the Asabi newspaper, expressed his annoyance at the display of the Ainu in his O-bei yuranki (Notes from a sojourn through Europe and America, Osaka 1910): "I am convinced that Westerners will surely not like the Japanese because placing them [the Ainu] in small huts where Western

16.10 Ainu

Objects in European Museum Collections (after Kreiner 1993)

ers look at them like creatures in a zoo reveals our lack of humanity!"

The unfortunate Ainu presented in London left 234 objects behind when they returned to Japan,- some of the items had been brought from the Saru valley, but others were handcrafted in London while they were "on show." This collection of items is currently dispersed between five museums in the U.K.: Museum of Mankind (seventy-six pieces), Liverpool (sixty-six pieces), Pitt-Rivers (fortynine pieces), Horniman (thirty-five pieces), and Cambridge University (eight pieces).

In the 1930s the Third Reich tried to justify their alliance with Japan by arguing that the Japanese should be treated as equals with the German "Aryans" because of their descendence from Nordic Aryans, that is, the Ainu (Friese 1984: 270ff.). This argument was rejected because the ancient Ainu had nothing in common with later Europeans, but this discussion caused a boom in literature— both scholarly and popular—on the Ainu between 1930 and 1940. Included among these articles and novels was a work of fiction published in Leipzig in 1921 under the pseudonym Otfried von Hanstein. Widely read before the war, the novel presents the

Ainu as tme and trustworthy friends of a German adventurer hunting Russian spies in Hokkaido, endangered by typhoons, tsunamis, volcanos, bears, and the Japanese police. Much of this kind of thinking about the Ainu continues today: schoolbooks reiterate the hypothesis, long abandoned by the sciences, that the Ainu are a white European or Caucasian people of extremely ancient origins, and the stereotype of the "wild men" can still be found in crossword puzzles across Europe.

When in 1980 the University of Bonn invited specialists from libraries, archives, and museums from several Middle European countries to discuss the meaning of their collections for Japanese studies (Kreiner 1981), it quickly became evident that for a variety of reasons museums especially were unable to give a detailed description of their holdings. A vast amount of art and crafts as well as ethnographical material had been acquired at the turn of the last century when Japan resumed contact with the rest of the world at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, but there was neither enough staff nor was its training advanced enough to arrange and classify it. After World War I, accession stopped nearly completely, and the staffs of museums were also depleted. During World War II many important collections were destroyed, such as the important Ainu collection of Bronislaw Pilsudski in Warsaw (although his contributions to St. Petersburg did survive), or were dispersed. By the time of the conference, the participating institutions were ready to start work on a comprehensive catalogue that would document various aspects of their Japanese collections.

Different focuses for a pilot project were discussed, but a consensus was soon reached to start with a study of Ainu collections. From the outset one question the project attempted to address was why our colleagues placed such great significance on this part of their treasures. We soon discovered that not only had the material remnants of the Ainu in our museums played an immense role in the history of sciences— anthropology, ethnology, and Japanese studies—as well as in the European history of thought, but even more so the study of the Ainu people had played an important role in Europeans' own self-assessment—and this to a much greater degree than the study of other peoples and cultures (Kreiner 1993).

The St.

Petersburg

Ainu

Collections

Shinko Ogihara

F or many years anthropologists and museum specialists have known about the existence of a number of Ainu collections in the museums of Europe, and recently the presence of Ainu materials in North American museums has also been recognized (see Kotani, this volume). Until now, however, scholars and Ainu people themselves, who have begun taking an active interest in their cultural heritage, have been unaware of a third major source of historical materials that has existed for almost one hundred years in the museums of western Russia. The late recognition of these Ainu collections is consistent with the history of Soviet relations with foreign researchers, who were generally denied the chance to conduct ethnographic surveys among the native peoples in Soviet territories.

It is regrettable that after World War II the political situation between Japan and Russia caused several generations of Japanese researchers who might have pursued Ainu and Siberian studies to choose other areas of scholarship. Nevertheless, a number of Japanese specialists continued Siberian studies by following the contributions of Soviet

Siberianists even though they themselves were unable to conduct field research in the former Japanese territories of Sakhalin and the Kuriles or in other areas of the Russian Far East and Chukotka. Using the extensive documentation available in expedition literature and ethnographic collections made when these areas were accessible to both Japanese and Russian researchers (Taksami 1969), Japanese scholars continued to conduct important research on Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands and their peoples, including the Ainu. The collections, records, and publications of these expeditions are among the most comprehensive studies in existence on the Ainu people, even including studies of the Ainu of Hokkaido, who have been accessible to western scientists and museum collectors for 150 years.

Sergei Arutiunov (this volume) has discussed published studies by many early Russian scientists, revealing which aspects of Ainu culture interested scholars during the past century. Here we examine the St. Petersburg Ainu collections themselves to discover what they reveal about the Ainu who lived in the northern regions of their territory,

Table caption

Table l. Ainu collections at the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, St. Petersburg

Accession

number

Accession

year

Collection

date

Collector

Place of collection

820

pre-1747

Kunstkammer

Kurile Islands

4685

1894-95

1806-07

G. 1 Davydov

Sakhalin Island

810

1826

18th c.

Admiralty

Kurile Islands

809

1840*

1844

1 G. Voznesenskii

Kurile Islands

178

1888

1853-57

L. I. Shrenk

Amur

733

1854-55

R. K. Maak

Sakhalin Island

209

1891

P. I. Suprunenko

Sakhalin Island

345

1897

1879-80

A. V. Grigor'ev

Ezo Island (Hokkaido)

811

1879

1879

A. V. Grigor'ev

Ezo Island (Hokkaido)

138

1882

1880-82

P. S. Poljakov

Sakhalin Island

1052

1880

1880

P. S. Poljakov

South Sakhalin

202

1890

P. 1 . Suprunenko

Sakhalin Island

615

1868

Russian Geographical Society

Sakhalin Island

629

1891

Russian Geographical Society

Northeast Asia

482

1899

K. N. Pos'et

Sakhalin, Aleutian Islands

656

1902

L. Shternberg

Sakhalin Island, Primore

837

1904

1902-04

B. Pilsudski

Sakhalin Island

700

1903

1902-03

B. Pilsudski

Sakhalin Island

3125

1903-05

1903-05

B. Pilsudski

Sakhalin Island

839

1904

1903

B. Pilsudski,- Shiroszewski

Ezo Island (Hokkaido)

829

1906(2)

1902-05

B. Pilsudski

Sakhalin Island

1039

1906

1902-05

B. Pilsudski

South Sakhalin

2803

1914

1902-05

B. Pilsudski

Sakhalin Island

4974

1947

1947

M. G. Levin, I. P. Lavrov

Sakhalin Island

Table caption

4375 **

Table caption

* date uncertain

Table caption

** no data listed in MAE register

1 .r

' w, :

tfT \,,AT ' . A ■

A

ITT 7 ■ V ji

A'! 7. , ;};i . 1 i

fehoT w

17.1 Kurile Robe

This robe of woven elm bark (attush) from the Kuriles was accessioned by the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology in 1826. Its original date of collection is not known, but it is from one of the earliest Ainu collections, thought to have been formed as early as 1700. Place of collection is unknown, but because elm does not grow in the northern Kuriles, it probably came from the southern Kuriles where attush could be obtained from Hokkaido. (MAE 810-4)

the Kurile Islands and southern Sakhalin. This collection inventory was conducted in 1995 and 1996 by Japanese and Russian scientists organized by the author and Chuner Mikhailovich Taksami, Director of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (MAE) in St. Petersburg, with support from the Japanese Government Cultural Agency (Monbusho). Our team consisted of ethnologists and curators from the Siberian Division of the MAE and Japanese specialists from various museums in Hokkaido and Tokyo.

The MAE was established by Peter the Great at the beginning of the eighteenth century as a Kunstkammer (art cabinet), a name that is still used to refer to the oldest part of the museum. Peter had a great interest in natural science and took a strong interest in the development of the museum's early collections, which include such wonders as the syphilitic bones of his seven-foot-tall personal valet, a two-headed calf, and other "natural" curiosities including minerals and ethnological collections from Russian America. Over the centuries the MAE has accumulated enormous collections of ethno

graphic, archaeological, and physical anthropological specimens from all over the world, among them Ainu materials that have never before been accessible to Japanese Ainu scholars.

The Ainu collections of the MAE, which are now stored in the attic of the Russian Academy of Sciences building next door to the museum, were found to be in such excellent condition that it was hard to believe that so many years had passed since they were collected. According to MAE records, the museum possesses twenty-five separate Ainu collections that include 879 listings and 1,890 individual pieces (Table 1). Of these, our research group succeeded in documenting 1,400 specimens from all twenty-five collections. (Discrepancies in these numbers can be attributed to materials transferred in exchanges with other ethnological museums, and some materials proved to be inaccessible. We also decided not to include archaeological materials [accession no. 4974] in our survey.) Our method was to photograph and sketch everything and gather original catalogue data as well as record our own observations about the material. Our preliminary results suggest that the MAE collections contain a vast treasure trove of Ainu research material previously unknown to western and Asian scholars.

An Ainu Inheritance from the Eighteenth to Twentieth Centuries

According to the MAE register, the oldest Ainu collection (accession no. 810) was brought from the Kurile Islands by the Admiralty Department in 1826 (fig. 17.1). Because the accession date indicates the year when these objects were transferred to MAE, the date on which they were collected must be earlier. The earliest MAE Ainu collection is thought to date from around 1700 but is recorded in the register as being from Kunstkammer (accession no. 820) without a year recorded,- this collection may have been saved from a fire in 1747 that burned down the Kunstkammer after it had been in existence for twenty years. The most recent addition to the Ainu collection was obtained by an Amur-Sakhalin expedition in 1947. Thus, the accession numbers and dates indicate that Ainu materials have been gathered by the MAE over nearly two-and-ahalf centuries. A list of collections arranged by the year in which they seem to have been

17.2 Kurile Boat Model In 1839 Ilya Vosnesenski visited and gathered collections from Alaska and the Northwest Coast, and in 1844 he visited northern Chishima (northern Kuriles), where he obtained twenty-two objects, including bows, arrows, quivers, three boat models, two baskets, a grass bag, and a Japanese lacquered cup. One of the boat models, seen here, has a mast and six pairs of oars and is a seagoing vessel similar to North Chishima boats documented in written sources. (MAE 809-10)

obtained in the field shows a burst of activity in the decades around the turn of the twentieth century (Table 1). The lengthy gaps between 1855 and 1880 mark a dearth of ethnological collecting between the early exploration era and the beginnings of scientific anthropology,- by contrast, the long gap between 1905 and 1947 can be attributed to political events that were not conducive to ethnological study in Sakhalin, including the disastrous outcome (for Russia) of the RussoJapanese war in 1905, the Bolshevik Revolution and ensuing military confrontations in the Amur region, and World War II. Unlike most of the Ainu materials held in Japanese museums, which generally lack documentation on the date and place of collection, that information is available on the MAE collections, which renders them particularly significant for reconstructing the cultural history of the Ainu.

is testament to the unique people that was exterminated by this policy. The register indicates that three collections came from the Kurile Islands, but further place-names are lacking. In Japanese, the Kurile Islands are called Chishima, meaning the "thousand islands" because so many small land masses comprise the chain that stretches from Hokkaido to Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. Geographically, they are usually distinguished as South, Middle, or North Chishima, a partition that implies different ecological environments, different local cultures, and different historical backgrounds. For this reason it is important to identify the islands from which particular materials originated so that they can be attributed to a specific local Ainu group, but that information is unfortunately lacking from the MAE records.

Accession no. 820 contains thirteen

-.

.

aSiay-.-..

17.2

17.3 Coiled-Grass Basket Vosnesenski also obtained several decorated coiled-grass baskets ( tenki) with lids in 1844. These baskets are almost identical to baskets made by Koryaks and southwest Alaskan Yup'ik Eskimos in the late nineteenth century and may indicate contact or exchange between these regions. (MAE 810-13)

17.3

Kurile Islands Collections

MAE Ainu collections originate from all three areas where Ainu used to live: the Kurile Islands, Sakhalin Island, and Hokkaido (known in early historical accounts as Ezo). Because Kurile Ainu materials are scarce in any museum collections, the MAE collections (no. 809, 8 10, and 820) are extremely rare and important. The three early collections from the Kurile Islands were accessioned by the museum between 1747 and 1840, early dates that render them especially valuable. Beginning in 1 875 and again in 1884 the Kurile Ainu were forced by the Japanese government to emigrate south, to Shikotan Island, a displacement that led to the disappearance of an entire ethnic group and its culture, but the presence of these collections

items: sword sheaths, a dagger sheath, knife sheaths, garments, bags, a mg, and a box. The two garments are made of Japanese indigodyed cotton, and one has embroidered ornamentation: according to ethnographic data about the Kurile Ainu, this type of garment was worn on South Chishima, where other material of apparent Japanese origin is also found. Similarly, a garment in accession no. 810 —a typical Ainu kimono (fig. 17.1) of woven elm (bast fiber)—implies a South Chishima origin, because elm does not grow in the Kuriles and so the fiber or garment must have been obtained by trade from Hokkaido. The other objects include a smoking pipe, a wooden pipe, and a leather quiver. Unfortunately, the place of origin of these materials is more difficult to identify accurately.

Accession no. 809 contains bows, arrows, quivers, three boat models (including two ocean-going varieties,- fig. 17.2), two baskets, a grass bag, and a fine Japanese lacquer cup with gold-foil ornamentation. One of the boat models has a mast, sail ropes, and six pairs of oars, while the other is a five-oar boat. These boats are of particular interest because they are similar to the boats known to have been used in North Chishima (northern Kuriles), which suggests that they derive from this location. This conclusion is supported by the presence of coiled-grass baskets,- this basket-making technique was common to such North Pacific peoples as the Koryaks, Aleuts, and Yup'ik Eskimos of the Bering Sea. In addition to Russian colonists, the North Chishima islands are known to have been populated by Aleuts, Kamchadals, and others with whom the Ainu had trade relations. Another decisive

17.4 Sakhalin Hospitality Polish scholar Bronislaw Pilsudski studied the Sakhalin Ainu 1902-05 and made extensive collections for the MAE. After returning home he became financially destitute and sold sets of photographs to various Western museums. This shot documents a sake-drinking ceremony in which the host is passing a cup ( tuki ) with a prayer stick (ikupasuy) across its top to a European, possibly Pilsudski or his colleague, W. Shiroszewski. (NAA 93-12687)

piece of evidence indicating a North Chishima origin of these materials (fig. 17.3) is the documented route of the MAE Russian collector, I. G. Voznesenskii, who had traveled by boat along the Middle and North Chishima coast in 1844 (Alekseev 1977: 69-70) and visited other North Pacific locations in the Aleutians and Russian America beginning in 1839.

Collections from Sakhalin and Hokkaido

Materials from the Sakhalin Ainu dominate the MAE Ainu collections. Six of the sixteen collections with Sakhalin artifacts were gathered by Bronislaw Pilsudski, including accessions no. 700, 829, 1039, 2803, and 3125 from Sakhalin and no. 839, which was obtained from Hokkaido in 1903 when Pilsudski worked with W. Shiroszewski. Because of Pilsudski's profound perceptions about the Ainu and other native groups, the collections that he gathered reflect the entire life and culture of the Sakhalin Ainu (fig.

17.4). They not only cover every aspect of daily life but also contain material from different villages throughout the island. In general, these collections are ethnographically outstanding for this thoroughness and because his knowledge of Ainu culture is everywhere evident in the collection documentation. Moreover, Pilsudski made an effort to obtain the Ainu-language names of each object in addition to his ethnological descriptions of the artifacts,- many of these are found in the register of the MAE, quite often written on the objects themselves. These linguistic data are precious for the study of Sakhalin Ainu language, which has been extinct for many years, for they are the only means for determining how one Ainu dialect relates to an other. Bronislaw Pilsudski's detailed contributions to Sakhalin Ainu ethnography allow scholars to reconstruct this culture in almost all of its basic elements, and his collections, preserved in the MAE, will be of great value to future scholars and Ainu people.

The MAE also has an important collection of Hokkaido Ainu material (no. 839) whose dates and places of collection are known. Recently, our research group continued its work in the Ainu collections of the Russian Ethnographic Museum, also in St. Petersburg. This museum has a large number of Ainu collections gathered in 1912 from several places in Hokkaido, and research now underway will greatly enrich the knowledge gained from the MAE collections about the Hokkaido Ainu at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Ainu Collections in North America:

Documentation Projects and the Frederick Starr Collections

Yoshinobu Kotani

O VER THE PAST FIFTEEN YEARS museum and archival surveys have resulted in a comprehensive inventory of Ainu cultural materials including objects, photograph collections, and archival resources in European and North American museums. The first of these surveys was organized by Josef Kreiner of the University of Bonn, Germany. Kreiner's survey, conducted with the assistance of European colleagues and Toshikazu Sasaki of Tokyo National Museum, revealed about 5,700 Ainu objects—a surprisingly large number—in western European museums (Kreiner 1993). Concurrently, from 1983 to 1985, a joint Polish-Japanese project had begun investigating Bronislaw Pilsudski's early twentieth-century sound recordings on the Ainu and other unpublished materials from the Sakhalin region (Kato and Kotani 1987). My own efforts to inventory American collections was modeled on the work of Josef Kreiner (see Kreiner, this volume). These surveys, conducted between 1990 and 1996, identified approximately 3,200 Ainu ethnographic specimens and associated archival holdings in natural history and art museums in the United States and Canada (Kotani 1993a, b, 1997). This project brought long-forgotten North American collections to the attention of scholars and Ainu people,- it also provided the stimulus for the current exhibition.

In 1990, based on contacts with more than one hundred museums, our North American Ainu Documentation Project team visited more than two dozen museums and several private collectors in North America to gather firsthand data on each Ainu specimen.

Because most of these museums concentrate on North American cultures, we discovered that their Ainu collections were poorly known and that American anthropologists today know little about the Ainu. Our focus was not only on ethnographic specimens: archival materials like accession papers, slides, photographs, old correspondence, and field notes were also inspected to help reconstruct the circumstances under which the object collections were made. During the course of the project, several museums with large collections were visited several times.

In March 1992 we paid a second visit to the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., where I shared with William W. Fitzhugh the purpose of the survey project and my longcherished idea for an Ainu exhibition based on materials drawn from a wide variety of Ainu collections. Several times during the next few years I invited Fitzhugh to Japan to explore for himself the possibility of such an exhibition, and we visited various museums together and met with a number of scholars. Simultaneously, the documentation team traveled to Washington, Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago to complete the inventory and held seminars and discussions about the exhibition plans.

The final stage in the epic series of inventory projects began in 1995, when Shinko Ogihara of Chiba University embarked on the task of inventorying the Russian collections with her Russian colleague, Dr. Chuner Taksami (see Ogihara, this volume). Cumulatively, efforts of all the documentation teams have brought us quite

Table 1:

Major Collectors before 1913

Year

Collector

Provenance (in Hokkaido)

Present Depository

1877-78

Morse, E. S.

Central

Peabody Essex Museum

Peabody Museum, Harvard University

1888

Hitchcock, R.

Eastern and Central, S. Kuriles

National Museum of Natural History

1888

Odium, E.

Eastern

Royal Ontario Museum

1890s

Curtis, W. W.

Central

Historical Museum of Hokkaido

1890s

Pettee, J. H.

Central

Hood Museum, Dartmouth College

1900

Dean, B.

Saru R. Valley, Volcano Bay and Iburi Coast

American Museum of Natural History

1901

Hiller, H. M.

Volcano Bay and Iburi Coast

University Museum,

University of Pennsylvania

1904

Starr, F.

Saru R. Valley and Shiraoi

Brooklyn Museum of Art

1904

Simms, S. C.

Hakodate

Field Museum of Natural History

1910

Starr, F.

Obihiro and Memuro

Brooklyn Museum of Art

1912

Starr, F.

Piratori

Brooklyn Museum of Art

1912

Culin, S.

Saru R Valley

Brooklyn Museum of Art

1912

Batchelor, J.

Saru R. Valley

Brooklyn Museum of Art

1912

Starr, F.

J. Oyabe

Volcano Bay

Logan Museum of Anthropology,

Beloit College

close to having a master inventory of Ainu material culture for the entire world.

The North American Ainu Collections

Table 1 lists some of the major North American collections of Ainu artifacts gathered before 1912 and their current repositories. Table 2 summarizes the distribution of Ainu specimens in North American museums. These tables reveal a distinct regionality in the distribution of Ainu collections in North America: namely, older Ainu collections tend to be concentrated in the East and Midwest, while those in western institutions, including Hawaii, are relatively recent and rather few in number. Furthermore, older collections (those secured before 1912) are fairly well documented in terms of location, names of collectors, date of collection, and object-level information, while the recent collections often lack basic scientific data. These regional characteristics can be attributed, in part, to various factors in the history of museums and the development of North American anthropology.

Table 2: Major Ainu Collections in North America Number of Specimens

Canada

Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Quebec 5

Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario 88

Eastern United States

Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA 140

Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 150

Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 20

Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, CT 74

Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY ca. 950

American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY ca. 430

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY 4

National Museum of the American Indian, New York, NY 9

Buffalo Museum of Science, Buffalo, NY 77

Robert J. Smith Collection, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 50

Llniversity Museum, Llniversity of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA ca. 315

National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC ca. 190

The Textile Museum, Washington, D.C. 3

Midwestern United States

Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Ml 7

Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee, WI 220

Logan Museum of Anthropology, Beloit College, Beloit, WI 68

Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, 1L ca. 215

University of Chicago Library, Chicago, 1L (archival materials)

Western United States

Burke Memorial Washington State Museum & Henry Art Gallery, 18

University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA 12

Llniversity of Oregon, Eugene, OR 39

Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Llniversity of Califiornia, Berkeley, CA 43

Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 19

Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles, CA 47

Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, HI 40

This distribution pattern reveals that the natural history museums in the eastern United States and Canada, where the seats of industry and government were originally located, are the repositories of most Ainu materials. Natural histoiy museums in the West, which were founded after 1910, arrived too late to collect Ainu specimens in Ainu villages,- by this time most specimens of historic value had been sold or collected, and the Ainu were producing artifacts for the tourist trade. Eastern institutions with Ainu collections include: the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution (founded 1846),- the American Museum of Natural History, New York (founded 1869); the Columbian Museum (now Field Museum) of Natural History, Chicago (founded 1 893),the Peabody Museum of Natural History,

Yale University, New Haven (founded 1869),and the Llniversity of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia (founded 1887). In addition, the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences (now the Brooklyn Museum of Art), New York, was actively collecting Ainu materials by the first decade of this century (Danilov 1990).

Financed by the growing wealth of industrialized eastern North America, these museums sponsored large scientific expeditions to various areas of the world to collect natural history specimens, including Ainu materials (see Fitzhugh, this volume). One good example of such a trip can be seen in the Ainu collection gathered by Hiram M. Hiller, who was sent to Borneo to acquire natural history collections,- he also traveled to Japan where he gathered Ainu specimens, which were later transferred to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Anthropology and THE AlNU-CAUCASOID HYPOTHESIS During the mid-nineteenth century, the notion of ancient Ainu-Caucasoid connections began to take root in Europe, particularly among German-speaking people. According to this hypothesis, the Ainu were a remnant of ancient Germanic peoples who once occupied continental Europe. This idea was attractive to Europeans because it posited the continuing existence of an early European hunting-and-gathering people and because of the romantic notion of a "Caucasoid' ethnic group surrounded by a sea of Mongoloids.

18.1 Smoking Kit

Together with their knives (makiri),

Ainu men carried smoking kits ( tanpakuop) consisting of a tobacco box, a pipe, and a pipe holder. The hexagonal or octangular shape of the tobacco boxes is similar to that of Japanese medicine cases (inro). Pipes, made of hardwood with stems as long as 15 inches (40 cm), were carried in pipe holders that resemble ikupasuy. Each had a hole in one end through which the pipe stem was passed, allowing the bowl to be socketted securely. Pipes were carved with curvilinear or geometric designs but never with animals, boats, or landscapes such as are found on ikupasuy. Ainu custom called for "pipe exchanges” when two men met for the first time; each shared a smoke from the other’s pipe. This pipe set was acquired in 1876 from geologist Benjamin Smith Lyman, an early U.S. advisor sent to assist with Japan’s economic development.

(NMNH E22259)

Although some racial and linguistic theories were advanced (see Arutiunov and Ishida, this volume), this hypothesis was never rigorously tested and has largely been ignored by twentieth-century anthropologists. However, an undercurrent of belief in an Ainu-Caucasoid link remains, not only in Europe but also in North America where a large number of scientists with German backgrounds and professional training in Germany have been active.

The late nineteenth century, the period in which museums had an intense interest in collecting Ainu material culture, was also the period in which anthropology and ethnology became professionalized in the United States. As was the case with natural history museums, the East Coast again played a crucial role as a developing center of university and museum anthropology. Franz Boas (1 858-1942), who is often cited as the father of American anthropology, was initially trained in geography in Germany and emigrated to the United States in the 1870s,he started his long and influential teaching career in anthropology at Columbia University in the late 1890s. Boas was a close associate of Frederick Starr and Stewart Culin, who became famous for their collecting work among the Ainu (see Poster, this volume),- the three worked closely to restructure the American Anthropological Association during the late 1890s (Hyatt 1990). Simultaneously, Boas initiated the Jesup North Pacific Expedition (1 897-1902), the largest anthropological field investigation ever undertaken to study and collect from the peoples of the North Pacific Rim. One of the Jesup studies, conducted by Berthold Laufer in 1898, was

devoted to the Sakhalin Ainu and brought about forty Sakhalin Ainu specimens to the American Museum of Natural History (Kendall 1988 and this volume).

U.S. -Japanese Relations

It is no coincidence that most of the large Ainu collections in America were assembled during the period of peaceful relations that existed between the United States and Japan throughout the Meiji Era (1868-1912). Immediately after the reopening of Japan at the onset of the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Japanese government invited American scientists and engineers to Hokkaido to conduct surveys and help with plans for agricultural and natural resource development,one of these visitors was General Horace Capron. Capron served as Secretary of Agriculture under President Ulysses S. Grant from 1869 to 1877, and for a period of that tenure—between 1871 and 1875—was a senior adviser to the Hokkaido Development Agency. Another visitor was William Smith Clark, an agricultural specialist and educator who was invited to Sapporo in 1876-77 to help found the Imperial College of Agriculture, the forerunner of today's Hokkaido University. Benjamin Smith Lyman, a geologist, lived in Hokkaido from 1872 to 1881, where he explored the region's potential mining resources and helped train Japanese geologists. Other professionals were invited to teach basic courses in science and English at Tokyo Imperial University and other institutions,among these were Edward S. Morse, Romyn Hitchcock, E. Odium, and Bashford Dean, who, in addition to other activities, traveled in Hokkaido and collected Ainu artifacts.

18.2 Beaded Necklace

This necklace ( tamasay) was collected by Alexander Agassiz from Storop Island in the Kuriles. Its small black and large blue beads create an attractive size and color contrast; the small dull beads are made of lead. Ainu artifacts from the Kuriles are quite rare because of the removal of Ainu after 1875 from most of the northern Kurile Islands due to conflicts with Russian sea-otter hunters. (PMC 51625)

Edward Sylvester Morse, a marine biologist, came to Tokyo in 1 877 and became the first to conduct scientific archaeological excavations at the Omori shell mound in Tokyo Bay. Later, he traveled widely in Japan and took Ainu and Japanese ethnographic collections hack to the Peabody Museum (now Peabody Essex Museum) in Salem, Massachusetts. Unfortunately, there are no records documenting where and how Morse assembled his Ainu collection.

In 1888 both Romyn Hitchcock (Hitchcock 1891a, b) and E. Odium traveled in the southern Kurile Islands as well as in central and eastern Hokkaido, securing more than two hundred Ainu specimens (figs. 18.1, 18.2).

Most of these objects are at the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC.,about fifty specimens are held by the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Because Hitchcock and Odium traveled together, their collections can be considered as a single one for purposes of analysis.

Bashford Dean, a professor of marine biology at Columbia University who also became a distinguished collector of armor, came to Tokyo Imperial University to collect marine samples at the Misaki Marine Laboratory south of Yokohama. In the summer of 1900 he went to Hokkaido to visit Ainu villages on the north shore of Volcano Bay, on the Iburi Coast, and in the Saru River valley. Here he secured about 250 Ainu artifacts, which he transferred, through Franz Boas, to the American Museum of Natural History. Deans "Catalogue of Aino [sic] Collection" (Dean 1901), classifies his Ainu specimens in eleven categories: costume,- jewelry and pipecases,- arms,- hunting and fishing implements,medicine,- kitchen objects—platters, bowls, spoons, mortars and pestles, and baskets,weaving apparatus and mats,- religious and ceremonial objects,- house and boat models,anatomical materials,- and photographs. He made a brief description for each item and gave the name of the village where he secured it. This list is one of the best records of any Ainu collection in North America, and in my opinion, it clearly reflects the high standards adhered to by collectors who had received professional training in the natural sciences.

The Meiji government also sent Japanese students to the Llnited States and Europe to study science and technology. Some of the students returning from the United States acted as translators and intermediaries

between the Ainu and field collectors sent by American museums. Inazo Nitobe, who had once studied at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and at the University of Bonn, Germany, was professor at the Hokkaido Agriculture College, Sapporo,- during the late 1890s, he was apparently asked by Arthur Curtiss James, a patron of the American Museum of Natural History, to make collections of Ainu specimens for the museum. Nitobe sent about forty specimens, representing both Hokkaido and Sakhalin Ainu, in response to this request Games, unpublished letter, AMNH). Jenichiro Oyabe, was a Japanese citizen who pursued an unusual course in the United States and in his native country: he graduated from General Armstrong's Indian School in Virginia, then did undergraduate work at Howard University in Washington, D C., and later seems to have spent a year or so at Yale University. After returning to Japan, he started an Ainu school at Abuta, Hokkaido, where he gave basic instruction to Ainu youth. In 1900 he and his associate, Ryujiro Shirai, guided Hiram M. Hiller to Ainu villages on the Iburi Coast and in the Saru River valley and helped Hiller collect some 240 Ainu items for the University of Pennsylvania Museum (see Katz, this volume).

This period of cooperation lasted nearly forty years before the decade of 1910 to 1920 brought a drastic deterioration in United States-Japan relations, primarily because of changes in LI S. immigration policy,- the outbreak of World War 1 and the beginning of the Russian Revolution also made it impossible for any European or American museums to consider sending expeditions to Siberia or Hokkaido. By the 1920s the era in which American museums sponsored expeditions to Japan had ended.

Missionaries in Hokkaido

In addition to governmental cooperation, the presence of Christian missionaries in Hokkaido was an important element encouraging American scientists to visit and assemble museum collections there. One of these missionaries, Rev. John Batchelor, who served as a member of the Church Missionary Society, deserves special attention. Batchelor lived in Hokkaido for some sixty years, from 1877 until 1940. Today he is regarded as a pioneer student of Ainu culture and language, which he documented in many publications

18.3 Starr’s Ainu Group in Tokyo

Preparing for the St. Louis Exposition of 1904, anthropologist Frederick Starr traveled to Hokkaido and recruited a party of Ainu. Here the group is seen before their departure from Tokyo: elder Ainu men were bearded and the women had lip tattoos; by this time, conforming to Japanese custom, younger men no longer wore beards. (Ainu women continued to tattoo their lips until the 1930s.) The strong “Caucasoid” look of the men probably influenced Starr's selection of them. (UOL 33-80-5)

including several important Ainu dictionaries.

He also donated about thirty Ainu specimens to the British Museum in London (Kreiner 1987).

Batchelor helped several American scientists who sought to collect Ainu materials directly from village people, rather than, as was sometimes done, from antique and curio shops that occasionally acquired Ainu materials. Batchelor guided Frederick Starr to Ainu villages in the Saru River valley (figs. 18.3-18.7), where he succeeded in recruiting nine Ainu volunteers to travel with him to the Louisiana Purchase Centennial Exposition held in 1904 in St. Louis (Starr 1904,VanStone 1993). Bashford Dean and Stewart Culin also seem to have sought Batchelor's advice before embarking on their collecting expedition to Volcano Bay, the Iburi Coast, and the Saru River.

Several other missionaries collected Ainu specimens: James H. Pettee, who resided

Ainu Collections and Social Change

Museum collections are a valuable and frequently overlooked resource for the study of social and cultural change, and the Ainu collections in North America are especially valuable in this regard. Older collections tend to include a wider range of specimens, such as tools for subsistence activities, pot-hangers, animal skulls decorated with inaw-kike, and so forth More recent collections from West Coast museums, the majority of them secured after World War I, invariably contain larger percentages of religious or ceremonial utensils, such as lacquerware bowls, stands, platters, and large containers. A similar trend was reported by Josef Kreiner among the European materials (Kreiner 1987).

It has long been known that traditional subsistence activities among the Ainu declined or were abandoned wholesale in response to 'lapanization'' policies insti

flail

gill

ls.3

18.4

18.4 The Ainu Group in St. Louis

Field Museum photographer Charles Carpenter and Jesse Tarbox Beals, who was the official photographer of the Louisiana Purchase Centennial Exposition, each took a number of photographs of the Ainu group during their stay in St. Louis. The photographers had rather different styles. Beals’s shots are close-up and personal, showing Ainu in relaxed poses engaged in various work activities. This image, which is more formal and distant, is probably by Carpenter. It seems that the young men, who no longer wore beards at home, have been growing them, perhaps to conform to visitor’s preconceptions about the Ainu. (NAA 98-10290)

in Sapporo during the 1890s, brought back twenty Ainu specimens to the Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. William W. Curtis, who was based in Sapporo at about the same time, collected more than fifty Ainu specimens and brought them back to the Llnited States. These items were long held under the care of Dr Robert J. Smith of Cornell University and were recently donated to the Hokkaido Historical Museum in Sapporo. Because the primary goal of our project was to create an inventory of material culture, we have left untouched archival materials, including those of John Batchelor, which are held in the Church Missionary Society Collection at the Llniversity of Birmingham Library, Llnited Kingdom, and those of William W. Curtis, which are at the Oberlin College Library in Oberlin, Ohio.

tuted soon after the beginning of the Meiji Restoration. During the 1880s and 1890s, the numbers of Japanese immigrants who emigrated from southern islands to Hokkaido, where they settled as farmers and fishermen, dramatically increased,- this influx put tremendous pressure on traditional Ainu culture and lifeways. The modernization that accompanied these changes made many traditional technologies— for instance, marine and freshwater fishing equipment—obsolete, and so these items were sold to collectors in the 1 880s and 1 890s. lapanization also resulted in the replacement of Ainu houses with Japanesestyle houses and the appearance of wood stoves. Consequently, women were willing to sell old open-hearth equipment, such as pot-hangers These radical lifestyle changes

\i o

MUSE LI M COLLECTIONS / Y. KOTANI

18.5 Comparing Notes The 1904 St. Louis Exposition must have been a remarkable experience for native participants; it brought peoples from far corners of the world into contact with each other and with Americans.

In this unusually candid snapshot by Jesse Tarbox Beals, Sangtukno, an Ainu woman, shares a moment with Lorenza, a Patagonian, and her dog. (NAA 98-10286)

also affected religious and ritual behavior, although some ceremonies, such as bearand fox-sending ceremonies, continued to be performed.

During World War I and thereafter, Ainu village lifeways underwent tremendous change. By this time, even the long-enduring lacquerware and religious objects, which the Ainu had treasured and with which they rarely parted, lost their cultural power and many were sold. Around 1930 Japanese museums started collecting Ainu specimens that were being abandoned or discarded in response to Japanization. More recent Ainu collections in the United States, particularly those in the Midwest and the West (as well as those in Japan), show the same shifts in collection inventories, presumably reflecting the historical process described above (Deriha 1997). This shift is documented directly in the field notes of Frederick Starr, to which we now turn.

Lafayette in geology in 1885 (Cole 1934, Evans 1991). He began teaching at Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1884, and in 1 888 he returned to his birthplace to became professor and curator at the Chautauqua Institute. The following year he was appointed curator of ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History, New York,when the University of Chicago was established, he was appointed assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology in 1892 and continued to hold this post until his retirement in 1923. Although his earliest professional interests were in geology and biology, Starr had turned to anthropology by the time he arrived at the American Museum in 1889, and soon after joining the University of Chicago he began fieldwork among native peoples in Mexico in 1894,- he continued to travel to Mexico almost every year until 1903.

18.5

18.6 A Live-in Exposition While at the fair the Ainu lived on the grounds and demonstrated traditional customs, arts, and technology, as seen in this photograph titled “Ainu Men Carving and Making Baskets” by Jesse Tarbox Beals. “Living” exhibits had been presented in Europe since the 1880s. The concept was carried to America for the 1893 World Columbian Exposition and the Smithsonian’s Folklife Festival on the Mall. (NAA 98-10292)

Frederick Starr and the Ainu

Frederick W. Starr (1858-1933) is known in Japan as O-juda no Hakase, or "Dr. Votive Seals," because he was a master collector of votive seals, which are usually dedicated to Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines,- Starr seems to have become fascinated with them while living in Japan in 1909 and 1910. His contributions to Ainu studies and Ainu museum collections are little known in either Japan or North America, but the Ainu Collection Documentation Project (1990-96) has revealed clearly that he was one of the most important collectors of Ainu specimens in North America.

Frederick Starr was born in Auburn,

New York, in 1858. His schooling included graduation from Lafayette College, in Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1882, and a Ph.D. from

Late in 1903, Starr was approached by William J. McGee (1853-1912), who had been put in charge of the anthropology exhibit plans for the proposed Louisiana Purchase Centennial Exposition (the socalled St. Louis Exposition) to be held in 1904 in St. Louis, Missouri (VanStone 1993). Following the advice of Franz Boas and anthropologists from the Smithsonian's Bureau of American Ethnology, the committee developed a plan that involved "living" exhibits of native peoples. Twelve groups were invited to participate, including the Ainu: Starr's task was to find an Ainu group who could demonstrate how to make tools for daily use and build an Ainu house to live in on the exhibition grounds.

Before leaving for Japan, Starr corresponded with those who had previously

18.7 Goodwill Ambassadors Perhaps more than their parents, Ainu youngsters Kiko (“Gold”) and Kehttle (“Chrysanthemum”) were on display in St. Louis. While their parents were required to work at their demonstrations, the children effectively used their charms to bridge the cultural gap between the Ainu and Americans, as this photograph by Jesse Tarbox Beals reveals. (NAA 98-10280)

collected Ainu materials, including Edward S. Morse, Romyn Hitchcock, and E. Odium. He sought—in vain—their suggestions on villages where collecting might be possible. McGee and Boas were also consulted as well as Japanese embassy and consular officials, and the Japan Ministry of Commerce was petitioned for assistance with travel and for shipping dismantled Ainu houses and collections.

At that time, there were several anthropologists and linguists in Japan who were interested in Ainu studies. Starr became acquainted with the publications of Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850-1935,- see Chamberlain 1887a, b), professor at the Faculty of Letters, and Shogoro Tsuboi (1 863-191 3), professor of Anthropology at the Faculty of Sciences, both at the Tokyo Imperial University. He also consulted the publications on Ainu culture and folklore written by Rev. John Batchelor (see Batchelor 1889, 1901).

With his personal assistant, Manuel Gonzales, Starr left Chicago in late January 1904, landing at Yokohama early in February. After making arrangements with government officials and visiting the anthropology department at Tokyo Imperial LIniversity, Starr traveled to Hokkaido by train and, with the guidance of Batchelor, visited such Saru River Ainu villages as Penakori, Porosaru, Osatonai, and Okotsonai, all of which were upstream from the modern Ainu village of Nibutani and no longer exist.

With Batchelor's assistance, Starr succeeded in recruiting nine Ainu for the St. Louis Exposition (Starr 1904,- VanStone

1993). During the recruitment effort he acquired about 240 Ainu specimens from villages including Piratori, Nibutani,

Porosaru, and Okotsonai,- he also acquired two houses in Shiraoi, which was close to the railroad between Sapporo and Muroran.

In late March 1904, Starr and the group of nine Ainu and a translator left Yokohama for St. Louis (fig. 18.3). Upon their arrival at the exposition grounds, a single Ainu house was assembled using materials from two houses that had been shipped from Japan. Nine Ainu people lived in the house and performed—as did other native groups from other regions of the world—demonstrating tool-making and daily activities (figs. 18.41 8.7) for visitors to the fair (Breitbart 1997). At the end of the exposition Starr was awarded a gold medal for a superb exhibition.

After carrying out fieldwork in West Africa and the Philippines from 1905 to 1908, Starr returned to Japan for the academic year 1909-10,- he continued to pursue his various interests, including collecting votive seals and taking photographs and films. In January 1910 he traveled to eastern Hokkaido to photograph fox- and bear-sending ceremonies in the village of Nemuro, west of Obihiro, and in March he arrived in Piratori on the Saru River to revisit the Ainu who had come to St. Louis. He was surprised at the advance of Japanization after only a six-year absence. On these two visits, Starr collected eighty additional Ainu pieces.

In the fall of 1911, after concluding fieldwork in Mexico, Starr undertook a tour to the Korean peninsula,- on his way back to Chicago, he stopped in Tokyo early in December. In Tokyo Jenichiro Oyabe (18671941), formerly an educator of Ainu youth and Hiram M. Hiller's guide, offered to sell Starr his entire Ainu collection of about 230 pieces, most probably from the Volcano Bay area,- he also offered Ainu-e (illustrations of Ainu life and customs), books about the Ainu, and lantern slides. After some negotiation, Starr purchased the entire artifact collection and some of the books, but he did not want the slides. (These were passed on to Oyabe's descendants and were recently donated by his grandchildren to the Historical Museum of Hokkaido, Sapporo [Deriha 1995]). From then until he retired from the LIniversity of Chicago in 1923, Starr continued his travels to Mexico, West Africa, China, Japan, and Korea, but he apparently never visited the Ainu again.

18.8 Starr’s Legacy Many of the artifacts produced by the Ainu in St. Louis were acquired by the Field Museum of Natural History and other institutions participating in the exposition. These beautiful ikupasuy (prayer sticks) with fishscale, weaving, wave, and abstract eye designs were collected by Starr, who visited the Ainu in 1904 and 1910. Much of his private collection was later purchased by the Brooklyn Museum of Art. (BMA 12.315, 12.331, 12.323, 12.250)

Our inventory records show that Starr visited Hokkaido three times: from February to March 1904,- in January of 1910,- and in March of 1910. During these visits he obtained many Ainu artifacts, which are now housed at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York and the Logan Museum of Anthropology, Beloit College, in Beloit, Wisconsin. In addition to Starr's artifact collections, we have located other materials on Ainu culture assembled by him at the LIniversity of Chicago Library and at the LIniversity of Oregon Library and Art Museum We found that these collections and archival materials

are largely unknown and untouched: North American anthropologists apparently have never tried to reconstruct exactly what Starr did among (and for) the Ainu (Evans 1991).

Frederick Starr's Ainu collections (Kotani 1994) can be classified into the following categories: ethnographic collections, archival documents, Ainu-e illustrations, and photographic materials. Starr's ethnographic collections are in two locations: about 320 specimens are held by the Brooklyn

Museum of Art (figs. 18.8, 18.9), and about seventy are at the Logan Museum of Anthropology at Beloit College.

Of the 320 pieces at Brooklyn, 240 were secured in February and March 1904, when John Batchelor took Starr to the Saru River villages of Piratori, Nibutani, Penakori, Porosaru, Osatonai, and Okotsonai. Upon their arrival in a village, Batchelor would announce Starr's interest in purchasing objects,- soon individuals would appear carrying objects they wished to sell. Starr was interested in buying a wide range of daily utensils and was careful not to purchase duplicates. Then, in December 1911 he purchased Jenichiro Oyabe's collection.

In 1912 Frederick Starr entered into discussions about the purchase of his Ainu collection with Stewart Culin at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. Starr asked Culin to purchase the entire collection, but Culin did not have sufficient funds (which were being provided by a patron named Herman Stutzer), so Starr decided to sell the material he had collected in 1904 to the institution and keep the Oyabe collection until a later date. In 1913 and 1914 Starr made arrangements with Charles E. Brown of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin in Madison for sale of the remaining Ainu material, which it kept until I960,- at that time the remaining sixty-seven artifacts were transferred to the Logan Museum at Beloit College. What became of the rest of the Oyabe collection is unknown.

Starr's archival materials include field notes for the years 1904 (three books), 1909-10 (nine books), and 191 I (one book), as well as correspondence, newspaper clippings, and other manuscripts, all of which are stored at the Regenstein Library at the LIniversity of Chicago.

Starr's notes give precise information on the names of Ainu artifacts collected, village names, and even the prices he paid to village people,- he also listed books he bought, ethnographic specimens purchased, photographs and films taken, and other information. These data permit a fairly complete picture of his field experience to emerge (although the artifact tallies do not always match today's museum inventories). He notes, for instance, that most of the Ainu houses in these villages, particularly in Piratori, were of Ainu type and had their interiors arranged in Ainu fashion, he also mentions that there

18.9 Ainu Robe

As Japanese cotton became more affordable, garments known as chikarkarpe, meaning “our embroidered thing," were developed by substituting cotton for attush (elm-bark cloth); Ainu often used old Japanese kimonos or yukata for the base fabric. The use of dark strips around the neck, front opening, sleeves, and hem of a garment was retained, but embroidery became more complex. The aesthetics of combining the base garment pattern with the embroidery created an unending challenge for the innovative Ainu textile artist. This robe was collected by Frederick Starr in Porosaru in 1904. (BMA 12.582)

were very few Japanese-style houses in 1904. Six years later, in March 1910, he expresses surprise at finding that almost all the Ainustyle houses were gone and that Japanese-type houses dominated the village. The fact that Starr purchased many of his early collections from Penakori, Porusaru, Osatonai, and Okotsonai, which were later abandoned, provides information about social and cultural change at the end of the Meiji period.

The most interesting unpublished manuscript is Starr's "Ainu Notes," a 120-page excerpt from his 1904 and 1909-10 field notes, supplemented by materials published by John Batchelor and others. Topic headings include: Nemuro (town), Tokachi Ainu (dialect), Ainu Pictures ( Ainu-e ), Salutation, Fetish, Outhouses, Saru River Towns (itinerary), Mats, Cutting, Movement of Ainu, and so forth,- the notes appear to have been selected in 1911 or 1912 for an intended monograph. Among his papers is another manuscript of twenty-one pages on the Kurile Ainu of North and South Chishima, probably written at Starr's request by Ryuzo Torii, a colleague of Shogoro Tsuboi at Tokyo Imperial University.

The Museum of Art at the University of Oregon has ten pieces of Ainu-e thought to have been collected by Frederick Starr, although there is no mention of them in his field notes. These Ainu-e are good pictorial sources of information about how the Japanese understood the Ainu (Sasaki 1993b and this volume). Compared to the European collections, the number of Ainu-e in North America is rather small.

As part of his field documentation, Starr took photographs and lantern slides during his work in FJokkaido: to date about one hundred slides and pictures have been found at the University of Chicago, as well as at the University of Oregon Library in the Gertrude Bass Warner Collection,- the latter includes slides taken by Starr or his assistant in 1904 in Tokyo, Yokohama, and FJokkaido, several of which were used as illustrations in his St.

Louis Exposition book (Starr 1904,- VanStone 1993). A second group of slides dates from 1912 when Starr visited Nemuro and Piratori, and these include documentation of foxsending and bear-sending ceremonies in Nemuro. A third group includes postcards and slides purchased commercially in 1904 and 1909-10 in Muroran, Sapporo, Tokyo, and Yokohama. The last group included things or Japanese people closely related to Ainu studies,

such as Takeshiro Matsuura, a famous geographer and explorer of Hokkaido and the Ainu during the late Tokugawa period, photographs of him, his books, and even his tombstone are represented.

A final category of Starr archival resources relates to books and films, many of which are mentioned in his field notes but have never been located. Starr wrote in his diaries that while staying and traveling in Japan, he purchased old Japanese books describing the Ainu and their way of life,some of these are now considered to be classics in Ainu studies. He also described taking black-and-white motion pictures, specifically of Ainu ceremonies and village scenes at the villages of Nemuro and Piratori during the winter of 1910, which would make them the earliest film records ever made of the Ainu (if they are found).

Inventory Projects

During the past fifteen years systematic efforts to inventory Ainu collections and archival materials in Europe and North America have resulted in identifying a world corpus of more than 12,000 Ainu artifacts and additional archival and photographic materials that document changing Ainu culture from about 1850. The collections formed at the earliest date are found in the museums of Europe, closely followed by those of eastern, and later western, North America. These collections, inspired by the "discovery" of a remote and seemingly nonMongolian population in northern Japan and Sakhalin, were facilitated by the opening of Japan with the beginning of the Meiji era in 1868. Western museum collectors and anthropologists mshed into Hokkaido and Sakhalin to assemble collections, and during the next thirty years they brought Ainu artifacts and Ainu people to millions of museum-goers and world's fair visitors in Europe and North America. Ainu artifacts were as striking to the Western public as were Ainu people themselves, and many museums sought to build collections of the material culture of this intriguing, newly discovered people. However, as the mania passed, political changes occurred and world wars raged,- as Ainu people were increasingly pressed into the mainstream of Japanese society by a Japanese policy of assimilation, scholarly interest waned, and many Ainu collections in Europe and North America fell victim to public disinterest and curatorial neglect. Not until the 1980s did these collections again attract

interest, partly because of the revival of Ainu culture itself, which lead to a revival of scholarly interest in Ainu material culture, language, and traditions.

A partial inventory of North American materials that has now been assembled provides a rough approximation of about 3,200 objects and archival materials in museums that, until recently, had little if any interest in them. Frederick Starr's collections are emblematic of the best of these collections, having been assembled with a systematic anthropological approach during the first decade of the twentieth century. This material—as well as the other major collections in North America—provides a resource that becomes more valuable year by year because of its scope, its early dates, and its documentation.

In contrast to the early Ainu collections mentioned above, those obtained after World War I are few,- exceptions are those of Ryuzo Torii (1910-1920s, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka,- Sasaki 1993a), Neil Munro (1930s, British Museum), Fosco Maraini (1940s, Museo Nationale di Antropologia e Etnologia, Florence,- Maraini 1942), and Kirsten Refsing (1970s, Aarhus, Denmark,- Refsing 1974). Generally speaking, Ainu collections in Japan were not assembled until after 1930, when Keizo Shibusawa, Sakuzaemon Kodama, Masao Oka, and others realized their importance. Systematic collecting by Japanese museums came even later, around 1950, by which time traditional Ainu culture and society had changed and collecting directly from the Ainu people was nearly impossible.

Starr's career may be representative of the attitude of other western anthropologists and museum curators as they drifted away from Ainu studies after 1915. Like Oyabe, who told Starr that he had already fulfilled his share of work for the Ainu and their welfare, Starr seems to have become disenchanted by the changes in Ainu culture resulting from the growing Japanese influence over their lives, and he eventually moved on to other work, even selling his Ainu collection to different institutions. Perhaps more importantly, the Ainu were becoming less enigmatic to westerners as they became "more Japanese" and interest in them as "exotic" people waned.

Today's anthropologists and art historians find new interest in Ainu collections. Through careful inventories, scholars have begun to reconstruct the Ainu material and documentary record from museums and archives. This work is also proving to be of use to the Ainu people themselves and to a public that has never ceased being curious about the Ainu people, their past, and their future. A global cultural-resource inventory of Ainu materials will do much to encourage Ainu studies of the future.

The author thanks the sponsors of these Ainu documentation projects, which were supported by Grants-in-Aid for Overseas Scientific Research [Grant Nos. 0204 4038 and 06041047 ] from the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports of Japan, and Japanese, American, and European colleagues who participated in this work.

18 /NORTH AMERICAN COLLECTIONS

14 7

Romyn Hitchcock and the

Smithsonian

Ainu

Collection

Chang-su Houchins

19.1a, b Ainu Man and Woman of Urap

Romyn Hitchcock visited the Kuriles and Hokkaido while conducting ethnographic research for the Smithsonian in 1888 and wrote extensive reports on his observations. He saw his role as recording and collecting from a "dying” culture that had lost out in competition with the Japanese. He found the Ainu to be a hospitable people and praised their religion and rituals. (NAA 98-10384, 98-10373)

A FATEFUL 1886 VISIT TO JAPAN BY Romyn Hitchcock (1851-1923) led to his becoming, by sheer chance, an instant ethnologist and an early explorer of Hokkaido in 1888. On behalf of the Smithsonian Institution, he assembled its most comprehensive Ainu ethnographic collection, which remains the nucleus of the Smithsonian Ainu holdings.

The Hitchcock Collection comprises 177 ethnographic specimens (mostly from the Hokkaido Ainu but also including seventeen Sakhalin Ainu specimens obtained through an exchange with Sapporo Agricultural College) and photographic records of places and people representing Ainu life, in addition to copious field notes. The notes, entitled "Betsukai to Shari," "Yambetsu to Kushiro Iwosan," and "Kushiro to Horoidzumi" are included in the Hitchcock Papers (manuscript no. 2174) now held at Cornell University

Libraries, Ithaca, New York, in the Department of Manuscripts and University Archives.

Like many early museum collectors and curators, Hitchcock's background did not lead him to museum work naturally. Museums in the late nineteenth century were still youthful institutions, and scientific curiosity and apprenticeship played a stronger role than formal education in contributions to the formative field of museum science. Hitchcock studied chemistry at Cornell Llniversity, where in his freshman year he won first prize for the most rapid progress in chemical work. In 1872, upon receiving a Bachelor of Science degree

from Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science in New York City, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Lehigh Llniversity in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Later he taught chemistry and toxicology in the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College (National Cyclopaedia 1926).

Hitchcock's connection with the Smithsonian began in 1883 when he became Acting Curator in the Division of Textiles of the Department of Arts and Industries. Soon after his arrival in Washington, he became involved in preparation of textile exhibits for the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans in 1884-85, and later he joined the curatorial staff of the Division of Textiles at the Smithsonian's new United States National Museum, which had just been organized in 1881.

In March of 1886, the Honorable Minister Kuki Ryuichi (1852-193 1) of the

Japanese Legation in Washington, D C., wrote to Spencer Fullerton Baird, Secretary of the Smithsonian, asking him to recommend someone who might be interested in becoming an English instructor at Dai-san Koto Chu-gakko, a new public high school in Osaka established to train national leaders (the school was later moved to Kyoto in 1 889 and in 1949 merged with Kyoto University) (Sanko Dosokei 1980: 221). Hitchcock realized that a residence in Japan might provide an interesting opportunity to make ethnographic observations and collections about Japan and its native Ainu people, and

19.3 Ikupasuy

Unlike many later collectors, Hitchcock did not obtain many prayer sticks (ikupasuy); his collection contains only six. It was not for lack of trying, however: “They were highly valued by their possessors who probably would not have parted with them but in consideration of a reward of sake in addition to the price demanded" (Hitchcock 1891a: 458). For his efforts, the Ainu began calling him “Mr. Mustache Stick.” This piece was collected in Etorofu, Kuriles, in 1888. Compared to others of its type it has a rather simple central design (noshki) consisting of a double scroll motif; the marks ( itokpa ) at either end identify the owner. (NMNH 150698)

19.2 Two Ainu Men Hitchcock’s photographs are unusual in providing an unreconstructed view of the Ainu, shot as he found them, without stage sets and ceremonial costumes. This shot taken in northeast Hokkaido shows two generations of Ainu men in everyday attush clothing. The younger man has a boisterously infectious smile as unruly as his curly hair. Such spirit is rarely seen in field photographs of the Ainu. Less appealing is the pose of the older man, who seems to have been asked to hold his robe open to reveal his hairy leg. The practice of documenting Ainu physical form, which seems irrelevant and distasteful today, was a standard scientific practice one hundred years ago. (NAA 28377)

he applied immediately (Hitchcock letter of 8 March 1886 to Spencer Fullerton Baird, Smithsonian Archives RU 30). In April, he received approval from Baird for a two-year furlough and departed for Japan, arriving in Yokohama in early September. Barely six months after Hitchcock and his wife settled in Osaka, he wrote about the lonely and disenchanted life they led there in a letter to Baird's assistant, George Brown Goode (4 March 1887 to G. Brown Goode: Smithsonian Archives RU 201). Observing that he found Japan's new westernization process disturbing to observe, he commented, "I wish

to go to Yezo ... to get a photographic record and items of daily use. I believe the Ainu [to be] scarcely touched by our civilization and fast dying out." Hitchcock continued to press for support for his field study and eventually received tepid approval from Goode on June 5, 1888, together with a cable for $250,- by July 24 he arrived in

Hakodate, Hokkaido, and was about to realize his goal.

In the course of approximately one month—from August 10 when he left Nemuro until September 1 when he arrived in Hiroo—Hitchcock traveled eight hundred miles along the eastern seacoast of Hokkaido on horseback and on foot. As he was leaving Betsukai by a sandy road along the seashore, at the beginning of his journey alone in the wilderness, he wrote: "I had already read and seen enough of Hokkaido to fully understand that Yezo is not Japan. It is apart by itself. A rough, uncultivated island . . ." (Hitchcock 1891a: 432). By this time Hitchcock had become familiar with the English-language reports on the Ainu written by J. W. Blakestone, Edward Sylvester Morse, B. H. Chamberlain, John Milne, T. M. Dixon,

Henry S. Monroe, John Batchelor, and others.

The traveler had already purchased a saddle in Osaka and a horse in Nemuro. His outfit "consisted of camera, tripod, extra plates, sleeping clothes, a sheet sewed up like a bag to keep off fleas, a mosquito net, a red blanket, changes of clothing, water-proof sheet, rubber overcoat, toilet articles, a flask of brandy, and a few articles of food to be used at a distance from hotels" (ibid.). Hitchcock added to his outfit a bag for stationery, a revolver, compass, thermometer, barometer, and a bottle for water to attach to his saddle (Hitchcock Papers no. 2174).

Hitchcock, in his first visit to an Ainu house at Shibetsu, describes an old graybearded man whom he thought "looked like a patriarch, benignant, wise and gentlemanly." He noted that the old man lived in a clean house. At another house, he saw an old woman. "As soon as 1 entered, she covered her face and began to weep and sob. It was not a satisfactoiy visit" (Hitchcock Papers no. 2174).

The first communication sent by Hitchcock from Hokkaido to the Smithsonian was from Rubetsu (now called Shibetsu) (Honda 1995: 97), which reads: "My Dear Mr. Goode, Rubetsu is not on the map. It's not a town, as I supposed it was this

Collecting began in Shari sometime after August 17, on which date Hitchcock left Rubetsu (fig. 19.3). His first purchases in Shari were four "moustache" (prayer) sticks (USNM catalog no. 150, 695-99). According to Hitchcock's recollection, the price quoted by the Ainu owner was rather high, despite the present of sake he offered, nevertheless, he acquired them because of the finely carved decoration and good-quality lacquer finish (Hitchcock Papers no. 2174). Three of these "moustache" sticks were published in the United States National Museum Annual Report for 1889-1890 (hereafter USNM-AR 1889-90), and the accompanying notation regarding their use reads: "Used to make libations of

19.4, 19.5 Cherry-bark and Wooden

Bowls

Hitchcock had been instructed to obtain a sample of objects actually being used, whether or not they were attractive. He coliected a set of simple birchbark containers ( yarnima) from Piratori as well as more stylish objects like this octagonal wooden bowl ( nima ) from Bekkai. Bark containers were made from pliable bark that was soaked in hot water and shaped into bowls whose rims were reinforced with thin wood strips.

In anthropological collecting, use and function were as important as the object itself, and a clean object was not always as informative as a used or dirty one. The attractive wooden bowl was collected right off the table and still has fishscales adhering to it. (NMNH 150721A, 150685)

morning—only a place. It consists of a most miserable Jap. hotel and one house, with a shed for horses. You will readily infer that I am on my journey in Yezo. I am indeed quite in the interior, miles away from another house, among almost unexplored mountains . . . I have a long and trying journey before me ... I intend to have some knowledge of the ainos." The letter continues with a description of his small six-mat hotel room and the kind of food he ate in order to stave off hunger. He ended the letter with the sentence: "It is cold here" (Hitchcock letter to Goode, August 16, 1888, Smithsonian Archives RU 201).

sake to the gods, and also to raise the moustache while drinking sake" (Hitchcock 1891a: 459, 493, fig. 77). This description indicates his awareness of the ceremonial function of these objects, which previous writers had generally relegated to a class of ethnographic curiosities as "mustache sticks."

Hitchcock continued his collecting activities throughout his lonely and hazardous journey,- sometimes he was lost in the woods, and other times he lost shoes traversing swamps in the rain. Nevertheless, he assembled an impressive number of artifacts relating to all aspects of Ainu life (figs. 19.4—19.9). In addition to collecting ethnographic specimens, he searched for remnants of the so-called koropok-cjuru, the cave-dwelling savages

accessions: "Mr. Romyn Hitchcock, returning from japan, after a two years' sojourn [actually three years], has enriched the ethnographic series with many most desirable specimens gathered on the spot with the view of illustrating the life of the people.... Mr. Hitchcock spent much time among the Ainos, utilizing his talent as an artist to add value to his material secured by means of many pictures" (USNM-AR 1889-90: 127).

Hitchcock's articles, "The Ancient PitDwellers of Yezo" and "The Ainos of Yezo, Japan" (1891a, b), demonstrate his passion for learning and show the range of items he obtained in his search to understand the Ainu, including their racial type and their lifeways. The Cornell University collection of Hitchcock's papers includes a section entitled "Lectures on Ainos of Yezo," presumably delivered upon return from his journey in Hokkaido, which reveals the collector's frustration: "Who are the Ainos? It will not suffice to say that they are a peculiar race of people with long hair and beards inhabiting Yezo and the southern part of Sagharin [Sakhalin]. We wish to know where they belong. But these questions are still unanswered. The Ainos are an ethnological mystery. ..." (Hitchcock Papers no. 2174).

In an attempt to solve this mystery, in addition to his article about the pit-dwellers, Hitchcock presented his Ainu ethnographic collection catalog with numerous illustrations in the USNM-AR 1889-90 (fig. 19.1 1). In the catalog, he first declared the Ainu to

19.6a

19.6a, b, 19.7 Raw Materials Hitchcock and other anthropological collectors were diligent in obtaining materials illustrating technological processes. Their collections included such materials as a raw salmon skin and the stretchers used to dry them prior to making boots and mitts, and bundles of ohyo fiber, processed from the inner bark of the elm tree, from which attush fabric was woven for clothing. (NMNH E150725, BMA 12.495, NMNH 150653)

theorized to be the pre-Ainu inhabitants of Hokkaido (Tsuboi 1887). Hitchcock's work debunked these folk theories and his excavations at ancient pithouse village sites produced one of the earliest scientific reports on Hokkaido archeology (Hitchcock 1891b),- his collections, held at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History along with his ethnological materials, continue to be of interest to specialists in Japanese archaeology.

Upon his return to Washington in 1890, he noted in a document titled "Report for the Month of May" that "the catalogue cards of all the Japanese and Aino ethnologic material collected by me were transferred to Prof. Mason early in the month" (Smithsonian Archives, RU 158). Professor Otis T. Mason (1838-1908) was then in charge of the newly established Department of Ethnology. The USNM-AR 1889-90 lists the Hitchcock Collection as one of its principal

19.6b

19.8, 19.9 Attush Robe and Leggings

In addition to obtaining unprocessed ohyo (elm-bark fiber), skeins of dyed ohyo, and the backstrap looms used to weave it into attush, Hitchcock collected a series of attush garments. This woman's robe was collected at Tsuishikari near Sapporo, and the leggings from Abashiri. Golden-colored attush garments provided ideal backgrounds for contrasting Ainu embroidery. Stylish, yet light and durable, attush garments were worn by Ainu in Hokkaido, the Kuriles, and Sakhalin. Even Japanese seamen, fishermen, and farmers working in Hokkaido and northern Honshu sometimes preferred attush for work clothes. (NMNH 150780, 150649)

19.11 Carved Plates Hitchcock wrote two long articles on his Ainu studies and published them in United States National Museum Annual Report for 1889-1890, one year before John Batchelor's The Ainu of Japan appeared (1892). Both are still invaluable sources on traditional Ainu culture. This illustration appeared as fig. 74 in Hitchcock’s report with comments on the beauty and skill demonstrated by Ainu carvers, who used designs similar to those made by women on clothing.

be a "peculiar race," then he categorized the material he collected under various headings: personal appearance and physical characteristics (based on photographs and measurements), clothing, dwellings, household utensils and food, carrying burdens, mode of greeting, marriage customs, burial customs, punishments, hunting and fishing, religion, the bear cults and feast—all typical categories of late nineteenth-century museum cultural classification.

Furthermore, Hitchcock prepared an Ainu exhibit for installation in the museum (fig. 19.10). A wooden model of an Ainu house and a model of a pit-dwelling were displayed in one case, while another case featured an Ainu male mannequin created from one of Hitchcock's photographs. The Evening Star of March 15, 1890 carried an article about the Ainu exhibit with the subtitle: "A Queer People. They live in the Kuriles and Northern Japan" (fig. 1.14). The article describes the hairy, barefoot, robust man wearing a coarsely woven robe and using simple, undecorated daily articles indicative of Ainu culture, which was described as being barely a step above savagery. In 1920 this Ainu exhibit was replaced by a larger one entitled "Aino Man and Woman": the figures, wearing ceremonial dress, were accompanied by a loom, other items of dress, and household materials.

By this time the curatorial viewpoint had changed, and the Ainu were no longer

19.10 a, b Ainu Exhibits

Shortly after returning to Washington, Hitchcock prepared an Ainu exhibit in the National Museum that included an Ainu homestead model with a house, an elevated storage shed, and a bear cage; another case featured an Ainu male mannequin based on one of Hitchcock's photographs. The Evening Star of 15 March 1890 carried an article about the exhibit with the subtitle; “A Queer People. They live in the Kuriles and Northern Japan."

In 1920 this Ainu exhibit was replaced by a new, larger case display showing an Ainu man and woman as part of its “Racial Groups and Figures" series. Its caption read: “The Aino are an especially interesting tribe of undetermined relationship, but are thought to show traces of Aryan blood. They are of short stature, very strong and active. The women tattoo a mustache-like figure around the mouth. Their art is that of peoples of western Asia, a type of which would be that of the Amur tribes. They subsist by hunting and fishing." (NAA 88-8756)

portrayed as "barely above savagery" but rather as dignified and cultured—though still exotic and mysterious—people.

Hitchcock's association with the Smithsonian ended in I 892, but the legacy of his scientific work lives on. His "Ainos of Yezo, Japan" (1891b) was the most comprehensive early ethnographic report on the Ainu and, although suffering from the bias of "primitivism" common to most early ethnology, is the only detailed ethnographic report produced during the nineteenth century that documents an early Ainu collection. The value of Hitchcock's work has been recognized for many years, but it received relatively little attention until scholarly interest in Ainu culture gradually expanded after the 1980s. His collection, like most other Ainu collections in

North American museums, lay dormant after the mystique of the "mysterious Ainu" had passed, and American anthropologists turned increasingly to exploring their own native cultures,- even now there are few Ainu specialists in the Americas.

Throughout the twentieth century Hitchcock's collection and ethnographic notes were virtually unknown to all but a few scholars in Japan. Of course, they were also unknown to the Ainu, who had no access to this information until his report was translated in 1985 by Yasuo Kitagamae, a Japanese archaeologist, who published it in Japanese under the title Ainujin to sono bunka .- Meiji chuki no Ainu no murakara (The Ainu and Their Culture: Ainu Villages in the Mid-Meiji Period) (Kitagamae 1985). Recently, this author completed a major survey of the Hitchcock accession notes and collection documentation in collaboration with an inventory of the collection conducted by Kazuyoshi Ohtsuka in the early 1990s. This work was followed by an expanded Ainu collection-inventory project organized by Yoshinobu Kotani and colleagues (Kotani 1993a, b, 1997, and this volume), that resulted in a list of the major Ainu collections in North American museums, including the Hitchcock Collection. Finally, building on the Kotani inventory, the Japanese television company, NHK (Sapporo) in 1996 produced a high-quality CD-ROM of selected Ainu pieces that included many specimens from the Smithsonian's Hitchcock Collection. As a result of these efforts and public exhibitions now underway, as well as growing interest among the Ainu people themselves, Hitchcock's small but well-documented and published collection is receiving belated recognition as one of the most important early Ainu ethnographic collections.

20/Batchelor, Starr, and Culin: The Brooklyn Museum of Art Collection

Amy Poster

20 . 1

20.1, 20.2 CliliW AND THE AiMU In 1909 Stewart Culin, assisted by Togo Takayanagi, spent ten months collecting ethnological materials in Japan for the Brooklyn Museum of Art. During this period he traveled for six weeks in the Kuriles and Hokkaido. His expedition reports reveal interesting details about his collecting program, prices paid, and reactions to the Ainu. In 1912 Culin returned to Japan and spent August and September collecting in Hokkaido, where this photograph of Ainu girls was taken by Count Carlo Arrivabene near Hakodate. (BMA Archives)

gained some ability in the Chinese language from his association with Philadelphia's Chinese community, he became a founding member of the Oriental Club of Philadelphia,- he also belonged to several other professional institutions in his quest to study Asian culture and folklore. Between 1890 and 1903, he served as Director and Curator of General Ethnology at the recently established University of Pennsylvania Museum, positions that allowed him to demonstrate and refine his abilities in ethnological collecting and museum exhibition.

It was during Culin's tenure at the Brooklyn Museum from 1903 to 1929 that the core of the museum's present African, Asian, Oceanic, and Native American collections were accumulated (Fane et al. 1991). Culin saw his mission as an ethnologist to document and collect from vanishing ethnic cultures, which he and many other ethnologists of his day believed would completely vanish under the social, political, and technological revolutions underway at the turn of the century. Culin organized several expeditions to secure Native American objects for the Brooklyn Museum. After returning from his first North American collecting trip in 1900, Culin stated: "If our museums are ever to have good collections of Indian things they must waste no time in setting out after them, for none will be left ten years from now" (Brooklyn Musem of Art Archives, Culin Archival Collection, Record, Activities Scrapbook, August 5,- see Fane et al. 1991: 308, fn 31). In his attempts to "save" Asian collections from a similar fate, and of course to build the Brooklyn Museum collections, Culin made three expeditions to China, Japan, Korea, and India during the years 1909 to 1914 (fig. 20.1).

The Brooklyn Museum's Ainu collections were primarily formed from three different but related sources. In the summer of 1911 Culin met Frederick Starr, a Chicago-based anthropologist and curator at the Field Museum, who organized the Ainu pavilion for the 1904 St. Louis Exposition. Starr showed Culin about 250 Ainu artifacts (mostly from Piratori and other Sami River towns) that he had collected in 1904, 1910, and 1911, which he offered to sell to the Brooklyn Museum for $750. The

1890 as an educational institution for the citizens of Brooklyn, then a prosperous city with a population of more than 200,000. The museum sought to provide a place where people could learn the history of the world, a mission much broader than that of a museum of art. The appointment in 1903 of Stewart Culin as the museum's first Curator of Ethnology advanced this mission substantially.

Culin was born in Philadelphia in 1858 to a merchant family of Swedish descent. After graduating from a local academy, Culin became a self-taught ethnologist. Having

A RECENT INVENTORY OF AlNU COLLECtions in North American museums reveals that more than 3,000 objects have been located and documented in more than thirty different institutions (Kotani 1993a, b). Of these, the Ainu collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art is the most extensive, consisting of approximately 1,100 objects, including artifacts, Ainu-e paintings, photographs, and manuscript materials. The size of this collection, its provenance from three collectors working in one location-—the Sam River valley—in southern Hokkaido during the first decade of the twentieth century, and the quality and breadth of materials make it one of the most important Ainu collections in the world.

The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences—the forerunner of the Brooklyn Museum of Art and itself a scion of institutions whose origins began in 1823— was created in

20 . 2

20.3

20.3, 20.4 Snowshoes and Deer Hunter

Unlike arrows and other materials that were no longer used and were therefore easy to purchase, Culin found the Ainu unwilling to part with objects like bentwood snowshoes, which they still needed for winter hunting. These objects are illustrated in this detail from an Ainu-e drawing in Ainu Manners and Customs by Hokuyo Nishikawa, dating to the midnineteenth century. Culin purchased these boots from John Batchelor in 1912. (BMA 12.385; HML)

collection impressed Culin as being "carefully made and very representative," and from his point of view, the price was right. Early the next year about four hundred objects collected by Starr arrived as a gift of a museum benefactor, Herman Stutzer, under an arrangement that had produced an additional 150 specimens. Later that same year, more Ainu materials appeared as a result of Culins 1912 expedition to Hokkaido.

Culin's expedition reports (1909, 1912,- fig. 20.3) are the primary sources of information about his collecting activities (fig. 20.2). His Ainu collections were acquired during August and September of his 1912 expedition (this was Culins second trip to Japan, following a tenmonth expedition in 1909, during which Culin spent thirty-eight days in the Kurile Islands and Hokkaido). While he also visited other areas of Japan in 1912, his selection of a motif from an Ainu robe for the cover image of his field report suggests that his Ainu collections were the highlight of the expedition.

Culin also procured the collection of Rev. John Batchelor, the British missionary who worked among the Ainu for more than sixty years, from 1877 to 1940. Culin briefly mentioned that when he stopped in Sapporo in 1912, he insured the purchase of the Ainu objects from Batchelor's collection by giving him a check for one hundred yen. Batchelor, a well-known scholar of Ainu culture who compiled the first Ainu Japanese-English dictionary (Batchelor 1889), helped both Starr and Culin in their acquisitions of Ainu materials by providing them with valuable advice and information about who to see, what to purchase, and what price to pay. As Kotani has pointed out (1994), the Brooklyn collections therefore document the material culture and socioeconomic conditions of the Saru River and Hidaka provinces during the from 1904 to 1912 as much as the interests of Starr, Culin, and Batchelor.

The objects in the Brooklyn Museum Ainu collection reveal that household materials were a principal focus of Culins collection. These items held the most interest for him because he was able to confirm that the objects he was collecting—for instance, a pot-hanger—were still used by the Ainu on a daily basis. He wrote:

Here we entered a number of houses.

They were much alike, the interior consisting of one room with highly polished wooden floor, stained black with smoke. In the first [house], near the

their costumes: "As I saw the Ainu in everyday [Japanese] dress, they appeared to have abandoned their old costumes" (ibid.: 175). He made a persistent effort, however, to try to find objects of good quality among those items abandoned by the Ainu. When he acquired a pair of fishskin boots (fig. 20.5) in Shana, it seems that he weighed values other than their cost:

Last night the old inn-keeper brought me a pair of salmon-skin boots made by the half-blood Ainu woman at Shana. The feet are made of the skin of the large salmon [shake] and the legs of the skin of the salmon trout (masu). The tops are of seal fur and the cords of a plaited grass called muri that grows on the hills. These boots are filled with pounded rice straw and are impervious to water and very warm. They are used on the snow and ice where they will wear for a long time, but not on stones. The old man asked three yen for them, much more 1 suppose than their value here (ibid.: 135).

Gulin's notes show that he sometimes fell into a common pitfall of museum collectors not conversant in the language of the people they were collecting from. Such collectors often worked with "third language" interpreters from the dominant culture, in this case, Japanese. He probably asked his Japanese interpreter "what are those made of?” and recorded the response, which was provided in Japanese —shake and masu — believing he had been given Ainu terms.

Gulin was also selective in his search for bowls or carved trays, items commonly carried by curio shops in neighboring towns like Sapporo or even in port cities like Yokohama, where antique dealers sometimes stocked Ainu materials. He described wooden trays sold at a curio store in Sapporo as "the Japanese wooden trays with Ainu patterns” which "are carved for the shop by Ainu who come in from the mountains. They are similar to the trays I saw at Nikko which must have had an Ainu inspiration" (ibid.:

161). Here again, we may question Culin's views, for without further documentation, it seems unlikely that authentic Ainu materials or even Ainu-inspired materials could have been present for sale at a Japanese religious shrine like Nikko.

Culin also had a strong interest in religious objects, and this is reflected in the large

20.5 Fishskin Boots Culin purchased these fishskin boots in Shana in 1912, where he obtained details on their construction from a “half-blood” Ainu woman who sold them to him. She said the soles were of salmon; the uppers, salmon trout trimmed with seal fur; and the cords, plaited grass. Ainu fishskin boots were waterproof and, when lined with pounded rice straw, were very warm. Such boots lasted a long time if one used them only on snow and ice. (BMA 12.652)

entrance is the open fireplace from which the smoke ascends to the roof. The water kettle hangs over this from an iron or steel rod, and there are usually several wellsmoked wooden pot hangers suspended above (Culin 1912: 174).

Culin compared a pair of snowshoes (figs. 20.3, 20.4) from an Ainu village near Lake Harutori in Kushiro with ones he bought in Shana, a village in the Kurile Islands: "1 stopped at one house and examined two pairs of snowshoes that hung outside. These were the same construction as those 1 bought in Shana, except that the seal-skin thongs were reinforced with cords and wire" (ibid.: 152). On the other hand, there were apparently sufficient supplies of old discarded things, such as old arrows, which were easier to purchase because they were no longer in daily use.

Typically, as when Culin arrived at a small Japanese inn at Piratori, he was visited by a group of old Ainu men and women, young women, and even children, who all brought him clothes, dishes, bows and arrows, and other things. Culin's view of the acculturation of Ainu society was projected in his comments on

20.5

20.6 Beaded Necklace

Culin purchased a number of old Ainu necklaces from curio shops in Hokkaido. He observed that beaded necklaces and carved ikupasuy were displayed along with treasured objects like Japanese lacquered cups and boxes, swords, and other heirlooms along the treasure wall in Ainu homes. However, this necklace came to the Brooklyn Museum via Frederick Starr, who purchased it from the Ainu he brought to the St. Louis Exposition in 1904. (BMA 12.447)

number of ikupasuy (carved wooden prayer sticks) and inaw (sacred tufted sticks,- fig. 20.7) that appear in the Brooklyn collection. On his 1912 trip he saw two inaw placed on both sides of the rectangular fireplace in an Ainu home in a village near Lake Harutori in Kushiro (ibid.: 151),- these inaw were placed by the hearth out of respect for the goddess of the hearth and home.

At the curio shop in the same village, Culin bought a large necklace of glass beads for 1.50 yen that is similar to others he collected (fig. 20.6). At Shiraoi, a middle-aged Ainu man brought him a number of necklaces whose beads looked new to Culin. Some glass heads were brought to the Ainu through trade with the Asian continent, but others were secretly made by the Matsumae clan at their headquarters in Hakodate. Culin's report (ibid.: 151) tells that at an Ainu house in the same village, beaded necklaces and carved ikupasuy were displayed along with other treasured objects like Japanese lacquered cups, basins, and boxes, and a pile of old swords or sword

scabbards, in a corner of a house. Such household displays of family heirlooms and treasures were of special social and ritual importance to Ainu families,- the treasures demonstrated family wealth and providence and were components of a family shrine.

Culin had several opportunities to secure Japanese swords and sword scabbards used by the Ainu, but he obviously did not purchase them, for only one sword set exists in the Brooklyn collection. At Piratori, Culin saw swords in an Ainu house and noted: "It is these things that have been offered to me in such quantities. None of them have any practical use nor artistic or pecuniary value" (ibid.: 175). Among the other Japaneseproduced objects of little interest to Culin was Japanese lacquerware: when an old innkeeper at Shana offered to sell him a lacquered box on four legs and a large rice bowl, Culin recognized them as familiar Japanese artifacts, and although they had been used by Ainu, he did not buy them, apparently wanting to collect only objects that were of Ainu design or manufacture.

On the other hand, objects of curiosity—such as the skull of an albatross and other animal skulls used for divination or protective purposes—were of interest to Culin, who remarked on a group he found in a curio store in Sapporo in 1912: "We next visited another shop kept by an old man, a kind of curio store. His stock consisted of worthless trifles, but included several Ainu trays which Mr. Batchelor told me were of good quality. 1 bought from him also two skulls, one of a fox and the other of [illegible] both tied with inao" (ibid.: 165).

Culin found imitation quiver models and blunt arrows, which were used for men's rituals and for the bear-sending ceremony, at a curio store in Sapporo that he visited with Batchelor. From Batchelor himself Culin acquired other objects related to the bear-sending ceremony, including a bear skull and claws, and men's ceremonial headdresses.

Culin's experience with Native American artifacts shows that he was a person who sought to acquire those items that other collectors disregarded or that were simply considered unobtainable. One such area represented in the Ainu collection at Brooklyn is funerary objects. In the Ainu tradition, the deceased was laid out by a fireplace,- offerings of food and drink were placed beside the body and the deceased was then dressed for burial.

20.7 Ikupasuy

Like many early Western collectors and anthropologists, Culin was fascinated by the Ainu ikupasuy (prayer stick), which he described with the erroneous term “mustache lifter” in his catalogues and exhibits. He was not alone in this misrepresentation; many eariy scholars had made the same mistake by not understanding the important role of this sacred object in Ainu religious ritual. This piece, which displays the classic Ainu ayus pattern around its elongated slits, is of exceptional quality, like many purchased by Culin and Starr. (BMA 12.245)

The burial costume consisted of cotton appliqued garments, mittens, and leggings, and a thin woven-fiber cord that was used to wrap a mat securely around the body and then to attach the wrapped body to a grave post. This cord was prepared by the wife or grandmother in secret for a deceased family member. It was believed that without it the spirit of the deceased would forever wander without a home in the next world. Culin collected one of these cords and also a special funeral bonnet, which widows wore for their one-year mourning period,- widows in mourning were also recognizable because they wore their clothes inside out and remained isolated indoors throughout this period. Culin became interested in grave posts, which he saw at a small museum in Sapporo, and later on the same trip he photographed Ainu graves at Shiraoi (ibid.; 191).

Culin's contributions to the Brooklyn collection should also be examined in light of his own personal interests. Textiles, for example, were one of Culin's special crosscultural passions, not only finished costumes, but also the materials and apparatus used to produce them. He purchased a small threadspool whose base was carved out as a needlecase, noting that it was one of the few new items that he had come across during the 1912 trip (our Japanese colleagues believe it might be a Japanese import or copy). He found finely carved wood battens or spatulas ( attush-pera ) used for weaving bark cloth at Pitarupa, about which he noted: "To this place, men and women brought things for sale, mostly carved loom knives which, on account of their age and beauty of their designs, 1 bought" (ibid.: 170). Other weaving equipment in the collection included loom frames, a warp spacer, and a back-brace used to supply tension to the back-strap loom system. Most importantly, he obtained several nettle-fiber garments ( retarpe ) and more than twenty fine elm-bark ( attusb ) costumes (fig. 20.8); most of these are exquisite works of textile arts and embroidery, and some are among the finest of their types in existence.

Within a remarkably short time, Culin had assembled a vast range of objects for his Ainu collection. He purchased objects on his

own and secured two large and important collections from Frederick Starr and John Batchelor. He evaluated the Starr collection carefully, and he took full advantage of the expertise that Batchelor had gained from his long involvement with the Ainu people. Culin's experience as a collector and scholar, as well as his role in preparing Starr's materials for the 1904 St. Louis Exposition, all contributed to his success as a field collector. Although his approach was not systematic or scientific in that he did not try to make a full collection of all elements of material culture, he succeeded in obtaining an ethnographically important and representative collection.

Culin purchased all the artifacts in the collection either in Ainu villages in Hokkaido and the Kuriles or from curio shops, bazaars, local innkeepers, traders, and, of course, from Batchelor and Starr. For Culin, the object itself was the most important informant.

Culin was not always systematic in his search for "old material of good quality,” but he was adept at evaluating opportunities that presented themselves and so he procured rare materials from diverse sources. He also had a keen economic sense,- although he rarely negotiated a price, he was an experienced and successful lauyer who was cautious about his initial purchases and proceeded by trial and error. He often noted in his journal his disappointment at being unable to acquire certain unusual or fine artifacts.

Although Culin kept quite meticulous records about his field trips and his purchases, the objects in the present Brooklyn Ainu collection retain little documentation other than that in his field logs, expense notebooks, and trip reports. In the case of his Native American collecting, he often commissioned replicas in order to represent rare, unobtainable objects. Similarly, Culin's records indicate that he found an old cradle and paid a local Ainu woman twenty yen to replace the calico and foreign strings with Ainu cordage. Culin himself always judged an object's authenticity on whether it was made for the Ainu's own use or for sale to the Japanese,- to collect authentic materials, he counted on careful field observations of objects in use, and he also consulted reliable traders.

MUSEUM COLLECTIONS /A. POSTER

20.8a.b Retarpe Robe Culin was an expert in weaving technology, and so it was natural that he would purchase large numbers of garments and sewing and weaving equipment. This robe is made of nettle-plant fiber (irakusa) and is called retarpe or tetarape, meaning “white things” in the Ainu ianguage. Most retarpe were produced in Sakhalin and have designs linking them to styles used by the Nivkhi and Manchurian Chinese groups. This stunning robe, possibly the best of its type in North America because of its exceptional embroidery and applique work, was purchased by John Batchelor, who sold it Stewart Culin in 1912. (BMA 12.690)

The Brooklyn collection tells a story not only about the Ainu but also about the turn-ofthe-century American curator. Culin was charged with the responsibility to introduce unfamiliar cultures to an American audience using the range of artifacts available in the museum collection. He chose a wide range of objects to present Ainu culture and displayed them at the Brooklyn Museum in 1912 as individual objects that highlighted form, style, technique, and function in Ainu culture. Today's Ainu presentation follows much of the spirit of the original Culin display, but emphasizes art rather than ethnography. Reintroduced after a lapse of eighty years, it exhibits a highly selective group of twenty

objects, from a collection of more than 1,100 Ainu objects, in the permanent gallery of Japanese art. Curators and educators in this display chose the objects for the artistic quality of individual pieces, but it also represents the diversity and artistic heritage of the Ainu people.

The author ipishes to acknowledge the assistance of Miyako Yoshinaga, who compiled the materials for this paper from Stuart Culin's 1912 "Report on a Collecting Trip in Japan, including a Visit to the Kurile Islands and the Hokkaido",- of Deborah Wythe of the Brooklyn Museum of Art Archives, and of Yoshinobu Kotani, who organized the 1993 inventory of the Brooklyn Museum's Ainu artifacts.

21/An

Enthusiastic

Quest: Hiram Hiller and Jenichiro Oyabe in Hokkaido, 1901

Adria H. FCatz

I N THE SPRING OF 190 1 HlRAM M. HlLLER, an American physician and amateur ethnologist (fig. 21.1), had the opportunity to go to Hokkaido to see the Ainu, a "curious people" whom he had long desired to visit. In 1895-96, Hiller had interrupted his medical career to accompany his friend William H. Furness III on a private expedition to the Ryukyus and Sarawak for the purpose of gathering ethnographic collections for the University of Pennsylvania Museum. While in Japan on this trip, Hiller met Dr. Stuart Eldridge, author of an article on the arrow poison used by the Ainu, and from him obtained a small collection of ethnographic items, sixteen of which were Ainu,- these became the first Ainu specimens to be acquired by the University Museum. In 1897, with another Philadelphia friend, Alfred C. Harrison Jr., he undertook a further five years of "eastern collecting" on behalf of the

21.1

21.2

21.1, 21.2 Hiller and Oyabe When Hiram Hiller went to Hokkaido in 1901 to make an Ainu collection for the University of Pennsylvania Museum he recruited Jenichiro Oyabe to accompany him as guide and interpreter. He recorded his satisfaction with Oyabe in his journal (1901): “It was lucky for me that he came, for he turned a doubtful undertaking into an enthusiastic quest. He was indefatigable, intensely in earnest, a trained student, and an agreeable companion-all essentials when you go to Yezo to visit the Aino settlements.” (UPM S4-142865, T4-893)

museum, which was financed by Harrison's father. At the beginning of their final expedition, to Sumatra, Hiller and Harrison stopped in Japan for several months. They arrived in Yokohama at the end of March 1901, and while Harrison, who was not interested in the side trip, concentrated on completing his elaborate Japanese tattoos, Hiller prepared to go to Hokkaido.

Hiller had no trouble making official arrangements for his trip, but he needed someone to advise him on such practical details as methods of transportation, road conditions at that time of year, and where he should go to see the Ainu "to the best advantage." He also needed someone who

knew Ainu and spoke good English to interpret for him. As he pursued his inquiries, one name kept coming up: the man he needed to talk to, everyone said, was Jenichiro Oyabe (fig. 21.2). Hiller met Oyabe in Tokyo, where Oyabe was working for an Ainu aid society, giving lectures to raise money for the education of the Ainu people. Oyabe readily agreed to accompany Hiller to Hokkaido, and he quickly swung into action by notifying the newspapers of their trip, booking Hiller's passsage to Hakodate, buying goods for trade with the Ainu, and recruiting a Tokyo University student named Ryunjiro Shirai to come along as a general "servant."

Oyabe gave Hiller a copy of his autobiography, A Japanese Robinson Crusoe (1 898), and while on the steamer to Hakodate, Hiller read this account of what had already been an extraordinary life. Inspired by the story of the Japanese hero Yoshitsune, the young Oyabe decided to devote his life to working for the Ainu, and in 1 884 at the age of seventeen, he left home to go to Hokkaido and live in an Ainu village. Concluding, however, that he could save the Ainu only by introducing them to "a true religion," he resolved to make his way to America to get a Christian education. He arrived in New York on Christmas Day 1888, and he soon found his way to the Hampton Institute in Virginia, where he enrolled in the agriculture department and the normal school,- while at Hampton, he converted to Christianity. He then studied at Howard and Yale, was ordained, and served two years in Honolulu as a missionary for the Hawaiian Evangelical Association. By the end of 1898 he was back in Japan, ready to resume his life's mission. On the doors of the Yoshitsune shrine near the Ainu village of Piratori he wrote a prayer that, two years later, Hiller would see and transcribe in his journal: ". . . out of pity for the weak and poor Ainu you came to help them. The hearts of heroes beats [sic] the same today as in those days of old. For fifteen years I too have tried to help these poor natives as you did long ago. Pity me, Spirit of Yoshitsune and accept my prayer" (Hiller's journal, 12 May 1901).

Hiller and Oyabe met in Hakodate on May 6, took the steamer to Muroran, and set out immediately for the Ainu villages. Shirai was sent ahead to the larger towns with the baggage, and Hiller and Oyabe traveled light: "[Oyabe] has a pocket full of books and 1 have a toothbrush and a camera—my baggage is

21.3 Hiller and Oyabe’s Hokkaido Travels Hiller’s and Oyabe’s 1901 expedition to Hokkaido was in two parts. The first was a tour of Ainu villages along the south coast of the island, from Muroran to Urakawa and up into the Mukawa and Saru river valleys. The second was a circuit of Volcano Bay, from Mori to Muroran. Hiller considered, but ultimately rejected, the idea of continuing east as far as Nemuro or north to the Sshikari and Kamikawa regions.

Dear only knows where" (Hiller to his sister Lida, 9 May 1901). They went by train as far as Numanohata, then by stage, horse cart, horseback, and on foot, staying overnight at Japanese inns or the houses of village leaders he called chiefs. The first part of the trip, beginning in Muroran on May 8 and ending in Urakawa on May 27, covered villages along the coast and in the Mukawa and Saru river valleys (fig. 21.3). The plan was to continue on to Kushiro and Nemuro, but in Urakawa Hiller took stock. Because "horses were scarce, the roads were bad and the Ainus few for the next hundred or so miles," he decided to return to Hakodate and take a steamer to Kushiro,- in Hakodate, however, the steamer schedule was interrupted by storms, and Hiller opted for a more modest excursion. He and Oyabe undertook a weeklong tour of villages around Volcano Bay, beginning in Mori on May 29 and ending in Muroran on June 4.

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i rlHakodate

Altogether, they were on the road for about a month, often passing through several villages a day and rarely spending more than a morning or an afternoon in any one of them. The pace was killing, the travel strenuous, and the weather sometimes wet and cold, but somehow Hiller managed to take a good number of photographs, keep a journal, and acquire a collection of nearly three hundred ethnographic and archaeological objects (figs. 21.4, 21.7, 21.8).

On previous expeditions, Furness or Harrison had taken the photographs, and at first Hiller wanted to hire a photographer. However, Oyabe pointed out that if Hiller could handle the job himself, a photographer

was unnecessary, and Hiller agreed: "I am going to do the photography myself to lessen the number of men. . . . Everyone advises taking a small party among the Ainu" (Hiller to Lida, 1 May 1901). He took two cameras, one using 8x10-inch glass plates and the other a small "pocket Kodak." The large camera was cumbersome, especially when carried on horseback, and Hiller mined a certain number of plates: of a batch of twenty-four plates developed in Sapporo at the end of the trip, for example, six were lost to overexposure, double exposure, or fogging caused by leaky plateholders. In the end, however, he was glad he had brought both cameras: "You can't make good photos with films . . . you must have plates and focus them, to get good detail. . . . Snap-shots are only for . . . genera! effect pictures in attitudes impossible in set photos— so that they ought always to have some 'action' in them. This is what 1 learned as a result of the Ainu trip" (Hiller to Lida, 10 December 1904). Hiller's photographs, even when posed, tend to have an unstudied, impromptu feel.

One of Hiller's main objectives was to make notes on Ainu "manners and customs,” by which he meant everything from habitations, possessions, clothing, and ornaments to sickness and charms, death and burial, and religious beliefs. Although he recognized that he could not learn much in just a few weeks and that he was handicapped by the necessity of working through an interpreter, he was undaunted. Before the trip, he evidently read the various papers about the Ainu that had been published in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, including several by John Batchelor and Basil Hall Chamberlain,- "On the Arrow Poison in Use Among the Ainos of Yezo” by Dr. Stuart Eldridge,- and "Ainu Economic Plants" by John Batchelor and Dr. Kingo Miyabe. In Hokkaido he carried with him a copy of Batchelor's The Ainu of Japan, which he considered "the only good thing in book form on these people" (Hiller to Stewart Culin, 8 July 1901). When there was time, Oyabe read to Hiller passages from Japanese books on travel, history, and the Ainu.

Hiller's journal entries are an often bewildering mix of travel diary, descriptions of villages, people, and objects, and Ainu responses to Oyabe's questioning, into which information from these various other sources is interjected from time to time.

Hiller's other main objective was to

21/UPM: HILLER AND OYABE

163

21.4

21 . 4 , 21.5 Old-Style Headgear Hiller was interested in documenting customs and materials that were going out of style, like the use of hooded headwear, in Motomuroran he photographed a man and woman wearing hoods; the hood displayed here is the one that is worn by the woman on the right in the photograph. Hiller also recorded the Ainu names for most kinds of objects he collected. The woman’s hood, which he labeled hok abori, was listed by John Batchelor in his 1905 Ainu dictionary as hokkamburr, both are Japanese terms. (UPM A402; UPM neg. T4-891)

secure an ethnographic collection for the University of Pennsylvania Museum. In Shiraoi, Okotsonai, and Piratori, the villages in which he did most of his collecting, people brought things to sell to him In his journal, Hiller described how they proceeded in Shiraoi:

At the home of [head man] Ikastok we gathered in all the villagers who had goods to sell: bows, quivers, cloth, loom furniture, dishes, etc. Oyabe then put them into piles belonging to the different owners. By the side of each pile he placed combs, mirrors, scissors, cloth, and other bazaar chattels as he thought was the equivalent of the Ainu

goods. It required some time and much thought on his part to get the right articles for the particular vendor and then began the dickering—changing an article here, withdrawing one there and finally adding a little money. On the whole we paid about the right price, for Oyabe sympathizes with them and will not cheat. Moreover when he finds a man who will only sell for money he finds out if he is a drunkard and then he will not buy with money only with goods... When we had finished our purchasing, the articles were all put into a mat, and a woman carried them down to our inn ... Ikastok accompanied us and helped us put the names on each article (Hiller's journal, 10 May 1901).

Hiller was particularly eager to collect objects associated with Ainu religion or "superstitions," but these were harder to obtain. Things that had been placed on the nusa (special offering places near Ainu houses) and objects to which inaw-kike (ritual willow shavings) had been attached could almost never be bought. Among the things Hiller found in his forays into and around Ainu houses, but which he did not succeed in buying, were some old quivers and knife scabbards that "had outlived their usefulness and had been dedicated to the gods" hanging on a nusa in Shikiu,- skewers for bear's meat from the most recent bear ceremony on a nusa in Shiraoi,- and an heirloom quiver still in use but with "a big bundle of inau" around its middle, also in Shiraoi. New skewers were made for Hiller, however, and the owner of the heirloom quiver sold him a similar one without

inaw (Hiller's journal, 8 May to I Sept. 1901). Some things were relinquished with obvious reluctance. The head man of the village of Oshamambe let him have a quiver to which were attached inaw and a wallet with a protective charm (the head of a small bird or animal), but according to Hiller, "the old man was veiy particular that no one in the village should know that he had parted with such sacred relics else a deputation would await upon him to know why" (Hiller's journal, 31 May 1901).

Toward the end of his trip, at a village near Mori on Volcano Bay, Hiller was finally able to obtain a bear skull (after the annual Ainu bear ceremony, the skull of the bear was added to the nusa]. This nusa belonged to

Benkai, a head man who, according to Hiller, had "turned Japanese" and "does not care to be called an Ainu." Benkai (fig. 21.6) was something of a local celebrity, having gone to Tokyo with two bear cubs as a present for the Crown Prince on

21.6 Benkai’s Family at Nusa Hiller took this photograph at a village near Mori on May 30, 1901, at the home of a man who, he said, “had turned Japanese” and who agreed to sell him a bear skull, which Hiller had been unable to acquire else where on his trip. Hiller offered to take a photograph of Benkai’s family, and noted, “There was a wild scurry and much hair-combing before they got ready to be photoed, and then they looked like a lot of Japanese in old theatricals” (Hiller journal). Staging such a secular photo opportunity at Benkai’s old sacred nusa (altar) with its animal-skull offerings is a vivid presentation of how Ainu culture was changing at the time. "No orthodox Ainu would have dared to desecrate his nusa as Benkai did," wrote Hiller, who had his images colored for use as lantern slides in lectures. (UPM LS-16453)

the occasion of his marriage. Like many Ainu head men, he lived in a Japanesestyle house, but his house contained a Japanese shrine and lacked Benkai's "treasures in old Japfanese] ware"—his "former heirlooms"—which he had contributed to a collection made by him and a wealthy Japanese friend, Dr. Mikaoka, in Mori. "No orthodox Ainu," wrote Hiller, "would have dared to desecrate his nusa as Benkai did."

Both Hiller and Oyabe were interested in the relationship of the Ainu to the legendary folk called koropok-cjuru, associated with the pits to be seen near many Ainu villages, and to the Stone Age people whose tools and pottery (fig. 21.7) were being discovered at various places around Hokkaido. Oyabe was particularly excited by these questions: "'Koropok Guru,' 'Pits,' and 'Stone Age People' agitates the brain of the Japanese students, and Oyabe had me riding hither and thither, digging holes, Etc. without any organized plan" (Hiller's journal, 13 May 1901). Hiller insisted that they stop long enough to dig properly, and he described and sketched

trenches dug by him, Oyabe, and Shirai at several sites. Excavation of a rectangular pit near Niewan yielded ashes, charcoal, charred and broken bones, and flat round stones, but in similar pits near Okotsonai they found "not even a trace of a fire-place." In a ravine on the road west of Niikappu, on both sides of which were scattered pottery fragments and stone tools, they dug down to a pavement of flat stones accompanied by fragments of rope-marked pottery. Near Motomuroran they explored a midden that was full of broken pottery, stone tools, shells, and broken bones. Oyabe was full of speculations ("Oyabe's theories would make a book"), but Hiller was more skeptical: "From the few facts that we gathered in these various excavations we are not able to conclude anything . . . beyond the fact that these pits were in some cases used as habitation . . . and that the evidences of ante-historic habitations are to be found on the south coast of Yezo as well as farther to the northward" (Hiller mss., Ch. XVII).

By the time he and Oyabe got to Volcano Bay, Hiller was buying selectively, filling perceived gaps in his ethnographic collection. Into his description of the stage trip to Mori is inserted what appears to be a list of objects still wanted: "War club/ Bow/ Arrow Case/ Millet shells/ Deer decoy/ Jews harp/ Wood pipe/ Japfanese] sake cups."

After the circuit of Volcano Bay, where he found the clubs he had not seen in the first part of his trip, Hiller went with Dr. Miyabe to see the Ainu collection in the museum at the Sapporo Agricultural College: "Some Kurile Island and Saghalien Ainu specimans [sic] a little different but Deer decoy and Jews harp alone are new to our list" (Hiller's journal, 6 June 1901). Although he toyed briefly with the idea of going north to Ishikari and Kamikawa, Hiller felt that he had already done most of what he had set out to do, so he returned to Yokohama: "The collection is all but complete—I have oceans of notes but, of course, in a month's trip 1 can't know all 1 want to about the Ainus—I have five big bundles and boxes of specimans [sic] that will make a representative collection—as good as any on earth" (Hiller to Lida, 6 June 1901).

In Yokohama Hiller claimed his baggage and released Shirai, who, saying that he was "going to teach the Ainus,” left to rejoin Oyabe in Sapporo (Hiller's journal, 14 June

21.7 Spouted Pot Hiller was also interested in the question of Ainu origins and investigated archaeological sites and collections in Hokkaido. This spouted, rope-marked, and dentate-stamped Post-Jomon-period pot is one of a number of well-preserved specimens that emerged in their quest for the stone age peoples who were thought to be the predecessors of the Ainu. (UPM A522; neg. T4-895)

1901). He then turned his attention to winding up the Ainu expedition before leaving for Sumatra: "My lantern slides (figs. 21.5, 21.6) came out beautifully—I have 48, and so well made and colored—my enlargements also came out fine. The collection has been sent home, and I have 55 pages of notes that are in typewritten form, almost ready for the printer" (Hiller to Lida, 13 July 1901). He wrote to Stewart Culin, the University of Pennsylvania Museum's Curator of Asia and General Ethnology, that "the Ainu specimans [sic] are labeled and most of them can be displayed at once, if you want to put them on exhibition" (Hiller to Culin 8 July 1901). When he returned to Philadelphia in January of 1902 he found his Ainu materials on view at the museum (arranged on tables, probably), and by June he was able to report that Culin had installed the Ainu collection in the Oriental Hall, where it filled two new cases: "It looks 100% better than I thought such rough material ever could look" (Hiller to Lida, 17 June 1902).

Hiller and Oyabe continued to correspond for a couple of years. When they were together in Hokkaido, Oyabe had confided to Hiller his plan to establish a model school, and in September of 1901 he reported that he had built the school and a house for himself in Abuta, where Shirai was living with him. In the spring of 1902 he sent Hiller a few additional items for his collection: a mouth harp, a deer decoy, and a loom with unfinished cloth woven from elm-bark-fiber (attush). (Because weaving was done in the fall and winter, Hiller had not been able to find a loom set up, with cloth on it.) He described a bear ceremony he

had attended, and he asked Hiller to send him a Kodak so that he could record such events in the future. He also asked for a copy of the British Anthropological Institute's Notes and Queries on Anthropology, which described standards for field collecting and documentation The Kodak was gratefully received, but in July 1903 Oyabe confessed that he had not used it much because film and developing were so expensive. Shirai, he said, was doing well and was teaching at the school. In this, apparently his last letter, he asked Hiller if he could help him to arrange to take some Ainu objects and an Ainu man and woman to exhibit at the St. Louis Exposition (Letters from Oyabe to Hiller, 15 September 1901, 15 March 1902, 14 April 1902, 3 July 1903).

For nine years after the trip with Hiller, Oyabe remained in Hokkaido and continued his work to educate the Ainu, and along the way he built several impressive collections.

The LIniversity of Chicago anthropologist Frederick Starr, who visited Oyabe in February 1910, estimated that "he has more books and kakemono [literally, "hanging things," usually referring to scrolls, and in this case, Ainu-e ] of the Ainu than are in any other Japanese collections," and that his collection of Ainu photographs was "probably the most extensive." His archaeological collection, which was "fine and includes over 1,000 specimens," he considered "the only serious Hokkaido Collection Among the ethnographic artifacts Oyabe showed him, Starr was most intrigued by the great variety of frontlets, divination skulls, and "moustache lifters ( ikupasuy )". At this point, Oyabe was about to leave his school.

"He claims," wrote Starr, "he has given Ainu a sufficient share of his life's energy. . . . He will continue to agitate in favor of Ainu advancement but as a secondary interest. His life now is to be given to combining the fundamental points of Christianity with Shinto—in other words to found and preach a reformation of Shinto" (Starr 1909-1 1 , Notebook 6. 46-48). Why Oyabe left his school is something of a mystery: he claimed that the years he had devoted to the Ainu had destroyed his health, but Starr suspected that there had been some disagreement with "the Department." In any case, Oyabe returned to Tokyo, where, in December 191 1, he sold his ethnographic collection to Starr.

