The White Race are the indigenous inhabitants of the Japanese islands. Ainu. The mystery of the Ainu, the natives of Japan
Few people know, but the Japanese are not the indigenous people of Japan. Before them lived on the islands Ainu, mysterious people, the origin of which is still a lot of mystery. The Ainu lived side by side with the Japanese for some time, until they were driven north.
That The Ainu are the ancient masters of the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, according to written sources and numerous titles geographical objects, whose origin is associated with Ainu language.
Scientists still argue about the origin of the Ainu. Ainu territory was quite extensive. the Japanese islands, Sakhalin, Primorye, the Kuril Islands and the south of Kamchatka. The fact that the Ainu are not related to other indigenous peoples of the Far East and Siberia is already a proven fact.
It is well known that Ainu came to the islands Sea of Japan and founded the Neolithic Jomon culture there (13,000 BC - 300 BC). 
Ainu did not practice agriculture they foraged for food hunting, gathering and fishing. They lived along the rivers on the islands of the archipelago, in small settlements quite remote from each other.
hunting weapons The Ainu consisted of a bow, a long knife and a horn. Various traps and traps were widely used. IN fishing The Ainu have long used "marek" - a spear with a movable swivel hook that captures fish. Fish were often caught at night, attracting them with the light of torches.
As the island of Hokkaido became increasingly densely populated by the Japanese, hunting lost its dominant role in the life of the Ainu. At the same time, the share of agriculture and domestic animal husbandry increased. The Ainu began to cultivate millet, barley, and potatoes.
Hunters and fishermen, the Ainu created an unusual and rich Jomon culture
characteristic of peoples with a very high level of development. For example, they have wooden products with unusual spiral ornaments and carvings,
amazing in beauty and ingenuity. 
The ancient Ainu created an extraordinary ceramics without a potter's wheel, decorating it with a fancy rope ornament.
The Ainu amaze with their talented folklore heritage: songs, dances and legends. 
The legend of the origin of the Ainu.
That was a long time ago. There was a village among the hills. ordinary village where ordinary people lived. Among them is a very kind family. The family had a daughter, Aina, the kindest of all. The village lived a normal life, but one day at dawn a black wagon appeared on the village road. The black horses were driven by a man dressed in all black. He was very happy about something, smiled broadly, sometimes laughed. There was a black cage on the wagon, and in it a small fluffy Bear cub was sitting on a chain. He sucked his paw, and tears flowed from his eyes. All the people of the village looked out the windows, went out into the street and were indignant: how shameful it is for a black man to chain, torturing white teddy bear. People only resented and said words, but did nothing. Only a kind family stopped the black man's cart, and Aina began to ask him to released the unfortunate Bear cub. The stranger smiled and said that he would release the beast if anyone gave their eyes. Everyone was silent. Then Aina stepped forward and said that she was ready for it. The black man laughed out loud and opened the black cage. The white fluffy Teddy bear came out of the cage. And kind Aina lost her sight. While the villagers were looking at Little Bear and saying sympathetic words to Aina, the black man on the black wagon disappeared to no one knows where. The little bear no longer cried, but Aina cried. Then the white Bear cub took the rope in his paws and began to lead Aina everywhere: through the village, over hills and meadows. This did not go on for very long. And then one day the people of the village looked up and saw that white fluffy Bear cub leads Aina straight to the sky, and leads Aina across the sky. Ursa Major leads Ursa Minor and is always visible in the sky so that people remember good and evil...
The Ainu bear cult differed sharply from similar cults in Europe and Asia. Only The Ainu fed the sacrificial bear cub with the breast of a female nurse!
The main celebration of the Ainu is the bear festival, on which Relatives and guests came from many villages. For four years, a bear cub was raised in one of the Ainu families. He was given the best food, the bear cub was prepared for a ritual sacrifice. In the morning, on the day of the bear sacrifice, The Ainu organized mass crying in front of the bear's cage. After that, the animal was taken out of the cage and decorated with shavings, ritual jewelry was put on. Then he was led through the village, and while those present distracted the attention of the beast with noise and shouts, the young hunters jumped on the bear one by one, clinging to him for a moment, trying to touch his head, and immediately jumped back: a peculiar rite of "kissing" the beast. The bear was tied to special place, tried to feed with festive food. The elder uttered a farewell word in front of him, described the labors and merits of the inhabitants of the village who raised the divine beast, set out the wishes of the Ainu, which the bear was to convey to his father, the mountain taiga god. It is an honor to “send” the beast to the forefather, i.e. killing a bear with a bow could be awarded to any hunter, at the request of the owner of the animal, but he must have been a visitor. Had hit right in the heart. The meat of the animal was laid on spruce paws and distributed taking into account seniority and generosity. The bones were carefully collected and taken to the forest. There was silence in the village. It was believed that the bear was already on its way, and the noise could lead it astray.
The genetic relationship of the Ainu with the people of the Neolithic culture Jomon, who were the ancestors of the Ainu, has been proved.
For a long time it was believed that the Ainu may have common roots with the peoples of Indonesia and the natives. Pacific Ocean because they have similar facial features. But genetic research excluded this option.
The Japanese are sure that the Ainu are related to the Paleo-Asian (?) peoples and came to the Japanese islands from Siberia. IN Lately there have been speculations that Ainu are relatives of the Miao Yao living in southern China.
Ainu appearance
The appearance of the Ainu is quite unusual: they have the features of Caucasians, they have unusually thick hair, wide eyes, fair skin. A characteristic feature of the appearance of the Ainu is very thick hair and a beard in men, what representatives of the Mongoloid race are deprived of. Thick long hair, tangled in a tangle, replaced helmets for the Ainu warriors.
Russian and Dutch travelers left many stories about the Ainu. According to their testimony, Ainu are very kind, friendly and open people.. Even Europeans who visited different years islands, noted the characteristic Ainu gallant manners, simplicity and sincerity.
