Where do the Ainu live. Arrived from heaven, “Real people. Ancient inhabitants of Japan

In the heat of the ongoing dispute between Russia and Japan for the right to possess the Kuril Islands, it is somehow forgotten that the true owners of these lands are the Ainu. Few people know that this mysterious people created one of the most ancient cultures in our world. According to some scholars, the culture of the Ainu is older than the Egyptian. The average layman knows that the Ainu are an oppressed minority in Japan. But few people know that there are Ainu in Russia, where they also do not feel comfortable. Who are the Ainu, what kind of people are they? What is their difference from other peoples, to whom they are related on this Earth by origin, culture and language.

The oldest population of the Japanese archipelago

Ainu, or Ainu, literally means "man." The names of many other peoples, such as, for example, “Nanai”, “Mansi”, “Khun”, “Nivkh”, “Turk” also mean “man”, “people”, “people”. The Ainu are the oldest population of the Japanese islands of Hokkaido and a number of nearby islands. Once they lived on the lands that now belong to Russia: in the lower reaches of the Amur, i.e. on the mainland, in the south of Kamchatka, on Sakhalin and the Kuriles. At present, the Ainu have remained mainly only in Japan, where, according to official statistics, there are about 25,000 of them, and according to unofficial data, more than 200,000. There they are mainly engaged in the tourism business, serving and entertaining tourists hungry for exotic things. In Russia, according to the results of the 2010 census, only 109 Ainu were recorded, of which 94 are in the Kamchatka Territory.

Riddles of origin

Europeans who encountered the Ainu in the 17th century were surprised by their appearance. Unlike Asians-Mongoloids, i.e. with a Mongolian fold of the century, sparse facial hair, the Ainu were very "hairy and shaggy", had thick black hair, large beards, high but wide noses. Their australoid facial features were similar to those of Europe in a number of ways. Despite living in temperate climates, in the summer the Ainu wore loincloths like the equatorial southerners. The existing hypotheses of scientists about the origin of the Ainu in general can be combined into three groups.

Ainu are related to Indo-European / Caucasian race- this theory was adhered to by J. Bachelor, S. Murayama and others. But recent DNA research has decisively removed this concept from the agenda of scientists. They showed that no genetic similarity with the Indo-Europeans and Caucasian populations was found in the Ainu. Perhaps only a “hairy” resemblance to Armenians: the world maximum hairiness among Armenians and Ainu is under 6 points. Compare photos - very similar. The world minimum of beard and mustache growth, by the way, belongs to the Nivkhs. In addition, the Armenians and the Ainu are brought together by another external similarity: the consonance of the ethnonyms Ay - Ain (Armenians - Ay, Armenia - Hayastan).

The Ainu are related to the Austronesians and came to the Japanese islands from the south.- this theory was put forward by Soviet ethnography (author L.Ya.Sternberg). But this theory has not been confirmed, for now it has been clearly proven that the culture of the Ainu in Japan is much older than the culture of the Austronesians. Nevertheless, the second part of the hypothesis - about the southern ethnogenesis of the Ainu - survived due to the fact that the latest linguistic, genetic and ethnographic data suggest that the Ainu may well be distant relatives of the Miao-Yao people living in Southeast Asia and South China.

The Ainu are related to the Paleo-Asian peoples and came to the Japanese islands from the north and / or from Siberia- this point of view is mainly held by Japanese anthropologists. As you know, the theory of the origin of the Japanese themselves is also repelled from the mainland, from the Tungus-Manchurian tribes of the Altai family of Southern Siberia. “Paleoasian” means “earliest Asian”. This term was suggested by the Russian researcher of the peoples of the Far East, Academician L.I.Shrenk. In 1883, in the monograph "On the foreigners of the Amur region", Shrenk set out an interesting hypothesis: once in ancient times, almost all of Asia was inhabited by peoples that differed from the representatives of the Mongoloid race (Mongols, Turks, etc.) and spoke their own special languages.

Then the Paleo-Asians were driven out by the Asians-Mongoloids. And only in the Far East and Northeast of Asia there were descendants of the Paleoasians: the Yukaghirs of the Kolyma, the Chukchi of Chukotka, the Koryaks and Itelmens of Kamchatka, the Nivkhs in the mouth of the Amur and Sakhalin, the Ainu in the north of Japan and Sakhalin, the Eskimos and Aleuts of the Commander and Aleut and other regions Arctic. The Japanese consider the Ainu to be mestizos of the Australoids and Paleoasians.

Ancient inhabitants of Japan

In terms of basic anthropological characteristics, the Ainu are very different from the Japanese, Koreans, Chinese, Mongols-Buryats-Kalmyks, Nivkhs-Kamchadals-Itelmens, Polynesians, Indonesians, aborigines of Australia and, in general, the Far East. It is also known that the Ainu are close only to the people of the Jomon era, who are the direct ancestors of the Ainu. Although it is not known where the Ainu came to the Japanese islands, it is proved that in the Jomon era, the Ainu inhabited all the Japanese islands - from Ryukyu to Hokkaido, as well as the southern half of Sakhalin, the southern third of Kamchatka and Kurile Islands.

This was proved by archaeological excavations and the Ainu names of places: Tsushima - "distant", Fuji - the deity of the hearth at the Ainu, Tsukuba (tu ku pa) - "the head of two bows", Yamatai - "the place where the sea cuts the land", Paramushir - "wide island ”, Urup - salmon, Iturup - jellyfish, Sakhalin (Saharen) - Ainu-style undulating land. It was also established that the Ainu appeared on the Japanese islands about 13 thousand years BC. and created a very highly developed Neolithic culture Jomon (12-3 thousand years BC). Thus, Ainu ceramics is considered the oldest in the world - 12 thousand years.

Some believe that the legendary Yamatai state of the Chinese chronicles is the ancient Ainu state. But the Ainu are an unwritten people, their culture is the culture of hunters, fishermen and gatherers of the primitive system, who lived in dispersed small settlements at a great distance from each other, who did not know agriculture and cattle breeding, however, who already had onions and ceramics. They practically did not engage in agriculture and nomadic cattle breeding. The Ainu created an amazing system of life: in order to maintain harmony and balance in the natural environment, they regulated the birth rate, preventing population explosions.

Due to this, they never created large villages, and their main units were small settlements (in Ainu - utar / utari - "people living in one place by the same river"). They, gatherers, fishermen and hunters, needed a very large territory to survive, so the small villages of the Neolithic primitive Ainu were far removed from each other. Even in ancient times, this type of economy forced the Ainu to settle scattered.

Ainu as an object of colonization

From the middle of the Jomon era (8-7 thousand years BC), groups of South-East Asia who spoke Austronesian languages. Then they were joined by colonists from southern China, who brought a culture of agriculture, above all, rice - a very productive culture that allows you to live very a large number people in a small area. At the end of Jomon (3 thousand BC), Altai-speaking herders arrived to the Japanese islands, who gave rise to the Korean and Japanese ethnic groups. The established state of Yamato oppresses the Ainu. It is known that both Yamatai and Yamato regarded the Ainu as savages, barbarians. The tragic struggle of the Ainu for survival went on for 1500 years. The Ainu were forced to migrate to Sakhalin, Amur, Primorye and Kuril Islands.

Ainu - the first samurai

Militarily, the Japanese were inferior to the Ainu for a very long time. Travelers of the 17th-19th centuries noted the amazing modesty, tact and honesty of the Ainu. I.F. Kruzenshtern wrote: “The Ainu people are meek, modest, trusting, polite, respecting property ... disinterestedness, frankness are their usual qualities. They are truthful and do not tolerate deception. " But this characteristic was given to the Ainu when they lost all fighting spirit after only three centuries of Russian colonization. Meanwhile, the Ainu in the past were a very warlike people. For 1.5-2 thousand years they heroically fought for the freedom and independence of their homeland - Ezo (Hokkaido).

Their military detachments were led by leaders who in peacetime were heads of villages - "utar". Utar had a paramilitary organization, like the Cossacks. Of the weapons, the Ainu loved swords and bows. In battle, they used both armor-piercing arrows and tips with spikes (for better cutting through armor or getting an arrow stuck in the body). There were also tips with a Z-shaped cross-section, apparently taken over from the Manchus / Djurdjens. The Japanese adopted from the warlike, and therefore invincible, the Ainu the art of fighting, the samurai's code of honor, the cult of the sword, and the hara-kiri ritual. The Ainu swords were short, 50 cm long, adopted from the Tonzi, also the warlike aborigines of Sakhalin, conquered by the Ainu. The Ainu warrior - jangin - famously fought with two swords, not recognizing shields. Interestingly, in addition to swords, the Ainu wore two daggers on their right thigh ("cheiki-makiri" and "sa-makiri"). Cheiki-makiri was a ritual knife for making sacred inau shavings and performing the ritual suicide ritual - hara-kiri. The Japanese, having only adopted many methods of war and the spirit of a warrior from the Ainu, finally invented guns, turned the tide and established their dominance.

