আইনু জনগোষ্ঠী: সংশোধিত সংস্করণের মধ্যে পার্থক্য

উইকিপিডিয়া, মুক্ত বিশ্বকোষ থেকে
বিষয়বস্তু বিয়োগ হয়েছে বিষয়বস্তু যোগ হয়েছে
সম্পাদনা সারাংশ নেই
সম্পাদনা সারাংশ নেই
১৭ নং লাইন: ১৭ নং লাইন:
'''আইনু জনগোষ্ঠী''' (আইনু アィヌ Aynu; জাপানিজ: アイヌ Ainu; রুশ: Айны Ajny) জাপানের নৃগোষ্ঠীর মধ্যে অন্যতম এক গোষ্ঠী। জাপানের হোক্কাইদো ও রাশিয়ার শাখালিন ও কুরিল দ্বীপেই তাদের জনগোষ্ঠীর বসবাস।
'''আইনু জনগোষ্ঠী''' (আইনু アィヌ Aynu; জাপানিজ: アイヌ Ainu; রুশ: Айны Ajny) জাপানের নৃগোষ্ঠীর মধ্যে অন্যতম এক গোষ্ঠী। জাপানের হোক্কাইদো ও রাশিয়ার শাখালিন ও কুরিল দ্বীপেই তাদের জনগোষ্ঠীর বসবাস।
ঐতিহাসিক ভাবে, এই জনগোষ্ঠীর ভাষা আইনু। বর্তমানে খুব কম মানুষ এ ভাষায় কথা বলেন। বর্তমানে মোট কত জন আইনু অধিবাসী আছেন তার হিসেব অপ্রকাশিত। ধারণা করা হয়, আনুষ্ঠানিক নথিপত্র হিসেবে আইনু অধিবাসীদের সংখ্যা ২৫ হাজারের মত। বেসরকারী হিসেবে এই সংখ্যা ২ লাখের কিছু বেশি বলে বিভিন্ন পরিসংখ্যানে দেখা যায়।
ঐতিহাসিক ভাবে, এই জনগোষ্ঠীর ভাষা আইনু। বর্তমানে খুব কম মানুষ এ ভাষায় কথা বলেন। বর্তমানে মোট কত জন আইনু অধিবাসী আছেন তার হিসেব অপ্রকাশিত। ধারণা করা হয়, আনুষ্ঠানিক নথিপত্র হিসেবে আইনু অধিবাসীদের সংখ্যা ২৫ হাজারের মত। বেসরকারী হিসেবে এই সংখ্যা ২ লাখের কিছু বেশি বলে বিভিন্ন পরিসংখ্যানে দেখা যায়।


==History==
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Ainu Wrestlers.jpg|thumb|Ainu Wrestlers]] -->
[[File:Bjs48 02 Ainu.jpg|thumb|A group of Ainu people (between 1863 and early 1870s)]]

===Pre-modern===
Recent research suggests that Ainu culture originated in a merger of the [[Okhotsk culture|Okhotsk]] and [[Satsumon culture|Satsumon]] cultures.<ref name="Sato, Takehiro 2007">
{{cite journal | last1 = Sato | first1 = Takehiro | year = 2007 | title = Origins and genetic features of the Okhotsk people, revealed by ancient mitochondrial DNA analysis | url = | journal = Journal of Human Genetics | volume = 52 | issue = 7| pages = 618–627 | doi = 10.1007/s10038-007-0164-z | pmid=17568987|display-authors=etal}}</ref> In 1264, Ainu invaded the land of [[Nivkh people]] controlled by the [[Yuan Dynasty]] of [[China]], resulting in battles between Ainu and the Chinese.<ref>
{{cite web|url= http://www.city.asahikawa.hokkaido.jp/files/hakubutsukagaku/museum/syuzo/59-tatakai/59-tatakai.html |script-title=ja:第59回 交易の民アイヌ Ⅶ 元との戦い|language=Japanese|publisher=[[Asahikawa, Hokkaido|Asahikawa City]]|date=June 2, 2010|accessdate=March 2, 2011}}
</ref> Active contact between the [[Wajin]] (the ethnically Japanese) and the Ainu of [[Ezo]]chi (now known as [[Hokkaido]]) began in the 13th century.<ref>
Weiner, M. (eds) 1997, ''Japan’s Minorities: The Illusion of Homogeneity'', Routledge, London.
</ref> The Ainu formed a society of hunter-gatherers, living mainly by hunting and fishing, and the people followed a religion based on phenomena of nature.<ref>
[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/hokkaido/ainu.html "NOVA Online – Island of the Spirits – Origins of the Ainu"]. Retrieved on May 8, 2008.</ref>

During the [[Muromachi period]] (1336–1573), the disputes between Japanese and Ainu eventually developed into a war. [[Takeda Nobuhiro]] killed the Ainu leader, Koshamain. Many Ainu were subject to Japanese rule which led to violent Ainu revolt such as the [[Koshamain's Revolt]] in 1456 against Japanese influence and control on the island.

During the Tokugawa period (1600–1868) the Ainu became increasingly involved in trade with Japanese who controlled the Northern portion of the island that is now called Hokkaido. The [[Bakufu]] government granted the [[Matsumae clan]] exclusive rights to trade with the Ainu in the northern part of the island. Later the Matsumae began to lease out trading-rights to Japanese merchants, and contact between Japanese and Ainu became more extensive. Throughout this period Ainu became increasingly dependent on goods imported by Japanese, and suffered from epidemic diseases such as [[smallpox]].<ref name="Brett L. Walker 2001, Pages 49-56">
Brett L. Walker, ''The conquest of Ainu Lands:Ecology and Culture in Japanese Expansion 1590–1800'', University of California Press, 2001, p. 49–56, 61–71, 172–176.</ref>
Although the increased contact brought by trade between the Japanese and the Ainu contributed to increased mutual understanding, sometimes it led to conflict, occasionally intensifying into violent Ainu revolts, of which the most important was [[Shakushain's Revolt]] (1669–1672), an Ainu rebellion against Japanese authority.

Ainu population dropped significantly during these years of Matsumae and shogunate rule. In 1807, officials estimated the total population of Hokkaido Ainu at 26,256. Observations made by Matsuura Takeshiro, for example, illustrate concretely the dramatic decline of Ainu populations caused by epidemic diseases. 47 years later that number was reduced to 17,810, a 32% decline.<ref>Conquest of Ainu Lands: Ecology and Culture in Japanese Expansion, 1590-1800
By Brett L. Walker [https://books.google.com/books?id=x8FO9evlIyoC&pg=PA182&dq=Ainu+population+26,256+diseases&hl=en&sa=X&ei=iljPU63XMKTX7Abu1YB4&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Ainu%20population%2026%2C256%20diseases&f=false]</ref> The Ainu in the 14th century were much more populous before invasions from the Japanese. Some Ainu oral stories, and the Matsumae clan's documents, recall and record several severe battles between the Ainu people and the invaders. After losing several battles, the Ainu people were enslaved.<ref>Postmodernism and Race
edited by Eric Mark Kramer [https://books.google.com/books?id=tuejKyVJ2jMC&pg=PA91&dq=Ainu+enslaved&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XVrPU5zeL6uh7Abx2YGYDw&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=Ainu%20enslaved&f=false]</ref>

===Meiji Restoration and later===
In 1868 there were about 15,000 Ainu in Hokkaido, 2000 in Sakhalin, and around 100 in the Kurile islands.<ref>
David Howell. "The Meiji State and the Logic of Ainu 'Protection'", In ''New Directions in the Study of Meiji Japan'', edited by Helen Hardacre, 1997. p. 614.</ref> The Ainu were classified as imperial subjects, whose decreasing numbers distinguished them in public discourse as a "dying race". From approximately 80,000 in the early eighteenth century, by 1873 the Ainu population had decreased to 16,000, accounting for 14.63 percent of the total population in Hokkaido. By 1939, they constituted only 0.54 percent of Hokkaido’s population, even though the actual number of Ainu, now heavily intermarried with Japanese, remained about the same.<ref>Meeting the First Inhabitants {{cite web|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?ei=bhmWVIOUI6HnyQOvwILoDw&id=8O4YAAAAIAAJ&dq=16%2C000+by+1873%2C+accounting+for+14.63+percent&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=16%2C000 |volume=2 |title=Encyclopedia of genocide and crimes against humanity|work=google.co.uk}}</ref> Japanese settlers also commonly took Ainu women as sexual slaves and concubines.<ref>[http://edition.cnn.com/ASIANOW/time/features/ontheroad/japan.sapporo.ainu.html]</ref> A few upper-class Japanese families allowed their daughters to marry an Ainu.

''[[Metropolitan (free magazine)|Metropolitan]]'' magazine reported, "Many Ainu were forced to work, essentially as slaves, for [[Yamato people|Wajin]] (ethnic Japanese), resulting in the breakup of families and the introduction of [[smallpox]], [[measles]], cholera and [[tuberculosis]] into their community. In 1869, the new Meiji government renamed Ezo as Hokkaido and unilaterally incorporated it into Japan. It banned the Ainu language, took Ainu land away, and prohibited salmon fishing and deer hunting."{{citation needed|date=January 2015}} They were regarded as 'extremely inferior races', as one Diet Member had expressed it in 1907 (Hokkaido Utari Kyokai 19902190).<ref>Diversity In Japanese Culture
By Maher,[https://books.google.com/books?id=PyuZzUVNgCUC&pg=PA152&dq=Ainu+inferior+races&hl=en&sa=X&ei=QVnPU9ynL7DQ7AaU7oDADw&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=Ainu%20inferior%20races&f=false]</ref>
The beginning of the [[Meiji Restoration]] in 1868 proved a turning point for Ainu culture. The Japanese government introduced a variety of social, political and economic reforms in hope of modernising the country in the Western style. One innovation involved the annexation of Hokkaido. Sjöberg quotes Baba's (1980) account of the Japanese government's reasoning:<ref name="Brett L. Walker 2001, Pages 49-56"/>

<blockquote>
" … The development of Japan's large northern island had several objectives: First, it was seen as a means to defend Japan from a rapidly developing and expansionist Russia. Second … it offered a solution to the unemployment for the former samurai class … Finally, development promised to yield the needed natural resources for a growing capitalist economy."<ref>Sjöberg, K 1993, The Return of the Ainu, Harwood Academic Publishers, Switzerland.</ref>
</blockquote>

In 1899 the Japanese government passed an act labeling the Ainu as "former aborigines", with the idea they would assimilate—this resulted in the Japanese government taking the land where the Ainu people lived and placing it from then on under Japanese control.<ref>
Loos, N. & Osani, T. 1993, ''Indigenous Minorities and Education'', Sanyusha Publishing Co., Ltd., Tokyo.
</ref> Also at this time, the Ainu were granted automatic Japanese citizenship, effectively denying them the status of an indigenous group.

[[File:AinuBearSacrificeCirca1870.jpg|thumb|250px|Ainu bear sacrifice. Japanese scroll painting, c. 1870.]]

The Ainu were becoming increasingly marginalized on their own land—over a period of only 36 years, the Ainu went from being a relatively isolated group of people to having their land, language, religion and customs assimilated into those of the Japanese.<ref name="bbc">{{cite news |first= Philippa |last= Fogarty|title= Recognition at last for Japan's Ainu|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7437244.stm|work=BBC News|publisher=BBC|date= June 6, 2008|accessdate=June 7, 2008 }}</ref> In addition to this, the land the Ainu lived on was distributed to the Wajin who had decided to move to Hokkaido, encouraged by the Japanese government of the Meiji era to take advantage of the island’s abundant natural resources, and to create and maintain farms in the model of western industrial agriculture. While at the time the process was openly referred to as colonization ("takushoku" 拓殖), the notion was later reframed by Japanese elites to the currently common usage "kaitaku" (開拓), which instead conveys a sense of opening up or reclamation of the Ainu lands.<ref>Siddle, R., ''Race, Resistance, and the Ainu of Japan'' (Routledge, 1996) p. 51.</ref> As well as this, factories such as flour mills and beer breweries and mining practices resulted in the creation of infrastructure such as roads and railway lines, during a development period that lasted until 1904.<ref>Sjöberg, K. 1993, ''The Return of the Ainu'', Harwood Academic Publishers, Switzerland, p. 117.</ref> During this time the Ainu were forced to learn Japanese, required to adopt Japanese names and ordered to cease religious practices such as animal sacrifice and the custom of tattooing.<ref>{{cite book|last= Levinson|first= David |title=Encyclopedia of modern Asia, Vol.&nbsp;1|publisher= Charles Scribner's Sons|page= 72|year= 2002|isbn= 978-0-684-80617-4}}</ref>

The 1899 act mentioned above was replaced in 1997—until then the government had stated there were no ethnic minority groups.<ref name="Sato, Takehiro 2007"/> It was not until June 6, 2008, that Japan formally recognised the Ainu as an indigenous group (see [[#Official recognition in Japan|Official Recognition]], below).<ref name="Sato, Takehiro 2007"/>

[[File:Oki Ainu Dub Band at tff.Rudolstadt 2007.jpg|thumb|left|The Oki Dub Ainu Band, led by the Ainu Japanese musician [[Oki (musician)|Oki]], in Germany in 2007.]]
Intermarriages between Japanese and Ainu were actively promoted by the Ainu to lessen the chances of discrimination against their offspring. As a result, many Ainu are indistinguishable from their Japanese neighbors, but some Ainu-Japanese are interested in traditional Ainu culture. For example, [[Oki (musician)|Oki]], born as a child of an Ainu father and a Japanese mother, became a musician who plays the traditional Ainu instrument ''[[tonkori]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hmv.co.jp/news/article/605230042/|title=アイヌ⇔ダブ越境!異彩を放つOKIの新作|language=Japanese|publisher=HMV Japan|date=May 23, 2006|accessdate=March 26, 2011}}</ref> There are also many small towns in the southeastern or [[Hidaka Subprefecture|Hidaka]] region where ethnic Ainu live such as in [[Nibutani]] ([[Ainu language|Ainu]]: ''Niputay''). Many live in [[Sambutsu]] especially, on the eastern coast. In 1966 the number of "pure" Ainu was about 300 (Honna, Tajima, and Minamoto, 2000).

Their most widely known [[ethnonym]] is derived from the word ''ainu'', which means "human" (particularly as opposed to ''kamui'', divine beings), basically neither ethnicity nor the name of a race, in the Hokkaido dialects of the [[Ainu language]]; '''[[Emishi]]''' (Ebisu) and '''[[Ezo]]''' {{IPA|[endzo]}} (Yezo) (both {{lang|ja|蝦夷}}) are Japanese terms, which are believed to derive from another word for "human", which otherwise survived in Sakhalin Ainu as ''enciw'' or ''enju''. Today, many Ainu dislike the term Ainu because it had once been used with derogatory nuance, and prefer to identify themselves as ''Utari'' (''comrade'' in the Ainu language). Official documents use both names.

===Official recognition in Japan===
[[File:Map of Ainu in Hokkaido.svg|thumb|350px|Map of Ainu in Hokkaido]]

On June 6, 2008 the [[Japanese Diet]] passed a bipartisan, non-binding resolution calling upon the government to recognize the Ainu people as [[Indigenous peoples|indigenous to Japan]], and urging an end to discrimination against the group. The resolution recognised the Ainu people as "an indigenous people with a distinct language, religion and culture". The government immediately followed with a statement acknowledging its recognition, stating, "The government would like to solemnly accept the historical fact that many Ainu were discriminated against and forced into poverty with the advancement of modernization, despite being legally equal to (Japanese) people."<ref name="bbc"/><ref name="japantimes2008">{{cite web
|author=Ito, M|title=Diet officially declares Ainu indigenous
|work=The Japan Times |date=June 7, 2008|accessdate=April 25, 2015|url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2008/06/07/national/diet-officially-declares-ainu-indigenous/#.VTtdfZPJZoM
}}</ref>
<!--
Though the resolution is historically significant, Hideaki Uemura, professor at [[Keisen University]] in Tokyo and a specialist in indigenous peoples' rights, commented that the motion is "weak in the sense of recognizing historical facts" as the Ainu were "forced" to become Japanese in the first place.<ref name="japantimes2008" />
-->

===Official recognition in Russia===
{{main|Ainu in Russia}}
As a result of the [[Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875)]], the Kuril Islands were handed over to Japan, along with its Ainu subjects. A total of 83 North Kuril Ainu arrived in [[Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky]] on September 18, 1877 after they decided to remain under Russian rule. They refused the offer by Russian officials to move to new reservations in the [[Commander Islands]]. Finally a deal was reached in 1881 and the Ainu decided to settle in the village of Yavin. In March 1881, the group left Petropavlovsk and started the journey towards Yavin by foot. Four months later, they arrived at their new homes. Another village, Golygino was founded later. Under Soviet rule, both the villages were forced to disband and residents were moved to the Russian dominated Zaporozhye rural settlement in [[Ust-Bolsheretsky District|Ust-Bolsheretsky Raion]].<ref>{{cite av media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcIErWxe16k|title=Камчадальские айны добиваются признания|date=March 21, 2011|work=YouTube}}</ref> As a result of intermarriage, the three ethnic groups assimilated to form the [[Kamchadals|Kamchadal]] community. In 1953, K. Omelchenko, the minister for the protection of military and state secrets in USSR banned the press from publishing any more information on the Ainu living in the USSR. This order was revoked after two decades.<ref>[http://kamchatka-etno.ru/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=85&Itemid=95 Айны<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

[[File:Brooklyn Museum - Ainu Hunters.jpg|thumb|upright|Ainu hunters, 19th century]]
The North Kuril Ainu of Zaporozhye are currently the largest Ainu subgroup in Russia. The Nakamura clan (South Kuril Ainu on their paternal side) are the smallest and numbers just 6 people residing in [[Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky|Petropavlovsk]]. On Sakhalin island, there are a few dozen people who identify themselves as Sakhalin Ainu, but many more with partial Ainu ancestry do not acknowledge it. Most of the 888 Japanese people living in Russia (2010 Census) are of mixed Japanese-Ainu ancestry, although they do not acknowledge it (full Japanese ancestry gives them the right of visa-free entry to Japan<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.5-tv.ru/news/37800/|title=В России снова появились айны - самый загадочный народ Дальнего востока|work=5-tv.ru}}</ref>). Similarly, no one identifies themselves as Amur Valley Ainu, although people with partial descent can be found in Khabarovsk. It is believed that there are no remaining living descendants of the Kamchatka Ainu.