Russian explorers - the Cossacks, conquering Siberia, reached the Far East. Arriving on the island of Sakhalin, the first Russian Cossacks even mistook the Ainu for Russians, so they were not like the Siberian tribes, but rather resembled Europeans.
Here is what he wrote Cossack Yesaul Ivan Kozyrev about the first meeting: “Fifty people dressed in skins poured out to meet. They looked without fear and were of an unusual appearance - hairy, long-bearded, but with white faces and not slanting, like the Yakuts and Kamchadals.
It can be said that The Ainu were like anyone: the peasants of the south of Russia, the inhabitants of the Caucasus, Persia or India, even the gypsies - just not the Mongoloids. These unusual people called themselves Ainami, which means "real person", but the Cossacks dubbed them "smokers", adding an epithet "hairy". Subsequently Cossacks met Kurils throughout the Far East - on Sakhalin, the south of Kamchatka, the Amur region.
The Ainu pay much attention upbringing and education of children. First of all, they think The child must learn to obey the elders! In the unquestioning obedience of the child to his parents, older brothers and sisters, adults in general, the future warrior was brought up. The obedience of the child, from the Ainu point of view, is expressed, in particular, in the fact that the child speaks with adults only when asked, when he is contacted. The child must be in full view of adults at all times., but at the same time do not make noise, do not bother them with your presence.
The Ainu give names to children not immediately after birth, as Europeans do, but at the age of one to ten years, or even later. Most often, the name of the Ainu reflects the distinctive property of his character, his inherent individual trait, for example: Selfish, Dirty, Fair, Good speaker, Stutterer, etc. Ainu have no nicknames are their names.
Ainu boys raised by the father of the family. He teaches them to hunt, navigate the terrain, choose the shortest way in the forest, hunting techniques and weapons. The upbringing of girls is the responsibility of the mother. In cases where children violate the established behavior rules, commit mistakes or misdemeanours, parents tell them various instructive legends and stories, preferring this means of influencing the child's psyche to physical punishment.
Ainu war with the Japanese
IN The idealistic life of the Ainu in the Japanese archipelago was soon interrupted by migrants from the South East Asia and China - Mongoloid tribes, who later became the ancestors of the Japanese. New settlers brought culture with them rice that allowed them to feed a large number population in a relatively small area. Having formed yamato State, they began to threaten the peaceful life of the Ainu, so some of them moved to Sakhalin, the lower Amur, Primorye and the Kuril Islands. The remaining Ainu began the era of constant wars with the state of Yamato, which lasted about a thousand years.
The first samurai were not Japanese at all.
The Ainu were skilled warriors who were fluent in bow and sword, and the Japanese failed to defeat them for a long time. A very long time, almost 1500 years .
The new state of Yamato, which arose in the III-IV centuries, begins an era of constant war with the Ainu. IN 670 Yamoto renamed Nippon (Japan). "Among the Eastern savages the strongest are Emishi", - testify the Japanese chronicles, where the Ainu appear under the name "emishi".
The Japanese demonized the recalcitrant people, calling the Ainu savages, but the Japanese for quite a long time yielded to the savages - the Ainu militarily. A record of a Japanese chronicler made in 712 : « When our exalted ancestors descended on a ship from the sky, on this island (Honshu) they found several wild peoples, among them the wildest were the Ainu.
Ainu. 1904
The Japanese were afraid of an open battle with the Ainu and recognized that one warrior - ain is worth a hundred Japanese . There was a belief that especially skilled Ainu warriors could let in fog in order to hide unnoticed by enemies.
The Ainu knew how to deal with with two swords and on the right thigh they wore two daggers . One of them (cheyki-makiri) served as a knife for committing ritual suicide - hara-kiri.
The origins of the samurai cult are in the martial art of the Ainu, not the Japanese. As a result of thousands of years of wars with the Ainu, the Japanese adopted a special military style from the Ainu. culture - samurai, originating from the millennial military traditions of the Atzni. And some of the samurai clans, by their origin, are still considered Ainu.
Even the symbol of Japan - great mountain Fujiyama - has in its name the Ainu word "fuji", which means "deity of the hearth."
The Japanese were able to defeat the Ainu only after the invention of cannons, having managed to to adopt many techniques of military art from the Ainu. The code of honor of the samurai, the ability to wield two swords and the mentioned hara-kiri ritual - many consider the characteristic attributes of Japanese culture, but in fact these military traditions were borrowed by the Japanese from the Ainu.
In ancient times, the Ainu had tradition to draw mustaches for women, so they looked like young warriors. This tradition says that Ainu women were also warriors, along with men they fought like Despite all the prohibitions from the Japanese government, even in the twentieth century, the Ainu were tattooed, it is believed that the latter the tattooed woman died in 1998.
Tattoos, in the form of a lush mustache above the upper lip, were applied exclusively by women. , it was believed that this rite was taught to the ancestors of the Ainu by the gods, the mother-progenitor of all living things - Oki Kurumi Turesh Mahi (Okikurumi Turesh Machi), the younger sister of the creator god Okikurumi .
The tradition of tattooing was passed down through the female line, drawing on the daughter's body was applied by her mother or grandmother.
In the process of "Japanization" of the Ainu people introduced in 1799 strict ban for tattooing Ainu girls , and in 1871 in Hokkaido, a second strict ban was proclaimed, because it was believed that the procedure was too painful and inhumane.
The Ainu language is also a mystery, it has Sanskrit, Slavic, Latin, Anglo-Germanic roots. Ainu language strongly out of the modern linguistic picture of the world, and he has not yet been found suitable place. During the long isolation the Ainu have lost contact with all other peoples of the Earth, and some researchers even single them out as special Ainu race.
ethnographers wrestling with the question where in these harsh lands there were people wearing swing (southern) type of clothing. Their national casual wear - dressing gowns , decorated with traditional ornaments, festive - white.
