The Ainu People

Posted on March 16, 2007 by Ekatherina Touma

Upon coming to HokkaidoThe Northernmost of the 4 major islands of the Japanese archipelago. my biggest dream was to meet AinuThe native people of Hokkaido. Also called "Utari," their language and culture are distinctly different from those of the Japanese. people. I knew that Ainu were indigenous people of that island and my first questions to Japanese were how and where to find Ainu villages. After asking several people I understood that the most famous village was “Shila Oi”, that was about 2 hours by car from SapporoThe largest city in Hokkaido and the fifth largest in Japan by population. It is home of the famous Sapporo Breweries and hosts the annual Yuki Matsuri (Snow Festival).. I was very excited and when my Japanese friends decided to organize “Hokkaido trip” for me, I asked them to take me to Shila Oi.

We visited several places that day and finally arrived to a place that looked like a beautiful combination of wood and colored leaves of autumn. At the entrance gate there was a big wooden statue representing some kind of divine figure. By its side was a small pond that was supposed to bring luck for those who throw coins into it. Everything around seemed like a fairy tale.

However, after walking for sometime I started to realize that the place looked like a museum rather than a village. More I asked about “Ainu people” more I felt disappointed. Everyone around were Japanese, doing their jobs, entertaining visitors by performing Ainu dances and singing their songs. Even the craftsmen, who were working with wood and selling it, were ordinary Japanese.

That visit left me gloomy; I was reluctant to believe that Ainu actually didn’t exist anymore. Many Japanese tried to convince me that Ainu and Japanese are actually so intermixed now that no one can be sure who the real Ainu are. As I did more research on that topic I started to understand that although that might be true in some cases, many live in poverty, deprived of their basic rights. Real Ainu villages are not famous but they do exist. Although I still didn’t have a chance to visit them, I expect them to be quiet different from Shila Oi.