AKAN: AINU PEOPLE

The information and materials for this page were obtained at Ainu Kotan on Akan Lake. For 
more information, please access website "The Ainu Museum" (See RELATED SITES).
It is generally considered that the Ainu (meaning "human") people are aborigines who lived 
in the Japanese Islands before Yamato people (people belonged to the Yamato government) 
came. Ethnologically, there are many questions about the relation between the Ainu and 
their further preceding residents after the glacial period and the origin of the Ainu people 
and that of the Yamato people, the relation between the Ainu (and Ainu language) and the 
Yamato people (and Japanese language) etc. Actually Ainu place names are found in a wide 
area in the Tohoku region, and some people think that such Ainu place names exist in the 
Chubu (middle part) region and even in the West Japan from the Shikoku to the Kyushu-
Okinawa regions.

By the early part of the 4th century, the Yamato government conquered the people called "
Emishi" or "Ezo" in the Tohoku region, as well as the people called "Kumaso" in the Kyushu 
region. Although it is not evidenced that the Ezo people are the Ainu people, the Ainu 
people already traded with the Yamato people in the 12th century. Since they are hunting 
people, they obtained lacquer ware from the Yamato people.

In the Edo period, Matsumae han (han = feudal domain(fief) in the Edo period) ruled a part 
of the Ezo region (Hokkaido). Finally, the Hokkaido development policy of the Meiji 
government forced the Ainu people to change their conventional hunting and fishing lifestyle 
by the Hokkaido Aborigine Protection Act (1899).<BR><P>

The movement by the Hokkaido Utari Association (1961- ) requiring that the Japanese 
government should enact a new law for assurance of the aborigines' right since 1984 and 
efforts of Kayano Shigeru (1926- ), an Ainu member of the House of Councilors (resigned in 
1998) resulted in the establishment of commonly-called New Ainu Law in 1997. Yet this law 
merely relates to revival and preservation of Ainu culture.

AINU KOTAN

The severe but beautiful living environment made the Ainu people have so-called animism.  
They always thanked gods of natural objects and natural phenomena for the divine 
protection and lived modesty not to destroy the environment. Among the nature gods, 
iresukamuy (the god of fire) was the most important god.

The animal gods were also important.  Iyomante, a ceremony to send back the spirit of 
kimun kamuy (the mountain god = brown bear) or kotankoro kamuy (village guardian god = 
owl) was held in January or February. In the ceremony, a 1 to 2 years old bear or owl, 
grown by the kotan (village) people, was "physically" killed by several arrows; however, the 
spirit of the animal god was separated from the body and it stays the kotan during the 
iyomante. The people offered the spirit a lot of food, and performed sacred dances to 
entertain the spirit, wishing the animal god visit ainumoshiri (the land of the Ainu) again. At 
night, yukar (a tale of hero) is recited in rhyme, with rhythm and melody, by a well-known 
master narrator.

When a kotan (village) held iyomante, as many people visited from other kotan to join the 
ceremony, the iyomante also provided an opportunity of social gathering.  

A house, chise, was built of thatch plants. For the sake of protection against the cold, the 
thickness of the roof and walls was about 30 cm. Inside, a fireplace was located at the 
center of the house.

At meals, the family members sat around the fireplace, and acha (or michi) (father) prayed 
to resukamuy (the god of fire).
Children played in the field, and listen to various songs and tales by ekashi (grandfather) and 
fuchi (grandmother). Boys learned hunting and fishing techniques from their acha (or michi) 
(father), while girls learned weaving and sawing from their hapo (mother). The girls were 
tattooed around their lips and arms by the age of 15-16 then regarded as adults. 

Ainu people married for love or in accordance with an engagement arranged between their 
parents. In the latter case, if a man/woman in question disagreed to the engagement, he/
she broke it off. Both proposal and cancellation of engagement were made in formal 
tradition via three men, a man-side mediator, a woman-side mediator and an mediator 
between both sides. Upon engagement, clothes, accessories and the like are exchanged.  
Upon cancellation of engagement, a sword and the like are sent as compensation.

According to "The Ainu People" (by Honda Katsuichi; Asahi-shinbunsha, 1993), ikoinkar 
(midwife) played a very important role in kotan. Ikoinkar had not only an excellent midwifery 
but also a detailed knowledge of medical botany and Ainu medical art.

"The Ainu People" introduces supernatural abilities ueinkar (clairvoyance or second sight) 
and tus (phychomancy) of some Ainu people. The book reports on an ikoinkar who had the 
abilities of tus and ueinkar as well as her skilled midwifery, from interviews and recorded 
information. The midwifery basically using her fingers and foot (arbitrarily selected) was 
equivalent, or even superior to present obstetric treatment in hospitals in that, at the very 
beginning of a baby's life, she tried to find abnormality in the baby's backbone and, if she 
found it, fixed the trouble on the spot. She told the sex of unborn baby with 100% of 
accuracy by examination touch or her ueinkar. 