When Hiller returned from Sumatra, Alfred Harrison's father offered to set him up as resident manager of one of his sugar

plantations, and Hiller was soon caught up in plans for a move to Cuba and for his impending wedding, preoccupations that, he wrote, "take my time away from such frivolities as Anthropology" (Hiller to his mother, 25 July 1902). Even while going back

21.8 Tashiro with Easie Beak and Talon One of the first Ainu objects to enter the Pennsylvania collections was a knife and sheath acquired by Hiram Hiiier from Dr. Stuart Eldridge in Yokohama in December 1895.

Eldridge told Hiller that it was an “Ainu chief’s knife,” which had been presented to him "out of gratitude for a hypodermic of morphia for the relief of a bellyache from which the chief had been suffering.” Kazuyoshi Ohtsuka, Professor at the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, inspected this knife in February 1997 and concluded that its style was Japanese and that it probably had been made by an Ainu for a non-Ainu. The bird beak and claw on the sheath have been identified as being from a white-tailed eagle (sea eagle, Haliaeetus albicilla), whose range includes Hokkaido. (UPM A17744A, B)

and forth to Cuba, however, he managed to give some attention to winding up his Ainu research. He turned over to a colleague at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School a sample of Ainu arrow poison that he had found in the house of the head man at Okotsonai and had managed to obtain "after a struggle." Dr. Edward T. Reichert observed the effects of the poison on a number of laboratory dogs and concluded that these effects were consonant with the findings of Dr. Eldridge and Dr. Miyabe that the active ingredient was aconite (specifically, according to Miyabe, Aconitum spp.) (Reichert 1903). Hiller also expanded his notes on "the manners and customs of the Ainu" and his travels in Hokkaido into a manuscript of some 50,000 words, which he submitted to George B. Gordon, Culin's successor as Assistant Curator of General Ethnology at the University Museum. In October of 1905 Gordon notified him that the

Board of Managers had accepted the manuscript for publication, but "it happens that there is no money on hand at present that can

be used for this purpose" (Gordon to Hiller,

28 October 1905),- evidently the money never was forthcoming for it is still unpublished. Although he was flattered that the Museum wanted to publish the manuscript, Hiller himself claimed not to think much of it, and he did not pursue the matter further.

The Sumatra expedition, with Hiller's side trip to Hokkaido, marked the end of Hiller and Harrison's five years of collecting for the University of Pennsylvania Museum. On the eve of their departure for Gunong Soegi, the last Sumatran village they stopped at before heading home, Hiller wrote: "Gunong Soegi will likely see the last of my Ethnographical & other field work, though I am liable to dabble at it for many years or even all of my life - in an amateur way" (Hiller to Lida, 3 September 1901). In fact, during the Cuba years, Hiller's involvement with ethnography came to an end. In 1907 he returned to Philadelphia to resume the practice of medicine, which he pursued until his death in 1921. His collections and field work remain, however, and what he and Oyabe accomplished in Hokkaido, in a short time and under difficult conditions, is a tribute to their shared enthusiasm, determination, and commitment.

This article is drawn almost entirely from materials relating to Hiram M. Hiller's Hokkaido trip in the University of Pennsylvania Museum Archives and Photo Archives. Information about Frederick Starr is from his field notes in the Department of Special Collections, University of Chicago Library. Yujin Yaguchi contributed information about the lives of Jenichiro Oyabe and Ryunjiro Shirai.

From Snowshoe to "Corn Mortars":

Early Ainu Collections at the American Museum of Natural History

Laurel Kendall

22.1 Shiraoi Ainu This photograph of an Ainu group at Shiraoi was taken ca. 1900, long before Shiraoi became an Ainu tourist attraction in the late twentieth century. Today the Ainu Museum at Shiraoi is an important research center for Ainu cultural studies where exhibits of Ainu artifacts are presented and Ainu cultural traditions are demonstrated to the public. (AMNH 338769)

I N 1 869, THE YEAR OF ITS INCEPTION, THE American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) accepted a single Ainu snowshoe (AMNH cat. no. 1/2402) into its collection as a gift from the museum's first president, Albert L. Bickmore, who had recently returned from a zoological journey through the Malay Archipelago, the Dutch East Indies, Japan, Eastern Siberia, and China. In public lectures after his travels, Bickmore would pique the curiosity of his audiences by asserting the theory, later disputed, that the features of the Ainu essentially resemble those of Caucasians (Bickmore 1868: 403). Bickmore was one of the first to promote this view, and his challenge was soon taken up by European and American scholars who began to investigate Ainu relationships and ancestry from historical, linguistic, and anthropological points of view (see Kreiner, this volume).

In 1898 the museum initiated its first handwritten catalogue of "Asian Ethnographic Collections" with a gift of some eighty Ainu objects from Arthur Curtiss James. In 1896 James was a wealthy young man with the means to realize his scientific interests in an expedition, although on a smaller scale than that undertaken by the similarly well-endowed William H. Furness, Hiram M. Hiller, and Alfred C. Harrison, who collected extensively for the University of Pennsylvania Museum (see Katz, this volume). James organized a trans-Pacific cruise to record an eclipse in northern Japan. Before his departure, he contacted the AMNH, offering his assistance to the nascent Department of Anthropology.

Frederick W. Putnam, then Curator of Anthropology, charged him with collecting objects of ethnological interest "at any islands in the Pacific" and gave some general guidelines regarding authenticity ("things made and used by native peoples"), including the desirability of illustrating methods of manufacture by collecting raw materials. Putnam was particularly enthusiastic about acquiring an Ainu collection and was already aware of those signature objects that would constitute Ainu culture in many collections and museum exhibits to come. As guidance for James, Putnam wrote:

The Ainos weave a kind of cloth from a grass which they make into a thread, and it will be worthwhile to try to secure a complete hand loom with all the articles used in weaving, including the grass thread and if possible a piece of the cloth partly woven on the loom,- also specimens of the grass itself. . . . You will come across many of the so-called mustache sticks [ikupasuy] which are more or less elaborately carved, and a collection of these would be especially interesting owing to the symbols carved upon them and as furnishing the means of studying these sticks which probably have some religious significance. . . . The Ainos have peculiar religious ceremonies, using prayer sticks and various symbolic devices all of which are important, and still more so if you can obtain a knowledge of the meaning of the symbols, or how and why the various objects are used (Putnam to James, 20 March 1896, AMNH Anthropology Archive).

22.2 Bashford Dean Naturalist Bashford Dean was about to set out on a zoological expedition to Japan when Franz Boas, Curator of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History, suggested he try to collect materials from the Ainu. Dean took up the suggestion and in September 1900 assembled a large collection that forms the core of the American Museum of Natural History’s Ainu collection. In time Dean became Curator of Fishes at the museum, but his diverse talents led him in other directions as well: he also became Curator of Arms and Armor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Professor of Zoology at Columbia University. This photograph was taken when he was a major during World War I. (AMNH 312546)

By the turn of the century the Ainu had already been inscribed upon the western ethnographic imagination as a people who wove textiles from unusual fibers ( attusb made from elm bark and retarpe from the nettle plant) and used in their rituals elaborately carved prayer sticks that doubled as libation wands ( ikupasuy ) and whittled offering sticks (rump). They were a people possessed of a material culture sufficiently distinct and mysterious to pique late-nineteenth-century curatorial desire. The Ainu had already become the subjects of scientific writing and travelers' accounts (Chamberlain 1887c). Putnam may have been aware of Hitchcock's collecting for the Smithsonian and Odium's for the Royal Ontario Museum (Kotani 1993a).

In Hokkaido, James turned the responsibility for collecting over to Professor Nitobe of the Agricultural College at Sapporo, who was said to be "nearly as renowned as Dr.

John Batchelor as an authority on Ainu manners and customs." Batchelor, whose scholarly writings on the Amu had secured his reputation, was not available as a collector but did send copies of his publications back to the museum. Nitobe, armed with a copy of Putnam's instructions, agreed to supervise two of his students who would "go throughout the country and pick up the things you want as best they could." James arranged to have the collection shipped, and by December 1901, it was installed in a museum showcase with a plaque acknowledging his contribution (James to Winser, 10 December 1901).

James's activities for the museum raise interesting questions about his role as

"collector" rather than simply as a "benefactor," "donor," or "facilitator." In his case, these roles appear to have been mixed more than they were in most other museum collecting programs. A few years later, James would quietly finance the purchase of Ainu artifacts assembled on behalf of the museum by Bashford Dean. Throughout his life, his philanthropy would be cloaked in anonymity, with some of his generosity revealed only after his death (New York Times, 6 August 1964). In this instance, being there—and perhaps his youth—seems to have made a difference in how he regarded the work,certainly he was closer to the action of this modest enterprise than AMNH President Morris K. Jesup was to the massive endeavor that bears his name, the Jesup North Pacific Expedition (fig. 22.3). Even so, it would seem that the actual collector of the "James Collection" was Professor Nitobe or, most precisely, the two nameless students who wandered through the villages. In any case, the Sakhalin material in this collection, and perhaps other things as well, would have been precollected by dealers already active in Hokkaido.

What sort of collection was it? Putnam had been emphatic that "the value of any ethnological object is increased ten-fold by an authentic label stating where it comes from and such information as can be obtained relating to it." He suggested that James take a number of Dennison tags "to tie upon the specimens you may obtain and thus label them as you secure them" (Putnam to James, 20 March 1896). Someone, probably Nitobe, did take care to record local words and brief slugs of description, as shown by some typical catalogue entries:

70/20. Karop. Used to hold the flint and steel, knife, tobacco, and sword guards and other things which the Ainu, in case of necessity, uses as indemnity, and other things used in traveling and hunting.

70/26. Kamuiparatek. Bear's foot. Not used by the Ainu for any particular purpose. Perhaps kept for the sake of the Japanese (ie. to sell) or by a Japanese.

Following Putnam's directive, the collection includes a range of tools, weapons, and objects of daily use, religious objects, clothing, and jewelry. The tufted sticks ( inaw ), prayer sticks (ikupasuy), and weaver's tools specifically requested by Putnam are represented, and there is a house model, one

of many brought to the museum in those years in order to display a range of world cultures within the confines of museum cases. Although Nitobe and his student collectors had put together an admirable collection of finished Ainu objects, similar to others that had been assembled there earlier, Putnams instructions for broader representative materials and documentation needed to support his emergent concept of "museum anthropology" was not fulfilled. In Sapporo a collection was understood to mean things and tools used to make things, but not the raw materials from which things were fashioned: for instance, loom pieces were collected, but not elm bark for weaving. And although Putnam had requested photographs both of "the people in natural poses" and individual portraits "full front and exact profile" to "bring out the physical characteristics of the people in the way that anthropologists require for comparative study" (Putnam to James, 20 March 1 896), no photographs were taken.

A few years later, in September 1900, Bashford Dean (fig. 22.2) traveled through Hokkaido and assembled the museum's largest Ainu collec

tion. Dean, a true Renaissance man, would become the distinguished Curator of Fishes at the AMNH, Professor of Zoology at Columbia University, and Curator of Arms and Armor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (The link between these apparently disparate lines of interest was bodily protection: arms and armor, whether of men or Devonian fishes [Osborn 1929]).

Dean became a collector almost by accident. About to depart on an AMNH zoological expedition to Japan, he met with Franz Boas, then Curator of Anthropology, who indicated that the AMNH might be interested in whatever Dean could collect among the Ainu, and a seed was planted. Dean describes in a letter to Boas how he went to Hokkaido with the idea of merely visiting Hakodate but then became inspired to make the collection himself and "started in on a somewhat enthusiastic collecting trip" (ibid.). Dean is thus one among that company of turn-of-the-century naturalist-collectors who made an easy transition between zoological specimens and objects of material culture: men like the biologist Edward Sylvester Morse, whose sudden infatuation with things Japanese would enrich the Peabody Essex Museum, and Herbert Lang and James Chapin who would make a combined zoological and ethnographic collection in Central Africa for the AMNH (Rosenstone 1988, Schildkrout and Keim 1990).

Dean's handwritten catalogue begins with the statement, "The following material was collected by me in Hokkaido (Yezo) during September 1900, and with the exception of some objects from Piratori and Saghalien [Sakhalin], it was secured by me personally at the Aino villages" (Bashford Dean catalogue, AMNH, Anthropology Archive, 1901-77). Who accompanied him? Who led him to places where objects might be acquired? Who led him through delicate negotiations over the purchase of

family heirlooms? Dean's collection of 288 objects includes, in his words, "a little of everything in the Aino way,- weapons, costumes, utensils, a few models, and quite a

22.5 Ikupasuy

Among the objects from Hokkaido and Sakhalin acquired by Arthur Curtiss James was this unusual ikupasuy that accentuates the peculiar nature of its natural form. "Found objects” and abstract forms of modern Ainu art have a long history in Ainu culture. (AMNH 70/23)

22.3 Crescent Carving This finely carved bone or ivory tool was collected by Berthold Laufer from the Sakhalin Ainu in 1899 as part of his work for the Jesup North Pacific Expedition. Laufer spent little time with the Ainu and his collections from this and other groups of the Lower Amur region disappointed Boas, who had hoped for a large collection from this region. Although the implement's use was not recorded, it resembles a sailor’s marlin spike used to loosen knots, and its decoration is similar to styles from the Asian mainland. (AMNH 70/1739)

22.4 It’s an IkupasuyI These wonderfully abstract prayer sticks from Hokkaido illustrate a small portion of more than fifty specimens in the American Museum of Natural History, eleven collected by Arthur Curtiss James from Hokkaido and Sakhalin between 1896 and 1898, and thirty-nine by Bashford Dean from Ainu villages in the Saru River region in 1900. The terms used to describe them are almost as numerous as the artistic treatments themselves and include mustache stick, mustache lifter, libation wand, and prayer stick. But none does justice to this complex religious article except its own name, ikupasuy. (AMNH 70/4189, 70/4192, 70/2955)

number of pieces connected with their curious religious rites" (Dean to Boas, 24 October 1901). Dean paid particular attention to garments (fig. 22.6), recognizing that they were "highly prized . . . and they represent a vast amount of hand-work, and the ancient family belongings are somewhat difficult to secure" (ibid.). Memorialized as a man possessed of a "native sense of form and beauty" (Osborn 1929), Dean brought many stunning examples of Ainu textiles to the AMNH collection.

Dean's training as a naturalist is evident in the precise field entry he wrote for each of

the several hundred objects that he collected, which include such useful information as the name of the village where each object was acquired. Compared with the James catalogue, one misses the local words for things and the ethnographic descriptions of how objects were used. Dean's entries are brief and descriptive: "70/3959 (8) Embroidered headband of woman Dark blue and white. Shiraoi. 70/3986 (34) Skinning knife with long wedge-shaped handle. Shikiu."

He rarely provides a local word: "Iku-pasui" from the James list becomes "mustache stick" in the Dean entries. After a few pages of such abbreviated entries, it is refreshing to stumble upon Dean's note with "corn mortar: small specimen" (AMNH 70/4085 (131) Shiraoi):

These specimens are difficult to collect.

I was able to secure the present one on condition that the ijobei [inaw], which were especially prepared for it, should accompany it, attached to its margin, in the museum. The owner assured me that it had given food to his family for several hundred years (?) and that he did not want to offend it. So I must take it on the condition that the gohei shall not be separated from it (Bashford Dean catalogue).

Here, at least, the object is embedded in a larger world of meaning that adheres to it even when it is entered as a "specimen" in a natural history catalogue. But how, and through what mediation, was this knowledge communicated to Dean? What circumstances prompted the owner to give up an object that still commanded so much respect?

Hokkaido Ainu culture had already progressed far beyond Putnam's vision of native communities, which was informed primarily by the Native American situation, where the naive traveler, with a minimum of professional direction, might easily assemble an ethnographic collection from objects of daily use (figs. 22.3-22.9). Dean describes a Hokkaido where Ainu material "is very difficult to come by at any cost" (Dean to Boas, 24 October 1901),- things had to be hunted down, and high prices paid. Dean's catalogue is sprinkled with notations that particular objects were "rare," "difficult to acquire," or "the only one in the community." In his letter to Boas, he speaks of having experienced an "interesting and sometimes quite difficult time in securing a prize object" and indicates that the cost of making an Ainu collection ($250) was far

22.6 Retarpe Robe

Nettle fiber made excellent cloth, lighter and thinner than elm bark; this cloth was called either retarpe or tetarpe, which mean “white things." Most of these garments were produced in Sakhalin and share some designs with Nivkhi, Nanai, and Chinese garments. This piece was collected in Sakhalin by Berthold Laufer during the Jesup North Pacific Expedition in 18981900. (AMNH 79/906)

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22.7 Tobacco Pouch

Chinese or Russian blue beads adorn the margins of this Sakhalin Ainu tobacco pouch ( ruyomah) collected by Arthur Curtiss James ca. 1896-98. Pouches made of sealskin, here sewn in an elaborate piecework construction, were common among Sakhalin Ainu, for whom seal was an important economic resource. (AMNH 70/15)

22.8 Carved Pipe

The Ainu used tobacco pipes (kiseri) of two different types: metal and wood. Metal pipes were acquired by trade, while wood pipes (rasupani) were made personally from a curved branch of the hydrangea tree, which naturally has a hollow core. A rare sacred pipe (kamuykiseri ) used in the bear-sending ceremony had two stems carved from a forked branch, one stem for the bear and one for a man. Bashford Dean collected this pipe in Shiraoi in 1900. (AMNH 70/3998)

greater than he had anticipated (ibid.).

Local entrepreneurs seem to have become middlemen in collecting and securing objects from remote villages and even as far away as Sakhalin. Someone in Hokkaido seems to have been skilled at making the models of Ainu life that turn-of-the-century museum curators wanted for their displays, for models appear in both the James and the Dean collections. The Ainu photographs that Dean gave to the American Museum of Natural History (fig. 22.1) are not his own field shots, but appear to be pages from a

good-quality tourist album. The competitive spirit among collectors seems to have been well established by the time of Dean's visit.

As in so many other places, visitors like Dean relied on leads supplied by expatriates like Batchelor, and the "coup" of a particularly good find fueled conversations between them. Batchelor evidently saw Dean's materials, for the catalogue makes reference to his evaluation of Dean pieces that "appear to be of exceptional rarity" (Bashford Dean catalogue).

Between Bickmore's fragmentary sketch of the Ainu published in 1868 and Putnam's letter to James in 1896, the Ainu had come into focus as a people of ethnographic significance whose lifeways might be apprehended through the acquisition of their distinctive material culture, or so it was assumed at the time. As curators in a newly established Department of Anthropology, both Putnam and Boas thought it important to acquire Ainu collections for the museum. Ainu religion, described as "peculiar” by Putnam and "curious" by Dean, intrigued both Boas and Putnam, and they placed a high value on obtaining its material manifestations: if it could not be understood, it might at least be collected for future decoding. Early reports from Bickmore and others that the Ainu were Caucasoid look-alikes fueled the interest of early anthropologists, but if this were the extent of scholarly interest, then we should expect only a ghoulish traffic in bones. The history of early collecting at the American Museum of Natural History instead suggests that by the end of the last century, Ainu objects were prized by collectors both as pieces in an intriguing ethnographic puzzle and as examples of beautiful and elaborate handiwork, even as these things were passing from common use.

Several members of the staff of the American Museum of Natural History assisted in the preparation of this essay: Belinda Kaye, Nina Root, Joel Sweimler, Jane Liu, and most particularly, Ann Wrigbt-Parsons.

22.9, 22.10 Strike-a-Light Kit Ainu fire kits (piwci) contained a steel striker, a quartz stone, and tinder of powdered wood fungus or charcoal. These materials were stored in a pouch ( karop) and were used to light pipe tobacco and fires for cooking and heat. The steel usually came from broken iron pots or knives. Laufer collected this kit, made of sturgeon skin ornamented with an ivory bead and a Japanese coin, in Sakhalin in 1899. The fire kit would be worn suspended from a man’s belt along with his smoking kit, as is seen here in an Ainu-e from Drawings of Travels through Ezo (1799) by Gentan Tani. (AMNH 70/1263; HML)

22.9

22.10

Japanese

Ainu

Collections

Nobukatsu Aoyagi

AND KojI DeRIHA

T he term "Ainu collections" is

often misinterpreted to mean items gathered in the distant past. Ethnological collections in general are often perceived by the public as consisting of materials used to study distant peoples and faraway cultures and utilized for educational purposes in museums. Although many Japanese museums do indeed have such historical collections, some museums in Hokkaido actively collect and exhibit newly produced items in order to represent modern Ainu culture and history and will continue to collect Ainu-related materials. This essay presents an overview of both types of collections in Japanese institutions.

Many museums in Japan, especially those in Hokkaido, house Ainu-related materials,- these collections vary in size and quality. Most of these items were gathered by scholars and enthusiasts after the late nineteenth century, but a limited number of objects were collected prior to that time. Unfortunately, in some of these collections it is not uncommon for artifacts to lack basic ethnological information, such as location, collector, owner, or makers name.

The first systematic collection of Ainu artifacts in Japan was created in order to exhibit these items at the Vienna World's Fair of 1873 in the exhibit of arts and special products of Japan. Two examples of each item were collected so that one could be sent to the World's Fair and the other could be kept in a museum. Some of these specimens are now housed in national ethnology museums in Vienna and Berlin,- others that remained in Japan became part of the collection of the Tokyo National Museum. One good example is clothing worn by an Ishikari Ainu named Yajuro Shimura in 1872, which along with a picture of Shimura, are rare items that illustrate the material culture of the Ishikari Ainu.

In 1879 a temporary museum of the Hokkaido Settlement Mission, Hakodate Branch, was established through a recommendation by Horatio Capron, former Assistant Secretary of the Department of Agriculture of the United States, who served as an adviser to the Hokkaido Settlement Mission. This was the first publicly founded museum outside of a large city, and it was the predecessor of the Hakodate City Museum

23.1 Wood Tray

This carved tray in the Kono Collection at the Asahikawa City Museum displays the exquisite carving and patina of an old Hokkaido Ainu utensil that must have been a treasured family heirloom before being sold to a museum or collector. Its central whorl motif, known to Ainu as morew and cut in low relief, was used widely in Ainu art and decoration. (ACM)

(Hasabe 1977). Ainu artifacts assembled for the museum became the foundation of one of the two oldest Ainu collections in Japan, the other being that of the Tokyo National Museum. In addition to these two collections, the one gathered by the Hokkaido Settlement Mission itself is also reknowned as an old collection. Several other Ainu collections housed in Japanese museums are discussed below.

The Tokugawa Collection (Tokyo National Museum)

This is the collection of Yorisada Tokugawa, the sixteenth head of the Tokugawa family in Kishu (Sasaki 1988,- Tokyo Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan 1992). The majority of the Ainu materials came from the collection of the Doda Anthropological Study, which was headed by Motohiro Nijo, a prominent member of the society (which was established by a group of nobles around I 897 at the suggestion of anthropologist Shogoro Tsuboi). Other materials in the collection

23.2 Attush Sample Kit

This sample kit was created for educational purposes by the Historical Museum of Hokkaido for use in school tours and docent instruction.

It includes samples of Hokkaido Ainu attush design techniques and identifying labels. (HMH)

were donated or purchased. The Doda artifacts were collected in Hokkaido and Sakhalin around 1900 by Kanichi Nonaka, a young anthropologist who was supported by

23.3 Modern Ainu Bags

Modern Ainu bags are still made with traditional embroidery patterns. Such items are collected by the Historical Museum of Hokkaido to document the tradition and change in the history of Ainu material culture. (HMH)

a large carved wooden bowl, a tray, an attusb bag, and a Western-style hat woven from the fiber of a wild plant ( Elymus mollis Trin.), which indicates early cultural exchange. Perhaps government officials at that time planned to develop a craft industry utilizing traditional Ainu techniques and designs in hopes of promoting tourism and Hokkaido products.

Compared with collections overseas, Japanese Ainu collections have fewer examples of raw materials used to make tools and less information on how the artifacts were actually produced. However, the Hokkaido Takushokukan collection does include such items as specimens of plant fibers, which may reveal unusual insight on the part of the collectors, whose identities are not documented.

23.4 Antique-Store Laoquerware For more than one hundred years, when they needed money Ainu sold their old household artifacts to museum collectors, anthropologists, and tourists, or to antique shops in Hokkaido and elsewhere in Japan. In this way most families gradually lost their heirlooms and treasures, most of which are now in museums around the world—3,200 in North America, 5,700 in western Europe, and an equivalent number in Russian collections including 4,700 in St. Petersburg, and 30,000 in Japan. These lacquerware cups, collected in the 1950s, had been used by the Ainu for ritual ceremonies. (HMH)

Nijo, but it is not known how these items came into the possession of the Tokugawa family. The collection includes a rare Sakhalin Ainu ceremonial headdress topped with a bird cranium,- a similar article is found in the Kono Collection, but they are the only two known to exist in Japan. The Tokugawa Collection forms the core of Ainu materials in the Tokyo National Museum.

The Hokkaido Takushokukan Collection

(Historical Museum of Hokkaido)

Many ethnological collections that were shown in particular expositions later entered the permanent collections of various museums,some Ainu collections in Japanese museums were created in this manner. In 1918 an exposition to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Hokkaido Settlement Mission was held in Sapporo,- the Hokkaido Takusho-kukan was one pavilion at the exhibition where 392 Ainu artifacts were exhibited. After being stored for several decades, these artifacts were given to the Historical Museum of Hokkaido upon its opening (Deriha 1991). These items are valued not only as a large collection created in the early 1900s but also as a source for learning about the public's perception of the Ainu people at that time.

The collection includes such religious artifacts as a prayer stick ( ikupasuy ) and an arrow case for ceremonies,- hunting devices such as a bow and arrow and a trap,- clothes, a sash, and a wooden bowl of the Sakhalin Ainu. In addition to the standard items that introduce traditional Ainu culture, also included are

The Kono Collection (Asahikawa City Museum)

Three generations of Konos (Tsunekichi, Hiromichi, and Motomichi Kono) collected a total of 1,800 artifacts, including 1,600 that are Ainu-related. Exactly when Tsunekichi began the collection is not known, but he went to Hokkaido for the first time in 1894 (Aoyagi 1997). After that visit, he frequently toured many regions of Hokkaido while conducting settlement surveys commissioned by the Hokkaido government,- on these surveying trips, he also did archaeological and ethnological research. The collection includes one small wooden box made by the Kurile Ainu (fig. 23.5), which was purchased by a government official of Nemuro prefecture on a fact-finding trip to Shikotan, Urup, and other Kurile islands. The official gave the box to Tsunekichi in 1909, and it may have been the impetus for his collection.

Tsunekichi's second son, Hiromichi, who had studied entomology in college, found a new focus for scientific inquiry around 1930 when he began serious archaeological and ethnological surveys and started to collect of Ainu artifacts. He later became a leader in this field, compiling notes from surveys of Hokkaido sites that provide valuable information, thus enhancing the quality of the collection and providing indispensable information for studies of Ainu collections and culture. The Kono Collection (figs. 23.3, 23.6, 23.9) contains a number of items that reveal basic technological data,- other objects have charming stories. One example of the latter involves a sealskin coat that Tsunekichi acquired in Sakhalin before 1917 as

23.6 Sakhalin Necklace Sakhalin Ainu women wore necklaces that were similar to those of mainland groups around the lower Amur River. The brass bar and beads in this fine Kono Collection piece probably were obtained by trade from the Amur, where necklaces were worn not only for decoration and status symbols but also to ward off ill health and evil. Women often cannibalized necklaces, mixing and matching until they had a style and composition that suited their taste. (ACM)

a gift for his son Hiromichi, who wore it to school during the winter. One day when Hiromichi was wearing the coat, a dog pursued him, sniffing and barking. Although Hiromichi ran, the dog followed him until he took off the coat, put it under his arm, and sprinted away. The dog had become excited by the strong-smelling sealskin that the Sakhalin Ainu used to make durable clothing. The story is a colorful reminder of the Kono family's collecting tradition and Hiromichi's boyhood.

Motomichi, Hiromichi's son, is the latest Kono family member to collect Ainu materials. After completing graduate school at Tokyo University, he has become one of but a few anthropologists studying the Ainu. In particular, he has researched Ainu design, comparing it to patterns found on prehistoric pottery.

Baba Collection (Hakodate City Museum) and Kodama Collection (Ainu Minzoku Hakubutsukan, Shiraoi, and Hakodate City Museum)

The Baba and Kodama Collections were created by two men who grew up in the same period in Hakodate without ever meeting each other, although both spent their boyhoods playing among local archaeological remains and became interested in archaeology. Osamu Baba organized people interested in archaeology and established the Hakodate Archaeology Study Group in 1907 when he was only fifteen years old. Baba studied dentistry in

23.5 Kurile Box

This decorated wood box from the Kono Collection in the Asahikawa City Museum was collected from the Kurile Ainu and displays the distinctive style of this region. (ACM)

23.7 Neil Munro’s Nibutani Home

Neil G. Munro, a physician born in 1863 in Edinburgh, Scotland, moved to Hokkaido and spent many years living in Nibutani. He served the Ainu both as doctor and scholar, recording and writing about their culture. His work on Ainu religion and philosophy are especially valuable. From about 1931 until his death in 1942, he amassed a large collection of Ainu artifacts from Nibutani. Today his home is owned by Hokkaido University.

college and later opened a practice in Tokyo after completing his studies in the United States. Sakuzaemon Kodama, after studying in Switzerland, obtained a position at the Imperial University of Hokkaido in 1929. It is amusing to imagine that Baba and Kodama, with a three-year difference in their ages and a common interest in exploring Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuriles while collecting enormous numbers of artifacts, might have encountered each other face-to-face somewhere in the city of Hakodate without being aware of the other. Baba focused his energy on the ethnology and archaeology of northern Japan and began collecting Ainu-related materials in April 1930, saying, "If I don't take this rare opportunity now, 1 will regret it for the rest of my life" (Baba 1971.- 1,-Hasebe 1992). Meanwhile, Kodama visited local antique stores every Sunday from the time he began his job at the university, enthusiastically collecting Ainu articles. He took note of the rapid sales of traditional Ainu materials to foreigners in the post-World War II period, and he commented later, "I planned to buy as many materials as possible from merchants to avoid losing valuable materials overseas . . . part of these materials are now in my possession" (S. Kodama 1969: 152).

More than half of the 2,000 articles Baba collected were burned when Tokyo was bombed in March 1945,- the 755 items that survived are currently housed at the Hakodate City Museum in the only collection designated as Important National Ethnological Cultural Property. The remainder of the collection includes five kimono (Hasebe 1992), which

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Baba acquired from an Ainu woman in Abuta during his 1930 collecting trip to the Usu region (Baba 1979). Recalling the occasion, Baba described how the woman had apologized to her mother for handing over the mother's garments while telling her that Baba would take good care of them. On his way back to Tokyo, he dropped by the Hakodate City Library where he was asked by its director, Kenzo Okada, to leave the five kimono,- persuaded by Okada's enthusiasm, Baba donated them and returned to Tokyo. These five kimono survived the war and are the only five existing kimono in the collection.

Among the collections destroyed during the war was the great collection of ikupasuy gathered by Sueo Sugiyama, a leader in the field of craft history,- these items were considered to be a gem among the Ainu collections. Fortunately, though most of his collection burned, it can still be studied through pictures published in his books.

The Kodama Collection includes 5,000 items, which were published in a catalogue raisonne by the Hakodate City Museum (1987) and the Ainu Minzoku Hakubutsukan in Shiraoi (1989, 1991). Clothing and accessories, such as robes and necklaces, account for about half of the collection Religious items, including 1,400 ikupasuy, also make up a large part of the collection. Smoking paraphernalia constitute another important part of the collection, for these objects document smoking rituals of the Sakhalin Ainu and illustrate the diversity of regional Ainu traditions.

Because many of the materials were purchased at antique shops, they lack basic ethnological information,- in contrast, the items Kodama collected while conducting archaeological surveys benefit from his fastidious documentation. Although he worked full time, Kodama studied the collection in his spare time and encouraged his family to share in his collection work: his wife began studying clothes and accessories in 1947, and his eldest daughter, Mari Kodama, engaged in research (M. Kodama 1989) on weaving patterns, design, and embroidery techniques (see Kodama, this volume).

Neil G. Munro Collection (Hokkaido Takushoku Kinenkan)

Neil G. Munro was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1863. After completing his medical studies at Edinburgh University, he moved to Japan where

23.8 Tobacco Box and Pipe Holder

This smoking kit with its carved ivory or bone ornaments shows the remarkable skills of an unknown Sakhalin Ainu carver. Few specimens of such high quality as this one from the Korio Collection exist in American collections. (ACM)

he worked among the Ainu as a physician, gathering information important to Ainu studies while providing medical service to the Ainu people (fig. 23.7). His collection came primarily from Nibutani in Hokkaido and was assembled from about 1931 until his death in 1942.

Munro was especially interested in Ainu religion, and his research was published as Ainu Creed and Cult (1962). His collection reflects this interest with many items related to shamanism, faith, and rituals,- its focus is thus on a certain facet of the Ainu culture rather than covering Ainu life in general. Many such theme-based Ainu collections, especially those created after the war by scholars and enthusiasts, are found in Japan. The Munro Collection is a good example of a collection that remains in japan but was created by a researcher who was educated in Europe.

Antique Stores and Other Collections

Both historically and in the present day, cultural enthusiasts and antique stores have played a role in the formation of Ainu collections in japan. Some artifacts were traded or sold from one enthusiast to another, but others were acquired by scholars and museums from these collectors. Although the number of such collections is unknown, the total number of artifacts gathered may be assumed to be quite large. Many individual enthusiasts seem to pay attention mainly to the beauty of the objects or to focus on a

certain theme, while others collect anything related to Ainu culture. Unfortunately, when items are collected in this way, ethnological data—such as location, year of manufacture, producer, and the Ainu-language word for the object—are often lost, if they were ever known in the first place. Lack of ethnological data does not necessarily mean that the items are useless for research, for the last collection date is usually known, so it is certain that the particular item was used or produced prior to that date. If a collection was formed by one individual during a certain period it is easier to date its artifacts more precisely. If the acquisition was based on some personal relationship between the owner and the collector, useful information may be preserved, but commercial transactions are usually devoid of such data.

Comparing the contents of collections formed at different times reveals the transformations of Ainu society. A project by Professor Yoshinobu Kotani and others revealed clearly that collections formed in the 1950s had many necklaces, swords, and lacquerware, while collections formed in the late nineteenth century had few such items. The reason for such discrepancies is that lacquerware, necklaces, and swords were highly treasured by the Ainu people, and records written in the last half of the nineteenth century confirm that people did not readily relinquish such items. That these treasures could be collected in large volume

23.9 Lacquerware Tuki and Ikupasuy

Ainu rituals usually involve the offering of sake, millet beer, or some other precious libation to gods from lacquerware cups and saucers, using the ikupasuy (prayer stick). The ikupasuy is presented in the manner seen here, resting across the cup with its “tongue” end pointing to the left. The person performing the ritual dips the pointed end into the liquid and then makes offering gestures to the venerated object at hand, allowing drops to fall on the object, or sends drops skyward to the gods. This set from the Kono Collection includes both a tuki and an ikupasuy with its own visual pun —another tuki— and a tigerlike animal carving; it is one of the finest sets known. (ACM)

later on may indicate that the Ainu people's thinking about their traditions changed over time, or, perhaps more likely, that their economic situations had worsened and they were forced to sell their family treasures.

Collections in Use

One mission of museums is to introduce the culture and history of the Ainu people through the exhibition of their collections. Each year special exhibitions of Ainu objects are held somewhere in Japan, often in Hokkaido, and those museums that own Ainu collections regularly exhibit some part of them. Museums that do not own Ainu artifacts borrow them from others in order to educate the public about Ainu culture and history. Recently the number of Ainu exhibitions has increased. Asahikawa City Museum has planned and implemented a traveling exhibition in cooperation with several museums in northern Hokkaido, and special exhibitions of Ainu materials are being planned abroad.

Today there is a movement among younger Ainu to learn traditional techniques and crafts so that they can be passed on to succeeding generations. Lectures, workshops, and both long- and short-term courses have been held in various areas to enhance understanding of the Ainu culture and teach traditional skills. These classes not only teach people to appreciate the technique and beauty of Ainu crafts, they also inspire others to make

the items themselves using traditional patterns that have been passed down for generations in their home villages. Some artists utilize this body of knowledge to develop contemporary patterns and new traditions,- they visit museums in order to study Ainu materials for such purposes (Hokkaido Utari Kyokai 1994a). Those museums with Ainu collections should provide easy access to these people so that this potential can be maximized. A new law, known as the Ainu Shinpo, was enacted in 1997 to preserve and promote traditional Ainu culture. As a result, the educational role of museums with Ainu collections in Hokkaido is expected to increase. In recent years some museums, recognizing the need for Ainu collections to also be utilized in classrooms, have lent their materials to elementary schools. For instance, Hokkaido Takushoku Kinenkan produced replicas of hunting tools, clothes, and other items for educational purposes, creating a model for students to actually use these tools without endangering primary reference collections (figs. 23.2, 23.3).

All ethnological collections, not just Ainu collections, are valuable to both the particular groups whose culture they document and to all peoples of the world because they show the paths by which humans develop. It is imperative that these collections be utilized and preserved in the best possible condition for use by generations to come.

T he Ainu Museum Foundation,

established as the Shiraoi Foundation for the Preservation of the Ainu Culture in 1976, is a comprehensive cultural education facility whose mission is to preserve, research, study, and pass on the Ainu culture. The facility incorporates an Ainu kotaii (fig. 24.1), a reproduction of a traditional village that was formerly located in the city of Shiraoi, it was moved to its present location in 1965 as a social organization run by Shiraoi Tour Consultant Inc. The Shiraoi Foundation was established in 1975 when this company changed its focus from tourism to cultural education.

The first chairman of the foundation, Takeo Yamamaru, enriched the institution by collecting traditional Ainu artifacts. In 1984 the Ainu Folk Museum was opened to the public as an exhibition space for Ainu cultural property, both tangible (material culture and

24/The Ainu Museum Foundation

Shigek.! Akino

24.1 The Ainu Museum in Shiraoi

The Ainu Museum at Shiraoi has been in operation since 1976 and is now incorporated as the Ainu Museum Foundation, its dual function of public education and preservation of Ainu culture is met by displaying Ainu artifacts and staging performances within the context of an Ainu kotan (village), which is open to the public. Building collections (such as the recent additions of the Kodama and Tanaka Collections) and archiving oral traditions are other programs that fulfill its mission. (AMS)

artifacts) and intangible (songs, dance, oral literature), and as a center for academic research. In 1990 the corporation was renamed The Ainu Museum Foundation, recognizing that the museum, established and run by the Ainu, had become its primary focus.

The museum's design utilizes outdoor spaces and is divided into modern and traditional zones of an Ainu kotan (village), including several restored houses ( chise ), food storehouses ( pu ), bear cages ( heperset ), and several boats (chip). The history and culture of the Ainu are explained by trained educators,there are also public demonstrations of Ainu folk dance by the museum's Oral Tradition De

partment. Such exhibitions and daily demonstrations of folk materials have been designed to preserve and pass down Ainu culture.

The museum has about 6,000 items of Ainu cultural materials and about three hundred specimens from minority groups of the northern regions, including the Nivkhi, Ul’ta, Saami, and Inuit, usually about eight hundred specimens are on display at any given time. The museum also owns about five hundred audiotape recordings used in oralhistory research,- about two hundred videotapes of various ceremonies held by the Ainu Museum,- about 150 Ainu-e (illustrations of the Ainu),- and about 6,000 books and documentary records.

The exhibition hall (fig. 24.2) is divided into sections with different themes showing related materials. Themes include: The World of Gods, Gods and People, Hunting, Blessing of the Earth, Eating, Clothing, Housing, Life of the Ainu, History of the People, and Neighboring Peoples.

As part of its mission to preserve and pass on Ainu culture, the museum conducts traditional Ainu ceremonies including iyomante (sending back the spirit of a bear), iwakte (sending back the spirit of human implements), chip-sanke (a boat-launching ceremony), and shinnurappa (a memorial service for ancestors) and demonstrates traditional handcrafts including weaving on looms, making straw mats and traditional clothing, and embroidering Ainu patterns,- these activities serve to enlighten and popularize Ainu culture among the visiting public (fig. 24.3).

Research and Study

The establishment of the museum in 1975 coincided with a resurgence of interest in traditional Ainu culture, and arts and science professionals have been encouraged to use its resources in their research and study. A primary research activity is the work being done by staff oral historians: there are about five hundred recordings of several fuchi (respected elder women) including Suteno Oda, Matsuko Kawakami, Harushia Sonoura, Shin Kawakami—all deceased since their stories were transcribed,- the late Masayoshi Tochigi ekashi (respected male elder) also recorded his recollections of traditional Ainu life. These fuchi and ekashi lived at the museum for periods of time as resident artists, demonstrating their traditional handcrafts,- their techniques were preserved on video, thus

24.2 Ainu Exhibits

Cultural education is an important activity of the Ainu Museum. Interpretive displays of the museum’s collections introduce traditional and modern Ainu artifacts to the public. (AMS)

enhancing research and study materials.

The results have been published in the three volumes of Ainu and Nature Series and the four volumes of Oral History Series.

A second research program seeks to understand Ainu culture comprehensively through the museum's collection. Several Japanese researchers are contributing to this study in addition to museum employees in the Arts and Sciences Department. This group conducts various research projects and holds seminars and symposia at the museum and overseas.

Preserving and Passing on Ainu Culture

An important feature of the Ainu Museum is its programs to preserve and pass on Ainu culture, for example, the demonstration of Ainu folk dances to visitors (fig. 24.4). Sixteen dances, designated as National Important Intangible Cultural Properties in 1984, are the

the iyomante ceremonies held in 1989 and 1990 have been made available to scholars and the public in published reports.

Other such ceremonies, including a boat-launching ceremony and a memorial service for the ancestors are held every year in April and in August, respectively. Ceremonies for sending back the spirit of man-made objects or celebrating the completion of a new house are held whenever the appropriate situations occur, for example, when disposing of museum equipment or when construction of a new chise is completed. These traditional Ainu ceremonies are not demonstrated to the public: while this deviates from the museum's education mission, these activities essentially serve as a way for employees and Ainu museum associates to preserve and pass down Ainu culture. For the time being, ceremonies such as the iyomante, which involves the killing of a bear, are kept private because this important

24.3 Iyomante Ceremony

As part of its mission to preserve and pass on Ainu culture, the museum conducts traditional Ainu ceremonies including iyomante (sending back the spirit of a bear), iwakte (sending back the spirit of human implements), chipsanke (a boat-launching ceremony), and shinnurappa (a memorial service for ancestors). Some of these ceremonies, such as the iyomante, are presented only for the Ainu people and are not open to the public. (AMS)

focus of this effort,- three to four such dances are demonstrated to visitors daily.

This preservation program also includes conducting different types of rituals. Since the Meiji era began in 1868, many Ainu traditional ceremonies have disappeared because of cultural changes and the assimilation policy of the Japanese government. Despite the logistical difficulties of carrying out traditional ceremonies, the museum has frequently held sending-back ceremonies and memorial services for Ainu ancestors for the purpose of reviving, preserving, and passing on traditional culture (fig. 24.5). The iyomante —a ceremony for sending back the spirit of a bear—was held seven times in the past, most recently in March 1996. Documentation of

Ainu ritual is poorly understood by the public,- however, with the recent passage of the Ainu Shinpo of 1997, the public image of the Ainu has begun to change, and we hope to share these ceremonies with wider audiences as appreciation of our traditions continues to grow.

Cultural Exchange

Since the establishment of the Ainu Museum, we have initiated an active exchange program with minority native peoples and their museums in foreign countries. Our exchange with the Finnish Saami people is especially active: in 1984 we cooperated as a sistermuseum with the Saami Museum of Inari in Lapland, and staff and researchers made

several visits. We also developed a memorandum on museum exchange in August 1993 with the Sakhalin State Museum and the Nogliki Town Museum in Sakhalin, Russia, and we invited members of that region's minority group, the Nivkhi, to Shiraoi. Moreover, we have active exchanges with Taiwanese native people who were invited to the Ainu Museum in October 1993.

In December 1997 we in turn were invited to the International Native Culture and Art Festival, commemorating the founding of the Administrative Committee of Native Taiwanese.

Ainu folk dances have been performed overseas five times: in Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark in 1984,- Finland and Sweden in 1989,- England in 1995,- Finland and Denmark in 1996,- and Taiwan in 1997. Ainu artifacts were exhibited at the Helsinki National Museum and the Art Museum of

the Kodama Collection, comprising 2,263 items, which is about half of the 5,000 items Kodama collected (the Hakodate City Museum is also a repository). These materials, assembled by the late Dr. Sakuzaemon Kodama, a famous professor at Hokkaido University, comprise one of the premier collections of Ainu objects in the world. Since the museum's opening in 1984, the Kodama Collection has been stored here and has been shown occasionally in temporary exhibits. In April 1998 it was donated permanently to the museum by the owner, Mari Kodama, Professor Kodama's daughter.

The museum also owns two other important collections. The Ryoshoji Collection of 181 items was collected by the chief priest of a temple in Boda, Hokkaido, and includes important materials such as a sapanpe (a man's ceremonial headdress) made from the mandible of a shark. The Tanaka Collec

24.4, 24.5 Ainu Dance and Ceremony

Dancing and demonstration of traditional handcrafts—weaving elm-bark (attush) garments on backstrap horns, making straw mats, sewing traditional clothing, and embroidering—help to popularize Ainu culture among the visiting public. (AMS)

Umea University, Sweden, in 1984,- the Sakhalin State Library and the Khabarovsk Regional Museum in 1987; and in the Arctic Circle Center in connection with Lapland University, Finland, in 1994. These activities contribute greatly to mutual cultural exchanges and enhance understanding of the Ainu people overseas.

The Ainu Collections

A collection of about 6,000 Ainu pieces forms the foundation of the Ainu Museum's holdings, including both historical materials as well as ceremonial equipment and handcrafts made by museum employees and resident artists. Among the historical collections, the largest and most important is a portion of

tion, which includes 154 objects acquired by Mr. Chuzaburo Tanaka of Aomori city, was sold to the museum in 1985. All of these collections are in storage and are available for research and display in exhibitions in the museum and for loan to special exhibitions staged by other museums.

Paintings

The museum owns 157 of the paintings known as Ainu-e, which illustrate Ainu manners and customs from the late Edo era to the beginning of the Meiji era (see T. Sasaki, this volume). The paintings are highly valued historical materials, produced by Japanese artists, that document Ainu life and culture. Among the museum's holdings

24.6 Sun Visor

The Sakuzaemon Kodama Collection is the most extensive and important of the Ainu Museum's collections. This sun visor { sikahkah ), which seems to have been used only by the Sakhalin Ainu, was worn with the flap over the wearer's eyes. It was used to protect the eyes of older Ainu and those who had eye problems. (AMS 60542)

24.7 Masahiro Nomoto Begins the Smithsonian Ship Model

During the spring and summer of 1998, Masahiro Nomoto, a curator of the Ainu Museum at Shiraoi, took up residence in Washington, D.C., to build a model chip (boat) and a chise (house) for use in the Smithsonian’s Ainu exhibition. A master woodcarver, Nomoto is seen here beginning the task of reducing a huge Northwest Coast yellow cedar log at the Smithsonian’s Office of Exhibit Central.

are The Ainu Garments and The Scene of Ezo Country, eighteenth-century scrolls by Teiryo Kodama, and mid-nineteenth-century works, The Ainu Sailing Out Fishing and The Tangle Collection of the Ezo by Byozan Hirasawa, all wellknown pieces.

Although still a relatively young organization, the Ainu Museum Foundation has established a strong research and public education program. It has the support of the Ainu community and maintains a balance between its cultural preservation and transmission programs and its research and popular museum activities. Its staff are known increasingly to the international professional museum community and to national and international native organizations. We are particularly proud to be active participants in Ainu.- Spirit of a Northern People through loans of objects and Ainu-e, and through the expert advice and skillful reconstructions of an Ainu boat model and chise, as well as catalogue contributions made by our curator Masahiro Nomoto.

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25/The Ainu in Ethnographic Films

Kazuo Okada

T he making of motion pictures is generally said to have begun in 1895 when the Lumiere brothers presented a "cinematograph”—a way to project films—at a cafe in Paris. Since then, anthropologists around the world have used film extensively to record ethnographic cultures, and in the autumn of 1897 the Ainu were recorded on film for the first time. This film and others from this era tell us much about early Ainu life that is not recorded in written documentation. Comparison of these with later films reveals much about changing Ainu life and the filmmakers who produced this work,- they show how anthropological interests have changed over time and how Ainu culture has been presented to the wider world. Even though Ainu films never became popular, like Asen Balikci's Netsilik series, Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North, or the many commercially oriented Hollywood films

25.1 Beautiful Japan, Take One The classic film Beautiful Japan (1918) contains some of the earliest images of the Ainu in a village setting, in this scene a bear being reared for the iyomante festival is being put back into a log cage after enjoying exercise, feeding, and entertainment with his Ainu hosts. (HFSA/SI)

produced on Alaskan Eskimo themes, the film materials that have accumulated over the years on the Ainu constitute a sizable body of material that is a valuable resource for research, public education, and, increasingly, for Ainu culture preservation projects. This essay concentrates primarily on the history of filmmaking on the Ainu from both ethnographic and popular perspectives.

The Earliest Ainu Films

At the end of 1896 the Lumiere company dispatched Constant Girel, a projectionist and

25/ AINU IN ETHNOGRAPHIC FILMS

cameraman, to Japan to introduce the cinematograph. Girel arrived in Japan in January of 1897 and introduced his cinematograph in Osaka in February, in Kyoto in March, and later in Tokyo. Girel had plans to make seventeen films in different regions of Japan,- two of these were to record the Ainu, and in October 1 897 he arrived in Hokkaido to film them. Although it is unclear in which village the filming took place, Girel, with the help of French missionaries and others, succeeded in shooting two Ainu dances, one performed by men and the other by women. While the length of each recording is less than one minute, they are marvelous. In a letter dated October 18, Girel wrote that he had taken a train at the port of Muroran, traveled for about six miles (ten kilometers) through primeval forests, and then proceeded a further thirty-seven miles (sixty kilometers) on horseback.

25.2 Beautiful Japan, Take Two

This strip shows a group of Ainu in ceremonial costumes dancing at one of the many festivals held to honor and thank the gods for their providence. (HSFA/SI)

We greeted the Ainu people with souvenirs, sweet potatoes and fruit. Thanks to our interpreter, who had a good rapport with the Ainu, they showed us their dances willingly. There were two numbers: "Dance of Birds" [Crane Dance] performed only by women, and "Dance of Warriors," performed by men 1 he following day, we felt extremely sad saying goodbye to those beautiful, dignified people. They are disappearing, gradually but surely, as they yield to the Yamato [Japanese] race. Civilization and western cultures outrun things native—this must be indeed a struggle for existence.

Girel's film on the Ainu was shown in the summer of 1 898, first in Osaka with the title Dances by Men and Women of the Hokkaido Ainu, and then in Nagoya as Bear Dance of Hokkaido Ainu Aborigines. These were the first public screenings of an Ainu film.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, before World War I, another film on the Ainu was produced by professor Frederick Starr, an anthropologist at the University of Chicago. Starr, who brought several Ainu to America for the Louisiana Purchase Centennial Exposition in 1904, had an assistant film and photograph the Ainu in Hokkaido. The film is said to have been photographed in the Saru River region, but little can be confirmed about this particular work because its present whereabouts are unknown. (HADDON, an Internet database, mentions an Anthropological Study of Early Motion Pictures at the Department of Social Anthropology, Oxford Llniversity. It states that there was a film about the Ainu shown in America in 1912 with German subtitles, and it is currently stored in England's National Archives of Motion Pictures,- whether this is the picture made by Starr or not has yet to be determined.)

Benjamin Buloski, an itinerant American lecturer, visited Japan from 1918 to 1919, and with the cooperation of the National Japan Railways and the Japan Travel Bureau, traveled to various regions on a special train that carried his film crew and equipment. His film Beautiful Japan, produced during this visit, includes a scene of the bear-sending ceremony ( iyomante ) performed by the Shiraoi Ainu. Judging from the fact that the footage does not include a scene of a bear actually being sent to the godland, it would seem that the film crew asked the Ainu people to stage the ceremonial situation for the camera. Buloski presented his film to the American ambassador to Japan, who later donated it to the Smithsonian Institution. It is now stored in the Smithsonian's Human Studies Film Archives (HSFA) of the Department of Anthropology.

The Earliest Japanese Films

While opinions differ as to who first began filming for anthropological purposes in Japan, some would cite Ryuzo Torii. He left many remarkable still pictures of various ethnic groups, but whether or not he utilized

ethnic groups, but whether or not he utilized motion pictures is uncertain. A snapshot by Torii of the Takushoku International Exposition, which was held in Ueno, Tokyo, in 1912, shows actual houses of the Hokkaido and Sakhalin Ainu as well as a projection room called Kankokan. In the room, a film was shown that documented the situation of the Sakhalin Ainu and discussed the influence of Russian culture on other territories newly acquired by Japan during the Russo-Japanese war. The present location of this film is also unknown.

Of existing films, the earliest by a Japanese scholar was produced by Professor Saburo Yada, a zoologist in the Agriculture Department of the Imperial University of Hokkaido and head of the department's museum. The film, called Life of the Shiraoi Ainu, was made in 1925 for presentation at the Pan-Pacific Academic Conference held in 1926. This work includes scenes of women drawing water from a new well in their village,- the transportation of goods,male and female elders greeting one another,- attush weaving,- marriage ceremonies,- treatment of illness,- funerals,- the bearsending ceremony,- and salmon fishing.

Yada showed this film at the conference during a seminar on the Ainu held by Keimeikai, an academic organization. Originally he had planned to present his reasons for making the film, but due to time constraints he was not able to deliver his prepared speech (which was, however, entered into the seminar record),- unfortunately there exists only a brief explanation of the picture. What is noteworthy is that Yada's film did not record real Ainu life at the time but was a reconstruction of a more traditional lifestyle from an earlier period In the 1920s Ainu culture was undergoing drastic changes, and the traditional ways of life were fading away, or in some instances were already gone. Yada expressed surprise when he discovered that the Ainu folkcrafts housed in museums were no longer being used by the Ainu.

The original copy of the film was kept at the University of Hokkaido, but the funeral segment was lost during the chaos of the post World War II period. In the 1990s, however, an English version of the lost footage was discovered, and the author of this article, with the help of others, restored it and converted it and the remaining original to a video format. Subtitles in Japanese and

English were added and the film is now available in a user-friendly form.

Neil Gordon Munro, a Scottish doctor and amateur archaeologist who was naturalized in Japan in the early 1900s, began studying the Ainu in the 1920s. He visited Nibutani frequently, becoming a resident in 1930,- he died in the village in 1942. Munro began filming the Ainu with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, obtained through the help of supporters at the British Royal Anthropological Institute (RA1). He completed his first work, Iyomante, depicting the bear-sending ceremony, in 1931. In 1933 and 1934 he recorded Uepotara, documenting a prayer for recovery from illness, and Chise-nomi, a house-consecrating ritual. These were exceptional products, with high clarity and recorded in 35mm format (although the copy Munro sent to the RA1 was a 16mm print). Iyomante was produced in the style of an academic paper, with the use of captions and diagrams and detailed comments on items used during the ceremony,- the explanatory section accounted for one-third of the film.

While Iyomante was a completed motion picture, Uepotara and Chise-nomi were unfinished, but Munro did show these films at the University of Hokkaido and other places. He died in the chaotic situation at the outbreak of World War II and his works disappeared under murky circumstances. In the 1960s, however, a 35mm positive print of Iyomante was discovered and was reedited, focusing particularly on the bear-sending ceremony. The editors of this work had no relationship or contact with the RAI, and they assigned the distribution rights of the English version to the Media Extension Center of the University of California, Berkeley.

This action by the editors created an uncomfortable situation for all those concerned: because the RAI believed that the 16mm print sent to them was the original, they were offended by the editors' action and failure to seek permissions. The Ainu were also confused, for although it was clear that Munro had filmed in Nibutani, the editors used as sound effects yukar, oral narratives set in rhythm, which had been recorded in the Shizonai region. In the mid1960s, many Ainu people in Nibutani, both young and old, who had appeared in the film were still alive, but none of them were contacted by the editors. It was not until 1975, more than ten years after the restoration of the film, that the Nibutani Ainu saw it for the first time, when it was shown at the

dedication ceremony for a monument that the Nibutani people had built at the site of Munro's former residence. The actions of those involved with the reediting of Munro's films are questionable by today's standards, even if they may have meant well.

1 his author tried unsuccessfully to locate the original positive print. When 1 learned that the editors had not used the actual print that had been rediscovered but instead had made duplicate negatives for editing, I began searching for the original print but so far have been unable to find it. The prints of Uepotara and Chise-nomi were found, however, in the film can containing the film Life of the Shiraoi Ainu by Professor Saburo Yada. With the support of Shigeru Kayano, a prominent Ainu culture-bearer whose grandmother was an informant of Munro's in Nibutani, Uepotara and Chise-nomi were restored and converted to a video format in 1992 and organized to follow the various stages of Munro's work. Both videos have Japanese and English subtitles.

In 1936 Tetsuo Inukai, a zoologist at the University of Hokkaido, filmed Iyomante, a bear-sending ceremony performed by Kaneto Kawamura, an Ainu elder known for his contribution to the preservation of the traditional culture of the Chikabumi Ainu (Chikabumi is now part of the suburbs of Asahikawa, Hokkaido). The movies of the bear-sending ceremony as filmed in three regions—Shiraoi, Nibutani, and Chikabumi — reveal interesting similarities and differences in the ritual.

Ainu culture must have often been recorded cinematically during this period, but as is the case with many films of traditional cultures in other regions, few are extant.

Production Agency Films

In the postwar period, documentation of the Ainu continued, if sporadically. For example, Sakuzaemon Kodama, a doctor and professor at the medical school of the University of Tokyo, was known for his collection of Ainu material culture, and he also edited an educational film entitled Ainu Clothes that was funded by the Education Committee of Hokkaido. Shigeru Kayano and his wife appeared in this film. Following the growing availability of color film in the 1950s, a growing number of documentaries were made by production companies and professionals.

In the early stage of this period, the Ainu

continued to play a role as subjects and "cooperators," but they had very little control over their depiction in these films.

The Collaboration Era

In the 1970s the circumstances surrounding the filming of Ainu began to change gradually, and Ainu such as Shigeru Kayano became actively involved in film production. In addition, some artists stressed the importance of communicating with their subjects instead of simply pointing a camera at them. Tadayoshi Himeda and other staff of the Ethnic Culture Film Research Institute produced many films in a long-term collaboration with Shigeru Kayano. Their highquality works included Wedding (1974),

Building a House (1974), Bear-Sending Ceremony (1977), Children's Play (1978/1984), and Canoe Making (1978). Although these films were produced by Japanese artists, the views of the Ainu are definitely reflected in their work.

The ongoing activities of the Ainu Intangible Culture Preservation Group, headquartered in Sapporo since 1976, should be noted here. With a grant from the Hokkaido government's Agency for Cultural Affairs, funds produced from New Year's postcards sales, and other sources, one or two films have been produced every year. While the gap between the funding needed to document Ainu culture and the amount of grant money actually awarded is substantial, they nevertheless manage to continue production. Their accumulated work indicates that continuity holds power, for in these films the elders of each region, who have since passed away, convey the traditions they inherited to the younger generations of today.

Ainu Filmmaking and the Future

By the 1980s anyone with a video camera could make a film, and such activities continue to accelerate. Properly organizing what has already been shot, however, is not an easy task, but the fact remains that filming can now be done by anyone. Many Ainu families possess video cameras and thus are potential filmmakers—while there are no known professional filmmakers among the Ainu, there are many amateurs.

Shigeru Kayano, who is committed to

teaching the Ainu language to Ainu children in Nibutani, filmed Tonotokamuy, which documents the sacred sake-making performed by his parents. The film's style is simple yet refreshing: instead of inserting voice-over narration, Kayano added his own comments as he shot. This method, in which the camera operator and the elders interview one another, provides a fresh approach. Perhaps the most important thing to consider is that such modest attempts at documentation, as shown by Kayano, can now be made in every Ainu community. At the same time, it is vital that old films about the Ainu be collected, copied, preserved, and made available to the public. It is important that not only researchers but also Ainu interested in preserving their own culture have open access to these valuable materials.

Ainu culture is not only of interest to the Ainu,- most Japanese today also agree that Ainu culture is noteworthy and precious, and even those who do not hold it in high regard or who consider it only of historical interest acknowledge its importance. Hopefully the 1997 Ainu Shinpo will encourage popular recognition and respect for Ainu history, culture, and language and understanding of its important role in the history of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk region. Footage—old and modern—of the Ainu will certainly be important in the cultural revitalization and public reevaluation process that is now underway. It is also likely to become of increasing interest to the wider world community that has developed a strong interest in ethnographic films, as demonstrated by enthusiastic responses to Ainu footage presented in recent film festivals throughout the world. Although the corpus of Ainu ethnographic and documentary films is not large, it has the capacity of providing a firm foundation for research and education projects and is increasing rapidly today through local media and private efforts. This is none too soon, for many of the knowledgeable elders are passing away. Film is the media of choice for documenting and promoting cultural preservation and retention in the modern day,it will certainly be an important resource and instrument both for the Ainu people and the wider public for years to come.

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26 / Kamuy: Gods You Can Argue With

Hisakazu Fujimura

< Shimochi, Grand Chieftain of Atsukishi 1843 copy by Teiki Kojima after Hakyo Kakizaki's work, Portraits of Ezo Chieftains. (Y. and M. Kitao Collection)

26.1 Inaw. Messengers to the Gods Ainu gods had different personalities, like people do. Prayers were directed to them with the assistance of inaw, willow sticks that were carved into different shapes representing birds according to the particular god that was being addressed or the ceremony in which they were to be used. This photograph was taken in 1950 by Ted Banks III. (MKB, courtesy of Edmund Carpenter)

T he word kamuy (god) in the Ainu language is a generic term for both physical and immaterial entities on the earth who possess abilities superior to those of man. Specifically, gods can be animals, plants, minerals, or other geographical and natural phenomena that have a place on earth.

Humans can neither fly nor stay underwater for a long time without equipment, nor can they live without food and air. Man cannot create fire without a device, but he can extinguish fire with water or a fire extinguisher when fire spreads. Even if man can put out fire, it is not considered in the power of humans to extinguish fire because they simply make use of the power (spirits) of water or the fire extinguisher, which exceed human capabilities and thus are gods. When a fire becomes too fierce for humans to control, they cannot do anything but wait for it to die down on its own. This is interpreted as the anger of the fire god being so enormous that the gods of the water and the extinguisher cannot appease its rage. When the fire loses its force, it is thought that the fire god has finally calmed down.

The Ainu's concept of gods extends to humans and things that man produces, such as tools and utensils. Humans die, and likewise, things end their life cycles,- after the end of their lives, the spirits of both humans and things become gods. If the spirits of living entities (gods, humans, and things) are

26.2 Inaw-* Carving Tool Men were responsible for communicating with the gods, which they did with the assistance of inaw. The art of carving inaw was time-consuming and required both a steady hand and a sturdy specialized tool.

(AMNH 70/4156)

referred to as live spirits, then the spirits after death or a life cycle are considered dead spirits. The difference between live and dead spirits is as follows: the gods, humans, and things are integrated beings of form and spirit, and the spirit activates the function of each being. Take, for example, a human. The flesh is the container and the soul a medium to activate his or her function as man or woman,- the body and soul coexist with each other. Other beings, both material or immaterial, exist in this same way (Fujimura 1982,-Obayashi 1997).

Humans and animals die,- plants wither,rivers and lakes dry up,- volcanoes go extinct,and things end their life cycles. At this stage, their spirits leave their containers (fig. 26.1). In the case of a human being at death, the soul departs from the body, yet the soul is considered immortal even after flesh decays and bones return to the soil. The spirits are thought to repeat themselves and reincarnate according to their specific species and gender, so for instance, a man will always return as a man and a female cat as a female cat.

The Ainu people believe that dead spirits live in deep space. These spirits are thought to depart "this world" (the earth) for "that world" (where spirits travel to after death on the earth, i.e., the next world), which is the same as "this world." However, those who cannot cut their attachment to this world or who bear a grudge or demand a proper spiritsending ritual (figs. 26.3, 26.4) remain floating around on earth instead of moving on,- when they find an appropriate person, they try to fulfill their wishes using that individual's body.

26 / KAMUY: AINU GODS

19 3

Thus, that person becomes possessed by the spirit. The Ainu people believe that gods have this supernatural power.

Once possession takes place, it is the beginning of a tragedy for the possessed and those related to him, for this dead spirit is often considered to be an evil spirit. There is always a man, however, who can free the possessed,- this person is either an expert on religious rituals, or, even if he has no knowledge of rites, an earnest and reliable individual. Through the use of attentive, proper, and calming rituals, this person relieves the dead of their resentment and attachment so that they can depart for the next world with peace of mind. No matter how violent and harmful the spirit, sincere and appropriate rituals appease the evil mind and help reveal the spirit's original good nature.

Gods, humans, and things are all essentially good-natured. Nonetheless, as they

short-tempered while others are kind. These examples illustrate the characteristics of spirits. In the same manner, the things that humans create have diverse shapes and characters depending on their intended use and the preference of their creators, and the products that satisfy the users tend to live a long life and are sometimes kept as tokens when their life cycles have ended. On the other hand, some products are discarded or destroyed before the end of their life. Humans generally are free to treat things in any way they like,- if, however, they become arrogant and abusive, they will have to pay a price. Environmental problems and various accidents of nature are counterattacks by things against humans and can kill them. Gods and things can live within their environment independent of others, a feature unique to them. Carnivorous animals eat the meat of others,- herbivorous animals feed on plants,- water becomes rain, snow, or ice,- water

26 . 3 , 26.4 Carving Inaw The process of carving inaw captured the attention of Japanese Ainu-e artist Shimanojo Murakami, who depicted it in his Illustrations of Ezo Livelihood in the early nineteenth century. One hundred years later Bronislaw Pilsudski captured a similar scene with his camera as Sakhalin Ainu prepared for an iyomante ceremony. (HML; NAA 87-5542).

grow older, their minds become complex and sometimes create trouble,- when they cannot control their minds, they tend to attack others. If this uncontrollable mind is treated while still alive on the earth, the person can go to the next world as a good-hearted god.

In contrast, if a human cannot solve his problems by the time of his death, he will become a god with an evil mind.

The spirit is also believed to be the source that determines species, gender, character, and ability (spiritual power) in a particular being. The spirit, in the form of a human life, grows and ages. In addition, the spirit's natural abilities exert considerable influence on the formation of character and ability in the person,- this explains why, for example, some people are good at math,- why others have aptitude for languages,- and why some are

vapor creates clouds—these are activities in the gods' world. Humans utilize the gifts of gods and things but gods do not need gifts from humans. In human history, man has rarely contributed to gods,- what might appear as human offerings to the gods are really favors returned (for instance, the bear ceremony).

The relationship among gods, humans, and things is that the life of humans is supported by things provided by gods,- thus, humans are dependent on the other two and cannot live without them. In a sense, the weakest being on the earth is the human, and the only talent humans are furnished with that exceeds the ability of gods and things is their ability with language and rituals (figs. 26.5, 26.6). Humans utilize such skills and act as the medium between the gods and things, trying to create harmony among the three,

26.5 Ikupasuy

Although there are many types of inaw , the form of each type was standardized. Men’s personal ikupasuy (prayer sticks), on the other hand, were highly individualistic and artistically diverse. Recurrent themes and motifs, such as geometric, floral, and fishscale designs, ayus and morew (whorl) patterns, and fish motifs (all seen here) are found, but no two specimens are alike. Humans are never carved on ikupasuy. (BMS C18761, C18764, C18770, C14724a and C13467)

which is thought to be the first step in creating a peaceful world. An Ainu saying states, "Because of humans (and their efforts), gods (including things) can exist in peace,because of gods' thoughtful arrangements, humans can live a peaceful life."

This relationship can be explained using the concept of duty and rights: the gods have a duty to protect humans but they retain the right to be compensated for this protection,- humans have the right to receive the gods' protection yet are obligated to return their favors. In other words, gods, including things, and humans are equal and maintain their existence through mutual cooperation.

Humans are not flawless. They are quite self-indulgent, and once things are going smoothly they relax and are apt to become lazy. When this situation continues, certain

gods also relax, following the example of the humans, and then the evil gods take advantage of the humans' unguarded mind and try to harm them. Sometimes the gods, who are supposed to protect humans, instead hurt them as a punishment for their careless behaviors,- when this happens, the human realizes that his laziness invited punishment. Regretting his wrong behavior, he conducts a ceremony to express his regret and appease the anger of the god. Even if the ceremonies are performed properly and sincerely, however, it is not certain that the gods will accept the apologies, for such judgments will be made collectively based on the dreams and feelings of those participating in the ritual. If the gods do not accept the apologies, even more courteous rituals will have to take place. If the content of the ceremonies becomes too

26.6 Ikupasuy Stories

The imagery on some ikupasuy seems to be narrative. For instance, the juxtaposition of a boat and a whale (bottom) suggests commemoration of a hunt or a prayer to ensure a successful future hunt. The carving on the upper specimen has the form of an animal, but it is too abstract to identify further. (BMS C13466, C12988)

complex for ordinary people, shamans are called upon to read the god's mind.

If humans conduct proper rituals and are grateful for the gods' protection — from certain harmful situations such as natural disasters, epidemics, poor harvests, abnormal weather—but are still plagued by problems, they can protest and argue with the gods. Occasionally, they get rid of some gods, and gods can be compelled through the fire goddess to provide a detailed explanation of the specific incident in question. Humans can demand deprivation of the god's status, purge it from the fellowship of other gods, take back offerings they provided, and ask for appropriate compensation for damages. The god who is sued must apologize to the accuser in a dream and pledge future protection. Sometimes the god asks for forgiveness through shamans.

A god, even though the most powerful entity, must ask for forgiveness from humans because gods (especially the dead spirits) are supposed to follow the words of man. The words of man (word spirits) become absolute power and can bind the dead spirits,- the words become a curse. The time required for a god's reincarnation, unlike for humans, is very short. Human words can eternally bind gods, unethical humans, and things, who are released only by the words of those who initially bound them. The words of living humans, therefore, are feared by the dead spirits.

Where do the dead souls—spirits who died in this world — go? Death for a human is the state when the soul departs from the

body, but sometimes the spirit tries to return. Imagine a situation where a person is bedridden for a long time from serious illness or aging,- it is obvious to everyone that death is near. The Ainu describe this situation as one where a person has entered the preparation stage of being a god (dead spirit). When the person's condition worsens, he may begin talking about matters after his death—for instance, a will—and by so doing he is notifying the people around him that he is dying. Once he loses consciousness the spirit is thought to begin departing the body, and his delirious talk and delusions are regarded as conversation with people who come to greet him, such as grandparents, parents, brothers, and sisters. Dying people who are highly sensitive can identify these people, and sometimes they can also see and hear extraordinary things, including physical manifestions of deceased people, the sound of rain and tinkling of metal, or light.

Sick people who open their eyes wide and stare at the sky are thought to be looking for the entrance to the next world,- when such movements stop and the patient ceases to respond to the voices of others, this indicates that his departure from his body is imminent. Breathing may stop, but only when the heart stops is he considered dead, for the spirits that grow in the container—the body—are believed to reside in the heart, and they leave the heart by passing through holes in the body such as the mouth, nostrils, earholes,

26.7 Exorcising Illness

An old method of curing disease, one of the primary functions of the Ainu shaman, is seen in this photograph by Sister M. Inez Hilger, who traveled in the Ainu region in 1965-66. The patient is bound with bulrush cord, and harvesting sickles and knives are being used to '‘cut’’ the power of the evil spirits. (NAA: Inez Hilger 2-5)

eyes, navel, and anus. Most dead spirits depart through the mouth and nostrils.

A spirit that has left the body may try to return to it. This happens when the spirit feels uncertain about its destination. When it succeeds in returning to the body, the memory of its journey is a near-death experience,- at this point, if the body is moved even slightly the spirit could determine that body to be someone else's and look for its own body. If it finds a corpse similar in shape, it may revive in it, so a dead body is not supposed to be moved for about twenty-four hours. After confirming that the body will not revive, people make funeral arrangements.

The soul that leaves the body, if free of attachments, resentments, and unfulfilled wishes, departs for the next world quickly. It travels through a cave near its village to a large lake, then goes to the mountaintop near the lake for its departure. Once this soul

arrives in the next world, it goes to a paternal ancestors' village (if the soul is male) or maternal ancestors' village (if female) and is guided to the womb of a female half of a certain couple who live in the village,- there it settles in an invisible small container. In the container the soul begins to grow as an embryo that will eventually be born in the next world. The newborn will slowly grow up absorbing the culture of the next world,

although it cannot communicate there because it can only speak the language of this world, the one it had previously inhabited. How the life of this baby develops is preconditioned by the way it lived in the previous world. After its life in the next world is completed, it will be born again on earth through the same process.

The Ainu people believe that one's flesh and bones are nothing but the container of the spirit, which exists for the purpose of living one's life and will be abandoned after this use. Because the soul is immortal, it goes back and forth between two worlds eternally. In this sense, the concept is similar to the transmigration of the spirit in Buddhism,however, the Ainu have neither the notions of paradise nor of hell as in Buddhism and lack terms for such entities. In the Amu view, the conditions in which each human lives are a result of one's own efforts in life, not from preordained fate, and this notion applies to gods and things as well.

The starting point of the Ainu religion is the fundamental idea that the difference between life and death lies with the spirits and that each spirit possesses a unique ability or spiritual power. For generations, the Ainu people have examined questions and rectified problems by applying the theory of spirits to their real lives (fig. 26.7), and their religion encompasses philosophy, science, law, medicine, sociology, and education. Specific examples of Ainu cultural beliefs are contained in their legends, folklore, and narratives.

The Ainu people, who today live a modern life, still value spiritual aspects of their religion even if they have been converted to various Japanese or Western ideologies. Through special occasions such as funerals, memorial services, exorcisms, festivals of gods, and oracles delivered via shamans, the Ainu feel that their traditional ideas and customs are still alive in them and that their identity lies in Ainu culture. Although the world faces diverse environmental problems today, the Ainu people are inspired by the wisdom of their ancestors to create a happy relationship with nature,- now they have begun relearning the tradition of mutual respect between humans and kamuy in the hope that they can contribute to the future of the world.

The Ainu

Ecosystem

Hitoshi Watanabe

27.1 Village Economy The kotan, or village, was both the highest political structure and the economic basis for Ainu life. Hunting, fishing, and gathering plant foods, supplemented by small amounts of produce raised in gardens, provided the basic resources for life. (UMA, photo by B. Lyman)

T he Ainu are the indigenous

population of southern Sakhalin, Hokkaido, and the southern part of the Kurile Islands and are regarded as a single ethnic group. They are distinguished from Japanese and from other indigenous peoples like the Okinawans by their distinct language and customs. This essay describes the culture-ecosystem complex of only one of these Ainu groups, the Hokkaido Ainu.

The Hokkaido Ainu were forced to alter their traditional hunting, fishing, and gathering way of life by the Meiji government of Japan during the 1880s. For example, they were forced to relocate to marginal land in often vain attempts to make small-scale farming the means of earning their livelihood. Relocation, economic change, and lifestyle changes had a disastrous effect on their social structure. This essay will discuss the status of

the northeastern part abounds in such coniferous trees as silver fir (Picea jezoensis) and white fir (Abies sacbalinensis). Large land mammals include brown bear (Ursus arctos) and deer (Cervus nippon ). The ancestors of today's Ainu were hunter-gatherers who exploited their resources by hunting, fishing, and collecting various wild plants. In Hokkaido, the monthly mean temperature between December and March is below zero degrees centigrade, and the land is usually covered with heavy snow during this period. This natural environment affected life cycles in the biological world and influenced Ainu seasonal activities and lifeways.

The Ainu had permanent dwellings as the base for family life, with several houses forming a village (kotan,- figs. 27.1, 27.2). The house usually had a thatched roof, and a small attached porch, used to store fish traps, fish spears, and other equipment, led to the living room. In the living room was a hearth at the

27.2 Ainu Kotan Ainu life was centered around the kotan, which consisted of a small number of family residences (chise) located along a fishing stream or a protected coastal bay or river. Nineteenth-century Hokkaido Ainu houses were framed light-log constructions covered with grass or reed thatch. A typical family compound consisted of a residence, an elevated shed for food, male and female toilets, and sometimes a log crib used as a bear cage. (Fong Chow Collection, photo by Felice Beato)

the Ainu during the period immediately preceding this social degradation, before village relocation and the Japanese government's land-allocation program caused a permanent rupture of the Ainu ecosystem. The descriptions here are based on information collected from elderly Ainu informants between 1952 and 1959 (H. Watanabe 1973: 1-5).

Hokkaido is an island with a range of mountains and hills extending from north to south in the central area and rivers radiating in all directions. In most of these rivers there are successive runs of two kinds of Pacific salmon, dog salmon ( Oncorhyncbus keta) and cherry salmon ( Oncorhyncbus masou ). The island is well wooded,- the southwestern part is rich in latifoliate trees (represented by beech), while

center,- at the end of the room was a small window ( kamuy-puyar ), which is considered sacred and dedicated to ceremonial use (fig. 31.5). Occupants of the house generally formed a nuclear family.

Ainu life cannot be explained apart from the supernatural environment. Kamuy —the spirits believed to pervade all parts of the world—provided an active link between the Ainu and nature. Belief in kamuy was a basic principle that governed all elements of Ainu society, including production and consumption, territoriality, kinship, social organization, and social sanctions. The house and family life in the kotan were an important focus for all activities that maintained relationships between the people and kamuy.

27.4 Ainu Ecosystem This schematic diagram illustrates the iwor, or territory surrounding a village that constitutes its resource zone. Hitoshi Watanabe's research on typical Ainu settlements in river valleys revealed the importance of these resource zones for the subsistence economy, (after H. Watanabe 1973)

27.3 Changing Lands, Changing Media

Before the arrival of Japanese settlers, Ainu occupied both coastal and interior regions of Hokkaido, as the Sakhalin and Kurile Ainu did until they lost their lands to Japanese and Russians. Paintings like this from Shimanojo Murakami’s Curious Sights of Ezo Island (1799) reveal the importance of coastal resources in early Ainu history. Ainu-e rarely depict life in the interior of these islands because Japanese artists did not often venture beyond the Japanese settlements on the coast. By the time photographic documentation began after the 1860s, most Ainu had been forced from valuable coastal lands by Japanese settlement and were living primarily in interior villages. (HML)

3 4

hunting hut |

River and tributariesfishing River banksplant collecting; i

cultivation of plants River terracesdeer hunting (autumn); plant collecting; habitation

Hillsides along the river coursedeer hunting (early winter and spring); bear hunting (occasional or subsidiary) Riverhead mountain regionbear hunting (periodic and intensive); collection of elm bark

The directional orientation of the house was determined by the location of the sacred window, which was placed in relation to the main river of the kotan, namely upstream or toward the source of a salmon river. Inside the house, allocation of space, such as areas for living and placement of furniture, was made with reference to the location of the hearth and the sacred window. The fire in the hearth was where the fire goddess, Fuchi, resided. Because communication with all other kamuy was considered impossible without Fuchi's mediation, all kamuy rituals began with a ceremony at the hearth. The sacred window provided access to kamuy outside the house and was an entrance and exit dedicated to the bear kamuy, who visited the house during the hear ceremony.

Outside the sacred window was an altar (nusa ), which also faced upstream and was used for kamuy ceremonies. The space

between the sacred window and the altar was used as the ritual site for the bear ceremony. The upstream orientation came from a religious belief that the homeland of the bear kamuy is in the mountains, where the source of the salmon rivers is also located.

Surrounding the house were various structures (fig. 27.2) and sites relating to consumption of food and the preparation of raw materials, including a place to skin animals, drying frames for meat and fish, a cage for bear cubs, a foodstorage shed, a storehouse, and disposal areas. These structures and sites were also arranged along directional orientation lines (FT Watanabe 1973: fig. 1). According to Ainu belief, food and materials were gifts from the kamuy which they brought on their bodies. Therefore, all consumption activities had to be accompanied by various kinds of kamuy rituals. Every sacred place was marked by inaw (sacred shaved sticks) set up as offerings to the kamuy.

Kamuy ceremonies were also held at the hunting, fishing, and collecting sites. The house in the kotan was a ritual center connecting the hunting and fishing sites through ceremonies led by the family patriarch (fig. 27.3). The headman of the local group presided over the important communal rituals, especially those related to salmon fishing and hear hunting.

The kotan was generally situated along a river with a dog-salmon run, below the upper limit of the run, and was at the center of various resource-distribution zones (FT Watanabe 1964a: fig. 14). People exploited hunting, fishing, and collecting sites surrounding the kotan and transported food and other resources into the kotan (FT Watanabe 1973: figs. 7, 8). The usual configuration of a kotan, illustrated in fig. 27.4, was centered on a salmon river (Zone 1) near the habitual fishing site of the people of the kotan and the spawning grounds of dog salmon. This site and a secondary site on a branch river for fishing cherry salmon during its spawning period defined the territory of a local group Zone 2 included riverbanks where Ainu collected edible plants—in spring, new

27/ AINU ECOSYSTEM

27.5 River-Fishing Expedition

The great Japanese commercial photographer Kusakabe Kimbei was one of the first to record the Ainu with a camera. This nineteenth-century view, attributed to Kimbei, illustrates the use of exotic subject matter and composition; such tinted images evoked a lyrical landscape that appealed to foreign and Japanese tourists in the early Meiji period. (LC)

leaves,- in summer, lily root ( turep ) (H. Watanabe 1986: 247),- in autumn, nuts and berries. Zone 3 included terraced fields near the edge of the kotan where they hunted deer, whose meat was preserved for winter consumption. Zone 4, mountainous areas on both sides of the river, was rich in coniferous trees and, as the winter range of deer, was the site of deer hunting in early winter and early spring. Deer hunting also occurred in the fields in autumn (zone 3),- in early spring the purpose of hunting was mainly to obtain the heavy fur the animals had grown for winter. Zone 5 was the source area of the salmon river in the mountains with shaip slopes above the limit of the dog-salmon ain. While there were few deer here, this zone had many bear and was the center of their hibernation area. This area was the focus of bear hunting, which was conducted periodically according to precise plans, and here, in early spring, bears born in January or February were captured for the bear ceremony.

Staples and most other necessary resources were procured in zones 1 to 3, which lay within a one-day round-trip from the kotan. This proximity enabled people to occupy the kotan throughout the year. For hunting and fishing trips far from the kotan, small structures were built, typically bear-hunting huts in zone 5 and winter deer-hunting cottages in zone 4,- salmonfishing cottages were built in some areas (FT Watanabe 1973: map 2). Because hunting and fishing required someone to stay in the seasonal huts for a period of time, it was generally considered men's work (fig. 27.5). Women and children remained home, gathering and process

ing plants and drying and storing wild game brought in from the hunting and fishing sites.

In December the salmon run stopped, deer disappeared from the fields around the kotan, bears began to hibernate, and the land became covered with snow until March (fig. 27.6). During this part of winter, the Ainu depended primarily on presewed food. Dog salmon was the winter staple, and so the volume of its annual mn strongly influenced Ainu existence. The second most important subsistence activity was deer hunting, but bear hunting was more prestigious. Women and children could participate in salmon fishing and deer hunting, but bear hunting was the prerogative of men and was conducted with great decorum.

The spatial distribution of hunting, fishing, and collecting sites (zones I to 5) and the annual and daily cycles of subsistence activities fit well to the spatial-temporal structure of the habitat. This adaptation depended on the periodicity of the biotic environment—the appearance and disappearance of plants, animal movements, and hibernation—which characterized the northern habitat. According to the traditional Ainu view of environment, however, the mannature relationship is not just a single physical system. In their view, animals and plants were not simply physical entities but had two aspects that were thing and non-thing. They believed that the periodicity of their habitat was not due to scientific principles but was a phenomenon maintained and guaranteed by their ceremonial activities. This belief is clearly expressed in Ainu animal rituals.

Various ceremonies articulate this view, principally the rituals concerning large and small species, best represented by those focused on bear and salmon. Although these two ceremonies have some variation, as do lesser ceremonies, the underlying belief was the same. According to the hayokpe (disguise) theory, bears and salmon are the disguised bearers of animal kamuy who visit the Ainu. The Ainu reward them with gifts and welcome them as honored guests because they need the kamny's presents of fish, meat, and fur. The people send the kamuy home with inaw, sake, and other gifts, hoping that

the animal kamuy will wish to visit again the Ainu who so respectfully welcomed them.

The principle belief of the salmon ritual, which is the same for bear rituals, is enunciated in three stages: (1) the first ceremony, held while waiting for salmon kamuy to appear, includes predictions of when the run will begin;

(2) the first-salmon ceremony coincides with the first run near the kotan and celebrates the salmon kamuy as the first visitor of the season,

(3) at the end of spawning, a ceremony is held at the spawning grounds of the local group in which a mandible bone that represents all salmon kamuy caught by the local group is sent home to the spirit world. For a certain period— at the appearance of silver salmon in the late phase of the run—between stages two and three, the use of bag-nets, fishing implements used mainly by women and children for night fishing (the most active time of the spawning

27.6 Ice Fishing

Hokkaido’s long coid winters, with heavy snowfalls, often made deer and bear hunting difficult. At such times, ice-hole fishing provided important food resources, as Byozan Hirasawa illustrates in this nineteenth-century painting. In general, Ainu lands offered sufficient food, and starvation was rare. (HMM)

run) was taboo (H. Watanabe 1973: 29). Salmon ceremonies are conducted by each local group, and all male members of the group participate.

The ritual procedure of salmon fishing was synchronized with the biological cycle of salmon, and that in turn was synchronized with the exploitation process. The ritual cycle of salmon fishing and the relationship among these three phases served as both a stimulus and pacemaker for the technological cycle

(H. Watanabe 1973: fig. 4).

While the homeland of the salmon kamuy was identified as the sea, the bear kamuy reside in the sacred mountains at the headwaters of each hunter's salmon river (H. Watanabe 1973: 73 ; 1990). This place was the seat of the chief bear kamuy for the entire river basin, who was known as metorushi-kamuy and was the highest-ranked kamuy of the Ainu pantheon. The bearhunting system was managed more strictly than other subsistence activities because it concerned the kamuy. Only young men who were believed capable of administering the activity with no errors were selected to inherit the management procedures,- thus, not all Ainu men were bear hunters.

The bear ritual involved two types of ceremonies: the bear-sending ceremony for animals killed in the forests and another for bear cubs reared in the kotan. Only the highest-qualified and most honored hunters, who formed an elite stratum of Ainu society (H. Watanabe 1983,- 1992), were permitted to be participants in the iyomante bear ceremony for this highest-ranked kamuy. Their special status was clearly reflected in their assigned roles and seats. These ceremonies were conducted by the largest Ainu corporate kin groups (s bine itokpa ), and all bear hunters of each group participated (H. Watanabe 1964b: fig. 2). These hunters identified their traditional social relationship with metorushi-kamuy of their river basin through a patrilineal ancestral mark ( itokpa ) common to their group, which was engraved on inaw offered to the bear kamuy and on a man's ikupasuy (prayer stick).

The Ainu ecosystem is not a simple physical system. Its structure is based on principles of social solidarity between man, biotic species, and kamuy ; two subsystems— bear and salmon rituals—deal with physical aspects of the biotic world in both technological and spiritual aspects. Kamuy-nomi , the belief that the gods had to be celebrated, is the core of the ritual aspect. The function of this system was to sustain Ainu behavioral adaptation to the spatial-temporal structure of the northern environment.

27/ AINU ECOSYSTEM

201

Foods of Choice

TOSHIHIRO KoHARA

28.1 June: Gathering Seaweed In his series of sketches describing the monthly cycle of the Ainu year, Byozan Hirasawa painted this scene of Ainu boats sailing off the coast of Hokkaido while Ainu gather seaweed, a dietary staple and an important export product to Honshu. The images in Hirasawa’s series, Ainu Manners and Customs, painted after 1872, show the different activities that occupied the Ainu in each season. (HMH)

INU BELIEVE THAT EVERYTHING edible—including such mammals as bears and deer, such fish as salmon and trout, and such plants as the lily—are given to the human world by the gods ( kamuy ) that represent these species. Some of these kamuy, notably bears, are still worshipped by many Ainu in private and public ceremonies. Although Ainu no longer explicitly worship the kamuy of salmon, trout, or deer, they pray to the kamuy who control these animals to ensure that they will return to the human world again as gifts of food from the gods. While the Ainu do not worship plants directly, they give thanks to the kamuy who ensure their regeneration and who taught humans how to use them for food, medicine, and other purposes. These beliefs have been handed down in stories that teach

lessons about the importance of these foods and the consequences—famine—if they are withheld.

Although certain aspects of Ainu culture such as the spirit-sending ceremonies ( iyomante ), oral traditions, clothing, and material culture have been studied, the traditional Ainu diet, which was the basis for daily life, has only recently become a matter of ethnological investigation. As a result, today we know about Ainu eating habits and foods dating back only to the middle of the nineteenth century, after which time the consumption of traditional Ainu foods declined greatly due to economic and lifestyle changes resulting from assimilation policies implemented after the Meiji period began in 1868.

Contrary to the general impression created by the image of the Ainu as hunters who used poisoned arrows and traps, meat was not the dominant element of the Ainu diet but was used to supplement more important foods like seaweed, plants, and fish (fig. 28.1). Wild plants gathered by women from fields and hills were particularly important (fig. 28.4), and in the past their collection and preservation consumed a large part of daily Ainu life (fig. 28.2). As soon as the snow began to melt in spring and the trees and grass began their cycle of new growth, the Ainu had to begin once again preparing for the coming winter. The annual task of preserving food was, and continues to be, crucial to supplying their nutritional needs during a long winter and for avoiding unpredictable famines that occurred when fish or game became scarce.

The best source of information about plant foods and uses is the volume dedicated to that subject in Mashiho Chiri's Classified Dictionary of the Ainu Language ( 1 953—62). In most cases the Ainu name plants according to their uses: if they are collected when their flowers are in bloom, Ainu remember them by their flowers, but if they did not eat the blossoms or use them to identify the plants, they often had no knowledge of them. Plants that were of no use to the Ainu were frequently left unnamed, and sometimes similar or identical words were given to different plants. Rather than using systematic botanical classification, the Ainu only categorized those plants that were important to them,- this system varied from region to region, so identical plants had different names or different plants had the same name according to local usage.

28.4 Ainu Foods In addition to salmon (right), traditional Ainu foods included such plants as wild anemone (Anemone flaccida), wild garlic, cow parsnip, and skunk cabbage, which were collected and dried whole or were boiled and dried. Lily roots (left) were also boiled to extract starch used for dumplings (center) in soups and stews. (HACRC)

However, most plants that were important in the Ainu diet are named identically throughout Hokkaido. (Interestingly, names of animals and fish do not vary geographically as often as do those of plants.)

In some cases names of regions were based on the types of plants common to those regions: for instance, areas with particularly luxuriant growths of edible plants had names reflecting these characteristics. As a result of the agricultural and forestry development projects that began in the Meiji period, however, the plants that gave these regions

their distinctive names often no longer exist and the regions cannot be recognized because of the loss of traditional knowledge of local flora as well as ecological changes.

Most preserved foods were made from plants that were collected in spring and then kept in storehouses next to the family's main house. Because there was no possibility of preservation by refrigeration (except in some north coastal villages where sea ice could be gathered and stored) and salt was a very expensive commodity that could only be obtained by trade from the Japanese, most foods were preserved by drying. Plants such as wild garlic (cjyoja ninniku), cow parsnip (oohana udo), skunk cabbage (bimezazen so), and a kind of anemone (nirin so) were collected and dried whole or were boiled and then dried. In addition, the Ainu, rather than eating the tender new growth or young shoots of a wild plant, instead waited until the plant grew large in order to harvest and preserve as much edible

28.2, 28.3 Stripping Grain

Various grains, including barnyard and foxtail millet, were grown for food and beverage in small garden plots; the Ainu also grew wheat, vegetables, greens, and root plants. This image from the early-nineteenth-century work Illustrations of Ezo Livelihood by Shimanojo Murakami shows Ainu women stripping grain from its sheath. Grain-strippers (pipa) made from mussel shells were held in the palm of the hand by a loop around the two middle fingers. Although the Ainu gardened, true agriculture was not practiced in Hokkaido until new cold-resistant strains of rice revolutionized Hokkaido’s agricultural potential, leading to the opening of Hokkaido to Japanese farmers after the Meiji Restoration in 1868. (BMA 12.181; HML)

material as possible. They also caught large quantities of salmon and trout from early spring into the fall and preserved them by grilling, drying, or smoking,- deer and bear meat were also dried or smoked.

Food derived from processing lily root ( turep ) was shaped into a disc with a hole pierced through the center so that it could be strung above the hearth, where it would be kept all year long. The Ainu also picked the bulbs of nonflowering plants in June and July and extracted starch that was dried and preserved in ways that varied from region to region in Hokkaido. Sometimes this starch was made into dumplings that enriched soup or rice gruel. Disc-shaped dumplings made with the hardened fibers that remained after the starch was removed could be saved for years,- these were broken into pieces and soaked to extract starch and flavor. Such foods continue to have an important role in Ainu ceremonial life.

Historical evidence has shown that limited farming was practiced by the Ainu in the southern parts of Hokkaido during the Edo period (1615-1 868). People cultivated and ate barnyard millet, foxtail millet, barley, wheat, adzuki beans, hemp, peas, soybeans, vetch, rattlebox (Crotolaria), daikon, leek or onion, cucumber, tomato, potatoes, and two types of American squash (Hayashi 1975), but these foods were always supplements and did not become staples until farming became fully established in the late nineteenth and early

28.7

28.6-28.8 Cooking Utensils

Even simple utensils like spatulas for stirring millet and serving platters were often decorated with artful carving. (BMS C13461, C13462; BMA 12.353)

28.5 Fish Roe Masher Mashers, called ciporninap, were used to make such traditional foods as boiled potatoes and salmon roe. Mashers were made from the katsura tree because it imparted the least odor and taste. (BMA 12.588)

28.5

28.9

28.9 Serving Ladles

Ainu ladles were made in many different forms. Soup ladles like these were called rurkasup ; large ladles used to stir rice mash when making sake were called sakaekasup. The lower spoon was collected in Piratori, Hokkaido, by Romyn Hitchcock in 1888. (MPM N17027; NMNH 150,670)

twentieth centuries. Rice was generally not grown locally but was obtained, along with other grains, through trade with the Japanese, and became an essential ingredient for making sake and dumplings for use in ceremonies (fig. 28.1 3). The introduction of rice is marked by the appearance of mortars and pestles among the Ainu of southern Hokkaido,- these tools were used to create various groundrice products.

Recent archaeological evidence suggests that during the prehistoric Satsumon era, people made greater use of plant products than has previously been believed (Crawford and Yoshizaki 1987). In addition to local plant products—barnyard and foxtail millet—seeds of barley, wheat, adzuki and inung beans, hemp, beefsteak plant (shiso), rice, and melon have been found in numerous sites in southwestern Hokkaido dating as early as A.D. 900. These data suggest that in addition to making use of a wide variety of natural resources of their land, the early Ainu adopted plants from Japan and the Asian continent for use in local gardening.

The Ainu utilized this variety of food resources to create a tasty and varied table fare. It was common to have two meals a day, one in the morning and one in the evening. The typical daily menu consisted of various soups and, after an active rice trade was established with Japan, rice gruel flavored with seasonal wild vegetables and fish. Fish and meat—always eaten cooked, not raw— were also flavored with freshly picked wild

plants, vegetables, and legumes and, in winter, with dried plants. In addition to drying salmon for future use, salmon was sometimes eaten raw with green onion, but most fish was generally cooked. Other types of flavors were obtained by using sardine oil, Pacific herring, and Pacific cod,- fat from seals, sea lions, whales, and dolphins, and small amounts of salt. The Ainu also flavored some foods with the sap of sugar-maple trees, which sweetened the food as it simmered. Most Ainu food, however, would be rather bland to modern tastes.

In Hokkaido and the Kuriles, the Ainu crafted bowls, platters, spoons, and cups of wood and birch bark (figs. 28.5-28.12),larger bowls were obtained by trade with Japan. The Sakhalin Ainu, however, created large, beautifully sculpted serving bowls. Wooden utensils were frequently decorated with delicate sculptural and engraved designs in floral and geometric motifs. Because the Ainu diet often included soups and gruels, their utensils included spoons and small spatulas. Chopsticks were also used.

This brief description has addressed traditional Ainu foods primarily in the central and southern region of Hokkaido,coastal Ainu had a diet that was rich in marine products and varied from region to region. Ainu everywhere utilized the many wild plant foods available to them, in the southern regions, they also practiced garden agriculture. With Japanization, the introduc

28.10 Kurile Spoons

Museum records indicate that these two spoons were collected from the Kurile Ainu in the early twentieth century. They resemble festival spoons used by the Nivhki of northern Sakhalin, but such spoons are found occasionally in Kurile and Hokkaido collections, possibly indicating trade or marriage exchange with Sakhalin. (BMS C13474, C13475)

28.11

28.13

28.14 Brewing Rice Wine

Brewing alcoholic beverages from millet and imported rice was an old tradition. The large lacquerware vessels used for this purpose are illustrated in the picture scroll Ainu Manners and Customs, painted by Hokuyo Nishikawa in the late nineteenth century. (HML)

’'///'//WS'&k

. ■ ■"/////////,/,

28.15 Storehouse

This Ainu-e from illustrations of Ezo Livelihood, painted by Shimanojo Murakami in the early nineteenth century, shows women working at the elevated storehouses used to keep food dry and away from animals. (HML)

28.11, 28.12, 28.13 Bowls and Platter

Ainu serving bowls and platters varied regionally but were often made with great care. The bowl with the handle (fig. 28.13), collected before 1879, suggests a Sakhalin origin, perhaps traded from the Nivkhi; the bowl at top, collected in Hokkaido before 1888, lacks this feature and has crested ends. Both have elegant sculptural form and a deep patina from decades of use. The decorated platter must also have been well used by an Ainu family. Carved platters became a staple of the Ainu tourist trade by the mid-nineteenth century, but old, used examples like this one show they had deep traditional roots. (PMC 22431, 7046; MPM N17296)

tion of new foods engineered for the northern climate and the tight regulation of fish and game resources have brought many changes to the traditional Ainu diet. Even so, Ainu continue to use natural foods obtained from

the mountains, rivers, and coasts. Even though most of these are no longer basic subsistence foods, they are still caught and hunted and are used in ceremonies to thank the gods for the bounty of nature.

Technology, Settlement, and Hunting Ritual

Hans Dieter Olschleger

29.1 Family of Hunters

Hokkaido Ainu hunted in the mountains from late autumn to early summer. This painting shows three men and a dog setting out on a hunting expedition. Dogs were not only used for tracking and driving game but for companionship and protection. This nineteenthcentury Ainu-e by Koretsu Matsumae was purchased by Edward S. Morse; it was accessioned by the Peabody Essex Museum in 1920. (PEM E17874)

OR MORE THAN A HUNDRED YEARS the Ainu had the not very flattering reputation of being one of the most primitive peoples in the world. Although depicted as friendly and goodhearted, they were seen nevertheless as being at the lowest rung of the evolutionary ladder that nineteenth-century anthropologists were so keen to construct. The English traveler A. Henry Savage Landor gave a good example of this view:

As a hog delights in filth, so the Ainu can only live in dirt, neglect, and savagery of personal habits. They are made that way, and they cannot help it. They are excluded from progress by an impassable barrier.... All in all, the Ainu are the furthest behind in the great race of human development (Landor 1893: 216, 228).

But this picture was as far from reality as it could be, for closer scrutiny reveals that traditional Ainu culture was characterized by complexity in social and economical terms, a complexity that might be compared to that of the coastal Indians of northwestern North America. Living in a habitat that offered varied and sometimes abundant resources, the Ainu found many ingenious ways to use these resources within the confines of a largely hunting, fishing, and gathering way of life (fig. 29.1).

The Ainu Habitat

The Ainu habitat was a region of transition between the subarctic and the temperate zones stretching over more than nine degrees of latitude, between the forty-second and the fiftyfirst parallels. The resulting differences in temperature and precipitation were increased further by the influence of ocean currents: the warm Tsushima Current along the west coast of Honshu and Hokkaido and the cold Chishima Current (also called Oyashio) touching the Kurile Islands and the east coast of Hokkaido.

A second cold current, the East Sakhalin Current, flows southward from eastern Sakhalin and influences the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk in northeastern Hokkaido. These varied influences gave rise to different ecological zones, each characterized by a unique composition of flora and fauna,- they also exercised a profound influence on Ainu culture, resulting in regional differences in social and economic behavior that are often overlooked when describing traditional Ainu culture and society. Precisely speaking, there was not one single type of Ainu culture but rather many regional varieties (Olschleger 1989).

Ainu Subsistence

The Ainu were hunters, fishermen, and gatherers who exploited a variety of natural resources (fig. 29.2). The relative value of each of these resources for nutrition, clothing, ritual, and other purposes varied according to the aforementioned ecological regions. In addition, since 1710 small-scale horticulture was practiced in some parts of southwestern Hokkaido (see below).

Today the Ainu are often depicted as hunters of bears. It is true that the brown bear (Ursus arctos ) played a prominent part in mythology and ritual, but as a part of Ainu diet its meat was negligible. Far more important nutritionally were other land mammals

29.2 Hunter in Mountain Clothes

Ainu hunters spent many days away from their villages while hunting in the mountains. For these expeditions they were equipped with little more than a quiver, a bow, a hunting knife, a smoking kit, a fire kit, snowshoes, and a heavy fur robe that doubled as sleeping gear. A staff was used to clear underbrush, vault streams, and give protection against bears or wolves. (NPS/LNHS)

29.3 Deer Call

During the fall mating season hunters lured male deer with a whistle (ipakkeni or irektep), whose sound approximated the call of a doe; these were made from the bladder of a frog or salmon. (BMA 12.583A)

such as the Sika deer (Cennts nippon, yuh in Ainu) in Hokkaido, and muskdeer and reindeer on the island of Sakhalin.

Sika deer roamed the plains and mountains of Hokkaido in enormous numbers until they were drastically reduced by Japanese hunters during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The Sika migrated from their winter terrain in hills along the rivers to spend their summer on the plains, and Ainu men hunted them during the spring and the fall seasons with different methods. During the fall migration the hunters erected wooden fences in lengths varying between several hundred and several thousand feet near the villages. Spring bows with poisoned arrows were placed in openings left in this fence and checked at intervals. The string of the bow was held by a trigger fastened to a cord so that when a deer tripped the cord, the trigger was released and the arrow struck the animal. The paths of the migrating deer were also barred with wooden spears whose tips were hardened by fire and whose shafts were set into the ground.

Whenever possible, Sika were also hunted with hand bows and poisoned arrows. This method was of special importance during the mating season when hidden hunters lured the male deer with the sound of a deer whistle that imitated the call of the doe (fig. 29.3). Bows and arrows were also used in the hilly regions where the Sika spent the winter (fig. 29.4).

During the spring hunt the hunters took advantage of the snow still covering wide areas. They drove the deer—often with the help of their dogs—into snow patches and killed them while they floundered (fig. 29.5),- sometimes deer were also caught with a lasso and killed with clubs.

On Sakhalin Island, the Sika deer was unknown, but reindeer (Rancjifer tarandus, called tunakay by the Ainu) and muskdeer (Moschus moscbiferus, called opokay ) were both hunted during the winter with spring bows erected along game paths and with hand bows and lances,• muskdeer were also caught in snares. The extreme maritime ecology of the Kurile Islands meant that land mammals had little importance in Ainu subsistence there.

