Lake Shikotsu, Hokkaido, Japan 2016 A view of the lake, an important site for Ainu culture, history and folklore. According to the Ainu, the Amemasu fish are the lake gods and guardians. To Ainu folklore, in Lake Shikotsu there is an Amemasu so large it can touch both ends of the lake with its body.
Kamuy Mintara, Chiba Prefecture, Greater Tokyo, Japan 2012 Ainu elder Haruzo Urakawa in his home. Kamuy Mintara, meaning `Playground of Gods`, is a Cise, a traditional Ainu home, that 75 [in 2012] years old Haruzo Urakawa built by himself in the mountains outside of Tokyo. Here, he lived as close as possible to the traditional Ainu lifestyle which, as a child in Hokkaido, he had learned from his father. [Today Kamuy Mintara has closed down].
Shiraoi, Hokkaido, Japan 2013 A totem pole, carved with Ainu animal motifs outside the Porotokotan Museum. Although totem poles are not traditionally Ainu, they have been incorporated into the Ainu crafts as they are favored by the tourist trade,
Shiraoi, Hokkaido, Japan, 2013 A tonkori player performing at the Porotokotan, Shiraoi Ainu Museum. The tonkori is a traditional plucked string Ainu instrument. Ainu perfomers in traditional clothing play, dance and sing for visitors inside a reconstructed Cise, traditional home, at the Shiraoi museum.
Akan Ainu Kotan, Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan 2016 The Ainu Kotan near lake Akan, an important centre of indigenous themed tourism. "Kotan" means "village" in Ainu language.
Nibutani, Hokkaido, Japan 2015 The Takano family in front of the Ainu folk arts workshop and shop they run. Though not indigenous by blood, the Takanos came to learn and live the Ainu lifestyle in 1960s Nibutani and are now part of the community.
Nibutani, Hokkaido, Japan 2016. A bear skull surrounded by the Inaw, the praying sticks used in Ainu ceremonies and rituals, outside a private home.
Nibutani, Hokkaido, Japan 2015 Ashirirera, Ainu activist and shaman, in the community home she founded in her home village Nibutani. Over the years she has adopted and raised over 50 children.
Nibutani, Hokkaido, Japan 2015 Yukiko Kaizawa in her Attush workshop. Attush is a traditional Ainu weaving technique that employs fibres derived from tree bark. Kaizawa, with the help of her family, still sources the tree bark from the forests that surround Nibutani.
Akan Ainu Kotan, Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan 2016 Ainu artisan and former photographer Morio Senke by the workshop where he carves and sells souvenirs to tourists.
Nibutani, Hokkaido, Japan 2014 An old family-run pension in the village of Nibutani.
Biratori, Hokkaido, Japan 2015 Monbetsu, a professional deer and bear hunter, photographed outside his home with his hunting trophies. Hunting is a tradition still widely practiced among the Ainu.
Nemuro, Hokkaido, Japan 2015 Oki Kano is an Ainu musician and founder of Oki Dub Ainu Band. Here he is pictured holding his Tonkori and wearing an owl costume in the backstage of a television recording studio. The costume was designed for his participation in a popular Japanese TV children show. The owl is one of the numerous animal-gods in Ainu religion.
Nibutani, Hokkaido, Japan 2015 A giant pole structure reportedly representing an Ainu warrior.
Nibutani, Hokkaido, Japan 2015 Magi is a transgender woman originally from Okinawa. Although not an Ainu by blood, Magi embraced the indigenous way of life, having lived as an Ainu in a commune in Nibutani for many years. She is skilled in traditional Ainu embroidery, which she incorporates in her hand-made clothes, and she gathers wild plants in the mountains near her community home, where she is portrayed in this photo. The commune where she lives was founded by Ainu shaman Ashirirera.
Nibutani, Hokkaido, Japan 2015 Kazunobu Kawanano is a proud Ainu Ekashi (elder) and an active member of the local Ainu community. He is pictured in front of his home, wearing a traditional Attush robe his wife Motoko weaved for him.