Ainu national clothes - dressing gown, decorated bright ornament, fur hat or wreath. Previously, clothing material was woven from strips of bast and nettle fibers. Now the national clothes of the Ainu are sewn from purchased fabrics, but decorated with rich embroidery. Almost each Ainu village has its own special embroidery pattern. Meeting the Ainu in national clothes, you can accurately determine which village he is from. Embroidery on men's and women's clothing differ. A man will never wear clothes with "female" embroidery, and vice versa.
Russian travelers were also struck by the fact that in summer, the Ainu wore a loincloth.
Today, there are very few Ainu left, about 30,000 people, and they live mainly in the north of Japan, in the south and southeast of Hokkaido. Other sources give a figure of 50 thousand people, but this includes first-generation mestizos with an admixture of Ainu blood - there are 150,000 of them, they have almost completely assimilated with the population of Japan. The culture of the Ainu goes into oblivion along with its secrets.
Decree of Empress Catherine II of 1779: “... leave the furry smokers free and do not require any collection from them, and henceforth the peoples living there should not be forced to do so, but try to be friendly and affectionate ... to continue the acquaintance already established with them.”
The decree of the empress was not fully respected, and yasak was collected from the Ainu until the 19th century. The gullible Ainu took their word for it, and if the Russians somehow kept him in relation to them, then with the Japanese there was a war to the last breath ... 
In 1884, the Japanese resettled all the North Kuril Ainu to Shikotan island, where the last of them died in 1941.The last Ainu man on Sakhalin died in 1961, after burying his wife, he, as befits a warrior and the ancient laws of his amazing people, made himself "Eritokpa", ripping open the stomach and releasing the soul to the divine ancestors...
It is believed that there are no Ainu in Russia. This small people who once inhabited lower reaches of the Amur, Kamchatka, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands completely assimilated. It turned out that the Russian Ainu were not lost in the common ethnic sea. At the moment they in Russia - 205 people .
According to the "National Accent" through the mouth Alexei Nakamura, head of the Ainu community, « Ainu or Kamchadal smokers did not disappear anywhere, they just didn’t want to recognize us for many years. The self-name "Ainu" comes from our word for "man" or "worthy man" and is associated with military operations. After all, we fought the Japanese for 650 years.”
October 30th, 2017
Everyone knows that Americans are not the native population of the USA, just like the current population of South America. Do you know that the Japanese are also not the indigenous population of Japan? Who then lived on these islands before them? ...
The Japanese are not the natives of Japan.
Before them, the Ainu lived here, a mysterious people, in whose origin there are still many mysteries. The Ainu for some time coexisted with the Japanese, until the latter managed to push them north. That the Ainu are ancient masters The Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, are evidenced by written sources and numerous names of geographical objects, the origin of which is associated with the Ainu language. And even the symbol of Japan - the great Mount Fuji - has the Ainu word "fuji" in its name, which means "deity of the hearth." According to scientists, the Ainu settled the Japanese islands around 13,000 years BC and formed the Neolithic Jomon culture there.
Settlement of the Ainu at the end of the 19th century
The Ainu did not engage in agriculture, they earned their living by hunting, gathering and fishing. They lived in small settlements quite distant from each other. Therefore, their area of residence was quite extensive: the Japanese islands, Sakhalin, Primorye, the Kuril Islands and the south of Kamchatka.
Around the 3rd millennium BC, Mongoloid tribes arrived on the Japanese islands, which later became Japanese ancestors. The new settlers brought with them a rice culture that allowed them to feed a large number of people in a relatively small area. Thus began hard times in the life of the Ainu. They were forced to move north, leaving their ancestral lands to the colonialists.
But the Ainu were skilled warriors, who were fluent in bow and sword, and the Japanese failed to defeat them for a long time. Very long, almost 1500 years. The Ainu knew how to handle two swords, and on their right thigh they wore two daggers. One of them (cheyki-makiri) served as a knife for committing ritual suicide - hara-kiri.
The Japanese were able to defeat the Ainu only after the invention of cannons, having managed by this moment to learn a lot from them in terms of military art. Code honor samurai, the ability to wield two swords and the mentioned hara-kiri ritual - these seemingly characteristic attributes of Japanese culture were actually borrowed from the Ainu.
Scientists still argue about the origin of the Ainu
But the fact that this people is not related to other indigenous peoples of the Far East and Siberia is already a proven fact. A characteristic feature of their appearance is very thick hair and beard in men, which representatives of the Mongoloid race are deprived of. For a long time it was believed that they may have common roots with the peoples of Indonesia and the Pacific natives, since they have similar facial features. But genetic studies ruled out this option.
And the first Russian Cossacks who arrived on Sakhalin Island even mistook the Ainu for Russians, so they were not like the Siberian tribes, but rather resembled Europeans. The only group of people from all the analyzed options with whom they have a genetic relationship turned out to be the people of the Jomon era, who were supposedly the ancestors of the Ainu. The Ainu language also strongly stands out from the modern linguistic picture of the world, and a suitable place has not yet been found for it. It turns out that during the long isolation, the Ainu lost contact with all other peoples of the Earth, and some researchers even single them out as a special Ainu race.
Ainu in Russia
For the first time, the Kamchatka Ainu came into contact with Russian merchants at the end of the 17th century. Relations with the Amur and Northern Kuril Ainu were established in the 18th century. The Ainu considered Russians, who differed in race from their Japanese enemies, as friends, and by the middle of the 18th century, more than one and a half thousand Ainu had accepted Russian citizenship. Even the Japanese could not distinguish the Ainu from the Russians because of their resemblance(white skin and Australoid facial features, which are similar to Caucasians in a number of ways). Compiled under the Russian Empress Catherine II "Spatial Land Description of the Russian State", included part Russian Empire not only all the Kuril Islands, but also the island of Hokkaido.
