Clothing of the Hokkaido Ainu
From The Ainu and Their Folk-Lore by John Batchelor, 1901. Images by John Batchelor*.*
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 It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From The Ainu and Their Folk-Lore by John Batchelor, 1901. Images by John Batchelor*.*
Clothing
The chief article of dress worn by the Ainu is a long garment, which they call Attush. This word really means simply ‘elm fibre' or ‘elm thread,’ and, as the words indicate, the dresses are made from the inner bark of elm trees. Such garments are very brittle when dry, but when wet they are exceedingly strong.
Elm bark is peeled off the trees in the early spring or autumn, just when the sap commences to flow upwards, or when it has finished doing so. When sufficient bark has been taken, it is carried home and put into warm stagnant water to soak. It remains here for about ten days till it has become soft, then when it has been sufficiently soaked it is taken out of the water, the layers of bark separated, dried in the sun, and the fibres divided into threads and wound up into balls for future use.
Sewing thread is sometimes made in the same way, only it is chewed till it becomes round and solid. Sometimes, however, thread is made by chewing the green fibre as soon as taken from the trees. When all the threads have been prepared, the women sit down and proceed with their weaving. These garments are very rough indeed, reminding one of sackcloth, and are of a dirty brown colour. It is therefore no wonder that those Ainu who can afford it prefer to wear the softer Japanese clothing.
But the cloth made of elm bark in its natural condition is not so dark a colour as some of the people seem to prefer. In order therefore to make it darker they dye it. This is done by first steeping it in a hot decoction made from the bark of oak or the Alnus incana, and then immersing it in marshy places rich in iron for a week or so. This turns the bark to a reddish black colour, and the whole product is called kunnep, ‘the black article.’
The women take pride in fancy needlework, as to be sure good housewives should do, and are very tasteful in their arrangements of both pattern and colour. This embroidery is done with Japanese stuffs and coloured threads and cottons, generally upon a groundwork of their own elm-bark cloth. One of these dresses, in the writer’s possession, took up all the spare time of a woman during a whole year to make.
The work of different villages presents different patterns; those of one village are not necessarily the same as those of another. In fact, when an Ainu of one district goes into another clothed in an embroidered dress, the people he meets can with almost certainty tell whence he comes, from the pattern of his coat.
A man’s coat front and back
.
There are patterns recognised as suitable for men, and others especially for women. No man would think of wearing a coat with patterns on it which are recognised as belonging to women, any more than an European would think of putting on petticoats; nor would a woman put on a coat that has patterns appropriated by the men, any more than an English lady would think of donning a man’s coat and trousers. The women’s garments are not so highly decorated as those of the men, though with us this is vice versa.
A woman’s dress (back).
The wives take pride in dressing up their husbands, especially on the occasion of a bear feast; but they themselves prefer a good show of beads, earrings, finger-rings, necklaces and bracelets, set off with a tastefully-tattooed mouth.
The men, on the other hand, take great pride in their wives’ needlework, and they are exceedingly particular about having the corners of their ornamental patterns properly turned. If a curve is not quite so well turned as a man thinks it should be, or a line not quite straight, he will storm away finely, and sometimes make his wife unpick her work and do it all over again.
All the grown-up people wear head-dresses to keep the hair back and head warm, as well as leggings and aprons of the pattern shown in the following illustration. It used to be the custom also, and is still so in some places, for a woman upon the loss of her husband either to have the hair plucked out or her head clean shaven. Not only was she supposed to remain indoors as much as possible, and keep herself entirely by herself till her hair once more grew long, but as soon as it got any length she was obliged to have it shaved off again.
Chipanup, or Woman’s Head
-
dress
.
This was to show her great loss and sorrow. This shaving of the head must have been a painful process before the Ainu got Japanese razors, and when they used either flints or sharp shells for the purpose. As soon as a woman has her head shaved she puts on a widow’s bonnet, which she is obliged to wear during the whole period of her widowhood. These bonnets are now generally made of thick Japanese cloth, and have a hole left in the hinder part of the crown for ventilation. I have also sometimes met widowers wearing these hoods.
An Apron
.
For winter wear the women sew dog, bear, deer, wolf, or fox skins upon the back of their attush or elm-fibre garments, and wear skin shoes made of deer or salmon skins. Both men and women wear gloves on the back of their hands. Formerly they used also to wear skin trousers; but as skins are now somewhat scarce, these articles of dress are dispensed with. The women, both in summer and winter, wear leggings made of grass or rushes, and both men and women sleep with their heads wrapped up in a cloth or head-dress.
I suppose one would not be far wrong in placing snow-shoes under the heading of clothing, for they are part of the walking outfit. The first illustration shows the form of a pair formerly in the Hakodate Museum, but which really came from the island of Saghalien. The shoe consists of a single piece of wood neatly covered over with sealskin. The dimensions are five feet seven inches long, by seven-and-a-half inches wide.
A Snow
-
shoe.
They are fastened to the feet by means of a skin thong. I he second illustration shows the kind used in Yezo. They are made of vine, but being so short it is difficult to walk any distance in them, for they sink far into the snow. Indeed, they can only be worn with any degree of comfort from January to March, while the snow is hard.
During the summer months the people usually go barefoot; but should it be necessary to cover their feet, as for a long journey, for example, they make sandals of bark—the bark of the vine being taken by preference.
John Batchelor, The Ainu and Their Folk-Lore (London: Religious Tract Society, 1901), 144-151.
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