In the [[Russian Census (2010)|2010 Census of Russia]], close to 100 people tried to register themselves as ethnic Ainu in the village, but the governing council of Kamchatka Krai rejected their claim and enrolled them as ethnic Kamchadal.<ref>[http://www.kamchatka-etno.ru/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=85&Itemid=95 Айны<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://pk.russiaregionpress.ru/archives/4889|title=Петропавловск-Камчатский|work=russiaregionpress.ru}}</ref> In 2011, the leader of the Ainu community in Kamchatka, Alexei Vladimirovich Nakamura requested that Vladimir Ilyukhin (Governor of Kamchatka) and Boris Nevzorov (Chairman of state Duma) include the Ainu in the central list of the [[Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East]]. This request was also turned down.<ref>[http://severdv.ru/news/show/?id=52022&r=27&p=41 Айны просят включить их в Единый перечень коренных народов России. Родовая община обратилась к краевым властям - Общество Камчатский край - Камчатка и Магадан, новости Петропа...<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

Ethnic Ainu living in [[Sakhalin Oblast]] and [[Khabarovsk Krai]] are not organized politically. According to Alexei Nakamura, {{as of|2012|lc=y}}, there are only 205 Ainu living in Russia (up from just 12 people who self-identified as Ainu in 2008) and they along with the Kurile Kamchadals ([[Itelmens|Itelmen]] of Kuril islands) are fighting for official recognition.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nazaccent.ru/interview/13/|title=Алексей Накамура|work=nazaccent.ru}}</ref><ref>[http://www.segodnia.ru/content/105359 Айны – борцы с самураями | Сегодня.ру<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Since the Ainu are not recognized in the official list of the peoples living in Russia, they are counted as people without nationality or as ethnic Russian or Kamchadal.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rg.ru/2008/04/03/reg-dvostok/ainu.html|title=Представители малочисленного народа айну хотят узаконить свой статус|work=Российская газета}}</ref>

In 2004 the small Ainu community living in Kamchatka Krai wrote a letter to [[Vladimir Putin]], urging him to reconsider any move to award the [[Kuril Islands dispute|Southern Kuril Islands]] to Japan. They also urged him to recognize the Japanese genocide against the Ainu people, which Putin declined.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://kamtime.ru/old/archive/08_12_2004/13.shtml|title=Камчатское Время|work=kamtime.ru}}</ref>

{{as of|2012}}, both the Kurile Ainu and Kurile Kamchadal ethnic groups lack the fishing and hunting rights which the Russian government grants to the indigenous tribal communities of the far north.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.indigenous.ru/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=894|title=Льыоравэтльан - Представители малочисленного народа айну на Камчатке хотят узаконить свой статус|work=indigenous.ru}}</ref><ref>[http://english.ruvr.ru/radio_broadcast/2249159/49638669.html Radio: Programs: The Ainu: one of Russia’s indigenous peoples: Voice of Russia<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

==Origins==
[[File:AinuManStilflied.JPG|thumb|Ainu man, circa 1880.]]
The Ainu have often been considered to descend from the [[Jōmon period|Jōmon people]], who lived in Japan from the Jōmon period.<ref>{{cite book|last=Denoon|first=Donald; Hudson, Mark|title=Multicultural Japan: palaeolithic to postmodern|url=https://books.google.com/?id=XUw6kiX9LQ0C&pg=PA22|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2001|isbn=0-521-00362-8|pages=22–23}}</ref> One of their ''[[Yukar]] Upopo'', or legends, tells that "The Ainu lived in this place a hundred thousand years before the Children of the Sun came".<ref name="Sjoberg1993">{{cite book |title=The Return of the Ainu: Cultural Mobilization and the Practice of Ethnicity in Japan |last=Sjöberg |first=Katarina V. |year=1993 |publisher=Harwood Academic Publ. |location=Chur |series=Studies in Anthropology and History |volume=9 |isbn=3-7186-5401-6 |oclc=27684176 }}</ref>

Recent research suggests that the historical Ainu culture originated in a merger of the [[Okhotsk culture]] with the Satsumon, one of the ancient archaeological cultures that are considered to have derived from the Jōmon period cultures of the Japanese Archipelago.<ref name="Sato2007">{{cite journal | last = Sato | first = Takehiro | year = 2007 | title = Origins and genetic features of the Okhotsk people, revealed by ancient mitochondrial DNA analysis | journal = Journal of Human Genetics | volume = 52 | issue = 7 | pages = 618–627 | doi = 10.1007/s10038-007-0164-z | url = | quote = | pmid = 17568987 |display-authors=etal}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Lee | first1 = S | last2 = Hasegawa | first2 = T | year = 2013 | title = Evolution of the Ainu Language in Space and Time | url = | journal = PLoS ONE | volume = 8 | issue = 4| page = e62243 | doi = 10.1371/journal.pone.0062243 }}</ref> Their economy was based on farming, as well as hunting, fishing and gathering.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/hokkaido/ainu.html |title=NOVA Online – of the Spirits – Origins of the Ainu |accessdate=May 8, 2008 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/20080429080550/http://www.pbs.org:80/wgbh/nova/hokkaido/ainu.html |archivedate=29 April 2008 }}</ref>

Full-blooded Ainu, compared to people of [[Yamato people|Yamato]] descent, often have lighter skin and more body hair.<ref>Travis, John "Jomon Genes:Using DNA, researchers probe the genetic origins of modern Japanese" ''Science News'' February 15, 1997 Vol. 151 No. 7 p. 106 [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_n7_v151/ai_19143382/]</ref> Many early investigators proposed a [[Caucasian race|Caucasian]] ancestry,<ref>[[s:1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ainu|1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ainu]]</ref> although recent DNA tests have not shown any genetic similarity with modern Europeans. Cavalli-Sforza places the Ainu in his "Northeast and East Asian" genetic cluster.<ref name="Sforza">Cavalli-Sforza, L.L., Menozzi, P. & Piazza, A. (1994). The History and Geography of Human Genes. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.</ref>

Anthropologist Joseph Powell of the [[University of New Mexico]] wrote "...we follow Brace and Hunt (1990) and Turner (1990) in viewing the Ainu as a southeast Asian population derived from early Jomon peoples of Japan, who have their closest biological affinity with south Asians rather than western Eurasia peoples".<ref name="NPS Chapter 2">Powell, Joseph F.; Rose, Jerome C. Chapter 2 [http://www.nps.gov/archeology/kennewick/powell_rose.htm Report on the Osteological Assessment of the Kennewick Man Skeleton] (CENWW.97.Kennewick). Retrieved September 10, 2011.</ref>

[[File:NSRW - Asiatic Types - Ainu of Japan.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Ainu men often have heavy beards.]]

[[Mark J. Hudson]], Professor of Anthropology at [[Nishikyushu University]], [[Kanzaki, Saga]], Japan, said Japan was settled by a "Proto-Mongoloid" population in the [[Pleistocene]] who became the Jōmon and their features can be seen in the Ainu and [[Ryukyuans|Okinawan]] people.<ref name="Hudson">Hudson, Mark J. (1999). ''Ruins of identity: ethnogenesis in the Japanese Islands''.</ref> Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Sussex said Kanzō Umehara considered the Ainu and [[Ryukyuan people|Ryukyuans]] to have "preserved their proto-Mongoloid traits".<ref>Sleeboom, Margaret. ''Academic Nations in China and Japan''. Routledge: UK, 2004. ISBN 0-415-31545-X p.56</ref>

In 1970, Anthropologist [[Arnold Henry Savage Landor]] described the Ainu as having deep-set eyes and an eye shape typical of Europeans, with a large and prominent browridge, large ears, hairy and prone to [[baldness]], slightly flattened hook nose with large and broad nostrils, prominent cheek bones, large mouth and thick lips and a long region from nose to mouth and small chin region.<ref>Arnold Henry Savage Landor (1970). Alone with the hairy Ainu: or, 3.800 miles on a pack saddle in Yezo and a cruise to the Kurile islands</ref>

Omoto has also shown that the Ainu are Mongoloid, and not Caucasoid, on the basis of fingerprints and dental morphology.<ref>{{cite book| author = L. Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza|author2=Paolo Menozzi|author3=Alberto Piazza| title = History And Geography Of Human Genes| url = https://books.google.com/?id=FrwNcwKaUKoC&pg=PA232| year = 1994| publisher = Princeton University Press| isbn = 978-0-691-08750-4| page = 232 }}</ref> Turner found remains of Jōmon people of Japan to belong to [[Sinodonty and Sundadonty|Sundadont]] pattern similar with the Southern Mongoloid living populations of Taiwanese aborigines, Filipinos, Indonesians, Thais, Borneans, Laotians, and Malaysians.

[[File:Mongoloid Australoid Negrito Asia Distribution of Asian peoples Sinodont Sundadont.GIF|200px|thumb|
Distribution of sinodonts and sundadonts in Asia, shown by yellow and red. Also shown are [[australoids]], indicated by A, and [[negritos]], indicated by N.<ref name="Howells">Howells, William W. (1997). ''Getting Here: the story of human evolution''. ISBN 0-929590-16-3</ref>]]

Ainu men have abundant, wavy hair and often have long beards.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ohnuki-Tierney|first=Emiko|title=Illness and healing among the Sakhalin Ainu: a symbolic interpretation|year=1981|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-23636-2|url=https://books.google.com/?id=OTo9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA19|page=19}}</ref> The book of "Ainu life and legends" by author Kyōsuke Kindaichi (published by the Japanese Tourist Board in 1942) contains the physical description of Ainu : ''Many have wavy hair, but some straight black hair. Very few of them have wavy brownish hair. Their skins are generally reported to be light brown. But this is due to the fact that they labor on the sea and in briny winds all day. Old people who have long desisted from their outdoor work are often found to be as white as western men. The Ainu have broad faces, beetling eyebrows, and large sunken eyes, which are generally horizontal and of the so-called European type. Eyes of the Mongolian type are hardly found among them''.

[[File:Ainos (Asie). Auguste Wahlen. Moeurs, usages et costumes de tous les peuples du monde. 1843.jpg|thumb|upright|1843 illustration of Ainu]]

Genetic testing has shown them to belong mainly to [[Haplogroup D (Y-DNA)#D-M55|Y-haplogroup D-M55]].<ref name="Tajima2004">
{{cite journal | last = Tajima | first = Atsushi | year = 2004 | title = Genetic origins of the Ainu inferred from combined DNA analyses of maternal and paternal lineages | journal = Journal of Human Genetics | volume = 49 | issue = 4 | pages = 187–193 | doi = 10.1007/s10038-004-0131-x | url = | quote = | pmid = 14997363 |display-authors=etal}}
</ref> Y-DNA haplogroup D2 is found frequently throughout the [[Japanese Archipelago]] including [[Okinawa]]. The only places outside of Japan in which Y-haplogroup D is common are [[Tibet]] and the [[Andaman Islands]] in the Indian Ocean.<ref>[http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~mcdonald/WorldHaplogroupsMaps.pdf Y Haplogroups of the World]</ref> [[File:Nivkhs and Ainu men.jpg|left|thumb|170px|1862 illustration of Ainu (left) and Nivkhs]] In a study by Tajima ''et al.'' (2004), two out of a sample of sixteen (or 12.5%) Ainu men have been found to belong to [[Haplogroup C-M217 (Y-DNA)|Haplogroup C-M217]], which is the most common Y-chromosome haplogroup among the indigenous populations of [[Siberia]] and [[Mongolia]].<ref name="Tajima2004"/> Hammer ''et al.'' (2006) have tested a sample of four Ainu men and have found that one of them belongs to haplogroup C-M217.<ref name="Hammer2006">{{cite journal | last = Hammer | first = Michael F. | year = 2006 | title = Dual origins of the Japanese: Common ground for hunter-gatherer and farmer Y chromosomes | journal = Journal of Human Genetics | volume = 51 | issue = 1 | pages = 47–58 | doi = 10.1007/s10038-005-0322-0 | url = | quote = | pmid = 16328082 |display-authors=etal}}</ref> Some researchers have speculated that this minority of Haplogroup C-M217 carriers among the Ainu may reflect a certain degree of unidirectional genetic influence from the [[Nivkhs]], a traditionally nomadic people of northern Sakhalin and the adjacent mainland, with whom the Ainu have long-standing cultural interactions.<ref name="Tajima2004"/>

Based on analysis of one sample of 51 modern Ainus, their mtDNA lineages have been reported to consist mainly of [[haplogroup Y (mtDNA)|haplogroup Y]] (11/51 = 21.6% according to Tanaka ''et al.'' 2004, or 10/51 = 19.6% according to Adachi ''et al.'' 2009, who have cited Tajima ''et al.'' 2004), [[haplogroup D (mtDNA)|haplogroup D]] (9/51 = 17.6%, particularly D4(xD1)), [[haplogroup M (mtDNA)|haplogroup M7a]] (8/51 = 15.7%), and [[haplogroup G (mtDNA)|haplogroup G1]] (8/51 = 15.7%).<ref name = "Tajima2004" /><ref name="Tanaka2004">{{cite journal | last1 = Tanaka | first1 = Masashi | year = 2004 | title =Mitochondrial Genome Variation in Eastern Asia and the Peopling of Japan | journal = Genome Research | volume = 14 | issue = 10A| pages = 1832–1850 | doi = 10.1101/gr.2286304 | url = | quote =| pmid = 15466285 | pmc = 524407 |display-authors=etal}}</ref><ref name = "Adachi2009">{{cite journal | last1 = Adachi | first1 = Noboru | last2 = Ken-ichi | first2 = Shinoda | last3 = Umetsu | first3 = Kazuo | last4 = Matsumura | first4 = Hirofumi | year = 2009 | title = Mitochondrial DNA Analysis of Jomon Skeletons From the Funadomari Site, Hokkaido, and Its Implication for the Origins of Native American | url = | journal = American Journal of Physical Anthropology | volume = 138 | issue = | pages = 255–265 | doi=10.1002/ajpa.20923}}</ref> Other mtDNA haplogroups detected in this sample include [[haplogroup A (mtDNA)|A]] (2/51), [[haplogroup M (mtDNA)|M7b2]] (2/51), [[haplogroup N (mtDNA)|N9b]] (1/51), [[haplogroup B (mtDNA)|B4f]] (1/51), [[haplogroup F (mtDNA)|F1b]] (1/51), and [[haplogroup M (mtDNA)|M9a]] (1/51). Most of the remaining individuals in this sample have been classified definitively only as belonging to macro-[[haplogroup M (mtDNA)|haplogroup M]].<ref name = "Tanaka2004" /> According to Sato ''et al.'' (2009), who have studied the mtDNA of the same sample of modern Ainus (n=51), the major haplogroups of the Ainu are N9 (14/51 = 27.5%, including 10/51 Y and 4/51 N9(xY)), D (12/51 = 23.5%, including 8/51 D(xD5) and 4/51 D5), M7 (10/51 = 19.6%), and G (10/51 = 19.6%, including 8/51 G1 and 2/51 G2); the minor haplogroups are A (2/51), B (1/51), F (1/51), and M(xM7, M8, CZ, D, G) (1/51).<ref name = "Sato2009">Takehiro SATO, Tetsuya AMANO, Hiroko ONO ''et al.'', "Mitochondrial DNA haplogrouping of the Okhotsk people based on analysis of ancient DNA: an intermediate of gene flow from the continental Sakhalin people to the Ainu," ''Anthropological Science'' Vol. 117(3), 171–180, 2009.</ref> Studies published in 2004 and 2007 show the combined frequency of M7a and N9b were observed in Jomons and which are believed by some to be jomon maternal contribution at 28% in Okinawans (7/50 M7a1, 6/50 M7a(xM7a1), 1/50 N9b), 17.6% in Ainus (8/51 M7a(xM7a1), 1/51 N9b), and from 10% (97/1312 M7a(xM7a1), 1/1312 M7a1, 28/1312 N9b) to 17% (15/100 M7a1, 2/100 M7a(xM7a1)) in mainstream Japanese.<ref>M. Tanaka, V. M. Cabrera, A. M. González ''et al.'' (2004), "Mitochondrial Genome Variation in Eastern Asia and the Peopling of Japan"</ref><ref name = "Uchiyama2007">{{cite journal | last1 = Uchiyama | first1 = Taketo | last2 = Hisazumi | first2 = Rinnosuke | last3 = Shimizu | first3 = Kenshi | display-authors = 3 | last4 = et al | year = 2007 | title = Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Variation and Phylogenetic Analysis in Japanese Individuals from Miyazaki Prefecture | url = | journal = Japanese Journal of Forensic Science and Technology | volume = 12 | issue = 1| pages = 83–96 | doi=10.3408/jafst.12.83}}</ref>

A recent reevaluation of cranial traits suggests that the Ainu resemble the Okhotsk more than they do the Jōmon.<ref name="Shigematsu2004">{{cite journal | last = Shigematsu | first = Masahito | year = 2004 | title = Morphological affinities between Jomon and Ainu: Reassessment based on nonmetric cranial traits | journal = Anthropological Science | volume = 112 | issue = 2 | pages = 161–172 | doi = 10.1537/ase.00092 | url = | quote = |display-authors=etal}}</ref> This agrees with the reference to the Ainu being a merger of Okhotsk and Satsumon referenced above.

==Geography==
[[File:Historical expanse of the Ainu.svg|250px|thumb|right|Historical expanse of Ainu]]
The Ainu were distributed in the northern and central islands of Japan, from Sakhalin island in the north to the Kuril islands and the island of Hokkaido and Northern Honshū, although some investigators place their former range as throughout Honshū and as far north as the southern tip of the [[Kamchatka Peninsula]] in what is now [[Cape Lopatka]]. The island of Hokkaido was known to the Ainu as Ainu Moshir, and was formally annexed by the Japanese at the late date of 1868, partly as a means of preventing the intrusion of the Russians, and partly for imperialist reasons.

[[File:V.M. Doroshevich-Sakhalin. Part II. Group of Ainu People.png|thumb|left|A group of Sakhalin Ainu c.&nbsp;1903]]
According to the [[Russian Empire Census]] of 1897, 1,446 persons in the Russian Empire reported Ainu language as their mother tongue, 1,434 of them in Sakhalin Island.<ref>[http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_lan_97.php?reg=o Russian Empire Census of 1897: Totals]
[http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_lan_97.php?reg=113 Russian Empire Census of 1897: Sakhalin] {{ru icon}}</ref>

The southern half of Sakhalin was acquired by Japan as a result of the [[Russo-Japanese War]] of 1904–05, but at the end of World War II in 1945, the Soviets [[Soviet invasion of Manchuria (1945)|declared war on Japan]] and took possession of the Kuril islands and southern Sakhalin. The Ainu population, as previously Japanese subjects, were "repatriated" to Japan.