The reason is that ethnic Japanese at that time did not even populate it. Indigenous people- Ainu - following the results of the expedition, Antipin and Shabalin were recorded as Russian subjects.
The Ainu fought the Japanese not only in the south of Hokkaido, but also in the northern part of the island of Honshu. The Cossacks themselves explored and taxed the Kuril Islands in the 17th century. So Russia may demand Hokkaido from the Japanese.
The fact of Russian citizenship of the inhabitants of Hokkaido was noted in a letter from Alexander I to the Japanese Emperor in 1803. Moreover, this did not cause any objections from the Japanese side, let alone official protest. Hokkaido was a foreign territory for Tokyo like Korea. When the first Japanese arrived on the island in 1786, they were met by Ainu bearing Russian names and surnames. And what's more - orthodox Christians! Japan's first claims to Sakhalin date back only to 1845. Then Emperor Nicholas I immediately gave a diplomatic rebuff. Only the weakening of Russia in the following decades led to the occupation of the southern part of Sakhalin by the Japanese.
It is interesting that the Bolsheviks in 1925 condemned the former government, which had given Russian lands to Japan.
So in 1945, historical justice was only restored. The army and navy of the USSR resolved the Russo-Japanese territorial issue by force. Khrushchev in 1956 signed the Joint Declaration of the USSR and Japan, Article 9 of which read:
"The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, meeting the wishes of Japan and taking into account the interests Japanese state, agrees to the transfer of the Habomai Islands and the island of Sikotan to Japan, however, that the actual transfer of these islands to Japan will be made after the conclusion of the Peace Treaty between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Japan.
Khrushchev's goal was the demilitarization of Japan. He was ready to sacrifice a couple of small islands in order to remove American military bases from the Soviet Far East. Now, obviously, we are no longer talking about demilitarization. Washington clung to his "unsinkable aircraft carrier" with a stranglehold. Moreover, Tokyo's dependence on the United States even increased after the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Well, if so, then the gratuitous transfer of the islands as a “goodwill gesture” loses its attractiveness. It is reasonable not to follow Khrushchev's declaration, but to put forward symmetrical claims based on well-known historical facts. Shaking ancient scrolls and manuscripts, which is normal practice in such cases.
An insistence on giving up Hokkaido would be a cold shower for Tokyo. We would have to argue in the negotiations not about Sakhalin or even about the Kuriles, but about our own territory at the moment. I would have to defend myself, justify myself, prove my right. Russia from diplomatic defense would thus go over to the offensive. Moreover, China's military activity, North Korea's nuclear ambitions and readiness for military action, and other security issues in the Asia-Pacific region will provide another reason for Japan to sign a peace treaty with Russia.
But back to the Ainu
When the Japanese first came into contact with the Russians they called them Red Ainu(Ainu with blond hair). It was only at the beginning of the 19th century that the Japanese realized that the Russians and the Ainu were two different peoples. However, for Russians, the Ainu were "hairy", "dark-skinned", "dark-eyed" and "dark-haired". The first Russian researchers described the Ainu similar to Russian peasants with swarthy skin or more like a gypsy.
The Ainu were on the side of the Russians during the Russo-Japanese Wars of the 19th century. However, after the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, the Russians abandoned them to their fate. Hundreds of Ainu were massacred and their families forcibly transported to Hokkaido by the Japanese. As a result, the Russians failed to win back the Ainu during World War II. Only a few representatives of the Ainu decided to stay in Russia after the war. More than 90% went to Japan.
Under the terms of the St. Petersburg Treaty of 1875, the Kuriles were ceded to Japan, along with the Ainu living on them. On September 18, 1877, 83 North Kuril Ainu arrived in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, deciding to remain under Russian control. They refused to move to the reservations on the Commander Islands, as they were offered by the Russian government. After that, from March 1881, for four months they traveled on foot to the village of Yavino, where they later settled.
Later, the village of Golygino was founded. Another 9 Ainu arrived from Japan in 1884. The 1897 census indicates 57 people in the population of Golygino (all Ainu) and 39 people in Yavino (33 Ainu and 6 Russians). Both villages were destroyed by the Soviet authorities, and the inhabitants were resettled in Zaporozhye, Ust-Bolsheretsky district. As a result, three ethnic groups assimilated with the Kamchadals.
The North Kuril Ainu are currently the largest subgroup of the Ainu in Russia. The Nakamura family (South Kuril on the paternal side) is the smallest and has only 6 people living in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. There are a few on Sakhalin who identify themselves as Ainu, but many more Ainu do not recognize themselves as such.
Most of the 888 Japanese living in Russia (2010 census) are of Ainu origin, although they do not recognize this (full-blooded Japanese are allowed to enter Japan without a visa). The situation is similar with the Amur Ainu living in Khabarovsk. And it is believed that none of the Kamchatka Ainu survived.
Epilogue
In 1979, the USSR crossed out the ethnonym "Ainu" from the list of "living" ethnic groups in Russia, thereby declaring that this people had died out on the territory of the USSR. Judging by the 2002 census, no one entered the ethnonym "Ainu" in fields 7 or 9.2 of the K-1 census form. There is such evidence that the Ainu have the most direct genetic ties in the male line, oddly enough, with the Tibetans - half of them are carriers of a close haplogroup D1 (the D2 group itself is practically not found outside the Japanese archipelago) and the Miao-Yao peoples in southern China and in Indochina.
As for the female (Mt-DNA) haplogroups, the U group dominates among the Ainu, which is also found among other peoples of East Asia, but in small numbers. During the 2010 census, about 100 people tried to register themselves as Ainu, but the Kamchatka Krai government rejected their claims and recorded them as Kamchadals.
