Editing Ainu people (section)

==History==
[[File:Ainu old man circa 1930.JPG|thumb|Hokkaido Ainu clan leader, 1930]]
The Ainu are considered the native people of [[Hokkaido]], [[Sakhalin|southern Sakhalin]], and the [[Kuril Islands|Kurils]]. Ainu [[Toponymy|toponyms]] support the historical view that the Ainu people lived in several places throughout northern Honshu. There is also a possibility that Ainu speakers lived throughout the [[Amur region]] as suggested by various Ainu loanwords found in the [[Uilta language|Uilta]] and [[Ulch language|Ulch]] languages.<ref>{{cite book |last1=de Graaf |first1=Tjeerd |last2=Shiraishi |first2=Hidetoshi |year=2013 |url=https://dh-north.org/siberian_studies/publications/sikdegraafshiraishi.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://dh-north.org/siberian_studies/publications/sikdegraafshiraishi.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live |title=Documentation and Revitalisation of two Endangered Languages in Eastern Asia: Nivkh and Ainu |isbn=978-3-942883-12-2 |pages=49–64 |publisher=Verlag Kulturstiftung Sibirien}}</ref>{{Failed verification|reason=Source does not mention Ainu in Amur, does not mention Ulch, nor does it mention any loan words.|date=February 2024}} Ainu shares a number of cognates with [[Old Korean]], that appear unlikely to be the result of a Japonic intermediary.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Martin |first=Samuel E. |title=Consonant lenition in Korean and the Macro-Altaic question |date=1996 |publisher=Center for Korean Studies, University of Hawaiʻi : Distributed by [[University of Hawaiʻi Press]] |isbn=978-0-8248-1809-8 |series=Monograph |location=Honolulu, Hawaiʻi |language=en, ko}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Frellesvig |first=Bjarke |title=A history of the Japanese language |date=2010 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-65320-6 |location=Cambridge; New York |oclc=468978601}}</ref>

The ancestors of the Ainu, who were referred to as Emishi, came under Japanese subjugation starting in the 9th century and were pushed to the northern islands.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Leeming |first1=David |title=The Dictionary of Asian Mythology |date=2001 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |page=10}}</ref>

===Ainu Culture period (Nibutani period)===
Following the [[Zoku-Jōmon period]], which began in the 5th century BC, and the subsequent [[Satsumon culture|Satsumon period]], from around the 13th century the Ainu established their own culture by absorbing the surrounding culture while engaging in transit trade between Honshu and north-east Asia. This is called the Ainu Culture period or Nibutani period.

Active contact between the [[Yamato people|Wajin]] (ethnonym for Japanese, also known as Yamato people) and the Ainu of [[Ezo]]gashima (now known as [[Hokkaido]]) began in this period.<ref>{{cite book |last=Siddle |first=Richard M. |chapter=The Ainu: Indigenous people of Japan |editor-last=Weiner |editor-first=M. |year=1997 |title=Japan's Minorities: The Illusion of Homogeneity |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=London |isbn=978-0-41515-218-1 |pages=22–23}}</ref> The Ainu formed a society of hunter-gatherers, surviving mainly by hunting and fishing. They followed a religion that was based on natural phenomena.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/hokkaido/ainu.html |website=[[Nova (American TV series)|NOVA Online]] |publisher=[[PBS]] |title=Island of the Spirits – Origins of the Ainu |access-date=May 8, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080429080550/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/hokkaido/ainu.html |archive-date=April 29, 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref>

After the [[Mongols]] [[Mongol conquest of Jin China|conquered the Jin dynasty (1234)]], Karafuto (Sakhalin)-Ainu suffered raids by the [[Nivkh people|Nivkh]] and [[Udege people]]s. In response, the Mongols established an administration post at Nurgan (present-day [[Tyr, Russia]]) at the junction of the [[Amur]] and [[Amgun River|Amgun]] rivers in 1263, and forced the submission of the two peoples.{{sfnm|Nakamura|2010|1p=415|Stephan|1971|2p=21}} In 1264, the Karafuto-Ainu invaded the land of the Nivkh people. They also started an expedition into the Amur region, which was then controlled by the [[Yuan dynasty]], resulting in reprisals by the [[Mongol invasions of Sakhalin|Mongols who invaded Sakhalin]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.city.asahikawa.hokkaido.jp/files/hakubutsukagaku/museum/syuzo/59-tatakai/59-tatakai.html |script-title=ja:第59回 交易の民アイヌ VII 元との戦い |title=Dai 59-kai kōeki no min Ainu VII-moto to notatakai |trans-title=No. 59 The Ainu, a trading people VII The battle with the Yuan |language=ja |publisher=[[Asahikawa, Hokkaido|Asahikawa City]] |date=June 2, 2010 |access-date=March 2, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721151652/http://www.city.asahikawa.hokkaido.jp/files/hakubutsukagaku/museum/syuzo/59-tatakai/59-tatakai.html |archive-date=July 21, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.ainu-assn.or.jp/ |script-title=ja:公益社団法人 北海道アイヌ協会 |title=Kōeki shadanhōjin Hokkaidō Ainu kyōkai |trans-title=Hokkaido Ainu Association |website=公益社団法人北海道アイヌ協会 |language=ja |access-date=August 7, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190808071913/https://www.ainu-assn.or.jp/ |archive-date=August 8, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>