During Tsarist times, the Ainu living in Russia were forbidden from identifying themselves as such, since Imperial Japanese officials claimed that all the regions inhabited by the Ainu in the past or present belonged to Japan. The terms "Kurile", "Kamchatka Kurile", etc., were used to identify the ethnic group. During Soviet times, people with Ainu surnames were sent to gulags and labor camps, as they were often mistaken for Japanese. As a result, large numbers of Ainu changed their surnames to Slavic ones. After World War II, most of the Ainu living in Sakhalin were deported to Japan. Of the 1,159 Ainu, only around 100 remained in Russia. Of those who remained, only the elderly were full-blooded Ainu. Others were either mixed race or married to ethnic Russians. The last of the Ainu households disappeared in the late 1960s, when Yamanaka Kitaro committed suicide after the death of his wife. The couple was childless.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.agesmystery.ru/node/630|title=У последней черты – Айны о себе - Тайны веков|work=agesmystery.ru}}</ref> To eradicate Ainu identity, Soviet authorities removed the ethnic group from the list of nationalities which could be mentioned in a Soviet passport. Due to this, children born after 1945 were not able to identify themselves as Ainu. The last known deportation of Ainu to Japan occurred in 1982, when Keizo Nakamura, a full blooded Northern Kuril Ainu, was deported to Hokkaido after serving 15 years' hard labor in the province of [[Magadan Oblast|Magadan]]. His wife, Tamara Timofeevna Pikhteevoi, was of mixed Sakhalin Ainu and Gilyak ancestry. After the arrest of Keizo in 1967, Tamara and her son Alexei Nakamura were expelled from Kamchatka Krai and sent to the island of Sakhalin, to live in the city of [[Tomari, Russia|Tomari]].
[[File:Ainus.jpg|thumb|upright|Ainus on a [[Matsumae clan|Matsumae]] border customs, 18th century]]
Unlike the other Ainu clans currently living in Russia, there is considerable doubt whether the Nakamura clan of Kamchatka should be identified as Northern Kuril Ainu, Southern Kuril Ainu or as Kamchatka Ainu. This is due to the fact that the clan originally immigrated to Kamchatka from [[Kunashir]] in 1789. The Ainu of Kunashir are South Kuril Ainu. They settled down near [[Kurile Lake]], which was inhabited by the Kamchatka Ainu and North Kuril Ainu. In 1929 the Ainu of [[Kurile Lake]] fled to the island of [[Paramushir]] after an armed conflict with the Soviet authorities. At that time, Paramushir was under Japanese rule. During the [[Invasion of the Kuril Islands]], Akira Nakamura (b.&nbsp;1897) was captured by the Soviet army and his elder son Takeshi Nakamura (1925–45) was killed in the battle. Akira's only surviving son, Keizo (b.&nbsp;1927), was taken prisoner and joined the Soviet Army after his capture. After the war, Keizo went to [[Korsakov (town)|Korsakov]] to work in the local harbor. In 1963 he married Tamara Pikhtivoi, a member of the Sakhalin Ainu tribe. Their only child Alexei was born in 1964. The descendants of Tamara and Alexei are found in Kamchatka and Sakhalin.

In 1979 the USSR removed the term "Ainu" from the list of ''living'' ethnic groups of Russia, an act by which the government proclaimed that the Ainu as an ethnic group were extinct in its territory. According to the 2002 Russian Federation census, no responders gave the ethnonym Ainu in boxes 7 or 9.2 in the K-1 form of the census,<ref>[http://www.perepis2002.ru/ct/doc/English/4-2.xls 4.2. NATIONAL COMPOSITION OF POPULATION FOR REGIONS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION]</ref><ref>[http://www.perepis2002.ru/ct/doc/English/4-3.xls 4.3 POPULATION BY NATIONALITIES AND KNOWLEDGE OF RUSSIAN]</ref><ref>[http://www.perepis2002.ru/index.html?id=87 Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> though some still might exist. During the 2010 Census of Russia, the authorities rejected the claim from a group of mostly mixed race Ainu living in Kamchatka that they were not extinct.{{citation needed|date=June 2012}}

The only Ainu speakers remaining (besides perhaps a few partial speakers) live solely in Japan. There, they are concentrated primarily on the southern and eastern coasts of the island of Hokkaido.

Due to intermarriage with the Japanese and ongoing absorption into the predominant culture, there are no truly Ainu settlements existing in Japan today. The town of [[Nibutani]] ([[Ainu language|Ainu]]: ''Niputay'') in Hidaka area (Hokkaido prefecture) has a number of Ainu households and a visit to some of the Ainu owned craft shops close to the Ainu museums (there are two of them in Nibutani) is an opportunity to interact with the Ainu people. Many "authentic Ainu villages" advertised in Hokkaido such as [[Akan, Hokkaido|Akan]] and [[Shiraoi, Hokkaido|Shiraoi]] are tourist attractions and provide an opportunity to see and meet Ainu people.

==Language==
{{Main|Ainu languages}}
Today, it is estimated that fewer than 100 speakers of the language remain,<ref>Hohmann, S. 2008, "The Ainu's modern struggle" in ''World Watch'', Vol 21., No. 6, pp. 20–24.</ref> while other research places the number at fewer than 15 speakers. The language has been classified as “endangered”.<ref>[[Alexander Vovin|Vovin, A.]] 1993, ''A Reconstruction of Proto-Ainu'', Brill, p. 3</ref> As a result of this the study of the Ainu language is limited and is based largely on historical research.

Although there have been attempts to show that the Ainu language and the Japanese language are related, modern scholars have rejected that the relationship goes beyond contact, such as the mutual borrowing of words between Japanese and Ainu. In fact, no attempt to show a relationship with Ainu to any other language has gained wide acceptance, and Ainu is currently considered to be a [[language isolate]].<ref name=shibatani />

Words used as prepositions in English (such as to, from, by, in, and at) are postpositional in Ainu; they come after the word that they modify. A single sentence in Ainu can be made up of many added or [[agglutinate]]d sounds or affixes that represent nouns or ideas.

The Ainu language has had no system of writing, and has historically been transliterated by the Japanese [[kana]] or [[Russian alphabet|Russian Cyrillic]]. Today, it is typically written in either [[katakana]] or [[Latin alphabet]]. The unwieldy nature of the Japanese kana with its inability to accurately represent [[syllable coda|coda]] consonants has contributed to the degradation of the original Ainu. For example, some words, such as ''Kor'' (meaning "to hold"), are now pronounced with a terminal vowel sound, as in ''Koro''.

Many of the Ainu dialects, even from one end of Hokkaido to the other, were not mutually intelligible; however, the classic Ainu language of the [[Yukar]], or Ainu epic stories, was understood by all. Without a writing system, the Ainu were masters of narration, with the Yukar and other forms of narration such as the [[Uepeker tales|Uepeker]] (Uwepeker) tales, being committed to memory and related at gatherings, often lasting many hours or even days.<ref>Omniglot, 2009, "Ainu", retrieved August 2, 2009, http://www.omniglot.com/writing/ainu.htm</ref><!--ethnologue data is incorrect; see [[ainu language]]-->

==Culture==
{{unreferenced section|date=May 2013}}
{{Expand Japanese|アイヌ文化|date=June 2012}}
{{Main|Ainu cuisine|Ainu music|Yukar|}}
[[File:Woman playing traditional Ainu instrument.jpg|thumb|Woman playing a tonkori]]
[[File:Ainu ceremonial dress.jpg|thumb|Ainu ceremonial dress. [[British Museum]].]]
Traditional Ainu culture was quite different from [[Culture of Japan|Japanese culture]]. Never shaving after a certain age, the men had full [[beard]]s and [[moustache]]s. Men and women alike cut their hair level with the shoulders at the sides of the head, trimmed semicircularly behind. The women [[tattoo]]ed their mouths, and sometimes the [[forearm]]s. The mouth tattoos were started at a young age with a small spot on the upper lip, gradually increasing with size. The soot deposited on a pot hung over a fire of birch bark was used for color. Their traditional [[Clothing|dress]] was a robe spun from the inner bark of the [[elm]] tree, called attusi or attush. Various styles were made, and consisted generally of a simple short robe with straight sleeves, which was folded around the body, and tied with a band about the waist. The sleeves ended at the wrist or forearm and the length generally was to the calves. Women also wore an undergarment of Japanese cloth.

Modern craftswomen weave and embroider traditional garments that command very high prices. In winter the skins of animals were worn, with leggings of deerskin and in Sakhalin, boots were made from the skin of dogs or [[salmon]]. {{Citation needed|date=May 2013}} Both sexes are fond of earrings, which are said to have been made of grapevine in former times, as also are bead necklaces called [[tamasay]], which the women prized highly.

Their traditional cuisine consists of the flesh of [[bear meat|bear]], fox, [[wolf]], [[badger]], [[ox]], or [[horse meat|horse]], as well as fish, [[fowl]], [[millet]], vegetables, herbs, and [[root]]s. They never ate raw fish or flesh; it was always boiled or roasted.

Their traditional habitations were reed-thatched huts, the largest {{convert|20|ft|0|abbr=on}} square, without partitions and having a fireplace in the center. There was no chimney, only a hole at the angle of the roof; there was one window on the eastern side and there were two doors. The house of the village head was used as a public meeting place when one was needed.

Instead of using furniture, they sat on the floor, which was covered with two layers of mats, one of rush, the other of a water plant with long sword shaped leaves ([[iris pseudacorus]], whose English names include "water-flag"); and for beds they spread planks, hanging mats around them on poles, and employing skins for coverlets. The men used [[chopstick]]s when eating; the women had wooden [[spoon]]s. [[Ainu cuisine]] is not commonly eaten outside Ainu communities; there are only a few Ainu-run restaurants in Japan, all located in Tokyo or Hokkaido, serving primarily Japanese fare.

The functions of judgeship were not entrusted to chiefs; an indefinite number of a community's members sat in judgment upon its criminals. Capital punishment did not exist, nor did the community resort to imprisonment. [[Corporal punishment|Beating]] was considered a sufficient and final penalty. However, in the case of murder, the nose and ears of the culprit were cut off or the [[Hamstringing|tendons of his feet severed]].

==Hunting==
{{unreferenced section|date=May 2013}}
[[File:Brooklyn Museum - Local Customs of the Ainu.jpg|thumb|Bear hunting, 19th century]]
The Ainu hunted from late autumn to early summer. The reasons for this were, among others, that in late autumn, [[plant gathering]], salmon fishing and other activities of securing food came to an end, and hunters readily found game in fields and mountains in which plants had withered. A village possessed a hunting ground of its own or several villages used a joint hunting territory (iwor). Heavy penalties were imposed on any outsiders trespassing on such hunting grounds or joint hunting territory. The Ainu hunted bear, Ezo deer (a subspecies of [[sika deer]]), rabbit, fox, [[raccoon dog]], and other animals. Ezo deer were a particularly important food resource for the Ainu as were [[salmon]]. They also hunted [[sea eagle]]s such as [[white-tailed sea eagle]]s, [[raven]] and other birds. The Ainu hunted eagles to obtain their tail feathers, which they used in trade with the Japanese. The Ainu hunted with [[arrow]]s and [[spear]]s with poison-coated points. They obtained the [[poison]], called ''[[surku]]'', from the roots and stalks of [[aconitum|aconites]]. The recipe for this poison was a household secret that differed from family to family. They enhanced the poison with mixtures of roots and stalks of dog's bane, boiled juice of Mekuragumo, Matsumomushi, tobacco, and other ingredients. They also used stingray stingers or skin covering stingers. They hunted in groups with dogs. Before the Ainu went hunting, for animals like bear in particular, they prayed to the [[Kamuy Fuchi|god of fire]] and the house guardian god to convey their wishes for a large catch, and safe hunting to the god of mountains.

The Ainu usually hunted bear during the time of the spring thaw. At that time bears were weak because they had not fed at all during long hibernation. Ainu hunters caught hibernating bears or bears that had just left hibernation dens. When they hunted bear in summer, they used a spring trap loaded with an arrow, called an ''amappo''. The Ainu usually used arrows to hunt deer. Also they often used traps, including spring traps loaded with arrows. Also, they drove deer into a river or sea and shot them with arrows. For a large catch, a whole village would drive a herd of deer off a cliff and club them to death.

==Religion==
{{Expand Japanese|アイヌ文化#.E5.AE.97.E6.95.99|date=June 2012}}
{{Further2|[[Ainu creation myth]]|[[Koshintō]]}}
{{category see also|Ainu mythology}}
[[File:Iomante2.JPG|thumb|Ainu traditional ceremony, circa 1930]]
The Ainu are traditionally [[animists]], believing that everything in nature has a ''[[kamuy]]'' (spirit or god) on the inside. The most important include [[Kamuy Fuchi]], goddess of the hearth, [[Kim-un Kamuy]], god of bears and mountains, and [[Repun Kamuy]], god of the sea, fishing, and marine animals.

The Ainu have no priests by profession; instead the village chief performs whatever religious ceremonies are necessary. Ceremonies are confined to making [[libation]]s of [[sake]], uttering [[prayers]], and offering [[willow]] sticks with wooden shavings attached to them. These sticks are called ''[[inaw]]'' (singular) and ''nusa'' (plural).

They are placed on an altar used to "send back" the spirits of killed animals. Ainu ceremonies for sending back bears are called ''[[Iomante]]''. The Ainu people give thanks to the gods before eating and pray to the deity of fire in time of [[Illness|sickness]]. They believe their spirits are [[Immortality|immortal]], and that their spirits will be rewarded hereafter by ascending to ''kamui mosir'' (Land of the Gods).

The Ainu are part of a larger collective of indigenous people who practice 'arctolatry' or [[bear worship]]. The Ainu believe the bear is very special because they think the bear is Kim-un Kamuy's way of delivering the gift of bear hide and meat to the humans.

Ainu assimilated into mainstream Japanese society have adopted [[Buddhism in Japan|Buddhism]] with [[Shinto]] influences, while some northern Ainu are members of the [[Russian Orthodox Church]].

==Ornaments==
{{unreferenced section|date=August 2012}}
Men wore a [[crown (headgear)|crown]] called "sapanpe" for important ceremonies. Sapanpe was made from wood fiber with bundles of partially shaved wood. This crown had wooden figures of animal gods and other ornaments on its center. Men carried an ''emush'' (sword) secured by an "emush at" strap to their shoulders.

Women wore ''matanpushi'', embroidered headbands, and ''ninkari'', earrings. ''Ninkari'' was a metal ring with a ball. Women wore it through a hole in the ear. ''Matanpushi'' and ''ninkari'' were originally worn by men. However, women wear them now. Furthermore, aprons called ''maidari'' now are a part of women's formal clothes. However, some old documents say that men wore ''maidari''.<ref name="Service2006">{{cite book|author=Social Studies School Service|title=Ancient Japan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6z1vkF0xzHcC&pg=PA39&lpg=PA39&dq=matanpushi&source=bl&ots=4WRV4Z7Bl4&sig=mgoZt6KADzmtq-5k7WDvcnz5za8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=vSBOU6TeBdGKyASr0YDIDQ&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=matanpushi&f=false|date=1 January 2006|publisher=Social Studies|isbn=978-1-56004-256-3|pages=39–}}</ref>{{better source|date=April 2014}} Women sometimes wore a bracelet called ''tekunkani''.{{citation needed|date=April 2014}}

Women wore a necklace called ''rekutunpe'', a long, narrow strip of cloth with metal plaques.<ref name="Service2006"/> They wore a necklace that reached the breast called a ''[[tamasay]]'' or ''shitoki'', usually made from glass balls. Some glass balls came from trade with the Asian continent. The Ainu also obtained glass balls secretly made by the Matsumae Clan.{{citation needed|date=April 2014}}

==Housing==
{{Expand Japanese|チセ|date=December 2012}}
[[File:PSM V33 D514 Ainu houses.jpg|thumb|Ainu houses (from ''Popular Science Monthly Volume 33'', 1888)]]
[[File:PSM V33 D517 Plan of an ainu house.jpg|thumb|Plan of an Ainu house]]
[[File:Ainu traditional house”cise”3.jpg|thumb|The family would gather around the fireplace]]
A village is called a ''kotan'' in the Ainu language. Kotan were located in river basins and seashores where food was readily available, particularly in the basins of rivers through which salmon went upstream. A village consisted basically of a paternal [[clan]]. The average number of families was four to seven, rarely reaching more than ten. In the early modern times, the Ainu people were forced to labor at the fishing grounds of the Japanese. Ainu kotan were also forced to move near fishing grounds so that the Japanese could secure a labor force. When the Japanese moved to other fishing grounds, Ainu kotan were also forced to accompany them. As a result, the traditional kotan disappeared and large villages of several dozen families were formed around the fishing grounds.

''Cise'' or ''cisey'' (houses) in a kotan were made of [[cogon grasses]], [[bamboo grass]], [[bark]]s, etc. The length lay east to west or parallel to a river. A house was about seven meters by five with an entrance at the west end that also served as a storeroom. The house had three windows, including the "rorun-puyar," a window located on the side facing the entrance (at the east side), through which gods entered and left and ceremonial tools were taken in and out. The Ainu have regarded this window as sacred and have been told never to look in through it. A house had a fireplace near the entrance. The husband and wife sat on the fireplace's left side (called ''shiso'') . Children and guests sat facing them on the fireplace's right side (called ''harkiso''). The house had a platform for valuables called ''iyoykir'' behind the shiso. The Ainu placed ''shintoko'' (hokai) and ''ikayop'' (quivers) there.

Outbuildings included separate lavatories for men called ''ashinru'' and for women called ''menokoru'', a ''pu'' (storehouse) for food, a "heper set" (cage for young bear), and drying-racks for fish and wild plants. An altar (''nusasan'') faced the east side of the house (''rorunpuyar''). The Ainu held such ceremonies there as ''[[Iyomante]]'', a ceremony to send the spirit of a bear to the gods.

==Life of Ainu==
{{unreferenced section|date=May 2013}}
The Ainu people had various types of marriage. A child was promised in marriage by arrangement between his or her parents and the parents of his or her betrothed or by a go-between. When the betrothed reached a marriageable age, they were told who their spouse was to be. There were also marriages based on mutual consent of both sexes. In some areas, when a daughter reached a marriageable age, her parents let her live in a small room called ''tunpu'' annexed to the southern wall of her house. The parents chose her spouse from men who visited her.

The age of marriage was 17 to 18 years of age for men and 15 to 16 years of age for women, who were [[tattoo]]ed. At these ages, both sexes were regarded as adults.

When a man proposed to a woman, he visited her house, ate half a full bowl of rice handed to him by her, and returned the rest to her. If the woman ate the rest, she accepted his proposal. If she did not and put it beside her, she rejected his proposal. When a man became engaged to a woman or they learned that their engagement had been arranged, they exchanged gifts with each other. He sent her a small engraved knife, a workbox, a spool, and other gifts. She sent him embroidered clothes, coverings for the back of the hand, Ieggings, and other handmade clothes. According to some books, many ''yomeiri'' marriages, in which a bride went to the house of a bridegroom with her belongings to become a member of his family, were conducted in the old days.

