Ainu Population Research Articles

Osteo-hermeneutics: Ainu racialization, de-indigenization, and bone theft in Japanese Hokkaido

ABSTRACT This article analyzes the late nineteenth century Euro-Japanese desecration of Ainu graves across the island of Hokkaido. Stolen Ainu crania were utilized by Japanese physical anthropologists such as Koganei Yoshikiyo and Kodama Sakuzaemon to define a ‘pure’ Ainu race. Amidst the ongoing dispossession of Ainu land and resources, these scholars deemed the increasingly racially mixed Ainu population ‘impure’, and thereby non-Ainu. Some, using ‘specimens’ of Ainu crania as evidence, displaced the racial origins of the Ainu outside of the space of their colonized homeland. Such scholarly research collectively ‘de-indigenized’ the Ainu and, by consequence, worked to reaffirm Japanese claims of Hokkaido as terra nullius (ownerless land). Accordingly, exogenous claims of ownership of both Ainu land and Ainu bodies were inextricably linked in the Japanese colonization of Hokkaido.

Creative and Sustainable Tourism: The Case of Ainu in Japan

Tourism is one of the world’s fastest growing business sectors and a key economic contributor around the world. In Japan, Hokkaido is a popular tourist destination for both domestic and international tourists because it provides a unique natural landscape, climate, and culture due to its geographic location and the presence of the Ainu. The Ainu population are an indigenous people of Japan and Russia. Despite the Ainu are one of the oldest examples and signs of tradition and heritage, one of the biggest challenges for them to play a key role in tourism is relating to the relationship’s imbalances with other members of the community. To this end, the aim of the paper is to explore the nature of relationships in the region, under the lens of stakeholder theory. We illustrate some possible avenues to restore the Ainu as protagonists of value creation processes in their own community, which might increase the benefit for tourists, sustainable performances of the area and the happiness and wellbeing of such vulnerable community.

Unique characteristics of the Ainu population in Northern Japan.

Various genetic data (classic markers, mitochondrial DNAs, Y chromosomes and genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)) have confirmed the coexistence of three major human populations on the Japanese Archipelago: Ainu in Hokkaido, Ryukyuans in the Southern Islands and Mainland Japanese. We compared genome-wide SNP data of the Ainu, Ryukyuans and Mainland Japanese, and found the following results: (1) the Ainu are genetically different from Mainland Japanese living in Tohoku, the northern part of Honshu Island; (2) using Ainu as descendants of the Jomon people and continental Asians (Han Chinese, Koreans) as descendants of Yayoi people, the proportion of Jomon genetic component in Mainland Japanese was ~18% and ~28% in Ryukyuans; (3) the time since admixture for Mainland Japanese ranged from 55 to 58 generations ago, and 43 to 44 generations ago for the Ryukyuans, depending on the number of Ainu individuals with varying rates of recent admixture with Mainland Japanese; (4) estimated haplotypes of some Ainu individuals suggested relatively long-term admixture with Mainland Japanese; and (5) highly differentiated genomic regions between Ainu and Mainland Japanese included EDAR and COL7A1 gene regions, which were shown to influence macroscopic phenotypes. These results clearly demonstrate the unique status of the Ainu and Ryukyuan people within East Asia.

Weaning age in an expanding population: stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of infant feeding practices in the Okhotsk culture (5th-13th centuries AD) in Northern Japan.

