In reality, Japan, like any other nation, is an ocean of diversity, home to multiple minority groups. One of these groups is Japan’s indigenous people, or the Ainu. Don’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of the Ainu. In fact, many Japanese themselves are unaware of the existence of their own country’s indigenous people.

But why? For hundreds of years, the Ainu have been either ignored, discriminated against, or forced to assimilate with mainstream Japanese culture. Obviously, none of these circumstances are favorable for propagating cultural stability or awareness. And unfortunately, this has led the Ainu language and culture to the brink of extinction.

However, with the government’s (long awaited) official recognition of the Ainu as Japan’s indigenous people in 2008, it appears that there has been a revival of Ainu pride among the few Ainu that remain, as they desperately try to preserve what culture they have left. Here, I hope to outline some of the most important aspects of the Ainu language and briefly touch upon the culture in hopes to bring light to one facet of Japan’s diversity.

The Origins of the Ainu

The Ainu people are historically residents of parts of Hokkaido (the Northern island of Japan) the Kuril Islands, and Sakhalin. According to the government, there are currently 25,000 Ainu living in Japan, but other sources claim there are up to 200,000. The origin of the Ainu people and language is, for the most part, unknown. However, there have been many theories on the subject.

One theory suggests that the Ainu people are remnants of the Jomon-jin, or the hunter-gathers who inhabited Japan during the Jomon Period (14,500 BC – 300 AD) and perhaps even before. Around the year 300 AD, another group of immigrants known as the Yayoi people made their way to the islands of Japan, introducing new agricultural techniques and technology and integrating with the Jomon people. It is believed that the Yayoi group may not have reached as far as the Northern island of Hokkaido, allowing the Jomon hunter-gatherer way of life to survive in that area.

The model of a Jomon period boy

One Ainu myth claims that “They lived in this place a hundred thousand years before the Children of the Sun came.” It’s interesting that this myth seems consistent with the theory of the Ainu descending from Jomon-jin. More recent research suggests that the historical Ainu culture could have come about through the merging of the Okhotsk culture and the Sastumon, a Jomon group very similar to the Ainu.

Physically, the Ainu stand out distinctly from the Japanese as a separate ethnic group. Ainu people tend to have light skin, a stout frame, deep-set eyes with a European shape, and thick, wavy hair. Full-blooded Ainu may have even had blue eyes or brown hair. In the past, the Ainu were proposed to be of Caucasian decent, given their appearance, but recently it has been proved through dental morphology and fingerprinting that the Ainu are in fact Mongoloid, not Caucasoid.

An old Ainu man

These days, the concept of a pure Ainu is very blurred. Distinguishing the Ainu from other Japanese is almost impossible due to intermarriage with the Japanese, migration, and denial of the Ainu identity to avoid discrimination.

Ainu Culture

You can see just by the appearance of the Ainu that traditional Ainu culture is significantly different from Japanese culture. First of all, both men and women keep their hair at shoulder length and wear traditional Ainu garb. Men, never shaving after a certain age, usually have full beards, and women undergo mouth tattooing to signify their coming to adulthood.

As hunter-gatherers, the Ainu lived off of the land. Common foods included deer, bear, rabbit, fox, salmon, root vegetables, and much more. Unlike the Japanese, the Ainu always cooked their food, never eating anything raw. Common hunting weapons included poisoned spears and bow and arrows.

One way that the Ainu were similar to the Japanese is in the way of religion. The Ainu, just like the Japanese people, were animists and believed that all things are inhabited by spirits known as kamuy. While there are many gods in Ainu belief, one of the most important is known as Kim-un Kamuy, or the god of bears and the mountains. All animals are thought to be the manifestations of gods on Earth in Ainu culture, however, the bear is believed to be the head of gods and is therefore known as kamuy, or “God.”

Traditionally, the Ainu sacrificed bears in order to release the kamuy within them to the spirit world. One tradition, called lotame, involves the raising of a young bear cub as if it were an Ainu child and then sacrificing once it has come of age.

a tourist with two Ainu people and a bear

During the Tokugawa Period (1600-1868) the Ainu became increasing involved in trade with the Japanese. At this time, they were able to maintain their culture and way of life to a certain extent, although there is some evidence that the Ainu became slaves.

However, the Meiji restoration brought great change upon the Ainu people in 1899. As Japan began reforming to Western standards, the government decided to unify Japan by annexing the Northern island of Hokkaido and creating a law that restricted the Ainu from participating in their own cultural activities. In other words, the Ainu people were stripped of their land, customs, and language in hopes that they would assimilate to Japanese culture. It wasn’t until 1997 that this law was lifted and the Ainu people were allowed to practice their own customs again, but by that time, much of the damage was done.