In 2011, the head of the Ainu community of Kamchatka Alexey Vladimirovich Nakamura sent a letter to the governor of Kamchatka Vladimir Ilyukhin and the chairman of the local duma Boris Nevzorov with a request to include the Ainu in the List of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation. The request was also denied. Aleksey Nakamura reports that in 2012 there were 205 Ainu in Russia (compared to 12 people registered in 2008), and they, like the Kuril Kamchadals, are fighting for official recognition. The Ainu language died out many decades ago.
In 1979, only three people on Sakhalin could speak Ainu fluently, and there the language had completely died out by the 1980s. Although Keizo Nakamura fluent in Sakhalin-Ainu and even translated several documents into Russian for the NKVD, he did not pass the language on to his son. Take Asai, the last person who knew the Sakhalin Ainu language, died in Japan in 1994.
Until the Ainu are recognized, they are marked as people without a nationality, like ethnic Russians or Kamchadals. Therefore, in 2016, both the Kuril Ainu and the Kuril Kamchadals are deprived of the rights to hunt and fish, which the small peoples of the Far North have.
Ainuamazing
Today there are very few Ainu left, about 25,000 people. They live mainly in the north of Japan and are almost completely assimilated by the population of this country.
The Ainu are the indigenous people of Japan. unknownstory
Music from antiquity. Ainu - Old photos and songs
Nikolai Levashov about the Kuril Islands and Japan
Initially, the Ainu lived on the islands of Japan (then it was called Ainumoshiri - the land of the Ainu), until they were pushed north by the proto-Japanese. But the original lands of the Ainu on the Japanese islands of Hokkaido and Honshu. The Ainu came to Sakhalin in the XIII-XIV centuries, "finishing" the settlement in the beginning. XIX century.
Traces of their appearance were also found in Kamchatka, in Primorye and the Khabarovsk Territory. Many place names Sakhalin region have Ainu names: Sakhalin (from "SAKHAREN MOSIRI" - "undulating land"); the islands of Kunashir, Simushir, Shikotan, Shiashkotan (the ending words “shir” and “kotan” mean, respectively, “plot of land” and “settlement”). It took the Japanese more than 2,000 years to occupy the entire archipelago up to and including Hokkaido (then called "Ezo") (the earliest evidence of skirmishes with the Ainu dates back to 660 BC). Subsequently, the Ainu practically all degenerated or assimilated with the Japanese and Nivkhs.
At present, there are only a few reservations on the island of Hokkaido, where Ainu families live. Ainu, perhaps the most mysterious people in the Far East. The first Russian navigators who studied Sakhalin and the Kuriles were surprised to note Caucasian facial features, thick hair and beards unusual for Mongoloids. Russian decrees of 1779, 1786 and 1799 testify that the inhabitants of the southern Kuriles - Ainu since 1768 were Russian subjects (in 1779 they were exempted from paying tribute to the treasury - yasak), and the southern Kuril Islands were considered Russia as its own territory. The fact of the Russian citizenship of the Kuril Ainu and the belonging of Russia to the whole Kuril ridge also confirm the Instruction of the Irkutsk governor A.I. Bril to the chief commander of Kamchatka M.K. c Ainu - inhabitants of the Kuril Islands, including those from the south (including the island of Matmai-Hokkaido), the mentioned tribute-yasaka. Iturup means " the best place", Kunashir - Simushir means "a piece of land - a black island", Shikotan - Shiashkotan (the ending words "shir" and "kotan" mean, respectively, "a piece of land" and "settlement").
With their good nature, honesty and modesty, the Ainu produced the most best impression. When they were given gifts for the delivered fish, they took them in their hands, admired them and then returned them. With difficulty, the Ainu succeeded in explaining that this was being given to them as property. In relation to the Ainu, even Catherine the Second prescribed - to be affectionate with the Ainu and not tax them, in order to alleviate the situation of the new Russian sub-South Kuril Ainu. Decree of Catherine II to the Senate on the exemption from taxes of the Ainu - the population of the Kuril Islands, who accepted Russian citizenship in 1779. Yeya I.V. commands the hairy smokers brought into citizenship on the distant islands - the Ainu to be left free and not to require any collection from them, and henceforth the peoples living there should not be forced to do so, but try to continue with friendly treatment and affection for the expected benefit in crafts and trade to continue what has already been established with them acquaintance. The first cartographic description of the Kuril Islands, including them southern part, was made in 1711-1713. according to the results of the expedition of I. Kozyrevsky, who collected information about most of the Kuril Islands, including Iturup, Kunashir and even the "Twenty Second" Kuril Island MATMAI (Matsmai), which later became known as Hokkaido. It was precisely established that the Kuriles were not subject to any foreign state. In the report of I. Kozyrevsky in 1713. it was noted that the South Kuril Ainu "live autocratically and not in citizenship and trade freely." It should be especially noted that Russian explorers, in accordance with the policy Russian state, discovering new lands inhabited by the Ainu, they immediately announced the inclusion of these lands in Russia, began their study and economic development, carried out missionary activities, taxed the local population with tribute (yasak). During the 18th century, all the Kuril Islands, including their southern part, became part of Russia. This is also confirmed by the statement made by the head of the Russian embassy N. Rezanov during negotiations with the representative of the Japanese government K. Toyama in 1805 that "to the north of Matsmai (Hokkaido Island) all lands and waters belong to the Russian emperor and that the Japanese did not extend further than their possessions." The Japanese mathematician and astronomer of the 18th century Honda Toshiaki wrote that “... the Ainu look at the Russians as their own fathers,” since “true possessions are won by virtuous deeds. Countries forced to submit to the force of arms remain unsubdued at heart."
