Ainu

****First Lieutenant Tsurumi will scold me!****

*This article is outdated, poorly written or lacks important information. It should be reworked!*

## Ainu

* Anime
* Manga

## Media Info

### Anime Debut

Episode 1

The **Ainu** are an indigenous ethnic group of northern Japan and Russia (Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, Khabarovsk Krai and the Kamchatka Peninsula). They have their own lifestyle, customs, traditions, and language. As an ethnos, the Ainu can be separated into three distinct groups: Hokkaido Ainu, Karafuto Ainu, and Chishima Ainu.

## History

The Ainu are the native people of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kurils. The Ainu have often been considered to descend from the diverse Jōmon people, who lived in northern Japan from the Jōmon period. Early Ainu-speaking groups (mostly hunters and fishermen) migrated also into the Kamchatka Peninsula and into Honshu, where their descendants are today known as the Matagi hunters, which still use a large amount of Ainu vocabulary in their dialect. Other evidence for Ainu-speaking hunters and fishermen migrating down from northern Hokkaido into Honshu is through the Ainu toponyms which are found in several places of northern Honshu, mostly among the western coast and the Tōhoku region. Evidence for Ainu-speakers in the Amur region is found through Ainu loanwords in the Uilta and Ulch people.

Active contact between the Wajin (the ethnically Japanese, also known as Yamatojin) and the Ainu of Ezogashima (now known as Hokkaido) began in the 13th century. The Ainu formed a society of hunter-gatherers, surviving mainly by hunting and fishing. They followed a religion which was based on natural phenomena. The Ainu culture expanded during the period from the 15th to the 18th centuries.

At the beginning of the 15th century, Japan intensified its influence to the south of Hokkaido, first in Esashi and Matsue, and soon after, the Japanese began colonization of the territory of the Ainu people. The Ainu resisted Japanese oppression between, and the disputes between the Japanese and Ainu developed into large-scale violence, Koshamain's War, in 1456.

During the Edo period (1601–1868) the Ainu, who controlled Hokkaido, became increasingly involved in trade with the Japanese. The feudal 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 groups competed with each other to import goods from the Japanese, and epidemic diseases such as smallpox reduced the population.

Although the increased contact created by the trade between the Japanese and the Ainu contributed to increased mutual understanding, it also led to conflict which occasionally intensified into violent Ainu revolts. The most important was Shakushain's Revolt (1669–1672), an Ainu rebellion against Japanese authority. Another large-scale revolt by Ainu against Japanese rule was the Menashi-Kunashir Rebellion in 1789.

From 1799 to 1806, the shogunate took direct control of southern Hokkaido. Ainu men were deported to merchant subcontractors for five and ten-year terms of service, and were enticed with rewards of food and clothing if they agreed to drop their native language and culture and become Japanese. Ainu women were separated from their husbands and forcibly married to Japanese merchants and fishermen, who were told that a taboo forbade them from bringing their wives to Hokkaido. Women were often tortured if they resisted rape by their new Japanese husbands, and frequently ran away into the mountains. These policies of family separation and forcible assimilation, combined with the impact of smallpox, caused the Ainu population to drop significantly in the early 19th century.

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 modernizing the country in the Western style. One innovation involved the annexation of Hokkaido. In 1899, the Japanese government passed an act labelling 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. Also at this time, the Ainu were granted automatic Japanese citizenship, effectively denying them the status of an indigenous group.

The Ainu people 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. The 1899 act was replaced in 1997—until then the government had stated there were no ethnic minority groups. It was not until June 6, 2008, that Japan formally recognized the Ainu as an indigenous group.

## Culture

### Craft

Carving a *makiri* (short knife) was an important step in the lives of Ainu men. When a man liked a woman, he was supposed to craft a *makiri* and gift it to the woman. After examining the craftsmanship, the woman would decide how good of a provider the man was.

### Games

Ainu children played games that would hone their skills for hunting and fishing, e.g. *Uko Karip Ciwe*, a ring catch game where the ring made from vines was tossed in the air and everyone competed to catch it.

### Kotan

The Ainu lived in small settlements of a few or dozens *cise* (households) often located by a large river or estuary. Lead by their village chief, the *kotan* residents lived in a well-ordered society.

