By Alessandro Colletti
Very few know that the Ainu are the only people that still perform a ritual called Iomante, aimed at sending bears’ spirits back to nature. But in all fairness, few know who the Ainu are in the first place. And there is an unfortunate reason for this.
The Ainu people are the native inhabitants of Japan, living in the northern provinces around Hokkaido, and over the course of history they have been gradually emarginated by the modern Japanese, who systematically integrated them forcefully.
The Ainu people have always had a distinct identity, with an endemic isolated language, nowadays on the brink of extinction, and unique spiritual practices.
Most of the latter reveal a profound connection to nature; for example, salmon was extensively fished and worshipped as a divinity, favoured clothing made out of the bark of elm trees (called attus).[1] The aforementioned Iomante was itself a complex ritual, involving the abduction and carefully executed sacrifice of a bear cub.[2]
Nevertheless, stereotyping the Ainu as a primordial, isolated tribe would be nonfactual, and following the narratives that justified their forced assimilation.
In fact, the Ainu people were also deeply involved in trade, especially with the Japanese with whom they exchanged fish and pelts, as well as other indigenous groups from Russia such as the Nivkh, who served as intermediary for Chinese and Russian goods.[3]
Substantially, the Ainu were a flourishing and interconnected population with a distinct identity within the Japanese islands.
After the 18th century, and in particular during the Meiji Restoration, Japan underwent profound reforms, aimed at turning the state into a modernised and homogeneous nation following the blueprint of European states. The goal of creating a uniform Japanese identity based on ethnicity inevitably implied the marginalisation of the Ainu.
Under the 1899 Hokkaido Former Natives Protection Act, the Japanese implemented policies to eradicate Ainu culture under safeguarding pretences: the usage of their language was forbidden, and their hunting lands were reassigned to settlers.[4]
In addition to being a logistical modernisation, abandoning feudalism for tightened centralised control, the Meiji reforms aimed at following the nation building trend practiced in the USA and Australia, where minorities were persecuted or forcibly assimilated through settler colonialism to erase their identity.
Modern nationalism in Japan frames cultures as the Ainu’s as vestigial relics that prevent the state from successfully modernising and keeping up with the world.
Even a Japanese family that I got acquainted with during a stay in the country dismissed the Ainu as a forgotten and somehow irrelevant part of their history.
The psychological impact of these policies on the Ainu that strongly sought to preserve their identity is evident: their cultural features are used more as touristic attractions, and their lifestyle has substantially merged with Japan’s technological modernity.
It is true that, in a fortunate turn of events, Japanese institutions have begun to safeguard Japanese culture. The aforementioned Natives Protection Act was withdrawn in 1997, with official Ainu recognition established in 2008. Ainu-led initiatives, such as the Ainu Association of Hokkaido, have helped restore to some degree cultural preservation, for example through the opening of the Upopoi National Ainu Museum and its Park.[5]
Sadly, this late institutionalisation of the Ainu, although positive, can do little to overturn hundreds of years of cultural oppression and forced assimilation.
For example, as of today, the critically endangered Ainu Language has no native speakers, and only few people have some knowledge of it.[6]
While it is true that languages can be restored back to life, as seen with Hebrew, it is sadly unlikely for the Ainu to enjoy a full cultural revival. As long as Japan continues to propagate and support the image of an ethnic nation-state, as well as conveniently omitting pages such as the Ainu repression in its historiography, it will be hard for regional minorities to enjoy fruitful forms of tutelage.
Bibliography
Japan House London. “Kaizawa Yukiko on 50 Years of Weaving Ainu “Attus” Fabric.” Youtu.be, 2025, youtu.be/IUT_bJWk-uU?si=ejolCSJsVMsBjPa.
Kindaichi, Kyōsuke, and Minori Yoshida. “The Concepts behind the Ainu Bear Festival (Kumamatsuri).” Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, vol. 5, no. 4, 1949, pp. 345–350, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3628594.
Maruyama, Hiroshi. “Japan’s Policies towards the Ainu Language and Culture with Special Reference to North Fennoscandian Sami Policies.” Acta Borealia, vol. 31, no. 2, 3 July 2014, pp. 152–175, https://doi.org/10.1080/08003831.2014.967980.
Organization, Japan National Tourism. “National Ainu Museum and Park (Upopoy) | Travel Japan (Japan National Tourism Organization).” Travel Japan, 2025, http://www.japan.travel/en/spot/2038/.
Tahara, Kaori. “The Saga of the Ainu Language | the UNESCO Courier.” Courier.unesco.org, 5 Feb. 2019, courier.unesco.org/en/articles/saga-ainu-language.
TREKHSVIATSKYI, ANATOLII. “AT the FAR EDGE of the CHINESE OIKOUMENE: MUTUAL RELATIONS of the INDIGENOUS POPULATION of SAKHALIN with the YUAN and MING DYNASTIES.” Journal of Asian History, vol. 41, no. 2, 2007, pp. 131–155. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41933457, https://doi.org/10.2307/41933457.
[1] “Kaizawa Yukiko on 50 years of weaving Ainu ‘attus’ fabric”, YouTube, uploaded by Japan House London, 01/02/2024, https://youtu.be/IUT_bJWk-uU?si=ejolCSJsVMsBjPaA
[2] Kyosuke Kindaichi, “The Concepts behind the Ainu Bear Festival”, “Southwestern Journal of Anthropology”, vol.5, n.4, 1949, p.349
[3] Anatolii Trekhsviatskyi, “At the far edge of the Chinese Oikoumene: Mutual Relations of the Indigenous Population of Sakhalin with the Yuan and Ming Dynasties”, in Journal of Asian History, vol 41, n.2, 2007, Harrassowitz Verlag, p.145
[4] Hiroshi Maruyama “Japan’s Policies Towards the Ainu Language and
Culture with Special Reference to North Fennoscandian Sami Policies”, Acta Borealia, 31:2 ,2014, P.157
[5] https://www.japan.travel/en/spot/2038/
[6] https://courier.unesco.org/en/articles/saga-ainu-language
Identity Hunters 