Ainu of Japan

Below are resources related to Jeffry Gayman's “Ainu of Japan” chapter of Native Nations: The Survival of Indigenous Peoples, 4th Edition, edited by Sharlotte Neely and Douglas W. Hume.

Agencies & Organizations

Discussion Questions

  • Explain the cultural changes that have occurred among the Ainu due to external forces on them.
  • Describe the threats to Ainu cultural survival by outsiders in their recent history.
  • What are the criteria that have been used to define who is an Ainu?
  • Why do estimates of the number of Ainu vary?
  • What actions of the government could increase or decrease the official number of Ainu?

Documentary Films

Further Reading

Contemporary Ainu People

Ainu Wearing Traditional Clothes
Ainu wearing their traditional clothes, Ainu Museum, City of Shiraoi, Hokkaido, Japan (Torbenbrinker [CC BY-SA])

Ainu Historical Range

Ainu Historical Expanse Map
Historically attested range of the Ainu (red) and suspected former range (pink) based on toponymic evidence (red dots), Matagi villages (purple), and Japanese isoglosses (western limit) (Kwamikagami [CC BY-SA])

Ainu Ethno-historical Photograph

Ainu Woman Gathering Seaweed
Gelatin silver print photograph of an ainu woman in traditional costume gathering seaweed, taken c. 1890s. Original photo owned by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Tamoto Kenzō [Public domain])

Get the Book!

Our book, Native Nations: The Survival of Indigenous Peoples, 4th Edition, is now available for purchase!