Ishūretsuzō

The clothing worn and other accoutrements depicted help cast light on late eighteenth-century connections between the indigenous inhabitants of Ezochi, the Wajin, China, and Russia.

[1]: 123 [7][8]: 30  The outcome was loss of economic independence, as the Ainu increasingly became in effect labourers in fisheries and other businesses operated by Wajin merchants.

[1]: 123 [7] In 1788, merchant Hidaya Kyūbei (飛騨屋久兵衛) began commercial fishing operations in the Menashi-Kunashiri area, employing Ainu workers to catch salmon and trout for use as fertilizer.

[1]: 77  While local potentate Tsukinoe was away hunting sea otters on Uruppu, seventy-one Wajin were killed, twenty-two of them on Kunashiri, the rest in the Menashi area, all but one of them (a Matsumae Domain soldier) Hidaya employees.

[4]: 100 [9] A wealth of ethnographic detail further emphasizes their "foreignness", including elm bark cloth attush [ja] robes, with ayus thorn patterns; tekunpe (テクンぺ) mittens; boots of seal skin; cloth and blue bead earrings; a ritual hoe-shaped helmet ornament (ペラウシトミカムイ); a shitoki necklace; a female mouth tattoo; Ezo nishiki Qing robes; Russian coats; and western-style shoes.