As already mentioned, the brown bear was far more important ritually than for nutrition. The bear was hunted during the spring and fall by groups of younger and more active men (fig. 29.8). After the leaves

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TECHNOLOGY

209

29.5

29.4, 29.5 Deer Hunting

Hokkaido Ainu hunted deer in winter with bows and arrows as illustrated in this scene from Hokuyo Nishikawa's Ainu Manners and Customs. Deep snow restricted the movements of deer and made them more vulnerable to snowshoe-clad hunters. Bows (ku), about one meter long, were made of yew or linden and had bowstrings made of twisted wisteria vine soaked in fish oil. Some, like the upper one illustrated, were strengthened by cherry-bark wrappings. Arrows had feather fletching and points of bone, wood, or iron. (MPM N17025; NMNH 150642, 150638; HML)

fell, temporary huts were erected in the vicinity of the bears' wintering territory in hilly country,- using these huts as base camps, hunters roamed the region placing spring bows with poison arrows along the game paths or pursuing their prey with hand bows and poisoned arrows. After the bears withdrew into their dens to hibernate, the hunters began searching for them and flushed them out by prodding them with long poles and throwing rocks. When the bear emerged, it was shot with poisoned arrows. If it was not killed immediately, the furious bear often charged the men, who stood their ground

with their poisoned lances wedged against a rock. When the bear reached the spear tip the hunter would jump aside, leaving his lance in place, and the bear would impale himself. The same method was used during the spring hunt when hunters hoped to catch newborn cubs to take back to the village to rear for the iyomante ceremony.

In addition to these land mammals, the Ainu hunted foxes {Vulpes vulpes,- Hokkaido Ainu chironnup, Kurile Ainu cawcaw), otters (Lutra lutra, Ainu esaman), hares (Lepus timidus, Kurile Ainu isepo, Sakhalin Ainu osukep), and other species with spring bows (figs. 29.6, 29.7), snares, and special box traps with sliding doors activated by bows and trip lines.

As important as Sika, muskdeer, and reindeer were economically, different species of anadromous fish, which spend part of their lives in the open sea and return to the rivers for spawning, were even more crucial for Ainu survival. The longer rivers of Hokkaido provided optimal spawning grounds for cherry salmon (Oncorbyncbus mason, Ainu ichaniw, ikreppo, sakipe ) and dog salmon ( Oncorbyncbus keta, Ainu cbep ) as well as some other species of salmon ( Oncorbyncbusgorbuscha, Ainu bmoy-, Oncorhyncbus nerka, Ainu kapatcbep). In addition, other anadromous fish such as trout (especially Houcbo pertyii, Ainu cbiray, but also Salvelinus malma) and a species of carp (’ Tribolodon baknensis, Ainu supun ) could sometimes be caught in quantities.

The fishing season on Hokkaido started in spring and lasted until the beginning of

TRADITIONAL CULTURE / H. D. OLSCHLEGER

winter. The first fish to ascend the rivers were trout and carp, which were caught in small quantities. With the appearance of cherry salmon in July the most productive fishing activities began In September the dogsalmon run began, adding another staple to the Hokkaido Ainu diet.

Different species of fish were caught using different methods. Dogs were trained to jump into the water and catch salmon, a fishing method reported in Hokkaido as well as Sakhalin. Pish were also caught by rod and line using a single hook or by lines with multiple hooks that were left in the water and periodically checked. To exploit the migrations of salmon the Ainu constructed brush fences across the rivers with openings left at intervals for fish traps. Different kinds of nets were also used: a trawl net was slowly dragged downstream to catch salmon moving in the opposite direction,- a small stream would be barred across its course by a net,- or fish would be driven into a bag-shaped net.

The most important fishing device was the marek, a long spear with a pivoting iron hook at its end (fig. 29.1 1). These spears were used from a boat, from the bank of the river, or from a "peep-fishing" hut ( worun cbise), a simple shelter constructed on piles over the open water or, in winter, on the ice. During the later part of the fishing season (November and December), the unuek was used in combination with a torch (fig. 29.10) that attracted salmon by its light (H. Watanabe 1973: 19).

Salmon was caught in every part of the Ainu region, but they were of special importance in Hokkaido where the rivers were longer than those in Sakhalin or in the Kurile Islands. In Sakhalin the most important species of fish was Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii, Ainu beroki ). From March to May these fish gathered in large shoals along the western coastline to spawn, and enormous quantities could be caught by the Ainu with simple hand-nets.

Sea mammals were important only for those Ainu living in close vicinity to the open sea, for instance, Uchiura (Volcano) Bay and parts of eastern Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuriles. One species, the ring seal ( Pboca vitulina), is restricted to the Nemuro Peninsula of southeastern Hokkaido and the Kurile Islands, while another ( Pboca larcjba) can be encountered all over the region. Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubata), which live in groups of several hundred or even several thousand individuals during the breeding season, used to be numerous along the

29/SUBSISTENCE TECHNOLOGY

Pacific coasts of Hokkaido (especially Shiretoko Peninsula), Sakhalin, and the Kuriles, while the sea otter was found only in the area surrounding the Kuriles.

Harpoons were the most important implements for hunting seals and sea lions and were made in one-pronged and twopronged versions (fig. 29.13) in Hokkaido. The tip of the harpoon was detachable and was fastened to a long line held by the hunter (fig. 29.12). The Ainu of northwestern Sakhalin hunted in spring when the seals gave birth on the drifting ice. Small groups of young men left their villages before dawn in boats to search for the seals and pups, and their hunt might take them far from land (Ohnuki-Tierney 1974: 26).

The relative importance of all these resources varied by region. The nineteenthand twentieth-century Ainu of Hokkaido were primarily inland hunters, gatherers, and fishermen, and only a minority subsisted on maritime resources. Sika deer and two species of salmon were the dietary staples for humans as well as for dogs, which were used only for hunting. Even in Hokkaido, the relative proportion of these resources varied according to region: the farther upstream, the more important were Sika deer due to the greater concentration of salmon on the lower reaches of the rivers. Brown bear and other mammals, birds, and fish species were of secondary importance for subsistence, and only in a few parts of Hokkaido were sea mammals hunted, such as the whale in Volcano Bay.

The Ainu of Sakhalin relied on salmon and herring as food for both people and dogs during the cold season. Dogs were more numerous in Sakhalin where they were used both for hunting and as sledge dogs (fig. 29.15). Where Sika deer was absent, reindeer and nuiskdeer took its place,- brown bear, fur-bearing mammals, and birds were also hunted. The smaller islands of the Kurile chain, with their relatively short rivers, relied most heavily on the maritime resources. The Kurile Ainu hunted seals, sea lions, and sea otter,- seabirds and their eggs were an important part of their diet, and salmon, which was available only in small numbers, was supplemented by ocean fish.

Hunting with Poison

Poisoned arrows ( suruku ) were used in Hokkaido for hunting Sika deer as well as brown bear. The exact procedures for producing the

24 4

29.8

29.7

29.7 Spring Bow Trap

Hunters increased their efficiency by using game traps like those depicted in Rinzo Mamiya’s Illustrations of Northern Ezo (1855); this image shows an otter approaching a spring bow armed with a poison arrow. (HML)

29 . 6 , 29.8 Bear Hunting

Larger varieties of traps and deadfalls were used for deer and bear, as seen in this nineteenth-century painting by Byozan Hirasawa. Trap bows ( akpe) were often hastily contructed with materials found at the site. (NMNH E150764; HMM)

poison differed and were generally kept secret, but one of the main ingredients was the monkshood plant (fig. 29.17). The young tubers of Aconitum spp. were collected in summer and dried in the shade until fall. It was believed that the most potent poison could be extracted from those tubers that had softened during drying. After being peeled the tubers were ground up and the resulting pulp could be used with no further processing (Scheube 1882: 228). Sometimes the ground monkshood tubers were mixed with deer fat and buried for a few days (Siebold 1881: 20). Additional ingredients occasionally included tobacco, poisonous spiders, or other plants.

To test the potency of the fresh poison, a small

amount was applied to the tongue or placed between two fingers or on the thigh The stronger the resulting numb feeling, the better the poison (Inukai and Natori 1969: 322).

Poison was applied to the tips of arrows used with hand hows as well as spring bows. A bear hit by one of these arrows could walk only two hundred to three hundred yards (150 to 250 meters) or so before dying. Because the alkaloid aconitum agent was only deadly upon entering the bloodstream, it was safe to eat the meat of animals so killed as long as one removed the meat around the point of penetration. If a human were hit by a poisoned arrow there was only one remedy to save his life: cut out the affected spot at once and wash the wound out.

TRADITIONAL CULTURE / H. D. OLSCHLECER

29.11

away,- in winter, these cakes were an ingredient of a nutritious soup. To prepare the collected items for winter storage, a variety of methods was employed. Bulbs were dried and ground and berries and plants were dried and, especially in Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands, preserved in herring, salmon, or seamammal oil. When fall came, the Ainu women collected nuts and berries. After being cooked, chestnuts were pounded and the resulting paste was mixed with fish roe. Most of the plants that were used as raw materials for producing household items— for instance, the inner bark of the elm trees used to make cloth (cittush )—were also gathered during the fall season.

On Sakhalin Island, gathering plants, roots, berries, and nuts was far more important than on Hokkaido. Families without an adult male hunter drew an important part of their subsistence from these sources, and even under normal circumstances when hunting did take place, collected foods constituted a significant share of the diet in the cold season (Ohnuki-Tierney 1976a: 304).

In addition to numerous species of plants, the Kurile Ainu collected the eggs of seabirds that breed in large colonies on most of the islands (Torii 1919: 19).

Ainu Horticulture

The Ainu of Hokkaido practiced a simple form of horticulture that was first described in 1710 but might be older (Takakura 1957:

29 . 9 , 29 . 10 , 29.11 Salmon Fishing

Until their numbers were reduced by Japanese commercial fishing, large numbers of salmon ran up streams and rivers in Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuriles, where they were caught at night by fishermen carrying birchbark torches (sune: fig. 29.10). Fishing spears ( marek, fig. 29.11) equipped with pivoting hooks were used to impale the fish, which was prevented from escaping when the hook rotated forward. Such scenes attracted Japanese artists like Byozan Hirasawa, who painted this image (fig. 29.9) as emblematic of September in Ainu Manners and Customs (after 1872). (UPM A457A; BMA 12.597; HMH)

29.9

The Ainu of the Oshamanbe region of Hokkaido used the dried spines of a stingray to produce an arrow poison that was almost as potent as that made from Aconitum ; the spines were ground and applied to the arrow tip together with the plant poison. Sometimes the spines themselves, fastened to poles or arrows, were used as weapons (Inukai and Natori 1969: 323). Arrow poison was unknown in Sakhalin, but Ryuzo Torii (1919: 224) described its use in the Kurile Islands (Kurile Ainu souroukou).

Collecting

Ainu culture was characterized by a strict division of labor based on gender. Hunting and fishing were male tasks with only minor exceptions, while gathering was largely the task of women, children, and elders. The products of collecting activities were of secondary importance for subsistence, but they nevertheless provided important nutritional needs and raw materials for a variety of objects in daily or ritual use.

Beginning in spring the Hokkaido Ainu collected edible plants and roots to serve as food for humans and for the bear cubs that had been caught during the bear-hunting season at the end of winter, and a portion was stored for consumption during the cold season. During the summer the bulbs of Cardiocrimim Glebni (Ainu turep) were gathered, dried, and ground. The starchy powder was formed into cakes that were dried and stored

29 . 12 , 29.13 Toggling Harpoons

Toggling harpoons have been used for sea-mammal hunting by North Pacific peoples for at least 6,000 years. Ainu in Hokkaido used double-pronged harpoons (kite) to land such diverse prey as swordfish, turtles, and sunfish. Unlike simple harpoons that held their prey with barbs, toggling harpoons turned crossways under the prey’s skin or blubber, anchoring the implement so that it could be retrieved by the harpoon line. (NMNH E150675; AMNH 70-71B)

island. As Japanese influence gradually spread out to embrace the whole island, horticulture followed suit. As a rule it can be said that the more the Japanese presence made itself felt, the more important cultivation became to the Ainu economy. Only in a few places on the coasts of the Sea of Okhotsk and deep in the Hokkaido interior along minor rivers did the Ainu rely solely on hunting, fishing, and gathering.

The main crops grown were turnips (Bmssica napobrassica, Ainu atane) and two types of millet (broomcorn, Panicum miliaceum, and foxtail, Setaria italica), but the Ainu also cultivated wheat and barley (Ainu muncji for all cereals), beans, peas, and potatoes. In the beginning these were of subordinate importance for subsistence, but as the Ainu were increasingly forced to work for the Japanese—often spending several months in summer at the coastal fishing stations— the products of horticulture gained importance as winter supplies. It is also reasonable to assume that game was rapidly depleted by overhunting near Japanese settlements.

29.13

29.12

13, 15). Recent archaeological research at sites in southern Hokkaido has recovered remains of a variety of seeds, grains, and legumes at ninth-century Satsumon sites, and these finds have been corroborated at other locations, suggesting that early Ainu may have had a stronger agricultural base than is generally believed (Crawford and Yoshizaki 1987). Recent Ainu horticulture probably stems from these early roots but in any case is closely linked to Japanese agriculture systems and products. In 1715 the northern frontier of cultivation stretched between Shiraoi in the east and Shakotan Peninsula in the west, in close proximity to the center of Japanese settlement in the southwestern parts of the

29.14 Sea-hunting Expedition

Competition with the Japanese and Russians caused the Ainu to lose their sea-hunting territories, but their former adaptation has been preserved in illustrations such as this from Shimanojo Murakami’s Curious Sights of Ezo Island (1799). (HML)

The choice of a site for cultivation of a garden was made for practical reasons.

Only if necessary did the Ainu resort to slashand-burn cultivation,- otherwise, the underbrush and trees were cleared and the terrain was leveled with a hoe. After seeds were sown the garden was left to itself, except for an occasional weeding. Harvest began in the second half of September, using a knife made from the shell of a Sweetwater mussel (fig. 28.2). After three years the fertility of a gar

29.15 Dogsled Travel Dogsleds were used by many North Pacific peoples, including the Ainu. Ainu sleds are similar to those of Siberian peoples, who may have introduced this technology. This illustration comes from Rinzo Mamiya’s Illustrations of Northern Ezo, dated 1855. (HML)

29.16 Sealskin Mitts

Seal products were important in the economy of northern peoples. Seamammal meat was nutritious; its blubber fueled lamps; its ivory was used for tools and art; and its hide made strong ropes, boat covers, and clothing. Sealskin boots and mitts were prized for being durable and waterproof. These Kurile mitts (called tekkas in Hokkaido and matumere in Sakhalin) made good work gloves but were not very warm. (PMC 51605)

den plot declined and a new site was found, but if slash-and-burn techniques were used a garden could be kept for at least five years. After a fallow period of five or more years, an old garden plot could be cultivated once again.

Technology

The products of the exploitative activities described above not only provided food but were also used as raw materials to make necessary goods. Of course, regional differences in the availability of plants and animals led to a corresponding variability of materials used for the same purpose. Ainu technology was also greatly influenced by contacts with other cultures. The Ainu had several sources for obtaining metal, which became indispensable in daily life, by trading with Japanese or Chinese via the Amur River, and later with Russians in Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands.

All hunting weapons were made from locally available wood except for the metal

tips of arrows and lances, which were obtained in trade. The principal hunting device was the bow and arrow (fig. 29.20). The simple hand bow was preferably made of yew ( Tnxus cuspidata, Ainu rannani ), and the string was made of plant fibers. Cherry bark was often wound around the full length of the bow. Arrows were quite short and consisted of a detachable point of bamboo or iron, a foreshaft usually of bone, and a shaft of bamboo or reed. The spring bow was of simpler design and was often carved on the spot where a trap was set. The lances used for self-defense in bear hunting had a long shaft and — in earlier forms—a tip made of the leg bone of a Sika deer. After metal became available, metal tips were used.

Different types of knives were used for hunting or as multipurpose tools. The common Ainu knife ( makiri ) was worn by men and women (fig. 29.19). The much bigger hunting knife ( tashiro ) resembled a short sword (fig. 29.21) and was used in all activities connected with hunting and fishing. In both types of knives, the metal blade was obtained by trade,- the richly ornamented handle and sheath were carved (by Ainu men using a carving knife with a curved blade.

Since the introduction of weaving techniques, clothing was produced from plant fibers rather than from fur or hides. On Hokkaido, a coarse tan cloth ( attusb ) was woven from the inner bark of Japanese elm (Ulmus laciniata) or from linden-tree bark (see Kodama, this volume). Elm bark (at) was also used in southern Sakhalin, but in addition a white cloth ( retarpe ) was made from dried and bleached nettle plant ( Urtica takedana Ohwi). The simple loom (fig. 45.5) used by Ainu

29.17

29 . 17 , 29.18

Preparation of Poison for Hunting

Extract from the monkshood plant (Aconitum spp.) was used widely as a hunting poison in northeastern Asia and Alaska. Bowls of this type (fig. 29.18) were used for grinding dried roots and leaves and mixing the extract with deer fat or some other binder to produce an alkaloid poison that attacks the nervous system. The poison was applied to bamboo arrowpoints. When this substance entered the bloodstream, death was nearly instantaneous. (Shin Mouri Collection; NMNH Botany Library)

women consisted of a curved band of wood that fitted around the weaver's lower back, a rod upon which the cloth was wound, a shuttle, a flat weaver’s "knife" of wood, a reed, and a heddle to spread the warps. A miniature version of this loom was used to weave narrow belts and straps (Munro 1994: 23). The Kurile Ainu did not have woven cloth except what they imported from Hokkaido,- instead, they relied on furs and bird skins for clothing. A watertight garment tailored from dried seal intestines—identical to clothing produced in the Aleutians and southwest Alaska—was especially useful for the damp and rainy climate of the Kurile Islands.

Mats, used for floor and wall coverings and many other purposes, were woven on an improvised loom that consisted of a rod supported horizontally by two forked poles of the appropriate height, intricate contrasting patterns were created by incorporating dyed reeds in the weave. Woven baskets ( saranip), which were used during the gathering excursions of the women and also for storage, were plaited from the inner bark of linden trees (see Tsuda, Graburn and Lee, this volume). Pottery disappeared from use among the Ainu in the fourteenth century when iron pots began to be available from the Japanese, but Ainu men made and used a wide variety of bark and wood vessels and containers using special curvedblade knives. Many of the plates, bowls, ladles, spatulas, and loom parts were decorated with elaborate Ainu-style carvings and became family treasures and heirlooms.

Ainu Settlement Patterns

The Ainu of Hokkaido were overwhelmingly inland hunters and fishermen. Their settlements (kotan) of up to a dozen huts were erected near salmon-fishing grounds and in close vicinity to hunting grounds in hilly or mountainous regions. Because the spawning grounds that provided the best opportunity for fishing were usually located near the mouth of a tributary, Hokkaido Ainu kotan could normally be found on the river terrace near such a place.

The majority of settlements were small, comprising only five huts (holding about twenty-five individuals) on average,- only in the Hidaka-Tokachi region in southern Hokkaido were settlements with up to thirty houses occasionally encountered. Within villages, houses might be spaced between one and five hundred yards apart (about one to five hundred meters), and villages were commonly two to five miles (four and eight kilometers) apart, depending on local food availability. These settlements were inhabited all year round, at least by the women, the children, and the elderly. The men made several hunting excursions during each yearly cycle into the hilly regions bordering the rivers or to the headwaters,- there they slept in temporary huts. The location of a kotan was only changed when important resources were no longer available, as when, for example, the salmon run failed.

Compared to the inhabitants of Hokkaido, the Sakhalin Ainu exhibited a stronger

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29.20

Although data on the migration patterns of the Kurile Ainu are scarce, it is known that they had even greater settlement mobility than either Hokkaido or Sakhalin Ainu. Not all of the islands of the Kurile string were permanently inhabited, and permanent settlements were found only on Shumshu, Paramoshir, Onekotan (possibly), Shiashkotan, Rasshua, and Urup in the central Kuriles, and Iturup and Kunashiri in the southern Kuriles. All other islands were only temporarily visited during the summer to hunt for sea mammals and birds.

Like the Sakhalin Ainu, the Kurile Ainu spent the summer in settlements near the beach and moved to other houses in the interior of the islands during the winter months. All settlements were located near good fishing grounds, usually the mouth of a river or a freshwater lake. Only children and the elderly remained in the settlements all year long,- at the beginning of the hunting and fishing season all able-bodied men and women scattered across the island chain to

29.19 Maxim A man's most trusted companion in the woods, even more than his dog, was his makiri or sheath knife, which was worn hanging from the belt with a thong. This example, collected in 1888 by Romyn Hitchcock in Piratori, shows the artistry men used in decorating their prized possessions. (NMNH E150729)

29.20 Quiver with Hunting Bag and Arrows

Ainu hunters kept their arrows in quivers that were strengthened by cherrybark wrappings, which also imparted a beautiful gleaming surface. Bone or ivory attachments helped stiffen the quiver, which sometimes had a small ikupasuy (prayer stick) attached to its side. Bearskin hunting bags were often attached to the quiver to hold one's strike-a-light kit, poison ingredients, mixing bowl, and spare bamboo points. This set was collected by Frederick Starr in Okotsonai in 1904. (BMA 12.389B)

degree of nomadism, moving to different settlements seasonally. They primarily lived in the coastal regions, with only a few people living permanently in the interior of the island. Their summer settlements were built in direct proximity to the beach, while the winter houses were erected in the upper reaches of the short rivers,- in both cases, the choice of the location was dependent on the exigencies of hunting and fishing. Settlements were small, and even Rayciska, the largest Ainu settlement on the northwest coast of Sakhalin, had only twenty-five to fifty inhabitants. Population mobility was higher than in Hokkaido, and during the summer men and women alike went on fishing and collecting excursions of several days' duration.

29.21 Mountain Knife In addition to their belt knives, hunters used “mountain knives” (tashiro) to butcher animals and do heavy work while out in the forest. Sheaths were often made of a single piece of wood that was split in two, hollowed out, rejoined, and shrink-wrapped in wet salmon skin. When the skin had dried, it was replaced with cherry bark. (FMC 131696/1-2)

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29.23 Hunter on Skis Skis were used for travel on hardpacked snow, as illustrated in this detail from Illustrations of Northern Ezo (1855) by Rinzo Mamiya. (HML)

29.22 Snowshoes In a country where winters were long and snow was deep, transport was important for survival. Ainu snowshoes were made of bentwood frames with leather or sinew thongs as foot supports. Different shapes and sizes were used for different snow conditions.

(UPM A407A-B)

29.23

summer camps that consisted of temporary shelters. If they were not able to return to their winter settlements before the stormy fall season they had to face a difficult winter in makeshift temporary huts. Until the nineteenth century many Kurile Ainu lived in pithouses dug into the ground and covered with logs, sod, and thatch.

At least in southwestern Hokkaido, the various kohw in one river valley formed a group that regarded itself as the owner of the surrounding territory whose borders were formed either by the watersheds separating the system of the river and its tributaries from neighboring ones or by the tributaries themselves. Extended river systems often had several of these territorial groups. The members of such a group developed a deep feeling of unity and were identified by the name of the river followed by the words tin kur-. Saruun-kur meant 'people of the Saru River valley." The territoiy thus formed was called iwor, and Saru-un-kur-iwor was the stretch of land exploited by the Saru River Ainu, and each kotan laid claim to adjacent territory that provided subsistence resources such as salmon spawning grounds, deer- and bear-hunting areas, etc.,- these areas were called kotan-un-iwor (Izumi 1951,- H. Watanabe 1973: 56).

Actually, the land did not count as property per se ; rather, the members of the territorial group had the exclusive right to exploit the natural resources. Outsiders had

the right to trespass on public ways, but they were not allowed to hunt or fish without paying the local group some compensation. In this way, differences in the distribution of natural resources were overcome. To fully enjoy these privileges, they had to become members of the kotan, which could only be achieved with the unanimous consent of all heads of the residing families and after joining one of the patrilineal kin groups (shine itokpa). The rights to use specific places in a kotan-uniwor related to hunting, fishing, or gathering— for instance, favorite spots to set a spring bow, build a deer fence, a weir, or a fishing hut, were owned by individual families or by cooperative groups,- even meadows where especially potent Aconitum plants could be found were treated this way.

The Ainu of the northwest coast of southern Sakhalin did not have any territorial organization comparable to the iwor of Hokkaido. Officially, the right to hunt and fish in the vicinity of a kotan was reserved for the agnatic kinship that formed the nucleus of that particular settlement, but as kinship relations were widespread between the villages, nearly everyone could rightfully hunt everywhere.

The spring hunt for sea mammals was not restricted in any way, except by physical conditions of the ice itself (Ohnuki-Tierney 1974: 83-84). The Ainu of the eastern coast of Sakhalin are reported to have divided the river valleys into privately owned territories, and no one except the owner was entitled to hunt or fish in a given area (Pilsudski 1912: 136).

Rituals Related to Hunting and Fishing

Hunting and fishing were surrounded by a variety of rituals, which is to be expected considering the importance of these activities for Ainu well-being and survival. Correct behavior toward animals, regarded as visitors from their heavenly abode, made sure that they returned to earth again and again to make themselves available as food and useful materials. Various rituals also assured the safety and success of hunters. Before any fishing or hunting excursion, the kamuy —most importantly Fuchi, the fire goddess—were offered prayers. Curled sacred shavings ( inaw-kike ) were always carried along on hunting expeditions in the belief that it made the hunter invisible to evil spirits (Munro 1962: 1 12).

The bear hunt was considered to be the most dangerous Ainu hunting enterprise, and

29/SUBSISTENCE TECHNOLOGY

therefore the hunters tried to assure success in every possible way. The bear was also regarded as a supreme deity whose ghost had to be appeased carefully. Before leaving, the elders of the kotan were assembled to ask for the support of the kamuy. During the walk to the bear-hunting grounds, in aw (sacred shaved sticks) were carved at every resting place to seek the favor of the local deities. Special rules of behavior had to be followed during the bear hunt, and certain words were to be avoided: in Sakhalin, the word for seal, tukara, was replaced by sinuye, meaning tattoo (Ohnuki-Tierney 1974: 21),- in Hokkaido, the word for salt, shippo, was replaced with urn (ashes) (Munro 1962: 1 14). Likewise, the bear hunters in Sakhalin could not sing or play instruments.

After the bear was killed, inaw-kike were made to decorate the bears head, the kamuy were thanked for the successful outcome of the hunt, and the blood of the bear was drunk, for it was considered a divine medicine. After returning to the village, a feast was held during which the elders of the kotan once more expressed their gratitude for the safe return of the hunters. The head of the killed bear, resting in the place of honor near the sacred window, was offered food and drink in a ceremony resembling that performed during the ritual sending home of the bear cub

If a human being had been killed by a bear, the hunters immediately took up the chase of the animal and killed it. Cursing and striking out with their long hunting knives, the men then marched around the dead bear before taking its body to the place where the person had been killed. The bear was decapitated and half of its skull was buried together with the victim, the other half was placed on top of the grave. If the dead person had already been buried, the bear's head was thrown into a bog, thereby consigning it to a kind of "hell" (Batchelor 1901: 471-78).

Before the first salmon started to ascend the rivers of Hokkaido to their spawning grounds, the Ainu held a ritual to assure their arrival. During this rite, which was directed by the headman and attended by other family leaders, Fuchi and the kamuy of the river were prayed to and in aw were set near the spawning grounds. The first salmon caught was sent to the kotan headman who offered it to Fuchi,likewise, the first dog salmon eaten in each house was offered to the same kamuy. This salmon was cut open with the knife used for

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29.24

29.24 Salmon-skin Boots with Fishscale Tread

These elegant salmon-skin boots were collected by Alexandra Pogoski in Sakhalin before 1893 and appear never to have been used. Salmon-skin boots were extremely durable and so were worn by most coastal Ainu. (FMC 32116 a, b)

29.25 Nonskid Boots

Salmon-skin boots ( chep-keri ) were mainly worn from winter to spring for mountain walking. Their soles had fishscales pointing backwards to provide traction on the snow, ice, and mud; the backfin was left in the middle of the sole for the same purpose. Such boots were dry and light, but dried grass was added for extra insulation, and bark fiber was used for socks. This set was obtained by Romyn Hitchcock in Bekkai, Hokkaido, in 1888. (NMNH E150637)

29.26 Grapevine Sandals

Sandals ( situker ) of grapevine bark were used in summer for walking on slippery rocks while fishing and gathering plants. Although brittle when dry, grapevine bark that was freshly stripped could be woven into a tough cushion, ideal for soles. This pair, which has straps of twisted linden bark, was collected in Hokkaido in 1876 by Benjamin Lyman.

(NMNH E22194)

carving inaw, and the fish's mandible was tied to an inaw and thrown into the river after the fishing season ended. This ritual was called petorun kamuy-nomi, and its purpose was to see the fish spirits off and ensure a plentiful run the following year (H. Watanabe 1973: 72-73,Kono and Fitzhugh, this volume).

Sakhalin also had many different hunting rituals, especially relating to sea mammalhunting, in which taboos had to be observed. The kamuy of the sea were believed to dislike several species of plants that therefore were strictly forbidden on hunting excursions on the open sea. As in bear hunting, several words in everyday use had to be replaced,

for example, "to row" and "boat” (OhnukiTierney 1974: 25).

By the turn of century, the Ainu way of hunting and fishing had disappeared, either forbidden by Japanese laws or made impossible by the near-extinction of Sika deer by Japanese hunters. Consequently, hunting rituals also disappeared, but in recent times some have been revived as an integral part of the Ainu ethnic renewal that began in the 1970s,- it is hoped that interest in Ainu rituals will reveal how important they were in eveiyday Ainu life and will encourage new approaches to the use and conservation of these resources and their habitats in modern-day Fdokkaido.

29.26

The Ainu on Whales and Whaling

Masami I wasaki-Goodman

AND MASAHIRO NOMOTO

Our ancestors utilized whales that were stranded on their shores or that they hunted. I am an Ainu living in the present day, and I would like to talk about this as part of the proud traditional culture of our people. Our pride in those traditions will he the basis for renewing our ethnic identity as Ainu.

— Masahiro Nomoto

V ARIOUS ARCHIVAL MATERIALS AND recent publications (including Y. Watanabe 1992,- Akimichi, 1984, 1994) discuss the important role that whales (humpe) have played in Ainu life. Descriptions of Ainu utilizing whales are abundant in archaeological records, in journals written by early explorers of Hokkaido, and in Ainu folktales, songs, and dances. Moreover, interviews with Ainu elders who recall the old days reveal how the Ainu continued to benefit from whales in more recent times, within the life span of the elder generation. In this essay we use available data to reconstruct the relationship between Ainu and whales in the past and to examine the effort by the present Ainu to renew these ties.

Archival Studies

The best-known archaeological material that suggests that the people living in Hokkaido used whales from ancient times is a bone container—possibly a needlecase—found in a shell mound on Benten Island in Nemuro.

An engraving on this container (fig. 3.19) depicts several people hunting a large marine mammal, which looks like a whale (Akimichi 1994). Whether the people shown on this

30.1 Launching a Boat

For sea travel Ainu adapted dugouts by building up the sides with planks that overlapped and were lashed together with cordage. Different sizes and shapes were made for varying conditions, from small shallow-river punts to large seagoing sailing vessels up to fifty feet in length that carried crews of eight to ten people. Most vessels were more modest, like this one used by a single fisherman who worked inshore waters. (NAA 98-10413)

container were ancestors of the present Ainu and whether the animal is really a whale are questions that require further clarification, but this piece and other archaeological evidence indicate that people in Hokkaido have hunted whales since at least the late Jomon era (about 4000 to 2000 years ago) and passed these traditions down through the succeeding Okhotsk culture (a.D. 500-1200) to the modern Ainu of today (see Yamaura and Ushiro, this volume).

The explorers who visited Hokkaido in the seventeenth century recorded that the Ainu used whale both as food and for trade. A Dutch explorer who came to Hokkaido to search for gold and silver noted, "the food and nutrition source for them [Ainu] were fish, whale blubber, fish oil, wild plants and rose hips that are abundant" (Kitagamae 1991). He also describes trade between Ainu and Japanese, listing among Ainu trade items fish oil, whale blubber, smoked whale tongue, pelts of various kinds of animals, and bird feathers (ibid.), and notes that the local people knew how to hunt whales. A similar description recorded by officials of the Tsugaru fief reported that the Ainu traded whale meat to the Japanese (Habara 1939,- Okuyama 1966, Abe 1984). Interesting observations are also recorded by Daigo Shinbei Sadatsugu, whose ancestor Daigo Shinbei founded the commercial whaling industry in Katsuura, Chiba Prefecture (Fukuyama 1943). Sadatsugu began a whaling operation in Hokkaido in 1856, and as he traveled through the southern and eastern parts of Hokkaido he observed that the Ainu people in this area were hunting whales with harpoons. Archival materials of the same period mention that Ainu utilized whales stranded on the beaches (Abe 1984) and describe the rules governing the distribution of stranded whales, noting that it was the chief who made decisions concerning apportioning of whale products (Okuyama 1966). In short, numerous documentary sources indicate that whales were a significant part of the subsistence life of the Ainu in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Place-Names, Folktales,

Songs, and Dances

Place-names throughout Hokkaido reflect the Ainu relationship with whales: among the mountains and rivers including humpe and umpe (a modified form of humpe) in their names are Mt. Humpe, Humpe Sapa (whale head),

Humpe waterfall, Humpe Eto Cape, and Umpe River. The names in one locale, Shiraoi, reflect an old Ainu folktale about a kamuy (god) who was grilling whale meat skewered on a mugwort stick. When the stick broke, making a sharp noise, the kamuy was frightened, jumped up, and fell to the ground on his buttocks. The hollowed-out place where he landed came to be known as Osorokotsu, and the rock in front of the hollow is called Imanitsu and represents the stick for grilling meat (Yamada 1984).

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30.2 Stranded-Whale Dance

The Ainu of the Shiraoi region have conducted whale dances for generations and continue to do so at the Ainu Museum at Shiraoi. The dance is based on an old story in which a blind woman discovers a stranded whale on the beach (represented here by the woman in repose). She runs to tell her village, and people return with knives and baskets, singing songs and dancing to thank the gods for this gift. (AMS)

30.3 Whalebone Knife

Whales provided a variety of important materials used as food and oil. Whalebone was also used for making artifacts and implements like this mountain knife ( tashiro) bound with cherry-bark wrapping. (MPM N17357A/B)

These place-names are still used and remind local people of the special connection Ainu had with whales in the old days.

Th is relationship is also evident in other Ainu folktales, songs, and dances. Whales, which brought wealth to the Ainu, were thanked through the telling of stories, singing, and dancing. By these activities Ainu asked the gods to continue providing them with whales. One of these songs tells of stranded whales (Chiri 1986):

A large whale was stranded Oh, how joyful

The god came down on a carriage.

I am a very large whale From above the garden By cold air and wind I am blown high.

“Humpe kamuy ifunke" (a lullaby of the whale god) recounts another old Ainu story about the god of the whale who wanted to marry a human woman (Sapporo Terebi 1983). Fde took the form of a human and promised Ainu villagers he would send whales to their shore if he were permitted to marry a local woman. Following their marriage, the villagers were blessed with whales that became stranded on their shore. This story expresses the joy that whales brought to the Ainu.

The Stranded-Whale Dance (fig. 30.2), which Ainu perform at festive occasions, is an expression of magical thinking: Ainu believed that presenting their wish for a whale to strand on their beach by performing respectful dances and rituals would make it happen. There are regional differences in how this dance is performed, but everywhere its purpose is the same—to express thanks to the gods. Masahiro Nomoto, who observed a Stranded-Whale Dance in Shiraoi describes that performance :

A woman who imitates a whale covers herself with a robe and lies on the ground. A person performing as a blind elderly woman comes in, walking with a stick, and trips over the whale. She feels the whale with her stick and hands and realizes what it is. She shouts to the villagers and they come down with bags on their backs, singing the whale song. They fill their bags with meat. Squawking crows gather from different directions and try to snatch bits of the meat, but the villagers chase them away. After the villagers have divided up the whale, they go home singing songs The crows have their share after the people leave. When the crows have gone, only the robe is left on the ground.

30.4 Ikupasuy Carvings Whales, bears, and salmon are common themes on ikupasuy, prayer sticks used by men when conducting ceremonies honoring the gods. The two outside pieces feature bear heads and salmon; whales and boats are the central motifs on the inside pieces.

The choice of motif probably indicates which important diety was to be honored. Some of these carvings emblemized a personal narrative— an experience while hunting or an encounter with a particular animal— while others derived from folklore, ceremony, or epics. (BMA 12.297, 12.247, 12.298, 12.326)

Such folktales, dances, and songs of whales have been maintained and are performed by younger generations of Ainu.

Ainu Speak of Whales

In various interviews Ainu have talked about how they used whales. Mr. Tasuke Yamamoto, a respected Ainu elder from Kushiro, emphasized that Ainu never wasted whale resources: "When we get a whale, we dig a big hole in the beach within reach of the tide and we bury the whale there. We make sure that the hole is deep enough so that water keeps running into the hole. This keeps the whale from spoiling. Ainu know the best way" (Shin'ya 1979).

Whales were most commonly used for food. Ainu liked whale as much as they liked eating deer and bear (Batchelor 1925). Ainu rendered whale oil and ate it in soup. In another interview, an elderly man talked about using whale oil for cooking: "Every day I heated up some whale oil until it melted and poured it over my cooked potatoes. I also fried vegetables in it. It lasted two years."

They cut whale meat into large chunks and cooked it in ocean water to season it with salt (Natori 1974). In recent interviews, an Ainu from the Kushiro area recalled how h'e cooked whale in the old days:

A whale would sometimes get stranded. One time, in early spring, a whale got stranded, having been caught in the sea ice. We had kamuynomi , a ritual to worship the gods, for the humpe god. After helping to flense the whale, 1 got my share. 1 had enough to fill the bag on my back. 1 cooked it in salt water and ate it as a snack. I also made oil out of it and kept it in a bottle. I have never heard about a "whale-sending ceremony," but we raised a tuki [a ceremonial cup], prayed, and ate the head of the whale.

Although whale-sending ceremonies may not be performed or be well remembered today, a scene from a late-nineteenth-century Ainu-e in the Brooklyn Museum of Art that shows parts of a killer whale ( Orca ) in an Ainu ritual altar (mtsa) suggests that they must have occurred in the past (C. Dubreuil, personal communication, 1998).

Ainu used whale for many purposes other than food and cooking. Whale oil was used for lighting, and baleen, which can be stripped down into thin flexible strands, was used for lashing wood pieces together in boat constmction. Whalebone was used to make harpoon heads (kite) for hunting sea mammals (Natori 1974; Kayano 1978), and a large and beautifully carved whalebone knife handle and scabbard exist in the Ainu collection at the Milwaukee Public Museum (fig. 30.3,C. Dubreuil, personal communication, 1998). The most precise description of whaling operations by Ainu was recorded by Natori (1974), who conducted an interview in 1945 with an Ainu elder who had taken two whales. The elder described whaling as practiced nearly one hundred years ago:

One day, we were fishing off the shore of Oshamanbe and at about nine in the morning, I saw a whale—a minke whale. The elder threw the first kite [harpoon].

The weight of the harpoon made it go deep into the whale. The whale jumped up, then dived deep into the sea and swam around in a circle. An hour later, when the whale came up to the surface and blew out water, I threw the second harpoon, and the whale went down again. When the whale came up to the surface an hour and a half later, Shiromare threw the third harpoon. The whale dragged us around. . . . When it became dark . . . ten boats with strong men

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30 . 5 , 30.6 Killer Whale Marks

Representations of the orca or killer whale are symbolic elements seen on ikupasuy; these special marks (shiroshi) identify the man's lineage. Shiroshi are always placed on the underside of the ikupasuy and sometimes take the form of a stylized orca backfin. These ikupasuy with a whale carving (top and detail, bottom) and a sea monster (center) were collected before 1893 by Alexander Agassiz from Nemuro in eastern Hokkaido, where whales were common and ceremonies honoring them were held frequently in the past. (PMC 51647, 51646)

from Rebunge village joined us. We were so happy we almost cried. The men prayed to a god and threw their harpoons into the whale. . . . When the whale was landed on the shore, many people gathered. . . An Ainu elder offered inatv [sacred shaved sticks] and spread a mat beside the whale and prayed to god.

Natori also examined the harpoon head that Ainu used for whaling. He reported that after the harpoon head penetrated the whale's body, it became detached from the shaft and turned sideways so that it stayed tight, toggled inside the body. Amu also used poison taken from Aconitum, also known as monkshood, a blue-flowered poisonous herb of the buttercup family, to increase their efficiency in hunting whales.

In various interviews, experiences with stranded whales have been reported. One Ainu elder in Shiraoi talked about a whale stranding that he had witnessed in his youth: "On June 8, 1949, two orca chased a whale ashore at Shiraoi. While it was struggling, waves washed it higher onto the beach. Farther out in the ocean the killer whales were squeaking and jumping, appearing to be angry about the Ainu stealing their prey. The whale was three ken [about fifteen feet, or five meters] long and was a baby" (Fujimura 1976).

Elderly people who were present at that time conducted a simple ritual to send off the spirit of the stranded whale after flensing it. The prayer given at the ritual was as follows: "We deeply thank you for coming down to visit our village. You might be feeling lonely for being away from your parents. You came down for us utari [relatives] and brought us your presents of meat and blubber. We appreciate it very much."

In 1985 many elderly people born between Meiji 31(1899) and Taisho 12 (1923) were interviewed in Shiraoi about whales and orcas.

We did not go hunting for whales.

Rather, we got whales more or less accidentally when they were chased by orcas and became stranded. Once, after World War II, we got a whale weighing about two tons. The elders prayed to the god of the ocean [the killer whale] and the whale was flensed. Afterward, they held kamuy-nomi in order to cleanse the beach. When we hunt a whale, we do not go out with the sole intention of catching a whale. We used the same kite [harpoon] that we used to fish for swordfish (Ainu Minzoku Hakubutsukan 1985).

It became clear in the interviews that by this time Ainu no longer had the right to use stranded whales. When a whale became stranded, it was the local Japanese fishermen who had a proprietary right to stranded whales. This traditional right had been taken away from the Ainu by the Japanese.

Of all the various whale species, the orca brought Ainu wealth by chasing whales and other fish and sea mammals onto their beaches. Orca was regarded as the highestranking god of the ocean, as high as the bear god on land. The motif that depicts the backfin of an orca, called asbipe in Ainu, is found in Ainu carvings not only in the coastal region but in other areas as well (Ainu Bunka Hozon Taisaku Kyogikai 1969,- C. Dubreuil, personal communication). An orca pattern (fig. 30.5) is also used as one of the Ainu crests that were inherited through the paternal line and that identifies a male Ainu lineage (Natori 1974,Maraini 1994). An elder in Shiraoi spoke about his past experience with orcas:

Orca have a strong kamuy. They are found in areas where sirikap [swordfish] live and are so fierce that none can deal with them. That is why it is called kamuy. 1 once had a frightening experience with orca, and thought I would be attacked.

Several orcas together can even attack a whale. When we are fishing in the ocean, sometimes repun-kamuy [orcas] come near our boat. When this happens, we are supposed to give some of our lunch to them by throwing it in the ocean. It is said the god of the ocean will eat it and give fisherman a good catch and a safe trip (Ainu Minzoku Hakubutsukan 1985).

Revitalizing Ainu Whale Culture

Although the traditional Ainu relationship with whales has changed through time, especially due to the termination of aboriginal whaling, whales and whaling still remain part of the Ainu legacy and modern belief system. Because of recent efforts to revitalize Ainu traditional culture, more Ainu today are familiar with folktales telling how Ainu benefited from whales in the past. More Ainu have begun dancing the Stranded-Whale Dance and singing whale songs, but the motivation for these activities is different from that of one hundred years ago. Ainu now perform these dances and songs to revitalize traditional Ainu culture in the present day. Although the Ainu ancestors danced the Stranded-Whale Dance to entice whales onto the land, their descendants who dance the same dance today are searching for their Ainu identity.

The crest of the orca (fig. 30.5), which is worshiped as the god of the ocean, is used by a number of Ainu carvers and others who conduct rituals. The crest functions as an identification of their own lineage and at the same time gives pride to those who inherit traditional Ainu culture. A young man who inherited the orca crest says: "I am using the mark of repun-kamuy, the orca, which is carved on the ceremonial cup that we have at home.

I have a strong feeling toward the orca that the crest symbolizes,- I am proud to use the mark and feel a strong responsibility for it."

An effort to revitalize the traditional relationship that Ainu had with whales is also seen in the reconstruction of kamuyrini, an assemblage that includes wooden figures suspended from a plate shaped like an orca (Aoki 1990). Included among the figures are images of whales, dolphins, sea otters, and other marine mammals that were thought to be brought to shore by orcas. Kamuyrini were often centerpieces of family areas, which included personal treasures, and they were the locus for prayer in the home. A kamuyrini assembled in 1990 near Yoichi (Otaru) in western Hokkaido shows that the repun-kamuy belief has been revitalized and is being maintained into the present.

Recently, some aboriginal groups in Canada and the United States (such as the Makah of Washington state) are making an intensive effort to resume whaling after decades in which it was not practiced. They emphasize that it is important for aboriginal people of today to inherit the whaling traditions of their ancestors as a base for renewing their ethnic identity. Clearly those groups that have a tradition of utilizing whale resources have maintained their relationship with whales into the present.

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, Japanese aboriginal people have begun efforts to revitalize those ancient traditions that link them with whales. Modern Ainu are taking steps to reestablish their ethnic identity, recognizing that its foundation lies in Ainu traditional culture.

30.7 Humpback Whale

Whales continue to be important to the Ainu today, although more for spiritual than economic reasons. Takeki Fujito, a famous Ainu sculptor, envisioned a humpback whale about to surface in this carving he completed in 1993. (Takeki Fujito Collection)

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31/Home and Settlement:

Kotan and Chise

Masahiro Nomoto

T he traditional Ainu village was called a kotan, meaning "community" or "village" (fig. 31.1) Although the Ainu continue to use this word to refer to the places where they live, few of their modern villages resemble the old kotan because most communities where Ainu today live are more like towns or cities. Within the kotan were individual houses, called chise. This essay describes the traditional organization of the Shiraoi Ainu kotan, the spatial arrangement and construction of the chise as well Ainu social and political organization, and the changes that have occurred since 1868 when the Meiji Restoration initiated an active Japanization process (Ainu Minzoku Hakubutsukan 1993: 7■ Mitsuoka 1987: 211).

separated from each other by approximately 150-to-350-foot-wide (forty-five to one hundred meter) wooded areas,- similarly, each kotan was surrounded by a resource zone, or iwor, from which residents drew sustenance through hunting and gathering.

The basic criterion for a kotan location was that it be near a river where salmon ran that was also large enough for boat transport. It was also important that it be located near such mountain food resources as deer and bears or to ocean resources like whales, seals, and swordfish. The availability of firewood, nuts, wild plants, bark to make clothing, and housing materials was another important consideration. Marshlands were important for their cattails, which were used to make mats, raincoats, and

31.1 Ainu Mosir, Kamuy Mosir This painting (1984) by Tetsuo Kitaichi illustrates the Ainu world (Ainu mosir) seen from the perspective of the family and its home (chise)-, the village (kotan) and its surrounding lands (iwor) with animals, plants, and other necessary resources are carefully depicted, as are traditional practices and spiritual aspects of Ainu life. The world of gods (kamuy mosir) is represented by the owl (protector of the village), by the gods of bears and other animals, and the spirits of deceased humans. Mediation between the two worlds is accomplished by ritual and prayers transmitted to the gods by human prayers, with the aid of ikupasuy, and by rituals like the bear-sending ceremony ( iyomante ), in which bear gods are sent back to the god world. (AMS)

Kotan

Although it seems likely that Ainu economic and political organization was more complex before the Japanese appeared in their lands, for the past two hundred years the kotan has been the highest unit of traditional Ainu social life. The basic Ainu kotan comprised a group of scattered houses—from a few to a dozen or more. Coastal settlements were usually located near the mouths or deltas of rivers, where salmon fishing and ocean fishing were productive and boats could be hauled out of the reach of the sea, and inland kotan were often located near marshlands or where tributaries ran into a main river. Most villages were located directly on rivers, which provided opportunities for both transportation and fishing. Within a kotan, houses were usually

roof thatch. Each kotan population determined the area in which it would obtain vital natural resources, and these resource areas were part of the kotan territory,- each village was ideally a self-sustaining, independent economic unit. The borders between kotan were set by natural rivers and mountains: a main river channel separated kotan whose territories conformed to tributary streams on either side,- when mountain ridges and hills set the borders, the boundaries ran straight down the axis of the ridge to the ocean.

Records from the Edo period indicate that the average kotan supported from five to ten chise and populations of twenty-five to fifty people,- these numbers varied regionally according to kotan territory size and the abundance of available resources.

3 1 / KOTAN AND CHISE

31.4 Shell Lamp

Inside the chise, light was provided by scallop-shell lamps ( ratcako) fueled by fish or marine-mammal oil and fitted with a marsh rush or cotton rag wick. (NMNH E150701)

31.2 Ainu Village in Winter

The Ainu kotan at the Ainu Museum at Shiraoi is seen here in winter with its houses, elevated storehouses, and bear cages. (AMS)

Chise

Because of their geographic proximity, both Japan and continental Asia influenced Ainu traditions, but these cultural contacts were localized and their impact on the varieties and construction materials of the traditional Ainu house (chise) used in Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kurile Islands differed from region to region. By around 1900 Amu houses in Sakhalin were often of plank or log construction, reflecting both the colder climate and

tions, beginning with the selection of the house site and the location of its fireplace (Takabeya 1939,- Takabeya and Takakura 1969). Among the factors influencing site location were its convenience in terms of facilitating the activities of daily life,- properties of the river (propensity to flood, for example),- sun exposure,- wind and air circulation,- availability of nuts and wild plants,- and the potential for growing cereal crops such as foxtail millet and Japanese millet. The next consideration was the proper placement of the fireplace, which would be the home of the fire goddess that protected the house and its occupants. To determine if a particular spot were suitable, a fire was lit there and a ground-purifying ceremony was held,through the fire goddess, the head of the household asked the god of the land for permission to use the site for a home, and similar requests were made to the gods of the

31.3 At Ikorek’s House

On May 22, 1901, Hiram Hiller jotted in his journal,"photoed the inside of Ikorek’s house—two plates of the fireplace.” The location was Fucani, near Monbetsu, Hokkaido. His report described the scene: The fire-box occupies the center of the room, and is the very center of the household as well. A space three or four feet wide by five or six feet long is filled with earth and ashes. They use stones for pot-rests; a shelf suspended from the rafters swings a few feet above the fire-box and from this shelf hang the pot hooks. Upon the shelf are kept a few cooking utensils and often mats covered with millet or beans, or meat and fish are hung there to cure. This is the fireplace. All of their heat and most of their light is derived from this fireplace, and the whole family life centers about this box of earth and ashes. (UPM archives)

the influence of Siberian styles in this area (Yamamoto 1943: 360), whereas in the Kuriles, where there were no forests, pithouses based on housing traditions of Okhotsk and Satsumon predecessors were still in use (Hitchcock 1891a). The origin of the Hokkaido Ainu house described below is unclear, but it was already in use when descriptions of Ainu culture began to appear in historical documents around 1400. What follows is a description of the Ainu house based on practices followed in the Shiraoi region of southern Hokkaido (fig. 31.2).

Choosing a Location

Nearly everything about the building and organization of the Hokkaido Ainu chise was determined by a set of rules based upon practical considerations and spiritual sanc

river and its waters. Permission was considered granted if the household head had no bad dreams for seven days. If such omens appeared, it indicated the presence of an evil god, and it was then necessary to change the location of the house or hearth or to hold a special ceremony to purify the land (Takakura 1969).

Typical Floor Plan

The chise itself was laid out according to a precise plan that reflected the Ainu worldview (fig. 3 1.5). In general the house was rectangular in shape and lacked internal compartments or additional rooms or annexes, except for an entrance vestibule and a storeroom. Its dimensions were determined by family size, but in general houses were about twelve by eighteen feet (four to six meters). The house timbers were made from small trees lashed together

31 . 5 , 31.6 Floor Plan

The typical Shiraoi Ainu house, entered through an anteroom in the west end, was laid out around a central rectangular hearth where most everyday activities took place. Family treasures were stored in lacquerware containers along an elevated platform in the northeast corner of the house or were hung on the walls behind them. Guests of honor were seated at the east end of the room near the god's window, which was reserved for the passage of gods. Outside this window stood the ritual altar □ □ or nusa. (HML, AMS)

with grapevines and bark. Depending on the availability of local materials, the walls and roof were covered with bark or a thatch of Japanese nutmeg, reeds, or bamboo grass.

The form of the roof was particularly important and had symbolic meaning,- it was based on two tripod-shaped elements called ketounni (waist of a house) that were erected at either end of the house and supported the central roof beam. The tripod shape was also important in the ground-purifying ceremony: a small pothook decorated with sacred wood shavings ( inaw-kike) was suspended over the ritual fire from a cross-beam between two small tripods. Construction ceremonies like this are not relics of the past, for they are still practiced by some Ainu people today when building modern houses.

The typical Shiraoi house had its long axis oriented in an east-west direction, which was especially important for the proper placement of the windows. Every house had three small windows, one on the east side and two on the south side. The east window, called god's window ( kamuy-puyar ), was reserved for the use of gods entering and leaving the house. People never looked through this window except during ceremonies and other special occasions. The more easterly window on the south wall let sunlight into the room, and the wall beneath it was removable so that fish or other materials needing processing could be brought more easily into the house,- the southwest window provided light to the kitchen area. The entrance to the kitchen was

located on the south side, and a small annex was built on the west end for storing equipment and firewood. The door consisted of a straw mat or blinds made of Japanese nutmeg or reed.

In the center of the single interior room was a central rectangular fireplace (fig. 3 1.6) with two carving stands at the east end where men could sit and create sacred shaved sticks (inaw) or carve wooden implements (fig. 3 1.8),inaw (fig. 31.7) erected to the fire goddess were placed at the northeast corner near this carving stand. All the daily prayers and prayers for ceremonies took place at this location, hire tongs, an ash leveler, and other tools were found around the fireplace. Above the fireplace were racks for drying and smoking fish,- an apparatus used to suspend pots over the fire was also hung over the hearth. The space above the rafters was used for drying food and for storing mats, reeds, and other materials.

The chise floor was prepared by spreading grass upon the dirt and covering this with two layers of matting: first, a cover of mats woven from Japanese nutmeg or reeds, and then a final surface of woven cattail matting. The elders today who used to live in these traditional houses say that this type of layered floor allowed the heat from the fireplace to spread through the matting and warm the floor.

The northeast corner of the chise had a slightly raised floor that was reserved for worshipping the gods of the house, of hunting, and of rearing children. Lacquerware, swords, and other valuables obtained by trade

from the Japanese were placed on this platform. The number of these items displayed were a source of pride and gave some indication of a family's wealth.

31.9a-d Ainu House Construction The process of building an Ainu house is illustrated in this series of Ainu-e by Shimanojo Murakami from Illustrations of Ainu Livelihood, painted in the early nineteenth century. Construction began by measuring and cutting logs (a), erecting the roof frame (b), raising the roof frame onto forked wall posts (c), and covering the house exterior with bundles of grass thatch (d). (HML)

Building a House

House construction (figs. 3 1.9a-d) began by assembling the rectangular roof on the ground: beams were cut to required dimensions and bound together,- the two tripods that formed the opposite ends of the roof were erected and joined by a connecting roof beam,- lateral beams were inserted into notches along the sides of the frame and lashed down,- and crossbeams needed to support the roofing materials were then lashed into place horizontally along the sides of the inclined beams (fig. 31,9b). The next step was to dig holes for insertion of the wall posts, whose tops were notched to fit into the roof frame and were angled slightly inwards to help bear the weight of the roof.

hearth. At the climax of this celebration, the head of the household shot an arrow into the ceiling to exorcize any evil spirits that remained—only then was it safe for a family to move into the house.

Soon after the house was finished, its members completed work on peripheral structures. An altar (nusa) consisting of a short wall of reeds or matting was erected a few meters outside the god's window,- this sacred place was used during ceremonies to honor the gods and send the spirits of animals back to the god world (kamuy mosir). A cage for housing animals—such as owls or bear cubs caught in the mountains—was erected within view of the house. This cage, made of a log crib that was raised above the ground on stilts, served as the home for gods in animal form while they visited the kotan, and they lived there until they were returned to kamuy mosir in special sending ceremonies. A convenient spot

31.9a

31.9b

Finally, a group of people was assembled to lift the roof frame up onto the wall posts (fig.

31,9c). After the roof framework had settled, cross-beams were installed at intervals up the side of the walls and the wall-covering materials lashed to them. Once the framework was completed, the roof and walls were covered with layers of preassembled bundles of thatch (figs. 3 1,9d, 31.11). Construction of the hearth signaled completion of the house,- the entryway and storage shed were added last.

House construction took an average of three to seven days to complete. When a cbise was finished, people gathered for a ceremony to bless the house and install its protective god. The village elder lit the first fire in the fireplace and carved the inaw that represented Fuchi, the goddess of house and hearth, placing it at the northeast corner of the

was chosen for the storehouse, also built on stilts, which held the family's winter food, and racks for drying fish and wild plants were erected nearby. Finally, separate toilets for men and women were built, and special places were designated for disposal of wastewater, different kinds of trash, and fireplace ashes.

Political and Social Organization and Traditions

The kotan and chise were more than simply places to live—they also represented the political and religious organization that governed all Ainu social traditions. Ainu society was organized into groups based on male and female genealogical lineages. Paternal lineage handed down two traditions: ancestral family marks or crests ( itokpa ) passed down from father to son, and specific ritual practices

31.7 Inaw

Inaw, sacred shaved sticks representing birds that carried men's prayers to the gods, were prominently displayed in Ainu houses. Taking different forms for different purposes or for different gods to which they were dedicated. inaw had an important role in maintaining the safety and security of the home. The most important inaw were those dedicated to Fuchi, the goddess of the home, and were placed at the northeast corner of the hearth box. (AMS)

relating to dealings with the gods. These practices were never revealed to people outside one's own patrilineage, and the rituals associated with ceremonies honoring bears and killer whales or specific mountains and places were especially important.

The maternal line also handed down certain specific traditions, the most well known of which was the construction and design of a special woven belt (fig. 31.10) worn by women beneath their clothes. This belt had the force of a special personal charm and was acquired by a young woman from her mother or grandmother when she first began to menstruate. The power of each individual matrilineage was evidenced by the specific construction technique (length, number of strands, etc.) and in the woven pattern. The Ainu believed that without this belt a woman would not find her rightful place in the afterlife. Other important

31.8 Makiri for Carving inaw Men used special types of knives to carve inaw. one was similar to a regular man’s knive but had a wide hooked tip; another (fig. 26.2) was a thin iron blade with a wooden block fitted to the end. The block served to guide the blade when shaving long, thin curls. (NMNH 324511)

traditions passed down through the female line were particular clothing patterns and styles of embroidery.

Human relationships in the kotan were also determined by patrilineage. Men moving into a new village had to cut their ties with their former lineage and adopt the beliefs and rites of the dominant lineage in a formal ceremony conducted before the elders. Likewise, a woman who married into the kotan had to adopt her husband's patrilineage and its specific religious symbols, rituals, and ceremonies. Memorial services for ancestors, bear-sending rituals, and all other major ceremonies were conducted by those in the kotan and their blood relatives,- in this way the dominant lineage of each kotan directed the spiritual life of the community.

This hierarchy also determined the

3 1 / KOTAN AND CHISE

31.10 Woman’s Ritual Belt

Both men and women wore special personal charms that protected them from harm and misfortune caused by evil gods. A woman's belt was secret and was never seen even by her husband; its design, a special family-specific pattern, was inherited from her mother and grandmother. Such a belt functioned as a spiritual chastity belt and was worn continuously after a woman began to menstruate. (AMS)

location of dwellings within the kotan, with the dwellings of the dominant male lineage in the center,- one of these wotild typically be the home of the village leader. When a kotan consisted of only one clan, its leading elder, kotan-kor-kur (village-own-person), represented the kotan If a kotan had two lineages, the elder who was most eloquent and who had the best judgment became kotan-kor-kur ,- the kotan-kor-kur was selected by mutual agreement among the residents and was not a hereditary position.

Although such a leader held considerable respect and influence, he did not hold autocratic power,- his main duty was to confer with other elders about issues involving diplomacy and administration of justice and to gather and determine consensus. He also arranged care for families without a household head or for childless elderly couples who needed help. Because most kotan were organized around a single paternal lineage in which respect for elders was paramount, village life tended to function smoothly and with a minimum of friction and controversy.

The typical Ainu family consisted of a husband, a wife, and their unmarried children, all of whom lived together in one house. When children became older and married, they left home,- men settled in nearby houses while young women usually married men from a different kotan. Thus, the Ainu family structure was the typical so-called nuclear family identified and studied by sociologists. The household leader —the father—was called cbise-kor-kur (houseown-person). Much as the spatial organization of the kotan reflected the patrilineage, the cbise, with its special seat reserved for the father, expressed the organization of the family.

When a young man took a wife, the couple built a new home near the man's parents in the same kotan. As children married and moved out, the youngest child often was the last to remain with the parents, and it

became customary for this youngest child to stay with his or her parents,- when the youngest child married, the spouse would move into the in-laws' home. For this reason it was sometimes said that the Ainu transferred the leadership of the family to the youngest child.

The youngest child, however, did not usurp the rights of elder siblings in matters of inheritance. When the parents passed away, the father's lacquerware, swords, rights to hunting and fishing territories, and other important possessions and entitlements were usually inherited by the oldest son who then assumed most of the family's political and economic power. The mother's accessories, clothing, and work tools were handed down to her daughters. Handing down within one's male or female line—from fathers to sons and from mothers to daughters—ensured that the younger generation continued the Ainu traditions.

Changes After Japanese Contact

Ainu began actively trading with the Japanese in the Edo period (1615-1868), especially after Japanese fishing stations were established along the coast and Ainu were attracted (or forced) to work there (Takakura I960,- Kayano 1994). People who had been living in various scattered kotan began to live near the fisheries because this was convenient for the Japanese,- in the late Edo period, as many as twenty or thirty households are recorded in a single village Under these conditions, the traditional organization of the Ainu kotan collapsed, and routine hunting ceremonies were no longer held because most of the men were working at the fishery.

There were also changes in regional administration and the process by which village leaders were selected. The Japanese Matsumae domain that controlled Ezo established the policy of giving each kotan leader the title of otona, a Japanese term for the head of a patrilineal clan. Besides otona, the Japanese designated assistants and gift receivers,- the latter were to bring gifts from the Matsumae officials to the villages. When groups of kotan from a certain area joined forces, overlords (so-otona) and underlords or assistant chiefs ( waki-otona ) were appointed as their representatives.

These Japanese policies gradually replaced the traditional Ainu ways of governing their villages. The situation worsened for the Ainu in 1868 when the Meiji government encouraged Japanese emigration to Hokkaido

31.11 Traditional Ainu House

This house was constructed by Ainu for the Ainu Museum at Shiraoi. Ainu houses in other areas of Hokkaido differed considerably from the Shiraoi pattern, as seen in photographs of other Ainu villages (e.g., figs. 22.1, 27.2). Many of the Kurile Ainu continued to live in pithouses until the nineteenth century, while Sakhalin Ainu used Siberian-styie log houses. (AMS)

to begin farming and forestry operations in unsettled areas, thus encroaching upon the rights of the indigenous Ainu as well as the very land upon which they lived The result was rapid destruction of the natural environment, which made it impossible for the Ainu to maintain their traditional subsistence lifestyle and their close relationship to nature. Even more disastrous was the government decree in 1877 that designated land traditionally owned by Ainu as "unowned" land, making it available to Japanese settlers.

Many kotan were located on the lower reaches of rivers and along the seashore where natural resources were plentiful,- these areas were also the most suitable lands for the Japanese settlers, and they quickly took them from the Ainu. New regulations took lifesustaining traditional rights to catch salmon and trout away from the Ainu and gave them to the Japanese. Ainu were also encouraged to take up agriculture as a full-time occupation but were given poor-quality land, which left them unable to compete with Japanese farming enterprises. In these and other ways, government policy eliminated the economic base for Ainu culture, and its social focus, the kotan, was completely destroyed.

Ainu Living Space Today

The form and location of the traditional chise and kotan encompassed both practical and spiritual considerations, while also reflecting the unique social organization of the Ainu. Modern Ainu can look to that heritage as a source of inspiration as they work to maintain their culture. For instance, though Ainu today live in modern, Japanese-style houses, they hold a traditional ceremony before building the house, and a traditional housewarming party takes place. Inaw are commonly seen hanging on contemporary houses, often over doorways, to ward off evil spirits. New educational initiatives, like the one at the Ainu Museum where six restored chise are exhibited, have increased demand for the traditional house. As Ainu cultural promotion continues, it is important that the Ainu themselves use the chise as a means to sustain their cultural identity without turning it into a simplistic cultural icon or tourist attraction.

It is more difficult to find a modern expression of the traditional kotan community organization and land-use practices, because it is difficult today for Ainu to have access to a large range of land. Various government initiatives—most lacking Ainu participation—have studied this problem: in 1996 a report proposed the revival of the traditional living space as a vehicle for the study, transmission, and preservation of Ainu culture, and in 1997 the Hokkaido prefectural government established a committee for the maintenance and study of traditional living space. So far these initiatives have only produced exploitative activities that feature the Ainu as cultural relics in tourist-oriented memorial parks. What is needed now is for the Ainu themselves to articulate the modern relevance of the social structure provided by kotan and iwor and to implement policies for new living spaces that they can be proud of, which link past and present, and which can inspire a new cultural strategy.

Village Work: Gender Roles and Seasonal Work

Mitsunori Keira and Tqmoko Keira

32.1

I n the Ainu language the village is called kotan, and the wilderness around the kotan where the resources—animals and plants—needed for life could be found was called iwor (fig. 32.1) ; together they provided the basis for traditional Ainu life. The kotan was usually comprised of two to six households surrounded by lands sufficient to supply food and other living necessities without infringing on the lands of other villages. Today, of course, this traditional life is gone, but even though it no longer exists in its original form, it is known from oral tradition and scholarly literature.

The breakdown of the traditional structure of Ainu society began at the end of the eighteenth century as the political and military influence of the Wajin (Japanese) from Honshu was bolstered by commercial exchange. This structure was completely destroyed with the birth of the modern Japanese nation during the Meiji Restoration, which began in 1868. At this time Japanese leaders regarded Hokkaido as a land without a master and took possession for the emperor, disregarding its indigenous population and their livelihood. Even the areas where Ainu people were living were proclaimed "official land," making it impossible for Ainu to carry on their traditional economy.

Hunting, fishing, food gathering, and small-scale agriculture provided the necessities

of life, while trade introduced variety and environmental differences created distinct traditions in Ainu culture. The year was divided into two seasons, winter and summer. According to an Ainu saying, "The winter is the man's season while the summer belongs to women." This reflected the fact that hunting was the most important activity undertaken in winter, with bear and deer hunting being paramount, while summer was the season for gathering and processing plants, which was directed by women. While there was no fixed division of labor in Ainu society, de facto sexual division of labor existed due to gender and physical abilities. One's status as an adult was determined by one's ability to perform important tasks.

Men's Work

Men's primary work included the preparation and execution of religious ceremonies, as well as hunting, fishing, and the production of tools (fig. 32.2). Inaw, the sacred shaved sticks used in ceremonies, were made by scraping shoots of willow, dogwood, and amur cork. The size and shape of inaw varied depending on the kind of ceremony for which they were made, but for all purposes, inaw had to be made skillfully and beautifully. Men also made the prayer stick known as ikupasuy, which was used when offering prayers and sake to the gods. Ikupasuy were carved with elaborate sculptural forms that represent some of the

32.1 February: Hunting in the Mountains

Winter was the season for hunting in the mountains. Often groups of Ainu men would cooperate on hunting expeditions, but individuals also ventured out alone. This copy of a panel from Byozan Hirasawa’s Ainu Manners and Customs shows a hunter preparing a fire while his dogs romp and others hunt deer in the distance. (HMH)

32.2 Quiver and Arrows

Deer and bear hunting were done principally with bow and poisoned arrows. Quivers, of elaborate construction and decorated with cherry-bark wrappings, were as distinctive as one's clothing style and identified a man with a particular regional group. An ikupasuy (prayer stick) was often bound to the outside of the quiver. (FMC 88075)

32.3

32.3 Hunting Group with Dog

This painting by Rinzo Mamiya from illustrations of Northern Ezo (1855), shows a group of Sakhalin Ainu equipped for a hunt with spears, bow and arrow, and a hunting dog. The child appears to be wearing a fur garment; the middle figure wears sealskin boots and a fishskin robe; and the man at right, who is carrying his quiver with a burden strap, wears an embroidered attush (bark-cloth) robe. (HML)

•-M

finest carving traditions of the Ainu (see Maraini, this volume).

While there is no doubt that women prayed, men had the main responsibility for praying and sending messages to the gods during ceremonies. Reciting prayers in the old Ainu style was a difficult task: a young boy had to memorize the prayers by listening to his father and grandfather at every ceremony until he had mastered them A line of prayer from Tatsujiro Kuzuno, one of today's oldest elders, speaks of the relationship between humans and gods: "People live because of the gods, and because humans exist the gods can be adored and prayed to." This exquisite statement spells out the basic equality of gods and man and reveals man's awe of the gods, who possess immense power, even as it expresses pride in being human.

"Hunting" meant bear hunting in general, but deer hunting was also an important subsistence activity (fig. 32.3). Smaller animals such as fox, raccoon dog, and rabbit were targets as well Devices made by men to catch small animals and birds included bows and arrows, spring bows, spears, and heavy hunting knives.

Men also had to know how to build several types of boats for use in the ocean, lakes, or

rivers, and fishing gear had to be prepared for specific types of fish and for different conditions, such as narrow, fast-current streams or wide, slow-moving rivers. A particular implement known as marek (a fishing spear with a special pivotting hook) was used by the Ainu. Tools and traps for capturing salmon, a major part of the Ainu diet, were found in a great many varieties. As with other peoples around the North Pacific, the Ainu used a special wooden club to kill salmon.

The Ainu version, called isapakikni, carried carved inaw-kike (sacred wood shavings) on its shaft and was considered sacred.

Because the Ainu believed that the gods were found in every object, each tool had a spirit. In order to protect these spirits from

harm, objects were carved with sculptural forms to keep "demons" from entering them. People believed that the more beautiful and powerful the carvings, the stronger the defense against the evil gods. For this reason men worked hard to improve their carving ability, creating ever more beautiful designs using only their makiri (a man's basic utility knife,- figs. 32.4-32.6).

Women's Work

Ainu women were busy from early spring to late autumn gathering food, gardening, making clothes, producing utensils needed for daily life, bearing children, and caring for their families. Cbise-kor-kdtkemat —the woman of the house— had little rest, and as the seasons changed her hands were always busy processing new materials into products needed in the household.

As soon as the spring thaw began, women went into the fields and mountains to pick wild plants that they had not been able to harvest for the previous six months. At least thirty mountain plants were used, plus an assortment of lowland plant and seaweed species. Those that were edible were consumed fresh or were preserved for later use, and medicinals were also collected. Because salt was a scarce commodity (except in coastal areas), most plants were instead preserved by drying. Dried vegetables were used in cooking during the winter when the forests and fields were covered with snow.

Spring also was a time for collecting, peeling, and processing bark used to make clothing and other materials. While women assisted in this process, this work was normally done by men. Two types of trees were used: the inner bark of the elm tree was made into obyo thread, while linden produced nipes. The general method was to scrape off the hard outer bark while still in the mountains and bring the soft inner bark back to the village for processing. Bundles of inner bark would be sunk into a marsh or a hot spring and left there for several weeks. When the bark was in a condition that permitted it to be scraped by hand, it would be removed from the water, rinsed in river water, and the sticky surface would be peeled off. When the bundle of fiber was dry, it could be stripped into fine threads and worked into cloth using a backstrap loom. Thin threads of bark could also be braided into a strong line for making bags and weaving mats. Bark fiber was an indispensable material used to produce clothing, bags, and carrying

32.4, 32.5, 32.6 Men's Knives

Men’s carving knives ( makiri ), worn suspended prominently from the belt, were highly visible statements of one's carving prowess. This group displays some of the variety and elegance of this important implement. In addition to a blade and sheath, the knives usually had a netsuke-like toggle and a glass bead attached to the thong that fastened the knife to the belt. These toggles offered a unique format for such miniature sculptures as a knife, an animal jaw with incisors, and an awl. (MPM N17340A; AMS 62228; NMNH 325243)

implements,- to build and equip houses,- and in many other aspects of daily life. A third type of clothing material ( rdarpe ), very light and almost white in color, was made from the fibers of the nettle plant and was most popular among the Sakhalin Ainu.

32.5

Spring was also the time to tap sugarmaple trees (fig. 32.8). Like the peoples native to the eastern woodlands of North America, the Ainu used the tree sap to sweeten their diet. Women also gathered and processed an important food material called turep in early summer when the roots of this large-leafed lily were full of starch (fig. 32.9). When the leaves began to wither, the plant would be dug up and the stalk could be eaten steamed or boiled. Starch from the remaining root was extracted by cleaning, rinsing, and pounding the roots in a mortar with a pestle. When the crushed roots became sticky they would be placed in a tub of water,- after one or two days the fiber would float free and the starch would remain on the bottom. Fiber was skimmed off and the water in the tub would be changed repeatedly, leaving high-quality starch that could then be used for medicine or food.

The fiber that was removed was wrapped in a woven mat and placed in the shade for about a week until it fermented. It was then shaped into a fibery doughnut-shaped disk called turep akam about one inch (three centimeters) thick and eight inches (twenty centimeters) in diameter. This important food could be easily stored by running a line through the holes and

236

TRADITIONAL CULTURE: / M. KEIRA AND T. KEIRA

32.7 Pillow Box Ainu called boxes in general suop. Most boxes had special purposes, such as storage of beads, necklaces, ceremonial items, or monkshood roots used to make hunting poison. A man’s workbox {pon suop ) was used to store his knives and tools and was kept near his place at the hearth. Often boxes doubled as a pillows and had ornamental raised panels at each end. (BMA 12.674 A,B)

32.8 Gathering Maple Syrup Hokkaido maples were tapped in spring using troughs and pails, and the sap was collected and boiled with meat and fish to make sweet soups and stews. This illustration is from the late-nineteenth-century picture scroll Ainu Manners and Customs by Hokuyo Nishikawa. (HML)

hanging them up in a dry place. To be eaten, the dried disk was placed in a mortar and pounded until it separated into powder and fiber fractions. The powder was collected and mixed with water and formed into a small ball to be mixed into porridge. Because the processing of turep took a lot of water, it was done at the river. Elders remember women of the kotan gathered together working cheerfully at this common task, one of the most important of the summer season.

Communal Work and Celebration

The elders used to say, "When the cuckoo sings, it's time for planting." The work on small garden plots was begun in spring and continued throughout the summer by women,

children, and old people. Later, during the autumn, grains, roots, and beans were harvested, and nuts and mushrooms were gathered and preserved for the coming winter. Women also had to begin securing materials needed for various winter manufacturing tasks, which included the making of mats (toma) which were used to keep the house warm, clean, and comfortable, and flower mats ( cbitarpe ) used for decoration and ceremonies,- materials for both were gathered in the fall. Cattails, rushes, and sedge that grew along the shores were cut, dried, and preserved. Women had to secure large amounts of these plants during a very brief time period after the leaves had matured but before they dried and withered.

Cattails, the best material for mats, were prepared along the shore by cutting the plant stems free from the root. The leaves were separated, overlapped, and rinsed with water, then bundled and tied by their leaf ends so that the bottoms would spread like a fan and diy. They were then left in the shade for two or three weeks, always watched carefully to prevent mold from growing. This work is called kinacha.

Autumn was the traditional time for local and regional ceremonies that would take place in the various kotan. These are the ceremonies where people shared their thankfulness for the harvest of the land with their gods, ancestors, and neighbors. In addition to the important role that men played in these ceremonies, women also participated by making sake to

32/WORK AND GENDER ROLES

32.9

32.10

32.9, 32.10 Wild Harvest

Ainu obtained much of their produce from nature. Wild lily roots, dug up in the spring with wooden hoes and digging sticks, were boiled and converted to starch for dumplings. In winter, waternuts were gathered through holes in pond ice. These illustrations, which show details of Ainu tools, dress, and daily activities, are from the late-nineteenth-century picture scroll, Ainu Manners and Customs by Hokuyo Nishikawa. (HML)

32.13 April: Twisting Thread After elm bark had been stripped from the trees, it was processed into fiber. This illustration in Byozan Hirasawa’s Ainu Manners and Customs, painted after 1872, shows a fireside scene with game and produce hanging from the rafters, a man smoking a pipe, a woman tending the fire, and a woman twisting fiber into thread. (HMH)

32.13

be used for offerings and preparing traditional foods. After the men had finished praying in memorial services to the gods, the women performed songs and dances.

With the arrival of late fall, the men would begin to fish for the salmon that began to swim up the streams. Women joined in the work, processing and drying the fish, a major staple during the winter months. When snow began to fall the women cut nettles, silver grass, and bay punkar {Celastrus orbiculatus) , a woody vine. Thread was produced from fibers extracted from the nettle skin and made into fabric and embroidery thread. Silver grass was used as material for reed screens. The strong transparent fibers were also braided to make bowstrings as well as the secret narrow sash women wore as a symbol of chastity or, if married, of faithfulness to their husbands, whose design was handed down from mother to daughter. Finally, with all the materials gathered and processed, the women's summer work came to a close.

By the time snow began to accumulate, the men had begun their fall hunting and women's production work was in full swing. They began by making thread ( kaeka ) by twisting two fine strands of elm or linden bark into a single strand between the thumb and forefinger (fig. 32.13). Although not a difficult technique, close attention must be paid in order to keep the thickness of the thread even. More than two hundred feet (about 65 meters) of thread are needed for a regular-size mat, 518 feet ( 1 90 meters) to make a saranip (woven bag), and 902 feet (280 meters) to make a tar (backpack strap), so women could not afford to waste a single minute.

Mats for the floor or walls, which do not have any patterns, are made from cattails with

32.11

32.12

32 . 11 , 32.12 Making Rice Cakes A ubiquitous implement was the large mortar and pestle, which was carved from logs. It is shown here being used by two women in an old postcard captioned, “Young Women’s Rice-Cake Making. Aborigine's Custom Hokkaido.” When making special rice cakes to be used in iyomante ceremonies, rice flour was mixed with other ingredients and formed into cakes, as shown in a late-nineteenth-century Ainu-e titled “Masticating Offertory Rice Cakes" from Ainu Manners and Customs by Hokuyo Nishikawa. (NAA 98-10408; HML)

32.14 Garden Hoe Gardening was an important but supplementary activity for most Hokkaido Ainu families. Originally the only hoes available were simple ones made from the branch of a hardwood tree, like the hoe shown here. As iron became more available, iron shoes replaced wooden blades, giving them a much longer life. (NMNH 150682)

thread from twisted linden or elm used as the warp. Using looms, women wove mats, paying dose attention to the evenness of the threads. The size of the flower mats used for ceremonies and decorations varies according to use,they are woven with the same techniques used for other mats, and the patterns are created using the dyed inner bark of elm and linden A black color is obtained from the boiled bark of the walnut tree and red from the boiled bark of the alder tree. With these colors, beautiful geometric patterns of contrasting black and red against a white background are produced.

The saranip, still made today, is an indispensable article that is used especially as a container for preserving food. Women make saranip in various sizes and styles for different purposes, and various methods are used from region to region Individuals also develop their own personalized styles. Another important woven product was the tar, which was used to carry bundled wood or grass. The sash-type straps were, on average, about thirteen feet (four meters) long and three inches (seven centimeters) wide, and the central headstrap portion was often decorated with black-andwhite designs. The strap was used in the same manner as the Native American carrying strap, or tumpline, with the wider central part of the strap worn over the forehead and its two ends extending over the shoulders and tied around the load This important implement was carried by men and women nearly all the time. When not in use it was folded and hung from one's belt or tucked into a waistband.

Most of the products produced by women were decorated with embroidered designs, and embroidery continues to be widely practiced by the Ainu today. Although styles have gone through many changes, they continue to evolve. The patterns used on ceremonial clothing, while refined, serve a definite purpose, for Ainu believe that the patterns protect the wearer from malevolent forces, help repel sickness and disease, and guard against evil spirits. In old times Ainu women embroidered these designs on the clothing of their loved ones to keep them safe from danger when they were out hunting in the mountains or at sea. One can imagine the long nights of winter passing slowly as the women's work progressed

W HEN DISCUSSING HUMAN

relationships and their workings among the Ainu, the term "sociality" is more accurate than the older standard anthropological term "social organization," which fails to emphasize the interplay between individuals and their social group (fig. 33.1). Rather than discussing abstract principles of social organization, this essay will describe the dayto-day behavior of Ainu individuals (figs. 33.2, 33.3) —including the bear-sending ceremony ( iyomante ), shamanistic practice, and other activities—as more illustrative of the concept of sociality. Although this discussion refers to other Ainu groups, my ethnography depends more on the Ainu of the northwest coast of southern Sakhalin rather than the Hokkaido Ainu. My fieldwork among the Sakhalin Ainu took place after they moved to Hokkaido at the end of World War II, in several periods

33.1

Ainu

Sociality

Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney

between 1965 and 1973. While the present tense is used for ethnographic descriptions, some of the beliefs and practices described have changed or been discontinued.

At the outset, two common misconceptions about the Ainu people must be pointed out. First, the Ainu have never been a monolithic group. In addition to intragroup variations, the Ainu of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuriles were distinct social groups who inhabited three different ecological zones. The Hokkaido Ainu formed permanent settlements in areas abundant in natural resources, and some of their settlements were quite large and their political organizations well developed and more formal. The Sakhalin Amu, on the other hand, moved seasonally between their summer and winter settlements and had less formalized political organization. The Kurile Ainu, with smaller and more mobile settlement patterns, were the hardest-hit victims of the Russian and Japanese fur traders,- the last of the Kurile Ainu died in 1941 (Ohnuki-Tierney 1974). Variations among these three groups are also due to the fact that each had been in contact with different outside cultures who influenced and were influenced by each group of Ainu in quite different ways.

The second misconception involves representations that the Ainu were bypassed by history,- on the contrary, they have never been isolated but rather were successful, wideranging traders. What is rarely recognized is that their culture developed in dynamic ways owing to their interactions with others, and these historical dynamics profoundly affected the development of Ainu culture in general,these influences even affected religious practices and beliefs, which are often assumed, erroneously, to lie at the core of any culture and thus be shielded from outside influences. Needless to say, interaction also resulted in the devastating impact of Russian and Japanese colonialism (Takakura 1943, 1960).

Iyomante —

The Bear-Sending Ceremony

Of all the rituals of the Ainu, the bear-sending ceremony is by far the most elaborate (figs. 33.4, 33.5). This is the only ceremony shared by all Ainu in all regions (except the northern Kuriles), although it had much regional variation. The ceremony involves not only the members of the immediate settlement

33.2 Greeting Demonstration Jesse Tarbox Beals photographed Sangyea and Sangtukno demonstrating a greeting ceremony outside the Ainu house at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904. (NAA 93-10385)

33.3 Greeting Ritual

Ainu custom called for a simple greeting ritual when people met, as shown in this illustration from a version of Shimanojo Murakami’s Curious Sights of Ezo Island (1799). These and other rituals were among the vivid memories of early visitors to the Ainu. (NMNH 392,023-25)

33.1 Festival Scene

This hanging silk scroll, collected by Edward S. Morse and inscribed "Autumn, 1871,” was painted by Byozan Hirasawa (1822-76). The painting shows a large group of Ainu people enjoying themselves in an exuberant social setting with an elder (ekashi) singing and playing the tonkori. One feels the warmth of the family atmosphere through details of facial expression, and all the clothes and hairstyles of people of different ages are carefully illustrated. (PEM 3279)

but those from other communities as well, thus contributing to regional communication. It provides a significant opportunity for male elders to display their wealth, symbolizing personal and community political power to those from other settlements (Pilsudski 1915).

Items that connote wealth—especially such trade goods as Japanese lacquerware, swords, beads, and other materials acquired through the Santan trade—were considered the most respectful offerings to the deities. The Santan trade (Takakura 1939) was a very active trade network that stretched from Korea and Osaka (Japan), along the Sea of Japan coasts of Honshu, Hokkaido, and Sakhalin, throughout the lower Amur region, and all the way to Manchuria, involving many peoples. The objects are not items of wealth per se but are Ainu expressions of respect toward the deities. Thus, the bear

33.2

sending ceremony, iyonmnte, which is often considered to be quintessentially "Ainu," does not represent a "closed" culture and society because it was predicated upon Ainu involvement in trade,- at the same time it is also an expression of a unique religious practice.

From the perspective of the Ainu, the bear-sending ceremony is a "ritual of rebirth" for the bear. This is an important point that is often misunderstood by outsiders. The ceremony's purpose is to send off the soul of the bear in a ritually proper way so that it will be reborn in the mountains where the bear deities (kimun-kamuy) reside. If humans treat the bear, which is affectionately referred to as "deitygrandchild," with love and respect and send its soul back with gifts and offerings to the bear deities, then the bearkumuy will be pleased and will revisit the Ainu with gifts of meat and fur

as reassurance of their goodwill toward humans. The iyomante is the most important form of gift exchange, and it occurs at a cosmic scale—between humans and deities. It is noteworthy that the cycle is initiated by the deities, who first sacrifice themselves for humans by offering their meat and fur. It is the deities who establish the model for generosity, which is the human value most treasured by the Ainu, as we will see later.

The entire process of the bear ceremony normally takes at least two years and consists of three stages. Hunters first capture a bear cub, either while still in its den or shortly after emerging. It is usually raised by the Ainu for about a year and a half, and at times women nurse these newborn animals. Although the time of the ceremony differs according to region, it is most often held in the beginning of the cold season, for the Sakhalin Ainu, it takes place just before they

33.3

move from their summer settlements into the interior for the winter.

In the major ceremony, the bear is ritually killed and its soul is sent back to the mountains. The ceremony is multidimensional: it is religious, political, social, economic, and even joyful, with the merriment of eating, drinking, music, and dancing. But for the Ainu, for whom even the disposal of food waste is ritually controlled, religion is never isolated from life in general. All participants don their finest clothing and adornments for the iyomante. Prayers are offered to Fuchi, the fire goddess and the deity of the hearth and home, but the major focus of the ceremony is on the deity of the mountains who has sent the bear as a gift to humans.

Among the Sakhalin Ainu, after the bear is taken out of the bear house it is killed with

two pointed arrows (fig. 33.4), whereas the Hokkaido Ainu use blunt arrows ( beper-ay) before critically wounding the bear with pointed arrows,- they then strangle the bear between two logs. Male elders skin and dress the bear, which is then placed in front of the altar (nusa) where treasures are hung (fig. 33.5). After preliminary feasting outside at the altar, the Ainu bring the dissected bear into the house through the sacred window and continue their feast. Among the Hokkaido Ainu, the ceremony ends when the skull of the bear is placed on the nusa outside the house on a pole decorated with maw ; the elder recites a farewell prayer while shooting an arrow toward the eastern sky, an act that signifies the departure of the deity. The Sakhalin Ainu take the bear skull, dressed in ritual wood shavings, and the bones, eyes, and penis (if a male) to a sacred pile in the mountains. They also sacrifice two carefully chosen dogs, which are

Shamanism

In contrast to the leading role played by men in the bear festival, Ainu women play an important—though not exclusive—role in shamanism. In Sakhalin Ainu oral tradition, shamans in the past were also powerful political leaders who had supernatural ability to communicate with deities (Kindaichi 1914; Ohnuki-Tierney 1969); their religious power may have been even more important than their physical ability in combat. Shamanism among the Sakhalin Ainu differs considerably from that of the Hokkaido Ainu. Among the former, cultural valuation of shamanism is high, and well-regarded members of the community, both men and women, can become shamans.

Although shamans sometimes perform rites for divinations of various sorts and for miracle performances, most rites are performed for the diagnosis and curing of

33.4

33 . 4 , 33.5 Sakhalin Ainu Iyomahte

Bronislaw Pilsudski spent several years studying the Sakhalin Ainu in the early 1900s, and he later sold copies of his photographs to the Smithsonian, including pictures of the Sakhalin bear ceremony. The ceremony concludes a multiyear cycle: a bear is reared from cub to adulthood and is then killed so that its spirit can be sent back to the god world with presents and praise from its human hosts. (NMNH 875540, 81-3596)

33.5

considered to be servant-messengers to the bear deities. (For the Hokkaido Ainu bear ceremony, see Munro's film and Kitagawa [1961 ],- for Sakhalin, see Pilsudski [1915] and Ohnuki-Tierney [1974: 90—97]).

Although often mistaken as cruel by outsiders, the bear ceremony is a ritual whereby the Ainu express their utmost respect to their deity, and its paramount significance is a sacred act. For the Sakhalin Auni, the bear is not important as a food source: like other hunting societies that do not regularly eat their most prestigious big game—the iKung San of the Kalahari Desert, for instance, do not regularly eat giraffe— Ainu rarely eat bear meat, and the bear ceremony is held only once a year, if that. Even so, Ainu men and women find bear meat exquisite, unparalleled by any other food.

illnesses. These include particularly grave illnesses whose etiological cause—"Why did it befall this particular individual?"—must be sought from the spirits and deities. When a shaman is possessed by a spirit, she/he enters a state of trance and the spirit speaks through the shaman's mouth, providing the client with necessary information such as the diagnosis and cure of an illness or the location of a sought-after missing object.

Less is known of shamanism among the Hokkaido Ainu. Here shamans are usually women, although male shamans are known to have existed in the past. The Hokkaido Ainu shaman also enters a possession trance, but she does so only if a male elder induces it in her by offering prayers to the deities. Her function is confined to diagnosis of illness, after which male elders take over the healing process. Male

TRADITIONAL CULTURE /E. OHNUKI TIERNEY

33.6

33.7

33.6, 33.7 Corporal Punishment

Ainu social code included provisions for corporal punishment. Councils of elders considered the offense and prescribed the punishment. For serious crimes, the offender was beaten with a grooved wooden club that sometimes carried a carving of a animal, in this case, a snake. This image from Illustrations of Ezo Livelihood by Shimanojo Murakami dates to the early nineteenth century. (UPM A470B; NMNH 392,024)

elders must, however, consult a shaman before they make important decisions for the community, such as a declaration of a war.

The shamanistic ritual is held at night, for Ainu consider the daytime to be the time for humans and night the time for deities and demons. The ritual is held inside a house, at the hearth, which the Ainu consider to be a miniature universe and the abode of Fuchi, "Grandmother FJearth" and the most powerful female deity in the Ainu pantheon. She becomes the mediator between humans and other deities whose knowledge and power are being sought.

Among the Sakhalin Ainu, the ritual begins with drumming by the shaman,drumming announces the beginning of the ritual, expels evil spirits, and helps the shaman reach a state of trance. The shaman's

assistant produces an aromatic smoke by burning Ezo spruce or larch, a plant called nuhcha, and minced dried leek. Throughout the rite the shaman frequently drinks a solution—considered too salty for ordinary human consumption—consisting of seawater (or river water during winter), Ezo spruce, nuhcha, and dried kelp coated with sea salt. Shamans do not wear special garments except for a headdress, a headband to which various charms are attached, a necklace, and two inaiv (for Ainu shamanism see M. Chiri 1973c,Ohnuki-Tierney 1976a, 1976b, 1981).

From a symbolic perspective, several aspects of shamanism reveal the importance of the female principle in Ainu culture: the rite is held in the woman's domain, inside the house, and most importantly, beside the hearth where Fuchi, the female counterpart of the bear deity, resides. It is here that women prepare the daily meals, converting natural resources into culturally edible food,- for Ainu this is accomplished by thorough cooking, as distinct from their neighbors, the Nivkhi (formerly known as Gilyaks, a people of northern Sakhalin and the lower Amur delta region) and the Japanese, whose diet often includes raw food.

In other words, shamanism is expressive of the act of cooking, the conversion of raw natural products into culturally acceptable food, and it also involves healing, the way humans prevent a person from returning to nature through death. In this sense, it

33.8 Tobacco Pouch

As in other cultures, smoking was one of the most enjoyable forms of male and female social activity, and great amounts of time went into acquiring tobacco and making smoking kits and paraphernalia. Women did not usually participate in the production of smoking equipment, but this pouch, collected in Sakhalin, was probably made by women and may have been imported. Bleached sealskin pouches with dyed skin and colored embroidery were common among mainland Amur River peoples. (FMC 32075)

* *.-(

K

ffl

\

33.9 Praying with Inaw

Inaw, usually made of willow sticks shaved into different shapes and forms (depending on the ceremony or use) helped carry human prayers to the gods. Each inaw was carved in a form recognizable to the god for which it was intended. Men, who had responsibility for communicating with the gods, had to learn to carve inaw correctly, with precision and beauty, as well as how to pray in the appropriate language and with the prescribed rituals. This scene comes from Drawings of Travels Through Ezo, painted by Gentan Tani in 1799. (HML)

has the same symbolic purpose as the bear ceremony—the use of deities and nature for human spiritual and physical nourishment. However, while the role of women is expressed privately as an individual act in shamanism, the bear ceremony expresses the role of men in the political structure, in their public role.

Social Hierarchies and Gender

Among the Ainu, women are generally assigned a lower social status than men. This status is given a clear cultural explanation: women are considered to be a defiling presence because of the smell of menstrual and parturient blood, which in Ainu belief does not disappear after washing. This is why women retreat (in Sakhalin custom) to their houses when the bear is being killed during the iyomante. Despite this, extraordinary power is assigned to female blood. When an epidemic, such as smallpox, threatens a settlement, male elders recite a sacred epic to ward off disease, believed to be spread by demons However, if their recitation fails and victims begin to sicken, the only antidote considered effective is women's menstrual blood, which is applied to the afflicted spots of the sick person's body. In this case, young women hold powers complementary to that of older men. Similarly, the belief in the power of menstrual and parturient blood led to a practice whereby hunters always carry part of a woman's undergarment—such as underclothing from his mother or sister—close to him because of the power of the blood to protect him from deities and demons. These biological factors define the female body only during its reproductive years,- therefore "uncontaminated" women past menstruation gain considerable power and collectively have higher status than young men.

The social hierarchy of Ainu women and men is further complicated by age, which is another important factor in determining the rank of individuals within society. The Ainu believe that the aged, both men and women, are closer to the deities than the young, and they alone have the privilege of using a special language of the aged, onne-itak. Only male elders, who are the officiants of the bear-sending ceremony, can recite the most sacred oral tradition, which is narrated in the language of the deities, called kamuy-itak (fig. 33.9). It is the older women who become official caretakers of the bear cubs.

The importance of age among the Ainu, whose economy is based upon hunting and gathering, means that the cultural valuation of individuals and the resultant social hierarchy are not based on a utilitarian criterion. For example, elders who are no longer the major food providers are assigned more power than the young. Ainu notions of men/women and the aged/young transcend the biological givens of contemporary Western society.

The intricate hierarchy between men and women and the aged and the young is played out not only in ceremonial situations but in everyday life. Above all, it is expressed in the seating arrangement around the hearth. The most important direction in the Ainu universe is that facing the mountains,- this is east for the Ainu of western Sakhalin, with north being next in importance. Among the Sakhalin Ainu, the sacred window through which the slain bear is brought into the house during the bear-sending ceremony is built into the wall facing the mountain side, usually north. The master of the house and his wife sit on the north side, and male elders who are guests sit on the mountain side. Young males sit on the south side, whereas young women sit on the west side, the lowest in the hierarchy of directions.

These cultural institutions express complex complementarity among the principles that govern social categories and hierarchy. As hunters of land and sea mammals, young men bring meat that not only sustains the body but enriches humans through the spiritual power embodied in meat and fish, the flesh of deities or the products of deities. Young women, on the other hand, gather plants and engage in daily cooking and in healing, other tasks important for sustaining human life. The aged, both men and women, are revered for their knowledge of religious

33.10 Pipe with Carved Decoration

Ainu pipes (kiseri i) were decorated with beautiful and intricate carvings on portions of their stems. Sometimes, as here, the carvings covered the entire length of the stem and served as a public advertisement of a man’s artistic skill. Pipe carving was one of the most challenging carving tasks a man could undertake. (PMC 86052)

33.11 Pipe with Burl Bowl

Pipes, like men's prayer sticks (ikupasuy), could take almost limitless shapes and forms, so men were free to express their personalities, artistic natures, and carving skills. The carver of this pipe took a highly unconventional approach. (UPM 56.8.9)

matters, including shamanism,- their wisdom is the most precious reservoir of human knowledge about the deities that govern the Ainu universe.

In cases where political organization was more developed, as with the Hokkaido Ainu, the bear ceremony and its political significance came to overshadow shamanism. Shamanism then became culturally devalued and was relegated to women, a common phenomenon in many parts of the world. Among the Hokkaido Ainu, men cannot start the healing process without a woman shaman's diagnosis,- the male political leader cannot declare a war or make other important decisions without a woman shaman's ritual performance for prognosis and diagnosis,- and at times aged women even held more power than aged men, as in the case of an older Sakhalin Ainu woman who overturned the verdict of accidental homicide that had been agreed upon by a body of male elders.

Contrary to some Marxist scholars' romanticized image of the egalitarian society of hunter-gathers, principles of hierarchy and social division prevail among the Ainu as in any other population. These principles, however, are fluid and complementary rather than being inflexible rules upholding a linear model in which those above enjoy exclusive power over those below. Therefore, among the Ainu the relationship between men and women is one of complementarity rather than antagonism or power inequality (the latter being enormously important components of the contemporary Western sense of "gender").

The basis of the Ainu notion of sociality is the emphasis on a person's generosity as the paramount moral value. Its practice starts with Ainu deities who offer their own bodies and flesh to humans for the sustainment of life. Political leaders are chosen on the basis of generosity—a person who is willing to share,

ceremony is at once an expression of mutual generosity—the sharing of the bear meat by all—and an expression of social hierarchy demonstrated by the order in which the meat was partaken, with male elders eating first.

But no society is without conflicts.

The Ainu principle of conflict resolution also indicates the primacy placed upon the sociality of individuals, i.e., individuals who are members of a social group. Here again shamanism offers a supreme example: One category of illness that shamans use in their diagnoses is called aymawko abun (penetration by the spirit of an arrow). The symptom of this illness is a patient's experience of a sudden sharp pain, localized, for example, in the stomach, chest, or side of the torso, like an arrow wound. This may happen if someone utters words of hostility toward another, but the victim is often neither the instigator nor the one verbally attacked, there may be no particular relationship, kinship or otherwise, between the offender and the victim. The idea is that if a person verbally assaults another, someone in the community will suffer from this illness. Therefore, when someone gets angry and utters harsh words against another, people in the community reprimand the offender. It is the collective responsibility of the members of the community to uphold this code of ethic,- social disharmony is not simply a matter of one individual against another but affects everyone (Ohnuki-Tierney 1981: 66).

Generosity is a moral value that links an individual to his/her society. It is expressive of the way in which Ainu society works, not by rigid principles but through the combination of principles of social organization with individual achievements and qualities. Generosity is the most important human value among the Ainu, and complementarity is the cardinal principle of Ainu sociality. These are not abstract notions,- they are

Ainu

Children's

Play

Miyuki Muraki

T he play or- Ainu children was fun, as play is supposed to be, but their play was closely related to everyday life. The Ainu were hunter-gatherers, and so the children imitated hunting, fishing, sewing, and cooking in their play activities and thus acquired necessary life skills through recreation. By mimicking religious ceremonies, they learned about faith in the gods and how to relate themselves to nature and the gods. Through their play, Ainu children gradually learned their future roles as men and women (fig. 34.1).

Boys played a game on the beach that trained them to catch swordfish, as well as to hunt such large marine mammals as sea lions and seals. A long string was attached to a bundle of dry grass or reeds that represented swordfish (sirikap), and one of the boys tied the string around his waist. The boy with the string pulled the sirikap while others pursued the swordfish with sticks resembling harpoons (kite) until one eventually struck the bundled grass with the "harpoon .' 1

Another similar game that entailed throwing a wooden spear at a ring tossed in the air was played by two teams—one to toss and the other to try to throw the spear through the ring (fig. 34.5a). The team that missed the ring would lose one member to the opposing group, and if they succeeded they gained a player from the opposing side. The team that had to give away all its players lost. This game trained boys to hunt and develop the hand-eye coordination needed to pursue moving targets.

Boys' play included playing with arrows (kue sinot ) or ope sinot, a similar game played with the sharpened root of a forked tree. Kue sinot involved shooting play arrows with a play bow (fig. 34.2) at hoops rolled by a playmate along the ground or at shells hung from a tree branch. In ope sinot, one boy threw a sharpened tree root so that it stuck in the earth, and his opponent threw a similar stick trying to knock the standing stick down. These games enhanced boys' agility and helped them master the use of spears and bows.

In another activity called acikiri terke,

similar to "three-legged races" played by American children, several boys would cross one of their legs with the eg of another and then would

34.3

34.1

pull each other while hopping on their free legs. The one whose leg became detached from this chain of legs or who fell would lose. Other sporting activities included pole-vaulting and high-jumping, much like the trackand-field events played in the Olympic Games. These were good exercises to help boys master the use of a mountain staff, a valuable tool when hunting in rough terrain, needed to go down cliffs and jump streams. A rope-skipping game (fig. 34.5b, c), in which a boy skipped forward and then back or touched the ground with his hands after each skip, likewise built the strong bodies needed for hunting on steep mountainsides. Other games included hide-and-seek, tag, cup and ball, and cat's cradle. Seasonal fun included sledding, snowball fights, and swimming in rivers and the ocean.

Girls learned the roles of wife and mother through play, by imitating homemaking and sewing tasks. In one such activity, called ayusinukar, a girl drew patterns unique to the Ainu, such as the morew (whorl) crest, in the beach sand or in the hearth ash (fig. 34.6). Ainu patterns are not only physically attractive they are also thought to have the power to protect those who wear them from evil. The form of these designs varied from region to region, and they were passed from mothers to daughters for generations, evolving over

34.4

34.6

34.1 Girls Playing Cat’s Cradle This photograph, taken by Bronislaw Pilsudski ca. 1903-05, shows Sakhalin Ainu girls playing string games. Scientific curiosity about the Ainu physical type and questions about racial mixing prompted him to note that the girl on the left was the daughter of a Russian man and an Ainu woman. (NAA S8-10370)

34.2, 34.3, 34.4

“Galloping Clams" and Other Toys Among the many toys and games made for Ainu children were miniatures of men’s hunting weapons and tools like bows and knives; women’s implements like mortars and scoops; and games like hoops and “galloping dams.” The latter were used by boys and girls, who slipped the shells between their first and second toes and, while keeping tension on the line, galloped about the house like a horse. (UPM A479, 516; BMA 12.177, 12.159, 12.201, 12.438a,b)

34.5 a-d Games

Some of the many games played by Ainu children were illustrated in Ainu-e drawings, including ring toss (a), bar jumping (b), skipping rope (c), and pole vaulting (d). The first three images were drawn by an unknown artist in Ainu Manners and Customs', the latter derives from Drawings of Travels Through Ezo (1799) by Gentan Tani. (HML)

34.6 Teaching. Sewing Skills Mothers teach their daughters to make thread, use the backstrap loom, and learn Ainu clothing patterns by tracing them in the sand in this Ainu-e. (AMS)

time. When a mother made clothes, girls would sit next to her imitating her sewing movements. A young woman was expected to create her own patterns by repeatedly drawing and erasing the pattern. Other girls' play included picking wild vegetables, gathering nuts, and cooking.

Play that taught children spiritual aspects of Ainu culture included the imitation of the bear-sending ceremony ( iyomante ). In this game children made a small bear by putting coal on a sallow flower,- they then

34.5a

is f (lyy

i

5

5

f

v

i

circled the bear while clapping, singing, and dancing with bamboo leaves in their hands. Through such activities both boys and girls learned their roles in social groups to prepare them to participate later in actual ceremonies. To take their proper role in Ainu society it was imperative that they understood how to relate themselves to nature and the gods.

There were also language-related games such as "fast talk” and "riddle play," which helped develop speaking skills. Children also enjoyed learning to play the flute and mastering the mukkuri (a mouth harp). These instalments do not use the Western scale — "do, re, mi . . ."—but they produce sounds and rhythms unique to the Ainu, and these instruments continue to be played today.

The games described here are only part of the wide range of activities enjoyed by Ainu children. Most recreational activities and competitive sports had an important role in cultivating the abilities and skills necessary to become a responsible adult. As the traditional Ainu hunting-andgathering way of life changed, however, some aspects of children's play lost its meaning. Today many rules and original forms of games have become obscure, and it is now nearly impossible to pass on the old traditions of play to future generations.

34.5d

34 / CHILDREN’S PLAY

*S»5K<

Spirit

Sending

Ceremonies

Shiceki Akino

B efore defining aspects of spiritsending ceremonies, 1 offer a chronological description of the iyomante, the most prominent of such rituals, as it was enacted at the Shiraoi Ainu Museum in 1994.