### Oral Traditions

The Ainu possessed no writing system, so epic poems, religious songs, and other oral traditions were used to pass on spiritual or historical stories. The legends were called *upaskuma*.

### Patterns

To teach children patterns and symbols, the Ainu would draw in the ashes (*apekiray*) to teach her granddaughter traditional Ainu patterns and symbols.

### Tattoos

Ainu women would start receiving their traditional mouth tattoos at the age of 12 years old. The size of the tattoo signified the woman's status in her village (so the more important a woman's husband, the bigger the tattoo she could get).

## Beliefs

### Kamuy

The Ainu people believie that everything in nature has a *kamuy* (spirit or god) on the inside. Everything that is useful or is beyond one's control is revered as *kamuy*: fire, water, earth, trees, animals, natural phenomena, even clothes and tableware. It's important to maintain a good relationship with *kamuy* by performing ceremonies and expressing gratitude for the things they send to humans from the Land of the Gods. Being hunters, the Ainu hold animal *kamuy* in high regard. It's believed that while in the Lang of the Gods, the kamuy take the form of humans and are only clad in animal skin and flesh when they come to our world to play.

The bear kamuy, *Kimun Kamuy*, is especially important. To raise a bear cub is considered an act of great prestige. The Ainu raise the cub for one or two years inside a cage (*heperset*) and, when the time comes, gather for the ceremony of *Iomante* to send off the bear back to the Land of the Gods. The ceremony includes singing, dancing, and preparing lots of food to send the bear's spirit carrying many gifts to show the gods that human world is a wonderful place. It's done in order for the gods to come back on earth again and again. The skulls of the bears would later be kept at the altar, *nusasan*.

Bears that eat humans are seen as evil gods, *Wen Kamuy*. After death, Wen Kamuy go to a hell called *teine pokna mosir*.

Rivers are considered sacred for the Ainu people: they never wash clothes in the river or wash away excrements in the water. It's believed that panning for gold and polluting the river caused the wrath of *Wakkaus Kamuy*, god of the water. The gold itself is thought to be cursed and possessed by an evil spirit.

### Children's Names

There's a custom of trying to protect babies from the spirits that bring disease by giving them disgusting names, like *Si taktak* ("clamp of feces") or *Ekasiotonpuy* ("grandfather's butthole"). When a child is six years old and already has their personality formed, they give them a name based on what the child has done in their lives.

### Guardian Spirit

*Turenpe* is a guardian spirit that is born with the person they're protecting. The Ainu believe that *turenpe* come in and out through the back of one's neck. *Turenpe* can be spirits of fire, water, thunder, even wolves or bears. It's *turenpe* that cause people's personalities to differ; they also control people's fate. When receiving something as a gift, one must share it with their guardian spirit. Some Ainu claim to be able to see *turenpe*.

## Hunting

As hunters, the Ainu have developed their own techniques and strategies to hunt their prey. The Ainu use poisoned arrows and spears to hunt bears, deer, otter, and other animals. Hunters mix different poisons to make their poison arrows stronger. Each family has their secret method that was passed down through generations. Some poison mixtures include aconite root, red stingray spine, etc.

Trapping is another important strategy in hunting. By leaving snares and funneling the animal towards the trap, it's possible to catch squirrels and hares.

When hunting a bear, Ainu hunters usually avoid aiming at its skull; instead, they aim for the heart. Some hunters secure a sharpened stake to the ground and use the weight of the falling bear to pierce it through the heart.

To kill a bear that is sleeping in its den, hunters fence up the entrance to it with stakes and then shoot the bear with an arrow. However, some men were brave enough to get inside a bear's den and kill the bear with a poison arrow in hands.

When hunting eagles by river streams, Ainu hunters stay in little huts called *an*. After setting up bait in the water the hunters wait for arrival of the eagle and then use hooks called *kapacirap* to catch the eagles by the feet. The wing and tail feathers are used for fletching arrows.

Deer crossing over a mountain will often walk beside mountain streams. The Ainu would topple trees alongside the stream and use them to construct a wall that funneled the deer within range of an arrow trap. These traps were common enough that walking on such paths was dangerous to humans as well as deer.

While leaving on hunting trips, the Ainu sleep in temporary huts called *kuca*. The floors and cone-shaped roofs of the huts are made from branches of Sakhalin Fir or other evergreen tress. Up to 4 adults would fit inside a *kuca*. When hunters get tired hiking in the mountains, they chew *hupca* (needles of Sakhalin fir) for an energy, and sometimes they cut off the whole branch, cook it over a fire, and then put it in hot water to drink.