The fact that Japanese rule in Ezo (Hokkaido), despite the injustice of any colonial rule, was still not as savage and cruel as on the northern islands, subject to Russia, is noted by almost all researchers, including Russians, pointing to waves of flight Ainu from Sakhalin, Kuril Islands and other lands of Russia to Japan, to Hokkaido-Ezo.

Ainu in Russia

The migration of the Ainu to these territories began, according to some sources, in the 13th century. How they lived before the arrival of the Russians is a practically unexplored question. The Russian colonization of the Ainu was no different from the Siberian conquest: pogrom, conquest, taxation of yasak. The abuses were of the same type: the repeated imposition and knocking out of yasak by all new detachments of Cossacks, and so on. The Ainu, a proud people, flatly refused to pay yasak and accept Russian citizenship. By the end of the 18th century. the fierce resistance of the Ainu was broken.

Doctor Dobrotvorsky wrote that in the middle of the 19th century. in southern Sakhalin near the Busse Bay there were 8 large Ainu settlements, 200 people in each minimum. After 25 years, there was not a single village. Such an outcome was not uncommon in the Russian area of the Ainu villages. Dobrotvorsky saw the reasons for the disappearance in devastating wars, insignificant birth rates “due to the infertility of the Ainoks” and in diseases: syphilis, scurvy, smallpox, which “mowed down” small peoples. Under Soviet rule, the Ainu were politically persecuted - before and after the war, they were declared "Japanese spies." The most "intelligent" Ainu corresponded as Nivkhs. Nevertheless, they were caught, resettled to the Commanders and other places where they assimilated, for example, with the Aleuts and other peoples.

“At present, the Aino, usually without a hat, barefoot and in ports tucked above the knees, meeting you on the way, makes a curtsy to you and at the same time looks affectionately, but sadly and painfully, like a loser, and as if wants to apologize for having a beard he has grown up a lot, but he still hasn't made a career for himself, ”- this is how the humanist A.P. Chekhov in his "Sakhalin Island". Nowadays there are 109 people left in Russia. Of these, there are practically no purebreds. Chekhov, Kruzenshtern, and the Polish exiled Bronislav Pilsudski, a voluntary ethnographer and patriot of the Ainu and other small peoples of the region, are a small handful of those who raised their voices in defense of this people in Russia.

Ainu in Japan

In Japan, according to unofficial data, there are 200,000 Ainu. On June 6, 2008, the Japanese parliament recognized the Ainu as a separate national minority. Now various events are being held here, state assistance is being provided to this people. The life of the Ainu in material terms is practically no different from the life of the Japanese. But the original culture of the Ainu practically serves only tourism and, one might say, acts as a kind of ethnic theater. The Japanese and the Ainu themselves exploit ethno-exoticism for the needs of tourists. Do they have a future if there is no language, ancient, guttural, but native, millennial, and if the spirit is lost? Once belligerent and proud. A single language as the code of a nation, and the proud spirit of self-sufficient fellow tribesmen - these are two fundamental bases of a nation-people, two wings that fly in flight.

The Japanese conquered the "Japanese" islands, killing the indigenous people

Everyone knows that Americans are not the native population of the United States, just like the current population of South America. Did you know that the Japanese are not native to Japan either? Who then lived on these islands before them? ...

Before them, the Ainu lived here, a mysterious people, in the origin of which there are still many mysteries. The Ainu coexisted with the Japanese for some time, until the latter managed to force them out to the north. The fact that the Ainu are the ancient masters of the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands is 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 - great mountain Fujiyama - has in its name the Ainu word "fuji", which means "deity of the hearth." Scientists believe that the Ainu settled on the Japanese islands around 13,000 BC and formed the Neolithic Jomon culture there.

The Ainu were not engaged in agriculture, they obtained food by hunting, gathering and fishing. They lived in small settlements, quite remote from each other. Therefore, the area of their 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, who later became the ancestors of the Japanese. The new settlers brought with them the rice culture, which made it possible to feed a large number of the population in a relatively small area. Thus began the hard times in the life of the Ainu. They were forced to move to the north, leaving the colonialists their ancestral lands.

But the Ainu were skillful warriors, perfectly wielding bow and sword, and the Japanese did not manage to defeat them for a long time. For a very long time, almost 1500 years. The Ainu knew how to handle two swords, and they carried two daggers on their right thigh. One of them (cheiki-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 that time to learn a lot from them in terms of military art. The samurai code of honor, the ability to wield two swords and the aforementioned 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 a 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 natives of the Pacific Ocean, since they have similar facial features. But genetic research ruled out this option as well.

And the first Russian Cossacks who arrived on the island of Sakhalin even mistook the Ainu for the Russians, so they were not like Siberian tribes, but rather resembled Europeans. The only group of people from all the analyzed variants with whom they have a genetic relationship was the people of the Jomon era, who were presumably the ancestors of the Ainu. The Ainu language also strongly stands out from the modern linguistic picture of the world, and they have not yet found a suitable place for it. It turns out that during the long period of isolation, the Ainu have 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 North Kuril Ainu were established in the 18th century. The Ainu were considered the Russians, who differed in their race from their Japanese enemies, as friends, and by the middle of the 18th century more than one and a half thousand Ainu had taken Russian citizenship. Even the Japanese could not distinguish the Ainu from the Russians because of their external resemblance (white skin and Australoid facial features, which in a number of features are similar to Caucasians). The Spatial Land Description of the Russian State, compiled under the Russian Empress Catherine II, included in the Russian Empire not only all the Kuril Islands, but also the island of Hokkaido.

The reason - the ethnic Japanese at that time did not even populate it. Indigenous population- Ainu - according to the results of the expedition of Antipin and Shabalin, they were recorded by Russian subjects.

The Ainu fought with the Japanese not only in the south of Hokkaido, but also in the northern part of the island of Honshu. The Kuril Islands themselves were explored and taxed by the Cossacks in the 17th century. So that Russia can 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 raise any objections from the Japanese side, let alone an official protest. Hokkaido for Tokyo was a foreign territory like Korea. When the first Japanese arrived on the island in 1786, the Ainu with Russian names and surnames came out to meet them. And more than that - Christians of the orthodox persuasion! Japan's first claims to Sakhalin date back only to 1845. Then Emperor Nicholas I immediately fought back diplomatically. 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 previous government, which gave the Russian lands to Japan.

So in 1945, historical justice was only restored. The army and navy of the USSR resolved the Russian-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 of the Japanese state, agrees to the transfer of the Habomai Islands and the Sikotan Island 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 to demilitarize Japan. He was willing 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 has a stranglehold on its "unsinkable aircraft carrier". Moreover, Tokyo's dependence on the United States even increased after the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Well, if so, then the free transfer of the islands as a "gesture of goodwill" loses its attractiveness. It is reasonable not to follow the Khrushchev declaration, but to put forward symmetrical claims, relying on well-known historical facts... Shaking the ancient scrolls and manuscripts, which is normal practice in such matters.

An insistence on giving up Hokkaido would be a cold shower for Tokyo. It would be necessary to argue at the talks not about Sakhalin or even about the Kuriles, but about our own this moment territory. You would have to defend yourself, make excuses, prove your right. Russia from diplomatic defense would thus go over to the offensive. Moreover, the military activity of China, nuclear ambitions and readiness for military actions of the DPRK and other security problems in the Asia-Pacific region will give 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 named 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 the Russians, the Ainu were "hairy", "dark-skinned", "dark-eyed" and "dark-haired." The first Russian researchers described the Ainu as similar to Russian peasants with dark skin or more like gypsies.

The Ainu sided with 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 destroyed and their families were forcibly transported to Hokkaido by the Japanese. As a result, the Russians failed to recapture the Ainu during World War II. Only a few Ainu representatives decided to stay in Russia after the war. More than 90% left for Japan.

Under the terms of the St. Petersburg Treaty of 1875, the Kurils were ceded to Japan, along with the Ainu living on them. 83 North Kuril Ainu arrived in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on September 18, 1877, deciding to remain under Russian rule. They refused to move to the reservations on the Commander Islands, as suggested 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 power, and the residents were resettled to Zaporozhye in the Ust-Bolsheretsky district. In the end, three ethnic groups assimilated with the Kamchadals.

The North Kuril Ainu are currently the largest subgroup of Ainu in Russia. The Nakamura family (paternal South Kuril) is the smallest and has only 6 people living in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. On Sakhalin there are several who define themselves as Ainu, but much 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 (purebred Japanese are allowed to enter Japan without a visa). A similar situation is with the Amur Ainu living in Khabarovsk. And it is believed that none of the Kamchatka Ainu survived.

