Ainu Economies
An overview of the historic and modern economics of Ainu communities.
Historic Economies of the Ainu
Although the historic Ainu for the most part lived in remote island villages, they were never an isolated culture. Traditional Ainu societies relied on both survival skills and trade to support themselves. Men primarily hunted through autumn, winter, and spring. Their most important game were deer, bear, and rabbit. Summer and early fall were occupied by massive annual trout and salmon migrations. In spring, women sowed millet, deccan grass, turnips, and later other vegetables like potatoes, pumpkins, and beans. They spent summer days searching for wild edible plants. Coastal villages also sent men out in long dugout canoes to catch larger fish and hunt mammals such as whales and seals.
Besides their subsistence activities, the Ainu conducted regular trade with the outside world and sometimes fell under the control of neighboring empires. The Sakhalin Ainu, for example, paid tribute to the Chinese Yuan dynasty after losing a long war. Between the 13th and 15th centuries, seafaring Ainu sailors were known to trade with China, Korea, Russia, Japan, and northern peoples like the Nivkhs. In exchange for the natural resources of Hokkaido, they accepted food, weaponry, metals, ceramics, jewelry, and fabrics. They formed an important link in the region’s trade chain, ferrying goods between the larger kingdoms and empires around them.
This pattern of life changed as Japanese control over Hokkaido grew. The Matsumae clan built trading forts along the southern coast of Hokkaido from the 16th century on. They would maintain a Japanese trade monopoly with the Ainu for another 200 years. During Japan's period of isolation, Ainu trade became a lucrative means to import foreign goods, enriching both sides of the exchange. Over time, however, the priorities of Japan shifted. Ainu commerce with other cultures gradually diminished to an exclusive relationship with Japanese interests. Japanese goods like cotton, rice, and sake slowly replaced traditional Ainu foods and materials. Their increased reliance on the Japanese pushed the Ainu toward a new economic system. Instead of hunting and fishing to survive, men focused on exports like pelts, feathers, and live hawks. Later, wage-based industries further eroded their lifestyles.
Modern Ainu Economics
Hokkaido’s natural resources declined further with the arrival of Japanese settlers. Eventually, the Ainu were left with few trade goods and no traditional lifestyle to return to. The Japanese encouraged their transition to agriculture, lumber, mining, and commercial fishing, which remain the major industries of Hokkaido today. Many Ainu people thus entered an economic system of low wages, hard labor, and ethnic discrimination. For most, escaping this lifestyle meant abandoning their culture and disappearing into Japanese society. Another option, tourist villages, allowed for the preservation of their ways and arts at the cost of commercialization. While conditions have improved for modern Ainu people, issues of wealth disparity and representation continue.
Further Reading:
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References
Batchelor, John. The Ainu and Their Folk-Lore. Religious Tract Society. 1901.
Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko. Illness and Healing Among the Sakhalin Ainu. Cambridge University Press. 2014.
Siddle, Richard. Race, Resistance, and the Ainu of Japan. Routledge. 2012.
Sjoberg, Katarina. The Return of Ainu: Cultural Mobilization and the Practice of Ethnicity in Japan. Routledge. 2013.
“The Ainu People.” Ainu History and Culture, Ainu Museum, www.ainu-museum.or.jp/en/study/eng01.html.
Walker, Brett. The Conquest of Ainu Lands: Ecology and Culture in Japanese Expansion, 1590-1800. University of California Press. 2006.
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