Ainu
The Ainu (Japanese: アイヌ), or translated as Ainu, Ainu, Ainu, are an ethnic minority in Japan, an East Asian country. , the indigenous people living in Sakhalin and Hokkaido. Before other immigrants came to the Japanese archipelago, the Ainu people crossed the sea from northeastern Asia in an era when there were no wide straits between the mainland and the nearby islands. They are now considered indigenous to Japan and once occupied all of Japan. However, they were gradually expelled by the Han, Korean, Mongolian, Malay, and Indonesian people in the Northeast (including residents of Indochina and southern China) and retreated to the north. Only a few people of this group remained in Japan. north. The appearance of the Ainu is completely different from that of the Yamato people. Their eyebrows are prominent, their hair is thick, their eyes are round and deep-set, their eyelashes are long and branched, their noses are vertical, their faces and bodies are hairy, and they clearly have the characteristics of the Europa race.
The Chinese name of the Ainu and the foreign name of the Ainu are アイヌ (Ainu). Other translated names are Ainu, Ainu, and Ainu. This explains the appearance of the aboriginal people living in Sakhalin and Hokkaido. The eyebrows are prominent and the hair is Dense, round and deep-set eyes, etc. belong to the area of ??Japan. Study the descendants of the Jomon tribe in ancient Japan
Character overview
Ainu (Japanese: アイヌ), or translated as Ainu The Ainu people, Ainu people, are the indigenous people living in Sakhalin and Hokkaido. Before other immigrants came to the Japanese archipelago, the Ainu came across the sea from Northeast Asia in an era when there were no wide straits between the mainland and the nearby islands. They are now considered indigenous to Japan and once occupied all of Japan. However, they were gradually expelled by the Chinese, Koreans, Malays, and Indonesians (including residents of Indochina and southern China) and retreated to the north. Only a few people of this group remained in northern Japan. The appearance of the Ainu is completely different from that of the Yamato people. They have prominent eyebrows, thick hair, round and deep-set eyes, long and branched eyelashes, vertical noses, and hairy faces and bodies. For centuries, the Ainu people have been explaining the meaning of "Ainu" to the world through exquisite handicrafts, traditional songs, religious ceremonies, etc.
"Ainu" refers to "human beings" and "us". This term is very suitable for their national identity. The Ainu people living in northern Japan enjoy a highly spiritual culture. They believe that all living and non-living things are the incarnation of "kamuy". This belief rooted in the hearts of the Ainu has a history of more than 10,000 years; DNA research results indicate that the Ainu are descendants of the Jomon tribe in Japan's ancient times.
Origin
The Ainu in Abashiri, Hokkaido (1888)
As of 2013, the origin of the Ainu is still controversial and doubtful. In the 1860s, Westerners were surprised to find that the Ainu people living in Hokkaido, Japan, looked very much like Caucasians (a European race). The Ainu have long been thought to be somehow related to the Caucasians because they look nothing like Mongoloid (yellow race) people. DNA tests have also proven that the Ainu have non-yellow characteristics, in other words, they are Caucasian or Central Asian. Even so, their origin has yet to be answered with certainty. Some say they come from North American Indians, some think they are Alaskan Eskimos, or even Southeast Asia. The Ainu have no connection with the Koreans or Yamato in origin. According to speculation, they may be a group of Late Stone Age people who were cut off by the ocean at the end of the Ice Age. They settled on the island and later gradually merged with people of Asian descent to form today's Ainu people. Therefore, this group of people with roots in that land and a long history is extremely special and unusual.
"Ainu" and "Ezo"
Many Chinese documents directly refer to the Ainu people as the "Ezo people", a ethnic group that once appeared in Japanese history. The idea that the two are the same people may be problematic.
Hokkaido was called "Ezo" (Japanese: えみし, えびす, えぞ) in ancient times. There are many records about "Ezo people" in Japanese history books, but these people are barbarians. Most of the records are fictional. These documents are not obtained from actual observation of the life of Ezo or the use of reliable information; rather, they are simply quoted from records of barbarian customs in ancient Chinese books. The description of the Ezo people only comes from their fear and discrimination. The record of Ezo in the "Nihon Shoki" reads:
"I heard: The Eastern barbarians are violent and violent, and they bully the clan. There is no leader in a village, and no leader in a town. Each one has a head. There are evil spirits in the mountains and treacherous ghosts in the suburbs... Among the Eastern Yi, men and women live together, and they live in caves in the summer. Cun. The clothes and hair drink blood, and Kundi is suspicious. ... Therefore, in ancient times, he was not a king. Among the barbarians, there is a country called Rigaojian. The men and women of his country have tattoos on their spines, and they are brave. They are said to have fertile soil and open fields. "
In fact, The ancient Ezo tribe in the Tohoku region are descendants of the Jomon people located in the east or northeast. Their customs and living habits are not very different from the Ainu people. These Jomon people later joined the ranks of the Yamato people, and the Ezo people were the latest to join.
When the Ainu were formed in Hokkaido, they did not join the Ainu, and the Ainu continued independently.
Institutional Discrimination
Ainu Village
The Ainu suffered serious institutional discrimination after the Meiji period. In 1868, Tokugawa Yoshiki, the last shogun of the Edo shogunate, returned the country's affairs to Emperor Meiji, and the Meiji period in Japanese history officially began. In 1869, Emperor Meiji moved the capital to Edo and renamed the new capital Tokyo. In the same year, without any formal consultation, "Ezo" where the Ainu people lived was officially included in the administrative scope of Japan and was also renamed "Hokkaido". The following year, the modern household registration system was officially implemented in Hokkaido, and all Ainu became administratively Japanese from that time on. After that, the Japanese government not only confiscated the land of the Ainu people, but also allocated these lands to the newly moved Japanese immigrants in order to encourage these new immigrants to explore Hokkaido. Not long after, the population of Hokkaido exceeded 1 million, and the Ainu, the indigenous people of the area, became a minority on their own land.
The Japanese government during the Meiji period carried out various assimilation of the Ainu people. The long-standing living habits of the Ainu people were officially prohibited, and they became "old natives" in the eyes of Kazuto and were regarded as "old natives". Forced to accept Japanese living habits. In 1899, the Japanese government enacted the "Hokkaido Old Natives Protection Law". Although its ostensible purpose was to relieve the Ainu people and impart agricultural knowledge, while defining them as "old natives", it also caused In order to institutionalize discrimination against the Ainu people, they deliberately differentiated them from "Japanese people".
Cultural Revival
The "Hokkaido Native Protection Act" promulgated in 1899 formally legalized the discrimination against the Ainu during the Meiji era, denied the Ainu's land ownership, and The Hokkaido magistrate was granted full authority to manage the Ainu public funds, and the Ainu began to depend on Japan's social welfare. Although the bill was revised several times, many Ainu people still opposed it. The title of the bill uses "kyudo-jin" (meaning "people of earth" or "land") to describe the Ainu people, which caused controversy. The consequence of direct criticism is that many Ainu descendants hide their minority status for fear of being discriminated against in housing, schooling and employment. It is estimated that there are about 100,000 Ainu people in Japan, of whom only 25,000 publicly identify themselves.
In the 1980s, various Ainu ethnic groups requested the abolition of this bill. In 1998, the Japanese government replaced it with a new bill. The new bill stipulated that government funds would be used for Ainu research. , the promotion of Ainu language and culture, and the improvement of Ainu traditional education in schools.