Epilogue

In 1979, the USSR deleted the ethnonym "Ainu" from the list of "living" ethnic groups in Russia, thereby proclaiming 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 information that the most direct genetic ties in the male line of the Ainu have, oddly enough, with the Tibetans - half of them are carriers of the close haplogroup D1 (the D2 group itself practically does not occur outside the Japanese archipelago) and the Miao-Yao peoples in southern China and in Indochina.

As for the female (Mt-DNA) haplogroups, the Ainu group is dominated by the U group, which is also found in other peoples of East Asia, but in small numbers. During the 2010 census, about 100 people tried to register themselves as Ainu, but the government Kamchatka Territory rejected their claims and recorded them as Kamchadals.

In 2011, the head of the Ainsky community of Kamchatka, Alexei 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 Minorities of the North, Siberia and the Far East Russian Federation... The request was also denied. Alexei Nakamura reports that 205 Ainu were noted in Russia in 2012 (compare with 12 people who were noted in 2008), and they, like the Kuril Kamchadals, are fighting for official recognition. The Ainu language became extinct many decades ago.

In 1979, only three people on Sakhalin could speak Ainu fluently, and there the language became extinct by the 1980s. Although Keizo Nakamura spoke Sakhalin-Ainu fluently and even translated several documents into Russian for the NKVD, he did not pass on the language to his son. Take Asai, the last person to know the Sakhalin Ainu language, died in Japan in 1994.

Until the Ainu are recognized, they are celebrated as people without nationality, like ethnic Russians or Kamchadals. Therefore, in 2016, both the Kuril Ainu and the Kuril Kamchadals were deprived of the rights to hunting and fishing, which the small peoples of the Far North have.

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When, in the 17th century, Russian explorers reached the “farthest east”, where, as they thought, the earthly firmament was connected to the heavenly firmament, and there appeared a boundless sea and numerous islands, they were amazed at the appearance of the natives they met. Before them appeared people overgrown with thick beards with wide, like those of Europeans, eyes, with large, protruding noses, similar to the men of southern Russia, to the inhabitants of the Caucasus, to overseas guests from Persia or India, to gypsies, to anyone, just not on the Mongoloids, whom the Cossacks saw everywhere beyond the Urals.

The explorers christened them Kurils, Kurilians, endowing them with the epithet "furry", and they themselves called themselves "Ainu", which means "noble man." Since then, researchers have been struggling with countless mysteries of this people. But to this day they have not come to a definite conclusion.

The famous collector and researcher of the peoples of the Pacific region B.O. Pilsudski wrote about the Ainu in his report on his 1903-1905 business trip: "The friendliness, affectionateness and sociability of the Mauki Ainu aroused in me a strong desire to get to know this interesting tribe better."

Russian writer A.P. Chekhov left the following lines: “This people is meek, modest, good-natured, trusting, communicative, polite, respecting property; on the hunt he is brave and even intelligent. "

In the collection of the Ainu oral legends "Yukar" it is said: "The Ainu inhabited Japan for hundreds of thousands of years before the children of the Sun (ie the Japanese. - Auth.) Came."

The Ainu have almost completely disappeared. They remained only in the southeast of the island of Hokkaido, which was formerly called them Ezo. Until now, the Ainu celebrate the Bear holiday and honor its hero Jajresupo, similar to the all-Slavic bear holiday Komoeditsa (Maslenitsa), dedicated to the bear Veles and the revival of the Sun (Yarilo).

Almost everything remained from the Ainu in the Japanese archipelago geographical names... For example, a volcano in the northeast of Kunashir Island is called Tyatya-Yama in the Ainu language, literally "Father Mountain".

As in Europe, the southern conquerors, the Japanese, once called the representatives of the northern Ainu civilization "barbarians." But despite this, most the Japanese adopted their culture, religious beliefs, military art and traditions from the Ainu. In particular, the samurai class of medieval Japan adopted from the Ainu the ritual “seppuku” (“harakiri”) - ritual suicide by ripping open the abdomen, the origins of which go back to ancient times - to the pagan cults of the Ainu.

Moreover, according to Japanese historical tradition, the founder of the ancient Japanese empire of Yamato was Prince Pikopopodemi (Jimmu). On the 19th century engraving, Jimmu has the outward features of an Ainu !!!

Shiretoko is a peninsula in the east of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. In the language of the Ainu people, it means "the end of the earth."

First of all: where did a tribe appear from in the continuous Mongoloid massif that is anthropologically here, roughly speaking, inappropriate? Now the Ainu live on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, and in the past they inhabited a very wide territory - the Japanese islands, Sakhalin, the Kuriles, the south of Kamchatka and, according to some data, the Amur region and even Primorye up to Korea. Many researchers were convinced that the Ainu were Caucasians. Others argued that the Ainu are related to the Polynesians, Papuans, Melanesians, Australians, Hindus ...

Archaeological evidence convinces of the deep antiquity of the Ainu settlements in the Japanese archipelago. This especially confuses the question of their origin: how could people of the ancient Stone Age overcome the enormous distances separating Japan from the European west or the tropical south? And why did they need to change, say, the fertile equatorial belt to the harsh northeast?

The ancient Ainu or their ancestors created amazingly beautiful ceramics, mysterious dogu figurines, and besides, it turned out that they were almost the earliest farmers in the Far East, if not in the world. It is not clear why they completely abandoned both pottery and agriculture, becoming fishermen and hunters, in fact, taking a step back in cultural development. The Ainu legends tell of fabulous treasures, fortresses and castles, but the Japanese and then Europeans found this tribe living in huts and dugouts. The Ainu bizarrely and contradictoryly intertwine the features of northern and southern inhabitants, elements of high and primitive cultures. With their entire existence, they seem to deny the usual ideas and habitual schemes of cultural development. NS. migrants began to invade the lands of the Ainu, who were later destined to become the basis of the Japanese nation. For many centuries, the Ainu fiercely resisted the onslaught, and sometimes quite successfully.

Around the 7th century. n. NS. for several centuries, a boundary was established between the two peoples. There were more than just military battles on this border line. There was trade and an intensive cultural exchange. It happened that the noble Ainu influenced the policy of the Japanese feudal lords. The culture of the Japanese was significantly enriched at the expense of their northern enemy. Even the traditional Japanese religion, Shinto, has obvious Ainu roots; of Ainu origin, the hara-kiri ritual and the bushido complex of military valor. The Japanese ritual of sacrificing gohei has clear parallels with the installation of inau sticks by the Ainu ... The list of borrowings can be continued for a long time. During the Middle Ages, the Japanese increasingly pushed the Ainu to the north of Honshu, and from there to Hokkaido. In all likelihood, some of the Ainu had moved to Sakhalin and the Kuril ridge long before that ... unless the process of settlement was going in the diametrically opposite direction. Now only an insignificant fragment remains of this people. Modern Ainu live in the southeast of Hokkaido, along the coast, as well as in the valley of the large Ishikari River. They have undergone a strong ethno-racial and cultural assimilation, and even more so - cultural, although they are still trying to preserve their identity.

The most curious feature of the Ainu is their noticeable and to this day external difference from the rest of the population of the Japanese islands.

Although today, due to centuries of mixing and a large number of interethnic marriages, it is difficult to meet "pure" Ainu, Caucasian features are noticeable in their appearance: a typical Ainu has an elongated skull shape, an asthenic physique, a thick beard (for Mongoloids, facial hair is uncharacteristic) and thick, wavy hair. The Ainu speak a special language that is not related to either Japanese or any other Asian language. Among the Japanese, the Ainu are so famous for their hairiness that they have earned the contemptuous nickname "hairy Ainu". Only one race on Earth is characterized by such a significant hair cover - Caucasoid.

The Ainu language is unlike Japanese or any other Asian language. The origin of the Ainu is unclear. They entered Japan through Hokkaido between 300 AD. BC. and 250 AD (Yayoi period) and then settled in the northern and eastern regions of the main Japanese island of Honshu.

During the Yamato reign, around 500 BC, Japan expanded its territory into eastward, in connection with which the Ainu were partly pushed back to the north, partly assimilated. During the Meiji period - 1868-1912. - they received the status of former aborigines, but, nevertheless, continued to be discriminated against. The first mention of the Ainu in Japanese chronicles dates back to 642, in Europe information about them appeared in 1586.

Samurai in the broad sense of the word in feudal Japan was called secular feudal lords. In the narrow sense of this concept, this is the military class of small nobles. So it turns out that the samurai and the warrior are not always the same thing.

