Indigenous Tribe

There is only one group of indigenous group in Japan.

The Ainu are mainly found in the Hokkaido, and some other parts of Japan. There are about 150,000 of them today, some in hiding so as to avoid racism. This happened as the Japanese population grows and started moving north (towards Hokkaido) and forced them to give up their land. There were some fights involved but always with Ainu on the losing end. Hence they were restricted to work on farms provided by the government or in fishing industry.

Ainu means “human” in their own language. Their culture also differs from traditional Japanese culture. The Ainu are not allowed to shave after a certain age, resulting in this belief that Ainu are hairy people. All of them have the same hair length (until the shoulder). Women have tattoos on their mouths and foreheads, with traditional clothes made from tree barks and undergarment from Japanese cloth. Animal skins will then be used in winter to keep themselves warm.

Accessories are greatly appreciated and cherished by both genders. They can make earrings out of grapevines, and tamasay (beaded necklaces) but now just simply bought from the Japanese.

Religion among the Ainu is very similar to the Japanese, that everything has a kamui (god)* living inside. The Ainu believe that there are two worlds, one by humans and one by gods, both resting on the back of a fish. When the fish moves, that’s when earthquakes occur.

Without any priests, it’s the village chief that performs most ceremonies, with wines, willow sticks and short prayers. They also “say grace” (praying to their gods) before meals and also deliverance from sicknesses to the fire god. Heaven and hell are both underground, according to Ainu belief; and hell, being all hot and fiery, is naturally believed to be among the volcanoes.

The Ainu are now governed by Japanese laws and tribunals, way different from the past, where crimes were only punished through beating and murder would be cutting off the ears and nose or severe the tendons on the feet of the murderer.

*Notice that to Japanese, gods are called “kami” while the Ainu called them “kamui”. Their languages may be similar but perhaps different pronunciation as with all languages where there are dialects, or same language but pronounced differently by different nationalities.

For example: the Chinese language. Compare the intonation, sentence structure and way of speaking between China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

{http://www.japan-101.com/culture/culture_ainu.htm}