Preparation begins about two weeks before the event with firewood being collected and men making sacred shaved sticks ( inaw, fig. 35.15), prayer sticks ( ikupasuy, figs. 35.1, 35.9), and bundles of mugwort or bamboo grass ( takusa ) to burn for purification,- at the same time, women begin preparing rice wine and food offerings. As the time approaches, messengers travel to neighboring villages to invite people to the festival.

The day before the ceremony, guests bearing gifts begin gathering at the designated house (cbise), where many fine articles are already on display. The iyomante officially begins when the local elder offers a prayer to Fuchi, the goddess of the fire and hearth. The

elder, followed by other men, goes to the bear cage ( beper-set ), where they offer prayers, take kimun-kamuy, god of the mountains (the bear god), out of the cage and parade him around the open space to let him exercise and play (fig. 35.2). After this, several men shoot blunt ceremonial arrows ( heper-ay, fig. 35.8) toward kimun-kamuy and then strangle him between two logs (fig. 35.6). While he is "sleeping," the bear is skinned and the head is severed to separate the spirit from the body. The skin is then folded neatly and the spirit of the bear whose head has been enshrined on top of the folded skin is invited into the room through the god's window ( kamuy-puyar) located in the east wall of the house. In the evening, the feast begins (figs. 35.7, 35.1 2). In front of kimun-kamuy, food and rice wine are offered, and people dance and sing until midnight.

On the second day of the ceremony, men decorate the head of kimun-kamuy with

35.1

35.2

inaw-kike (sacred wood shavings). This is the last and best form in which it is displayed to the participants before its journey to the god world. In the evening, a final feast is held.

As before, food and rice wine are consumed with the bear, and people dance and sing.

At the conclusion of the evening ancient Amu yukar (tales of heroes) are recounted by an old woman, to which those present listen intently, holding their breath in anticipation of the final climax. The storytelling is abruptly terminated just as the final episode begins in order to encourage the kimun-kamuy to return next year to hear the end of the story. The guests offer their final farewells to kimun-kamuy, enshrined on a wooden seat ( yuksapaoni ) and its head is mounted (fig. 35.1 I), facing east, on the altar

35.1 Kamuy-nomi: Praying to the Gods Despite repressive official policies, Ainu continued to observe traditional religious practices throughout the difficult period of the mid-twentieth century. This photograph was taken by American anthropologist Ted Banks III in the 1950s or early 1960s, probably in Nibutani. (MKB, courtesy of Edmund Carpenter)

35.2 Exercising the Bear

As the bear cubs being raised for the iyomante grew larger, their care and feeding became more difficult to manage. Twenty men using heavy lines were needed to supervise the exercise of this nearly full-grown bear, indicating that the time of iyomante was at hand. (NAA 83-16285)

(mis a) located outside of the sacred window (figs. 35.10, 35.14). When all arrangements are concluded, kimun-kamuy returns to the god world aided by ceremonial arrows that people shoot off to guide it.

Early the next morning, after the kimunkamuy has left on its journey, the festival is concluded by changing the direction of the yuksapaoni toward the west and holding a shinnurappa, a memorial service for the ancestors.

The Ainu believe that gods exist and that they are similar in appearance to people and lead their lives in a similar fashion. They believe that above the human world (Ainu mosir ) there is a world where gods live (kamuy mosir ), but gods also have a role in the human world. While gods are in the human world, they disguise themselves as virtually anything, including such natural objects and phenomena as the sun, moon, wind, or fire,- animals such as bears, foxes, raccoon dogs, rabbits,

Having certain obligations, the gods disguise themselves when they visit the human world. For example, mountain gods (kimun-kamuy) disguise themselves as bears, and when they visit the human world they bestow their fur and meat upon humans as gifts. The Ainu respectfully welcome gods who visit the human world as honored guests. Welcomed gods—which in the case of animals means those that are shot and killed—are sent back to the god world with a simple ceremony held at the location where they were killed or at the hunting hut. Bear hunting is conducted from January to March, when the bears are hibernating and after their cubs have been born. If baby cubs are found, they are taken to the village because the Ainu believe that the parent bears, as parent gods, have entrusted them to bring up their cubs (fig. 35.4). Generally cubs are raised in the village for a year or two.

fish owls, or jays,■ and such man-made objects as boats, pots, and straw mats. Animal spirits have the closest relationship with and are most important to human beings, and the Ainu treat these spirits—especially bears and fish owls, which are their two highest-ranking gods—with great respect. Instead of keeping these spirits in the human world after they have been caught or "used up” (as in the case of spent or broken man-made objects), the Ainu return them to the spirit world with elaborate "sending" ceremonies. Of these, the bear-sending ceremony (iyomante) best represents Ainu religious beliefs. Sending ceremonies are also held to return the spirits of plants, inanimate objects, and spent tools or artifacts, to the spirit world.

When the time comes, the iyomante — a ceremony to return the spirit of the grown cub to the god world where its parent resided—is carried out in the form of a ceremonial feast (figs. 35.6, 35.7). At this occasion the bear god ( kimun-kamuy ) is sent home with many gifts. Upon his return, this kimun-kamuy then invites other gods to his house for a party at which such human gifts as sake (tonoto), dried salmon (. satchep ), and sacred shaved sticks ( inaw) are shared together with stories about how respectfully the god was treated. These gifts are meant to convince the other gods to visit the Ainu world in the future to receive more benefits from them and in turn provide the Ainu with gifts of their own: their flesh and hides, claws,

35.3, 35.4, 35.5 Care and Feeding

As an honored guest, a bear was given loving care by its hosts, who treated it as a member of the family. As a cub it was brought into the house, fed like a human infant, and given toys ( heper-iutam) like the chewing bar pictured here (fig. 35.3). Later, caution required feeding the bear in its cage with troughlike “spoons” (heper-nima). An Ainu-e by Hokuyo Nishikawa (fig. 35.4) shows the bear as an “infant," eating from a lacquer bowl; another image (fig. 35.5), by Shimanojo Murakami, shows a later stage in the process with Ainu dancing around the bear cage at the beginning of the iyomante ceremony. (UPM A531C, A442; HML)

teeth, and other products. Likewise, the gods gain prestige and rank in their world if they return from the human world with many gifts.

For human beings, the number of gods who visit equals the number of animals taken during the hunting season, so their regular visits ensure the Ainu a plentiful food supply.

It is said that gods achieve ever higher rank in the god world by their repeated visits to earth, gaining more wealth and prestige and therefore being of more assistance to humans as their power and rank advances,- this belief is reflected in the Ainu saying, "A true god is very useful to human beings." In this way the iyomante becomes the forum representing the symbiotic relationship among animals, humans, and the spirit world and provides a mechanism for influencing earthly events: it signifies and validates the relationship between humans and gods.

While the iyomante usually refers to send

ing back the spirit of a semidomesticated bear, similar ceremonies are used in Hokkaido to send back the spirits of other animals. This essay, which is based on published records, describes these ceremonies and their regional variations. The iyomante demonstrates this variation even within different regions of Fdokkaido, where linguistic and cultural variation is seen in a welter of different terminologies and practices (Sato 1961,-Aoyagi 1984). Here, in addition to kamuy-opunire (the term for the bear ceremony held in the mountains) and iyomante (the term for village ceremonies for cubs and domesticated bears), both used in Kushiro and Nayoro, we find in Yagumo terms like yomande for the village rite and peurep yomande for the mountain rite. Other terms like okanomi (oka, catching,- nomi, pray) are used in Asahikawa, apparently to designate rites for bears killed in the mountains,this usage is disputed, however, because this

35.4 35.5

35.8 Flower Arrows Early in the bear-sending ceremony the bear is taken out of its cage and the host shoots at it with “flower arrows" ( heper-ay) that have blunt tips. The arrows, which in some areas were decorated with inaw-kike (wood shavings), are meant to excite the bear's spirit to prepare it for its journey home. Flower arrows also are used later in the iyomante when they are shot off into the sky to guide the bear’s return to kamuy mosir. (MPM N17284c, N17285e, N17100a, N17200e, N17285C)

35.6

35.6, 35.7 Iyomante After the bear (, kimun-kamuy) is killed, it is skinned and given the place of honor at a feast where it is entertained with gifts, speeches, and story-telling. Two versions of the ceremony—a modern bear-sending ceremony conducted at the Ainu Museum at Shiraoi and a bear-sending ceremony painted by Shimanojo Murakami in 1799—document two hundred years of iyomante tradition. (AMS; HML)

term encompasses the sending of gifts, which can only be done at village ceremonies. Unfortunately, because the bear ceremony was discontinued in most areas during much of the twentieth century, regional variations will remain difficult to decipher.

Opunire

Although many of the same animal spirits are sent back in another type of ceremony called opunire, the form of these ceremonies is different. A broader definition of opunire connotes the place where the ceremony takes place: at the spot where animals were killed in the mountains,- at an altar built alongside a cavern or hunting hut,- or in the village after bringing animals back from the mountains. Depending on the geographic origin of the speaker, the words hopunire, hopuni, or opunika

are used in addition to opunire, and there are subtle differences in their meanings and linguistic forms.

Even Ainu informants and oral historians from the same geographic locations reveal differences in their use of the words opunire and iyomante. For instance, in concept opunire is (1) a ceremony for a variety of animals, while iyomante is a ceremony specifically for sending back the spirit of a bear,(2) a ceremony for all animals including fully grown bears, while iyomante is a ceremony only for domesticated bears,- (3) a ceremony for sending back the spirits of all other animals raised by people except for bears, for instance, for fish owls and foxes, etc.,(4) a ceremony for sending back the spirits of higher-ranked animals such as bears, raccoon dogs, and foxes. In terms of form,

35.9 Ikupasuy

Prayers offered to the bear with ikupasuy and sake honor its spirit and bestow gifts for it to take back to kamuy mosir. The ikupasuy second from the left is decorated with inawkike, indicating that it was used in the iyomante ceremony. Those on the right have carvings of a bear head and what appears to be a ritual sword with an itokpa mark on its bevelled end. These decorative motifs are similar to those found on Ainu carvings and garments. (BMA 12.332, 12.307, 12.316, 12.325)

opunire is (1) a ceremony held on the spot where animals are killed, for instance at an altar built on the side of a bear's den or hunting hut, and it may be held either by hunters on the spot or by people from the village who have gathered there for a feast,- (2) a ceremony held in the village after taking animals from the mountains,- or (3) a ceremony held in the mountains to send back things (inaw or animal remains) that were worshipped in the house.

The long-eared or fish owl, identified as the god of the village (kotan-kor-kamuy ), is the highest-ranked god in various places in Hokkaido, and its sending ceremony is similar to that for bears (figs. 35.15, 35.16). In areas of southern Hokkaido like Shiraoi where few owls are found, bears are the highest-ranked god and ceremonies for fish owls are rarely seen.

Raccoon dogs (nioyitk) are treated as high-ranking gods in various areas and are

given elaborate sending ceremonies. In Kushiro and Obihiro, Ainu people believe that raccoon dogs are uncles of bears, and when they are captured alive they are taken back to the village to be raised and sent back to the god world in ceremonies similar to those for bears,- Hidaka and Saru Ainu have similar beliefs, believing moyuk to be servants of bears. Asahikawa people see raccoon dogs as ranking second behind bears, and skullsending ( sapa-opuni ) ceremonies are held after several skulls are collected. In general, a ceremony for raccoon dogs is similar to that for bears because they are considered uncles, aunts, or servants of bears, and thus are the gods ranking closest to them.

The sending ceremonies for foxes ( cbiromup ) in Kushiro, where baby foxes were raised by people, is similar to that for bears (fig. 35.1 3). Obihiro people put up inaw for foxes killed in the mountains, and when the head of a fox was cut off at home, an inaw was also put up. In Asahikawa, only white foxes (upas cbironnup ) with long fangs were sent back because they had the highest rank among foxes. The skull was wrapped in a straw mat with woven patterns ( chitarpe ) and enshrined within the house as a charm, but it was never placed on the altar (nusa). Fox-sending ceremonies were mostly practiced in northeastern Hokkaido and are not known for southwestern Hokkaido.

Fox spirits are a matter of dispute among different Ainu groups, with some believing them to be helpful spirits while others see them as evil. Nevertheless, their skulls were often used as guardian spirits for fishing, hunting, and daily life, and they were also used for fortune-telling. Whether it was believed that the spirits remained in skulls used for this purpose is ambiguous: theoretically, if they had been through a sending ceremony, they should have lost their active power,- to be a guardian deity, its spirit must exist. Ethnography has not yet provided answers to such questions.

In many traditional societies the treatment and spiritual station of dogs often reflect their unusual place as a domestic animal that straddles both the human and natural worlds,- Ainu dog-sending ceremonies also contain these ambiguous elements. In Shizuuchi the ceremony for dead dogs is called iwakte, elsewhere this term refers to sending ceremonies for inanimate objects (see Utagawa, this volume),- white dogs in

35.10, 35.11, 35.12 Nusa and Benkai’s Bear Skull

At the end of the iyomante the bear's head is placed on the nusa, a fencelike altar located outside the god’s window at the end of the house. The skull, dressed in specially prepared ritual shavings and mounted on a forked stick, then joins similar relics from earlier ceremonies. This skull was sold by an Ainu named Benkai in Motomuroran to Hiram Hiller who theorized that because Benkai had given up his Ainu beliefs and become Japanized, he was willing to sell it (fig. 21.8). A modern nusa from Shiraoi, decorated in a colorful woven mat, is also seen here along with an Ainu-e showing a ceremony at a nusa. (UPM A494; AMS)

particular are treated with great respect as descendants of the gods of great wolves. In Hidaka and Saru dead dogs are deified by placing two willow inaw beside them at a high place within sight of the river. Unlike bears and foxes, their heads are not cut off and their pelts are not skinned. After the ceremony, the remains are placed in a box together with offerings of rice, tobacco, and dried fish, and a hole allows the spirit of the deceased to pass through. The remains are left in a bush with their heads pointing toward the river. In Kitami and Bihoro, special ceremonies are held for dogs killed by poisoned arrows released by tripping a spring-bow trap ( amappo ). These dog-sending ceremonies are similar to the ceremonies performed for objects whose useful life has been spent In Sakhalin dog spirits are sent back when a person is seriously sick or when a new house is built. Similar rites involving the sacrifice and display of dogs are practiced by the Koryak and other peoples of northeastern Siberia to drive away pestilence and disease. The concept behind these practices reaches beyond tbe normal sending ceremonies of dead animals and carries the connotation of other religious beliefs, including propitiation, sorceiy, and even a nuance of human sacrifice.

In Obihiro animals such as sparrows or squirrels are not left where they are killed, rather, people make inaw for them, and ceremonies are held for pheasants and jays. Inaw-kike are wrapped around their necks, the tip of a small inaw is notched and attached to the cranium, and they are taken to the nusa. Even small animals are treated respectfully and are given simple sending ceremonies. One historical record for the Tokachi and Honbetsu area reads: "Heads of mice and

35.12

rabbits are cooked and eaten, and their skulls are put neatly on a table on a pedestal. When they start to pile up, the collected heads are turned into an altar, and prayers for gods are held in spring and fall."

Deer and salmon are the primary Ainu food sources, and salmon is especially valuable as evidenced by its names: si-ipe (real food) and kamuy-cbep (fish of gods). Despite the dietary importance of these animals, deer-sending ceremonies are found only in a few areas, and although several rites are associated with salmon runs (see Watanabe, this volume), they do not conform to the format of sending ceremonies for other species. Salmon are celebrated in a first-salmon ceremony each autumn when they begin to swim upstream.

Although recent ethnography reveals little about the deer-sending ritual, skulls of male deer are illustrated enshrined in nusa in old

35.11

paintings such as Ezo God Festival dating to the Edo period, indicating that such rituals were apparently held in the past. After the beginning of the Meiji period in the late 1800s, records report ceremonies for deer ( yukkamuy) in such locations as Tokachi, Ashoro, Shiraoi, Kitami, and Bihoro. For example, according to FJisakazu Fujimura:

Deer ( yuk ) were sent back in a ceremony held by an old man named Kijima [his Ainu name was Ekashiparo] who moved from Chitose in about Taisho 12 [1923], After holding a sending ceremony for Japanese deer that had been butchered in the mountains, the skins, crania, and meat were taken back to the village. The deer skins were folded just like those of bears, and the crania were placed on top. Then a prayer for the god was performed by adding inaw. The left sides of the crania were broken to extract cerebrospinal fluid and the crania were decorated beautifully

individual animals, but there are times when several different animals are sent back at one time In these situations, the sending order is decided by the role and rank of each animal,most of those ceremonies accompany a bear ceremony. Some examples reveal interesting information about human and animal-world relationships. For instance, in Nayoro, when ceremonies are performed for both a bear and a raccoon dog, the bear is sent back first. In Bihoro, when a ceremony is conducted for a domesticated fish owl and a domesticated bear, the bear is treated first. Also in Bihoro, in the case of ceremonies for male and female bears, the ceremony for the male bear is held first, because a male bear will get angry if the female is treated first. In Ashoro, when sending back the spirits of a bear and a fox, the ceremony for the fox is held first, and a fox is treated before a raccoon dog, and a raccoon dog before a bear. Finally, in Ashoro,

35.13 Fox Sending

Among some Ainu groups, the fox is a high-ranked god and is given an elaborate sending ceremony like that for the bear. This photograph showing a fox-sending ceremony was taken by Bronislaw Pilsudski, ca. 1903-05, when he lived with the Sakhalin Ainu. (NAA 98-10366)

35.14 Nusa

As testimony to a celebratory past, many bear skulls rest on the sacred altar or nusa in this photograph. (Courtesy of AMS)

with inaw-kike. A formal sending ceremony was held when the crania were inserted into a prepared forked kibada tree and an altar was set up (Fujimura 1977).

In general, the Ainu believe that deer and salmon do not come down to the human world as gods themselves but are sent by a god who controls deer ( yuk-atte-kamuy ) and a god who controls salmon (chep-atte-kamuy) : perhaps it is due to this spiritual belief that sending ceremonies are not held for these animals. In practical terms, sending ceremonies are not held for animals that can be caught constantly and in large quantity, like fish

Sending ceremonies are usually held for

when ceremonies are held for a bear and a fox, the fox is treated first because the fox's role is to carry baggage for the bear and, as in the West, foxes are believed to have a cunning character,- therefore, the fox should be sent back before the bear so that it will not run off with the bear's gifts.

IWAKTE

Like iyomante, iwakte means sending spirits back, but in this case the ceremony refers to broken, old, spent, or no-longer-necessary tools of daily use,- depending on the geographical region, small animals may be included in this category. For example, in

Kushiro an iwakte ceremony is held even when such small animals as squirrels ( niow ), rabbits (isopo ), or little birds ( poncbikap ) are caught (Sato 1961). Natori (1984) also discussed the distinction: "lyomante is used for important gods, but iwakte is used for gods of other hunted animals. Iwakte has a casual meaning, to celebrate and send, and the ceremony itself is also simple." Like iyomante, the opunire and iwakte sending ceremonies have various aspects and regional differences.

The Ainu, like other hunting-andgathering cultures whose food resources until recently were largely dependent on the forces of nature, have been accustomed to a constant search for sustenance. To ensure a steady supply of food and other life-sustaining products, they deify everything necessary for life, including animals, plants, and natural and man-made objects, and they believe that gods and people exist in a mutually reinforcing, symbiotic relationship. The Ainu also believe that catching animals by hunting them is

35.15, 35.16

Inaw for the Great Owl The owl, guardian of the village, is also given special attention by some Ainu groups. In 1903-05 Pilsudski photographed a nusa dedicated to the owl in Sakhalin. The importance of this animal can also be seen in an owlsending ritual illustrated by Hokuyo Nishikawa in his late-nineteenth-century picture scroll Ainu Manners and Customs. (NAA 47401; HML)

largely a passive act, because gods, of their own accord, bring food to the human world by pretending to be animals. Therefore, when the Ainu send spirits back to the god world, the gods will return the favor by constantly replenishing the human world with their spiritual and material resources. The iyomante and associated sending ceremonies provide public validation of the reciprocal values by which people rationalize their world and existence through practical action, shared belief, and ritual acts.

The

Archaeology of Iyomante

Hiroshi Utagawa

J YOMANTE REFERS TO AlNU CEREMONIES

of sending back spirits—that is, the spiritual essence of things—to the heavens. In the Ainu language, the ritual was called "i-yomante," meaning "thing/ send" or "thing/let go," or simply "sending back spirits" (H. Kono 1935). It is usually understood in a narrower sense as the sending back of bear spirits. This essay explores the history of the spirit-sending ritual as a specific expression of Ainu culture in the archaeological record. The perspective taken is that of paleoethnology, in which religious behavior and ritual performed by Ainu predecessors are gleaned from the silent remains of archaeological evidence.

According to Ainu belief, everything has a spirit, or kamuy. The spirits live in the heavens, and when they appear in the human world they are disguised ( hayokpe ) as various things or animals. For example, the god of the

the house and consisted of a short wall of grass stalks or mats,- ritual offerings, including animal bones decorated with wood shavings (kike) and tufted prayer sticks (maw), were attached to this altar (fig. 36.3)

Among hunting peoples throughout the world, the worship of an animal's spiritual essence was common. The guardian spirits of animals, forests, brush lands, and oceans were also worshipped, and these practices constituted a fundamental aspect of animistic belief or religion. Ainu who lived in coastal regions, where the sites of their ancestors could still be seen as pithouses and "kitchen" midden refuse, thought the remains of mollusks, fish, and animal bones were left over from ancient sending ceremonies. Hiromichi Kono explained their nature as follows:

Ainu believe shell mounds contained the cadaveral remains of ancient nusa where spirits that had been ushered into the

36.1 36.2

36.1 Iyomante: The BearSending Ceremony

The iyomante is thought by some scholars to be the central core that gives meaning and identity to Ainu culture and society. Here an iyomante is illustrated in detail in a scroll painting by Byozan Hirasawa dating to the nineteenth century. Dancing, storytelling, feasting, and many other activities conducted during the celebration are shown, in addition to fine detailing of Ainu material culture and clothing design. (NMNH 392,025)

36.2 Nusa at Yurap Village

This photograph in the Kurile Ainu village of Yurap, taken by Romyn Hitchcock in 1888, shows Ainu gathered around a nusa. (NAA 87-5538)

mountains, kimun-kamuy, cloaks himself as an Asian brown bear (fig. 36.1),- the god of the deep ocean, repun-kamuy, dresses himself as a killer whale or as a dolphin,- and the god of the village, kotan-kor-kamuy , clothes himself as a fish owl. The belief that disguised kamuy supplied food and furs to people is reflected in the careful management of resources that the Ainu still practice today. In order not to displease the gods, the Ainu did not waste food remains or leave bones about after a meal but rather sent leftovers back to the spirit world with respect and with a variety of gifts and ritual observances. The site where the Ainu performed these rituals is called the nusa, the "sending-back" place, and is an Ainu form of altar (fig. 36.2). In the traditional Ainu village the nusa was typically located outside the "god's window" (kamuy-puyar) of

heavens were deposited. Therefore, shell mounds are viewed and treated fundamentally differently from the trash heaps of modern civilization. [As a sign of respect to the gods] it was strictly prohibited to desecrate ancient shell mounds with common modern garbage (1935).

The Eastern Kushiro shell mound in Kushiro, which dates to the early Jomon period, is a typical example of such a site. The excavation of five porpoise skulls (Phocoena phocoena Linne) arranged in a face-to-face circular pattern could hardly be other than archaeological evidence of an ancient sending ceremony.

Sending Ceremonies

There are three types of sending ceremonies known in Ainu society: those for animals, plants, and tools. The animal-sending cer

TRADITIONAL CULTURE / H. UTAGAWA

36.3 Dancing before the Nusa Byozan Hirasawa used dancing before the nusa at the end of the iyomante ceremony as the feature for the November panel from his Ainu Manners and Customs. The archaeological remains from such activities would be seen as a concentration of animal skulls. (HMH)

emony itself has two types: one is the iyomante, most commonly known today as the bear-sending ceremony,- the other involved sending ceremonies for foxes, raccoon dogs, wolves, deer, whales, and fish owls. Two different ceremonies honored bears, one for bears captured by hunting and another for bears killed after being reared as cubs in the village. Rituals for the cub-rearing ceremonies are only known in the lower Amur River basin, including Sakhalin and Hokkaido, and in regions inhabited by such groups as the Nanai, Ul'chi, Negidal, Orok, Nivhki, and Ul'ta. Ainu groups in Sakhalin and Hokkaido (but not in the Kuriles) often referred to iyomante only in the sense of the cub-rearing rituals, but iyomante also referred to sending ceremonies for fish owls, which were the guardian spirits of communities ( kotan ).

The sending ceremony for animals in

general is called opunire, and the ceremony for hunted (as opposed to reared) bears belongs to this type. When bears killed in the forest were brought back to the village, the ceremony that took place was called kamuy-opunire in the Kushiro region. It seems likely that in its earliest form the opunire ceremony honored animal spirits in general, but over time separate rituals evolved for different species.

Sending ceremonies were also practiced for some plants, for instance, rice bran, millet, and barnyard grass. In an illustration in Shimamojo Murakami's Ezo seikei zusetsu (Illustrations of Ezo Livelihood, 1799) such a ceremony is captioned as mur-kuta-usbi-kamuy, the ceremony is accompanied by maw representing gods "inhabiting the place where rice bran is stored." Sometimes plants were honored in the same sending ceremonies as tools and utensils.

Tool-sending ceremonies (fig. 36.4) focused on everyday implements as well as festival objects: both unused and old damaged tools could be sent in a ceremony known as iwakte, meaning "sending back with blessings" or "having them return." Evidence of iwakte rituals have been observed frequently in archaeological deposits. Because such sites contain the remains of used and broken tools, which in Ainu belief would be given sending ceremonies when discarded, they offer important insights into "Ainu" beliefs in prehistory. Unfortunately, from a practical, scientific point of view, in most cases the physical archaeological remains of iwakte ritual are limited to ashes, stains, and patches of burned soil, which are common in ancient sites generally, making specific interpretation as iwakte difficult.

Dates for Archaeological Nusa

Because most archaeological objects can be dated precisely by their type or style, the age of nusa deposits can be determined by materials that are found, for instance, clay and iron pots with inside lugs. At the Raitokoro Kawaguchi site in Tokoro, ritually deposited fish bones were discovered near the top layer of Pithouse 1 1 and interior-lug pottery vessels and bone harpoon heads were found together in what appears to have been the location of an iwakte ritual dated to the fifteenth century. Iron pots with interior lugs were introduced later from Honshu, replacing the indigenous clay pots, between the

36.4 Sending Ceremony for Broken Tools

Ainu held a simple spirit-sending ceremony ( iwakte ) when discarding their used and broken tools. The spirits of these implements could then return to the other world with gifts of sake and praise from humans about the kindness and respect they had received on earth. This in turn convinced the tool gods to return to earth again someday, bringing life to new tools and useful objects. This Ainu-e from Shimanojo Murakami's early-nineteenth-century Illustrations of Ezo Livelihood shows a broken iron pot and cracked ceramic vessels from an iwakte ceremony. (HML)

36.4

sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the seventeenth centuiy, hanging-grip iron pots became popular. Use of these changing styles for dating is sometimes complicated by the persistence of technological traits for long periods. For instance, some features of eighteenth-century harpoons (kite) are already observed at Satsumon sites from the eighth to the thirteenth centuries. The detailed history of these tool forms, as well as pipes and coins of the Kan'ei period, provides a means of dating later nusa deposits to the latter half of the seventeenth century.

Archaeological sites can also be dated by volcanic ash levels that can be assigned to eruptions of known dates. Examples include Komagadake C2 ash dating to A.D. 1694,komagadake D ash dating to 1640,- Usu B2 ash from 1663,- Usu C2 ash from 161 1,Tarumae A ash of 1739,- and Tarumae B ash of 1667. In these cases, dates of mtsa deposits can be determined by comparing the physical

relationships between archaeological remains and ash levels.

Forms of Nusa

Characteristic types of nusa locations are classified into five groups, the first being the "soil-conscious" form, found in the ground. The remains of pithouse villages in Hokkaido (fig. 36.5) can still he observed if they have not been disturbed by buildings or agriculture,later generations believed these depressions were ancient sacred sites and used them for their own nusa rituals. The upper level of Pithouse 1 1 at the Raitokoro Kawaguchi site, mentioned previously, is typical of this type.

In some cases, people built a low rectangular mound and placed bear skulls inside.

The second type is the "stone-conscious” form, characterized by an intentional arrangement or placement of rocks or by use of areas near rocks and outcrops. At the Tobinitai site in Rausu, stones were piled at the upper part

36.7 Bear Ceremonialism

Excavations at Shibecha in the 1970s uncovered a probable nusa site at the base of a tree containing the remains of two hundred to three hundred bears, deposited there after iyomante ceremonies held between 1870 and 1939. Bear ceremonialism like that practiced by the historic Ainu can be traced back to Okhotsk, Satsumon, and Jomon cultures in Japan and the Russian Far East. Bear ceremonialism, identified by ritual placement of bear bones and production of bear carvings, is a common theme in circumpolar cultures. This ikupasuy has a carving of a bear poised above a stream with three salmon; it may have been used in a first-salmon ceremony.

(MPM N17302)

36.5 Destroyed House

After someone died, it was customary for their house to be destroyed. This pithouse, photographed by Romyn Flitchcock in the Kurile Islands, was

1870 and 1939 (Utagawa 1989). Many hares (Lepus timidus) and foxes (Vulpes iwipes) were sent from this site as well. Archaeologically, the fact that few fish owls have been found sent back in ancient sites is noteworthy, because Ainu often performed rituals for this animal, the god of the village. Everyday tools and ceremonial instruments were also sent back.

The fifth type is a form that did not have a specific geographic context. For example, at the Fushikokotan-chashi site in the city of Kushiro, a loggerhead turtle (Lepidocbelys 367 olivacea ) was buried with its head pointing

toward the ocean, suggesting that the turtle, like the orca, was considered an atuy-hor-kamuy, god of the ocean, by early Ainu.

The first and third forms of nusa rituals have been found amongst the Sakhalin and

36.5

destroyed after its owner had drowned at sea. Such destruction often left the material possessions of the former owner in well-preserved archaeological context. (NAA 10362)

36.6 Fox-Sending Site

Many sending ceremonies took place in the woods, away from Ainu dwellings and villages. The use of a tree or a stump for a fox-sending ritual, seen in this photograph by B. Pilsudski in Sakhalin, ca. 1903-05, gives meaning to the "tree-conscious" form of iyomante. Such sites would be difficult to find archaeologically, but chance discoveries of animal skulls and broken-tool deposits, made during modern building and construction, may be the remains of sending ceremonies. (NAA 10367)

36.6

of houses where iron pots and a pipe bowl of pumice stone were found together with sea mammal and fish bones.

The third type is the "shell-mound" form, which also includes so-called bone mounds. Excavators of the Tanneushi shell mound in Shari reported three separate areas: one for shells and mammal bones, one primarily for fish bones, and one for shells. These mounds may have been the locus of the earliest misu-deposit observances.

The fourth type is the "tree-conscious" form in which a tree represented the tree spirit (fig. 36.6). This author conducted a study on the Shuwan site of Shibecha in 1976 and 1978, which is thought to have been a nusa deposit situated at the base of a spirit tree where two to three hundred bears were sent back between

Kurile Ainu, and similarities with Hokkaido have been noted. At the site Ropatoka-1 on the Kamchatka Peninsula, the upper layer of the shell mound contains shells, bones of sea mammals, birds, and fish, remains characteristic of the third form of such sites,- it also has interior-lug ceramics and toggle harpoons, suggesting Ainu were present or that its inhabitants had been influenced by Ainu in the latter half of the seventeenth century (Dikova 1983).

Toyohiro Nishimoto (1996) has defined some key conditions for recognizing animalsending ceremonies in archaeological data, which include the presence of a skull, bones representing part of a single species, a methodical arrangement of bones, the accompanying remains of a building or structure, and evidence

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259

of processing, such as burned bones or holes in the skull. Several of these criteria must be present in order to conclude that a sending ceremony took place,- these conditions are met in the case of both Satsumon and Okhotsk culture evidence that indicates the presence of opunire-type bear-sending ceremonies.

Archaeological evidence also permits us to recognize changes in the history of sending ceremonies. In the fifteenth century there were more soil-conscious forms that made use of the upper levels of pithouse sites,- in the sixteenth century the shell-mound form was added to the soil-conscious forms in the inventory of nusa deposit sites, and it occurs in approximately equal numbers. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the ratio of these two types remained the same, and in the nineteenth century all forms also appeared in more or less equal numbers. In the twentieth century the tree-conscious form, in which sending took place at the base of a god tree, increases. The number of stone-conscious sites, such as Rock Shade cave, is also relatively large.

Bear-Sending Ceremonies and Ainu Culture

This author divides Ainu cultures into two historical expressions: the "proto-Ainu culture" of the fourteenth to eighteenth centuries, and the transformed "new Ainu culture" of the post-nineteenth century (Utagawa 1989). The transition between the two, which occurred in the nineteenth century, can be seen in their sending ceremonies. The specific cub-type iyomante is believed to have begun in the eighteenth century even though nusa deposits for mature bears existed in the thirteenth-century Satsumon period. At the Otafukuiwa Iwakage site in Rausu on the Shiretoko Peninsula, thirteen bears were buried side-by-side, and

ten were found to be older than three years. The fact that only remains of mature bears were recovered suggests that people at this site treated cubs in a different way (Nishimoto and Sato 1991). Evidence of different rites for mature bears and cubs has not yet been found at Satsumon sites. There is a report (O. Takahashi 1993) of a bear whose cranial bones indicate an age of between eleven and fourteen years old buried in a pit at Bibi Site 8 in Chitose. The find was from the lower part of the Tarumae B volcanic ash-level, which establishes the date in the first half of the seventeenth century. This is a significant discovery of a bear-sending ceremony, even though only one bear was found.

Of all these rituals, the epitome of Ainu culture is the cub type of iyomante. Hitoshi Watanabe has argued that this is the defining ritual of Ainu culture, for it is his belief that "the bear ceremonialism complex," including the various cultural elements closely tied to the iyomante (fig. 36.7), is at the heart of Ainu culture (H. Watanabe 1972).

This idea can be extended by considering the Ainu cultural complex from an archaeological point of view (Utagawa 1989, 1992). Placing sending ceremonies such as the iyomante, opunire, and iwakte at the center of this complex allows one to see how Ainu society is structured by relationships between these ceremonies and families, groups, and communities. The sending ceremonies and rituals represented by the iyomante are an important mechanism for those with blood relations who hold the identical mark—in Ainu, the shine itokpa — inherited from their ancestors. These ceremonies allow the Ainu to maintain their ethnic identity and their sense of belonging and solidarity in modern society.

TRADITIONAL CULTURE / H. UTAGAWA

Ainu

Shamanism

Kan Wada edited by Igor Krupnik

S HAMANISTIC IDEOLOGY IS DEEPLY rooted in the foundation of traditional Ainu culture (OhnukiTierney 1973b,- Wada 1996,- Irimoto 1997). The Ainu share in common with their Siberian neighbors—the Tungus, the Ul'ta (Orok), and the Nivkhi people—several distinctive features of their shamanistic practices and beliefs, bor example, the Ainu have a basic mythological theme of "wandering in the other world" in which a shamanlike hero Samaikur traveled to the multilayered other world to get back the spirit of the goddess who was abducted by an evil spirit. The shaman's journey was made by riding a baby cradle ( sinta ), just as Siberian shamans use their drums for flight. Like the Siberian shaman narratives, the Ainu myth followed a story of struggle in which the hero fought with many different enemies with the help of his protective spirit(s). The Ainu morpheme

sama clearly has the same origin as the Tungus and Orok word sama/saman which denotes a shaman and, hence, is the root of the term that is recognized worldwide.

Ainu shamanistic beliefs also reveal some of the basic Siberian features. In the course of a shamanistic rite, called tusu, a shaman becomes possessed by a spirit or spirits who usually receive instructions from higher deities or ancestors and convey their messages through the shaman. Therefore, during a typical shamanistic rite at least four classes of participants are involved in spiritual interaction: the shaman, his/her personal helping or protective spirits, other spirits who conveyed the message, and the higher deities. Among the Sakhalin Ainu, one particular spirit, the goddess of the hearth, reportedly played a special role as the key intermediary between the shaman and various deities (OhnukiTierney 1973b: 18).

37.1 Shamanic Seance Relatively little is known about Ainu shamanism, especially in Hokkaido, where it seems to have disappeared as a formal institution and survives today primarily in the form of female healers. Shamans continued to practice their trade in Sakhalin into the early twentieth century, however. This photograph of a shaman performing a seance at the hearth of a Sakhalin Ainu house, taken by Bronislaw Pilsudski in 1903-05, is the only photograph of an Ainu seance known to exist. (NAA 98-10382)

Types of Ainu Shamanism

Ainu shamanistic practices are generally divided into two types, according to the two major Ainu historical areas: the Sakhalin type and the Hokkaido type (Wada 1996: 305). There may have been an independent third version of Ainu shamanism in the Kurile Islands, but unfortunately there is no precise information about this.

Regional variations in culture are highly developed among the Ainu people, and Ainu shamanism, in particular, illustrates these profound regional differences. With regard to Sakhalin Ainu shamanism, we owe much to the famous Polish ethnographer Bronislaw Pilsudski, whose fieldwork supplied the core of our present-day information on Sakhalin Ainu folklife and traditions (Pilsudski 1906, 1907a, 1909a, 1909b, 1912). According to Pilsudski's observations, many Sakhalin Ainu shamanistic practices were typical of general indigenous shamanism patterns elsewhere in Siberia. For example, an Ainu shamanistic seance usually took place in a dim hut and was conducted by a male shaman in a state of ecstasy, the so-called shamanistic trance (fig. 37.1). The shaman used an oval drum called a kaco (most probably, a word borrowed from the neighboring Tungus-speaking Orok people), sticks, carved wooden hats, tufts of shaved wood ( inaw-kike ), ceremonial sacred sticks ( inaw), as well as other paraphernalia that typically provided a rattling sound, such as metal chains (fig. 37.2). The use of a drink

37.2 Amulet String

This amulet string (senisteh) has several charms attached to it, including a two-headed carved-wood bear, wooden animal figures (one possibly an otter), a bundle of netting, and a small engraved metal plate. It was found in an abandoned Ainu house in Niitoi (now Novoe), Sakhalin, around 1945. Although its specific function is unknown, neighboring indigenous peoples of the lower Amur region and eastern Siberia used similar amulets. (Kan Wada Collection)

( nuhcha ), which the shaman drank during a seance, is also documented. Dogs were commonly used for sacrifice before or after the performance (fig. 37.3). The Sakhalin Ainu shamanistic seance was a well-organized community ritual that included several components common to Siberian indigenous shamanism, such as a gradual falling into a state of self-oblivion by continuously striking drums and use of intoxicants, the invitation of protective spirits, strong dance movements, spirit gestures and imitation sounds, and divine revelations.

Like their Siberian counterparts, Sakhalin Ainu shamans were initiated after having endured a disease ( bubyou) early in life, which was taken as a sign that the spirits had chosen that individual as a vessel. The shaman's role in the Sakhalin Ainu community ranged from healing to divination to protection of the community (fig. 37.6). The major function of the Ainu shaman was, of course, healing, through the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses. In the past, shamans reportedly also conducted rituals to benefit the community as a whole such as ceremonies for successful hunting, good weather, and protection from dangerous epidemics, such as smallpox (fig 37.7). Among the Sakhalin Ainu most of the reported shamans were men—according to Pilsudski (1909a), six shamans out of eight he personally encountered in Sakhalin were male—which differs from the situation among the Hokkaido shamans but is a similar ratio to that found among Siberian shamans.

The Sakhalin Ainu also had a custom of making wooden effigies called nipopo (wooden baby), which represented both protective and evil spirits (Wada 1959). These wooden effigies (figs. 37.4, 37.5) may resemble the general Siberian tradition of the ancestralshaman/shaman-aide images, the oncjons, which the Russian ethnographer Dmitri Zelenin (1936) once associated with the origin of shamanistic practices in Siberia and elsewhere.

The shamanistic traditions of Hokkaido Ainu are very different from those once practiced in Sakhalin. Unfortunately, perhaps because shamanism was not as well developed among the Hokkaido Ainu and their spiritual culture was more significantly transformed under Japanese influence, we have very little firsthand evidence of traditional Hokkaido Ainu shamanism. Even the best early studies of the Hokkaido Ainu culture discussed shamanism only in passing (e.g., Batchelor 1901,

37.3 Ritual Sacrifice of Dogs Many native groups of Eastern Siberia believed that sacrificing and displaying dead dogs could help avert epidemic disease and other misfortune. Similar rituals were practiced by the Sakhalin Ainu, who are seen here hanging pups. (NAA 98-10368)

37 . 4 , 37.5 Nipopo Dolls Sakhalin Ainu shamans produced abstract wooden figurines called nipopo (“wooden baby"), used primarily as amulets for curing or warding off childhood disease. The addition of strips of red and blue cloth or a blue bead (on the upper figure) was thought to increase their power; such dolls were dressed in inaw-kike (wood shavings) to increase their efficacy. The two-headed figure may have been a charm to enhance the probability of giving birth to twins. (Twins were believed to bring success in fishing and hunting among the Sakhalin Ainu and neighboring Eastern Siberian groups. A similar belief was also held by the Kwakwaka'wakw, the native people of Canada’s Northwest Coast.) These nipopo were collected in Novoe, Sakhalin, in 1945. Both have the deep patina of long-held personal treasures. (Kan Wada Collection)

37.4

1927,- Kindaichi 1925: 288-300,- Munro 1962: 104) or supplied rather vague details. Thus, much of the early ethnographic information on Hokkaido shamanism is probably lost. For example, there is little direct evidence to confirm the existence of male shamans in Hokkaido in the past, and more recent descriptions usually refer to Amu shamans as women. A woman shaman was usually induced into an ecstatic state by a special prayer which was offered by a male elder,- the reports describe a kind of hypnotic procedure used by the male elder to aid the female shaman, but during several encounters I had in Hokkaido after World War II, all the Ainu female shamans were able to put themselves into a slightly ecstatic state on their own. None, however, had any special noisemaking paraphernalia such as a shaman drum or metallic clothing, as was the case in Sakhalin. While praying in order to fall into an

37.3

ecstatic state, one female shaman clattered her Buddhist prayer beads {juzu) and murmured Buddhist sutra to the dragon god Ryujin, a god of Japanese folk belief. Another female shaman beat a Japanese drum (uchiwadaiko) with a handle because she was also a follower of the Nichiren Buddhist sect, to which that drum belongs.

In traditional Ainu society, women were not allowed to play leading roles in any religious ceremonies. This may explain why even a female shaman remains a rather passive medium during her seance. Gerhard Huber, however, in his description of Hokkaido Ainu culture describes prophecy as a power of the female realm:

Hosting religious practices is largely a male responsibility [among Ainu]. Females should never pray, much less assume any religious functions. Instead, women were granted the right and power of prophecy ... as all males are essentially priests, all females were shamans in the past. . . . For

37 / AINU SHAMANISM

example, before the chief took on an important undertaking, he let his wife drink sake and pray for divine revelations to get some idea about the outcome. As he prayed, the wife fell into the state of fantasy through a kind of self-hypnosis. She stares into space and . her face reddens and her body starts shaking. Then she reveals her illusion as if she were singing a song (1964: 93).

Kindaichi (1942: 173), in his classic volume Ainu jojisbi: Yukar cjaisetsu (Ainu epics: Outlines of yukar), stated that "almost all females were mediums in the Ainu society until recently, without even asking the elders.. .. The females were considered chosen to cook sacred food for the gods, as well as be possessed and give revelations." Although the role of a female medium here is not comparable to a Sakhalin shaman, whose job was a specialized profession, it nevertheless suggests that for a period of time in Hokkaido there existed certain shamanistic practices involving women. The actions listed by Kindaichi were, however, much closer to the old ritual practices of Honshu than to the typical shaman performances of the Sakhalin Ainu.

There are, nevertheless, other vague references to the old forms of Hokkaido Ainu shamanism. For example, occasional reports mentioned that there were also male shamans (tusukur ) in Hokkaido. One of the first Ainu shamans whom the Reverend Batchelor met during his sojourn in Hokkaido (which lasted for half a century) was male. He sat by the fireside heating time with a shaman's stick and displaying fox cranial bones (Batchelor 1927: 274-79). The wooden sticks, which Batchelor called "shaman's sticks,” were probably the same as clappers ( repni ) commonly used to beat the rhythm of a yukar recitation in recent years. Mashiho Chiri (1954: 35) even suggested that in Hokkaido Ainu dialect the word repni formerly referred to the shaman drumstick, as both this word and the term for a shaman drum, kaco, appear in Hokkaido Ainu mythology.

It is now widely assumed that the Hokkaido Ainu shamans once used special drums, although no identifiable Hokkaido shaman drum has been recovered to date. In addition, it is believed that foretelling the future with the use of animal cranial bones is closely related to shamanistic practices. Among Hokkaido Ainu this type of divination was widely practiced tinder a special name, kamuy-tusu. When the smallpox epidemics spread through Hokkaido (see Walker, this

volume), people displayed straw dolls as a form of protective magic (Kubodera and Chiri 1940). The Sakhalin Ainu ascribed a similar function to this practice although there it was executed following a special order by the local shamans. It is likely that this as well as several other Hokkaido Ainu ritual practices were the last vestiges of the old shaman customs after the disappearance of true shamans.

Despite the scarcity of good ethnographic evidence on the former Hokkaido Ainu shamanistic patterns, valuable information can also be retrieved from Ainu myths and language data as well as from travelers' records from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Ainu Terms for Shamanism and Related Practices

The most general Ainu word for shamanism is tusu (Jujutsu in Japanese), and a shaman is commonly called tusu/susu-kur by adding an affix -kur, which refers to humans. This term exists in both Hokkaido and Sakhalin Ainu dialects, although Sakhalin Ainu also call their shamans tusu aynu (aynu means "man"), nupuru aynu (nupuru means "holy"), or nupuru kuru ("holy persons"—see Ohnuki-Tierney 1973b: 18).

In addition to tusu, some other terms were documented in ethnographic literature and collections of old Ainu folklore. Kyosuke Kindaichi in his volume of old Ainu songs listed the word kinra and stated, " kinra in Hokkaido means insanity and madness, while in Sakhalin it refers to a curse or fortunetelling" (1914: 36). It is fairly certain that this

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TRADITIONAL CULTURE/ K. WADA

word indicated shamanistic practices linked with supernatural experience and behavior. Chiri (1954: 36, 58, 646) listed several more words used to designate a shaman or shamanlike behavior, such as mipur, ojna, saman, imu, and sinot. Batchelor (1926), in his famous AimiEncjlish-Japanese Dictionary, explains that the word saman or shaman means "magician." There is a related morpheme, esamanki, which means "magic using animal cranial bones." Kindaichi (1925: 33-34) also linked such Ainu words as esamanki and saimon, which means "the hot water trial,” to old shamanistic practices that by the early twentieth century were already extinct in Hokkaido. Chiri (1953-62: 88) argues that a cultural hero of several Ainu creation myths, Samaikur, can be interpreted as saman-ye-kur ("shaman say god"), asserting that this hero was indeed a shaman in ancient society. Examining all these theories, it is obvious that a series of close word forms— saman, saimon, and samai-kur in the Ainu language—is closely related to the Tungus language, especially to the term sama/sauna (shaman) in the Ul'ta (Orok) language of the closest Siberian neighbors to the Ainu in central and southern Sakhalin.

Ainu Myths Related to the Origins of Shamanism

A Sakhalin Ainu story recorded by Pilsudski (1912: 59) is believed to be the vestige of the old myth related to the origins of shamanism. It concerns a girl named Saunnonnu, who was born to the ocean god and a woman.

She practiced tusu and created the island of Chulaini (Kaiyaku-tou) through a set of special shamanistic practices. The theme of a

shaman's origin through the mythical intercourse between a divine spirit and a human has been advanced by Shternberg (1925) as a worldwide cultural phenomenon to which the story of Saunnonnu among the Sakhalin Ainu conforms.

Although Ainu mythology has more recently been influenced by Japanese folklore, it is still possible to recognize other typical shamanistic figures therein. For example, the Ainu cultural hero is usually called kotan-kur-kamuy, ("creator of the world") although he is also referred to as sama-i-kur. Etymologically, this name probably means "the god who shamanizes."

In fact, he has a character similar to that of the so-called First Great Shaman in Siberian mythology. The core theme of the Samaikur myth is the celestial journey that Mircea Eliade explored (1964). The etymology of the various names of the main character of the Samaikur myth as well as his gaudy dress and ornaments, which were different from those of the common people, clearly identified him as a shaman. It seems more appropriate, however, to describe Samaikur as the Ainu "first shaman" and a cultural hero. It is common for a cultural hero in shaman mythologies to be depicted as the first person who bestowed the most important cultural elements to a people, including the technique of self-oblivion. Therefore, Samaikur certainly possessed some shamanistic skills and served as a mediator between the spiritual universe and human world as demonstrated in his alternative name Ainurakkur ("god with human elements").

There are several different versions of

37.6 Shaman Belt Sakhalin Ainu women used a sealskin belt (kanikuh) to secure their clothes and hold their work knife and other paraphernalia. Such belts often had decorative brass ornaments, obtained by trade with the mainland, which doubled as charms. These belts were so important that they were buried with a woman when she died. They were also major sources of power for Sakhalin Ainu shamans. This belt was collected in Sakhalin by Arthur Curtiss James ca. 1898. (AMNH 70-14)

37 / AINU SHAMANISM

the myth with regard to Samaikur's childhood, but he is generally depicted as "a boy who grew up by himself," either in solitude or reared by his brothers and sisters,- he had an eagle as a caretaker in some Sakhalin Ainu versions. The place where he grew up is often located at the base of a tree or in the mountains. The appearance of a nest in ayachidamo tree (Fraxinus mandshurica) in one of the Sakhalin versions is particularly noteworthy: a winged creature abducts the soul of a shaman candidate, brings it to the world tree, and his soul is taken care of until the hero's initiation is complete. In a Hokkaido version of the same myth the tree is replaced by a harunire tree (Ulmus davidiana ), which in the creation myth is said to be the first tree to take root in the highest Hokkaido mountains. The main components of these stories are, however, more or less identical, and represent a typical pattern of the initiation mythology—again with an almost worldwide cultural distribution.

What should be pointed out here in relation to the origins of Ainu shamanism is that Samaikur was brought up in trees and mountains, which may be representations of the "center of the universe." The harunire tree thus functions as the tree of life affecting the birth and cultural training of an Ainu hero. Moreover, as the nest of the winged spirit creature, the tree provides the context for the first Ainu shaman—Samaikur—to be raised by a heavenly god. The central symbolism here is the representation of animal mother(s) who take part in a shaman's upbringing and initiation, which leads to the mythical bonding of a human soul with a powerful spirit.

The Bubyou:

An Ainu Shaman's Initiation

It is next to impossible to obtain reliable information today about the traditional initiation rite of Ainu shaman as few living elders have memories of it. The only convincing firsthand documentation on Ainu shaman initiation is found in a footnote in one of Pilsudski's works (1909a). Together with Sakhalin Ainu initiation mythology, which describes the origins of shamanism as a mythical encounter between the divine spirit and human beings, there is no question about the existence of bubyou as an initiation rite. This telltale illness—the time when the human soul is away from its body and bonding with a spirit—inaugurates the shaman's role as a conduit between the human and supernatural world

According to Pilsudski, the bubyou appeared at puberty and its main symptoms were depression, fatigue, and catatonic stupor. These symptoms, publicly recognized as signs of bubyou , were quickly alleviated as soon as the person became a shaman. As Pilsudski (1909a: I 84) put it, "others perceived those who showed the symptoms [of bubyou ] as people who were 'chosen to host the spirit and to be used as an instrument of the spirit.'"

Among the women in Hokkaido who are called shaman ( tusukur) today, there are some who have had some sort of supernatural experience in the past, but the existence of the Sakhalin-type bubyou recognized by the community as a "shaman initiation" cannot be confirmed. However, Munro (1962: 163) cites the translation of certain prayers called "the prayer for transforming the neurosis patients who were unable to obtain imu through a treatment ritual into tusu " Imu is a welldocumented psychoneurotic pattern among Hokkaido Ainu (Batchelor 1927,- Munro 1962,Wada 1996: 307-1 1), but in folk terms it is a possession by a spirit: some 1 10 cases of imu were studied from 193 1 to 1937 among Ainu of Hokkaido and Sakhalin,- all were women called imu-juchi or imu-pakko, meaning "an old woman falling into a fit of imu." These temporary fits or possessions (imu) were seen as dangerous unless ritually controlled,- there are several reports that women with minor symptoms were treated through the use of black magic by having them become an established "/mu-possessor," while those with heavy symptoms became a tusukur. As Munro (1962: 12-44) described, when the "purification" by the elders was successful, the evil spirit was driven out and the virtuous spirit remaining became a person's protective spirit that would function as an assistant when a shamanistic seance was performed.

In view of the firm belief that imu can often be initiated by a special magical procedure, both its symptoms and the prescribed treatment are reminiscent of the illness institutionalized in shaman-initiation ceremonies of the past. Likewise, in the archaic Ainu myth collected in the northeastern part of Hokkaido (Chiri 1973a), the tusukur 1 s ecstatic dancing to the beating of a shaman's drum is described using the word imu, which in that myth can be translated as "the shaman's jumping in ecstasy." In Hokkaido, Ainu tusukur never acted in such a violent manner. Therefore, this myth may he regarded as evidence that shamanism of

37.7 Marching to Ward off Evil Spirits

Ainu men with swords drawn and women (behind) march to exorcise evil spirits, (courtesy of AMS)

the Sakhalin type had once been prevalent in northern Hokkaido and that the word imu originally signified "behavior typical of shaman in ecstasy" (Chiri 1973a: 203).

Of course, the possibility remains that several features of Ainu traditional shamanism were strongly influenced by their northern Siberian neighbors, the Tungus (particularly Ul'ta/Orok) and the Nivkhi, both in Sakhalin and in Hokkaido, as evidenced by several similar elements in Sakhalin Ainu shamanistic practices as well as from such key borrowed terms as sama, kaco, and others. On the other hand, we may assume that this influence came relatively late (in a general perspective of Ainu histoiy) and was rather superficial, in that it

only changed some vocabularies, details, and objects used for or during shamanistic rituals. With that in mind, what may be called the "prototype" of Ainu shamanism had certainly been established well before the Japanese influence made its impact in Hokkaido, and also later in Sakhalin. The decline of Ainu shamanism in Hokkaido was triggered by the impact of Japanese culture introduced initially through fishing contracts, and it accelerated between the Edo and the Meiji periods. Although this topic is still being studied, Ainu shamanism seems to have been a composition of complex and elaborated rituals and beliefs that have much in common with the ancient eastern Siberian shamanism.

38/Life and Death

HlSAKAZU FUJIMURA

38.1 Offering Condolences to the Chieftain

This scene, from Ainu Manners and Customs (late nineteenth-century) by Hokuyo Nishikawa, illustrates an elaborate funeral gathering at which a large number of people pay their respects to the chief's deceased child. (HML)

A inu people had their own

interpretation of birth before the era of scientific explanations.

Their view evolved from their observations of different patterns of family structure. To explain such differences in families, especially issues concerning children—why a married couple could not have a child, why a woman would experience repeated miscarriages,- why a family had many sons but no daughters, or vice versa,- why a couple had only one child, twins, or triplets,why one family had a handicapped child,- and why a couple lost their infants—the Ainu drew on their own medical practices as well as the concepts of animism that ordered their world (Fujimura 1982, 1985b,-Obayashi 1997).

When a woman could not conceive,

Ainu people believed it was the result of broken negotiations among the couple's ancestors who were responsible for determining the gender of the unborn. In deciding

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gender, the ancestors on both the paternal and maternal side referred to their family histories, and if all agreed, their conclusion determined the sex of the baby. Some believed that a single consultation among the ancestors determined the gender of all the babies that would be born to the couple,others thought a meeting was held each time the woman became pregnant.

The side that had priority in determining the gender of offspring chose one person among their ancestors, someone who had lived a previous life in the other (living) world, to be born again to the couple. The order of rebirth depended on the way a particular person had lived his or her previous life, not on who had lived first: the more righteous a life he had as a human, the earlier his turn to be born again. Thus, those living in this world (on the earth) were considered privileged, for they had been selected by their ancestors to be born again.

38.2 Grave of an Ainu Chief in Sakhalin

Sakhalin Ainu used elaborate constructions in the burial of chiefs and high-ranking leaders. This drawing from Rinzo Mamiya's Illustrations from Northern Ezo (1855) shows the details of a burial structure decorated with ornamental carving. A similar construction in the area of Shiretoko Ainu, northern Hokkaido, was described by Dutch sailors in 1643. (HML)

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38 /LIFE AND DEATH RITUALS

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38.6 Spirit Guardian

The black-and-white twisted-cotton cord (eka eka) attached to this amulet was believed to have special powers to cure disease and ward off illness; it was often worn by women as a necklace or tied around the wrist. Eka eka were made and worn only by Ainu women; when used as a necklace it was called rekutunpe. The cord received its power only after the two strands had been twisted and a respected elder had prayed to the god of fire, asking that it be given a soul. The end of the thread was then burned slightly in the fire. Once empowered, the charm cord could be attached to such materials as herbs, a poison plant, glass beads, or a grass coil, depending on one’s need. This amulet was collected by Sakuzaemon Kodama. (AMS; Kodama Collection 61025)

This theory applied to all entities existing on the earth, including animals, plants, tools, and other things.

The soul of the person who was to be horn on earth and who had departed the body of the deceased and lived in the other world was thought to return to this world accompanied by two guides. One was a goddess of midwifery and the other was the so-called possessing god (itimn kamuy-. everyone was believed to possess his own god from birth), who was interested in the soul of the baby and wished to live together with it,- the possessing god was sometimes a single god, at other times a multiple god. The task of the midwife goddess was to place the soul in the mother's womb, oversee her delivery, and ensure the safe birth of the baby. After performing her duties the goddess would return to the other world, sent off with words of gratitude from the people of this world.

38.6

38.3

38.3, 38.4, 38.5 Mourning and Burial

After a death the body was wrapped in ceremonial clothes, and the family, similarly attired, gathered to mourn the deceased at home. After a suitable period the body was carried to the grave site in a funeral procession. Rituals were then conducted, and the body was buried. (AMS; NAA 98-10405, 98-10406)

38.4

When she began her journey back, she would take with her the soul of a person who had just died in this world (figs. 38.1, 38.2).

After the mother recuperated from the fatigue of delivery, her husband and father-inlaw performed a ceremony on behalf of the three generations of the family in order to thank Fuchi, the goddess of home and hearth, for the good health of the newborn and the mother. In this ritual, the baby met the fire goddess for the first time and the parents asked for her protection in raising the baby. As the baby matured, the possessing god also grew accordingly.

The new baby was called by a temporary name, often a repulsive one, and a permanent name was not given until the age

of seven or eight. The reason for this practice was the high infant-mortality rate at that time, for people believed that official naming had something to do with early death. The Ainu did not have fixed common names but rather created a name by combining various words that expressed the child's character or the parents' wishes for its future. Although there were names with similar pronunciation, it was extremely rare to find exactly the same name. Names like "cute thing" or "loving creature" were not used because parents feared that a god might become too closely attached to the child and its spirit might be taken away. Similarly, it was thought that an unpleasant name protected the child from losing its soul because an evil god would not

38.7, 38.8 Spirit Figures In addition to nipopo dolls, Sakhalin Ainu produced small humanlike wooden carvings whose upper and lower bodies were carved as a link. Whether their lower sections were to represent legs, fins, or flippers is not clear, but the links themselves suggest metal chains, whose sounds and brightness were believed by Siberian native groups to attract favorable spirits. (MPM N17361, N17363)

38.7

38.5

he likely to become fond of it. Ainu parents were also afraid that evil spirits of illness or injury might detect a child's weakness in his formal name and attack his soul, causing him to die ; for this reason, even mothers and fathers were not supposed to call their child by its permanent name.

By around age three a child sometimes showed peculiar characteristics that were thought to he signs of a possessing god with an evil spirit. When this happened, the parents and other relatives tried to find the cause. If they could not determine the identity of an evil possessing god, they assumed that the god's power exceeded theirs and asked for the help of a shaman (figs. 38.7,

38.8). To ward off the evil spirit, parents made every effort to take good care of the child by praying to the gods for protection of their offspring (figs. 38.6, 38.12, 38 13,

38.14). If a child eventually died, its possessing god departed for the next world with the child's dead soul, and only then was the relationship between them dissolved.

When children reached the age of seven or eight their parents began teaching them the necessary skills of life. Fathers taught boys and mothers tutored girls by using them as assistants in daily activities. They employed a one-on-one teaching method and catered to the child's abilities to make sure that each one acquired the competence to deal with life's problems,given the natural environment surrounding the Ainu people in those days, one had to possess specific skills for self-defense. In addition to learning pragmatic skills, the children were repeatedly told many stories that served as examples to them, tales about the ecosystems of animals and plants, human relations, and gods and souls. These stories enhanced the children's ability to respond to danger with flexibility. While there was no formal school system, a hands-on educational process took place daily.

Once they learned life skills, young men and women were regarded as selfsupporting and were treated and respected as independent people. As proof of adulthood,

38.10 Grave Posts and Burial Articles

This illustration from Shimanojo Murakami’s Curious Sights of Ezo Island (1799) shows the form of a man’s grave marker with his hunting equipment and a woman's grave marker with its deposit, including an iron pot, a reaping sickle, a container, and a beaded necklace, which accompanied the owner to help in the next life. (HML)

38.11 Grave Posts from West Ezo

Even within Hokkaido, Ainu burial traditions varied considerably. This illustration shows customs of western Hokkaido, where posts were engraved with personal marks and adorned with inaw, in this region, burial goods were not deposited on the surface, but they were frequently buried with the deceased. (HML)

men were given their family crest ( itokpa ), which showed the paternal family line, and they were allowed to participate in religious rituals. Women were provided waistbands (fig. 3 1. \0)(raunkut), woven by their mothers in a pattern that indicated the female family line. These crests and waistbands were abstract symbols of the family's ancestral gods. Specific family matters—who their particular gods were, why these gods were their ancestral gods, and on what occasions the gods were to he prayed to—were relayed from generation to generation in a confidential manner.

The family was the smallest unit of the society. When the training of young men and women by their parents was completed, the young people were regarded as adults in the village, considered to be a collective body of

families, and marriage became a consideration. There were various types of marriage in the Ainu community: a child might be promised in marriage by its parents before or after its birth,- a young man and woman might have met growing up. The most important issue in deciding marriage was to assure that the ancestors of both parties had not been married several generations back— they could not share the same ancestor gods in order to avoid consanguineous union. Because the Ainu frequently adopted children, it was also necessary to examine their lineage, so crests and waistcloths served as useful proof of family lines.

The Ainu people regard death to be the separation of soul and body and considered the soul to be immortal Humans experience

38.9 Grave Markers

Grave markers were erected in the form of posts: a man’s resembled a spear, while a woman’s resembled the eye of a needle. Leaving the grave, mourners were not to look back, sob, or otherwise express sorrow, or the soul of the deceased would return to possess the living, (courtesy of AMS)

38.9

38.13

38.14

38.12 Ritual Sword When an Ainu died it was believed they went to another world where to survive they needed the same tools and equipment as they had used in this world. Men's grave goods included a bow, quiver, knife, ikupasuy, and other items. Swords were tools of a similar category, but rather than bury such treasures, wooden replicas (pons emush) were made; such swords might be little more than a piece of wood in a birchbark sheath. In some areas, ritual swords were kept under a man's pillow to protect him from sickness and ensure that children conceived by him would be male. (MPM N17346)

38.13 Ritual Quiver

As in the case of a man's sword, a small model quiver (pons ikayop) was often made for use as a man’s charm during his lifetime and as a grave good upon his death. These models were carefully carved and decorated. (MPM N17056)

38.14 Bear Fetish

Wooden figurines called inoka appear to have been produced solely by the Sakhalin Ainu. It is not known if they had shamanic use, but they were used as charms. Inoka were often covered with the genital skin or pubic hair of a female bear and were used in iyomante ceremonies to promote fecundity among bears. (ACM 4439)

happy and sad times repeatedly throughout their lives and often deplore the problems from which they suffer. The Ainu believe that suffering is inflicted upon humans by gods in order to strengthen human spirituality. Once humans overcome life's difficulties, they become stronger and their level of spirituality is raised, so life is a time given by the gods to man to become a noble person (a "saint," as in Buddhism). A life that achieves this goal in this world has promise in the next life and hope for the earliest possible return to the earth. Ainu (the word means "human" in the Ainu language) have a saying: "Become a righteous man among men." This is the way humans are supposed to exist and live.

Ainu people believed that all spirits were immortal—even those of inanimate objects—and never ceased to exist,- therefore, after an old person's death his or her house would be burned so that the deceased would have a place to live in the other world. At the funeral service, people broke the late person's utensils, tools, bows, and arrows, and these implements were buried with the corpse (figs. 38.3-38.5, 38.9-38.1 I). Because all the spirits of the implements were alive in this world, the deceased person could begin to live another life by using them in the other world. This view of the world was founded on a belief in the immortality of all spirits and their transmigration between worlds.

38.15 Entrance to the Other World The souls of the dead were often thought to gain entrance to the spirit world through caves, natural fissures in the earth, or other remarkable geological formations. This was one such site known to the Ainu of the Shiraoi region, (courtesy of AMS)

Mythology and Animal

Tales

Shinko Ogihara

39.1 Goddess of the Cave This painting from Shimanojo Murakami’s Curious Sights of Ezo Island (1799) illustrates a scene from Ainu mythology. In this myth, a goddess from the southern god land drifted ashore and, finding herself without food or shelter, took refuge in a cave. Soon a dog carrying a flower appeared and brought her food from the sea and the mountains; some time later the goddess gave birth to a baby dog.

Although this tale is one of several Ainu origin myths, many Ainu dislike it because of the discrimination they have faced from Japanese. The word “A-inu" in Japanese means “Oh! A dog!" and this taunt is all too familiar to Ainu schoolchildren, who continue to be harassed cruelly. For this reason parents of mixed Ainu-Japanese marriages often do not reveal their ethnic background to their children. (NMNH 392,023-25)

U NTIL RECENTLY THE AlNU WERE a people without a written language, and as is typical for such groups, they had a rich oral tradition encompassing various genres and styles. Part of this tradition survives today in the Ainu community as living oral compositions, while other aspects are preserved only as texts and recordings. Within Ainu oral tradition there are several formally named genres of verse and prose. Included in the verse genre are epic styles known as kamuyyukar, oina, and yukar, each with a style of utterance, or "grace voice" (atomte itak, sakoro itak, or kamuy itak ), that differs from the common voice of prose (yayan itak).

As is the case with the oral traditions of arctic and subarctic native peoples, myths, as a category of literature, do not constitute a special distinctive genre within the Ainu oral tradition. While creation myths in particular

while very little materia! exists from the Kuriles. Today the oral traditions of these groups are to be found in various regions of Hokkaido where Sakhalin and Kurile Ainu settled. The materials 1 describe here are based on the oral traditions of the Iburi and Hidaka areas of the Pacific coast of southwestern Hokkaido, where narratives have been preserved by virtue of the relatively large Ainu population that continues to live there. For this reason the oral traditions of this region have become a point of reference for comparative studies of Ainu oral traditions found elsewhere in Hokkaido.

The Creator: Kotan-kor-kamuy

Kamuy is often interpreted as being similar to the Japanese kami (god),- however, for the Ainu the word encompasses every phenomenon of nature (including supernatural beings), including all aspects of the Ainu—

are presented in various forms of legends and tales, stories of the origins of Ainu culture are restricted to the tales of a culture-hero in the genre known as oina. Most kamuy-yukar consist of animal tales where the animal-hero narrates the story in the first person, but other natural beings or phenomena may also be the subjects of these tales.

Ainu oral literature also has a strong regional cast, varying widely according to specific dialect. These differences are especially pronounced between groups of Ainu who originated in Hokkaido and Sakhalin,

TRADITIONAL CULTURE / S. OGIHARA

meaning "man" or "human"—themselves. For the Ainu the world consists of kamuy and "human-Ainu,” and both are equal members of nature itself and have the same interests, feelings, and way of life. The difference lies only in the territories they occupy, whether they are beings like animals, fish, birds, and insects, or water, trees, sky, thunder, and so on, with fire considered to be the "first" among kamuy. Even artifacts like boats or grave posts are called kamuy,- in other words, kamuy completely surround the human/Ainu and are counterparts for all that human/Ainu

have contacts with. In this sense kamuy is unlike a "god," "animus," or "owner" as is the case among native peoples of the North.

The Ainu word kamuy has several different meanings, one of which may be translated as "deity." For example, the name of the creator, kotan-kor-kamuy , who was so huge that he often ate whales grilled whole on giant wooden skewers, translates literally as "land-making-deity." In one tale kotan-korkamuy and his sister descend upon the top of Mount Daisetsu, the highest peak in Hokkaido, as it emerged from the ocean at the dawn of time, and create Ainu mosir ("human land") from the clouds. The black clouds became rocks and the yellow ones soil, and then mountains, rivers, and islands were formed. In some tales an animal—for example, a dog or an otter—assists the creator in shaping the land. Another story relates that kotan-kor-kamuy created the land on what he thought was a solid spot in the midst of muddy water, but when he returned to heaven he realized that he had formed the land on the back of a very large fish. To immobilize it, he sent two deities to push down on the fish, but whenever the emissaries release their pressure—for instance, to take their meals—the fish moves, thus causing earthquakes (Sarashina 1971a, b).

The origin of human beings is vague in Ainu myths. One tale ascribes their creation to kotan-kor-kamuy, who created a man from an elm tree, while in another version the Ainu sprang from a woman who married a dog. In the principal version of this story, a beautiful maiden drifts ashore in Hidaka, where a dog helps her hide in a cave (fig. 39.1) ; the dog and the maiden produce two children, a boy and a girl, who become the ancestors of the Ainu (Sarashina 1971a: 37-38). In the tales in which the creator is the main actor, kotan-korkamuy and his spouse turn tools or belongings or parts of the body into living creatures or plants. For instance, according to one story, after completing the task of creating the land, kotan-kor-kamuy decided to have a smoke. The black soot from his smoke became the bear, yellow smoke gave rise to the smallpox spirit, and flints he tossed into the ocean turned into a whale and a sea lion. In another tale, the crane originated from kotan-kor-kamuy' s wife's spit, bush clover from her nose mucus, turtle and octopus from her dress and her girdle being thrown into the sea, and finally, her body hair turned into a type of grass.

Culture Heros and Ainu Culture

The oina texts of the Iburi and Hidaka regions are concerned with Ainurakkur (literally, "he with a human-Ainu smell"), who as the ancestor of the Ainu is responsible for the lifestyle and customs of the Ainu. The oina implies a sacred tradition, so the culture hero is also called Oina-kamuy and Aeoina-kamuy, which mean "the kamuy about whom we sing oina." Okikurumi (also Okikirmui, Okikirma) is another name for the hero of oina and generally thought to be identical to Ainurakkur. There is, however, a cycle of tales concerning Okikurumi and his negative counterpart, Samaiukur, who plays a rather ridiculous role much like that of the trickster in the raven myths of the Koryak and arctic peoples of the Russian Far East and Northwest Coast of North America. This similarity leads me to believe that Okikurumi may have a northern origin quite apart from the Ainurakkur myths in the Ainu oral tradition.

Stylistically, oina has two specific features: one is the refrain ( sakebe ) and the other is its first-person narration by Ainurakkur himself. The use of this refrain and first-person narration makes oina similar to kamuy-yukar , and in other places in Hokkaido Ainurakkur tales are included in the genre of kamuy-yukar (although they have quite different themes than the latter). Some texts explain the heavenly origin of Ainurakkur by asserting that he was born on earth to an elm tree-maiden and the brother of a heavenly deity, who visits the treemaiden disguised as thunder,- the elm's usefulness as fuel for making fire is reflected in the garment of the culture hero, which is described as having a hem sparkling with fire—possibly a reference to brilliant garment embroidery.

Ainurakkur's first contributions to mankind are heroic deeds in which he exterminates wicked beings that bring harm or disaster to humans: as a young boy caring for his sister, he becomes aware of the violence being done by evil monsters and rushes to fight them. The evil beings appear as monstrous troutlike fish, otters, or monsters shaped like huge hills with arms and legs capable of destroying fishing lakes or abducting the first pair of deities dispatched from heaven to earth. In one oina tale, which may have evolved from an attempt to explain an eclipse, Ainurakkur

39/ MYTHOLOGY AND TALES

275

rescues the sun goddess from an underground chamber where she had been imprisoned by a monster,- he makes a ship out of mist and sails her up into the sky in this vessel. In this way the world regained the sun and order was restored to the universe (Kannari and Kindaichi 1961).

When Ainurakkur exterminates the wicked beings, he instantly releases the living creatures they had captured and fills the rivers with salmon and other fish, the sea with fish and sea mammals, and the fields with deer— all animals that are principal food sources for the Ainu. Other tales relate that when Ainurakkur ran away from heaven, he stole a handful of millet and gave it to humans, thus becoming the source of plants on earth.

There is a rather comical oina tale featuring Ainurakkur and his bride, who is a heavenly maiden, that emphasizes the lovesickness felt by Ainurakkur and the maiden (Kannari and Kindaichi 1961: version 111). When the latter ascends back to the sky, the maiden's father sets the suitor to various tasks. First, he and his bride must listen to all the yukar, oina, and love songs that can be recited by six different singers,- no matter how humorous the performers are in their delivery of the songs, the young couple must not laugh. For the second task, Ainurakkur and his bride are instructed to make in a day every kind of object used by Ainu men and women. Having successfully completed these trials, they are given the father's blessings to go down to the land and show humans the proper way to live. In this way, such implements as mortars, pestles, winnowers, knives, looms, and spatulas were given to men for their work,- embroidered clothing, headdresses, necklaces, and other goods were provided to the women (Kannari and Kindaichi 1961).

Kamuy-yukar: Animal Tales

Kamuy appear as heroes in kamuy-yukar, where various animals, meteorological phenomena, certain kinds of artifacts, and cult deities recite their own experiences in intercourse with the human-Ainu. The distinctive features of this genre are its first-person narration, its refrain ( sakebe ), and the ritualized ending, usually phrased "thus spoke a kamuy" or "so told some kamuy himself." The sakebe, repeated either at the beginning or end of every verse or in some other place, gives kamuy-yukar rhythm and humor: originally the refrains

sought to imitate the hero-animal's distinctive sound or the noise it might make in movement. For example, the refrain "ban kakkok" clearly represents a cuckoo kamuy to a knowledgeable listener, just as the sound "howewe hum" might indicate the bear kamuy. There are many variations of sakebe, but unfortunately many of them can no longer be interpreted,- this is a common problem with oina but generally not with heroic-epic yukar.

Though kamuy-yukar show a great diversity in content, ranging from myths to heroic epics to love stories, they are still largely animal tales (Kubodera 1977a). In the most simple kamuy-yukar, two types of animal tales can be distinguished. In the first type, the hero narrates his own failure or bitter experience while living in the human world. In a typical situation, an evil deed or foul disposition usually leads the subject to a miserable death, and in this case the hero-animal ends his narration with words addressed to his animalfellows, such as "do not have evil intentions toward humans'',- "do not make fun of the words of humans",- or "do not do these things." In one example a fox kamuy went down the river to visit an Ainu hamlet, where he snuck into the storehouse and devoured the fish he found there,- he returned home and boasted of his exploit. The next time he dared to repeat the deed he found poisoned fish prepared for him by the humans, who intended to punish the offender. The kamuy ends his narration with a warning: "Now I'm dying, and from now on, young fox-fellows, you better not steal fish while going to visit the Ainu" (Kubodera 1977a: #22).

The second type of kamuy-yukar has a theme quite different from this one. Here the hero narrates what has happened to him in the human world and relates that his benevolent deed has gained him the respect of the Ainu. In one such tale, a hare kamuy tells how he warned the people of a tidal wave that was about to strike their village, but Samaiukur— Okikurumi's "negative brother"—and his villagers would not listen to him. Thus insulted, the hare kamuy ran away from that village and came to the village of Okikurumi, who told his people to come out and bow to the hare kamuy. When the tidal wave broke upon the village, Okikurumi and his people escaped harm by running up the hillside, while Samaiukur and his villagers met catastrophe. The hare kamuy closes his narrative by saying that Okikurumi brewed sake, offered him a lot of it to drink,

and gave him in aw, and that he is now worshiped as a high deity (Kubodera 1977a: #31).

In addition to these two types of kamuyyukar, there is a third type that provides explanations about the significance of rituals, especially that of the bear-sending ceremony. The verses carefully describe how the bear, as a guest visiting the human world, is captured and reared,- how bears have a social and family life similar to humans,- how they welcome the ritual entertainment given them,and why bears like to visit the human world. In this way different kinds of animal kamuy reveal their individual natures and the divine origin of the rituals.

A fourth type of kamuy-yukar explains the origin of various living creatures and inanimate objects. For example, a verse about the cicada reveals that the insect originated as an old woman who was trapped on the roof of her house when her village was struck by a tidal wave. Distraught, she cried so loudly that she aggravated all the kamuy and humans in the world until she was told she could only cry during the daylight hours in summer (Kubodera 1977a: #34).

These four types of kamuy-yukar can be classified as myths according to theme and content, but there is another large group of

verses whose content qualifies them as heroic epics. The heroes of this group are usually animals who recount their love affairs and marriages to others of their own—or sometimes different—species, and quite often these tales involve the culture-hero Okikurumi or his sister. In this respect they differ from the standard heroic epics known as yukar, in which the hero is exclusively a youth named Poiyaunpe (see Oginaka, this volume).

Many animal tales play a didactic role in Ainu society. Two types of kamuy-yukar — those about negative deeds and those about positive deeds—provided models for teaching young children about proper behavior. Women, who are primarily responsible for child-rearing, sang the rhythmic refrains of these verses, which were simple enough that children would learn them easily and sing them by themselves. Verses about ritual and belief systems provided explanations for these aspects of Ainu culture, while those about animals helped people understand the origin and behaviors of different kamuy. Taken together, these four types of kamuy-yukar instructed the younger generations about proper human behavior in general and, especially, their relationship with kamuy.

39/ MYTHOLOGY AND TALES

277

Yukar:

Epics of Heroes

Mie Oginaka

40.1 Man Reciting Yukar This illustration from Ancient Manners and Customs of Ezo by Hokuyo Nishikawa shows a group of Ainu seated around the hearth listening to a man reciting traditional yukar, while beating time with repni (sticks) on the hearth frame. (HML)

Y ukar is generally defined as Ainu epic poetry, particularly tales of heroes. The classic study of yukar (pronounced "yu-ka-ra" by most Ainu) is Kyosuke Kindaichi's 1931 treatise, A Study of Yukar: the Ainu Epics, which presents the genre as illustrated by an 8,22 1 -line epic of an Ainu hero,- other forms of yukar take the form of poetry and divine songs. The most complete presentation of yukar in English is a compilation published in Songs of Gods, Songs of Humans (Philippi 1979).

In the Sakhalin dialect, yukara means "a song, to sing,” and heroic epics were called bawki, but other terms were used in different regions. For instance, in Hokkaido heroic epics are called sakorpe ("having a tune") in areas from Tokachi to Kushiro in eastern Hokkaido, Bihoro and Kitami in the north, and Asahikawa in central Hokkaido. The number of regions

using the term sakorpe exceeds those using yukar. In many cases, narrators who used to call heroic epics sakorpe adopted the term yukar from Sakhalin Ainu simply because others did so. While this trend is understandable given that yukar is an accepted part of the Japanese language, it is a shame to lose any words from the Ainu vocabulary.

In Sakhalin narrators recited stories while lying down and looking up, which was also the case in Hokkaido,- Tokunai Mogami described this presentation form in Watarishima Hikki (Oshima Notes). In later years, both narrators and audience sat together and beat the wooden hearth frame with a stick called a repni (fig. 40.1) The audience would shout bet! bet! to create rhythm and to encourage the narrator.

People who grew up observing these performances learned how to recite them and gradually became proficient narrators, developing distinctive personal tunes,

278

TRADITIONAL CULTURE / M. OGINAKA

intonation, and diction, each subtly different from one another. Some recite rather emotionally, while others narrate in a quiet tone. Except for the fixed content of the story and certain idiomatic phrases, the delivery often changes greatly under the influence of each narrator's personality. After repeated performances and with the passing on of stories to following generations, yukar became even more refined as an art form of oral tradition.

Many heroes of the epics reside in castles in a fabulous land called Otashut (or Qtasam), while the homes of other heroic characters are found in various places,- Shinutapka is the most frequently mentioned location. Kuro Yae, a narrator who lived in Shimosetsuri (located between Kushiro and Lake Kussharo) and who considered that village his permanent home, was an excellent storyteller. Yae could become absorbed in the world of sakorpe. The hero of Yae's sakorpe lived in a castle in Otashut and was called Pon-otast-un-kur (pon = small,- otasbu, un = be,- kur = god/man,so, this name means "small otashut man").

Hokkaido has a place named Osorokotsu, near Shiraoi, that is featured in a legend about a nation-creating god (see Iwasaki-Goodman and Nomoto, this volume). In the legend, the god fell on his rear end after being surprised by flying sparks as he tried to broil whale meat. This was an enormous god, so enormous that when he landed he created a pair of depressions large enough not only to hold the rock to broil fish but also to contain several houses. In some regions, this legend concerns the progenitor of man, and the hero is "half-human and half-god."

Much like the trickster transformation figures in Native American mythology, the heroes in Ainu epics can transform themselves into deer and foxes, run in the sky, dive into the earth and ocean, and are equipped with the ability to always revive, all while still being human.

The following is a condensation of Yae's favorite sakorpe, a story of an adventurous boy who can turn himself into a deer :

1 live with my foster aunt

in a castle in the nation of Otashut.

Above my bed is a costume of deerskin and antlers.

One day, while my aunt dozed,

1 disguised myself as a buck and went out.

It was then that 1 saw the castle, the castle where 1 lived, for the first time,

the first time from the outside.

It was so huge and beautiful.

1 was mesmerized. . . .

After staring at it awhile,

I went on and soon came to a steep path leading toward the forbidden mountains, mountains that had been prohibited to village people since the old days.

Without hesitating, 1 took this path. Passing beneath tall trees, leaping over brush, soon 1 arrived at the summit where there were ponds and beautiful trees.

I recognized it immediately as the playground

of a god with whom I was familiar.

While I was playing there, a big man carrying a golden staff came toward me,

flanked in front and behind by six young men [six is read as "many" in Ainu].

He told them to shoot me.

Well, it was easy for me to overwhelm them.

When the big man tried to attack me, raising his golden staff over his head,

1 threw him into the pond and rushed back to the castle— just before my aunt woke up.

Thereafter my life continued as before until one day some small birds came to me. They said an evil woman saved the big man and married him. Recently they discovered the identity of the buck

and sent their followers to attack me.

So, making sure that my aunt was not watching,

! again disguised myself as a buck and dashed out into the country to find the rascals.

The barking of vicious dogs announced my arrival,

and the big man, the evil woman, and their followers came out for battle. Soon I heard a sound, the sound of an approaching god, and I fought on, knowing that help would come.

The god who descended to me was my foster aunt

and she was carrying a woman's spear. From that moment on, we fought together.

We fought on, side-by-side, day and night, traveling from one place to another pursuing our enemies.

Finally, as we battled on,

40 / YUKAR : EPIC POETRY

2 7 9

40.2 Contemporary Presentations of Yukar

Ainu today continue to recite yukar, retaining an important oral tradition, as shown in this photograph of two Ainu elders—(left) Zenjiro Hikawa and (right) Tasuke Yamakawa—taken in Akan in the late 1980s by Morio Senke.

we approached the nation of the evil island.

By now there were only four enemies left. Here, using shamanism, by shifting quickly between sky and earth, we finally prevailed.

Well, now it's time for me to rush back to my castle. . . .

In the full Ainu version, the narration is quite detailed: it gives an excellent description of nature, including the trees, rivers, mountains, and fields,- the sunlight, wind, and rain,- and animal movements. The tone of the battle scenes is ferocious and strident, while that of love is soft and mellow.

Some of the stories are quite long and cannot be recited in one night. The use of repetition and details identifying even obvious things is a device used often in oral traditions to create mood and enhance the reality of the prose. Although the redundancy can be annoying in written works, when the story is

listened to, the audience excitedly anticipates the next development, usually cued by repetition. The idiomatic expression draws on the nuances of time and place to engage the listener in ways that written text cannot. In the days when heroic epics were narrated as part of daily life, the world they described was also a part of everyday living. The action of the hero was admired and anticipated, and he was seen as a cultural role model.

It is rare that a narration of an Ainu yukar ever really ends,- unless specially requested, "the end of the story" is left untold to interest the audience in hearing a future installment. When these epics are given for the deceased, however, it is customary to complete the narration to ensure that the dead will not hold any attachment to this world. In similar fashion, when the story is for the gods, such as in the case of the bear-sending ceremony (. iyomante ), the last part of the story also remains untold, for people wish the gods to return to earth again to listen to the ending of the epic.

Today the word yukar can be found even in a small Japanese dictionary. Many dictionaries define yukar as "the story of a hero, Poiyaunpe," a word that actually means "a male orphan from the new land'' and was originally a nickname used only by the hero Ponshinutap kaunkur. (Heroes are often called by names that begin with "pon," which in this case means "junior.")

Only a few narrators still remain who are able to sustain the flow of words with surging passion. With the audience joining in, shouting bet! bet! as they followed the progress of the story, these were breathtaking moments of emotion both for the storyteller and the listeners. It has been a long time since I experienced such moments.

Song of Kararat (Carrion Crow) Goddess

This kamuy-yukar was recorded ii i writing on October 28, 1932, by Itsusbiko Kubodera from the reciter Hiraga Etenoa.

A crow goddess amuses herself by performing the "dance of the glittering treasures, dance of the glittering metals" (tama kin tapkar, kane kin tapkar). When she does this dance, acorns and chestnuts come dropping down from her hands. News of this dance of hers spreads among the gods, and she begins to be invited to the drinking feasts of the gods.

The Ainu distinguished between two types of crows.the hondo jungle crow (Corvus cononoides), which was disliked and called shi-pashkur or shie-pashkur ("dung-crow," " dung-eating-crow") and the carrion crow (kararat, Corvus corone), which was regarded as auspicious.

The text is kamuy-yukar 47 in Kubodera's Ainu jojishi: Shinyo, seiden no kenkyu, pp. 218—20:

I lived

in the Upper Heavens,

dwelling

among the gods.

However,

whenever 1 would hear the sounds of feasting, the sounds of drinking of the gods

who had received [presents of] human inaw and human wine,

1 would always be longing to have them.

I longed for them so very much that, when I would get lonely,

I would stand up and would do

the dance of the glittering treasures, the dance of the glittering metals on a floor at the head of the fireplace. Then acorns would come dropping down

from one of my hands, and chestnuts would come dropping down

from my other hand.

Thanks to this,

I was able to amuse myself, and this was the way I continued to live on and on uneventfully.

Then news spread among the gods that I was doing this,

and only then did the gods

become aware for the first time of my existence.

After that,

when wine was delivered from the humans,

1 was invited for the first time,

and I was able

to attend a drinking feast.

I drank, and o how very delicious was the wine!

As ! drank, my heart was very

mellowed by the wine, mellowed by the liquor.

At that time 1 did

the dance of the glittering treasures, the dance of the glittering metals, moving up along the floor and down along the floor.

As I danced,

acorns came falling down from one of my hands, and chestnuts came falling down from my other hand.

Then the gods

began to race each other

to pick up

the chestnuts

and to pick up

the acorns

on the floor.

Sounds of loud laughter, sounds of great merriment rose up all at once.

While this was going on, the God Ruling the Upper Heavens spoke these words:

"I did not know until now

that the weighty deity the kararat goddess had her dwelling so very close by, near my own house.

One of the reasons why I invited the kararat goddess was because 1 wished to apologize to her, but look

how mellowed by the wine are her spirits!"

Thus did he speak.

The peerless feast wore on to its conclusion.

After that,

I have remained in my own house.

Every since then, whenever the gods are worshiped by the humans and wine is delivered, there is not a banquet, not a drinking feast from which I am ever omitted.

1 am always invited and attend every feast, and as I drink, my spirits are mellowed by the wine.

After that I do

the dance of the glittering metals, the dance of the glittering jewels among the guests at the feast, and acorns fall down from one of my hands, and chestnuts fall down from my other hand.

The gods race each other to pick up the chestnuts and the acorns.

Sounds of loud laughter, sounds of great merriment rise up all at once, and I take delight in all this as 1 attend

all the noble drinking feasts, the noble feasts.

This is the way I continue to live on and on.

Whenever wine or inaw are delivered from the humans,

I am given portions of inaw and portions of wine, and this enhances my glory as a deity.

This is the way I continue to live on and on uneventfully.

41/To Live Is to Sing

Kazuyuki Tanimoto

A mong the traditional Ainu

dances still performed in various areas in Hokkaido, the crane dance ( sarorun rimse ; fig. 41.1) has the largest number of variations and is most widely distributed in the region (Nihon Kokogaku Kyokai 1965). Most of the Ainu dances reported by the Wajin (Japanese) at the end of Tokugawa Shogunate era refer to the crane dance. In one of these records (Ezo soshi, I 808), Tokunai Mogami, a shogunate official sent to Ezo, wrote, "When the banquet livened up, women stood up and began to dance in a circle, keeping time by clapping and shouting. Among the dances performed was the crane dance, one that imitated the cranes opening their wings and eating." Mogami observed the dance performed at "banquets" held on such occasions as uimam, meetings with the local shogunate officers who governed Ezo, and at receptions

sang songs and danced. One performed a dance of a turtle swimming through the waves, and the other performed a crane dance. Old Ainu celebrate the new year by dancing like turtles and cranes—this indeed is the glory of the Meiji Emperor era" (Nagata 1911).

Nagata seems to have associated the depiction of turtles and cranes with a traditional Japanese aphorism on longevity— "cranes live 1,000 years, turtles live 10,000 years"—and deduced that his guests wished him a long life. The crane dance, which is now known to Ainu throughout Hokkaido, may therefore be an example of a dance form that the Ainu developed in response to pressure exerted by the shogunate system in Ezo, an element of Japanese culture seen reflected in an Ainu mirror.

In 1857 Nakanojoh Tagawa, a clansman of the domain of Sendai, wrote in his travel

41.1 Crane Dance The crane dance, known as sarorun rimse or hararki, is one of the most widespread of traditional Ainu dances. Tokunai Mogami, a shogunate official who lived in Ezo, described it in 1790, and a few years later this dance was painted in a spirited manner by Gentan Tani in his Drawings of Travels Through Ezo (1799). (HML)

for officials on inspection visits. It can be assumed that the Ainu felt obliged to perform the crane dance on these occasions as a courtesy to their hosts.

More than a century later, a report from the local shogunate office described another greeting ceremony: "Two Ainu elders came over for New Year's greetings. 1 offered sake with an ikupasuy on a takatsuki [a small saucerstand] telling them to conduct kamuynomi [prayers to the gods]. They were very pleased and had sake in the Ainu manner and began telling old stories.. . . Soon the two old men

journal the lyrics of a song accompanying a crane dance:

pirika menoko-to with a beautiful woman tonasino mokoro go to bed early nesatta paskor until crows sing tomorrow

chishikorachi want to sleep in

These lyrics in the Ainu language are a translation of a Wajin (Japanese) Dodoitsu, or lyrical song, "Killing crows of the world, 1 want to sleep in with the master." This song, like the dance itself, also spread throughout Hokkaido.

The evolution of many songs shows how conflict between the culture of the

41.3

41 . 2 , 41.3 Playing the Mmmm One of the old Ainu instruments is the mukkuri, which produces sounds like a mouth harp. It consists of a thin piece of bamboo with a semidetached tonguelike reed in the center which vibrates when the wood is given sharp, repetitive jerks on the toggle string.

By varying the passage of air and size of the mouth cavity, the player can produce a variety of sounds. There can be no simpler method of producing music except with the human voice. The method of playing is demonstrated in an illustration by Hokuyo Nishikawa in Ainu Manners and Customs. (BMA 12.167; HML)

Wajin, the ruler, and that of the Ainu, the ruled, was expressed through integration. The traditional Ainu "Song of good hunting" with lyrics expressing "abundant deer, abundant fish" was gradually replaced by a "farming song" in which Japanese and Ainu words were mixed. The process of transformation from their original hunting and fishing way of life to an agricultural culture imposed by the Japanese is clearly reflected in the songs and dances passed down for generations. These also expressed the various thoughts and feelings of the Ainu people as these changes took place.

The meaning and functions of songs and dances in traditional Ainu society can be collectively observed in the ceremonies that are a symbolic reflection of the hunting and fishing way of life, such as the bear-sending (iyomante ) and owl-sending rituals. As the time for such ceremonies neared, women pounded grains such as barnyard millet with a mortar and pestle to make sake and dumplings to offer to the gods. Chants like the sake karupopo (sake-making song) and the iyuta upopo (the pounding song) sung on these occasions are not labor songs,- rather, they are magic-oriented, for they are sung to ward off evil spirits. For instance, in the lyrics of the pounding song, "bessa iyuta hessa, hessa pirke hessa" (let's pound, let's pound), hessa is shouted repeatedly. Hessa derives from hess, a kind of "magical breath" used to exorcise impurities that possessed the body, and this became the refrain of many Ainu songs.

In Sakhalin, Ainu people sing and dance iso ko hechiri (the bear dance) around the cage of the bear cubs for several days prior to the ceremony. The accompanying song, which suggests the roar of a bear, energizes the bear, the central focus of the ritual, and thus serves to invite the bear god to the ceremony. This singing causes the bear spirit, which lives in the surrounding mountains, to respond and join in, creating a noisy atmosphere. The sound "da da" in the lyrics is meant to imitate a bear's roar, one of many such examples of onomatopoeia in Ainu oral traditions. The growls of animals, chirps of birds, and imitations of the sounds of nature such as rain and wind are basic elements of the melody in many Ainu songs. The tune of an epic kamuy-yukar (song of the gods) in which the hero is an animal god is typical: the sounds of animal gods, such as frogs and owls, and the imitation of sounds created by animal movements are incorporated as a refrain, while the lyrics telling the story are inserted between the refrains. For example:

Han kakkok ranrna kame Han cuckoo as always Han kakkok oka anike Han cuckoo every place Han kakkok rukun mosita Han cuckoo in the heavens

Here, “ban kakkok" imitates the sound of the cuckoo, a hero in kamuy-yukar.

Ainu people not only imitate the characteristic sounds of each animal and bird, but they often mimic their movements in their dances. Many animal dances and songs, including the aforementioned crane dance

41.5

41 . 5 , 41.6 Tonkori

Tonkori, such as these five- and sixstringed versions, varied considerably in shape. The five-stringed tonkori was collected by Mabel Todd in Hokkaido in 1896; the six-stringed version was collected by Berthold Laufer in Sakhalin in 1900. (PEM E3382; AMNH 70-1256)

(.sarorun rimse), the rain swallow dance ( chikap ne), and the fox dance (chironnup rimse), incorporate animal features that are linked to belief in animal spirits and the Ainu hunting and fishing lifestyle.

In the bear ceremony, songs that explain each scene are sung according to the program of the rite. Symbolic meaning and positioning of certain scenes are interpreted and explained through the songs and dances, creating a sequence. When a cub is taken from the cage:

peiorep rekdw set ko rimse set ko tapkar

cub is singing dance, facing the cage jump toward the cage

During the ceremony, as a blunt ceremonial arrow ( heper-ay ) is shot at the cub so that he can take it to the hear god as a souvenir, the following is sung:

ay ta haw o hay "Hai," the shooting sound of the arrow

41.4 Playing the Tonkori

The tonkori is a four-, five-, or sixstringed instrument that is played vertically by plucking with the fingers, as shown in Teisuke Murakami's illustration. Ainu used the tonkori frequently to accompany yukar presentations. It was such an important part of Ainu culture that it was considered a god in itself. The maker of a tonkori gave it life by placing a small pebble inside the body of the instrument. (HUL)

41.4

called ukouk. The first singer begins singing, and then the next person sings the same notes and words one beat behind. This continues, regardless of the number of singers, round after round The term upopo is onomatopoetic, from the sound of boiling food, which creates a unique cacophony. Unlike polyphonic Western music, which has a more melodic and harmonic character, each singer's segment is not designed to be distinguished independently,- it simply serves to create musical "chaos,” which increases passion in the ceremony.

Such techniques, which produce ritual sites for magical ceremonies by transforming everyday space into chaos, are also employed in dancing. In the bear dance (iso ko hechiri) of the Sakhalin Ainu, dancers are divided into two groups,- they advance in loops, coiling and crossing each other. Each group breaks into two subgroups and advances in opposite directions, creating a chaotic situation when the beginning and end of the lines become unclear.

On festival nights, when people celebrate with the gods, various dances are performed indoors (fig. 41.8). At such times the sword dance (emush rimse ) may be performed by men. The dancers hold an arm out with the palm up, and they move the arm up and down while dancing with heavy steps and making a banging sound. This dance simulates a ritual exorcism that men perform when a village is struck by disaster,- the brandishing of swords and vigorous stomping scare away evil spirits (fig. 41.7). Some women's dances, such as u-sampe-wante (compare the hearts), ara hukkun, and hachinna (a dance contest), have competitive elements: two people or two groups face each other and compete to see which side can continue the vigorous dance

When the cub is killed by choking it between two logs after it is shot with a real arrow, the words below are sung:

hutta tu karari

being placed on the leaf of bamboo

being placed on the sword let's cut the throat ah, it is dead

emush karari hoy surse hoy susumau

And when the bear god is sent off to the god land, as the dead cub lies in front of the altar:

kamuy hopni na the god is about to leave hio rimse let's dance

hechiw dance

The songs that are sung and danced during ceremonies are generally called rimse or upopo (hechiri in Sakhalin). In some regions, upopo is a general term for songs performed while sitting. This "sitting song" is sung by people who sit in a circle and beat lightly on the lid of a lacquerware treasure box,- it is characterized by the way it is sung, which is

41.7 Sword Dance

The sword dance has been performed by the Ainu at least since the eighteenth century, when it appeared in Ainu-e illustrating exorcism rituals. This dance is one of many instances in which a foreign element—in this case the sword— has been adopted into Ainu culture and transformed into a purely Ainu tradition. Sword dances are performed regularly for tourists at the Ainu Museum at Shiraoi, as seen here. (Courtesy of AMS)

the longest. Such competitive song and dance is found in various northern ethnic groups.

One such activity inviting direct comparison with northern peoples is the "throat game" or throat-singing ( rekuxkara , literally "throat-make") of the Sakhalin Ainu. This is an unusual game in which two (or sometimes more) women sit facing each other, and each player makes a megaphone with her cupped hands and connects the ends of the "speaker" to her partner's. They then begin making sounds into their opponent's mouth by closing their throat and aspirating strongly. The players exercise their ingenuity by creating different sounds that combine high/low, long/short, exhalation/inhalation, and stress/relief voicing. Similar games are found among Eastern Canadian hunt and Siberian Chukchi. While today these games are simply thought of as women's traditional play, their origins were not confined to play.

The disappearance of the traditional Ainu lifestyle and the loss of the environment that fostered their traditional culture can be attributed to the government's assimilation policy over the past 200 years,in particular, changes after World War II have had a drastic effect on traditional songs and dances. The ukouk singing method mentioned previously serves as an example: in the 1950s all the people who were asked to gather to record upopo songs could sing in the ukouk style, although the situation varied depending on the region. During the 1960s people needed practice before recording. In the 1970s it was impossible to find enough singers in one area, and help from other districts was needed. In the 1980s people sang in unison instead of ukouk in most areas, and the number of songs had decreased significantly.

In recent years, however, the number of groups trying to preserve Ainu traditional

41.7

41.8

41.8 Dancing Continues Although some maintain that Ainu culture has become little more than a "museum culture” preserved only for tourists and for commercial purposes, a few Ainu continue to practice their traditions in the privacy of their homes. This sword dance was photographed by Sister M. Inez Hilger during her visit to Hokkaido in 1965. On January 21, 1984, traditional Ainu dances were designated Intangible Cultural Assets, which along with the recent passage of the Ainu Shinpo (the new law on promotion of Ainu culture) may sustain these traditions into the future. (NAA T-10)

For example, the Ainu believed that throatsinging had the power to call the god who could scare away such epidemics as smallpox,perhaps these games were once related to magical power or shamanism.

While songs and dances for ceremonies are basically performed in groups, most lyric songs ( sinotcba ) that express personal emotions are sung by one singer. Examples include iyobaocbisi (sorrow songs), sung with tears, expressing agony and pains,- yaikatckara (love songs) that express feelings for a lover,- and yaishama, a kind of an impromptu song in which a singer sings whatever flows into his mind between refrains of "yaisbamanma." Because these songs are produced in the course of daily life, any changes in lifestyle directly influenced the melodies, and in the areas where early contact with Wajin occurred, the melodies of lyric songs were soon altered to Japanese-style folksongs.

songs and dances has increased, and their activities have accelerated. At present, more than twenty such preservation groups are active in Hokkaido,- of those, seventeen are designated as an Intangible Cultural Asset by the national government (Ainu ni densho 1960). Members of the groups are learning directly from elders, recording songs, and reconstructing songs and dances that once were lost by utilizing existing recordings and visual materials. Moreover, different groups come together for cultural festivals, and active exchanges with various ethnic groups overseas such as the Nivkhi of Sakhalin, Native Americans, Canadian Inuit, Scandinavian Saami, and other indigenous populations in Taiwan, Australia, and New Zealand are underway. These activities, intended to "express and pass on true Ainu spirit and energy based on tradition,' have strengthened the sense of identity among the Ainu people.

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42/Ainu Art: The Beginnings of Tradition

Chisato O. Dubreuil

42.1 Ainu Fashion

Ainu announced their ethnic identity by the design of their clothing, tools, and implements. Within the conventions of different garment types and regional styles, Ainu textile artists found innumerable ways to express artistry and individuality while remaining distinctively “Ainu.” A sample of Ainu finery is seen in the image for December from Ainu Manners and Customs by Byozan Hirasawa (seen here in a copy dating from after 1872), which depicts preparations for the iyomante (bearsending) ceremony. (HMH)

< Chieftain of Heshikai, Poloya This Ainu-e, copied by Teiki Kojima from Portraits of Ezo Chieftains by Hakyo Kakizaki, shows the proper manner of carrying a smoking kit, with the implements hung from a man's belt. (Y. and M. Kitao Collection)

I N ITS ENCOUNTER WITH A MODERN INDUStrialized society traditional Ainu culture, like many native cultures, was transformed,- that process of change is reflected in many facets of Ainu society today. The most visible changes occurred in Ainu art,- for example, fishskin garments with designs stitched with durable, waterproof animal sinew gave way over time to cotton garments with designs made of imported silk, while wooden carvings developed an increasing abstractness rarely matched in any culture. All through the traditional period—which begins, according to earliest known artistic evidence, around the thirteenth century and includes the transitional years inaugurated with the Meiji Restoration of the 1 860s to after the turn of the century—the creative process in its entirety was governed by fundamental cultural rules. For example, gender determined the form of artistic expression practiced by all members of Ainu traditional society. Women were responsible for all clothes construction and for the distinctively stylized artwork which is found on most Ainu textiles (see Kodama,

this volume). Men, on the other hand, were the woodworkers. They not only built such fundamental constructions as houses but also carved the various items used in religious ceremonies to honor the gods ( kamuy ), such as the very important ikttpnstiy, or prayer sticks, inaw, or sacred shaved sticks and staffs, and inatp-kike, bundles of shavings. Men were also responsible for creating such utilitarian items as intricately carved bowls, plates, and spoons. These opportunities for artistic expression could more accurately be described as cultural expectations, which not only dictated gender roles but also defined the acceptable limits of artistic subject matter, medium, and motivation.

Ainu Women as Fabric Artists: Tradition and Originality

Sewing was a very important task for Ainu women. It was a means of being highly appreciated not only as wife and mother but as a fabric artist as well. The great amount of time that Ainu women spent on needlework, sewing, and creating original designs was even sung about in one of the epic narratives (yukar), entitled Yaosbkep-kamuy (Song of the Spider Goddess):

Doing nothing but needlework,

I remained with my eyes focused on a single spot, and this is the way I continued to live on and on until . . .

