Ainu people

“ Chamberlain always wrote Aino but I have taken the liberty of changing the spelling into Ainu (which means “man”) wherever I have quoted him in this book so as to bring it into uniformity with the rest of this Grammar; for the people always speak of themselves as Ainu not Aino. Aino is an old Japanese way of calling this race. Dobrotvorsky also notes that the word Aino is a corruption of Ainu which he defines as “man.” With regard to this it is interesting to remark that the Eskimo call themselves innuit, “man” ”

“ We described the physical type, the tattooing, the dress and the salutations, after which Sangyea and Kutoroge gave a yukara and we made some remarks about the problem of Ainu origin and relationship.
Had we seen the program, we should not have permitted the word Aino to appear upon it; nor should we have allowed announcement of a “bear-dance” of which we never heard. It is true that there is dancing at bear-feasts but that is different from having a dance that is called a bear-dance. As to the name of our people it is not Aino, but Ainu, which is a word in their own language meaning man. ”

“ Thus then we have the “Pit-dwellers” for certain. But who were they who dwelt in the pits? To come down to living present day examples of them we have them on the island of Shikotan. These people have two kinds of houses, one built on the Japanese model and the other on the pit model. The pits are only for winter use while the Japanese houses are used during the summer. These Ainu were brought down from an island in the Kurile group called Shimushir in the year 1885 by the Japanese Government, and they declare that their forefathers originally came from Saghalien. ”

“ He who has been away begins to sing, narrating his adventures, telling where he has been and what he has seen and done. Presently he stops and the other begins to sing the happenings of the village during the traveller’s absence from home. So they sing, alternating, until both stories are completed. When our Ainu group returns, they will be received as those who were dead and have returned; what a many things the poor fellows will have to sing of the people and the places they have seen so far away from their home villages in the Saru River valley. ”

“ It is also interesting to remark in this connection that the Ainu distinguish themselves from the Mongolian and Malay type of the human race by calling the latter Oyashikpuikotcha utara, “persons having a different class of eye-socket.” In speaking of men of their own race and cast of feature they say Shineshikpuikotcha utara, “people of the same eye-socket.” ”

“ In fact, I am of opinion that they have none. Were it not for the Japanese words Tsuchi-gumo and Ko-bito I find no grounds for supposing that the Ainu would speak of a race of dwarfs at all. But foregone conclusions are always hard to kill, so that it will be asked again, “but were there not the Koropok-guru here and does not that mean the people of the Petasites [2] plant?” Well; no it does not. Koropok cannot mean Petasites: it can only be translated by “under,” “beneath,” “below.” The full name is Koropok-un-guru, “persons dwelling below,” the un being a locative particle. ”

“ Surely the shell-heaps, the crude pottery, the stone tools, and [Pg 87] the old pit-houses were never made by people, who dressed as those represented in these figures. To-day, we feel somewhat skeptical with reference to the whole theory of a pre-Ainu race. Hitchcock’s pit dwellers of Shikotan are Ainu pure and simple. In some Ainu towns, particularly in Saghalien, individuals to-day make pit-houses. Mr. Batchelor claims now to be able to analyze all Yezo place-names ”

“ Secondly, there is the question of the ancient Japanese name Tsuchi-gumo, “Earth-spiders,” and Ko-bito, “Little people,” applied to these pit-dwellers. And besides, the Ainu themselves sometimes talk about the “little men.” But nothing of value can be made out of the appellation “Earth-spiders,” for it implies no more than what is meant by “pit-dwellers.” Ko-bito really means “little people,” “dwarfs”; but the Ainu, when speaking of these so-called “dwarfs” use the word Ko-bito, which is pure Japanese. I have never heard a real native Ainu name meaning “dwarfs” applied to them. ”

“ If an Ainu has to break a stick planted in the ground he does it by pulling it; whereas a Japanese will push it. Again in pulling a rope the Ainu pull; the Japanese push, by placing the rope over one shoulder and walking in the direction wanted. In a crowd, where a Japanese would push his way through by extending his arms and thus separating people, the Ainu seizes a man on each side, pulling one to the right and the other to the left, till space for him to pass is made. ”