The Okhotsk people were sedentary hunter-gatherer-fishers who lived and prospered in Sakhalin, Hokkaido, and the Kurile Islands during the 5th to 13th centuries AD. They expanded rapidly along the northeastern coast of Hokkaido. We reconstructed infant feeding practices of the Moyoro population of the Okhotsk culture in eastern Hokkaido, Japan. Stable isotope ratios in 58 subadult human skeletons were measured. The results suggest that complementary foods with a relatively low carbon isotope ratio were consumed during and after weaning, as observed in ethnographic descriptions of northern human populations such as the Ainu and isotopically suggested in ancient northern hunter-gatherer-fisher populations. Nitrogen isotope ratios of subadults showed that the age at the end of weaning in the Moyoro population was 1.8 (1.4-2.2 in 95% credible interval) years, which is earlier than that in other northern hunter-gatherer-fisher populations. Because weaning age is one of the most important determinants of fertility, a shorter breastfeeding period suggests increased fertility. Furthermore, better nutrition would further promote the population increase, and thus populations of the Okhotsk culture could expand into new regions. These findings are consistent with recent emerging evidence of great contributions of the Okhotsk to the formation of later Ainu populations and culture.

Re-vitalizing an indigenous language: Dictionaries of Ainu languages in Japan, 1625–2013

Abstract The re-vitalization of indigenous languages depends on political and legal support and the implementation of language rights depends on knowledge of vocabulary and grammar structures of the individual languages. Throughout the nineteenth century world, compilers of dictionaries adapted indigenous languages to match standards defined in nation-building and, thereby, enabled latent possibilities for indigenous populations to re-vitalize their languages in connection with the United Nations Year for Indigenous Peoples in 1993, and the first United Nations Decade for Indigenous Peoples, 1995-2004. This article focuses on dictionaries of the languages of the Ainu populations in the borderlands between the nation-states Japan and Russia. The main argument is that the Ainu Cultural Promotion Act promulgated in 1997 had a significant impact on the production and purpose of Ainu dictionaries. The dictionaries prior to 1997 functioned, predominantly, as records, which contributed to the increased visibility of Ainu populations inside and outside Japan in the immediate national interests of Japan, whereas the dictionaries published after 1997 are intended to enable the active use of Ainu language today. An important sub-point is that the post-1997 Ainu dictionaries rely heavily on dictionaries, word lists, and grammar books compiled before 1997, which have therefore come to support efforts to re-vitalize Ainu languages in the twenty-first century.

Isotopic evidence of dietary variability in subadults at the Usu-moshiri site of the Epi-Jomon culture, Japan

This study reconstructs adult and subadult diets of a hunter-gatherer population of the Epi-Jomon culture (approximately 2300–1700 years BP) in Japan, using the stable isotopic analysis of carbon and nitrogen. The results suggest that the Usu-moshiri adults were highly dependent on marine resources such as seals for their dietary protein intake and that no significant dietary differences existed between the sexes. Among subadults we found two types of diet on the basis of different isotopic signatures. One group consisted of individuals with δ13C values below than those of the adult female mean minus two standard deviations and δ15N values lower than those of subadults in the other groups. These low-δ13C subadults indicated relatively less enriched δ15N values by 3.5 years of age at the latest. They probably consumed more 13C-depleted foods during weaning than in the ordinary adult diet. In the other high-δ13C group, their enriched δ15N values start to decline by four years of age and fall within the two-standard-deviations range of the total adult mean around five to six years of age. Isotopic values of children in this high-δ13C group suggest that they would have been fed ordinary adult diets during weaning. Perinates could also be divided into two groups on the basis of the similar patterns in their carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios. Our results indicate variabilities in the diets of subadults, and similar variabilities were also seen in ethnographic studies of the Ainu populations.

The history of human populations in the Japanese Archipelago inferred from genome-wide SNP data with a special reference to the Ainu and the Ryukyuan populations

The Japanese Archipelago stretches over 4000 km from north to south, and is the homeland of the three human populations; the Ainu, the Mainland Japanese and the Ryukyuan. The archeological evidence of human residence on this Archipelago goes back to >30 000 years, and various migration routes and root populations have been proposed. Here, we determined close to one million single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for the Ainu and the Ryukyuan, and compared these with existing data sets. This is the first report of these genome-wide SNP data. Major findings are: (1) Recent admixture with the Mainland Japanese was observed for more than one third of the Ainu individuals from principal component analysis and frappe analyses; (2) The Ainu population seems to have experienced admixture with another population, and a combination of two types of admixtures is the unique characteristics of this population; (3) The Ainu and the Ryukyuan are tightly clustered with 100% bootstrap probability followed by the Mainland Japanese in the phylogenetic trees of East Eurasian populations. These results clearly support the dual structure model on the Japanese Archipelago populations, though the origins of the Jomon and the Yayoi people still remain to be solved.