(Kubodera 1977a: 55-58; the translated narrative in Philippi 1979: 78)

While the decorative designs began as simple embroidery on fishskin (fig. 42.2) and woven elm-bark fabric (attusb) garments (fig. 42.3), later pieces of colorful cloth obtained through trade were integrated into traditional designs. Silk, wool, and later cotton were extremely costly, but they became so important to the Ainu that traders from Santan and Manchuria (see S. Sasaki, this volume) often took as payment for the material the children of the Ainu, who could then be trained as interpreters to expedite trading. It is estimated that possibly hundreds of Ainu were assimilated into the mainland culture of the traders during the seventy to one hundred years of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries during which this practice took place (S. Kodama 1970c: 74).

Because of the high cost of doing business with mainland Asia, and later with

42.2 Child’s Salmon-Skin Coat Originally all Ainu garments were made of skin, fur, and feathers, and these types of clothing survived in Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands into the twentieth century. Salmon skin was highly prized for making strong, light, durable, waterproof garments. Sakhalin Ainu decorated fishskin garments with delicate applique, as did their neighbors in the lower Amur River region. This child's coat has a Sakhalin Ainu cut but was collected in Hokkaido— like people, artifacts often end up far from home. This coat may have come to Hokkaido with Ainu refugees expelled when Sakhalin was turned over to the Russians in 1875. In 1896 it was sold to Mrs. Mabel Loomis Todd, a participant in an Amherst College expedition that came to to Hokkaido view a solar eclipse. (PEM E3390)

42.3 Attush Robe After the introduction of the backstrap loom, Ainu ancestors began weaving attush, cloth made from the inner bark of the elm tree and from linden and nettle plants. Men were responsible for procuring the bark, but weaving, sewing, and decorating clothing were women's tasks. Designs were embroidered on old cotton clothing or fabric scraps obtained from the Japanese and then sewn onto the attush. Although many anthropologists have been reluctant to believe it, Ainu insist that the designs have no meaning and are done only to please the gods. This man’s robe was collected in Tsuishikari, Hokkaido, by Romyn Hitchcock during a trip on behalf of the Smithsonian in 1888. (NMNH E150779)

42.4 Ruunpe

The ruunpe, a distinctive, colorful, intricate garment, is found on the Pacific Coast of Hokkaido from Yakumo to Abuta, and from Usu to Shiraoi. For a photograph of someone—presumably the owner/designer/artist—wearing this garment at the time of sale in 1909, see figure 45.16.(UPM L122-19)

42.5 Learning Designs Girls learned Ainu designs at a very young age by tracing the patterns in the sand. They took their lessons seriously because they knew they would be judged for the rest of their lives on how well they designed the family's clothes. Shimanojo Murakami recorded this lesson in a scene from his Curious Sights of Ezo Island (1799). (HML)

the Japanese, Ainu garments continued to be made of attush with imported cloth normally used only for decoration until the early twentieth century. The fabric remnants and other materials needed to complete more intricate garments were accumulated over a long period of time, and some garments, such as the ruunpc, took up to three years to complete (Mikami 1986: 87). Imported cloth was valued so highly that Ainu men and women would often wear small cotton strips, usually red, through slits in their ears as a sign of wealth and prestige. Gradually cotton became more available, particularly in areas that had ready access to trade goods,- all-cotton gowns began to appear around the end of the Edo period, but they never totally replaced attush garments.

An Ainu woman put her soul into each stitch as she made a garment because it

42.5

was thought that a garment made without a purpose would not have a soul. The most important thing to know before beginning a new garment was who would wear the clothes (Fujimura 1985a: 17-19). Size was not the source of concern because other than length, there were no structural differences between the garments of men and women. Innovation in design which was highly prized, differentiated women's skill to decide on a design never produced before

42.6 Embroidered Fishskin Boots These fishskin boots were collected by Edward S. Morse in 1882 from the Ainu of the Ishikari River region in Hokkaido, and they are still stuffed with the original cotton grass used to keep the feet warm. It is unusual to find embroidery applied directly to the fishskin, as seen here, because the work could not be transferred to a new garment when the original wore out.

These boots have seen heavy use.

(PEM E491)

and choose the material and colors for it, the seamstress contemplated all aspects of the person who was going to wear the garment and visualized the person as he or she wore it. It was this process that elevated an Ainu garment to wearable art (fig. 42.4).

The basic designs were passed down from mother to daughter,- however, many Ainu girls learned not from formal instruction from their mothers but by accepting the cultural expectation that each girl would become accomplished at this art form on her own initiative, learning all the variations of the regional designs. Among the interesting paintings of Ainu life by Shimanojo Murakami compiled in Ezo-shima kikan (Curious Sights ojEzo Island ) is one that shows an adult woman drawing patterns in the sand at a beach for two little girls to practice (fig. 42.5). Either formally or informally women were expected to learn the basics of Ainu traditional patterns and design and then create their own. Although these designs are extremely complex and each was unique, the seamstress did not use a fixed pattern to trace on the cloth. Ainu designs are a combination of, and variation on, a few simple design elements, but the juxtaposition of many interrelated elements is what makes Ainu designs so exciting and unique.

42/BEGINNINGS OF AINU ART

2 91

While each garment design was an original, most Ainu scholars agree that each band of geographically separated Ainu had a similarity of design that identified the wearer as coming from a certain region. However, this idea has led many researchers to assume that all persons from the same area would wear the same design,- my examination of hundreds of garments suggests that there are too many design anomalies for this to be true.

I hypothesize that when a woman married a man from a different band—which was usually the case—she may have combined the generic designs from each region to create a hybrid that was, in a sense, a totally new design. It must have been very challenging, creatively, to stay within the bounds of tradition and at the same time make the subtle but distinct design changes necessary for peer recognition, social acceptance, and family and personal pride.

42.7 Woman’s Tattooed Arm The Ainu believed that tattoos on the face, arms, and hands protected women from harmful disease and misfortune. Similar types of tattoos were worn by early Eskimo peoples of the Bering Sea region as early as 2,000 years ago. These Ainu tattoos were recorded by Shimanojo Murakami in his Curious Sights of Ezo Island (1799). (HML)

The Meaning of the Designs

The meaning of the designs on clothing has long fascinated Ainu researchers, both Japanese and Western anthropologists as well as native Ainu scholars. While the Ainu tried to live all facets of their lives honoring their gods ( kamuy ), incorporating any of the animal gods in textile compositions was taboo. Nonetheless, many anthropologists have erroneously attempted to attach specific totemic meanings to Ainu designs on garments. For example, R. U. Sayce describes the wavy or zigzag line designs as snakes, even in the simplest or most conventionalized form (1933: 23-24, 156). While snakes do play a

LIVING ARTS/C. DUBREUIL

role in such Ainu religious rituals as exorcism and, to a lesser degree, in their mythology, no other references support Sayce's claim.

In another example, V. and T. Hauge describe designs on the back of some garments as prominent symbols of the owl, guardian god of the village (1978: 247). It would be easy to misinterpret these paired eyelike shapes, which appear frequently in Ainu design, and other stylized designs as bears or other representative forms, particularly if one were influenced by other ethnic art such as that of Northwest Coast Native America and tried to find parallels with it. Another common idea is that all Ainu designs can be traced back to their respect for the bear. However, no Ainu elder or cultural leader, man or woman, supports these ideas.

All of the elder Ainu women I interviewed stated that they would never incorporate designs of wild animals into their garments because they adored, worshipped, and respected animals and their spirits as kamuy. They expressed much fear that the spirits would become angry if they were "trapped" in the design or in any other mode of artistic expression,- this taboo also extended to humans represented in art. Isabella Bird, a wealthy author and adventuress from England who traveled throughout Japan in 1878, experienced this taboo firsthand when toward the end of her trip she spent a month with the Ainu. An amateur artist, she found herself with several elder Ainu men and, unbeknownst to anyone, started to sketch one of them. She states:

1 took a rough sketch of one of the handsomest, and showed it to him, asked if he would have it, but instead of being amused or pleased, he showed symptoms of fear, and asked me to burn it, saying it would bring him bad luck, and he should die (Bird 1881: 109).

Another interesting theory holds that because the Ainu greatly respected and revered all of nature—not just animals, but such inanimate elements as thunder, wind, rain, or snow as well—the creative, personalized designs were also revered. The late Ainu cultural leader Tasuke Yamamoto believed that Ainu women were given by spirits a special consciousness of the natural environment which allowed them to create designs of nature (Yotsuji 1981: 228-29).

The Ainu themselves have also investigated the meaning of these designs,- for

42.8 Knife and Sheath The small multipurpose knife (makiri) was a man's most indispensable implement. It was used to make such sacred objects as inaw (a wooden staff with tufted shavings) and ikupasuy (prayer stick), as well as hunting weapons and domestic utensils. The first estimation of a man's worth was made by a quick glance at his knife sheath, makiri handle, and tobacco case. This knife was obtained from the Ainu at the Louisiana Purchase Centennial Exposition in St. Louis in 1904. (AMNH 70-0002A/B)

42.9 Bone Carving

This small ivory carving in the shape of a whale tail is engraved with typical Ainu whorl designs, but the collection records regarding its provenance are ambiguous: “Ainu Siberia Gilyaks Sakhalin." It was collected by Otto Esche before 1874, from Sakhalin. Its function is unknown, but its small size, ornamental quality, and the presence of a hook indicate that it may have served as a chest ornament or necklace pendant. (PEM E1990)

back prevented evil spirits from entering a person. Examples of this meaning of sermak permeated Ainu life: Ainu men wore their swords hanging from their backs, whereas the Japanese wore swords at their sides. When Ainu men prayed, they sprinkled sake over their heads and shoulders with the prayer stick, ikupasuy, which showed respect to their guardian spirits,- in addition, as an Ainu went out of the house, the hosts would often say "sermaka-omare," which meant "put something on your back." When one Ainu met another, they greeted each other by touching the head and shoulders, which also showed respect to their guardian spirits.

Ainu embroidery likewise seems to have had a prophylactic function. When an Ainu woman left the house, she put on an embroidered garment so that the guardian spirits of these items would protect her from harm (Chiri 1973a: 1 34-36). One of the oldest known Ainu garments is from the Kuriles,- it is made of puffin feathers and is owned by the Hokkaido University Ainu Museum in Sapporo. While it has often been treated as a curiosity, this garment may be a very important forerunner of Ainu design It is made of three white birdskins with sexual organs attached, and there are red embroidered "webs" on the back of the garment. The Kurile Ainu called the upper area of the back eyamatau. From the meaning of eyam, "take good care of," and atau, "a place where a thing is kept," the compound can be translated as "a place where a thing that is taken good care of is kept." It is therefore an important place on the body,- because this design appears on the back of this early garment and the upper back area is often richly embroidered in other garments, it is likely that these designs were intended to protect this special place.

instance, the Ainu cultural leader Shigeru Kayano ( 1978: 59-60) has stated that the idea of designs in general was derived from the concept of warding off evil. Traditionally women embroidered a simple "rope” around the neck, front openings, sleeves, and hem on the earliest garments to keep evil spirits from entering the body. The original rope designs were nothing more than a solid color, usually dark blue, which probably originated from a real-life practice: an Ainu mother working in the mountains or fields with her baby would encircle the infant with a rope to protect it while it slept. Any evil spirits in the area would not be able to enter inside the rope to harm the baby (Kayano 1978: 59-60,interview, Oct. 1984).

The design patterns are also likely related to the highly important concept of sermak, which links the original meaning of the Ainu word sermak, meaning "back" or "shadow," to the belief that protecting the

42.11

Other Ainu scholars have pointed to a similarity in style rather than function as the unifying element in Ainu design: Kindaichi and Sugiyama stated (1942: 18-19) that the basic element of Ainu design was the morew, which means "turn gracefully" in the Ainu language,this is now commonly known as a curvilinear design (figs. 42.6, 42.9). Kayano supports the contention that this pattern, morew-noka, simply means "a shape or motif that turns gracefully" and does not have any other meaning (1978: 58-60). However, it is generally agreed that the use of curvilinear design in the unique Ainu tattoos on the back of women's hands and around their arms was intended to protect them from evil spirits (fig. 42.7). The tattoo design was also a sign of maturity and recognized as such among adults.

One concept that is found repeatedly in the literature, espoused by many Ainu scholars, is that Ainu garment designs are always symmetrical. While there is no doubt that most often symmetry was attempted, I have seen dozens of garments with asymmetrical designs. Some differences are to be expected on handmade objects, such as random width and fluctuation in the length of line or differences in the amount of negative or positive space surrounding patterns. Other garments, however, are very obviously asymmetrical. For example, in one book on Ainu garments, Ainu no mon'yo by Ichiro Yotsuji (1981), there are at least twelve examples

42.11 Three Inaw

Inaw are sacred shaved sticks that symbolize birds, which accompany a man's prayers to the god world. Willow branches were gathered a week (and sometimes as early as a month) before a ceremony; the bark was then peeled and the wood was dried for several days. The sticks were carved into a wide variety of beautiful shapes, each intended for a specific god or function. (ACM)

42.10 Ikupasuy

Prayer sticks, known to Ainu as ikupasuy. are the vehicle through which men communicate with the gods. The carving on the ikupasuy also identified the worshiper. Often misidentified in early literature as a “mustache stick’’ or "mustache lifter,” the ikupasuy carried a man's prayers to the gods. Its artful and creative manufacture was a major concern; hours of thought and energy went into making one. (BMA)

42.10

42.13 Flower Arrow

Blunt arrows with tips carved to resemble partially opened flowers (heper-ay) were used in the iyomante. Carved with the family crest of the owner, these arrows identified the ceremony's sponsor. In some areas, red cloth covered the tip of the arrowhead. Heper-ay were shot at the bear but caused it no harm: their purpose was to excite the animal in preparation for its journey to god land. (MPM N17284C)

42.12 Ceremonial Headdress

A man’s ceremonial costume included a special headdress called a sapaunpe, which was woven from grapevines and other materials. It was common to mount small carvings of bears, wolves, or other animals at the front of the headdress, and flaps of colored silk were sometimes attached to the sides to show wealth. This specimen was collected by Stewart Culin for the Brooklyn Museum in 1912. (BMA 12.574)

of asymmetrical designs that range from the subtle to the overt In almost all cases the differences are found in the bottom half of the garment, from the waist down. In five cases the asymmetry is apparent on both the front and back, while on the remaining seven it is found only on the back. These are genuine compositional differences, although some are not obvious due in part to an "orderly confusion" of design. Unfortunately, limited experience in the past led researchers to believe that the examples of symmetrical designs they encountered were representative of all Ainu designs, and over time this became dogma.

While controversy over the exact meaning of the designs in Ainu garments or the relative importance of the unifying elements continues, it is certain that the skills of Ainu women as makers of these beautiful and unique objects has long been valued.

Ainu Men as Wood Carvers of Art and Artifact

As with women, Ainu men's creative energy seems to have been culturally directed into very narrow areas of expression but was

centered on woodworking. They had at least three intentions: to carve with a singular and absolute spiritual purpose,- to combine spiritual and artistic purpose in their creations,- to embrace the dual intent of utility and beauty. The seemingly endless number of carvings executed by the Ainu men throughout their lives all have intricate designs and beauty of form. Some were created in accordance with religious beliefs, some because of personal ego, and others through household necessity. There are only a few rare examples of toys or other objects carved with the intent of being simply a plaything.

Because until the twentieth century most Ainu men did not have the same definition of "art" as the western world, the Ainu men treated wood with respect, as a living thing from prehistoric times. They believed that if you carved an object with devotion, it would have a spirit of its own. To show their reverence toward these wooden artifacts, when they were worn out or broken the Ainu usually performed a simple ceremony to send the spirit of the wood to god land (see Utagawa, this volume).

The Traditional Ainu Carving Tool: The Makiri

Ainu men have taken great pride in creating a variety of carvings using only a knife called a makiri (fig. 42.8), which was used not only for carving household goods for daily life but also for creating ceremonial objects. This same tool was used for cutting and skinning game and was essential for a variety of other uses. An Ainu boy learned to master the makiri by watching his father or grandfather from an early age.

Ainu men always wore the makiri at their sides, usually encased in an intricately cawed wooden sheath. The design on a sheath and hilt was cawed with devotion by Ainu men, whose carving skill was judged by the quality of both design and technique found thereon. When he had mastered the skills needed to use the makiri, a man was considered to be an independent cawer as well as an adult in the community. Displaying the makiri was a statement of a rite of passage.

The Ainu woman also had her own makiri for cutting cloth or skinning a hide, and this was called menoko-makiri, or woman's knife. When a young man was interested in a young woman for marriage, he carved a beautiful menoko-makiri and gave it to her. If she accepted it and wore it at her side, she had tacitly accepted his proposal (Kayano 1978: 28).

The Prayer Stick: Ikupasuy

The most important article of spiritual and artistic carving was the ikupasuy or prayer stick (fig. 42.10). Normally twelve to sixteen inches (thirty to forty centimeters) long and two to four inches (five to ten centimeters) wide, it usually has rounded edges and is tapered at one end. They were made from yew, willow, or spindle trees and were carved in a somewhat flattened shape (see Maraini, this volume).

42.14 Sword Holder A man's sword ( emush) and sword holder ( emushat ) were among his most important treasures, and Ainu women took took great pride in the manufacture of the woven holder and strap. (N. Tsuda Collection)

Even though the ikupasuy presents a limited area for carving, the Ainu employed an aggressive and creative approach to this space. Low- and high-relief designs ranging from very complex to quite simple are juxtaposed, but the compositions never seem busy. The integration of the prayer stick's religious symbolism and its artistic design are complementary.

In their depiction of religious symbolism, however, the ikupasuy represent a dramatic and interesting departure from anything else in the Ainu artistic repertoire. Although living organisms, including both people and animals, were almost never used in designs for fear of angering the god spirits as discussed relative to Ainu women's art, the ikupasuy was one of the few exceptions to this cultural dogma. In this format the Ainu have made countless artistic renderings of their personal spirit totems, representations that range from exact realism to the most abstract forms. Examples of totemic figures include bears, killer whales, seals, fish such as salmon and swordfish, birds such as albatross and ducks, snakes, and flowers,- objects made by humans also appear, especially boats.

Ceremonial Carvings: Inaw

Inaw are carvings of up to seventeen inches (forty-five centimeters) in length, although some up to eight feet (2.5 meters) or longer are known. They were made from a simple, straight tree limb that was finely shaved and tufted at one end. Although the original definition of inaw has been lost (if there was one), it was—and is—one of the most meaningful artifacts in the Ainu religion (fig. 42.1 I) because it acts as a messenger to the gods. Aside from their spiritual use, inaw have a sublime beauty unusual in traditional Ainu art, which is more often characterized by visual excitement.

Many different types of inaw were carved depending on the type of ceremony, local region, and ranking of the god who was the object of the prayers. The inaw was used only for a specific ceremony or function and was never reused (Fujimura 1982: 76-77).

It has been estimated that several hundred different kinds of inaw were found throughout the Ainu regions (H. Kono 1933b).

The Ainu carved inaw from different types of trees depending on the purpose of the ceremony in which they were used. For the "good gods,'' who brought prosperity, the most common materials were willow and

42.15 Smoking Kit

A man's smoking kit consisted of a tobacco box, a pipe holder, and a pipe. The tobacco box and pipe holder were attached to each other with an adjustable cord regulated with a cowrie shell: these small shiny shells from marine snails were once used as currency in China. This kit is quite different from most traditional ones and takes a more modern form—it has bronze pipe fittings and a simplified tobacco box. This piece was collected by Hiram Hiller in 1901. (UPM A458)

dogwood because the grain is fine, the color is white, and the wood is easy to carve. There is a myth that describes how the Ainu began creating inaw-.

A long, long time ago, the creation god came down to the human land ( Ainu mosir) from the god land ( kamuy mosir ) in order to create a country. After the god created it, he had to go back to the god land, but he couldn't bring the things he used in the human's land. One of these objects was the chopsticks he had used at meals, so he put them in the ground and left them. Soon roots came out of the chopsticks and they became a willow tree. The Ainu knew it was a god tree, and they decided to carve the inaw from that tree. And then they began to offer inaw to the gods (Kayano 1978: 283).

In ritual ceremonies men set several inaw in front of their altar ( nusa ) and dipped an ikupasuy in sacred sake, which was then sprinkled over the inaw as they prayed The Ainu believe that the inaw turns into a bird after receiving a message (kindaichi and Sugiyama 1942: 3-4).

In the traditional Ainu home a variety of inaw were placed around the interior of the house. The inaw for the god of fire was placed in the fire pit and an inaw for the home treasure was placed in the northeast corner of the house. At the so-called "god window" on the east side of the home another type of inaw was placed. These offerings to different gods stayed where they were placed until they fell into

decay, except for the inaw for the fire god, which was burned after a single use (Takakura 1970a: 634-45).

Men's Ceremonial Headdresses: Sapaunpe

Another exception to the rule that human and animal forms be intentionally avoided in design elements (except for ikupasuy) is men's ceremonial headdresses, sapaunpe, which usually have carved totem animals such as bears, killer whales, wolves, or owls attached to the front (fig. 42.12). The headdress is usually made from the woven bark of young tree saplings or from grapevine. These ceremonial headdresses were worn by male participants during the bearsending ceremony ( iyomante ) (see Akino, Kodama, this volume).

Ceremonial Flower Arrows: Heper-ay

Special arrows ( heper-ay ) were carved to shoot the bear during the iyomante ceremony (fig. 42.13). The conical arrowhead, about half an inch (1.25 centimeters) in diameter with the actual point less than a quarter of an inch (0.5 centimeters) in diameter and about one inch (three to four centimeters) long, was darkened with black charcoal and then beautifully carved with the creator's ancestral design ( itokpa ). The tip of the arrowhead was shaved to resemble the petals of a partly opened flower, then a small piece of red cloth was fit over the arrowhead and affixed with more shavings. A shaft about ten to eleven inches (twenty-five to thirty centimeters) long was inserted in the arrowhead.

The Ainu believed that shooting these arrows at the bear let the bear god play just before the bear was put to death. They shot the "harmless” beper-ay arrows at the bear to give it a shock, and when the bear became wild after being hit by the arrows they

42.16, 42.17 Platter and Spatula Ainu whori designs are carved in the center of this beautiful old platter, which was collected for the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939, as indicated by the U.S. Customs label still affixed to it. The fine cooking spatula was used to stir and cut dumplings before its collection by Stewart Culin in 1912. (BMS C13464;

BMA 12.678)

42.16

believed that it was expressing its joy about returning to god land. The number of arrows used was determined by the age of the bear. The leader of the family that sponsored the ceremony was honored by shooting the first arrow, which was incised with their itokpa to let the god know who had staged this event.

SWORDS: EmUSH

Another artifact that Ainu men particularly valued was the sword ( emusb ), which was acquired by trade with the Japanese. Unlike the Japanese, they did not use swords as weapons but only as part of a ceremonial outfit and as symbols of wealth. During the bear-sending ceremony the Ainu men danced with these swords, which were also used in rituals for warding off evil spirits (fnukai 1970: 629-31). Ainu men also personalized these items by carving intricate designs on the sword's wooden scabbard, which hung through a woven sword holder ( emushat, fig. 42.14)— made by an Ainu woman—from their right shoulder to their left hip with the sword resting on the back (see Siddle, this volume).

Tobacco Box and Pipe Holder: Tanpakuop ,■ Tobacco Pipe: Kiseri

Another important carved item was a set of smoking implements (fig. 42.15), which consisted of a tobacco box and pipe holder ( tanpakuop ) and tobacco pipe (kiseri). The hexagonal or octangular shapes of the tobacco boxes are similar to those of the

Japanese medicine case ( inro ). While it is possible that pipe smoking was introduced by maritime traders, it is more likely that the Ainu adopted pipe smoking from their Chinese trading partners. The pipe was made from hardwood, and its stem was as long as fifteen inches (forty centimeters). Although pipe holders are similar in shape to ikupasuy, they have one hole near the end in which to put a pipe head and their designs never included any animals or other significant depictions found on the prayer sticks. Pipe holders instead are carved with delicate curvilinear or geometric designs.

Like the makiri Ainu men customarily wore at their sides, smoking implements were displayed and carried in a similar fashion (see illustration on p. 286). An old custom called "pipe exchange" demonstrates their use in daily life: as a friendly gesture to a person he had met for the first time, an Ainu man filled his pipe with tobacco and offered it to the other man to smoke. His gesture would be reciprocated (Kayano 1978: 246), and in the process of exchanging their tobacco pipes each examined the other's carving levels and skills.

Utilitarian Artifacts

Ainu men also carved such household objects as bowls, trays, ladles, and spatulas (figs.

42.16-42.20). Much of this type of carving is plain and simple, which emphasizes the natural beauty of the wood; however, like

42.18 Bowl

This wooden bowl has heartshaped flower designs carved on each side of it, with a fish-scale background design filling in the area between design elements. Although the overall design is Ainu, use of a heart motif is not typical and may indicate that the piece was commissioned for sale. (PEM E7909)

carved artifacts from other native cultures, such as those found on Canada's Northwest Coast, many of these utilitarian objects are beautifully carved with extremely intricate design elements similar in complexity to those created by women for garments. For example, Ainu women kept their sewing needles in a small tube called a chispo, which was made of wood or bone and hung around the neck (fig. 42.2 1). Because needles were very difficult to acquire until the modern era and were extremely valuable items to Ainu women, Ainu men carved curvilinear designs on these needlecases, very much like those applied by women to garments. Through use and age many very old utilitarian objects have developed a deep and beautiful patina.

Conclusion

Whether manifested as incredible carvings or beautiful textiles, the creativity cultivated by the Ainu produced some of the most impressive art of any indigenous people, and the important knowledge needed to continue these traditions has not been lost. While

42.19 Plate

Ainu wooden bowls and plates are found in a variety of shapes. Small plates were normally used to serve food, while large platters were used for such purposes as kneading dough, washing food, or as cooking utensils. Many elaborately carved platters were made for sale or trade (NMNH 324509)

42.20 Eating Utensil Small flat wooden spatulas were used as eating utensils by children or older people; adults also used them when they ate porridge made of lily roots. Most early pieces, like this one collected by Benjamin Smith Lyman in 1876, had intricate carved designs. (NMNH E022269)

42.18

42.19

42.21 Needlecase

Ainu women kept their sewing needles in smail, beautifully decorated wood, bone, or ivory tubular needlecases (chispo) that they hung around their necks. Needles were stored on a cloth strap that could be pulled out of the case. Because steel needles were expensive and difficult to obtain even as late as the early nineteenth century, they were extremely important items for Ainu women. Needlecases similar to this in form and decoration were used by other native peoples of the North Pacific Rim, including the Koryak, Chukchi, and Yup’ik Eskimos of Alaska. This case was collected in Hokkaido between 1909 and 1929 by Soshichiro Mouri; a Chinese coin is attached to the end of the strap.

(Shin Mouri Collection)

anthropologists record these artifacts in terms of materials, scale, function, and so on, sadly some of the most important information — such as the artist's identity—often was not recorded. Because of incomplete collection notes, it would be extremely difficult—if not impossible—to track characteristic carving styles and distinctive designs to individual artists. Today, however, many modern Ainu textile artists are able to visit museums with Ainu collections in order to examine the techniques used to create these extraordinary garments, and they use this knowledge to produce contemporary examples. Ainu men continue to create traditional wooden objects, especially the sacred ikupasuy, which are still used in ceremonies, and the inaw, which are still placed around the modern Ainu home. Ainu men also continue to practice traditional carving techniques. Many carving designs are dominated by curvilinear elements in the center of the object and delicate fish-scale and/or crosshatching patterns artfully executed around them, and Ainu cultural leader Kayano states (1978: 217) that in the

Nibutani area there has been a rule relating to the carving of these patterns for at least the last hundred years. When fish-scale patterns are carved on an ikupasuy, the stroke of the knife is worked away from the body, but when the patterns are carved on a tray or spatula, the knife is worked towards the body. Although the original reason and meaning for this practice has been lost over time, these rules are still followed today.

There is no doubt that Ainu traditional art is experiencing a revitalization like that experienced by the North American Indians. While Ainu traditional art does not have the worldwide recognition of Native American art or command such high prices in the marketplace, things are changing. The most important instrument of change is the Ainu Shinpo (see Dietz and Tsunemoto, this volume), a law enacted by the Japanese Diet in 1997 that essentially recognizes the uniqueness of Ainu culture and provides funding to protect, preserve, and promote traditional art for generations to come. While the Ainu have no word for art, there is a word they use to describe it: pirika means beautiful, and it is.

43 /Saranip and Tenki: Ainu Basketry and North Pacific Affinities

Nelson Graburn and Molly Lee

F or almost a century, investigators who have studied the basketry of the the Northern Pacific have noted similarities between the basketry of Alaska and Siberia (e.g., Jochelson 1908: 631-32), but to date equally apparent resemblances between Siberian baskets and those of the neighboring Ainu have rarely been explored (Montandon 1937: 107). The reason for this oversight is simple: the Ainu are concentrated in Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan,- thus, investigators tend to stress the relationships between Ainu and Japanese material culture, overlooking cultural elements stemming from their close proximity and cultural ties to Siberia and the North Pacific.

One cultural domain in which these shared similarities are evident is in the coiled and twined basketry traditions of the Ainu and other cultures of the North Pacific Rim. This study provides an historical overview of Ainu basketry, describes Ainu basket types, and then considers these types in relation to basketry of Siberia and Alaska.

Historic-Period Ainu Basketry

The antiquity of woven basketry among the Ainu is difficult to determine. For one thing, information about the material culture of the various Ainu subgroups is uneven. In addition, changes in territory and ethnonyms (names given by ethnic groups) add confusion. At one time the Ainu appear to have occupied

43.1 Twined Basket

Basketry traditions around the globe have ancient roots and are often indicators of cultural contact and change. Ainu basketry has interested anthropologists because of its similarity with that of other North Pacific cultures. Twined-grass baskets like this saranip with a braided rim are nearly identical to baskets made by Yup'ik Eskimos in southwestern Alaska, but whether this is due to ancient connections, recent contact, or chance remains a mystery. (PMC 64026)

territory stretching north from Honshu to southern Sakhalin and the Kuriles. Archaeological evidence and early historical sources, such as the eighth-century Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters) (a.D. 701), place peoples presumed to have been the ancestors of the Ainu in northern Honshu. These people, whom the Japanese called Emishi (barbarians), most probably made the Neolithic pottery figurines that exhibit tattoo patterns and show clothing similar to those of the historic Ainu of Hokkaido. Eventually the Japanese pushed them north onto Hokkaido (Sansom 1958-63: 1:91, 104,- Sjpberg 1993: 1, 109).

Even after their expulsion from Honshu, however, the Ainu were by no means isolated. On Sakhalin they had inter-Ainu trading networks and tributary trade with China and the nearby peoples of the Amur River basin (Stephan 1971: 23-25). Rinzo Mamiya, who visited Sakhalin in 1808-1809, reported (1 855) that they used manufactured Chinese goods gained in their tributary trade with the Manchu dynasty to trade with Japanese merchants, who then traded these goods in Edo (Tokyo) for large profits. At about the same time, the Kurile Ainu were acquiring foreign goods from the encroaching trade networks ot Russia and Japan (Krasheninnikov 1776: 63,-Stephan 1974: 52-54,- Torii 1919:

1 32-35). Finally, in 1945 the Russians drove the Sakhalin Ainu out of Japanese-controlled southern Sakhalin and later that year expelled them from the Kuriles. Both groups resettled in Hokkaido, where Japan's political and

43.2, 43.3 Saranip Ainu women gathered wild vegetables, nuts, and edible roots, which they carried and stored in twined baskets called saranip. Fiber from the inner bark of the elm tree—the same material used to weave traditional Ainu cloth ( attush )—was also used for weaving baskets and produced a tough, durable product. Japanese linden bark, which had a whiter fiber, was also used. Saranip ranged in size from small utility bags to large storage containers like the one seen in this nineteenth-century Ainu-e painting. This bag was collected in Penkatori. Hokkaido, in 1951. (AMNH 70-2/932; BMV)

43.3

43.4 Ainu Folk Crafts Twined saranip baskets are the oldest and most widespread of Ainu basketry types and are found throughout Ainu territory. This illustration comes from the 1978 book Ainu no mingu (Ainu folk crafts), which was written by Shigeru Kayano to document and preserve disappearing Ainu traditions. One of the first such works to be written by a member of an indigenous population, this book is a primary source on Ainu material culture.

cultural policies forced them to assimilate, much as they had forced the Hokkaido Ainu in the nineteenth century.

Ainu basketry is first mentioned in the eighteenth-century literature, but whether it was known earlier is unclear. The archaeological record indicates that predecessors of the Ainu (jomon) in northern Honshu and Hokkaido as well as Sakhalin and the Kuriles made a type of pottery similar to the Japanese (Takakura I960: 22,• Torii 1919: 187-99, 27779), but no basketry is reported, either because it was unknown or because its cellulose fibers did not survive under archaeological conditions. At least by the eighteenth century, however, Ainu culture shared less with the Japanese than it did with the Amur River and Kamchatka peoples. The use of basketry may have arisen through these contacts, but it is unlikely that it was introduced as a substitute for pottery, which was displaced by imported

accounts of Ainu basketry. Only Kayano (1978: 131) points to the spiritual importance of basketry as sentient beings with souls that could punish or reward humans according to the treatment they received,- he also notes that some baskets look like ghosts and are jokingly referred to as such.

Basketry Types and Distribution

Ainu basketry consists of two main types: twined-basketry bags and coiled baskets.

A third category includes a few types typical of Japanese basketry, which were probably made by both Ainu and Japanese (with the latter examples misattributed to the Ainu). Because these descriptions are based on the literature and published illustrations from museum collections rather than examination of a sufficiently representative sample, the types described here must be considered provisional.

43.4

43.5

43.5 Archival Documentation A description of Ainu basketry was first found in notes written by Shimanojo Murakami (also known as Mochimaro Hata) about his 1798 expedition to Hokkaido and the Kuriles. His detailed comments and drawings, which provide information about materials used and construction techniques, were compiled in Ezo-shima kikan (Curious Sights of Ezo Island). (TNM)

iron and lacquerware during that century (Sjqberg 1993: 100-102,-Torii 1919: 188).

Most recently published catalogues of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Ainu material culture include examples of basketry (e.g., Tokyo Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan 1992,Kokuritsu Minzokugaku Hakubutsukan 1993,Kotani 1993b,- Kotani and Kreiner 1993; Kokuritsu Minzogaku Hakubutsukan 1991), though it is overlooked in most ethnographies (e.g., Ohnuki-Tierney 1974,- Ohtsuka 1993; ST.cn berg 1933). Of the ethnographers, Shimanojo Murakami, also known as Mochimaro Hata ( Ezo-shima kikan, cited in Tanisawa and Sasaki 1982), Shigeru Kayano (1978), George Montandon (1937), and Rinzo Torii (1919) offer detailed field-based

Twined-Basketry Bags

The most widespread type of Ainu basket is the soft, utilitarian storage or carrying bag made in several variations of twining (figs.

43.1-43.4). There are many variations of the basic technique, but the Ainu seem to use mainly plain or open-twining with some crosswarp twining for decorative effects (Mason 1970: 232-34). Most of these baskets are finished with a border made by separating the weft strands into groups of four or five and braiding these up a few inches, then fastening the ends of the braids together with a braided border, creating the same effect as eyelet embroidery. The spaces between the gathered and braided weft strands form loops through which a braided cord is run for use

43/AINU BASKETRY TRADITION

43.6 Coiled-Grass Basket

Tenki, baskets of coiled grass, are found primarily in the Kuriles (and to a lesser extent in Hokkaido) and seem to be a more recent addition to Ainu culture.

They are made by building up a spiral coil of bundled grass stems and then sewing each coil to the coil below; this gives the basket a rigid body, making it suitable for use as a storage container. Most Ainu examples are small and have lids. This tenki, which was collected by Alexander Agassiz from Shikotan Island in the Kuriles before 1893, is made with an overlapping stitch that gives it a rough appearance. (PMC 51630)

as a drawstring or tumpline (Mason 1970:

263). Some basketry bags are decorated with a few rows of cross-warp twining. Twinedbasketry bags vary in size from about twelve to twenty-four inches in height.

These twined-basketry bags, known in Ainu as saranip (Kotani 1993b: 96, 108, 125,Kreinerand Olschleger 1987: 59-61), are the earliest and most widely reported of Ainu basketry types (Kayano 1978: 128-31,Montandon 1937: 96). Examples from all three Ainu areas are represented in collections, although most are from Hokkaido. These utilitarian baskets were made by Ainu women, who used them for carrying and storage of household commodities (fig. 43.3), especially for "gathering wild lily bulbs and other wild vegetables" (kokuritsu Minzogaku Hakubutsukan 1991: 167).

The materials Ainu used for twinedbasketry bags vary. According to Saito (1995) the most common was beach grass ( Elymus mollis,- see M. Okada 1988). On his 1798 expedition to Ainu territory Murakami collected a Kurile Ainu twined-basketry bag (fig. 43.5), which is illustrated as Figure 3 in his account of his travels ( Ezo-shima kikan cited in Tanisawa and Sasaki 1982,- Sansom 195863: 3: 176, I 81). The caption contains useful information about basketry materials: "Picture

of a Tenki [a general Ainu term for grass basket] made of morochi [Ainu for beach grass], found in big and small sizes in Shikotan and Etoro [two Kurile islands]. Female Ainu make these beautiful and elaborate crafts that should be cherished" ( Ezo-shima kikan in Tanisawa and Sasaki 1982: 170). According to Murakami, morochi (also called kina by the Ainu) also grew along the Hokkaido shoreline (the name "Hokkaido” included Sakhalin and the Kuriles at that time). Nonetheless, the Hokkaido examples, which comprise the majority in museum collections, mainly use the scraped bast, or inner bark, of trees such as the mountain elm (lllmtts montana var. lacinata), Japanese linden ( Tilia ulmijolia var. Japonica), or wild grapevine ( Vitis coignetiae ) (Tokyo Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan 1992: 44, no. 1215— 27,- Kreiner and Olschleger 1987: 63-64, pi.

56, 57,- Kokuritsu Minzogaku Hakubutsukan 1991: 167). Other fibers include rush ( Juncus effusus var. decipiens), the kind used for the ubiquitous tatami mats in Japan, and reed (Kokuritsu Minzokugaku Hakubutsukan 1993: 103, 1 17, 125-27).

According to Murakami and others, the plant variously called morochi and kina was also called tenkiso or tenkikusa by the Ainu,- -so and -kusa are alternative readings of the Japanese character for grass. These terms translate into Japanese as hamaninniku (literally, "beach garlic," called "beach grass" in English). It will be helpful to note the probable meanings of these overlapping terms. Whereas morochikina seems to be the Ainu name for the whole beach garlic plant (also used as a medicine by the Ainu), the Ainu term tenki was probably reserved for the dried stems and blades that were used for making baskets (Tanisawa and Sasaki 1982: 222, fn. 12). Alternatively, Hata implies that Ainu tenki was used to mean the basket itself,from this we can infer that Ainu tenki-kusa/so means "basket-grass."

Saranip are the only kind of basket described in the early accounts from all Ainu areas and, not surprisingly, are the most common type found in Ainu collections (e g., Kotani 1993b,- Kreiner and Olschleger 1987: 59-61,- Kokuritsu Minzogaku Hakubutsukan 1991: 167: 10-1 1). Of particular note is Murakami's 1798 description of Hokkaido (Yezo) basketry (Tanisawa and Sasaki 1982) and that of by Rinzo Mamiya (I 855) from Sakhalin. Later in his account Murakami related that when he returned to

43.8 Twineo Yup’ik Basket Connections between Ainu basketry traditions and those of other North Pacific cultures seem likely because of similarities in construction and the nearly identical method of gathering the warp remainders into a braided rim, as seen here. Both types appear very early in their respective cultures, so the question of their origin and relationship will have to be pursued through archaeological studies.

(UAFM 554-544G)

Hakodate (southern Hokkaido) "on August 5th [he] met an official and gave him a present of a tenki amikago [woven-grass basket] from Tokachi" (Tanisawa and Sasaki 1982: 253). This is perhaps the first historical account of Ainu basketry assuming the role of tourist art (Low 1976,- Sjpberg 1993: 162,

167, fig. 14).

Coiled Basketry

The number of Ainu coiled baskets (tenki) found in museum collections around the world is smaller than that of the twined

43.7 Decorated Tenki Ainu, like the Koryak and Itel'men peoples of Kamchatka, Yup'ik Eskimos of southwestern Alaska, and Labrador Inuit, decorated coiled-grass baskets with a checkerwork of dyed grass wrappings. This illustration of such decoration on an Ainu coiled basket derives from a 1919 book by Ryuzo Torii.

basketry bags. Nevertheless, these items are significant enough to warrant attention. The baskets are made from beach grass by a technique known as bundle coiling (Mason 1970: 248). Two variants of bundle coiling are found among the Ainu. Kurile Ainu examples have overlapping stitches placed tightly side-by-side (fig. 43.6), and some Hokkaido Ainu baskets are similarly made. One Hokkaido example (Montandon 1937: 96e), however, has stitches placed half an inch apart, giving it a rough, unfinished appearance. Ainu grass baskets are smaller in size than the basketry bags, averaging about two inches (5.5 centimeters) in diameter and four inches (ten centimeters) in height. Some coiled ware is decorated by substituting darker-dyed materials for the shiny, yellowish, dried beach grass. Ainu coiled baskets usually have well-fitted lids, and these sometimes have pulls of braided straw or other material (fig. 43.7). No function is recorded for the Ainu coiled baskets, but their size as well as their mass-produced look suggests that they were probably made as trade items rather than for indigenous purposes,- given the Kurile Ainu's proximity to Kamchatka, where coiled baskets seem to have been made for the marketplace, this seems probable.

Most bundle-coiled grass baskets were made in the Kuriles (Torii 1919: 184, fig.

52), although a few references to grass basketry are found in more recent ethnographies of the Hokkaido Ainu (Kreiner 1993: 29, pi. 5,- Montandon 1937: 103-107,- Kotani 1993b: 78). The Japanese also made coiled baskets for various purposes (Softie et al. 1976), but they are usually made in a different coiling technique called two-rod coiling (Mason 1970: 251) or amikomu ("woven alternately") in Japanese (Miyazaki 1985: 4.2b-e),thus, it is more likely that coiling spread southward from the Kuriles than that it was borrowed from the Japanese (Koji Deriha, personal communication 1997). The Japanese also made small, loosely bundled coiled baskets for bird nests (Rossbach 1973: 106, pi. 127), but these are not mentioned by Sofue (Sofue et al. 1976: 194, pi 1). These resemble the coiled basket from Hokkaido illustrated by Montandon (1937: 96, pi. 26e). Perhaps the more recent Montandon example, which differs from the bundle-coiled Kurile Ainu coiled ware, was borrowed from the Japanese.

Ainu Baskets with Japanese Prototypes

A few examples of anomalous baskets, which seem to be Japanese in origin, have been reported for the Ainu. By far the most widely reported is the basket bag made of matting, also called saranip. Kayano (1978: 204) uses the Japanese term "jutsu," which means "ordinary," to describe the loom-woven baskets in his text (as opposed to the twined type we have described above, which he calls by the special term chie-oshke-saranip in Ainu). They are made like cjoza, the ordinary Japanese mats, which are woven on a simple upright loom. The loom, known for centuries in Japan, Korea, and China, has been in use in Hokkaido at least since the seventeenth century, and indeed, according to Kazuyoshi Ohtsuka (personal communication 1998), the stone weights used for looms, called pit in Ainu, have been excavated from pre-Ainu sites of the Satsumon period.

The warp of the mats is made of bulrushes and the weft of dried and twisted elm or the inner bark of linden (Hilger 1971: 79). Once finished, the mat is sewn into a cylinder to make the body of the basket bag, and the bottom is bent inward and secured to form the base. A traditional saranip border of braided weft strands is then added to form the rim of the basket. Still found commonly in Hokkaido Ainu households in the 1970s, the mat saranip is used for carrying as well as for storage. Mat saranip come in many sizes, from the small ponsaranip with a capacity of about two quarts (1.8 liters) to the enormous totta, an approximately 125-gallon (630 liters) storage basket (Hilger 1971: 80,- Kayano 1978: 126-29).

Another type of Ainu basket that may be borrowed from the Japanese is made in checkerwork, also called plaiting, which is the simplest form of weaving (fig. 43.7). A set of warp strands is laid out horizontally and weft strands of the same dimensions are woven in and out of the warps (Mason 1970: 223). Checkerwork baskets, made in the regular twined-basketry-bag shape (narrower at the bottom) and also in a stiffer, square-shaped variety (Kayano 1978: 126, 205), have been published by twentieth-century ethnographers such as Montandon (1937: pi 26d, f). Like mat saranip, they may be a recent phenomenon in Hokkaido. Montandon also illustrates a basket made in lattice caning (1937: 103, pi. 26f) that he found in two Hokkaido villages. Lattice caning is a typi

cally Japanese technique, but whether the basket was copied from the Japanese or was Japanese-made is unknown,- in any case, lattice-caned baskets are not part of traditional Ainu culture.

Regional Specificity

There are still many unanswered questions about the distribution of Ainu basket types. This is due in large part to the sketchy information in early accounts, inadequate documentation of museum examples, and/or historical circumstances, in particular the forced removal of the Kurile and Sakhalin groups and the question of which basketry traditions they brought with them and which had been practiced in Hokkaido all along.

Descriptions of types, techniques, and functions of baskets in the nineteenth-century literature are minimal, but there are a number of helpful illustrations of baskets in these accounts. Illustrations of Ainu life, particularly early Ainu-e paintings, often include illustrations of baskets. For example, a catalogue from the Tokyo Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan (Tokyo National Museum of History) includes two Ainu-e plates showing twined saranip (1993: 53, pi. 2a, b). Rinzo Torii (1919: fig. 53) includes a photograph of two Ainu women making baskets,- in the same photo is a man making a house model, a commodity normally made only for outsiders, which suggests that basketry, too, may have been made as souvenirs as well as for Ainu consumption (Torii 1919: pi. VXII-C). Finally, a latenineteenth-century Japanese illustration of an Ainu house interior includes a twined basket with its characteristic rimloops (Tokyo Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan 1993: 9, pi. 9).

The twined-basketry bag seems to have been made in all three locations (Kreiner and Olschleger 1987: 59). Compared to baskets from the Hokkaido and Kurile Ainu, however, examples from Sakhalin are rarely mentioned in the ethnographic literature and are sparsely represented in museum collections. These small numbers mirror the paucity of ethnographic data from Sakhalin generally. One possible explanation for the lack of artifacts is that Sakhalin was the main conduit of trade between China and Japan, and thus the local Ainu had greater access to such imports as the iron pots and lacquerware that replaced basketry and pottery in small-scale societies across the world (Harrison 1954: 291).

Of the few Sakhalin saranip that have

43.9 Modern Yup’ik Basket Rita Pitka Blumenstein, a Yup'ik Eskimo artist, has been making coiled baskets since childhood. This example shows Yup’ik-style checkerwork decorations similar to those found on Koryak, Itei'men, Labrador Inuit, and Ainu coiled baskets. The fact that coil basketry appears to be only a few hundred years old in the Kuriles and Hokkaido suggests that this tradition might have been introduced by Ainu contacts with peoples of Kamchatka, possibly with the assistance of early explorers and whalers active in these regions in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. (R. Blumenstein Collection)

been reported (e.g., Kreiner 1993: 29), most appear to have been made of dried nettles (Urtica takedana) rather than the grass commonly used as material in the Kuriles or the elm and linden bark used in Hokkaido.

It also may be that the Sakhalin Ainu used birch-bark baskets like those of the Nivkhi of northern Sakhalin. This is suggested by an illustration of two birch-bark specimens collected in Sakhalin at the turn of the century (Kreiner and Olschleger 1987: 37, fig. 22, 63-64, pi. 56-57).

Ainu and North Pacific Traditions

The foregoing described several types of Ainu basketry and considered the relationship between them and the basketwork of the neighboring Japanese. Two types of Ainu basketry—the twined-basketry bags ( saranip ) and the less-common coiled ware ( tenki) — do not have Japanese prototypes. This raises a final question: what is the relationship between Ainu twined and coiled ware and that of other nearby peoples?

Twining

Wide distribution as well as archaeological and historical evidence support the claim that twined-basketry bags similar to the Ainu saranip occur widely throughout the North Pacific (Koya 1937,- Mason 1970: 397, pi. 138-40,- Montandon 1937: 107-1 10,- Popov 1954; Torii 1919: 77-89). Archaeologically, shreds of twining have been excavated from late prehistoric sites along the coast of the Chukotka Peninsula (Sergei Arutiunov, personal communication). In the Aleutian Islands, excavations in the Kagamil caves have yielded twined fragments, including at least one open twined-grass carrying basket (Dali 1878: pi. 7). Elsewhere in Alaska twined ware is documented for the prehistoric populations from Point Barrow to the Alaska Peninsula (Giddings 1964: 70). Farther south, on the northern tip of the Olympic Peninsula, open-twined fragments dating from circa A.D. 1350-1500 have been excavated at Ozette (Gleeson and Grosso 1976: fig. 15). Even without evidence that twining was used for basketry bags in all cases, this widespread distribution certainly suggests that its practitioners may have belonged to a larger, culturally related group.

This evidence is bolstered by the distribution of twined-basketry bags during the historic period. Closed twined-basketry bags of grass or woven nettle fiber are found among the Ainu's closest Siberian neighbors, the Kamchadal (Itel'mens) and the Maritime Koryak (Jochelson 1908: 633-37, 708). Braided borders are known for the Koryak (Popov 1954: 117, pi. 24), though large soft bags of other types were equally common, especially close-twined bags decorated with allover geometric designs made by inserting darker-colored warp-strands (Jochelson 1908: 707).

The most striking similarities to the Ainu saranip, however, are found on the opposite side of Bering Strait, among the Aleuts and the Central Yup'ik (Eskimos) of the Bering Sea (Nelson 1 899: 202,• Shapsnikoff and Hudson 1974). The Aleut examples are cylindrical, open-twined, and share the same looped and braided rim finish with the Ainu. In construction techniques, the Central Yup'ik twined basket (fig. 43.8) is virtually indistinguishable from Aleut and Ainu examples.

One compelling historical fact links Aleut and Ainu twined weaving. According

to Valerii Shubin (1994), the Russian American Company sent Aleut and Koniag Eskimo sea-otter hunters to Urup, Simushir, and Shumshu Islands, the northernmost Kurile Islands, between 1828 and 1870. Shubin does not list twined-basketry fragments among his findings of 10,000 archaeological objects, whether because of seeming insignificance, because none survived, or because none appeared in the excavations (Shubin 1994: 341— 44). He does note, however, that Aleut and Koniag women were sent along with the hunters in the migrations of the 1820s and 1830s (Shubin 1994: 338). Assuming that cross-fertilization could have occurred at this time, it is unclear in which direction the twined-basketry bags traveled. On one hand, Murakami had collected one Ainu saranip earlier ( Ezo-shima kikan, cited in Tanisawa and Sasaki 1982: 170),- on the other, William Healy Dali excavated fragments of a twined basket in the Kagamil caves in the Aleutians in the 1870s. Whether these fragments have been radiocarbon-dated is unknown. Thus, Shubin's research raises as many questions as it answers, though it does provide us with one definite point in time when a transBeringian cross-fertilization of culture could have taken place. In the broader context, then, the Ainu examples seem to be the westernmost occurrence of a weaving technique with a scattered distribution along the Pacific Rim from Ainu-occupied Hokkaido to northern California.

Coiled Basketry

Compared to twined basketry, the bundlecoiled grass basketry practiced by the Ainu has had a more limited temporal and spatial distribution across the North Pacific. Ainu coiled basketry seems to have occurred only marginally—if at all—on Sakhalin and was limited mainly to the Kuriles,- some later examples were collected in Hokkaido, where they probably were made by basketmakers from the northern islands or their descendants who resettled there.

Coiling was probably introduced to the Kurile Ainu by way of the Kamchadal (Itel'men) because the two groups jointly occupied the southernmost tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula as well as the Kurile

Islands according to Stepan Krasheninnikov, who explored the area between 1735 and 1741. He points out that Shumshu, the nearest of the Kuriles, was occupied jointly by Kamchadal and Ainu, and that the extent of intermarriage between them made it difficult to distinguish one from the other (Krasheninnikov 1776: 3, 58, 70, 195, 295, 311, see also Kreiner and Olschleger 1987:

13 and Montandon 1937: 1 10). Both the Kamchadal and the Maritime Koryak to the north of them are known to have practiced coiled basketry. In the Jesup Expedition collections deposited at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, are fifteen Koryak coiled grass or nettle baskets and three from the Kamchadal (Lee 1995: 66 and Lee research notes),- they are virtually indistinguishable from one another and closely resemble Ainu coiled grassware (Montandon 1937: 107-109,- Torii 1919:

183, pi. 52). Krasheninnikov illustrates two Maritime Koryak examples that are clearly part of this same tradition (Krasheninnikov 1776: 218). Moreover, the Eskimos of western Alaska began making baskets (fig. 43.9) that closely resemble the Koryak coiled ware (Nelson 1899) as early as the 1870s, a period of lively trade between American whalers and traders and various native groups on both sides of Bering Strait and as far south as the Sea of Okhotsk (Lee 1995: 64).

It seems likely that coiling spread to the Ainu from Kamchatka and that the technique was established in this area far more recently than twining,- not only was its distribution more limited, but there is no convincing evidence that coiling was known in prehistoric times on either side of Bering Strait (Lee 1995: 57). The existence of coiling in the North Pacific, of which the Ainu coiled baskets serve as the southwestern boundary, is evidence of intergroup trading connections facilitated by the broader Asian or European-Asian "world systems" economy trade that took hold in Siberia during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (Lee and Graburn 1997). This system created a web of interdependent relationships between the peoples of Japan, the East Asian mainland, the Ainu homelands, the Kamchakta Peninsula, and northeastern Siberia.

44 / A Personal Rebirth through Ainu Traditional Basketry

Nobliko Tsuda

M y grandparents are Matoku and Saki Miyamoto, who lived in Shiraoi. My father was Ainu, born as the second son, and my mother is Japanese. When I was with grandmother Saki -fucbi 1 came in contact with Ainu customs for the first time. My earliest memory of my grandfather Matoku-ehis/.k is of sitting on his lap, running my fingers through his long beard while listening to him tell a story. He was making the image of a big wave as he told me a story about how difficult it was to shoot a gun on the sea, because the waves rocked the boat. He told me that he had been to northwestern America to catch sea otter and he specifically mentioned the coffee he drank there—it must have been very fine coffee because he never forgot that memory. He also talked about swordfish (sirikap; fig. 44.2). I can vividly remember him saying: "You see, a very large fish called sirikap

44.1 Making a Basket

As part of their activities at the Louisiana Purchase Centennial Exposition held in St. Louis in 1904, Hokkaido Ainu demonstrated techniques for producing twined and coiled baskets for fair visitors. Shirake and Yazu demonstrate the use of a suspension yoke to make a twined-grass basket in this photograph by Jesse Tarbox Beals. (NAA 98-10382)

swims in the ocean. The eyes of sirikap were so big, and while the entire fish is fine-tasting, the eyes were the most delicious part."

Last year 1 had occasion to talk about my grandparents to Mr. Okino of the Agriculture Department Museum at Hokkaido University. After listening to my stories, he said, "Let's go see the eyes of the sirikap," and he took me to his specimen room. Obviously there were no "delicious eyes" on the skeleton hanging from the ceiling of the room, but there were two big holes wider than Mr. Okino's outstretched fingers. I was excited to

have confirmed that story from my childhood. I thank both of my grandparents for leaving me these memories.

My uncle's wife was very good at knitting,- she knitted using thread connected to the edge of a braid hanging from the ceiling, and as her fingers moved in what seemed like complicated dances the braid developed little by little (fig. 44,1). When I was probably eight years old or so, I remember her knitting a braid from which to hang a sword ( emushat ). It was as if 1 were watching magic.

I became interested in Ainu knitting when I was about twenty-two years old. 1 visited the Ainu elder, Tare Urakawa-/«cLi, to learn how to make the pattern for the emushat and the backpack strap (tar). It was in October 1968, and I stayed overnight at her place in Urakawa, learning knitting and chatting about this and that. When Tare learned that I often did not feel well, she opened the door of the wood heater, adjusted the wood with an iron poker, and twisted a thin line of white and black threads that she held with her teeth. Then, in the Ainu manner, she prayed, gesturing with the twisted thread three times toward the burning fire. After that she said, "1 wish you good health," and she tied the twine around my wrist. I later learned that the thread was an amulet ( ekaeka ,- fig. 44.3).

For twenty years after that incident 1 was not involved with Ainu culture because 1 got married and was busy raising my children, but later I began to think of my heritage. I thought that objects that were stored in museums might reveal aspects of my ancestral culture, so I went to the Agriculture Department Museum of Hokkaido Llniversity to study them. I completed a replica of one item in two weeks, although it was hard work,when it was done, I was deeply moved by the fact that I had just made a copy of one of the tools the Ainu people had valued since the old days. However, I was also overwhelmed by a sadness 1 could not control: I neither speak nor understand the Ainu language,- 1 did not know how Ainu people think and behave,I did not understand various things I would have known if I had been brought up in an Ainu environment. That was the moment when 1 truly understood that I had to study my culture. Gradually I realized that I could learn directly from elders in the community who still knew the old ways, in addition to getting knowledge from books and material

44.2 Ikupasuy with Swordfish

Swordfish, along with whales, orcas, and bears are among the large animals that were most important for Ainu subsistence and in their spiritual life. This prayer stick (ikupasuy), which has a lacquer finish, combines foreign symbols—a yin-yang motif and hearts—with a native motif, swordfish. (BMA 12.317)

44.3 Female Spirit Guardian

The power of this amulet is greatly enhanced by its sacred lanyard made of twisted strands of black-and-white cord. Such cords (eka eka) were made and used by women to help ward off evil spirits, especially those dangerous to health and fertility. (AMS 61022)

goods. In 1990 I was able to begin visiting many people.

Through various encounters with older women I learned a great deal about handcrafts. Nabe Shirosawa of Chitose in Hokkaido gave me a particularly valuable lesson in May 1992, the year before she died, when she was eighty-six years old she taught me how to weave a grass basket (saranip ) from the recollections of her youth. Until then saranip weaving had died out in the Chitose region, but through her instructions I was able to continue the tradition.

The death of anyone who can orally relay traditions is a great loss for the Ainu culture. The government did not prohibit us from making Ainu crafts,- the inadequate preservation of Ainu traditional knowledge was due to the prohibition of the Ainu language and the ban on traditional methods of hunting and salmon fishing. It is also true that the need for making daily necessities by hand decreased because of the availability of cheap, machine-made Japanese products. While the technique for weaving a sword strap was not inherited because swords are no longer used, the technique has survived, and the number of people who can weave the strap is increasing. Some technologies that once were thought to be lost are now being revived by the reproduction of museum items and artifacts, but these skills must be integrated into our daily lives even though they may not be everyday

necessities. Through efforts to preserve original techniques, Ainu culture can be regained.

Handcrafts of Ainu Women

The Ainu people, who led a hunting and gathering existence, had to make their daily necessities by hand, including their clothes, mgs, bags, and straps. Lacking measuring devices, they used body parts, such as the width or length of fingers or a hand, for measuring.

Woven baskets ( saranip) were used for carrying food and as containers for food storage (figs. 44.4, 44.6). Made of such materials as linden or cattails, their size ranges from large bags for food preservation to small ones for holding items like cigarettes or lighters,- they do not have lids and their rims are sometimes braided. There are two ways to make them, one using tools and the other not.

The method Nabe Shirosawa employed was the latter (figs. 44.5). She had never made a saranip herself, but as a child she had watched others making them. Her power of recollection was amazing, and she taught me, as follows: prepare the warp and weft,- make the bottom part first,- attach the ring-formed part, which was made according to the length of the bottom- tie the ring with a hanging thread and suspend it,- weave the body part as it hangs. The trick to this process is hooking the ring and hanging string. A simple ring is made using a twig attached to the bottom of

44.4 Woven Basket This twined elm-bast basket (saranip), collected in Piratori, Hokkaido, by Bashford Dean for the American Museum of Natural History in 1900, shows a complicated decorative weaving pattern. (AMNH 70/4094)

the saranip, to which the hanging string is hooked, then dangled. The hanging string is measured according to the length of both arms extended, and the ring at the bottom is tied at the end of the string. The strings for the second and the third locations are passed through from the other side, and the end of the string is tied and fastened at the fourth place. The first and fourth locations are fixed, but the second and third are adjustable so that the strings can be set at the same length.

Toyo Sasamura showed me another method that suspended the starting ring with four strings rather than one. She told me a story: "Once, when I went out with my elder sisters for mountain work, it started raining suddenly, so we waited for the rain to stop in a hut. Someone said, 'Let's have fun,' and we began making saranip, really fast!" They used bark from a nearby tree, which they peeled with a hatchet.

Saranip can also be woven with an

upright loom (iteseni), which is also used for mat weaving (fig. 44.7). In order to use this loom, two stones (pit) are needed for each warp. If you weave using ten warps, twenty stones will be necessary. The structure is made of two three-legged tree limbs with a detachable straight limb as a cross member so it can come apart for easy transport.

Ainu women handcrafted various other items, including: skin clothes and footwear,bags for the transport, gathering, and storing of food and for storing rugs and bedding,- and mats, which were used not only as floor coverings but also to help insulate the walls of the house. The materials for these products were secured by both men and women.

People gathered tree bark in the spring, and after it fermented and was rinsed with water it was dried and stripped into threads for making fabric. Grasses and cattails, the materials used for mats, were also gathered in summer and dried in a shady and breezy place. Men

44.5 Basketry Technique

These diagrams by the author illustrate stages in the production of saranip using a suspension system, (courtesy of Nobuko Tsuda)

44.6 Plaited Basket

Baskets using the same twining and rim-braiding techniques found in elmbast baskets could also be made with strips of reed, bulrush, or thin wood splints. Although more fragile than elmbast baskets, plaited baskets could be produced quickly and were handy for storing clothing and household effects.

44.6

44.7

and women also caught salmon and dried their skins for making boots and rainproof garments. Throughout the rest of the year these materials, which were indispensible to Ainu life, were processed and produced, especially during the winter when it was difficult to work outside. It was during this period that Ainu women took up their looms and needles and began the laborious, artful task of producing the garments whose design and decoration signified, more than any other product, the identity of the Ainu people.

44.7 Weaving with a Loom

Saranip may also be produced with a standing loom frame, which was more frequently employed for making large floor and wall mats as illustrated in the photograph of the artist’s grandmother, (courtesy of Nobuko Tsuda)

LIVING ARTS / N. TSUDA

45 Clothing and Ornamentation

Mari Kodama

I NDIGENOUS PEOPLE FROM EVERY CORNER of the world are known for their artistic ingenuity in the areas of clothing and fashion. It boggles the modern mind to see the creativity of our ancestors' dress, whoever they might have been. From the earliest times clothes were always more than a way to keep warm and dry,- fashion was a byproduct of invention, personal expression, and the influence of other cultures. Ainu fashion (fig. 45.1 ) certainly fits this description.

Gender roles determined the form of artistic expression practiced by members of Ainu society, as it did in many ancient cultures. Women, by virtue of the fact that they made all garments and other fabric items, were totally responsible for clothing design, which is one of the most distinctive and public forms of Ainu art. Designs, decorative features, and the names of these varied depending on region, intermarriage, individual creativity, and materials available.

45.1 A Variety of Fashions

Ainu seamstresses produced a wide variety of clothing types with designs that varied from region to region. This illustration from Shimanojo Murakami's Curious Sights of Ezo Island (1799) shows Hokkaido Ainu wearing many different types of clothing, from fur and feather to fabrics, while performing a circle dance. (HML)

Clothing materials can be divided into two general categories: those of animal origin and those of plant origin. A third category involves materials that the Ainu did not procure locally from natural sources but obtained from Honshu or the Asian continent, either as intermediate fabrics or as finished products. Clothes made of animal materials include hide—from both land and marine mammals—birdskin, and fishskin garments,- plant products were derived from bark and grass fibers. The Ainu also made

clothes from cotton obtained from neighboring regions, while silk was introduced only in such finished products as textiles from Honshu and cloth imported by Santan traders from the continent via Sakhalin (Ezonisbiki, calico, muslin, velvet, and other Chinese cloth) (see S. Sasaki, this volume).

Animal-hide materials were derived from land and sea animals. Land animals whose hides were used for clothing included bear, deer, raccoon dog, fox, dog, and rabbit. Besides providing material for clothing, these hides were used as outerwear in cold weather, sometimes with fur intact and sometimes with the fur removed. Among the sea mammals, seal, sea otter, fur seal, and sea lion were often used in the clothing of the Sakhalin Ainu , whose women also used animal fur for their hairbands. Ainu-e, the prints and drawings that provide some of the earliest visual evidence about this culture, include images of Hokkaido Ainu wearing animal-hide clothing as late as 1800.

Like other North Pacific native peoples, the Ainu made durable and stylish clothes from a variety of fish (see Dubreuel this volume), including salmon, Sakhalin trout, ito (Japanese buchen), and others,- several dozen fishskins were required to make one garment. For birdskin clothes (fig. 45.6), skins (with their feathers attached) of seabirds such as tufted puffin, goose, seagull, and albatross were used to produce light, warm, and waterproof garments. Birdskin clothing, worn primarily in the Kuriles, where land mammals were mostly absent, is extremely rare even in museum collections.

The Ainu people utilized the wild game they hunted for more than just hides to make clothing and ornaments. Of course, the meat and internal organs of the animals were food sources, and bone, ivoiy, and horn were made into utensils, hunting tools, and sewing needles. Sewing thread made from both animal sinew and plant fibers was an indispensable commodity.

Two types of cloth were made from plants: bark and grass. Bark cloth (attush) was made by weaving fiber obtained from the endodermis of the elm tree,- the Japanese linden and the harunire (litmus davidiana planch var. japonica Nakai,- chikisani [Ainu]), were also sometimes used, but the quality was inferior to that of the elm. Garments made from bark cloth (fig. 45.7) were worn as formal clothes if they were appliqued or embroidered,

45.2, 45.3, 45.4 Preparing Ohyo

In addition to its use for making cord, rope, and basketry, the inner bark (bast fiber) of the Japanese elm (fig. 45.2) provided fiber for weaving attush. the staple material used to make Ainu clothing before cotton and silk fabrics were imported. Preparing ohyo involved stripping bark from the elm (fig. 45.3) while leaving enough so that the tree would survive. The soft inner bark was then separated from the outer bark and submerged in water for several days, as shown in this illustration (fig. 45.4) from a nineteenth-century copy of Shimanojo Murakami's Curious Sights of Ezo Island. Within a few days the fibers loosened and could be peeled into strands that could be used to make thread and cord, (courtesy of M. Kodama; HML; NMNH 150677)

45.4

nonpatterned ones were used as casual wear. The fiber for grass cloth came from the endodermis of the nettle plant found growing wild in the fields (fig. 45.5a) ; like elm bark, these fibers were twisted into thread, which was then woven on a loom. Such fabrics were once woven in Sakhalin, but because this technique has been lost, nettle weaving is known only from old documents and existing garments.

Gathering and Treating Bark-Fiber Materials

The lengthy process of making attush begins with gathering plant materials and processing them as thread. To test the quality of the fiber a small cut is made into the bark of a young elm tree whose surface has not

matured and become rough. Once the quality of the hark has been determined, a cut of about five to six inches (twelve to fifteen centimeters) is made and the strip of bark is peeled off (fig. 45.3).

After the bark is peeled, its outer surface is immediately removed, for once it dries it will not come off. The inner bark is then soaked in a hot spring—or for about a week or longer in a slow-moving stream or swamp water—to soften it (fig. 45.4) so that it will be easy to split. Once the bark is divided into several pieces it is taken out of the water and its sliminess is removed by running water,- if this slimy layer is not removed thoroughly, the bark cannot be peeled thin because the layers will stick to each other when dried.

The washed inner bark, which may have as

LIVING ARTS/M KODAMA

45.5 a-e From Fiber to Fabric

Once elm bast was separated into strands, it was twisted into twostrand thread and rolled into balls or skeins. Women performed the laborious task of twisting thread, documented in this Ainu-e from a nineteenth-century copy of Shimanojo Murakami's Illustrations of Ezo Livelihood.

In Hokkaido and Sakhalin fiber was also extracted from the nettle plant; it was obtained by a slightly different process than that used for elm bast. Bronislaw Pilsudski's 1903-05 photograph (a) illustrates nettle-fiber preparation. Garments made with nettle fiber were finer and lighter in color than rough, golden-colored attush and created a striking contrastive ground for embroidery.

Cloth was woven on a backstrap loom so simple and efficient that it could be packed into a small bag. This loom could produce narrow straps and belts, or bolts of cloth up to 15 to 20 centimeter wide. A backstrap loom is tensioned by a strap or, in the Ainu version, by a wood brace that fits around the back of the operator's waist. By leaning back the operator causes the warp to tighten and the various parts of the loom can function. The loom parts illustrated here (d) from left to right include a warp guide (wosa), separator (kamakap), warp rolling post (ahunkani), weft spool and heddle (sokobo; pekauuni), weft beater (attush-pera), cloth roll stick (itumamuni), and backstrap brace (ishitomushni). The spatulashaped weft beater (e), used to spread the warps and tamp in the wefts, was often carved with beautiful Ainu designs.

(a = NA A47380; b = NAA 47545; c = HML; d = courtesy of M. Kodama; e = PEM E3105)

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45.6 Duckskin Robe

Ainu living in the northern Kuriles did not have access to the hides of such fur-bearing animals as bears and deer to produce warm winter clothing, so they made use of a readily available resource: ducks. Skins of ducks, cormorants, gulls, puffins, albatrosses, ravens, and other marine birds were often used for clothing by island-dwelling peoples throughout the North in places where land mammals were absent or rare. In addition to being plentiful, duckskins could be pieced together to produce beautiful patterns. This robe, collected from the Kuriles by Alexander Agassiz before 1893, is one of the few Ainu feather robes extant. (PMC 51603)

many as nine layers, is dried for four to five days in the sun. Fibers from the inner bark are long and must be split carefully by hand,- they are then twisted and tied into a skein (fig. 45.5c).

Clothing Made from Imported Cotton

Other textiles were introduced to the Ainu from nearby areas, typically in the form of old cotton remnants and used garments. The legend of the Honshu fisherman whose cotton clothing was replaced with a hide outfit when he was blown ashore in Ainu territory illustrates the importance the Ainu placed on cotton garments.

Cotton clothing was made from old cotton remnants that were patched together into a full robe. The robe would then be appliqued with cutouts of silk and other materials and embroidered. The length of this garment originally was about four inches (ten centimeters) below the knee, but as time passed

it eventually settled at the level of the ankle. Such cotton garments open in the front, have sleeves, and look identical to a Japanese kimono at a glance, but they have neither the vertical collar nor the uniformly wide sleeves specific to a kimono,- instead, the sleeves taper from the armpit to the wrist.

Tapered sleeves ( mojiri ) are the most common type of sleeve seen on Ainu robes. This form was utilized primarily for working clothes in Honshu because the angled cut at the bottom made it easier to move the arm, whereas the square-cut dangling sleeve of the Japanese formal kimono interfered with the wearer's ability to perform many tasks and so signified that the person was at leisure. Ainu garments were more practical. Although the wide Wajin (Japanese) sleeve is often seen in clothing made of attush, only a few cotton garments use this sleeve type. Other sleeve types that utilize minimal fabric (like the mojiri ) are tube and boat-bottom.

are then surrounded on both sides with white chain-stitching.

Many cbikarkarpe are still worn today in former ports and fishing sites on the west coast of Hokkaido (fig. 45.9). The garments in this region are longer and come in two forms: one type utilizes men's Japanese kimonos from Honshu which are then appliqued and embroidered; the other removes the vertical collar from the kimonos and adds embroidered applique. The width of the applique of this garment is a bit narrow, and the space between the appliques is wide. Much of the embroidery is done with single chain-stitch.

Chijiri

These clothes have embroidered patterns only, with no applique (fig. 45.10). In addition to cotton, velvet and serge are sometimes used. Some chijiri are embroidered over the entire surface area,- others have patterns on the upper and lower parts of the back or collar and the bottom edge of the garment, or on the end of the sleeve. In the Asahikawa region, colored thread is used for this embroidery, while elsewhere monochromatic thread is used

Ruunpe

45.7 Attush Robe

This bark-cloth (attush) robe was donated to the Peabody Essex Museum in 1916 by six friends: Edward S. Morse, W. S. Bigelow,

C. S. Rea, W. C. Endicott, P. Lowell, and R. Osgood. Although the place and date of its origins were not recorded, it was probably collected in Hokkaido in the late nineteenth century. (PEM E16503)

Cotton clothes are categorized into four groups, described below: cbikarkarpe, chijiri, ruunpe, and kaparamip. Differences in these four are mainly in the type of cotton used, appliques, and cutout patterns, but there are many regional differences as well.

Chikarkarpe

Cbikarkarpe fall into three different categories. One type still in use in the Shizunai region is made of thick striped cotton ( shima ) and is appliqued all over with black or dark-blue cotton. Another type is made of a soft cotton with dyed designs. It is appliqued with black or dark-blue cotton at the hip area and in the upper and lower back,- the back midsection does not have a design In the Saru River area, the chest of the garment also remains without ornamentation. Many garments from this region have a distinctive style of patterning at the bottom edge: red thread is used to make embroidered patterns in the central area which

Among Ainu clothing, ruunpe (figs. 45.11, 45.12) is the most colorful and intricate and boasts a large amount of applique and embroidery. The applique cloth consists of a narrow band that is sewn straight or turned in right angles to make patterns. In addition to red silk bands, which were most commonly used, applique was applied to remnants of kosote (a type of muslin), calico, and white cotton hand towels with narrow stripes. These garments are made of old cotton remnants with a narrow extension under both arms to extend the width of the design, and sometimes extra cloth is added at the hip. The ruunpe collar takes two forms: in one version a cloth is attached to the back collar area and is then embroidered,- in the other, more applique is sewn to the collar and then embroidered. The front area has a simple collar-type applique. The edge of the applique is sewn to the garment in a manner similar to the method used in making fishskin clothes among the Sakhalin Ainu, the Nivkhi, and the Nanai, who live in northern Sakhalin and near the mouth of the Amur River. The applique pattern seen at the

45.9 Chikarkarpe Robe

(AMS)

45.9-45.14 Ainu Robe Series

Most of the robes in this series illustrate prominent styles used by the Hokkaido Ainu; the nettle-fiber cloth in fig. 45.14 is characteristic of Sakhalin.

45.8 Ainu Robe and Japanese Kimono

Ainu robe (a) and Japanese kimono (b) shapes are illustrated in these two drawings by M. Kodama. The major difference between them is that Ainu garments have tapered rather than square-cut sleeves; there are other differences as well, especially in their decorative treatment.

45.15 Spearing Octopus

This Ainu-e from Teiryo Kodama’s eighteenth-century Scenes from Ezo Island shows Ainu gathering food at the seashore. The figure spearing an octopus is wearing a gold-colored bark-cloth (attush) garment while the middle figure holding the basket is wearing clothing made from bleached nettle fiber, (courtesy of M. Kodama)

45.10 Chijiri Robe

(AMS)

bottom edge of the garment and the tip of the sleeve also resembles designs used by the Sakhalin Ainu, suggesting some kind of connection between them.

Ruunpe are seen on the Pacific coast (Uchiura [Volcano] Bay) of Hokkaido from Yakumo to Abuta, Usu, and Shiraoi, while people in the Hidaka region do not even know the word. Ruunpe are of several types: the applique may be made only from narrow pieces of cloth, or, as in Shiraoi, made with patterns cut out of twelve-inch-wide (thirty

45.11 Ruunpe Robe

(AMS)

centimeters) pieces of muslin, silk, or calico, with remnants applied to the upper back part of the garment. Many of these remnants are red, but other colors are also used. One of the characteristics of some ruunpe is a contrasting color thread that is placed alongside the applique, and this thread and the applique are cord-stitched together. This method is often employed on ruunpe using silk, muslin, and calico applique.

Sewing thread is made from such plants as nettle and staff trees (tsuruume modoki; Celastrus obiculatus tbuub). The nettle plant is made into embroidery thread,- black, white, and red cotton thread and colored silk ( komacbi ) thread are also used for ruunpe embroidery.

Kaparamip

Kaparamip are cotton clothes with a large amount of white cloth appliqued in cutout patterns. The layout of the white cloth varies depending on the desired pattern. In one type the white cloth is used vertically, covering from the bottom of the back body to the chest

45.12 Ruunpe Robe

(AMS)

45.13 Kaparamip Robe

(AMS)

45.14 Retarpe Robe

(AMS)

45.16 Women of Piratori

In 1909 a collector of Ainu materials asked a group of Ainu women from Piratori to pose for a picture in their ceremonial garments. The woman on the left is wearing a robe that Mary Sharpies Schaffer purchased for the University of Pennsylvania Museum (seen in fig. 42.4). It was rare for photographs to be taken of Ainu using or wearing objects that were then acquired by museum collectors, (photo by Mary Schaffer, WMCR)

area of the garment,- in another, white cloth is used horizontally from the back to the front of the body.

Many kaparamip are made with these methods. Some of the earlier styles of kaparamip had patterns made up of individual small pieces of white cloth, while others were made by stitching together small pieces of white cotton cloth to make one large applique that was then covered with detail stitching. This seemed to reflect a time when obtaining large quantities of cloth was difficult. 1 used to believe that kaparamip had first been made in the Shizunai region in the Taisho era (1912— 1926), but in 1995 Japanese scholars who had studied Ainu materials in Russian museums convinced me that examples of this style date to the nineteenth century.

Patterns of kaparamip can be divided into two principal types: one uses morew, a whorl pattern (fig. 45.13),- in the other, the area of white cloth is large and the cutout areas are small, creating a reverse or negative pattern. Another variation has cloth inserts between the lining of the garment to give the cutouts the illusion of depth. All these types originate in the Shizunai region but now have spread to all areas of Hokkaido. According to elderly people in the Asahikawa area, kaparamip were worn during mourning.

Clothes of the Sakhalin Ainu

Some Sakhalin Ainu clothes are similar to those worn in Hokkaido, while others are completely different. Of the clothes made of animal material, most of those made of the hides of sea mammals (such as seal, fur seal, and sea lion) and from fish materials (such as Sakhalin trout, salmon, and ito) are unique to the Sakhalin Ainu.

These animal-skin garments are made in a "western" style, that is, with a stand-up collar, open front, buttons, narrow sleeves, and flaring skirt: they are completely European in style. On the other hand, Sakhalin Ainu fishskin clothes are quite similar to those of the Nanai people, who live near the estuary of the Amur River, which suggests that the Asian continent also influenced these clothing forms. One line of thread is sewn alongside the applique on fishskin garments, a technique also seen on the ruunpe of the Hokkaido Ainu.

Retarpe, the nettle-fiber cloth of Sakhalin, is a white or gray textile against which embroidery done with colored thread is quite striking (fig. 45.14).These grass-fiber clothes use patterns and colors characteristic of continental areas. For example, the fade-resistant dyed red cloth used for the applique work was made in China.

Generally, the clothing of Sakhalin Ainu utilizes many different types of collars and sleeves. Compared to the clothes and ornaments of the Hokkaido Ainu, which have been greatly influenced by Honshu, those of the Sakhalin Ainu seem to be strongly influenced by the Ul'chi and Nivkhi

45.17 Sealskin Robe

Sealskin garments were worn by many North Pacific coastal peoples, including the Ainu. Although this material has little insulating property, it was durable and attractive. The natural beauty of this well-tailored sealskin coat is enhanced by colorful trim and embroidery done in a Sakhalin style. (PMC 7044)

who shared the narrow island, as well as the clothing of other continental ethnic groups.

Women's Underclothes and Children's Garments

45.18 Design School

Every mother taught her daughter traditional Ainu design motifs and how to make clothing, and by the age of twelve most girls were already helping with clothing production. Gender-based work was practiced by most native peoples, and garment-making was definitely an Ainu woman’s task. (NAA 98-10385)

Ainu women's underclothes were called mour, literally "deer," a sort of one-piece dress with an open front,- it is said that in the old days they were made of hides. In Kushiro, deerskin mour were said to have been worn, which may be where the name derived from. Ainu women began wearing mour at the age of fourteen or fifteen. In some regions, the mour worn by an old woman who had enjoyed a long life was reused to make clothes for a newborn baby, in hopes of giving the child a long life.

Soft materials were used for children's clothing, and as noted, clothing for a newborn baby was often made from older women's underwear. Some historical documents note that Ainu children were almost always kept naked until the age of three or four. Older children's clothing was made from adults' used attush, which was softer than new material. Traditionally the Hokkaido Ainu people preferred not to dress their children up, but that custom has changed. Sakhalin Ainu, on the other hand, traditionally embroidered children's clothes or attached small pieces of metal at their bottom of their garments,- according to older Sakhalin women, the sound of these metal chimes kept them

informed of their children's whereabouts, and in most Amur Region cultures, bells and metal objects have since ancient times had spiritual connections—they either warded off evil spirits or attracted friendly ones.

Designs on Clothes

For the Ainu the design and ornamentation of clothing are not simply for beauty and enjoyment. The importance of traditional patterns can be seen in the fact that young Ainu girls played by drawing patterns in the sand and in the ashes of the hearth,- this gave them training for making clothes and patterns when they grew older. The patterns and designs have been passed down along maternal lines for generations, from grandmothers to mothers, from mothers to daughters (fig. 45.18).

The patterns can be categorized by method and design. The methods have generally two types: embroidery and applique. Embroidered patterns are applied on most fabric items, including garments, headbands, and sword straps. Garments, in particular, have exquisite applique and cutout patterns that use several stitching techniques. According to Dr. Sakuzaemon Kodarna, a specialist in embroidery, there are eleven basic techniques. By combining some of these fundamental methods, many dozens of stitching combinations can be created The eleven basic techniques are illustrated in fig. 45.20.

Applique patterns, called iechunu, are made by stitching pieces of cotton or silk cloth to the basic garment fabric. The applique patterns are categorized as remnant applique and cloth-cutout applique Remnant applique is applied on clothing such as attusb, ruunpe, chikarkarpe, and retarpe,- many of the patterns use straight lines, while curved lines are few. Cloth-cutout applique patterns are made by placing relatively large pieces of white cloth over a garment's base fabric and then cutting away unwanted pieces to leave a positive or negative picturelike pattern that was then stitched to the textile. These patterns are often seen on kaparamip of the Hidaka region and are characterized by many curves.

There are nineteen traditional patterns, of which ay us and morew patterns are most common. The ayus ("having a thorn") pattern is similar in shape to mathematical parentheses ({ j). A single ayus pattern is never used, they are always arrayed in multiples, forming

45.19 Ainu Design Motifs These nineteen design elements are the basic decorative motifs seen on Ainu clothing, (courtesy of M. Kodama)

1. Design pattern with thorns

2. Whorl design

3. Whorl design with thorns

4. Whorl design with many corners 5-7. Cruciform designs

8, 9. “Eye" design

10. Double whorl design

11. Whorl design with “eyes" on both sides

12. Whorl design with thorns

13. Whorl design with squared-off corners

14. Bud-shaped design

15. 16. Blooming flower design

17. Design of the tip of a whorl

18. Vinelike design

19. Bell-shaped design

45.20 Embroidery Stitches Embroidery was usually applied to appliqued fabric or occasionally directly on to the garment itself. The eleven most common stitches are illustrated here.

1. Karami (intertwined) stitch or koma stitch (Ainu ikarari): couching stitch and cord stitch

2. Kusari (chain) stitch (Ainu oho): chain stitch and open chain stitch

3. Hashiri (running) stitch (Ainu ohoturi): running stitch; also occurring as a twisted running stitch, used for tacking

4. Sen stitch (Ainu horkakemash): outline stitch

5. Hajo stitch (no term in Ainu): feather stitch

6. Kata hajo stitch (Ainu earoho): single feather stitch

7. Henkei chidorigake: a variation of the couching stitch

8. Sashi stitch: darning stitch

9. Kaeshi stitch: back stitch

10. Henkei hajo stitch: closed feather stitch

11. Juji stitch: cross stitch

Among these eleven stitches, numbers one through six, and especially one and two, are most commonly employed.

45.21 Needlecase Needles were very important items for Ainu women, and they were kept safe in specially carved neediecases. This small example holds needles in a chamber at the base, which slides open. The concave sides of the elaborately decorated panel served as a thread spool. (BMA 12.789)

45.20

continuous lines. This pattern is used in a number of ornamentation styles and is an important element of Ainu designs.

The morew pattern is a simple spiral, v/hich makes one-and-a-ha!f or fewer circles. When one pattern is used independently, which is rare, it is placed at the center-line of the back; this use of an independent pattern is often seen on the hanging part of a woven sword strap. Scholars have advanced various theories to explain the meaning of the patterns, ranging from personal artistic expression to animal-form designs, but older

Ainu women state emphatically that there is no hidden meaning and that the abstract patterns as a whole are made simply to please the kamuy, or gods. Berthold Laufer, the pioneering ethnologist of the lower Amur, received a virtually identical answer when he asked this question of the Sakhalin Nivkhi in 1900.

Women's and Men's Accoutrements

As in all other cultures, Ainu use accessories to complete their basic complex of dress and personal ornamentation, including various types of headgear and jewelry that are still worn today by Ainu people both in everyday and ceremonial life. Womens accoutrements included several types of headgear, leggings, and jewelry,- attush aprons (fig. 45.24) are also a common part of a woman's costume.

45.21

45.23

45.22 Embroidered Headband

Cotton headbands ( matanpush ) were originally worn by Ainu men to keep their hair in place as they worked, but Ainu women have worn them during ceremonies for at least two centuries. Red cloth, one of the earliest textiles to be imported, has had special significance for Ainu people for centuries; this red cloth appears to be old and was probably recycled from family heirlooms. (FMC 234945)

45.23 Choker

Chokers ( rekutunpe) of this type were worn by Sakhalin Ainu women, who had access to a wide variety of continental trade goods. This piece, collected by Arthur James in Hokkaido in 1898, is a veritable treasure chest of exotic items, including glass and pewter beads, a sword hilt, and Chinese bells. (AMNH 70/11)

45.24 Attush Apron Men and women generally wore aprons as part of their regular costume. Many of these were given the same decorative treatment as ceremonial robes, probably for the same reasons: to protect vulnerable spots from evil gods. The commonly used ayus pattern can be seen here, (AMNH 703/4895)

45.25

45.25, 45.26 Rosette IVIolo and Choker

A choker ( rekutunpe ) often made of black or dark blue velvet, was a standard accessory for Ainu women. Rekutunpe often had small metal rosette decorations attached to them, which may have originated as Japanese family crest designs. The Japanese originally made pewter rosettes for trade to the Ainu until Ainu began to mold them. This mold (fig. 45.25) was collected by Stewart Culin in 1912. (BMA 12.175; FMC 88019)

Headbands (fig. 45.22) are worn with formal dress on such occasions as ceremonies and dancing. There are two kinds of headbands: matanpush are made of black cotton embroidered in the center area and are about forty inches (one meter) long and two to three inches (five to eight centimeters) wide. In recent times matanpush embroidery has become increasingly brighter, whereas in the past, when the band was worn by both men and women, it used to be done only in black. Matanpush are seen primarily in Shiraoi and the Saru River area.

Chepanup, an eighty-inch-long (two meter) headcover of black cloth, is folded three or four times and stitched. The way in which it is tied varies depending on the occasion, that is, whether it is worn for mourning or for celebration. The chepanup is seen on the coastal areas from Niikkappu to Samani in southern Hidaka.

Ainu women wear chokers, called rekutunpe, made from a strip of cloth about one inch (three

centimeters) wide of black and dark-blue cotton or velvet (figs. 45.23, 45.26). Designed to be tied in the back with separate straps of cloth or buttoned, they fit the throat tightly. Sometimes one or several metal ornaments are attached to the front of the strap or to a small flap that hangs down from the choker strap.

Necklaces ( tamasay) composed of large glass beads were treasures for Ainu women, who wore them at formal occasions and ceremonies (figs. 45.27). Old necklaces were imported from China, but those from the end of the Edo period (1615-1868) to early Meiji period (late 1800s) were usually made in Sakai (Osaka) and Edo (Tokyo) in Honshu. Tamasay come in two forms: one has an ornamental plaque called a sbitoki (figs. 45.28, 45.29), and the other has a very large central glass bead (fig. 45.27).

45.27

45.29

45.27 Beaded Necklace

Beaded necklaces ( tamasay) were worn by Ainu women on ceremonial occasions. In addition to their importance as fashion, necklaces also provided the wearer with spiritual protection; similar beliefs were held by Siberian mainland peoples. Black-andwhite glass beads, as seen in this necklace collected by Stewart Culin in 1912, were very popular, but blue and multicolored beads were also common. Some Ainu beads have been traced to Central Asia, but China and Russia were the usual sources (especially for large turquoise-colored ones) until the Dutch began supplying beads in the seventeenth century. (BMA X2001.26)

45.28, 45.29 Necklaces with Medallions

Imported medallions were thought to be especially effective amulets, and some were made for this purpose in China and Japan. The expense of obtaining such valuable trade items reinforced the Ainu belief in their protective power. Ainu-e illustrations (fig. 45.29) and most early photographs of Ainu women show them posed with their prized necklaces, (courtesy of M. Kodama)

45.30, 45.31 Beaded Earrings

The earliest mention of earrings ( ninkari ) being worn by the Ainu was by Jesuit Father Girolamo de Angeiis in 1621; he noted that both men and women wore silver hoops in their ears. The ninkari in fig. 45.30 are decorated with glass beads; those in fig. 45.31 have engraved brass beads. In 1876 the Japanese prohibited the Ainu from wearing earrings, but the Ainu continued to import the materials needed to make them from the Asian continent and Japan. (AMNH 70/4040A, B; BMS C18767)

45.31

In addition to necklaces made only of beads, some had old coins placed between the beads or had ninkari (hoop-shaped earrings) suspended on the right and left sides of the necklace string. In Sakhalin, necklaces are called imuhsay, and the Ainu there preferred to make them with small blue beads,- Hokkaido Ainu also wore this type of necklace.

Earrings (figs. 45.30, 45.3 1) are called ninkari in the Ainu language. The lobes of Ainu women's ears were pierced when they were young, and a red silk or cotton cloth was placed through the holes to keep them open. On certain special occasions, such as at celebrations, people wore ninkari made in the form of hoops of brass, trade silver, and lead wire ranging from one to six inches (three to fifteen centimeters) in diameter. In recent years ninkari are worn only by women, but in the Edo period men also wore them.

Traditionally it was customary for women to wear tattoos on the lips, forearms, and hands,the eyebrows and forehead were also sometimes tattooed (fig. 45.33). While the age at which a girl was tattooed varied from region to region, the first part of the tattoo design was generally applied at the age of six or seven. After the

initial pattern was applied, tattooing was repeated several times over the course of several years, and it was usually completed before marriage. Girls were considered to be adults by the time their tattooing was complete. Tattoos were an important component of an Ainu woman's beauty.

Tattoos were produced by first making many tiny cuts with an obsidian-blade knife (fig. 45.32) in the area to be tattooed. Soot taken from the bottom of a pot suspended over a birch fire was rubbed into the wound, followed by the application of antiseptic juice from plants like mugwort. Tattoo patterns

differ from region to region, and their meaning, if any, is unknown, but they are thought to protect the wearer.

At various times Japanese authorities prohibited the use of tattoos by the Ainu. In 1799, during the Edo period when Ezo was controlled by the shogunate, a ban on tattoos was issued: "Regarding the rumored tattoos, those already done cannot be helped, but those still unborn are prohibited from being tattooed." In 1871, after the Meiji Restoration, the Hokkaido Development Mission proclaimed that "those born after this day are strictly prohibited from being tattooed." Today the custom of tattooing has completely disappeared.

Men's special accoutrements included ceremonial headgear and swords. Adult Ainu men today still wear a crownlike headdress (called sapanpe or sapaunpe) as part of their ceremonial attire. Most are woven from small tree limbs and grapevine stems whose surfaces have been shaved up from the stems into tufts ( inaw-kike ) that are twisted together,- for religious ceremonies the wood of the dogwood tree is usually used. Some sapanpe are made only of woven shavings. The headdress is tied in back and front so that it grips the head, and wood shavings (kike) are attached to it. Some sapanpe have carved wooden bear or wolf heads or shaved "wooden flowers," while some have shark teeth or bear claws attached to the front. Others have two- to three-inch strips of cloth hanging at the front and back of both ears. Generally cotton cloth was used, but Chinese silk, imported through the Santan trade, appears on some early speci

in dances it was thought that they warded off evil spirits. Emusbat were valued accordingly and elicited feelings of reverence and awe. The practice of making exciting and

creative garments is now enjoying a vigorous

revitalization after a period in the midtwentieth century when very few garments were made. Ainu women are examining traditional designs, materials, and construction techniques by studying Ainu garments found not only in the public museums of Japan but in North America and Europe as well. We see more and more traditionally made clothes being worn proudly at Ainu celebrations, and there are competitive craft shows held in several areas in Hokkaido as well as exhibitions of modern weaving held throughout Japan. Traditional patterns are also being adapted for contemporary clothi.ng designs, such as in modern vest designs for both men and women that command premium prices. There is no doubt that the future of Ainu traditional attire is safe in the skilled hands of its people.

45.32 Tattoo Knife

The Ainu considered tattoos to be a mark of a woman's beauty, and when her tattoos were completed in her late teens, she was considered ready for marriage. In 1888 Romyn Hitchcock observed the Ainu practice of tattooing, and he made note of the technique (1891b: 442): "The tattoo marks are made by cross-hatching the skin with knives which they get from the Japanese. Into the cuts thus made the soot of burning birchbark ( kaba) is rubbed, which is collected on the bottom of a dish held over the fire." Hitchcock collected this tattoo knife in Piratori, Hokkaido. (NMNH 150715)

45.33 Arm Tattoos

In this Ainu-e from Shimanojo Murakami's early-nineteenth-century Illustrations of Ezo Livelihood, a woman holds a mussel-shell knife; the tattoos on her forearm and wrist are clearly visible. Again, Romyn Hitchcock observed (1891b: 442):”The faces of the women are disfigured by tattooing around the mouth, the style of which varies with the locality. Young maidens of six or seven have a little spot on the upper lip. As they grow older, this is gradually extended until a more or less broad band surrounds the mouth and extends into a tapering curve on both cheeks toward the ears. The arms also are tattooed in various patterns.”

(HML)

45.34 Sword and Sword Holder

Weaving a man's sword holder ( emushat ) was one of the most challenging and important tasks an Ainu woman, because for the emushat was believed to be imbued with ritual and spiritual powers equal to those of the sword. (AMS)

mens. Because a man's sapanpe was used for a long period of time, it was refurbished occasionally with new inaw-kike.

The emusbat, a sword strap made from woven bark fiber (fig. 45 . 34 ) is carried by men, mainly at ceremonies. Men suspend the sword over their shoulder so that it touches the left side of the waist,- this manner of carrying swords is very old. The weaving technique used for this piece is complex and employs thirty-six separate warp strands. The design is woven to create contrasting blackand-white or dark-blue-and-white patterns, with red cotton thread also used.

Swords were among Ainu men's most valued treasures and were handled with utmost care and respect. Swords were believed to be very powerful spiritually, and when used

326

LIVING ARTS/M KODAMA

4 6/Ikupasuy: It's Not a Mustache Lifter!

Fosco Maraini

46.2 Ritual Use of the Ikupasuy

Miyamoto (whose Ainu name was Ekashmatok), chief of the Shiraoi Ainu in the 1950s, is seen here dipping his ikupasuy into a fuk/just before sprinkling some drops of millet beer on the altar (nusa) outside his house in 1954.

46.1 Ikupasuy

Ikupasuy, the Ainu prayer stick, is used in sake-drinking rituals to help send a man’s prayers to the gods. Although small and deceptively simple, these implements embody much of Ainu art and imagination. (PMC 51648)

T he Ainu, like many indigenous peoples, had very few prized personal possessions. Ainu women held their sewing needles most dear,- men, while valuing their knives for secular needs, relied completely on their ability to talk to the gods, and that couldn't be done without their all-important prayer sticks, known in Ainu as ikupasuy (fig. 46.1). I have adapted this article from one I wrote in 1942, relying on David Dubreuil to provide a more contemporary perspective on the topic.

The first known mention of an ikupasuy by a westerner dates back to February 28,

1565, when the Portuguese Jesuit Father Louis Frois wrote a letter from Meaco (now Kyoto) giving his superiors back home interesting

news about Japan. Father Frois, who died in 1597, was among the most knowledgeable of the many Jesuit priests who resided in Japan during the latter half of the sixteenth century and some of his works offer fascinating reading even today.

Among other intriguing bits of information that Father Frois conveyed on this occasion was a brief passage on the people of Ezo (present-day Fdokkaido), the large island at the northern end of the Japanese archipelago. He states: 'To the north of Japan about 300 leagues from the city of Meaco there lies a vast land inhabited by men of the forests. These people cover their bodies, which are very hairy, with animal skins,- they have wondrous beards and enormous mustaches, which they lift with a small wand when they are about to drink" (Bickmore 1868).

Over the next few centuries the misconceptions about the name and use of the prayer stick spread throughout the western world. In Europe a tradition of using this term followed Frois, and at some- point this idea was transferred to North America, where its use may have been initiated by Benjamin Smith Lyman. On a trip to Japan in 1876, Lyman, an American geologist hired by the Japanese government, traveled through several areas of Honshu and Hokkaido. Intrigued by the uniqueness of Ainu material

46.1

culture, Lyman bought at least thirty objects, which he donated to the Smithsonian Institution later that year. Two of the items he purchased in Yokohama were catalogued by the Smithsonian as "moustache sticks."

The Reverend John Batchelor (1 8541944), an Anglican Church of England missionary who lived among the Ainu in Hokkaido for sixty-three years (1877-1940), continued the use of this misnomer. His terminology may have been due to sheer conservative spirit in employing a term that was by then outmoded. Nevertheless, it's strange that Batchelor, who wrote many articles and books on the religion and culture of the Ainu, including an Ainu-EnglishJapanese dictionary, did not place more emphasis on the religious significance of the ikupasuy, for he certainly understood the importance to Ainu of libation offerings to the gods using the ikupasuy-.

It is a curious instrument and [is] only called into use when drinking. Its purpose is two-fold. The men invariably use it when they are at worship, for with the end of it they offer drops of wine to the gods to whom they pray [figs. 46.2, 46.6, 46.7], Further, the moustache lifters are used to keep the mustache out of the cup while the men drink (Batchelor 1 892: 77).

Further evidence of Batchelor's knowledge about the social and religious nature of the implement is contained in Smithsonian curator Romyn Hitchcock's report of a conversation with Batchelor (Hitchcock 1891a):

of the liquor. But that is far from being its real function. In recent times they have become generally known as drinking sticks. . . . But they are really prayer sticks, as I discovered many years ago. [Although] sometimes they are used as libationwands ... all elders consider the prayer stick as a sacred object, a messenger of prayer (1962: 39).

Simply put, the ikupasuy functions primarily as a sacred prayer stick, a mediator to deliver messages between the user and the gods ( kamuy ), because the Ainu believe they can not pray directly to them (Sasaki 1995: 56). It has a secondary use as a libation wand to administer a liquid offering: in older times a very mild home-brewed millet beer was used,- it has been replaced with commercially distilled sake.

The literature is confusing, however, and even Munro appears to contradict himself, for he sometimes uses the terms prayer stick and libation wand interchangeably. Early in his book Ainu Creed and Cult (1962), Munro states that "In prayer an elder may say that his language is faulty, but that the prayer stick will convey his meaning correctly"

(1962: 40), while later, in a chapter describing the housewarming ceremony, he states that the respected elder administering the rite asks the fire goddess "to inspire the libation wand as her messenger so that, should the prayers be unsuitably worded, the meaning will become clear to the good kamui" (1962: 78). Even though Munro occasionally uses the term "libation wand," the meaning is clearly that of a prayer stick used for conveying prayers to the gods. As a mediator, a libation wand would not alter words, content, or meaning.

The etymology of the word ikupasuy is intriguing. Iku in Ainu means to drink inebriating liquors. In Ainu pasuy means chopsticks, and the Japanese word for these utensils is basbi. While some Ainu scholars have postulated a connection between pasuy and basbi, the reasoning is unclear because chopsticks come in sets of two, whether they are Chinese, Japanese, or Ainu in origin, while the ikupasuy is a single piece of wood. In some collections

46.3 Offertory Ware

In communicating with the gods, the Ainu most often send their prayers through the ikupasuy, prayer stick. The ikupasuy is dipped into a mild offertory liquor (figure 46.5), such as millet beer or later,- sake, to anoint the object of the prayer. The vessel holding the liquor is a lacquerware cup, tuki, which is placed on a separate lacquerware saucer stand, seen here. (For a complete set of offertory ware, see figure 23.9.) These items, which were obtained from the Japanese through trade, had by the 1600s assumed a central place in Ainu ritual. (BMS 18765, 18767)

Mr. Batchelor tells us that in drinking sake [using the prayer stick], three drops must be given to the fire goddess, Fuchi, three thrown toward the east window [god’s window], and three toward the northeast corner of the hut, where the Aino treasures are kept, and then three drops must be offered to any special god, for whose benefit the libations are offered or to whom the Ainu are paying worship.

FJitchcock also reported (1891 b: 459-61) seeing several variations of the ritual during his

46.5

46.4

46.4 Neil Munro and Patient

Neil Munro, a Scottish physician who lived with the Ainu in Nibutani from 1930 to 1942. ministered to them spiritually as well as with medicine. He also studied their belief system, and his 1962 book Ainu Creed and Cult explored Ainu ritual. He is seen here comforting a patient.

46.5 Tuki mo Ikupasuy

Ainu protocol calls for the ikupasuy to be laid across the top of the tuki with its pointed end to the left. When one begins the ritual, the tuki is grasped with the left hand and the ikupasuy between the right thumb and forefinger. The pointed end of the prayer stick is dipped into the liquid, gestures are made toward the god, and a few drops of liquid are sprinkled in the appropriate direction.

one-month stay among the Ainu in the summer of 1888. Similar information is recorded in FHitchcock's accession records for specimen 150664: "Moustache stick used to make libations of sake to the gods, and also to raise the moustache while drinking sake” (1891b: 493).

The first western person to have understood the real meaning of the ikupasuy may have been the Scottish doctor Neil Munro (fig. 46.4), who studied the Ainu for many years before directly ministering to their health needs in the Nibutani area from 1930 until his death in 1942. Munro wrote of the ikupasuy-.

I cannot say who first named them moustache-lifters, but it was one of those guesses, based on imperfect acquaintance, repeated in popular writings. . It is sometimes used to keep the moustache out

46.8 Offering Prayers Kayano -ekashi is shown performing a 1971 iyomante ceremony. This photograph is taken from the point of view of the bear as Kayano offers libations and prayers over the bear's cage.

there are old examples of ikupasuy made of natural tree limbs that have forked double branches close together, suggesting chopsticks, but it is perhaps too easy to draw what seems to be an obvious connection. Sometimes, however, chopsticks have been substituted when a "normal" ikupasuy wasn't available. For example, after the funeral of famed Ainu artist Bikky Sunazawa (193 1-89), relatives and friends held an impromptu ceremony in the Ainu tradition to honor Sunazawa, but because no ikupasuy were available, chopsticks were used (D. Dubreuil, private communication, May 1994). In other situations even a tobacco pipe would be used as a substitute (Kayano 1978: 243-44). This usage indicates that the intent was more important than the form and the prayer more significant than the artifact that conveyed it.

Because the Ainu do not pray directly to the gods, the ikupasuy acts as an intermediary

46.8

46.6

46 . 6 , 46.7 Prayers to Fuchi Two ekashi, Torizo Tanaka from Nibutani and Ginosuke Kikuchi from Bihoro, offer libations and prayers to Fuchi, goddess of fire and an important protector of the household. Fuchi is believed to reside in the hearth. These photos were taken in Nibutani in 1954.

46.7

between the gods and the worshipper in a wide variety of religious ceremonies. While the Ainu had shamans who normally were used to cure sickness, they were not considered priests and did not officiate at other rituals. Respected men, usually elders, conducted all ceremonies in the home and village and at the hunting and fishing areas.

Although the Ainu had no temples or shrines, the home was considered sacred to a large number of gods ( kamuy ), the most important being Fuchi, goddess of fire. The home is also the location of the god's window (kamuy-puyar), where the gods entered and left, ceremonial items were taken in and out, and the head, skin, and meat of the bear were passed during the bear-sending ceremony (iyomante : figs. 46.8, 46.9a-c). Another important ceremony held in the home is

shinnurappa , a memorial ritual for Ainu ancestors. During these and many other ceremonies the ikupasuy is used extensively. As might be expected, the actual time given to prayer while using the prayer stick is far greater than the time it takes to sprinkle the required offering of sake on the fire, sacred ritual carved staffs ( inaw ), or other objects being offered.

