Ainu culture refers to the traditions of the Ainu people, dating back to around the 13th century (late Kamakura period) to the present. Today, most Ainu people live a life superficially similar to that of mainstream Japanese people, partly due to cultural assimilation. However, while some people conceal or downplay their Ainu identity, Ainu culture is still practiced among many groups. The Ainu way of life is called in the Ainu language (literally + "customs, manners"1905, An Ainu-English-Japanese Dictionary, John Batchelor, Tokyo: Methodist Publishing House. Puri entry viewable online here.). The unique Ainu patterns and oral literature () have been selected as features of Hokkaido Heritage.
Overview The term "Ainu culture" has two meanings. One is an anthropological perspective, referring to the cultural forms held by the Ainu people as an ethnic group, which includes both the culture held or created by the modern Ainu and the culture of their ancestors. The other usage, from an archeological perspective, refers to the cultural forms created by the indigenous peoples of Hokkaido and the northern Tohoku region after the Satsumon culture period.
The mainstream theory maintains that the Ainu culture originated from the local Hokkaido-Jōmon culture, a merger of the Okhotsk and Satsumon subcultures. It is suggested that Hokkaido was continuously occupied by a people who undertook a cultural shift. This is similar to the situation in which the Japanese maintained the Heian culture until the 12th century and then shifted to the Kamakura culture in the 13th century. In other words, the population remained the same, but the culture changed. Although there was not as much of a material cultural break as the change from the Jomon to the Yayoi period, later cultural customs differed greatly from earlier ones. The Ainu culture is considered indigenous to Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kurils, as well as the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Early Ainu-speaking groups (mostly hunters and fishermen) also migrated into the Kamchatka Peninsula. Evidence for Ainu speakers in Honshu is through the Ainu toponyms found in several places of northern Honshu, mostly along the western coast and in the Tōhoku region. Evidence for Ainu speakers in the Amur region is found through Ainu loanwords in the Uilta and Ulch people.
The Hokkaido Jōmon people, which predated the formation of the Ainu people and culture, formed from "proper Jōmon tribes of Honshu" and from "Terminal Upper-Paleolithic people" (TUP people) indigenous to Paleolithic Northern Eurasia. These two groups merged in Hokkaido, giving rise to the local Hokkaido Jōmon in about 15,000 BC. The Ainu in turn formed from a blending of the local Hokkaido Jōmon and the Okhotsk tribes.
According to Tanaka Sakurako from the University of British Columbia, the Ainu culture can be included into a wider "northern circumpacific region", referring to various Indigenous cultures of Northeast Asia and "beyond the Bering Strait" in North America.
The academic issue is that the term "Ainu culture" can mean both "the culture of an ethnic group" and "a cultural style that existed at a certain time in history". Although the Ainu still exist as an ethnic group, they have not retained their culture completely in the archaeological sense, since modern Ainu do not live in Chise anymore and do not lead a fishing and gathering lifestyle. However, modern Ainu are the descendants of the people who developed the archaeological Ainu culture, and the cultural styles preserved by modern Ainu are also qualified to be called Ainu culture. In 2007, Takuro Segawa proposed that the historical "Ainu culture" from the Middle Ages to the early modern period (in the archaeological context) should be called "Nibutani culture", after the Nibutani site, one of the most important archaeological sites in Hokkaido.
Archaeological evidence In archaeological terms, Ainu culture is marked by material cultural features such as iron pots, lacquerware bowls, sake chopsticks, bone hunting tools, hooked harpoons for salmon fishing, and extended burials. The Ainu culture is also known to have had regional differences. According to Rinzō Mamiya's Hoki Bunkai Yōwa (compiled by Murakami Sadasuke (1780-1846) based on Mamiya Rinzo's dictation of his exploration in Sakhalin), the Sakhalin Ainu adopted cultural elements from surrounding cultures, such as the use of dog sledding and skiing. In the early modern period, they retained cultural elements found in the Okhotsk culture in northern Hokkaido, such as the production of earthenware and the use of pit-houses during the winter. The shape of the armor also differed from the Hokkaido Ainu, with a unique combination of chest and waist armor.
The Sakhalin Ainu are also notable for their custom of mummification. Mummification is not practiced in the Okhotsk culture area, nor in the Ainu culture of Hokkaido. However, in northern Japan, the mummies of three generations of the Oshu Fujiwara clan, who are said to have controlled northern trade in the late Heian period, are preserved in Hiraizumi.
Social structure
It is thought that the Ainu lived in social units called (small village, usually five or six houses) when the Ainu culture was first established. Later, around the 15th century, the region became more culturally and politically integrated due to trade and conflicts between the Ainu and the Japanese, and by the 17th century, the Japanese had established a number of hunting and fishing settlements () around rivers called Sodaisho or Sotomyo. The Japanese lord mayor was a powerful ruler who politically integrated a large area comparable to the provinces of Japan or to a Chinese county. However, after Shakushain's revolt (1669 – 1672), which was partly caused by the division of the region into separate , the political unity of the Ainu region was dismantled with the shift to the place contracting system.