From the Nivkh perspective, their surrender to the Mongols essentially established a military alliance against the Ainu who had invaded their lands.{{sfnp|Zgusta|2015|p= 96}} According to the ''[[History of Yuan]]'', a group of people known as the ''Guwei'' ({{zhi|c=骨嵬|p=Gǔwéi}}, the phonetic approximation of the Nivkh name for Ainu) from Sakhalin invaded and fought with the Jilimi (Nivkh people) every year. On November 30, 1264, the Mongols attacked the Ainu.{{sfnp|Nakamura|2010|p= 415}} The Karafuto-Ainu resisted the Mongol invasions but by 1308 had been subdued. They paid tribute to the Mongol [[Yuan dynasty]] at posts in Wuliehe, Nanghar, and Boluohe.{{sfnp|Walker|2006|p=133}}

The Chinese [[Ming dynasty]] (1368–1644) placed Sakhalin under its "system for subjugated peoples" ({{lang|zh-latn|ximin tizhi}}). From 1409 to 1411 the Ming established an outpost called the [[Nurgan Regional Military Commission]] near the ruins of [[Tyr, Russia|Tyr]] on the Siberian mainland, which continued operating until the mid-1430s. There is some evidence that the Ming eunuch Admiral [[Yishiha]] reached Sakhalin in 1413 during one of his expeditions to the lower Amur, and granted Ming titles to a local chieftain.<ref name=tsai>{{cite book |title=Perpetual Happiness: The Ming Emperor Yongle |last=Tsai |first=Shih-Shan Henry |year=2002 |orig-date=2001 |publisher=[[University of Washington Press]] |location=Seattle, Wash |isbn=0-295-98124-5 |pages=158–161 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aU5hBMxNgWQC&pg=PA159 |access-date=June 16, 2010}} Link is to partial text.</ref>

The Ming recruited headmen from Sakhalin for administrative posts such as commander ({{zhi|p=zhǐhuīshǐ|c=指揮使}}), assistant commander ({{zhi|p=zhǐhuī qiānshì|c=指揮僉事}}), and "official charged with subjugation" ({{zhi|p=wèizhènfǔ|c=衛鎮撫}}). In 1431, one such assistant commander, Alige, brought [[marten]] pelts as tribute to the Wuliehe post. In 1437, four other assistant commanders (Zhaluha, Sanchiha, Tuolingha, and Alingge) also presented tribute. According to the ''[[Ming Veritable Records]]'', these posts, like the position of headman, were hereditary and passed down the patrilineal line. During these tributary missions, the headmen would bring their sons, who later inherited their titles. In return for tribute, the Ming awarded them with silk uniforms.{{sfnp|Walker|2006|p=133}}

[[Nivkh people|Nivkh]] women in Sakhalin married Han Chinese Ming officials when the Ming took tribute from Sakhalin and the Amur River region.<ref>{{cite book |first=Wada |last=Sei |year=1938 |script-title=ja:支那の記載に現はれたる黒龍江下流域の土人 |title=Shina no kisai ni arawaretaru Kokuryuko karyuiki no dojin |trans-title=The Natives of the Lower Reaches of the Amur River as Represented in Chinese Records |series=Memoirs of the Research Department of Toyo Bunko |publisher=[[Tōyō Bunko]] |url={{google books URL|mWipQwAACAAJ}}}}</ref><ref name="apjjf.org">{{cite journal |last1=Morris-Suzuki |first1=Tessa |date=November 15, 2020 |title=Indigenous Diplomacy: Sakhalin Ainu (Enchiw) in the Shaping of Modern East Asia (Part 1: Traders and Travellers) |url=https://apjjf.org/2020/22/Morris-Suzuki.html |journal=[[The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus]] |volume=18 |issue=22 |pages= |doi= }}</ref> Due to Ming rule in Manchuria, Chinese cultural and religious influence such as [[Chinese New Year]], the "[[Caishen|Chinese god]]", and motifs such as dragons, spirals, and scrolls spread among the Ainu, Nivkh, and Amur natives such as the [[Udeghe people|Udeghe]]s, [[Ulch people|Ulchi]]s, and [[Nanai people|Nanais]]. These groups also adopted material goods and practices such as agriculture, husbandry, heating, iron cooking pots, silk, and cotton.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nzhq85nPrdsC&dq=chinese+god+motifs+cotton+iron+silk&pg=PA214 |last=Forsyth |first=James |edition=illustrated, reprint, revised |isbn=0-521-47771-9 |date=1994 |title=A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony 1581-1990 |page=214 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]}}</ref>

