How the world’s most mysterious indigenous tribe lives — the Ainu

The Ainu are an ethnic group indigenous to Japan, but their men look more like Russian writer Leo Tolstoy than fellow writer Haruki Murakami. It is such an ancient people that Chinese civilization becomes a very young ethnic group compared to them. And even today, scientists are still studying the true origin of it.

We, from awesome.club we love mysteries, so we decided to present the most interesting facts about Ainu customs and daily life. Check out!

There are records of the Ainu people dating back to 13,000 years before Christ in the Japanese islands, the Kuril Islands, Sakhalin and the Kamchatka peninsula. At that time, there was still a strip of land between Eurasia and America. For comparison: the oldest Egyptian pyramid was built in the millennium 3000 BC Until the 19th century, the Ainus did not have contact or assimilation with other peoples, unlike other local ethnic groups at the time. That is, this society is the oldest in Eurasia. Its representatives were able to survive intact as a people, unlike the Sumerians, Romans and Egyptians.

In ancient times, the Ainus were more Caucasian than Mongolian in appearance. The Japanese realized that this people and Russians are different only in the 19th century. And the first Russian researchers thought that these indigenous Japanese were gypsies. However, now the Ainu are almost indistinguishable from the Japanese. The fact is that this people was often discriminated against in the Land of the Rising Sun, so their representatives had no alternative but miscegenation through marriage in order to protect their descendants.

Scientists still do not know the exact origin of the Ainus. According to a study, they are related to the peoples of the Caucasus. Another version argues that they are indigenous from Siberia. Scholars now suggest that they are part of an offshoot of the Australoids. To demonstrate that the Ainus also had European origins, photos of elderly representatives of this ethnic group were compared with a portrait of the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy.

Most men wore their hair long and never shaved (some still maintain this tradition). By the way, this people has a high natural tendency for the development of a beard, found only among the natives of Australia and some peoples of the Middle East and Transcaucasia.

Women’s faces are gradually tattooed as they grow up. Between 6 and 7 years old, the first part of the tattoo is applied to the upper lip, which over the years results in something similar to the Joker’s smile. It is believed that the ritual prepares the girl for childbirth, and the tattoo would protect her against evil spirits that try to enter her body through her mouth. In addition, the complete “smile” indicated that the girl was ready for marriage. In the 19th century, these tattoos were banned by Japanese authorities, although some did them in secret. The last representative of the Ainus who had her face tattooed following all the rules of the traditional ritual died in 1998. Now, only at cultural events do girls paint their faces with the symbolic “smile”. In addition to face tattoos, women also had other geometric tattoos on their bodies. They also served to protect against evil spirits and disease.

Ever since the Ainu settled on the Japanese islands, they’ve basically had the same cycle of basic activities: hunting, fishing, and gathering. And this has not changed for several millennia. In ancient Japanese writings, there are reports that the Ainu lived in caves during winter and in tree nests in summer. In fact, their tribes lived in houses buried or half buried in the ground. Bears play an important part in the history of this people. The animal hunts, fishes and gathers fruit, which is why a cult was created around this predator. The Ainus believe that he represents the god of the mountains and is an ancestor of theirs. Archaeologists have a theory that the ancestors of the Ainu people brought bears to the Hokkaido region.

Thanks to the Ainus, the samurai culture emerged in Japan. When the Japanese began to colonize the islands and gradually form a state, the Ainu continued to live as independent tribes, encroaching on more organized neighbors. After several centuries of constant fighting, Japanese military units were assigned to guard the northern frontier, and later they were named samurai. By the way, the samurai developed their battle technique inspired by the Ainus. In addition, some samurai clans of Ainu origin emerged, such as the Abe. Not long ago, the Ainus occupied a large part of Hokkaido, but from the end of the 19th century, a policy of active Japanese colonization of the island began. On the one hand, they were given land to support their people. They were exempt from taxes and built hospitals and schools for their population. However, many rituals were banned. As a result, they started to gradually lose their cultural identity. A people that has existed for millennia is now on the verge of extinction, and could disappear in just a few decades.

Only in the 21st century were the Ainu given the opportunity to regain their cultural identity. In 2008, Japanese authorities adopted a resolution recognizing these people as the country’s indigenous population and calling for an end to discrimination against this group. Only in 2019, based on the 2008 resolution, was a law created that made them official as indigenous people. Nowadays, the Ainu are trying to recover their cultural identity. They now have their own flag. The blue background symbolizes the sky and the sea, while the white one represents snow. The red figure indicates an Ainu hunter’s arrow dipped in poison, as a criticism of the Japanese authorities who prohibited the use of this weapon.

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