For a ''yomeiri'' marriage, a man and his father would bring betrothal gifts to the house of a woman, including a sword, a treasured sword, an ornamental quiver, a sword guard, and a woven basket (''hokai''). If the man and woman agreed to marry, the man and his father would bring her to their house or the man would stay at her house for a while and then bring her to his house. At the wedding ceremony, participants prayed to the god of fire. Bride and bridegroom respectively ate half of the rice served in a bowl, and other participants were entertained.

The worn-out fabric of old clothing was used for baby clothes because soft cloth was good for the skin of babies and worn-out material protected babies from gods of illness and demons due to these gods' abhorrence of dirty things. Before a baby was breast-fed, he/she was given a decoction of the endodermis of [[alder]] and the roots of butterburs to discharge impurities. Children were raised almost naked until about the ages of four to five. Even when they wore clothes, they did not wear belts and left the front of their clothes open. Subsequently they wore bark clothes without patterns, such as ''attush'', until coming of age.

Newborn babies were named ''ayay'' (a baby's crying), ''shipo'', ''poyshi'' (small excrement), ''shion'' (old excrement), etc. Children were called by these "temporary" names until the ages of two to three. They were not given permanent names when they were born. Their tentative names had a portion meaning "excrement" or "old things" to ward off the demon of ill-health. Some children were named based on their behavior or habits. Other children were named after impressive events or after parents' wishes for the future of the children. When children were named, they were never given the same names as others.

Men wore [[loincloth]]s and had their hair dressed properly for the first time at age 15–16. Women were also considered adults at the age of 15–16. They wore underclothes called ''mour'' and had their hair dressed properly and wound [[waistcloth]]s called ''raunkut'', ''ponkut'', etc. around their bodies. When women reached age 12–13, the lips, hands and arms were tattooed. When they reached age 15–16, their tattoos were completed. Thus were they qualified for marriage.

==Institutions==
[[File:Ainu promotion center, Sapporo.JPG|thumb|Ainu cultural promotion center and museum, in [[Sapporo]] (Sapporo Pirka Kotan)]]

Most Hokkaido Ainu and some other Ainu are members of an umbrella group called the [[Hokkaido Utari Association]]. It was originally controlled by the government to speed Ainu assimilation and integration into the Japanese [[nation-state]]. It now is run exclusively by Ainu and operates mostly independently of the government.

Other key institutions include ''The Foundation for Research and Promotion of Ainu Culture (FRPAC)'', set up by the Japanese government after enactment of the Ainu Culture Law in 1997, the [http://www.cais.hokudai.ac.jp/english/ Hokkaido University Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies] established in 2007, as well as museums and cultural centers. Ainu people living in Tokyo have also developed a vibrant political and cultural community.<ref>Links to these organizations needed, also Tokyo Ainu documentary, http://www.2kamuymintara.com/film/eng/top.htm, and http://www.2kamuymintara.com/film/groups.htm has links to Tokyo area Ainu groups.</ref>

==Current affairs==

===Litigation===
On March 27, 1997, the Sapporo District Court decided a landmark case that, for the first time in Japanese history, recognized the right of the Ainu people to enjoy their distinct culture and traditions. The case arose because of a 1978 government plan to build two dams in the [[Saru River]] watershed in southern Hokkaido. The dams were part of a series of development projects under the Second National Development Plan that were intended to industrialize the north of Japan.<ref>Mark A. Levin, [http://ssrn.com/abstract=1635451 Essential Commodities and Racial Justice: Using Constitutional Protection of Japan’s Indigenous Ainu People to Inform Understandings of the United States and Japan], New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, Vol. 33, pp. 445–46, 2001</ref> The planned location for one of the dams was across the valley floor close to [[Nibutani]] village,<ref>Levin, Mark (trans.), Kayano et al. v. Hokkaido Expropriation Committee: ‘The Nibutani Dam Decision’ (1999). International Legal Materials, Vol. 38, p. 394, 1999. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1635447 p. 11</ref> the home of a large community of Ainu people and an important center of Ainu culture and history.{{sfn|Levin|2001|pages=419, 447}} In the early 1980s when the government commenced construction on the dam, two Ainu landowners refused to agree to the expropriation of their land. These landowners were Kaizawa Tadashi and [[Shigeru Kayano|Kayano Shigeru]]—well-known and important leaders in the Ainu community.{{sfn|Levin|2001|page=443}} After Kaizawa and Kayano declined to sell their land, the Hokkaido Development Bureau applied for and was subsequently granted a Project Authorization, which required the men to vacate their land. When their appeal of the Authorization was denied, Kayano and Kaizawa's son Koichii (Kaizawa died in 1992), filed suit against the Hokkaido Development Bureau.

The final decision denied the relief sought by the plaintiffs for pragmatic reasons—the dam was already standing—but the decision was nonetheless heralded as a landmark victory for the Ainu people. In short, nearly all of the plaintiffs' claims were recognized. Moreover, the decision marked the first time Japanese case law acknowledged the Ainu as an indigenous people and contemplated the responsibility of the Japanese nation to the indigenous people within its borders.<ref>[http://ssrn.com/abstract=1635447 Nibutani Dam Decision (Levin trans.)]; see also [http://ssrn.com/abstract=1635451 Idem.], p. 442</ref> The decision included broad fact-finding that underscored the long history of the oppression of the Ainu people by Japan's majority, referred to as Wajin in the case and discussions about the case.<ref>[http://ssrn.com/abstract=1635447 Nibutani Dam Decision (Levin trans.)]; see also Mark A. Levin, [http://ssrn.com/abstract=1551462 The Wajin’s Whiteness: Law and Race Privilege in Japan], Horitsu Jiho, Vol. 80, No. 2, 2008</ref> The legal roots of the decision can be found in Article 13 of Japan's Constitution, which protects the rights of the individual, and in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.<ref name="japan_con">{{cite web |title=Constitution of Japan |url=http://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Japan/English/english-Constitution.html |publisher=Solon.org |postscript=<!-- Bot inserted parameter. Either remove it; or change its value to "." for the cite to end in a ".", as necessary. -->{{inconsistent citations}} }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |title=International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights |url=http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/ccpr.htm |publisher=Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights |postscript=<!-- Bot inserted parameter. Either remove it; or change its value to "." for the cite to end in a ".", as necessary. -->{{inconsistent citations}} }}</ref> The decision was issued on March 27, 1997, and because of the broad implications for Ainu rights, the plaintiffs decided not to appeal the decision, which became final two weeks later. After the decision was issued, on May 8, 1997, the Diet passed the Ainu Culture Law and repealed the Ainu Protection Act—the 1899 law that had been the vehicle of Ainu oppression for almost one hundred years.<ref name="ainushinpou">{{cite journal|last=Yoshida Hitchingham|first=Masako|title="Act for the Promotion of Ainu Culture and Dissemination of Knowledge Regarding Ainu Traditions" – A Translation of the Ainu Shinpou|journal=[[Asian–Pacific Law & Policy Journal]]|volume=1|issue=1|year=2000|url=http://blog.hawaii.edu/aplpj/files/2011/11/APLPJ_01.1_hitchingham_masako.pdf|accessdate=2012-06-20|format=PDF}}<br />The law’s original Japanese text is available at [[:ja:s:アイヌ文化の振興並びにアイヌの伝統等に関する知識の普及及び啓発に関する法律|Wikisource]].</ref> {{sfn|Levin|2001|page=467}} While the Ainu Culture Law has been widely criticized for its shortcomings, the shift that it represents in Japan's view of the Ainu people is a testament to the importance of the Nibutani decision. In 2007 the 'Cultural Landscape along the [[Saru River|Sarugawa River]] resulting from Ainu Tradition and Modern Settlement' was designated an [[Cultural Landscapes of Japan|Important Cultural Landscape]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails.asp?register_id=412&item_id=00003550|title=Database of Registered National Cultural Properties|publisher=[[Agency for Cultural Affairs]]|accessdate=April 29, 2011}}</ref> A later action seeking restoration of Ainu assets held in trust by the Japanese Government was dismissed in 2008.<ref>Citation to Levin and Tsunemoto in Oklahoma Law Review</ref>

===Governmental advisory boards===
Much national policy in Japan has been developed out of the action of governmental advisory boards, known as {{Nihongo4||審議会|shingikai}} in Japanese. One such committee operated in the late 1990s,<ref name="Citation to Siddle's book">Citation to Siddle's book</ref> and its work resulted in the 1997 Ainu Culture Law.<ref name="ainushinpou" /> This panel's circumstances were criticized for including not even a single Ainu person among its members.<ref name="Citation to Siddle's book"/>

More recently, a panel was established in 2006, which notably was the first time an Ainu person was included. It completed its work in 2008 issuing a major report that included an extensive historical record and called for substantial government policy changes towards the Ainu.{{Citation needed|date=February 2011}}

===Formation of Ainu political party===
The {{Nihongo4|[[Ainu Party]]|アイヌ民族党|Ainu minzoku tō}} was founded on January 21, 2012,<ref>[http://www.ainu-org.jp/english/index.html Ainu Party] {{wayback|url=http://www.ainu-org.jp/english/index.html |date=20130710182919 }}</ref> after a group of Ainu activists in Hokkaido announced the formation of a political party for the Ainu on October 30, 2011. The Ainu Association of Hokkaido reported that Kayano Shiro, the son of the former Ainu leader Kayano Shigeru, will head the party. Their aim is to contribute to the realization of a [[Multiculturalism|multicultural]] and [[Polyethnicity|multiethnic]] society in Japan, along with rights for the Ainu.<ref>[http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111031a5.html] {{wayback|url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111031a5.html |date=20120427092145 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.asahi.com/national/update/1029/TKY201110290538.html] {{wayback|url=http://www.asahi.com/national/update/1029/TKY201110290538.html |date=20120709010224 }}</ref>

==Subgroups==
{{See also|Ainu in Russia}}
[[File:AinuSan.jpg|thumb|People wearing traditional Ainu clothes in Hokkaido]]
[[File:Sakhalin ainu men II.jpg|thumb|Sakhalin Ainu men, photographed by [[Bronisław Piłsudski]].]]
[[File:Kuril Ainu dwelling.jpg|thumb|[[Kuril Islands|Kuril]] Ainu people in front of the traditional dwelling.]]
* [[Hokkaido]] Ainu (the predominant community of Ainu in the world today) – A Japanese census in 1916 returned 13,557 pure-blooded Ainu in addition to 4,550 multiracial individuals.<ref>{{Cite journal | url = https://books.google.com/?id=30pCDsKgM08C&pg=PA92 | title = Race, resistance and the Ainu of Japan | isbn = 978-0-415-13228-2 | author1 = Siddle | first1 = Richard | year = 1996}}</ref>
* Tokyo Ainu (a modern age migration of Hokkaido Ainu highlighted in a documentary film released in 2010, http://www.2kamuymintara.com/film/eng/top.htm)
* Tohoku Ainu (from Honshū, no officially acknowledged population exists) – 43 Ainu households scattered throughout the Tohoku region were reported during the 17th century.<ref>{{cite book| author = 本多勝一| title = Harukor: An Ainu Woman's Tale| url = https://books.google.com/?id=PhVpRXZlw9UC&pg=PA7| year = 2000| publisher = University of California Press| isbn = 978-0-520-21020-2| page = 7 }}</ref> There are people who consider themselves descendants of Shimokita Ainu on the [[Shimokita Peninsula]], while the people on the [[Tsugaru Peninsula]] are generally considered Yamato but may be descendants of Tsugaru Ainu after cultural assimilation.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.juen.ac.jp/shakai/kawanisi/research/touhoku/touhoku_6.html |title=Ⅵ 〈東北〉史の意味と射程 |language=Japanese |publisher=[[Joetsu University of Education]] |accessdate=March 2, 2011 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722071748/http://www.juen.ac.jp/shakai/kawanisi/research/touhoku/touhoku_6.html |archivedate=22 July 2011 }}</ref>
* [[Sakhalin]] Ainu – Pure-blooded individuals may be surviving in Hokkaido. From both Northern and Southern [[Sakhalin]], a total of 841 Ainu were relocated to Hokkaido in 1875 by Japan. Only a few in remote interior areas remained, as the island was turned over to Russia. Even when Japan was granted Southern Sakhalin in 1905, only a handful returned. The Japanese census of 1905 counted only 120 Sakhalin Ainu (down from 841 in 1875, 93 in Karafuto and 27 in Hokkaido). The Soviet census of 1926 counted 5 Ainu, while several of their multiracial children were recorded as ethnic Nivkh, Slav or Uilta.
** North Sakhalin – Only 5 pure-blooded individuals were recorded during the 1926 Soviet Census in Northern Sakhalin. Most of the Sakhalin Ainu (mainly from coastal areas) were relocated to Hokkaido in 1875 by Japan. The few that remained (mainly in the remote interior) were mostly married to Russians as can be seen from the works of [[Bronisław Piłsudski]].<ref name = "howell2005">{{cite book| author = David L. Howell| title = Geographies of Identity in 19th Century Japan| url = https://books.google.com/?id=0prtzCvKb50C&pg=PA187| year = 2005| publisher = University of California Press| isbn = 978-0-520-24085-8| page = 187 }}</ref>
** Southern Sakhalin ([[Karafuto]]) – Japanese rule until 1945. Japan evacuated almost all the Ainu to Hokkaido after World War II. Isolated individuals might have remained on Sakhalin.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_nac_26.php?reg=1420|title=Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей.|work=demoscope.ru}}</ref> In 1949, there were about 100 Ainu living on Soviet Sakhalin.<ref name = "wurm">{{cite book| author = Stephen Adolphe Wurm|author2=Peter Mühlhäusler|author3=Darrell T. Tyron| title = Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas: Maps| url = https://books.google.com/?id=glU0vte5gSkC&pg=PA1010| year = 1996| publisher = Walter de Gruyter| isbn = 978-3-11-013417-9| page = 1010 }}</ref>
* Northern Kuril Ainu (no known living population in Japan, existence [[Ainu people#Official recognition in Russia|not recognized]] by Russian government in Kamchatka Krai) – Also known as Kurile in Russian records. Were under Russian rule until 1875. First came under Japanese rule after the [[Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875)]]. Major population was on the island of [[Shumshu]], with a few others on islands like [[Paramushir]]. Altogether they numbered 221 in 1860. They had Russian names, spoke Russian fluently and were [[Russian Orthodox]] in religion. As the islands were given to the Japanese, more than a hundred Ainu fled to Kamchatka along with their Russian employers (where they were assimilated into the [[Kamchadal]] population).<ref name="wurm"/><ref>{{cite book| author = Sharon Minichiello| title = Japan's Competing Modernities: Issues in Culture and Democracy, 1900-1930| url = https://books.google.com/?id=-I_pId0AuhIC&pg=PA163| year = 1998| publisher = University of Hawaii Press| isbn = 978-0-8248-2080-0| page = 163 }}</ref> Only about half remained under Japanese rule. In order to [[Russification|derussify]] the Kurile, the entire population of 97 individuals was relocated to [[Shikotan]] in 1884, given Japanese names, and the children were enrolled in Japanese schools. Unlike the other Ainu groups, the Kurile failed to adjust to their new surroundings and by 1933 only 10 individuals were alive (plus another 34 multiracial individuals). The last group of 20 individuals (including a few pure-bloods) were evacuated to Hokkaido in 1941, where they vanished as a separate ethnic group soon after.<ref name="howell2005"/>
* Southern Kuril Ainu (no known living population) – Numbered almost 2,000 people (mainly in [[Kunashir]], [[Iturup]] and [[Urup]]) during the 18th century. In 1884, their population had decreased to 500. Around 50 individuals (mostly multiracial) who remained in 1941 were evacuated to Hokkaido by the Japanese soon after World War II.<ref name="wurm"/> The last full-blooded Southern Kuril Ainu was Suyama Nisaku, who died in 1956.<ref name="uwspace.uwaterloo.ca">http://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/10012/2765/1/Scott%20Harrison_GSO_Thesis.pdf</ref> The last of the tribe (partial ancestry), Tanaka Kinu, died on Hokkaido in 1973.<ref name="uwspace.uwaterloo.ca"/>
* Kamchatka Ainu (no known living population) – Known as Kamchatka Kurile in Russian records. Ceased to exist as a separate ethnic group after their defeat in 1706 by the Russians. Individuals were assimilated into the Kurile and [[Kamchadal]] ethnic groups. Last recorded in the 18th century by Russian explorers.<ref name=shibatani>{{cite book| author = Masayoshi Shibatani| title = The Languages of Japan| url = https://books.google.com/?id=sD-MFTUiPYgC&pg=PA3| date = 1990-05-03| publisher = Cambridge University Press| isbn = 978-0-521-36918-3| pages = 3–5 }}</ref>
* Amur Valley Ainu (probably none remain) – a few individuals married to ethnic Russians and ethnic Ulchi reported by Bronisław Piłsudski in the early 20th century.<ref>{{cite book| author = Bronisaw Pisudski|author2= Alfred F. Majewicz| title = Materials for the Study of the Ainu Language and Folklore 2: Volume 3: Materials for the Study of the Ainu Language and Folklore 2| url = https://books.google.com/?id=NX0W2N8pgWQC&pg=PA816| date = 2004-12-30| publisher = Walter de Gruyter| isbn = 978-3-11-017614-8| page = 816 }}</ref> Only 26 pure-blooded individuals were recorded during the 1926 Russian Census in Nikolaevski Okrug (present-day [[Nikolayevsky District, Khabarovsk Krai|Николаевский район]] Nikolaevskij Region/District).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_nac_26.php?reg=1410|title=Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей.|work=demoscope.ru}}</ref> Probably assimilated into the Slavic rural population. Although no one identifies as Ainu nowadays in [[Khabarovsk Krai]], there are a large number of [[Ulch people|ethnic Ulch]] with partial Ainu ancestry.<ref>Shaman: an international journal for Shamanistic research, Volumes 4–5 p.155</ref><ref>{{cite book| author = Bronisaw Pisudski|author2= Alfred F. Majewicz| title = Materials for the Study of the Ainu Language and Folklore 2: Volume 3: Materials for the Study of the Ainu Language and Folklore 2| url = https://books.google.com/?id=NX0W2N8pgWQC&pg=PA37| date = 2004-12-30| publisher = Walter de Gruyter| isbn = 978-3-11-017614-8| page = 37 }}</ref>