[[File:Carte Generale de l'Empire Chinois et du Japon.png|thumb|right|French map from 1821 shows Sakhalin as part of Qing Empire, and the [[Kuril Islands]] are a part of Japan.]]

The Manchu [[Qing dynasty]], which came to power in China in 1644, called Sakhalin "Kuyedao" ({{Lang-zh|c=庫頁島|p=Kùyè dǎo|l=island of the Ainu}}){{sfnp|Smith|2017|p=83}}{{sfnp|Kim|2019|p=81}}{{sfnp|Nakayama|2015|p= 20}} or "Kuye Fiyaka" ([[Manchu language|{{MongolUnicode|ᡴᡠᠶᡝ<br />ᡶᡳᠶᠠᡴᠠ}}]]).{{sfnp|Schlesinger|2017|p=135}} The [[Manchus]] called it "Sagaliyan ula angga hada" (Island at the Mouth of the Black River).{{sfnp|Narangoa|2014|p=295}} The Qing first asserted influence over Sakhalin after the 1689 [[Treaty of Nerchinsk]], which defined the [[Stanovoy Mountains]] as the border between the Qing and the [[Russian Empire]]s. In the following year the Qing sent forces to the [[Amur]] estuary and demanded that the residents, including the Sakhalin Ainu, pay tribute. This was followed by several further visits to the island as part of the Qing effort to map the area. To enforce its influence, the Qing sent soldiers and mandarins across Sakhalin, reaching most parts of the island except the southern tip. The Qing imposed a fur-tribute system on the region's inhabitants.{{sfnp|Walker|2006|pp= 134–135}}{{sfnp|Sasaki|1999|pp= 87–89}}<ref name="apjjf.org"/>

{{Blockquote|The Qing dynasty ruled these regions by imposing upon them a fur tribute system, just as had the Yuan and Ming dynasties. Residents who were required to pay tributes had to register according to their ''hala'' ({{MongolUnicode|ᡥᠠᠯᠠ}}, the clan of the father's side) and ''gashan'' ({{MongolUnicode|ᡤᠠᡧᠠᠨ}}, village), and a designated chief of each unit was put in charge of district security as well as the annual collection and delivery of fur. By 1750, fifty-six ''hala'' and 2,398 households were registered as fur tribute payers, – those who paid with fur were rewarded mainly with Nishiki silk [[brocade]], and every year the dynasty supplied the chief of each clan and village with official silk clothes (''mangpao'', ''duanpao''), which were the gowns of the mandarin. Those who offered especially large fur tributes were granted the right to create a familial relationship with officials of the Manchu [[Eight Banners]] (at the time equivalent to Chinese aristocrats) by marrying an official's adopted daughter. Further, the tribute payers were allowed to engage in trade with officials and merchants at the tribute location. By these policies, the Qing dynasty brought political stability to the region and established the basis for commerce and economic development.{{sfnp|Sasaki|1999|pp=87–89}}|Shiro Sasaki}}

The Qing dynasty established an office in [[Ningguta]], situated midway along the [[Mudan River]], to handle fur from the lower Amur and Sakhalin. Tribute was supposed to be brought to regional offices, but the lower Amur and Sakhalin were considered too remote, so the Qing sent officials directly to these regions every year to collect tribute and to present awards. By the 1730s, the Qing had appointed senior figures among the indigenous communities as "clan chief" (''hala-i-da'') or "village chief" (''gasan-da'' or ''mokun-da''). In 1732, 6 ''hala'', 18 ''gasban'', and 148 households were registered as tribute bearers in Sakhalin. Manchu officials gave tribute missions rice, salt, other necessities, and gifts during the duration of their mission. Tribute missions occurred during the summer months. During the reign of the [[Qianlong Emperor]] (r. 1735–95), a trade post existed at Delen, upstream of Kiji (Kizi) Lake, according to [[Rinzo Mamiya]]. There were 500–600 people at the market during Mamiya's stay there.{{sfnp|Sasaki|1999|p=87}}<ref name="apjjf.org"/>