It is believed that the concept of a samurai originated in the 8th century on the outskirts of Japan (south, north and northeast). In those places, there were constant clashes between the imperial governors, expanding the empire, and the local aborigines. Fierce wars on the outskirts took place until the 9th century, and all this time the authorities of these provinces tried with all their might to resist the yoke of constant danger far from the center of the empire and its troops. In such conditions, they were forced to independently conduct defense and create their own military formations from the male population. An important point the formation of samurai was the transition from the conscript formation of the squad to a permanent professional army. Armed servants protected their master, and in return received shelter and food. One of the main reasons that tipped the scales in favor of the professional army was the external threat represented by the indigenous inhabitants of the Japanese islands - the Ainu. Although the threat was not fatal, even in the most crisis moments of its history, the Empire of the Rising Sun remained stronger than the disunited tribes, but it created great difficulties for the border regions, as well as further advancement to the north. To fight the Ainu, the castles of Izawa, Taga-Taga-no Jo and Akita are being erected, and a large number of fortifications are being built. But the conscription was canceled for fear of mutinies and so that the fortifications did not stand empty and at least somehow fulfill their function, warriors are needed. Who else but professional military personnel could cope with this better than anyone?

As we can see, the need for the services of samurai is growing, which could not but affect their number. Another channel for the emergence of samurai, in addition to the armed servants of large landowners, was the settlers. They had to literally win back land from the Ainu and the authorities did not save on the settlers' weapons. This policy has borne fruit. Living in the immediate vicinity of the enemy, the "azumabito" (people of the east) provided quite an effective counteraction to this. The local samurai is no longer a robber sent by a daimyo to take the latter, but rather a protector.

But the Ainu were not only an external threat and a condition for the consolidation and formation of the northern samurai. The mutual penetration of cultures is also of some interest. Many customs of the warrior class passed from the Ainu, for example, hara-kiri - a ritual of ritual suicide, which later became one of the visiting cards of the Japanese samurai, originally belonged to the Ainu.

For reference: The support of the Slavic-Aryan army was kharakterniks (Kharakterniks - literally: owning the center of the hara. Hence "hara-kiri" - the release vitality through the center of the hara, located in the navel, "to iri" - to Iriy, the Slavic-Aryan Heavenly Kingdom: hence the "medicine man" - who knows the hara, from the restoration, which should begin any treatment). Kharakterniks in India are still called maharathas - great warriors (in Sanskrit "maha" - big, great; "ratha" - army, army).

American anthropologist S. Lauryn Brace, from Michigan State University in the magazine "Horizons of Science", No. 65, September-October 1989. writes: "The typical Ainu is easy to distinguish from the Japanese: he has lighter skin, thicker body hair and a more prominent nose."

Brace studied about 1,100 crypts of Japanese, Ainu and other Asian ethnic groups and came to the conclusion that representatives of the privileged class of samurai in Japan are actually descendants of the Ainu, and not Yayoi (Mongoloids), the ancestors of most modern Japanese. Brace goes on to write: “... this explains why the facial features of the ruling class are so often different from those of today's Japanese. Samurai - the descendants of the Ainu acquired such influence and prestige in medieval Japan that they intermarried with the ruling circles and brought the blood of the Ainu into them, while the rest of the Japanese population was mainly the descendants of the Yayoi.

So, despite the fact that information about the origin of the Ainu is lost, their external data indicate some kind of advancement of the whites, who reached the very edge of the Far East, then mixed with the local population, which led to the formation of the ruling class of Japan, but at the same time, a separate group of descendants of white newcomers - the Ainu - are still discriminated against as a national minority. ... ... ...

Valery Kosarev

What do we know about this unique Russian people AINS - AINOSY - AINO - AINU?
AINUMOSIRI is the land of the Ainu.

See the map of Russia 1871: http://atlases.narod.ru/maps/atl1871/map61.djvu
http://atlases.narod.ru/maps/atl1871/map03.djvu

There was a time when the first Ainu descended from
The countries of the clouds to the earth, fell in love with her, took up
hunting and fishing to eat, dance
and bear children. (Ainu legend)

Aino are truthful and do not tolerate deception.
Kruzenshtern was absolutely delighted with them;
listing their wonderful spiritual qualities,
he concludes: "Such truly rare qualities,
which they owe not to an exalted education,
but nature alone, aroused in me
the feeling that I regard this people as the best
of all the others that are still known to me "
(A.P. Chekhov)

A. P. Chekhov said: “The Ainu are a meek people,
humble, good-natured, gullible, sociable,
polite, respectful of property; on the hunt brave
and ... even intelligent. "

In 1853 N.V. Busse recorded his conversation
with the old aino who remembered the time
their independence and said:
"Sakhalin is the land of the Ains, there is no Japanese land on Sakhalin."

The first Japanese colonists were fugitive criminals or
those who have been in a foreign land and for this are expelled from Japan.
(A.P. Chekhov)

... among the Ainu villages ... - The Ainu are the oldest population of the Japanese
islands (known there since the II millennium BC), the Kuriles and
South Sakhalin. On racial grounds they are close to Caucasians,
linguistic connections have not been precisely identified. At the described time, the number
the Ainu on Sakhalin numbered up to 3 thousand people,
on the island of Hokkaido - up to one and a half million.
They are now nearly extinct. (Nikolay Pavlovich Zadornov)

What have the AINS given to Russia? This is Sakhalin and the Kuriles!
The Ainu called themselves various tribal names - "soya-untara", "chuvka-untara". The word "Ainu", which they used to call, is not at all the self-name of this people, it only means "man". The Japanese called the Ainu the word "ebisu".

What we know about the Ainu, these are white-skinned people, anthropologists attribute them to depigmented Australoids, like the black Papuans, bearded, unlike the Japanese Mongoloids. Very similar to the Russians according to the reports of the explorers. After all, the outward resemblance of the Russian explorers and the Ainu was simply amazing. It deceived even the Japanese. In the first messages of the Japanese, "RUSSIANS" on Hokaido - Matmai are referred to as "RED AINS".

AINUMOSIRI is the land of the Ainu.

The Ainu accepted Russian citizenship, and their lands became part of Russia - Sakhalin, Kuril Islands and Matsmai - Iesso - Hokkaido. At that time, Hokkaido - Matsmai was considered the largest and most southern island of the Kuril Islands.

Russian decrees of 1779, 1786 and 1799 indicate that the inhabitants of the southern Kuriles - the 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 ownership of the entire Kuril ridge by Russia is also confirmed by the Instruction of the Irkutsk governor A.I.Bril to the chief commander of Kamchatka, MK Bem, 1775, and the "yasashnaya table" - the chronology of the collection in the 18th century. from the Ainu - the inhabitants of the Kuril Islands, including from the southern ones (including the island of Matmai-Hokkaido), the mentioned tribute -yasaka.

In the Ainu language Sakhalin - "SAKHAREN MOSIRI" - "undulating land", Iturup means "the best place", Kunashir - Simushir means "a piece of land - a black island", Shikotan - Shiashkotan (the endings "shir" and "kotan" mean, respectively "plot of land" and "settlement").

With their good nature, honesty and modesty, the Ainu produced the most best experience... When they were given gifts for the fish delivered, they took them in their hands, admired them and then returned them. It was with difficulty that the Ainu managed to explain that it was given to them as a property. In relation to the Ainu, Catherine the Second prescribed - to be gentle with the AINS and not to tax them, in order to alleviate the situation of the new Russian Podda-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 took Russian citizenship in 1779.

Eya I.V. commands those given into citizenship on distant islands to leave the shaggy Kuril - Ainu free and not to demand any collection from them, and furthermore, the peoples living in Tamo should not be forced to do this, but try to continue the acquaintance already established with them with friendly treatment and gentleness for the desired benefit in trades and trade.

The first cartographic description of the Kuril Islands, including their 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 MATMAY (Matsmai), which later became known as Hokkaido.

It was precisely established that the Kurils were not subject to any foreign state. In the report of I. Kozyrevsky in 1713. it was noted that the South Kuril Ainu "live independently and not in citizenship and trade freely."

It should be especially noted that Russian explorers, in accordance with the policy of the Russian state, opening new lands inhabited by the Ainu, immediately announced the inclusion of these lands in Russia, began their study and economic development, conducted missionary activities, and imposed tribute (yasak) on the local population.

During the 18th century, all the Kuril Islands, including their southern part, became part of Russia. This is 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 "north of Matsmai (Hokkaido island) all lands and waters belong to the Russian emperor and that the Japanese did not extend further their possessions. "

The 18th century Japanese mathematician and astronomer Honda Toshiaki wrote that “... the Ainu regard Russians as their own fathers”, since “real possessions are won by virtuous deeds. Countries forced to submit to the force of arms remain unconquered at heart. "

In 1945, the Japanese evicted all the AINS from Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands to Hokkaido, while for some reason they left on Sakhalin a labor army from Koreans brought by the Japanese and the USSR had to accept them as stateless persons, then the Koreans moved to Central Asia, and now in the Russian Federation, few people are not familiar with this hardworking ethnic group, even the deputy of Luzhkov is Korean.