==See also==
{{portal|Ainu}}
{{organize section|date=September 2013}}
* [[Ainu in Russia]]
* [[Hokkaido (dog)|Ainu-ken]]
* [[Akira Ifukube]]
* [[Bibliography of the Ainu]]
* [[Bronisław Piłsudski]]
* [[Constitution of Japan]]
* [[Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples]]
* [[Emishi]]
** [[Aterui]]
* [[Ethnocide]]
* [[Hiram M. Hiller, Jr.]]
* [[Indigenous peoples]]
* [[Shigeru Kayano]]<!--Kayano is the family name-->
* [[Nibutani Dam]]

===Ainu culture===
* [[Yukar]]
* [[Matagi]]
* [[Ikupasuy]]
* [[Ainu music]]

===Ethnic groups in Japan===
* [[Ethnic issues in Japan]]
** [[Human rights in Japan#Minorities|Human rights in Japan]]
* [[Burakumin]]
* [[Ryukyuan people]]
** [[Ryūkyū independence movement]]
* [[Nivkhs]]
* [[Yamato people]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}
* [http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111031a5.html Japan Times. Ainu Plan Group for Upper House Run, October 31, 2011]{{dead link|date=March 2013}}

==Sources==
*{{cite journal |first1=Mark A. |last1=Levin |url=http://ssrn.com/abstract=1635451 |title=Essential Commodities and Racial Justice: Using Constitutional Protection of Japan’s Indigenous Ainu People to Inform Understandings of the United States and Japan |year=2001 |work=[[New York University Journal of International Law and Politics]] |volume=33 |pages=419, 447 |accessdate=May 11, 2015|ref=harv}}

==References and further reading==
{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Ainu}}
{{Refbegin|2}}
* {{Cite book |title=The Ainu and Their Folklore |last=Batchelor |first=John |authorlink=John Batchelor (missionary) |year=1901 |publisher=Religious Tract Society |location=London |isbn= |chapter=On the Ainu Term `Kamui }}
* {{Cite book |title=Ainu Folklore: Traditions and Culture of the Vanishing Aborigines of Japan |last=Etter |first=Carl |year=2004 |origyear=1949 |publisher=Kessinger Publishing |location=Whitfish, MT |isbn=1-4179-7697-7 }}
* {{Cite book |title=Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People |last=Fitzhugh |first=William W. |author2=Dubreuil, Chisato O. |year=1999 |publisher=University of Washington Press |location=Seattle |isbn=0-295-97912-7 |oclc=42801973 }}
* {{Cite book |title=Ainu Minzoku |author=Honda Katsuichi |year=1993 |publisher=Asahi Shimbun Publishing |location=Tokyo |isbn=4-02-256577-2 |language=Japanese |oclc=29601145 }}
* {{Cite book |title=Folk Religion in Japan: Continuity and Change |author=Ichiro Hori |year=1968 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |isbn= |series=Haskell lectures on History of religions |volume=1 }}
* {{Cite book |title=Ancient Jomon of Japan |author=Junko Habu |year=2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=0-521-77670-8 |oclc=53131386 }}
* Hitchingham, Masako Yoshida (trans.),[http://www.hawaii.edu/aplpj/articles/APLPJ_01.1_hitchingham_masako.pdf Act for the Promotion of Ainu Culture & Dissemination of Knowledge Regarding Ainu Traditions]{{dead link|date=March 2013}}, Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal, vol. 1, no. 1 (2000).
* Kayano, Shigeru (1994). ''Our Land Was A Forest: An Ainu Memoir''. Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-1880-7. ISBN 978-0-8133-1880-6.
* {{Cite book |title= Alone with the Hairy Ainu. Or, 3,800 miles on a Pack Saddle in Yezo and a Cruise to the Kurile Islands |last=[[Arnold Henry Savage Landor|Landor, A. Henry Savage]] |year=1893 |publisher= John Murray |location= London |isbn= }}
* Levin, Mark, Essential Commodities and Racial Justice: Using Constitutional Protection of Japan’s Indigenous Ainu People to Inform Understandings of the United States and Japan (2001). New York University of International Law and Politics, Vol. 33, p, 419, 2001 . Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1635451
* Levin, Mark (trans.), Kayano et al. v. Hokkaido Expropriation Committee: ‘The Nibutani Dam Decision’ (1999). International Legal Materials, Vol. 38, p.&nbsp;394, 1999. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1635447
* {{Cite book |title=Race, Resistance and the Ainu of Japan |last=Siddle |first=Richard |year=1996 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=0-415-13228-2 |oclc=243850790 33947034 }}
* {{Cite journal | last = Starr | first = Frederick | title = The Hairy Ainu of Japan | journal = Proceedings of the Second Yearly Meeting of the Iowa Anthropological Association | publisher = State Historical Society of Iowa | location = Iowa City | year = 1905 }}
* {{Cite book |title=The Conquest of Ainu Lands: Ecology and Culture in Japanese Expansion, 1590–1800 |last=Walker |first=Brett |year=2001 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=0-520-22736-0 |oclc=45958211 59471355 70749620 }}
* Article on the Ainu in ''Japan's Minorities: The Illusion of Homogeneity''.
* {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=ozSxvbcKb5oC|title=The Ainu and their folk-lore|year=1901|author=John Batchelor|publisher=Religious Tract Society|location=London|page=603|accessdate=March 1, 2012 }}(Harvard University)(Digitized Jan 24, 2006)
* {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=rcoNAAAAIAAJ|title=The Ainu of Japan: the religion, superstitions, and general history of the hairy aborigines of Japan|year=1892|author=John Batchelor|publisher=Religious Tract Society|location=London|page=336|accessdate=March 1, 2012 }}
* {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=7-u-KkE5XqkC|title=Aino Folk-Tales|editor=Basil Hall Chamberlain|publisher=Forgotten Books|edition=|isbn=|quote=1606200879|accessdate=March 1, 2012 }}
* {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=iJzhAAAAMAAJ|title=Aino folk-tales: By Basil Hall Chamberlain. With introduction by Edward B. Taylor|volume=Volume 22 of Publications of the Folklore Society|year=1888|author=Basil Hall Chamberlain|publisher=Privately printed for the Folk-lore Society|edition=|location=Privately Printed for THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY 1888 XXII. Reprinted in Saxony from the original edition by C. G. Röder, Ltd., Leipsic|isbn=|quote=|page=57|accessdate=March 1, 2012 }}(Indiana University)(Digitized Sep 3, 2009)
* {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=RrYUAAAAYAAJ|year=1898|title=Ainu economic plants|volume=Volume 21|first1=John |last1=Batchelor |first2=Kingo |last2=Miyabe|page=43|accessdate=23 April 2012}}[Original from Harvard University Digitized Jan 30, 2008][YOKOHAMA : R. MEIKLEJOHN & CO., NO 49.]
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Ainu}}
* [http://www.filmpreservation.org/preserved-films/screening-room/a-trip-through-japan-with-the-ywca-ca-1919 Rare Japanese Video Featuring Ainu. [[YWCA]] ''c''. 1919]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=endv3PVpXFg The Ainu: The First Peoples of Japan. Old videos and photographs arranged by Rawn Joseph]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjBYtYAOsJc "The Despised Ainu People." The Ainus' Tense Relationship with Japan. 1994. Journeyman.tv]
* [http://www.ainu-museum.or.jp/en The Ainu Museum at Shiraoi]
* [http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/features/ainu/ Smithsonian Institution]
* [http://www.ainu-assn.or.jp/ Hokkaido Utari Kyokai]
* [http://www.city.sapporo.jp/shimin/pirka-kotan/en/index.html Sapporo Pirka Kotan Ainu Cultural Center]
* [http://city.hokkai.or.jp/~ayaedu/ Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Ainu] in [[Samani, Hokkaido]]
* [http://www.molli.org.uk/explorers/the_regions/north_america.asp Ainu-North American cultural similarities]
* [http://www.frpac.or.jp/english/project.html Foundation for Research and Promotion of Ainu Culture (centers located in Sapporo and Tokyo)]
* [http://www.cais.hokudai.ac.jp/english/ Hokkaido University Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20070203123754/http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/shogun.html Ainu Lineage]
* [http://archive.fieldmuseum.org/research_collections/anthropology/anthro_sites/boone/ainu/gal_jp_ainu.html The Boone Collection]
* [http://www.ainu-museum-nibutani.org/ Nibutani Ainu Cultural Museum (in Japanese)]
* [http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/EastAsian.JapanRice Ainu Komonjo (18th & 19th century records) – Ohnuki Collection]
* [http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0609/p04s01-woap.html Article in ''The Christian Science Monitor''], June 9, 2008
* ''[[s:Aino Folk-Tales|Aino Folk-Tales]]'', [[Basil Hall Chamberlain|Chamberlain, B. H.]] Folk-Lore Society, 1888. (Members edition, without expurgation)

==তথ্যসূত্র==
==তথ্যসূত্র==
{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist}}

২০:৪৪, ৩১ অক্টোবর ২০১৫ তারিখে সংশোধিত সংস্করণ

আইনু জনগোষ্ঠী

১৯০২ সালের ছবি একদল আইনু নৃগোষ্ঠী
উল্লেখযোগ্য জনসংখ্যার অঞ্চল
 Japan২৫,০০০–২০০,০০০
 Russia১০৯[১]–1000  Kamchatka Krai: ৯৪ -৯০০[১]
ভাষা
ঐতিহাসিক ভাবে আইনু ভাষায় কথা প্রচলিত আছে। অধিকাংশ আইনুজাপানি বা রুশ ভাষায় কথা বলেন.[২]
ধর্ম
অ্যানিমিজম, বৌদ্ধ, রুশ অর্থডোক্স খ্রিষ্টধর্ম
সংশ্লিষ্ট জনগোষ্ঠী
কামচাদাল

আইনু জনগোষ্ঠী (আইনু アィヌ Aynu; জাপানিজ: アイヌ Ainu; রুশ: Айны Ajny) জাপানের নৃগোষ্ঠীর মধ্যে অন্যতম এক গোষ্ঠী। জাপানের হোক্কাইদো ও রাশিয়ার শাখালিন ও কুরিল দ্বীপেই তাদের জনগোষ্ঠীর বসবাস। ঐতিহাসিক ভাবে, এই জনগোষ্ঠীর ভাষা আইনু। বর্তমানে খুব কম মানুষ এ ভাষায় কথা বলেন। বর্তমানে মোট কত জন আইনু অধিবাসী আছেন তার হিসেব অপ্রকাশিত। ধারণা করা হয়, আনুষ্ঠানিক নথিপত্র হিসেবে আইনু অধিবাসীদের সংখ্যা ২৫ হাজারের মত। বেসরকারী হিসেবে এই সংখ্যা ২ লাখের কিছু বেশি বলে বিভিন্ন পরিসংখ্যানে দেখা যায়।


History

A group of Ainu people (between 1863 and early 1870s)

Pre-modern

Recent research suggests that Ainu culture originated in a merger of the Okhotsk and Satsumon cultures.[৫] In 1264, Ainu invaded the land of Nivkh people controlled by the Yuan Dynasty of China, resulting in battles between Ainu and the Chinese.[৬] Active contact between the Wajin (the ethnically Japanese) and the Ainu of Ezochi (now known as Hokkaido) began in the 13th century.[৭] The Ainu formed a society of hunter-gatherers, living mainly by hunting and fishing, and the people followed a religion based on phenomena of nature.[৮]

During the Muromachi period (1336–1573), the disputes between Japanese and Ainu eventually developed into a war. Takeda Nobuhiro killed the Ainu leader, Koshamain. Many Ainu were subject to Japanese rule which led to violent Ainu revolt such as the Koshamain's Revolt in 1456 against Japanese influence and control on the island.

During the Tokugawa period (1600–1868) the Ainu became increasingly involved in trade with Japanese who controlled the Northern portion of the island that is now called Hokkaido. The Bakufu government granted the Matsumae clan exclusive rights to trade with the Ainu in the northern part of the island. Later the Matsumae began to lease out trading-rights to Japanese merchants, and contact between Japanese and Ainu became more extensive. Throughout this period Ainu became increasingly dependent on goods imported by Japanese, and suffered from epidemic diseases such as smallpox.[৯] Although the increased contact brought by trade between the Japanese and the Ainu contributed to increased mutual understanding, sometimes it led to conflict, occasionally intensifying into violent Ainu revolts, of which the most important was Shakushain's Revolt (1669–1672), an Ainu rebellion against Japanese authority.

Ainu population dropped significantly during these years of Matsumae and shogunate rule. In 1807, officials estimated the total population of Hokkaido Ainu at 26,256. Observations made by Matsuura Takeshiro, for example, illustrate concretely the dramatic decline of Ainu populations caused by epidemic diseases. 47 years later that number was reduced to 17,810, a 32% decline.[১০] The Ainu in the 14th century were much more populous before invasions from the Japanese. Some Ainu oral stories, and the Matsumae clan's documents, recall and record several severe battles between the Ainu people and the invaders. After losing several battles, the Ainu people were enslaved.[১১]

Meiji Restoration and later

In 1868 there were about 15,000 Ainu in Hokkaido, 2000 in Sakhalin, and around 100 in the Kurile islands.[১২] The Ainu were classified as imperial subjects, whose decreasing numbers distinguished them in public discourse as a "dying race". From approximately 80,000 in the early eighteenth century, by 1873 the Ainu population had decreased to 16,000, accounting for 14.63 percent of the total population in Hokkaido. By 1939, they constituted only 0.54 percent of Hokkaido’s population, even though the actual number of Ainu, now heavily intermarried with Japanese, remained about the same.[১৩] Japanese settlers also commonly took Ainu women as sexual slaves and concubines.[১৪] A few upper-class Japanese families allowed their daughters to marry an Ainu.

Metropolitan magazine reported, "Many Ainu were forced to work, essentially as slaves, for Wajin (ethnic Japanese), resulting in the breakup of families and the introduction of smallpox, measles, cholera and tuberculosis into their community. In 1869, the new Meiji government renamed Ezo as Hokkaido and unilaterally incorporated it into Japan. It banned the Ainu language, took Ainu land away, and prohibited salmon fishing and deer hunting."[তথ্যসূত্র প্রয়োজন] They were regarded as 'extremely inferior races', as one Diet Member had expressed it in 1907 (Hokkaido Utari Kyokai 19902190).[১৫] The beginning of the Meiji Restoration in 1868 proved a turning point for Ainu culture. The Japanese government introduced a variety of social, political and economic reforms in hope of modernising the country in the Western style. One innovation involved the annexation of Hokkaido. Sjöberg quotes Baba's (1980) account of the Japanese government's reasoning:[৯]

" … The development of Japan's large northern island had several objectives: First, it was seen as a means to defend Japan from a rapidly developing and expansionist Russia. Second … it offered a solution to the unemployment for the former samurai class … Finally, development promised to yield the needed natural resources for a growing capitalist economy."[১৬]

In 1899 the Japanese government passed an act labeling the Ainu as "former aborigines", with the idea they would assimilate—this resulted in the Japanese government taking the land where the Ainu people lived and placing it from then on under Japanese control.[১৭] Also at this time, the Ainu were granted automatic Japanese citizenship, effectively denying them the status of an indigenous group.

Ainu bear sacrifice. Japanese scroll painting, c. 1870.

The Ainu were becoming increasingly marginalized on their own land—over a period of only 36 years, the Ainu went from being a relatively isolated group of people to having their land, language, religion and customs assimilated into those of the Japanese.[১৮] In addition to this, the land the Ainu lived on was distributed to the Wajin who had decided to move to Hokkaido, encouraged by the Japanese government of the Meiji era to take advantage of the island’s abundant natural resources, and to create and maintain farms in the model of western industrial agriculture. While at the time the process was openly referred to as colonization ("takushoku" 拓殖), the notion was later reframed by Japanese elites to the currently common usage "kaitaku" (開拓), which instead conveys a sense of opening up or reclamation of the Ainu lands.[১৯] As well as this, factories such as flour mills and beer breweries and mining practices resulted in the creation of infrastructure such as roads and railway lines, during a development period that lasted until 1904.[২০] During this time the Ainu were forced to learn Japanese, required to adopt Japanese names and ordered to cease religious practices such as animal sacrifice and the custom of tattooing.[২১]

The 1899 act mentioned above was replaced in 1997—until then the government had stated there were no ethnic minority groups.[৫] It was not until June 6, 2008, that Japan formally recognised the Ainu as an indigenous group (see Official Recognition, below).[৫]

The Oki Dub Ainu Band, led by the Ainu Japanese musician Oki, in Germany in 2007.

Intermarriages between Japanese and Ainu were actively promoted by the Ainu to lessen the chances of discrimination against their offspring. As a result, many Ainu are indistinguishable from their Japanese neighbors, but some Ainu-Japanese are interested in traditional Ainu culture. For example, Oki, born as a child of an Ainu father and a Japanese mother, became a musician who plays the traditional Ainu instrument tonkori.[২২] There are also many small towns in the southeastern or Hidaka region where ethnic Ainu live such as in Nibutani (Ainu: Niputay). Many live in Sambutsu especially, on the eastern coast. In 1966 the number of "pure" Ainu was about 300 (Honna, Tajima, and Minamoto, 2000).

Their most widely known ethnonym is derived from the word ainu, which means "human" (particularly as opposed to kamui, divine beings), basically neither ethnicity nor the name of a race, in the Hokkaido dialects of the Ainu language; Emishi (Ebisu) and Ezo [endzo] (Yezo) (both 蝦夷) are Japanese terms, which are believed to derive from another word for "human", which otherwise survived in Sakhalin Ainu as enciw or enju. Today, many Ainu dislike the term Ainu because it had once been used with derogatory nuance, and prefer to identify themselves as Utari (comrade in the Ainu language). Official documents use both names.

