Coming of Age in Ainu Culture
"Up to the age of three or four years an Ainu child is called ai-ai (baby), without regard to sex. From that age until about seven, a boy is called…
Location: Hokkaido, Japan
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
"Ainu Family Life and Religion," from Popular Science Monthly by J.K. Goodrich, 1888.
Up to the age of three or four years an Ainu child is called ai-ai (baby), without regard to sex. From that age until about seven, a boy is called sontak and a girl opere. From seven until about sixteen or eighteen a lad is called heikachi, and a maid matkachi. After that age a maid is called shiwentep, or woman. From eighteen to thirty a young man is called okkaibo or okkaiyo; after the age of thirty a man is an Ainu; that is, "a man."
The boy is trained in fishing and hunting by his father and the other men of the village, and at the age of about twelve accompanies the men in their manly vocations. The girl assists her mother and the older females of the family in gardening and cooking; in cleaning, salting, and curing fish; in spinning, weaving cloth, and making clothes; and generally in all the drudgery of the household, for the Ainu man is as lofty in his notions that labor is beneath his dignity as is the North American Indian.
While not as demonstrative in their affection for their children, I think the Ainu parents love their little ones quite as tenderly as any other people; and if Miss Bird's observation is correct, they have one pleasant way of displaying their affection which one does not see through the length and breadth of the empire of Japan, and that is the kiss of affection.
J. K. Goodrich, "Ainu Family Life and Religion," Popular Science Monthly 34 (November 1888), 81-92.
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