Local native Sakhalin chiefs had their daughters taken as wives by Manchu officials as sanctioned by the Qing dynasty when the Qing exercised jurisdiction in Sakhalin and took tribute from them.<ref>(Shiro Sasaki, 'A History of the Far East Indigenous Peoples' Transborder Activities Between the Russian and Chinese Empires', Senri Ethnological Studies, vol. 92, 2016, pp. 161‒193.) Sasaki, 'A History of the Far East Indigenous Peoples' Transborder Activities', p. 173.</ref><ref name="apjjf.org"/>

===Japanese colonization===
[[File:Hidaka Ainu—Umsa by Hirasawa Byōzan (Hakodate City Central Library).jpg|thumb|''[[Omusha]]'' ceremony involving the [[Hidaka Subprefecture|Hidaka]] Ainu, by Hirasawa Byōzan]]
[[File:Samurai and Ainu Fuzoku Ema.jpg|thumb|The [[samurai]] and the Ainu, {{circa|1775}}]]
In 1635, [[Matsumae Kinhiro]], the second daimyō of [[Matsumae Domain]] in Hokkaidō, sent Satō Kamoemon and Kakizaki Kuroudo on an expedition to Sakhalin. One of the Matsumae explorers, Kodō Shōzaemon, stayed in the island in the winter of 1636 and sailed along the east coast to Taraika (now [[Poronaysk]]) in the spring of 1637.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Akizuki |last=Toshiyuki |date=1994 |script-title=ja:日露関係とサハリン島：幕末明治初年の領土問題 |title=Nich-Ro kankei to Saharintō: Bakumatsu Meiji shonen no ryōdo mondai |trans-title=Japanese–Russian Relations and Sakhalin Island: Territorial Dispute in the Bakumatsu and First Meiji Years |location=Tokyo |publisher=Chikuma Shobo Publishers Ltd |isbn=4-480-85668-4 |page=34}}</ref> The [[Tokugawa bakufu]] (feudal government) granted the Matsumae clan exclusive rights to trade with the Ainu in the northern part of the island. Later, the Matsumae began to lease out trading rights to Japanese merchants, and contact between Japanese and Ainu became more extensive. Throughout this period, Ainu groups competed with each other to import goods from the Japanese, and epidemic diseases such as [[smallpox]] reduced the population.{{sfnp|Walker|2001|p=49–56, 61–71, 172–176}} In an early colonization attempt, a Japanese settlement was established at [[Korsakov (town)|Ōtomari]] on Sakhalin's southern end in 1679.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.karafuto.com/timetab.html |title=Time Table of Sakhalin Island |access-date=August 16, 2015 |archive-date=October 3, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151003010214/http://www.karafuto.com/timetab.html }}</ref>

In the 1780s, the influence of the Japanese [[Tokugawa Shogunate]] on the Ainu of southern Sakhalin increased significantly. By the beginning of the 19th century, the Japanese economic zone extended midway up the east coast, to Taraika. With the exception of the Nayoro Ainu located on the west coast in close proximity to China, most Ainu stopped paying tribute to the Qing dynasty. The [[Matsumae clan]] was nominally in charge of Sakhalin, but they neither protected nor governed the Ainu there. Instead they extorted the Ainu for Chinese silk, which they sold in [[Honshu]] as Matsumae's special product. To obtain Chinese silk, the Ainu fell into debt, owing much fur to the Santan ([[Ulch people]]), who lived near the Qing office. The Ainu also sold the silk uniforms (''mangpao'', ''bufu'', and ''chaofu'') given to them by the Qing, which made up the majority of what the Japanese knew as ''nishiki'' and ''jittoku''. As dynastic uniforms, the silk was of considerably higher quality than that traded at [[Nagasaki]], and enhanced Matsumae prestige as exotic items.{{sfnp|Walker|2006|pp= 134–135}} Eventually the Tokugawa government, realizing that they could not depend on the Matsumae, took control of Sakhalin in 1807.{{sfnp|Sasaki|1999|p=88}}