“ Now, I must remark at the outset that I am one of those who has quite abandoned the idea of a race of men existing in Yezo anterior to the Ainu. I frankly admit that I formerly acquiesced in the ordinary belief in the existence of such a people in the ages gone by. The assertions of those who were here many years before me; the assurances given me by the Japanese ”

“ Some of the areas and isolated pockets of mankind in the Asiatic area may have been under conditions more like those in the European area; some of the African areas are of a more Asiatic and less distinctively African type. We find a wavy-haired, fairish, hairy-skinned race, the Ainu, in Japan. They are more like the Europeans in their facial type than the surrounding yellow Japanese. They may be a drifted patch of the whites or they may be a quite distinct people. ”

“ John Batchelor came to Yezo in 1879, a young man of twenty-four years. He has lived here ever since—more than half his lifetime. A clergyman of the Church of England and a missionary of the Church Missionary Society, he labors among both Japanese and Ainu, but considers himself particularly called to be the Apostle to the Ainu. He knows this people as no other stranger, Japanese or “foreigner,” does. He has visited their villages in all parts of the island; he speaks their language more perfectly than their own young people do; he has studied their life, and thought, and fancies. ”

“ But does the close resemblance between some of the words found in ancient Japanese and Ainu vocabulary tend to unify or in any way prove the two races to have been originally one? The reply is “yes” and “no.” In the sense now generally meant by races being one, the verdict must, I think, be “no,” certainly. If, however, we go back far enough,—if, for example, we travel back to the time of the confusion of tongues,—to the time when people were fewer and the continents as now found not existing—we may reply, “yes.” ”

“ But there appear to be so few people truly interested in Ainu, or such a small number thoroughly acquainted with this tongue, that no help was given except to confirm him in his present belief that in so far as construction is concerned the Ainu language belongs as much to the Aryan tongue as Latin, French, Greek, and English do. ”

“ We take it for granted that all white men are better than any red ones, or black ones, or yellow ones. Yet here we find a white race that has struggled and lost! It has proved inferior in life’s battle to the more active, energetic, progressive, yellow people, with which it has come in contact. It may be that the Ainu are but a little fragment of a once widespread Asiatic white race. ”

“ A centripetal people is one whose customary movements are toward the person of the actor, not away from him. Dr. McGee was particularly interested in securing a group of Ainu, because they have the reputation of being distinctly centripetal, perhaps the most so of any people. We had hoped to find strong evidence of this character, but cannot claim to have been very successful. It is true that the salutations are of that kind: the hand-wavings and beard-strokings are not expansive, outward movements, but toward the person. ”

“ I do not venture to express any opinion as to the origin of this race of people, since it is a subject about which they themselves know nothing for certain. Batchelor says: "The older Ainu have a tradition to the effect that a person named Okikurumi" (who is strongly suspected to have been none other than the Japanese hero Yoshitsune—J. K. G.) "was the true Ainu ancestor. He descended from heaven to a mountain in Piratoru many years before the Japanese knew or were known by the Ainu. Okikurumi had a wife who was called Turesh, and who is always known by name—Okikurumi Turesh Machi. ”

“ The Ainu here are fine types. Tall, well-built men are common, one might say, the rule. The average difference of stature between males of Shiraoi and the Saru towns is certainly considerable. Mr. Batchelor tells me that the people of the northern towns near the western coast, as Ishikari, are shorter than those at Piratori. While the stature at Shiraoi is great, the heavy growth of body hair and the great beards are as at Piratori. ”

“ The Apa-shiri, Akkesh, and Kushiro Ainu (i.e. the Ainu of the northern and north eastern coasts) , though differing from their nearer neighbours, the Tokapchi people, speak very like those of Usu. However the grammer is the same, and when the Saru dialect is spoken but without the contraction of words, one is pretty well understood by all excepting the Tokapchi people, who sometimes miss the meaning. ”

