Some History

Background Information on the Ainu People

Originally the Ainu were a sea hunting, fishing and trading people who are still centered on Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan. In the past, they occupied an expanded area which shows how they developed as a small native people in the midst of powerful and competing nations -- Japan, Russia and China.

The Ainu made a strong impression on the West when they were "discovered" and popularized in the late 19th century. Contrasting with the Japanese, the Ainu physical type -- bearded with thick wavy hair -- led scholars to believe that the Ainu were a Caucasian people, thus creating the popular mystery of how this isolated racial group came to be so deeply surrounded by the indigenous peoples of Asia. Starting around 600 years ago, Japanese overwhelmed the Ainu regions through conquest. Today the type of relationship the Japanese have with the Ainu is similar to the balance that exists between the dominant population and the indigenous peoples of North America. In fact, political and cultural ties already exist between the Ainu and Native America.

The Ainu experience of facing threats to their survival from larger dominant societies over the last few hundred years is most closely paralleled by the history of coastal peoples along the Pacific Northwest. To understand the Ainu, we must see them in the larger context of the geographical and cultural environment they share with other traditional sea peoples of the North Pacific Rim. As we'll discover, the Ainu themselves want to be portrayed as a part of this northern heritage...

Continue: An Idea Takes Shape - Bill Fitzhugh's exhibit journal '90-'94

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