View source for Ainu people

{{Short description|Ethnic group in Japan and Russia}}
{{Distinguish|text=the [[Äynu people]] of Xinjiang, China}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2025}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group            = Ainu
| native_name      = {{lang|ain|アィヌ}}
| population       = 
| popplace         = 
| image            = Historical expanse of Ainu.png
| image_caption    = Historical homeland and distribution of Ainu people{{sfnp|Vovin|2008}}
| region1          = {{flag|Japan}} ([[Hokkaido]])
| pop1             = 11,450 surveyed in 2023
| ref1             = <ref name="2023 Hokkaido Survey">{{cite web |script-title=ja:令和 5 年 「北海道アイヌ生活実態調査」の実施結果について（概要）|title=Reiwa 5-nen "Hokkaidō Ainu seikatsu jittai chōsa" no jisshi kekka ni tsuite (gaiyō) |trans-title=Results of the 2023 Hokkaido Ainu Living Situation Survey (Summary) |url=https://www.pref.hokkaido.lg.jp/fs/1/0/6/5/3/1/6/7/_/R5%E5%AE%9F%E6%85%8B%E8%AA%BF%E6%9F%BB%E6%A6%82%E8%A6%81(%E5%AE%8C%E6%88%90%E7%89%88).pdf |date=2023 |publisher=[[Hokkaido Prefectural Government]] |language=ja}}</ref>
| region2          = {{flag|Russia}} ([[Kamchatka Krai|Kamchatka]], [[Khabarovsk Krai|Khabarovsk]], [[Sakhalin Oblast|Sakhalin]])
| pop2             = 300 ([[2021 Russian census|2021 census]])
| ref2             = <ref name="2021 Russian Census">{{Cite web |url=https://rosstat.gov.ru/storage/mediabank/Tom5_tab2_VPN2020.xlsx |script-title=ru:2. Состав группы населения "указавшие другие ответы о национальной Принадлежности" |language=ru |title=2. Sostav gruppy naseleniya "ukazavshiye drugiye otvety o natsional'noy Prinadlezhnosti" |trans-title=2. Composition of the population group "who indicated other answers about nationality" |access-date=September 15, 2023 |archive-date=September 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230915093447/https://rosstat.gov.ru/storage/mediabank/Tom5_tab2_VPN2020.xlsx |url-status=live}}</ref>
| langs            = {{comma separated entries|[[Ainu languages]] |Japanese |Russian<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Gordon |editor-first=Raymond G. Jr. |year=2005 |title=Ethnologue: Languages of the World |edition=15th |location=Dallas |publisher=SIL International |isbn=978-1-55671-159-6 |oclc=224749653}}</ref>}}
| rels             = {{comma separated entries| [[Religion in Japan#Ainu folk religion|Ainu folk religion]]|[[Animism]] |[[Buddhism in Japan|Japanese Buddhism]]| [[Shinto]] |[[Russian Orthodoxy]]}}
| related          = {{comma separated entries| [[Jomon people]] | [[Satsumon]] | [[Okhotsk culture|Okhotsk]] | [[Matagi]] | [[Kamchadals]] | [[Emishi]] | [[Nivkh people|Nivkh]] }}
}}
{{Contains special characters|Manchu}}

The '''Ainu''' are an [[Indigenous peoples|indigenous ethnic group]] who reside in northern Japan and southeastern Russia, including [[Hokkaido]] and the [[Tōhoku region]] of Honshu, as well as the land surrounding the [[Sea of Okhotsk]], such as [[Sakhalin]], the [[Kuril Islands]], the [[Kamchatka Peninsula]], and the [[Khabarovsk Krai]]. They have occupied these areas, known to them as "Ainu Mosir" ({{langx|ain|[[wikt:アィヌモシㇼ|アイヌモシㇼ]]|lit=the land of the Ainu}}), since before the arrival of the modern [[Yamato people|Yamato]] and [[Treaty of Aigun|Russians]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Isabella |first=Jude |date=October 25, 2017 |title=The Untold Story of Japan's First People |url=https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/ainu-prejudice-pride/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123112035/https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/ainu-prejudice-pride/ |archive-date=January 23, 2023 |website=SAPIENS}}</ref><ref name="Cobb BBC">{{cite web |last=Cobb |first=Ellie |date=May 20, 2020 |title=Japan's forgotten indigenous people |url=http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20200519-japans-forgotten-indigenous-people |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123160053/https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20200519-japans-forgotten-indigenous-people |archive-date=January 23, 2023 |website=[[BBC]]}}</ref>{{sfnp|Shibatani|1990|p=3}} These regions are often referred to as {{nihongo|[[Ezo]]chi|蝦夷地}} and its inhabitants as {{nihongo|[[Emishi]]|蝦夷}} in historical Japanese texts. Along with the Yamato and [[Ryukyuans|Ryukyuan]] ethnic groups, the Ainu people are one of the primary historic [[ethnic groups of Japan]] and are along with the Ryukyuans and [[Bonin Islanders]] one of the few ethnic minorities native to the [[Japanese archipelago]].

Official surveys of the known Ainu population in Hokkaido received 11,450 responses in 2023, and the Ainu population in Russia was estimated at 300 in 2021.<ref name="2023 Hokkaido Survey"/><ref name="2021 Russian Census"/> Unofficial estimates in 2002 placed the total population in Japan at 200,000 or higher, as the near-total [[Cultural assimilation|assimilation]] of the Ainu into Japanese society has resulted in many individuals of Ainu descent having no knowledge of their ancestry.{{sfnp|Poisson|2002|p=5}}

The Ainu were subject to [[forced assimilation]] during the [[Colonisation of Hokkaido|Japanese colonization of Hokkaido]] since at least the 18th century. Japanese assimilation policies in the 19th century around the [[Meiji Restoration]] included forcing Ainu peoples off their land. This, in turn, forced them to give up traditional ways of life such as subsistence hunting and fishing. Ainu people were not allowed to practice their religion and were placed into Japanese-language schools, where speaking the Hokkaido [[Ainu language]] was forbidden. In 1966, there were about 300 native Ainu speakers. In the 1980s, there were fewer than 100 native Ainu speakers, with only 15 using the language daily.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Honna |first1=Nobuyuki |url=https://archive.org/details/languagepolicies0000unse |title=Language Policies and Language Education: The Impact in East Asian Countries in the Next Decade |last2=Tajima |first2=Hiroko Tina |last3=Minamoto |first3=Kunihiko |publisher=Times Academic Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-9-81210-149-5 |editor1-last=Kam |editor1-first=Ho Wah |location=Singapore |chapter=Japan |editor2-last=Wong |editor2-first=Ruth Y. L. |url-access=registration}}</ref>{{sfnp|Hohmann|2008|p=19}} The Hokkaido Ainu language is likely extinct today, as there remain no known native speakers.<ref>{{Cite web |date=November 29, 2021 |title=An Ainu-language expert illuminates their worldview |url=https://sustainable.japantimes.com/magazine/vol06/06-05 |access-date=August 11, 2025 |website=Sustainable Japan |publisher=[[The Japan Times]] |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Ainu Language (AIN) – L1 & L2 Speakers, Status, Map, Endangered Level & Official Use |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/ain/ |access-date=August 11, 2025 |website=[[Ethnologue]] (Free All) |language=en}}</ref> The other [[Ainu languages]], [[Sakhalin Ainu language|Sakhalin Ainu]] and [[Kuril Ainu language|Kuril Ainu]] were declared extinct in the 20th century. In recent years, there have been increasing efforts to revitalize the Hokkaido Ainu language.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Linguistic Revival: How Japan Restored the Native Ainu Language with "AI Pirika" |url=https://stanfordrewired.com/post/japan-restored-ainu-ai-pirika/ |access-date=December 8, 2023 |website=stanfordrewired.com}}</ref>

==Names==
This people's most widely known [[ethnonym]], {{lang|ain-Latn|Ainu}} ({{langx|ain|{{lang|ain-Kana|アィヌ}}}}; {{langx|ja|アイヌ}}; {{langx|ru|link=no|Айны}}), means 'human' in the [[Ainu language]], particularly as opposed to {{lang|ain-Latn|kamui}}, 'divine beings'. Ainu also identify themselves as {{lang|ain-Latn|Utari}} ('comrades' or 'people'). Official documents use both names.

The name first appeared as '''{{lang|ain-Latn|Aino}}''' in a 1591 Latin manuscript titled {{lang|la|De yezorum insula}}. This document gives the native name of Hokkaido as {{lang|ain-Latn|Aino moxori}}, or {{lang|ain-Latn|Ainu mosir}}, 'land of the Ainu'. The terms {{lang|ain-Latn|Aino}} and {{lang|ain-Latn|Ainu}} did not come into common use as [[ethnonym]]s until the early 19th century. The ethnonym first appeared in an 1819 German encyclopedia article. Neither European nor Japanese sources conceived of the Ainu as a distinct ethnic group until the late 1700s.{{sfnp|Hudson|1999b|p=208}}

The Ainu were also called the Kuye by their neighbors. The [[Qing dynasty]] called [[Sakhalin]] {{lang|zh-Latn|Kuyedao}} ("island of the Ainu").{{sfnp|Nakayama|2015|p=20}} The island was also called {{lang|zh-Latn|Kuye Fiyaka}}.{{sfnp|Schlesinger|2017|p=135}} The word {{lang|zh-Latn|Kuye}} used by the Qing is "most probably related to ''kuyi'', the name given to the Sakhalin Ainu by their [[Nivkhs|Nivkh]] and [[Nanais|Nanai]] neighbors."{{sfnp|Hudson|1999b|p=226}} When the Ainu migrated onto the mainland, the Chinese described a "strong Kui (or Kuwei, Kuwu, Kuye, Kugi, i.e. Ainu) presence in the area otherwise dominated by the Gilemi or Jilimi (Nivkh and other [[Amur]] peoples)."{{sfnp|Zgusta|2015|p=64}} Related names were in widespread use in the region, for example the Kuril Ainu called themselves {{lang|ain-Latn|koushi}}.{{sfnp|Hudson|1999b|p=226}}

The Old Japanese exonym {{lang|ojp|蝦夷}} ({{transl|ojp|Emi<sub>1</sub>si}}) was coined according to the ''[[Kojiki-den]]'' from {{lang|ojp|蝦}} ("shrimp") + {{lang|ojp|夷}} ("barbarian") as a reference to their hairiness and savagery.<ref>{{cite book |language=ja |script-entry=ja:えみし 【蝦夷】|entry=Emishi [Ezo] |trans-entry=Emishi [Ezo] |title=[[Nihon Kokugo Daijiten]] |script-title=ja:日本国語大辞典 |trans-title=The Japanese Language Dictionary |edition=2nd |location=[[Tōkyō]] |publisher=[[Shogakukan]] |date=2000 |isbn=4-09-521001-X}}</ref>{{Clarify|date=October 2024|reason=How do shrimp relate to hairiness?}} The term is considered an insult by contemporary Ainu.{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}

==History==
[[File:Ainu old man circa 1930.JPG|thumb|Hokkaido Ainu clan leader, 1930]] 
The Ainu are considered the native people of Hokkaido, southern Sakhalin, and the Kurils. Ainu [[Toponymy|toponyms]] support the historical view that the Ainu people lived in several places throughout northern Honshu.<ref>{{cite book |last1=de Graaf |first1=Tjeerd |last2=Shiraishi |first2=Hidetoshi |year=2013 |url=https://dh-north.org/siberian_studies/publications/sikdegraafshiraishi.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://dh-north.org/siberian_studies/publications/sikdegraafshiraishi.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live |title=Documentation and Revitalisation of two Endangered Languages in Eastern Asia: Nivkh and Ainu |isbn=978-3-942883-12-2 |pages=49–64 |publisher=Verlag Kulturstiftung Sibirien}}</ref>
The ancestors of the Ainu, who were referred to as Emishi, came under Japanese subjugation starting in the 9th century and were pushed to the northern islands.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Leeming |first1=David |title=The Dictionary of Asian Mythology |date=2001 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |page=10}}</ref>

===Ainu Culture period (Nibutani period)===
Following the [[Zoku-Jōmon period]], which began in the 5th century BC, and the subsequent [[Satsumon culture|Satsumon period]], from around the 13th century the Ainu established their own culture by absorbing the surrounding culture while engaging in transit trade between Honshu and north-east Asia. This is called the Ainu Culture period or Nibutani period.

Active contact between the [[Yamato people|Wajin]] (ethnonym for Japanese, also known as Yamato people) and the Ainu of [[Ezo]]gashima (now known as Hokkaido) began in this period.<ref>{{cite book |last=Siddle |first=Richard M. |chapter=The Ainu: Indigenous people of Japan |editor-last=Weiner |editor-first=M. |year=1997 |title=Japan's Minorities: The Illusion of Homogeneity |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=London |isbn=978-0-41515-218-1 |pages=22–23}}</ref> The Ainu formed a society of hunter-gatherers, surviving mainly by hunting and fishing. They followed a religion that was based on natural phenomena.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/hokkaido/ainu.html |website=[[Nova (American TV series)|NOVA Online]] |publisher=[[PBS]] |title=Island of the Spirits – Origins of the Ainu |access-date=May 8, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080429080550/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/hokkaido/ainu.html |archive-date=April 29, 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref>

After the [[Mongols]] [[Mongol conquest of Jin China|conquered the Jin dynasty (1234)]], Karafuto (Sakhalin)-Ainu suffered raids by the [[Nivkh people|Nivkh]] and [[Udege people]]s. In response, the Mongols established an administration post at Nurgan (present-day [[Tyr, Russia]]) at the junction of the [[Amur]] and [[Amgun River|Amgun]] rivers in 1263, and forced the submission of the two peoples.{{sfnm|Nakamura|2010|1p=415|Stephan|1971|2p=21}} In 1264, the Karafuto-Ainu invaded the land of the Nivkh people. They also started an expedition into the Amur region, which was then controlled by the [[Yuan dynasty]], resulting in reprisals by the [[Mongol invasions of Sakhalin|Mongols who invaded Sakhalin]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.city.asahikawa.hokkaido.jp/files/hakubutsukagaku/museum/syuzo/59-tatakai/59-tatakai.html |script-title=ja:第59回 交易の民アイヌ VII 元との戦い |title=Dai 59-kai kōeki no min Ainu VII-moto to notatakai |trans-title=No. 59 The Ainu, a trading people VII The battle with the Yuan |language=ja |publisher=[[Asahikawa, Hokkaido|Asahikawa City]] |date=June 2, 2010 |access-date=March 2, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721151652/http://www.city.asahikawa.hokkaido.jp/files/hakubutsukagaku/museum/syuzo/59-tatakai/59-tatakai.html |archive-date=July 21, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.ainu-assn.or.jp/ |script-title=ja:公益社団法人 北海道アイヌ協会 |title=Kōeki shadanhōjin Hokkaidō Ainu kyōkai |trans-title=Hokkaido Ainu Association |website=公益社団法人北海道アイヌ協会 |language=ja |access-date=August 7, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190808071913/https://www.ainu-assn.or.jp/ |archive-date=August 8, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>

From the Nivkh perspective, their surrender to the Mongols essentially established a military alliance against the Ainu who had invaded their lands.{{sfnp|Zgusta|2015|p= 96}} According to the ''[[History of Yuan]]'', a group of people known as the ''Guwei'' ({{zhi|c=骨嵬|p=Gǔwéi}}, the phonetic approximation of the Nivkh name for Ainu) from Sakhalin invaded and fought with the Jilimi (Nivkh people) every year. On November 30, 1264, the Mongols attacked the Ainu.{{sfnp|Nakamura|2010|p= 415}} The Karafuto-Ainu resisted the Mongol invasions but by 1308 had been subdued. They paid tribute to the Mongol [[Yuan dynasty]] at posts in Wuliehe, Nanghar, and Boluohe.{{sfnp|Walker|2006|p=133}}

The Chinese [[Ming dynasty]] (1368–1644) placed Sakhalin under its "system for subjugated peoples" ({{lang|zh-latn|ximin tizhi}}). From 1409 to 1411 the Ming established an outpost called the [[Nurgan Regional Military Commission]] near the ruins of [[Tyr, Russia|Tyr]] on the Siberian mainland, which continued operating until the mid-1430s. There is some evidence that the Ming eunuch Admiral [[Yishiha]] reached Sakhalin in 1413 during one of his expeditions to the lower Amur, and granted Ming titles to a local chieftain.<ref name=tsai>{{cite book |title=Perpetual Happiness: The Ming Emperor Yongle |last=Tsai |first=Shih-Shan Henry |year=2002 |orig-date=2001 |publisher=[[University of Washington Press]] |location=Seattle, Wash |isbn=0-295-98124-5 |pages=158–161 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aU5hBMxNgWQC&pg=PA159 |access-date=June 16, 2010}} Link is to partial text.</ref>

The Ming recruited headmen from Sakhalin for administrative posts such as commander ({{zhi|p=zhǐhuīshǐ|c=指揮使}}), assistant commander ({{zhi|p=zhǐhuī qiānshì|c=指揮僉事}}), and "official charged with subjugation" ({{zhi|p=wèizhènfǔ|c=衛鎮撫}}). In 1431, one such assistant commander, Alige, brought [[marten]] pelts as tribute to the Wuliehe post. In 1437, four other assistant commanders (Zhaluha, Sanchiha, Tuolingha, and Alingge) also presented tribute. According to the ''[[Ming Veritable Records]]'', these posts, like the position of headman, were hereditary and passed down the patrilineal line. During these tributary missions, the headmen would bring their sons, who later inherited their titles. In return for tribute, the Ming awarded them with silk uniforms.{{sfnp|Walker|2006|p=133}}

[[Nivkh people|Nivkh]] women in Sakhalin married Han Chinese Ming officials when the Ming took tribute from Sakhalin and the Amur River region.<ref>{{cite book |first=Wada |last=Sei |year=1938 |script-title=ja:支那の記載に現はれたる黒龍江下流域の土人 |title=Shina no kisai ni arawaretaru Kokuryuko karyuiki no dojin |trans-title=The Natives of the Lower Reaches of the Amur River as Represented in Chinese Records |series=Memoirs of the Research Department of Toyo Bunko |publisher=[[Tōyō Bunko]] |url={{google books URL|mWipQwAACAAJ}}}}</ref><ref name="apjjf.org">{{cite journal |last1=Morris-Suzuki |first1=Tessa |date=November 15, 2020 |title=Indigenous Diplomacy: Sakhalin Ainu (Enchiw) in the Shaping of Modern East Asia (Part 1: Traders and Travellers) |url=https://apjjf.org/2020/22/Morris-Suzuki.html |journal=[[The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus]] |volume=18 |issue=22 |pages= |doi= }}</ref> Due to Ming rule in Manchuria, Chinese cultural and religious influence such as [[Chinese New Year]], the "[[Caishen|Chinese god]]", and motifs such as dragons, spirals, and scrolls spread among the Ainu, Nivkh, and Amur natives such as the [[Udeghe people|Udeghe]]s, [[Ulch people|Ulchi]]s, and [[Nanai people|Nanais]]. These groups also adopted material goods and practices such as agriculture, husbandry, heating, iron cooking pots, silk, and cotton.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nzhq85nPrdsC&dq=chinese+god+motifs+cotton+iron+silk&pg=PA214 |last=Forsyth |first=James |edition=illustrated, reprint, revised |isbn=0-521-47771-9 |date=1994 |title=A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony 1581-1990 |page=214 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]}}</ref>

[[File:Carte Generale de l'Empire Chinois et du Japon.png|thumb|right|French map from 1821 shows Sakhalin as part of Qing Empire, and the Kuril Islands are a part of Japan.]]

