Japan is often regarded as a homogeneous society with a strong sense of group and national identity, home to a population that is highly uniform and almost void of ethnic or racial diversity. Not only is this what we are told (as foreigners learning about Japan from afar), but this is what Japanese are taught. As stated by the American Daily Herald, "the Japanese people (especially conservative people) are likely to say they are from a homogeneous country. However, despite the Japanese, as a race, making up a large majority of the country's people (98.5% of the total population), to say Japan is a homogeneous nation is not entirely correct, (2011)."
So if someone were to ask you to close your eyes and call to mind the image of an "ethnically Japanese person," you wouldn't be unique in thinking of a school girl (likely late to class with a slice of toast hanging out of her mouth), or a forty-something salary man (remarkably managing to sleep upright on the last train). These types of people are so abundant in Japan that it would be very difficult to think of any other. But the reality is that there is more.
So much more.
Much like the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders of Australia, the First Nations of Canada and the Native Americans of the United States, Japan is (and has always been) home to the Ainu.
Ainu, meaning “people” or “humans” in their own native language (Aynu Itak), can be found in the northernmost regions of Japan, and along the Russian Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. Though the Ainu are very distinct from their Japanese counterparts, the whole archipelago was once inhabited by their ancestors; prior to the Tungus invasion from mainland Asia. It is believed by some that modern day Ainu are direct descendants of the Jōmon-jin people, who famously inhabited Japan during the prehistoric Jōmon period (14,000–300 BC), while others believe that they are not pure descendants of the Jōmon, but rather share a closer morphological relation to any mixture of Yayoi-Jōmon groups, such as the Satsumon/Emishi and Okhotsk people.
Generally, the Ainu are shorter than the average Japanese person, with lighter skin, robust bodies and short limbs. Their hair is wavy and body hair is abundant; men often grow long beards and mustaches, considered a sign of beauty, to the point that women would tattoo their lower face to mimic mustaches.
Not a Lipstick Malfunction: An example of the types of tattoos that an Ainu woman might wear.
Tattoos were once a big part of Ainu culture, particularly for women. Not only were men excluded from this practice (as a rule), but, interestingly, tattoos were traditionally practiced in the company of women and performed by a female tattoo artist.
Ainu women wore tattoos around the mouth, on the hands and arms and occasionally on the brows. The hand and arm tattoos are said to have been protective against harmful disease and misfortune. The facial tattoo, while also referenced as a protective measure, is primarily associated with an ideal feminine beauty. Facially tattooing began for a girl at around age six or seven and was continually applied annually until completion prior to marriage, typically around age fourteen or fifteen.
Anticipation and completion of tattoo parallels associations made by women with Maori moko. Receiving a facial tattoo not only heightened beauty, it communicated maturity. An Ainu girl without facial tattoo was considered less desirable for marriage. — Research conducted by students of the University of Washington.
The tattoos around the mouth were also said to be a way of warding off evil spirits from entering through either the nose or mouth. That said, tattoo was a very important aspect of spirituality for the Ainu, but in 1871 these practices were officially banned by the Japanese government. (Specifically, female lip tattoos.)
Japan has always had a stigma towards its tattoos, so it's not surprising that the practice, as a whole, was officially banned in the mid-to-late 19th century. As stated by the Vanishing Tattoo, Japan has been using tattoos as a means of punishment and a permanent form of public humiliation since as early as the 7th century. In the 1700s, the practice of tattooing was reserved for branding criminals and outcasts, in a variety of symbols that designated the places where their crimes were committed. For instance, those who committed crimes in Hiroshima prefecture were branded with the kanji for "dog" on their forehead. In what we now know as Fukuoka, it was a small line for every crime ever committed in their region.
By the end of the 1700s, the practice of branding criminals had been replaced by other forms of punishment. Decorative tattooing had become popular at that time, and Japan's most notorious "bad guys" had taken this opportunity to cover their markings with more ink in hopes of concealing their criminal pasts.
Because of this tight association between tattoos and criminal activity, tattooing was aggressively outlawed on the grounds that it was "deleterious to public morals." Not only were the Japanese people afraid of a tattooed man's possible involvement in crime (*cough*Yakuza*cough*); tattoos also brought forth questions and suspicions as to why a person would undergo so much pain for such intimidating markings. The same goes for heavy body-piercings.
