The Ainu
they are uncivilizable and altogether irreclaimable savages, yet they are attractive and I hope I shall never forget the music of their low sweet voices, the soft light of their mild, brown eyes and the wonderful sweetness of their smile.
- Isabella Bird, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan , 1880. Victorian traveller Isabella Bird had some misconceived notions about the Ainu , but anyone who has ever listened to their hauntingly beautiful music will agree that they are a people not easily forgotten. The Ainu's roots are uncertain - some believe they come from Siberia or Central Asia, and they are thought to have lived on Hokkaido and northern Honshu since the seventh century. The early Ainu were hairy, wide-eyed and lived a hunter-gatherer existence, but their culture - revolving around powerful animist beliefs - was sophisticated, as shown by their unique clothing and epic songs and stories in a language quite unlike Japanese. Like Bird, the Japanese also considered the Ainu savages. As their control of the archipelago increased, the Ainu were forced to retreat to undeveloped Hokkaido, then called Ezochi. But even here they were not safe once the Japanese began to fully colonize the island from the late 1860s. The new immigrants kicked them off their lands, cleared the forests where they used to hunt, brought new diseases and suppressed their culture. The Ainu had little choice but to assimilate and their way of life went into seemingly terminal decline. Today there are reckoned to be around 25,000 full- and part-blooded Ainu in Hokkaido and in recent years there has been more interest in and sensitivity towards the ethnic group. The United Nations Year of Indigenous People in 1993 helped promote the Ainu's cause, and Ainu activist Kayano Shigeru was elected to the House of Councillors - the second house of Japan's parliament - in 1994. A landmark legal verdict in 1997 recognized Ainu rights over the land and, although controversial, the New Ainu Law of 1997 aims to protect what is left of Ainu culture and ensure that it is passed on to generations to come. There are several recreated Ainu villages around Hokkaido, including Poroto Kotan in Shiraoi and Akan-kohan, but the best place to get an accurate idea of how the people live today is at Nibutani , which has two excellent museums and is the only place in Japan where the Ainu form a majority of the community. Also worth seeking out for a broader understanding of the Ainu and their relationship to similar ethnic groups are the Museums of Northern Peoples in Hakodate and Abashiri . Despite her presumptions, Bird's account of the Ainu in Unbeaten Tracks in Japan is still one of the best you can read, while, for an excellent insight into contemporary Ainu issues, cast your eye over The Japan We Never Knew by David Suzuki and Keibo Oiwa .
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