In the north of Japan, Ainu culture is gaining confidence and finding new ways of expressing itself.
The Ainu are an indigenous people who have for centuries inhabited northern Japan, especially Hokkaido and the surrounding islands. Their distinct culture arose in the context of their frequent trade contacts with people of other lands and a close relationship with their natural environment. In 1869, the Japanese government officially incorporated the island of Hokkaido into the territory of Japan. Though Ainu people lived more widely in the region, this step meant a significant part of the Ainu population were now part of Japan, and a series of policies were put in place to ostensibly protect the Ainu, but with the effect of assimilating them. Certain Ainu customs were banned and adoption of Japanese names and language was encouraged. In the following years, the Ainu language, Ainu names and the transmission of Ainu culture all came under pressure and began to dwindle. However, in particular in regions with significant populations who can trace an Ainu heritage and especially in recent decades, there have been significant moves to sustain and value Ainu culture.
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Cultural Revival in Nibutani
Members of the Ainu community in the small village of Nibutani, in Hokkaido’s Biratori area, have often acted as representatives and advocates for the further understanding of Ainu culture. A particularly notable local figure is Kayano Shigeru (1926-2006) whose activism in the 1960s and 1970s made many contributions to the preservation and revitalization of the Ainu language and traditions, such as the revival of the Cipsanke festival – an important part of the Ainu cultural calendar in Nibutani – that annually launches the community’s canoes on the Saru River. More recently, a new cohort of people from many generations with a strong interest in Ainu identity – ranging from material culture and performance to forestry and protection of the waterways – has been actively engaged in the revitalization of the Ainu cultural landscape in Biratori. These efforts are explored in Japan House London’s exhibition Ainu Stories: Contemporary Lives by the Saru River (16 November 2023 – 21 April 2024).
Local Ainu Initiatives
The Biratori Dam, one of two major dam projects in the Saru River basin, was completed in 2022, and has given rise to a dedicated body of work to monitor and research the impact of the dam on communities and the environment through consultation with the local Ainu population. Nagano Tamaki, Chair of the Biratori Ainu Culture Preservation Association, is deeply involved in the consultation and monitoring and is an example of how members of the Ainu community in the region are working to preserve and communicate their culture today in all areas of their lives. She began to study the Ainu language in order to carry out oral surveys, capturing life as it used to be, and speaks passionately about Ainu spirituality, its link to the landscape and numerous aspects of everyday life.
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The principle that Ainu communities should be involved in local decision-making and administration itself flows from an earlier dam project, the Nibutani Dam, the building of which became the centre of an important court case. The case was brought by Kayano Shigeru to challenge the construction and the project’s use of land important to the Ainu. In 1997, although the dam was near completion, the challenge succeeded with the court’s decision recognizing the Ainu as an indigenous minority in Japan with a right to protected enjoyment of their distinct culture.
Ainu Spiritual Systems
There is a strong link between land and Ainu spirituality, which forms part of a culture that depended on respect for natural systems and their continuation, in the context of often extreme environmental conditions of islands like Hokkaido. The Ainu belief system holds that kamuy, spirit-deities who inhabit the distinct world of kamuy and who then can be embodied by natural phenomena in the human world, offer provisions for human survival. In return, Ainu rituals and ceremonies are performed as an expression of gratitude and respect. Reverence for kamuy persists in contemporary Ainu life. Today, many Ainu are actively working towards the continuation of Ainu culture, including spiritual culture: for example, a project is under way to re-diversify the forests in the Saru River basin, in part to entice the return of an important Ainu kamuy, the fish owl.
A gallery featuring Ozaki Tsuyoshi, leading expert on cise construction, on Ainu cise construction in Biratori, Hokkaido.
- Ozaki Tsuyoshi, leading expert on cise construction, on Ainu cise construction in Biratori, Hokkaido
Building Cise
Re-diversification of forests is also vital to Ainu material culture and a variety of coniferous and broad-leaved trees are being cultivated, including katsura from which Ainu woodworkers often carve Nibutani ita (carved trays) and trees used for the construction of Ainu houses, cise. Built of only local natural materials, cise in Biratori were made using a combination of wood and reed thatch, made from reeds harvested along Saru riverbanks. The cise functioned as living spaces with an altar, nusa, set near to a window through which kamuy move. These days, cise are being rebuilt to host ceremonies and as spaces of interest to the public. The methods and skills for building cise are being taught to younger generations in the Ainu tradition of passing on knowledge orally and through hands-on experience.
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Song as an Oral Tradition
Sharing knowledge, stories and beliefs, and nurturing a collective memory using a variety of Ainu oral traditions, have long been key in the transmission of Ainu culture. Singing, whether for entertainment, for ceremonies or accompanying everyday work activities, is one such oral tradition that continues to play an important part in Ainu life in Biratori as well as other places. There are many regionally diverse genres of Ainu song: for example in Hokkaido, upopo are celebratory group songs sung canonically while beating out a rhythm on the lid of a treasure box (shintoko). A Nibutani-based singing duo, Ankes, who have performed at Japan House London in conjunction with the exhibition, research and perform Ainu songs not only from the Saru River area but also from a number of regions. Historically, such songs have been the preserve of women, yet it is characteristic of the open approach of Ainu culture in Nibutani that a man is singing these songs today.
A gallery featuring Attus weaving in Nibutani, Hokkaido.
- Attus weaving in Nibutani, Hokkaido
Nibutani Attus – fabric woven from bark
Ainu song, dance and ceremonies are typically performed in robes, amip, decorated with distinct patterns, the designs of which vary from region to region. These days amip are primarily made of cotton textiles; however, historically clothing made of attus, fabric woven from the inner bark fibres of elm and linden trees, was commonplace in Ainu communities. This type of fabric is particularly associated with Nibutani, as the necessary raw materials grow in abundance in the Saru River basin. The arduous production process involves many days of splitting the bark into threads before weaving on a backstrap loom; it continues to be practised today by a few attus weavers in Nibutani, like Kaizawa Yukiko, who are ensuring this Ainu craft lives on. Attus production has been named an ‘Officially Designated Traditional Craft’, one of only two in Hokkaido, with the other being the carving of Nibutani ita, carved wooden trays. Kaizawa herself has won many awards, including recognition as ‘an excellent craftswoman’ by The Ainu Association of Hokkaido in 2011. More recently in November 2023 she was awarded The Order of the Sacred Treasure, Silver Rays by the Japanese government.