The Ainu Language: Something Unique

The indigenous language of Japan is, much like the Ainu people, of unknown origins. With the restrictions placed on the use of the language in 1899, Ainu speakers have all but disappeared. Today the language is said to have less than 15 “native” speakers, all of which are above he age of 60, making Ainu a “critically endangered” language. Originally, the Ainu language had three main dialects: Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and Kuril. However, the Hokkaido dialect is the only one that survives today.

One interesting point about Ainu is that it does not have a written form. The language has lived by being passed down from parent to child for countless years and has historically been transcribed using Japanese kana. The lack of a writing system has of course hindered the ability of the Ainu to preserve their language after it was banned, and the use of Japanese kana has even influenced some Ainu pronunciations. Even so, the language has been able to live in the tradition of Ainu story telling, or Yukar, the language of which is mutually understood by all Ainu groups and is known as Classical Ainu.

Here is an example of a Yukar, or epic story, using Classical Ainu:

In the past, there have been many attempts to place Ainu and Japanese in the same language group, but such claims have been shot down again and again. As of now, there is no widely accepted theory regarding the relationship of Ainu to any other language and it is therefore known as a language isolate.

If you look closely at Japanese and Ainu, it is tempting to conclude the two languages are related, however, there are four features of Ainu that mark it as distinctly different from Japanese:

1. Person is marked on predicates (person is expressed in predicates)
2. Ainu is a polysynthetic language (ideas my be expressed through “sentence words”)
3. There are no verbal inflections (verbs are not changed to express tense)
4. There are verbal suffixes for plurals (plural forms are expressed in verbs)

One of the most prominent features of Ainu is the fact that it is a polysynthetic language. In other words, Ainu is a language in which main ideas are expressed through words composed of smaller word parts with individual meanings, also known as “sentence words”. A basic example of this would be the Ainu word ku-pirka, meaning “I am good.” A more extreme example would be the Yupik word tuntussuqatarniksaitengqiggtuq which means “He had not yet said again that he was going to hunt reindeer.” Interestingly enough, the polysyntheitic nature of Ainu is very similar to the languages of many North American indigenous groups.

So what does Ainu sound like? To the untrained ear, Ainu might sound a lot like Japanese. Just like Japanese, the Ainu language is an SOV (subject, object, verb) language using the five vowels a, i, u, e, and o. However, Ainu only has twelve consonants, excluding d, b, g from Japanese, and vowels are never elongated. In fact, Ainu does not differentiate between several consonants, such as b and p, and in this way it is more similar to Korean.  Another way in which Ainu is significantly different from modern Japanese is that it avoids vowel sequences. In order to avoid vowels “touching,” semi-vowels such as y or w are inserted between them. Sometimes vowels are even pronounced more like consonants, such as in the word Ainu where the “a” is pronounced with a glottal stop.

If you want to hear recordings of the Ainu language or learn some for yourself, check out this great Ainu talking dictionary.

Revitalizing Indigenous Spirit

For nearly 100 years the Ainu people lived in Japan under a policy of extinction by assimilation. They were forbidden by the Japanese government to practice Ainu customs or even speak their own language in hopes that the Ainu would vanish from the face of the planet, but did they succeed? With so few Ainu speakers left and many Ainu denying their own heritage to avoid discrimination, you might say so, but things seem to be looking up lately for Japan’s indigenous people.

The year 1994 marked a great turning point for the Ainu people, as the first ever Ainu, Shigeru Kayano, entered the Japanese diet. Shigeru dedicated his life to promoting the well-being and awareness of the Ainu people. It was thanks to him as well as other supporters that the law forbidding Ainu culture was lifted in 1997. Since then, government funding and cultural freedom has allowed the Ainu people to start regaining and preserving their precious way of life through Ainu language courses, radio stations, and public performances.

Below is a woman playing the tonkori, a traditional Ainu instrument:

Still more recent landmarks in Ainu history include the official recognition of the Ainu as the indigenous people of Japan in 2008 and the formation of the Ainu political party in 2012. It seems that while there is still some discrimination of the Ainu people, those who rejected their heritage before are beginning to admit it openly or even embrace their identity with pride.  A great example of this is the band known as The Ainu Rebels. This band is a group of proud young Ainu who have mixed hip-hop and traditional Ainu music, and I have to say, I’m a fan.

Although the Ainu culture is on the brink of extinction, it seems that more and more effort is going into bringing it back to life. These days, young Ainu such as The Ainu Rebels are doing their best to create a new identity for their people and a Japan more open to minorities. Since the depth of the Ainu culture and language can’t be expressed in so few words, I recommend reading more about them or, if possible, experiencing Ainu culture for yourself.