By the end of the 80s. XVIII century, the facts of Russian activity in the Kuriles were accumulated quite enough so that, in accordance with the norms international law that time, count the entire archipelago, including its southern islands, belonging to Russia, which was recorded in Russian government documents. First of all, we should name the imperial decrees (recall that at that time the imperial or royal decree had the force of law) of 1779, 1786 and 1799, in which the citizenship of Russia of the South Kuril Ainu (then called "furry smokers") was confirmed, and the islands themselves were declared the possession of Russia. In 1945, the Japanese evicted all the Ainu from occupied Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands to Hokkaido, while for some reason they left a labor army from the Koreans brought by the Japanese on Sakhalin and the USSR had to accept them as stateless persons, then the Koreans moved to Central Asia. A little later, ethnographers wondered for a long time - where did people wearing open (southern) type of clothing come from in these harsh lands, and linguists discovered Latin, Slavic, Anglo-Germanic and even Indo-Aryan roots in the Ainu language. The Ainu were ranked among the Indo-Aryans, and among the Australoids and even Caucasians. In a word, there were more and more mysteries, and the answers brought more and more problems. The Ainu population was a socially stratified group (“utar”), headed by the families of leaders by the right of inheritance of power (it should be noted that the Ainu clan went through the female line, although the man was naturally considered the main one in the family). "Utar" was built on the basis of fictitious kinship and had a military organization. The ruling families, who called themselves "utarpa" (head of the utar) or "nishpa" (leader), were a layer of the military elite. Men " high origin"already from birth they were intended for military service, high-born women spent time embroidering and shamanic rituals ("tusu").
The chief's family had a dwelling inside a fortification ("chasi"), surrounded by an earthen embankment (also called "chasi"), usually under the cover of a mountain or rock protruding above the terrace. The number of mounds often reached five or six, which alternated with ditches. Together with the family of the leader inside the fortification, there were usually servants and slaves (“ushyu”). The Ainu did not have any centralized power. Of the weapons, the Ainu preferred the bow. No wonder they were called "people from whose hair arrows stick out" because they wore quivers (and swords, by the way, too) behind their backs. The bow was made from elm, beech or large euonymus (high shrub, up to 2.5 m high with very strong wood) with whalebone overlays. The bowstring was made from nettle fibers. The plumage of the arrows consisted of three eagle feathers. A few words about combat tips. In combat, both "regular" armor-piercing and spiked tips were used (perhaps to better cut through armor or get an arrow stuck in a wound). There were also tips of an unusual, Z-shaped section, which were most likely borrowed from the Manchus or Jurgens (information has been preserved that in the Middle Ages the Sakhalin Ainu repulsed a large army that came from the mainland). Arrowheads were made of metal (the early ones were made of obsidian and bone) and then smeared with aconite poison "suruku". Aconite root was crushed, soaked and placed in a warm place for fermentation. A stick with poison was applied to the spider's leg, if the leg fell off, the poison was ready. Due to the fact that this poison quickly decomposed, it was also widely used in hunting large animals. The arrow shaft was made of larch.
The swords of the Ainu were short, 45-50 cm long, slightly curved, with one-sided sharpening and a one and a half hand handle. The Ainu warrior - dzhangin - fought with two swords, not recognizing shields. The guards of all swords were removable and were often used as decorations. There is evidence that some guards were specially polished to a mirror finish in order to scare away evil spirits. In addition to swords, the Ainu wore two long knives (“cheiki-makiri” and “sa-makiri”), which were worn on the right thigh. Cheiki-makiri was a ritual knife for making sacred shavings "inau" and performing the rite "re" or "erytokpa" - ritual suicide, which the Japanese later adopted, calling "hara-kiri" or "seppuku" (as, by the way, the cult of the sword, special shelves for sword, spear, bow). Ainu swords were put on public display only during the Bear Festival. An old legend says: A long time ago, after this country was created by God, there lived an old Japanese man and an old Ain man. The Ainu grandfather was ordered to make a sword, and the Japanese grandfather: money (the following explains why the Ainu had a cult of swords, and the Japanese had a thirst for money. The Ainu condemned their neighbors for acquisitiveness). They treated the spears rather coolly, although they exchanged them with the Japanese.
Another detail of the weapons of the Ainu warrior was the combat beaters - small rollers with a handle and a hole at the end, made of hardwood. On the sides of the beaters were supplied with metal, obsidian or stone spikes. The mallets were used both as a flail and as a sling - a leather belt was threaded through the hole. A well-aimed blow from such a mallet killed immediately, at best (for the victim, of course) - forever disfigured. The Ainu did not wear helmets. They had natural long thick hair, which was tangled into a tangle, forming a semblance of a natural helmet. Now let's move on to the armor. Armor of the sarafan type was made from the skin of a bearded seal (“sea hare” - a type of large seal). In appearance, such armor (see photo) may seem bulky, but in fact it practically does not restrict movement, it allows you to bend and squat freely. Thanks to the numerous segments, four layers of skin were obtained, which with equal success reflected the blows of swords and arrows. The red circles on the chest of the armor symbolize the three worlds (upper, middle and lower worlds), as well as shamanic “toli” disks that scare away evil spirits and generally have a magical meaning. Similar circles are also depicted on the back. Such armor is fastened in front with the help of numerous ties. There were also short armor, like sweatshirts with planks or metal plates sewn on them. Very little is currently known about the martial art of the Ainu. It is known that the pra-Japanese adopted almost everything from them. Why not assume that some elements of martial arts were also not adopted?
Only such a duel has survived to this day. Opponents, holding each other by the left hand, struck with clubs (the Ainu specially trained their backs to pass this endurance test). Sometimes these batons were replaced with knives, and sometimes they just fought with their hands, until the opponents were out of breath. Despite the brutality of the duel, no cases of injury were observed. In fact, the Ainu fought not only with the Japanese. Sakhalin, for example, they conquered from the "tonzi" - a short people, really the indigenous population of Sakhalin. From "tonzi" Ainu women adopted the habit of tattooing their lips and the skin around their lips (a kind of half-smile - half-mustache was obtained), as well as the names of some (very good quality) swords - "tontsini". It is curious that the Ainu warriors - the Jangins - were noted as very warlike, they were incapable of lying. Information about signs of ownership of the Ainu is also interesting - they put arrows, weapons, dishes special characters, passed down from generation to generation, in order not to confuse, for example, whose arrow hit the beast, who owns this or that thing. There are more than one and a half hundred such signs, and their meanings have not yet been deciphered. Rock inscriptions were found near Otaru (Hokkaido) and on the sharp Urup.