Official recognition in Japan

Map of Ainu in Hokkaido

On June 6, 2008 the Japanese Diet passed a bipartisan, non-binding resolution calling upon the government to recognize the Ainu people as indigenous to Japan, and urging an end to discrimination against the group. The resolution recognised the Ainu people as "an indigenous people with a distinct language, religion and culture". The government immediately followed with a statement acknowledging its recognition, stating, "The government would like to solemnly accept the historical fact that many Ainu were discriminated against and forced into poverty with the advancement of modernization, despite being legally equal to (Japanese) people."[১৮][২৩]

Official recognition in Russia

As a result of the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875), the Kuril Islands were handed over to Japan, along with its Ainu subjects. A total of 83 North Kuril Ainu arrived in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on September 18, 1877 after they decided to remain under Russian rule. They refused the offer by Russian officials to move to new reservations in the Commander Islands. Finally a deal was reached in 1881 and the Ainu decided to settle in the village of Yavin. In March 1881, the group left Petropavlovsk and started the journey towards Yavin by foot. Four months later, they arrived at their new homes. Another village, Golygino was founded later. Under Soviet rule, both the villages were forced to disband and residents were moved to the Russian dominated Zaporozhye rural settlement in Ust-Bolsheretsky Raion.[২৪] As a result of intermarriage, the three ethnic groups assimilated to form the Kamchadal community. In 1953, K. Omelchenko, the minister for the protection of military and state secrets in USSR banned the press from publishing any more information on the Ainu living in the USSR. This order was revoked after two decades.[২৫]

Ainu hunters, 19th century

The North Kuril Ainu of Zaporozhye are currently the largest Ainu subgroup in Russia. The Nakamura clan (South Kuril Ainu on their paternal side) are the smallest and numbers just 6 people residing in Petropavlovsk. On Sakhalin island, there are a few dozen people who identify themselves as Sakhalin Ainu, but many more with partial Ainu ancestry do not acknowledge it. Most of the 888 Japanese people living in Russia (2010 Census) are of mixed Japanese-Ainu ancestry, although they do not acknowledge it (full Japanese ancestry gives them the right of visa-free entry to Japan[২৬]). Similarly, no one identifies themselves as Amur Valley Ainu, although people with partial descent can be found in Khabarovsk. It is believed that there are no remaining living descendants of the Kamchatka Ainu.

In the 2010 Census of Russia, close to 100 people tried to register themselves as ethnic Ainu in the village, but the governing council of Kamchatka Krai rejected their claim and enrolled them as ethnic Kamchadal.[২৭][২৮] In 2011, the leader of the Ainu community in Kamchatka, Alexei Vladimirovich Nakamura requested that Vladimir Ilyukhin (Governor of Kamchatka) and Boris Nevzorov (Chairman of state Duma) include the Ainu in the central list of the Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East. This request was also turned down.[২৯]

Ethnic Ainu living in Sakhalin Oblast and Khabarovsk Krai are not organized politically. According to Alexei Nakamura, ২০১২-এর হিসাব অনুযায়ী, there are only 205 Ainu living in Russia (up from just 12 people who self-identified as Ainu in 2008) and they along with the Kurile Kamchadals (Itelmen of Kuril islands) are fighting for official recognition.[৩০][৩১] Since the Ainu are not recognized in the official list of the peoples living in Russia, they are counted as people without nationality or as ethnic Russian or Kamchadal.[৩২]

In 2004 the small Ainu community living in Kamchatka Krai wrote a letter to Vladimir Putin, urging him to reconsider any move to award the Southern Kuril Islands to Japan. They also urged him to recognize the Japanese genocide against the Ainu people, which Putin declined.[৩৩]

২০১২-এর হিসাব অনুযায়ী, both the Kurile Ainu and Kurile Kamchadal ethnic groups lack the fishing and hunting rights which the Russian government grants to the indigenous tribal communities of the far north.[৩৪][৩৫]

Origins

Ainu man, circa 1880.

The Ainu have often been considered to descend from the Jōmon people, who lived in Japan from the Jōmon period.[৩৬] One of their Yukar Upopo, or legends, tells that "The Ainu lived in this place a hundred thousand years before the Children of the Sun came".[৩৭]

Recent research suggests that the historical Ainu culture originated in a merger of the Okhotsk culture with the Satsumon, one of the ancient archaeological cultures that are considered to have derived from the Jōmon period cultures of the Japanese Archipelago.[৩৮][৩৯] Their economy was based on farming, as well as hunting, fishing and gathering.[৪০]

Full-blooded Ainu, compared to people of Yamato descent, often have lighter skin and more body hair.[৪১] Many early investigators proposed a Caucasian ancestry,[৪২] although recent DNA tests have not shown any genetic similarity with modern Europeans. Cavalli-Sforza places the Ainu in his "Northeast and East Asian" genetic cluster.[৪৩]

Anthropologist Joseph Powell of the University of New Mexico wrote "...we follow Brace and Hunt (1990) and Turner (1990) in viewing the Ainu as a southeast Asian population derived from early Jomon peoples of Japan, who have their closest biological affinity with south Asians rather than western Eurasia peoples".[৪৪]

Ainu men often have heavy beards.

Mark J. Hudson, Professor of Anthropology at Nishikyushu University, Kanzaki, Saga, Japan, said Japan was settled by a "Proto-Mongoloid" population in the Pleistocene who became the Jōmon and their features can be seen in the Ainu and Okinawan people.[৪৫] Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Sussex said Kanzō Umehara considered the Ainu and Ryukyuans to have "preserved their proto-Mongoloid traits".[৪৬]

In 1970, Anthropologist Arnold Henry Savage Landor described the Ainu as having deep-set eyes and an eye shape typical of Europeans, with a large and prominent browridge, large ears, hairy and prone to baldness, slightly flattened hook nose with large and broad nostrils, prominent cheek bones, large mouth and thick lips and a long region from nose to mouth and small chin region.[৪৭]

Omoto has also shown that the Ainu are Mongoloid, and not Caucasoid, on the basis of fingerprints and dental morphology.[৪৮] Turner found remains of Jōmon people of Japan to belong to Sundadont pattern similar with the Southern Mongoloid living populations of Taiwanese aborigines, Filipinos, Indonesians, Thais, Borneans, Laotians, and Malaysians.

চিত্র:Mongoloid Australoid Negrito Asia Distribution of Asian peoples Sinodont Sundadont.GIF
Distribution of sinodonts and sundadonts in Asia, shown by yellow and red. Also shown are australoids, indicated by A, and negritos, indicated by N.[৪৯]

Ainu men have abundant, wavy hair and often have long beards.[৫০] The book of "Ainu life and legends" by author Kyōsuke Kindaichi (published by the Japanese Tourist Board in 1942) contains the physical description of Ainu : Many have wavy hair, but some straight black hair. Very few of them have wavy brownish hair. Their skins are generally reported to be light brown. But this is due to the fact that they labor on the sea and in briny winds all day. Old people who have long desisted from their outdoor work are often found to be as white as western men. The Ainu have broad faces, beetling eyebrows, and large sunken eyes, which are generally horizontal and of the so-called European type. Eyes of the Mongolian type are hardly found among them.

1843 illustration of Ainu

Genetic testing has shown them to belong mainly to Y-haplogroup D-M55.[৫১] Y-DNA haplogroup D2 is found frequently throughout the Japanese Archipelago including Okinawa. The only places outside of Japan in which Y-haplogroup D is common are Tibet and the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean.[৫২]

1862 illustration of Ainu (left) and Nivkhs

In a study by Tajima et al. (2004), two out of a sample of sixteen (or 12.5%) Ainu men have been found to belong to Haplogroup C-M217, which is the most common Y-chromosome haplogroup among the indigenous populations of Siberia and Mongolia.[৫১] Hammer et al. (2006) have tested a sample of four Ainu men and have found that one of them belongs to haplogroup C-M217.[৫৩] Some researchers have speculated that this minority of Haplogroup C-M217 carriers among the Ainu may reflect a certain degree of unidirectional genetic influence from the Nivkhs, a traditionally nomadic people of northern Sakhalin and the adjacent mainland, with whom the Ainu have long-standing cultural interactions.[৫১]

Based on analysis of one sample of 51 modern Ainus, their mtDNA lineages have been reported to consist mainly of haplogroup Y (11/51 = 21.6% according to Tanaka et al. 2004, or 10/51 = 19.6% according to Adachi et al. 2009, who have cited Tajima et al. 2004), haplogroup D (9/51 = 17.6%, particularly D4(xD1)), haplogroup M7a (8/51 = 15.7%), and haplogroup G1 (8/51 = 15.7%).[৫১][৫৪][৫৫] Other mtDNA haplogroups detected in this sample include A (2/51), M7b2 (2/51), N9b (1/51), B4f (1/51), F1b (1/51), and M9a (1/51). Most of the remaining individuals in this sample have been classified definitively only as belonging to macro-haplogroup M.[৫৪] According to Sato et al. (2009), who have studied the mtDNA of the same sample of modern Ainus (n=51), the major haplogroups of the Ainu are N9 (14/51 = 27.5%, including 10/51 Y and 4/51 N9(xY)), D (12/51 = 23.5%, including 8/51 D(xD5) and 4/51 D5), M7 (10/51 = 19.6%), and G (10/51 = 19.6%, including 8/51 G1 and 2/51 G2); the minor haplogroups are A (2/51), B (1/51), F (1/51), and M(xM7, M8, CZ, D, G) (1/51).[৫৬] Studies published in 2004 and 2007 show the combined frequency of M7a and N9b were observed in Jomons and which are believed by some to be jomon maternal contribution at 28% in Okinawans (7/50 M7a1, 6/50 M7a(xM7a1), 1/50 N9b), 17.6% in Ainus (8/51 M7a(xM7a1), 1/51 N9b), and from 10% (97/1312 M7a(xM7a1), 1/1312 M7a1, 28/1312 N9b) to 17% (15/100 M7a1, 2/100 M7a(xM7a1)) in mainstream Japanese.[৫৭][৫৮]

A recent reevaluation of cranial traits suggests that the Ainu resemble the Okhotsk more than they do the Jōmon.[৫৯] This agrees with the reference to the Ainu being a merger of Okhotsk and Satsumon referenced above.

Geography

Historical expanse of Ainu

The Ainu were distributed in the northern and central islands of Japan, from Sakhalin island in the north to the Kuril islands and the island of Hokkaido and Northern Honshū, although some investigators place their former range as throughout Honshū and as far north as the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula in what is now Cape Lopatka. The island of Hokkaido was known to the Ainu as Ainu Moshir, and was formally annexed by the Japanese at the late date of 1868, partly as a means of preventing the intrusion of the Russians, and partly for imperialist reasons.

A group of Sakhalin Ainu c. 1903

According to the Russian Empire Census of 1897, 1,446 persons in the Russian Empire reported Ainu language as their mother tongue, 1,434 of them in Sakhalin Island.[৬০]

The southern half of Sakhalin was acquired by Japan as a result of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, but at the end of World War II in 1945, the Soviets declared war on Japan and took possession of the Kuril islands and southern Sakhalin. The Ainu population, as previously Japanese subjects, were "repatriated" to Japan.

During Tsarist times, the Ainu living in Russia were forbidden from identifying themselves as such, since Imperial Japanese officials claimed that all the regions inhabited by the Ainu in the past or present belonged to Japan. The terms "Kurile", "Kamchatka Kurile", etc., were used to identify the ethnic group. During Soviet times, people with Ainu surnames were sent to gulags and labor camps, as they were often mistaken for Japanese. As a result, large numbers of Ainu changed their surnames to Slavic ones. After World War II, most of the Ainu living in Sakhalin were deported to Japan. Of the 1,159 Ainu, only around 100 remained in Russia. Of those who remained, only the elderly were full-blooded Ainu. Others were either mixed race or married to ethnic Russians. The last of the Ainu households disappeared in the late 1960s, when Yamanaka Kitaro committed suicide after the death of his wife. The couple was childless.[৬১] To eradicate Ainu identity, Soviet authorities removed the ethnic group from the list of nationalities which could be mentioned in a Soviet passport. Due to this, children born after 1945 were not able to identify themselves as Ainu. The last known deportation of Ainu to Japan occurred in 1982, when Keizo Nakamura, a full blooded Northern Kuril Ainu, was deported to Hokkaido after serving 15 years' hard labor in the province of Magadan. His wife, Tamara Timofeevna Pikhteevoi, was of mixed Sakhalin Ainu and Gilyak ancestry. After the arrest of Keizo in 1967, Tamara and her son Alexei Nakamura were expelled from Kamchatka Krai and sent to the island of Sakhalin, to live in the city of Tomari.

Ainus on a Matsumae border customs, 18th century

Unlike the other Ainu clans currently living in Russia, there is considerable doubt whether the Nakamura clan of Kamchatka should be identified as Northern Kuril Ainu, Southern Kuril Ainu or as Kamchatka Ainu. This is due to the fact that the clan originally immigrated to Kamchatka from Kunashir in 1789. The Ainu of Kunashir are South Kuril Ainu. They settled down near Kurile Lake, which was inhabited by the Kamchatka Ainu and North Kuril Ainu. In 1929 the Ainu of Kurile Lake fled to the island of Paramushir after an armed conflict with the Soviet authorities. At that time, Paramushir was under Japanese rule. During the Invasion of the Kuril Islands, Akira Nakamura (b. 1897) was captured by the Soviet army and his elder son Takeshi Nakamura (1925–45) was killed in the battle. Akira's only surviving son, Keizo (b. 1927), was taken prisoner and joined the Soviet Army after his capture. After the war, Keizo went to Korsakov to work in the local harbor. In 1963 he married Tamara Pikhtivoi, a member of the Sakhalin Ainu tribe. Their only child Alexei was born in 1964. The descendants of Tamara and Alexei are found in Kamchatka and Sakhalin.

In 1979 the USSR removed the term "Ainu" from the list of living ethnic groups of Russia, an act by which the government proclaimed that the Ainu as an ethnic group were extinct in its territory. According to the 2002 Russian Federation census, no responders gave the ethnonym Ainu in boxes 7 or 9.2 in the K-1 form of the census,[৬২][৬৩][৬৪] though some still might exist. During the 2010 Census of Russia, the authorities rejected the claim from a group of mostly mixed race Ainu living in Kamchatka that they were not extinct.[তথ্যসূত্র প্রয়োজন]

The only Ainu speakers remaining (besides perhaps a few partial speakers) live solely in Japan. There, they are concentrated primarily on the southern and eastern coasts of the island of Hokkaido.

Due to intermarriage with the Japanese and ongoing absorption into the predominant culture, there are no truly Ainu settlements existing in Japan today. The town of Nibutani (Ainu: Niputay) in Hidaka area (Hokkaido prefecture) has a number of Ainu households and a visit to some of the Ainu owned craft shops close to the Ainu museums (there are two of them in Nibutani) is an opportunity to interact with the Ainu people. Many "authentic Ainu villages" advertised in Hokkaido such as Akan and Shiraoi are tourist attractions and provide an opportunity to see and meet Ainu people.

Language

Today, it is estimated that fewer than 100 speakers of the language remain,[৬৫] while other research places the number at fewer than 15 speakers. The language has been classified as “endangered”.[৬৬] As a result of this the study of the Ainu language is limited and is based largely on historical research.

Although there have been attempts to show that the Ainu language and the Japanese language are related, modern scholars have rejected that the relationship goes beyond contact, such as the mutual borrowing of words between Japanese and Ainu. In fact, no attempt to show a relationship with Ainu to any other language has gained wide acceptance, and Ainu is currently considered to be a language isolate.[৬৭]

Words used as prepositions in English (such as to, from, by, in, and at) are postpositional in Ainu; they come after the word that they modify. A single sentence in Ainu can be made up of many added or agglutinated sounds or affixes that represent nouns or ideas.

The Ainu language has had no system of writing, and has historically been transliterated by the Japanese kana or Russian Cyrillic. Today, it is typically written in either katakana or Latin alphabet. The unwieldy nature of the Japanese kana with its inability to accurately represent coda consonants has contributed to the degradation of the original Ainu. For example, some words, such as Kor (meaning "to hold"), are now pronounced with a terminal vowel sound, as in Koro.

Many of the Ainu dialects, even from one end of Hokkaido to the other, were not mutually intelligible; however, the classic Ainu language of the Yukar, or Ainu epic stories, was understood by all. Without a writing system, the Ainu were masters of narration, with the Yukar and other forms of narration such as the Uepeker (Uwepeker) tales, being committed to memory and related at gatherings, often lasting many hours or even days.[৬৮]

Culture

Woman playing a tonkori
Ainu ceremonial dress. British Museum.

Traditional Ainu culture was quite different from Japanese culture. Never shaving after a certain age, the men had full beards and moustaches. Men and women alike cut their hair level with the shoulders at the sides of the head, trimmed semicircularly behind. The women tattooed their mouths, and sometimes the forearms. The mouth tattoos were started at a young age with a small spot on the upper lip, gradually increasing with size. The soot deposited on a pot hung over a fire of birch bark was used for color. Their traditional dress was a robe spun from the inner bark of the elm tree, called attusi or attush. Various styles were made, and consisted generally of a simple short robe with straight sleeves, which was folded around the body, and tied with a band about the waist. The sleeves ended at the wrist or forearm and the length generally was to the calves. Women also wore an undergarment of Japanese cloth.

Modern craftswomen weave and embroider traditional garments that command very high prices. In winter the skins of animals were worn, with leggings of deerskin and in Sakhalin, boots were made from the skin of dogs or salmon. [তথ্যসূত্র প্রয়োজন] Both sexes are fond of earrings, which are said to have been made of grapevine in former times, as also are bead necklaces called tamasay, which the women prized highly.

Their traditional cuisine consists of the flesh of bear, fox, wolf, badger, ox, or horse, as well as fish, fowl, millet, vegetables, herbs, and roots. They never ate raw fish or flesh; it was always boiled or roasted.

Their traditional habitations were reed-thatched huts, the largest ২০ ফু (৬ মি) square, without partitions and having a fireplace in the center. There was no chimney, only a hole at the angle of the roof; there was one window on the eastern side and there were two doors. The house of the village head was used as a public meeting place when one was needed.

Instead of using furniture, they sat on the floor, which was covered with two layers of mats, one of rush, the other of a water plant with long sword shaped leaves (iris pseudacorus, whose English names include "water-flag"); and for beds they spread planks, hanging mats around them on poles, and employing skins for coverlets. The men used chopsticks when eating; the women had wooden spoons. Ainu cuisine is not commonly eaten outside Ainu communities; there are only a few Ainu-run restaurants in Japan, all located in Tokyo or Hokkaido, serving primarily Japanese fare.

The functions of judgeship were not entrusted to chiefs; an indefinite number of a community's members sat in judgment upon its criminals. Capital punishment did not exist, nor did the community resort to imprisonment. Beating was considered a sufficient and final penalty. However, in the case of murder, the nose and ears of the culprit were cut off or the tendons of his feet severed.

Hunting

Bear hunting, 19th century

The Ainu hunted from late autumn to early summer. The reasons for this were, among others, that in late autumn, plant gathering, salmon fishing and other activities of securing food came to an end, and hunters readily found game in fields and mountains in which plants had withered. A village possessed a hunting ground of its own or several villages used a joint hunting territory (iwor). Heavy penalties were imposed on any outsiders trespassing on such hunting grounds or joint hunting territory. The Ainu hunted bear, Ezo deer (a subspecies of sika deer), rabbit, fox, raccoon dog, and other animals. Ezo deer were a particularly important food resource for the Ainu as were salmon. They also hunted sea eagles such as white-tailed sea eagles, raven and other birds. The Ainu hunted eagles to obtain their tail feathers, which they used in trade with the Japanese. The Ainu hunted with arrows and spears with poison-coated points. They obtained the poison, called surku, from the roots and stalks of aconites. The recipe for this poison was a household secret that differed from family to family. They enhanced the poison with mixtures of roots and stalks of dog's bane, boiled juice of Mekuragumo, Matsumomushi, tobacco, and other ingredients. They also used stingray stingers or skin covering stingers. They hunted in groups with dogs. Before the Ainu went hunting, for animals like bear in particular, they prayed to the god of fire and the house guardian god to convey their wishes for a large catch, and safe hunting to the god of mountains.