The ikupasuy is almost always used with a lacquerware cup and holder, which are made by the Japanese and called by the Ainu name, tuki (fig. 46.3),- occasionally a tuki carved from raw wood will be used, for instance during ceremonies held while hunting or fishing. When Ainu men hunted, a stick, similar to an ikupasuy and called pushka-un-ni, was often built into the quiver, but this was not a prayer stick. A special prayer stick was used to pray for hunting success and thanksgiving after the hunt, and it was also used to protect the hunter and to identify him in case of death (Munro 1962: 40). When Ainu traveled, a small bowl without a cup-holder was frequently used.

For use during ceremonies, the tuki is

46.9a

46.9b

46.9c

46.9a-c Bear-Sending Ceremony These illustrations from a copy of Shimanojo Murakami’s Curious Sights of Ezo Island (1799) show three stages of the bear-sending (iyomante) ceremony: preparations around the bear cage (heper-set) (a); strangling the bear (b); and the ceremonial feast and celebration (c). (NMNH 395,023-25)

partially filled with sake and the ikupasuy is placed across its rim with the tapered end pointed to the left. The user takes the tuki in his left hand and picks up the sacred prayer stick at its end between the thumb and forefinger of his right hand. He dips the pointed or tapered end into the sake, and with great gentleness and reverence he slowly sprinkles the offering on the object of worship (figs. 46.6, 46.7). When sharing the tuki and ikupasuy with others participating in the ritual, ceremonial etiquette demands that the prayer stick be properly returned to the tuki and slowly and deliberately turned until the tapered end is pointed toward the person's left (fig. 46.5). This small courtesy, called pasuy-oshipi, is characteristic of the dignified approach to both ritual and social behavior found throughout Ainu culture.

Types of Prayer Sticks

There are two basic types of prayer sticks. The most common, the ikupasuy, resembles a wide letter-opener with design elements carved in relief. Averaging one foot (thirty centimeters) in length and one to one-and-a-half inches (four centimeters) wide, the overall thickness is about one-quarter inch (one-half centimeter).

It is not uncommon, however, for some design elements to rise above the surface by a halfinch (one centimeter) or more. These elements feature a multitude of subjects, anything from bears to mountains.

The second type, kike-ush-pasuy, is generally used only for specific ceremonies such as the bear-sending ceremony (iyomante), and is thought to be more sacred, producing a more intense spirit ( ramat ). Always made of raw wood, usually willow, their most distinguishing characteristic is the wood shavings (kike) that remain attached to the prayer stick (fig. 46.10) (H. Kono 1933a: 366-68). The prayer stick will normally only have ritual signs—family crests ( itokpa) and/or abstract designs with private meaning to an individual (sbiroshi) —carved into its surface. After the ceremony the kike-ush-pasuy is usually ritually destroyed by fire in the hearth or sometimes attached to an upright branch of the altar (nusa) where skulls and other body parts left over from the iyomante are placed.

Sueo Sugiyama (1934: 149) illustrated and described an unusual prayer stick from Sakhalin, which he called horoka-basui, that was carved from a branch with two natural opposing dogleg turns. Sugiyama was told that it was

46.11 Parts of the Ikupasuy

As a ritual implement the ikupasuy has a specific structure, and each section of the item is named, as illustrated here. The central panel on the upper surface ( noshki) is used for the owner's artistic statement, while the owner's family mark or crest (itokpa ) is coded in the parallel cuts at both ends of the stick. The pointed distal end. representing a tongue, sometimes carries a small v-shaped parunpe (representing the tongue of god); this surface may also have one or more incised shiroshi, emblematic marks of animals or creatures which are frequently difficult to interpret. In some cases they definitely represent birds, bears, and orca fins, (after Maraini 1942)

46.10 Inaw and Kike-Ikupasuy

Inaw are sacred shaved sticks that symbolize birds, which act as messengers to carry the host’s prayers to the gods. Inaw take different forms depending on the god being addressed, and each individual god has a specific type of inaw associated with it. Kikeikupasuy, prayer sticks with inawkike carved into their upper surface (c, d), are used only for the iyomante and then are destroyed. Other ikupasuy (a, b) may be reused as long as the owner wishes. (Maraini 1942)

itokpa

itokpa

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ohontoki 1 ^_._ n j /

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X

>

Table caption

shiroshi

Table caption

parunpe

supposed to have been used in a special but not-specified bear-related ritual: if the prayer stick were reversed and the blunt end dipped into ceremonial liquor, it would produce some kind of curse. While this tantalizing bit of hearsay is interesting, unfortunately there is no information to corroborate it, and this particular prayer stick is thought to have been destroyed by fire during World War II along with most of Sugiyama's Ainu collection.

Ikupasuy Nomenclature

Figure 46 I 1 identifies the various parts of the ikupasuy using the type found in the FJidaka region of the Saru River,- an Ainu name for each element is given but as with many items

of Ainu material culture, terminology varies from region to region.

Starting with the blunt end and working toward the tip, the end of the ikupasuy is called ohon-toki. The first carving is the itokpa, which consists of a series of straight notches cut across the width of the prayer stick. The cuts, of varying lengths, are secret marks of ownership that may have been all or part of a family crest. This element is one of the most consistent parts of the ikupasuy. It is extremely rare for the itokpa to not be present, and some argue that without the itokpa the object is not an ikupasuy. There are, however, examples of smoothly carved sticks that only have the pointed tip, so perhaps it's a regional phenomenon In some cases the carving of the itokpa runs into the middle element's design, making it difficult or impossible to differentiate.

The middle element ( noshki ) occupies the largest surface of the prayer stick and is the zone where the artist can demonstrate his creativity. The designs encompass a vast array of extraordinary and complex ideas and motifs, ranging from extremely abstract geometrical compositions that appear to be floral in concept (fig. 46.16) to family crests. Animals such as the killer whale (the god of the ocean) and other objects are also realistically depicted (figs. 46.12, 46.1 3). Other elements important to Ainu belief system and/or subsistence needs are included: bears, bear heads, bear tracks, bears in cages, and bears laid out as in the iyomante. Other significant animals such as otter, fox, seals, other whales, salmon, swordfish, cranes, and snakes are carved, along with boats, houses, swords, tuki (fig. 46.15), and mountains.

There seems to be no restriction on the subject matter in the area of the noshki— one extreme example of artistic freedom is an ikupasuy with two small airplanes carved on it—but it is extremely rare to find a prayer stick without some carving in this narrow and confined area.

While their relationship with the Japanese has always been tenuous at best and hostile at worst, Ainu sometimes carved decorative elements in the area of the noshki which to them were symbolic of the Japanese, for example, Japanese swords. While this particular example may simply reflect the fact that the Ainu coveted swords and scabbards, it is more difficult to explain such objects as Japanese family crests, or kuwasaki, hornlike

46.12 Orca Symbols

Ethnographic information from the Ainu and inspection of hundreds of ikupasuy have shown that many shiroshi marks are abstracted versions of one of a few types of basic animal symbols. The most common image—the orca back fin and abstractions based on it—is widely understood by Ainu to represent this animal. Other forms, however, are less well understood, (after Maraini 1942)

** $5

JUL.. X JL 44m

46.12

46.13 Orca Shiroshi This ikupasuy has a very recognizable orca mark on its bottom, while the upper surface carries carvings of a bear and three salmon. (MPM N17302)

46.13

46.14 Lacquered Ikupasuy Ainu do not generally lacquer ikupasuy themselves; rather, they carve the forms and arrange for the lacquer to be applied by Japanese artisans. Other than this special and rather unusual finish, these implements are similar to the more common forms with natural finishes. This illustration was prepared by Japanese artist Yonu Makino from lacquered specimens in Japanese collections. (Maraini 1942)

ornaments often seen on samurai helmets. That the samurai who defeated the Ainu in all major battles with the Japanese would be so honored on ikupasuy is intriguing, but symbols of adversaries are also found on artifacts from other cultures,- for example, the Plains Indians of North America sometimes depicted the American flag in their beadwork.

The next decorated area past the noshki is another itokpa, which may be the same as the first itokpa or may be different. These can be viewed as two separate parts of the same secret mark of ownership. Depending on region, near the tip of the prayer stick a small triangular incision called the parunpe, or tongue, is carved. While some are inclined to say this serves to collect a small amount of sake to be sprinkled on the object of worship, others, like Munro, believed that it was a "tongue" that helped speak reverently to the gods. Most Ainu who express an opinion on this matter today support the latter belief (Chisato Dubreuil, private communication, May 1989). The parunpe appears on the front or the back of the ikupasuy depending on region.

Shiroshi are present only on the back of the ikupasuy. In a study of three hundred ikupasuy (Maraini 1942: 43-77), only 42 percent were found to have the shiroshi mark(s), while other studies have shown even fewer instances of such carving. Interestingly, research has shown that most shiroshi appear to be related to the god of the sea, the killer whale ( repun-kamuy ),- the bear ( kimun-kamuy ),

the Ainu's most important god, and other influential gods are rarely seen. While I have found 1 10 variations of the sign of the killer whale (Maraini 1942: 121-23) and Chisato Dubreuil has found two more (1995: 522),

I have only found seven bear-related symbols (kimun-shiroshi), four related to birds (chikapkatnuy), and two to the sun ( cbup-kamuy ).

Lastly, the tip consists of the point (ikesbi); the sides of the point ( etu ), or nose,- and the akapari, a slightly concave area that narrows to a point and may be carved to serve as a receptacle for a small amount of sake. The meanings of other named parts appear to be lost.

Although the overwhelming majority of prayer sticks do not have a surface treatment other than carvings, a fairly small number have a thick lacquer finish applied to them (fig. 46.14). It appears that such lacquerwork was done by the Japanese in the past, but the practice of using Japanese techniques or artisans for ikupasuy has fallen out of favor.

In fact, no contemporary carved prayer sticks with a lacquered surface treatment are known, although the wood is occasionally stained.

The significance, if any, between lacquered versus unlacquered ikupasuy is not known, other than that the Ainu liked shiny objects.

While there are hundreds of ikupasuy in museum and private collections, acquisition hasn't always been easy. In 1878 Isabella Bird, a wealthy and adventurous woman from England, spent a month living with the Ainu. On August 23 she wrote from Piratori:

46.16 Three Ikupasuy

A variety of floral decorations to ikupasuy are seen in these three specimens collected by Frederick Starr from Piratori and Porasaru in 1910; other styles emphasize geometric or sculptural forms. (BMA 12.309, 12.248, 12.302)

46.15 Ikupasuy with Turn Image This unusual ikupasuy with a tuki carved in the middle of it was collected by Frederick Starr in Piratori in 1910. It is certainly not meant as a joke or visual pun, but the precise symbolism is elusive; it may have been the owner's representation of the unending nature of the ritual cycle. (BMA 12.282)

46.17 Fantastic Ikupasuy

A small percentage of ikupasuy take unusual naturalistic forms where art and abstraction imitate life, as in this specimen made from a stick which has been encircled by a strangling vine. (MPM 17000)

46.18 Three Ikupasuy

Some of the earliest ikupasuy in American museums are held by the Peabody Museum, Harvard University. These examples were collected by Alexander Agassiz in 1875 and 1893 from Nemuro, Hokkaido. One is lacquer-coated and has two snakelike images with hooks or fins at one end; another has a carving of a bird in the center flanked by geometric and fishscale panels and two circular yinyang symbols; and the third features a complex geometric relief carving with incised decoration. (PMC 51643, 51647,51648)

I tried to buy the sake-sticks with which they make libations to the gods, but they said it was "not their custom" to part with the sake-stick of any living man, however, this morning Shinondi [an Ainu man she befriended] has brought me, as a very valuable present, the stick of a dead man! (1881:246)

Later she wrote about death customs and the objects that are placed with a deceased man for use in the other world. These include "... his knife and sake-stick, and, if he were a smoker, his smoking apparatus" (1881: 282). Today it is extremely rare, if not impossible, to see contemporary Ainumade prayer sticks for sale in any of the Ainu

tourist shops. Although carvings resembling ikupasuy can be found, I stress that these only resemble ikupasuy because they are made by Japanese and the Ainu do not consider them to be sacred (D. Dubreuil, private communication, May 1998).

Today modern young Ainu, like their ancestors, make prayer sticks to use in ageold ceremonies like the iyomante, traditional house-raising, or boat-launchings—it's truly an exciting rebirth. As Shigeru Kayano, one of the first of contemporary Ainu who worked tirelessly to preserve Ainu tradition, states unequivocally, the sacred ikupasuy is a living thing with a soul (1978: 241-44).

It's definitely not a mustache lifter!

47 Ainu

Journey:

From Tourist Art to Fine Arts

Chisato O. Dubreuil

N ative art has traditionally been art created by anonymous people, primarily because artists in traditional societies did not need to sign their works,- their identities were readily apparent to villagers who saw the objects they made every day. Anthropologists and museum curators have compounded the problem of identifying these artists by focusing their interests more on the collective concept of "culture" than on its individual expression. Early Ainu art conforms to this pattern: of the fifteen or twenty thousand Ainu objects in the worlds museums, very few can be attributed to known individuals.

47.1 Chopstick Case and Cigarette Holder

Early in the nineteenth century, as the work of Ainu carvers gained popularity, they were commissioned to produce such works as this chopstick case and wooden cigarette holder, which have Japanese form but are decorated with Ainu designs. Around this time, a very few Ainu artists also began to sign their work (a practice that unfortunately was not practiced on a routine basis until much later). An inscription inside the lid of this chopstick case identifies the Japanese owner, “Mr. Ohnishi, April 1856, East Ezo”; the name of the Ainu artist is given as “Itakiekaru from Sarunkur” (the Saru River area). This case was acquired for the Brooklyn Museum of Art by Stewart Culin in 1912. The cigarette holder, which seems to never have been used, was purchased by Frederick Starr in Porusaru in 1904 while he was collecting for the Louisiana Purchase Centennial Exposition.

(BMA 12.160, 12.173)

The passage from artistic anonymity to personal recognition as fine artists coincided in Ainu society, as in many other cultures, with major changes in economic practices, religious beliefs, and social structure. When Ainu began to trade or sell their everyday objects to neighbors centuries ago, the creators of these utilitarian objects began to recognize them as a means to acquire other goods. When Hokkaido tourism was promoted by the new Meiji government after 1890, it brought new opportunities to Ainu artists, but tourist art was rarely signed because it was created as a commodity,- its signature was its Ainu style or subject matter. While freedom of expression and pride in authorship is not a precondition to creating fine art, it often accompanies its development. Prohibition on the use of animal representations, which was dictated by fundamental Ainu religious beliefs and social structure,

limited artistic production to the family economy rather than allowing it to be utilized by individuals for personal enhancement and was typical of the factors that impeded the development of Ainu art from its traditional roots into twentieth-century forms.

In traditional times Ainu art communicated core features of identity and ethnicity. The distinctive style of decorative arts that was displayed on clothing, tools, and body ornamentation was often described by early travelers and explorers to Ezo along with their bear ceremonies and reverence for nature (S. Kodama 1970a, b ; Yamakawa 1980: 7980). Although Ainu material culture was frequently cited for its artistic design, Ainu art did not become a subject of professional study until the publication of Ainu no mon'yo (Ainu design motifs,- Sugiyama 1926). This was followed by a three-volume work, Ainu geijutsu (Ainu art, Sugiyama andKindaichi 1941, 1942, 1943) that surveyed Ainu textile art, woodcarving, metalwork, and lacquerware. These works brought Ainu art to the attention of scholars and laid a foundation for professional study of Ainu art as a folk genre, but the complex of Ainu traditional, tourist, and fine arts that has evolved from traditional roots has not yet been studied or researched in detail. Indeed, many Japanese art historians and contemporary arts specialists continue to classify all Ainu art in the ethnic or folk art genre. In part this is a result of Japanese colonial policies and social attitudes, which were marked by disrespect of all things Ainu, including their culture, literature, and art. Centuries of discrimination do not disappear overnight. However, a sign of improvement can be found in recent exhibitions dealing with Ainu contemporary artists: an exhibition of Ainu design at the Kokuritsu Minzogaku Hakubutsukan in Osaka (1993),- an exhibition of contemporary Ainu woodcarving at the Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum in 1993,- and a 1994 Hokkaido exhibition organized as part of the United Nations' International Year of Indigenous Peoples.

In recent years Ainu fine art has evolved from traditional and tourist art, and Ainu artists have found new outlets and recognition for creative expression. This essay chronicles the historical and artistic evolution of Ainu art as a function of Ainu economic survival. I will show how Ainu tourist art was officially incorporated into the development of tourism in Hokkaido after the Meiji Restoration in

47 . 2 , 47.3 New Spoons and Figurines

As Ainu artists began to produce items for new markets they adapted old forms to the tastes of a new clientele. Kurile and Hokkaido Ainu appealed to Japanese taste by making spoon handles and bowls that simulate bamboo and seashells. Sakhalin Ainu refugees, who had been resettled in Hokkaido, transformed their traditional nipopo (“wooden baby”) figurines, previously used as children's amulets, into a new type that became a popular earlytwentieth-century tourist item. This spoon was collected in Etorofu, Kuriles, by Romyn Hitchcock in 1888; the pair of figures was made by an Ainu artist named Suzuki from Asahikawa in the 1960s. (NMNH 150722; KM)

1 868, focusing on the Asahikawa region as an example of deliberate artistic development. This is followed by discussion of the emergence of Ainu fine arts seen through the life and works of several pioneering twenti

eth-century artists, most of them also from Asahikawa. Among the artists featured, special attention is given to Bikky Sunazawa, whose life and works epitomize his people's struggles and represent their undying spirit.

From Maritime Trade to Tourist Art

>^Vmong the earliest European reports of Ainu art is an account from 1643 by a Dutch sea merchant of "finely carved heads of either a lion or a dragon" on Ainu grave-site structures (Kitagamae 1983: 80). Dutch records also note the existence of a flourishing Ainudirected maritime trade, which brought Ainu into contact with Japanese and various peoples of the lower Amur River and Asian mainland, both as suppliers of goods and as middlemen traders (ibid.: 43,-Takakura 1960). Trade supplied the Ainu with foreign materials that were incorporated into the design of clothing and implements. When the Tokugawa Shogunate systematized Ainu trade after 1603, forcing the Ainu to deal with their agents at Matsumae, Ainu contacts abroad began to decline and became increasingly focused on interaction with Japanese in Hokkaido (Asaji, Miyatake, and Nakama 1993: 32-35). By the mid-1700s these interactions had become based more on cash than barter, and in addition to selling their services for wages, Ainu began offering artistically designed woodcrafts and attush (bark-fiber) clothing for sale (Yamakawa 1980: 79-80). By 1818 the Ainu were supplying many types of household equipment to the growing number of Japanese in Hokkaido (Takakura 1942: 170), and well-known Ainu artists were often given commissions for such specialty items as chopstick cases, cigarette holders, brush-holders and towel hangers (fig. 47.1, R Saito 1994: 147).

With the opening of Hokkaido during the Meiji Restoration, which began in 1868, the Ainu were forced to assimilate rapidly into Japanese society, and the practice of Ainu customs, religion, and language was forbidden. The government demanded the Ainu take up agriculture and used land allotments as inducements. However, drastic changes in their way of life and receipt of poor-quality land kept most Ainu from becoming successful farmers, and many had to supplement their earnings by selling carvings and textile works (fig. 47.2).

Isabella L. Bird, a doughty Englishwoman who wrote a book about her travels in Hokkaido, described her efforts to purchase Ainu handcrafts in her diary for August 23, 1878:

... I was anxious to help them by buying some of their handiwork ... a tobacco box and pipe-sheath, and knives with carved handles and scabbards, and for three of these I offered 2'A dollars . . . [the Ainu said] they were not worth more than 1 dollar 10 cents, and they would sell them for that, and I could not get them to take more ... I [also] bought a bow and three poisoned arrows, two reed-mats, with a diamond pattern on them in reeds stained red, some knives with sheaths, and a bark-cloth dress. I tried to buy the sake-sticks [ ikupasuy ] with which they make libations to their gods, but they said it was "not their custom" to part with the sake-stick of any living man . . . For "indoor recreation" men carve tobacco boxes, knife-sheaths, sake-sticks, and [weaving] shuttles, and the women weave a nearly indestructible cloth . . . for barter, and the lower class of Japanese are constantly to be seen wearing the product of Ainu industry (Bird 1881: 64-67).

47.3

47 . 4 - 47.6 Fetish to Fashion

The carving of bears underwent a remarkable evolution during the first half of the twentieth century. Traditionally, bear carvings were produced exclusively for such religious objects as prayer sticks (ikupasuy) and men's headdresses; only the Sakhalin Ainu made fullfigured bear carvings (inoka), which they used as fetishes to promote fertility among bears (fig. 47.4).

When tourists began to travel to Ainu homelands in the early 1920s, Ainu began carving bears for sale to visitors, but their stiff, ungainly results soon earned the nickname of “pig-bears” (fig. 47.5). During the twenties and thirties bear carving advanced rapidly, and Umetaro Matsui emerged as the premier artist carving in a highly naturalistic manner (fig. 47.6). His work won many awards and in 1938 he was chosen to carve a bear for Emperor Hirohito. Following this official recognition, many Japanese began to acquire Ainu bear carvings as souvenirs. (ACM 4449, 4436, 12.3.1.1)

Asahikawa: Japanese Tourism and Tourist Art

In the 1880s the Japanese constructed a railway network in Hokkaido. Soon the government began to promote Hokkaido's wild, unspoiled environment and its Ainu people as tourist attractions. Having been defeated militarily and economically, the Ainu were now forced to play "Ainu" for the tourists (Asaji, Miyatake, and Nakama 1993: 61).

When Japanese began to settle in Asahikawa in large numbers around 1890, they moved into a city whose infrastructure had been built by a combination of Japanese and Ainu prisoners and by Japanese soldiers sent (from 1875 to 1904) to develop farmland and defend Hokkaido against Russia. In 1899, a year after the railway reached Asahikawa, the Seventh Japanese Army Division arrived. Japanese businessmen found a good market among the newcomers for selling Ainu platters, bowls, spoons, and textiles, and they promoted sales by having local Ainu present carving and weaving demonstrations. One of the first shops to open, in 1900, was the Yamada Shuchin-dou (Yamada Collectible Curio Shop,- Ishijima 1980a, b). Soon after, Ainu from Chikabumi village near Asahikawa opened their own shop in order to bypass merchants and sell directly to the public.

At first the Chikabumi Ainu were al

lowed to keep their profits, but in 1917 Asahikawa appropriated 1,000 yen from the Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act budget and forced the Ainu to sell their products to the city, paying the Ainu from this account (K. Saito 1979: 4). The city even forced the Ainu to buy wood for carving through the city forest office (Ishijima 1980a: 3). This symbiotic relationship could have been arranged to enhance Ainu profits, but instead Japanese merchants benefited disproportionately. In 1917 the city bought 2,537 pieces for 442 yen, creating a large surplus in their budget. The Ainu were encouraged to carve more, but it was not until 1924 that they succeeded in carving enough to exhaust the budget. Around this time the Asahikawa Ainu began carving the figures known as "Ainu dolls”

( nipopo ) (fig. 47.3) even though making human images was against Ainu traditional beliefs,- the Ainu had little choice but to engage in this work because they were financially dependent on the government (Ishijima 1980b: 3).

47.5

Bear Carving

The most prevalent early Ainu tourist art is the carved wooden bear. Traditionally the image of the bear, kimun-kamuy (god of the mountains), appeared in miniature form only on prayer sticks (ikupasuy), the man's ceremonial headdress, and a few other special religious objects. The Ainu had not made larger secular images of bears previously, and by tradition such depictions were stylized, not in realistic poses. Only the Sakhalin Ainu had produced bear images (fig. 47.4),- these figures, used in the bear-sending ceremony to promote fecundity of bears, were approximately four to six inches (ten to fifteen centimeters) high and covered with a female bear's genital skin and/or pubic hair (M. Kono 1985: 15). Consequently, when Hokkaido Ainu first began to carve bears commercially, their attempts were unsuccessful and farfrom-faithful representations of the animal. These ungainly creations (fig. 47.5) have

47.7

47.7, 47.8 Miniature Totem Poles

The Ainu have always been interested in the wood carvings of other native peoples, especially those of the Northwest Coast Indians whose symbolism they did not understand but which they admired as works of art. The miniature pole on the left, carved by Koyama and acquired in Akan. Hokkaido, in 1986, shows a bear with a cub, an owl, and an Ainu woman. It was stained black to simulate totem poles made from argillaceous rocks by Canada’s Haida Indians. The pole on the right, by an unknown artist, features an Ainu man and woman and a bear, rendered in bright, decorative colors.

Small totem poles with Ainu motifs were probably first carved to sell to American soldiers who occupied Hokkaido after World War II. Model totem poles continue to be a small but important part of contemporary Ainu tourist art production. Today such tourist areas as Akan and Shiraoi have full-scale Ainu-style totem poles in their museum compounds. (Dubreuil Collection)

been called "pig bears” or "alligator bears”

(Arai 1992: 82).

The origin of commercial Ainu bear carving has been a matter of dispute that requires further study. Some (Ohtsuka, this volume) claim that it was stimulated by examples of bear carvings that Japanese farmers in Yakumo, Hokkaido, brought home from Europe to show Ainu carvers,- others claim that the bear-carving tradition began independently among the Ainu of the Asahikawa region. Whatever the case, bear carving among the Chikabumi Ainu progressed rapidly, and by the early 1920s Umetaro Matsui (1901-49) emerged as the most celebrated Ainu bear carver in Hokkaido. Even as a young man, Matsui carved bears that were more lifelike than those of other carvers, in part because he had hunted bears in the wild, knew them as a respected and formidable foe, and wanted his carvings to render them in their natural condition (fig. 47.6). Eventually Matsui became immortalized as a "legendary Ainu person" for his bear-carving skills (Arai 1992: 82-84).

By 1932 Ainu carving skills and market development had improved to the point that the

best carvers were able to substantially increase their personal income. Matsui received a special award in 1933 at the Ainu Art Craft Exhibition sponsored by the Hokkaido Prefectural Office (Arai 1992: 83), and while this was a great honor, it was far surpassed when Matsui was asked to carve a bear for presentation to Emperor Hirohito on his visit to Hokkaido in 1936. The publicity generated by this event instantly made Chikabumi bear carvings famous. Sales of all Ainu tourist art increased generally, and Matsui began to sign his work from that point on (Ishijima 1981: 11).

Around the 1930s Kensei Kato ( 1 894— 1966), a Japanese sculptor from the Tokyo Art School, was invited to Asahikawa to give Ainu carvers guidance and training. This was the first time that Ainu carvers had received formal training in the use of tools and in design and composition. This experience had a positive impact and helped Chikabumi gain the dominant market share over other Ainu tourist areas. Armed with the confidence created by the Matsui presentation and new-found production and marketing skills, Chikabumi Ainu began traveling to other tourist areas to sell carvings and give demonstrations.

During the war years the market for tourist art was curtailed, but immediately after the war the Asahikawa Folkcraft Organization began producing woodcarvings to respond to a new market opportunity: American Occupation Forces (Ohtsuka 1982: 16, 17). In addition to producing the beautiful carved platters, bowls, and other items that they were famous for, Ainu now began to carve electric lamps, bookends, magazine racks, decorative forks and spoons, and other everyday items. Business was so good that they experimented with exporting tourist art to the United States (Ishijima 1980a : 4). Almost all of these items featured bears or traditional Ainu designs (fig. 47.8).

Throughout this period the Asahikawa Ainu maintained a leading position in the production and sales of tourist art and were its largest wholesalers. Even Shiraoi, today's best-known Ainu tourist village, bought its bear carvings from Asahikawa until the 1950s. Other Ainu tourist resorts such as Soun-kyo, and most of all Akan, were also greatly influenced by the Asahikawa Ainu, and in 1962 Nibutani Ainu also took up the bearcarving industry (Ohtsuka 1982: 17).

While producing tourist art was modestly successful for some Ainu men, the more creative, skilled artists soon grew impatient

carving the limited choice of subjects for the tourist market,- they wanted to produce art that was respected as art, not as koijei (handicraft) or Ainu tourist art. Penetrating the Japanese fine-art market proved very difficult, however, because the discrimination that blocked Ainu participation in other areas of society was perhaps even more rampant in the elitist Japanese art world. Most of Japan's successful artists had been trained prior to World War II by prestigious art schools or were apprenticed to master artists or teachers. Securing such mentors usually required family wealth and influence, which the Ainu lacked. Before the 1950s, it was rare for an Ainu youth to finish high school, and there were few contemporary Ainu role models. Umetaro Matsui

was respected in Hokkaido as its foremost bear carver during the 1930s and 1940s, but he was never accepted as an artist by the contemporary Japanese art world.

In traditional indigenous societies, artistic practitioners were usually restricted to gender-related areas, and the Ainu were no different: carving was normally the men's prerogative, and textile production was generally the domain of women. There are examples of women who carved tourist art pieces to help support their families, but by and large, unlike the Ainu men, women had few new creative outlets during the 1930s and 1940s. Soon, however, both men and women would have new opportunities.

Ainu Fine Art Begins

47.9 Kuma ( Bear ), 1993

Takeki Fujito

Takeki Fujito's understanding of and respect for nature are products of his Ainu upbringing. Having witnessed the destruction of much of Hokkaido's wilderness in the twentieth century, including the extermination of wolves and the near-extinction of bears,

Fujito has dedicated his art—which expresses a reverence for animals and nature—to teaching respect for nature. His bears, like this one, seem nearly alive. (Collection of Shigeru Kayano)

47.10 Winter ( Hibernation ), 1980

Takeki Fujito

A hibernating bear was called suyokamuy in Ainu, meaning “the god who is in the cave." After a long winter the flowers blossomed and the owls hooted, announcing the arrival of spring, time for the Ainu to hunt bear. During the hunt bears were often flushed from the apparent security of their dens; it was such a sanctuary that Takeki Fujito chose to depict in this work. (KM)

Takeki Fujito

o ne of the first artists to elevate the Asahikawa bear-carving tradition to a powerful personal expression is Takeki Fujito, who was born in 1934 as the first son of Ainu carver Takeo Fujito. Due to the family's poverty, the young Fujito left school at the age of twelve and joined his family's carving business. To improve his skills he and his father traveled to different Ainu tourist resorts in Hokkaido to learn from respected Ainu carvers, eventually settling in the majestic village of Akan in the early 1950s. Shortly after his father died in 1962, Fujito managed to establish his own studio, a small private museum, and a gift shop.

Fujito calls himself kumahori, meaning "bear carver" in Japanese, and he takes great pride in his calling:

Traditional [Ainu] art objects such as the prayer stick, spatula, and the knife sheath all are simply done, but they are decorated with

47.10

magnificently carved designs. The bearcarving tradition is derived from that traditional craftsmanship. It's said that the origin of bear carving began around the 1930s. There are various theories, for example that [it] was imported from Switzerland, or started in Yakumo, and so on. However, I must say that today's bear carving began in Asahikawa. There is no doubt that the great Ainu carvers from my father's generation came from Asahikawa, like the late Umetaro Matsui.

I'm going to devote myself to carving bears catching game or bears playing with each other for the rest of my life (Chiri and Yokoyama 1995: 118).

Fujito's bears have a strong naturalistic quality. One example (fig. 47.9), entitled Kuma ("bear” in Japanese), captures the instant when a wild bear raises its paw to attack or give warning,- Fujito used the natural grain of the Manchurian ash to add strength and tension By contrast, Winter [Hibernation ) (fig. 47.10) exudes the peaceful

47.13 Fuchi, 1993

Takeki Fujito

Fuchi, which means "respected female elder,” is often colloquially rendered as “grandmother." This sculpture is Fujito’s tribute to a very special woman: Take Fujito, his grandmother. (NME H189023)

suspension of bear life in the midst of a harsh Hokkaido winter. Fujito's Ainu upbringing has given him a special awareness of the environment in which the animals he carves live.

Fujito describes himself as a bear carver, but he is much more. His carvings capture the spirit of the animals he creates whether they are whales feeding on krill, a sea otter diving into ocean surf for its dinner, eagles swooping down to catch rabbits (fig. 47.1 1), or caribou calling for a mate. His works beautifully communicate the Ainu respect for animal gods ( kamuy ).

Fujito has also created remarkable full-size wooden sculptures of the ekashi (male elders) and fuchi (female elders) who transmitted the flame of Ainu culture to him (fig. 47.12). One portrays the late Shinchiro Hikawa (second figure from left), who was one of last of the Ainu elders able to perform traditional ceremonies entirely in the Ainu language.

He was a highly respected individual who realized that to survive the Ainu had to exist in two worlds: Japan and Ainu mosir. While it must have been tempting to depict Hikawa in traditional Ainu clothes performing a ceremony, Fujito immortalized him wearing a modern Japanese suit with his hands in his pockets and Ainu traditional leggings over his

47.11 Eagle Sculpture, 1978

Takeki Fujito

While some species of eagles are native to Hokkaido and Sakhalin, the majority migrate from the Asian continent through the Kurile islands. Eagles became economically important to the Ainu, who traded eagle feathers to the Japanese and Chinese in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Fujito carved this eagle in the act of capturing its prey.

47.12

pants. More than a statement of cultural blending, Hikawa Ekashi stands tall and powerful, gazing quietly and confidently at his viewers.

Fujito also produced a sculpture of his late grandmother, Take Fujito, with whom he had an especially close relationship because he lost his mother right after his birth. In this sculpture (fig. 47.1 3), Fujito has shown his grandmother in traditional Ainu clothes. Her somewhat melancholy expression seems to take us back to the hard times when Ainu were being forced to abandon their culture, but her demeanor suggests the more peaceful life the Ainu once had.

47.12 Life-sized Wooden Figures,

1991-93

Takeki Fujito

Fujito immortalized in wood four Ainu elders because he greatly respected their roles as keepers of the Ainu tradition. They include from right to left: Konusa Kawakami-ekas/i/

(1993); Fusa Sugimura-fuc/ii (1992); Zejiro Hikawa-ekas/i/(1991); and Kaneto Kawamuraekashi (1991). All three male elders have passed away, but Fusa Sugimura -fuchi is still an active cultural leader in Asahikawa,

Hokkaido. (Fujito Collection)

47.14 Necklace, 1968 Bikky Sunazawa

The style of jewelry created by Bikky Sunazawa in the 1960s utilized various Ainu designs; this necklace, completed in 1968, is one example. His jewelry styles have remained popular, and while most artists in the tourist industry copied his designs, his unique style is his legacy. Today the omnipresent Bikky mon'yo, or “Bikky Patterns," are found wherever Ainu tourist art is sold. (KM)

Fujito's talent for the exacting detail that lends naturalism its power is seen in a wide variety of other works. He did life-sized statues of Kannon (the Buddhist goddess of mercy), a statue of Lenin commissioned by the Russian Embassy in Japan, and countless versions of his beloved bear and other animals. While he does not often talk about his work, it speaks strongly of the legacy of Asahikawa Ainu bear carvers.

Bikky Sunazawa

Bikky Sunazawa was unique. He was one of the first Ainu artists of the post—World War II generation to integrate the art of two worlds, Japanese and Ainu. His art cannot be appreciated from a narrow, one-sided (for instance, Ainu) point of view, nor does he fit just one category. Bikky was a forceful proponent for Ainu identity, both politically and through his art. Self-taught and innovative, Bikky Sunazawa created a complex body of abstract art that was intricately interwoven with his equally complex life. His fierce pride, his Ainu upbringing and ethnicity, his parents' role as Ainu cultural leaders, and later, his own role in the fight for Ainu rights and in ending discrimination toward the Ainu (Siddle, this volume)—all shaped his persona and his art.

Bikky was horn in 1931 and brought up in the Chikabumi Ainu village near Asahikawa. His youth was a mixture of two cultures, both of which were undergoing dramatic changes: the traditional Ainu way of life was being assimilated into a Japanese society that had itself been experiencing constant change since the beginning of the

47.15 a, b Ki-men (Masks), 1975

Bikky Sunazawa

Bikky’s mask series broke more new ground for Ainu artists. Masks were totally unknown in Ainu tradition. He was aware of—if not influenced by— masks of other native North Pacific peoples, and from the beginning his masks took an expressive mode. He commented in an interview; “I wanted to express both faces of masks: the front and the back.” (Asahi Shimbun , 19 July 1976). (HOVO)

Meiji era. Bikky's grandparents lived in a traditional Ainu home next to his parents' Japanese-style house,- his grandparents spoke to him in the Ainu language, and his parents spoke to him in Japanese. During his first six years, living in a small Ainu village, he had little contact with Japanese children. When the segregated school system ended in 1937 and an ''equal'' educational system was made open to Ainu children, Bikky started elementary school with Japanese children. This was a painful period for Bikky and other Ainu children, for they were constantly ridiculed by their Japanese classmates. In recalling his boyhood, he said, "Racial prejudice was severe, and I naturally began to bate people.

I was much more intimate with cattle and horses than with people" (Asahi Shimbun, 21 November 1960). Bikky's personal experiences seem to have precipitated his retreat into a private artistic world in which he escaped the pain of discrimination.

After I finished supper in the shed, I began making sketches of the cattle and horses I had seen in the daytime. In the beginning I just wanted to draw a horse as it was, but gradually 1 changed. It was interesting—the more I drew, the more I wanted to capture the essence of the horse, not only its sturdiness or its strength. At that time I was on the mountain, and I could not get in touch with the world, even by means of a newspaper. With nothing to distract me, the form of the animals I drew turned into abstract forms (Yamakawa 1988: 183).

Struggling against prejudice, he realized when he was only seventeen that the core of

47.15b

47.16 Bear and Hunter (Ekashi), 1973

Bikky Sunazawa

The artist learned about animals and wilderness from his father, whose Ainu name, Koa-kanno, meant "two arrows aren't necessary,” which referred to his prowess as a bow marksman. Bikky's understanding of the physical and psychological struggle between the hunter and the hunted expressed itself in this epic confrontation between man and bear. (KM)

47.17 Totem Pole, 1979

Bikky Sunazawa

Bikky's first full-scale totem pole was carved in 1979 for the Ainu Memorial Museum in his home village of Chikabumi, Asahikawa. The pole, which stands outside the museum, consists of several Ainu elements, most dominant of which is the itokpa (family crest emblem) of the killer whale. Also included in the carvings are a prayer stick (ikupasuy), offertory cup and saucer ( tuki ), images of the chief Ainu deities (killer whale, bear, owl), and the canoe, important to the survival of the Ainu. (Ainu Memorial Museum of Kaneto Kawamura in Asahikawa)

his problem was his own inferiority complex.

He understood that to change discrimination against the Ainu, he first had to change himself: It came to me [in 1948] that the Ainu shouldn't have to suffer from poor selfconsciousness to the point that many Ainu had to hide their identity. 1 couldn't confront the racial prejudice against the Ainu until I could get rid of my own inferiority complex. Rather than hiding behind my Ainu-ness, I thought I should grapple squarely with it. It was then that I made up my mind to use my childhood nickname, "Bikky," instead of my real [Japanese] name, Hisao (Yamakawa 1988: 180-82).

"Bikky," which means "frog" in Ainu, also became his artistic signature. While there is at least one sculpture in which the name is spelled in Japanese characters, in all other works he asserted his cultural independence from Japanese convention by adopting the romanized spelling "Bikky."

In keeping with his rebellious nature (and in contrast to Fujito and most other Ainu carvers whose livelihood depended on the bear-carving trade), Bikky rejected the Ainu bear-carving tradition, which he saw not as the focus of Ainu identity but as part of a mental enclosure that imprisoned the Ainu people as surely as the stone walls of a penitentiary. Bikky's father had sent him as a teenager to a master bear carver to learn proper carving techniques, but after only a month he was asked to leave because he refused to carve the bear in the usual way,- for example, he would carve horns on his bears.

I don't like bear carvings because they are not the real Ainu work of Hokkaido. The essence of Ainu art should be an expression of the life of living things or an expression of empathy which is received from living things seen through the medium of wood. The Ainu carver should then revive these elements to modern times (Asahi Shimbun, 22 November 1960).

Tourist Art Chances

Bikky's first contribution to Ainu art came at age twenty-one when he created wooden jewelry with Ainu designs to sell at the Akan tourist resorts. He began to carve pendants and earrings with intricate Ainu designs (fig. 47.14) as well as the wooden rings that had first brought him acclaim. The designs were derived from traditional Ainu patterns that Bikky had learned from his mother while helping her make clothing. Bikky recalled,

My mother asked me to do the embroidery on the cbikarknrpe [cotton embroidered robe], 1 was very young, and even though 1 felt bashful at the time, I was very attracted to the designs. ... 1 appreciate what she taught me because now it's in my blood (S. Ogawa 1986: 13).

For a boy to learn what was considered girl's work was a radical departure, but Bikky's experience with garment-making added a huge inventory of complex designs to his subconscious repertoire, which later ap

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47.18 Kami no shita (Tongue of God), 1980 Bikky Sunazawa

In this massive work Bikky sought to express the presence and power of gods in the lives of Ainu people. Its inspiration may have come from the parunpe, a triangular mark cut into the end of the ikupasuy, which conveyed a man's prayers to the gods. The precision of Bikky’s chisel cuts across the face of this large-scale piece gives its surface an undulating sheen that invites touching, something the artist encouraged but which unfortunately violates contemporary museum rules prohibiting the touching of artwork. (MCAS)

peared, transformed, in his work. Bikky pushed his designs first into a signature style for his jewelry, a precursor of his hallmark design, the so-called Bikky mon'yo (Bikky patterns). Later they were integrated into some of his larger bird and totem-pole sculptures. While he didn't know it at that time, he had revolutionized Ainu tourist art, giving it new vitality. Today "Bikky patterns" are found on many items wherever Ainu tourist art is sold.

Art and Politics

In 1953 his private and artistic life took a dramatic turn: he got married and left Hokkaido to live in Tokyo for a decade, although he returned to the Akan tourist resorts during summer seasons to make the money he needed to stay in Tokyo. In Tokyo Bikky was exposed to the intoxicating world of avant-garde art and intellectual thought,

and every day seemed to offer inspiring new experiences. Although Bikky studied the paintings exhibited in galleries and museums, he never undertook formal art education because he felt it restricted self-expression. He read about art and artists, however, and reported (author's interview with Junko Takagi, 3 May 1995) that during this period his work was influenced by abstract sculptors including Ossip Zadkine (1 890-1967) and Shigeru Ueki (1913-84). Like them, Bikky explored the many possibilities of biomorphic forms, shapes that were featured in his first abstract series, "Animals," which led to his acceptance into the Modern Art Association of japan in 1962.

Bikky divorced and moved to Sapporo, which in the 1970s was the locus for social activism and racial consciousness for Ainu and enlightened Japanese. Bikky soon became embroiled in the fight for Ainu rights, as his parents had been forty years earlier. He made use of his artistic talents and was at the forefront of the Ainu movement. Some Ainu remember Bikky more for his work as an Ainu activist than for his art (Siddle, this volume).

Early Major Works

In 1975 Bikky began a new series of carvings, Ki-men (Wooden Masks). He carved variants of masks whose form incorporated homonyms of the "ki" sound in kanji, the written Chinese language. First, he picked one of the "ki" characters, and developed an image through sketches that drew on the character's shape or its meaning, then he carved these images into masklike sculptures, creating as many as 150 masks. Some resemble pictorial symbols, others odd creatures,- some are simple abstract forms, while others are quite sensual (figs. 47.15a, b).

During these years Bikky found it difficult to make a living from his abstract sculpture. People could not easily understand his art, and his involvement in Ainu activism hurt sales. Eventually he was forced to work with a large craft company, Kitanihon Mingei-sha. Although he produced much more tourist art than fine art during his tenure at the craft company, he also stretched the boundaries of the traditional bear-and-hunter format, which he had previously shunned, creating an exquisite ensemble called Bear and Hunter ( Ekasbi )

(fig. 47.16). Carved from a stump of a tree,

47.19

47.19 Juka (Wooden Flower), 1989

Bikky Sunazawa

The form of the works in this series was inspired by inaw, the tufted-wood sticks that traditionally mark places of Ainu ritual. It was Bikky’s intention that viewers participate in the creation of these wooden flowers by arranging the sculpted willow branches as they chose. (HOVO)

47.20 Totem Poles at Kispiox

When Bikky—whose name means "frog" in Ainu—visited an Indian site at Kispiox, British Columbia, in 1983, he was impressed upon seeing how frogs and other motifs were skillfully interwoven on the totem pole. His comment: “Obviously how to incorporate frogs into the design elements appears to be something extraordinary, but it’s also just simply great sculpture. Frogs suddenly appear, coming out of fingernails or from eyes and mouths . . .just incredible!” (Yamakawa 1988: 197).

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this work was his single attempt to represent the struggle of the Ainu against both natural and human forces. Like Matsui, Bikky had accompanied his father, Koa-kanno, who was renowned as a bear hunter, on many hunting trips, where he observed the competition between nature and humans. In Ekasbi his observations of the hunt, his feelings about his father, the plight of nature, and human struggles can all be perceived.

In 1978, facing a professional crisis and a second divorce and remarriage, Bikky quit the craft company and moved from Sapporo to Otoineppu, a small village only fifty-five miles (ninety kilometers) from the northern tip of Hokkaido where the harsh winter season lasts for six months of the year. Here Bikky found his ideal working environment, with few distractions, plenty of wood, and natural surroundings as inspiration. Bikky began working on a commission for a totem pole to be erected at the Ainu Memorial Museum in Chikabumi, Asahikawa, where he had been born and raised. (Although totem poles were not part of the traditional Ainu repertoire, small-scale totem poles had been erected at tourist areas since the end of World War II.) Bikky's first full-scale totem pole was a composite of Ainu ceremonial symbols featuring a killer whale itokpa (family crest), an ikupasuy (prayer stick), and tuki (lacquered sake bowl), as well as images of the most important kamuy- —bear and killer whale (gods of the mountains and sea) and an owl (the protective spirit of the village). The pole (fig. 47.17) was erected in April 1979.

In 1980 Bikky created another piece of massive sculpture with an Ainu theme. Kami no shita {Tone)ue of God ; fig. 47.18) is most impressive: the six-foot-high (two-meter) tongue symbolizes communication with the spirit world and the immense power of the gods. The contrast between its cracked and stained body, suggesting a weathered old denizen of the forest, and the glinting, machinelike precision of its chiseled surface is astonishing, and invites touching. Bikky drew inspiration from the v- or triangular-shaped parunpe (tongue), traditionally carved at the end of the ikupasuy (see fig. 46.11), whose function is to deliver a message or prayer to the gods. Bikky probably intended his sculpture to function in a similar fashion.

Another Ainu theme emerged in the Juka (Wooden Flower) series Bikky began in 1982. These works (fig. 47.19) consist of a founda

47.21 Images of British Columbia, 1983

Bikky Sunazawa

This sculpture seems to have been inspired by the conceptual images Bikky admired in Northwest Coast art. Here a Coast Salish Skhwaikhwey mask form, with its peg eyes, deep eye sockets, and prominent nose, is reinterpreted: Bikky’s work has similar peg eyes and deep eye sockets, but he placed his mask on an N-shaped body, evoking a power figure or fetish. (Shinobu Ishijima Collection)

tion "stalk" to which scores of "branches" or "petals," made of slender willow shoots whose bark has been carefully peeled, could be attached. Bikky intended this to he a participatory series in which viewers would build a flower from a pile of peeled shoots stacked nearby, like a bird building a nest.

Although the wooden flowers resemble a fireworks "starburst," there is little doubt that Bikky's inspiration was based in part on inaw, the shaved sticks that accompanied Ainu rituals and were believed to turn into birds that helped deliver messages or prayers to the gods. Like this religious icon, so beautiful and flowerlike in its simplicity, Bikky's series was produced in a variety of shapes and sizes. Bikky hoped that this participatory art would encourage the viewer to experience art physically and spiritually: to touch, to play, to enjoy. In other installations the viewer entered a darkened gallery and was guided by a rope to a piece of sculpture, which could only be experienced by touch.

47.22 Gozen sanji no gangu

(Toys at 3:00 A.M.), 1987

Bikky Sunazawa

Mysterious insectlike creatures were often described in Bikky’s 1976 book of prose and poetry, Aoi sakyu nite (In the blue sand dune), which was based on his dreams from 1964 to 1973. He created a series of sculptures from these themes, like this dragonfly-like creature. (HOVO)

Northwest Coast Connections

In 1983 an unexpected meeting with Douglas Sanders, a Canadian professor of indigenous law, led Bikky into contact with the famous Haida artist Bill Reid, who invited him to visit British Columbia. Like many Ainu artists, Bikky had been inspired by Northwest Coast art and readily accepted an opportunity to see totem poles in their natural setting at old Gitksan village on the Llpper Skeena River and on the Queen Charlotte Islands (Higuchi 1987: 195). Cracked and split, rotting and returning to nature, these ancient, weathered poles were powerful witnesses of native history (fig. 47.20).

. . . these creations were terrifically magical, demonstrating the serious observation and struggle of native artists towards nature. . . . When I confronted them, my previous knowledge about totem poles just blew away. 1 had seen them before as a humorous curiosity, like something you might do as a hobby. But upon experiencing them in person I became overwhelmed and felt nauseous. This was

47.21

caused by my hasty ignorance without grasping the content of the gigantic monumentality of the totem poles (Bankaha Shinpo, 18 November 1983).

Bikky was struck by the symbolism of mythical creatures revealed in the last breath of their power, returning to nature, and he became aware that this aspect of the cycle of life had been missing in his art. He became deeply embarrassed that he had called his previous columnar art "totem poles." Now that he knew them firsthand, physically and emotionally, he never again used the word "totem" to describe his work. He quickly abandoned his intention to carve a totem pole, which he had announced in a local newspaper before departing for his trip, but working in Reid's studio on Granville Island in Vancouver he did produce a number of paintings and sculptures, including Images of British Columbia, which reflects his impressions of the art of Canada's First Nations, such as this abstract version of a Coast Salish Skhwaikhwey mask (fig. 47.21).

47.23 Praying to the Gods

This photo shows Bikky conducting a kamuynomi, or special prayer to a tree spirit, using an ikupasuy (prayer stick) and ceremonial sake on January 18, 1986 in front of his studio in Otoineppu, Hokkaido. He performed this ritual in preparation for carving the log before which he kneels. (Fukao and Kitayama, 1986)

47.24 Kaze ni kiku (Listening to the Wind), 1986

Bikky Sunazawa

Bikky created these sculptures shortly before his death in 1989. The work is accompanied by this poem:

Wind,

You are a four-headed and four-legged monster.

As you are so furious, people love your intermediate moments, which are called the four seasons.

I pray, blow the strongest wind upon me and my entire body.

Especially, blow it upon my eyes.

Wind,

While you are a four-headed and fourlegged monster,

I'd like to present you with a nice pair of four-legged pants.

And please, hold me once.

(MCAS)

Bikky was also impressed by the status contemporary native artists enjoyed in British Columbia. Their works were sought after, widely published, and exhibited in public and private galleries and museums (Yamakawa 1988: 208-209). "On meeting Bill Reid, my stereotype image of Indians was shattered. Here was a native person who was successful and respected, someone with pride" (Banknba Shinpo, 18 November 1983). By contrast, most Japanese considered Ainu artists as second-rate artists— souvenir-makers with little artistic skill.

His trip also helped him confront something else: "I had another fact to confirm in Canada other than my creation of art" (Hariu et al. 1989: 103). Although he never elaborated, I believe he was referring to his struggle with ethnicity. His experience in Canada helped him break through his selfconsciousness at being called an Ainu artist in the professional world of Japanese art. He began accepting wider boundaries and

realized that being Ainu could be a positive force in his career.

Last works

Returning to Otoineppu changed by his Canadian experience, Bikky's art was also dramatically transformed, especially in terms of its relationship to nature. He began to focus on the theme of wind with a monumental outdoor sculpture called Yottsu no kaze (Four Winds; fig. 47.25), emphasizing that both the material and the context of this finished piece were provided by nature:

I make use of the trees in nature, grown without touching human hands, as materials. Thus, they are living things. It's quite natural that living things will atrophy and decay I will reconstruct them anew . . . I'm trying my luck with wooden sculptures. Outdoor sculptures are always done in bronze and stone, but I'm going to submit wooden sculptures. The intention of the creation is to establish my work in an outdoor environment, and the natural phenomena of snow and wind will add to their completeness. ... I calculate that it will stand there at least fifty years (Hariu et al 1989: 100-101).

He was commissioned to produce a large sculpture for the opening of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sapporo, and for this work four-hundred-year-old Japanese red spruce trees were delivered to Bikky's studio. Before proceeding with a new work, Bikky usually performed an Ainu prayer

47.25 Yottsu no kaxe (Four Winds), 1988

In this simple but powerful large-scale work, the natural overall shape of the Japanese red spruce logs is retained but a concave portion of each piece, facing a different direction, is carved out. The rough-hewn interiors contrast with the exterior surfaces, which are marked with thousands of chisel marks, creating a new grain for the tree. (MCAS)

ceremony, kamuynomi, but this time his prayer for the god of the trees was filmed by Hokkaido Shimbun (fig. 47.23,- Fukao and Kitayama 1986), consistent with his decision to accept—and to promote—his Ainu ethnicity in a more open manner.

Kaze ni kikit (Listening to the Wind ) is a twenty-foot (six-meter) abstract canoeshaped piece designed for horizontal floor display accompanied by four cylindrical forms to be arranged by the presenter (fig. 47.24). At the top of each cylindrical form is a rectangular projection, which is probably intended as a head and gives the impression of an abstract human figure standing, bending, or stooping. The cylindrical forms create a different impression every time they are rearranged. For example, they can seem like they're talking to each other in a group, or they can be

arranged to be excluding one from the conversation. The latter composition might suggest a well-known Ainu myth about the wind that was performed as a ritual by the Yakumo Ainu. In this tale the evil east wind blew so hard that salmon could not swim upstream, but the other winds caught him after a dramatic battle and made him apologize to the people. Bikky would have known this myth and may have intended it as one permutation of his composition.

Early in 1987 Bikky started a new series entitled Cozen sanji no gancju ( Toys at 3.00 A.M. ; fig. 47.22). As the title suggests, the series was created early in the morning, close to daybreak. Bikky had lived in his own time frame since his youth, and his personal biological clock operated differently from other people's.

1 try to devote from 1 1 P.M. to around 3:34 A.M. to shaping my ideas. I always stop at 3:34 A.M. because that is the time when the express train, Rishiri, passed by, and then I begin carving. The sound of the train became a signal for me to begin carving. 1 have worked by this routine for eight years (Hariu et al 1989:105).

Although he was very gregarious and loved socializing, he needed complete privacy for his artistic activity, when he was "confronting himself," as he described it. Carving at night in the northern Fdokkaido winter was a considerable challenge, because the temperature in his studio, with only one small heater, was often well below zero. Fde frequently would lose sensitivity in his hands, and fragments of ice would fly when he struck green wood with his chisel or adze. The ideas for such important works as Four Winds took shape on these cold winter nights. Just as his father had gained fortitude from spending long cold nights in snow caves while hunting, Bikky used self-imposed adversity to bring out his creativity.

The Toys at 3.00 A.M. series was done in small scale so that people could play with them with their hands. While most of Bikky's largescale works have rough or small rhythmical chisel marks on the surface, Toys at 3.00 AM. were finished with polished, smooth surfaces that illustrate the mysterious shininess that almost all new life exhibits.

Toys at 3:00 A.M. expressed the primordial spirit-world creatures that shared the nights with Bikky. All these insectlike creatures have articulated segments such as long, slender, flexible feelers, tails, and antennae, which are

47.27 Nitne-kamuy (Evil God), 1988

Bikky Sunazawa

Nitne-kamuy was a legendary evil Ainu god who people in the Asahikawa region where Bikky was born believed capable of inflicting great harm and calamity. Some regional place-names are derived from incidents ascribed to this god. Bikky may have confronted his mortality in this piece, which was completed shortly before his death. (HAMA)

47.26 Kani (Crab), 1987

Bikky Sunazawa

Bikky also created sculptures of other creatures, including insects, reptiles, and fish whose articulated wings, tails, heads, and limbs were fastened with wooden pegs and whose surfaces are covered with intricately carved Ainu designs in relief. (KM)

47.28

connected with hinged wooden joints so that they can move freely. This type of detailed and delicate artistry is technically related to the variety of sea world creatures and fish he created when he was working at the Kitanihon Mingeisha (Kitanihon Folkcraft Company) in Sapporo in the 1960s and 1970s (fig. 47.26).

Bikky's last work, titled Nitne-kamuy (Evil God; fig. 47.27), was begun early in 1988 but was interrupted by other work during the summer (Echizen 1992: 4). The sculpture consists of three spherical forms piled one on top of the other, with the uppermost form resembling a budding flower. Nitne-kamuy is the name of the evil god who played tricks on the Ainu people. No one seems to know why Bikky put an evil god's name on his last work,

hut perhaps he had begun to feel a force affecting his fate, the spell of the evil trickster.

In the fall of 1988 Bikky was diagnosed with a deadly form of cancer. In spite of his painful malignancy, full knowledge of which was withheld from him, he maintained his pace of work and even participated in the opening of "The Contemporary Artists' Series '89'' at the Kanagawa Prefectural Gallery near Tokyo. Bikky flew in from Hokkaido and arrived at the gallery on a hospital gurney with intravenous paraphernalia attached to his arm. The gallery had asked him to write something for the exhibition catalogue, and he wrote a single word with ink and brush— kiki, which he had coined, meaning "spirit of wood"—and gave it to them. This word was

47.28 Untitled, ea. 1980s Peramonkoro Sunazawa

Bikky’s mother, Peramonkoro Sunazawa, born in 1897 in Chikabumi, Asahikawa, devoted herself to learning and teaching Japanese-style dressmaking to Ainu women in the community, but she was also a respected master of traditional Ainu embroidery. Recognized as one of the most talented textile artists of the twentieth century, she made important contributions to Ainu textile design. (Collection of Kazuo Sunazawa)

47.29 Ryo (Force or Spirit), 1989 Noriko Kawamura

A leading contemporary Ainu textile artist, Kawamura is known for making very large works. The spiral design in the center of this piece, similar to the paired eyelike shapes sometimes found on the back of Ainu robes, is called kamuychik (god’s eye). Such designs were traditionally believed to ward off evil and protect the wearer from evil spirits. Noriko's contem-porary design evokes that kind of protective power. (N. Kawamura Collection)

47.29

not only appropriate for the subject of the exhibition, it also expressed his consonance with Ainu religious beliefs, acknowledging the spirits who endowed his works in the same way that his ancestors had for generations. Soon after, he died, on January 25, 1989, at the age of fifty-seven, just four days after his last exhibition.

Bikky Sunazawas greatest contribution to modern art was his ability to create a vision of nature that transcends the mere natural forms found on earth. More than simply manipulating wood and form, his belief in the spirit of the tree allowed him not only to listen to the trees, but to give them another life. He constantly tried to see the supernatural order of things beyond nature, reaching for kamuy that coexist with earth's nature with dignity. In so doing, he went beyond the concept of naturalism and reached deeply into the Ainu soul. He once stated,

"I don't consciously try for an Ainu theme, but I have an expression, descent, and foundation that is different from the Yamato [Japanese] race. I think it has to come out in my work"

(Y. Abe, Asabi Sbimbun, 26 January 1989).

During the exhibition on which he worked so hard immediately before his death, several of his sculptures sprouted wild mushrooms. Bikky would have been pleased to know that nature was finishing his work.

Bikky's legacy has been immortalized by more than mushrooms. On November 29,

1987, two Japanese amateur astronomers,

K. Endate and K. Watanabe, members of the International Astronomical Union, discovered a small unknown planet. After a rigorous independent review, they registered the planet with the Minor Planet Center at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory on September 1, 1993, and received registry number 5372. They also named the planet. Eschewing the custom of using only the family name, they gave the planet the honor of carrying only a nickname: that of the gifted contemporary Ainu artist, Bikky (Marsden 1993: 22509).

Noriko Kawamura

Noriko Kawamura, a textile artist, was born in 1947 as the third of eight daughters of Kaneto (1893-1977) and Tome Kawamura (born 1915). Kaneto was the hereditary chief of the Chikabumi Ainu and a grandson of the famous Ainu chief Monokute, whose ancestors were said to have moved to Chikabumi from the lower Ishikari River.

47.32

47.30

47.30 Hokkaido no shiki: Aki mon 'yo (Four Seasons in Hokkaido: Autumn Patterns), 1990

Noriko Kawamura

47.31 Hokkaido no shiki (fuyu): Fukuro no sumu mori (Four Seasons in Hokkaido. Winter: The Forest Where Owls Live), 1991

Noriko Kawamura

These two (of four) pieces from the series Hokkaido no shiki evoke vividly the dramatic seasonal changes in Hokkaido, where the artist was born and raised. She stated in an interview that "because Hokkaido's winter is very cold, I want to create textile art for the interior of the home. I want the textile to evoke warm feelings” (Hokkaido Shimbun, 6 January 1994). (SOTD)

47.32 Mokurei (Wooden Spirit), 1991

Noriko Kawamura

In Mokurei (Wooden Spirit), done in 1991, gray tones establish a rhythmic vertical structure; overlaid with Ainu elements with contrasting color accents, the design produced is reminiscent of Henri Matisse's latephase cutout works (e.g., Jazz).

(N. Kawamura Collection)

Norikos family was active in the flourishing tourist industry, which in those days promoted the image of a primitive Hokkaido, even suggesting that the Ainu still lived as hunter-gatherers. Some Ainu criticized the family for "selling" Ainu culture, but Kaneto countered with statements that these same Ainu were ashamed of their race. Although the Ainu at that time were being forced to assimilate into Japanese society, Kaneto moved in the opposite direction, reaffirming his Ainu identity. Because her grandfather and father built the local Ainu museum and were involved in Ainu tourism, Noriko had opportunities to travel frequently in Hokkaido and throughout Japan, demonstrating traditional Ainu culture and dance. The iyomante (bear-sending) ceremony was often performed in her childhood, both for spiritual and tourist reasons.

She understood the grave situation the Ainu faced at that time and accepted her role in the tourism business out of pride for the great contribution to the Ainu community that had been fostered by her father.

At a time when scholars and historians were forecasting the demise of the Ainu, Noriko was actively strengthening Ainu culture by shifting from dance performance to reviving traditional Ainu robe design in the 1980s.

Ainu designs have a deep sense of power. When 1 am working on a garment I sometimes become very tired, and it's very difficult to continue, but I feel strong pressure from the design. Because Ainu

designs were traditionally done to prevent evil spirits from attacking the [wearer's] body, its nature is to be powerful (Hokkaido Shimbun, 6 January 1994).

After she learned traditional robe design from her mother and other elder women, Noriko confronted the proverbial "artistic wall," feeling powerless to change what she felt were nearly perfect traditional designs. As she struggled to discover her own style, she happened to see a different type of textile art done by Peramonkoro Sunazawa (1897-1971), who was Bikky Sunazawa's mother and is one of the most respected textile artists of the twentieth century (fig. 47.28). Inspired by Peramonkoro's work, Noriko synthesized some of these forms into a new style called Mon'yo (design patterns) in 1989, whose curvilinear designs are somewhat similar to the flowing curvilinear "formline" design system that underlies most Northwest Coast Indian art styles. This new style allowed her to express her ideas in ways that traditional gowns could not and brought Ainu textile art to new level of artistic achievement.

In that same year, Noriko created a piece entitled Ryo, meaning in Japanese "power," "force," or "spirit," in which the contrast of colors and movement in the design does indeed create tremendous power (fig. 47.29). The graphic strength of the Ainu spiral dominates the center of the work, surrounded by streams of vividly colored diagonal cloudlike formations.

A large-scale four-part textile work entitled

47.31

47.33 A Daughter's Happiness, 1991

Chinita Sunazawa

Bikky Sunazawa was Chinita’s father, and as a child she immersed herself in his art books. Gradually she found in drawing a way to escape the discrimination faced by Ainu people. While Chinita respects her father's artistic achievements and is proud to carry on his tradition, today she makes her own contributions to Ainu art. (Hokkaido Shuppan Kikaku Center)

Hokkaido no shiki (Four Seasons in Hokkaido), produced in 1990 and 1991, displays the colorful foliage of autumn in Akimon'yo (Autumn Pattern, fig. 47.30) seen as dark waves of color accented by abstract Ainu designs. The winter piece, Fukuro no sumu mori (The Forest Where Otols Live, fig. 47.31), features the owl, Shamafukuro ( Bubo blakistoni), revered by the Ainu as kotan-kor-kamuy (god of the village). The sequential presentation of design elements in the work recalls the unfolding of a stoiy in an Ainu yukar (oral epic tale).

Noriko's textiles, like Bikky's sculptures, show how modern Ainu artists have created new artistic genres within an Ainu cultural framework. Mokurei (Wooden Spirit, fig.

47.32).She has stated (author's interview on 2 February 1998) that when she begins a new work she feels the presence of a guardian spirit, sermak, protecting her back from evil spirits. Fder belief in the power of kamuy is perhaps best expressed in her work.

Chinita Sunazawa

Chinita Sunazawa was born in Chikabumi, Asahikawa, in I960,- she is the daughter of the late Ainu sculptor Bikky Sunazawa. Chinita, whose name means "dream" in Ainu, grew up watching her father create art in many media— not just the wooden sculpture for which he is primarily famous but also thousands of paintings and sketches—and began drawing at a young age. Like her father, her talent for drawing began as a hobby, but as the years passed she became

more serious about her work. Because she had no formal artistic training, her progress was slow, but eventually she became committed to pursuing a career in commercial art

Fder first professional break came in 1991 when she was asked to do the illustrations for a Japanese translation of Ainskii Fol'klor by Nikolai A. Neviskii (1892-1937), a Russian linguist who lived in Japan from 1915 until 1929 and compiled a great collection of Ainu folklore.

Fdis work, published posthumously in Russia in 1972, remained unknown in Japan until 1991, when it was translated by Kazuyukt Uoi.

Chinita illustrated these tales with imaginative images of Ainu people and with Ainu geometrical designs. Although the influence of "Bikky designs" (Bikky mon'yo ) is most evident in the latter, her images of Ainu woman are more striking. For example, A Daughter's Happiness tells the story of an Ainu girl who grows into a beautiful woman under the protection of the bear kamuy. In this work (fig. 47.33) an Ainu woman, drawn in a flat style reminiscent of the schematic ledger art of the Plains Indians of North America, is seen in an exuberant moment dancing to Ainu music with her hair flying. Another story, "Sad Fox," tells of a fox who tried to transform himself into a god (fig. 47.37) but was caught in the act by Okikurumi, a yukar hero, who punished him severely. Chinita shows the fox trapped in a cocoonlike state, head bowed in shame, enmeshed in Ainu designs.

47/MODERN ART AND ARTISTS

351

47.34

47.36 Untitled, 1992

Chinita Sunazawa

Chinita’s love for indigenous design elements recalls that of her father: like Bikky, she believes that indigenous art has a special essence that speaks to the core of those who create it. (C. Sunazawa Collection)

While Ainu designs are the central feature of Chinita's art, she mingles them with design elements representing many other ethnic styles (fig. 47.36):

When 1 draw and paint, 1 mix and combine graphic designs from all over the world. . . . Unity, balance, and harmony [are] the main focus in my work. I'm especially conscious of the concept of symmetry and asymmetry. When you first look at the design elements of traditional Ainu robes, they appear symmetrical, but when you observe them carefully, the many divergences merge into a single unified design (interview with the author, Febaiary 1998).

This concept of unity reflects her cultural identity as well She often refers to herself as a "hybrid" and considers being Ainu just one part of her self, not the dominant source of her creative inspiration. She describes her psychological state when painting:

1 feel like I'm in a trance, like going on a shamanic journey across design boundaries of all ethnic people. I get into ecstasies, become one with the painting, and am surprised at the outcome (interview with the author, February 1998).

Since 1991 Chinita has been working with smaller works of graphic art, but she occasionally has undertaken large-scale paintings, like Yin (1998) and Yang (1997)

(figs. 47.34, 47.35), which incorporate the two Chinese characters for "happiness" and "longevity" in a dynamic composition—bold pictographic elements dominate.

Yin and yang are dominant themes in Chinita's art, as is her expression of the ideas of Tao, a religion concerned with harmony between humans and nature and the discovery of nature's essential rhythms. Chinita is concerned with problems of world peace and the future of children and humanity and wants to address these issues in her work.

Like other young Ainu artists, she uses the legacy of her culture to advance her vision of a world in which ethnic traditions and diversity serve as positive forces to mold the future of mankind.

Conclusion

When the Ainu began to respond to external market opportunities, producing, for instance, towelracks with Ainu decoration for sale to Japanese in FJokkaido in the early 1800s, secular commercial forces were introduced to traditional Ainu art that would forever change it. As the power of religious restrictions on the use of

47.35

47.34 Yin, 1998

Chinita Sunazawa

47.35 Yang, 1997

Chinita Sunazawa

In these works, Chinita expresses the Tao—a path, way, system of order— one of the most important concepts in Chinese language: "Tao is the center of all philosophical and spiritual discourse.” (Sankyo Co. Ltd.)

47.37 Sad Fox, 1991

Chinita Sunazawa Ainu considered the fox to be a shaman’s spirit helper. In her illustrations for a collection of Ainu folktales, Chinita stylized the fox’s tail into a spiral reminiscent of the traditional Ainu morew. (Hokkaido Shuppan Kikaku Center)

animal and human images weakened, new opportunities emerged for Ainu artists, and by the beginning of the twentieth century an explosive new phase of development stimulated by Ainu poverty, market demands, tourism, and government intervention was initiated. In the latter part of the twentieth century, traditional Ainu art continues to be a defining element of Ainu social identity, as it has been for centuries, and tourist art continues to play an important economic role in Ainu life. Art created from both of these impulses will likely remain an important factor in the living Ainu tradition. At the same time, the emergence of Ainu fine arts as a new genre has made it possible for Ainu artists to add their unique voices to the ranks of modern artists throughout the world. Despite

the many losses Ainu have suffered over the past several hundred years at the hands of external forces (primarily Japanese), Ainu people, culture, and art have successfully survived conquest and assimilation, in part because the flame of artistic creativity continued to provide a focus for Ainu identity. For the Ainu, like many other indigenous peoples, artistic creativity had no special name or linguistic term. Art was in their souls and bones and was celebrated even in the worst of times.

Today Ainu fine art is still in its infancy. The few artists profiled above are only a small part of this new wave, but they exemplify the new life that is being brought to the Ainu tradition as younger artists express their individual creativity. New art and new artists will emerge and will express Ainu-ness in different ways, certainly not always within an identifiable Ainu tradition. In today's shrinking world, jewelry decorated with "Bikky designs" can appear in Fdokkaido Ainu tourist shops supplied by craftsmen from other Asian countries just as easily as Ainu textile patterns may someday appear in Paris or New York fashion houses.

Such challenges demand the attention and skill of native artists who have a major responsibility today as spokespersons and interpreters of cultural traditions. Art has functioned as a powerful enunciator of Ainu tradition in the past. While artistic challenges remain, it is my hope that the 1997 Ainu Shinpo (a law for preservation and promotion of Ainu art and culture) will help young artists receive the training needed to excel and compete in today's competitive art market. Anonymity is no longer acceptable. For the Ainu, it seems that the moment of extinction has passed, and the artistic flame, rekindled, grows.

Qnni rn

48/Shishirimuka:

A s mu i River Tale

Koichi Kaizawa

< Inikari, Chieftain of Barasanmo

1843 copy by Teiki Kojima after Hakyo Kakizaki's work, Portraits of Ezo Chieftains. (Y. and M. Kitao Collection)

J APAN IS MADE UP OF MANY ISLANDS, ONE of the largest being the northernmost island of Ainu mosir, also known as Hokkaido. In the southern part of the island on the Pacific side is the Hidaka region. The Shishirimuka River is the longest of the rivers running through Hidaka. Like my ancestors, ! was born and raised in the hills about thirteen miles (twenty-one kilometers) upriver from the ocean. When 1 was a child, the ground would freeze solid and the snow would pile up during the winter months,unable to work their farms, many laborers left to toil in the mountains from November to March. That was still in the days when they cut trees with a saw and hauled them out to the nearest road with horses, the days when work was done by humans and horses. The ground being frozen and blanketed with snow, there was no damage to the hillsides, so it was

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48.1 Tadashi Kaizawa Koichi Kaizawa's father, the late Tadashi Kaizawa, was one of the Ainu leaders who fought to preserve the Saru River and the lands surrounding Nibutani village. The majority of this land was given to the Ainu as "allowance land” by the Japanese government in the Meiji period. As the elder Kaizawa neared his death he told his son, "With this dam as my screen, I can deliver the voices of the Ainu to a country and a government that has never once tried to listen.” He was photographed standing in silent protest in a buckwheat field that is now underwater.

also a gentle season for the young trees and undergrowth. Trails were made by spreading branches from the felled trees and covering them with snow to protect what lay below from any damage.

At that time, my grandfather Yojiro worked as a tree cutter about two and a half miles (four kilometers) upriver, across the Shishirimuka from a village called Penakori. Neither a bridge nor roads led to the mountains where my grandfather cut trees. Oil lamps provided the only light in the rented shed that served as their bunkhouse. To make matters worse, moonlight would spill through the cracks of the straw walls as the tempera

ture outside dipped down to minus twenty or thirty degrees Fahrenheit. A straw mat hung in place of a curtain in the entryway ; even when the fifty-gallon (two hundred-liter) barrel that had been cut in half and made into a stove became so hot it glowed red, one's back remained cold. Despite this lifestyle, my grandfather—who always favored me—often invited me to stay with them. I cannot really recall whether or not I went happily each time, but the stew my grandmother Hekasunure (later she was given the Japanese name Fume) made was always delicious. I have yet to taste anything that comes close to it these days. It was chockfull of all sorts of ingredients seasoned primarily with salt. 1 think she used wild plants that had been picked at their peak in springtime. Plants like a small, flowering herb called pukusakina and wild garlic root (pukusa) were often dried and left hanging from the ceiling.

It was these kinds of things and dace fish ( supun ) that went into my grandmother's stew.

When December came around, it was time to move the logs across the 165-foot(fifty-meter) wide river. Where the river ice was still thin, branches were scattered across it and covered with snow,- after they were stomped down, water was thrown on them, and in just one night a sturdy ice bridge was formed. This would begin to soften toward the end of February, and after that the river could only be crossed at nightfall when the temperature dropped. There were many times when a cry of "A horse has fallen!" or "The sleigh has been swept away!" came out of the blackness, and everyone would rush to the river. Thankfully, my grandfather's party never did suffer a loss, either human or horse. The river no longer freezes over like it did thirty years ago, though, due to the construction of a hydroelectric dam at a place upriver called Iwashi. The power plant causes the water level to rise in the evening and fall again in the morning, so nothing more than spongelike ice ever forms on the river, and its uneven surface makes it dangerous to cross.

Before the dam was built, the river was crystal clear. We could easily see the river bottom more than seven feet (two meters) below, and the clean water also prevented the rocks from getting slippery. During the summer, we children often went to the river on our own to play,- with 85-degree days few and far between—one can barely call it "summer" in Hokkaido—we were nearly

48.2 Toroshino Kaizawa (18891982) With Radishes

As industrial enterprises expanded in the late twentieth century, Ainu found it increasingly difficult to maintain a living by farming, fishing, and hunting. Fishing for salmon had been banned; hunting was tightly regulated; and agricultural lands, mostly of low quality, were being lost to industrial development and economic transformation. In photographs like this one, taken in Nibutani in the fall of 1965, Sister M. Inez Hilger recorded Ainu village life of the Saru River region when the traditional economy still supported many Ainu families. (NAA-T-7)

always swimming on cold days. We used to gather up driftwood and light a fire so we could warm ourselves after swimming. Tired and hungry, we would sometimes sneak into a nearby field and swipe potatoes and corn to cook over the fire. We grilled fish, too, whenever we managed to catch some.

Although less than fifty years have passed since my grandfather harvested lumber in these mountains, nowadays the logging companies use bulldozers and power shovels to cut trees year-round. They tear into the mountainsides and build roads so that their trucks can haul logs from the very tops of the mountains. After the trees have been hauled away, the smallest amount of rain washes the soil from the abandoned roads, carrying it down into the river. In no time at all this runoff can cause flooding. Such reckless deforestation, combined with the drainage of non-sewage waste water, has left the Saru River (as the Japanese renamed the

electricity for 1,000 households,- it is also destroying some of the surrounding irrigation systems by forcing dam water into them.

With only 140 households, the village of Nibutani has a population of just less than 500, more than 70 percent of whom are of Ainu heritage. Nibutani has the densest population of Ainu in the world. It was here that the government chose to build a dam.

In our village, we have a ceremony known as the chip-sanke. With the government's policies to assimilate the Ainu into Japanese culture threatening to extinguish Ainu culture, Diet member and Ainu cultural leader Shigeru Kayano endeavored to, at the very least, preserve this custom in the form of a festival. In the Ainu language, chip means "boat," and scwke means "to bring down",- it was originally a ceremony to mark the first launching of a new boat. Begun twenty-nine years ago, the festival is held to ensure that the boats

48.2

48.3

48.3 Nibutani Dam

In 1996, ignoring the protests of Ainu and other local residents, the government constructed a dam on the Saru River in the district of Nibutani, which has the largest Ainu population in Hokkaido. Although the dam's efficiency has been questioned and the Sapporo District Court has mandated compensation to the Ainu because their lands and rights were violated by the construction, the existence of the dam is a modern example of continued Japanese violence to Ainu lands and culture.

Shishirimuka) thoroughly polluted.

In 1996 the central government completed the construction of another dam on the same Saru River (fig. 48.3). This dam’s original purpose was to supply water to a planned industrial sector some thirty-eight miles (sixty kilometers) away in Tomakomai. The proposed industrial development was eventually deemed a mistake, and as the plans for the industrial park underwent thorough reconsideration, only the dam was built. Despite having lost its primary purpose, the Nibutani dam was constructed and is now producing 3,000 kilowatts, enough to provide

now being housed in museums are floated upon the river at least once each year (fig. 48.4). This festival is held not only for us, the Ainu, but for all people.

In August 1996, four months after the dam halted the river's flow, the floodgates were opened one last time for the sake of the festival. With the water draining faster than usual, it took only four days for the river to return to its normal flow. Although the water had been stagnant for only four months, the river bottom was now covered with sludge, four inches (ten centimeters) thick in shallow water and as much as ten inches (thirty centimeters) thick in

the deeper areas. A foul smell emanated from the water and drifted throughout the village as the wind changed directions, and the riverhanks were so choked with silt that it was impossible to walk along them. The government hauled away the silt and spread gravel alongside the river. Somehow we managed to hold the chip-sanke, but the water level rose to its former height only three days after the festival,- thus, it would seem that the government's stated alternate purpose for the dam, flood control, is an unlikely possibility. Could the dam manage a flood, even if it reportedly only happens in this area once every hundred years? In 1966 a levee sufficient to handle the once-in-a-century flood was constructed from the mouth of the river all the way to Nibutani, and there has yet to be any risk of flooding.

The places of my childhood are gone.

An intersection for a national highway needed

48.4 Chip-sanke Ceremony In the canoe-launching ceremony (chipsanke) Ainu pray for the protection of a newly made canoe before launching it in the river or the sea. The Chip-sanke Festival has been held every August 20 since 1972 on the Saru River in Nibutani; it has become both a major tourist attraction and an important Ainu communal gathering. The inaw on the bow of this festival vessel is a vestige of prayers offered for a safe passage.

for the dam is at the spot where I used to stay with my grandparents during the winter logging. An embankment meant to stop the flow of silt into the dam was built where they used to haul the timber over the ice bridge. The dam was topped with an impressive permanent bridge that is off-limits to the general public. Some engineers have concluded that the high silt content makes the Saru River naturally unsuitable for a dam,- in this year alone, the embankment has filled up with silt. With a water-level allowance of only thirty-three feet (ten meters), they say it is conceivable that in just ten years the Nibutani

dam basin could be buried under silt. Given all this, one has to wonder why such an utterly useless dam was built in our village.

My father, Tadashi Kaizawa, before his death on February 3, 1992, joined with Shigeru Kayano to oppose the construction of the Nibutani dam. When they began their fight, my father said, "With this dam as my podium, I can deliver the voices of the Ainu to a country and a government that has never once tried to listen." They first filed a legal objection to the confiscation of their land by the Hokkaido Land Expropriation Committee. A total of fifteen attorneys assisted them without promise of compensation, and more than 10,000 people showed their support by signing a petition. My father and Kayano argued the following points as they presented their case to the Land Expropriation Committee, the Ministry of Construction, and the Sapporo District Court: that the Ainu people are, historically, the indigenous people of Japan,- by failing to consider the needs and wishes of the Ainu people, construction of the dam was illegal,and construction of the dam has robbed those Ainu living in Nibutani of their culture.

Although my father had never consulted me about anything before, he came to me and said, "This legal action, it could last ten, maybe even twenty years. I don't know if i'll be around to see it through. What do you think? Will you finish the fight?' 1 He was healthy at the time and so, never imagining that he would die so soon, I casually replied, "Sure, I'll take it up when you're gone."

My father was given only two opportunities to present his opinion officially: once before the Hokkaido Land Expropriation Committee at its first hearing on February 15, 1988, and again on April 26 of the following year during an on-site inspection. The committee handed down its decision—approval of the forced expropriation—one year later, on February 3, 1989. The plaintiffs quickly filed a request for an investigation with the Minister of Construction, provided for under the Land Expropriation Act, but it was another two years before they were able to present statements to the Construction Ministry on a bitterly cold March day in 1991.

By that time, my father had undergone surgery for cancer and had suffered a relapse, and the doctor had informed us that he had only six months to live. We went to a room, one that is not normally open to the public,

48.5 Old Man and Child During her visit to the Nibutani region in 1965 Sister M. Inez Hilger photographed a girl and her grandfather visiting an abandoned homestead. Dams and highways are not the only threat to traditional Ainu life; change has not favored the rural economy of Hokkaido. It remains to be seen whether the Ainu can find ways to protect valued aspects of their traditional life from the relentless modernization that has been imposed on them. (NAA-3-16)

on the first floor of the Ministry of Construction. We were not served tea and the room was without a heater. It must have been a difficult time for my father. Nevertheless, hiding his pain, he made his appeal:

This concrete monstrosity has become a symbol of the environmental degradation of the peaceful land around Nibutani's Saai River. How, indeed, would it look to the Ainu ekashi and jucbi [male and female elders] who, since ancient times, lived on this land and thought always of the welfare of their descendants? We, their descendants, have been silent and obedient in the face of these evils of civilization. During this long history, we have lived through struggle and oppression, facing one thing after another. No one stops to listen to our voices because those in power want only to see results, and so the building goes on and on. I cannot predict whether or not I will live until the dam is completed, but I have resolved to build a little house on the land my ancestors left to me. When the water is dammed up, 1

will become a human sacrifice at the bottom of that lake. If I did not do this, I would have no explanation for my ancestors when I join them. Someone must accept responsibility for the destruction of Ainu mosir.

My father finished his statement, but even before we left the building he turned to me and said, "Koichi, take my place."

Exactly one year later, on February 3,

1992, my father closed his eyes for the last time at Oji Hospital in Tomakomai. On May 27, 1993, I went with Shigeru Kayano to the Sapporo District Court, and together we filed a lawsuit demanding a reversal of the decision by the Hokkaido Land Expropriation Committee. When the court handed down its verdict on March 27, 1997, Judge Ichimiya read from the decision:

From an historical viewpoint, the Ainu are an indigenous people and lived here well before our country began its rule. Furthermore, keeping in mind the historical sequence of events that precipitated the decline of the Ainu culture, in a situation where the utmost consideration was called for, there was instead unjust negligence and utter disregard, and it is therefore illegal.

Despite the above ruling, the court approved the dam's continued existence, and so from the government's point of view, the matter is nearly closed. It is now merely scurrying to find justification for the completed dam.

The day will come when the folly of the Nibutani dam will finally be acknowledged. They will then open the floodgates, letting the Shishirimuka River return to its original state, and the dam will become a seventybillion yen bridge. It must be left standing, though, as proof of the aggression against the Ainu and to symbolize our "empty inheritance,” if only so that people will understand that all humans are equal!

PRESENT AND FUTURE / K. KAIZAWA

4 C Ainu in the International Arena

Kelly L. Dietz

D uring the preceding three decades countless indigenous groups around the world have challenged the notion that they are assimilated and demanded the right to determine the future of their communities. Although most indigenous peoples are now active to some extent domestically, unresponsiveness or ongoing oppression by governments has led significant numbers to seek political redress on another front. Indigenous groups are taking their direct action beyond what, to them, are arbitrarily imposed borders in order to join together in the struggle for their rights. Increasingly aware of the global indigenous community and the possibilities it holds for their

own movement, many Ainu are looking beyond Japan's borders and allying themselves with other native peoples in indigenous actions at

49.1 Oiichi Nomura, former Executive Director of Utari Kyokai (Ainu Association of Hokkaido), addressing the United Nations General Assembly, 10 December 1992 An excerpt from Nomura's speech at the opening ceremony for the International Year of the World’s Indigenous People, follows:

Human Rights Day, which marks fortyfive years since the adoption of the Declaration of Human Rights, is a day that should rightly be commemorated by all mankind. For we Ainu, who have formed a distinct society and culture in Hokkaido, the Kurile Islands, and southern Sakhalin from time immemorial, there is yet another reason today will have special significance in our history. This is because up until 1986, a mere six years ago, the Japanese government denied even our existence in its proud claim that Japan, alone in the world, is a “monoethnic nation.” Here today, however, our existence is being clearly recognized by the United Nations itself. In the eyes of the govern

the international level.

The Ainu belong to a global community that is at once remarkably diverse yet intrinsically connected Indigenous peoples live on every continent, in every hemisphere,- their environments range from mountainous rain forest to desert, from tundra to tropical island, from isolated village to the heart of Manhattan. Some hunt and kill their food daily, others phone in an order for pizza delivery,some are fighting in armed struggle, others are fighting rush-hour traffic In other words, although the term "indigenous peoples" refers to a collectivity, it is a global collectivity of distinct peoples whose cultures, languages, and lifestyles are arguably as diverse as those among nonindigenous peoples. Given this diversity, one may wonder what inspires and enables many Ainu to actively seek ties with other indigenous groups.

A common historical experience and its enduring legacies have played a key role in propelling Ainu activists into the global indig

ment, we were a people whose existence must not be admitted. You need not worry, however, I am most definitely not a ghost. I am standing here firmly before you. (UN 182264)

enous movement. Renamed Hokkaido in 1869, the greatest portion of Ainu land officially became Japan's first colonial conquest during its imperialistic expansion in Asia. Thereafter the Ainu were, by law, denied the freedom and

robbed of the means to practice their own culture, speak their own language, and determine their very existence. Like other indigenous peoples forgotten or ignored as distinct communities in the wake of decolonization, the Ainu were subsumed under the rubric of "nation-building." Dispossession, vigorous assimilation policies, and widespread discrimination have led to economic and social second-class citizenship for the Ainu. According to a survey conducted by the Hokkaido Division of Public Welfare in 1993, the number of Ainu receiving welfare assistance is more than double that of the majority Japanese population. Only 1 1.8 percent of Ainu youth advance to higher education, compared with 27.5 percent among majority Japanese,- 34.6 percent of Ainu work in primary industries such as fishing and logging, with Japanese filling only 6.9 percent of such positions. Finally, the survey indicates that discrimination in the workplace, in matters of marriage and especially in schools, remains prevalent. That such social hardships are shared by indigenous peoples the world over reveals the need to define the term "indigenous peoples" so that it neither reflects the "purity" of one's native blood nor is a designation arbitrarily developed or sought by indigenous peoples themselves. The world's nation-states will collectively be forced to address the specific historical and contemporary realities of the indigenous experience.

Indigenous Politics at the International Level

Indigenous issues have long been considered the sole jurisdiction of nation-states. This categorization made it possible for governments to maintain their assimilation policies while ignoring the wide economic and social gap between indigenous and majority populations. Two key developments in the latter half of this century, however, marked a monumental change in the international treatment of indigenous matters. The first, developed largely through the Llnited Nations system, was that human rights be established as a focus of international law.

In the wake of World War II, the international community of nations was forced to admit that human-rights violations were often committed by governments themselves and that explicit measures were necessary in order to protect the fundamental freedoms

49 / INTERNATIONAL arena

and basic human rights of the world's peoples. This led to the formulation of what is known collectively as the International Bill of Human Rights—five documents, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which elaborate basic rights such as selfdetermination, political participation, freedom of thought and religion, the right to work and to equal pay, to social security, to food, education, health care, and to an adequate standard of living. The inclusion of human-rights instruments in international law provides a framework of standards that nations must seek to appropriate or else suffer the criticism or condemnation of the international community. At the same time, many in the world community recognized that existing instruments did not sufficiently address indigenous circumstances, specifically, they do not accord indigenous peoples the right to self-determination as peoples,- this is a right all indigenous communities enjoyed before being dominated by a nation-state. Put simply, while all other peoples in the world enjoy the right to selfdetermination, indigenous peoples no longer do. Without this right to decide for themselves how best to promote and preserve their culture, the very identity of an indigenous community is left to the whims of an external power.

With this in mind, indigenous activists and nongovernmental organizations around the world began demanding that governments acknowledge responsibility for the current circumstances of the world's indigenous peoples and give back to them the right to decide the course of their communities. This burgeoning activism by indigenous peoples themselves was the second factor that focused international attention on indigenous issues: through their efforts, indigenous issues now have a place on the agenda of many international and multilateral conferences and are a growing focus within the United Nations system. In order to prevent history from repeating itself, in the form of new "prescriptive" measures by governments as inappropriate as those enacted in the past, the active participation of indigenous representatives themselves is crucial. One example is the significant input from indigenous representatives that is reflected in the International Labor Organization's (ILO) Convention on Indigenous Peoples (No. 169), which in 1989 replaced ILO Convention 107 and its underlying philosophy of assimilation.

Of particular importance are two annual working groups on indigenous matters now being held at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. First convened in 1982, the Working Group on Indigenous Populations (WGIP) has two mandates: to review specific developments pertaining to the promotion and protection of human rights of indigenous peoples, and to work toward standards enunciating those rights. In addition to the designations of 1993 as the International Year of the World's Indigenous Peoples and 1994 as the beginning of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, the WGIP produced a landmark draft document, "Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples," the guiding principle of which is the collective right to self-determination. Discussions on treaties, sustainable development, and the establishment of a permanent forum for indigenous peoples within the UN system are also among the issues taken up by the WGIP. A higher-level Intersessional Working Group, established in 1995 under the Commission for Human Rights, is now charged with elaborating on the draft declaration created in the WGIP.

Global Action

as a Strategy for Change

Japanese society does not exist in a vacuum, and domestic policy is by no means driven by internal factors alone. There is solid evidence to suggest that the Ainu can expect successes in the global indigenous movement to provide significant leverage against the Japanese government. A precursory look at its legal track record shows that the government is far more apt to enact or reform domestic law when it risks being judged from the outside— specifically by powerful nations—as falling below international human-rights standards. There have been many cases wherein pressure from outside Japan—in the form of humanrights law—has been the key force behind dramatic changes in the government's domestic policy. At least eight laws that had long been under fire for violating the rights of resident foreigners and refugees were reformed only when the Japanese government ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (1979), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ( 1980), and the Covenant Relating to the Status of Refugees (1982). Similarly, the government passed the Equal Employment

PRESENT AND FUTURE / K. DIETZ

Opportunity Law in 1985, the same year in which it ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

The influence of outside judgment is likewise evident in changes in the Japanese government's official position toward the Ainu m the past twenty years, which have resulted largely from developments at the international level and from participation by Ainu activists in the global indigenous movement.

As a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which it ratilied in 1979, the Japanese government is required to report periodically on the measures it has adopted to ensure the protection of the rights contained in the covenant. Of great significance to the Ainu is Article 27 of the

49.2 Ainu Demonstration in Tokyo, 1992

On March 27, 1992, Hokkaido Utari Kyokai (Ainu Association of Hokkaido) organized a demonstration in Tokyo to petition the Japanese government for quick passage of the Ainu Shinpo, a new law protecting the civil and cultural rights of the Ainu people. Most of the five hundred people who marched to the Diet Building of the Japanese government wore traditional Ainu robes. This was the culmination of an international campaign for indigenous rights that began to make its way into the villages of the Ainu during the 1970s.

ICCPR, which concerns "ethnic, religious, or linguistic minorities" living within a state and their right to "enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or to use their own language" The four reports submitted by the Japanese government thus far, specifically its statements regarding Article 27, show the gradual evolution of Japan's official stance toward the Ainu.

The initial change was one of simple recognition. In its first report to the ICCPR in 1980 the Japanese government denied the very existence of the Ainu, briefly stating that "minorities of the kind mentioned in the Covenant do not exist in Japan." By the time it was due to submit its second report seven years later, however, actions by the Ainu had made it difficult for the government to continue to deny their existence. Ainu representatives attended international indigenous conferences in Greenland and Asia in the early 1980s,■ also, having traveled to China and

Alaska in the late 1970s and witnessing the relative autonomy enjoyed by minorities (and especially indigenous communities) in those areas, the leaders of the Amu Association of Hokkaido demanded that the Japanese government enact a new law to replace its 1899 F-lokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act (Siddle 1996). In 1984 the Ainu Association and the Hokkaido prefectural government jointly submitted a draft for a new law, one based on indigenous rights.

The year 1986 proved to be a turning point in Ainu politics: Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone made his now infamous statement that Japan was a "monoracial" society. Determined to refute this claim, the first Ainu delegation attended the WG1P in the summer of 1987. When the government submitted its second periodic report in December of the same year, although it did not use the term "minority" found in Article 27, it did acknowledge that the Ainu "preserve their own religion and language, and maintain their own culture."

With Ainu presence at the LIN and other international forums, the Japanese government is not only compelled to respond to their demands as never before, but it is now also increasingly obliged to respond in the international arena In addition to their ongoing participation in both LIN working groups and contribution to the development of ILO Convention 169, since the 1980s Ainu representatives have attended major conferences on indigenous issues in Asia, Oceania, North America, Greenland, Europe, Africa, and Siberia. These include participation in several nongovernmental organization co-summits held in conjunction with major conferences such as the LIN Conferences on Women in Nairobi and Beijing. The Japanese government started sending a representative to the LIN working groups after the Ainu themselves began participating and, beginning with its third periodic report in 1991, added general information (referring track as far as 1974) on its welfare initiatives, including a planned budget increase aimed at "improving their living environment."

The Struggle for Recognition

Government recognition of the Ainu — beyond mere acknowledgment of their existence—remains a highly politicized issue. The 1991 report contained the

49.3 Toroshino Kaizawa (1889-1982) Toroshino Kaizawa-fuch/', a very respected woman from the Nibutani area, lived through the passage of the Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act of 1899 and World Wars I and II without witnessing an effective solution to the institutional discrimination that prevented Ainu from advancing in Japanese society. As the international campaign for indigenous rights made its way into Ainu villages, even the older generation, whose many grievances had been ignored by the dominant society, became excited that maybe this time fairness would prevail. Unfortunately, few of the elders lived to see the impact that twenty-five years of positive international pressure had on the Japanese government. (NAA: Hilger)

government's first official recognition of the Ainu as an "ethnic minority," but in keeping with the position it has steadfastly maintained at the UN working groups, the Japanese government refuses to recognize the Ainu as an indigenous minority. Japan, along with some other Asian governments, maintains that in the absence of an official, internationally accepted "objective definition" of the term "indigenous peoples" (senju minzoku ), it cannot make such a determination. To be sure, the Ainu do not seek this acknowledgment out of a need to confirm their own identity,- for them it is a human-rights issue (fig. 49.2).

Like many other indigenous groups, their chance for greater autonomy and guarantees against political and economic neglect hinges in no small part on official recognition by the Japanese government. It will help to ensure that Japan will face criticism if it does not comply with international instruments containing provisions regarding the rights of indigenous peoples. For the Japanese government, acknowledging the Ainu as an indigenous minority is an economic and social issue: it runs the risk of having to allow Ainu the freedom to catch salmon in Hokkaido rivers, to allow Ainu history, language, and culture to be taught in the public schools, and to allow the Ainu a greater say in their own affairs.

It is evident that the Japanese government's refusal to recognize the Ainu as an indigenous people rings hollow with the world community. Perhaps the greatest coup for the Ainu to date came in 1993 when Ciichi Nomura, then head of the Ainu Association of FJokkaido, was invited to speak to the United Nations General Assembly at the opening ceremony marking the International Year of the World's Indigenous Peoples (fig. 49.1). Also notable are official visits in 1992 and 1993, respectively, to the Ainu community by Erica-Irene Daes, chairperson of the WGIP, and Rigoberta Menchu Turn, Goodwill Ambassador for the International Year and winner of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize. At a 1997 ceremony commemorating twenty years of collective action by indigenous peoples at the UN, an Ainu activist was chosen by the indigenous representatives from Asia to speak on behalf of the region. In the same year, a young Ainu woman was one of four indigenous representatives chosen to be the first to participate in a six-month internship program at the LIN Center for Human Rights in Geneva.

The issue of recognition intensified in 1997, when, in a landmark ruling, the Sapporo District Court recognized the Ainu as an indigenous minority within Japan. Two Ainu living in Nibutani, a farming village where Ainu make up nearly 80 percent of the population, filed a lawsuit against the central government challenging the legality of the government's expropriation of their land for the purposes of constructing a dam. Among other violations, the dam would flood land sacred to the Ainu, including the traditional site of the chip-sanke, a boat-launching ceremony performed annually on the river. Arguing that the dam would irretrievably impinge on their right to practice their culture, the plaintiffs invoked the provisions in Article 27 of the ICCPR as a central part of their legal argument. Because construction of the dam was completed by the time the case came to an end and the land under question was already submerged, the court dismissed the plaintiff's primary claim to return their land. It nonetheless found the expropriation of the land to be illegal because the government did not attempt to assess the negative impact of the dam on Ainu culture and the plaintiffs' ability to practice their culture.

The court decision revealed a contradiction in the government's current stance on the "indigenous question." Although the government maintains that it cannot identify the Ainu as indigenous without an internationally accepted definition, the court based its decision on its finding that the Ainu fall within the general understanding of the term "indigenous peoples" at the international level. The verdict reads that "the Ainu people have inhabited mainly Hokkaido, maintaining their distinct culture and identity, before Japan extended its rule over them, and they still form a social group with a distinct culture and identity. . . ."(Sapporo Chiho Sai-bansho 1997: 75-76). The court made this determination after referring to international legal texts (for example, 1LO Convention 169) and a "working definition" currently in use. That the judicial branch of the government found these to be reliable standards for determining the indigenous status of the Ainu sets a powerful precedent for the application of international law in Japan's domestic courts. Moreover, the government made no move to appeal the court's decision within the allotted period, indicating that it saw no way to refute the

49.4 Oki Kano, Ainu Musician

During the 1990s, using traditional Ainu music as a vehicle, Oki Kano began to popularize Ainu culture and rights, carrying on the work begun by his father, Bikky Sunazawa, in a new genre. His performances in Japan and overseas have helped the international community gain an awareness of Ainu culture, musical traditions, and the aspirations of modem Ainu people. His participation in "new age" musical ensembles has shown the viability of Ainu traditions in evolving modern tradition.

court's decision or the basis for its decision: that the Ainu are an indigenous minority.

That there has been significant change in the government's stance in the span of twenty years is indisputable. Many Ainu point out, however, that this has not translated into policies that better their daily lives and that recent government initiatives run counter to international trends. Some governments around the world are now addressing their responsibility by offering official and public apologies for past aggressions and racist policies, recognizing semi-autonomous regions, and implementing such measures as land compensation schemes and native education systems. Although the Japanese government abolished the hundred-year-old Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act in 1997—the blueprint for its assimilation policies—many in the Ainu community were angered when the government offered neither reflection nor apology. In its place, and amid great fanfare, the government enacted the Ainu Shinpo.

The long-awaited legislation remains controversial, however. Although the government hails it as the country's first "ethnic law," the Ainu community is expressing dissatisfaction over the fact that the Aino Shinpo no longer resembles the official draft submitted by the Hokkaido prefectural government and the Ainu Association. The new law provides for the promotion of Ainu culture in order "to realize a society that will respect the ethnic pride of Ainu individuals" and to "contribute to the development of Japan's diverse culture" (emphasis added). It is a source of considerable funding to study or teach Ainu language, traditional crafts, and other general aspects of Ainu culture, be the applicant Ainu, Japanese, or even a foreign scholar of Ainu culture, but most Ainu argue that the redrafted version has no meaning for the vast majority of the community. It will benefit instead only those who have the luxury of time and an interest in traditional Ainu culture. Promoting a stable lifestyle through non-welfare-based economic assistance was one element of the 1984 draft, a holistic document that guaranteed the economic, social, and cultural rights of the Ainu as an indigenous people.

International conferences, and the working groups in particular, not only provide the Ainu with opportunities to build a global network and enhance their strategies but also offer a valuable forum to update the interna

tional community on developments within Japan from the Ainu perspective (fig. 49.5).

In his intervention at the 1997 International Working Group, Ainu participant Oki Kano (fig. 49.4) cited the Japanese government's Ainu Shinpo as an example of "potential cooptation of indigenous culture by a government." In addition to the government's narrow definition of Ainu culture, he referred to provisions that give the Prime Minister's office, the Ministry of Education, and the Hokkaido Development Agency the authority to decide what specifically will be targeted for promotion, who will receive funding for such promotion, the extent of such funding, and so on. The Japanese government representative listened along with the rest of the working group—UN memberstates, UN bodies such as the World Health Organization and the International Labor Organization, and international humanrights organizations and indigenous representatives from around the world—as Kano explained how the government's new law actually runs counter to the principles contained in the draft Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Adding to the controversy, and indeed the confusion, was the timing of the law's adoption. The Nibutani verdict was handed down on March 27, 1997, just six days after the Cabinet formally accepted the final draft of the Ainu Shinpo, which had been stripped of any mention of indigenous rights or the Ainu as an indigenous people. With heightened media attention, the government faced demands from Ainu leaders to reincorporate recognition of their indigenous rights ( senjuken ) into the draft before it moved to the Diet for formal passage into law. There was considerable debate within the government's ruling coalition but not about the term "indigenous rights",- rather, the debate was suddenly over whether to include recognition of the "indigenous nature" ( senjusei ) of the Ainu. The government's interpretation is that although the Ainu lived in Hokkaido before the ethnic Japanese, it was not Ainu territory. In a press conference the day following the Nibutani decision, Prime Minister Hashimoto himself had stated that it was "historical fact" that the Ainu lived in Hokkaido before the Japanese. Although this was hailed by the media as a turning point for the Ainu, reports show that in the past several prime ministers have referred officially to the

49.5 Think Globally, Act Locally While important developments were taking place on the international scene, local programs like the development of the Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum were advancing through symposia such as the one, pictured here, held at Nibutani in 1993. (NACH)

"indigenous nature" of the Ainu in speeches or writing (Uemura 1997). After much debate within the ruling coalition, it was finally determined that to revise the text of the Ainu Shinpo would pose a "technical difficulty." Instead, the cabinet adopted a special resolution of consent confirming the prime minister's statement, and the government's "new" stance was included in its most recent report to the ICCPR, submitted in July 1997. It acknowledged that the Ainu "lived in Hokkaido . . . even before the Wajin [ethnic Japanese],” yet the land on which they lived was and is "inherent Japanese territory" (emphasis added,- ICCPR 1997).

It must be stressed that, for Japan, acknowledging the Ainu as an "indigenous people" has economic and even territorial implications beyond the domestic sphere.

The Japanese government is currently negotiating with Russia over joint development and eventual return of what is referred to as the

Northern Territories, a group of islands off the northeast coast of Hokkaido that were seized by the Soviet Union in the final days of World War II. The dispute over the islands—Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan, and the Habomai group of islets—has kept the two countries from ever signing a peace treaty, for the Japanese government has maintained that the islands are a part of Japan. At a bilateral summit in 1997, Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto pledged to work toward the signing of a peace treaty by the year 2000. With economic development of—and ultimately sovereignty over—the disputed islands at the very center of the high-level negotiations now taking place, for the Japanese government to alter its position that Hokkaido is Japan's "inherent territory" would no doubt weaken its claim to the Northern Territories.

In addition to the present political environment in Japan, such social realities as a lack of cohesive representation among the Ainu and discrimination by the general population shed additional light on why many Ainu activists are extending their activities into the international arena. That the Ainu Association of Hokkaido, which remains the largest Ainu organization,

PRESENT AND FUTURE / K. DIETZ

officially accepted the new law despite its drastic redrafting by the government has led to considerable frustration and disillusionment with this organization. Although the Association was for many years the most visible presence at the UN and other forums, a marked shift has occurred in recent years as a handful of "nonaligned" Ainu activists have begun participating internationally. Indicative of their overall strategy, this new generation of participants is putting a great deal of energy into studying international human-rights law.

