It was serialized in Shueisha's seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Jump from August 2014 to April 2022, with its chapters collected in thirty-one tankōbon volumes.

An anime television series adaptation produced by Geno Studio aired with two seasons from April to December 2018.

Golden Kamuy takes place in the aftermath of the Russo-Japanese War, primarily in Hokkaido and the surrounding regions.

Specific focus is given to the indigenous Ainu people and their culture, such as exploring their language and the way they respectfully use natural resources to thank the Kamuy they believe provide them.

Later parts of the story also explore the different subcultures within the Ainu and the hardships they suffered by being caught in Japanese-Russian territorial conflicts.

The plot also explores the severe struggles of soldiers and war veterans, with moral ambiguity, survivor's guilt, honour, penance, and virtue ethics being common themes.

To relay the location outside, the Ainu miner tattooed many parts of a ciphered map onto his fellow prisoners, offering them a cut of the gold for sharing it with his comrades outside.

The prison eventually recognized the code, but was unable to read it and attempted to transport the tattooed men elsewhere; the tattoed convicts overpowered and killed their captors, scattering into the night.

Saichi Sugimoto, a veteran of the battle of Hill 203, works as a panner in Hokkaido to provide for the widow of his dead comrade.

Sugimoto is approached by a drunk old man, who tells him a dubious legend of a huge gold cache; it can only be found by connecting a cyphered map, split into strange tattoos on Abashiri Prison escapees.

Overpowering the old man, Sugimoto pursues him into the woods, finding him killed by a bear and with a large, geometric tattoo across his chest, back and shoulders.

Due to her opposition to needless killing, Asirpa suggests they try to co-operate with prisoners they find by simply tracing their tattoos.

Written and illustrated by Satoru Noda, Golden Kamuy was serialized in Shueisha's seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Jump from August 21, 2014,[6] to April 28, 2022.

[7] Viz Media announced that they licensed the manga at New York Comic Con 2016,[9] and they released the series in North America from June 20, 2017, to January 16, 2024.

[13] The anime was announced in July 2017 in Weekly Young Jump,[15] and aired for twelve episodes from April 9 to June 25, 2018, on Tokyo MX, ytv, STV, and BS11.

[41] The film is produced by Credeus and directed by Shigeaki Kubo, with Tsutomu Kuroiwa writing the screenplay, Yutaka Yamada composing the music, and Hiroshi Nakagawa and Deko Akibe credited for Ainu supervision.

[44] Titled Golden Kamuy: The Hunt of Prisoners in Hokkaido (ゴールデンカムイ-北海道刺青囚人争奪編-), the nine-episode series premiered on Wowow on October 6, 2024.

[56] The British Museum in London used an image of the character Asirpa to promote The Citi Exhibition: Manga, which ran from May 23 to August 26, 2019.