While Japan is no India (which has over 20 recognized languages), there’s more to the language than just regular ol’ Japanese. As I saw on Reddit earlier this week, it turns out that there are at least eight different languages that are completely unique to Japan (and even more that have gone extinct).

Even though Japan is a pretty small country, it has a ton of smaller islands that most people don’t even know exist. And sometimes those little islands developed languages of their own. Let’s take a look at some of those Japanese languages you might never have heard of before:

Standard Japanese

Standard Japanese or 標準語 (hyoujungo), the language we all know (or are getting to know) and love. It’s the national language, so you can speak this to anybody in Japan and they’d understand what you’re saying.

Of course, Japanese changes a bit depending on which part of the country you’re in but for the most part, standard Japanese is universally understood.

Japanese Sign Language (JSL)

Ever since I was exposed to American Sign Language, I’ve had an interest in sign language in general. People tend to think that sign language is just a culture’s spoken language translated into hand gestures, but it’s so much different than that.

While it does share some elements with spoken Japanese (like the characters shown above), it’s fair to say that JSL is an entirely different language altogether.

Ainu

The Ainu are Japan’s native people who mainly live in the north of the country whose culture is different than the ethnic group we now know as ethnic Japanese.

They have their own language too, which is completely unrelated to standard Japanese. Actually, there were a whole bunch of Ainu languages, but most of the variants have become extinct, leaving only Hokkaido Ainu.

Hachijo

Hachijo is spoken is the small set of islands just south of Tokyo, islands which include Hachijo and the beautiful Aogashima (which we’ve written about before.)

Apparently, the language is related to a much older form of Japanese but, being on such isolated islands, changed and grew differently than standard Japanese.

Amami

A lot of Japan’s languages emerge from the smaller island cultures that stretch down from the south of the country and are called Ryukyuan languages. First on that list is Amami, a set of about a dozen island south of Kyushu.

Like a lot of languages on this list, it splits up even more as you move through the islands. Different islands can have drastically different dialects, so learning it on one island doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll be able to speak the language.

Miyako

Keep traveling south and you’ll bump into the Miyako islands, where you’ll find a language that sounds very different than standard Japanese. Just listen to this guy speaking in Miyako language:

If you know or are familiar with standard Japanese, then what he’s saying is probably completely indecipherable. But, believe it or not, it’s still a Japanese language — just not the one you’re used to.

Yaeyama

Keep on truckin’ down the Okinawan islands, and you’ll find yourself at Japan’s southernmost point, in a series of islands called the Yaeyama islands. They’ve somehow become associated with dietary supplements called “Yaeyama Chlorella.”

But more important is the Yaeyama language. The language spoken there is really different — instead of the five vowel sounds you find in standard Japanese (a, i, u, e, o), there’s only three (a, i, o). There are a ton of other differences too, but this one is the most glaring.

Yonaguni

In the Yaeyama islands, within spitting distance of Taiwan is Yonaguni. It’s a tiny little island with only about 2,000 people living there, but it’s famous for being Japan’s westernmost point, and for having underwater alien pyramids (f’reals).

The spoken language shares a lot in common with the other Ryukyuan languages, but one more thing sets it apart from the others — the written language. Up until the 1930s, people in Yonaguni used a writing system called Kaidaa, characters that looked like pictures, a lot like hieroglyphics. You’ll still see them used around the area from time to time, but the written language has mostly fallen in line with the rest of the country.

Language is Always Changing

Sadly, most of these languages are endangered and will probably become extinct within our lifetimes as its last speakers die out. That’s not to say that Japan is becoming a place where everybody talks the same way.

Most people think that because we’re all so connected through the internet and other media now, that languages would start becoming more and more the same; but in some cases, languages are actually getting more different and distinct.

In the US, linguists are observing what’s known as the “Northern cities vowel shift,” a fundamental change in the way in how vowels are pronounced. Some say that it’s one of the biggest changes to English in 1,000 years.

In the same way, Japanese dialects can be extremely different from one another. Some dialects (like Tohokuben, which we wrote about last year), can be so unlike other dialects that native Japanese speakers might have a hard time understanding it.

While these Japanese dialects can’t replace the languages and cultures that are disappearing, it’s nice to see that different, unique cultures are still flourishing.

