Government of the Hokkaido Ainu
According to ancient traditions, as well as certain customs which were still more or less adhered to and practised twenty years ago by the people, we find that the Ainu…
From: Unknown To: 1901 C.E.
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 It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.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.
The Author and Chief Penri in 1879. Images by John Batchelor.
According to ancient traditions, as well as certain customs which were still more or less adhered to and practised twenty years ago by the people, we find that the Ainu never had a monarchy, but always divided the government amongst the inhabitants of the separate villages, thus making each village community a kind of independent republican state.
The elders of each village assembled, we are informed, and chose a chief and two sub-chiefs to look after the affairs of the people. The principal chief, or in case of his absence one of the sub-chiefs, was always present at a funeral to bury the dead, or at marriages to ratify the marriage covenant by his assent, and to cheer the young couple with his good wishes.
The chiefs, together with the people, made the laws and sat in judgment upon the law-breakers.
It will, of course, be readily understood that there were no law-codes or clearly defined descriptive rights; the punishment therefore of minor offences and recognised crime was left pretty much to the injured individual and community.
It was the duty of the principal chief to lead the people to hunt, fish, and fight, and in conjunction with the sub-chiefs to see to the proper division of land, to point out to each person a garden plot and fishing place, to visit the sick, to settle disputes, to pronounce sentence upon the guilty, and to see that such sentence was duly carried out.
All trials took place in public, and unless the assembled elders of the people assented to the decision of the chief his judgment was void. This mode of government was sometimes practised in secret by the people when the author first went among them, notwithstanding the fact that the Japanese had taken away all semblance of power from them as a race, deposed their hereditary chiefs, and set up men of their own choosing in their places. Old Penri himself was one of these.
But in very remote times, and in very small villages, the chief authority was naturally vested in the head of the family. The husband and father could do pretty much as he pleased with his wives and children. He could, for example, divorce all or any of his wives—for the Ainu were polygamists—or disinherit his children. He could punish any member of his family as he thought proper. More recently, however, i.e. since each village has its own chiefs, a single member could do very little as an individual. He must consult his companions and the appointed chiefs.
How this came to be can easily be explained. Suppose any single individual household to move away from all friends, and build a home in the wilds at some distance from any village. Such a thing has been done by the Ainu. A single family has often made a new settlement. Such a settlement necessarily commences under the rule of the father, who, as new huts are built near him for the accommodation of his sons as they get married, remains head of the growing clan.
Then, as old age comes on, he retires, and his eldest son acts more and more in his stead, and at his death naturally succeeds him as head of the community. Then, in course of years, as the community increases in numbers, the whole village naturally desires to have something to say in any matter affecting any one of them, because each household is related to every other. A person could not, therefore, touch any member of his own family without giving offence to every other individual in the village. A kind of republican or community government, for this reason, became a necessity.
John Batchelor, The Ainu and Their Folk-Lore (London: Religious Tract Society, 1901), 278-281.
About TOTA
TOTA.world provides cultural information and sharing across the world to help you explore your Family’s Cultural History and create deep connections with the lives and cultures of your ancestors.