Within Japan, reluctance to assert one's Ainu identity for fear of the social consequences remains an enormous barrier to mobilization of the Ainu community, thus leaving it without strong organized representation In many ways action at the international level transcends these political and social obstacles found in the domestic arena at the same time it offers the Ainu opportunities for effective collective action.

Grassroots Exchange

While the UN working groups and other high-profile conferences remain powerful sites for activism, Ainu involvement in the international arena takes many forms, all of which are significant. Early "diplomacy" took place in the form of participation in world's fairs and cultural expositions. Since the 1970s Ainu have sought to expand their communitylevel ties with other indigenous communities: countless Ainu groups and individuals have visited and hosted indigenous peoples living in North America, Oceania, Asia, Siberia, and northern Europe,- a conference billed as the "Nibutani Forum," held in 1993 to commemorate the International Year, was attended by representatives of twenty-seven indigenous peoples (fig. 49.5), and another large-scale conference is planned for 1999. Such meetings within Japan, along with visits by other indigenous groups, are important because they raise awareness among the vast majority of Ainu who do not participate in the international arena, helping to strengthen the collective identity among the Ainu themselves and mobilize many to action. Moreover, because of a general apathy toward human-rights issues among the general public, the publicity surrounding such activities is critical because it serves to educate the nonAinu population.

Grassroots-level contact between Ainu and other indigenous groups often fosters

49.6 Masahiro Nomoto

Masahiro Nomoto (born 1963) is one of the young leaders bringing Ainu culture to a broader world. Nomoto, who serves as curator at the Ainu Museum at Shiraoi, is skilled as a carver and possesses a deep knowledge of Ainu culture and traditions.

His participation in international meetings—like the 1997 Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies in Darwin, Australia, where he performed the sword dance, pictured here—and his collaboration on Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People have helped broaden contemporary understanding of Ainu culture and concerns.

lasting ties, leading to greater opportunities for action, political or otherwise. An example is cooperation with indigenous activists living on the island of Sakhalin (just north of Hokkaido) regarding the current negotiations over the development and possession of the disputed Northern Territories. Several Ainu groups have also established regular visits with indigenous communities in various countries,- one such organization travels annually to a community in British Columbia with the aim of experiencing together their shared traditions, such as teaching traditional hunting methods to the children of both communities. Study tours to North American and European museums with Ainu collections, joint exhibitions, and even collaborative music ventures with other indigenous peoples are other examples of Ainu activity in the international arena.

It is clear, then, that not all activities are explicitly political, cultural exchange with other indigenous groups remains a primary motivation for grassroots-level contact. Nevertheless, through this interaction the Ainu are better able to consider their own situation in Japan as they share information and learn of indigenous circumstances in other countries, existing human-rights laws, and indigenous-rights instruments now being formulated within the UN system and other multilateral bodies such as the Organization of American States, the European Union, and the Organization of African Unity. Use of such an "international measuring stick" has long been an impetus for Ainu activism. Interviews with Ainu activists indicate that as they become aware of the successes achieved by other indigenous movements, they gain confidence in their own ability to make a difference for the Ainu and are encouraged to continue and even step up their own activities. Be it at the UN in Geneva or in a rural village in British Columbia, interaction with other indigenous groups is having a significant impact on those Ainu who participate in such exchanges and on the Ainu situation in general.

In the midst of a changing global environment, indigenous activists are demanding their right to equal participation in the international community—some as nations in their own

right, others as autonomous regions within existing countries, all as the arbiters of their own will. The Ainu have much to gain and little to lose from participating in the international indigenous movement. Like many countries, Japan has long tried to keep international developments out of its internal affairs and its domestic politics separate from its international affairs. A look at developments over the past twenty years indicates, however, that the domestic and the international are becoming increasingly intertwined. Although the Japanese government is growing more responsive to Ainu issues, recent moves suggest that the Ainu community has a struggle ahead before they will enjoy any form of self-determination, even the right to administer their internal affairs. This fact is motivating many Ainu to utilize their limited resources to participate at the international level, inspired by the belief that involvement in the global indigenous movement will help them achieve success at home. Indeed, it is providing necessary and effective leverage against the Japanese government, not least of which is the unequivocal confirmation of their indigenous identity by the international community.

Developing a global network among other indigenous groups and concerned nongovernmental organizations provides Ainu activists with opportunities for exchanging information and strategies and gaining confidence in their own efforts. Because many gains of the global indigenous movement (such as the adoption of the declaration now under deliberation at the LIN) will benefit the Ainu community as a whole, international activism can often transcend most major political and social obstacles to domestic activism. Furthermore, the proliferation of formal and informal coalitions has provided the Ainu with more avenues for collective action, including meaningful exchange at the grassroots level. By moving into the international arena and uniting with those who share similar histories and the legacies of those histories, the Ainu are proving that they remain a distinct people who are willing to fight for a greater degree of control over the future of their community.

The Ainu Shinpo:

A New Beginning

Terliki Tsunemoto

O n July 1, 1997, the Ainu

Shinpo (literally, "Ainu New Law") was enacted. The law, whose intent can be summed up by its official description, "Law on Promotion of Ainu Culture and Facilitation of Popular Understanding of Ainu Tradition," acknowledges for the first time in Japan the existence of a separate ethnic group inside the country and calls for respect of its culture and traditions. For Japan, which until recently officially saw itself as a homogeneous nation, that recognition is a landmark, which lends the bill its significance.

The Ainu in Hokkaido enjoyed their own culture before Japanese people from Honshu arrived. Subsequently, the Ainu way of life became extremely impoverished due to harsh pressure from the immigrant Japanese, for they were prohibited from using their own language and were forced to give up much of their culture. In 1899 the Meiji government

50.1 Tokyo, 1992

In 1992 Ainu staged a rally in Tokyo to gain support for replacing the archaic Elokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act of 1899, which still governed Ainu relations with Japan, with new legislation. The Act for the Promotion of Ainu Culture, also known as the Ainu Shinpo, was finally enacted on July 1, 1997, but many Ainu are displeased because it ignores political issues and only supports the promotion of Ainu culture and language.

enacted the Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act—similar to the Daws Act in the United States—which tried to force the Ainu to assimilate into Japanese society as farmers, but the attempt was unsuccessful.

Today the population of Amu living in Hokkaido is estimated to be between 24,000 and 50,000, and many have continued to suffer from social and economic disparities and discrimination. Since 1974, however, the national government of Japan and the Hokkaido prefectural government have been trying to implement the Hokkaido Ainu Welfare Measure in order to rectify these

PRESENT AND FUTURE IT. TSUNEMOTO

disparities. Although the measure has undoubtedly helped to improve such living conditions as housing and employment, it has not necessarily met the real needs of the Ainu people. It did not guarantee the participation of the Ainu in its planning and implementation, and it failed to address the issues of discrimination and the conservation of ethnic culture and heritage. In the 1970s the growing international movement for indigenous rights prompted the Ainu to campaign for a new law to establish their status as an indigenous population (fig. 50.1).

The Ainu Shinpo

In 1984 the Ainu Association of Hokkaido, the largest Ainu political group, drafted a new law to replace the Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act. The Ainu Affairs Council, which was appointed by the Governor of Hokkaido and recommended the introduction of the law in March 1988, summarized the association's draft in the following five points:

(1) declaration of basic human rights to eliminate discrimination,- (2) reinforcement of the protection of human rights,- (3) promotion of the Ainu culture,- (4) establishment of the Fund for Ainu Self-reliance,- and (5) establishment of consultative bodies on Ainu policies.

The council, consisting of representatives of the Ainu and law professors, among others, adopted the concept of senjuken, "indigenous rights," as the basis for enactment of the new law, with indigenous rights defined as the inherent right of the Ainu population to land, resources, and culture, as well as political self-determination in appropriate cases. The emphasis on indigenous rights was based on the historical fact that the Ainu are the indigenous population of Hokkaido and should be recognized legally as such. The fact that the Japanese government in 1899 had enacted the Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act in order to force the assimilation of the Ainu was a de facto recognition that the Ainu were a separate ethnic group native to Hokkaido. While the association's proposal included designation of special seats for the Ainu in the Diet (the Japanese National Parliament) as well as in local assemblies, this idea was rejected by the government on the grounds that it would contravene constitutional provisions mandating the equality of voting rights and representation of "all the people" by Diet members.

In March 1995 the Japanese govern

merit, led by Prime Minister Murayama from the Social Democratic Party, convened the Experts Meeting on Ainu Measures, headed by a former supreme court justice, to discuss new Ainu policies,- its members included constitutional scholars, specialists on ethnic and gender studies, novelists, and the governor of Hokkaido. The panel submitted its report in April 1994, after one year of deliberation. This document stated that the Ainu are indigenous to Hokkaido, having lived there long before the arrival of the Japanese, and are an ethnic group with their own culture. Based on this, the panel recommended promotion of the Ainu culture as a source of identity that would enhance the public's understanding of the Ainu and eliminate discrimination.

However, the panel avoided judgment on the issue of the Ainu's "indigenousness." (Although the Japanese government has

50.2 Ainu Lands and Resources Unlike many indigenous peoples of the world who won remuneration for lands and resources lost when they were absorbed into larger states, the Ainu have never received consideration for their claims to traditional homelands in Hokkaido, the Kuriles, and Sakhalin. In all of these regions, Ainu interests have been ignored as the Japanese and Russian governments advanced their national interests and territorial claims. (NAA-3-11)

acknowledged the Ainu as a minority population, it has never officially recognized them as indigenous people, citing as cause for its inaction that such rights have not yet been defined internationally.) The report also failed to include any specific measures to help promote social and economic independence for the Ainu. The panel chose to recommend only those measures that could be implemented immediately, based on such considerations as the current situation between the Ainu and the Japanese,- the Japanese government position on indigenous rights, which was less advanced than the international standard,- and the scheduling of legislative actions immediately after

the panel's report was delivered. The government was also concerned over such potentially difficult issues as political self-determination and compensation for land taken from the Ainu (fig. 50.2).

The Ainu Shinpo and the Nibutani Decision

The Hokkaido Development Agency, the Education Ministry, and the Prime Minister's Office are designated as the enforcement agencies of the Ainu Shinpo. The purpose of the act was "the realization of a society where the pride of the Ainu is respected," to he brought about by the promotion of Ainu culture and tradition. Specific measures call for the establishment of legally defined organizations for the promotion of research on the Ainu people and culture, including language, music, dance, and crafts (fig. 50.3),the participation of the Ainu people in managing such organizations was also guaranteed. In addition, the Hokkaido government, assisted by the central government, is planning to secure a large tract of land to create a site where Ainu traditional skills can be researched and reconstructed, as well as to facilitate further cultural development for the implementation of the spirit of the law. Although the law is obviously a positive step, it still does not directly address the legal issues of senjuken, the indigenous rights of the Ainu, and by that omission does not recognize that such rights exist.

On March 27, 1997, however, the Sapporo District Court in Hokkaido made a decision that seemed in conflict with the government position. In a ruling on a case over the dam construction on the Saru River in Hokkaido's Nibutani region, an area considered sacred by the Ainu, the court found that the government failed to mitigate the negative impact of dam construction on the culture of the Ainu, and that was illegal. Although the court stated that the completed dam cannot be demolished, the dramatic opinion included extremely important points that were at odds with the national government's position, to wit: (I) The Ainu are an indigenous people in view of the international definition suggested in various documents, including the 1989 International Labor Organization's Convention on Indigenous Peoples (no. 169) and the Cobo Report,- (2) Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,

50.3 Continuity and Change

Ainu continue to pass on their traditions and values to younger generations. Although the financial and moral support provided by the Ainu Shinpo has been a focus for cultural revitalization, the continuance of Ainu traditions lies with the Ainu people themselves. Despite modernization and increasing social integration, Ainu festivals, ceremonial events, art exhibitions, and arts workshops have given Ainu people a new sense of optimism about the survival of their culture.

legally binding domestically, guarantees the cultural rights of a person belonging to a minority,- and (3) Article 13 of the Japanese constitution makes the government responsible for protecting a minority member's cultural rights, a responsibility that is greater in the case of an indigenous minority because the indigenous people were forced to be a minority in the nation It was a surprising, epoch-making

decision, and neither party filed an appeal.

Following the court decision, Prime Minister Ryutaro Fdashimoto acknowledged the historical fact that the Ainu lived in Fdokkaido before the Japanese. Although the Ainu Shinpo did not address their indigenousness, a supplemental resolution in the Diet recognized it unanimously. Although a supplementary resolution has no binding power, this declaration of the Diet, the highest legislative body, will have significant impact on future developments regarding the Ainu. The Japanese government will have to weigh the significance of this resolution to determine its position on the Declaration on Indigenous Rights currently being debated before the United Nations.

Many unaddressed issues remain concerning the Ainu Shinpo because it focuses solely on cultural promotion,- however, in Japan, a country that has chosen not to admit any kind of ethnic problem, perhaps there was no realistic alternative but to begin with benign but important issues on which consensus-building was relatively easy. The most important goal is to create a climate of selfdetermination, a society where the Ainu people, if they choose to live as Ainu, can live with pride and free from discrimination. It is no exaggeration to say that everything proceeds from this fundamental idea.

51/ Beyond the Ainu Shinpo:

An Ainu View

Jiro Sasamura

51.1 Schools and Culture

During the early part of the twentieth century Ainu children were assigned to attend special Ainu schools, as many Native Americans were in the United States, in the belief that Ainu children could not keep up intellectually with Japanese children. The Regulation for the Education of Former Aborigines’ Children, which was promulgated in 1901 to provide primary-school education for Ainu children, was abolished in 1936 when the negative results of ethnic segregation in schooling became apparent. Since then Ainu children have been integrated into Japanese schools, but many Ainu children still face severe discrimination from their schoolmates. (Hilger: NAA-4-14)

W e, the Ainu people, the indigenous population of northern Japan, have lived in northern Japan (the Tohoku district of northern Honshu and Hokkaido), Sakhalin, and the Kuriles since the ancient days, with our own language and culture. According to a Hokkaido government survey in 1993, there are about 24,000 Ainu in Hokkaido,- if the Ainu people living in other parts of Japan, who were not covered in the survey, were included, the estimated population would increase by several tens of thousands.

Many Ainu people are economically disadvantaged as a result of societal and historical circumstances that unfortunately have bred prejudice and contempt toward them. However, there is a new confidence in Ainu identity and a commitment to the preservation of Ainu traditional culture and the improvement of social and economic status.

The Ainu people led a peaceful life in the northern areas of Japan for many centuries until the Yamato people (ancestors of most modern-day Japanese) extended their power from the center of Honshu to the north, inviting confrontations with the Ainu in many areas. The existence of the Ainu was threatened by the Yamato's abuse of power, manifested in unfair trade practices and ecological disturbances like devastation of rivers—upon which the Ainu depended for subsistence

resources (plants, fish, game)—for gold mining. The largest of these confrontations was a battle in 1669 when more than 20,000 Ainu, led by the hero Shakushain, rose against the Japanese to defend their people and way of life, but it ended in defeat. Although the Ainu waged other battles around the same time, they were not victorious. Japanese rule was fortified by each victory, and their demands became even more unreasonable.

When the Meiji Restoration began in 1868, the modernization of Japan caused the central government to pay serious attention to the exploration and economic development of Hokkaido. A year later the Hokkaido Settlement Mission was established as an administrative organization to rule the region, and a large number of former samurai warriors and farmers emigrated to Hokkaido. Ainu mosir ("the people's land"), where the Ainu people had freely hunted and gathered food, was regarded by the Japanese as a land with no master, and it became a part of the territory of Japan and was allocated to Japanese immigrants.

The Ainu people were classified as "Japanese" and forced to assimilate into Japanese society. They were prohibited from using their own language, even at home,they were not allowed to practice Ainu customs and public ceremonies,- and they were forced to engage in newly imported rice agricultural systems with which they were unfamiliar. Although the language and culture were on the verge of extinction, they were kept alive, albeit in a small way, by those who cared about Ainu traditions.

Today, a concerted effort to restore the traditional culture is making steady progress.

In 1899, exactly one hundred years ago, the Japanese government enacted the Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act as a means to accelerate the assimilation of the Ainu people. Although the stated purpose of the law was to help the Ainu by allocating land, assisting the poor, and providing education to the children (fig. 51.1), these goals were not achieved. Instead, this statute, which contained the term "aborigines," connoting an uncultured, uncivilized foreign race, deprived the Ainu people of basic human rights, not only in educational and cultural spheres (such as restrictions on the use of their own language and customs) but also in terms of social and economic status. In an annual general meeting in 1984, the Ainu Association of Hokkaido passed a resolution calling for the Hokkaido

51.2 The Ainu Rally in Sapporo

The year 1993 was designated as the International Year of the World's Indigenous People by the United Nations. Hokkaido Utari Kyokai (Ainu Association of Hokkaido) organized a general rally to petition the Japanese government for quick passage of the Ainu Shinpo in Sapporo on August 23, 1993. Supporting the Ainu were other indigenous people from Canada, the United States, Sweden, and the Philippines who had been participating in the Indigenous People’s Conference, held in Nibutani, Hokkaido. The "Nibutani Forum '93" was an important event for the average Ainu person, who for the first time learned how other indigenous peoples were treated in their home countries and how important international communication was for the Ainu movement. Although the Ainu were not alone in their grievances, other indigenous people had been recognized by their governments and had legal standing, whereas the Japanese government had failed to acknowledge Ainu rights. (AAH)

Former Aborigines Protection Act to be rescinded and replaced by a new law to recognize the rights of the Ainu people and strengthen human-rights activities, promote culture, and establish a fund to facilitate self-determination. The major purpose of the resolution for a new law was to make the government accountable for the human rights of the indigenous population and to call for implementation of measures to achieve social and economic independence (fig. 51.2).

In 1984 the Ainu Association of Fdokkaido began working to draft a new law to protect the rights of the Ainu, these efforts included petitioning the governor of Fdokkaido and the national government and appealing to the international community through a forum at the United Nations. As a result of the work by activists and after repeated discussions both in Fdokkaido and at the national level, the Ainu Shinpo (summarized as the 'Law on Promotion of Ainu Culture and Facilitation of Popular Llnderstanding of Ainu Tradition") was enacted on May 8, 1997,- simultaneously, the Fdokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act was abolished.

Through the legislative process, the final version of the law came to differ greatly from the content that was initially envisioned, for it

deals only with cultural aspects. Nonetheless, in a country where high-ranking government officials once claimed that Japan was an ethnically homogeneous country, passage of a law that acknowledges the existence of a different ethnic group was an epoch-making event. Even though the act may not admit "indigenousness" in a strict legal sense, it states that the Ainu are an ethnic group and it seeks to realize a society where the pride of the Ainu, as a people, is respected.

As a provision of this law, a new nongovernment organization was established with financial assistance from the national and Fdokkaido governments that would promote Ainu culture and research, although this is a good start, other issues still confront the Ainu people. One of these concerns indigenous rights, or senjuken. In the legislative process, even though the "indigenous nature," senjusei, of the Ainu people as traditional occupants of northern Japan was established as a historical fact, the language of the act uses the ambiguous term "indigenousiiess" and specifically denies that this status accords territorial rights to the Ainu. Therefore, the next task will be to implement specific rights that are due the Ainu as an indigenous population by participating in other related movements, such as the United Nations' discussion on the declaration of indigenous rights. The national government has begun moving in this direction with establishment of a committee to formulate a comprehensive human-rights protection law that covers women, the handicapped, the Ainu, and others.

There is an Ainu term, urespa mosir, which means "the land where all things grow helping each other." On the eve of the millennium, a new world order is being sought. This new era demands a partnership between indigenous populations and nonindigenous people, and together they can contribute greatly to the international community. Fulfilling the promise of the future of mankind with hope is the wish of the Ainu people.

52/ Ainu Language:

Present and Future

Hiroshi Nakagawa

52.1 Language Education in Nibutani, May 1993

The Ainu were discouraged from speaking the Ainu language after 1871 when the Colonization Commission was established in Hokkaido. In schools, Ainu children receive a “Japanized" education, and the number who learn the Ainu language in their homes is fast approaching zero. Shigeru Kayano, the cultural leader of Nibutani, developed the first Ainulanguage classes, and his efforts were joined by other Ainu communities; now there are thirteen Ainu-language classes offered throughout Hokkaido. As required by one of the four main provisions of the Ainu Shinpo of 1997, the Ainu language is also taught in several colleges and universities.

T he Ainu language, ever since it has been studied, has been labeled by linguists a "dying language. 1 ' Kyosuke Kindaichi wrote in his Study of the Ainu (1925), "It is common knowledge that the Ainu population will disappear completely from the earth within the next two generations." Shiro Hattori stated in the introduction to his Ainu Dialect Dictionary (1964): "In the autumn of 1954, I had an opportunity to meet with Seiichi Izumi, assistant professor of the Anthropology Department of Tokyo University, to discuss the status of Ainu studies of the Association of Japanese Ethnology, which I had always

Chitose dialect. Although today the Chitose region is considered to be the center of the Ainu language-revitalization movement, serious study of the region's dialect began only in the late 1980s ; prior to that time, few Ainu-Ianguage researchers knew that the area had so many Ainu speakers.

Over the past two decades, progress has also been made in the study of other dialects, for instance, the dialect spoken in the Shizunai region of the eastern part of Hidaka. This region is the site of the Shakushain memorial festival, the largest Ainu festival, and the area is well known for preserving traditional customs,- however, it wasn't until the 1970s

been interested in. I heard shocking news that the Ainu language would die out within four to five years." Seventy-five years have passed since the publication of Kindaichi's study and more than forty years since Hattori was astonished by Izumi's prediction, but the Ainu language has not disappeared, although it is gravely endangered.

This essay concerns language-revitalization efforts currently being implemented in southern Hokkaido. (Readers interested in details about Ainu language, its dialects, and relationships should read the essay by Tamura in this volume).

Recently, the author of this essay published Ainu-Japanese Dictionary—Chitose Dialect (1995) and Express Ainu (1997b), a self-learning textbook for beginners based on the

that linguists started systematically recording the dialect. In 1986 Kirsten Refsing, a Danish linguist who has produced compilations of Ainu language and folktale materials, published The Ainu Language, the most comprehensive book on Ainu grammar, based on this dialect. Another example is the Samani dialect, spoken in the area east of Shizunai. Some vocabularies of this dialect had been recorded in the 1950s, but it was not until the 1980s that the text was first recorded properly.

Shiro Hattori, who had been so astonished at the prediction about the demise of Ainu, wrote, "There will probably be less than twenty fluent speakers of the language even if we look for them all over Hokkaido " His dictionary, however, to which all the linguists at Tokyo University at the time contributed,

did not include the Chitose, Shizunai, or Samani dialects,- at that time there must have been more than twenty fluent speakers in either the Shizunai or Chitose region. In other words, it was not that there were no speakers but that the speakers did not reveal themselves to Hattori and his fellow linguists.

The primary reason for this was that Ainu speakers did not use their language in public, especially in the presence of Japanese, because of discrimination in matters ranging from marriage to jobs,- Ainu still face such obstacles today. Many Ainu speakers even today hide their identity and their ability to speak the language, and the story is often told about parents who were fluent in Ainu but never spoke a word of it in front of their children. So, while the researchers claimed that "no speakers re

grant from the Hokkaido and national governments, the Association initiated Ainu language classes—lessons taught by the Ainu for the Ainu (fig. 52.1). The program began in Nibutani and slowly spread to other regions. Today, there are fourteen such classes throughout Hokkaido.

In 1994 the Association published a textbook for the class, Akor itak (Our language). This project marked a breakthrough, because Ainu representatives and several Japanese researchers worked together. The fact that the Ainu themselves for the first time presented their views on methods of expression and discussed in editorial meetings the standardization of the language was indeed significant. Also in 1994, the Hokkaido Ainu Cultural Research Center, the first such

main"

or "the language is fading away," the

research institution, was founded in Sapporo,

Date

Population

Source of Data

1854

17,810 (including Sakhalin)

New History of Hokkaido, 1969-81, Hokkaido

1873

16,272 (including Kurile Islands)

Ibid.

1898

17,573 (including Kurile Islands)

Ibid.

1913

18,543 (including Kurile Islands)

Ibid.

1936

16,519 (including Kurile Islands)

Ibid.

1972

18,298 (only Hokkaido)

Report of the 1972 Survey of Socio-Economic

Conditions of the Hokkaido Ainu, 1972,

Hokkaido Minseibu (Dept, of Public Welfare)

1979

24,180 (only Hokkaido)

Report of the 1979 Survey of Socio-Economic

Conditions of the Hokkaido Ainu, 1979,

Hokkaido Minseibu

1986

24,381 (only Hokkaido)

Report of the 1986 Survey of Socio-Economic

Conditions of the Hokkaido Ainu, 1986,

Hokkaido Minseibu

1993

23,830 (only Hokkaido)

Report of the 1993 Survey of Socio-Economic

Conditions of the Hokkaido Ainu, 1993,

Hokkaido Seikatsu Fukushibu

speakers were in fact present—if silent—but were gradually disappearing.

Facing the disappearance of their language, a few Ainu people with knowledge of Ainu language, such as Shigeru Kayano and Motoanrek Nabesawa, began searching during the postwar period for a way to preserve and revive it using their own methods and personal resources. They published materials and cultural descriptions in Ainu and taught Ainu language classes. Their efforts accelerated in the 1980s when the Hokkaido Ainu Association became involved: with a

where several Ainu researchers have been studying their own culture.

The activism that led to the adoption of the Ainu Shinpo raised the level of awareness of Ainu identity. Attendance at the 1987 United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations—a first for Ainu people—and participation in various activities during the International Year of Indigenous Peoples in 1993 brought international recognition and assured the Ainu that they were not alone in the world.

With these developments, the environ

3 72

PRESENT AND FUTURE / H. NAKACAWA

52.2 Declining Use of Ainu Language in the Home

Until the mid-1900s Ainu language had a strong basis in the home, but since then integrated schooling and the breakdown of social and economic barriers between Ainu and Japanese have nearly extinguished the use of Ainu. Language-preservation efforts have shifted to school classes and special instructions, but there is resistance to maintaining instruction in the native Ainu language as part of the official public school program. New approaches have nevertheless strengthened school language programs, and today increasing numbers of Ainu are showing show interest in learning and using traditional language. (Hilger, NAA-T-1)

ment surrounding the Ainu language has been gradually changing, and Ainu speakers who previously had avoided speaking Ainu have now begun to use the language. Toshiko Ueda, a well-known narrator of oral literature, started speaking Ainu openly some ten years ago when her elder sister, also a famous narrator, passed away. While Ueda is today fluent enough to converse in Ainu, she said that as a child she never communicated with her parents or siblings in the language,- the stories she narrates from memory are those she learned from her sister only a year before she died. It must be that Ainu had been her native language as a child, but if so, she had forgotten it after decades of speaking Japanese It is also possible that her sister's death motivated Ueda to speak the language again.

II her sister had died twenty years ago instead of ten, she might have kept her sister's stories hidden in her mind, having forgotten forever that she was able to speak Ainu. This is just one of many similar stories. It is unclear how many potential Ainu speakers exist, but history has shown that their number has frequently been underestimated (fig. 52.2).

More visible evidence of the resurgence of Ainu language is the increase in the number of people who are now learning the language. In addition to the Ainu classes mentioned previously, places where one can study Ainu, such as universities and citizens' groups, have also been on the rise. Some Ainulanguage homepages have also appeared on the Internet. While most people who study Ainu are primarily Japanese, a number of young Ainu people whose native language is Japanese have began participating in classes or have created their own study groups for Ainu language and culture. For example, in Chitose, Ainu people in their twenties to forties—the generations who had lost the use of the Ainu language—performed a play in Ainu. This group also holds study sessions for the purpose of restoring knowledge of traditional ceremonies.

Although the Ainu Shinpo, enacted by the Japanese government on May 7, 1997, includes a major section about the Ainu language, the law is far from what the Ainu people originally envisioned because it addresses only cultural issues and not improvement of social and economic status or land claims. For this reason, the law has been criticized by many people, including the Ainu. The very small agency called the Institution for Promotion and Education of Ainu Culture and Research, established in July 1997 following the enactment of the law, has been in trouble from the outset, caught in conflicts with the Ainu people, management, and scholars, and it thus faces an uncertain future. The fact remains, however, that the government, for the first time in history, allocated funds to promote Ainu culture. There is no doubt that with the Ainu Shinpo, the movement to revive the Ainu language has entered a new phase. No one can predict in what manner the language will survive, but it is clear that Ainu is not yet a "dead" language, though certainly an endangered one.

Itaomachip: Reviving a Boat-Building and Trading Tradition

Kazuyoshi Ohtsuka

I N THE SUMMER OF 1989, A SUCCESSFUL effort was made to reintroduce the lost art of Ainu boat-building as one element of the reaffirmation of Ainu cultural identity following decades of decline under a government-imposed policy of assimilation. The assimilation policy, which was enforced by the Meiji government, in effect denied the Ainu their independence, and the resulting social discrimination has created an image of Ainu society as being more "primitive" than it actually was. Researchers also have a unidimensional and almost stereotyped image of the Ainu and have pursued studies largely oriented toward "traditional" rather than modern Ainu culture. In this view, the Ainu were thought to be collectors of wild foods and to have mainly fished for salmon and trout,- they have thus been arbitrarily classified as having a subsistence economy that relied on gifts from nature.

domain evaded the ban on foreign trade by using the Ainu as middlemen,- they made a huge profit reselling high-priced Chinese products. The goods obtained from the continent in the Ezo (Hokkaido) area were circulated into Japanese society under descriptions such as "Ezo brocade" or "Ezo treasure." This northern trade system was different from the officially approved international trade that operated out of the southern entrepot in Dejima (Nagasaki), and because it was conducted in secret, few documents describing its existence remain.

In 1809 the shogunate built the Shiranushi port in the southernmost part of Sakhalin. From this base they monopolized trade with people in the lower reaches of the Amur River and elsewhere on the Asian continent. The Ainu were then prohibited from traveling to the continent, thus crippling their trading economy. The cessation of independent trade turned a wellmaintained commodity structure and the

53.1 Ainu Boats Sail Again

After more than two hundred years when use of the traditional oceangoing craft virtually ceased, a new but smaller version of the fifty-foot itaomachip was launched in Kushiro, in August 1989. A launching ceremony (chip-sanke) was performed by Ainu elder Seijiro Ya e-ekashi. This photograph shows the boat’s elegant shape and balance as it moves through the waves with wind in its sails. The boat is now on display at the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka.

imm

siss»§ilf*@

On the contrary; historical documents show that the early Ainu were traders and seafarers (fig. 53.2). They built board-bound boats called itaomachip and shipped products to and from the lower reaches of the Amur River on the Asian continent. In addition to trading their own products such as furs and marine goods, they traded products obtained from the Japanese (including pottery and iron pots) for luxury goods such as Chinese silk, metal handcrafts, and glass products. In Hokkaido, they made a profit selling these goods to Japanese merchants and the Matsumae domain in the Hakodate region. Until recently, this image of the Ainu as powerful traders has not been considered. Under the national isolation policy of the shogunate in the pre-Meiji era (before 1868), Japanese merchants and the Matsumae

PRESENT AND FUTURE / K OHTSUKA

economically stratified Ainu society that supported it into a subsistence economy based primarily on the procurement of foods from the wild. These forces effectively terminated the progress the Ainu had been making over several centuries in developing into a politically organized society.

In spring 1988 Tokuhei Akibe, an Ainu man living in Kushiro (Hokkaido), visited the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka to ask for assistance in reviving the itaomachip boat-building tradition,- if we would help, he promised to give the boat to the museum collection. Late in autumn 1 heard from Akibe that he had located a large katsura tree that was growing in the Furano Experimental Plantation of Tokyo LIniversity at the southwestern foot of the Daisetsu Mountains in

53.2 Early Maritime Vessel This work by an unknown artist is the oldest painting (ca. 1798) of an oceangoing canoe (itaomachip).

Seven Ainu in yellow robes power the boat with oars and a woven-mat sail; two men in kimono are Japanese. The inscription in Japanese reads, “passage to Kunashiri and iturup Island," two of the southern Kurile Islands.

The painting documents the use of Ainu boats to transport Japanese officials and trading partners, but as competition increased, the Ainu lost their competitive edge in trade between Japan, Korea, and the Amur River region, and their maritime tradition faded away. Boat-building traditions have been resurrected as community and museum projects, aided by Ainu-e illustrating boats, (courtesy of K. Ohtsuka)

Hokkaido. (Even in Hokkaido with its large forests, trees more than three feet in diameter are found only on the experimental plantations.) Therefore, a major decision had to be made about the relative value of a huge tree growing successfully versus the value derived from Ainu people reviving the technology of itaomachip. Dr. Watanabe, an official at Furano Experimental Plantation, struggled with this issue when Akibe brought it to his attention, and many meetings were needed to resolve it. Akibe insisted that "the tree was more than two hundred years old....Please consider this tree as one once owned by the Ainu and give us permission." This plea had the desired effect, and permission was eventually granted to take the tree.

Three people participated in the creation of the itaomachip: the leader, Tokuhei Akibe, his brother, LItarian Narita, and his brother-in-law, Takashi Yoshikawa. With Tokuhei's almost superhuman organizational skills and discipline, Utarian's sense of form and his technique as a woodcarver, and Yoshikawa's carpentry skills and faithful personality, it would be hard to find a more accomplished team to overcome the unknown challenges and technical problems associated with creating this traditional vessel. The team intended to use as a guide drawings of boatmaking depicted in the Ainu-e drawings in Illustrations of Ezo Livelihood drawn by Shimanojo Murakami from the early nineteenth century.

In March 1989, with Ainu from all over

Hokkaido in attendance, a ceremony was held by the respected elder Hikawa: permission was sought from the god of the tree to cut it down, and prayers were offered for the success and safety of the work. Then the gigantic katsura tree was cut down and carried to the shore of the Takkobu swamp in Kushiro, where construction began. It took more than thirty days to shape the log canoe base that was the foundation of the boat. When hollowing out the interior of the canoe, the team experimented to ascertain whether the work-would be easier if the wood were charred (as is shown in the Illustrations of Ezo Livelihood drawings).

The most difficult task was the widening of the sides of the canoe after it was dug out: water was poured into the canoe and heated to boiling temperature with many hot stones, for the heat and water make the wood more pliant and make it possible to spread the sides of the boat,- boards covered the cavity to maintain the high water temperature produced by the hot stones. (Similar techniques are used by Northwest Coast Indians for spreading the sides of their log canoes.)

Once the sides had been spread, holes were drilled at fixed intervals down each side of the canoe, then sturdy broad planks were cut and bound by rope through these holes to raise the sides of the craft. It was quite difficult to bind two or three planks edge-toedge tightly enough so that they would not leak,- fortunately, Yoshikawa, who had experience with fishing boats, put his know-how as

53.3 Building an Itaomachip

One section of Illustrations of Ezo Livelihood illustrates the process of building an itaomachip and identifies many features specific to it. The Ainu craftsmen who built a traditional boat in 1989 used this illustration as a guide. The interior of a log was first burned and then filled with water heated with hot stones, allowing its sides to be bent outward; a similar technique was used by canoe-builders on the Northwest Coast of North America.

a rope specialist to good use, and the planks were firmly bound. This process required 325 feet (100 meters) of half-inch (twelve millimeter) hemp rope and several pine boards sixteen inches wide and one-half inch (forty centimeters by twelve centimeters) thick.

The various difficulties encountered in the creation of the itaomachip were overcome, and it was successfully launched with great ceremony on August 1 3, 1989, in Sapporo after a ceremony that ensured that the spirit of the original tree would remain with the boat. According to local custom, the boat was launched with a girl seated in the center, with Utarian and Tokuhei aboard as rowers. The scene of the boat floating well-balanced on the water was wonderful, and it moved swiftly when rowed,- even though it is forty-five feet (13.5 meters) long, it looked small out in the middle of the lake, and it almost disappeared between the waves.

The boat then traveled through Nibutani in Piratori, Hidaka, and was displayed in Kushiro at the 1989 World Conference of Indigenous Populations, an annual conference dedicated to aborigine minority groups whose leaders support international efforts to insure native

self-determination and folk rights. Because the 1989 conference was held in Japan, it was historically significant for the Ainu, who took the lead in sponsoring it. The conference representative from Polynesia proved to be a skilled boat captain and demonstrated some of the techniques Polynesians use to cross vast ocean areas by canoe. Although only a short time was available to study these techniques, we learned enough about the vessels handling characteristics to confirm early accounts of Ainu ocean transport and trade.

This project, which reaffirmed historical accounts of early Ainu craftsmanship and seafaring abilities, also contributed to the modern Ainu sense of cultural identity, just as have similar projects undertaken by tribes of the northwest coast. Knowledge of and revival of parts of one's history can be effective ways to reestablish a sense of cultural identity. This has been the lasting value of the itaomachip project, for it has provided the Ainu and the museum's visitors with a new understanding about Ainu history: the stereotype of a people surviving by hand-to-mouth subsistence is gone, replaced by the story of proud and independent maritime traders.

54/The Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum

Hidek.1 Yoneda

I BELIEVE THAT FUTURE GENERATIONS OF historians will consider the late twentieth century to be the beginning of a cultural renaissance for the Ainu people. To both those involved in the Ainu movement and the public at large, such a claim may seem an exaggeration,- however, as the 1997 Ainu Shinpo indicates, the movement to regain rights for the Ainu population has made unprecedented progress in the past few decades. While acknowledging the risk of oversimplification, I assert that the movement has been and will continue to be a historic process characterized by drastic shifts in perception—from negative to positive, from restraint to manifestation, from repression to progress, from discrimination to respect, from resignation to hope.

Museums and similar institutions in various areas, with their staff and volunteers, have played an important role in this develop

er

54.1 Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum The Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum in Piratori opened to the public in April 1992. Although Piratori’s population is only 7,000, the museum attracts 30,000 visitors annually, from all over Japan and abroad. The museum was funded by the government to assuage opposition to a controversial dam on the Saru River at Nibutani, home of the greatest concentration of Ainu in Flokkaido.

ment. The Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum (fig. 54.1) and its predecessor, the Nibutani Ainu Culture Information Center, is one institution that has made significant contributions to the cultural movement of the Ainu people. Its influence extends beyond Piratori (the larger town district of which Nibutani is a part) where the museum was established and reorganized by the town authority. Piratori, located at the western foot of the Hidaka Mountains that extend southeast from central Hokkaido, has a population of slightly less than 7,000. Nibutani is one district of Piratori, and some 70 percent of its residents are said to be of Ainu lineage. Nibutani—and perhaps

all areas of Piratori—is known as one of the most famous Ainu kotan (a village in the Ainu language), and many of its people are quite knowledgeable about Ainu traditions and customs. For this reason, many Ainirresearchers, including foreign scholars, have visited and studied in Nibutani.

The Nibutani Ainu Culture Information Center was established in this small village by the Hokkaido Ainu Association in 1972. The late Tadashi Kaizawa, the first director, and Shigeru Kayano, the second director, made pivotal contributions to this center. Tadashi Kaizawa, as deputy president of the Hokkaido Ainu Association, was instrumental in establishing the center and managed it during the initial phase. Most of the folkcrafts exhibited at the center were from the collection of Shigeru Kayano: since the 1950s he has collected Ainu culture materials and restored them using his own money,- in addition to collecting artifacts, he examined the records of oral literature. In those days, talking about Ainu culture and history was almost taboo even in Nibutani, so there were few people who understood or supported the activities of Kaizawa and Kayano.

The Nibutani Ainu Culture Information Center was moved from the Hokkaido Ainu Association to Piratori in 1977. In 1991 the town constructed a new building and named it the Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum. Meanwhile, Kayano created a new private museum in the old building to exhibit, in addition to Ainu folkcrafts, artifacts of a variety of indigenous peoples from around the world. This facility was named the Shigeai Kayano Nibutani Ainu Information Center. On April 25, 1992, both institutions held opening ceremonies, and Nibutani became the site of two museums, one public and the other private.

A large-scale dam that was constructed in 1996 on the Saru River, which flows through the Nibutani area, has been a controversial government project, opposed by many local people. Because the museum was constructed as a means of appeasing the opposition to the dam project, some people avoid involvement with it, but to focus solely on this fact leads to a misunderstanding of the history of the controversy and overlooks issues of greater importance.

Without the long-term efforts of people committed to preserving Ainupuri (Ainu customs and tradition), no achievements would have been made. The fact that

Nibutani is regarded today as a key base for the Ainu cultural movement is the result of the will and hard work of individuals such as Kaisawa and Kayano, who were deeply committed to the cause—other elements became less important. Educating people who are willing and able to preserve their cultural tradition, especially young people, is an urgent task, for it will become the basis for future advancement. It is essential to increase the number of such people and to teach them how to deal with fundamental issues as well as how to implement specific measures geared toward research and the preservation of Ainu culture.

The basic philosophy of the museum is to "promote traditional culture into the contemporary Ainu culture of today" in other words, it must be an ongoing comprehensive project to examine the past, understand the current political and cultural environment,

and search for opportunities to preserve tradition (fig. 54.2). Whether this can be achieved will depend on how large the circle of involved people will become and how strong their resolve will be.

Ainu activities in urban areas will add momentum to the renaissance movement, and there are signs that this is already happening. It must be remembered, however, that Ainu tradition has its roots in a hunting, fishing, and gathering lifestyle and is nonagricultural/ nonurban in nature,- the contradiction will successfully coexist as long as people do not forget their roots and continue to establish new traditions. As we enter the twenty-first century, the importance of museums located in areas of indigenous cultures will no doubt increase, and with this increased importance comes the responsibility to continue to improve as an information resource.

54.2 Ainu Culture Exhibitions The specimens in the Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum reflect traditional life and customs of the Ainu of the Saru River region in the district of Hidaka, Hokkaido. Most of the museum’s collections were donated by the Ainu cultural leader Shigeru Kayano. The museum also displays contemporary Ainu artists’ work.

PRESENT AND FUTURE /HYONEDA

The Heart Fucbi Conveyed

Tomoko Keira

I WAS BORN IN 1947 INTO A FISHERMAN'S household facing the Pacific, and 1 lived in that house until I graduated from junior high school. While I was raised in an Ainu family, I rarely had an opportunity to be touched by Ainu customs and language,- I only knew my grandmother on my father's side—an Ainu woman—through a small picture of her and an old kimono of hers that ! had been given. Before the days of my grandparents, older Ainu people in my town apparently observed ethnic customs, but by the time my parents were born we were already in the last stage of japan's assimilation policy—becoming completely Japanese and forgetting Ainu traits was thought to be the best path. Therefore, my parents were taught

55.1

55.1 Tomoko Keira Listening to a Story from Suteno-fi/chj

Suteno Orita (1899-1993), born in Shizunai, Hokkaido, was raised solely in the Ainu language until her early twenties. She contributed her extensive knowledge of Ainu culture to various fields such as yukar (Ainu epics) and traditional cooking. In a book that Tomoko Keira wrote in 1995 to commemorate Suteno -fuchi, Keira describes her as a great teacher who was a role model for all Ainu women.

55.2 SUTENO-FUCH/ HOLDING TUKI

In addition to her skillful rendition of Ainu yukar and practice of traditional crafts, Suteno -fuchi also promoted traditional Ainu cooking and wrote the first cookbook (1992) that codified many traditional recipes.

neither the Ainu language nor Ainu customs, and even though 1 had some Ainu blood, it took me a long time to consider myself Ainu.

It was only after I moved to the city for a job that I began wondering "What is Ainu?," and I became interested in learning all 1 could. 1 was surprised—and angry—about how little the people around me knew about the Ainu, and how deep their prejudices were.

I was twenty years old when I decided to do what I could to add to public understanding about the Ainu, and I went back home to work at Ainu tourist areas. 1 worked as a traditional dancer for two years at a tourist location, but my hope that this would educate the public about Ainu culture did not come true. However, I met Haru -fuchi (fucbi is the Ainu term for "respected female elder"), who

was also working at the tourist area (fig. 55.4). The time ! spent with her had a significant impact on my life, for I was able to learn, for the first time, how Ainu feel and how Ainu women think,- I learned to reach the Ainu heart and was filled with contentment.

In the 1970s, inspired by the growing activism of various indigenous/minority populations around the world, the campaign for Ainu liberation grew. It was, at the same time, a movement to revitalize and protect Ainu culture, which was fading away. 1 joined the movement,- at the same time, 1 got married and began raising my children. I met older Ainu people in different regions and had many opportunities to work with them for the cause, and 1 was lucky enough to inherit their wisdom.

55.2

One day Haru-fucbi passed away. The death of someone who had become so close to me, who taught me how to feel Ainu, was shocking. More than a mentor, I felt I had lost someone I could rely on. Although 1 was involved in conferences both at home and abroad with indigenous people of many countries, 1 was searching for the life I should live as an Ainu. My search led to my decision to move in with Suteno-fucbi (figs. 55.1, 55.2), who was then in her eighties and alone,- I had been introduced to her by Haru-fucbi.

In the spring of 1991, I looked forward to a relaxed life, for I was now relieved of my family and work obligations because my two children were grown and my husband supported my decision. As soon as 1 put down my luggage, however, fuchi handed me the inner

3 79

55/ FUCHI WISDOM

55.3 Peramonkoro Sunazawa with a Sculpture by Her Son

Peramonkoro Sunazawa (1897-1971) was one of the few Ainu women of her generation to graduate from high school. She became a master of traditional Ainu design and embroidery, and by sharing her knowledge and fabric compositions she influenced the artistic development of her son, artist Bikky Sunazawa. In addition to her contributions to the field of Ainu textiles, which have been recognized by scholars, she was admired for her prowess in presenting yukar and keeping alive the oral tradition of Ainu epic poetry.

55.3

55.4 Haru Torao, 1903-1991 Haru-fuchi was born in Shizunai, Hokkaido. When she began attending elementary school at the age of nine, she was bullied by Japanese children, who often threw stones at her. After she was severely injured by a stone, she stopped going to school. Although the conspicuous tattoo around her mouth made her a target of discrimination, she was proud of her culture and tried to teach Ainu values to young Ainu people until she died. She was a generous and understanding person who was greatly respected.

bark of the linden tree ( nipes ) and began to teach me to twine bags and baskets, saying, "You should learn this now and you will find it useful in the future." We then started to weave a carrying strap (tar) and moved on to making bags ( saranip ) with the thread we made. Later we brought in cattails from a marsh and began weaving mats. Without realizing it, I was experiencing that part of an Ainu woman's existence that is described as "thinking while moving your hands." I was surprised that 1 neither questioned nor resisted the situation. The simple, gentle old woman was a great teacher.

I learned so much by doing women's seasonal work with her. She told me many stories during our breaks from manual or field work and at meals,- she told me what she believed in and valued, what she inherited

55.4

from ancestors, and what she was told by respected male elders, the ekashi. As she mixed her own experience with old tales, she always told me to fulfill my responsibilities and work as an Ainu woman in a fun manner. I never had the feeling that I was being taught, nor did fucbi mean to teach or lecture,- rather, she shared with me her stories and her memories. Something, unexplainable through words or logic, took hold in my mind.

When I was young, 1 was neither conscious of being born Ainu nor did 1 understand the meaning of my existence as a person

of different ethnicity. When I left my hometown, I saw myself as different from others for the first time, and I asked myself, "Who am I?" It was the various fucbi who made me feel Ainu and helpes me to understand Ainu women. The short period of time 1 shared with the fucbi, who are gone now, created a special and unique core in my heart, and it was Sutcno-fucbi who implanted that core throughout my being. I feel that I am here to digest what fucbi told me, make it my own, and in turn convey her words to my children and grandchildren.

Going home after a year of living with Suteno -fucbi, together with my husband and friends I formed a new organization to revive and convey the traditional culture of the Ainu in contemporary everyday life. Since 1992, the number of programs to spread traditional Ainu skills and spirit through workshops and seasonal field activities has increased, and there has been a steady growth in the number of participants—one noteworthy tradition that was revived after 1 30 years was the Ainu way of hunting deer.

Among Suteno-fucbi's words, those that have made me the strongest impressions on me were these: "Because I am teaching you right, you should be careful not to teach others wrong when it's your turn",- "Try hard",- and "Work your best, and when working is done, the god of paradise will come to take you." She completed her work in 1993 and began her journey, as she herself said, to the world where her ancestors waited for her.

In 1995 I participated in the World Woman's Conference in Beijing. Despite the conference slogan, The Twenty-first Century: The Century of Human Rights," the disparities between the conditions of the indigenous/ minority people of the world, including the Ainu, and the majority population sometimes seem a chasm yet to be bridged. While the struggle to rectify economic and social inequality continues, there is a long way to go and the tasks are enormous. Spiritualism alone will not open a door, but if that spirit is lost, there is no future.

PRESENT AND FUTURE /T.KEIRA

55.5 Into the Future

The experience of growing up Ainu is changing. Much of what made people “Ainu" in the past no longer exists, yet despite changes in Ainu perceptions of their own ethnicity and uncertain relations with the world around them, Ainu still find strength in their shared past and their unique art, traditions, beliefs, and personal experiences. Although their bridge to the future is unsteady due to unresolved civil rights issues and the absence of legal support for their self-determination as an indigenous people, increased public recognition and support both in Japan and abroad have made many Ainu people today more confident in their future than they have been for the past hundred years. (Hilger, NAA-1-19)

At the Beijing conference, I presented these words of Sunazawa-/t<cfoi (then sixtyseven years old), which she had spoken at the Ainu Culture Conference held in 1964. Although our ancestors did not have an alphabet, the education which families provided was solid. I will tell you about this in the Ainu language:

Tane anakne shisam-utar kotankorine

Now the Japanese behave as if our towns

were theirs

Fuchi iyaiikakka

They make the fuchi prof oundly sad Ekashi iyaiikakka

They make the ekashi profoundly sad Chi-oira ine

We forget the good customs of the Ainu

Shisam puri patek chi-ki-wa okai

And we learn only the bad Japanese

customs

Ekashi-ki-ya yukar hene

We try to follow the yukar that the ekashi

performed,

Upopo hene

the songs and dances,

Fuchi utar yaisama hene

and the fuchi's impromptu poems,

Opitta-wa oira isam

We have forgotten all of them

Whenever I think about these words, 1 cry in my heart. Looking at so many people gathered on this occasion, I do not know how to express my pleasure, except with tears (nuke turano), feeling the joy fuchi and ekashi would have felt.

My fellow Ainu people, the pillar of the Ainu family is woman. 1 would like to ask you to educate our grandchildren and children about the enormous power of the woman so that they will grow up with pride about being born Ainu. I would like to ask you to join me, hand in hand, and let's follow the manners of ekashi and fuchi so that we won't forget our ekashi's language and yukar and the pride of being Ainu Please, my fellow Ainu people, 1 sincerely ask you to do me this favor.

Nube turano ku-haw tapanna. lyairaikere.

[With tears, this is what I tell you. Thank you veiy much.]

55 / F U C H I WISDOM

AMNH: American Museum of Natural History (New York)

70-0002A/B Knife and Sheath

Fig. 42.8, p 293

Smith, col. 1904, St. Louis

A: L20.3, W2.5, H1 3,- B: Ll 8.5, W5, H2.2

wood, metal, bark, bone, cloth

70/ 1 I Choker

Fig. 45.23, p. 322

A. C. James, col. 1896, Hokkaido

L38, W1 3.5, H 1.5, cotton cloth, glass and lead beads,

steel, brass

70/1 4 Shaman Belt

Fig. 37.6, p. 265

A. C. James, col. 1896-98, Sakhalin

Belt: L57, Wl 3, Hi, Knife case: L17.5, W4.5, Hi.3

Sealskin, brass, wood

70/1 5 Tobacco Pouch

Fig. 22.7, p. 174

A. C. James, col. ca. 1896-98, Sakhalin L34, Wl5, Hi ,5 ; sealskin, glass beads, cotton, string, fur, pigment

70/23 Ikupasuy Fig. 22.5, p. 170

A. C. James, col. 1896-98, Hokkaido L32.5, W4, H1.5, wood

70/71 B Toggling Harpoon

Fig. 29.12, p. 214

A. C. James, col. 1896-98, Hokkaido

L20, W5.5, H5, iron, bone, cloth, wood, sinew

70/966 Retarpe Robe

Figs. 22.6a, p. 172,- 42.4, p. 290

B. Laufer, col 1899, Sakhalin

L120; nettle fiber, cotton, thread, embroidery, applique

70/1 256 Six-String Tonkori

Fig. 41.6, p 284 B Laufer, col. 1900, Sakhalin L129, W24.5, H5.5, wood, cloth, wire, hide, pigment, cord

70/1263 Strike-a-Light Kit

Fig. 22.9, p. 175

B. Laufer, col. 1899, Sakhalin

L20.8, W7.2, I 13 i sturgeon skin, metal, bone,

quartz, wood

70/1 739 Crescent Carving

Fig. 22.3, p. 170

B. Laufer, col. 1899, Sakhalin

Ll 3.4, Wl .5, Hi .5, bone

70/3998 Carved Pipe Fig. 22.8, p. 174

B. Dean, col. 1900, Shiraoi, Hokkaido L27.4, W2, H2, wood

70/4040A, B Beaded Earrings

Fig. 45.30, p. 325

B. Dean, col. 1901, Shikiu, Hokkaido A: L8.3, W5.2, H1 7 ; B: L8.5, W5.5, Hi.7 Brass, glass beads

Checklist of Artifacts Illustrated in this Volume

(Measurements in centimeters: L — length, W — width, H — height, D — diameter)

70/4094 Saranip Basket Fig. 44.4, p. 31 I

B. Dean, col. 1900, Piratori, Hokkaido L27, W22, Hi 1, grass, elm-bark fiber

70/4156 Inaw- ( Carving Tool Fig. 26.2, p. 193

B. Dean, col. 1900, Shiraoi, Hokkaido Ll5.1, W5.8, H1.3, wood, iron

70/4189 Ikupasuy Fig. 22.4, p 171

B. Dean, col. 1901, Abuta, Hokkaido L36.5, W3.5, H 1 .5, wood

70/4192 Ikupasuy Fig. 22.4, p. 171

B Dean, col. 1901, Usu, Hokkaido L36.5, W3.6, H2, wood

70/2932 Saranip Basket Figs 1.15, p 16, 43.2, p. 302 Norbeck, col. 1951, Penkatori, Hokkaido L28, W23, H6, elm-bark fiber

70/2955 Ikupasuy Fig. 22.4, p, 171

Norbeck, col. 1951, Niokonson, Hokkaido L32.3, W2.4, H1.4; wood

70/34895 Anush Apron Fig, 45.24, p. 323 J. Bird, col. 1983

L56, W46 ; elm bark, cotton cloth, thread

ACM: Asahikawa City Museum

12.3.1.1 Carved Bear

Fig. 47.6, p. 337 By Umetaro Matsui, 1920s L36, W35, H25, wood

4439 Bear Fetish

Fig. 38.14, p. 273 Sakhalin

LlO.9, W4.2, H6.8, wood

4436 Carved Bear

Fig. 47.5, p. 337

Sakhalin

Ll2, W2.6, H4.1, wood

4449 Bear Fetish

Fig. 47.4, p. 337 Sakhalin

L1 1.9, W4.2, H6.2 ; wood

4506 Bear Carving

Fig. 11.2, p. 92 Col. ca. 1920s L15, W7.5, H7.5, wood

BMA: Brooklyn Museum of Art

X2001.26 Beaded Necklace Fig. 45.27, p. 324 S. Culin, col. 1912, Sakhalin Class beads

12.447 Beaded Necklace Fig. 20.6, p. 158 F. Starr, col. 1904 Class beads

1 2.1 59 Toy Mortar Fig. 34 4, p. 246 S. Culin, col. 1912, Hokkaido H6.4, wood

1 2.1 60 Chopstick Case Fig. 47.1, p. 335 S. Culin, col. 1912, Hokkaido L. 30.1, wood

! 2.1 67 Mouth Harp ( mukkuri)

Fig. 41.2, p. 283

S. Culm, col 1912, Northern Japan Bamboo

I 2.1 73 Cigarette Holder Fig. 47.1, p. 335

F. Starr, col 1904, Porusaru, Hokkaido Ll 1.9, wood

1 2.! 75 Rosette Mold Fig. 45.25, p. 323 S. Culin, col. 1912, Hokkaido Ll 1.6,- wood

12.177 Toy Knife Fig. 34.4, p. 246

J. Batchelor, col. before 1912, prob. Saru River,

Hokkaido

Wood

12.181 Grain-Stripper {pipes)

Fig. 28.2, p. 203

F. Starr, col. 1904, Okotsonai, Hokkaido Ll0.9 ; mussel shell

12.20! Winnower Scoop Model Fig. 34.4, p. 246

J. Batchelor, col. before 1912, prob. Saru River,

Hokkaido

Ll 1.2, wood

1 2.229 Ikupasuy Fig. I 3.5, p 105

F Starr, col. 1910, Piratori, Hokkaido L3 3 1, wood

12.245 Ikupasuy Fig. 20.7, p 159 S. Culin, col. 1912, Hokkaido L33.6, wood

12.247 Ikupasuy

Fig. 30.4 (second from left), p. 224 F. Starr, col 1904, Okotsonai, Hokkaido L29.9, wood

1 2.248 Ikupasuy

Fig. 46.16 (center), p. 333

F. Starr, col. 1904, Porusaru, Hokkaido

L32 1, wood

1 2.250 Ikupasuy

Fig. 18.8 (right), p. 143

F. Starr, col. 1904, Porusaru, Hokkaido

L33.6, wood

1 2.282 Ikupasuy Fig. 46.15, p. 333

F. Starr, col. 1910, Piratori, Hokkaido L39.7, wood

12.297 Ikupasuy Fig. 30.4 (left), p. 224

J. Batchelor, col. before 1912, prob. Saru River, Hokkaido L34.1, wood

I 2.298 Ikupasuy

Fig. 30.4 (second from right), p 224 F. Starr, col 1910, Piratori, Hokkaido L37.2, wood

1 2.302 Ikupasuy Fig. 46.16 (right), p. 333 S. Culin, col. 1912, Hokkaido L33.2, wood

12.307 Ikupasuy

Fig. 35.9 (second from left), p. 252 F Starr, col. 1910, Piratori, Hokkaido L29.2, wood

! 2.309 Ikupasuy

Fig. 46.16 (left), p. 333

F. Starr, col. 1910, Piratori, Hokkaido

L32.8, wood

12.315 Ikupasuy Fig 18 8 (left), p 143

F. Starr, col. 1910, Piratori, Hokkaido L.35.4, wood

12.316 Ikupasuy

Fig. 35.9 (second from right), p 252 S. Culin, col 1912, Hokkaido L34.2, wood

12.317 Ikupasuy Fig. 44.2, p 310

F. Starr, col. 1910, Piratori, Hokkaido L35.3, wood, lacquer

12.323 Ikupasuy

Fig. 18.8 (second from right), p 143 F. Starr, col 1910, Piratori, Hokkaido L32.5,- wood

12.325 Ikupasuy Fig. 35.9 (right), p. 252 S. Culin, col. 1912, Hokkaido L31.9, wood

1 2.326 Ikupasuy Fig. 30.4 (right), p. 224

J. Batchelor, col. before 1912, prob. Saru River, Hokkaido L32.9; wood

12.33! Ikupasuy

Fig. 18.8 (second from left), p 143 F. Starr, col 1904, Porusaru, Hokkaido L31.4; wood

12.3 32 Ikupasuy Fig. 35.9 (left), p. 252

F. Starr, col. 1910, prob. Saru River, Hokkaido L32.2; wood

12.353 Ovoid Platter Fig. 28.8, p. 204 S. Culin, col. 1912, Hokkaido L26.4, wood

1 2.389B Quiver with Hunting Bag and Arrows Fig. 29.20, p. 217

F. Starr, col. 1904, Okotsonai, Hokkaido L52.9,- wood, cherry bark, bearskin, feathers

12.495 Salmon-Skin Stretcher Fig. 19.6A, p 151

F. Starr, col. 1904, Porusaru, Hokkaido L76.7; wood, salmon skin, sinew

I 2.582 Ainu Robe Fig. 18.9, p. 144

F. Starr, col. 1904, Porusaru, Hokkaido Cotton, silk, thread, embroidery, applique

I2.583A Deer Call Fig. 29.3, p. 209

J. Batchelor, col before 1912, prob. Saru River, Hokkaido

1-8.1, W5 ; wood, salmon or frog bladder, sinew

12.588 Fish-Roe Masher Fig. 28.5, p 204

J Batchelor, col before 1912, prob. Saru River, Hokkaido

L17 2, katsura wood

12.597 Fish Spear (marek)

Fig. 29.11, p. 213

F. Starr, col 1904, Piratori, Hokkaido L44.7, wood, iron

12.661 Tobacco Box Fig. 1.21, p. 19

F. Starr, col. 1904, Okotsonai, Hokkaido Wood, ivory

1 2.674A Pillow Box Fig 32.7, p 237

S. Culin, col 1912, prob. Saru River, Hokkaido L32.9, wood

12.678 Spatula Fig. 42.17, p. 298 S. Culin, col. 1912, Hokkaido L58.3; wood

12.690 Woman's Robe (retarpe)

Fig. 20.8, p 160 J. Batchelor, col. before 1912

Nettle-plant fiber, cotton, thread, embroidery, applique

12.789 Thimble and Needlecase Fig. 45.21, p. 321 S. Culin, col. 1912, Hokkaido L8.5; wood

CHECKLIST

BMS: Buffalo Museum of Science

Cl 2988 Ikupasuy Fig. 26.6 (lower), p. 196 G. Umlauff, col. 1939, Kurile Islands L33.5, W2.5, H2 ; wood

Cl 3461 Cooking Spatula

Fig. 28.6, p. 204

S. Sugiyama (?), col. 1939, Hokkaido Displayed at Golden Gate Expos.

L51.25, wood

Cl 3462 Cooking Spatula

Fig. 28.7, p. 204

S. Sugiyama (?), col. 1939, Hokkaido Displayed at Golden Gate Expos.

L50 ; wood

Cl 3464 Platter

Fig. 42.16, p. 298

S. Sugiyama (?), col. 1940, Hokkaido (?) L28.1, W29.3,- wood

Cl 3466 Ikupasuy

Fig. 26.6 (upper), p. 196

Collector and location unknown, 1940

Wood

CI 3 4 6 7 Ikupasuy Fig. 26.5 (bottom), p. 195 Collector and location unknown, 1940 L35.5, wood

C I 3474 Spoon

Fig. 28.10 (right), p. 206

S. Sugiyama (?), acc. 1940, Kurile Islands

L31.2, wood

Cl 3475 Spoon

Fig. 28.10 (left), p. 206

S. Sugiyama (?), acc. 1940, Kurile Islands

L23, wood

Cl 4724A Ikupasuy

Fig. 26.5 (second from bottom), p 195

Around Sea of Okhotsk

L35.5; wood

Cl 8752, 18755 Sake Cups Figs. 8.5, p. 77 ; 46.3, p 328 B. Sharrow, acc. 1954 H6.3, D12; wood, paint, lacquer

Cl 8756, 1 8757 Sake Saucer Stands

Figs. 8.5, p. 77; 46.3, p. 328

B. Sharrow, acc. 1954

H9.5, D14, wood, paint, lacquer

Cl 8759 Lacquerware Container

Fig. 12.4, p. 99

B. Sharrow, acc. 1951, Hidaka, Hokkaido L22, wood, lacquer

C1 8 76 I Ikupasuy

Fig. 26.5 (third from top), p. 195

B. Sharrow, acc. 1954

L29.2, W2.5; wood

C1 8764 Ikupasuy Fig. 26.5 (top), p. 195 B. Sharrow, acc. 1954 L28, W2.2; wood

Cl 8766 Necklace with Flowered Medallion

Fig. 10.5, p. 90

B. Sharrow, col 1940s or early 1950s, Hidaka (?),

Hokkaido

Glass beads, brass

Cl 8767 Hoop Earrings

Fig. 45.31, p. 325

B. Sharrow, acc. 1951, Hidaka, Hokkaido D8.1, brass, glass beads

Cl 8770 Ikupasuy

Fig. 26.5 (second from top), p. 195

B. Sharrow, acc. 1954

L33, W3, wood

Cl 8783A, B Sword and Hanger

Fig. 12.2, p. 97

B. Sharrow, acc. 1951, Hidaka (?), Hokkaido Blade: 1.42.5; Scabbard: L51, Hilt: D35.5, wood, steel, linden-bark fiber or celastrus-plant fiber, cotton thread, cotton cloth

Cl 8799 Lacquerware Box

Fig. 12.5, p. 100

B. Sharrow, acc. 1954

H43.2, D35.5; wood, paint, lacquer

David and Chisato Dubreuil Collection

Llncatalogued: Totem Pole Miniature

Fig. 47.7 (left), p. 338

By Koyama, col. 1986, Akan, Hokkaido

H36, W4.5, wood, paint

Llncatalogued: Totem Pole Miniature

Fig. 47.8 (right), p 338

Unknown artist, col Sapporo, Hokkaido

H3 1.5, W5.3-5.7, wood, paint

Uncatalogued: Iyomante

Fig. 16.6, p. 127

By Shunri Chishima, ca. 1790-1820

FMC: Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago)

32075 Tobacco Pouch Fig. 33.8, p. 244

A. Pogosky, col. before 1893, Sakhalin Ll 1, W17.5, sea-lion skin, cotton, thread

32I04A, B Salmon-skin Boots

Fig. 29.24, p. 220

A Pogoski, col. before 1893, Sakhalin

H48, L27, W16; seal and sea-otter hide, cotton, thread

88019 Choker with Rosette Medals Fig. 45.26, p. 323

Collector unknown, Hakodate, Hokkaido L40.5, W7,- velvet, pewter

88075 Quiver and Arrows

Fig. 32.2, p. 234

Collector unknown, "Yezo, Japan"

L54.4; Wl 3, 1 18,- wood, cherry bark, birchbark, bearskin

I 3 I 696.1—2 Mountain Knife and Sheath

Fig. 29.21, p. 217

Collector and location unknown

L45, W4.5, I 14; steel, wood, cherry bark

234945 Embroidered Headband

Fig. 45.22, p. 322

Collector and location unknown

L175, W15; cotton cloth, silk thread

Takeki Fujito

Llncatalogued: Eagle Sculpture, 1978

Fig. 47.1 1, p. 340

By Takeki Fujito, Akan, Hokkaido

H36, W22, D30.5, walnut wood

Llncatalogued: Life-Sized Wooden Figures, 1991-93

Fig. 47.12, p. 340

By Takeki Fujito, Akan, Hokkaido

Walnut wood

Uncatalogued: Sea Otter Sculpture, 1993

Fig. 1.30, p. 24

By Takeki Fujito, Akan, Hokkaido L45.5, W31, D21, wood

Uncatalogued: Whale Sculpture, 1993

Fig. 30.7, p. 226

By Takeki Fujito, Akan, Hokkaido H29, W60, D28.5, wood

HACRIG Hokkaido Archaelogical and Cultural Remains Investigation Center, Sapporo, Hokkaido

Killer Whale Effigy (replica), Middle Jomon

Fig. 3.5, p 41

Kikyo-2 site, Hakodate, Hokkaido L6.4, W4, D3.1, ceramic

HMH: The Historical Museum of Hokkaido

Ceramic Figurine (replica), Final Jomon

Fig. 3.8, p. 42

Motowanishi site, Muroran, Hokkaido L6.7, W5, D 3.5,- ceramic

Duck-Shaped Figurine (replica), Final Jomon Japanese National Important Cultural Property Fig. 3.1, p. 39

Bibi-4 site, Chitose, Hokkaido L3 1.7, W17, D9 ; ceramic

Ceramic Mask (replica), Final Jomon Japanese National Important Cultural Property Fig. 3.6, p. 42

Mamachi site, col 1986, Chitose, Hokkaido L17.9, Wl 8 . 2 , D6, ceramic

Bone Spoons (replicas), Epi-Jomon

Figs. 3.15a, B, p. 45 Esan site, Hokkaido A: 1—15 ; B: L7 ; antler, bone

Bone Spoon (replica), Epi-Jomon Fig. 3.16, p. 45 Usu-10 site, Hokkaido L27.3, W4.5, D4.3; antler

Sea Otter Figurine (replica), Okhotsk

Fig. 3.18, p. 46 Tokoro Fort, Hokkaido L6.2, W2.3, Dl.7, ivory

Bronze Belt Ornaments (replicas), Okhotsk Fig. 4.8, p. 51 Menashitomari, Hokkaido L5.5, W5.6, bronze

Toggling Harpoon Head (replica), Epi-Jomon Fig. 3.13, p. 44 Esan site, Hokkaido L12.7, W 1.9, DO.9 ; bone, agate blade

Fishhook (replica), Epi-Jomon Fig. 3.12, p. 44 Esan site, Hokkaido L7.5, W5.2, DO.7, bone

Harpoon Head (replica), Okhotsk

Fig. 3.14, p. 44

Kafukai-A site, ReBun, Hokkaido Ll 1.4, W2, DO.7, bone

Wide-Mouth Vessel, Okhotsk

Fig. 3.17, p. 44

Futatsuiwa site, Abashin, Hokkaido L30.4, W26.6, Dl 1.3, earthenware

Stone Rod (replica), Final Jomon Fig. 3.9, p 42

Kashiwagi-B site, Eniwa, Hokkaido L35.7, W3.3, igneous rock

Pedestal Vessel, Epi Jomon

Fig. 3.10, p. 43

Minamikawa site, Setana-cho, Hokkaido L2 I, W27, Dl 2.5, earthenware

Ceramic Vessel, Incipient Jomon

Fig. 3.4, p. 40

Narukawa site, Narukawa-cho, Hokkaido L20.3, W 17.6, DO.6, ceramic

Engraved Needlecase (replica), Okhotsk

Fig. 3.19, p. 46

Bentento site, Nemuro, Hokkaido L8.3, Wl .5, D1.1, birdbone

Ceramic Figurine (replica), Final Jomon

Fig. 4.6, p. 50

Ohnakayama site, Nanae, Hokkaido L18.4, W14.5, D7.2; earthenware

Lacquered Comb (replica), Late Jomon Fig. 4.5, p. 50

Bibi-4 site, Chitose, Hokkaido L1 1.8, W7.3, DO.6 ; wood, lacquer

Needlecase with Geometric Engraving (replica), Okhotsk Fig. 4.9, p. 50

Kafukai-A site, Rcbun, Hokkaido L.I2, Wl.4, DO.7, birdbone

HAMA: Hokkaido Asahikawa Museum of Art

Nitne-kamuy (Evil God), 1988 Fig. 47.27, p. 348

By Bikky Sunazawa, Asahikawa, Hokkaido

Hi22, W26, D48, katsura wood, Manchurian ash, walnut

HPGBE: Hokkaido Prefectural Government Board of Education (Sapporo)

Owl Eyes (fragment), Final Jomon

Fig. 3.7, p. 42

Bibi-4 site, Chitose, Hokkaido LlO, WlO; earthenware

Noriko Kawamura Collection

Uncatalogued: Ryo (Force or Spirit), 1989

Fig. 47.29, p. 349

By Noriko Kawamura, Otaru, Hokkaido L200, W300, textile

Uncatalogued: Hokkaido no sbiki: Aki mon’yo (Four Seasons in Hokkaido: Autumn), 1 990

Fig. 47.30, p. 350

By Noriko Kawamura, Otam Junior College, Sapporo, Textile

Uncatalogued: Hokkaido no sbiki (fiiyu): Fukuro no siimu mori (Four Seasons in Hokkaido: Winter), 199 I Fig. 47.31, p. 350

By Noriko Kawamura, Otani Junior College, Sapporo Textile

Llncatalogued: Mokurei (Wooden Spirit), 1 99 I Fig. 47.32, p. 350

By Noriko Kawamura, Otaru, Hokkaido L300, W1 80, textile

KM: Kitanihon Minceisha Co., Ltd. (Sapporo)

Uncatalogued: Figures of Man and Woman, 1960s

Fig. 47.3, p. 336

By Suzuki, Asahikawa, Hokkaido L65.6, D30, wood, paint

Uncatalogued: Winter (Hibernation), 1980 Fig. 47.10, p. 339 By Takeki Fujito, Akan, Hokkaido H47.5, W45, D23.5; walnut

Llncatalogued: Bear and Hutiter (Ekasbi), 1 973

Fig. 47.16, p. 342

By Bikky Sunazawa, Sapporo, Hokkaido L69.5, W78, D56.5,- Casteraralia wood

Uncatalogued: Kani (Crab), 1987 Fig. 47.26, p. 348

By Bikky Sunazawa, Sapporo, Hokkaido L47, W38,- lauan wood, oil stain, pigment

Llncatalogued: Necklace, 1968 Fig. 47.14, p. 341

By Bikky Sunazawa, Sapporo, Hokkaido L30.6, Wl 1, Japanese spindle-tree wood, oil stain, pigment

Llncatalogued: Gozen sanji no gangu (Foys at 3:00 A.M.), 1987 Fig. 47.22, p 345

By Bikky Sunazawa, Sapporo, Hokkaido L41.7, W22, DlO.2, wood

SM: Shin Mouri Collection

Llncatalogued: Japanese Clogs Fig. 1 1.4, p. 94

Soshichiro Mouri, col. 1909-29, Hokkaido L22.8, W9.4, H7.2, wood, cow leather

Uncatalogued: Poison-Preparation Bowl with Point

Fig. 29.18, p. 216

Soshichiro Mouri, col. 1909-29, Hokkaido Bowl: L24.3, W5.7, H2, Point: L6.4, WI 5, wood, bamboo

Llncataloged: Needlecase

Fig. 42.21, p. 300

Soshichiro Mouri, col. 1909-29, Hokkaido L29.5, deer bone, cotton, needle and thread, coin

MPM: Milwaukee Public Museum

N I 7000 Ikupasuy Fig. 46.17, p. 334 Hokkaido L34.3,- wood

N I 7025 Bow

Fig. 29.4 (upper), p. 210

Acc 1969, Edward V. Dommcr Foundation

L120, wood, bark

N I 7027 Ladle

Fig. 28.9 (upper), p. 205

Location and date of collection unknown

L66, wood

N 1 705 3 Ritual Sword

Fig, 13.8, p. 107

Acc 1969, Edward V. Dommer Foundation L32.5, wood

N17056 Ritual Quiver

Fig. 38.13, p. 272

Acc. 1969, Edward V. Dommer Foundation L51, W14, wood

N 17058 Makiri, Sheath, Netsuke Fig. 1.24, p. 21

Acc. 1969, Edward V. Dommer Foundation L25.6, W7.5 ; wood, bone, iron, glass bead

CHECKLIST

N I 71OOA Flower Arrows

Fig. 35.8, p. 251 Hokkaido Wood, feathers

N 1 7284C Flower Arrows

Figs. 35.8, p. 251, 42.13, p. 295

Hokkaido

Wood, feathers

N I 7285C, E Flower Arrows

Fig. 35.8, p. 251 Hokkaido Wood, feathers

N I 7296 Carved Platter

Fig. 28.12, p. 207 Hokkaido

L26.7, W21.9, walnut

N I 7302 Ikupasuy

Fig. 36.7, p. 259 Hokkaido

NI 7340A, B Knife Handle and Sheath

Fig. 32.4, p. 236 Hokkaido L23, wood, iron

N1 7346 Ritual Sword

Fig. 38.12, p. 273

Acc. 1969, Edward V. Dommer Foundation L25, wood

N 1 7357A, B Knife Handle and Sheath

Fig. 30.3, p. 223

Acc. 1969, Edward V. Dommer Foundation L43.2, whalebone, cherry bark

N I 736 I Spirit Figurine

Fig. 38.7, p, 271 Acc. 1969, Sakhalin L27.2, wood

N1 7363 Spirit Figurine

Fig. 38.8, p. 271 Acc 1969, Sakhalin L15.6, wood

HMCAS: Hokkaido Museum of Contemporary Art, Sapporo

Uncatalogued: Kami no shita (Tongue of God), I 980 Fig. 47.18, p. 343

By Bikky Sunazawa, Sapporo, Hokkaido H201 ; Japanese oak

NME: National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka

Hi 89023 Fucbi, 1993 Fig. 47.1 3, p. 340 By Takeki Fujito, Akan, Hokkaido H162 ; walnut wood

NMNH: National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.

19415 Semicircular Plate

Fig. 1.9, p 13

H. Capron, col. 1875, Hokkaido

I. 26.5, W19, H2.5, wood

E22194 Grapevine Sandals

Fig. 29.26, p 221

B. Lyman, col. 1876, Hokkaido

L24.7; grapevine bark, linden bark

E22259 Smoking Kit

Fig. 18.1, p. 138

B. Lyman, col. 1876, Hokkaido

L33, Wl 1.5, H5, hardwood

22261 Ikupasuy Fig. 1.12, p. 14

B. Lyman, col. 1876, Yokohama L38, W2.5, Hi.2, wood

E022269 Wooden Spatula

Fig. 42.20, p. 299

B. Lyman, col, 1876, Hokkaido

L20.7, W3.6, Hi.2, wood

El 50637 Salmon-Skin Boots

Fig. 29.25, p. 220

R. Hitchcock, col. 1888, Bekkai, Hokkaido L21.8, W20 2, H 10; salmon skin

I 50638 Iron-Tipped Arrow

Fig. 29.4, p. 210

R Hitchcock, col. 1888, Shari, Hokkaido L49.5, W1.2, HO.6, wood, iron, feather

150642 Bow

Fig. 29.4, p. 210

R. Hitchcock, col. 1888, Hokkaido L107.5, W8.3, H 1.8, wood, cherry bark

I 50649 Attush Leggings Fig. 19.9, p. 153

R. Hitchcock, col. 1888, Abashiri, Hokkaido L31.2, W29.2, HO.6, elm bark, thread

I 50653 Elm-Bark Fiber

Fig. 19.7, p. 151

R. Hitchcock, col. 1888, Abashiri, Hokkaido L55.9, W20.3, H8.3; elm bark

1 50670 Ladle

Fig. 28,9 (lower), p 205

R. Hitchcock, col. 1888, Piratori, Hokkaido

L48.2, Wl 3.3, I 15.7; wood

1 50675 Sea-Mammal Spear

Fig. 29.13, p. 214

R. Hitchcock, col. 1888, Hokkaido Ll 19 (three sections); wood, metal, rope

I 50677 Elm Bark

Fig. 45.2, p. 314

R. Hitchcock, col. 1888, Abashiri, Hokkaido L75, Wl 1.4, H3.1, elm bark

150682 Garden Hoe

Fig. 32.14, p. 239

R. Hitchcock, col. 1888, Piratori, Hokkaido L93, W30.4, Hi2.7, hardwood

1 50685 Octagonal Bowl

Fig. 19,5, p. 150

R. Hitchcock, col. 1888, Bekkai, Hokkaido L29.2, W30.5, H6.3; wood

I 50688 Cloth Mittens

Fig. 8.7, p. 78

R. Hitchcock, col. 1888, Piratori, Hokkaido L22.7, Wl2.7, HO 6; cotton cloth

150698 Ikupasuy

Fig. 19.3, p. 149

R Hitchcock, col. 1888, Etorofu, Kurile Islands L33, W3.2, HO.6, wood

1 50706 Beaded Necklace

Fig. 10.7, p. 91

R. Hitchcock, col. 1888, Hokkaido

L50.8, W 12.7, H 1.3, glass beads, brass, thread

I 5071 5 Tattoo Knife

Fig. 45.32, p. 326

R. Hitchcock, col. 1888, Piratori, Hokkaido L19.7, W2.5, Hi.3; wood, metal

I 5072 1 A Birchbark Bowl

Fig. 19.4, p. 150

R. Hitchcock, col. 1888, Piratori, Hokkaido L2 1.6, W14, I 15.7,- birchbark, wood

1 50722 Wooden Spoon

Fig. 47.2, p. 336

R. Hitchcock, col. 1888, Etorofu, Kurile Islands L30.5, W4.4, H4.4, wood

1 50725 Salmon Skin

Fig. 19.6B, p. 151

R. Hitchcock, col. 1888, Abashiri, Hokkaido L49.5, W 17.8, I 16.3,- salmon skin

El 50729 Knife and Sheath

Fig. 29.19, p. 216

R. Hitchcock, col. 1888, Piratori, Hokkaido L29.2, Wl7.1, H2.5, wood, metal

El 50764 Spring Bow

Fig. 29.6, p. 212

R. Hitchcock, col 1888, Piratori, Hokkaido L55.8, W81.2, I 110.1; wood

1 50768 Baby Carrier

Fig. 6.5, p. 64

R. Hitchcock, col. 1888, Shikotan Island, Kurile Islands L48; wood, grass

El 50779 Man's Robe

Fig. 42.3, p, 289

R. Hitchcock, col. 1888, Tsuishikari, Hokkaido

L.122, Wl27, H 1.2, elm bark, cotton thiead, embroidery, applique

1 50780 Womans Robe

Fig. 19.8, p. 152

R. Hitchcock, col. 1888, Tsuishikari, Hokkaido L 121.5; elm bark, cotton thread, embroidery, applique

324509 Wooden Plate Fig. 42.19, p. 299 Stockbridge, col. 1922 L24.1, W22.9, H2.5 ; wood

3245 I I Inaw Knife Fig. 31.8, p 231 Stockbridge, col. 1922

Sheath L20.3, W5, H 1.9, Knife: L21.6, W3.2, H1.3, wood, ivory, iron

325243 Man's Knife Fig. 32.6, p. 236

Novakovsky, col 1923, Hokkaido L35.6, W20.3, F13.2, wood, bone, iron, cord

Kazuyoshi Ohtsuka Collection

Uncatalogued: Towel Hanger

Fig. 1 1.3, p. 93

Col I 829, Hokkaido

Rack: L40, H46.8; Case: L43.2, WlO, H4.3 ; walnut wood, Japanese cedar, bamboo nails

OVOH Otoineppu Village Office, Hokkaido

Uncataloged: Ki'men (Wooden Masks), 1975 Figs. 1.29, p. 25 ; 47.15A, B, p.341 By Bikky Sunazawa, Sapporo, Hokkaido L30.5, W18, D7 ; L38.5, W21, D14.5, wood

Uncataloged: Juka (Wooden Flowers), 1989 Fig. 47.19, p 344

By Bikky Sunazawa, Otoineppu, Hokkaido L2 10 , W2 10 , H280, willow wood

Uncataloged: Gozen sanji no gangu (Toys at 3:00 A.M.), 1978 Fig. 47.22, p. 345

By Bikky Sunazawa, Sapporo, Hokkaido H44.5, W52, D25.5, wood

PEM: Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, Massachusetts)

E491 Embroidered Boots Fig. 42.6, p. 291

E. Morse, col. 1882, Ishikari River region, Hokkaido L36.8, W24 I, H14, fishskin, velvet, cotton

El990 Bone Carving Fig. 42.9, p. 293

O. Esche, col. before 1874, Sakhalin L8.9, W5, H 1.7, ivory

E3105 Weft Beater Fig. 45.5e, p. 315

Matsuki, location and date unknown L36.8, W6.3, H 1.7, wood

E3279 Festival Scene Ainu-e Fig. 33.1, p. 240

By Byozan Hirasawa, Scenes ojEzo Everyday Life, 1871 E. Morse, col. 1871 L89, W57 ; silk, paint

E3382 Five-String Tonkori Fig. 41.6, p. 284

M. Todd, col. 1896, Esashi, Hokkaido L97.5, W24.8, 1 14,5; wood

E3 390 Child's Coat Fig. 42.2, p 288

M. Todd, col. 1896, Esashi, Hokkaido L90.2, W1 37, H3.8, salmon skin, cloth

E7909 Wooden Bowl Fig. 42.18, p. 299 Ll 8, Wl4, H7.6, wood

El 6503 Robe Fig. 45.7, p 317

E. Morse (?), acc. 1916, Hokkaidof?)

Elm bark, cotton thread, embroidery, applique

El 7874 Three Hunters Ainu-e

Fig. 29.1, p. 208

By Koretsu Matsumae

E. Morse, col. before 1920, Hokkaidof?)

L179.3, W52.2, paper

E75 I 90 "Invasion of Yezo by Russians"

Fig. 7.4, p 70

Artist unknown, Publication on the Ainu People oj Japan, undated

L18.4, W26, paper, ink

PMC: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (Cambridge, Massachusetts)

64026 Twined Basket

Fig. 43 1, p. 301

Col. before 1904

L4I.3, W 19.7, Hi2.7, elm bark

86052 Wooden Pipe Fig. 33.10, p. 245 L. H Farlow, col. before 1915 L31 1, W2, wood, metal

D3260 Ikupasuy Fig. 46.1 8 , p. 334 L Warner, col before 1928 L36.8, W3 I, HO.6, wood

7044 Sealskin Robe

Fig. 45.17, p, 320

Brooks, col before 1888, Sakhalin

L108, W1 33, seal and fox skins, glass beads, silk, velvet,

cotton bast, wool fabrics

7046 Wooden Bowl Fig. 28.1 1, p. 206

Brooks, col. before 1888, Hokkaido L2 1 , W2 1, ! 19.5; wood

22431 Bowl with Ledge Handle

Fig. 28.13, p. 206

Col. before 1879, Sakhalin (?)

L27.3, W15.2, H7.0; wood

51603 Duckskin Robe

Fig. 45.6, p 3 16

A. Agassiz, col. before 1893, Kurile Islands Duckskin, feathers

5 1 605 Sealskin Mittens

Fig. 29.16, p. 215

A. Agassiz, col. before 1893, Shana Storop,

Kurile Islands

L24.8, Wl9, Hi .9, sealskin

5 I 625 Beaded Necklace

Fig, 18.2, p. 139

A. Agassiz, col. before 1893, Storop, Kurile Islands L55.8, Wl 5.4, H3.8, glass beads, lead beads

5 1 630 Coiled-Grass Basket with Lid Fig. 43.6, p. 304

A. Agassiz, col. before 1893, Shikotan Island, Kurile Islands L5.7, W8.9, grass

51631 Needlecase Set Fig. 128, p 23

A. Agassiz, col. before 1893, Shikotan Island, Kurile Islands

Lea. 15, bone, wood, animal hide, pigment, copper wire

51643 Ikupasuy Fig. 46.18, p. 334

A. Agassiz, col. before 1893, Nemuro L35, W3.8, HO.6, wood

51646 Ikupasuy Fig. 30.6, p. 225

A Agassiz, col. before 1893(?), Nemuro L33.7, W3.8, HO.6, wood

51647 Ikupasuy Fig. 46.16, p. 333

A. Agassiz, col. before 1893, Nemuro L33, W3.8, HO.6, wood

5 1648 Ikupasuy Fig. 46.18, p. 334

A. Agassiz, col. before 1893, Nemuro L35, W3.8, HO.6 ; wood

51649 Ikupasuy Fig. 30.5, p. 225

A. Agassiz, col. before 1893, Nemuro L33, W3.8, HO.6, wood

RTBE: Rausu Town Board of Education

Uncataloged: Vessel with Bear's Head Carving (replica), Okhotsk Culture Fig. 3.1 1, p. 43

Matsunorikawa Kitagishi site, Rausu, Hokkaido L32, W3 1.5, DI 3.7, charred wood

ROM: Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto)

888.6.13 Smoking Kit

Fig. 1.20, p. 19

E. Odium, col. 1888, Shana, Kurile Islands Cherry bark, wood, bearskin, metal, glass bead

CHECKLIST

Chinita Sunazawa

A Daughter’s Happiness, 1 99 1 Fig, 47.33, p. 351 By Chinita Sunazawa

Uncatalogued: Untitled, 1 992

Fig, 47.36, p. 352 By Chinita Sunazawa

Uncatalogued: Yang, 1997

Fig. 47.35, p. 353

By Chinita Sunazawa

Li 93, Wl 30, acrylic on canvas

Uncatalogued: Yin, 1998 Fig. 47.36, p. 352 By Chinita Sunazawa L193, W130, acrylic on canvas

Kazuo Sunazawa

Uncatalogued: Untitled, ca. 1960s

Fig. 47.28, p. 348

By Peramonkoro Sunazawa, Akan, Hokkaido Textile

Uncatalogued: Ichitaro Sunazawa, Carved Mask, 1992 Fig. 14.3, p 111

By Kazuo Sunazawa, Akan, Hokkaido L30, Wl 6 , H I I, wood

AMS: The Ainu Museum at Shiraoi

60542 Sun Visor

Fig. 24.6, p. 186 S. Kodama, col. 1929-1970 L90 ; cotton, silk

61022 Female Spirit-Guardian Necklace

Fig. 44.3, p. 310

S. Kodama, col. 1929-1970

L20, W1.2; cotton cord, glass beads

61025 Female Spirit-Guardian Necklace

Fig. 38.6, p. 270 S. Kodama, col. 1929-1970 L36.2, W3.3; cotton cord, grass

61049 Blowfish Amulet

Fig. 13.2, p. 103 S. Kodama, col. 1929-1970 L 10.3 , W6.1 , H7. 1 ; blowfish

62228 Mans Knife

Fig. 32.5, p. 236

S. Kodama, col. 1929-1079, Hokkaido L24.3, W3.7, Hi. 9, ivory, bone, tooth, steel

IIPM: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

56.8.9 Tobacco Pipe with Burl Bowl

Fig. 33.11, p. 245

Hartshorne, col. 1897-1900, Hokkaido Li9.3, W3.5, D2.2,■ wood

A402 Womans Embroidered Hood

Fig. 21.4, p. 164

H. Hiller, col. 1901, Motomoruran, Hokkaido L40.8, cotton

A407A, B Bent-Wood Snowshoes

Fig. 29.22, p. 218

H. Hiller, col. 1901, Shiraoi, Hokkaido L45, W22.5, Dl 1.5; wood, deerhide, sinew

A442A Bear-Cub Feeding Trough

Fig. 35.3, p. 250

H. Hiller, col. 1901, Shiraoi, Hokkaido L68.6, wood

A454 Hunter's Pouch

Fig. 2.8, p. 36

H. Hiller, col. 1901, Okotsonai, Hokkaido L29, W18, D8,- bearskin

A457A Birchbark Torch

Fig. 29.10, p. 213

H. Hiller, col. 1901, Okopunai, Hokkaido L29, W5.5, D4, birchbark

A458A, B, C Smoking Kit Fig. 42.15, p, 297

H Hiller, col 1901, Yezo/Hokkaido A: L32.5, W2, Dl, B L38, W3, D7 ; C: L9.3,

W9, D4.5, wood, bronze, cowrie shell, tobacco, vegetable fiber

A470B Wooden Club

Fig. 33.6, p. 243

H. Hiller, col. 1901, Hokkaido

A479 Boy's Bow Fig. 34.2, p. 246

H. Hiller, col. 1901, Okotsonai, Hokkaido L42.5, wood

A494 Bear Skull and Mandible

Fig. 35.10, p. 253

H. Hiller, col 1901, Motomuroran, Hokkaido Wood, bone

A5 1 6 Galloping Toy Fig. 34.3, p. 246

H. Hiller, col 1901, Piratori, Hokkaido Ll 1, clamshell, rope

A53 I C Bear Cub's Toy Fig. 35.3, p. 250

H. Hiller, col. 1901, Rubeshibe, Hokkaido L22.5, wood

AI 7744 Knife with Eagle-Beak Sheath

Figs. 21.6, 21. 6A, p. 167

Eldredge, col. before 1895, prob. Yokohama

A: L39.5, W4, D2 ; B: L31.5, W5, D2.2, wood, steel,

cherry bark, pearl, puffin beak, bird claw

L122-19 Woman's Ceremonial Robe Fig. 42.4, p, 290

M. Schaffer, col. 1909, Piratori, Hokkaido

Ll 31, Wl23, D5.5, cotton, thread, embroidery, applique

Ll 22-32 Plaited Basket

Fig. 44.6, p. 312

M. Schaffer, col. 1909, Piratori, Hokkaido L26, W28, D19; linden bark

Kan Wada Collection

Uncatalogued: Amulet String

Fig. 37.2, p. 262

B. Wada, col 1945, Novoe, Sakhalin L40, leather, metal, wood

Uncatalogued. Two-Headed Nipopo Doll

Fig. 37.4, p. 263

B. Wada, col. 1945, Novoe, Sakhalin L27.5, W 1 1, H7.5, wood, cloth

Llncatalogued: Nipopo Doll

Fig. 37,5, p. 263

B. Wada, col. 1945, Novoe, Sakhalin L27, W6.5, wood, cloth, glass bead

List of Illustrations

Fic Pace Caption title

42.3 1 Atlush Robe

41.1 2-3 Crane Dance

Table caption

Introduction Ainu Ethnicity: A History

1.0

8

Ishu retsuzo (Portraits of Ezo Chieftains)

11

9

Man and Woman of Shari

1.2

9

Blessing Ritual

1.3

10

Traditional and Modern Ainu Territories

1.4

10

Villagers of Shikotan, Kurile Islands

1 5

1 1

Ainu of Sakhalin

1 6

1 1

Sea-Lion Hunters of Moneron Island

1.7

12

Native Peoples of the Greater North Pacific

1.8

12

Ainu Documentation Team

1.9, 110

13

Ainu Design

III

14

Bringing the Bear to Iyomante

1 12

14

Prayer Stick

1 13

15

Ainu and the "Caucasoid Hypothesis'

I 14

15

A Queer People

115

16

Twined Basket

I 16

16

"All the World's a Stage"

117

17

Population History Model

118

17

Early Ainu Art

119

18

Ainu Chieftain

1 20

19

Making it Ainu

1.21

19

Traditional Tobacco Box

122

20

Woman with Weaving Instrument

123

22

Nanai Motif

1 24

21

Matin' with Bead and Bear

1.25

22

Morew Pattern

126

22

Eskimo Spirit Carving

127

23

Sealskin Boots

1 28

23

Kurile Needlecases

1.29

25

Ki-men (Wooden Mask)

1.30

24

Sea Otter

1.31

26

Ainu Cultural Rebirth

I Theories of Ainu Origins

Ainu Origin Theories

1.0

28

Ichirikayani, Son of Ikotoi

1.1

29

Abashiri Ainu

1.2

30

Ainu Men of Sakhalin

Ainu Homelands:

Natural History from Ice Ace to

Modern Times

2.1

32

Ice-Age East Asia and Today

2.2

32

Sea-Level History

2.3

33

Bathymetry of Soya Strait

2 4

33

Late Glacial Fauna

2.5

34

Present Vegetation Zones of North and East Asia

2.6

34

Phytogeography of Japan at Late Glacial Maximum

2.7

35

Vegetation History

2.8

36

Hunter’s Bearskin Pouch

2.9

36

Salmon and Ainu Today

2.10

37

Chief Noshikosa of Shamokotan

2.1 1 A, B

38

Land-use Change from Meiji Period to Present

2.12

38

Kingfisher Owl, Guardian of the Village

Prehistoric

Hokkaido and Ainu Origins

3.1

39

Duck-Effigy Flute (replica)

3.2

40

Archaeological Cultures of Hokkaido

3.3

40

Geological Stratigraphy and Culture

Table caption

Periods of Misawa River Region in Chitose and Tomakamai Regions

3.4

40

Ceramic Vessel

3.5

41

Killer Whale

3.6

42

Ceramic Mask (replica)

3.7

42

Owl Eyes

3.8

42

Ceramic Figurine

3.9

42

Stone Rod (replica)

3.10

43

Pedestal Vessel

3.1 1

43

Bear-Effigy Vessel (replica)

3.12-3.14

44

Fishhook and Harpoons (replicas)

3.15A, B, 3.16

45

Effigy Spoons (replica)

3.17

44

Wide-Mouth Vessel

3.18

46

Sea-Otter Figurine (replica)

3.19

46

Engraved Needlecase (replica)

Ainu Ties with Ancient Cultures of Northeast Asia

4.1

47

Winter in a Sakhalin Village

4,2

48

Microlithic Industries of Siberia and East Asia

4.3

49

Upper-Paleolithic Artifacts from Sakhalin

4.4

49

Late-Neolithic Artifacts from Sakhalin

4 5

50

Lacquered Comb (replica)

4 6, 4.7

50

Evocative Women

4.8

51

Bronze Belt Ornaments (replicas)

4.9

50

Needlecase with Geometric Engraving (replica)

4.10

51

Sakhalin Okhotsk Assemblage

4.1 1

51

Mixed-Race Family of Sakhalin

Ancient People of the North Pacific Rim : Ainu

Biological Relationship with Their Neighbors

5.1

52

Ainu Woman on the Amur

5.2

54

Sinodont and Sundadont Tooth Types

5.3

55

Jomon Teeth

5.4

56

Ainu Genetic Distances

5.5

56

Ainu Cranial Distances

Ainu Language: 1

Features and Relationships

6.1

57

Map of Hokkaido Ainu Dialects

6.2

60

Preparing Inaw

6.3

61

Entertaining Japanese Officials

6.4

63

Ainu Place-names

6.5, 6.6

64

Carrying Children

Table caption

II History

Table caption

Ainu History: An Overview

7.0

66

Ikotoi, Chieftain of Atsukeshi

7.1

67

Uimam Ceremony

7,2

68

Ainu Sword and Hanger

7.3

69

Shakushain

7.4

70

Invasion of Ezo by Russians

7.5

71

Ainu Northern Regions Before 1868

7.6

71

Hokkaido and Surroundings, 1869-1945

7.7

72

Modern Hokkaido

Table caption

Early Ainu Contacts with the Japanese

8.1

74

Historical Map of Northern Tohoku and Hokkaido

8.2

75

A Fishery Scene from Ezo Country

8 3

76

The Japanese Ezo Fishery

8.4

77

Trade Goods and Ceremonial Life

8.5

77

Lacquered Cups and Saucer Stands

8.6

77

Mutual Influence

8.7

78

Cloth Mittens

Ainu-e.

