Editing Ainu people (section)

==Origins==
[[File:Yukie Chiri and Imekanu.jpg|thumb|A picture of [[Imekanu]], right, with her niece [[Yukie Chiri]], a famous Ainu Japanese transcriber and translator of Ainu epic tales. (1922)]]

The Ainu are regarded as having descended from the [[Jōmon people|indigenous Japanese hunter-gatherers]] who lived in Japan during the [[Jōmon period]] ({{circa}} 14,000 to 300 BCE).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Denoon |first1=Donald |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XUw6kiX9LQ0C&pg=PA22 |title=Multicultural Japan: Palaeolithic to Postmodern |last2=McCormack |first2=Gavan |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-521-00362-9 |pages=22–23}}</ref>

The exact origins of the early Ainu remain unclear, but it is generally agreed to be linked to the [[Satsumon culture]] of the [[Epi-Jōmon period]], with later influences from the nearby [[Okhotsk culture]].<ref>{{Cite web |script-title=ja:公益財団法人 アイヌ民族文化財団 |title=Kōeki zaidanhōjin Ainu minzoku bunka zaidan |trans-title=Public Interest Incorporated Foundation, The Foundation for Ainu Culture |url=https://www.ff-ainu.or.jp/ |access-date=December 8, 2023 |website=www.ff-ainu.or.jp |language=ja}}</ref> The Ainu culture may be better described as an "Ainu cultural complex", taking into account the regional variable subgroups of Ainu peoples. While the Ainu can be considered a continuation of the indigenous Jomon culture, they also display links to surrounding cultures, pointing to a larger cultural complex flourishing around the [[Sea of Okhotsk]]. Some authors have also described the development of the Ainu culture as the "resistance" of a Jomon society to the emerging Japanese state.<ref name="Janhunen 57–78">{{Citation |last=Janhunen |first=Juha A. |title=Handbook of the Ainu Language |chapter=2 Ainu ethnic origins |date=October 24, 2022 |chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781501502859-003/html |pages=57–78 |access-date=November 18, 2023 |publisher=[[De Gruyter Mouton]] |language=en |doi=10.1515/9781501502859-003 |isbn=978-1-5015-0285-9}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |first=Hosanna |last=Fukuzawa |date=2022 |title=Ainu Ethnogenesis and State Evasion (12th–17th Centuries) |journal=[[The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus]] |url=https://apjjf.org/2022/13/Fukuzawa.html |access-date=November 18, 2023}}</ref>{{sfnp|Hudson|2022}}

One of their {{transliteration|ain|[[Yukar]] Upopo}}, or legends, tells that "[T]he Ainu lived in this place a hundred thousand years before the Children of the Sun came."{{sfnp|Sjöberg|1993}}

The historical Ainu economy was based on farming as well as hunting, fishing, and gathering.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/hokkaido/ainu.html |title=NOVA Online – of the Spirits – Origins of the Ainu |website=[[PBS]] |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}}</ref>

The general consensus among historians is to associate the Ainu with the [[Satsumon culture]], which was located in an area stretching from northern Honshu to Hokkaido.{{sfnp|Sato|Amano|Ono|Ishida|2009|loc="...the Satsumon people (a direct ancestoral lineage of the Ainu people)..."}} Linguists such as [[Juha Janhunen]] and [[Alexander Vovin]] argue for a Satsumon origin of Ainu dialects, with deeper links to cultures centered in Central or Northern [[Honshu]].<ref>Ainu ethnogenesis アイヌ民族起源 – Tokyo, August 2018 Juha Janhunen</ref><ref name="Janhunen 57–78"/> This is in part supported by Ainu-derived loanwords observed in [[Eastern Old Japanese]] and the probable distant link between the Ainu and the [[Emishi]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Janhunen |first=Juha |date=October 1, 2022 |title=Old Japanese in a panchronic perspective |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/lingty-2022-0017/html?lang=de |journal=[[Linguistic Typology]] |language=en |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=683–691 |doi=10.1515/lingty-2022-0017 |s2cid=249679997 |issn=1613-415X |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

[[File:"Ainu Group" (Aborigines of Japan from the Island of Hokkaido or Yezo, Department of Anthropology, 1904 World's Fair).jpg|thumb|Ainu people of Hokkaido, 1904]] [[File:Yamamoto Tasuke.jpg|thumb|A high-status Ainu man]]