{{Blockquote|Mogami's interest in the Sakhalin trade intensified when he learned that Yaenkoroaino, the above-mentioned elder from Nayoro, possessed a memorandum written in Manchurian, which stated that the Ainu elder was an official of the Qing state. Later surveys on Sakhalin by shogunal officials such as Takahashi Jidayú and Nakamura Koichiró only confirmed earlier observations: Sakhalin and Sóya Ainu traded foreign goods at trading posts, and because of the pressure to meet quotas, they fell into debt. These goods, the officials confirmed, originated at Qing posts, where continental traders acquired them during tributary ceremonies. The information contained in these types of reports turned out to be a serious blow to the future of Matsumae's trade monopoly in Ezo.{{sfnp|Walker|2006|pp=149–150}}|Brett L. Walker}}

From 1799 to 1806, the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] took direct control of southern Hokkaido. Japan proclaimed sovereignty over Sakhalin in 1807, and in 1809 [[Mamiya Rinzō]] claimed that it was an island.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lower |first=Arthur |title=Ocean of Destiny: A concise History of the North Pacific, 1500–1978 |year=1978 |publisher=[[University of British Columbia Press]] |page=75 |isbn=978-0-7748-4352-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gIAOU9ltj48C&q=sakhalin}}</ref> During this period, Ainu women were separated from their husbands and either subjected to rape or forcibly married to Japanese men. Meanwhile, Ainu men were deported to merchant subcontractors for five- and ten-year terms of service. Policies of family separation and assimilation, combined with the impact of smallpox, caused the Ainu population to drop significantly in the early 19th century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lewallen |title=The fabric of indigeneity: Ainu identity, gender, and settler colonialism in Japan |publisher=[[University of New Mexico Press]] |location=Albuquerque |isbn=978-0-8263-5736-6 |pages=131–142 |year=2016}}</ref> In the 18th century, there were 80,000 Ainu,<ref>{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity |first=Dinah |last=Shelton |volume=2 |publisher=Macmillan Reference |year=2005}}</ref> but by 1868, there were only about 15,000 Ainu in Hokkaido, 2,000 in Sakhalin, and around 100 in the Kuril Islands.{{sfnp|Howell|1997|page=614}}

[[File:日本画家・村瀬義徳による「アイヌ熊祭屏風」（左）市立函館博物館蔵.jpg|thumb|Ainu people, by Murase Yoshinori]]
Despite their growing influence in the area in the early 19th century as a result of these policies, the Tokugawa shogunate was unable to gain a monopoly on Ainu trade with those on the Asian mainland, even by the year 1853. Santan traders, a group composed mostly of the [[Ulch people|Ulchi]], [[Nanai people|Nanai]], and [[Oroch people|Oroch]] peoples of the [[Amur]] River, commonly interacted with the Ainu people independent of the Japanese government, especially in the northern part of Hokkaido.<ref name=":7">{{cite journal |last1=Morris-Suzuki |first1=Tessa |date=November 15, 2020 |title=Indigenous Diplomacy: Sakhalin Ainu (Enchiw) in the Shaping of Modern East Asia (Part 1: Traders and Travellers) |url=https://apjjf.org/2020/22/Morris-Suzuki.html |journal=[[The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus]] |volume=18 |issue=22 |page=2 |doi= }}</ref> In addition to their trading ventures, Santan traders sometimes kidnapped or purchased Ainu women from [[Rishiri Island|Rishiri]] to become their wives. This further escalated Japan's presence in the area, as the Tokugawa shogunate believed a monopoly on the Santan trade would better protect the Ainu people.<ref name=":7" /><ref>(Mamiya Rinzō (trans. and ed. John Harrison), 'Kita Ezo Zutsetsu or a Description of the Island of North Ezo by Mamiya Rinzō', Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 99, no. 2, 1955, pp. 93‒117) Mamiya, 'Kita Ezo Zutsetsu', 107. The name 'Yaepikarainu' is my approximation based the Manchu version of his name, which was given as 'Yabirinu', and the Japanese version which was given as 'Yaepikaran', and the Ainu honorific naming convention of adding '-ainu' to the end of the names of elders.</ref>

===Japanese annexation of Hokkaido===
In 1869, the [[Empire of Japan|imperial government]] established the [[Hokkaidō Development Commission]] as part of the [[Meiji Restoration]]. Researcher Katarina Sjöberg quotes Yūko Baba's 1980 account of the Japanese government's reasoning:

{{Blockquote|... The development of Japan's large northern island had several objectives: First, it was seen as a means to defend Japan from a rapidly developing and [[Territorial evolution of Russia|expansionist Russia]]. Second ... it offered a solution to the unemployment for the former [[samurai]] class ... Finally, development promised to yield the needed natural resources for a growing capitalist economy.{{sfnp|Sjöberg|1993|p=116}}}}

As a result of the [[Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875)]], the Kuril Islands{{Em dash}}along with their Ainu inhabitants{{Em dash}}came under Japanese administration. In 1899, the Japanese government passed an act labeling the Ainu as "former aborigines", with the idea that they would [[Cultural assimilation|assimilate]]. This resulted in the Japanese government taking the land where the Ainu people lived and placing it under Japanese control.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Loos |editor-first1=Noel |editor-last2=Osani |editor-first2=Takeshi |year=1993 |title=Indigenous Minorities and Education: Australian and Japanese Perspectives on their Indigenous Peoples, the Ainu, Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders |publisher=Sanyusha Publishing Co., Ltd. |location=Tokyo |isbn=978-4-88322-597-2}}{{page needed|date=February 2020}}</ref> Also at this time, the Ainu were granted automatic Japanese citizenship, effectively denying them the status of an indigenous group.

[[File:Tatsujiro kuzuno.JPG|thumb|right|280px|A photograph of {{ill|Tatsujiro Kuzuno|ja|葛野辰次郎}}, an Ainu individual famous for being a promoter of Ainu culture]]

The Ainu went from being a relatively isolated group of people to having their land, language, religion, and customs assimilated into those of the Japanese.<ref name="bbc">{{cite news |first=Philippa |last=Fogarty |title=Recognition at last for Japan's Ainu |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7437244.stm |work=[[BBC News]] |publisher=BBC |date=June 6, 2008 |access-date=June 7, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108102235/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7437244.stm |archive-date=November 8, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> Their land was distributed to the [[Yamato people|Yamato Japanese]] settlers to create and maintain farms in the model of Western industrial agriculture. It was known as "colonization" (拓殖) at the time, but later by the [[euphemism]], "opening up undeveloped land" ({{Interlanguage link|開拓|lt=開拓|jp}}).{{sfnp|Siddle|1996|p=51}} Additionally, factories like flour mills and beer breweries, along with mining practices, resulted in the creation of infrastructure such as roads and railway lines during a development period that lasted until 1904.{{sfnp|Sjöberg|1993|p=117}} During this time, the Ainu were ordered to cease religious practices such as animal sacrifice and the custom of tattooing.<ref>{{cite book |last=Levinson |first=David |title=Encyclopedia of Modern Asia |volume=1 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |page=72 |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-684-80617-4}}</ref> The same act applied to the native Ainu on [[Sakhalin]] after its annexation as [[Karafuto Prefecture]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Yamada, Yoshiko |year=2010|title=A Preliminary Study of Language Contact around Uilta in Sakhalin|journal=Journal of the Center for Northern Humanities|volume=3|pages=59–75|hdl=2115/42939}}</ref>

===Assimilation after annexation===
[[File:Sakhalin ainu men.jpg|thumb|[[Sakhalin Ainu]] in 1904]]

The Ainu have historically suffered from economic and social discrimination, as both the Japanese government and mainstream population regarded them as dirty and primitive barbarians.{{sfnp|Walker|2001|p=233}} The majority of Ainu were forced to be petty laborers during the [[Meiji Restoration]], which saw the introduction of Hokkaido into the [[Empire of Japan|Japanese Empire]] and the privatization of traditional Ainu lands.{{sfnp|Siddle|1996|p=45}} During the 19th and 20th centuries, the Japanese government denied the rights of the Ainu to their traditional cultural practices, such as hunting, gathering, and speaking their native language.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tigweb.org/youth-media/panorama/article.html?ContentID=3609 |title=Will the Ainu language die? |date=May 31, 2004 |access-date=December 13, 2015 |website=TalkingITGlobal |last=Shim |first=Karen |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222095803/http://www.tigweb.org/youth-media/panorama/article.html?ContentID=3609 |archive-date=December 22, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The legal denial of Ainu cultural practices mostly stemmed from the 1899 [[Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cheung |first=S. C. H. |date=November 1, 2003 |title=Ainu culture in transition |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001632870300051X |journal=Futures |series=Futures of indigenous cultures |language=en |volume=35 |issue=9 |pages=951–959 |doi=10.1016/S0016-3287(03)00051-X |issn=0016-3287 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> This law and its associated policies were designed to fully integrate the Ainu into Japanese society while erasing Ainu culture and identity. The Ainu's position as manual laborers and their forced integration into larger Japanese society have led to discriminatory practices by the Japanese government that can still be felt today.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/bjrenquan/190878.htm |title=Human Right Issues on the Ainu People in Japan |date=n.d. |access-date=December 13, 2015 |website=China.org |last=Yokoyama |first=Yuzuru |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304034543/http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/bjrenquan/190878.htm |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Intermarriage between Japanese and Ainu was actively promoted by the Ainu to lessen the chances of discrimination against their offspring. As a result, many Ainu today are indistinguishable from their Japanese neighbors, but some Ainu-Japanese are interested in traditional Ainu culture.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}} For example, [[Oki (musician)|Oki]], born as the child of an Ainu father and a Japanese mother, became a musician who plays the traditional Ainu instrument, the {{transliteration|ja|[[tonkori]]}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hmv.co.jp/news/article/605230042/ |script-title=ja:アイヌ⇔ダブ越境！異彩を放つOKIの新作 |title= |trans-title=Crossing the borders between Ainu and Dub! OKI's distinctive new work |language=ja |website=HMV Japan |date=May 23, 2006 |access-date=March 26, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021211935/http://www.hmv.co.jp/news/article/605230042/ |archive-date=October 21, 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> There are also many small towns in the southeastern or [[Hidaka Subprefecture|Hidaka]] region of Hokkaido where ethnic Ainu live, such as in [[Nibutani]] ({{transliteration|ain|Niputay}}).