It remains to add that the Japanese were afraid of an open battle with the Ainu and won them by cunning. An ancient Japanese song said that one "emishi" (barbarian, ain) is worth a hundred people. There was a belief that they could make fog. Over the years, the Ainu have repeatedly raised an uprising against the Japanese (in Ainu “siskin”), but each time they lost. The Japanese invited the leaders to their place to conclude a truce. Sacredly honoring the customs of hospitality, the Ainu, trusting like children, did not think anything bad. They were killed during the feast. As a rule, the Japanese did not succeed in other ways of suppressing the uprising.
“The Ainu are a meek, modest, good-natured, trusting, sociable, polite, respectful people; brave on the hunt
and... even intelligent.” (A.P. Chekhov - Sakhalin Island)
From the 8th century the Japanese did not stop slaughtering the Ainu, who fled from extermination to the north - to Hokkaido - Matmai, the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. Unlike the Japanese, the Russian Cossacks did not kill them. After several skirmishes between similar outwardly blue-eyed and bearded aliens on both sides, normal friendly relations were established. And although the Ainu flatly refused to pay the yasak tax, no one killed them for this, unlike the Japanese. However, 1945 became a turning point for the fate of this people. Today, only 12 of its representatives live in Russia, but there are many "mestizos" from mixed marriages. The destruction of the "bearded people" - the Ainu in Japan stopped only after the fall of militarism in 1945. However, the cultural genocide continues to this day.
It is significant that no one knows the exact number of Ainu on the Japanese islands. The fact is that in “tolerant” Japan, quite often there is still a rather arrogant attitude towards representatives of other nationalities. And the Ainu were no exception: it is impossible to determine their exact number, since according to the Japanese censuses they do not appear either as a people or as a national minority. According to scientists, the total number of the Ainu and their descendants does not exceed 16 thousand people, of which there are no more than 300 purebred representatives of the Ainu people, the rest are “mestizos”. In addition, often the most unprestigious job is left to the Ainu. And the Japanese are actively pursuing a policy of their assimilation, and there is no question of any "cultural autonomies" for them. People from mainland Asia also came to Japan around the same time that people first reached America. First settlers Japanese islands- Yomon (ancestors of the Ainu) reached Japan twelve thousand years ago, and yōi (ancestors of the Japanese) came from Korea in the last two and a half millennia.
In Japan, work has been done that allows us to hope that genetics is able to solve the question of who the ancestors of the Japanese are. Along with the Japanese living on the central islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu, anthropologists distinguish two more modern ethnic groups: the Ainu from the island of Hokkaido in the north and the Ryukyuans, who live mainly on the very south island 0kinava. One theory is that these two groups, the Ainu and the Ryukyuans, are the descendants of the original Yomon settlers who once occupied all of Japan and were later pushed out of the central islands north into Hokkaido and south into Okinawa by the Youi from Korea. Mitochondrial DNA research conducted in Japan only partly supports this hypothesis: it showed that modern Japanese from the central islands have very much in common genetically with modern Koreans, with whom they have many more identical and similar mitochondrial types than with the Ainu and the Ryukyuans. However, it is also shown that there are practically no similarities between the Ainu and Ryukyu people. Age estimates have shown that both of these ethnic groups have accumulated certain mutations over the past twelve millennia - this suggests that they are indeed descendants of the original Yomon people, but also proves that the two groups have not been in contact since then.
There is one on earth ancient people, which has been simply ignored for more than one century, and more than once was subjected to persecution and genocide in Japan due to the fact that by its existence it simply breaks the established official false history of both Japan and Russia.
Now, there is reason to believe that not only in Japan, but also on the territory of Russia, there is a part of this ancient indigenous people. According to the preliminary data of the latest population census, held in October 2010, there are more than 100 Ainu people in our country. The fact itself is unusual, because until recently it was believed that the Ainu live only in Japan. This was suspected, but on the eve of the population census, employees of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences noticed that, despite the absence of Russian peoples in the official list, some of our fellow citizens stubbornly continue to consider themselves Ainami and have good reasons for this.
As studies have shown - the Ainu, or the KAMCHADAL KURILTS - did not disappear anywhere, they simply did not want to recognize them for many years. But even Stepan Krasheninnikov, an explorer of Siberia and Kamchatka (XVIII century), described them as Kamchadal smokers. The very name "Ainu" comes from their word for "man", or "worthy man", and is associated with military operations. And according to one of the representatives of this nationality in an interview with the well-known journalist M. Dolgikh, the Ainu fought the Japanese for 650 years. It turns out that this is the only people left to this day, who from ancient times held back the occupation, resisted the aggressor - now the Japanese, who were, in fact, Koreans with perhaps a certain percentage of the Chinese population who moved to the islands and formed another state.
It has been scientifically established that the Ainu inhabited the north about 7 thousand years ago Japanese archipelago, the Kuriles and part of Sakhalin and, according to some sources, part of Kamchatka and even the lower reaches of the Amur. The Japanese who came from the south gradually assimilated and forced out the Ainu to the north of the archipelago - to Hokkaido and the southern Kuriles.
Hokaido now hosts the largest concentrations of Ainu families.
According to experts, in Japan, the Ainu were considered "barbarians", "savages" and social marginals. The hieroglyph used to designate the Ainu means "barbarian", "savage", now the Japanese call them "hairy Ainu" for which the Ainu of the Japanese do not like.