The Manchu [[Qing dynasty]], which came to power in China in 1644, called Sakhalin "Kuyedao" ({{Lang-zh|c=庫頁島|p=Kùyè dǎo|l=island of the Ainu}}){{sfnp|Smith|2017|p=83}}{{sfnp|Kim|2019|p=81}}{{sfnp|Nakayama|2015|p= 20}} or "Kuye Fiyaka" ([[Manchu language|{{MongolUnicode|ᡴᡠᠶᡝ<br />ᡶᡳᠶᠠᡴᠠ}}]]).{{sfnp|Schlesinger|2017|p=135}} The [[Manchus]] called it "Sagaliyan ula angga hada" (Island at the Mouth of the Black River).{{sfnp|Narangoa|2014|p=295}} The Qing first asserted influence over Sakhalin after the 1689 [[Treaty of Nerchinsk]], which defined the [[Stanovoy Mountains]] as the border between the Qing and the [[Russian Empire]]s. In the following year the Qing sent forces to the [[Amur]] estuary and demanded that the residents, including the Sakhalin Ainu, pay tribute. This was followed by several further visits to the island as part of the Qing effort to map the area. To enforce its influence, the Qing sent soldiers and mandarins across Sakhalin, reaching most parts of the island except the southern tip. The Qing imposed a fur-tribute system on the region's inhabitants.{{sfnp|Walker|2006|pp= 134–135}}{{sfnp|Sasaki|1999|pp= 87–89}}<ref name="apjjf.org"/>

{{Blockquote|The Qing dynasty ruled these regions by imposing upon them a fur tribute system, just as had the Yuan and Ming dynasties. Residents who were required to pay tributes had to register according to their ''hala'' ({{MongolUnicode|ᡥᠠᠯᠠ}}, the clan of the father's side) and ''gashan'' ({{MongolUnicode|ᡤᠠᡧᠠᠨ}}, village), and a designated chief of each unit was put in charge of district security as well as the annual collection and delivery of fur. By 1750, fifty-six ''hala'' and 2,398 households were registered as fur tribute payers, – those who paid with fur were rewarded mainly with Nishiki silk [[brocade]], and every year the dynasty supplied the chief of each clan and village with official silk clothes (''mangpao'', ''duanpao''), which were the gowns of the mandarin. Those who offered especially large fur tributes were granted the right to create a familial relationship with officials of the Manchu [[Eight Banners]] (at the time equivalent to Chinese aristocrats) by marrying an official's adopted daughter. Further, the tribute payers were allowed to engage in trade with officials and merchants at the tribute location. By these policies, the Qing dynasty brought political stability to the region and established the basis for commerce and economic development.{{sfnp|Sasaki|1999|pp=87–89}}|Shiro Sasaki}}

The Qing dynasty established an office in [[Ningguta]], situated midway along the [[Mudan River]], to handle fur from the lower Amur and Sakhalin. Tribute was supposed to be brought to regional offices, but the lower Amur and Sakhalin were considered too remote, so the Qing sent officials directly to these regions every year to collect tribute and to present awards. By the 1730s, the Qing had appointed senior figures among the indigenous communities as "clan chief" (''hala-i-da'') or "village chief" (''gasan-da'' or ''mokun-da''). In 1732, 6 ''hala'', 18 ''gasban'', and 148 households were registered as tribute bearers in Sakhalin. Manchu officials gave tribute missions rice, salt, other necessities, and gifts during the duration of their mission. Tribute missions occurred during the summer months. During the reign of the [[Qianlong Emperor]] (r. 1735–95), a trade post existed at Delen, upstream of Kiji (Kizi) Lake, according to [[Rinzo Mamiya]]. There were 500–600 people at the market during Mamiya's stay there.{{sfnp|Sasaki|1999|p=87}}<ref name="apjjf.org"/>

Local native Sakhalin chiefs had their daughters taken as wives by Manchu officials as sanctioned by the Qing dynasty when the Qing exercised jurisdiction in Sakhalin and took tribute from them.<ref>(Shiro Sasaki, 'A History of the Far East Indigenous Peoples' Transborder Activities Between the Russian and Chinese Empires', Senri Ethnological Studies, vol. 92, 2016, pp. 161‒193.) Sasaki, 'A History of the Far East Indigenous Peoples' Transborder Activities', p. 173.</ref><ref name="apjjf.org"/>

===Japanese colonization===
{{Main|Colonisation of Hokkaido}}
[[File:17世紀アイヌ地図.png|thumb|Ainu groups around the time of [[Shakushain's revolt|Shakushain's Revolt]] (1669–1672)]]
[[File:Hidaka Ainu—Umsa by Hirasawa Byōzan (Hakodate City Central Library).jpg|thumb|''[[Omusha]]'' ceremony involving the [[Hidaka Subprefecture|Hidaka]] Ainu, by {{ill|Hirasawa Byōzan|ja|平沢屏山}} {{circa|19th century}}]]
[[File:Samurai and Ainu Fuzoku Ema.jpg|thumb|A Japanese [[samurai]] with a group of Ainu, {{circa|1775}}]]
In 1635, [[Matsumae Kinhiro]], the second daimyō of [[Matsumae Domain]] in Hokkaidō, sent Satō Kamoemon and Kakizaki Kuroudo on an expedition to Sakhalin.{{sfn|Walker|2007|p=295}} One of the Matsumae explorers, Kodō Shōzaemon, stayed in the island in the winter of 1636 and sailed along the east coast to Taraika (now [[Poronaysk]]) in the spring of 1637.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Akizuki |last=Toshiyuki |date=1994 |script-title=ja:日露関係とサハリン島：幕末明治初年の領土問題 |title=Nich-Ro kankei to Saharintō: Bakumatsu Meiji shonen no ryōdo mondai |trans-title=Japanese–Russian Relations and Sakhalin Island: Territorial Dispute in the Bakumatsu and First Meiji Years |location=Tokyo |publisher=Chikuma Shobo Publishers Ltd |isbn=4-480-85668-4 |page=34}}</ref> The [[Tokugawa bakufu]] (feudal government) granted the Matsumae clan exclusive rights to trade with the Ainu in the northern part of the island. Later, the Matsumae began to lease out trading rights to Japanese merchants, and contact between Japanese and Ainu became more extensive. Throughout this period, Ainu groups competed with each other to import goods from the Japanese, and epidemic diseases such as [[smallpox]] reduced the population.{{sfnp|Walker|2001|p=49–56, 61–71, 172–176}} In an early colonization attempt, a Japanese settlement was established at [[Korsakov (town)|Ōtomari]] on Sakhalin's southern end in 1679.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.karafuto.com/timetab.html |title=Time Table of Sakhalin Island |access-date=August 16, 2015 |archive-date=October 3, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151003010214/http://www.karafuto.com/timetab.html }}</ref>

In the 1780s, the influence of the Japanese [[Tokugawa Shogunate]] on the Ainu of southern Sakhalin increased significantly.{{sfn|Walker|2001|pp=143–144}} By the beginning of the 19th century, the Japanese economic zone extended midway up the east coast, to Taraika.{{sfn|Walker|2001|p=141}} With the exception of the Nayoro Ainu located on the west coast in close proximity to China, most Ainu stopped paying tribute to the Qing dynasty. The [[Matsumae clan]] was nominally in charge of Sakhalin, but they neither protected nor governed the Ainu there.{{sfn|Walker|2001|pp=142–144}} Instead they extorted the Ainu for Chinese silk, which they sold in [[Honshu]] as Matsumae's special product. To obtain Chinese silk, the Ainu fell into debt, owing much fur to the Santan ([[Ulch people]]), who lived near the Qing office. The Ainu also sold the silk uniforms (''mangpao'', ''bufu'', and ''chaofu'') given to them by the Qing, which made up the majority of what the Japanese knew as ''nishiki'' and ''jittoku''. As dynastic uniforms, the silk was of considerably higher quality than that traded at [[Nagasaki]], and enhanced Matsumae prestige as exotic items.{{sfnp|Walker|2006|pp=134–136}} Eventually the Tokugawa government, realizing that they could not depend on the Matsumae, took control of Sakhalin in 1807.{{sfnp|Sasaki|1999|p=88}}

{{Blockquote|Mogami's interest in the Sakhalin trade intensified when he learned that Yaenkoroaino, the above-mentioned elder from Nayoro, possessed a memorandum written in Manchurian, which stated that the Ainu elder was an official of the Qing state. Later surveys on Sakhalin by shogunal officials such as Takahashi Jidayú and Nakamura Koichiró only confirmed earlier observations: Sakhalin and Sóya Ainu traded foreign goods at trading posts, and because of the pressure to meet quotas, they fell into debt. These goods, the officials confirmed, originated at Qing posts, where continental traders acquired them during tributary ceremonies. The information contained in these types of reports turned out to be a serious blow to the future of Matsumae's trade monopoly in Ezo.{{sfnp|Walker|2006|pp=149–150}}|Brett L. Walker}}

From 1799 to 1806, the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] took direct control of southern Hokkaido. Japan proclaimed sovereignty over Sakhalin in 1807, and in 1809 [[Mamiya Rinzō]] claimed that it was an island.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lower |first=Arthur |title=Ocean of Destiny: A concise History of the North Pacific, 1500–1978 |year=1978 |publisher=[[University of British Columbia Press]] |page=75 |isbn=978-0-7748-4352-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gIAOU9ltj48C&q=sakhalin}}</ref> During this period, Ainu women were separated from their husbands and either subjected to rape or forcibly married to Japanese men. Meanwhile, Ainu men were deported to merchant subcontractors for five- and ten-year terms of service.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Tzagernik |first=Tacchana |date=March 2021 |title=Torauma no gainen o Ainu no bunmyaku ni atehameru: Hikaku to kōsatsu |script-title=ja:トラウマの概念をアイヌの文脈に当てはめる : 比較と考察 |trans-title=Applying the concept of trauma to the Ainu context: a comparison and reflection |script-journal=ja:アイヌ・先住民研究 |trans-journal=Ainu and Indigenous Studies |volume=1 |pages=35–51 [39] |doi=10.14943/97142 |hdl=2115/80885 |language=ja}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Grunow |first1=Tristan R. |last2=Nakamura |first2=Fuyubi |last3=Hirano |first3=Katsuya |last4=Ishihara |first4=Mai |last5=Lewallen |first5=Ann-Elise |last6=Lightfoot |first6=Sheryl |author7=Mayunkiki |last8=Medak-Saltzman |first8=Danika |last9=Williams-Davidson |first9=Terri-Lynn |last10=Yahata |first10=Tomoe |date=2019 |title=Hokkaidō 150: Settler Colonialism and Indigeneity in Modern Japan and Beyond |journal=[[Critical Asian Studies]] |volume=51 |number=4 |pages=597–636 [610] |doi=10.1080/14672715.2019.1665291}}</ref> Policies of family separation and assimilation, combined with the impact of smallpox, caused the Ainu population to drop significantly in the early 19th century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lewallen |title=The fabric of indigeneity: Ainu identity, gender, and settler colonialism in Japan |publisher=[[University of New Mexico Press]] |location=Albuquerque |isbn=978-0-8263-5736-6 |pages=131–142 |year=2016}}</ref> In the 18th century, there were 80,000 Ainu,<ref>{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity |first=Dinah |last=Shelton |volume=2 |publisher=Macmillan Reference |year=2005}}</ref> but by 1868, there were only about 15,000 Ainu in Hokkaido, 2,000 in Sakhalin, and around 100 in the Kuril Islands.{{sfnp|Howell|1997|page=614}}

[[File:日本画家・村瀬義徳による「アイヌ熊祭屏風」（左）市立函館博物館蔵.jpg|thumb|Ainu people, by {{ill|Murase Yoshinori|ja|村瀬義徳}}, 1918]]
Despite their growing influence in the area in the early 19th century as a result of these policies, the Tokugawa shogunate was unable to gain a monopoly on Ainu trade with those on the Asian mainland, even by the year 1853. Santan traders, a group composed mostly of the [[Ulch people|Ulchi]], [[Nanai people|Nanai]], and [[Oroch people|Oroch]] peoples of the [[Amur]] River, commonly interacted with the Ainu people independent of the Japanese government, especially in the northern part of Hokkaido.<ref name=":7">{{cite journal |last1=Morris-Suzuki |first1=Tessa |date=November 15, 2020 |title=Indigenous Diplomacy: Sakhalin Ainu (Enchiw) in the Shaping of Modern East Asia (Part 1: Traders and Travellers) |url=https://apjjf.org/2020/22/Morris-Suzuki.html |journal=[[The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus]] |volume=18 |issue=22 |page=2 |doi= }}</ref> In addition to their trading ventures, Santan traders sometimes kidnapped or purchased Ainu women from [[Rishiri Island]] to become their wives. This further escalated Japan's presence in the area, as the Tokugawa shogunate believed a monopoly on the Santan trade would better protect the Ainu people.<ref name=":7" /><ref>(Mamiya Rinzō (trans. and ed. John Harrison), 'Kita Ezo Zutsetsu or a Description of the Island of North Ezo by Mamiya Rinzō', Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 99, no. 2, 1955, pp. 93‒117) Mamiya, 'Kita Ezo Zutsetsu', 107. The name 'Yaepikarainu' is my approximation based the Manchu version of his name, which was given as 'Yabirinu', and the Japanese version which was given as 'Yaepikaran', and the Ainu honorific naming convention of adding '-ainu' to the end of the names of elders.</ref>

===Japanese annexation of Hokkaido===
[[File:Tatsujiro kuzuno.JPG|thumb|right|280px|{{ill|Tatsujiro Kuzuno|ja|葛野辰次郎}}, a prominent proponent of Ainu culture]]
In 1869, the [[Empire of Japan|imperial government]] established the [[Hokkaidō Development Commission]] as part of the [[Meiji Restoration]]. Researcher Katarina Sjöberg quotes Yūko Baba's 1980 account of the Japanese government's reasoning:

{{Blockquote|... The development of Japan's large northern island had several objectives: First, it was seen as a means to defend Japan from a rapidly developing and [[Territorial evolution of Russia|expansionist Russia]]. Second ... it offered a solution to the unemployment for the former [[samurai]] class ... Finally, development promised to yield the needed natural resources for a growing capitalist economy.{{sfnp|Sjöberg|1993|p=116}}}}

As a result of the [[Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875)]], the Kuril Islands{{Em dash}}along with their Ainu inhabitants{{Em dash}}came under Japanese administration.{{sfn|March|1996|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ujht5Y_yQooC&q=%22Treaty+of+Saint+Petersburg%221875&pg=PA90 90]}} In 1899, the Japanese government passed an act labeling the Ainu as "former aborigines", with the idea that they would [[Cultural assimilation|assimilate]]. This resulted in the Japanese government taking the land where the Ainu people lived and placing it under Japanese control.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Loos |editor-first1=Noel |editor-last2=Osani |editor-first2=Takeshi |year=1993 |title=Indigenous Minorities and Education: Australian and Japanese Perspectives on their Indigenous Peoples, the Ainu, Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders |publisher=Sanyusha Publishing Co., Ltd. |location=Tokyo |isbn=978-4-88322-597-2}}{{page needed|date=February 2020}}</ref> Also at this time, the Ainu were granted automatic Japanese citizenship, effectively denying them the status of an indigenous group.

The Ainu went from being a relatively isolated group of people to having their land, language, religion, and customs assimilated into those of the Japanese.<ref name="bbc">{{cite news |first=Philippa |last=Fogarty |title=Recognition at last for Japan's Ainu |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7437244.stm |work=[[BBC News]] |publisher=BBC |date=June 6, 2008 |access-date=June 7, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108102235/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7437244.stm |archive-date=November 8, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> Their land was distributed to the [[Yamato people|Yamato Japanese]] settlers to create and maintain farms in the model of Western industrial agriculture. It was known as "colonization" (拓殖) at the time, but later by the [[euphemism]], "opening up undeveloped land" ({{Interlanguage link|開拓|lt=開拓|jp}}).{{sfnp|Siddle|1996|p=51}} Additionally, factories like flour mills and beer breweries, along with mining practices, resulted in the creation of infrastructure such as roads and railway lines during a development period that lasted until 1904.{{sfnp|Sjöberg|1993|p=117}} During this time, the Ainu were ordered to cease religious practices such as animal sacrifice and the custom of tattooing.<ref>{{cite book |last=Levinson |first=David |title=Encyclopedia of Modern Asia |volume=1 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |page=72 |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-684-80617-4}}</ref> The same act applied to the native Ainu on Sakhalin after its annexation as [[Karafuto Prefecture]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Yamada, Yoshiko |year=2010 |title=A Preliminary Study of Language Contact around Uilta in Sakhalin |journal=Journal of the Center for Northern Humanities |volume=3 |pages=59–75 |hdl=2115/42939}}</ref>

===Assimilation after annexation===
[[File:Sakhalin ainu men.jpg|thumb|[[Sakhalin Ainu]] in 1904]]

The Ainu have historically suffered from economic and social discrimination, as both the Japanese government and mainstream population regarded them as dirty and primitive barbarians.{{sfnp|Walker|2001|p=233}} The majority of Ainu were forced to be petty laborers during the [[Meiji Restoration]], which saw the introduction of Hokkaido into the [[Empire of Japan|Japanese Empire]] and the privatization of traditional Ainu lands.{{sfnp|Siddle|1996|p=45}} During the 19th and 20th centuries, the Japanese government denied the rights of the Ainu to their traditional cultural practices, such as hunting, gathering, and speaking their native language.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tigweb.org/youth-media/panorama/article.html?ContentID=3609 |title=Will the Ainu language die? |date=May 31, 2004 |access-date=December 13, 2015 |website=TalkingITGlobal |last=Shim |first=Karen |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222095803/http://www.tigweb.org/youth-media/panorama/article.html?ContentID=3609 |archive-date=December 22, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The legal denial of Ainu cultural practices mostly stemmed from the 1899 [[Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cheung |first1=S. C. H. |title=Ainu culture in transition |journal=Futures |date=November 2003 |volume=35 |issue=9 |pages=951–959 |doi=10.1016/S0016-3287(03)00051-X}}</ref> This law and its associated policies were designed to fully integrate the Ainu into Japanese society while erasing Ainu culture and identity. The Ainu's position as manual laborers and their forced integration into larger Japanese society have led to discriminatory practices by the Japanese government that can still be felt today.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/bjrenquan/190878.htm |title=Human Right Issues on the Ainu People in Japan |date=n.d. |access-date=December 13, 2015 |website=China.org |last=Yokoyama |first=Yuzuru |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304034543/http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/bjrenquan/190878.htm |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Intermarriage between Japanese and Ainu was actively promoted by the Ainu to lessen the chances of discrimination against their offspring. As a result, many Ainu today are indistinguishable from their Japanese neighbors, but some Ainu-Japanese are interested in traditional Ainu culture.{{sfnp|Howell|2004|pp=12–13}} For example, [[Oki (musician)|Oki]], born as the child of an Ainu father and a Japanese mother, became a musician who plays the traditional Ainu instrument, the {{transliteration|ja|[[tonkori]]}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hmv.co.jp/news/article/605230042/ |script-title=ja:アイヌ⇔ダブ越境！異彩を放つOKIの新作 |title= |trans-title=Crossing the borders between Ainu and Dub! OKI's distinctive new work |language=ja |website=HMV Japan |date=May 23, 2006 |access-date=March 26, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021211935/http://www.hmv.co.jp/news/article/605230042/ |archive-date=October 21, 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> There are also many small towns in the southeastern or [[Hidaka Subprefecture|Hidaka]] region of Hokkaido where ethnic Ainu live, such as in [[Nibutani]] ({{transliteration|ain|Niputay}}).

From the early 1870s, Christian missionary work was conducted among the Ainu. The [[Anglican Communion]] missionaries included the [[Rt. Rev.]] [[Philip Fyson]], [[Bishop of Hokkaido]], and the Rev. [[John Batchelor (missionary)|John Batchelor]]. Batchelor wrote extensively in English about the beliefs and daily life of the Ainu in Yezo (or [[Ezo]]), and his publications are a source of photographs of the Japanese and Ainu close to the missions.<ref>In particular, Sea-girt Yezo : glimpses of missionary work in North Japan by Batchelor, John (Church Missionary Society 1902) digitised by Google and uploaded to the Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/seagirtyezoglim00socigoog</ref>

===Standard of living===
The discrimination and negative stereotypes assigned to the Ainu have manifested in lower levels of education, income, and participation in the economy as compared to their ethnically Japanese counterparts.{{sfn|Okada|2012|p=2}}{{sfn|Meyer|2011|p=70}}{{sfn|Mason|2012|p=22}} Because of this some Ainu women are illiterate, nearly 30 percent of Ainu women find reading Japanese to be difficult, and one third find it difficult to write Japanese.<ref>{{cite book |last=Tahara |first=Ryoko |chapter=Ainu Women in the Past and Now |date=2018 |title=Indigenous Efflorescence: Beyond Revitalisation in Sapmi and Ainu Mosir |pages=151–156 |editor1-last=Roche |editor1-first=Gerald |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv9hj9pb.26 |access-date=November 16, 2025 |publisher=[[ANU Press]] |isbn=978-1-76046-262-8 |editor2-last=Maruyama |editor2-first=Hiroshi |editor3-last=Kroik |editor3-first=Åsa Virdi}}</ref> The Ainu community in Hokkaido in 1993 received welfare payments at a 2.3 times higher rate than that of Hokkaido as a whole. They also had an 8.9% lower enrollment rate from junior high school to high school and a 15.7% lower enrollment into college from high school.{{sfnp|Siddle|1996|p=45}} Due to this noticeable and growing gap, the Japanese government has been lobbied by activists to research the Ainu's [[standard of living]] nationwide. The Japanese government said it would provide [[Japanese yen|¥]]7&nbsp;million ([[United States dollar|US$]]63,000), beginning in 2015, to conduct surveys nationwide on this matter.<ref>{{cite news |title=First nationwide survey on Ainu discrimination to be carried out |url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/08/29/national/first-nationwide-survey-ainu-discrimination-carried/ |newspaper=[[Japan Times]] |date=August 29, 2014 |access-date=December 13, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151224182439/http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/08/29/national/first-nationwide-survey-ainu-discrimination-carried/ |archive-date=December 24, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> In total 1,000 individuals were surveyed in 2015, with the survey showing improvements in the condition of living among respondents, though they were still lower than those of their Japanese peers.<ref>{{cite news |last=Murakami |first=Sakura |date=25 February 2019 |title=Japan's Ainu recognition bill: What does it mean for Hokkaido's indigenous people? |url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/02/25/reference/japans-ainu-recognition-bill-mean-hokkaidos-indigenous-people/ |work=[[The Japan Times]] |archive-url=https://archive.is/sfrfP |archive-date=27 April 2022}}</ref>

===Ainu and ethnic homogeneity in Japan===
The existence of the Ainu has challenged the notion of ethnic homogeneity in [[Postwar Japan|post-WWII Japan]]. After the demise of the multi-ethnic [[Empire of Japan]] in 1945, successive governments forged a single [[Japanese identity]] by advocating [[monoculturalism]] and denying the existence of more than one ethnic group in Japan.<ref name="Eiji Oguma 2020"/>