“ Doubt also hangs at first sight over the meaning of the bear-sacrifice offered by the Aino or Ainu, a primitive people who are found in the Japanese island of Yezo or Yesso, as well as in Saghalien and the southern of the Kurile Islands. It is not quite easy to define the attitude of the Aino towards the bear. ”

“ But allowing for the sake of argument that Koropok-guru did mean “people under the Petasites” even that would not dwarf them in the least. I myself stand nearly 5 ft. 8 and have scores of times not only walked but also ridden on pony back among the leaf-stalks of the Petasites without touching the blades. I wonder how big the ancient Japanese and Ainu must have been! ”

“ The shorter sticks were cut with a single sloping stroke, giving a “face,” which was slit across with one cut, “the mouth”; in each mouth inao shavings were thrust. The shorter sticks are said to be merely ornamental; the longer ones are sacred. The one to the left is the moon, the next the wells, next bears, the rest are mountains in which bears are hunted.
GREAT INAO: KIKE PARASE.
AINU IN CANOE: SARU RIVER.
In Yezo, when an Ainu has been away from the village and returns, his home-coming is made a [Pg 118] public occasion. All the people gather, someone being their spokesman. ”

“ Thus the Ainu element enters very largely into the composition of one of the types of the Japanese people, not only at Yezo but in the north of Nippon (province of Aomori) , where several Ainu words still survive in current speech. In the Kurile islands the Ainus are intermixed with the Kamtchadals and the Aleuts introduced by the Russo-American Company about the middle of the present century.
It is calculated that there are about 18,500 Ainus (of whom 1,300 are in the island of Saghalien) at the present time; their number at Yezo has remained stationary for several years. ”

“ The Ainu were in a very low state of civilization. They did not understand the cultivation of the soil; and they pined for their rocks and forests, for their life as fishers and hunters, with all its toil and all its hardships and adventures. Their numbers have dropped from ninety-seven to sixty individuals; they are a dying race. ”

“ The Indian is naturally a bloodthirsty savage, while a more peaceful, law-abiding race than the Ainu can not be imagined. In my general opinion of the Ainu I hold a middle ground between Miss Bird's enthusiasm, which makes him a gracious courtier, and the contempt of most Japanese who say, "The Ainu are just dogs, and have no souls." ”

“ Nine Ainu made up the group—old Sangyea, his wife Santukno, their little daughter Kin, Kutoroge the bear-hunter, his wife Shitratek, and their baby girl Kiko, Yazo, his wife Shirake, and Bete Goro. We marched the whole company to the police station, where they were identified, their documents examined and passports issued permitting them to leave Japan with us. ”

“ There is a series of wooden war-clubs, apparently of recent manufacture, from near Muroran, which shows a considerable variety in form. These clubs are now rarely found in the villages and originals cannot be easily secured. An entire case is devoted to the cups, tubs, moustache sticks, implements, and inao used in the bear-feast, but they merely suggest what might be done in the making of such a display. One of the most interesting objects in the Ainu collection is a grave-post from the Island of Saghalien, quite different in its form and carved decoration from those made by the Yezo Ainu. ”

“ Thus do many roots cluster round the little verbs ki, “to do;” and mak, “open.” Every root always retains one or other of its meanings though of course modified in each as the subject and object require. This kind of—I was going to say vivisection, but substitute postmortem examination proves, I think, that the Ainu language has grown from a monosyllabic to an agglutinative or combinatory one; and shows that it was also capable of greater developement had the race survived, come into the arena of civilization, and cultivated it. ”

“ It has been thought by many that there was a race of men inhabiting, not only Yezo but also Japan Proper, before the Ainu came; and that just as the Japanese have displaced the Ainu, so the Ainu drove out and succeeded the race preceding themselves. This was a theory I myself formerly accepted—but wholly upon trust like so many others. Laterly, however, I have paid special attention to this subject the result being a little brochure entitled The Koropok-guru or Pit-dwellers of North Japan, a rivision of which I now proceed to append, by way of preface to the Names of Places. ”