Ainu of Japan

Below are resources related to the “Ainu of Japan” chapter of Native Nations: The Survival of Indigenous Peoples, 3rd Edition, edited by Sharlotte Neely and Douglas W. Hume.

Agencies & Organizations

Discussion Questions

  • What are the many criteria that have been used to define who is an Ainu?
  • Why do estimates of the number of Ainu vary?
  • What actions of the government could increase or decrease the official number of Ainu?

Documentary Films

Further Reading

Contemporary Ainu People

Ainu Wearing Traditional Clothes
Ainu wearing their traditional clothes, Ainu Museum, City of Shiraoi, Hokkaido, Japan (Torbenbrinker [CC BY-SA])

Ainu Historical Range

Ainu Historical Expanse Map
Historically attested range of the Ainu (red) and suspected former range (pink) based on toponymic evidence (red dots), Matagi villages (purple), and Japanese isoglosses (western limit) (Kwamikagami [CC BY-SA])

Ainu Ethno-historical Photograph

Ainu Woman Gathering Seaweed
Gelatin silver print photograph of an ainu woman in traditional costume gathering seaweed, taken c. 1890s. Original photo owned by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Tamoto Kenzō [Public domain])

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