The Ainu were first recognised as an indigenous people in 1997,{{sfn|Porter|2008|p=202}} which began the process of claiming indigenous rights under national and international frameworks.{{sfn|Porter|2008|p=202}} Following the United Nations [[Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples]] in 2007, Hokkaido politicians pressured the government to recognize Ainu rights. Prime Minister [[Fukuda Yasuo]] answered a parliamentary question on May 20, 2008, by stating,<ref>{{cite news |last=Fukuda |first=Yasuo |date=May 20, 2008 |script-title=ja:衆議院議員鈴木宗男君提出先住民族の定義及びアイヌ民族の先住民族としての権利確立に向けた政府の取り組みに関する第三回質問に対する答弁書 |title=Shūgiin giin suzuki muneo-kun teishutsu senjūmin-zoku no teigi oyobi Ainu minzoku no senjūmin-zoku to shite no kenri kakuritsu ni muketa seifu no torikumi ni kansuru daisankai shitsumon ni taisuru tōben-sho |trans-title=Response to the third question submitted by Mr. Muneo Suzuki, Member of the House of Representatives, regarding the definition of indigenous peoples and the government's efforts to establish the rights of the Ainu people as indigenous peoples. |language=ja |publisher=[[Japanese Diet]] |url=https://www.shugiin.go.jp/internet/itdb_shitsumon.nsf/html/shitsumon/b169373.htm |script-quote=ja:アイヌの人々が「先住民族」かどうか結論を下せる状況にはないが、アイヌの人々は、いわゆる和人との関係において、日本列島北部周辺、取り分け北海道に先住していたことは歴史的事実であり、また、独自の言語及び宗教を有し、文化の独自性を保持していること等から、少数民族であると認識している。国際的に「先住民族」の定義が確立していない状況の下で、アイヌの人々が御指摘の「先住民族」と一致するものであるか結論を下せる状況にはなく、一致することを前提としてどのような問題が生じるかについて、現時点において予断することは適当とは考えていない。 |quote= |trans-quote=We are not in a position to reach a conclusion as to whether the Ainu people are an "indigenous people," but it is a historical fact that the Ainu people, in relation to the so-called Wajin, originally inhabited the northern part of the Japanese archipelago, particularly Hokkaido, and we recognize them as an ethnic minority, given that they have their own language and religion and maintain their own unique culture. In a situation where an international definition of "indigenous people" has not yet been established, we are not in a position to reach a conclusion as to whether the Ainu people correspond to the "indigenous people" you mentioned, and we do not believe it is appropriate at this point to make any assumptions about what problems might arise if they did correspond.}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|It is a historical fact that the Ainu are the earlier arrivers of the northern [[Japanese archipelago]], in particular Hokkaido. The Japanese government acknowledges the Ainu to be an ethnic minority as it has maintained a unique cultural identity and has a unique language and religion. However, as there is no established international definition of "indigenous people", the government is not in a position to conclude whether the Ainu should be referred as "indigenous people"...}}

On June 6, 2008, the [[National Diet|National Diet of Japan]] passed a non-binding, bipartisan resolution calling upon the government to recognize the Ainu as [[indigenous people]].<ref>{{cite news |author=House of Councilors |date=June 6, 2008 |script-title=ja:アイヌ民族を先住民族とすることを求める決議 |title=Ainu minzoku o senjūmin-zoku to suru koto o motomeru ketsugi |trans-title=Resolution calling for the Ainu people to be recognized as an indigenous people |language=ja |newspaper=Japanese Upper House |url=https://www.sangiin.go.jp/japanese/gianjoho/ketsugi/169/080606-2.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250827064136/https://www.sangiin.go.jp/japanese/gianjoho/ketsugi/169/080606-2.html |archive-date=August 27, 2025}}</ref><ref name="japantimes20082">{{cite news |last=Ito |first=M. |date=June 7, 2008 |title=Diet officially declares Ainu indigenous |newspaper=[[Japan Times]] |url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2008/06/07/national/diet-officially-declares-ainu-indigenous/ |url-status=live |access-date=April 25, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150408131300/http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2008/06/07/national/diet-officially-declares-ainu-indigenous/ |archive-date=April 8, 2015}}</ref>

In 2019, eleven years after this resolution, the Diet finally passed an act recognizing the Ainu as an indigenous people of Japan.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/20/asia/japan-ainu-indigenous-peoples-bill-intl/index.html |title=Japan's Ainu will finally be recognized as indigenous people |first=Emiko |last=Jozuka |date=April 20, 2019 |work=[[CNN]] |access-date=April 22, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190422013759/https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/20/asia/japan-ainu-indigenous-peoples-bill-intl/index.html |archive-date=April 22, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Komai |first1=Eléonore |title=The Ainu and Indigenous politics in Japan: negotiating agency, institutional stability, and change |journal=The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics |date=March 2022 |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=141–164 |doi=10.1017/rep.2021.16 }}</ref> Despite this recognition of the Ainu as an ethnically distinct group, political figures in Japan continue to define ethnic homogeneity as key to the overall Japanese national identity. For example, then Deputy Prime Minister [[Tarō Asō]] notably claimed in 2020, "No other country but this one has lasted for as long as [[History of Japan|2,000 years]] with one language, one ethnic group, and [[Imperial House of Japan|one dynasty]]."<ref name="Eiji Oguma 2020">{{cite news |title=「麻生発言」で考えた…なぜ「日本は単一民族の国」と思いたがるのか？ |newspaper=[[Mainichi Shimbun]] |date=February 5, 2020 |last=Oguma |first=Eiji |author-link=Eiji Oguma |url=http://mmdesign-jpn.la.coocan.jp/shoko/oguma15.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211017061006/http://mmdesign-jpn.la.coocan.jp/shoko/oguma15.htm |archive-date=October 17, 2021}}</ref>

==Origins==
{{main|Origins of the Ainu}}

[[File:Yukie Chiri and Imekanu.jpg|thumb|A picture of [[Imekanu]], right, with her niece [[Yukie Chiri]], a famous Ainu Japanese transcriber and translator of Ainu epic tales. (1922)]]
[[File:"Ainu Group" (Aborigines of Japan from the Island of Hokkaido or Yezo, Department of Anthropology, 1904 World's Fair).jpg|thumb|Ainu people of Hokkaido, exhibited at the 1904 [[Louisiana Purchase Exposition]].]]
The Ainu are regarded as having descended from the [[Jōmon people|indigenous Japanese hunter-gatherers]] who lived in Japan during the [[Jōmon period]] ({{circa}} 14,000 to 300 BCE).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Denoon |first1=Donald |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XUw6kiX9LQ0C&pg=PA22 |title=Multicultural Japan: Palaeolithic to Postmodern |last2=McCormack |first2=Gavan |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-521-00362-9 |pages=22–23}}</ref>

The exact origins of the early Ainu remain unclear, but it is the generall consensus among historians that the Ainu are linked to the [[Satsumon culture]] of the [[Epi-Jōmon period]],{{sfnp|Sato|Amano|Ono|Ishida|2009|p=|ps=: "...the Satsumon people (a direct ancestoral lineage of the Ainu people)..."}} with later influences from the nearby [[Okhotsk culture]].<ref>{{Cite web |script-title=ja:アイヌ民族〜歴史と文化 |title=Ainu minzoku 〜 rekishi to bunka |trans-title=Ainu People - History and Culture |url=https://www.ff-ainu.or.jp/web/learn/culture/together/files/rekishi_bunka.pdf |website=Ainu Cultural Foundation |language=ja |page=2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240208080838/https://www.ff-ainu.or.jp/web/learn/culture/together/files/rekishi_bunka.pdf |archive-date=8 February 2024}}</ref>{{sfnp|Lee|Hasegawa|2013|p=|ps=: "In this paper, we reconstructed spatiotemporal evolution of 19 Ainu language varieties, and the results are in strong agreement with the hypothesis that a recent population expansion of the Okhotsk people played a critical role in shaping the Ainu people and their culture. Together with the recent archaeological, biological and cultural evidence, our phylogeographic reconstruction of the Ainu language strongly suggests that the conventional dual-structure model must be refined to explain these new bodies of evidence. The case of the Ainu language origin we report here also contributes additional detail to the global pattern of language evolution, and our language phylogeny might also provide a basis for making further inferences about the cultural dynamics of the Ainu speakers [44,45]."}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Matsumoto |first=Hideo |date=February 2009 |title=The origin of the Japanese race based on genetic markers of immunoglobulin G |journal=Proceedings of the Japan Academy. Series B, Physical and Biological Sciences |volume=85 |issue=2 |pages=69–82 |doi=10.2183/pjab.85.69 |pmc=3524296 |pmid=19212099 |bibcode=2009PJAB...85...69M}}</ref> The emergence of the Ainu culture is thus primarily attributed to the Satsumon culture, which later received some contributions from the Okhotsk culture via cultural contacts in northern Hokkaido after the Satsumon culture expanded northwards and into Sakhalin.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Smale |first=Joran |date=June 2014 |url=https://studenttheses.universiteitleiden.nl/handle/1887/28236 |title=End of Okhotsk? A Peer Polity Interaction approach to the interaction, exchange and decline of a Northeast-Asian maritime culture on Hokkaido, Japan |type=Master thesis |publisher=[[Leiden University]], Faculty of Archaeology |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241203145823/https://studenttheses.universiteitleiden.nl/handle/1887/28236 |archive-date=3 December 2024 |page=73 |quote=Evidence that mainly Satsumon culture is ancestral to Ainu culture still stands. However, it is clear that there is some continuity between Okhotsk and Ainu culture in the veneration of the bear in Hokkaido.}}</ref>{{sfnp|Siddle|2008|pp=22–23}}<ref>{{cite journal |last=Komai |first=Eléonore |date=7 July 2021 |title=The Ainu and Indigenous Politics in Japan: Negotiating Agency, Institutional Stability, and Change |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-race-ethnicity-and-politics/article/ainu-and-indigenous-politics-in-japan-negotiating-agency-institutional-stability-and-change/4A9A317CFFE3F1A76A4A82736D7F1835 |journal=Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics |volume=7 |number=1 |pages=141–164 [146] |doi=10.1017/rep.2021.16 |s2cid=237755856 |issn=2056-6085 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> This view has been corroborated by later analyses.{{sfnp|Sato|Adachi|Kimura|Hosomichi|2021|pp=2–4}}

The Ainu culture may be better described as an "Ainu cultural complex", taking into account the regional variable subgroups of Ainu peoples. While the Ainu can be considered a continuation of the indigenous Jomon culture, they also display links to surrounding cultures, pointing to a larger cultural complex flourishing around the [[Sea of Okhotsk]]. Some authors have also described the development of the Ainu culture as the "resistance" of a Jomon society to the emerging Japanese state.<ref name="Janhunen 57–78">{{cite book |last1=Janhunen |first1=Juha A. |date=2022 |chapter=Ainu ethnic origins |title=Handbook of the Ainu Language |pages=57–78 |doi=10.1515/9781501502859-003 |isbn=978-1-5015-0285-9}}</ref>{{sfnp|Fukuzawa|2022|pp=4–5}}{{sfnp|Hudson|2022|p=1}}

=== Relationship with the historical Emishi ===
While the view that the ancient [[Emishi]] were identical to the Ainu has been largely disproven by current research, the exact relationship between them is still under dispute.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=工藤 |first=雅樹 |date=1994 |script-title=ja:考古学から見た古代蝦夷 |title=Kōkogaku kara mita kodai ezo |trans-title=Ancient Emishi from an archaeological perspective |language=ja |url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/nihonkokogaku1994/1/1/1_1_139/_article/-char/ja/ |journal=日本考古学 |trans-journal=Japanese Archaeology |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=139–154 |via=J-Stage}}</ref> It is agreed that at least some Emishi spoke [[Ainu languages]] and were ethnically related to the Ainu.{{sfnp|de Boer|Yang|Kawagoe|Barnes|2020|p=11}} The Emishi may, however, have also included non-Ainu groups, which can either be associated with groups distantly related to the Ainu (Ainu-like groups) but forming their own ethnicity, or early [[Japonic languages|Japonic-speakers]] outside the influence of the Yamato court.{{sfnp|de Boer|Yang|Kawagoe|Barnes|2020|pp=10–11}} The Emishi display clear material culture links to the Ainu of Hokkaido. Based on Ainu-like toponyms throughout Tohoku, it is argued that the Emishi, like the Ainu, descended from the [[Epi-Jōmon period|Epi-Jōmon tribes]] and initially spoke Ainu-related languages.{{sfnp|de Boer|Yang|Kawagoe|Barnes|2020|p=10}}

The term "Emishi" in the [[Nara period]] (710–794) referred to people who lived in the [[Tohoku]] region and whose lifestyle and culture differed markedly from that of the [[Yamato people]]; it was originally a highly cultural and political concept with no racial distinction.<ref>{{Cite web |script-title=ja:古代の蝦夷（えみし）とアイヌはどのような関係にあるのですか。アイヌの祖先は蝦夷なのですか。|title=Kodai no emishi to Ainu wa dono yōna kankei ni aru no desu ka. Ainu no sosen wa ezo na no desu ka. |trans-title=What is the relationship between the ancient Emishi and the Ainu? Were the Ainu ancestors the Emishi? |url=https://www.teikokushoin.co.jp/junior/faq/detail/950/ |access-date=1 September 2023 |website=株式会社帝国書院 |language=ja |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250906224458/https://www.teikokushoin.co.jp/junior/faq/detail/950/ |archive-date=6 September 2025}}</ref>

From the mid-Heian period onward, Emishi who did not fall under the governance of the [[Yamato Kingship]] were singled out as northern Emishi. They began to be referred to as "[[Ezo]]" (Emishi).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hanihara |first=Kazuro |date=1990 |title=Emishi, Ezo and Ainu: An Anthropological Perspective |journal=Japan Review |issue=1 |pages=35–48 |jstor=25790886 |issn=0915-0986}}</ref>

The first written reference to "Ezo", which is thought to be Ainu, can be found in ''[[Suwa Daimyōjin Ekotoba]]'', which was written in 1356. Indeed, Ainu have lived in Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, Hokkaido, and the northern Tohoku region since the 13th century.<ref>{{Cite web |script-title=ja:シントコ（行器） 文化遺産オンライン |title=Shintoko (gyō-ki) bunka isan onrain |trans-title=Shintoko (Traditional vessels) Cultural Heritage Online |url=https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/507683 |access-date=1 September 2023 |website=Cultural Heritage Online |publisher=Agency for Cultural Affairs |language=ja |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250910220339/https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/507683 |archive-date=10 September 2025}}</ref>

==Military service==

===Russo-Japanese War===
Ainu men were first recruited into the Japanese military in 1898.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Yoshimi |last=Yoshiaki |year=2015 |orig-date=1987 |title=Grassroots Fascism: The War Experience of the Japanese People |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dn0yBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA127 |series=Weatherhead Books on Asia |translator-first=Ethan |translator-last=Mark |location=New York |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |page=127 |isbn=978-0-231-53859-6 |oclc=1047893815}}</ref> Sixty-four Ainu served in the [[Russo-Japanese War]] (1904–1905), eight of whom died in battle or from illness contracted during military service. Two received the [[Order of the Golden Kite]], granted for bravery, leadership, or command in battle.{{cn|date=July 2025}}

==Culture==
{{Main|Ainu culture|Ainu cuisine|Ainu music|Yukar|}}

{{Update-EB |section=y|date=November 2016}}
{{Expand Japanese|アイヌ文化|date=June 2012|section=yes}}
[[File:Woman playing traditional Ainu instrument.jpg|thumb|Woman playing a {{lang|ain-Latn|[[tonkori]]}}.]]

Traditional Ainu culture is quite different from [[Culture of Japan|Japanese culture]]. According to Tanaka Sakurako from the [[University of British Columbia]], the Ainu culture can be included into a wider "northern circumpacific region", referring to various indigenous cultures of Northeast Asia and "beyond the [[Bering Strait]]" in North America.{{sfnp|Tanaka|2000}} The Ainu culture developed from the 13th century (late Kamakura period) to the present day. While most Ainu in Japan now live outwardly similar lives to the Wajin (ethnic Japanese) due to assimilation policies, many still maintain their Ainu identity and respect for traditional Ainu ways, known as "Ainu puri". The distinctive Ainu patterns (Ainu mon'yō) and oral literature (Yukar) have been designated as Hokkaido Heritage.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ainu-assn.or.jp/about05.html |script-title=ja:北海道ウタリ協会 |title=Hokkaidō utarikyōkai |trans-title=Hokkaido Utari Association |website=Hokkaidō utarikyōkai |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140426001838/http://www.ainu-assn.or.jp/about05.html |archive-date=April 26, 2014 |language=ja}}</ref>

===Language===
{{Main|Ainu language}}

[[File:Ainu_map.svg|thumb|Map of the pre-1945 distribution of Ainu languages and dialects]]
In 2008, the news block ''[[World Watch]]'' gave an estimate of fewer than 100 remaining speakers of the Ainu language.{{sfnp|Hohmann|2008|p=19}} In 1993, linguist [[Alexander Vovin]] placed the number at fewer than 15 speakers, characterizing the language as "almost extinct".{{sfnp|Vovin|1993|p=1|loc="The Ainu language, almost extinct nowadays, is located on Hokkaidô, the northernmost island of the Japanese Archepelago. Several thousands of Ainu still live there, but there are no more than ten or twenty native speakers of this language among them."}} Because so few present-day speakers are left, study of the Ainu language is limited and is based largely on historical research. Historically, the status of the Ainu language was rather high and was used by early Russian and Japanese administrative officials to communicate with each other and with the Ainu people.

[[File:AinuPlaceNames.png|thumb|110px|Place names in the Ainu language]]
Despite the small number of native speakers of Ainu, there is an active movement to [[Language revitalization|revitalize]] the language, mainly in Hokkaido but also elsewhere, such as in [[Kantō region|Kanto]].{{sfnp|Martin|2011}} Ainu oral literature has been documented both in hopes of safeguarding it for future generations and for use as a teaching tool for language learners.{{sfnp|Miyaoka|Sakiyama|Krauss|2007}} As of 2011, there were an increasing number of second-language learners, especially in Hokkaido.{{cn|date=July 2025}}

The resurgence of Ainu culture and language is in large part due to the pioneering efforts of the late Ainu folklorist, activist, and former [[Japanese Diet|Diet]] member [[Shigeru Kayano]], himself a native speaker. He first opened an Ainu language school in 1987, funded by [[Ainu Kyokai]].{{sfnp|Teeter|Okazaki|2011}}

Although some researchers have attempted to show that the Ainu and Japanese languages are related, modern scholars have rejected the idea that the relationship goes beyond contact, such as the mutual borrowing of words. No attempt to show a relationship with Ainu to any other language has gained wide acceptance, and linguists currently classify Ainu as a [[language isolate]].{{sfnp|Shibatani|1990|pp=3–5}} Most Ainu people speak either Japanese or Russian.{{cn|date=July 2025}}

The Ainu language has no indigenous system of writing and has historically been transliterated using Japanese [[kana]] or [[Russian alphabet|Russian Cyrillic]]. {{As of | 2019}}, it was typically written either in [[katakana]] or in the [[Latin alphabet]].{{cn|date=July 2025}}

Many of the Ainu dialects, especially those from different extremities of Hokkaido, are not mutually intelligible. However, all Ainu speakers understand the classic Ainu language of the {{lang|ain-Latn|[[Yukar]]}}, a form of Ainu [[Epic poetry|epic]]. Without a writing system, the Ainu were masters of narration, with the {{lang|ain-Latn|Yukar}} and other forms of narration such as {{lang|ain-Latn|[[Uepeker]]}} ({{lang|ain-Latn|Uwepeker}}) tales being committed to memory and related at gatherings that often lasted many hours or even days.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.omniglot.com/writing/ainu.htm|title=Ainu|website=omniglot.com|year=2009|access-date=August 2, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100102071247/http://omniglot.com/writing/ainu.htm|archive-date=January 2, 2010|url-status=live}}</ref>
<!--ethnologue data is incorrect; see [[ainu language]]-->
Concepts expressed with [[Preposition and postposition|prepositions]] in English, such as 'to', 'from', 'by', 'in', and 'at', appear as postpositional forms in Ainu. Whereas prepositions come before the word they modify, postpositions come after it. A single sentence in Ainu can comprise many added or [[agglutinate]]d sounds or [[affix]]es that represent nouns or ideas.{{Citation needed|date=July 2023}}

===Social structure===
Ainu society was traditionally organized into small villages called kotan, typically located in river basins or along seashores where food was readily available, particularly in rivers where salmon traveled upstream. In early modern times, Ainu were forced to relocate their kotan near Japanese fishing grounds to provide labor. As a result, traditional kotan disappeared, and large villages of several dozen families were formed around fishing grounds.{{sfnp|Howell|2004}}{{pn|date=July 2025}} The Ainu social structure included chiefs, but judicial functions were not entrusted to them. Instead, an indefinite number of community members sat in judgment upon criminals. Capital punishment did not exist, nor did the community resort to imprisonment. [[Corporal punishment|Beating]] was considered a sufficient and final penalty. However, in the case of murder, the nose and ears of the culprit were cut off, or the tendons of their feet were severed.<ref name="EB1911" />

===Appearance and dress===
[[File:Ainu ceremonial dress.jpg|thumb|Ainu ceremonial dress, [[British Museum]]]]
Never shaving after a certain age, the men have full [[beard]]s and [[moustache]]s. Men and women alike cut their hair level with the shoulders at the sides of the head, trimmed semi-circularly behind.{{cn|date=July 2025}} The women tattoo ({{transliteration|ain|anchi-piri}}) their mouths and sometimes their forearms. The mouth tattoos start at a young age with a small spot on the upper lip, gradually increasing in size. The soot deposited on a pot hung over a fire of [[birch bark]] is used for color.{{cn|date=July 2025}}
Traditional Ainu dress consists of a robe made from [[ainu bark cloth|woven bark fibers]] ({{lang|ain-Latn|attusi}} or {{lang|ain-Latn|attush}}). The various styles consist generally of a simple short robe with straight sleeves, folded around the body, and tied with a band around the waist. The sleeves end at the wrist or forearm, and the length generally is to the calves. Women also wear an undergarment of Japanese cloth.<ref name= "EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Ainu |volume=1|pages=441–442}} Citations:
* [[John Batchelor (missionary)|Rev. John Batchelor]], ''The Ainu and their Folk-lore'' (London, 1901)
* [[Isabella Bird]] (Mrs Bishop), ''Korea and her Neighbours'' (1898)
* [[Basil Hall Chamberlain]], ''Language, Mythology and Geographical Nomenclature of Japan viewed in the Light of Aino Studies and Aino Fairy-tales'' (1895)
* Romyn Hitchcock, ''The Ainos of Japan'' (Washington, 1892)
* [[Heinrich von Siebold|H. von Siebold]], ''Über die Aino'' (Berlin, 1881)</ref>
In winter, the skins of animals are worn, with leggings of [[deerskin]] and, in Sakhalin, boots made from the skin of dogs or [[Oncorhynchus|salmon]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.blm.gov/education/00_resources/articles/Columbia_river_basin/posterback.html |title=Columbia River Basin |date=February 25, 2009 |website=[[Bureau of Land Management]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225075127/http://www.blm.gov/education/00_resources/articles/Columbia_river_basin/posterback.html |archive-date=February 25, 2009}}</ref> Ainu culture regards earrings, traditionally made from grapevines, as gender-neutral. Women also wear a beaded necklace called a [[tamasay]].<ref name="EB1911" /> Modern craftswomen weave and embroider traditional garments that command very high prices.{{Citation needed|date=July 2023}}