The Ainu usually hunted bear during the time of the spring thaw. At that time bears were weak because they had not fed at all during long hibernation. Ainu hunters caught hibernating bears or bears that had just left hibernation dens. When they hunted bear in summer, they used a spring trap loaded with an arrow, called an amappo. The Ainu usually used arrows to hunt deer. Also they often used traps, including spring traps loaded with arrows. Also, they drove deer into a river or sea and shot them with arrows. For a large catch, a whole village would drive a herd of deer off a cliff and club them to death.

Religion

Ainu traditional ceremony, circa 1930

The Ainu are traditionally animists, believing that everything in nature has a kamuy (spirit or god) on the inside. The most important include Kamuy Fuchi, goddess of the hearth, Kim-un Kamuy, god of bears and mountains, and Repun Kamuy, god of the sea, fishing, and marine animals.

The Ainu have no priests by profession; instead the village chief performs whatever religious ceremonies are necessary. Ceremonies are confined to making libations of sake, uttering prayers, and offering willow sticks with wooden shavings attached to them. These sticks are called inaw (singular) and nusa (plural).

They are placed on an altar used to "send back" the spirits of killed animals. Ainu ceremonies for sending back bears are called Iomante. The Ainu people give thanks to the gods before eating and pray to the deity of fire in time of sickness. They believe their spirits are immortal, and that their spirits will be rewarded hereafter by ascending to kamui mosir (Land of the Gods).

The Ainu are part of a larger collective of indigenous people who practice 'arctolatry' or bear worship. The Ainu believe the bear is very special because they think the bear is Kim-un Kamuy's way of delivering the gift of bear hide and meat to the humans.

Ainu assimilated into mainstream Japanese society have adopted Buddhism with Shinto influences, while some northern Ainu are members of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Ornaments

Men wore a crown called "sapanpe" for important ceremonies. Sapanpe was made from wood fiber with bundles of partially shaved wood. This crown had wooden figures of animal gods and other ornaments on its center. Men carried an emush (sword) secured by an "emush at" strap to their shoulders.

Women wore matanpushi, embroidered headbands, and ninkari, earrings. Ninkari was a metal ring with a ball. Women wore it through a hole in the ear. Matanpushi and ninkari were originally worn by men. However, women wear them now. Furthermore, aprons called maidari now are a part of women's formal clothes. However, some old documents say that men wore maidari.[৬৯][ভাল উৎস প্রয়োজন] Women sometimes wore a bracelet called tekunkani.[তথ্যসূত্র প্রয়োজন]

Women wore a necklace called rekutunpe, a long, narrow strip of cloth with metal plaques.[৬৯] They wore a necklace that reached the breast called a tamasay or shitoki, usually made from glass balls. Some glass balls came from trade with the Asian continent. The Ainu also obtained glass balls secretly made by the Matsumae Clan.[তথ্যসূত্র প্রয়োজন]

Housing

Ainu houses (from Popular Science Monthly Volume 33, 1888)
Plan of an Ainu house
The family would gather around the fireplace

A village is called a kotan in the Ainu language. Kotan were located in river basins and seashores where food was readily available, particularly in the basins of rivers through which salmon went upstream. A village consisted basically of a paternal clan. The average number of families was four to seven, rarely reaching more than ten. In the early modern times, the Ainu people were forced to labor at the fishing grounds of the Japanese. Ainu kotan were also forced to move near fishing grounds so that the Japanese could secure a labor force. When the Japanese moved to other fishing grounds, Ainu kotan were also forced to accompany them. As a result, the traditional kotan disappeared and large villages of several dozen families were formed around the fishing grounds.

Cise or cisey (houses) in a kotan were made of cogon grasses, bamboo grass, barks, etc. The length lay east to west or parallel to a river. A house was about seven meters by five with an entrance at the west end that also served as a storeroom. The house had three windows, including the "rorun-puyar," a window located on the side facing the entrance (at the east side), through which gods entered and left and ceremonial tools were taken in and out. The Ainu have regarded this window as sacred and have been told never to look in through it. A house had a fireplace near the entrance. The husband and wife sat on the fireplace's left side (called shiso) . Children and guests sat facing them on the fireplace's right side (called harkiso). The house had a platform for valuables called iyoykir behind the shiso. The Ainu placed shintoko (hokai) and ikayop (quivers) there.

Outbuildings included separate lavatories for men called ashinru and for women called menokoru, a pu (storehouse) for food, a "heper set" (cage for young bear), and drying-racks for fish and wild plants. An altar (nusasan) faced the east side of the house (rorunpuyar). The Ainu held such ceremonies there as Iyomante, a ceremony to send the spirit of a bear to the gods.

Life of Ainu

The Ainu people had various types of marriage. A child was promised in marriage by arrangement between his or her parents and the parents of his or her betrothed or by a go-between. When the betrothed reached a marriageable age, they were told who their spouse was to be. There were also marriages based on mutual consent of both sexes. In some areas, when a daughter reached a marriageable age, her parents let her live in a small room called tunpu annexed to the southern wall of her house. The parents chose her spouse from men who visited her.

The age of marriage was 17 to 18 years of age for men and 15 to 16 years of age for women, who were tattooed. At these ages, both sexes were regarded as adults.

When a man proposed to a woman, he visited her house, ate half a full bowl of rice handed to him by her, and returned the rest to her. If the woman ate the rest, she accepted his proposal. If she did not and put it beside her, she rejected his proposal. When a man became engaged to a woman or they learned that their engagement had been arranged, they exchanged gifts with each other. He sent her a small engraved knife, a workbox, a spool, and other gifts. She sent him embroidered clothes, coverings for the back of the hand, Ieggings, and other handmade clothes. According to some books, many yomeiri marriages, in which a bride went to the house of a bridegroom with her belongings to become a member of his family, were conducted in the old days.

For a yomeiri marriage, a man and his father would bring betrothal gifts to the house of a woman, including a sword, a treasured sword, an ornamental quiver, a sword guard, and a woven basket (hokai). If the man and woman agreed to marry, the man and his father would bring her to their house or the man would stay at her house for a while and then bring her to his house. At the wedding ceremony, participants prayed to the god of fire. Bride and bridegroom respectively ate half of the rice served in a bowl, and other participants were entertained.

The worn-out fabric of old clothing was used for baby clothes because soft cloth was good for the skin of babies and worn-out material protected babies from gods of illness and demons due to these gods' abhorrence of dirty things. Before a baby was breast-fed, he/she was given a decoction of the endodermis of alder and the roots of butterburs to discharge impurities. Children were raised almost naked until about the ages of four to five. Even when they wore clothes, they did not wear belts and left the front of their clothes open. Subsequently they wore bark clothes without patterns, such as attush, until coming of age.

Newborn babies were named ayay (a baby's crying), shipo, poyshi (small excrement), shion (old excrement), etc. Children were called by these "temporary" names until the ages of two to three. They were not given permanent names when they were born. Their tentative names had a portion meaning "excrement" or "old things" to ward off the demon of ill-health. Some children were named based on their behavior or habits. Other children were named after impressive events or after parents' wishes for the future of the children. When children were named, they were never given the same names as others.

Men wore loincloths and had their hair dressed properly for the first time at age 15–16. Women were also considered adults at the age of 15–16. They wore underclothes called mour and had their hair dressed properly and wound waistcloths called raunkut, ponkut, etc. around their bodies. When women reached age 12–13, the lips, hands and arms were tattooed. When they reached age 15–16, their tattoos were completed. Thus were they qualified for marriage.

Institutions

Ainu cultural promotion center and museum, in Sapporo (Sapporo Pirka Kotan)

Most Hokkaido Ainu and some other Ainu are members of an umbrella group called the Hokkaido Utari Association. It was originally controlled by the government to speed Ainu assimilation and integration into the Japanese nation-state. It now is run exclusively by Ainu and operates mostly independently of the government.

Other key institutions include The Foundation for Research and Promotion of Ainu Culture (FRPAC), set up by the Japanese government after enactment of the Ainu Culture Law in 1997, the Hokkaido University Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies established in 2007, as well as museums and cultural centers. Ainu people living in Tokyo have also developed a vibrant political and cultural community.[৭০]

Current affairs

Litigation

On March 27, 1997, the Sapporo District Court decided a landmark case that, for the first time in Japanese history, recognized the right of the Ainu people to enjoy their distinct culture and traditions. The case arose because of a 1978 government plan to build two dams in the Saru River watershed in southern Hokkaido. The dams were part of a series of development projects under the Second National Development Plan that were intended to industrialize the north of Japan.[৭১] The planned location for one of the dams was across the valley floor close to Nibutani village,[৭২] the home of a large community of Ainu people and an important center of Ainu culture and history.[৭৩] In the early 1980s when the government commenced construction on the dam, two Ainu landowners refused to agree to the expropriation of their land. These landowners were Kaizawa Tadashi and Kayano Shigeru—well-known and important leaders in the Ainu community.[৭৪] After Kaizawa and Kayano declined to sell their land, the Hokkaido Development Bureau applied for and was subsequently granted a Project Authorization, which required the men to vacate their land. When their appeal of the Authorization was denied, Kayano and Kaizawa's son Koichii (Kaizawa died in 1992), filed suit against the Hokkaido Development Bureau.

The final decision denied the relief sought by the plaintiffs for pragmatic reasons—the dam was already standing—but the decision was nonetheless heralded as a landmark victory for the Ainu people. In short, nearly all of the plaintiffs' claims were recognized. Moreover, the decision marked the first time Japanese case law acknowledged the Ainu as an indigenous people and contemplated the responsibility of the Japanese nation to the indigenous people within its borders.[৭৫] The decision included broad fact-finding that underscored the long history of the oppression of the Ainu people by Japan's majority, referred to as Wajin in the case and discussions about the case.[৭৬] The legal roots of the decision can be found in Article 13 of Japan's Constitution, which protects the rights of the individual, and in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.[৭৭][৭৮] The decision was issued on March 27, 1997, and because of the broad implications for Ainu rights, the plaintiffs decided not to appeal the decision, which became final two weeks later. After the decision was issued, on May 8, 1997, the Diet passed the Ainu Culture Law and repealed the Ainu Protection Act—the 1899 law that had been the vehicle of Ainu oppression for almost one hundred years.[৭৯] [৮০] While the Ainu Culture Law has been widely criticized for its shortcomings, the shift that it represents in Japan's view of the Ainu people is a testament to the importance of the Nibutani decision. In 2007 the 'Cultural Landscape along the Sarugawa River resulting from Ainu Tradition and Modern Settlement' was designated an Important Cultural Landscape.[৮১] A later action seeking restoration of Ainu assets held in trust by the Japanese Government was dismissed in 2008.[৮২]

Governmental advisory boards

Much national policy in Japan has been developed out of the action of governmental advisory boards, known as shingikai (審議会) in Japanese. One such committee operated in the late 1990s,[৮৩] and its work resulted in the 1997 Ainu Culture Law.[৭৯] This panel's circumstances were criticized for including not even a single Ainu person among its members.[৮৩]

More recently, a panel was established in 2006, which notably was the first time an Ainu person was included. It completed its work in 2008 issuing a major report that included an extensive historical record and called for substantial government policy changes towards the Ainu.[তথ্যসূত্র প্রয়োজন]

Formation of Ainu political party

The Ainu Party (アイヌ民族党 Ainu minzoku tō) was founded on January 21, 2012,[৮৪] after a group of Ainu activists in Hokkaido announced the formation of a political party for the Ainu on October 30, 2011. The Ainu Association of Hokkaido reported that Kayano Shiro, the son of the former Ainu leader Kayano Shigeru, will head the party. Their aim is to contribute to the realization of a multicultural and multiethnic society in Japan, along with rights for the Ainu.[৮৫][৮৬]

Subgroups

People wearing traditional Ainu clothes in Hokkaido
Sakhalin Ainu men, photographed by Bronisław Piłsudski.
Kuril Ainu people in front of the traditional dwelling.
  • Hokkaido Ainu (the predominant community of Ainu in the world today) – A Japanese census in 1916 returned 13,557 pure-blooded Ainu in addition to 4,550 multiracial individuals.[৮৭]
  • Tokyo Ainu (a modern age migration of Hokkaido Ainu highlighted in a documentary film released in 2010, http://www.2kamuymintara.com/film/eng/top.htm)
  • Tohoku Ainu (from Honshū, no officially acknowledged population exists) – 43 Ainu households scattered throughout the Tohoku region were reported during the 17th century.[৮৮] There are people who consider themselves descendants of Shimokita Ainu on the Shimokita Peninsula, while the people on the Tsugaru Peninsula are generally considered Yamato but may be descendants of Tsugaru Ainu after cultural assimilation.[৮৯]
  • Sakhalin Ainu – Pure-blooded individuals may be surviving in Hokkaido. From both Northern and Southern Sakhalin, a total of 841 Ainu were relocated to Hokkaido in 1875 by Japan. Only a few in remote interior areas remained, as the island was turned over to Russia. Even when Japan was granted Southern Sakhalin in 1905, only a handful returned. The Japanese census of 1905 counted only 120 Sakhalin Ainu (down from 841 in 1875, 93 in Karafuto and 27 in Hokkaido). The Soviet census of 1926 counted 5 Ainu, while several of their multiracial children were recorded as ethnic Nivkh, Slav or Uilta.
    • North Sakhalin – Only 5 pure-blooded individuals were recorded during the 1926 Soviet Census in Northern Sakhalin. Most of the Sakhalin Ainu (mainly from coastal areas) were relocated to Hokkaido in 1875 by Japan. The few that remained (mainly in the remote interior) were mostly married to Russians as can be seen from the works of Bronisław Piłsudski.[৯০]
    • Southern Sakhalin (Karafuto) – Japanese rule until 1945. Japan evacuated almost all the Ainu to Hokkaido after World War II. Isolated individuals might have remained on Sakhalin.[৯১] In 1949, there were about 100 Ainu living on Soviet Sakhalin.[৯২]
  • Northern Kuril Ainu (no known living population in Japan, existence not recognized by Russian government in Kamchatka Krai) – Also known as Kurile in Russian records. Were under Russian rule until 1875. First came under Japanese rule after the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875). Major population was on the island of Shumshu, with a few others on islands like Paramushir. Altogether they numbered 221 in 1860. They had Russian names, spoke Russian fluently and were Russian Orthodox in religion. As the islands were given to the Japanese, more than a hundred Ainu fled to Kamchatka along with their Russian employers (where they were assimilated into the Kamchadal population).[৯২][৯৩] Only about half remained under Japanese rule. In order to derussify the Kurile, the entire population of 97 individuals was relocated to Shikotan in 1884, given Japanese names, and the children were enrolled in Japanese schools. Unlike the other Ainu groups, the Kurile failed to adjust to their new surroundings and by 1933 only 10 individuals were alive (plus another 34 multiracial individuals). The last group of 20 individuals (including a few pure-bloods) were evacuated to Hokkaido in 1941, where they vanished as a separate ethnic group soon after.[৯০]
  • Southern Kuril Ainu (no known living population) – Numbered almost 2,000 people (mainly in Kunashir, Iturup and Urup) during the 18th century. In 1884, their population had decreased to 500. Around 50 individuals (mostly multiracial) who remained in 1941 were evacuated to Hokkaido by the Japanese soon after World War II.[৯২] The last full-blooded Southern Kuril Ainu was Suyama Nisaku, who died in 1956.[৯৪] The last of the tribe (partial ancestry), Tanaka Kinu, died on Hokkaido in 1973.[৯৪]
  • Kamchatka Ainu (no known living population) – Known as Kamchatka Kurile in Russian records. Ceased to exist as a separate ethnic group after their defeat in 1706 by the Russians. Individuals were assimilated into the Kurile and Kamchadal ethnic groups. Last recorded in the 18th century by Russian explorers.[৬৭]
  • Amur Valley Ainu (probably none remain) – a few individuals married to ethnic Russians and ethnic Ulchi reported by Bronisław Piłsudski in the early 20th century.[৯৫] Only 26 pure-blooded individuals were recorded during the 1926 Russian Census in Nikolaevski Okrug (present-day Николаевский район Nikolaevskij Region/District).[৯৬] Probably assimilated into the Slavic rural population. Although no one identifies as Ainu nowadays in Khabarovsk Krai, there are a large number of ethnic Ulch with partial Ainu ancestry.[৯৭][৯৮]