The fate of the AINOV in Hokkaido - Matsmai is hidden behind seven seals, like the fate of the Slavs - LUZHICHAN in Germany.
Information reaches us that there are about 20 thousand Ainu people left, that there is an intensified process of Japaneseization of the Ainu, whether the youth know the Ainu language is a big question, like with the Slavs - the Lusatians, about whom we know that the Lusatian schools of the Slavs in Germany are closed under any pretext ...

According to the census of the population of the Russian Empire in 1897, 1446 people indicated Ainu as their native language on Sakhalin. The Ainu language does not belong to any language family (isolate); at present, the Ainu of Hokkaido switched to Japanese, the Ainu of Russia - to Russian, very few people of the older generation in Hokkaido - Matsmai still remember the language a little. By 1996, there were no more than 15 people fully proficient in Ainu. At the same time, speakers of dialects of different localities practically do not understand each other. The Ainu did not have their own writing, but there were rich traditions of oral creativity, including songs, epic poems and legends in poetry and prose.

Russia can recall historical examples of how the Ainu of northern Hokkaido - Matsmai at the end of the 18th – 1st half of the 19th centuries swore allegiance to the Russian government. And if so, then in response to the demand of the "northern territories" Russia can put forward a counter-demand for the "southern territories".

Although the Japanese organized a real genocide of the Ains, justifying their actions by the fact that its representatives were allegedly "ebisu" (savages) and "teki" (animals). However, the Ainu were not “barbarians”. Their Jomon culture is one of the oldest in the world. According to various sources, it appeared 5-8 thousand years ago, when no one had ever heard of Japanese civilization. According to many ethnographers, it was from the Ainu that the Japanese adopted many of their customs and cultural features, ranging from the seppuku rite to the sacred Shinto complex and imperial attributes, including jasper pendants. Perhaps the Japanese were brought to the Ainu islands - AINUMOSIRI, as a labor force for agriculture, since the Ainu themselves were not engaged in agriculture. So, for example, among the Mongols, the ends of the shoes are wrapped up, since the Mongols cannot disturb the earth, and the Daur people (Dauria-Chita region) were engaged in agriculture for the Mongols, so the Daurs were evicted by the Chinese so that Russia would not have the support of this agricultural people.

From the VIII 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, normal friendly relations were established between the similar outwardly blue-eyed and bearded aliens on both sides. And although the Ainu flatly refused to pay the yasak tax, no one, unlike the Japanese, killed them for this. 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.

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, the Ainam are often left with the least prestigious jobs. 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 came to Japan at about the same time that people first reached America. The first settlers of the Japanese islands - YOMON (ancestors of the AINS) reached Japan twelve thousand years ago, and the yoi (ancestors of the Japanese) came from Korea in the last two and a half millennia.

One theory is that these two groups, the Ainu and Ryukyu, are the descendants of the first yomon settlers who once occupied all of Japan, and were later driven from the central islands north to Hokkaido and south to Okinawa by yoi aliens from Korea.

A study of mitochondrial DNA carried out in Japan only partially confirms this hypothesis: it showed that modern Japanese from the central islands have very much in common genetically with modern Koreans, with whom they have much more identical and similar mitochondrial types than with the Ainu and Ryukyu people.

However, it is also shown that there are practically no similarities between the Ainu and Ryukyu people. The age estimate showed 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 Yeomon people, but also proves that the two groups have not been in contact with each other since then.

Most modern Japanese living in Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu have many common mitochondrial sequences with modern Koreans, which proves their maternal kinship with yoi and indicates secondary, relatively recent migrations. However, among the Japanese there are quite a few who are the descendants of the Yomon and are closely related on the maternal line either to the Ryukyu or to the Ainu.

Militarily, the Japanese were inferior to the Ainu for a very long time, and only after several centuries of constant skirmishes from the Japanese military detachments defending the northern borders of Yamato, what was later called "samurai" was formed. Samurai culture and samurai combat techniques are largely derived from Ainu fighting techniques and carry many Ainu elements.

On my own behalf, I would suggest that the leadership of Russia and Japan in the "northern territories" in Russia and in the "southern territories" - Hokkaido - Matsmai, for each of the states to create autonomy for the AINU - AINU and allow the Ainu from both autonomies to move freely across the state borders between Russia and Japan and allow the Ainu to trade in seafood, and not the poachers exporting the entire catch to Japan.

Russia is the peoples and their lands that make up it,
and the Russians are the "cement" that unites the peoples of Russia.

************* From the discussion of the material about the Ains ******************

Andrey Belkovsky AINY - Ainumosiri

It's a good article, but it's worth learning more about the Ainu, especially about their life in Russia-USSR.

There is a good book by Dachshunds "Who are you, Ainu" and "Peoples of Siberia" under the editorship of Levin (1959 IMHO)

The Ainu and their fellow tribesmen were rotten by both the Japanese and ours (ours cleaned southern Kamchatka from the Ainu, and Sakhalin, and especially the Kuriles - after the 18th century, it was the Kurils that were the core of Ainumosiri).

I even reported to the Foreign Ministry (on the problems of the South Kuriles) that the best way- to create the state of Ainumosiri there and help the Ainu survivors to heal normally there.

The Ainu are the people of Oceania, the northern Australoids, and there is a positive American experience in granting independence to such structures. Kiribati, Vanuatu and Nauru live and flourish.

When Soviet power came to power, the Ainu twice - before the war and after - turned out to be completely Japanese spies. The smartest corresponded with the Nivkhs (from whom they took Sakhalin).

It's funny - the Nivkhs have the world minimum of beard and mustache growth, the Ainu and Armenians have the world maximum (under 6 points).

Before the revolution, the Ainu were also resettled to the Commanders. Now they have assimilated with the Aleuts - as part of the former Badaev family.
Until the 1980s, in the lower part of the village of Nikolskoye, the Bering Island had the toponym "Ainsky End".
Among the Badayev-Kuznetsovs there are people with increased beard growth for the Aleuts.
Andrey Belkovsky

************************** From the historical chronicle of the Ainu ********************* ****

Initially, the Ainu lived on the islands of present-day Japan, which were called Ainumosiri - the land of the Ainu, until they were pushed northward by the Yayoi (Mongoloids) proraapanese. The Ainu came to Sakhalin in the XIII-XIV centuries, "having finished" the settlement in the beginning. XIX century. Traces of their appearance were also found in Kamchatka, in Primorye and Khabarovsk Territory. Many toponymic names Sakhalin region have Ainu names: Sakhalin (from "SAKHAREN MOSIRI" - "undulating earth"); the islands of Kunashir, Simushir, Shikotan, Shiashkotan (the endings "shir" and "kotan" mean "a piece of land" and "settlement", respectively).

It took the Japanese more than 2 thousand years to occupy the entire archipelago up to and including Hokkaido (then it was called "Ezo") (the earliest evidence of clashes with the Ainu dates back to 660 BC). Currently, there are only a few reservations for the Ainu in Hokkaido, where Ainu families live.

The first Russian seafarers who studied Sakhalin and the Kuriles were surprised to note the Caucasian facial features, thick hair and beards unusual for Mongoloids.

The Ainu population was a socially stratified group ("utar"), headed by families of leaders by the right of succession to power (it should be noted that the Ainu clan followed the female line, although the man was naturally considered the main one in the family). "Utar" was built on the basis of a fictitious kinship and had a military organization. The ruling families, calling themselves "utarpa" (head of utara) or "nishpa" (leader), represented a layer of the military elite. Men of "high birth" were assigned to military service from birth, high-born women spent their time at embroidery and shamanic rituals ("tusu").

The family of the chief had a dwelling inside a fortification ("chas"), surrounded by an earthen embankment (also called "chas"), usually under the cover of a mountain or rock protruding above the terrace. The number of embankments often reached five or six, which alternated with ditches. Together with the family of the leader, there were usually servants and slaves ("ushiyu") inside the fortification. The Ainu did not have any centralized authority.

Of the weapons, the Ainu preferred the bow. No wonder they were called "people with arrows sticking out of their hair" because they wore quivers (and swords, by the way, too) behind their backs. The bow was made from elm, beech or large spindle tree (tall shrub, up to 2.5 m high with very strong wood) with whalebone overlays. The bowstring was made of 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 arrowheads were used (perhaps for better cutting through armor or getting an arrow stuck in a wound). There were also arrowheads of an unusual, Z-shaped section, which were most likely borrowed from the Manchus or Dzhurdzheni (information has been preserved that in the Middle Ages the Sakhalin Ainu rebuffed a large army that came from the mainland).

Arrowheads were made of metal (the early ones were made of obsidian and bone) and then coated with aconite poison "suruku". The 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 is ready. Due to the fact that this poison quickly decomposed, it was widely used for hunting large animals. The arrow shaft was made of larch.