And here the policy of the Japanese against the Ainu is very well traced, since the Ainu lived on the islands even before the Japanese and had a culture many times, or even orders of magnitude higher than that of the ancient Mongoloid settlers.
But the topic of the Ainu's dislike for the Japanese probably exists not only because of the ridiculous nicknames addressed to them, but also probably because the Ainu, let me remind you, have been subjected to genocide and persecution by the Japanese for centuries.
At the end of the XIX century. about one and a half thousand Ainu lived in Russia. After the Second World War, they were partly evicted, partly left on their own along with the Japanese population, others remained, returning, so to speak, from their hard and protracted service for centuries. This part mixed with the Russian population of the Far East.
In appearance, representatives of the Ainu people very little resemble their closest neighbors - the Japanese, Nivkhs and Itelmens.
Ainu is the White Race.
According to the Kamchadal Kurils themselves, all the names of the islands of the southern ridge were given by the Ainu tribes who once inhabited these territories. By the way, it is wrong to think that the names of the Kuriles, Kuril Lake, etc. arose from hot springs or volcanic activity.
It's just that the Kurils, or Kurilians, live here, and "Kuru" in Ainu means the People.
It should be noted that this version destroys the already flimsy basis of the Japanese claims to our Kuril Islands. Even if the name of the ridge comes from our Ainu. This was confirmed during the expedition to about. Matua. There is an Ainu bay, where the oldest Ainu site was discovered.
Therefore, according to experts, it is very strange to say that the Ainu have never been in the Kuriles, Sakhalin, Kamchatka, as the Japanese are doing now, assuring everyone that the Ainu live only in Japan (after all, archeology says otherwise), so they, the Japanese, allegedly need to give the Kuril Islands. This is pure untruth. There are Ainu in Russia - the indigenous White People, who have a direct right to consider these islands their ancestral lands.
American anthropologist S. Lauryn Brace, from Michigan State University in Horizons of Science, No. 65, September-October 1989. writes: "The typical Ainu is easily distinguished from the Japanese: he has lighter skin, thicker body hair, beards, which is unusual for Mongoloids, and a more protruding nose."
Brace studied about 1,100 Japanese, Ainu, and other tombs and concluded that the upper class samurai in Japan are actually the descendants of the Ainu, and not the Yayoi (Mongoloids), the ancestors of the majority. modern Japanese.
The history of the Ainu estates is reminiscent of the history of the higher castes in India, where the highest percentage of the White man haplogroup R1a1.
Brace further writes: “... this explains why the facial features of the representatives of the ruling class are so often different from modern Japanese. The real Samurai, the descendants of the Ainu warriors, gained such influence and prestige in medieval Japan that they intermarried with the rest of the ruling circles and introduced Ainu blood into them, while the rest of the Japanese population was mainly descendants of the Yayoi.
It should also be noted that, in addition to archaeological and other features, the language was partially preserved. There is a dictionary of the Kuril language in the "Description of the Land of Kamchatka" by S. Krasheninnikov.
In Hokkaido, the dialect spoken by the Ainu is called saroo, but in SAKHALIN it is reychishka.
As it is not difficult to understand, the Ainu language differs from the Japanese language in terms of syntax, phonology, morphology and vocabulary, etc. Although there have been attempts to prove that they are related, the vast majority of modern scholars reject the suggestion that the relationship between languages goes beyond contact relationships, involving mutual borrowing of words in both languages. In fact, no attempt to tie the Ainu language to any other language has been widely accepted.
In principle, according to the well-known Russian political scientist and journalist P. Alekseev, the problem of the Kuril Islands can be solved politically and economically. To do this, it is necessary to allow the Ainam (partially evicted to Japan in 1945) to return from Japan to the land of their ancestors (including their original range - the Amur Region, Kamchatka, Sakhalin and all the Kuriles, creating at least following the example of the Japanese (it is known that the Parliament of Japan only in 2008 did he still recognize the Ainu as an independent national minority), the Russian dispersed autonomy of an "independent national minority" with the participation of the Ainu from the islands and the Ainu of Russia.
We have neither people nor funds for the development of Sakhalin and the Kuriles, but the Ainu have. The Ainu who migrated from Japan, according to experts, can give an impetus to the economy of the Russian Far East, namely by forming not only on the Kuril Islands, but also within Russia national autonomy and revive their family and traditions in the land of their ancestors.
Japan, according to P. Alekseev, will be out of work, because. the displaced Ainu will disappear there, and here they can settle not only in the southern part of the Kuriles, but throughout their original range, our Far East, eliminating the emphasis on the southern Kuriles. Since many of the Ainu deported to Japan were our citizens, it is possible to use the Ainu as allies against the Japanese by restoring the dying Ainu language.
The Ainu were not allies of Japan and never will be, but they can become allies of Russia. But unfortunately this ancient People is ignored to this day.
With our pro-Western government, which feeds Chechnya for nothing, which deliberately flooded Russia with people of Caucasian nationality, opened unhindered entry for emigrants from China, and those who are clearly not interested in preserving the Peoples of Russia should not think that they will pay attention to the Ainu, only CIVIL INITIATIVE will help here.
According to the leading researcher of the Institute Russian history RAS, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Academician K. Cherevko, Japan exploited these islands. In their law there is such a thing as "development through trade exchange." And all the Ainu - both conquered and unconquered - were considered Japanese, were subject to their emperor. But it is known that even before that, the Ainu gave taxes to Russia. True, it was irregular.
Thus, it can be stated with certainty that Kurile Islands belong to the Ainu, but one way or another, Russia must proceed from international law. According to him, i.e. Under the San Francisco Peace Treaty, Japan renounced the islands. There are simply no legal grounds for revising the documents signed in 1951 and other agreements today. But such matters are resolved only in the interests of big politics, and I repeat that only its Fraternal people, that is, We, can help this people from the outside.