===Dwellings and structures ===
[[File:Ainu woman with mouth tattoos and live bear.jpg|thumb|upright|Ainu woman with mouth tattoos and a live bear]]
Their traditional habitations are reed-thatched huts, the largest about {{convert |20|ft|0|abbr=on}} square, without partitions and having a fireplace in the center. There is no chimney; there is only a hole at the angle of the roof. One window sits on the eastern side, along with two doors. The house of the village head is used as a public meeting-place when one is needed.<ref name="EB1911" />
Another kind of traditional Ainu house is called {{lang|ain-Latn|chise}}.{{sfnp|Sjöberg|1993}} The "chise" or dwelling is typically oriented east to west or parallel to a river, with the entrance on the west side also serving as a storeroom.{{cn|date=July 2025}} It has three windows, including the sacred rorun-puyar on the east side, through which gods enter and leave and ceremonial tools are taken in and out. The Ainu regard this window as sacred and are told never to look in through it.{{cn|date=July 2025}} A chise has a fireplace near the entrance. A husband and wife would traditionally sit on the fireplace's left side (called shiso). Children and guests would sit facing them on the fireplace's right side (called harkiso). The chise has a platform for valuables called iyoykir behind the shiso. The Ainu place sintoko (hokai) and ikayop (quivers) there.{{cn|date=July 2025}} Additionally there is the "Chashi" or hilltop fortification.<ref name=":0">{{Cite conference |last=Abad |first=Rafael |date=20–22 June 2018 |title=An archaeological approach to the origins of Ainu culture 考古学からみたアイヌ文化の起源 |conference=I Congreso Internacional de la Asociación Española de Estudios de Asia Oriental |location=Málaga |url=https://www.academia.edu/36896280 |url-access=registration |via=Academia}}</ref> These were found mostly around Hokkaidō, Japan. These structures served as defensive strongholds and symbolic centers for Ainu communities. The term "Chashi" comes from the Ainu word "casi," meaning palisade or fortified compound.{{cn|date=May 2025}} The "okuriba" or sacred site, was a sacred ritual platform used in Ainu funerary customs. It was used to help send off the spirits of the deceased. The Okuriba was typically a raised platform where offerings were placed. The Ainu people believed that these offerings helped the deceased transition to the Spirit World.<ref name=":0" />

=== Cuisine ===
Traditional [[Ainu cuisine]] consists of the meat of [[Bear hunting|bears]], foxes, [[Hokkaido wolf|wolves]], [[Japanese badger|badgers]], [[ox]]en, and [[horse meat|horses]], as well as fish, [[fowl]], [[millet]], vegetables, herbs, and [[root]]s. The Ainu traditionally never eat raw fish or meat, always boiling or roasting it.<ref name= "EB1911" /> They also cultivated crops such as millet (piyapa), foxtail millet (munchiro), and barnyard millet (menkur), which were used to make a type of sake called "tonoto" for ceremonial purposes.
Salmon was particularly important, referred to as kamuy chep (god's fish) or shipe (true food). In autumn, large quantities of salmon were caught and processed into dried fish for preservation. This served not only as a staple food but also as a major trade item with the Japanese.{{cn|date=July 2025}} The Ainu also made extensive use of the bulbs of the Cardiocrinum cordatum (turep), from which they extracted and preserved starch. This tradition of starch usage made it easy for them to adopt potatoes when they were introduced. Ainu cuisine is not commonly eaten outside Ainu communities.{{cn|date=July 2025}} Only a few restaurants in Japan – mainly in Tokyo and Hokkaido – serve traditional Ainu dishes.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://japantoday.com/category/features/food/check-out-tokyos-only-ainu-restaurant |title=Check out Tokyo's only Ainu restaurant |website=[[Japan Today]] |date=March 5, 2013 |access-date=January 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200126181039/https://japantoday.com/category/features/food/check-out-tokyos-only-ainu-restaurant |archive-date=January 26, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.hokkaidolikers.com/en/articles/4068 |title="Umizora No Haru", the restaurant where you can {{!}} Hokkaido Likers |website=www.hokkaidolikers.com |access-date=January 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200126181049/https://www.hokkaidolikers.com/en/articles/4068 |archive-date=January 26, 2020}}</ref>

===Hunting===
[[File:Brooklyn Museum - Local Customs of the Ainu.jpg|thumb|Bear hunting, 19th century]]
The Ainu traditionally hunt from late autumn to early summer,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Swr9BTI_2FEC&q=ainu+hunted+autumn+summer&pg=PA18 |last=Nuttall |first=Mark |title=Encyclopedia of the Arctic |year=2012 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn= 978-1-136-78680-8 |page=18}}</ref> in part because in late autumn, [[plant gathering]], salmon fishing, and other activities of securing food come to an end, and hunters readily find game in fields and mountains in which plants have withered. A village typically possesses a hunting-ground of its own, or several villages use a joint hunting territory, called an {{lang|ain-Latn|iwor}}.<ref>{{cite book |title=Songs of Gods, Songs of Humans: The Epic Tradition of the Ainu |last=Phillipi |first=Donald L. |year=2015 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-1-40087-069-1 |location=Princeton, NJ |page=5 |jstor=j.ctt13x0q8v |jstor-access=free}}</ref> Heavy penalties were imposed on any outsiders trespassing on such hunting grounds or on joint hunting territory. The Ainu traditionally hunt [[Ussuri brown bear]]s, [[Asian black bear]]s, Ezo deer (a subspecies of [[sika deer]]), [[Mountain hare|hares]], [[red fox]]es, [[Japanese raccoon dog]]s, and other animals.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GeY2yzunY98C&q=ainu+ezo+deer+rabbit+fox+raccoon&pg=PA8 |title=Living Together: Minority People and Disadvantaged Groups in Japan |last=Ishikida |first=Miki Y. |year=2005 |publisher=iUniverse |isbn=978-0-59535-032-2 |page=8}}{{self-published source|date= February 2020}}</ref> Ezo deer are a particularly important food resource for the Ainu, as are salmon.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pCiNqFj3MQsC&q=ainu+ezo+deer+salmon&pg=PA35 |title=Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania |last= West |first= Barbara A. |year= 2010 |publisher= Infobase Publishing |isbn= 978-1-43811-913-7 |page=35}}</ref> The Ainu also hunt [[sea eagle]]s, such as [[white-tailed sea eagle]]s, along with ravens and other birds.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6Z0C6yH6bZYC&q=ainu+sea+eagles+ravens&pg=PA112 |title=Politics of Occupation-Centred Practice: Reflections on Occupational Engagement Across Cultures |last1=Pollard |first1=Nick |last2=Sakellariou |first2=Dikaios |year=2012 |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |isbn=978-1-11829-098-9 |page=112}}</ref> The Ainu hunted eagles for their tail feathers, which they used in trade with the Japanese.{{sfnp|Sjöberg|1993|p=[{{GBurl|tePeAQAAQBAJ|p=54}} 54]}} Historically, the Ainu hunted sea-otters{{sfnp|Takahashi|2006|loc="The Ainu hunted sea-otters on Ulup Island where the animals lived, or obtained them by trading with the people of the northern islands."}} and traded their pelts in the Japanese market.{{sfnp|Takahashi|2006|loc="[...] there is not much written about the Japanese fur trade, though some writers mention it as part of the trade between the Japanese and the Ainu."}}

The Ainu hunted with [[arrow]]s and [[spear]]s with poison-coated points.{{sfnp|Landor|2012|p=[{{GBurl|6JQMmDXI9pQC|24}} 24]}} They obtained the [[poison]], called {{lang|ain-Latn|surku}}, from the roots and stalks of [[aconitum|aconites]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aTTBPedwFfAC&q=ainu+arrows+poison+surku&pg=PT1785 |title=Medical Toxicology of Natural Substances: Foods, Fungi, Medicinal Herbs, Plants, and Venomous Animals |last=Barceloux |first=Donald G. |year=2012 |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |isbn=978-1-11838-276-9 |page=1785}}</ref> The recipe for this poison was a household secret that differed from family to family. They enhanced the poison with mixtures of roots and stalks of [[Dogbane|dog's bane]], boiled juice of Mekuragumo (a type of [[Opiliones|harvestman]]), Matsumomushi (''[[Notonecta]] triguttata'', a species of [[Notonectidae|backswimmer]]), tobacco, and other ingredients. They also used [[stingray]] stingers or skin-covering stingers.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fUVYsxzBcHQC&q=ainu+stingray&pg=PA62 |title=Advances in Marine Biology |year=1984 |publisher=Academic Press |isbn=978-0-08057-944-3 |page=62}}</ref>
They traditionally hunt in groups with dogs.{{sfnp|Poisson|2002|p=32}} Before hunting, particularly for bears and similar animals, they may pray to the {{lang|ain-Latn|[[Kamuy-huci]]}}, the house guardian goddess, to convey their wishes for a large catch and to the god of mountains for safe hunting.{{sfnp|Batchelor|1901|p=[{{GBurl|f3EIAwAAQBAJ|p=116}} 116]}} The Ainu traditionally hunt bears during the spring thaw. At that time, bears are weak because they haven't eaten during their long hibernation. Ainu hunters catch hibernating bears or bears that have just left hibernation dens.{{sfnp|Walker|2006|p=91}} When they hunt bears in summer, they use a spring trap loaded with an arrow, called an {{lang|ain-Latn|[[amappo]]}}.{{sfnp|Walker|2006|p=91}} The Ainu usually use arrows to hunt deer.{{sfnp|Siddle|1996|p=[{{GBurl|W5DKfJsPv2sC|p=85}} 85]}} Also, they drive deer into a river or sea and shoot them with arrows. For a large catch, a whole village would drive a herd of deer off a cliff and club them to death.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LxkoW4AWfoQC&q=ainu+hunt+deer+cliff&pg=PA44 |title=Racism: A Global Reader |last1=Reilly |first1=Kevin |last2=Kaufman |first2=Stephen |last3=Bodino |first3=Angela |year=2003 |publisher=[[M. E. Sharpe]] |isbn=978-0-76561-060-7 |page=44}}</ref>

====Fishing====
{{Further|Itaomacip}}
Fishing is important to Ainu culture. They largely catch trout in summer and salmon in autumn, as well as {{lang|ain-Latn|ito}} ([[Sakhalin taimen|Japanese huchen]]), [[Big-scaled redfin|dace]], and other fish. Spears called {{lang|ain-Latn|marek}} were often used. Other methods were {{lang|ain-Latn|tesh}} fishing, {{lang|ain-Latn|uray}} fishing, and {{lang|ain-Latn|rawomap}} fishing. Many villages were built near rivers or along the coast. Each village or individual had a definite river fishing territory. Outsiders could not freely fish there and needed to ask the owner.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ainu-museum.or.jp/en/study/eng04.html |title=Ainu History and Culture |website=ainu-museum.or.jp |access-date=May 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190514051936/http://www.ainu-museum.or.jp/en/study/eng04.html |archive-date=May 14, 2019}}</ref>

===Japanese lacquerware===
[[File:Japan Hokkaido Ainu traditional house ”cise”3 2023.jpg|thumb|200px|Lacquer stored in cise ([[Hokkaido Museum]])]]
[[Japanese lacquerware]]<ref>{{Cite web |script-title=ja:-13-第13回 アイヌの民具（その２）～漆器（しっき）～－「アイヌ文化情報発信！コラム」より－ |title=Dai-13-kai Ainu no mingu (sono 2): Shikki ("Ainu bunka jōhō hasshin! koramu" yori) |trans-title=-13–13th Ainu Folk Tools (Part 2) ~Lacquerware~ -From "Ainu Culture Information Dissemination! Column"- |language=ja |url=https://ainu-center.hm.pref.hokkaido.lg.jp/13_01_013.htm |access-date=September 1, 2023 |website=ainu-center.hm.pref.hokkaido.lg.jp}}</ref> was used in everyday life as tableware and often used in ceremonies (ritual utensils), such as the cups used to offer alcohol when praying to the kamui. Lacquerware was often treated as treasure, and it was also used as containers for storing other treasures.{{cn|date=July 2025}}

One of the characteristics of Ainu lacquerware is that it is almost entirely imported from the south of Honshu. Some pieces may have been lacquered in [[Matsumae, Hokkaido|Matsumae]] in southern Hokkaido, but since the technique of lacquering is from Honshu, lacquerware can be considered an introduced item among Ainu folk implements.{{cn|date=July 2025}}

There are examples of spatulas and other objects used by the Ainu people for ceremonial purposes that remain in clusters of the same size, and some are specifically produced for trading with the Ainu.{{cn|date=July 2025}}

===Ornaments===
[[File:Face detail, "Ainu leader." Department of Anthropology, Japanese exhibit, 1904 World's Fair (cropped).jpg|thumb|200px|Ainu leader wearing a [[matanpushi]] in 1904]]
Traditionally, Ainu men wear a crown called a {{lang|ain-Latn|[[sapanpe]]}} for important ceremonies. {{lang|ain-Latn|Sapanpe}} are made from wood fiber with bundles of partially shaved wood. The crown has wooden figures of animal gods and other ornaments in its center.<ref name="Service2006">{{cite book |title=Ancient Japan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6z1vkF0xzHcC&q=matanpushi&pg=PA39 |year=2006 |publisher=Social Studies School Service |isbn=978-1-56004-256-3 |page=39}}</ref> Men carry an {{lang|ain-Latn|emush}} (ceremonial sword){{sfnp|Fitzhugh|Dubreuil|1999|p=[{{GBurl|4oRxAAAAMAAJ|p=107}} 107]}} secured by an {{lang|ain-Latn|emush-at}} strap to their shoulders.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BtszAQAAIAAJ&q=emush |title=Tribal: The Magazine of Tribal Art |year=2003 |publisher=Primedia Inc. |pages=76 & 78}}</ref>

[[File:Ainu woman (from a book Published in 1931) P.81.png|thumb|200px|An Ainu woman from Hokkaido, {{circa|1930}}]]
Ainu women traditionally wear {{lang|ain-Latn|[[matanpushi]]}}, embroidered headbands, and {{lang|ain-Latn|ninkari}}, metal earrings with balls. {{lang|ain-Latn|Matanpushi}} and {{lang|ain-Latn|ninkari}} were originally also worn by men.{{cn|date=July 2025}} Furthermore, aprons called {{lang|ain-Latn|maidari}} are now part of women's formal clothes. However, some old documents state that men wore {{lang|ain-Latn|maidari}}.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}} Women sometimes wear a bracelet called a {{lang|ain-Latn|tekunkani}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ainu-museum.or.jp/en/study/eng08.html |title=Ainu History and Culture |website=Ainu Museum |access-date=September 30, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130123224933/http://www.ainu-museum.or.jp/en/study/eng08.html |archive-date=January 23, 2013}}</ref>

Women may wear a necklace called a {{lang|ain-Latn|rektunpe}}, a long, narrow strip of cloth with metal plaques.<ref name="Service2006" /> They may also wear a necklace that reaches the breast, called a {{lang|ain-Latn|[[tamasay]]}} or {{lang|ain-Latn|shitoki}}, usually made from glass balls. Some glass balls came from trade with the Asian continent. The Ainu also obtained glass balls secretly made by the [[Matsumae clan]].{{sfnp|Fitzhugh|Dubreuil|1999|p=[{{GBurl|4oRxAAAAMAAJ|p=158}} 158]|loc="Some glass beads were brought to the Ainu through trade with the Asian continent, but others were secretly made by the Matsumae clan at their headquarters in Hakodate."}}

===Housing===
{{Further|Kotan (village)}}
A village is called a {{lang|ain-Latn|kotan}} in the Ainu language. {{lang|ain-Latn|Kotan}} were traditionally located in [[river basins]] and along seashores where food was readily available, particularly in the basins of rivers through which [[salmon]] traveled upstream. In early modern times, the Ainu people were [[forced labor|forced to labor]] at Japanese fishing grounds. Ainu {{lang|ain-Latn|kotan}} were also forced to relocate to near fishing grounds so that the Japanese could secure a labor force. When the Japanese moved to other fishing grounds, Ainu {{lang|ain-Latn|kotan}} were forced to accompany them. As a result, the traditional {{lang|ain-Latn|kotan}} disappeared, and large villages of several dozen families were formed around the fishing grounds.{{sfnp|Howell|2004}}{{pn|date=July 2025}}

{{lang|ain-Latn|Cise}} or {{lang|ain-Latn|cisey}} (houses) in a {{lang|ain-Latn|kotan}} are made of [[cogon|cogon grass]], [[bamboo|bamboo grass]], [[bark (botany)|bark]], etc. The length lays east to west or parallel to a river.{{cn|date=July 2025}} A {{lang|ain-Latn|cise}} is about seven by five meters, with an entrance at the west end that also serves as a storeroom. A {{lang|ain-Latn|cise}} has three windows, including the {{lang|ain-Latn|rorun-puyar}}, a window located on the side facing the entrance (i.e., on the east side), through which gods enter and leave and ceremonial tools are taken in and out. The Ainu regard this window as sacred and are told never to look in through it. A {{lang|ain-Latn|cise}} has a fireplace near the entrance. A husband and wife would traditionally sit on the fireplace's left side (called {{lang|ain-Latn|shiso}}).{{cn|date=July 2025}} Children and guests would sit facing them on the fireplace's right side (called {{lang|ain-Latn|harkiso}}). The {{lang|ain-Latn|cise}} has a platform for valuables called {{lang|ain-Latn|iyoykir}} behind the {{lang|ain-Latn|shiso}}. The Ainu place {{lang|ain-Latn|sintoko}} ({{lang|ain-Latn|hokai}}) and {{lang|ain-Latn|ikayop}} (quivers) there.{{Citation needed|date=April 2019}}

<gallery>
File:Little world, Aichi prefecture - Ainu house in Hokkaidō.jpg|Ainu house in Hokkaido
File:PSM V33 D514 Ainu houses.jpg|Ainu {{lang|ain-Latn|cise}} (from ''[[Popular Science Monthly]], Volume 33'', 1888)
File:PSM V33 D517 Plan of an ainu house.jpg|Plan of an Ainu {{lang|ain-Latn|cise}}
File:Japan Hokkaido Ainu traditional house ”cise”2 2023.jpg|Gathering place around a {{lang|ain-Latn|cise}} fireplace<!--Hokkaido Foundation for History and Culture-->
File:National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka - Interior of the house of Ainu - Saru River basin, Hokkaidô.jpg|Interior of a {{lang|ain-Latn|cise}} in the [[Saru River]] basin
File:Japan Hokkaido Ainu traditional house ”cise”1.jpg|Ainu traditional house. Ainu: {{lang|ain-Latn|cise}}
</gallery>

===Traditions===
[[File:作業中の千島アイヌ.png|250px|thumb|[[Chishima]] Ainu working]]
The Ainu people have various types of marriage. A child is traditionally promised in [[arranged marriage|marriage by arrangement]] between their parents and the parents of their betrothed, or by a go-between. When the betrothed reach a [[marriageable age]], they are told who their spouse is to be. There are also traditional marriages based on the mutual consent of both sexes.{{sfnp|Batchelor|1901|p=[{{GBurl|f3EIAwAAQBAJ|p=223}} 223]}} In some areas, when a daughter reaches a marriageable age, her parents allow her to live in a small room called a {{lang|ain-Latn|tunpu}}, annexed to the southern wall of the house.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iiADAAAAMBAJ&q=ainu+marriage+house&pg=PA85 |title=Ainu Family Life and Religion |first=J. K. |last=Goodrich |journal=[[Popular Science]] |volume=XXXVI |date=April 1889 |page=85}}</ref> The parents choose her husband from the men who visit her.