A Historical Review

9.1

79

Pictorial Biography of Prince Sbotoku

9.2

80

Seisuiji En'gi (History of Seisui Temple

9.3

81

Illustrated Gazetteer of Ezo

9.4

82

Hunting

9.5

82 Iyomante

16.7

129 Ainu Exhibitions Begin

23.4

178

Antique-Store Lacquerware

9.6

8 3 Tobu

16.8

129 Ainu Dwelling Display

23.5

179

Kurile Box

9.7

84 Catching an Eagle

16.9

130 Tokunai Mogami

23.6

179

Sakhalin Necklace

9.8

85 Iyomante

16.10

13 1 Ainu Objects in European

23.7

180

Neil Munro's Nibutani Home

Museum Collections

23,8

181

Tobacco Box and Pipe Holder

Trading Brokers and Partners with China,

23.9

182

Lacquerware Tuki and Ikupasuy

Russia, and Japan

The St. Petersburg Ainu Collections

10.1

86 Ainu Maritime Traders

17.1

133 Kurile Robe

The Ainu Museum Foundation

10.2

86 Amur Santan Trade

17.2

134 Kurile Boat Model

24.1

183

The Ainu Museum in Shiraoi

10.3

87 Cultural Impact of Trade

17.3

1 34 Coiled-Grass Basket

24.2

184

Ainu Exhibits

10.4

89 Wealthy Sakhalin Ainu

17.4

1 35 Sakhalin Hospitality

24.3

184

Iyomante Ceremony

10.5

90 Necklace with Flowered Medallion

24.4, 24.5

185

Ainu Dance and Ceremony

10.6

91 Young Girl Wearing Necklace

Ainu Collections in North America: Documentation

24.6

186

Sun Visor

10.7

91 Necklace with Figure Medallion

Projects and the Frederick Starr Collections

24.7

186

Masahiro Nomoto Begins the

18 1

138 Smoking Kit

Smithsonian Ship Model

Tourism, Assimilation, and Ainu Survival Today

18.2

139 Beaded Necklace

11.1, 11.2

92 Bear Carving

18.3

140 Starr's Ainu Group m Tokyo

The Ainu in Ethnographic Films

11.3 A, B, C

93 Towel Hanger

18.4

140 The Ainu Group in St. Louis

25.1

187 Beautiful Japan, Take One

11.4

94 Japanese Clogs

18.5

141 Comparing Notes

25.2

188

Beautiful Japan, Take Two

11.5

94 "Museum Ainu"

18.6

141 A Live-in Exposition

11,6

95 "Ainus Ride Usually Without Saddle"

18.7

142 Goodwill Ambassadors

IV. AinuMosir: Land Spirit and Culture

18.8

143 Starr's Legacy

Kamuy. Gods You Can Argue With

The Ainu and the Early Modern

18.9

144—45 Ainu Robe

Iapanese State, 1600-1868

26.0

192

Shimochi, Grand Chieftain of Atsukishi

12. 1

96 Ainu Man with Bow and Sword

Romyn Hitchcock and the Smithsonian Ainu

26.1

193

Itiate: Messengers to the Gods

12.2

97 Sword and Hanger

Collection

26.2

193

fitaiD-Carving Tool

12.3

98 Defeat and Oppression

19.IA.B

148 Ainu Man and Woman of Urap

26.3, 26.4

194

Carving Inate

12.4

99 Lacquerware Container

19.2

149 Two Ainu Men

26.5

195

Ikupasuy

12.5

100 "Treasure"

19.3

1 49 "Mr. Ikupasuy"

26.6

196

Ikupasuy Stories

12.6

101 "A Couple of the Chief"

19.4, 19.5

150 Cherry-bark and Wooden Bowls

26.7

197

Exorcising Illness

19.6A B, 19.7 151 Raw Materials

Foreign Contagions, Ainu Medical Culture,

19.8, 19.9

152 Attush Robe and Leggings

1 HE AINU tCOSYSTEM

and Conquest

19.10a,b

154 Ainu Exhibits

27.1

198

Village Economy

I3.i

102 Exorcising Illness

19.1 1

153 Carved Plates

27.2

198

Ainu Kotan

13.2

103 Spmy-Blowfish Amulet

27.3

199

Changing Lands, Changing Media

13.3

104 Influenza Amulet

Batchelor, Starr, and Culin: The Brooklyn Museum

27.4

199

Ainu Ecosystem

13.4

105 Smallpox Amulet

of Art Collection

27.5

200

River-Fishing Expedition

13.5

105 Prayer Stick

20,1, 20.2

155 Culin and the Ainu

27.6

201

Ice Fishing

13.6

106 Caring for a Corpse

20.3, 20.4

156 Snowshoes and Deer Hunter

13.7

106 Burning the House of the Deceased

20.5

157 Fishskin Boots

Foods of Choice

13.8

107 Ritual Sword

20.6

158 Beaded Necklace

28.1

202

June: Gathering Seaweed

20.7

159 Ikupasuy

28.2, 28.3

203

Stripping Grain

From Assimilation to Indigenous Rights: Ainu

20.8A.B

161-62 Retarpe

28.4

203

Ainu Foods

Resistance Since i 869

28.5

204

Fish Roe Masher

14.1

108 Protest March

An Enthusiastic Quest: Hiram Hiller and Jenichiro

28.6-28.8

204

Cooking Utensils

14.2

110 Chikabumi Ainu Protestors

Oyabe in Hokkaido, 1901

28.9

205

Serving Ladles

14.3

1 1 1 Portrait of Ichitaro Sunazawa

21.1, 21.2

162 Hiller and Oyabe

28.10

206

Kurile Spoons

14.4

1 12 Sakhalin Ainu in Tsuishikari, Hokkaido

21.3

163 Hiller and Oyabes Hokkaido Travels

28.11—28.13

206

Bowls and Platter

14.5

113 Ainu Organizational Meeting, 1973

21.4, 21.5

164 Old-Style Headgear

28.14

207

Brewing Rice Wine

14.6

114 Ainu Flag

21.6

165 Benkai's Family at Nusa

28.15

207

Storehouse

21.7

166 Spouted Pot

Ainu and Northwest Coast Peoples: A Comparison

21.8

167 Tasbiro with Eagle Beak

Technology, Settlement, and Hunting Ritual

15.1

116 Ainu Totem Pole

29.1

208

Family of Hunters

15.2

119 Named Ainu Groups in Hokkaido

From Snowshoe to "Corn Mortars":

29.2

209

Hunter in Mountain Clothes

15.3

121 Skidegate Village

Early Ainu Collections at the American

29.3

209

Deer Call

15.4

122 Chosama, Chief of Uraashibetsu

Museum of Natural History

29.4, 28.5

210

Deer Hunting

22.1

168 Shiraoi Amu

29.6, 28.8

212

Hunting the Bear

22.2

169 Bashford Dean

29.7

212

Spring Bow Trap

22.3

170 Crescent Carving

29.9-28 11

213

Salmon Fishing

III. Ainu Discovery: Collectors,

22.4

171 It’s an Ikupasuy!

29.12, 29.13

214

Toggling Harpoons

Museums and the Public

22.5

170 Ikupasuy

29.14

214

Sea-hunting Expedition

The European Image of the Ainu as Reflected

22.6

172—73 Sakhalin Retarpe

29.15

215

Dogsled Travel

in Museum Collections

22.7

174 Tobacco Pouch

29.16

215

Sealskin Mitts

16.0

124 Mautaroke, Grand Chieftain of

22.8

174 Carved Pipe

29.17, 29.18

216

Preparation of Poison for Hunting

Uraashibetsu

22.9, 22.10

175 Strike-a-Light Kit

29.19

216

Makiri

16.1, 16.2

125 Early European Views

29.20

217

Quiver with Hunting Bag and Arrows

16.3

126 Philipp Franz von Siebold

Japanese Ainu Collections

29.21

217

Mountain Knife

16.4

126 Heinrich von Siebold

23.1

176 Wood Tray

29.22

218

Snowshoes

16.5

126 Erwin Baelz

23.2

177 Attush Sample Kit

29.23

218

Hunter on Skis

16.6

127 Bear Ceremony

23.3

177 Modern Ainu Bags

29.24

220

Salmon-skin Boots with Fishscale Tread

29.25

220

Nonskid Boots

29.26

221

Grapevine Sandals

The Ainu on Whales and Whaling

30.1

222

Launching a Boat

30.2

223

Stranded-Whale Dance

30.3

223

Whalebone Knife

30.4

224

Ikupasuy Carvings

30.5, 30.6

225

Killer Whale Marks

30.7

226

Humpback Whale

Home and Settlement: Chise and Kotan

31.1

227

Amu Mosir, Kamuy Mosir

31.2

228

Ainu Village in Winter

31.3

228

At Ikorek's House

31.4

228

Shell Lamp

31.5, 31.6

229

Floor Plan

31.7

229

Inaw

31.8

229

Makiri for Carving Inaw

3 1 9A-D

230

-31 Ainu House Construction

31.10

232

Woman's Ritual Belt

31.11

233

Traditional Ainu House

VlLLACE WORK: GENDER ROLES AND SEASONAL WORK

32.1

234

February: Hunting in the Mountains

32.2

234

Quiver and Arrows

32.3

235

blunting Croup with Dog

32.4-32.6

236

Men's Knives

32.7

237

Pillow Box

32.8

237

Gathering Maple Syrup

32.9, 32.10

238

Wild Harvest

32.1 1, 32.12

239

Making Rice Cakes

32.13

238

April: Twisting Thread

32.14

239

Carden Hoe

Ainu Sociality

33.1

240

Festival Scene

33.2

241

Greeting Demonstration

33.3

241

Greeting Ritual

33.4, 33.5

242

Sakhalin Ainu Iyomante

33.6, 33.7

243

Corporal Punishment

33.8

244

Tobacco Pouch

33.9

244

Praying with Inaw

33.10

245

Pipe with Carved Decoration

33.11

245

Pipe with Burl Bowl

Ainu Children's Play

34 l

246

Girls Playing Cat’s Cradle

34.2-34.4

246 "Galloping Clams" and Other Toys

34.5 A-D

247

Games

34.6

247

Teaching Sewing Skills

Spirit-Sending Ceremonies

35.1

248

Kamuy-nomi: Praying to the Gods

35.2

248

-49 Exercising the Bear

35.3-34.5

250

Care and Feeding

35.6, 35.7

251

Iyomante

35.8

251

Flower Arrows

35.9

252

Ikupasuy

35.10—35 12

253

Nusa and Benkai's Bear Skull

35.13

254

Fox Sending

35.14

254

Nusa

35.15, 35.16

255

Inaw for the Great Owl

The Archaeology of Iyomante

36.1

256

Iyomante The Bear-Sending Ceremony

36.2

256

Nusa at Yurap Village

36.3

257

Dancing Before the Nusa

36.4

258

Sending Ceremony for Broken Tools

36.5

259

Destroyed House

36.6

259

Fox-Sending Site

36.7

259

Bear Ceremonialism

Ainu Shamanism

37.1

261

Shamanic Seance

37.2

262

Amulet String

37.3

263

Ritual Sacrifice of Dogs

37.4, 37.5

263

Nipopo Dolls

37.6

264

Shaman Belt

37.7

267

Marching to Ward Off Evil Spirits

Life and Death

38.1

268

-69 Offering Condolences to the Chieftain

38.2

269

Grave of an Ainu Chief in Sakhalin

38.3-38 5

270

Mourning and Burial

38.6

270

Spirit Guardian

38.7, 38.8

271

Spirit Figures

38.9

272

Grave Markers

38.10

272

Grave Posts and Burial Articles

38.11

272

Crave Posts from West Ezo

38.12

272

-73 Ritual Sword

38.13

272

Ritual Quiver

38.14

273

Bear Fetish

38.15

273

Entrance to the Other World

Mythology and Animal Tales

39.1

274

Goddess of the Cave

Yukar Epics of Heroes

40.1

278

Man Reciting Yukar

40.2

280

Contemporary Presentations of Yukar

To Live Is

to Sing

41.1

282

Crane Dance

41.2, 41.3

283

Playing the Mukkuri

41 4

284

Playing the Tonkori

41.5, 41.6

284

Tonkori

41.7

285

Sword Dance

41.8

285

Dancing Continues

Table caption

V. Even Without A Word For Art

Table caption

Ainu Art: The Beginnings of Tradition

42.0

286

Chieftain of Heshikai, Poloya

42.1

287

Ainu Fashion

42.2

288

Child's Salmon-Skin Coat

42.3

289

Attusb Robe

42.4

290

Retarpe Robe

42.5

291

Learning Designs

42.6

291

Embroidered Fishskin Boots

42.7

292

Woman’s Tattooed Arm

42.8

293

Knife and Sheath

42.9

293

Bone Carving

42.10

294

Ikupasuy

42.1 I

294

Three Inaw

42.12

295

Ceremonial Headdress

42.13

295

Flower Arrow

42.14

296

Sword Holder

42.15

297

Smoking Kit

42.16, 42.17

298

Platter and Spatula

42.18

299

Bowl

42.19

299

Plate

42.20

299

Eating Lltensil

42.21

300

Needlecase

Table caption

Saran/p and Tenki-. Ainu Basketry and North Pacific Affinities

43.1

301

Twined Basket

43.2, 43.3

302

Saranip

43.4

303

Ainu Folk Crafts

43.5

303

Archival Documentation

43.6

304

Coiled-Crass Basket

43.7

305

Decorated Tenki

43.8

305

Twined Yup’ik Basket

43.9

307

Modern Yup'ik Basket

A Personal Rebirth through Traditional Ainu Basketry

44 l

309

Making a Basket

44.2

310

Ikupasuy with Swordfish

44.3

310

Female Spirit Guardian

44 4

311

Woven Basket

44.5

312

Basketry Technique

44.6

312

Plaited Basket

44.7

312

Weaving with a Loom

Clothing and Ornamentation

45.1

313

A Variety of Fashions

45.2-45 4

314

Preparing Obyo

45.5A-E

315

From Fiber to Fabric

45.6

316

Duckskin Robe

45.7

317

Attusb Robe

45.8

318

Ainu Robe and Japanese Kimono

45.9

318

Cbikarkarpe Robe

45.10

318

Chijiri Robe

45.1 1

318

Ruunpe Robe

45.12

319

Ruunpe Robe

45 1 3

319

Kaparamip Robe

45.14

319

Retarpe Robe

45 15

319

Spearing Octopus

45.16

319

Women of Piratori

45.17

320

Sealskin Robe

45.18

320

Design School

45 19

321

Ainu Design Motifs

45.20

321

Embroidery Stitches

45.21

321

Needlecase

45.22

322

Embroidered Headband

45.23

322

Choker

45.24

323

Attusb Apron

45.25, 45.26

323

Rosette Mold and Choker

45,27

324

Beaded Necklace

45 28, 45.29

324

Necklaces with Medallion

45.30, 45.31

325

Beaded Earrings

45.32

326

Tattoo Knife

45.33

326

Arm Tattoos

45.34

326

Sword and Sword Holder

Ikupasuy : It’s Not a Mustache Lifter!

46.1

327

Ikupasuy

46.2

327

Ritual Use of the Ikupasuy

46.3

328

Offertory Ware

46.4

328

Neil Munro and Patient

46.5

328

Tuki and Ikupasuy

46.6, 46.7

329

Prayers to Fuchi

46.8

329

Offering Prayers

46.9 A-C

330

Bear-Sending Ceremony

46 10

331

Inaw and Kike-Ikupasuy

46.1 1

331

Parts of the Ikupasuy

46.12

332

Orca Symbols

46.13

332

Orca Sbirosbi

46.14

332

Lacquered Ikupasuy

46.15

333

Ikupasuy with Tuki Image

46.16

333

Three Ikupasuy

46.17

334

Fantastic Ikupasuy

46.18

334

Three Ikupasuy

Table caption

Ainu Journey: From Tourist Art to Fine Arts

47.1

335

Chopstick Case and Cigarette Holder

47.2, 47.3

336

New Spoons and Figurines

47.4-47.6

337

Fetish to Fashion

47.7, 47.8

338

Miniature Totem Poles

47.9

339

Kuma (Bear), 1993

47.10

339

Winter (Hibernation), 1980

47.11

340

Eagle Sculpture, 1978

47.12

340

Life-sized Wooden Figures, 1991-93

47.13

340

Fucbi, 1993

47.14

341

Necklace, 1968

47.15A.B

341

Ki-men (Wooden Masks), 1975

47.16

342

Bear and Hunter (Ekashi), 1973

47.17

342

Totem Pole, 1979

47.18

343

Kami no sbila (Tongue of God), 1980

47.19

344

Jnka (Wooden Flower), 1989

47.20

344

Totem Pole at Kispiox

47,21

345

Images of British Columbia, 1983

47.22

345

Gozen sanji no gangu (Toys at 3.00 A.M.J, 1987

47.23

346

Praying to the Gods

47.24

346

Kaze ni kiku (Listening to the Wind), 1986/1988

47.25

347

Yodsii no kaze (Four Winds), 1986

47.26

348

Kani (Crab), 1987

47.27

348

Nitne-kamuy (Evil God), 1988

47,28

348

Untitled, ca. 1960s

47.29

349

Ryo (Force or Spirit), 1989

47.30

350

Hokkaido no sink: Aki mon'yo (Four

Seasons in Hokkaido . Autumn Patterns), 1990

47.31

350

Hokkaido no sbiki (fuyu): Fttkuro no sumu mori (Four Seasons in Hokkaido,

W'iitfer: The Forest Where Owls Live), 1991

47.32

350

Mokurei (Wooden Spirit), 1991

47.33

351

A Daughter's Happiness, 1991

47.34

352

Yin, 1998

47.35

353

Yang, 1997

47.36

352

Untitled, 1992

47.37

353

Sad Fox, 1991

VI. Ainu Present and Future

Table caption

Shishirimuka: A Saru River Tale

48.0

354

Inikari, Chieftain of Barasanmo

48.1

355

Tadashi Kaizawa

48.2

356

Toroshino Kaizawa (1889-1982) with Radishes

48,3

356

Nibutani Dam

48.4 357 Chip-Sanke Ceremony

48.5 358 Old Man and Child

Ainu in the International Arena

49.1 359 Giichi Nomura, Former Executive

Director of Utari Kyukai (Ainu Association of Hokkaido)Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, 10 December, 1992

49.2 361 Ainu Demonstration in Tokyo, 1992

49.3 362 Toroshino Kaizawa (1 889-1982)

49.4 363 Oki Kano, Ainu Musician

49.5 364 Think Globally, Act Locally

49.6 365 Masahiro Nomoto

The Ainu Shinpo: A New Beginning

50.1 366 Tokyo, 1992

50.2 367 Ainu Lands and Resources

50.3 368 Continuity and Change

Beyond the Ainu Shinpo: An Ainu View

51.1 369 Schools and Culture

51.2 370 The Ainu Rally in Sapporo

Ainu Language: Present and Future

52.1 371 Language Education in Nibutani, May

1993

52.2 373 Declining Use of Ainu Language in

the Home

Itaomachip: Reviving a Boat-Building and Tradinc Tradition

53.1 374 Ainu Boats Sail Again

53.2 375 Early Maritime Vessel

53.3 376 Building an Itaomachip

The Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum

54.1 377 Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum

54.2 378 Ainu Culture Exhibitions

The HeartOuchi Conveyed

55.1 379 Tomoko Keira Listening to a Story

from Suteno-/ttcfci

55.2 379 Suteno-/ncfei Holding Tuki

55.3 380 Peramonkoro Sunazawa with a

Sculpture by Her Son

55.4 381 HaruTorao, 1903-1991

55.5 381 Into the Future

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1983 The Roots of Dependency: Subsistence, Environment, and Social Change among the Choctaws, Pawnees, and Navajos. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Credits

Object Ownership Ownership or custodial authority for objects and materials illustrated in this book is indicated, where appropriate, in parentheses at the end of each caption entry. Abbreviations used in this book are listed here in alphabetical order: ACM, Asahikawa City Museum, AMMCA, Ainu Memorial Museum at Chikabumi, Asahikawa,- AMNH, American Museum of Natural History, AMS, Ainu Museum at Shiraoi; BMA, Brooklyn Museum of Art, BMS, Buffalo Museum of Science,- BMV, Berlin Museum fiir Volkerkunde,- FMC, Field Museum of Natural History, HACRC, Hokkaido Ainu Culture Research Center,HACRIC, Hokkaido Archaeological and Cultural Remains Investigation Center,

Sapporo,- HAMA, Hokkaido Asahikawa Museum of Art,- HSKC, Hokkaido Shuppan Kikaku Center HMCAS, Hokkaido Museum of Contemporary Art, Sapporo,- HMH, Historical Museum of Hokkaido, HML, Hakodate Municipal Library, HMM, Hakodate Municipal Museum, HOVO, Hokkaido Otoineppu Village Office,- HPGBE, Hokkaido Prefectural Government Board of Education, Sapporo,HUL Hokkaido Llniversity Library, Sapporo, KM, Kitanihon Mingeisha Company, Ltd., Sapporo,- MIHPP, Museum of the Institute of History, Philosophy, and Philology, Novosibirsk, MKB, Museum der Kulturen, Basel,- MPM Milwaukee Public Museum,- NACM, Nibutani Amu Culture Museum, NME, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, NMNH, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, NPS/LNHS, National Park Service, Longfellow National Historic Site, Cambridge, Massachusetts, PEM, Peabody Essex Museum, PMC, Peabody Museum of Harvard Llniversity, ROM, Royal Ontario Museum UML, University of Massachusetts W. E. B. DuBois Library,- SOTD, Sapporo Otani Tanki Daigaku, UA/UAFM, Llniversity of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks,- L1PM, Llniversity of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, RTBE, Rausu Town Board of Education, SC, Sankyo Company,- SKRM, Sakhalin Regional Museum, YuzhnoSakhalinsk, SM, Shin Mouri,- TNM, Tokyo National Museum, UMA, University of Massachusetts Archive,- WMCR Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies.

Maps and graphics: Maps and graphics were produced or adapted by Marcia Bakry of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History from authors' drafts, originals, or published materials.

Reprints: We thank Princeton Llniversity Press for permission to reprint the excerpt (p. 28 1) from Songs of Gods, Songs of Humans by Donald Philippi (1979).

Object Photographs Llnless otherwise credited, photographs of objects from the American Museum of Natural History, New

York (AMNH), the Brooklyn Museum of Art (BMA), Buffalo Museum of Science (BMS), and the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) were taken by Susan Einstein,- photographs of objects from the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago (FMC) and the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C. (NMNH) were taken by Dana Levy. Photographs of objects from all remaining North American institutions were taken by their respective photographic departments:

American Museum of Natural History by Jackie Beckett,- Harvard University Peabody Museum by Hillel Burger,- Peabody Essex Museum by Mark Sexton and Jeffrey Dykes,- Llniversity of Pennsylvania Museum by Charles S. Kline,- and Royal Ontario Museum. Except as noted below, all photographs of objects from Japanese institutions and collections were taken by the respective organizations and/or individuals. Ethnographic Photographs: Unless otherwise noted, ethnographic field photographs are from the Bronislaw Pilsudski (1902-05), Romyn Hitchcock (1888), Carleton Coon (containing Jesse Tarbox Beals photographs of Ainu at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904), and Sister Inez Hilger (1965) collections in the National Anthropological Archives (NMNH), Smithsonian Institution Ainu-e Illustrations: Photographs of all Ainu-e illustrations except those owned by the National Museum of Natural History and the Peabody Essex Museum were taken by Susumu Tameoka of the Historical Museum of Hokkaido.

Other Credits: Credits to individuals or organizations for photographs taken, materials produced or provided, and other courtesies proffered in the production of this book are listed below alphabetically with pertinent figure numbers:

Ainu Association of Hokkaido: 7.3 (Shizunai

Branch), 14.1,49.2, 50.1, 51.2 Ainu Museum at Shiraoi: 1.31, 24.1-6,- 30.2,

31.1-2, 31.5, 31.7, 31.10-1 1, 35.6, 35.11-12,

35.14, 37.7, 38.3, 38.6, 38.9, 38.15, 41.7,

44.3, - see also Kodama AMS illustrations. American Museum of Natural History Archives:

15.3, 22.1-2 (courtesy of Ann Wright Parsons) Asahikawa City Museum: 23.1, 23.5-6, 23.8-9,

47.4-6

Ted Banks III, Museum der Kulturen, Basel,

Carl Schuster Archive, courtesy of Edmund

Carpenter: 26.1,35.1 Jesse Tarbox Beals: 1.16, 18.4-7, 44.1 Felice Beato, courtesy of Fong Chow: 27.2 Berlin Museum fiir Volkerkunde: 43.4 Brooklyn Museum of Art Archives: 9.5, 20.1-2 Anatoli Derevianko: 4.7 Koji Deriha: 23.2-4, 23.7 Harold Dougherty, SI Photographic Services:

David Dubreuil: 15.1, 47.17, 47.21, 47.28, 49.4 Brian Fagan: 5.2

William W Fitzhugh: 1.2, 1.8, 1.23, 1.26, 6.2,

1 1.5, 24.7

Mie Haginaka: 14.3

Hakodate Municipal Library: for providing many Ainu-e illustrations Hakodate Municipal Museum: 9.4 Harold Dougherty, Carl Hansen, Don Hurlbert, and Laurie Penland (SI Photographic Services), courtesy of Valerie Shubin and Olga A. Shubina of SK.RM: 4.3-4, 4.10 Sister Inez HiIger (note: Hilger Collection photographs were largely taken by photographers who accompanied Sister Hilger during her travels in Hokkaido, including some who worked for National Geographic magazine and Japanese photographers,- attributions for specific photographs are not given in the Hilger papers in the NAA): 1 1.1, 26.7, 41.8, 48.2, 48.5, 49.3, 50.2-3, 51 I, 52.2, 55.5 kumo Hirashima: 55.2

Historical Museum of Hokkaido: in addition to Ainu-e photographed by Susumu Tameoka, HMH archaeological objects were photographed by Susumu Tameoka (Chapters 3,4) and ethnographic photographs were made by Koji Deriha (23.2-4, 23.7),- 32.1, 36.3, 42.1 Hokkaido Ainu Culture Research Center: 28.4 Hokkaido Asahikawa Museum of Art: 47.27 Hokkaido Shuppan Kikaku Center: 47.33, 47.37, 47.36

Hokkaido Shinbun ; 14.5—6,47.23 Hokkaido University Library, Sapporo: 8.2, 41.4 Human Studies Film Archive, NAA, NMNH/ SI: 25.1-2 Hajime Ishida: 5.5 Cenichiro Kakegawa: 55.1 Adria Katz: 21.3 Noriko Kawamura: 47.29-32

Shigeru Kayano-. 43.4

Isao Kikuchi: 8.1

Toshihiko Kikuchi: 4.2

Masako Kinoshita: 55.3

Dai Kitagawa: 48.1, 48.3-4, 52.1

Tetsuo Kitaichi: 31.1

Yoshikazu and Michi Kitao: 1 19, 2.10, 9.36, 15.4, 42.14, 45.29 Motomichi Kono: 15.2 Josef Kreiner: 16.1-5, 16.7-10 Kyoryokukai: The Corporation in Aid of the Tokyo National Museum Management: 43.4 Kodanta Collection, Ainu Museum at Shiraoi: 6.6, 10.3, 13.2, 32.5, 34.6, 38.6, 45.3, 45.5d, 45.8, 45.9-1 1,45.13-15, 45.19-20, 45.28, 45.34

Library of Congress, Kimbei photograph, Lot 12548: 27.5 Stephen Loring: 49.6

Yonu Makino, courtesy of Fosco Maraini 46.14 Fosco Maraini: 1 . 1 3, 46.2, 46.48, 46.10-12, 46.14

Kitamhon Mingeisha: 47.3, 47.10, 47.14,

47.16, 47.26 Shin Mouri: 11.4 Miyuki Muraki: 34.6

Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, St.

Petersburg, Russia: 1.23, 1.26, 17.1-3 Museum of Contemporary Art, Sapporo: 47.18, 47.24-25

National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian) Botany Library: 29.17 National Park Service, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow National Historic Site: 8.3, 10.6, 29.2

Masahiro Nomoto: 55.4 Kazuyoshi Ohtsuka: 1 . 1 8 , 11.2, 11.3,53.1—3 Yugo Ono: 2.1-3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6-7, 2.9, 2.11,2.12 Otoineppu Village Office, Hokkaido: 1.19,

47.15, 47.19, 47.22 P. Pantzer: 16.7

Princeton University Press: 40.2, courtesy of the Kubodera family Royal Ontario Museum: 1.20 Douglas Sanders: 47.20 Sankyo Company: 47.34-35 Shiro Sasaki: 10.1-2 Mary Schaffer: 45.16 Richard Siddle: 7.5, 7.6, 7.7 Frederick Starr: 18.3 (courtesy of Y. Kotani and University of Oregon Library) Sekiguchi Tadashi: 16.4 Suzuko Tamura: 6 1,6.4 Kazunon Tarumi: 47.1 3 Hiroshi Tateno: 1.30, 30.7, 47.9, 47.11,47.12 Tokyo National Museum: 9.1-3, 9.6, 43.5 Hiroaki Tsuda: 42.14 Nobuko Tsuda: 44.5, 44.7 Christy G. Turner IF 5.3, 5.4 Llmted Nations (UN/DPI) photo 182264 by E Debebe: 49.1

Llniversity of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks, courtesy of Molly Lee: 43.8 Llniversity of Massachusetts, Special Collections and Archives, W. E. B. DuBois Library, Benjamin Smith Lyman Papers: 14.4, 27.1-2 Llniversity of Oregon Library Archives, courtesy of Y. Kotani: 18.3 Llniversity of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Archives: 21.1-2, 21.5-7, 31.3, 31.10, 45.12, 45.16 Hitoshi Watanabe: 27.4 Hideki Yoneda: 49.5, 54.1-2 Washington Evening Star: 114

(The assistance of Keith Ward in compiling this list is much appreciated.)

Acknowledgments

Exhibitions, like human lives, have special meaning and special histories. They are born of dreams, take inspiration from their surroundings, and in the process of becoming what they will be, they develop new voices and goals, sometimes surprising their parents and sponsors. Aitnt:

Spirit of a Northern People is no exception. The exhibition and this catalogue are as different from its original concept as a butterfly from its pupa. As tempting as it is to provide a project history, that shall have to await another venue. Here we must be limited to a roll call of thanks to the many organizations and individuals whose efforts and assistance made this project possible.

At the outset we wish to thank those who contributed in many ways, large and small: the many Ainu people who provided hospitality, assistance, and ideas to Chisato and David Dubreuil in their several planning trips to Hokkaido,- to Japanese and American scholars who participated in exchange visits to Japan and the United States in the mid-1990s,- to those organizations that supported the Japanese Ainu Collection Documentation Project (ACDP) Teams research programs in Europe, North America, and Russia,- Smithsonian employees who provided logistic and administrative support throughout this venture,- and many others too numerous to name

As reported elsewhere in this volume, this project grew out of discussions between Yoshinobu Kotani and William Fitzhugh in 1991 when the Japanese ACDP was conducting an inventory of Ainu collections in North American museums, expanding upon previous research of the Smithsonian's collections conducted by Kazuyoshi Ohtsuka and Chang-su Houchins a few years earlier. The idea of drawing together these little-known North American Ainu resources was further developed by Kotani and members of the ACDP team with Amy Poster (Brooklyn Museum of Art), Laurel Kendall (American Museum of Natural History), Stephen Loring (Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian Institution), and Adria Katz (University of Pennsylvania Museum). Major progress was made in 1992 when Kotani invited Fitzhugh to Japan to inspect collections at Tokyo National Museum, Historical Museum of Hokkaido, and other institutions. Further progress came with Fitzhugh's visit to Abashin in the fall of 1992, with Koji Deriha's studies at the Smithsonian Institution, American Museum of Natural History, Brooklyn Museum of Art, and University of Pennsylvania Museum in 1993 and 1994, and with Ainu Collection Documentation Project meetings and seminars that took place in Washington, New York, and Philadelphia in 1994 and 1995. Throughout our planning, the staffs of these four museums bore the burden of hosting our work and later provided staff time for the processing, conservation, and photography of ethnographic objects. Other North American museums who participated in this project include Buffalo Museum of Science, Field Museum of Natural History, Milwaukee Public Museum, Peabody Essex Museum, and Peabody Museum of Harvard University. We thank these institutions and their staffs for their great contributions to the project, foremost being their generous object and archival loans. We also thank the Ainu and Japanese museums and private collectors from Japan for their most valuable contributions, without their objects and archival materials the "Ainu story" would not be complete. They include Asahikawa City Museum, Ainu Museum at Shiraoi, Hokkaido Ainu Cultural Research Center, Hokkaido Archaeological and Cultural Remains Investigation Center in Sapporo, Hokkaido Asahikawa Museum of Art, Hokkaido Shuppan Kikaku Center, Hokkaido Museum of Contemporary Art in Sapporo, Historical Museum of Hokkaido, Hakodate Municipal Library in Sapporo, Hakodate Municipal Museum, Hokkaido Otoineppu Village Office, Hokkaido Prefectural Government Board of Education in Sapporo, Hokkaido University Library in Sapporo, Kitanihon Mingeisha Company, Ltd., of Sapporo, Noriko Kawamura, Yoshikazu and Michi Kitao, National Museum of Ethnology, Mr. Shm Mouri, Nibutani Amu Culture Museum, Rausu Town Board of Education, Sankyo Company, Sapporo Otani Tanki Daigaku, Chinita Sunazawa, and Tokyo National Museum. Other international museums and institutions that provided collections, archival materials, or information include Berlin Museum fur Volkerkunde, Museum of History, Philosophy, and Philology in Novosibirsk, Museum der Kulturen in Basel, Longfellow National Historic Site (Cambridge, Massachusetts) of the United States National Park Service, University of Alaska Museum in Fairbanks, Sakhalin Regional Museum in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, and Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies.

In addition to support provided to our Japanese colleagues by grants from the Monbusho and other organizations and by our early Smithsonian sponsor, the Special Exhibition Fund (with special thanks to Barbara Schneider), our primary project support came from The Nippon Foundation in Tokyo. To Ms. Ayako Sono, Executive Director, and Mr. Yohei Sasakawa,

President, and Mr.Takashi Ito and Mr. Yasunobu Ishii of the Nippon Foundation we owe a great debt of gratitude for their early recognition of the worth of our efforts. Tyane C. Benson was instrumental in helping us to gain initial access to the Sasakawa Peace Foundation in Washington, D C., a subsidiary of The Nippon Foundation in Tokyo. Important project support was also provided by The Japan Foundation through the assistance of Hayato Ogo, Councilor, Triennale Planning Office, Arts Department., Tokyo office in the Foundation's New York office, Natsuo Amemiya, Former Director, Masaya Usuda, Director General,- Michiko Hirano, Assistant Director,- and Christopher A. Watanabe, Program Assistant. From Nippon Express Co., Ltd., we thank Kazuyoshi Takahashi, Advisor, Fine Arts Groups, and Satoru Ishii, Manager, Sapporo Fine Arts Center. We received generous transportation support from All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd. (ANA). From the ANA staff we thank Takeshi Muto, Deputy General Manager, Sapporo Sales Office,- Yoshiyuki Fukumuro, Senior Manager, Cargo and Mail Sales, Sapporo Sales Office,- and

Shigeyuki Takemura, Manager, Passenger Sales, Washington, D.C. office. We also thank British Airways, as well as Ralph Samuelson, Director, and Sarah Bradley, Associate Director, of the Asian Cultural Council in New York for their assistance in bringing Masahiro Nomoto to the Smithsonian for exhibition production and curatorial assistance.

Valuable services were also provided to the exhibition and the publication by Karoku Miwa, Former Councilor on Cultural Properties, Cultural Properties Protection Department, Akio Oshima, Investigator for Cultural Properties, Cultural Properties Protection Department, Tatsuo Kishi, Coordinator for International Cooperation for Cultural Properties, Cultural Properties Protection Office,- and Kiyohito Ueno, Specialist on Cultural Properties, Cultural Properties Protection Department of the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan (Bunka-cho). We also thank Satoru Shirano, Naotoshi Kimura, and Yoshihito Oda from the Cultural Division, Board of Education of Hokkaido Prefectural Government, as well as Jiro Sasamura, Executive Director, Takeshi Toyama, Secretary General, Yukio Sato, Deputy Secretary General, and the staff of Utari Kyokai, The Ainu Association of Hokkaido. Kazuyuki Tanimoto, Director, and the staff of the Ainu Culture Research Center in Hokkaido, provided assistance in Ainu culture research and object loans of contemporary fine art. Equally important was the staff of the Historical Museum of Hokkaido: Kazuo Yoshida, Director, Norio Mino, Director of the Curatorial Department, Hiroshi Ushiro, Hideshi Seki, and Susumu Tameoka. Hiroko Tani, Director, Cultural Promotion Department, City of Sapporo,- Tekeshi Asaji, Head of Curatorial Section, Osaka Human Rights Museum,Giichi Nomura, Executive Director, and Tadashi Takahashi, The Association for the Transmission and Maintenance of Ainu Intangible Culture,- Minoru Mark Furuyama, General Manager, Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA, and Mark J. Davidson, former Director, Sapporo American Center, United States Information Services.

Special thanks are due to Dr. Eric J. Gangloff, Executive Director, and Margaret P. Mihori, Program Officer of the Japan-United States Friendship Commission,- The Nippon Foundation,- and The Japan Foundation for financial assistance specifically devoted to the production of this catalogue. Special thanks also go to Mr. Kazuyuki Yamamaru, The Ainu Museum, Shiraoi, Hokkaido, for his extremely valuable support which enabled Masahiro Nomoto to come to Washington, D.C. to work on the exhibition at the Smithsonian's Office of Exhibits Central. The staff of the Office of Exhibits Central, under the direction of Michael Headley, are an incredibly talented group of artists who produced the exhibition's fine chise (dwelling), iyomank (bear ceremony), and itaomachip (boat) re-creations with the assistance of Masahiro Nomoto, Jonathan Zastrow, Carolyn Thome, Lora Collins, Carol Reuter, Danny Fielding, John Siske, Paul Rhymer, Tim Smith, Robert Patterson, Rob Wilcox, Victor Augustine, Hugh Bennett, Sarah Strachan, Pat Chirichella, David Clements, Robert Perantoni, William Walton, James Carr, and Harry Adams.

Our heartfelt thanks go to the authors who contributed essays to this catalogue. We wish especially to thank Nobuhiro Kishigami, Shinko Ogihara, Kazuo Okada, Hiroshi Ushiro, and Kiyoshi Yamaura. In addition, we want to recognize the very valuable assistance of the Ainu people, who were extremely helpful, including G iichi Nomura, Jiro Sasamura, Shigeru Kayano, Shiro Kayano, Kenichi Kawanuira, Mitsuru Sugimura, Fusa Sugimura, Akira Toko, Emi Toko, Fukiko Toko, Midori Toko, Kazuo Sunazawa, Toyojiro Shitaku, Kiyoshi Hikawa, Kenji Matsuda, Koichi Kaizawa, Mamoru Kaizawa, Maki Kaizawa, Kaoru Kaizawa, Katsue Kaizawa, Soshichi Kawanano, Kyoko Kosaka, Machiko Kato, Sanae Ogawa, Hitomi Yokoyama, Mutsumi Chiri, Nuburi Toko, Imakichi Akibe, Susumu Sawai, Shigeko Teshi, Akira Toko, Masao Nishida,

Torakichi Shimizu, Ichiro Sasamura, Noboru Ozeki, Tsuda Ozeki, Tomeno Sawai, Hiroaki Honda, Tomoko Oda, Tadashi Hiroo, Morio Senke, Mutsuko Nakamoto, Tokuhei Akibe, Takakichi Ogawa, Aku Sawai, Susumu Sawai, Harumitsu Sawai, Yoshizi Ishii, Haruzo Akita, Oki Kano, and Mitsunori and Tomoko Keira, and special recognition to the Ainu artists who loaned their artwork: Takeki Fujito, Kazuo Sunazawa, Noriko Kawamura, and Chinita Sunazawa. We must also mention Makoto Kawakami from Otoineppu, Hokkaido, who helped us obtain the loan of most of Bikky Sunazawa's artworks,- Katsumi Yazaki, Motoko and Si Spiegel,- Fong Chow,- Jim Shea of the National Park Service's Longfellow National Historic Site,- Yoshiko Tanigaki and the Japanese Group in Buffalo,- Hideki Yoneda of the Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum,- Yuichi Uchida, Associate Curator at the Obihiro Centennial City Museum,- Yutaka Watanabe, Curator, and Reiko Saito, Assistant Curator, of the Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples, Tsukasa Ejiri and Yosuke Kosaka of Hokkaido Shimbun,- Makoto and Itsuko Ishihara of Sapporo-do Shoten,- Liz Hill, publicist,- Verna Curtis, Curator of Photography, Library of Congress,- Shigehiro and Keiko Takano,- Takao Yokoyama,- Yasuhiro Murai,- Motomichi Kono,- Shinobu Ishijima,- Miwako Kaizawa,- and Masayuki and Chieko Inoue.

Marc Pachter and Smithsonian Secretary Michael Heyman provided crucial assistance at several stages in our negotiations with Japanese authorities. Above all, we thank the Smithsonian's coordinator in Tokyo, Hanako Matano, for her role as "mother hen" to the Japanese side of our project, Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People could not have been "hatched" without her deft touch. It was through her efforts that we were able to work so effectively with Mr. Karoku Miwa, former councilor for Cultural Properties at the Bunka-cho,- Mr. Kazuyoshi Takahashi and Mr. Satoru Ishii at Nippon Express,- and Dr. Makoto Sahara of the Japanese Museum of History, Sakura.

Many aspects of this book were facilitated by the team that produced the exhibition,

including Robert M. Malootian and Leslie Geer of tire Douglas/Gallagher design firm, writer Sue Voss, registrar Deborah A. Wood, and conservator Edith Dietz. Support from the National Museum of Natural History collection and administration programs came from Deborah Hull Walski, Greta Hansen, Dennis Stanford, Carolyn Rose, Carole Lee Kin, Joyce Somers, Kim Waters, and Zaborian Payne. Jodi Pettibone provided financial accountability for our funds David Dubreuil, John Homiak, Paula Fleming, Gayle Yiotis, and Ruth Selig helped us obtain photographs from the National Anthropological Archives, and Mark White and Daisy Njokti helped us acquire archival footage. Maggie Dittemore and Carole Slatick provided library support, and the Applied Data Processing Office—Richard Freeman, Kurt Luginbyhl, Kurt Bruwelheide, and Robert Milo—solved frequent computer crises. Arctic Studies staff members were everywhere heaving on the Ainu "windlass": Stephen Loring, Igor Krupnik, Carla Lovett, and Daniel Odess, but no one more than Elisabeth Ward, who oversaw much of the archival photograph selection and production for the exhibition, performed miracles with computer support and bibliographic compilation, and generally held the ASC together during this period

The two films for the exhibition were produced by Jennifer Gruber and Tod Hopkins of Hillmann & Carr, Inc., and Ted Timreck Productions. Those who contributed film and music for the productions include Toei Video Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Hokkaido Broadcasting, Co., Ltd., Sapporo, Yay Yukar no Mori, Sapporo, and NMNH, Smithsonian Institution. Music was provided by Oki Kano and Katayama Institute of Linguistic and Cultural Research, and still photographs were provided by David H Dubreuil

Curatorial assistance was provided by the many scholars already mentioned, but especially by Adria Katz, Laurel Kendall, and Amy Poster, who were our principal museum partners and advisors in the early stage of the project, along with Josef Kreiner, Yoshinobu Kotani, and Toshikazu Sasaki Entiko Ohnuki-Tierney provided ethnological advice in early conceptual development,- David Dubreuil, David Howell, Richard Siddle, and Kelly Dietz advised on historical matters,- Christy Turner, Douglas Llbelaker, and David Hunt helped with issues of biological relationships, Igor Krupnik performed valuable editorial and bibliographical work, and Sergei Arutiunov provided depth in anthropological history We would like to recognize Chang-su Houchins for her unofficial role as project "godmother" in providing nearly continuous scholarly support, advice, and good humor as we ventured into unfamiliar terrain outside our respective fields in arctic anthropology and native art history We thank her and the other project scholars who generously and expeditiously provided manuscripts, comments, text reviews, and consolation on short notice, including James VanStone To Laurel Kendall and Adria Katz we also owe a major debt for their assistance with the development of an early version of the exhibition plan

Book production services included translations provided by Shue Sei, Chisato Dubreuil, Ritsuko Howson, and Tetsuro Komatsu, editors Tish O'Connor and Sherri Schottlaender, assisted by Brenda Johnson-Grau, brought consistency and stylish grace to this multifaceted manuscript. Theresa Valasquez and Darlene Hamilton executed Dana Levy's typography. The bibliography was compiled by Chisato Dubreuil, Igor Krupnik, Megumi Lincoln, and Elisabeth Ward, and edited by Sherri Schottlaender. Many of the illustrations were drawn or adapted by Marcia Bakry. Object photographs were made by Dana Levy and Susan Einstein and by photographers of various lenders (see Credit List). Photographic support came from the OPPS/NMNH photo staff: Carl Hansen, Victor Krantz, John Steiner, Don Hurlbert, and Harold Dougherty. Felicia Page kept the photo files in good order. Sandy Thomas-Belamy negotiated our editorial and design team contract,- Karen Goldman helped with the marketing sales contract, and Norma Ryan handled Smithsonian sales shop merchandising

Our final comments are reserved for a group of people so central to the success of the Ainu project that they will forever be etched into the walls of our mental "Ainu Project Hall of Fame": Marjory Stoller and Joe Madeira, our delightful exhibit production partners, who maintained faith in our prospects through thick and thin, Letitia Burns O'Connor and Dana Levy of Perpetua Press, Los Angeles, who edited and designed a book so beautiful that it took us all by surprise,- and David Dubreuil, a "can-do" guy who during the course of the project, performed nearly every function imaginable, from curator to project manager, fund-raiser to popularist, photographer to proofer, strategist to catechist, and also posed as one of our exhibition mannequin figures. Another mannequin model was Masahiro Nornoto, who with the assistance of Smithsonian's Office of Special Exhibits, was the model builder of the itaomachip (seagoing boat), cbise (the full-sized Ainu house), a scene from an iyomante (the bear-sending ceremony), and the maw maker. Without his artistry, the exhibition would have had much different look.

Two other people need mentioning: Lynne Fitzhugh, whose tolerance of her husband's domestic absence was counterbalanced by her commitment to hospitality and support for our overworked Ainu team, and again, David Dubreuil, who left his career to join his wife on her vision quest to bring the Ainu to the attention of millions of museum visitors and readers of this volume. To everyone: thank you

Index

Figures are identified in boldface type by page number.

Only when necessary for identification are figure numbers also given

Figures may be additionally notated as "m" for map, and "t" for table.

Figure captions are included as part of the text.

When both text and figures refer to a topic, they are listed separately

A

Activism. See Indigenous rights movement Adoption, 272

Agriculture. See Farming, Horticulture Ainu-e (Japanese paintings of the Ainu), 1 3, 67, 79-85, at Ainu Museum in Shiraoi, 185-186, featured, 79, 80, 82, 247(34.6), 253(35.12), 302(43.3), 375. Set also by artist (Arai, Hakuseki, Chitei, Hata no, Hirasawa, Byozan, Kakizaki, Hakyo ; Kodama, Teiryo,- Mamiya, Rinzo, Murakami, Shimanojo,- Nishikawa, Hokuyo, and others )

Ainu ethnicity, 9-12, 19-21, 136,• "enigma" of, 13-16,- as a Northern people (ethnological comparisons), 23—24, 47-51, 116-123. See also Ainu origins, Linguistic origins

Ainu history. See History of the Ainu Ainu Kyokai, 73, 109, 111. See also Utari Kyokai Amu language. See Language Ainu Liberation League (Ainu Kaiho Domei), 1 13 Ainu Manners and Customs (Nishikawa), I 56(20.4), 207(28.13), 210, 237(32.8), 238(32.9-10), 250(35.4)

Amu mosir (homeland), 67, 69,72,92, 110, 114-115,227, 369, land claims to, 367. See also Hokkaido, Kurile Islands, Sakhalin Island

Ainu Museum in Shiraoi, 26, 94, 183, 183-186, 223,233 Ainu origins: biological data, 52, craniological studies,

31, dental studies, 31,53-54, 54, 55 ; genetic and morphological data, 52-54, 55-56, 56

-theories and models, 17-18, 29-31, 39, the Ainu

"race" theory, 52-53, Caucasoid hypothesis, 14-15,

15, 29-30, 53, 56, 61, 127, 137-138, 168, dual structure model, 29, 55,- Jomon-Ainu relation, 30-31, 35-36, 53-56, Mongoloid cluster model, 53—55, northern origins view, 47-51, 53-55 (Sec also Northwest Coast peoples),- proto-Australoid hypothesis, 31, race and evolution prevailing views affecting, 52-53, 127,- southern origins view, 30. See also Biological data on Ainu origins, Geographical distribution and migrations, Hokkaido archaeology, Linguistic origins,- Maps

Ainu people: as a northern people, 23-24, 47-51, 53-55, ethnic groups, 29, 110, 1 19m, 120, 148, 213, 227, 337-338, 355, 377,- perceptions of, 125-127, 153-154 (See also Ainu-e ; Photographs of Ainu), physical traits,

14, 17,51,53,77,125, I 40. See also Archaeological cultures,- Emishi, Ezo, Hokkaido Ainu, Kurile Ainu, Sakhalin Ainu Ainurakkur myth, 275-276

Ainu Shinpo Act of 1997, 10, 25-26, 59, 73, 300, 373,indigenous rights movement for, 115, 361, 366-368, 370

Akino, Shigeki, 183-186, 248-255 Altar (mis a), 164, 165, 199, 230, 256—260, 264 American Indians, 15, 16, 1 16-123, 279 American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) Ainu collection, 168-175

Amulets, 104, 105, 262, 270, 270(38.6), 310(44.3) Amur River, and region, 22-23, 39, 43, 46, 47-51,86, 86 Amur-Sakhalin expedition, 133 Ancestors, 268, 275, ancestral grave rights, 1 15 Ancient Manners and Customs of Ezo, 278 Animals: in epic stories (yukar ), 276-277 ; stylized images of, 12, 224, 332(46.1 2-1 3), paleolithic, 24m, sacrifice, 25-26, 241-242, 249, 251,253, 263(37.3), spirits of, 21, 24, 36, 39, 43(3.1 1), 93, 187, 199, 200, 201, 202, 224, 353(47.37) 252 See also hy individual species

Anutari Ainu (We Human Beings), 113 Aoyagi, Nobukatsu, 175-182

Arai, Hakuseki, Ezo-shi (Illustrated Gazetteer of Ezo), 79, 80, 81,82. See also Ainu-e

Archaeological artifacts, 32, 39, 40, 41, 42-44, 46, microlithic, 40, 48, neolithic arrows, 48, 49 ; tool artifacts,48, 49, 51, shell-mound excavations, 52, 18, 126, 222, silver ornaments, 49, skeletons/skulls, 126, 165, 257-260, 264 See also Arrows/arrowheads. See also Archaeological cultures

Archaeological cultures, 17, 32-35, 39-46, 302, in Hokkaido, 33(2.7)m, 35-36, 39-46, 40(3.2), 48-49, 150-151, 165, 198, Jomon culture, 17, 18, 33, 40-42, 46, 123, 222, 303, Kurile Islands, 43-44, Okhotsk culture, 18, 23, 43-44, 222, Sakhalin, 40(3.2), 46, 47, 49, Satsumon culture, 7, 18, 44—45, 205, Yayoi culture, 1 7(1.1 7), 42-44. See also Ice Age , Paleolithic land bridges

Architecture, domestic. See Chise (house)

Archival collections. See Museum Ainu Collections Arrows/arrowheads: flower arrows ( heper-ay ), 251(35.8), 295(42.1 3), 297-298, neolithic, 48, 49, poison arrows, 78, 209, 21 1-21 3, 2 I 6(29.1 7-1 8). See also Bows,- Quivers

Arts, 21-23, 181, 287, 299-300, incorporating foreign elements ("making them Ainu"), 7, 19, 19-21, 322(45.23). See also Design elements, Performance arts, Textile arts, Woodcamng Arts, modern, 227, 339, 352-353, including taboo images, 24 See also Fujito, Takeki, Kawamura, Noriko, Sunazawa, Bikky, Sunazawa, Chimta Arutiunov, Sergei A., 29-31, 132 Aryan hypothesis. See Caucasoid hypothesis Asahikawa, 25, 110, 163m, 190, 337-338 Assimilation: Ainu early efforts, 73, 109-112, government policies, 10, 14,70-73,74, 108, 140-141, 149, 184, 203. See also Japanese-Ainu relations Attush (bark cloth), 16, 133, 152, 289, 317, 323(45.23) Austronesian origin theory (linguistic), 64 Ayus (design motif), 14(1.12), 331(46.10)

B

Baba, Osamu Ainu collection, 179-180 Baelz, Erwin E., 29, 55, 126, 127 Baskets: archival record, 301-303, 303, basketry techniques, 309-310, 311-312, 3 1 2, coiled (tenki), 23, 134(17.3), 304, 305, 305(43.7), 308, Japanese influence on, 306, Kamchadal basketry, 303, 308 ; North Pacific parallels in, I 16, 123, 301, 307-308, twined (saramp), 16, 301, 302, 303-305, 305(43.8), 307-308, 310-31 1, 31 1

Batchelor, John, 15,29,61, 136(t), 142, 156, Ainu-EnglishJapanese Dictionary, 59, 265, 266, 327, 328, on Ainu notions of disease, 103-104, missionary work with Ainu, 109, 1 39—140

Beaded ornaments, 21, 22, 1 39, 158,1 79, 324, 325,

325

Beals, Jesse Tarbox, 16, 140, photographs of Ainu, 141, 142, 241, 309

Bear (kuma): care of cubs, 248-249, 250, 250,- carvings of, 93-94, 273(38.14), 337, 337-339, 339(47.9),deity ( kimun-kamuy ), 21, 36, 43(3.1 1), 93, 1 87, 199, 201, 224, 248-250

Bear hunting, 36(2.8), 200, 201, 209-210, 219 Bear-sending ceremony. See Iyomante Beautiful Japan (film), 187, 188, 188 Belief system, 228, 235, 328, 380-381, language and, 58, North Coast parallels, 123. See also Ceremonies,Religion,- Shamanism; Social structure, Kamuy (spirit deities)

Birdbone artifacts, 46

Bird, Isabella, 14, 333-334, 336

Birds: eagle, 266, 340(47.1 I),- owl, 21, 38, 42, 252,

255; seabird eggs, 213 Birdskin robe, 3 I 6 Birth rites, 267-270 Blood taboos, 244 Boat building, 235, 374-376

Boat-launching ceremony (chip-sanke), 356, 357, 362 Boat (itaomachip), 186(24.7), 374, 375, 376 Boas, Franz, 1 16, 138, 169-170 Bone carvings: birdbone, 46, ivory, I 70(22.3), 293(42.9); whalebone, 224 Bonn, University of, 128 Bows, 210(29.4), 212(29)

Brooklyn Museum of Art (BMA) Ainu collection, 155-161 Burial customs, 106, 158-159, 269, 272

c

Caucasoid hypothesis of Amu origins, 14-15, 15, 29-30, 53,56,61, 127, 137-138, 168, political uses, 130-131 Ceramics and pottery, artifacts, 40, 42, 43, 49, 53 Ceremonial clothing, 239, 319(45.1 6), 322(45.22), women's ritual belt, 232, 264-265 Ceremonial cups (tuki), 21, 77, 178, 182,328(46.3, 46.5), 329-330

Ceremonial headdress, men's (sapaunpe), 178,

295(42.12), 297-298, 323, 325-326 Ceremonies: and belief system, 194-197, 201, 231, 297, blessing ritual, 9(1.2),- c hip-sanke (boat launching), 356, 357, 362,- first salmon ceremony, 24, 36, 36, 118, 119, 200, 219, 221, 253,- harvest ceremonies, 237, hunting rites, 219-220, sake drinking, 21, 135, 77, 178, 182, 264, 297, 328. See also Festivals,- Sending ceremonies, Kamuy (spirit deities)

Chamberlain, Basil Hall, 62, 65, 142 Chieftains, 9, 83-84, 287 : Ainu-e portraits of (Kakizaki), 8, 18, 28, 28, 37, 66, 83, 122, 124, 192, 286, 354 Chikabumi, 163m, 338 Chikap, Mieko, 1 15

Childhood, 64, 246-247, 271,288, children's clothing, 142, 288, 320

Chinese-Ainu contacts, 68, 75, 87-91,86(10.2),- Qing Dynasty, 86-88. See also Santan trade Cbip-sanke (boat-launching ceremony), 356, 357, 362 Chiri, Mashiho: Classified Dictionary of the Ainu, 60, 202,- on shamanism, 264-265, 266-267, linguistic studies, 27, 30, 58, 59, 1 I 1,264,

Chin, Yukie: Ainu Sbinyosbu (Collected Songs of Ainu Gods), 109

Cte (house), 7, 129(16.8), 198(27.2), 227-233,

228, 23 3, directional orientation, 199, 228, modern, 140, 233

Chitei, Hata no, Pictorial Biography of Prince Shotoku, 79, 79-80

Chitose: archaeological sites, 17, 18, 39, 42, geology of, 40

Chokers, 232, 322(45.23), 323(45.25026)

Clothing, 21, 3 1 3, 313-326, apron, 323(45.24), 323, ceremonial, 239, 319(45.1 6), 322(45.22), children's,

288, 320, leggings, 1 53(19.9), sandals and shoes, 218(29.22), 221(29.26), sun visor (Sakhalin),

1 86(24.6), tar (strap), 239, women's ritual belt, 232, 264-265 See also Headgear,- Ornamentation -robes, 3 1 8-3 19, attush (bark cloth), 133,1 52,

289, 3 1 7, birdskin, 3 1 6, cotton, 1 44-1 45, duckskin,

3 I 6, Japanese similarity in, 3 1 8(45.8), retarpe (nettle fiber), 160-161, 1 72-1 73, 290, sealskin, 320(45.1 7)

Collections. Sff Museum Ainu collections Conflict resolution, 245

Constructing Cullures Then and Now conference, 1 16 Crossroads of Continents exhibition, 115, 116 Culin, Stewart, 136(t), 155, 155-162 Cultural exchange, 184-185

Cultural identity, 24-26, 73-73, 95, 109, 287, 372, 380381, preservation of language, 59, 370-373, 373, presetvation of culture, 183-186, 285, 381, traditional practices and, 26, 69-70, 226, 309. See also Indigenous rights movement

Culture, Ainu, 46, 243-44, 260, decline in (real or perceived), 14, 15-16,24,71-73, 101, 140-141,336, 373,- revitalization of, 25-26, 352-353, 370, 376. See also Arts, Belief system, Economy, Language, Life cycle,- Social structure, Traditional practices Culture hero ( oina-kamuy ), 261, 265, 275-276, 280 Curious Sights of Ezo Island (Murakami), 20, 6 1, 77(8.6), 84,96, 102(13.1), 106(13.7), 194(26.3), 199, 202(28.3), 207(28.14), 214(29.14), 230-231, 241(33.3), 243, 250(35.5), 251(35.7), 258, 272(38.10), 274, 313, 314(45.4), 326(45.33), 330, 326(45.33), 330. See also Ainu-e

Dam, Saru River, 37-38, 355-358, 356, 377. See also Nibutani

Dancing, 184-185, 185, 188,281,282, 284-285,- for animal spirits, 257, 282, 283-284,- stranded whale dance, 223, 223(30.2), 226,- sword dance, 285(41.7) Dead spirits, 193-194, 196-19 7. See also Death,- Kamuy (spirit deities)

Dean, Bashford, 139, 169, 169-174, photographs of Ainu, 1 68

Death: burial customs, 106, 158-159, 269, 272, funeral ceremonies, 268-269, 272-273,- spirit at, 193, 196— 197. See also Dead spirits, Reincarnation Death mask, 42

Deer hunting, 37, 156(20.4), 200, 209(29.3), 210

Deer-sending ceremonies, 253-254

Deforestation, 37, 38m, 356

Deities. See Spirit deities

Demographic factors. See Population

Deriha, Koji, 176-182

Design elements: 13, 143, 118, 153(19.1) 195, 239, 244(33.8),- 320-321, 321 (45.1 9-20), abstract symbols (shiroshi), 332(46.12-1 3), bird images (ayu s),

14(1.12), 331 (46.10); "Escher-like" positive-negative image shifting, 23, 318-319, image taboos, 24, 292, 297, meanings of, 292, 292-293, 293, 294, 295; morew or "flaming borders" (spiral designs), 1 7, 22, 22(1.23, 1.25), 23 See also Textile arts,- Woodcarving Diet, early Ainu, 7, 36, 203-207, 222, 224 Dietz, Kelly L., 359-365 Dettmer, Hans, linguistic studies, 27, 60 Discrimination or prejudice, 9, 16, 24, 73, 225, 233, 274, 341, 369, 372

Disease and epidemics, 19,71, 102-107; medicinal shamanism, 26, 104-105, 102, 104, 105(13.4), 197, 197, 241, 242

Disease spirits (payoka kamuy), 103, 104-107, 196 Doda Anthropological Study, 177 Dog, 275, deity, 252-253,- dog-sending ceremony, 253, 263(37.3),- dogsled travel, 215 Drift vessels, 116-117 Drum, shaman's ( kaco ), 262, 264 Dubreuil, Chisato O., 9, 12, 287-300, 333, 335-353 Duckskin robe, 3 I 6

E

Eagle, 266, 340(47.1 1)

Early modern period, 96-101. See a Iso Japanese early modern state Earrings, 325, 325

Economy: annual subsistence cycle, 199-200, 235-238, economic conditions, 98, 359,- market forces, 19. See also Fishing, Food gathering, Horticulture; Hunting, Trade

Ecosystem, 40-41, 198-201, 199(27.1), 208, 219, compared with Northwest Coast, 117-1 18, 122 ; Hokkaido, 1 1, 32—38, iwor (resource zone), 1 99(27.4), 218-219, 227. See also Forest ecology and traditions,Marine habitat and traditions, Natural resources Ecosystem, The Ainu (Watanabe), 198-201 Edo period, 74, 80, 82, 96-101, 227, 232 Education, 369, 371, 371-373 1899 Protection Act. See Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act

Ekashi (male elder), 183, 244, 340, 380. See also Chieftains Elders: 244, 340(47.12-1 3), ekashi (male elder), 183,

244, 340, 380 , fuchi (female elder), 183, 218, 248, 3093 12, 379-381, leading elder (kotan-kor-kur) , 232 Emishi (early term for Ainu), 46, 68, 75-76 Emush (swords), 97, 107, 296, 325-326 326(45.34),

331, ritual sword (pons emush), 107, 272-273, sword dance, 285(41.7)

Epidemics. See Disease and epidemics Epi-Jomon. See Jomon culture

Eskimos: ethnological comparisons with Ainu, 22(1.26), 23, 47-51, linguistic comparisons with Ainu, 65, Yup'ik basketry, 301, 305(43.8), 307, 307-308 Ethnic Culture Film Research Institute, 191 Ethnic identity. See Cultural identity Ethnicity. See Ainu ethnicity Ethnographic films, 187-191

Ethnological collections. See Museum Ainu collections European Ainu collections, 127, 127-131, 128(t), 129,

1 3 1 m, Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology (MAE), 128, 132(t), 132-135, 133 Europoid theory. See Caucasoid hypothesis of Ainu origins

Evolutionist school, 127

Exhibitions, 93, 129, 153, 154, 164, live "exhibits," 16, 16, 1 30-131, 142, 142, St Louis Exposition, 140-142, 155, 159, 309

Expeditions, 125, 133, 136, 140, I63ni, 167,-Jesup North Pacific Expedition, 63, 116, 138, 169, 170 Exports, 93, 93-94 Expositions. See Exhibitions

Ezo (early Japanese name for Hokkaido and its people, the Ainu), 60, 68, 74-75, 79-81, 92, 96. See also Ainu people, Hokkaido

Ezo-shi (Arai), 79, 80, 81, 82. See also Ainu-e

F

Family, 232, 272,- marriage, 296, 359,- maternal traditions, 231, 232, patrilineage, 230, 231-232. See also Gender roles

Farming, 108. See also Horticulture Fauna. See Animals Female principle, 243-244 Festivals, 94-95, 240, 249-250, 284-285, 356 Films, ethnographic, 187-191 Finnish Saami-Ainu exchange program, 184-185 Fire goddess (Fuchi), 199, 228, 229, 241, 243, 248, 270, 329(46.6-7),

Fire pits, archaeological, 165 Fireplace, 199, 228, 229

First-salmon ceremony, 24, 36, 36, 1 18, 119, 200, 219, 221, 253. See also Fishing Fisheries (Japanese-run), 98-100 Fishing, 36(2.9), 42-43, 44(3.13-3.14), 200, 201, 210-211,213; government prohibitions against, 36, 37-38

Fish-roe masher, 204

Fishskin products, I 5 1(19.6a,b), 1 57, 220(29.25), 288, 291,312

Fish spirits, 201, 310(44.2). See also Kamuy (spirit deities) Fitzhugh, William W., 9-28, 60, 116-123, 136 Flag, 114 Flora. See Plants

Flower arrows (heper-ay), 249, 25 1 (35.8), 295(42.1 3), 297-298

Food: early Ainu diet, 7, 36, 203-207, 222, 224, food gathering, 202, 208, 213, 235, 236-237; food preservation, 202-204, 235, 239 ; lily root (turep), 203(28.4), 204, 236-237, 238(32.9-10), maple syrup, 237(32.8). See also Horticulture, Hunting Forest ecology and traditions, 24, 40, broadleaf forests, 35-36. See also Deforestation, Hunting Fox deity, 21, 353(47.37), fox dance, 284, fox hunting, 210; sending ceremonies for, 252, 259(36.6)

Frois, Louis, 125, 327

Fuchi (respected female elder), 183, 218, 248, 309-312, 379-381

Fuchi (fire goddess), 199, 228, 229, 241,243, 248, 270, 329(46.6-7)

Fujimura, Hisakazu: Kamuy, 193-197,- 268-273 Fujito, Takeki (Ainu artist): Fuchi, 340(47.1 3); Kuma (Bear), 339(47.9); life-sized figures of elders,

340(47.1 2), Sea Otter, 24, Winter (Hibernation), 339(47.10)

Funeral ceremonies, 268-269, 273. See also Burial customs

Funerary objects, 158-159 Fuzoku (customs/appearances), 97

G

Games, childhood, 246-247, 247 Gender roles, 193, 200, 213, 246-247,- men's work, 234235, 236, 295,- men's work (See also Woodcarving, Boat building,- Ceremonies, Hunting; Fishing); shamanism and, 242-243, 262-264, social status and, 107, 244245, women's work (See also Textile arts, Food gathering; Family), 235-237, 287, 313, 379-381 Gentan, Tani, 75(22.10), 244(33.9), 255(35 1 6), 268

269, 282, 283(41.3), 291(42.4), 292 Geographic distribution and migrations, 10-11, 10m,

12(I.7)m, 17(1.7), 19, 47, 67-68. See also Population Girel, Constant, Beautiful Japan (film), 187-188 Global network of indigenous peoples, 25, 1 14, 359360, 364-365. See also United Nations (UN)

Gods: cave goddess, 274, crow goddess, 28 1, Fuchi (fire goddess), 199, 228, 229, 241, 243, 248, 270, 329(46.6-7), God Ruling the Upper Heavens, 281, Kotan-kor-kamuy (creator), 274-275, midwife goddess,

270, possessing god, 194, 270, 271, sun goddess, 276. See also Kamuy (spirit deities)

Graburn, Nelson H , 301-308 Grain stripping, (28.2-3)

Graves, 49-40, 269, 272, rights to ancestral, 1 15

H

Hakodate, 155, 1 63m 179-180 Hanihara, Kazuro, 53, 55

Harpoons, 44(3.12-14), 123, 2 I 1,2 1 4(29.1 2-1 3), 222 Hashimoto, Ryutaro, Prime Minister, 368 Hata no Chitei, Pictorial Biography of Prince Shotoku , 79, 79-80

Hattori, Shiro, 27, 59, 62-63, 371-372 Hayokpe (belief that spirits are disguised), 200, 249 Headgear, men's: 164, 322(45.22); ceremonial, 295(42.12), 178, 297-298, 323, 325-326 Hearth, 199, 228, 229

Heper-ay (flower arrows), 249, 25 1 (35.8), 295(42.1 3), 297-298

Heros (oina-kamuy ), 261, 265, 275-276, 280 Hidaka, 355

Hilger, M. Inez, Together with the Ainu, 27, 92, 356, photographs of Ainu, 92, 197, 285, 358 Hiller, Hiram M_, 36, 136(t), 1 62(2 1.1), 162-167,

1 63m, 1 68; photographs of Ainu, 92, 163, 164, 165, 197, 228, 285, 358, 369, 381 Hirasawa, Byozan, 84-85, 85, 201,202, 212(29.8),

21 3(29.9), 240, 256(36.1), 257 History of the Ainu, 10-1 1, 27, 45-46, 67-73, 71 m, 74m, 79-85, Koshamain uprising, 46, 68, 78, Kunashiri-Menashi battle, 19, 96, missionary workers, 139-140, political changes, 51, 68, 69,

1 12-1 I 3, 232-233,- post-war Occupation, 1 111 12, recent history, 24-26, 72m, 364 ; Russian colonial activities, 11, 70, 71-73, 101, 240, 302,• relocation and expulsion, 11 , 108, 112, 121, Shakushain's War, 19, 69, 70, 97-98, 369. See also Indigenous rights movement, Japanese early modern state, Trade

Hitchcock, Romyn: "Ainos of Yezo, Japan," 154, archaeological expeditions, 18, 136(t), 139, ethnography of Ainu, 9, 15-16, 64, 327-328, photographs of Ainu, 9(1.1), 10(1.4), 29, 153, 148,

149, 259(36.5), Smithsonian collection, 148-153, 154 Hokkaido, 9, 27, 71-73, 119m, 143, 1 63m, 218, archaeological cultures, 3 3(2.7)m, 35-36, 39-46, 40(3.2), 48-49, 150-151, 165, 198, ethnological collections from, 129(16.7), 149-159, 162-167, 171, landscape and ecosystem, 11, 36-37, 67, 275,• recent history, 24-26, 72m, 364 ; relocation and expulsion,

108, 112, 121. See also History, Ainu, and by region Hokkaido Ainu: ethnic groups, 10-11,29, 119m, 120, 227, 337, 338, 355, 377, ethnological traits, 59, 240, 250, 305, 306, paleolithic cultures, 33(2.7)m, 35-36, 39-44, 40(3.2), 48-49, 150-151, 165, 198, shamanistic features, 242, 245, 262-264. See also Ainu people

Hokkaido Ainu Association (Utari Kyokai), 59, 73, 109, 111-114, 369-370

Hokkaido Ainu Cultural Research Center, 372 Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act, 25-26, 72, 363, 369, movement against, 108, 108-110, 366 Hokkaido Land Expropriation Committee, 357-358 Hokkaido Takushokukan collection, 178 Homeland (Ainu mosir), 67, 69, 72, 92, 110, 1 14-115,

369, land claims to, 367. See also Hokkaido, Kurile Islands,- Sakhalin Island

Honshu, 9, 10, 40, 42, 44, 46, 302, Tohoku, 10m, 43, 45, 61

Horticulture, 7, 204-205, 21 3-215, garden hoe, 239(32.14)

Houchins, Chang-su, 148-153 House ( chise ), 7, 198(27.2), 227-233, 228, 233, directional orientation, 199, 228; modern, 140, 233 House construction, 228, 229, 230-23 1,230 Howell, David L, 96-101

Human figurines (nipopo), 22, 24, 50(4.6, 4.7), 262, 263(37.4-5), 271(38.7-8)

Hunting: 208, 209(29.2), 218(29.23), 218-219, 234, 235, bear, 36(2.8), 200-201, 209-210, 219, bows, 210(29.4), 212(29), deer, 37, I 56(20.4), 200, 209(29.3), 2 10, fox, 210, limitations or prohibitions on, 221. See also Arrows/Arrowheads

-marine, harpoons used, 44(3.12-14), 123, 211,

21 4(29.12-1 3), 222; of sea mammals, 1 1 (1.5), 44(3.12), 51(4.10), 21 I, 214(29.14), whaling, 222, 224-225

Hunting rites, 219-221

Iboshi, Hokuto: Kotan (Village), 109

Ice Age, East Asian impacts, 17 ; glacial period, 32-33, 32(2.1)m, 32(2.2), 17 ; land bridges, 33-35,

33(2.3)m, 33(2.4)m, 47. See also Archaeological cultures

Identity, cultural, 25-26, 73-73, 95, 109, 287, 372, 380381, preservation of language, 59, 370-373, 373; preservation of culture, 183-186, 285, 381, traditional practices and, 26, 69-70, 226, 309. See also Indigenous rights movement

Ikupasuy (prayer stick), 21, 42, 125, 150, 180, 224, 234235, 296, 3 10(44.2), images and themes on, 14, 105, 143, 149, 159, 170(22.5), 171 195, 252, 294(42.10), 334 196, 333(46.16); lacquered, 332(46.1 4), mistaken for mustache lifter, 12, 14, 327328, parts of, 33 1, 331-334, ritual uses of, 327, 327330, 328(46.5); types of, 330-331

Illustrated Gazetteer of Ezo (Arai), 79, 80, 81, 82. See also Ainu-e

Illustrations of Ezo Livelihood (Murakami), 84, 207(29.1 5), 375, 376. See also Ainu-e

Illustrations of Northern Ezo (Mamiya), 1 06( 1 3.6),

212(29.7), 215(29.15), 218(29.23), 235, 269(38.2)

Image taboos, 24, 292, 297

Inaw (sacred shaved stick): 21, 60, 78, 193, 199,299, 231(31.7), 244(33.9), 294(42.1 l) ; carvings, 296297

Indians, North American, 15, 16, 1 16-123, 279

Indigenous rights movement: activism, 67, 72-73, I 12115, 113, 114, 369-370, 370, 377, against Hokkaido Protection Act, 108, 108-110, 366, against Nibutani dam, 355-358, 367-368, for Ainu Shinpo Act, 1 15, 361, 366-368, 370, early leftist activism, 112-115, international arena, 25, I 14, 359-360, 364-365; Japanese-Ainu relations and, 361-364, 366-368

Inheritance, 232

Institute of Japanese Studies, 128

International Bill of Human Rights, 360 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), 360, 361, 367

International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention on Indigenous Peoples, 360, 367 Iron tool artifacts, 49 Ishida, Hajime, 52-56

Itaomachip (boat), 186(24.7), 374, 375, 376 Ivory bone carvings, 1 70(22.3), 293(42.9)

Iumkte (sending spirits of inanimate objects), 254-255 Iwasaki-Goodman, Masami, 222-226 Iwor (resource zone), 199(27.4), 218-219, 227, 234 Iyomante (bear-sending ceremony), 25-26, 44-45, 184, 201, 283, 284, archaeological record, 21, 256-260, defining ethnological trait, 14(1.1 1), 14, 82(9.5), 256, 257, 260, films documenting, 190, government prohibition against, 69-70, link to Northwest Coast traditions, 118, 119,-museum performances, 184, 184— 185, ritual features, 240-244, 242, 248-251, 251(35.7), 277

J

James, Arthur Curtiss, 168-174 Japanese Ainu museum collections, 128, 175-182 Japanese-Ainu relations, 19, 61,71-73, 75-78, 96-101, 240, the "Ainu problem," 112-114, assimilationist policies, 10, 14, 70-73,74, 108, 140-141, 149, 184, 203, indigenous rights issues (current), 361-364, 366368, Kunashiri-Menashi battle, 19, Shakushain's War, 19, 69, 70, 97-98, 369. See also Japanese early modern state, Japanese laws and court decisions,- Trade Japanese early modern state, 74—78, 96-101, Koshamain uprising, 46, 68, 78, Matsumae clan, 9, 69, 88, 91,9798, Meiji restoration, 9, 14, 26, 117, 233, 369, Tokugawa Shogunate, 13, 19,71,78,88-89, 96, 101, 336, 374, Wajin-Ainu conflict, 68-71, 282-283 Japanese laws and court decisions: Ainu Shinpo Act of 1997, 10, 25-26, 59, 73, 300, 373,- Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act, 25-26, 363, 369, Land Regulation Ordinance (1872), 72; New Law for the Ainu People (proposed), 115, Nibutani Decision, 25, 115, 357-358, 362-363,367-368 Japanese Committee for the International Biological Program, 55

Japanese influences, 60, 76-78, 121-122, in basketry, 306,- language elements, 62-63, religious, 262-263,similarity in robes, 3 1 8(45.8), woodcarving and, 331 — 332. See also Trade goods Japanese paintings of the Ainu. See Ainu-e Jesup, Morris K., North Pacific Expedition, 63, 116, 138, 169, 170

Joest, Wilhem, 129

Jomon-Ainu relation, 30-31, 35-36, 53-56

Jomon culture, 17, 18, 33, 40-42, 44, 46, 123, 222, 303

K

Kaizawa, Koichi, 355-358 Kaizawa, Tadashi, 355, 357-358, 377 Kaizawa, Toroshino, 356, 362 Kakizaki, Hakyo: Ainu-e artist, 9, I 8, 83-84: Portraits of Ezo Chieftains, 8, 18,28,37,66,83, 122, 124, 192, 286, 354

Kamchatka, 10m, 10, 58, 62, 303, 308 Kamuy-puyar (god window), 199,229 Kamuyrini (religious object), 226

Kamuy (spirit deities), 24, 169, 198, 256, 273, belief that they are disguised (hayokpe), 200, 249, dead spirits, 193— 194, 196-197, disease spirits (payoka kamuy), 103-107, 196, evil spirits, 194, 252,270, 271,275,276, 348(47.27); human-spirit relationship, 22, 270, 194-197,- image taboos related to, 24, 292, 297, inanimate objects as, 254-255, living spirits, 193, 194, 197 ; word spirits, 196

-animal spirits, 24, 39, 200, 202, 276-277,- bear

deity (kimun-kamuy), 21, 36, 43(3.1 1), 93, 187, 199, 201, 224, 248-250,- fox, 353(47.37); owl, 21,252

-gods: cave goddess, 274,- crow goddess, 281, Fuchi

(fire goddess), 199, 228, 229, 241, 243, 248, 270, 329(46.6-7), God Ruling the Upper Heavens, 281, , Kotan-kor-kamuy (creator), 274-275, midwife goddess, 270, possessing god, 194, 270, 271 ; sun goddess, 276 Kamuy-nomi (prayer), 21,201,248, 328—329, 329, 346, implements used with, 193, 199,231(31.7),

244(3 3.9), 294, 294(42.1 I), 296. See also Ikupasuy, haw Kamuy-yukar (tales of the gods), 274, 276-277, 281, 283 Kano, Oki, 363

Karafuto, 1, 70, 111, dialect, 59, 60 Katz, Adria H , 162-167

Kawamura, Noriko: 349-351, 350(47.32), Hokkaido no shiki (Four seasons in Hokkaido), 350—351(47.30), 350—

351, Ryo (Force or spirit), 349, 350, Spirit of the Ainu, back cover

Kawamura, Kaneto, 110, 190, 319, 349-350 Kawamura, Saburo, I I 1

Kayano, Shigeru, 7, 25, 27, 30, 60, 105, 300, 334, 377,■ Ainu no mincfo (Ainu folk crafts), 60, 303,- filmmaking, 191, opposition to Saru dam, 37-38, 1 15,- Our Land Was a Forest, 27

Keira, Mit'sunori and Tomoko, 234-239 Keira, Tomoko, 379-381 Kendall, Laurel, 168-175 Kikuchi, Isao, 74-78 Kikuchi, Toshihiko, 47-51

Killer whale (orca), 4 1,225(30.5), 226, symbols of, 332(46.12-1 3)

Kimbai, Kasukabe, 200, 200 Ki-men (wooden masks), 25, 34 I (47.1 5a, b), 343 Kindaichi, Kyosuke, linguistic studies, 21, 27, 30, 59, 60, 65, 264

Kita-ichi, Tetsuo, AinuMosir, Kamuy Mosir, 227 Knife (makiri): carved, 21, 167, 215, 216(29.19), 231(31.8), 235, 236, 293(42.8),-carving tool, 295296,- whalebone, 223(30.3)

Kodama collection, 179-180, 185 Kodama, Mari, 27, 313-326

Kodama, Sakuzaemon, 27, 80, 147, 180, 185, 270, 320 Kodama, Teiryo: Ainu-e artist, 82-83, 87, Ezo Customs and Manners, Scenes from Ezo Island, 14(1.1 I), 67(7.1),

3 1 8(45.45)

Kohara, Toshihiro , 202-207

Kono, Motomichi, 1 16-123

Kono family collection, 178-179,181, 182

Koshamain uprising, 46, 68, 78

Kotan-kor-kamuy (creator), 274-275

Kotani, Yoshinobu, 11, 136-147, 181

Kotan (village): 198(27.1), 198,216-217, 227,

228(3 1.2), directional orientation, 199,■ iwor (surrounding territory), I 99(27.4), 2 18, 227, 234 , storehouses, 207(28.1 4)

Kozintsev, Alexander G., 31 Krashemnnikov, Stepan, 29, 308 Kreiner, Josef, 27, 125-131, 136 Krupnik, Igor, 261-265, 309

Kuma (bear): care of cubs, 248-249, 250, 250, carvings of, 93-94, 273(38.1 4), 337, 337-339, 339(47.9), deities, 21, 36, 43(3.1 1), 93, 187, 199, 201, 224, 248250, hunting, 36(2.8), 200, 201,209-210, 219. See also lyomante

Kunashiri-Menashi battle, 19, 96

Kurile Ainu: 10, 1 1, I 15, 120, 133-135, 134, 179(23.5), 21 1, 213, 217, 303, 306, 308 Kurile Islands: archaeological cultures, 43-44, ethnological expeditions and traits, 133-1 34, 1 36(t), 156-159, history, 10, 59,- pithouses, 10, 44, 228, 256, 259 Kushiro, 158

L

Lacquerware, 99, 100, 141, ceremonial cups ( tuki ), 21, 77,

1 78, I 82, 328(46.3, 46.5), 329-330,- comb, 50, 50 Land bridges, paleolithic, 33-35, 33(2.3)m, 33(2.4)m, 47 Land reform, I 11-1 12

Land Regulation Ordinance (1872), 72

Language, 57m, 57-60, 63, 120, origins of, 17, 30, 58

59, 61-65; place names, 60-62 135, 222, preservation of, 59, 370-373, 373; studies and compilations of, 59

60, 62, 371-372

Laws and court decisions: Ainu Shinpo 1997, 10, 25-26, 59, 73, 300, 373; Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act (1899), 25-26, 363, 369, Land Regulation Ordinance (1872), 72, New Law for the Ainu People (proposed), 115, Nibutani Decision, 25,

1 15, 357-358, 362-363, 367-368 Leadership, 232, 245 Lee, Molly, 301-308

Life cycle: birth, 267-270, childhood, 246-247, 271, 288, cycle of subsistence activities, 199-200, 235— 238, marriage, 296, 359 ; yearly cycle of subsistence, 199-200, 235-238. See also Death, Elders,- Gender roles Life of the Shiraoi Ainu (film), 189 Lineage (family), 272-273, maternal traditions, 231,

232, patrilineage, 230, 231-232 Linguistic origins, 17, 30, 58-59, 61-65 Lip tattoos, 14,91(10.6), 148, 154,325, 380. See also Tattoos, womens

M

Makiri (knife): carved, 21 1 67, 215, 2 I 6(29.1 9),

231(31.8), 235, 236, 293(42.8); earning tool, 295296; whalebone, 223(30.3)

Mamiya, Rinzo: Ainu-e artist, 304, Illustrations of Northern Ezo, 106(13.6), 212(29.7), 215(29.15), 218(29.23), 235, 269(38.2)

Maps: archaeological, 33(2.7)m, 48-49m, environmental 38m, explorations, 163m, geographic distribution and migrations, 10m, 12(1.7)m, 119m ; historical,

71m, 74m, Hokkaido region, 3 3(2.7)m, 72m, linguistic, 57m, maritime trade, 86m, museum collections, 131m

Maraini, Fosco, 147, 327-334, photographs of Ainu, I 5, 327, 328, 329 Marimo festival, 94

Marine habitat and traditions, II, II, 24, 5 1(4.10), 121, 123, 134(17.2), 199(27.3); boat building, 235, 374375, 376,- boat (itaomachip) , 1 86(24.7), 374, 375, 376, carved paddle, 1 7 ; chip-sanke (boat-launching ceremony, 356, 357, 362, stranded-whale dance, 223, 223(30.2), 226. See also Fishing Marine mammals: sea otter, 24, 46, whales, 4 1, 222-223, 225(30.5), 226, 332(46.12-13)

Marine-mammal products, 23, 215(29.16), 320(29.24), 320(45.17)

Maritime hunting, 10, 1 1(1.6), 43, 44(3.1 2), 5 1 (4.10), 211,21 4(29.1 4), harpoons used in, 44(3.1 2-1 4),

123, 21 1,214(29.12-1 3), whaling, 222, 224-225 Maritime trade, 86m, 86-91, 120, 336, Santan trade, 46, 81,86,241. See also Japanese-Ainu relations, Trade Marriage, 296, 359 Masks, 25, 42, 122 Maternal traditions, 231,232 Matsuda, Denjuro, 88 Matsui, Umetaro, 337(47.6), 338 Matsumae clan, 9, 69, 88, 89, 91,97-98 Meiji restoration, 9-10, 14, 26, 117, 233, 369. See also Japanese early modern state Microlithic culture sites, 40, 48 Mining, 369

Modern arts, 227, 339, 352-353, including taboo images, 24. See also Fujito, Takeki, Kawamura, Noriko, Sunazawa, Bikky

Mogami, Tokunai, 29, 88, 128,1 30( 16.9), 282 Montandon, George, 30, 304-308 Morew (spiral designs or "flaming borders"), I 7, 22, 22 (1.25), 23 Mori, 1 63m, 165

Morse, Edward S , 18, 126, 136(t), 139, 185 "Mustache lifter," ikupasuy mistaken for, 12, 14, 327-328 See also Ikupasuy

Munro, Neil G , 104, 105, 147, 180, 180-181, 266, 328(46.4), Ainu Creed and Cult, 328, ethnographic films, 190

Murakami, Shimanojo, Ainu-e artist, 84, 303-304,- Curious Sights of Ezo Island (ethnographic illustrations), 20, 61, 84, 77(8.6), 96, 98, 102(13.1), 106(13.7),

1 94(26.3), I 99, 202(28.3), 207(28.1 4),

214(29.14), 230-231,241(33.3), 243, 250(35.5), 251(35.7), 258, 272(38.10), 274, 313, 314(45.4), 326(45.33), 330, 326(45.33), 330,- Illustrations of Ezo Livelihood, 84, 207(29.1 5), 375, 376 Muraki, Miyuki, 246-247 Murakami, Teisuki, 84

Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology (MAE), 128,

132(t), 132-135, 1 33

Museum Ainu collections, 13, 16, 27,- Ainu Museum in Shiraoi, 26, 94, 183, 183-186, 223, 233; inventory projects, 146-147,- Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum, 377-378

-European, 127, 127-131, 128(t), 129(t), 129,

1 3 I m, Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology (MAE), 128, 132(t), 132-135, 133

-Japanese, 128, 176-177, 181-182, Baba Collection,

179-180, Hokkaido Takushokukan Collection, 178, Kodama Collection, 179-180, 185, Kono Family Collection, 178-179,-Tokugawa Collection, 177-178

-North American, 136(t), 136-139, 137(t), 140,

146-147, American Museum of Natural History, 168— 174, Brooklyn Museum of Art, 155-161,- Smithsonian Institution, 136, 148-153, 154, University of Pennsylvania, 162-167, 167 Music, 363; musical instruments— mukkuri, 247, 283, shaman's drum (kaco), 262, 264, tonkori, 284. See also Performance arts, Songs

Myth(s): Ainurakkur myth, 275-276,- of creation, 274275; mythical lands, 279, on origins of shamanism, 265-267,- Samaikur myth, 261, 265-266,- tree of life in, 266, trickster in, 279. See also Yukar (epic stories)

N

Nagata, Hosei, 60, 282 Nakagawa, Hiroshi, 371-373 Naming/names, 270-271 Nationalism, 67, Ainu, I 1 4,1 14-1 15 National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian) Ainu collection, 136, 148, 154, 188. See also Hitchcock, Romyn

Natori, Takemitsu, 27, 224-225 Natural history of Ainu homelands, 32-38 Natural resources: deforestation, 37, 38m, 356,exploitation of, 9-10, 36-37, 39, logging, 356, mining, 369,- water pollution, 356-358 Natsui, Umetaro, 338

Necklaces (tamasay), 323-324, beaded necklaces, 21 , 22, 139, 158, 1 79, 324(45.27-28), chokers, 232, 322(45.23), 323(45.25-26)

Needlecases, 23, 46, 47, 159, 222, 299, 300,

321(45.21)

Nemuro, 146, 163m, 222

Nibutani, 181, Ainu Culture Museum, 377-378, 378, decision on Nibutani dam, 25, 1 15, 357-358, 362363, 367-368 Niewan, 1 63m, 165

Nipopo (human figurines), 22, 24, 50(4.6, 4.7), 262, 263(37.4-5), 271(38.7-8)

Nishikawa, Hokuyo, Ainu Manners and Customs, 156(20.4), 207(28.13), 210, 237(32.8), 238(32.9-10), 250(35.4)

Nomadism, 7, 20, 217, 240

Nomoto, Masahiro, 9(1.2), 222-226, 227-233, 365, 379 Nomura, Ciichi, 359, 362

North American Ainu collections, 136(t), 136-139,

1 37(t), 140, 146-147, American Museum of Natural History, 175, Brooklyn Museum of Art, 155-161, Smithsonian Institution, 136, 148-153, 154,

University of Pennsylvania, 162-167, 167 North American Ainu Documentation Project, 136

North American Indians, 15-16, 24, 116-123, 279, 245 Northwest Asian cultures, Ainu ties to, 47-51 Northwest Coast peoples: archaeological cultures of North Pacific rim, 12m, 52-56; ethnological comparisons with Ainu, 24, 47-51,49, 116-123, ecosystem compared with Ainu, 117-118, 122, parallel traditions, 62, 1 16, 1 18-1 19, 123, 301, 307-308. See also Eskimos,- Siberian cultures Nusa (altar), 164, 165, 199, 230, 256-260, 264

o

Ocean habitat. See Marine habitat and traditions Olschleger, Hans Dieter, 27, 208-221 Ogihara, Shinko, 132-135, 274-277 Oginaka, Mie, 278-281 Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko.l 18, 240-245 Ohtsuka, Kazuyoshi, 92-95, 374-376 Ohyo (bark-fiber thread), 16, 1 51 (1 9.7), 235-236, 3 1 4, 314-316, 315

Oina-kamuy (culture hero), 261,265, 275-276, 280, tales of ( oina ), 274 Okada, Kazuo, 187-191

Okhotsk culture, 18, 23, 43-44, 50-51, 222. Sec also Siberian cultures Omori shell mound, 126 Onkami (worship), 21

Ono, Yugo, 32—38, photographs by, 36, 38(2.12)

Opunire (spirit-sending ceremonies), 14(1.1 1), 14, 25-26, 44, 202, 248, 251-254, 257 ; dances accompanying, 257, deer sending, 253-254,- dog sending, 253,- fox sending, 252, 259(36.6), owl sending, 252, 255, whale sending, 224-225. See also Iyomante, Iwakte Oral traditions, 19, 183, 271, 274-277,- animals in epic stories (yukar ), 276-277,- studies and collections of, 27, 59, yukar (epic stories), 2 1, 24, 248, 278, 278-281,

280

Orca whale, 41,225(30.5), 226, symbols of, 332(46.12-13)

Origin theories. See Ainu origins—theories Orita, Suteno, 379, 379

Ornamentation: amulets, 270,270(38.6), 310(44.3), beaded necklaces, 21, 22, 139, 158, 179, 323-324, 324(45.27-28), chokers, 232, 322(45.23), 323(45.25, 45.26),- earrings, 325, 325, womens tattoos, 292, 294, 325, 326(45.32-33). See also Ceremonial clothing,- Ceremonial headdress Oshamanbe, 163m, 213

Owl, 38, 42,- deity, 21, 252, sending ceremony, 252, 255 Oyabe, Jenichiro, 1 36(t), 142, 162(21.2), 162-167, 163m

P

Paleo-Asian flora and fauna, 34-35, 34(2.5)m, 34(2.6)m, 35(2.7)

Paleolithic and prehistoric period. See Archaeological cultures

Paleolithic land bridges, 33-35, 33(2.3)m, 33(2.4)m, 47 Patrilineage, 230, 231-232 Payoka kamuy (disease spirits), 103-107, 196 Performance arts: songs, 127,- throat singing, 285,- whale songs, 223, 22 6 ; yukar (epic stories), 21, 24, 248, 278, 278-281,280. See also Dancing, Music Perry, Matthew, 14, 29

Peter the Great Museum Ainu collection, 128, 132(t), 132-135, 1 33

Philippi, Donald L., Songs of Gods, Songs of Humans, 77 Phographs of Ainu, 60, 9 1 (l0.6), 95, 101, 140, 168, 200, 208, 239(32.1 I), 248, 251(35.6), 263(37.3), 267, 270, 271, 280, 312(44.7), 357, 368, 371,

373, 377, 379. See also by ethnographer (Pilsudski, Bronislaw,- Hilger, M. Inez, Hiller, Hiram M., and others)

Pictorial Biography of Prince Shotoku (Chitei), 79, 79-80 Pilsudski, Bronislaw: ethnological work with Sakhalin Ainu, 27, 30, 135, 254, 265,- photographs of Ainu, 30,

47, 51, 89, 104, 105, 135, 194, 242, 246, 254(35.13), 255, 259(36.6), 261, 315, on shamanism, 104, 265-266,- sound recordings, 59, 136 Pipe ( kiseri ), 245, 298, curved, 174-175(22.8). See also Smoking kits and implements Piraton, 143, 155, 163m, 377 Pithouses, archaeological, 10, 44, 228, 259 Place names, 60-61,62 135,222 Plants, 235, lily root {turep), 203(28.4), 204, 238(32.910); vegetation history, 35, 35m, 202-204 Plant spirits, 200, 202. See also Kamuy (spirit deities)

Play, childrens', 246-247

Population decline of, 106-107, early Ainu, 11,

historical migration model, I 7(1. 1 7) ; modern Ainu, 9, 26. See also Geographic distribution and migrations Portraits of Ezo Chieftains (Kakizaki), 8, 18, 28, 28, 37, 66, 83, 122, 124, 192, 286, 354 Poster, Amy, 155-161

Prayer {kamuy-nomi), 21,201, 248, 328-329, 329, 346, implements used with, 193, 199,231(31.7),

244(3 3.9), 294, 294(42.1 1), 296. See also Ikupasuy , Inaw Prayer stick. See Ikupasuy

Prehistoric period. See Archaeological artifacts,Archaeological cultures

Prejudice or discrimination, 9, 16, 24, 73, 225, 233, 274, 341, 369, 372 "Proto-Ainu" culture, 260 Proto-Australoid theory, 31 Putnam, Frederick W., 168-174

Qing Dynasty, 86-88. See also Maritime trade "Queer People, A," 15, 153

Quivers, 164-165, 21 7(29.20), 235(32.2), 273(38.1 3)

R

Racial origins. See Ainu origins—theories Raitokoro Kawaguchi site, 257-258 Refsing, Kirsten, 27, 61, 371 Reincarnation, 193, 197, 268, 270, 273 Religion: altar (nusa), 164, 165, 199, 230, 256-260,264, belief system, 228, 235, 328, 380-381, burial customs, 106, 158-159, 268-269, 272, onkami (worship), 21; transmigration of spirits, 193, 197, 268,270, 273. See also Ceremonies,- Shamanism, Kamuy (spirit deities); Kamuy nomi , Ikupasuy , Inaw Religious objects: kamuyrini, 226, nipopo (human figurines), 22, 24, 50(4.6, 4.7), 262, 263(37.4-5), 271 (38.7-8),- women's ritual belt, 232, 264-265. See also Nusa (altar), Ikupasuy (prayer stick),- Inaw (sacred shaved stick)

Relocation of Ainu, 11 , 108, 112, 121 Resource zone (iwor), 199(27.4), 218-219, 227, 234 Retarpe (nettle-fiber) garments, 160-161, 172-173,290 Rice cakes, 239(32.1 1-12)

Ritual. See Opunire , Iyomante, Religion, Shamanism Rivers and waterways, 36, 1 99, 200 227, words for, 60, 62. See also Amur river,- Saru river River pollution, 356-358

Robes, 3 1 8-3 1 9,- attush (bark cloth), 133, 152,289,

3 I 7, birdskin, 3 1 6 ; cotton, 1 44-145, duckskin, 3 I 6, Japanese similarity in, 3 1 8(45.8),- retarpe (nettle fiber), 160-161, 172-173, 290, sealskin, 320(45.17)

Russia: colonial activities, 1 I, 70, 71-73, 92, 101,240, 302, ethnography, 30, 59, trade with Ainu, 10, 86-91 Ryukyuan culture, 31, 56

s

Sacred shaved stick. See Inaw Sacrifice, 241-242, 249, 253, 263(37.3)

St. Petersburg collection, Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology (MAE), 128, 132(t), 132-135, 133

Sake drinking, 21, 135, 77, 178, 182, 264, 297, 328, ceremonial lacquerware cups (tuki), 21, 77, 178, 182, 328(46.3, 46.5), 329-330,- making sake, 283 Sakhalin Ainu, 10(1.4), 11(1.5), 112, 1 94, ethnological traits, I 1(1.6), 24, 30, 135, 135, 172-173, 179(23.6),

I 86(24.6), 209, 211,213, 216, 221, 240-245, 278, 283, 319-320,- prayer sticks, 330-331,- shamanistic features, 242, 262, 266, trade actvities, 86-87, 88 Sakhalin Island, 51,69, 70, 374, archaeological cultures, 40(3.2), 46, 47, 49 (See also Okhotsk culture),- artifact collection expeditions in, 27, 30, 125, 133, 135, 170171, 266, history, 10 m, 10-11, I 1 (1.5), 24, 87-91, 120-121, 108, 1 1 2, 205,- trade, 86-89. See also Karafuto

Salmon, 201, 203(28.4),- first-salmon ceremony, 24, 36, 36, I 18-1 19, 200, 219, 221, 253,- salmon run, 199-200 Salmon fishing: 36(2.9), 44(3.13-3.14), 200, 201, 210-211, 213

Salmon-skin products, 1 51(1 9.6a,b), 157,220(29.25), 288, 291, 312

Samaikur myth, 261,265-266

Sapporo, 1 63m, 170, 355-357, district court decision,

25, 357-358, 362-363, 367-368 Saranip (twined baskets), 16, 301,302, 303-305, 305(43.8), 307-308, 310-311, 31 1 Saru River, and region, 136(t), 155, 355-358 Sasaki, Shiro, 86-91 Sasaki, Toshikazu, 27, 79-85 Sasamura, Jiro, 369-370 Satsumon culture, 7, 18, 44-45, 205 Schools, 369, 371, 371-373 Sealskin robe, 320(45.1 7)

Sea otter, 24, 46. See also Marine mammals Seaweed, 202 Seisuiji En'gi, 80, 81

Sending ceremonies: 14(1.1 1), 14, 25-26, 44, 202, 248, dances accompanying, 257,- deer sending, 253-254, dog sending, 253, fox sending, 252, 259(36.6), iwakte, 254-255, 257,- opunire, 251-254, 257, owl sending, 252, 255, whale sending, 224-225. See also Iyomante (bearsending ceremony)

Settlement. See Village ( kotan)

Sewing kits, 123. See also Needlecases Sewing thread, 31 3, of bark-fiber thread (ohyo),

1 51(19.7), 235-236, 314, 314-316, 3 I 5, thread twisting, 238, 238(32.1 8)

Shakai-ketai (social structure), 227, 244-245, family,

232, 272, maternal traditions, 231,232, patrilineage, 230, 231-232; social status, 244-245. See also Elders; Gender roles

Shakushain's War, 19, 69, 70, 97-98, 369 Shamanism, 243-244, 266, initiation (bubyou), 266-267, medicinal, 26, 102, 104-105, 102, 104, 105(13.4), 196-197, 1 97, 241-242, seance, 26 1, 262, shaman's drum (kaco), 262, 264, shamans consulted in war, 243 ; Siberian parallels, 261,262, 265, 267. See also Religious objects

Shaved stick. See Inaw Shell lamp, 228(3 1.4)

Shell-mound excavations, 52, 18, 126 Shinto ritual, 21

Shiraoi, 99, 143, 163m, 164, 168, 168, 188,227; Ainu Museum in, 26, 94, 183, 183—186, 223, 233 Shternberg, Leo, 30, 63, 265

Siberian cultures: ethnological comparisons with Ainu,

1 1, 47-51, 48m, 51(4.8); parallel shamanistic traditions, 261, 262, 265, 267, parelleis in basketry,

307, 308

Siddle, Richard, 67-73, 108-115 Siebold, Heinrich von, 126(16.4), 127; shell-mound excavations, 18, 126

Siebold, Philipp Franz von, 14, 18, 126, 126 Silver artifacts, 50

Skulls: archaeological deposits, 52, 257-260, 264, bear, 253, 256, owl, 255 Smallpox, 102-103, 105(13.4)

Smithsonian, 136, 148-153, 1 54, 188

Smoking kits and implements, 19, 298, 334,■ curved pipe,

! 74-1 75(22.8); pipe holder, 181,298,- pipe (kiseri), 245, 298, smoking kits, 138, 175(22.9), 286, 297, 334; tobacco box, 19, 181, 298,■ tobacco pouch, 174(22.17), 244(33.8)

Snowshoes, 156(20.3), 157 Social factors: alcoholism, 73 ; discrimination or prejudice, 9, 16, 24, 73, 225, 233, 274, 341, 369, 372,economic conditions, 98, 359, education, 369, 371, 371-373,- infant mortality, 270 Social structure (shakai-ketai), 227, 244-245, family, 232, 272, maternal traditions, 231,232, patrilineage, 230, 231-232, social status, 244-245. See also Eiders,- Gender roles

Songs, 127, throat singing, 285; whale songs, 223, 226 See also Music Spear (marek), 211, 235

Spiral designs (morew), 17, 22, 22(1.23, 1.25), 23 Spirit deities. See Kamuy

Spirit-sending ceremonies (opunire), 14(1.11), 14, 2526, 44, 202, 248, 25 1-254, 257,- dances accompanying, 257, deer sending, 253-254,- dog sending, 253,fox sending, 252, 259(36.6),- owl sending, 252,

255, whale sending, 224-225. See also Iwakte :

Iyomante

Starr, Frederick: "Ainu Notes,” 146,- escorting Ainu to St. Louis Exposition, 140-142, 155, 159, 309, ethnological work with Ainu, 16, 136(t), 140, 141, collections, 142-146, 155-156, 159, 166,- photographs of Ainu,

16, 140(18.3)

Stick, sacred shaved. See Inaw

Stone age. See Archaeological cultures, Paleolithic land bridges

Stone tools, 48, 51 Stone vessels, 166 Straits. See Land bridges

Stranded whales, 222, 225,- dance to, 223, 223(30.2), 226 Sunazawa, Chinita, 351-352,- A Daughter's Happiness, 351(47.31), 351,- Yang, 353(47.35),- Yin , 352(47.34) Sunazawa, Bikky (Hisano): activist and artist, 25, 1 10, 110, 113, 117, 341, 341-349, 346(47.23),- Ekashi (Bear and Hunter ), 342(47.1 6),- Gozen sanji nogantju (Toys at 3.00 AM.), 345(47.22), 347-348,- Juka (Wooden Flower), 344(47.9), 344-345,- Kami no shita (Tongue of God), 343(47.1 8), 344,- Kaze ni kiku (Listening to the Wind), 346(47.24), 347,- Ki-men (Wooden Masks), 25,

341 (47.1 5a, b), 343, Nitne-kamuy (Evil God), 348(47.27),- Totem poles, 342(47.17), 344(47.20); Yottsu no kaze (Four Winds), 346, 347(47.25)

Sunazawa, Ichitaro, 110, 110-111 Sunazawa, Kazuo, 111: Portrait of Ichitaro Sunazawa, 1 1 1 Sunazawa, Peramonkoro, 1 10, 110, 349, 380(55.3), 381 Suwa, Tadaka, Suwa Daimyojin ekotoba, 80-81 Swords (emush), 97, 107, 296, 325-326 326(45.34),

331, ritual sword ( pons emush), 107, 272-273,- sword dance, 285(41.7)

T

Taboos or prohibitions: blood taboos, 244, image taboos, 24, 292, 297,- taboo words, 58 Takakura, Shin'ichiro, 19, 27, 30, 67, 241 Takakuma, Tokusaburo: Ainu Monagatari (Ainu tales), 109 Tamura, Suzuko, 57-65 Tanimoto, Kazuyuki, 282-285 Tatar Strait, 47

Takusa (grass or bamboo for burning), 248 Tattoos, women's, 292, 294, 325, 326(45.32-33),

lip tattoos, 14, 91(10.6), 148, 154, 380 Technologies. See Arts, Fishing, House (chi se), Hunting Teufel (coiled baskets), 23, 134(17.3), 304, 305, 305(43.7), 308

Terashima, Ryoan, Wakan Sansai zue, 8 1, 81-82 Territorial disputes, Ainu relocation, I I, 108, 112, 121 Territory around village (iwor), 1 99(27.4), 218-2 19,

227, 234

Textile arts, 159, 190-191, 215, 237, 287-292, design techniques, 1 77(23.2),- embroidery, 144-145,239, 287, 293, 317-318, 320,- learning skills and designs, 246-247, 247(34.6), 291-292, 309-312, 312, 320(45.1 8), 379, 379-381, loom, 215-216,

3 1 2(44.7), making bark-fiber thread ( ohyo),

1 51(19.7), 235-236, 3 14, 314-316, 3 1 5,-mat making, 237, thread twisting, 238, 238(32.1 8). See also Baskets,- Clothing,- Design elements, Ornamentation

-fabrics: animal hides, 313 ; attush (bark cloth), 16,

133, 152, 289, 317, 323(45.23); birdskin, 313, 316, cotton, 1 44-1 45; fishskin products, 151(1 9.6a,b), 157, 220(29.25), 288, 291, 312, imported cotton, 316-319; nettle plant (retarpe), 160-161, 172-173, 290

Thread, 31 3; bark-fiber thread (ohyo), i 5 1(19.7), 235— 236, 314, 314-316, 3 1 5 Thread twisting, 238, 238(32.1 8)

Tobacco box, 181 298. See also Smoking kits and implements

Tobacco pouch, 174(22.7), 244(33.8). See also Smoking kits and implements Together with the Ainu (Hilger), 27, 356 Tohoku, 10m, 43, 45, 61 Tokoro, 257-258 Tokugawa collection, 177-178

Tokugawa Shogunate, 9, 13, 19,71,78,88-89,96, 101, 336, 374. See also Japanese early modern state Tomakomai region geology, 40 Tombs. See Graves Torao, Haru, 379, 380(55.4)

Torii, Ryuzo, 27, 80

Totem poles, 1 16, 122, 342(47.17), 344(47.20), tourism and, 3 38

Tourism, 73, 95, 101, and ethnic identity, 95, tourist areas, 25, 94

Tourist art, 335, 335-337, 336, 337, 338, 342-343 Toys, 246, 246-247

Trade: early Ainu, 10, 66-67, 68-71, 232, 240, 302, 374; fur trade, 23, 86-87, maritime, 86m, 86-91, 120, 336, restrictions on, 97,- Sakhalin Island and, 86-87, 88; Santan trade, 46, 81, 86, 241 Trade goods, 20, 60, 78, 87, 98, 241, incorporated into crafts ("making them Ainu"), 7, 19, 19, 90, 91, 322(45.23), swords, 97, 107. See also Lacquerware Traditional practices, 197-198, Ainu identity and, 26, 69-70,- commercialized, 24-25, limitations or prohibitions on, 221, 225-226. Sec also Arts, Ceremonies

Transmigration of spirits, 193, 197, 268, 270, 273 Trickster (in myths), 279 Tsuda, Nobuko, 309-312

Tsugaru Strait, 34, 67-68. See also Paleolithic land bridges Tsunemoto, Teruki, 366-368

Tuki (ceremonial cups), 21,77, 178, 182,328(46.3, 46.5), 329-330

Turep (lily root), 203(28.4), 204, 238(32.9-10)

Tusu/tusu aynu (holy man), 264-265

u

Uimam (audience), 67, 82, 98, 98, 99-100 United Nations (UN), 25, 1 14, 359, 359, 362, 370, Working Group on Indigenous Populations, 115, 360, 363, 372, World Health Organization, 365,- World Women's Conference (Beijing), 380 University of Pennsylvania Ainu collection, 162-167, 167 Ushiro, Hiroshi, 39-46 Utagawa, Hiroshi, 21, 39, 256-260 Utari Kyokai, 59, 111-112, 113, 114

V

Vegetation history, 35, 35m, 202-204. See also Plants Village (kotan): 198(27.1), 198,216-217,227, 228(31.2), 234, directional orientation, 199, iwor (resource area), 199(27.4), 218, 227, 234 , storehouses, 207(28.1 4)

Volcano Bay, 125, 136(t), 140, 163m, 164, 165

w

Wada, Kan, 261-267

Wajin-Ainu conflict, 68-71, 282-283

Walker, Brett L., 102-107

Watanabe, Hitoshi, 21,27, 30, 118, 198-201

Watarito people, 77-78

Whale (humpe), 4 1, 222-223,- Ainu whale songs, 223, 226,killer whale, 41,225(30.5), orca (killer whale), 41, 225(30.5), 226, orca-whale symbols, 3 32(46.12-1 3), spirit deity, 223, 224-225,- whalebone carvings, 224 Whaling, 222-226

Window, sacred (kamuy-puyar), 199, 229 Woodcarving, 21,22-23, 94(1 1.4), 167, 235-237, 295,bowls, 1 50, 205, 206, 299(42.1 8), box, 1 79,

237(32.8), cuived pipe, 1 74-1 75(22.8), Japanese influence, 331-332,- mortar and pestle, 171,239(32.1 112), paddle, 1 7, plates and platters, 13, 153(19.1), 206, 298(42.1 6), 299(42.20); tobacco box, 19, utensils, 205, 206, 298(42.1 7), 298-299. See also Design elements, Modern arts, Ikupasuy (prayer stick),- Inaw (sacred shaved stick), Makiri (knife); Tourist art Word spirits, 196 Work. See Gender roles World War II, 110, 134

Y

Yada, Saburo, Life of the Shiraoi Ainu (film), 189 Yae, Seijiro, 374

Yamada, Hidezo, linguistic studies, 60-61

Yamaura, Kiyoshi, 39-46

Yamoto people, 74

Yayoi culture, 1 7(1.1 7), 42-44

Yezo people. See Ezo, Hokkaido

Yoneda, Hideki, The Nibutani Amu Culture Museum, 377-378 Yukar (epic stories), 21, 24, 248, 278, 278-281,280, animals in, 276—277, kamuy-yukar 274, 276—277, 283, oina, 274, studies and collections of, 27, 59. See also Myth(s)

Yuki, Shoji, 113

z

Zoku-Jomon. See Jomon culture

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