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 ritual "pere" or "erytokpa" - a ritual suicide, which was later adopted by the Japanese, calling it "hara-kiri" or "seppuku" (as, by the way, the cult of the sword, special shelves for a sword, spear, bow). The 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 Ainu man. Ainu grandfather was ordered to make a sword, and a Japanese grandfather: money the cult of swords, and the Japanese have a thirst for money. The Ainu condemned their neighbors for money-grubbing).

They treated spears rather coolly, although they exchanged them with the Japanese.

The Ainu did not wear helmets. They had natural long, thick hair that tied into a mat, forming a semblance of a natural helmet.

The sarafan armor was made of bearded seal skin ("bearded seal" - a kind of large seal). In appearance, such armor may seem bulky, but in fact it practically does not restrict movement, allows you to bend and crouch freely. Thanks to the numerous segments, four layers of leather were obtained, which were equally successful in repelling the blows of swords and arrows. Red circles on the chest of the armor symbolize the three worlds (upper, middle and lower worlds), as well as shamanic discs - "roofing felts", scaring away evil spirits and generally having magical significance. Similar circles are also depicted on the back. Such armor is fastened in front with the help of numerous strings. There were also short suits of armor, like sweatshirts with planks or metal plates sewn onto them.

Very little is currently known about the martial art of the Ainu. It is known that the Pro-Japanese adopted almost everything from them. Why not assume that some of the elements of martial arts were also not adopted?

In fact, the Ainu fought not only with the Japanese. For example, they conquered Sakhalin from the Tonzi - a short people, really the indigenous population of Sakhalin. From "tonzi" Ainu women adopted the habit of tattooing lips and skin around the lips (a kind of half-smile was obtained - half-beads), as well as the names of some (very good quality) swords - "tonzini".

It is curious that the Ainu warriors - the Jangins - were noted as very warlike, they were incapable of lying.

Information about the signs of the Ainu property is also interesting - they put special signs on arrows, weapons, dishes, passed down from generation to generation, in order, for example, not to confuse whose arrow hit the beast, to whom this or that thing belongs. There are more than one and a half hundred such signs, and their meanings have not yet been deciphered. Rock inscriptions were found near the flock (Hokkaido) and on the sharp Urup.

There were also pictograms on "ikunisi" (sticks for maintaining a mustache while drinking). To decipher the signs (which were called "epasi itokpa") it was necessary to know the language of symbols and their components.

Over the years, the Ainu more than once raised an uprising against the Japanese (in Ainu "siskin"), but each time they lost. The Japanese invited the leaders to their place to conclude an armistice. Piously honoring the customs of hospitality, the Ainu, trusting like children, did not think anything bad. They were killed during a feast. As a rule, the Japanese did not succeed in other methods of suppressing the uprising. (In a similar way, the Germans dealt with the princes of the Polabian Slavs - Lusatians, the invited princes were locked in the house and the house was set on fire.)

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov talks about Ainakh-AINO

The indigenous population of South Sakhalin, the local foreigners, when asked who they are, do not name either the tribe or the nation, but simply answer: Aino. This means - a person. In the ethnographic map of Shrenk, the area of distribution of the Aino, or Ainu, is marked with yellow paint, and this paint completely covers the Japanese island of Matsmai and the southern part of Sakhalin up to the Terpeniya Bay. They also live on the Kuril Islands and are therefore called Kurils among the Russians. The numerical composition of the Ainos living on Sakhalin is not precisely determined, but there is no doubt that this tribe is disappearing, and, moreover, with extraordinary rapidity.

Doctor Dobrotvorsky, 25 years ago, who served in South Sakhalin *, says that there was a time when there were 8 large Ain villages near the Busse Bay alone and the number of inhabitants in one of them reached 200; near Naiba he saw traces of many villages. For his time, he fortuitously cites three figures taken from different sources: 2885, 2418, 2050, and he considers the latter to be the most reliable. According to the testimony of one author, his contemporary, from the Korsakov post in both directions along the coast there were Ain villages. I, however, did not find a single village near the post and saw several Ain yurts only near Bolshoi Takoe and Siyantsy. In the "Vedomosti on the number of foreigners living in 1889 in the Korsakov district," the numerical strength of the Aino is determined as follows: 581 men and 569 women.

_______________
* After him there were two serious works: "The southern part of Sakhalin Island" (extracted from the military medical report). - "Izvestia of the Siberian Department of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society", 1870, vol. I, nos. 2 and 3, and "Ainsko-Russian dictionary".

Dobrotvorsky believes that the reasons for the disappearance of the Aino are devastating wars that once happened on Sakhalin, an insignificant birth rate due to the infertility of Ainoks, and, most importantly, illness. They always had syphilis, scurvy; there was probably smallpox *.

_______________
* It is difficult to imagine that this disease, which caused devastation in Northern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, would have spared Southern Sakhalin. A. Polonsky writes that the yurt in which the deceased happened is abandoned by the Aino and another is being built in its place in a new place. Such a custom, apparently, occurred at a time when the Aino, in fear of epidemics, left their infected homes and settled in new places.

But all these reasons, which usually determine the chronic extinction of foreigners, do not explain why the Ainos disappear so quickly, almost before our very eyes; after all, in the last 25 - 30 years there have been no wars, no significant epidemics, and meanwhile, during this period of time, the tribe has decreased by more than half. It seems to me, it would be more accurate to assume that this rapid disappearance, similar to melting, does not come from extinction alone, but also from the migration of the Aino to neighboring islands.

Before the occupation of South Sakhalin by the Russians, the Ainos were almost in serfdom with the Japanese, and it was all the easier to enslave them because they are meek, unrequited, and most importantly, they were hungry and could not do without rice *.
_______________
* Aino said to Rimsky-Korsakov: "Sizam is asleep, but Aino works for him: he cuts wood, catches fish; Aino does not want to work - Sizam pounds him."

Having occupied South Sakhalin, the Russians freed them and until recently protected their freedom, protecting them from insults and avoiding interfering in their internal life. Escaped convicts slaughtered several Ain families in 1885; They also say that some Ainets-musher who refused to carry mail was carved with rods, and there were attempts on the chastity of Ainoks, but this kind of oppression and insults are spoken of as isolated and extremely rare cases. Unfortunately, the Russians, along with freedom, did not bring rice; with the departure of the Japanese, no one was fishing, earnings ceased, and the Ainos began to experience hunger. Like the Gilyaks, they could no longer feed on fish and meat alone - they needed rice, and so, in spite of their dislike of the Japanese, prompted by hunger, they began, as they say, to move to Matsmai.

In one correspondence (Golos, 1876, no. 16) I read that a deputation from the Aino came to the Korsakov post and asked for work or at least seeds for growing potatoes and teach them how to cultivate the soil for potatoes; the job was allegedly refused, and they promised to send potato seeds, but they did not fulfill the promises, and the Aino, in distress, continued to move to Matsmai. Other correspondence, dating back to 1885 (Vladivostok, no. 38), also says that the Aino made some statements that, apparently, were not respected, and that they were eager to get out of Sakhalin for Matsmai.

Aino is dark as gypsies; they have big, bushy beards, mustaches and black hair that is thick and coarse; their eyes are dark, expressive, gentle. They are of medium height and build strong, stocky, facial features are large, coarse, but in them, according to the expression of the sailor V. Rimsky-Korsakov, there is neither Mongolian flattening nor Chinese narrow-eyed. Bearded Ainos are found to be very similar to Russian peasants. Indeed, when an Aino puts on his robe like our chuyka and belts it, he becomes like a merchant coachman *.

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* In the book by Schrenk, which I have already mentioned, there is a table with the image of the Aino. See also the book fr. Helwald " Natural history tribes and peoples ", vol. II, where the Aino is depicted at full height, in a robe.

The body of the Aino is covered with dark hair, which sometimes grows thickly on the chest, in bunches, but furry is still far away, while the beard and hairiness, which is such a rarity among savages, amazed travelers who, upon returning home, described the Aino as hairy. And our Cossacks, who took yasak from them in the Kuril Islands in the last century, also called them furry.

Aino live in close proximity to peoples whose facial hair is notable for its scarcity, and it is not surprising, therefore, that their wide beards put ethnographers in considerable difficulty; science has not yet found a real place for the Aino in the racial system. The Aino is sometimes referred to as a Mongol or a Caucasian tribe; one Englishman even found that they were the descendants of Jews who were abandoned in the days of Ona on the Japanese islands. Currently, two opinions seem to be the most probable: one that the Aino belong to a special race that once inhabited all the East Asian islands, the other, belonging to our Shrenk, that this is a Paleo-Asian people, long ousted by the Mongol tribes from the Asian mainland to its insular outskirts, and that the way of this people from Asia to the islands lay through Korea.