After the Ainu Shinpō: The United Nations and the Indigenous People of Japan

The Japanese Government recognised the cultural importance of their minority Ainu population in 1997. They designed a law to help protect the dying culture of the people; however the government has been less forthcoming to acknowledge indigenous aspects of the Ainu. Ten years after the creation of this law, the United Nations brought forward the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a declaration to strengthen not only cultural rights, but also land and self-determination rights. Japan voted in favour of this declaration even though Japanese representatives have made mostly negative comments on the declaration. This article explores the significance of indigenous rights in Japan and how the Japanese Government uses the guise of upholding individual rights to ignore indigenous rights in Japan.

Embodying Okhotsk Ethnicity: Human Skeletal Remains from the Aonae Dune Site, Okushiri Island, Hokkaido

This article describes human skeletal remains from the Aonae Dune site, Okushiri Island, Hokkaido, Japan. Skeletal remains of an adult female and two subadults were excavated in 2002. Although these remains derived from Okhotsk culture contexts, analyses of cranial and tooth crown measurements demonstrated that Aonae Dune No. 1 (the adult female), Aonae Dune No. 2 (a child of about 11 years), and Aonae Dune No. 3 (a child of about 6 years) are morphologically closer to Epi-Jōmon or Jōmon and Ainu populations and significantly different from other Okhotsk samples in Hokkaido. It is argued that these three skeletons probably represent individuals from a different culture who were adopted into Okhotsk society.

The Japanese Internet: Visionaries and Virtual Democracy

An examination is made of how the development of the Internet in Japan is likely to affect civic rights and the relationship between citizens and their government. This was undertaken to determine if the trajectory of Internet development in Japan, with its distinct locational and corporate biases, has followed the predictions of two prominent Japanese commentators: the visionary Kumon Shumpei who espoused an expansive international perspective that citizens will be transformed into ‘netizens’ in a virtual community; and the media analyst Kogawa Tetsuo, whose pessimistic views were targeted primarily at a national audience and concerned the adaptability of the Japanese to the ‘permanent autonomous zones’ created by information technology. The observations of these commentators on the relationship between the Internet and civil society are tested in an examination of the degree to which the social and political uses of the Internet have followed their conjectures by means of two case studies: the protest movements over United States bases in Okinawa, and the Nibutani Dam in southern Hokkaido—an area with a predominantly indigenous Ainu population. Although the authors report evidence that the Internet has extended the sphere of grass-roots political activity, they believe its effect is likely to be limited until there is a restructuring of Japanese political organisations and attitudes.

HLA class II alleles in Ainu living in Hidaka District, Hokkaido, northern Japan.

The Ainu people are considered to be the descendants of preagricultural native populations of northern Japan, while the majority of the population of contemporary Japan (Wajin) is descended mainly from postneolithic migrants. Polymorphisms of the HLA-DRB1, DRB3, and DQB1 alleles were investigated in DNA samples of 50 Ainu living in Hidaka district, Hokkaido. Unique features of the Ainu in this study were high incidences of DRB1*1401, DRB1*1406, and a newly described allele, DRB1*1106 (20%, 17%, and 5%, respectively). On the other hand, several common alleles in Wajin (DRB1*1502, 1302, 0803, and 1501) were found at relatively low frequencies (1-2%) in Ainu. Previously DRB1*1406 was described as a characteristic allele of some Native American or northeast Asian ethnic groups, and DRB1*1106 had been found in only two Singapore Chinese and one Korean. Principal component analysis of various populations based on HLA class II allele frequencies places the Ainu population midway between other east Asian populations, including Wajin, and Native Americans. These observations may support the hypothesis that the Ainu people are the descendants of some Upper Paleolithic populations of northeast Asia from which Native Americans are also descended.