See also

টেমপ্লেট:Organize section

Ainu culture

Ethnic groups in Japan

Notes

  1. Russian Census 2010:_ Population by ethnicity (রুশ)
  2. Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.) (২০০৫)। Ethnologue: Languages of the World (15th সংস্করণ)। Dallas: SIL International। আইএসবিএন 1-55671-159-Xওসিএলসি 224749653 . ওসিএলসি ৬০৩৩৮০৯৭.
  3. উদ্ধৃতি ত্রুটি: <ref> ট্যাগ বৈধ নয়; Poisson, B 2002, p.5 নামের সূত্রটির জন্য কোন লেখা প্রদান করা হয়নি
  4. http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/perepis2010/croc/Documents/Materials/pril3_dok2.xlsx
  5. Sato, Takehiro; ও অন্যান্য (২০০৭)। "Origins and genetic features of the Okhotsk people, revealed by ancient mitochondrial DNA analysis"। Journal of Human Genetics52 (7): 618–627। ডিওআই:10.1007/s10038-007-0164-zপিএমআইডি 17568987 
  6. 第59回 交易の民アイヌ Ⅶ 元との戦い (Japanese ভাষায়)। Asahikawa City। জুন ২, ২০১০। সংগ্রহের তারিখ মার্চ ২, ২০১১ 
  7. Weiner, M. (eds) 1997, Japan’s Minorities: The Illusion of Homogeneity, Routledge, London.
  8. "NOVA Online – Island of the Spirits – Origins of the Ainu". Retrieved on May 8, 2008.
  9. Brett L. Walker, The conquest of Ainu Lands:Ecology and Culture in Japanese Expansion 1590–1800, University of California Press, 2001, p. 49–56, 61–71, 172–176.
  10. Conquest of Ainu Lands: Ecology and Culture in Japanese Expansion, 1590-1800 By Brett L. Walker [১]
  11. Postmodernism and Race edited by Eric Mark Kramer [২]
  12. David Howell. "The Meiji State and the Logic of Ainu 'Protection'", In New Directions in the Study of Meiji Japan, edited by Helen Hardacre, 1997. p. 614.
  13. Meeting the First Inhabitants "Encyclopedia of genocide and crimes against humanity"google.co.uk 
  14. [৩]
  15. Diversity In Japanese Culture By Maher,[৪]
  16. Sjöberg, K 1993, The Return of the Ainu, Harwood Academic Publishers, Switzerland.
  17. Loos, N. & Osani, T. 1993, Indigenous Minorities and Education, Sanyusha Publishing Co., Ltd., Tokyo.
  18. Fogarty, Philippa (জুন ৬, ২০০৮)। "Recognition at last for Japan's Ainu"BBC News। BBC। সংগ্রহের তারিখ জুন ৭, ২০০৮ 
  19. Siddle, R., Race, Resistance, and the Ainu of Japan (Routledge, 1996) p. 51.
  20. Sjöberg, K. 1993, The Return of the Ainu, Harwood Academic Publishers, Switzerland, p. 117.
  21. Levinson, David (২০০২)। Encyclopedia of modern Asia, Vol. 1। Charles Scribner's Sons। পৃষ্ঠা 72। আইএসবিএন 978-0-684-80617-4 
  22. "アイヌ⇔ダブ越境!異彩を放つOKIの新作" (Japanese ভাষায়)। HMV Japan। মে ২৩, ২০০৬। সংগ্রহের তারিখ মার্চ ২৬, ২০১১ 
  23. Ito, M (জুন ৭, ২০০৮)। "Diet officially declares Ainu indigenous"The Japan Times। সংগ্রহের তারিখ এপ্রিল ২৫, ২০১৫ 
  24. Камчадальские айны добиваются признанияYouTube। মার্চ ২১, ২০১১। 
  25. Айны
  26. "В России снова появились айны - самый загадочный народ Дальнего востока"5-tv.ru 
  27. Айны
  28. "Петропавловск-Камчатский"russiaregionpress.ru 
  29. Айны просят включить их в Единый перечень коренных народов России. Родовая община обратилась к краевым властям - Общество Камчатский край - Камчатка и Магадан, новости Петропа...
  30. "Алексей Накамура"nazaccent.ru 
  31. Айны – борцы с самураями | Сегодня.ру
  32. "Представители малочисленного народа айну хотят узаконить свой статус"Российская газета 
  33. "Камчатское Время"kamtime.ru 
  34. "Льыоравэтльан - Представители малочисленного народа айну на Камчатке хотят узаконить свой статус"indigenous.ru 
  35. Radio: Programs: The Ainu: one of Russia’s indigenous peoples: Voice of Russia
  36. Denoon, Donald; Hudson, Mark (২০০১)। Multicultural Japan: palaeolithic to postmodern। Cambridge University Press। পৃষ্ঠা 22–23। আইএসবিএন 0-521-00362-8 
  37. Sjöberg, Katarina V. (১৯৯৩)। The Return of the Ainu: Cultural Mobilization and the Practice of Ethnicity in Japan। Studies in Anthropology and History। 9। Chur: Harwood Academic Publ.। আইএসবিএন 3-7186-5401-6ওসিএলসি 27684176 
  38. Sato, Takehiro; ও অন্যান্য (২০০৭)। "Origins and genetic features of the Okhotsk people, revealed by ancient mitochondrial DNA analysis"। Journal of Human Genetics52 (7): 618–627। ডিওআই:10.1007/s10038-007-0164-zপিএমআইডি 17568987 
  39. Lee, S; Hasegawa, T (২০১৩)। "Evolution of the Ainu Language in Space and Time"। PLoS ONE8 (4): e62243। ডিওআই:10.1371/journal.pone.0062243 
  40. "NOVA Online – of the Spirits – Origins of the Ainu"। ২৯ এপ্রিল ২০০৮ তারিখে মূল থেকে আর্কাইভ করা। সংগ্রহের তারিখ মে ৮, ২০০৮ 
  41. Travis, John "Jomon Genes:Using DNA, researchers probe the genetic origins of modern Japanese" Science News February 15, 1997 Vol. 151 No. 7 p. 106 [৫]
  42. 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ainu
  43. Cavalli-Sforza, L.L., Menozzi, P. & Piazza, A. (1994). The History and Geography of Human Genes. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
  44. Powell, Joseph F.; Rose, Jerome C. Chapter 2 Report on the Osteological Assessment of the Kennewick Man Skeleton (CENWW.97.Kennewick). Retrieved September 10, 2011.
  45. Hudson, Mark J. (1999). Ruins of identity: ethnogenesis in the Japanese Islands.
  46. Sleeboom, Margaret. Academic Nations in China and Japan. Routledge: UK, 2004. ISBN 0-415-31545-X p.56
  47. Arnold Henry Savage Landor (1970). Alone with the hairy Ainu: or, 3.800 miles on a pack saddle in Yezo and a cruise to the Kurile islands
  48. L. Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza; Paolo Menozzi; Alberto Piazza (১৯৯৪)। History And Geography Of Human Genes। Princeton University Press। পৃষ্ঠা 232। আইএসবিএন 978-0-691-08750-4 
  49. Howells, William W. (1997). Getting Here: the story of human evolution. ISBN 0-929590-16-3
  50. Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko (১৯৮১)। Illness and healing among the Sakhalin Ainu: a symbolic interpretation। Cambridge University Press। পৃষ্ঠা 19। আইএসবিএন 978-0-521-23636-2 
  51. Tajima, Atsushi; ও অন্যান্য (২০০৪)। "Genetic origins of the Ainu inferred from combined DNA analyses of maternal and paternal lineages"। Journal of Human Genetics49 (4): 187–193। ডিওআই:10.1007/s10038-004-0131-xপিএমআইডি 14997363 
  52. Y Haplogroups of the World
  53. Hammer, Michael F.; ও অন্যান্য (২০০৬)। "Dual origins of the Japanese: Common ground for hunter-gatherer and farmer Y chromosomes"। Journal of Human Genetics51 (1): 47–58। ডিওআই:10.1007/s10038-005-0322-0পিএমআইডি 16328082 
  54. Tanaka, Masashi; ও অন্যান্য (২০০৪)। "Mitochondrial Genome Variation in Eastern Asia and the Peopling of Japan"Genome Research14 (10A): 1832–1850। ডিওআই:10.1101/gr.2286304পিএমআইডি 15466285পিএমসি 524407অবাধে প্রবেশযোগ্য 
  55. Adachi, Noboru; Ken-ichi, Shinoda; Umetsu, Kazuo; Matsumura, Hirofumi (২০০৯)। "Mitochondrial DNA Analysis of Jomon Skeletons From the Funadomari Site, Hokkaido, and Its Implication for the Origins of Native American"। American Journal of Physical Anthropology138: 255–265। ডিওআই:10.1002/ajpa.20923 
  56. Takehiro SATO, Tetsuya AMANO, Hiroko ONO et al., "Mitochondrial DNA haplogrouping of the Okhotsk people based on analysis of ancient DNA: an intermediate of gene flow from the continental Sakhalin people to the Ainu," Anthropological Science Vol. 117(3), 171–180, 2009.
  57. M. Tanaka, V. M. Cabrera, A. M. González et al. (2004), "Mitochondrial Genome Variation in Eastern Asia and the Peopling of Japan"
  58. Uchiyama, Taketo; Hisazumi, Rinnosuke; Shimizu, Kenshi; ও অন্যান্য (২০০৭)। "Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Variation and Phylogenetic Analysis in Japanese Individuals from Miyazaki Prefecture"। Japanese Journal of Forensic Science and Technology12 (1): 83–96। ডিওআই:10.3408/jafst.12.83 
  59. Shigematsu, Masahito; ও অন্যান্য (২০০৪)। "Morphological affinities between Jomon and Ainu: Reassessment based on nonmetric cranial traits"। Anthropological Science112 (2): 161–172। ডিওআই:10.1537/ase.00092 
  60. Russian Empire Census of 1897: Totals Russian Empire Census of 1897: Sakhalin (রুশ)
  61. "У последней черты – Айны о себе - Тайны веков"agesmystery.ru 
  62. 4.2. NATIONAL COMPOSITION OF POPULATION FOR REGIONS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
  63. 4.3 POPULATION BY NATIONALITIES AND KNOWLEDGE OF RUSSIAN
  64. Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года
  65. Hohmann, S. 2008, "The Ainu's modern struggle" in World Watch, Vol 21., No. 6, pp. 20–24.
  66. Vovin, A. 1993, A Reconstruction of Proto-Ainu, Brill, p. 3
  67. Masayoshi Shibatani (১৯৯০-০৫-০৩)। The Languages of Japan। Cambridge University Press। পৃষ্ঠা 3–5। আইএসবিএন 978-0-521-36918-3 
  68. Omniglot, 2009, "Ainu", retrieved August 2, 2009, http://www.omniglot.com/writing/ainu.htm
  69. Social Studies School Service (১ জানুয়ারি ২০০৬)। Ancient Japan। Social Studies। পৃষ্ঠা 39–। আইএসবিএন 978-1-56004-256-3 
  70. Links to these organizations needed, also Tokyo Ainu documentary, http://www.2kamuymintara.com/film/eng/top.htm, and http://www.2kamuymintara.com/film/groups.htm has links to Tokyo area Ainu groups.
  71. Mark A. Levin, Essential Commodities and Racial Justice: Using Constitutional Protection of Japan’s Indigenous Ainu People to Inform Understandings of the United States and Japan, New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, Vol. 33, pp. 445–46, 2001
  72. Levin, Mark (trans.), Kayano et al. v. Hokkaido Expropriation Committee: ‘The Nibutani Dam Decision’ (1999). International Legal Materials, Vol. 38, p. 394, 1999. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1635447 p. 11
  73. Levin 2001, পৃ. 419, 447।
  74. Levin 2001, পৃ. 443।
  75. Nibutani Dam Decision (Levin trans.); see also Idem., p. 442
  76. Nibutani Dam Decision (Levin trans.); see also Mark A. Levin, The Wajin’s Whiteness: Law and Race Privilege in Japan, Horitsu Jiho, Vol. 80, No. 2, 2008
  77. "Constitution of Japan"। Solon.org 
  78. "International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights"। Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 
  79. Yoshida Hitchingham, Masako (২০০০)। ""Act for the Promotion of Ainu Culture and Dissemination of Knowledge Regarding Ainu Traditions" – A Translation of the Ainu Shinpou" (PDF)Asian–Pacific Law & Policy Journal1 (1)। সংগ্রহের তারিখ ২০১২-০৬-২০ 
    The law’s original Japanese text is available at Wikisource.
  80. Levin 2001, পৃ. 467।
  81. "Database of Registered National Cultural Properties"Agency for Cultural Affairs। সংগ্রহের তারিখ এপ্রিল ২৯, ২০১১ 
  82. Citation to Levin and Tsunemoto in Oklahoma Law Review
  83. Citation to Siddle's book
  84. Ainu Party ainu-org.jp [ত্রুটি: আর্কাইভের ইউআরএল অজানা] আর্কাইভকৃত [তারিখ অনুপস্থিত] তারিখে
  85. [৬] japantimes.co.jp [ত্রুটি: আর্কাইভের ইউআরএল অজানা] আর্কাইভকৃত [তারিখ অনুপস্থিত] তারিখে
  86. [৭] asahi.com [ত্রুটি: আর্কাইভের ইউআরএল অজানা] আর্কাইভকৃত [তারিখ অনুপস্থিত] তারিখে
  87. Siddle, Richard (১৯৯৬)। "Race, resistance and the Ainu of Japan"আইএসবিএন 978-0-415-13228-2 
  88. 本多勝一 (২০০০)। Harukor: An Ainu Woman's Tale। University of California Press। পৃষ্ঠা 7। আইএসবিএন 978-0-520-21020-2 
  89. "Ⅵ 〈東北〉史の意味と射程" (Japanese ভাষায়)। Joetsu University of Education। ২২ জুলাই ২০১১ তারিখে মূল থেকে আর্কাইভ করা। সংগ্রহের তারিখ মার্চ ২, ২০১১ 
  90. David L. Howell (২০০৫)। Geographies of Identity in 19th Century Japan। University of California Press। পৃষ্ঠা 187। আইএসবিএন 978-0-520-24085-8 
  91. "Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей."demoscope.ru 
  92. Stephen Adolphe Wurm; Peter Mühlhäusler; Darrell T. Tyron (১৯৯৬)। Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas: Maps। Walter de Gruyter। পৃষ্ঠা 1010। আইএসবিএন 978-3-11-013417-9 
  93. Sharon Minichiello (১৯৯৮)। Japan's Competing Modernities: Issues in Culture and Democracy, 1900-1930। University of Hawaii Press। পৃষ্ঠা 163। আইএসবিএন 978-0-8248-2080-0 
  94. http://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/10012/2765/1/Scott%20Harrison_GSO_Thesis.pdf
  95. Bronisaw Pisudski; Alfred F. Majewicz (২০০৪-১২-৩০)। Materials for the Study of the Ainu Language and Folklore 2: Volume 3: Materials for the Study of the Ainu Language and Folklore 2। Walter de Gruyter। পৃষ্ঠা 816। আইএসবিএন 978-3-11-017614-8 
  96. "Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей."demoscope.ru 
  97. Shaman: an international journal for Shamanistic research, Volumes 4–5 p.155
  98. Bronisaw Pisudski; Alfred F. Majewicz (২০০৪-১২-৩০)। Materials for the Study of the Ainu Language and Folklore 2: Volume 3: Materials for the Study of the Ainu Language and Folklore 2। Walter de Gruyter। পৃষ্ঠা 37। আইএসবিএন 978-3-11-017614-8 

Sources

References and further reading

চিসাম, হিউ, সম্পাদক (১৯১১)। "Ainu"। ব্রিটিশ বিশ্বকোষ (১১তম সংস্করণ)। কেমব্রিজ ইউনিভার্সিটি প্রেস। 

  • Batchelor, John (১৯০১)। "On the Ainu Term `Kamui"। The Ainu and Their Folklore। London: Religious Tract Society। 
  • Etter, Carl (২০০৪) [1949]। Ainu Folklore: Traditions and Culture of the Vanishing Aborigines of Japan। Whitfish, MT: Kessinger Publishing। আইএসবিএন 1-4179-7697-7 
  • Fitzhugh, William W.; Dubreuil, Chisato O. (১৯৯৯)। Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People। Seattle: University of Washington Press। আইএসবিএন 0-295-97912-7ওসিএলসি 42801973 
  • Honda Katsuichi (১৯৯৩)। Ainu Minzoku (Japanese ভাষায়)। Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun Publishing। আইএসবিএন 4-02-256577-2ওসিএলসি 29601145 
  • Ichiro Hori (১৯৬৮)। Folk Religion in Japan: Continuity and Change। Haskell lectures on History of religions। 1। Chicago: University of Chicago Press। 
  • Junko Habu (২০০৪)। Ancient Jomon of Japan। Cambridge: Cambridge University Press। আইএসবিএন 0-521-77670-8ওসিএলসি 53131386 
  • Hitchingham, Masako Yoshida (trans.),Act for the Promotion of Ainu Culture & Dissemination of Knowledge Regarding Ainu Traditions[অকার্যকর সংযোগ], Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal, vol. 1, no. 1 (2000).
  • Kayano, Shigeru (1994). Our Land Was A Forest: An Ainu Memoir. Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-1880-7. ISBN 978-0-8133-1880-6.
  • Landor, A. Henry Savage (১৮৯৩)। Alone with the Hairy Ainu. Or, 3,800 miles on a Pack Saddle in Yezo and a Cruise to the Kurile Islands। London: John Murray। 
  • Levin, Mark, Essential Commodities and Racial Justice: Using Constitutional Protection of Japan’s Indigenous Ainu People to Inform Understandings of the United States and Japan (2001). New York University of International Law and Politics, Vol. 33, p, 419, 2001 . Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1635451
  • Levin, Mark (trans.), Kayano et al. v. Hokkaido Expropriation Committee: ‘The Nibutani Dam Decision’ (1999). International Legal Materials, Vol. 38, p. 394, 1999. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1635447
  • Siddle, Richard (১৯৯৬)। Race, Resistance and the Ainu of Japan। London: Routledge। আইএসবিএন 0-415-13228-2ওসিএলসি 243850790 33947034 |oclc= এর মান পরীক্ষা করুন (সাহায্য) 
  • Starr, Frederick (১৯০৫)। "The Hairy Ainu of Japan"। Proceedings of the Second Yearly Meeting of the Iowa Anthropological Association। Iowa City: State Historical Society of Iowa। 
  • Walker, Brett (২০০১)। The Conquest of Ainu Lands: Ecology and Culture in Japanese Expansion, 1590–1800। Berkeley: University of California Press। আইএসবিএন 0-520-22736-0ওসিএলসি 45958211 59471355 70749620 |oclc= এর মান পরীক্ষা করুন (সাহায্য) 
  • Article on the Ainu in Japan's Minorities: The Illusion of Homogeneity.
  • John Batchelor (১৯০১)। The Ainu and their folk-lore। London: Religious Tract Society। পৃষ্ঠা 603। সংগ্রহের তারিখ মার্চ ১, ২০১২ (Harvard University)(Digitized Jan 24, 2006)
  • John Batchelor (১৮৯২)। The Ainu of Japan: the religion, superstitions, and general history of the hairy aborigines of Japan। London: Religious Tract Society। পৃষ্ঠা 336। সংগ্রহের তারিখ মার্চ ১, ২০১২ 
  • Basil Hall Chamberlain (সম্পাদক)। Aino Folk-Tales। Forgotten Books। সংগ্রহের তারিখ মার্চ ১, ২০১২1606200879 
  • Basil Hall Chamberlain (১৮৮৮)। Aino folk-tales: By Basil Hall Chamberlain. With introduction by Edward B. Taylor। Volume 22 of Publications of the Folklore Society। Privately Printed for THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY 1888 XXII. Reprinted in Saxony from the original edition by C. G. Röder, Ltd., Leipsic: Privately printed for the Folk-lore Society। পৃষ্ঠা 57। সংগ্রহের তারিখ মার্চ ১, ২০১২ (Indiana University)(Digitized Sep 3, 2009)
  • Batchelor, John; Miyabe, Kingo (১৮৯৮)। Ainu economic plants। Volume 21। পৃষ্ঠা 43। সংগ্রহের তারিখ ২৩ এপ্রিল ২০১২ [Original from Harvard University Digitized Jan 30, 2008][YOKOHAMA : R. MEIKLEJOHN & CO., NO 49.]

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