From the early 1870s, Christian missionary work was conducted among the Ainu. The [[Anglican Communion]] missionaries included the [[Rt. Rev.]] [[Philip Fyson]], [[Bishop of Hokkaido]], and the Rev. [[John Batchelor (missionary)|John Batchelor]]. Batchelor wrote extensively in English about the beliefs and daily life of the Ainu in Yezo (or [[Ezo]]), and his publications are a source of photographs of the Japanese and Ainu close to the missions.<ref>In particular, Sea-girt Yezo : glimpses of missionary work in North Japan by Batchelor, John (Church Missionary Society 1902) digitised by Google and uploaded to the Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/seagirtyezoglim00socigoog</ref>

===Standard of living===
The discrimination and negative stereotypes assigned to the Ainu have manifested in lower levels of education, income, and participation in the economy as compared to their ethnically Japanese counterparts. The Ainu community in Hokkaido in 1993 received welfare payments at a 2.3 times higher rate than that of Hokkaido as a whole. They also had an 8.9% lower enrollment rate from junior high school to high school and a 15.7% lower enrollment into college from high school.{{sfnp|Siddle|1996|p=45}} Due to this noticeable and growing gap, the Japanese government has been lobbied by activists to research the Ainu's [[standard of living]] nationwide. The Japanese government will provide [[Japanese yen|¥]]7&nbsp;million ([[United States dollar|US$]]63,000), beginning in 2015, to conduct surveys nationwide on this matter.<ref>{{cite news |title=First nationwide survey on Ainu discrimination to be carried out |url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/08/29/national/first-nationwide-survey-ainu-discrimination-carried/ |newspaper=[[Japan Times]] |date=August 29, 2014 |access-date=December 13, 2015 |issn=0447-5763 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151224182439/http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/08/29/national/first-nationwide-survey-ainu-discrimination-carried/ |archive-date=December 24, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Ainu and ethnic homogeneity in Japan===
The existence of the Ainu has challenged the notion of ethnic homogeneity in [[Postwar Japan|post-WWII Japan]]. After the demise of the multi-ethnic [[Empire of Japan]] in 1945, successive governments forged a single [[Japanese identity]] by advocating [[monoculturalism]] and denying the existence of more than one ethnic group in Japan.<ref name="Eiji Oguma 2020"/>