Ainu hunters would use the technique called *kuwaecarase* to slide down slopes using a hiking stick made from the hardy, tough wood of the Japanese alder.

## Cuisine

### Citatap

*Citatap* is a dish where one uses a knife to mince raw meat. Making *citatap* allows eating even the toughest parts of the animal like bones. It's only possible to make *citatap* out of fresh meat. For preparing *citatap*, one must use a very hard, odorless wood such as oak, cut from the cross-section of the tree. The Ainu use a special cutting board for *citatap*, called *itatani*.

### Ohaw

*Ohaw* is a soup made from meat. Much like while cooking *citatap*, the meat is minced and then turned into dumplings. Dried soft windflower can be added to enhance the taste. Normally, only leftover meat is used for *ohaw*. *Pukusakina* (soft windflower), a wild vegetable that goes well with meat, can be added to enhance the flavor.

### Kinaohaw

*Kinaohaw* is a soup primarily made from vegetables, but meat and fish (like sculpins) can be added to the broth.

### Yukohaw

*Yukohaw* is a deer nabe, similar to *kinaohaw*. To enhance the flavor, *pukusakina* (soft windflower) and *pukusa* (alpine leeks) can be added.

### Ruipe

Salmon *ruipe*, a meal from thawed salmon, its name means thawed *(*ru) food (*ipe*). Salmon were so important to the Ainu way of life that they were called "Fish of the Gods" or "The True Food."

It's made by taking raw meat or fish and hanging it from a tree to let it freeze. Freezing *ruipe* causes the parasites inside to die. At the same time, eating it raw allows one to absorb more vitamins from the meat. It’s the perfect combination of preparation methods.
You can eat this dish only in winter.

## Relationship with other ethnic groups

At the time, Ainu villages interacted with Japanese people through the fur trade, and therefore knowledge of basic Japanese was required. Roughly a third of the Ainu people could speak Japanese well; of the remaining two-thirds, one-third could not speak it at all.

Marriage between Ainu and other groups was not forbidden in any way. There were many Ainu with Russian ancestry.

Records show that 63 Ainu joined the army and fought in the Russo-Japanese war.

## Language

The Ainu People have their own language, and there are numerous words and terms that have been spoken throughout the entirety of the series, all of which will be listed below.

## Tools

* **Amappo**: an arrow trap that is used to hunt bear, deer, and otter.
* **Cinoyetat**: rolled birch bark used as a torch.
* **Heperesinotpe**: a toy for bear cubs.
* **Heperset**: a cage that is used to keep bear cubs in.
* **Ipapkeni**: deer whistle. Made from the thinly stretched bladder of a deer. When blown into, the vibration makes a sound very similar to a deer's call. It's used to lure a deer within bowshot range.
* **Itatani**: cutting board for meat.
* Iteseni
* **Kapacirap**: a hook used for hook hunting.
* **Kisarri**: a wooden stick used for scaring children ("long-earred monster"). It's used by standing outside a window and waving it while making a terrifying sound. Children that cry at night stop as soon as they see it.
* Klaa
* Kuyoy
* **Makiri**: a short knife.
* Manakanit
* **Menokoita**: a cooking utensil that can be used as a cutting board, a bowl, and a tray.
* Mukkur
* Pise
* **Raomap**: a trap for catching river fish.
* **Ratcako**: a light stand; holds a scallop shell that contains fish or whale oil.
* **Sutu**: punishment rod. It's used to punish those that committed crimes like theft and homicide. It is not to be used lightly.

## Clothes

Attus (bark clothing)Kaparamipu (cotton clothing with cut patterns and sewn white crepe)Cepur (fish skin clothing, made by tanning skin from large fish like salmon, trout and huchen)Cikarakarape (clothing made by weaving black and navy cloth intro striped cotton; patterns are woven in on top; white cotton is never used)Uru (pelt robe)Tetrape (weed bark clothing, Karafuto Ainu clothes made from fibers of nettles)Cikapur (bird skin clothing, sewn from feathered skins of seabirds such as the rhinoceros auklet, horned puffin and tufted puffin)Attus (bark clothing)