Hunting and Fishing in Ainu Culture

Hunting Traditions of Ainu People

Traditional Ainu people fed their families through a combination of hunting, fishing, gathering, and crops. Farming played a relatively small role in their daily diet. Far more important were game like deer and bear and fish like salmon and trout. The Ainu lived on islands. To sustain themselves, they needed to become a natural part of their ecosystem. Hunting was a sacred act, a giving and taking between humans and the gods. Women hunted as well as men, though they did so separately and only fed close family with their game.[1]

Before firearms, Ainu hunters pursued game with poisoned bows and arrows. They preferred to lay in wait or catch animals through clever traps. They fashioned lures to bring in deer or set their dogs to corral them in natural barriers. Poisoned bow traps set along game trails caught bear, deer, otters, foxes, rabbits, and raccoon dogs on Hokkaido.[2] Their poisons were derived from the aconite plant. Each family had its own additional ingredients, including spider venom, tobacco, and other toxic plants. Only a few men learned these family recipes, and their secrets were closely guarded.[3]

Hunting in Ainu Spirituality and Worship

In traditional Ainu belief, animals, plants, and objects are all the physical forms of a greater life force, or ramat. Kamuy deities are the source of this ramat. When an object breaks or a creature dies, its ramat returns to its kamuy to be born again. In this way, the historic Ainu saw animals like deer less as individual creatures and more as different manifestations of the same kamuy. The cycle of life and death is a natural process to be respected but not feared.

The kamuy gave their forms freely to the Ainu as food, clothing, tools, medicine, and anything else they needed for survival. In exchange, the gods expected respect, prayers, and offerings in return. Inau, whittled willow sticks, acted as messengers to the kamuy, carrying prayers and offerings. Men carved them frequently, often several times per day, to give thanks to various kamuy. Hunters and fishermen offered inau to Hash-inau-uk Kamuy, goddess of the hunt and fishermen, and Rep-un Kamuy, god of the sea. After they had eaten an animal, including fish, Ainu hunters returned their bones to shrines called keyohniusi.[4][5]

Bear Hunting and Sacrifices in Ainu Culture

Bears are an especially sacred animal in Ainu culture. They are the physical manifestations of the mountain god, Kim-un Kamuy. Ainu hunters typically waited until spring to pursue bears, while they were still sleeping in their dens. They sent in dogs to flush the bear out before finishing it with poisoned arrows and spears. If they found a mother bear, they brought her cubs back with them to be raised within the village. Once they were a few years old, they were ritually sent back to Kim-un Kamuy with prayers and offerings.[6]

Fishing and Coastal Gathering in Ainu Moshir

In addition to their hunting, Ainu people relied on fishing to make it through their long winters. Most villages were built along the banks of rivers, which saw annual trout and salmon runs. Men fished with spears, nets, and baskets. According to one account, they trained their dogs to help catch fish as well. As in hunting, women did their own fishing but could not make offerings or prayers to the kamuy. Along the coasts, men hunted marine animals like seals while women gathered shellfish and kelp.[7][8]

Traditional Ainu Lifestyles and Japanese Colonization

For many centuries, the Ainu lived in relative prosperity on their islands. Their ancient pattern of life was disrupted with the arrival of Japanese settlers, pushing north from Matsumae trading posts. The new residents, armed with firearms, soon depleted the game of Hokkaido. The Ainu, who relied on those animals for both food and trade goods, found fewer and fewer to hunt. Around the same time, Japanese fisheries along the coast threatened their abundant supply of salmon.

While the Japanese government first encouraged Ainu people to hunt instead of farm, it reversed course. In 1876, the Meiji government banned the hunting of deer by the Ainu. Ainu families were encouraged to turn to agriculture and local industry. Young men, no longer able to hunt, went to work for the fisheries for menial wages. In some cases, they were paid only in sake. Today's Ainu people may still hunt and fish, but most rely more on farming, fishing, tourism, and the handicraft trade.[9][10]

Bibliography

1. Katarina Sjöberg, The Return of the Ainu: Cultural Mobilization and the Practice of Ethnicity in Japan (Chur, Switzerland: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1993), 52.

2. John Batchelor, The Ainu and Their Folk-Lore (London: Religious Tract Society, 1901), 458-463.

3. Kirsten Refsing, Early European Writings on Ainu Culture (Tokyo: Edition Synapse, 2002), 59.

4. Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, Illness and Healing among the Sakhalin Ainu: A Symbolic Interpretation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 68.

5. Michael Ashkenazi, Handbook of Japanese Mythology (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2003), 211-212.

6. Ann B. Irish, Hokkaido: A History of Ethnic Transition and Development on Japan's Northern Island (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009), 33.

7. Brett L. Walker, The Conquest of Ainu Lands: Ecology and Culture in Japanese Expansion, 1590-1800 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001), 81-82.

8. Batchelor, 532-533.

9. Richard Siddle, Race, Resistance, and the Ainu of Japan (London: Routledge, 1996).

10. Batchelor, 29.

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