The age of marriage is 17 to 18 years of age for men and 15 to 16 years of age for women,<ref name="Service2006" /> who are traditionally tattooed. At these ages, both sexes are regarded as adults.{{sfnp|Poisson|2002|p=35}}

[[File:Suitsetav ainu mees - An Ainu man smoking (9614485282).jpg|200px|thumb|An Ainu man smoking]]

When a man proposes to a woman in traditional fashion, he visits her house, and she hands him a full bowl of rice. He then eats half of the rice and returns the rest to her. If the woman eats the remaining rice, she accepts his proposal. If she does not and instead puts it beside her, she rejects his proposal.<ref name="Service2006" /> When a man and woman become engaged or learn that their engagement has been arranged, they exchange gifts. The man sends her a small engraved knife, a workbox, a spool, and other gifts. She sends him embroidered clothes, coverings for the back of the hand, leggings, and other handmade clothes.{{sfnp|Batchelor|1901|p=[{{GBurl|f3EIAwAAQBAJ|p=226}} 226]}}

[[File:Ainu Marriage - 2.jpg|thumb|Ainu wedding in Hokkaido, Japan]]
The worn-out fabric of old clothing is used for baby clothes because soft cloth is good for their skin. Additionally, worn-out material was thought to protect babies from the gods of illness and demons, due to these entities' abhorrence of dirty things. Before a baby is breast-fed, they are given a [[decoction]] of the [[endodermis]] of an [[alder]] and the roots of [[butterburs]] to discharge impurities.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sILrJPM4DFAC&q=ainu+decoction+alder&pg=RA1-PA110 |title=Early European Writings on Ainu Culture: Religion and Folklore |last=Refsing |first=Kirsten |year=2002 |publisher=[[Psychology Press]] |isbn=978-0-70071-486-5 |page=110}}</ref> Children are raised almost naked until about the ages of four to five. Even when they wear clothes, they do not wear belts and leave the front of their clothes open. Subsequently, they wear bark clothes without patterns, such as {{lang|ain-Latn|attush}}, until they come of age.{{cn|date=July 2025}}

Ainu babies traditionally are not given permanent names when they are born. Rather, they are called by various temporary names until the age of two or three. 
Newborn babies are named {{lang|ain-Latn|ayay}} ("a baby's crying"), {{lang|ain-Latn|shipo}}, {{lang|ain-Latn|poyshi}} ("small excrement"), and {{lang|ain-Latn|shion}} ("old excrement").{{sfnp|Poisson|2002|p=31}} Their tentative names have a portion meaning "excrement" or "old things" to ward off the demon of ill-health. Some children are named based on their behavior or habits; others are named after notable events or after their parents' wishes for their future. When children are named, they are never given the same names as others.{{sfnp|Landor|2012|p=[{{GBurl|6JQMmDXI9pQC|294}} 294]}}

Men traditionally wear [[loincloth]]s and have their hair dressed properly for the first time at age 15 to 16. Women are also considered adults at the age of 15 to 16. They traditionally wear underclothes called {{lang|ain-Latn|mour}}{{sfnp|Fitzhugh|Dubreuil|1999|p=[{{GBurl|4oRxAAAAMAAJ|p=320}} 320]|loc="Ainu women's underclothes were called mour, literally "deer," a sort of one-piece dress with an open front, ..."}} and have their hair dressed properly, with wound waistcloths called {{lang|ain-Latn|raunkut}} and {{lang|ain-Latn|ponkut}} around their bodies.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kindaichi |first=Kyōsuke |author-link=Kyōsuke Kindaichi |year=1941 |title=Ainu Life and Legends |publisher=Board of Tourist Industry, Japanese Government Railways |url={{GBurl|6cLYAAAAMAAJ|q="pon kut"}} |page=30 |quote=One is a nettle-hemp braid named {{lang|ain-Latn|pon kut}} (small sash) or {{lang|ain-Latn|ra-nn kut}} (under sash).}}</ref>
When women reached the age of 12 or 13, the lips, hands, and arms were traditionally tattooed. When they reached the age of 15 or 16, their tattoos would be completed, indicating their qualification for marriage.{{sfnp|Poisson|2002|p=35}}

===Religion===
{{Main|Ainu religion}}

{{Further|Ainu creation myth|Ko-Shintō|Shamanism in Siberia}}
{{Category see also|Ainu mythology}}
[[File:Ainu-iomante-bear-spirit-sending-ceremony-by-Hirasawa-Byozan-1875.png|thumb|Painting of the Ainu {{lang|ain-Latn|[[Iomante|iyomante]]}}, or bear spirit sending ceremony, in Hokkaido (1875)]]
The Ainu are traditionally [[Animism|animist]]s,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=May 5, 2025 |title=Ainu {{!}} Definition, Culture, & Language |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ainu |access-date=May 6, 2025 |work=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250627022420/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ainu |archive-date=June 27, 2025}}</ref> believing that everything in nature has a {{transliteration|ain|[[kamuy]]}} (spirit or god) on the inside. The most important include:
* {{transliteration|ain|[[Kamuy-huci]]|italic=no}}, goddess of the hearth
* {{transliteration|ain|[[Kim-un-kamuy]]|italic=no}}, god of bears and mountains
* {{transliteration|ain|[[Repun Kamuy]]|italic=no}}, god of the sea, fishing, and marine animals<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ainu-museum.or.jp/en/study/eng10.html |title=Ainu History and Culture |website=[[National Ainu Museum]] |access-date=January 20, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181124020805/http://www.ainu-museum.or.jp/en/study/eng10.html |archive-date=November 24, 2018}}</ref>
* {{transliteration|ain|[[Kotan-kar-kamuy]]|italic=no}}, regarded as the creator of the world in the Ainu religion<ref name="adami">Norbert Richard Adami: ''Religion und Schaminismus der Ainu auf Sachalin (Karafuto)'', Bonn 1989, p. 40-42.</ref>

[[File:Iomante2.JPG|thumb|Ainu traditional ceremony, {{circa|1930}}]]
Ainu craftsmen, and the Ainu as a whole, traditionally believed that "anything made with deep sincerity was imbued with spirit and also became a [{{lang|ain-Latn|kamuy}}]".<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |date=August 22, 2023 |title=The Ainu: History of the Indigenous people of Japan |url=https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/ainu-history-of-the-indigenous-people-of-japan |access-date=May 6, 2025 |website=The Archaeologist |language=en-US |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250815114429/https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/ainu-history-of-the-indigenous-people-of-japan |archive-date=August 15, 2025}}</ref> They also held the belief that ancestors and the power of the family could be invoked through certain patterns in art to protect them from malignant influences.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hauge |first1=Victor |title=Folk Traditions in Japanese Art |last2=Hauge |first2=Takako |publisher=[[Kodansha]] |year=1978 |isbn=978-0-87011-360-4 |edition=1st |location=Tokyo |page=262}}</ref>

The Ainu religion has no priests by profession. Instead, the village chief performs whatever religious ceremonies are necessary. Ceremonies are confined to making [[libation]]s of {{transliteration|ja|[[sake]]}}, saying prayers, and offering [[willow]] sticks with wooden shavings attached to them.<ref name="EB1911" />

They are placed on an altar used to "send back" the spirits of killed animals. Ainu ceremonies for sending back bears are called {{lang|ain-Latn|[[Iyomante]]}} which dates back to AD 11.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Hokkaido University |first=CAIS |date=July 12, 2012 |title=Indigenous Archaeology of the Ainu: Shifting from Archaeological site to Native Property |url=https://www.jspsusa.org/FORUM2012/presentation/2-1_Kato.pdf}}</ref> This ritual took place over several years and included the capture of a bear cub, who was then raised as a member of the family. Eventually, they would ritually kill the bear. Since they treated the bear well in life, the Ainu believed that in death, the spirit of the bear would ensure the well-being of its adoptive community.<ref name=":1" /> The Ainu people give thanks to the gods before eating and pray to the deity of fire in times of [[Illness|sickness]]. Traditional Ainu belief holds that their spirits are [[Immortality|immortal]] and that their spirits will be rewarded hereafter by ascending to {{lang|ain-Latn|kamuy mosir}} (Land of the Gods).<ref name="EB1911" />

The Ainu are part of a larger collective of indigenous people who practice "arctolatry", or [[bear worship]].<ref name="Cobb BBC" /> The Ainu believe that the bear holds particular importance as {{lang|ain-Latn|Kim-un Kamuy|italic=no}}'s chosen method of delivering the gift of the bear's hide and meat to humans.<ref>{{Cite magazine |first=Jude |last=Isabella |date=October 18, 2017 |title=How Japan's Bear-Worshipping Indigenous Group Fought Its Way to Cultural Relevance |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-bear-worshipping-group-in-japan-fought-for-cultural-relevance-180965281/ |access-date=October 6, 2021 |magazine=[[Smithsonian Magazine]] |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250820061511/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-bear-worshipping-group-in-japan-fought-for-cultural-relevance-180965281/ |archive-date=August 20, 2025}}</ref>

John Batchelor reported that the Ainu view the world as being a spherical ocean on which many islands float, a view based on the fact that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. He wrote that they believe the world rests on the back of a large fish, which, when it moves, causes earthquakes.{{sfnp|Batchelor|1901|pp=51–52}}

Ainu assimilated into mainstream Japanese society have adopted [[Buddhism in Japan|Buddhism]] and [[Shinto|Shintō]]; some northern Ainu were converted as members of the [[Russian Orthodox Church]]. Regarding Ainu communities in [[Shikotan]] and other areas that fall within the Russian sphere of cultural influence, there have been a few churches constructed, and some Ainu are reported to have accepted the Christian faith.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/acd/re/k-rsc/lcs/kiyou/19-1/RitsIILCS_19.1pp.43-55Fumoto.pdf |script-title=ja:北千島アイヌの改宗政策について |title=Kitachishima Ainu no kaishū seisaku ni tsuite |trans-title=Conversion policy for the Ainu of the Northern Kuril Islands |language=ja |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304192133/http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/acd/re/k-rsc/lcs/kiyou/19-1/RitsIILCS_19.1pp.43-55Fumoto.pdf |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |website=[[立命館大学]]}}</ref> There have also been reports that the Russian Orthodox Church has performed some missionary projects in the Sakhalin Ainu community. However, there are only reports of a few conversions to Christianity. Converts have been scorned as {{transliteration|ain|"Nutsa Ainu"|italic=no}} (Russian Ainu) by other members of the Ainu community. Reports indicate that many Ainu have kept their faith in their traditional deities.<ref name="Potapova">{{cite journal |last=Potapova |first=Н. В. |script-title=ja:樺太における宗教活動 |title=Karafuto ni okeru shūkyō katsudō |trans-title=Religious activities in Sakhalin |journal=日本とロシアの研究者の目から見るサハリン・樺太の歴史 |publisher=[[Hokkaido University]] |url=https://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/coe21/publish/no11/potapova.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304200935/http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/coe21/publish/no11/potapova.pdf |archive-date=March 4, 2016}}</ref>

According to a 2012 survey conducted by [[Hokkaido University]], a high percentage of Ainu are members of their household family religion, which is Buddhism (especially {{transliteration|ja|[[Nichiren Shōshū]]|italic=no}} Buddhism). However, it is noted that, similar to the Japanese religious consciousness, there is not a strong feeling of identification with a particular religion, with Buddhist and traditional beliefs both being part of their daily lives.<ref name="Potapova"/>

Traditional dances are performed at ceremonies and banquets. Dancing is a part of the newly organized cultural festivals, and it is even done privately in daily life.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Traditional Ainu dance {{!}} Silk Roads Programme |url=https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/silk-road-themes/intangible-cultural-heritage/traditional-ainu-dance |access-date=March 5, 2023 |website=[[UNESCO]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250826043016/https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/silk-road-themes/intangible-cultural-heritage/traditional-ainu-dance |archive-date=August 26, 2025}}</ref>

====Funerals====
When a person dies, their soul is thought to travel through the hearth of Kamuy Fuchi, the goddess of fire, to the afterlife.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Foster |first=Samuel |title=She Joins the Ancestral Host: Death, Mourning, and Burial in Ainu Culture |url=https://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~rfrey/PDF/101/She-Joins-Ancestral-Host.pdf}}</ref> Burial customs included dressing the deceased in ceremonial clothing and surrounding them with their treasured possessions, which were intentionally broken to release their spirits.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Burial Practices of the Ainu {{!}} TOTA |url=https://www.tota.world/article/65/ |access-date=May 6, 2025 |website=www.tota.world}}</ref> Funerals also included prayers and offerings to the fire {{lang|ain-Latn|kamuy}}, as well as verse laments expressing wishes for a smooth journey to the next world. Sometimes a burial would be followed by burning the residence of the dead. In the event of an unnatural death, there would be a speech raging against the gods. The graves were often isolated and were marked by carved poles called "kuwa."<ref name=":4" />

==== Graves ====
[[File:Brooklyn Museum - Ezo Shima Kikan 3 of a set of three scrolls.jpg|thumb|Ainu people, c. 1840]]
Archaeological excavations have revealed that Ainu graves are typically oval or rectangular, with the deceased primarily buried in an extended dorsal position, though some were interred in a crouched posture. Offerings placed around the head provide insight into its orientation, based on the distribution of burial accessories, even when skeletal remains are absent. Over 1,000 burials from the Pre-Ainu Period have been uncovered and cataloged by Utagawa, with about 400 featuring precisely documented orientations. Earlier excavation reports predominantly referenced magnetic north, according to current Hokkaido data. At the Tohohata Burial site in Shin-Hidaka Town, 75 burials have been excavated, and with only one exception, all exhibited a southeast orientation near the Winter Solstice sunrise point. In contrast, at the Motomonbetsu site in Monbetsu Town, northeastern Hokkaido, burial orientations are more varied, with east, southeast, north, and northwest alignments being present. This variation suggests regional differences in burial orientation mirroring patterns seen in house alignments.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Goto |first=Akira |date=2018 |title=House and Burial Orientations of the Hokkaido Ainu, Indigenous Hunter-Gathers of Northern Japan |journal=Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=173–180 |doi=10.5281/zenodo.1478670 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

==Incorporating Ainu into archaeology==
{{llm|section|date=November 2025}}
There have been many findings regarding the Ainu people that have been made with a Western mindset. Because of this, there have been movements made in order to start breaking away from this and starting to incorporate the Ainu people into archaeological work, including the incorporation of the "Kamui-nomi" ceremony at archaeological sites.<ref name=":3" /> This is a traditional Ainu ritual performed with the intention of giving prayers to their gods for safe travel or well-being. During the ritual, sacred shaved sticks called "inaw" are used, and then later they are offered to the Ishikari River as part of the ceremony.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kamuynomi {{!}} Kamikawa Ainu in Coexistence with Kamuy~ Traditional World of the Gods at the Foot of Mt. Daisetsu ~ |url=https://daisetsu-kamikawa-ainu.jp/en/story/kamuinomi/ |access-date=May 6, 2025 |website=Kamikawa Ainu in Coexistence with Kamuy |language=en-US}}</ref> This is being done now because archaeology is looked at as a colonialist endeavor by many Indigenous communities, like the Ainu, and Indigenous pasts are very different from the stories archaeologists conclude, and those stories impact Indigenous knowledge.<ref name=":3" />

Historically, their language, traditions, and spiritual practices were marginalized under policies aimed at integrating them into the dominant cultures.<ref>{{Cite web |title=公益財団法人 アイヌ民族文化財団 |url=https://www.ff-ainu.or.jp/web/english/details/post-5.html |access-date=May 6, 2025 |website=www.ff-ainu.or.jp |language=ja}}</ref> This led to significant losses in their cultural heritage, with the Ainu language now critically endangered.<ref name=":2" /> However, recent efforts have focused on revitalizing Ainu identity through the preservation of language,<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 2, 2025 |title=Hokkaido {{!}} Facts, History, & Points of Interest {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Hokkaido |access-date=May 6, 2025 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> traditional arts, and spiritual practices.{{cn|date=July 2025}}

Within Ainu heritage and research circles, there has been a growing movement to Indigenize and decolonize their narratives.<ref name=":3" />

==Institutions==
[[File:国立アイヌ民族博物館館内.jpg|thumb|[[National Ainu Museum]] interior]]
Most Hokkaidō Ainu, and some other Ainu, are members of an umbrella group called the Hokkaido Ainu Association. The organization changed its name to [[Hokkaido Utari Association]] in 1961 due to the fact that the word Ainu was often used in a derogatory manner.<ref>{{cite news |script-title=ja:ウタリ協会、アイヌ協会に 来春、半世紀ぶり名称変更 |trans-title=The Utari Association Will Become the Ainu Association Next Spring in Its First Name Change in Half a Century |language=Japanese |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080519132008/http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0516/TKY200805160292.html |archive-date=May 19, 2008 |url=http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0516/TKY200805160292.html |newspaper=[[Asahi Shimbun]] |location=Osaka |date=May 16, 2008}}</ref> It was changed back to the Hokkaido Ainu Association in 2009 after the passing of the new law regarding the Ainu. The organization was originally controlled by the government to speed Ainu assimilation and integration into the Japanese [[nation-state]]. It is now run exclusively by Ainu and operates mostly independently of the government.{{cn|date=July 2025}}

[[File:Ainu promotion center, Sapporo.JPG|thumb|Ainu cultural promotion center and museum in [[Sapporo]] (Sapporo Pirka Kotan)]]
Other key institutions include ''The Foundation for Research and Promotion of Ainu Culture (FRPAC)'', established by the Japanese government after the enactment of the Ainu Culture Law in 1997; the Hokkaidō University Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cais.hokudai.ac.jp/english/ |title=Center for Ainu & Indigenous Studies |publisher=Hokkaido University |access-date=September 30, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170901112847/http://www.cais.hokudai.ac.jp/english/ |archive-date=September 1, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> established in 2007; and various museums and cultural centers. The Ainu people living in Tokyo have also developed a vibrant political and cultural community.<!-- Links to these organizations needed, also Tokyo Ainu documentary --><ref name="2kamuymintara.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.2kamuymintara.com/film/eng/top.htm |title=Documentary Film 'TOKYO Ainu' |website=2kamuymintara.com |access-date=September 30, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171001031905/http://www.2kamuymintara.com/film/eng/top.htm |archive-date=October 1, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.2kamuymintara.com/film/groups.htm |script-title=ja:ドキュメンタリー映画 TOKYO アイヌ 首都圏アイヌ団体紹介 |title=Dokyumentarī eiga Tōkyō Ainu: Shutoken Ainu dantai shōkai |trans-title=Documentary film TOKYO Ainu: Introducing Ainu groups in the Tokyo metropolitan area |website=2kamuymintara.com |access-date=September 30, 2017 |language=ja |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171001031816/http://www.2kamuymintara.com/film/groups.htm |archive-date=October 1, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Since late 2011, the Ainu have developed cultural exchange and cooperation with the [[Sámi people]] of northern Europe. Both the Sámi and the Ainu participate in the organization for Arctic indigenous peoples and the Sámi research office in [[Lapland (Finland)]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.arcticcentre.org/EN/News?ln=nxqdhzo3&id=c6d2c468-e74a-49e1-8412-89fdae3b22f9 |title=Joint seminar for Sami and Ainu research |website=arcticcentre.org |access-date=May 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170216003002/http://www.arcticcentre.org/EN/News?ln=nxqdhzo3&id=c6d2c468-e74a-49e1-8412-89fdae3b22f9 |archive-date=February 16, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Currently, there are several Ainu museums and cultural parks. Some of them are:<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2244.html |title=Ainu |website=japan-guide.com |access-date=May 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181023002343/https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2244.html |archive-date=October 23, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[National Ainu Museum]]
* [[Kawamura Kaneto Ainu Museum]]
* [[Ainu Kotan]]
* [[Ainu Folklore Museum]]
* [[Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples]]
* [[Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum]]
* [[Shinhidaka Ainu Museum]]

==Ethnic rights==
[[File:Oki Ainu Dub Band at tff.Rudolstadt 2007.jpg|thumb|The Oki Dub Ainu Band, led by the Ainu Japanese musician [[Oki (musician)|Oki]], in Germany in 2007.]]

===Legal action===
On March 27, 1997, the Sapporo District Court decided a landmark case that, for the first time in Japanese history, recognized the right of the Ainu people to enjoy their distinct culture and traditions. The case arose because of a 1978 government plan to build two dams in the [[Saru River]] watershed in southern Hokkaidō. The dams were part of a series of development projects under the Second National Development Plan that were intended to industrialize the north of Japan.{{sfnp|Levin|2001|pages=445–446}} The planned location for one of the dams was across the valley floor near [[Nibutani]] village,{{sfnp|Levin|1999}} the home of a large community of Ainu people and an important center of Ainu culture and history.{{sfnp|Levin|2001|pages=419, 447}} When the government commenced construction on the [[Nibutani Dam]] in the early 1980s, two Ainu landowners refused to agree to the expropriation of their property. These landowners were Tadashi Kaizawa and Shigeru Kayano—well-known and important leaders in the Ainu community.{{sfnp|Levin|2001|page=443}} After Kaizawa and Kayano declined to sell their land, the Hokkaidō Development Bureau applied for and was subsequently granted a Project Authorization, which required the men to vacate their land. When their appeal of the Authorization was denied, Kayano and Kaizawa's son Koichi (Kaizawa died in 1992) filed suit against the Hokkaidō Development Bureau.{{cn|date=July 2025}}

The final decision denied the relief sought by the plaintiffs for pragmatic reasons (the dam was already in place), but the decision was nonetheless heralded as a landmark victory for the Ainu people. Nearly all of the plaintiffs' claims were recognized. Moreover, the decision marked the first time Japanese case law acknowledged the Ainu as an indigenous people and contemplated the responsibility of the Japanese nation to the indigenous people within its borders.{{sfnp|Levin|1999|p=442}} The decision included broad fact-finding that underscored the long history of the oppression of the Ainu people by Japan's majority, referred to as {{lang|ja-Latn|wajin}} in the case, and discussions about the case.{{sfnp|Levin|1999}}{{sfnp|Levin|2008}} The decision was issued on March 27, 1997. Because of the broad implications for Ainu rights, the plaintiffs decided not to appeal the decision, which became final two weeks later. After the decision was issued, on May 8, 1997, the Diet passed the Ainu Culture Law and repealed the Ainu Protection Act—the 1899 law that had been the vehicle of Ainu oppression for almost one hundred years.<ref name="ainushinpou">{{cite journal |last=Yoshida Hitchingham |first=Masako |title=Act for the Promotion of Ainu Culture and Dissemination of Knowledge Regarding Ainu Traditions – A Translation of the Ainu Shinpou |journal=[[Asian–Pacific Law & Policy Journal]] |volume=1 |issue=1 |year=2000 |url=http://blog.hawaii.edu/aplpj/files/2011/11/APLPJ_01.1_hitchingham_masako.pdf |access-date=June 20, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150713190741/http://blog.hawaii.edu/aplpj/files/2011/11/APLPJ_01.1_hitchingham_masako.pdf |archive-date=July 13, 2015 |url-status=live}}<br />The law's original Japanese text is available at [[:ja:s:アイヌ文化の振興並びにアイヌの伝統等に関する知識の普及及び啓発に関する法律|Wikisource]].</ref>{{sfnp|Levin|2001|page=467}} While the Ainu Culture Law has been widely criticized for its shortcomings, the shift that it represents in Japan's view of the Ainu people is a testament to the importance of the Nibutani decision. In 2007, the "Cultural Landscape along the [[Saru River|Sarugawa River]] resulting from Ainu Tradition and Modern Settlement" was designated an [[Cultural Landscapes of Japan|Important Cultural Landscape of Japan]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/412/00003550 |title=Database of Registered National Cultural Properties |publisher=[[Agency for Cultural Affairs]] |access-date=April 29, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223144454/https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/412/00003550 |archive-date=December 23, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> A later action seeking the restoration of Ainu assets held in trust by the Japanese government was dismissed in 2008.<ref>Levin & Tsunemoto, ''Oklahoma Law Review''.</ref>