The theory that Ainu society was a disparity society with extremely unequal distribution of wealth has been presented. Based on literature and the results of the excavation of tombs, Takuro Segawa has pointed out that early modern Ainu society was divided into four classes: the (chiefs), the (lords and nobility), the commoners, and the (slaves), with wealth concentrated in the kamoi.
The Ainu were sometimes hostile to the Japanese. There was also periodic inter-Ainu warfare. In particular, the conflict between the Menasunkur Ainu (the eastern group) and the Sumunkur Ainu (the western group) was fierce, and there were battles that resulted in many deaths. Shakshain, the chief of the Menasunkuru clan who challenged the Matsumae clan, also fought and killed Onibishi, the chief of the Sumunkuru clan. They fought other inter-tribal battles, sometimes involving extensive travel.
Legal system Disputes between were decided on the merits in open discussions called , to prevent the disputes from escalating into violence. The debates took place in , or fortified compounds. In addition to this, the custom of or "trial by ordeal" remained strong, and the outcome of such ordeals constituted a pact to settle a matter.
When a crime occurred in Ainu society, the village chief brought the defendant to justice at his own discretion. In general, adultery was punished by ear shaving or nose shaving, and theft was punished by caning with a club called a shuto, or by cutting the Achilles tendon. As the Ainu have never had a strong unified government, their laws and punishments have been greatly influenced by the authorities and the region, and if the village chief was mild, the guilty party was given lenient treatment, while if the chief was cruel, the guilty party was severely punished. There was no death penalty for the Hokkaido Ainu, but for serious crimes such as murder, some sentences were difficult to survive, such as being banished from the kotan after the Achilles tendon was severed. In Sakhalin Ainu society, murderers were sentenced to be buried alive along with the bodies of their victims "Rekishi to Folk Ainu", Sarashina Genzo, Shakai Shiso-sha, 1968, p133"Illustrated Ainu", Tsunoda Yoichi, Shinkijinsha, 2018, p197
There is a theory that this kind of system was not understood by the Japanese, whose court system was developed during the Edo period and who established a modern judicial system after the Meiji Restoration. This failure to understand led to contempt for the Ainu.
Livelihood
Prior to the modern era, the Ainus' livelihood consisted of a combination of hunting, fishing, gathering (forest and marine), farming, and trading to secure the goods necessary for their livelihood. The chum salmon was called the kamui-chel (Lady's fish) or sipe (original food), and was regarded as a staple food and often dried. This was not only important as a self-sufficient food source but was also one of the main products that needed to be secured in large quantities for trade with the Japanese.
Farming was also practiced, but it was not the mainstay of their livelihood. However, this is not because farming was impossible. Farming was widely practiced during the Abramite culture, and many traces of fields from the Ainu culture have been discovered, such as the Takasago shell mound in Tōyako, Hokkaido, which was buried by the eruption of Mount Usu in 1663. It is also thought that the Ainu specialized in trading with the Japanese, for whom they obtained large quantities of trade goods such as salmon, animal skins, and raptor feathers. The cultivation of hiye (piyapa) has been practiced since ancient times, and it was used to brew an alcoholic beverage similar to nigori sake called "tonoto," which was used in rituals. In addition, foxtail millet (munchiro) and proso millet (mengku) were cultivated. These were called chisassuyep when cooked into rice, and sayo when cooked into porridge. Starch collected and preserved in bulk from the bulb (scale) of the giant lily (tulais), and the residue after collecting the starch, was fermented and dried, and was also one of the staple foods. Because of this tradition of starch use, when the potato was introduced, it was immediately accepted.
When the Revolt of Shakushain, which was caused by the Shoba Chigyo system, ended in defeat, and the location contracting system was established, people were mobilized to work as servants for the location contractors (Japanese merchants who also acted as administrators), as well as to sell handicrafts and work at fishing grounds.『鈴木重尚 松浦武四郎 唐太日記』（嘉永7年（1854年刊行）に、弘化3年当時の状況の一部の記述が見える。
Religion
The pre-modern Ainu religion is categorized as animism. They believed that animals, plants, tools, natural phenomena (tsunamis, earthquakes, etc.), and pestilence all had their own spirituality and that these things were inhabited by spirits called "ramak". The world was divided into the present world (Ainu Mosii company) and the world inhabited by lamats (Kamuimoshiri company), and lamats were believed to inhabit various things and came to Ainu Mosii with some kind of role. It was interpreted that Ramak would return to Kamuimoshishin after fulfilling his role. The Ainu gods were not absolute transcendents, and when Kamui acted unjustly, the Ainu would protest.