This brings us back to the Ainu mouth tattoos. Needless to say, mainland Japan didn't take well to those either.
In 1871, the Hokkaido Development Mission proclaimed, "those born after this day are strictly prohibited from being tattooed" because the custom was simply "too cruel" and "barbaric". The government authorities aimed to dislocate the Ainu (along with other ethnic peoples under their authority like the indigenous people of Taiwan) from their traditional cultural practices and prepare them for the subsequent process of "Japanization". The last known tattooed Ainu woman died in 1998.
The Ainu are traditionally animists, believing that everything in nature has a kamuy (meaning "spirit" or "god" in Aynu Itak) residing on the inside. While many other animals are considered to be gods in Ainu culture, the bear is considered to be the head of all the gods.
Traditionally, the Ainu were known to capture young bear cubs, and raise them as if they were human children. The bear cubs were often housed in a special hut of their own, provided with only the most high-quality food and nursed by the women of the village. In a tradition known as "Iomante" (イオマンテ), the bear is then sacrificed after coming of age. The Ainu believed that this process was a way of releasing the kamuy within the bear, back to the spirit world.
You can learn more about Iomante in a special study conducted by the University of Texas.
The Iomente was only one of many Ainu traditions, and festivals, involving bears. Bears were such an important aspect of Ainu culture that Japanese tourists would often travel to Hokkaido just to take pictures alongside the village's resident bear cubs.
In folklore, it is said that the gods residing in bears were the ones who first taught the Ainu how to fish, hunt, weave and so on. The men of a village would often hunt and fish in a small party, traveling in canoes made from hollowed tree trunks. With large harpoons laced in poison, the men would hunt seals, walruses, whales, and fish. Sometimes, the men would bring a large pack of hounds with them to scare and corner the fish in shallow waters. The team of dogs could be anywhere between 20-30 in number, and their job was to capture the frightened fish within their mouths. After releasing the fish to the fishermen, the dogs were recompensed with fish heads of their catch.
This style of fishing is very similar to the Cormorant Fishing (also known as "Ukai") in mainland Japan, in which birds are tied to long ropes with leashes preventing them from swallowing the fish they catch. This style of fishing can still be seen in places like Arashiyama, Kyoto Prefecture.
Another aspect of Ainu culture worth mentioning is life at home. The Ainu once lived in small, rectangular huts. The huts were designed to trap in the smoke created from small fire pits that acted as the hut's main heat source. As Hokkaido's climate has always boasted bitter, cold winters, where the snow could last up to 6-7 months annually, staying warm was absolutely vital for the Ainu.
It was here in these huts where an Ainu woman would educate her children, cook, weave and make clothes for the family. Ainu women were largely independent until marriage; until they were placed under their husband's will. However, Ainu women have been known to go to war alongside their men, and speak their opinions during councils in the village. These Ainu women were certainly not your typical housewife!
In fact, don't be surprised if you encounter a Japanese person who has never heard of "the Ainu" before.
As of 2008, the Japanese government finally recognized the Ainu people as an "indigenous people" residing in Japan. As stated by the New York Times, "Parliament introduced and quickly passed a resolution stating that the Ainu had a “distinct language, religion and culture,” setting aside the belief, long expressed by conservatives, that Japan is an ethnically homogeneous nation." Japan has even offered Ainu activist and cultural leader Shigeru Kayano a seat in Parliament where he was able to enact a law to initiate promotion of Ainu culture back in 1997.
Mr Kayano died in 2006, and was one of the last native speakers of the Ainu language. However, before his passing, Kayano was able to found 15 Ainu schools in an effort to educate his people in their own native language. The Ainu of today are also keen on traveling to different countries, and meeting with the indigenous people there (in particular, the Maori of New Zealand and the Aboriginals of Australia).
The Ainu have a long road of cultural recovery ahead of them, but they are determined to be fully accepted by the people in Japan, and recognized by foreigners worldwide.
Hope you enjoyed learning about the Ainu as much as I did researching them! If you have any thoughts or stories to share regarding the Ainu people, please leave a comment below. Also, do tell us what kinds of articles you'd like to see on Gaiwa next. Who knows, your request could show up on Gaiwa as early as next week!
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