Shiraoi, Hokkaido, Japan 2013 A caged bear at Porotokotan Shiraoi Ainu Museum. Bears are sacred animals within the Ainu animistic religious system. Bears, as other Kamuy (gods), descend into the human world disguised as animals. In a traditional ceremony called Iyomante, a bear cub is raised and treated as a family member until it grows up. Once adult, the animal is killed and sacrificed to 'send the spirits back' to the world of the gods.
Akan Ainu Kotan, Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan 2016 Ainu activist Akibe Hideo on the top of the hill in the Ainu village where he lives and works.
Biratori, Hokkaido, Japan 2016 Kenji Sekine holding his catch by the river near his Nibutani home. Altough not an Ainu by blood, he married an Ainu woman and today he is part of the Ainu community. He teaches Ainu language to local children.
Noboribetsu, Hokkaido, Japan 2016 A bear in Noboribetsu Bear Park. The park hosts around 200 brown bears. Bears are sacred animals within the Ainu animistic religious system. Bears, as other Kamuy (gods), descend into the human world disguised as animals. In a traditional ceremony called Iyomante, a bear cub is raised and treated as a family member until it grows up. Once adult, the animal is killed and sacrificed to 'send the spirits back' to the world of the gods.
Noboribetsu, Hokkaido, Japan 2016 A view from the model Ainu tourist village inside Noboribetsu Bear Park.
Shizunai, Hokkaido, Japan 2016 Megumi in her Ainu robe at the annual ceremony to celebrate Ainu hero Shakushain.
Biratori, Hokkaido, Japan 2016 Maya, a high school student, stands in her fishing gear in the river near her family home during summer vacation.
Biratori, Hokkaido, Japan 2015 Biratoranger, a local council employee who styles himself as an anime character to promote local culture, participates in an Ainu community reforestation project.
Nemuro, Hokkaido 2015 A deer carcass in a grassland near Nemuro, Hokkaido. Traditionally an important food resource for the Ainu, in Hokkaido it is hunted and consumed still today.
Chitose, Hokkaido, Japan 2016 An embalmed bear on display at the Chitose Ainu cultural center.
Nibutani, Hokkaido, Japan 2015 Two Ainu sisters demonstrate karate forms in the house where they live with their parents. They study martial arts in the village cultural center where they also study Ainu language.
Shiraoi, Hokkaido, Japan 2015 Hibiki is a cultural employee at the Ainu Museum in Shiraoi. He was brought up as an Ainu by his adoptive mother in a community shelter in the village of Nibutani. He is pictured at home, wearing his Ainu traditional robe
Shiraoi, Hokkaido, Japan, 2013 A bear skull surrounded by the Inaw, the praying sticks used in Ainu ceremonies and rituals, inside the Poroto Kotan Ainu Museum.
Biratori, Hokkaido, Japan 2015 Two women with sickles to cut the Kaya grass surrounding them, used to build the traditional Ainu thatched home called Cise.
Some people say the Ainu don’t exist anymore. But this is an Ainu village. Those who live here have no choice but to be Ainu.
Maki Sekine Kaizawa
The Ainu of Hokkaido were officially recognised as an indigenous people of Japan only recently, after a history of colonisation and forced assimilation by the Japanese that almost completely effaced their society, language and culture. Today individuals and groups across Japan are involved in the revitalisation of Ainu traditions, in the recovering of their own language, and in reclaiming their rights. This fight against invisibility, which has never halted, has intensified in the past years.
A journey of exploration of native identity in contemporary Japan, Ainu Neno An Ainu reflects upon what it means to be an Ainu today, in everyday life practices; it addresses the sense of belonging within a community in the double process of both preserving and reinventing their own culture, in the aftermath of a prolonged Japanization.
Most people portrayed are ethnic Ainu, although others were adopted into the community not by bloodline, but by actively participating in their elective culture, within a native social practice called utari. Every portrait of this series reflects a personal and collective story: stories of activists, artists, and above all ordinary people.