Read More: Japan: Eight endangered languages in the Japanese archipelago

Header photo by Franck GIRAL

Hokkaido’s Food

MMMmmm, scary, hairy, and delicious.  For Japanese and foreign travelers alike, a main draw for coming to Hokkaido is the seafood.  The cold, pure waters surrounding Hokkaido provide superb locations for harvesting seafood of all varieties.  Above is the Horse Hair Crab 毛蟹『kegani』, which is one of many kinds of crab that can be enjoyed in Hokkaido.  Other dishes famous to Hokkaido are sushi made from 海胆『uni』sea urchin, and ホタテ『hotate』scallop, which are best eaten absolutely as fresh as possible.  Both sea urchin and scallops are typically difficult for foreign visitors to eat raw, but when served in Hokkaido, the often off putting smell is lessened because of the superb freshness.  One of the best cities to eat seafood in is Hakodate because of its location on surrounded by water on the southern peninsula of Hokkaido, so you can jump off the train as soon as you arrive and eat some delicious sea food.  Be sure to bring your wallet!  It’s worth it!

For those of you rugged travelers who do not have money to throw down for expensive seafood cuisine, or for those who just do not like seafood, there is always one amazing alternative…..

RAMEN!!!!!!!

This is Sapporo Ramen.  The REAL Sapporo Ramen, not to be confused with the crappy instant ramen brand found in most Costcos.  If you read my Shikoku article, then you know my strong feelings for Ramen already.  It is truly the friend of the traveler and must be utilized, especially in Hokkaido where many agree that it is the best you can find in Japan.  The ramen in Sapporo is typically a sweet miso ramen designed to fill and warm you up on a wickedly cold night.  There are different variations of what goes inside, but generally seafood, meat, egg, and corn are the most common.  If you become a ramen fanatic like I am, you MUST have some if you visit Hokkaido.

Ainu Language

In all likelihood you will never be in a situation where you will only be able to use the Ainu language.  Please PROVE ME WRONG AND TELL ME WHERE YOU WENT!!!

In a quick history overview, the Ainu are an indigenous group of people in Japan with rather mysterious origins.  While they initially inhabited a large part of northern Japan, they were gradually pushed north by the Japanese, eventually limited exclusively to Hokkaido.  After the Meiji Restoration (1867), Hokkaido was annexed by the Japanese and the Ainu were forcefully assimilated and their language and culture was largely destroyed.  Only very recently, beginning in the early 1990s, have the remaining descendants of the Ainu gained significant ground in the revival of their language and culture.  Here is a great resource for learning more about the Ainu language.  If you want first hand experience learning the language, a good place to start are Ainu villages called “Kotan.”  Most are more like tourist destinations rather than places where people actually live a traditional lifestyle, but if you go to either and show interest in the language, I’m sure you’ll get on the right track.

Music = Language

One of the best ways to understand how the Ainu language sounds is to listen to the music because music is one of the main methods that has been used to preserve this language as well as other similar “lost languages.”  The following are a couple of samples of Ainu music, one traditional and one modern.

First is a very traditional piece that show cases how music might have actually sounded before the Japanese assimilation:

Iuta Upopo (Husking Song)

The piece is a functional work song for husking, as the name implies.  Originally, Ainu songs were not performance pieces, but served specific purposes in everyday life.  The key when listening to the language is to notice how different the pronunciation is from Japanese.

Second is a great duo who did a great deal to popularize the Ainu cultural revival through modern interpretation of traditional Ainu music – Oki Kano, and the late Umeko Ando:

Battaki

The stringed instrument played by Oki Kano is called a “Tonkori” and while it is a traditional Ainu instrument, it is being played with a modern pop music flair.  The chanting by Umeko Ando, is very similar to traditional Ainu music, and the drummer is playing rhythms from modern popular music.  This music is a fantastic way to become introduced to how beautiful the Ainu language sounds!

Hokkaido’s Festivals

Ainu Festivals

Speaking of Ainu, some of the best festivals in Hokkaido are ones that display Ainu language and culture like the Ainu Music Festival in Sapporo.  Look at the picture above with Oki Kano rocking out on amplified Ainu tonkori.  EPIC! Other Ainu festivals can be found in Sapporo as well as Ainu villages (kotan) throughout Hokkaido, so go check some out!

The most famous (or infamous) Ainu festival is called the Iomante Festival, but I have a feeling most of you won’t want to go.  It is a religious ceremony where a bear is sacrificed to the bear god in order to encourage more bears to come to the earth.  The festival is very rare, mostly because the practice of slowly killing a bear is seen by many as inhumane to animals.  The practice looks very similar to bull fighting, except the young bear is tied to a rope nailed to a peg in the ground, so it’s even more unfair.  This festival is an opportunity to see Ainu culture in a way that most people never can, but it is not for the faint of heart.