An Analysis of Ainu Population Structure, Based on Cranial Morphology.

Craniometric analyses were employed to assess the degree of variation among previously recognized Ainu populations. Heterogeneity among populations was evaluated by calculating the contribution of among-group variation to total variation. The analyses were designed to investigate the hierarchical population structure represented by River groups within Province groups. River groups were defined in previous ethnological studies and were regarded as strongly isolated social units. However, univariate and multivariate analyses did not support this view. Cranial heterogeneity was most apparent in comparisons of Province groups composed of several River groups. The degree of heterogeneity was statistically greater than that among all River groups and was also greater than that among archaeological Jomon populations from Honshu. The great heterogeneity among Province groups was also supported by pair-wise distance analysis. The pattern of variation revealed by principal component analysis was different for each sex. The main contribution to regional variation was provided by male facial measurements. These results give a baseline for discussion about Ainu population history and microevolution, adaptation to different environments, intermarriage, and admixture with foreign populations.

A Glimpse into the Demography of the Ainu

Seven unpublished household censuses of Ainu populations on Hokkaido and Sakhalin between 1803 and 1853 are analyzed to show evidence of population decline well before the Meiji period. These populations show substantial diversity in household composition and community size, and complex household organization is pervasive, suggesting elaborate patron-client relationships not obviously based on kinship. Ecological differences may underlie this diversity and complexity, with Japanese influence and inclusion in long distance trading networks a strong possibility as a basic cause. There is a suggestion of organizational adaptations to distant economic and political influences, analogous to those observed on the Northwest Coast of North America under the influence of the fur trade.

A Human Skull of the Epi-Jomon Period from the Minami-Usu Six Site, Date, Hokkaido

An adult female skull of the Epi-Jomon period (Esan culture) found at the Minami-Usu 6 site, Date, southern Hokkaido, was measured and described. Metrically, the skull was characterized, among other things, by a relatively long vault and a moderately high upper face. Morphological observations revealed that the facial skeleton of the skull was as a whole reduced in size as compared with that of Jomon crania, while attrition of the teeth was well advanced arid had reached Stage III or IV, as is frequently seen in Jomon crania. PENROSE's shape distances, based on 21 measurements, showed that the Minami-Usu 6 skull was closer to the skulls of the Ainu series than to those of the Jomon series in Honshu. Of the six cranial indices which have been effective in discriminating between Ainu and Jomon crania, four indices suggested the close affinity of the Minami-Usu 6 skull with the Ainu series. With regard to the indices of facial flatness, the frontal and simotic indices of flatness of the Minami-Usu 6 skull were intermediate between the averages of the Ainu and Jomon series, with only the zygomaxillary index of flatness exceeding the averages of both the Ainu and Jomon series. A likelihood ratio analysis of the non-metric cranial variants applied for the Ainu and modern Japanese, based on 29 traits, indicated that the Minami-Usu 6 skull was far more likely to have come from the Ainu population than from the Japanese population. Taking all the results obtained from this study into consideration, it was concluded that the total morphological pattern of the Minami-Usu 6 skull was slightly closer to that of the Ainu series, especially to that of the Ainu in southwestern Hokkaido, than to that of the Jomon series in Honshu.