It has also been noted that the [[Okhotsk culture]] played a role in the formation of the later Ainu culture.{{sfnp|Lee|Hasegawa|2013|loc="In this paper, we reconstructed spatiotemporal evolution of 19 Ainu language varieties, and the results are in strong agreement with the hypothesis that a recent population expansion of the Okhotsk people played a critical role in shaping the Ainu people and their culture. Together with the recent archaeological, biological and cultural evidence, our phylogeographic reconstruction of the Ainu language strongly suggests that the conventional dual-structure model must be refined to explain these new bodies of evidence. The case of the Ainu language origin we report here also contributes additional detail to the global pattern of language evolution, and our language phylogeny might also provide a basis for making further inferences about the cultural dynamics of the Ainu speakers [44,45]."}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Matsumoto |first=Hideo |date=February 2009 |title=The origin of the Japanese race based on genetic markers of immunoglobulin G |journal=Proceedings of the Japan Academy. Series B, Physical and Biological Sciences |volume=85 |issue=2 |pages=69–82 |doi=10.2183/pjab.85.69 |pmc=3524296 |pmid=19212099 |bibcode=2009PJAB...85...69M}}</ref> The origin of the Okhotsk culture itself is subject to research. While Okhotsk remains display affinity to the modern [[Nivkh people]] of northern Sakhalin, both also display affinities to the [[Jōmon people]]s of Japan, pointing to a possible heterogeneous makeup of Okhotsk society. Satsumon pottery has been found among Okhotsk sites, pointing to a complex network of contacts in the wider area around the Sea of Okhotsk.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Matsumura |first1=Hirofumi |last2=Hudson |first2=Mark J |last3=Koshida |first3=Kenichiro |last4=Minakawa |first4=Yoichi |date=2006 |title=Embodying Okhotsk Ethnicity: Human Skeletal Remains from the Aonae Dune Site, Okushiri Island, Hokkaido |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/5/article/195365 |journal=Asian Perspectives |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=1–23 |doi=10.1353/asi.2006.0010 |issn=1535-8283 |hdl=10125/17243 |s2cid=53332214 |hdl-access=free}}</ref>{{sfnp|Sato|Adachi|Kimura|Hosomichi|2021}}

The emergence of the Ainu culture is henceforth primarily attributed to the Satsumon culture, which later received some contributions from the Okhotsk culture via cultural contacts in northern Hokkaido after the Satsumon culture expanded northwards and into Sakhalin.<ref>Smale, Joran (June 2014) [https://studenttheses.universiteitleiden.nl/handle/1887/28236 End of Okhotsk? A Peer Polity Interaction approach to the interaction, exchange and decline of a Northeast-Asian maritime culture on Hokkaido, Japan]. Master thesis. Leiden University, Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden. Quote: "Evidence that mainly Satsumon culture is ancestral to Ainu culture still stands. However, it is clear that there is some continuity between Okhotsk and Ainu culture in the veneration of the bear in Hokkaido."</ref> This view has been corroborated by later analyses.{{sfnp|Sato|Adachi|Kimura|Hosomichi|2021}}

{{Blockquote|Archaeologists have considered that bear worship, which is a religious practice widely observed among the northern Eurasian ethnic groups (including the Ainu, Finns, Nivkh, and Sami), was also shared by the Okhotsk people. On the other hand, no traces of such a religious practice have ever been discovered from archaeological sites of the Jomon and Epi-Jomon periods, which were anterior to the Ainu cultural period. This implies that the Okhotsk culture contributed to the formation of the Ainu culture.{{sfnp|Sato|Adachi|Kimura|Hosomichi|2021}}}}

