Ainu - History of the Indigenous people of Japan DOCUMENTARY

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Fun fact: Most of what we know about the Ainu, including recordings of their language, is the result of the work of Bronislaw Pilsudski, brother of the better known Jozef Pilsudski. He was exiled to Russia's far east for anti-Russian activities but eventualy recieved a grant to study the indigenous peoples which was cut short by the Russo-Japanese war.

My mom (San-sei, Japanese American) taught me who the Ainu were when I was young. Her basic description of them was that they were "like the Native Americans, but in Japan"

Ainu legends state the true Ainu home is a land of “terrible cold and no tree’s”. Many interpret this as Siberia. The Ainu language was also used early on for Russian and Japanese to communicate. Less than 100 Ainu speakers are around today but you can still get Ainu-English-Japanese dictionaries to help revive it. I am on this mission myself, since my great grandfather was Ainu.

"Who would bother with invading some fogy islands on the edge of the world, inhabited by hairy sevages" Caesar: excuse me?

Bear in heaven telling spirits: “ They were pious, devoted, wonderful people. Up until the time they murdered me!”

In the movie "Princess Mononoke", the main caracter and the inhabitants of his village are Emishi

As an indigenous Cree Native man from Canada. I really appreciate and connect to the history of the Ainu and the emishi people of Emishi

There were a few individuals of Ainu heritage who gained some recognition for their service in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Sergeant Kiichiro Noda's achievements and skills as a sniper earned him the nickname "The Bear of Luban." He participated in various battles, including the Battle of Peleliu in 1944. After the war, he returned to Hokkaido and became an advocate for Ainu rights and culture.

As someone who grew up in Northern Japan. We barely had enough knowledge about this, studying about Sengoku Jidai which we weren't even that much part of it.

My toilet spirit has never rushed to my defense. Times have indeed changed.

Lots of similarities to Pacific Northwest Native Americans. Especially their reverence and dependency on salmon.

Its crazy how the Tragedy of the Ainu is such a common story for so many peoples from around the world

There are many smaller cultures like this that get dwarfed by their more well known neighbors, glad to see your covering them

The manga "Golden Kamui" does show many aspects of the Ainu traditions (mainly because the co-protagonist is an Ainu) and its a good read. Who said learning can't be fun? Edit: Also, aren't there still Ainu's in Japan nowadays? Edit 2: I wish the Ainu best of luck in their future endeavours, since getting officialy recognized as a separate ethnic group is a big step foward but only the first of many. Aurrera eta beti aurrera!

The first time I learned about the Ainu was when reading "Fullmetal Alchemist." While not mentioned by name in the manga, there are an ethnic minority of people who was conquered by a foreign power and later subjected to attempted genocide; I would later learn that the author based this on the history of the Ainu.

Words cannot describe how much i would love to See a Kings and generals video on Irish History. Especially Gaelic Ireland, 1000-1600, it’s culture, customs, language, the norman/English invasion and the efforts of the Gaelic Irish lords to Unite, rebel & push back the tide of the growing English rule over our country. ❤️🇮🇪

There is a history, that when Russian explorers came to Hokkaido and Sakhalin (island, which is near Japan), they thought Ainu were also Russians, because they looked very similar to them.

I am from Sakhalin and it is delightful to see a video about history of one of our land`s native peoples

There's a bit of a mistake in the beginning of the video (3:45). The Jomon culture was spread across the entire Japanese archipelago for thousands of years, but the map does not show them in western Japan. Also the Yayoi are currently theorized to be a culture that was a mixture between western Jomon people and immigrants from the Korean peninsula. So saying they came from the continent in 1000 BC is oversimplifying it a bit. Including this information could have helped explain why modern Japanese share DNA with Jomon people and perhaps why there are some similarities between Ainu animism and Shintoism.