===Governmental bodies on Ainu affairs===
There is no single government body to coordinate Ainu affairs. Rather, various advisory boards are set up by the Hokkaido government to advise on specific matters. One such committee operated in the late 1990s,{{sfnp|Siddle|1996}} and its work resulted in the {{ill|1997 Ainu Culture Law|ja|アイヌ文化振興法}}.<ref name="ainushinpou" /> This panel was criticized for including no Ainu members.{{sfnp|Siddle|1996}}

In 2006, another panel was established, which notably included an Ainu member for the first time. It completed its work in 2008, issuing a major report that included an extensive historical record and called for substantial government policy changes towards the Ainu.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Umeda |first1=Sayuri |title=Japan: Official Recognition of Ainu as Indigenous People |url=https://www.loc.gov/law/foreign-news/?disp3_l20540633_text |access-date=June 26, 2021 |work=Global Legal Monitor |agency=Library of Congress |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] |date=September 5, 2008}}</ref>

===Formation of Ainu political party===
On January 21, 2012, the {{Nihongo|[[Ainu Party]]|アイヌ民族党|Ainu minzoku tō}} was founded<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.ainu-org.jp/english/index.html |title=Ainu Party |website=ainu-org.jp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130710182919/http://www.ainu-org.jp/english/index.html |archive-date=July 10, 2013}}</ref> after a group of Ainu activists in Hokkaidō announced the formation of a political party for the Ainu on October 30, 2011. The Ainu Association of Hokkaidō reported that Kayano Shiro, the son of the former Ainu leader Kayano Shigeru, would head the party. Their aim is to contribute to the realization of a society where the Ainu and Japanese can coexist and possess equal rights in Japan.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111031a5.html |title=Ainu plan group for Upper House run |newspaper=[[Japan Times]] |date=October 31, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120427092145/http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111031a5.html |archive-date=April 27, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.asahi.com/national/update/1029/TKY201110290538.html |script-title=ja:参議院選挙 |title=Sangiinsenkyo |trans-title=House of Councillors election |newspaper=[[Asahi Shimbun]] |language=ja |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120709010224/http://www.asahi.com/national/update/1029/TKY201110290538.html |archive-date=July 9, 2012}}</ref>

===Official promotion===
The "2019 Ainu Act" simplified procedures for obtaining various permissions from authorities in regards to the traditional lifestyle of the Ainu and nurtured the identity and cultures of the Ainu without defining the ethnic group by blood lineage.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Japan's Ainu recognition bill: What does it mean for Hokkaido's indigenous people?|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/02/25/reference/japans-ainu-recognition-bill-mean-hokkaidos-indigenous-people/ |last=Murakami |first=Sakura |date=February 25, 2019 |work=[[Japan Times]] |language=en-US |access-date=May 24, 2020}}</ref>

On July 12, 2020, the [[National Ainu Museum]] was opened at the Upopoy park complex in [[Shiraoi, Hokkaido|Shiraoi]], Hokkaidō. It had originally been scheduled to open on April 24, 2020, prior to the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games scheduled in the same year. The park was planned to be a base for the protection and promotion of Ainu people, culture, and language.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://ainu-upopoy.jp/en/ |title=Upopoy National Ainu Museum and Park |website=Upopoy National Ainu Museum and Park |access-date=May 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190528125317/https://ainu-upopoy.jp/en/ |archive-date=May 28, 2019}}</ref> The museum promotes the culture and habits of the Ainu people, who are the original inhabitants of Hokkaidō. Upopoy in the [[Ainu language]] means "singing in a large group". The National Ainu Museum building has images and videos exhibiting the history and daily life of the Ainu.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.outlookindia.com/outlooktraveller/travelnews/story/70461/upopoy-museum-in-japan-promotes-ainu-culture |title=Visitors can participate in traditional Ainu dance and try out indigenous cuisine |last=Deb |first=Soham |date=August 4, 2020 |website=Outlook Traveller}}</ref>
The Ainu cultural contribution is also recognized by a [[UNESCO]] listing,<ref>submitted by Ainu Association of Hokkaido, Japan 2008-9</ref> in consequence of a [[UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists|UNESCO decision]] to list non-physical cultural assets, including songs and dancing.<ref>{{cite web |title=Traditional Ainu dance |url=https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/traditional-ainu-dance-00278 |website=Intangible Cultural Heritage |publisher=UNESCO |access-date=August 12, 2025}}</ref>

In July 2023, it was reported that a group of Ainu from Hokkaido was suing the government to reclaim the right of salmon river fishing. This has been outlawed for a century, except for the exemption of a limited number of salmon for ceremonial purposes. The group claimed the Japanese government did not abide by the 2007 [[United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People]], which it had signed.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Rich |first1=Motoko |last2=Hida |first2=Hikari |date=July 2, 2023 |title=Japan's Native Ainu Fight to Restore a Last Vestige of Their Identity |language=en-US |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/02/world/asia/japan-ainu-fishing.html |access-date=July 3, 2023}}</ref>

==Geography==
The traditional locations of the Ainu are Hokkaido, Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, [[Kamchatka]], and the northern Tōhoku region. Many of the place names that remain in Hokkaido and the Kuril Islands have a phonetic equivalent of the Ainu place names.<ref name="Cobb BBC" />{{Citation needed|date=July 2020}}<!-- SOURCES COULD BE FOUND HERE: Information from the Japanese wiki page about the Ainu -->

In 1756 CE, a ''[[kanjō-bugyō]]'' (a high-ranking [[Edo period]] official responsible for finance) implemented an assimilation policy for Ainu engaged in fishing in the [[Tsugaru Peninsula]]. From that point on, Ainu culture rapidly disappeared from [[Honshu]].{{Citation needed|date=July 2020}}<!-- SOURCES FROM JA-WP? -->

In 1945, the [[Soviet Union]] invaded Japan and occupied Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. The Ainu who lived there were repatriated to their home country, Japan, except for those who indicated their willingness to remain.<ref>「昭和21年（1946年）12月19日、東京でデレヴャンコ中将と日本における連合国軍最高司令官代表ポール・J・ミューラー中将が、ソ連領とのその支配下にある地域からの日本人捕虜と民間人の本国送還問題に関する協定に署名した。協定では、日本人捕虜と民間人はソ連領とその支配下のある地域から本国送還されなければならない、と記されていた。日本市民はソ連領から自由意志の原則に基づいて帰還することが特に但し書きされていた。」（ネットワークコミュニティきたみ・[https://archive.today/20070530090801/http://www.city.kitami.lg.jp/650-03/100/nupunkesi100.htm 市史編さんニュース №100 ヌプンケシ] 平成17年1月15日発行）</ref>

===Russia===
{{Main|Ainu in Russia}}

[[File:Karafuto Ainu House 1912 (No.1066).jpg|thumb|[[Karafuto Prefecture|Karafuto (Sakhalin)]] Ainu family behind their house in 1912.]]
As a result of the 1875 Treaty of Saint Petersburg, the Kuril Islands, along with their Ainu inhabitants, came under Japanese administration.{{sfn|March|1996|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ujht5Y_yQooC&q=%22Treaty+of+Saint+Petersburg%221875&pg=PA90 90]}} A total of 83 North Kuril Ainu arrived in [[Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky]] on September 18, 1877, after they decided to remain under Russian rule. They refused the offer by Russian officials to move to new reservations in the [[Commander Islands]]. An agreement was reached in 1881, and the Ainu decided to settle in the village of [[Yavin, Kamchatka]]. In March 1881, the group left Petropavlovsk and started the journey towards Yavin on foot. Four months later, they arrived at their new homes. Another village, [[Golygino]], was founded later. Under Soviet rule, both villages were forced to disband, and residents were moved to the Russian-dominated Zaporozhye rural settlement in [[Ust-Bolsheretsky District|Ust-Bolsheretsky Raion]].<ref>{{cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcIErWxe16k |script-title=ru:Камчадальские айны добиваются признания |title=Kamchadal'skiye ayny dobivayutsya priznaniya |trans-title=Kamchadal Ainu seek recognition |publisher=vostokmediaTV |date=March 21, 2011 |via=[[YouTube]] |language=ru |access-date=October 18, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015200143/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcIErWxe16k |archive-date=October 15, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> As a result of intermarriage, the three ethnic groups assimilated to form the [[Kamchadals|Kamchadal]] community. In 1953, K. Omelchenko, the minister for the protection of military and state secrets in the USSR, banned the press from publishing any more information on the Ainu living in the USSR. This order was revoked after two decades.<ref name="kamchatka-etno">{{cite web |url=http://www.kamchatka-etno.ru/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=85&Itemid=95 |script-title=ru:Айны |trans-title=Ainu |year=2008 |website=Kamchatka-Etno |language=ru |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120623191226/http://www.kamchatka-etno.ru/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=85&Itemid=95 |archive-date=June 23, 2012}}</ref>

{{As of |2015}}, the North Kuril Ainu of Zaporozhye form the largest Ainu subgroup in Russia. The Nakamura clan (South Kuril Ainu on their paternal side), the smallest group, numbers just six people residing in Petropavlovsk. On Sakhalin Island, a few dozen people identify themselves as Sakhalin Ainu, but many more with partial Ainu ancestry do not acknowledge it. Most of the 888 Japanese people living in Russia (2010 Census) are of mixed Japanese–Ainu ancestry, although they do not acknowledge it (full Japanese ancestry gives them the right of visa-free entry to Japan<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.5-tv.ru/news/37800/ |script-title=ru:В России снова появились айны – самый загадочный народ Дальнего востока |title=V Rossii snova poyavilis' ayny – samyy zagadochnyy narod Dal'nego vostoka |trans-title=In Russia, the Ainu appear again – the most mysterious people of the Far East |date=March 22, 2011 |work=5-tv.ru |language=ru |access-date=February 22, 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120719041903/http://www.5-tv.ru/news/37800/ |archive-date=July 19, 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref>). Similarly, no one identifies themselves as Amur Valley Ainu, although people of partial descent live in Khabarovsk. There is no evidence of living descendants of the Kamchatka Ainu.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

In the [[Russian Census (2010)|2010 Census of Russia]], nearly 100 people tried to register themselves as ethnic Ainu in the village, but the governing council of Kamchatka Krai rejected their claim and enrolled them as ethnic Kamchadal.<ref name="kamchatka-etno" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://pk.russiaregionpress.ru/archives/4889 |script-title=ru:Айны – древние и таинственные |title=Ayny – drevniye i tainstvennyye |trans-title=Ainu – ancient and mysterious |date=March 22, 2011 |work=russiaregionpress.ru |language=ru |access-date=February 21, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161229005214/http://pk.russiaregionpress.ru/archives/4889 |archive-date=December 29, 2016}}</ref> In 2011, the [[leadership|leader]] of the Ainu community in Kamchatka, Alexei Vladimirovich Nakamura, requested that Vladimir Ilyukhin (Governor of Kamchatka) and Boris Nevzorov (Chairman of the State Duma) include the Ainu in the central list of the [[Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East]]. This request was also denied.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://severdv.ru/news/show/?id=52022&r=27&p=41 |script-title=ru:Айны просят включить их в Единый перечень коренных народов России |title=Ayny prosyat vklyuchit' ikh v Yedinyy perechen' korennykh narodov Rossii |trans-title=Aina ask to be included in the Unified List of Indigenous Peoples of Russia |date=July 5, 2011 |website=severdv.ru |language=ru |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160325174941/http://severdv.ru/news/show/?id=52022&r=27&p=41 |archive-date=March 25, 2016}}</ref>

Ethnic Ainu living in [[Sakhalin Oblast]] and [[Khabarovsk Krai]] are not organized politically. According to Alexei Nakamura, {{as of|2012|lc=y}}, only 205 Ainu live in Russia (up from just 12 people who self-identified as Ainu in 2008). They, along with the Kurile Kamchadals ([[Itelmens|Itelmen]] of the Kuril Islands), are fighting for official recognition.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://nazaccent.ru/interview/13/ |script-title=ru:Алексей Накамура |title=Aleksey Nakamura |trans-title=Alexey Nakamura |date=January 17, 2012 |work=nazaccent.ru |language=ru |access-date=February 21, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516205417/http://nazaccent.ru/interview/13/ |archive-date=May 16, 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.segodnia.ru/content/105359 |script-title=ru:Айны – борцы с самураями |title=Ayny – bortsy s samurayami |trans-title=Ainu – wrestlers with samurai |first=Ivan |last=Skvortsov |date=January 29, 2012 |website=Сегодня.ру |language=ru |access-date=February 21, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207002955/http://segodnia.ru/content/105359 |archive-date=February 7, 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> Since the Ainu are not recognized in the official list of the peoples living in Russia, they are counted as people without nationality, as ethnic Russians, or as Kamchadals.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.rg.ru/2008/04/03/reg-dvostok/ainu.html |script-title=ru:Без национальности: Представители малочисленного народа хотят узаконить свой статус |title=Bez natsional'nosti: Predstaviteli malochislennogo naroda khotyat uzakonit' svoy status |trans-title=Without nationality: Representatives of a small number of people want to legitimize their status |date=April 3, 2008 |first=Svetlana |last=Bogdanova |newspaper=[[Rossiyskaya Gazeta]] |language=ru |access-date=February 21, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111105115649/http://rg.ru/2008/04/03/reg-dvostok/ainu.html |archive-date=November 5, 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The Ainu have emphasized that they were the natives of the Kuril Islands, and that the Japanese and Russians were both invaders.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/ainu-people-lay-ancient-claim-to-kurile-islands-the-hunters-and-fishers-who-lost-their-land-to-the-russians-and-japanese-are-gaining-the-confidence-to-demand-their-rights-reports-terry-mccarthy-1552879.html |title=Ainu people lay ancient claim to Kurile Islands: The hunters and fishers who lost their land to the Russians and Japanese are gaining the confidence to demand their rights |first=Terry |last=McCarthy |date=September 22, 1992 |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |access-date=August 21, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925182035/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/ainu-people-lay-ancient-claim-to-kurile-islands-the-hunters-and-fishers-who-lost-their-land-to-the-russians-and-japanese-are-gaining-the-confidence-to-demand-their-rights-reports-terry-mccarthy-1552879.html |archive-date=September 25, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 2004, the small [[Ainu in Russia|Ainu community living in Russia]] in Kamchatka Krai wrote a letter to Vladimir Putin, urging him to reconsider any move to award the [[Kuril Islands dispute|Southern Kuril Islands]] to Japan. In the letter, they blamed the Japanese, the Tsarist Russians, and the Soviets for crimes against the Ainu, such as killings and assimilation; they also urged him to recognize the Japanese genocide against the Ainu people. This proposal was rejected.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://kamtime.ru/old/archive/08_12_2004/13.shtml |script-title=ru:Трагедия Российского Дальнего Востока |title=Tragediya Rossiyskogo Dal'nego Vostoka |trans-title=Tragedy of the Russian Far East |first=Vladimir |last=Yampolsky |newspaper=Kamchatskoye Vremya |language=ru |access-date=February 22, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131103201243/http://kamtime.ru/old/archive/08_12_2004/13.shtml |archive-date=November 3, 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref>

{{as of|2012}}, both the Kuril Ainu and Kuril Kamchadal ethnic groups lack the fishing and hunting rights that the Russian government grants to the indigenous tribal communities of the far north.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.indigenous.ru/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=894 |script-title=ru:Представители малочисленного народа айну на Камчатке хотят узаконить свой статус |title=Predstaviteli malochislennogo naroda aynu na Kamchatke khotyat uzakonit' svoy status |trans-title=Representatives of the Ainu people in Kamchatka want to legitimize their status |website=indigenous.ru |language=ru |access-date=February 21, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130513170811/http://www.indigenous.ru/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=894 |archive-date=May 13, 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://english.ruvr.ru/radio_broadcast/2249159/49638669.html |title=The Ainu: one of Russia's indigenous peoples |website=[[Voice of Russia]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305074855/http://english.ruvr.ru/radio_broadcast/2249159/49638669.html |archive-date=March 5, 2012}}</ref>

In March 2017, Alexei Nakamura, a community leader of the Kamchatka Ainu, revealed that plans for an Ainu village to be created in Petropavlovsk and plans for an Ainu dictionary are underway.<ref>{{cite news |first1=Takayuki |last1=Tanaka |date=March 3, 2017 |title=Russian Ainu leader calls for greater respect |url=https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/International-Relations/Russian-Ainu-leader-calls-for-greater-respect/ |work=Nikkei Asian Review |access-date=February 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221151140/https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/International-Relations/Russian-Ainu-leader-calls-for-greater-respect/ |archive-date=December 21, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>

==Population==
[[File:Ainu ethnic groups throughout history.png|thumb|all known ethnic groups of the Ainu]]
The [[Demographic history of Japan before the Meiji Restoration|population of the Ainu during the Edo period]] was a maximum of 26,800; it has since declined, due in part to the spread of infectious diseases. It was traditionally regarded as a Tenryō territory.

According to the 1897 Russian census, 1,446 Ainu native speakers lived in Russian territory.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_lan_97.php?reg=o |script-title=ru:Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей. |title=Prilozheniye. Spravochnik statisticheskikh pokazateley. |trans-title=Appendix. Handbook of statistical indicators. |work=Demoscope Weekly |access-date=March 16, 2019 |language=ru |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190703203312/http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_lan_97.php?reg=o |archive-date=July 3, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_lan_97.php?reg=113 |script-title=ru:Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей. |title=Prilozheniye. Spravochnik statisticheskikh pokazateley. |trans-title=Supplement. Handbook of statistical indicators. |work=Demoscope Weekly |access-date=March 16, 2019 |language=ru |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190701150105/http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_lan_97.php?reg=113 |archive-date=July 1, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Currently, there is no Ainu category in the Japanese national census, and no fact-finding has been conducted by national institutions. Therefore, the exact number of Ainu people is unknown. However, multiple surveys have been conducted that provide an indication of the total population.

According to a 2006 Hokkaido Agency survey, there were 23,782 Ainu people in Hokkaido.<ref name="ainutyousa">{{Cite web |url=http://www.ainu-assn.or.jp/about03.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110518015015/http://www.ainu-assn.or.jp/about03.html |script-title=ja:北海道アイヌ協会 |title=Hokkaidō Ainu kyōkai |trans-title=Hokkaido Ainu Association |language=ja |archive-date=May 18, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Report Ainu Policy and National Understanding (PDF) |author=[[Science Council of Japan]] Area Studies Committee Anthropology Subcommittee (日本学術会議 地域研究委員会 人類学分科会) |date=September 15, 2011 |access-date=January 8, 2021 |publisher=[[Science Council of Japan]] |url=http://www.scj.go.jp/ja/info/kohyo/pdf/kohyo-21-h133-1.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.scj.go.jp/ja/info/kohyo/pdf/kohyo-21-h133-1.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> When viewed by the branch office (currently the Promotion Bureau), there are many in the Iburi / Hidaka branch office. The definition of "Ainu" by the Hokkaido Agency in this survey is "a person who seems to have inherited the blood of Ainu" or "the same livelihood as those with marriage or adoption." Additionally, if the other person is declared not to be "Ainu", then it is not subject to investigation.

A 1971 survey determined an Ainu population of 77,000. Another survey yielded a total of 200,000 Ainu living in Japan.{{sfnp|Poisson|2002|p=5}} However, there are no other surveys that support this high estimate.

Many Ainu live outside of Hokkaido. A 1988 survey estimated that the population of Ainu living in Tokyo was 2,700.<ref name="ainutyousa" /> According to a 1989 survey report on Utari living in Tokyo, it is estimated that the Ainu population of the Tokyo area alone exceeds 10% of Ainu living in Hokkaido; there are more than 10,000 Ainu living in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

In addition to Japan and Russia, it was reported in 1992 that there was a descendant of Kuril Ainu in [[Poland]], but there are also indications that they are a descendant of the Aleut.<ref>「しかしアキヅキトシユキは実際には1975年の樺太・千島交換条約の際に千島に住んでいた90人のアレウト族の末裔だったのではないかと推測している。そのアイヌがどこのだれのことを示しているのかということに関してそれ以上の情報はでてこなかった」<!--In 1992 there were press reports that descendants of the Kuril Ainu were found in Poland, but Akizuki Toshiyuki (personal communication, 1992) speculates that the "Kuril Ainu" in Poland are actually descendants of the ninety Aleuts who lived in the Kurils at the time of the Sakhalin-Kuril exchange of 1875, and whose whereabouts are otherwise unknown.--></ref>{{sfnp|Howell|2005}}<ref>{{cite book |author=小坂洋右 |script-title=ja:流亡: 日露に追われた北千島アイヌ |title=Ryūbō: Nichiro ni owareta Kitachishima Ainu |trans-title=Exile: The Ainu of the Northern Kuril Islands Driven by Japan and Russia |language=ja |publisher=北海道新聞社 |year=1992 |isbn=978-4-89363-943-1<!-- |date=March 16, 2019-->}}</ref> On the other hand, the descendant of the children born in Poland by the Polish anthropologist [[Bronisław Piłsudski]], who was a leading Ainu researcher and left a vast amount of research material, such as photographs and wax tubes, was born in Japan.

According to a 2017 survey, the Ainu population in Hokkaido is about 13,000. This is a sharp drop from 24,000 in 2006. However, this is partially due to a decrease in membership in the [[Ainu Association of Hokkaido]], which is cooperating with the survey. Additionally, interest in protecting personal information has increased. It is thought that the number of individuals who cooperate is declining and that it does not match the actual population of Ainu people.<ref name=ainu-nik>{{cite news |script-title=ja:北海道のアイヌ、10年余で４割減 実態反映せず |title=Hokkaidō no Ainu, 10-nen amari de 4 warigen; jittai han'ei sezu |trans-title=Hokkaido's Ainu population declines by 40% in 10 years, not reflecting reality |language=ja |newspaper=[[日本経済新聞]] |date=August 27, 2018 |url=https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXMZO34630960X20C18A8CR8000/ |access-date=September 7, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180906195633/https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXMZO34630960X20C18A8CR8000/ |archive-date=September 6, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Subgroups===
These are unofficial subgroups of the Ainu people, with location and population estimates.

