Ainu and the continuance of its culture

“Irankarapte!” Cheerful voices greet the viewer upon the click of the play button. The owners of the voices are two young YouTubers, Maya and Yōpin. They already have more than 60 videos uploaded to their Shito-channel and have gained 125 thousand subscribers.

Their content? The culture and language of “Ainu.” Their videos include showing the appeal of daily conversations in Ainu language, sharing recipes of traditional Ainu-style dishes such as deer soup and sake soup called chep-ohau, and sharing tips to play Ainu’s musical instrument mukkuri.

Who are the Ainu?

Some of you may be wondering, who are the “Ainu?” Ainu is a native group living around Japan’s northern area, especially in Hokkaido. Ainu nationality shares a unique language, culture, and way of thinking with those called “Japanese.”

The most popular Ainu word connecting their way of life may be Kamui (some of you may know this word because of the popular comic book “Golden Kamui”). Ainu believes that everything that utilizes humans is Kamui, from artificial tools to rivers or mountains, and each possesses a soul.

An episode that Maya shared in the interview symbolizes that kind of Ainu thinking. Maya has roots in Ainu and recalls her grandmother having visited the mountain after the earthquake. That’s because her grandmother cares about the effect of earthquakes on humans, animals, and nature. Ainu lives in a cold region that can get quite severe, bringing the Ainu to respect nature greatly. There are barely any unnecessary things in their lives.

The discrimination Ainu faced

Although Ainu has such great traditions, the Ainu were historically disrespected and driven away by the Japanese government.

Many sources unveil the existence of trade between Japanese people, so-called “Wajin,” and Ainu since ancient times. However, the exchange became an unfair one under colonialism. By the era of the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese government came to own the Hokkaido area. They violated Ainu’s residence and tried to establish new order under the Japanese government, justifying it using the logic of colonialism.

The Japanese government made Ainu obey them and stated that they should abide by the Japanese since they were “dojin,” meaning barbarian, inferior to them. Ainu’s culture was referred to as barbarism, and they were treated irrationally. Although Ainu’s rights were expressed from a global view, for example, International Covenants on Human Rights (1966), the Japanese government had not admitted their rights. Moreover, there was an era when the Japanese government’s policy forced the Ainu people to do slave labor.

Only recently has the Japanese government recognized Ainu nationality as indigenous people in law, namely “A law for fostering policies to realize a society where Ainu people’s pride are respected,” settled in 2019.

Learning from Ainu traditions with nature

It is said that Ainu people face a crisis in passing on their culture to descendants and being understood enough by others. In particular, the number of people who can speak the Ainu language has been decreasing. It is a crisis that seems too big a problem to find a clear solution to.

But it might be possible and beneficial for us to introduce Ainu’s way of thinking. Maya shared, “Ainu’s culture leads to findings that we are originally just a part of nature.” Ainu’s attitude toward nature can teach us the importance of limited resources and how deep we are connected to nature.