page_title: Ainu people
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Ainu people / History
caption_attribution_description: English: A GROUP OF AINOS. THE Ainos are a people inhabiting the Northern island of Yesso. They differ from the Japanese in language and race. Their origin is lost in a wild and fabulous tradition. The legend runs thus—“That the race owes its preservation to a doll which swam across from Corea to the uninhabited island of Yesso.” They were conquered some three hundred years ago by the Japanese. The people are employed during the summer months in felling trees in the forests, or collecting Kombo (a species of sea-weed) for the Government, and they may be said to be veritable hewers of wood and drawers of water. They are superstitious and have great belief in the supernatural. Their women are stout and handsome, though their beauty is somewhat marred by the habit of tattooing their upper lip.
context_page_description: The Ainu or the Aynu, also known as the Ezo in historical Japanese texts, are an East Asian ethnic group indigenous to Japan, the original inhabitants of Hokkaidō and Russia.
  Official estimates place the total Ainu population of Japan at 25,000. Unofficial estimates place the total population at 200,000 or higher, as the near-total assimilation of the Ainu into Japanese society has resulted in many individuals with Ainu heritage having no knowledge of their ancestry.
caption: A group of Ainu people, c. 1870
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