Geographic Variation of the Anthropometric Measurements in the Japanese Islands

A number of studies since BAELZ (1883) have been done on the geographic variation of anthropometric measurements of the Japanese, but this problem has not been fully revealed. To examin the geographic variation of anthropometric data in the Japanese Islands, a multivariate analysis is conducted on the extensively collected data from 706 local populations for male and 609 for female, which were obtained during about a decade in the 1950's and already published by many authors.Six measurements, including stature, biacromial breadth, maximum head length, maximum head breadth, bizygomatic breadth and facial height, are used because of their consistency of inter-observer measurement and their nature to express the general shape of the body, head, and face. Multiple discriminant functions, Mahalanobis's generalized distance, Q-mode correlation coefficient, and Penrose's shape distance were calculated, but only the results on the first two are given here to avoid repeating essencially the same descriptions.The analysis leads to the following results.1. The most significant differences are found among Hokkaido, main land (Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu), and the Nansei Islands.2. Among the populations of the main land, the South Kyushu population is different from any other population.3. There is a relatively marked difference between the group of populations in the central region of Honshu (East Chugoku, Kinki, Tokai, and South Kanto) and the group of populations in the peripheral region (Oh'u and Hokuriku).4. Hokkaido (Ainu population) is very far from the Nansei Islands. Among the main land populations, the closest to Hokkaido is Oh'u, followed by Hokuriku, and the closest to the Nansei Islands is Hokuriku, and next one South Kyushu.5. The variables which highly contribute to the discrimination of the populations under comparison are the biacromial index, the ratio of facial height to maximum head length, and the cephalic index.6. The results mentioned above are applicable to both sexes, but inter-populational differences are more significant for male than for female.

The socioeconomic status of the Ainu: the past in the present1

This is a study of the effects of the economic policies of the Japanese government on Ainu social structure. These policies were designed for the long‐term development of Hokkaidō and the stabilization of its Ainu population. They included land redistribution and an emphasis on agriculture at the expense of hunting and fishing. However, land redistribution did not stabilize the Ainu population because farming was the traditional occupation of the women, not the men. When Ainu men were forced to give up their traditional hunting and fishing activities, they became seasonal migrant laborers instead of farmers. The result was a redistribution of the populations of traditional Ainu communities and some major changes in social structure. Thus the present social organization of the Ainu is the outcome of the interaction of internal and external socioeconomic factors over a long period of time.

Electrophoretic Variation of Human Serum α<sub>1</sub>-antitrypsin in Japan

Individual variation of serum α1-antitrypsin, a protease inhibiting protein, was studied by starch gel electrophoresis. A total of 1, 475 serum and plasma samples taken from three racial groups, namely Japanese, Ainu and U. S. A. White, were examined. Seven phenotypes altogether found were classified according to FAGERHOL's nomenclature of Pi-system. In each population group the type MM was by far the most common, while other variants had low incidence. A similar frequency distribution was found in the Japanese population to that in U. S. A. White, except that type MF was commoner and type MS rarer in the former than in the latter. A reduced heterogeneity in the Ainu population was indicated. Gene frequencies were estimated on the basis of the postulated genetic mode of codominant alleles at a locus. It is found that the α1-antitrypsin deficient type occurs also in Japan, although there is still uncertainty as to whether this is genetically a homogeneous phenotype. No difference in the trypsin inhibiting capacity was found among the three racial groups.

Chromosome studies of the Ainu population of Hokkaido.

Chromosome studies were carried out on metaphases from leukocyte cultures of 25 Ainu from Hokkaido and three Ainu, three Oroks and one Gilyak from Sakhalin. The chromosomes of four additional Hokkaido Ainu were studied in cells from skin cultures. No significant departures from the chromosome complement characterizing other human populations were detected.

