Ainu Arts & Music
A quick look at the arts and music of Ainu culture.
Traditional Arts of the Ainu
The Ainu are the inheritors of many long artistic traditions in both the visual and performing arts. Among their most celebrates are those of storytelling, music, dance, embroidery, tattooing, and woodcarving.
Without a written language, the Ainu preserved their history and myths through oral literature. These stories, or yukar, are typically told from the viewpoint of kamuy gods in plant, animal, and human form. They may be very long, requiring extensive powers of memorization to recite. Many are set to music and accompanied by dance, or rimse. These dances similarly take the perspective of the kamuy they depict, such as the crane dance. Others were used as a form of spiritual warfare to frighten malevolent spirits away. Upopo dances, performed in a circle with drums, are more light-hearted. Common Ainu instruments include the mukkuri jaw harp, drum, and tonkori zither.
Other yukar focus more on the world of humans. Poiyaumbe or Poiyaunpe, an Ainu folk hero, stars in many of these epic tales as he defends his homeland from invaders. Another popular hero is Okikurumi, the divine father and teacher of the Ainu. Both men and women performed songs and stories.
In addition to storytelling and music, the historic Ainu practiced arts like wood-carving, weaving, embroidery, and tattooing. Images of living creatures were reserved for religious items like men’s sapanupe crowns. Ainu art instead featured complex geometric patterns worked into wood, fabric, and women’s tattoos. Men carved ornate knife handles, while women embroidered clothing and wove baskets. They did not produce many of their decorative items, including ceramics, lacquerware, and jewelry. The Ainu instead procured these goods through trade with the Japanese.
Modern Ainu Arts
During the 20th century, many Ainu artists found work in folk villages built for tourists. Their carved bears and nipopo dolls became popular fad items in Japan. These works supported Ainu families, but they were not based on real cultural customs. The carved bears, for example, originated in Switzerland. Over time, Ainu woodcarvers developed these imitative works into their own unique artform. Modern Ainu artists work in many styles, both preserving and changing their traditions for the modern world.
Further Reading:
Learn More About Ainu Culture
Cultural Overview | Geography | History | Daily Life | Society | Economy | Beliefs | Arts & Music
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.
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