Only nine years ago, the Ainu finally gained parliamentary recognition as a people with a “distinct language, religion and culture.” The resolution in 2008 was a small victory for this long ...

The Ainu believe that the world rests on the back of a giant trout, that otters caused human beings to be flawed, and that seeing an owl fly across the face of the moon at night is cause for great ...

On display at the Tokyo Station Gallery are “Whole-Body Listening (detail)” (right, 2002, housed by Tsuruga Resort Co.) and other wood carvings of animals, as well as Ainu ancestors.

Shakushain, the leader of Ainu resistance to Japan, is shown in this modern memorial on Hokkaido. Thanks to a postwar revival of Ainu nationalism, celebrations of indigenous culture are held each ...

The exact origins of the Ainu are a subject of academic debate, but they are thought to have links to three cultures: the ancient Jomon culture that dominated the islands of modern Japan from ...

Japan's native people, the Ainu, once hunted bears and fished for salmon in the wild forests of the country's far north, but today they are an ethnic minority fighting for their cultural survival.

Japanese tourist with two Ainu in Hokkaido, date unknown. (Sgt.Steiner/Flickr). The Ainu, often noted for how hairy they are, call Japan's northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, famous for its ski ...

The Ainu language has been declared critically endangered by UNESCO, with few people left alive today who speak it. Subscribe . Digital Print . May 12, 2025 . Subscribe. Digital Print.

Origins of the Ainu by Gary Crawford The ringing telephone broke the evening silence. It was the fall of 1983, and my research partner, Professor Masakazu Yoshizaki, was calling from Japan.