Concerning the Ainu Population

Between tne Ainu race which is said to be doomed to the sad fate of ultimate extinction and us Japanese there has been a close, inescapable blood relationship for 3000years. No studies upon dependable records in connection with this matter go back more than two hundred years. Since 1804 (Bunka 1) many studies have been made on the Ainu. It is recorded that their number showe 1 a decided eecline from 21, 697 to 16, 136 in the fifty years to 1854. The causes of this decline may be set down as follows: (1) The exploitation and misuse of the Ainu population following their subjugation after the rebellion of 1669 (Kanbun 9). 2) The spread of syphilis, alcoholism and tuberculoAs. (3) The decrease in deer and salmon, their chief articles of food. (4) Acute epidemics of cholera, small pox etc. (5) The lack of knowledge of hygiene leading to bad physical results and (6) Natural catastrophes and economic adversity.From about 1868 to 1912 there was a regular and natural development, but another sharp decline in pmulation occurred between the years 1915 and 1926. This decline cannot be said to be traceable to Japanese oppression, but rather to such factors as economic depression, changes in the standard of living, continued spread of syphilis and tuberculosis, the transfer of Ainu domiciles (seki) into Japanese families and their general spiritual depression.Recently a falling off in the increase in tuberculosis can be perceived but there has been no perceptible corresponding decline in the spread of syphilis. Since 1927 a gradual increase in Ainu population can be noted. In 1935 a study was undertaken of the Ainu when the constitution of their age groups was found not to be out of the normal, on the whole.It is very difficult to classify the Ainu according to such anthropological criteria as customs, habits, language, burial practices, relics, ruins, festivals, family insigniamon, foods, style of buildings, wells, latrines, furniture, weapons and religious traditions. It has also been proven difficult to classify them according to blood tests and anatomical measurements In the Tokugawa times they were classified according to fishery districts, governmental divisions, economic relationship with other groups and residence whether in mountain, river valley or beach communities. Having in mind all this body of previous practice, it is the writers proposal in this paper to divide the Ainu population into the following four groups:(A) Those Ainu who have had the closest relation with the J apanese, living in the districts of Oshima, Hiyama and Shiribeshi.(B) Those living along the Ishikari River up to Cape Soya and across to the Okhotsk Sea, including those in the Kamikawa, Sorachi and iciland districts.(C) Those living in the Abashiri, Nemuro and Kushiro districts extending into the Chishima bounded by the eastern half of the Okhotsk shore and the Pacific coast-line.(D) hoso living in Tokachi, Hidaka and Iburi where the climate is comparatively mild making thoso regions the easiest in which to live.When studies are made according to the above classification, it is found that the Ainu population of class (A) is the farthest from normal in respect to the age group curve. The population of classes (B) and (C) are similar while class (D) most nearly approximates the normal age group curve.There are several reasons why the Ainu of class (D) come most nearly to normality in regard to age grouping.

Fresh Light on the Ainu.1

MR. A. H. SAVAGE LANDOR, grandson of the poet, and himself a talented artist, recently made a remarkable journey round the island of Yezo, and up many of its large rivers, repeating Captain Blakiston's route in 1869 so far as regards the north-east and west coasts, but supplementing that traveller's journey along the whole east coast and in the interior. He travelled alone, with practically no equipment except for painting; and during five months he lived almost exclusively with the Ainu, even sharing their food.. He visited in this way nearly every native village in Yezo, and estimates the total number of purebred Ainu now on the island at about 8000, while the Japanese estimate of the whole Ainu population, including half-breeds, is from 15,000 to 17,000. Mr. Landor gives a lively and straightforward account of his journey, illustrated by numerous portraits, pieces of landscape, and drawings of houses and implements, which is replete with incidental information as to the ways of the primitive people and the minor adventures of the road. No European has previously covered so much ground in Yezo, and we are surprised at the modest size of the volume in which so many fresh observations are recorded for the first time. The geographical results of the journey were communicated, shortly after his return, to the Royal Geographical Society, and published, with a map of the island (reproduced, with some additions, in this volume), in the last part of the Society's “Supplementary Papers.” We are not aware that the anthropological data have yet been submitted to specialists, but we feel confident that they will assist notably in forwarding our knowledge of the difficult problems of Ainu ethnology. The author as an artist has a keen and discriminating eye for form and colour, so that his observations carry much more weight than the chance remarks of most non-scientific travellers. It seems a pity that some of the portraits are not reproduced in colour, and we trust that an effort will be made to secure for anthropological collections some of the original pictures, which we understand are still in Mr. Landor's possession.