{| class="sortable wikitable"
|-
! Subgroup !! Location !! Description !! Population
!Year
|-
| Hokkaido Ainu ||[[Hokkaido]]
||[[Hokkaido]] Ainu (the predominant community of Ainu in the world today): A Japanese census in 1916 returned 13,557 pure-blooded Ainu in addition to 4,550 multiracial individuals.{{sfnp|Siddle|1996|p=92}} A 2017 survey says the Ainu population in Hokkaido is about 13,000. It decreased sharply from 24,000 in 2006.<ref name=ainu-nik />
|| 13,000
|2017
|-
| Tokyo Ainu 
||Tokyo
|| Tokyo Ainu (a modern-age migration of Hokkaidō Ainu highlighted in a documentary film released in 2010<ref name="2kamuymintara.com" />): According to a 1989 survey, more than 10,000 Ainu live in the Tokyo metropolitan area. 
|| 10,000
|1989
|-
| {{extinct}}Tohoku Ainu 
||[[Tōhoku region|Tohoku]]
|| Tohoku Ainu (from Honshū; no officially acknowledged population exists): Forty-three Ainu households scattered throughout the Tohoku region were reported during the 17th century.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PhVpRXZlw9UC&pg=PA7 |title=Harukor: An Ainu Woman's Tale |author=本多勝一 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-520-21020-2 |page=7}}</ref> There are people who consider themselves descendants of Shimokita Ainu on the [[Shimokita Peninsula]], while the people on the [[Tsugaru Peninsula]] are generally considered Yamato but may be descendants of Tsugaru Ainu after cultural assimilation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.juen.ac.jp/shakai/kawanisi/research/touhoku/touhoku_6.html |script-title=ja:VI 〈東北〉史の意味と射程 |title=VI 〈Tōhoku〉-shi no imi to shatei |trans-title=VI. The Meaning and Scope of Tohoku History |website=[[Joetsu University of Education]] |language=ja |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722071748/http://www.juen.ac.jp/shakai/kawanisi/research/touhoku/touhoku_6.html |archive-date=July 22, 2011 |access-date=March 2, 2011}}</ref>
|| Extinct
|17th century
|-
|Sakhalin Ainu
|[[Sakhalin]]
|[[Sakhalin]] Ainu: Pure-blooded individuals may be surviving in Hokkaidō. From both Northern and Southern [[Sakhalin]], a total of 841 Ainu were relocated to Hokkaidō in 1875 by Japan. Only a few in remote interior areas remained when the island was turned over to Russia. Even when Japan was granted Southern Sakhalin in 1905, only a handful returned. The Japanese census of 1905 counted only 120 Sakhalin Ainu (down from 841 in 1875, 93 in Karafuto, and 27 in Hokkaidō). The Soviet census of 1926 counted 5 Ainu, while several of their multiracial children were recorded as ethnic Nivkh, Slav, or Uilta.

* North Sakhalin: Only five pure-blooded individuals were recorded during the 1926 Soviet Census in Northern Sakhalin. Most of the Sakhalin Ainu (mainly from coastal areas) were relocated to Hokkaidō in 1875 by Japan. The few that remained (mainly in the remote interior) were mostly married to Russians, as can be seen from the works of [[Bronisław Piłsudski]].{{sfnp|Howell|2005|p=187}}
* Southern Sakhalin ([[Karafuto]]): Japanese rule until 1945. Japan evacuated almost all the Ainu to Hokkaidō after World War II. Isolated individuals might have remained on Sakhalin.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_nac_26.php?reg=1420 |script-title=ru:Всесоюзная перепись населения 1926 года. Национальный состав населения по регионам РСФСР. дальне-Восточныи: Саxалинскии округ |title=Vsesoyuznaya perepis' naseleniya 1926 goda. Natsional'nyy sostav naseleniya po regionam RSFSR. dal'ne-Vostochnyi: Saxalinskii okrug |language=ru |year=1929 |publisher=Central Statistical Office of the USSR |trans-title=All-Union Population Census of 1926. National composition of the population by regions of the RSFSR. Far East: Sakhalin District |via=Демоскоп Weekly |access-date=March 1, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120805133706/http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_nac_26.php?reg=1420 |archive-date=August 5, 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 1949, there were about 100 Ainu living on Soviet Sakhalin.<ref name="wurm">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=glU0vte5gSkC&pg=PA1010 |title=Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas: Maps |last1=Wurm |first1=Stephen Adolphe |last2=Mühlhäusler |first2=Peter |last3=Tyron |first3=Darrell T. |publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]] |year=1996 |isbn=978-3-11-013417-9 |page=1010}}</ref>
|100
|1949
|-
|{{extinct}}Northern Kuril Ainu
|Northern [[Kuril islands]]
|Northern Kuril Ainu (no known living population in Japan; existence is [[#Official recognition in Russia|not recognized]] by the Russian government in Kamchatka Krai): Also known as Kurile in Russian records. They were under Russian rule until 1875; they first came under Japanese rule after the [[Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875)]]. The majority of the population was located on the island of [[Shumshu]], with a few others on islands like [[Paramushir]]. Together, they numbered 221 in 1860. These individuals had Russian names, spoke Russian fluently, and were [[Russian Orthodox]] in religion. As the islands were given to the Japanese, more than a hundred Ainu fled to Kamchatka along with their Russian employers (where they were assimilated into the [[Kamchadal]] population).<ref name="wurm" /><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-I_pId0AuhIC&pg=PA163 |title=Japan's Competing Modernities: Issues in Culture and Democracy, 1900–1930 |last=Minichiello |first=Sharon |publisher=[[University of Hawaii Press]] |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-8248-2080-0 |page=163}}</ref> Only about half remained under Japanese rule. To [[Russification|derussify]] the Kurile, the entire population of 97 individuals was relocated to [[Shikotan]] in 1884, given Japanese names, and the children were enrolled in Japanese schools. Unlike the other Ainu groups, the Kurile failed to adjust to their new surroundings; by 1933, only 10 individuals survived (plus another 34 multiracial individuals). The last group of 20 individuals (including a few pure-blooded Ainu) was evacuated to Hokkaidō in 1941, where they soon vanished as a separate ethnic group.{{sfnp|Howell|2005|p=187}}
|Extinct
|20th century
|-
|{{extinct}}Southern Kuril Ainu 
|Southern [[Kuril islands]]
|Southern Kuril Ainu (no known living population): This group numbered almost 2,000 people (mainly in [[Kunashir]], [[Iturup]], and [[Urup]]) during the 18th century. In 1884, their population had decreased to 500. Around 50 individuals (mostly multiracial) who remained in 1941 were evacuated to Hokkaidō by the Japanese soon after World War II.<ref name="wurm" /> The last full-blooded Southern Kuril Ainu was Suyama Nisaku, who died in 1956.<ref name=Harrison2007>{{cite thesis |last1=Harrison |first1=Scott |year=2007 |title=The Indigenous Ainu of Japan and the 'Northern Territories' Dispute |hdl=10012/2765}}</ref> The last of the tribe (partial ancestry), Tanaka Kinu, died on Hokkaidō in 1973.<ref name=Harrison2007/>
|Extinct
|1973
|-
|{{extinct}}Kamchatka Ainu
|[[Kamchatka]] 
|Kamchatka Ainu (no known living population): Known as Kamchatka Kurile in Russian records. They ceased to exist as a separate ethnic group after their defeat in 1706 by the Russians. Individuals were assimilated into the Kurile and [[Kamchadal]] ethnic groups. They were last recorded in the 18th century by Russian explorers.{{sfnp|Shibatani|1990|pp=3–5}}
|Extinct
|18th century
|-
|{{extinct}}Amur Valley Ainu
|[[Amur River]]
(Eastern Russia)
|Amur Valley Ainu (probably none remain): A few individuals married to ethnic Russians and ethnic Ulchi were reported by Bronisław Piłsudski in the early 20th century.{{sfnp|Piłsudski|2004|p=[{{GBurl|NX0W2N8pgWQC|p=816}} 816]}} Only 26 pure-blooded individuals were recorded during the 1926 Russian Census in Nikolaevski Okrug (present-day [[Nikolayevsky District, Khabarovsk Krai]]).<ref>{{cite book |url=http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_nac_26.php?reg=1410 |script-title=ru:Всесоюзная перепись населения 1926 года. Национальный состав населения по регионам РСФСР. дальне-Восточныи: Николаевскии округ |title=Vsesoyuznaya perepis' naseleniya 1926 goda. Natsional'nyy sostav naseleniya po regionam RSFSR. dal'ne-Vostochnyi: Nikolayevskii okrug |language=ru |publisher=Central Statistical Office of the USSR |year=1929 |trans-title=All-Union Population Census of 1926. National composition of the population by regions of the RSFSR. Far East: Nikolaevsky District |via=Демоскоп Weekly |access-date=March 1, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120805133727/http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_nac_26.php?reg=1410 |archive-date=August 5, 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> They were probably assimilated into the Slavic rural population. Although no one identifies as Ainu today in [[Khabarovsk Krai]], there are a large number of [[Ulch people|ethnic Ulch]] with partial Ainu ancestry.<ref>''Shaman: an international journal for Shamanistic research'', Volumes 4–5, p.155.{{vs|date=July 2025}}{{title?}}</ref>{{sfnp|Piłsudski|2004|p=[{{GBurl|NX0W2N8pgWQC|p=37}} 37]}}
|Extinct
|20th century
|}

==In popular culture==
{{In popular culture|date=May 2022}}
Representations of the Ainu have seen an increase in Japanese popular culture and media from the late 20th to 21st centuries.<ref>{{cite news |last=Hirabayashi |first=Junko |date=May 30, 2019 |title='Times have changed': Pop culture powers revival of Japan's indigenous Ainu culture |url=https://www.sbs.com.au/language/japanese/en/podcast-episode/times-have-changed-pop-culture-powers-revival-of-japans-indigenous-ainu-culture/kockwwagx |work=[[Special Broadcasting Service|SBS]] |archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref> This has included multiple characters in anime and video games.<ref name="Keller 2025">{{cite journal |last=Keller |first=Zsófia |date=January 2025 |title=Ainu Representation in the World of Japanese Comics: Shumari and Golden Kamuy Take on the Ruling Narratives of Hokkaidō History |journal=Journal of East Asian Cultures |volume=17 |number=1 |pages=149–178 |doi=10.38144/TKT.2025.1.6}}</ref>{{sfnp|Spiker|2020|p=138}} The manga and anime series ''[[Golden Kamuy]]'' which sets its story in early 20th century Hokkaido,<ref>{{cite book |last=Koarai |first=Ryo |date=2022 |chapter=Hokkaido as imperial acquisition and the Ainu in popular culture and tourism |title=War as Entertainment and Contents Tourism in Japan |editor1-first=Takayoshi |editor1-last=Yamamura |editor2-first=Philip |editor2-last=Seaton |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-003-23997-0 |doi=10.4324/9781003239970-14 |pages=73–77}}</ref> includes multiple Ainu characters, with the protagonist Saichi Sugimoto learning about Ainu culture and history from his guide, a young Ainu girl called Asirpa.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ito |first=Rika |date=March 19, 2024 |title=Please take her as your wife: Mediatizing indigenous Ainu in the Japanese anime, Golden Kamuy |journal=Language, Culture and Society |volume=6 |number=1 |pages=80–104 |doi=10.1075/lcs.21020.ito}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Ito |first=Rika |date=November 2022 |title=Edutaining with indigeneity: Mediatizing Ainu bilingualism in the Japanese anime, Golden Kamuy |journal=Language & Communication |volume=87 |pages=29–43 |doi=10.1016/j.langcom.2022.06.013}}</ref><ref name="Keller 2025"/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://soranews24.com/2016/04/04/satoru-nodas-golden-kamuy-manga-series-wins-the-2016-manga-taisho-award/ |title=Satoru Noda's Golden Kamuy manga series wins the 2016 Manga Taisho award |last=Rogers |first=Krista |date=April 4, 2016 |website=SoraNews24 |access-date=February 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200228030642/https://soranews24.com/2016/04/04/satoru-nodas-golden-kamuy-manga-series-wins-the-2016-manga-taisho-award/ |archive-date=February 28, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In the manga and anime ''[[Shaman King]]'', one of the main characters, [[List of Shaman King characters#Horohoro|Horohoro]], is an Ainu shaman aided by a [[Korpokkur]] spirit.<ref name="Scalici">{{cite book |last=Scalici |first=Giorgio |date=October 2025 |chapter=Shaman King: Shamanism, Ecology, and Death according to Hiroyuki Takei |title=Anime, Religion, and Theology |editor1-last=Armstrong |editor1-first=David |editor2-last=de la Noval |editor2-first=Roberto J. |publisher=Fortress Academic |isbn=978-1978714915 |pages=185–187}}</ref>{{sfnp|Spiker|2020|pp=139–140}} Horohoro's goal in winning the tournament is to restore the ecosystem on Hokkaido prior to the mass development that has occurred as part of colonization, to protect the Korpokkur.<ref name="Scalici"/>

[[Hiromu Arakawa]]'s manga [[Silver Spoon (manga)|''Silver Spoon'']] set in Hokkaidō includes a chapter explicitly covering the history of the island and of the Ainu people.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.themarysue.com/hiromu-arakawas-fma-part-2/ |title=The Philosophy of Fullmetal Alchemist's Hiromu Arakawa |last=Donovan |first=Caitlin |date=October 7, 2014 |website=[[The Mary Sue]] |access-date=February 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200228030653/https://www.themarysue.com/hiromu-arakawas-fma-part-2/ |archive-date=February 28, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> Arakawa in a 2006 interview detailed how the repeated themes of racial discrimination across her works stem from her own family's histories as settlers who displaced Ainu in Hokkaidō.<ref name="EquivalentExchange">{{Cite journal |last=Wong |first=Amos |date=January 2006 |title=Equivalent Exchange |journal=[[Newtype USA]] |publisher=[[A.D. Vision]] |volume=5 |issue=1 |issn=1541-4817}} {{Page needed|date=April 2011}}</ref>

The 2020 coming-of-age film ''[[Ainu Mosir]]'' portrays Kanto, a sensitive 14-year-old Ainu boy who struggles to come to terms with his father's death and his identity. The film also focuses on the dilemma of the controversial bear sacrifice ritual under the shadow of modern Japanese society and the Ainu's heavy reliance on tourists for their livelihood. Along with other restless teenagers, Kanto is under pressure to retain his Ainu identity and participate in the cultural rituals.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ainumosir-movie.jp/ |language=ja |access-date=November 30, 2020 |title=Ainu Mosir the Movie |archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tribecafilm.com/films/ainu-mosir-2020 |title=Ainu Mosir |access-date=November 30, 2020 |work=[[Tribeca Film]] |archive-date=November 17, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117062536/https://tribecafilm.com/films/ainu-mosir-2020}}</ref>

The 2025 video game [[Ghost of Yotei]], the player is able to visit an Ainu village to partake in various minor quests. Ainu artefacts make up the main series of collectibles that the player can collect through the course of the game.<ref>{{cite news |first=Owen |last=Ziegler |date=October 11, 2025 |title=Ghost of Yotei's bloodstained fun sidesteps Ainu identity |url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2025/10/11/digital/ghost-of-yotei-review-game-hokkaido-tsushima/ |work=[[The Japan Times]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251012022318/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2025/10/11/digital/ghost-of-yotei-review-game-hokkaido-tsushima/ |archive-date=October 12, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Bailey |first=Dustin |date=May 15, 2025 |title=Ghost of Yotei devs know "how ignorant we were about Japanese culture," but as with Ghost of Tsushima they've had "cultural advisors" to help "deliver a respectful representation" of Japan |url=https://www.gamesradar.com/games/open-world/ghost-of-yotei-devs-know-how-ignorant-we-were-about-japanese-culture-but-as-with-ghost-of-tsushima-theyve-had-cultural-advisors-to-help-deliver-a-respectful-representation-of-japan/ |access-date=July 22, 2025 |website=GamesRadar+ |language=en |archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref> The game developers employed an Ainu cultural advisor to attempt to portray the Ainu "respectfully" in the game.<ref>{{cite web |last=Townsend |first=Verity |date=June 20, 2025 |title=Ghost of Yotei Director Reveals Efforts to Respectfully Portray the Ainu Indigenous People of Japan |url=https://www.ign.com/articles/ghost-of-yotei-director-reveals-efforts-to-respectfully-portray-the-ainu-indigenous-people-of-japan |website=[[IGN]] |archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref>

=== Other representations ===
* The main character, Kabuki/Ukiko, from the comic ''[[Kabuki (David W. Mack comic)|Kabuki]]'', is the daughter of an Ainu woman.
* The characters [[Nakoruru]], [[Rimururu]], and Rera from the [[SNK]] game series ''[[Samurai Shodown]]'' are Ainu.
* In the 2006 video game ''[[Ōkami]]'', the Oina people, who inhabit the northern land of Kamui, are heavily inspired by the Ainu.
* The character [[Fredzilla]] from ''[[Big Hero 6 (comics)|Big Hero 6]]'' is of Ainu descent.
* The character Okuru from the anime series ''[[Samurai Champloo]]'' is the sole survivor of an Ainu village wiped out by disease.
* "Ainu" is a playable nation in the Paradox Interactive game ''[[Europa Universalis IV]]'', and are a playable culture in their later game, ''[[Crusader Kings III]]''.
* In the [[James Bond]] novel ''[[You Only Live Twice (novel)|You Only Live Twice]]'' and [[You Only Live Twice (film)|film]], Bond's character spends some time living in an Ainu village and (in the film) is supposedly disguised as one of the local people, "marrying" a local pearl fisher ({{transliteration|ja|[[Ama (diving)|ama]]}}) as part of his cover.
* In the 2013 samurai film ''[[Unforgiven (2013 film)|Unforgiven]]'', starring [[Ken Watanabe]] and which is a remake of the 1992 [[Clint Eastwood]] [[Unforgiven|Western film of the same name]], the character of Goro Sawada ([[Yuya Yagira]]) is half-Ainu.

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=20em}}
* [[Hokkaido dog|Ainu-ken]]
* [[Ainu Revolution Theory]]
* [[Akira Ifukube]]
* [[Anti-Japaneseism]]
* [[Bibliography of the Ainu]]
* [[Bikki Sunazawa]]
* [[Burakumin]]
* [[Constitution of Japan]]
* [[Ethnic issues in Japan]]
** [[Human rights in Japan#Minorities|Human rights in Japan]]
** [[Racism in Japan]]
* [[Ethnocide]]
* [[Genocide of indigenous peoples]]
* [[Hiram M. Hiller Jr.]]
* [[Kankō Ainu]]
* [[Matagi]]
* [[Mieko Chikappu]]
* [[Shizue Ukaji]]

===Ainu culture===
* [[Ainu flag]]
* [[Ainu genre painting]]
* [[Ikupasuy]]