The Ainu were first recognised as an indigenous people in 1997,{{sfn|Porter|2008|p=202}} which began the process of claiming indigenous rights under national and international frameworks.{{sfn|Porter|2008|p=202}} Following the United Nations [[Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples]] in 2007, Hokkaido politicians pressured the government to recognize Ainu rights. Prime Minister [[Fukuda Yasuo]] answered a parliamentary question on May 20, 2008, by stating,<ref>{{cite news |last=Fukuda |first=Yasuo |date=May 20, 2008 |script-title=ja:衆議院議員鈴木宗男君提出先住民族の定義及びアイヌ民族の先住民族としての権利確立に向けた政府の取り組みに関する第三回質問に対する答弁書 |title=Shūgiin giin suzuki muneo-kun teishutsu senjūmin-zoku no teigi oyobi Ainu minzoku no senjūmin-zoku to shite no kenri kakuritsu ni muketa seifu no torikumi ni kansuru daisankai shitsumon ni taisuru tōben-sho |trans-title=Response to the third question submitted by Mr. Muneo Suzuki, Member of the House of Representatives, regarding the definition of indigenous peoples and the government's efforts to establish the rights of the Ainu people as indigenous peoples. |language=ja |publisher=[[Japanese Diet]] |url=https://www.shugiin.go.jp/internet/itdb_shitsumon.nsf/html/shitsumon/b169373.htm |script-quote=ja:アイヌの人々が「先住民族」かどうか結論を下せる状況にはないが、アイヌの人々は、いわゆる和人との関係において、日本列島北部周辺、取り分け北海道に先住していたことは歴史的事実であり、また、独自の言語及び宗教を有し、文化の独自性を保持していること等から、少数民族であると認識している。国際的に「先住民族」の定義が確立していない状況の下で、アイヌの人々が御指摘の「先住民族」と一致するものであるか結論を下せる状況にはなく、一致することを前提としてどのような問題が生じるかについて、現時点において予断することは適当とは考えていない。 |quote= |trans-quote=}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|It is a historical fact that the Ainu are the earlier arrivers of the northern [[Japanese archipelago]], in particular Hokkaido. The Japanese government acknowledges the Ainu to be an ethnic minority as it has maintained a unique cultural identity and has a unique language and religion. However, as there is no established international definition of "indigenous people", the government is not in a position to conclude whether the Ainu should be referred as "indigenous people"...}}

On June 6, 2008, the [[National Diet|National Diet of Japan]] passed a non-binding, bipartisan resolution calling upon the government to recognize the Ainu as [[indigenous people]].<ref>{{cite news |last= |date=June 6, 2008 |script-title=ja:アイヌ民族を先住民族とすることを求める決議 |title= |trans-title=Resolution calling for the Ainu people to be recognized as an indigenous people |language=ja |newspaper=Japanese Upper House |url=https://www.sangiin.go.jp/japanese/gianjoho/ketsugi/169/080606-2.html}}</ref><ref name="japantimes20082">{{cite news |last=Ito |first=M. |date=June 7, 2008 |title=Diet officially declares Ainu indigenous |newspaper=[[Japan Times]] |url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2008/06/07/national/diet-officially-declares-ainu-indigenous/ |url-status=live |access-date=April 25, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150408131300/http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2008/06/07/national/diet-officially-declares-ainu-indigenous/ |archive-date=April 8, 2015}}</ref>

In 2019, eleven years after this resolution, the Diet finally passed an act recognizing the Ainu as an indigenous people of Japan.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/20/asia/japan-ainu-indigenous-peoples-bill-intl/index.html |title=Japan's Ainu will finally be recognized as indigenous people |first=Emiko |last=Jozuka |date=April 20, 2019 |work=[[CNN]] |access-date=April 22, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190422013759/https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/20/asia/japan-ainu-indigenous-peoples-bill-intl/index.html |archive-date=April 22, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Komai |first=Eléonore |date=July 7, 2021 |title=The Ainu and Indigenous politics in Japan: negotiating agency, institutional stability, and change |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-race-ethnicity-and-politics/article/abs/ainu-and-indigenous-politics-in-japan-negotiating-agency-institutional-stability-and-change/4A9A317CFFE3F1A76A4A82736D7F1835 |journal=Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics |volume=7 |pages=141–164 |language=en |doi=10.1017/rep.2021.16 |s2cid=237755856 |issn=2056-6085 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> Despite this recognition of the Ainu as an ethnically distinct group, political figures in Japan continue to define ethnic homogeneity as key to the overall Japanese national identity. For example, then Deputy Prime Minister [[Tarō Asō]] notably claimed in 2020, "No other country but this one has lasted for as long as [[History of Japan|2,000 years]] with one language, one ethnic group, and [[Imperial House of Japan|one dynasty]]."<ref name="Eiji Oguma 2020">{{cite news |title=「麻生発言」で考えた…なぜ「日本は単一民族の国」と思いたがるのか？ |newspaper=[[Mainichi Shimbun]] |date=February 5, 2020 |last=Oguma |first=Eiji |author-link=Eiji Oguma |url=http://mmdesign-jpn.la.coocan.jp/shoko/oguma15.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211017061006/http://mmdesign-jpn.la.coocan.jp/shoko/oguma15.htm |archive-date=October 17, 2021}}</ref>