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See also:AINU (" See also:man ") , a See also:race inhabiting the northernmost islands of See also:Japan. Little definite is known about their earliest See also:history, but it is improbable that they are, as has been urged, the See also:aborigines of Japan. The most accurate researches go to prove that they were immigrants, who reached See also:Yezo from the See also:Kuriles, and subsequently See also:crossing Tsugaru strait, colonized a See also:great See also:part of the See also:main See also:island of Japan, exterminating a race of See also:pit-dwellers to whom they gave the name of koro-pok-guru (men with sunken places). These koro-pok-guru were of such small stature as to be considered dwarfs. They wore skins of animals for clothing, and that they understood the See also:potter's See also:art and used See also:flint arrow-heads is clearly proved by excavations at the sites of their pits. The Ainu, on the contrary, never had any knowledge of pottery. Ultimately the Ainu, coming into contact with the See also:Japanese, who had immigrated from the See also:south and See also:west, were driven northward into the island of Yezo, where, as well as in the Kuriles and in the See also:southern part of See also:Sakhalin, they are still found in some See also:numbers. When, at the See also:close of the 28th and the beginning of the 19th See also:century, See also:Russian enterprises See also:drew the See also:attention of the Japanese See also:government to the See also:northern districts of the See also:empire, the See also:Tokugawa shoguns adopted towards the Ainu a policy of liberality and leniency consistent with the best principles of See also:modern colonization. But the See also:doom of unfitness appears to have begun to overtake the race See also:long ago. History indicates that in See also:ancient times they were fierce fighters, able to offer a stout resistance to the incomparably better armed and more civilized Japanese. To-See also:day they are drunken, dirty, spiritless folk, whom it is difficult to suppose capable of the warlike role they once played. Their number, between 26,000 and 17,000, is virtually stationary. The Ainu are somewhat taller than the Japanese, stoutly built, well proportioned, with dark-See also: They never eat raw See also:fish or flesh, but always either See also:boil or roast it. Their habitations are See also:reed-thatched huts, the largest 20 ft. square, without partitions and having a fireplace in the centre. There is no See also:chimney, but only a hole at the See also:angle of the roof; there is one window on the eastern See also:side and there are two doors. Public buildings do not exist, whether in the shape of See also:inn, See also:meeting-See also:place or See also:temple. The See also:furniture of their dwellings is exceedingly scanty. They have no chairs, stools or tables, but sit on the See also:floor, which is covered with two layers of mats, one of See also:rush, the other of See also:flag; and for beds they spread planks, See also:hanging mats around them on poles, and employing skins for coverlets. The men use chop-sticks and See also:moustache-lifters when eating; the women have wooden spoons. Uncleanliness is characteristic of the Ainu, and all their intercourse with the Japanese has not improved them in that respect. The Rev. See also: No distinct conception of a universe enters into their cosmology. They picture to themselves many floating worlds, yet they deduce the See also:idea of rotundity from the course of the See also:sun, and they imagine that the " Ainu See also:world " rests on the back of a fish whose movements cause earthquakes. It is scarcely possible to doubt that this See also:fancy is derived from the Japanese, who used to hold an identical theory. The Ainu believe in a supreme Creator, but also in a sun-See also:god, a See also:moon-god, a See also:water-god and a See also:mountain-god, deities whose See also:river is the Milky Way, whose voices are heard in the See also:thunder and whose See also:glory is reflected in the See also:lightning. Their See also:chief See also:object of actual See also:worship appears to be the bear. See also:Miss See also:Isabella See also:Bird (Mrs See also:Bishop) writes: " The peculiarity which distinguishes their See also:rude See also:mythology is the worship of the bear, the Yezo bear. being one of the finest of his See also:species. But it is impossible to understand the feelings by which this cult is prompted, for although they worship the See also:animal after their See also:fashion and set up its head in their villages, yet they See also:trap it, kill it, eat it and sell its skin. 'there is no doubt that this See also:wild beast inspires more of the feeling which prompts worship than. the inanimate forces of nature, and the Ainos may be distinguished as bear-worshippers, and their greatest religious festival or saturnalia as the Festival of the Bear. . . Some of their rude chants are in praise of the bear, and their highest eulogy on a man is to compare him to a bear." They have no priests by profession. The See also:village chief performs whatever religious ceremonies are necessary; ceremonies confined to making libations of See also:wine, uttering short prayers and offering See also:willow sticks with wooden shavings attached to them, much as the Japanese set up the well-known gohei (sacred offerings) at certain spots. The Ainu gives thanks to the gods before eating, and prays to the deity of fire in See also:time of sickness. He thinks that his spirit is immortal, and that it will be rewarded hereafter in See also:heaven or punished in See also:hell, both of which places are beneath the See also:earth, hell being the See also:land of volcanoes; but he has no theory as to a resurrection of the body or See also:metempsychosis. He preserves a tradition about a See also:flood whichseems to be the counterpart of the Biblical See also:deluge, and about an See also:earthquake which lasted a See also:hundred days, produced the three volcanoes of Yezo and created the island by bridging the See also:waters that had previously separated it into two parts.
The Ainu are now governed by Japanese See also:laws and judged by Japanese tribunals, but in former times their affairs were ad-ministered by hereditary chiefs, three in each village, and for administrative purposes the See also:country was divided into three districts, Saru, Usu and Ishixari, which were under the ultimate See also:control of Saru, though the relations between their respective inhabitants were not close and intermarriages were avoided. The functions of See also:judge were not entrusted to these chiefs; an indefinite number of a community's members sat in See also:judgment upon its criminals. See also:Capital See also:punishment did not exist, nor was imprisonment resorted to, beating being considered a sufficient and final See also:penalty, except in the See also:case of See also:murder; when the See also:nose and ears of the See also:assassin were cut off or the tendons of his feet severed. Little as the Japanese and the Ainu have in See also:common, intermarriages are not infrequent, and at Sambutsu especially, on the eastern See also:coast, many See also:children of such marriages may be seen. Doenitz, Hilgendorf and Dr B. Scheube, arguing from a See also:minute investigation of the See also:physical traits of the Ainu, have concluded that they are Mongolians; according to See also:Professor A. H. See also:Keane the Ainu " are quite distinct from the surrounding Mongolic peoples, and See also:present several remarkable physical characters which seem to point to a remote connexion with the Caucasic races. Such are a very full See also:beard, shaggy or wavy See also:black or dark-brown hair, sometimes covering the back and See also:chest; a somewhat See also:fair or even See also: They are bear-worshipper's, and have other customs in common with the Manchurian aborigines, but the See also:language is entirely different, and they have traditions of a time when they were the dominant See also:people in the surrounding lands." It should be noted finally that the Ainu are altogether See also:free from ferocity or exclusiveness, and that they treat strangers with See also:gentle kindness.
See Rev. John Batchelor, The Ainu and their Folk-See also:lore (See also:London,1901) ; Romyn See also:Hitchcock, The Ainos of Japan (See also:Washington, 1892) ; H. von See also:Siebold, Ober See also:die Aino (See also:Berlin, 1881); Isabella Bird (Mrs Bishop), See also:Korea and her Neighbours (1898) ; See also:Basil See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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