===Relationship with the historical Emishi===
While the view that the ancient [[Emishi]] were identical to the Ainu has been largely disproven by current research, the exact relationship between them is still under dispute.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=工藤 |first=雅樹 |date=1994 |title=考古学から見た古代蝦夷 |url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/nihonkokogaku1994/1/1/1_1_139/_article/-char/ja/ |journal=日本考古学 |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=139–154 |via=J-STAGE}}</ref> It is agreed that at least some Emishi spoke [[Ainu languages]] and were ethnically related to the Ainu.<ref name=":8">{{Cite journal |last1=Boer |first1=Elisabeth de |last2=Yang |first2=Melinda A. |last3=Kawagoe |first3=Aileen |last4=Barnes |first4=Gina L. |date=January 2020 |title=Japan considered from the hypothesis of farmer/language spread |journal=Evolutionary Human Sciences |language=en |volume=2 |pages=e13 |doi=10.1017/ehs.2020.7 |pmid=37588377 |pmc=10427481 |issn=2513-843X |doi-access=free}}</ref> The Emishi may, however, have also included non-Ainu groups, which can either be associated with groups distantly related to the Ainu (Ainu-like groups) but forming their own ethnicity, or early [[Japonic languages|Japonic-speakers]] outside the influence of the Yamato court.<ref name=":8" /> The Emishi display clear material culture links to the Ainu of Hokkaido. Based on Ainu-like toponyms throughout Tohoku, it is argued that the Emishi, like the Ainu, descended from the [[Epi-Jōmon period|Epi-Jōmon tribes]] and initially spoke Ainu-related languages.<ref name=":8" />

The term "Emishi" in the [[Nara period]] (710–794) referred to people who lived in the [[Tohoku]] region and whose lifestyle and culture differed markedly from that of the [[Yamato people]]; it was originally a highly cultural and political concept with no racial distinction.<ref>{{Cite web |script-title=ja:古代の蝦夷（えみし）とアイヌはどのような関係にあるのですか。アイヌの祖先は蝦夷なのですか。 |title=Kodai no emishi to Ainu wa dono yōna kankei ni aru no desu ka. Ainu no sosen wa ezo na no desu ka. |trans-title=What is the relationship between the ancient Emishi and the Ainu? Were the Ainu ancestors the Emishi? |url=https://www.teikokushoin.co.jp/junior/faq/detail/950/ |access-date=September 1, 2023 |website=株式会社帝国書院 |language=ja}}</ref>

From the mid-Heian period onward, Emishi who did not fall under the governance of the [[Yamato Kingship]] were singled out as northern Emishi. They began to be referred to as "Ezo" (Emishi).

The first written reference to "Ezo", which is thought to be Ainu, can be found in ''[[Suwa Daimyōjin Ekotoba]]'', which was written in 1356. Indeed, Ainu have lived in Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, Hokkaido, and the northern Tohoku region since the 13th century.<ref>{{Cite web |script-title=ja:シントコ（行器） 文化遺産オンライン |title=Shintoko (gyō-ki) bunka isan onrain |trans-title=Shintoko (Traditional vessels) Cultural Heritage Online |url=https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/507683 |access-date=September 1, 2023 |website=bunka.nii.ac.jp |language=ja}}</ref>

===Genetics===
{{See also|Genetic history of East Asians|Jōmon people}}

====Paternal lineages====
[[File:The Ainu.jpg|thumb|Three Ainu from [[Hokkaido]] in traditional dress]]
An analysis of 16 Ainu male individuals found that the majority (14/16) belong to [[Y-DNA]] [[Haplogroup D-M55]], while a minority (2/16) belongs to [[Haplogroup C-M217]]. D-M55 is found throughout the [[Japanese archipelago]], with very high frequencies among the Ainu of Hokkaido. C-M217 is found more commonly among populations from Northeast Asia and Central Asia.{{sfnp|Tajima|Hayami|Tokunaga|Juji|2004}} Another analysis found that one out of four Ainu men belonged to haplogroup C-M217, while the remaining three belonged to haplogroup D-M55.{{sfnp|Hammer|Karafet|Park|Omoto|2006}}

====Maternal lineages====
An analysis of 51 Ainu individuals found that around 51% of their [[Mitochondrial DNA|mtDNA]] subclades are unique to the Ainu, while the remaining haplogroups are shared with other Asian populations, especially with the [[Nivkh people|Nivkhs]] in northern Sakhalin and the [[Koryaks]] on the Kamchatka Peninsula.{{sfnp|Tajima|Hayami|Tokunaga|Juji|2004}}