Anyway, the Aino moved from south to north, from warm to cold, constantly changing Better conditions for the worst. They are not belligerent, do not tolerate violence; it was not difficult to conquer, enslave or supplant them. They were driven out of Asia by the Mongols, from Nippon and Matsmai by the Japanese, on Sakhalin the Gilyaks did not let them higher than Taraika, on the Kuril Islands they met with the Cossacks and thus eventually found themselves in a hopeless situation. At present, the Aino, usually without a hat, barefoot and in ports tucked above the track, meeting with you on the way, makes a curtsy to you and at the same time looks affectionately, but sadly and painfully, like a loser, and as if wants to apologize for having a beard. he grew up big, and he still hasn't made a career for himself.

For details on Aino, see Shrenk, Dobrotvorsky and A. Polonsky *. What was said about food and clothing among the Gilyaks also applies to the Aino, with the only addition that the lack of rice, the love for which the Aino inherited from their great-grandfathers who once lived on the southern islands, constitutes a serious deprivation for them; They don't like Russian bread. Their food is more varied than that of the Gilyaks; besides meat and fish, they eat various plants, shellfish and what the Italian beggars call frutti di mare **. They eat little by little, but often, almost every hour; the gluttony characteristic of all northern savages is not noticed in them. Since babies have to go from milk directly to fish and whale oil, they are weaned late.

Rimsky-Korsakov saw how ainka was sucked by a child of three years old, who already moved perfectly and even had a knife on his belt, like a big one. On clothes and dwellings, one can feel the strong influence of the south - not Sakhalin, but the real south. In summer, the Ainos wear shirts woven of grass or bast, and earlier, when they were not so poor, they wore silk robes. They do not wear hats, they walk barefoot in summer and all autumn until the snow. Their yurts are smoky and smelly, but nevertheless they are much lighter, neater and, so to speak, more cultured than those of the Gilyaks. Drying houses with fish usually stand near the yurts, spreading a dank, suffocating smell far around; dogs howl and gnaw; right there you can sometimes see a small log cage in which a young bear sits: he will be killed and eaten in winter at the so-called bear festival.

One morning I saw a teenage girl from Ain feeding a bear, pushing dried fish dipped in water on a spatula. The yurts themselves are made of knuckle and boards; the roof, made of thin poles, was covered with dry grass. Inside the walls stretch bunks, above their shelves with various utensils; here, in addition to skins, bubbles with grease, nets, dishes, etc., you will find baskets, mats and even musical instrument... The owner usually sits on the bunk and, without ceasing, smokes a pipe, and if you ask him questions, he answers reluctantly and briefly, although politely. In the middle of the yurt there is a hearth on which firewood is burning; smoke escapes through a hole in the roof.

A large black cauldron hangs above the fire; it boils ear, gray, frothy, which, I think, a European would not eat for any money. Monsters are sitting near the cauldron. As solid and handsome as Ainu men are, their wives and mothers are unattractive. The authors call the appearance of the Ain women ugly and even disgusting. The color is dark yellow, parchment, the eyes are narrow, the features are large; uncurling, coarse hair hangs over his face in patches, like straw in an old barn, the dress is unkempt, ugly, and with all that - an extraordinary thinness and senile expression. Married people paint their lips in something blue, and from this face they completely lose their human image and likeness, and when I had to see them and observe that seriousness, almost severity with which they interfere with spoons in cauldrons and remove dirty foam, then I I seemed to see real witches. But girls and girls do not make such a repulsive impression ***.
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A. Polonsky's research "The Kuriles" was published in "Notes of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society", 1871, volume IV.
** fruits of the sea (Italian).

*** N.V. Busse, who rarely spoke kindly about someone, by the way, he attests the ainok like this: “In the evening, a drunk ain, known to me as a big drunkard, came to me. He brought his wife with him, and how much I could understand , in order to sacrifice loyalty to her marital bed and thus lure good gifts from me.

Ainka, quite beautiful by herself, seemed to be ready to help her husband, but I pretended not to understand their explanations ... Leaving my house, my husband and wife without ceremony in front of my window and in the sight of the sentry paid their debt to nature. In general, this ainka did not show great female shame. Her breasts were almost not covered by anything. Ainki wear the same dress as men, that is, several open-back short robes, belted low with a sash. They do not have shirts or underwear, and therefore the slightest disorder in their dress reveals all hidden charms. "But even this stern author admits that" among the young girls there were some pretty pretty ones, with pleasant and soft features and ardent black eyes. " Be that as it may, the ainka is far behind in physical development, she ages and fades before the man. Perhaps this should be attributed to the fact that during the centuries-old wanderings of the people, the lion's share of hardships, hard work and tears fell on a woman.

Aino never wash, go to bed without undressing. Almost everyone who wrote about the Aino spoke about their morals from the best side. The general voice is such that this people is meek, modest, good-natured, trusting, communicative, polite, respectful of property, brave on the hunt and; in the words of Dr. Rollen "a, La Perouse's companion, even intelligent. Selflessness, frankness, faith in friendship and generosity are their usual qualities. They are truthful and do not tolerate deception. he concludes: "Such truly rare qualities, which they owe not to an exalted education, but to nature alone, aroused in me the feeling that I regard this people as the best of all the others that are still known to me." * And Rudanovsky writes: "More there can be no peaceful and modest population, which we met in the southern part of Sakhalin. ”Any violence arouses disgust and horror in them.

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* These are the qualities: "When visiting our one Ainsky dwelling on the shores of the Rumyantsev Bay, I noticed in this family, which consisted of 10 people, the happiest agreement, or, almost one might say, his perfect equality between the members. we could in no way recognize the heads of the family. The elders did not express any signs of command against the young. When giving them gifts, no one showed the slightest kind of displeasure that he got less than the other.

In conclusion, a few words about the Japanese in the history of South Sakhalin. For the first time, the Japanese appeared in the south of Sakhalin only at the beginning of this century, but not earlier. In 1853 N. V. Busse recorded his conversation with the old Aino people, who remembered the time of their independence and said: "Sakhalin is the land of the Ains, there is no Japanese land on Sakhalin." The first Japanese colonists were either fugitive criminals or those who had been in a foreign land and were expelled from Japan for this.

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Other materials about the Ainu community:
http://www.icrap.org/ru/Chasanova-9-1.html photos of the Ainu
http://community.livejournal.com/anthropology_ru/114005.html
http://www.svevlad.org.rs/knjige_files/ajni_prjamcuk.html

Http://www.icrap.org/Folklor_sachalinskich_Ainov.html
FAIRY TALES AND TRADITIONS OF SAKHALIN AINS

Http://kosarev.press.md/Ain-jap-1.htm
http://lord-trux.livejournal.com/46594.html
http://anthropology.ru/ru/texts/akulov/east06_13.html
http://leit.ru/modules.php?name=Pages&pa=showpage&pid=1326
http://www.vokrugsveta.ru/vs/article/2877/
http://www.sunhome.ru/religion/11036
http://www.4ygeca.com/ainy.html
http://stud.ibi.spb.ru/132/sobsvet/html/Ajni1.html
http://www.icrap.org/ru/sieroszewski8-1.html
http://www.hrono.ru/dokum/1800dok/185401putya.html
http://kosarev.press.md/Contact-models.htm
http://glob.us-in.net/gusev_67.php

Initially, the Ainu lived on the islands of Japan (then it was called Ainumosiri - the land of the Ainu), until they were pushed to the north by the Proto-Japanese. But the ancestral lands of the Ainu on the Japanese islands of Hokkaido and Honshu. The Ainu came to Sakhalin in the XIII-XIV centuries, "having finished" the settlement in the beginning. XIX century.

Traces of their appearance were also found in Kamchatka, in Primorye and Khabarovsk Territory. Many toponymic names of the Sakhalin Oblast bear Ainu names: Sakhalin (from “SAKHAREN MOSIRI” - “undulating land”); the islands of Kunashir, Simushir, Shikotan, Shiashkotan (the endings "shir" and "kotan" mean "a piece of land" and "settlement", respectively). It took the Japanese more than 2 thousand years to occupy the entire archipelago up to and including Hokkaido (then it was called "Ezo") (the earliest evidence of clashes with the Ainu dates back to 660 BC). Subsequently, the Ainu almost all degenerated or assimilated with the Japanese and Nivkhs.

Currently, there are only a few reservations in Hokkaido, where Ainu families live. The Ainu are perhaps the most mysterious people in the Far East. The first Russian seafarers who studied Sakhalin and the Kuriles were surprised to note the Caucasian facial features, thick hair and beards unusual for Mongoloids. Russian decrees of 1779, 1786 and 1799 indicate that the inhabitants of the southern Kuriles - the 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 ownership of the entire Kuril ridge by Russia is also confirmed by the Instruction of the Irkutsk governor A.I.Bril to the chief commander of Kamchatka, MK Bem, 1775, and the "yasashnaya table" - the chronology of the collection in the 18th century. from the Ainu - the inhabitants of the Kuril Islands, including from the southern ones (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 endings "shir" and "kotan" mean "a piece of land" and "settlement", respectively).