{{div col end}}

==References==

===Citations===
{{Reflist}}

===Works cited===
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |last=Batchelor |first=John |author-link=John Batchelor (missionary) |year=1901 |title=The Ainu and their folk-lore |publisher=The Religious Tract Society |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/b29010664}}
* {{cite journal |last1=de Boer |first1=Elisabeth |last2=Yang |first2=Melinda A. |last3=Kawagoe |first3=Aileen |last4=Barnes |first4=Gina L. |date=January 2020 |title=Japan considered from the hypothesis of farmer/language spread |journal=[[Evolutionary Human Sciences]] |language=en |volume=2 |article-number=e13 |pages=1–20 |doi=10.1017/ehs.2020.7 |pmc=10427481 |pmid=37588377 |issn=2513-843X |doi-access=free}}
* {{cite book |last1=Fitzhugh |first1=William W. |last2=Dubreuil |first2=Chisato O. |year=1999 |title=Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People |publisher=Arctic Studies Center, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution in association with University of Washington Press |isbn=978-0-96734-290-0 |oclc=42801973 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ainuspiritofnort00wash}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Fukuzawa |first=Hosanna |date=1 July 2022 |title=Ainu Ethnogenesis and State Evasion (12th–17th Centuries) |journal=[[The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus]] |volume=20 |issue=13 |article-number=2 |pages=1–23 |url=https://apjjf.org/2022/13/Fukuzawa.html |access-date=18 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250819055240/https://apjjf.org/2022/13/Fukuzawa |archive-date=19 August 2025}}
* {{cite journal |last=Hohmann |first=Skye |year=2008 |title=The Ainu's modern struggle |journal=World Watch |volume=21 |number=6 |pages=18–21 |url=http://www.skyehohmann.com/The%20Ainu's%20Modern%20Struggle.pdf}}
* {{cite book |last=Howell |first=David L. |year=1997 |chapter=The Meiji State and the Logic of Ainu 'Protection' |title=New Directions in the Study of Meiji Japan |pages=612–634 |editor-first=Helen |editor-last=Hardacre |location=Leiden |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]] |isbn=978-9-00410-735-9 |doi=10.1163/9789004644847_049}}
* {{cite journal |last=Howell |first=David L. |date=2004 |title=Making 'Useful Citizens' of Ainu Subjects in Early 20th-Century Japan |journal=[[The Journal of Asian Studies]] |volume=63 |issue=1 |pages=5–29 |doi=10.1017/S002191180400004X |doi-access=free |jstor=4133292}}
* {{cite book |last=Howell |first=David L. |year=2005 |title=Geographies of Identity in 19th Century Japan |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0-520-24085-8 |url={{google books URL|0prtzCvKb50C}}}}
* {{cite book |last=Hudson |first=Mark J. |author-link=Mark J. Hudson |date=1999b |title=Ruins of identity: ethnogenesis in the Japanese Islands |publisher=[[University of Hawaiʻi Press]] |isbn=978-0-8248-6419-4}}
* {{cite journal |last=Hudson |first=Mark J. |author-link=Mark J. Hudson |date=2022 |title=Re-thinking Jōmon and Ainu in Japanese History |journal=[[The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus]] |volume=20 |issue=15 |article-number=e2 |doi=10.1017/s1557466022019143 |doi-access=free}}
* {{citation |last=Kim |first=Loretta E. |year=2019 |title=Ethnic Chrysalis |publisher=[[Harvard University Asia Center]]}}
* {{cite book |last=Landor |first= Arnold Henry Savage |author-link=Arnold Henry Savage Landor |year=2012 |orig-date=1893 |title=Alone with the Hairy Ainu: or, 3,800 Miles on a Pack Saddle in Yezo and a Cruise to the Kurile Islands |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-10804-941-2}}
* {{cite journal |last=Levin |first=Mark |year=1999 |title=Kayano et al. v. Hokkaido Expropriation Committee: 'The Nibutani Dam Decision' |journal=International Legal Materials |volume=38 |ssrn=1635447 |ssrn-access=free |doi=10.1017/S0020782900013061}}
* {{cite journal |last=Levin |first=Mark |year=2001 |title=Essential Commodities and Racial Justice: Using Constitutional Protection of Japan's Indigenous Ainu People to Inform Understandings of the United States and Japan |journal=[[New York University Journal of International Law and Politics]] |volume=33 |ssrn=1635451 |ssrn-access=free}}
* {{cite journal |last=Levin |first=Mark |year=2008 |title=The Wajin's Whiteness: Law and Race Privilege in Japan |journal=Hōritsu Jihō |volume=80 |number=2 |ssrn=1551462}}
* {{cite book |last=March |first=G. Patrick |year=1996 |title=Eastern Destiny: Russia in Asia and the North Pacific |publisher=Praeger/Greenwood |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ujht5Y_yQooC |isbn=0-275-95566-4}}
* {{cite book |last1=Mason |first1=Michele M. |title=Dominant Narratives of Colonial Hokkaido and Imperial Japan |date=2012 |doi=10.1057/9781137330888 |isbn=978-1-349-45025-1}}
* {{cite journal |last=Meyer |first=Stanisław |date=2011 |title=Japanese minorities and the question of citizenship: the case of the Ainu, Koreans and Okinawans |journal=Silva Iaponicarum |volume=27–28 |pages=64–82 |url=https://ruj.uj.edu.pl/entities/publication/7c1dfda0-d3bf-4e20-b2c8-b0ba184fa7f8}}
* {{cite book |last=Nakamura |first=Kazuyuki |date=2010 |editor1-last=Kikuchi |editor1-first=Toshihiko |script-title=ja:北東アジアの歴史と文化 |language=ja |title=Hokutō Ajia no rekishi to bunka |trans-title=A history and cultures of Northeast Asia |script-chapter=ja:「北からの蒙古襲来」をめぐる諸問題 |chapter=Kita kara no mōko shūrai wo meguru shōmondai |trans-chapter=Several questions around "the Mongol attack from the north" |publisher=[[Hokkaido University|Hokkaido University Press]] |isbn=978-4-8329-6734-2}}
* {{cite book |last=Nakayama |first=Taisho |year=2015 |title=Japanese Society on Karafuto |series=Voices from the Shifting Russo-Japanese Border: Karafuto / Sakhalin |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-315-75268-6 |url={{google books URL|TnTABgAAQBAJ}} |via=[[Google Books]]}}
* {{cite book |last=Narangoa |first=Li |year=2014 |title=Historical Atlas of Northeast Asia, 1590–2010: Korea, Manchuria, Mongolia, Eastern Siberia |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-231-16070-4}}
* {{cite journal |last=Okada |first=Mitsuharu Vincent |date=January 2012 |title=The Plight of Ainu, Indigenous People of Japan |journal=Journal of Indigenous Social Development |volume=1 |number=1 |pages=1–14 |hdl=10125/12528}}
* {{cite book |last=Piłsudski |first=Bronisław |editor-last=Majewicz |editor-first=Alfred F. |date=December 30, 2004 |title=Materials for the Study of the Ainu Language and Folklore 2 |volume=3 |publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]] |isbn=978-3-11-017614-8 |doi=10.1515/9783110895681 |url={{google books URL|NX0W2N8pgWQC}}}}
* {{cite book |last=Poisson |first=Barbara Aoki |year=2002 |title=The Ainu of Japan |publisher=Lerner Publications |location=Minneapolis |isbn=978-0-82254-176-9 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ainuofjapan00pois}}
* {{cite journal |last=Porter |first=Crystal |date=December 2008 |title=After the Ainu Shinpō: The United Nations and the Indigenous People of Japan |url=https://newvoices.org.au/newvoices/media/JPF-New-Voices-Vol-2.pdf |journal=New Voices |publisher=The Japan Foundation |volume=2 |number= |pages=201–219 |doi=10.21159/nv.02.10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241102140455/http://newvoices.org.au/newvoices/media/JPF-New-Voices-Vol-2.pdf |archive-date=November 2, 2024}}
* {{cite book |last=Sasaki |first=Shiro |year=1999 |chapter=Trading Brokers and Partners with China, Russia, and Japan |title=Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People |editor1-first=W. W. |editor1-last=Fitzhugh |editor2-first=C. O.|editor2-last=Dubreuil |publisher=Arctic Study Center, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. |url=https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/ainuspiritofnort00wash}}
* {{cite book |last=Schlesinger |first=Jonathan |year=2017 |title=A World Trimmed with Fur: Wild Things, Pristine Places, and the Natural Fringes of Qing Rule |isbn=978-1-5036-0068-3 |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |url={{google books URL|aCKaDQAAQBAJ}}}}
* {{cite book |last=Siddle |first=Richard |year=1996 |title=Race, Resistance, and the Ainu of Japan |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-41513-228-2 |oclc=243850790 |url={{google books URL|W5DKfJsPv2sC}}}}
* {{cite book |last=Siddle |first=Richard M. |date=2008 |chapter=The Ainu: Indigenous people of Japan |title=Japan's Minorities: The illusion of homogeneity |edition=2nd |editor-first=Michael |editor-last=Weiner |publisher=[[Routledge]] |pages=21–39 |isbn=9780203884997}}
* {{cite book |last=Sjöberg |first=Katarina |year=1993 |title=The Return of the Ainu: Cultural Mobilization and the Practice of Ethnicity in Japan |series=Studies in Anthropology and History |volume=9 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis#Acquired companies and discontinued imprints|Harwood Academic Publishers]] |location=Switzerland |isbn=978-3-71865-401-7 |doi=10.4324/9781315077130 |url={{google books URL|tePeAQAAQBAJ}}}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Norman |year=2017 |title=Empire and Environment in the Making of Manchuria |publisher=[[University of British Columbia Press]] |isbn=978-0-7748-3290-8}}
* {{cite journal |last=Spiker |first=Christina |date=November 2020 |title=The Indigenous Shôjo: Transmedia Representations of Ainu Femininity in Japan's Samurai Spirits, 1993–2019 |journal=Journal of Anime and Manga Studies |volume=1 |pages=138–168 |doi=10.21900/j.jams.v1.502}}
* {{cite book |last=Stephan |first=John |year=1971 |title=Sakhalin: a history |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-821550-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Takahashi |first=Chikashi |date=April 18, 2006 |chapter=Inter-Asian competition in the fur market in the 18th and 19th centuries |title=Intra-Asian Trade and the World Market |editor1-last=Latham |editor1-first=A. J. H. |editor2-last=Kawakatsu |editor2-first=Heita |editor2-link=Heita Kawakatsu |series=Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia |publication-place=Abingdon |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-134-19407-0 |url={{google books URL|JcsjAsz6fs8C}} |access-date=March 5, 2024}}
* {{cite thesis |last=Tanaka |first=Sakurako (Sherry) |date=2000 |title=The Ainu of Tsugaru: the indigenous history and shamanism of northern Japan |publisher=[[University of British Columbia]] |language=en |doi=10.14288/1.0076926 |doi-access=free}}
* {{cite book |last=Walker |first=Brett |year=2001 |title=The Conquest of Ainu Lands: Ecology and Culture in Japanese Expansion, 1590–1800 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |location=Berkeley |isbn=978-0-52022-736-1 |oclc=45958211 |url=https://archive.org/details/conquestainuland00walk |url-access=limited}}
* {{cite book |last=Walker |first=Brett L. |year=2006 |title=The Conquest of Ainu Lands: Ecology and Culture in Japanese Expansion, 1590–1800 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |location=Berkeley |isbn=0-520-24834-1|url={{google books URL|D5iOcHB3h5AC}}}}
* {{cite book |last=Zgusta |first=Richard |year=2015 |title=The peoples of Northeast Asia through time: precolonial ethnic and cultural processes along the coast between Hokkaido and the Bering Strait |location=Leiden, Netherlands |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]] |isbn=978-90-04-30043-9 |oclc=912504787}}
{{Refend}}

; Genetic studies
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Sato |first1=Takehiro |last2=Amano |first2=Tetsuya |last3=Ono |first3=Hiroko |last4=Ishida |first4=Hajime |last5=Kodera |first5=Haruto |last6=Matsumura |first6=Hirofumi |last7=Yoneda |first7=Minoru |last8=Masuda |first8=Ryuichi |date=2009 |title=Mitochondrial DNA haplogrouping of the Okhotsk people based on analysis of ancient DNA: an intermediate of gene flow from the continental Sakhalin people to the Ainu |journal=Anthropological Science |volume=117 |issue=3 |pages=171–180 |doi=10.1537/ase.081202 |doi-access=free}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Sato |first1=Takehiro |last2=Adachi |first2=Noboru |last3=Kimura |first3=Ryosuke |last4=Hosomichi |first4=Kazuyoshi |last5=Yoneda |first5=Minoru |last6=Oota |first6=Hiroki |last7=Tajima |first7=Atsushi |last8=Toyoda |first8=Atsushi |last9=Kanzawa-Kiriyama |first9=Hideaki |last10=Matsumae |first10=Hiromi |last11=Koganebuchi |first11=Kae |last12=Shimizu |first12=Kentaro K. |last13=Shinoda |first13=Ken-ichi |last14=Hanihara |first14=Tsunehiko |last15=Weber |first15=Andrzej |date=2021 |title=Whole-Genome Sequencing of a 900-Year-Old Human Skeleton Supports Two Past Migration Events from the Russian Far East to Northern Japan |journal=[[Genome Biology and Evolution]] |volume=13 |issue=9 |article-number=evab192 |doi=10.1093/gbe/evab192 |doi-access=free |pmc=8449830 |pmid=34410389}}
{{Refend}}

; Language
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Lee |first1=Sean |last2=Hasegawa |first2=Toshikazu |date=April 2013 |title=Evolution of the Ainu Language in Space and Time |journal=[[PLOS ONE]] |volume=8 |issue=4 |article-number=e62243 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0062243 |doi-access=free |pmid=23638014 |pmc=3637396 |bibcode=2013PLoSO...862243L}}
* {{cite journal |last=Martin |first=Kylie |year=2011 |script-title=ja:特集 超国家的枠組、標準化、ネットワーク化--ヨーロッパ、日本、アフリカの組織的多様性マネージメント |language=ja |title=Tokushū chōkokkateki wakugumi, hyōjunka, nettowāku-ka – Yōroppa, Nihon, Afurika no soshiki-teki tayō-sei manējimento |trans-title=On the road to Ainu language revitalization |journal=Media and Communication Studies |volume=60 |pages=57–93 |id={{NCID|AA12286697}}}}
* {{cite book |editor1-first=Osahito |editor1-last=Miyaoka |editor2-first=Osamu |editor2-last=Sakiyama |editor3-first=Michael E. |editor3-last=Krauss |date=2007 |title=The Vanishing Languages of the Pacific Rim |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-153289-4 |pages=377–382 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780199266623.001.0001}}
* {{cite book |last=Shibatani |first=Masayoshi |year=1990 |title=The Languages of Japan |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-36918-3 |oclc=19456186 |url={{google books URL|sD-MFTUiPYgC}}}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Teeter |first1=Jennifer |last2=Okazaki |first2=Takayuki |year=2011 |title=Ainu as a Heritage Language of Japan: History, Current State and Future of Ainu Language Policy and Education |journal=[[Heritage Language Journal]] |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=96–114 |doi=10.46538/hlj.8.2.5 |doi-access=free |id={{ERIC|EJ937154}}}}
* {{cite book |last=Vovin |first=Alexander Vladimirovich |author-link=Alexander Vovin |year=1993 |title=A Reconstruction of Proto-Ainu |location=Leiden |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]] |isbn=978-90-04-09905-0 |url={{google books URL|8w1_cCWIpEoC}}}}
* {{cite book |last=Vovin |first=Alexander Vladimirovich |author-link=Alexander Vovin |year=2008 |script-title=ja:萬葉集と風土記に見られる不思議な言葉 と上代日本列島に於けるアイヌ語の分布 |language=ja |title=Man'yōshū to Fudoki ni Mirareru Fushigina Kotoba to Jōdai Nihon Retto ni Okeru Ainugo no Bunpu |trans-title=Strange Words in the ''Man'yoshū'' and the ''Fudoki'' and the Distribution of the Ainu Language in the Japanese Islands in Prehistory |publisher=Kokusai Nihon Bunka Kenkyū Sentā |url=http://www.nichibun.ac.jp/graphicversion/dbase/forum/pdf/fn215.pdf |access-date=March 27, 2011 |archive-date=February 11, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140211234350/http://www.nichibun.ac.jp/graphicversion/dbase/forum/pdf/fn215.pdf}}
{{Refend}}

==Further reading==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Batchelor |first=John |year=1892 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rcoNAAAAIAAJ |title=The Ainu of Japan: the religion, superstitions, and general history of the hairy aborigines of Japan |publisher=Religious Tract Society |location=London |page=336 |access-date=March 1, 2012}}
* {{cite book |last1=Batchelor |first1=John |last2=Miyabe |first2=Kingo |year=1898 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RrYUAAAAYAAJ |title=Ainu economic plants |volume=21 |page=43 |access-date=April 23, 2012}}
* {{cite book |last=Etter |first=Carl |year=2004 |title=Ainu Folklore: Traditions and Culture of the Vanishing Aborigines of Japan |orig-date=1949 |publisher=Kessinger Publishing |location=Whitfish, MT |isbn=978-1-4179-7697-3}}
* {{cite book |last=Honda |first=Katsuichi |year=1993 |title=Ainu Minzoku |publisher=Asahi Shimbun Publishing |location=Tokyo |isbn=978-4-02-256577-8 |language=ja |oclc=29601145}}
* {{cite book |last=Hori |first=Ichiro |year=1968 |title=Folk Religion in Japan: Continuity and Change |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |location=Chicago |series=Haskell lectures on History of religions |volume=1}}
* {{cite book |last=Habu |first=Junko |year=2004 |title=Ancient Jomon of Japan |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-77670-7 |oclc=53131386}}
* Hitchingham, Masako Yoshida (trans.), [https://www.webcitation.org/5t212GASC?url=http://www.hawaii.edu/aplpj/articles/APLPJ_01.1_hitchingham_masako.pdf Act for the Promotion of Ainu Culture & Dissemination of Knowledge Regarding Ainu Traditions], Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal, vol. 1, no. 1 (2000).
* {{cite journal |last=Hudson |first=Mark J. |author-link=Mark J. Hudson |year=1999a |title=Ainu Ethnogenesis and the Northern Fujiwara |journal=Arctic Anthropology |volume=36 |issue=1/2 |pages=73–83 |jstor=40316506}}
* Kayano, Shigeru (1994). ''Our Land Was A Forest: An Ainu Memoir''. Westview Press. {{ISBN|978-0-8133-1880-6}}. {{ISBN|978-0-8133-1880-6}}.
* {{cite book |last=King |first=V. |year=2012 |title=The Ainu of Japan: A critical ethnography |publisher=[[Routledge]]}}
* {{cite book |last=Nakamura |first=Kazuyuki |date=2012 |editor1-last=Katō |editor1-first=Hirofumi |editor2-last=Suzuki |editor2-first=Kenji |script-title=ja:新しいアイヌ史の構築 : 先史編・古代編・中世編 |language=ja |title=Atarashii Ainu shi no kōchiku: senshi hen, kodai hen, chūsei hen |script-chapter=ja:元・明代の史料にみえるアイヌとアイヌ文化 |chapter=Gen-Mindai no shiryō kara mieru Ainu to Ainu bunka |trans-chapter=The Ainu and Ainu culture from historical records of the Yuan and Ming |publisher=[[Hokkaido University|Hokkaido University Press]] |url=https://eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/handle/2115/56288 |pages=138–145}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Trekhsviatskyi |first1=Anatolii |title=At the far edge of the Chinese Oikoumene: Mutual relations of the indigenous population of Sakhalin with the Yuan and Ming dynasties |journal=[[Journal of Asian History]] |date=2007 |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=131–155 |jstor=41933457}}
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7-u-KkE5XqkC |title=Aino Folk-Tales |editor=Basil Hall Chamberlain |publisher=Forgotten Books |isbn=978-1-60620-087-2}}
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iJzhAAAAMAAJ |title=Aino folk-tales |date=1888 |author=Basil Hall Chamberlain |series=Publications of the Folklore Society, vol. 22 |publisher=C. G. Röder |location=Leipzig}} (Indiana University, digitized September 3, 2009)
{{Refend}}
* ''The Collected Works of [[Bronisław Piłsudski]]'', translated and edited by Alfred F. Majewicz with the assistance of Elzbieta Majewicz. 
** Volume 1: The Aborigines of Sakhalin
** [https://polona.pl/item/materials-for-the-study-of-the-ainu-language-and-folklore,MjU3MzgwMjc/8/#info:metadata Volume 2: Materials for the Study of the Ainu Language and Folklore (Kraków 1912)]
** Volume 3: Materials for the Study of the Ainu Language and Folklore II
** Volume 4: Materials for the Study of [[Tungusic Languages]] and Folklore

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikisource|has=the [[Basil Hall Chamberlain|Chamberlain, B. H.]] Folk-Lore Society, 1888. (Members edition, without expurgation) of|Aino Folk-Tales|italics=yes|nocat=yes}}

; Organizations
* [http://www.ainu-assn.or.jp/ Hokkaido Utari Kyokai/Ainu Association of Hokkaido] {{in lang|ja|en}}
* [http://www.city.sapporo.jp/shimin/pirka-kotan/en/index.html Sapporo Pirka Kotan Ainu Cultural Center] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210614000643/https://www.city.sapporo.jp/shimin/pirka-kotan/en/index.html|date=June 14, 2021}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20171214183443/https://www.frpac.or.jp/web/english/ Foundation for Research and Promotion of Ainu Culture (centers located in Sapporo and Tokyo)] {{in lang|ja|en}}
* [http://www.cais.hokudai.ac.jp/english/ Hokkaido University Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170901112847/http://www.cais.hokudai.ac.jp/english/|date=September 1, 2017}}
* [http://city.hokkai.or.jp/~ayaedu/ Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Ainu] in [[Samani, Hokkaido|Samani, Hokkaidō]]
* [https://www.ff-ainu.or.jp/web/english/together.html/The Foundation for Ainu Culture] {{in lang|ja|en}}

; Museums and exhibits
* [http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/features/ainu/ Smithsonian Institution] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151220204726/http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/features/ainu/ |date=December 20, 2015 }}
* [http://archive.fieldmuseum.org/research_collections/anthropology/anthro_sites/boone/ainu/gal_jp_ainu.html The Boone Collection]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160130060719/http://www.ainu-museum-nibutani.org/ Nibutani Ainu Cultural Museum] {{in lang|ja}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20151029080519/http://www.ainu-museum.or.jp/en/ The Ainu Museum at Shiraoi]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20180726170031/https://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/collections/eastasian/japanrice/ Ainu Komonjo (18th & 19th century records) – Ohnuki Collection]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20030927154809/http://www.molli.org.uk/explorers/the_regions/north_america.asp The Regions: North America]—Ainu–North American cultural similarities

; Articles
* [https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2008/0609/p04s01-woap.html "Japan's Ainu hope new identity leads to more rights"] in ''The Christian Science Monitor'', June 9, 2008
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090225075127/http://www.blm.gov/education/00_resources/articles/Columbia_river_basin/posterback.html A Salmon's Life: An Incredible Journey (Columbia River basin, June 8, 2016)]—Posterback Activities

; Video
* [http://www.filmpreservation.org/preserved-films/screening-room/a-trip-through-japan-with-the-ywca-ca-1919 "A Trip through Japan with the YWCA (ca. 1919)"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151027195839/http://www.filmpreservation.org/preserved-films/screening-room/a-trip-through-japan-with-the-ywca-ca-1919|date=October 27, 2015}}—Rare Japanese video featuring Ainu
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=endv3PVpXFg ''The Ainu: The First Peoples of Japan''. Old videos and photographs arranged by Rawn Joseph]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjBYtYAOsJc "The Despised Ainu People". The Ainus' Tense Relationship with Japan. 1994. Journeyman.tv]

{{Ethnic groups in Japan|state=expanded}}
{{Ethnic groups in Russia|state=expanded}}
{{Kuril Islands}}
{{East Asian topics}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ainu People}}
[[Category:Ainu| ]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Japan]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Russia]]
[[Category:History of Hokkaido]]
[[Category:History of Northeast Asia]]
[[Category:History of Sakhalin]]
[[Category:Indigenous peoples of East Asia]]
[[Category:People of the Kamakura period]]
[[Category:Japanese people of Russian descent]]
[[Category:Russian people of Japanese descent]]
[[Category:Genocide of indigenous peoples in Asia]]
[[Category:Indigenous peoples of Siberia]]