Ainu culture

[clarification needed] The Japanese lord mayor was a powerful ruler who politically integrated a large area comparable to the provinces of Japan or to a Chinese county.

Based on literature and the results of the excavation of tombs, Takuro Segawa has pointed out that early modern Ainu society was divided into four classes: the kamoi (chiefs),[citation needed] the nispa (lords and nobility), the commoners, and the usiune utare (slaves),[clarification needed] with wealth concentrated in the kamoi.

There was no death penalty for the Hokkaido Ainu, but for serious crimes such as murder, some sentences were difficult to survive, such as being banished from the kotan after the Achilles tendon was severed.

This was not only important as a self-sufficient food source but was also one of the main products that needed to be secured in large quantities for trade with the Japanese.

[14] The cultivation of hiye (piyapa) has been practiced since ancient times, and it was used to brew an alcoholic beverage similar to nigori sake called "tonoto," which was used in rituals.

The grave markers are wooden stakes called Irurakamui (gods who carry them) and Kwa (staffs), made of wood that does not decay easily, such as enju and hashidoi.

In addition, since the Meiji era, missionaries such as John Batchelor, who wanted to evangelize the Ainu, were allowed to spread Christianity in Japan with some conditions.

There are many unanswered questions about the purpose of their construction, but they may have been defensive fortresses, treasuries, sanctuaries for ceremonies, or places for people to view some performance or ritual.

[18] In 1916, four of the seven hoe-shaped objects found in Kakuda Village, Yubari County (now Kuriyama-cho) are preserved in the Tokyo National Museum.

In the Middle Ages, the Ainu traded dried salmon, bear and sea animal pelts, and raptor feathers for Japanese luxury goods such as silk fabrics and lacquerware.

In the "Preface to the Book of Genesis" cited in the Genbunrui, there is a description of the Ainu attacking the Nivkh people around the 13th century and later fighting the Mongol Empire.

Depending on the temperature of the weather, they may also wear tekunpe (literally "hand-on things", i.e. gloves or mittens), a konci (hood), or hos (leggings).

Sakhalin Ainu women wear hetmuye, a headdress made of cloth wrapped in a ring, on their heads during rituals.

Traditional Ainu clothing appears similar in tailoring to the Japanese kimono, but features tubular sleeves and no gussets; garments are also single-layered.

In the Ainu culture, where hunting and gathering were the mainstays, farming was only a secondary element, and the development of metalware technology was limited.

Therefore, rather than blacksmithing, which involved extracting, forging, and smelting metals from ores, craftsmen developed techniques to modify, repair, and reuse existing metalware.

The majority of these items, with the exception of the ninkari, were made exclusively for women, and like the makiri (knives for men) and tasiro (mountain swords similar to machetes), which were given male privileges[clarification needed], the kem (sewing needles) and cispo (needle cases), which were used for clothing, food, and shelter, and the shu (iron pots and pans) and menoko makiri (knives for women), which were used for food, were also given strict female privileges[clarification needed].

When this traditional tattoo is applied, the mouth of the young woman is wiped clean and disinfected with hot water infused with the bark of alder.

Philipp Franz von Siebold, a German physician and naturalist living in Japan, went to the Ainu village of Hiratori, Ryusha-gun, Hokkaido, and found that "Ainu tattooing is done only on women, and begins with multiple horizontal wounds made with a small knife just above the upper lip of girls as young as seven or eight years old, where the soot is rubbed in.

[23] The custom of tattooing flourished in Japan during the Jōmon and Yayoi (until around Umataikoku) and fell into disuse in Japanese society with the Yamatization (Yamato Court).

Similar customs include straw calculation in Okinawa, Fuxi Xi knots in East Asia, and the Quipu system among the Inca of South America.

From the beginning of the Edo period, Ezochi, including Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and Chishima, was divided into about 80 places, which were known to vassals and became the domain of the Matsumae clan.

[27] However, when the territory came under the direct control of the Edo shogunate, the ban on wearing hats, coats, and sandals, which had been forbidden by the Matsumae clan, was lifted.

Since the late 1970s, the revival of Ainu traditional culture has gained momentum, and Iomantes have been held in Hiratori-cho, Shiraoi, and Asahikawa.

Active representation of Ainu history has also begun, and a memorial service for Shakushain is held in Shinhidaka Town every year on September 23.

The Sapporo-based group Ainu Art Project performed music and dance with the Tlingit tribe of North America in 2000, and participated in the annual International Canoe Festival in Maui, Hawaii.

In 2007, Haruzo Urakawa and other Ainu from the Kantō region joined Native Hawaiians to hold a Kamuinomi for traditional canoeing in Yokohama.

A rumor began to circulate between 2014 and 2015 that the Ainu people were enjoying preferential treatment for various vulnerable groups by taking advantage of their position as victims of rape by the Japanese.

In response to Kobayashi's opinion, the critic Keihira Furuya wrote, "If the logic that 'because an ethnic group does not call itself "Ainu", it does not exist' holds true, then it would be impossible to say that there are Native Americans in the United States (or Indians).

In addition to being a place to procure biological resources, the ior is unique in that it is closely related to Ainu's spiritual culture, including rituals.