With their good nature, honesty and modesty, the Ainu made the best impression on Krusenstern. When they were given gifts for the fish delivered, they took them in their hands, admired them and then returned them. It was with difficulty that the Ainu managed to explain that it was given to them as a property. In relation to the Ainu, Catherine the Second prescribed - to be gentle with the Ainu and not to tax them, in order to alleviate the situation of the new Russian Podda-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 took Russian citizenship in 1779. commands the shaggy Kuril-Ainu, brought into citizenship on the distant islands, to leave free and not to demand any collection from them, and not to force the peoples living in Tamo to do so, but to try to continue the already established with them with friendly treatment and affection for the desired benefit in crafts and trade acquaintance. The first cartographic description of the Kuril Islands, including their 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 MATMAY (Matsmai), which later became known as Hokkaido. It was precisely established that the Kurils were not subject to any foreign state. In the report of I. Kozyrevsky in 1713. it was noted that the South Kuril Ainu "live independently and not in citizenship and trade freely." study and economic development, carried out missionary activities, levied tribute (yasak) on the local population. During the 18th century, all the Kuril Islands, including their southern part, became part of Russia. This is 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 "north of Matsmai (Hokkaido island) all lands and waters belong to the Russian emperor and that the Japanese did not extend further their possessions. " The 18th century Japanese mathematician and astronomer Honda Toshiaki wrote that “... the Ainu regard Russians as their own fathers”, since “real possessions are won by virtuous deeds. Countries forced to submit to the force of arms remain unconquered at heart. "

By the end of the 80s. In the 18th century, the facts of Russian activity in the Kuril Islands were ample enough to consider the entire archipelago, including its southern islands, as belonging to Russia, in accordance with the norms of international law of that time, which was recorded in Russian state documents. First of all, we should mention the imperial decrees (recall that at that time the imperial or royal decree had the force of law) of 1779, 1786 and 1799, which confirmed the Russian citizenship of the South Kuril Ainu (then called the "furry Kuril"), and the islands themselves were declared Russia. In 1945, the Japanese evicted all AINS from the occupied Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands to Hokkaido, while for some reason they left on Sakhalin a labor army from Koreans brought by the Japanese 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 a swing (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 Ains were counted among the Indo-Aryans, as well as among the Australoids and even the Caucasians. In short, the number of riddles kept growing, and the answers brought new problems. The Ainu population was a socially stratified group ("utar"), headed by families of leaders by the right of succession to power (it should be noted that the Ainu clan followed the female line, although the man was naturally considered the main one in the family). Utar was built on the basis of a fictitious kinship and had a military organization. The ruling families, calling themselves "utarpa" (head of utara) or "nishpa" (leader), represented a layer of the military elite. Men of "high birth" were assigned to military service from birth, high-born women spent their time at embroidery and shamanic rituals ("tusu").

The family of the chief 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 embankments often reached five or six, which alternated with ditches. Together with the family of the leader, there were usually servants and slaves ("ushiyu") inside the fortification. The Ainu did not have any centralized authority; the bow was their preferred weapon. No wonder they were called "people with arrows sticking out of their hair" because they wore quivers (and swords, by the way, too) behind their backs. The bow was made from elm, beech or large spindle tree (tall shrub, up to 2.5 m high with very strong wood) with whalebone overlays. The bowstring was made of nettle fibers. The plumage of the arrows consisted of three eagle feathers. A few words about combat tips. In battle, both "ordinary" armor-piercing and spiked arrowheads were used (perhaps for better cutting through armor or getting an arrow stuck in a wound). There were also arrowheads of an unusual, Z-shaped section, which were most likely borrowed from the Manchus or Dzhurdzheni (information has been preserved that in the Middle Ages the Sakhalin Ainu rebuffed a large army that came from the mainland). Arrowheads were made of metal (the early ones were made of obsidian and bone) and then coated with aconite poison "suruku". The 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 is ready. Due to the fact that this poison quickly decomposed, it was widely used for hunting large animals. The arrow shaft was made of larch.

The Ainu swords were short, 45-50 cm long, slightly curved, with one-sided sharpening and a one-and-a-half-handed handle. Ainu warrior - jangin - 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 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 ritual “pere” or “erytokpa” - a ritual suicide, which was later adopted by the Japanese, calling it “hara-kiri” or “seppuku” (as, by the way, the cult of the sword, special shelves for a sword, spear, bow). The 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 Ainu man. The Ainu grandfather was ordered to make a sword, and the Japanese grandfather was ordered to make money (further it is explained why the Ainu had a cult of swords, and the Japanese had a thirst for money. The Ainu condemned their neighbors for money-grubbing). They treated spears rather coolly, although they exchanged them with the Japanese.

Another detail of the Ainu warrior's weapons was combat beaters - small rollers with a handle and a hole at the end, made of hard wood. On the sides, the beaters were supplied with metal, obsidian or stone thorns. The beaters were used both as a brush and as a sling - a leather belt was threaded through the hole. A well-aimed blow from such a beater killed immediately, at best (for the victim, of course) - it disfigured forever. The Ainu did not wear helmets. They had natural long, thick hair that tied into a mat, forming a semblance of a natural helmet. Now let's move on to the armor. The sarafan armor was made of bearded seal skin ("bearded seal" - a kind of large seal). In appearance, such armor (see photo) may seem bulky, but in fact it practically does not restrict movement, allows you to freely bend and squat. Thanks to the numerous segments, four layers of leather were obtained, which were equally successful in repelling 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 discs - "toli", scaring away evil spirits and generally having magical significance. Similar circles are also depicted on the back. Such armor is fastened in front with the help of numerous strings. There were also short suits of armor, like sweatshirts with planks or metal plates sewn onto them. Very little is currently known about the martial art of the Ainu. It is known that the Pro-Japanese adopted almost everything from them. Why not assume that some of the 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 clubs were replaced with knives, and sometimes they just fought with their hands, until the opponents lost their breath. Despite the brutality of the duel, no injuries were observed. In fact, the Ainu fought not only with the Japanese. For example, they conquered Sakhalin from the “tonzi” - a stunted people, really the indigenous population of Sakhalin. From “tonzi”, Ainu women adopted the habit of tattooing lips and skin around the lips (a kind of half-smile was obtained - half-beads), as well as the names of some (very good quality) swords - “tonzini”. It is curious that the Ainu warriors - the Jangins - were noted as very warlike, they were incapable of lying. Also interesting is information about the ownership marks of the Ainu - they put special signs on arrows, weapons, dishes, passed down from generation to generation, in order, for example, not to confuse whose arrow hit the beast, to whom this or that thing belongs. There are more than one and a half hundred such signs, and their meanings have not yet been deciphered. Rock inscriptions were found near the flock (Hokkaido) and on the sharp Urup.

It remains to add that the Japanese were afraid of an open battle with the Ainu and conquered them by cunning. An ancient Japanese song said that one "emishi" (barbarian, ain) is worth one hundred people. It was believed that they could fog up. Over the years, the Ainu more than once raised an uprising against the Japanese (in Ainu "siskin"), but each time they lost. The Japanese invited the leaders to their place to conclude an armistice. Piously honoring the customs of hospitality, the Ainu, trusting like children, did not think anything bad. They were killed during a feast. As a rule, the Japanese did not succeed in other methods of suppressing the uprising.

“The Ainu are a meek, modest, good-natured, trusting, sociable, polite people, respecting property; on the hunt brave

and ... even intelligent. " (A.P. Chekhov - Sakhalin Island)

It is significant that no one knows the exact number of Ainu on the Japanese islands. The fact is that in "tolerant" Japan there is often a rather arrogant attitude towards representatives of other nationalities. And the Ainu were no exception: their exact number cannot be determined, 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, the Ainam are often left with the least prestigious jobs. 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 came to Japan at about the same time that people first reached America. The first settlers of the Japanese islands - YOMON (ancestors of the AINS) reached Japan twelve thousand years ago, and the yoi (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 will be 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 Ryukyu, who live mainly on the southernmost island of Okinawa. One theory is that these two groups, the Ainu and Ryukyu, are the descendants of the first yomon settlers who once occupied all of Japan, and were later driven from the central islands north to Hokkaido and south to Okinawa by yoi aliens from Korea. A study of mitochondrial DNA carried out in Japan only partially confirms this hypothesis: it showed that modern Japanese from the central islands have very much in common genetically with modern Koreans, with whom they have much more identical and similar mitochondrial types than with the Ainu and Ryukyu people. However, it is also shown that there are practically no similarities between the Ainu and Ryukyu people. The age estimate showed 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 Yeomon people, but also proves that the two groups have not been in contact with each other since then.