Ice Festivals

The real big attraction to Hokkaido, as many of you know, are the ice festivals most famously the Sapporo Ice Festival, pictured above.  The festival attracts over 2 million people and is one of the best ice festivals in the world with huge structures that push the boundaries of the human imagination.  That being said, there will be crowds, so here’s one of many other Ice Festival options for those of you wanting to get further off the beaten track.

Sounkyo Ice Festival

The Sounkyo Ice Festival is located in the beautiful Sounkyo Gorge, southeast of Asahikawa.  The region itself is worth going to any time of year to appreciate nature, get away from tourist traps, and to get in on the many opportunities to have adventures in any of the four seasons.  The festival takes place from January-March and is illuminated by beautiful colored lights covering the many ice sculptures, caves, and pathways, which cover an extensive area for walking around for viewing it all under a large weekly fireworks display.  You won’t see quite the same level of massive structures like at the Sapporo Ice Festival, but the Sounkyo Ice Festival makes up for it in spades with a great location, beautiful illumination, and smaller crowds.

There are many ice festivals in the Asahikawa area, some with other cool features like hot air ballooning, so please find one that suits you, bring some warm clothes, and have a good time!  Here’s a link for the Asahikawa Tourism website to get you started!

Hokkaido’s Adventures

For adventures in nature, Hokkaido is hard to beat.  It is filled with world class national parks, pristine hiking trails, light powder snow for winter sports, and spectacular view points of waterfalls, mountains, and rivers.  Heck, you can even go dog sledding! Hokkaido is such a large island that you really could write a whole book about exploring what it has to offer.  I hope I can provide you with material to start your first chapter!

Daisetsuzan National Park 大雪山国立公園 is a great place to get started exploring Hokkaido because it offers so much opportunity for great hiking, skiing, onsens, scenery, and meeting interesting people.  Above is Asahidake 旭岳, the tallest mountain in Hokkaido at 2291 meters and one of the centerpieces for the national park.  The climb to the summit in the summer is filled with stunning 360 degree scenery, smoldering geysers, and uneasy footing on the path up the side of the mountain due to deposits of volcanic rock. Thanks to a gondola, however, getting as far as where this picture was taken is only a short ride away, and in the winter skiing or boarding down is highly encouraged to experience Hokkaido POW.  The types of people who choose to continue the journey to the very top are surprisingly diverse from professional level climbers who spend all summer carrying packs nearly twice their size to camp and hike around the region, to elderly couples and their toddler grandchildren.  The origins of the visitors are spread out as well from salary men from Tokyo and Osaka seeking to get away from the fast paced stress of their work to tour groups from Western Europe and the United States as well as Japanese families on vacation.

The start of the gondola is located in a very small mountain town with the same name as the mountain, Asahidake.  There, you can find a youth hostel just a short walk away from the gondola with pretty reasonable prices for rooms that include breakfast, and even a small lunch if you pay a little bit extra.  There is a wonderful complimentary outdoor onsen 露天風呂 「rotenburo」included in the price, with water flowing from the natural hot spring creek that runs right past the hostel.  From there, it is easy to access the many nature trails and the hike from the hostel to the nearby Tenninkyo Onsen 天人峡温泉 requires a little bushwhacking but provides great vistas of gorges and waterfalls (below).

The great thing about Hokkaido is that this is just one of the countless locations where you can get off the beaten track, experience beautiful scenery, and interact with interesting people from Japan and around the world who are on similar journeys for adventure.

Hokkaido’s Transportation

For being such a massive, rugged island, it really is not that hard to get around with public transportation.  The JR Hokkaido Railway Company crisscrosses the island pretty well to get you at least in the general vicinity of where you want to go.  From there, there are lots of buses available to get you to a specific destination that does not have a train station.

Most people fly to Sapporo and then take a bus or train, but if you are hardcore and happen to have a JR Pass (basically an all-you-can-ride pass for increments of 1-3 weeks if you’re on a tourist visa) you might try taking the train all the way up.  It’s a LONG ride, and not real comfortable if you aren’t in a sleeping car, so if you don’t have a JR pass, it’s just about the same price to fly so I would do that unless you have lots of time on your hands and want to see some of northern Honshu before getting into Hokkaido.

With that, good luck in Hokkaido!  Go out and try to get lost!  Make sure to wear bells on your backpack to ward off bears and have a good time!

いろいろな地域を探検してみてください！(iroirona chiikiwo tanken shitemite kudasai) “GO EXPLORE!”

P.S.  If you have a place in Japan you love that’s off the beaten track and want to share it on Tofugu.com, send a short summary of your experience to nick@tofugu.com.