Of the 51 Ainu individuals, around 27% (14/51) belong to N9 (of which 10 were assigned to subclade [[Haplogroup Y|Y]] and four to unclassifed N9 clades), around 24% (12/51) to [[Haplogroup D (mtDNA)|D]], around 20% (10/51) to M7, and around 20% (10/51) to [[Haplogroup G (mtDNA)|G]]; the minor haplogroups are [[Haplogroup A (mtDNA)|A]] (2/51), [[Haplogroup B (mtDNA)|B]] (1/51), [[Haplogroup F (mtDNA)|F]] (1/51), and an unclassified subclade of M not belonging to M7, M8, CZ, D, or G.{{sfnp|Sato|Amano|Ono|Ishida|2009}}

====Autosomal DNA====
The Ainu appear genetically most closely related to the [[Jōmon people|Jōmon period peoples]] of Japan. Previous genetic analyses of Jomon remains found them to represent a deeply diverged [[East Asian people|East Asian]] lineage. The Jomon lineage is inferred to have diverged from Ancient East Asians before the divergence between [[Ancient Northern East Asian]]s and [[Ancient Southern East Asian]]s, but after the divergence of the basal [[Tianyuan man]] and/or [[Hoabinhian]]s. Beyond their broad affinity with Eastern Asian lineages, the Jomon also display a weak affinity for [[Ancient North Eurasian]]s (ANE), which may be associated with the introduction of [[microblade technology]] to Northeast Asia and northern East Asia during the [[Last Glacial Maximum]] via the ANE or [[Ancient Paleo-Siberian]]s.{{sfnp|Osada|Kawai|2021}}{{sfnp|Cooke|Mattiangeli|Cassidy|Okazaki|2021}}

The genetic makeup of the Ainu represents a "deep branch of East Asian diversity". Compared to contemporary East Asian populations, the Ainu share "a closer genetic relationship with northeast Siberians". The Ainu also display a relative closer genetic affinity with "lowland East Asians" than "highland East Asians" and may have contributed some ancestry to surrounding populations around the Sea of Okhotsk. Differences in the frequency of the derived [[EDAR]] gene variant between the Ainu and contemporary East Asians suggest that the ancestors of the Ainu may not have shared the selective pressures with other Ancestral East Asian populations. The Ainu, however, share two variants in the ADH gene cluster with other East Asians at high frequency, unlike Tibetans and Sherpa, "raising the possibility that selective pressure on these variants was different in the high-altitude environments."{{sfnp|Jeong|Nakagome|Di Rienzo|2016}}

The closest modern ethnic groups to the Ainu are the [[Ryukyuan people|Ryukyuans]] in southern Japan, followed by contemporary Japanese people. Compared with other East Asian populations, the Ainu are an outgroup, pointing to long-lasting isolation after their divergence. By analyzing the [[SNP genotyping|SNP loci]] of Ainu individuals, it was found that they carry genes associated with facial structure found among Europeans and hair and tooth morphology found among East Asians.{{sfnp|Jinam|Kanzawa-Kiriyama|Inoue|Tokunaga|2015}} Genetic analyses of HLA I and HLA II genes as well as [[HLA-A]], [[HLA-B|B]], and [[HLA-DRB1|DRB1]] gene frequencies placed the Ainu in an intermediate position between [[indigenous peoples of the Americas]] and contemporary Northeast Asians.{{sfnp|Tokunaga|Ohashi|Bannai|Juji|2001}}{{sfnp|Kanzawa-Kiriyama|Jinam|Kawai|Sato|2019}}

[[File:Admixture graph based on the genomic data of NAT002, F23, and modern populations.jpg|thumb|Admixture graph based on the genomic data of Okhotsk (NAT002), Jomon (F23), and modern populations]]

Studies on modern-day Ainu estimate that they derive between 66% and 79.3% of their ancestry from the Jōmon lineage.{{sfnp|Kanzawa-Kiriyama|Jinam|Kawai|Sato|2019}}{{sfnp|Gakuhari|Nakagome|Rasmussen|Allentoft|2020}} Another study on modern Ainu individuals found that they derive c. 49% of their ancestry directly from the Jōmon people, c. 22% from the Okhotsk people (who themselves could be modeled as 54% [[Ancient Northeast Asian]], 22% [[Ancient Paleo-Siberian]], and 24% Jōmon), and ~29% from the [[Yamato people|Yamato]] Japanese (who carried around 11% Jōmon and 89% Yayoi ancestry), corresponding with historical events.{{sfnp|Sato|Adachi|Kimura|Hosomichi|2021}}