ABASHIRI PRISON

After the Meiji Reformation, the land previously called Ezo was renamed Hokkaido, and the 
Meiji government set Hokkaido Kaitaku-shi (Development Office) to open up the north 
country land. However, the Okhotk coast region merely had a summer fishing ground, and 
the development in this region was delayed by severe winter cold and ice floes.
At the beginning of the Meiji period, frequent civil wars and poverty produced a great 
number of criminals.
Japan had to made every effort to catch up with the Europe and the United States. For 
this purpose, the development of Hokkaido was very important. In addition, from the threat 
of Russia's southward policy to obtain an unfrozen port, Japan had to open up Hokkaido to 
strengthen the defenses.
In 1890, the history of Abashiri prison started with the deforestation to construct a Sapporo
-Abashiri connecting road by using prisoners. To reduce expenses on the very laborious 
deforestation of primeval forest, about 1200 prisoners were sent to Abashiri.
To prevent escape, the prisoners were chained in pairs. As the construction site moved 
deeper in mountain, food stuffs were not sufficiently supplied. If they tried to run away, 
they were killed on the spot. More than 200 people died until the road was completed. 

The prisoners' labor was used in other construction of roads, bridges and the like, and 
further used in mining works, afforestation works, shore protection works and the like.  
Finally, the question "double punishment should be inflicted on the prisoners?" was 
discussed in the Diet and this system was abolished in 1894. However, the development 
works were continued by using jobless people and foreigners.

BRISON BREAKER 1: GOSUN-KUGI (LONG-NAIL) TORAKICHI

Nishikawa Torakichi was born as a third son of a peasant in Mie prefecture at about the end 
of the Edo period. When he was fourteen, his uncle was killed in foul-play gambling trouble, 
and Torakichi revenged his dead uncle on an enemy yakuza party. As he was a teenager, 
he was sent in a prison in Mie prefecture.

However, in the prison, he knew that his enemy was still alive. He first escaped from the 
prison. He wandered gambling rooms searching for the enemy, then was arrested. Torakichi 
returned to the prison, but soon escaped from the prison.
The third prison was Akita prison. He easily escaped from this prison. He became a 
gambler. As he learned tricky plays in the prisons, he earned a lot in gambling rooms.

In Shizuoka prefecture, he was arrested on a charge of injury. At this time, while he was 
running away from the police, he trod a long nail into the sole of his foot. He did not stop 
running, but at last he was caught after another 12 km running.

Torakichi was moved from Tokyo to Kabato prison in Hokkaido. He, well-known as "gosun-
kugi (long-nail) Torakichi" all over the country then, broke out of Kabato prison three times 
with cooperation by other prisoners. First, he flung wet jacket on the frozen wall, and 
climbed the wall utilizing instant adhesion between the jacket and the wall surface.  

Secondly, he ran away under cover of snow smoke caused by his collaborators. Thirdly, he 
formed a duplicate key with rice.

He stole money from wealthy merchants' storehouses, and used it in gambling, and gave it 
to poor people. Then he became popular.
Torakichi was finally moved to Abashiri prison when he was fifty. He spent there as a well-
behaved prisoner, and released when he was seventy-two.

BRISON BREAKER 2: MATCHLESS JAILBREAKER

This man escaped from modernized prisons in Showa Period, without anybody's assistance.
In 1935, he first escaped from Aomori prison by using a wire duplicate key. He was soon 
arrested and sentenced to imprisonment for life. He was sent to Kosuge prison in Tokyo.

In 1941, with the occurrence of the World War II, the prisoners serving long-term sentences 
were moved to local prisons. He was moved to Akita prison (in Akita prefecture) in the fall 
of 1942. Akita prison was cruel to the jailbreaker, and threw the man into solitary cell 
without heater. He declared jailbreaking, and carried it out by cutting the wooden windowsill 
using a hand-made tin-plate saw. However, he surrendered himself to the police to appeal 
to the police in Tokyo.

In 1943, he sent to Abashiri prison where he experienced severe punishment that he never 
expected. He, always in handcuffs, was kept in a solitary confinement. He again declared 
jalibreaking, and broke the handcuffs four times. At last, the prison stuff made special 
handcuffs and fetters. He suffered under close observation in the handcuffs and fetters, in 
the coldest season.

He never gave up. He continued to bite the nuts of the handcuffs for about a half year.  
Further, he dripped miso soup between the wooden peeping window and its iron frame after 
every meal. Finally, the nuts of the handcuffs and the bolts at the window frame became 
loosened. In 1944, he broke the lighting window of the ceiling of the prison (See the above 
photograph).

Thereafter, he repeated jailbreaking twice. However, he met Suzuki Eizaburo, a gentle 
governor of Fuchu prison (Tokyo) at last. He spent there as a well-behaved prisoner, and 
released in 1961.

KITAMI PEPPERMINT MEMORIAL MUSEUM
Kitami used to be prosperous in peppermint manufacture. However, as Japan entered the 
World War II, peppermint was regarded as luxury, and the production was reduced. Further, 
synthesic peppermint fragrance was developed. In 1983, the peppermint factory in Kitami 
was closed. 

A kind of mud volcano called bokke  in Ainu language. This is one of bokke  around Lake Akan.	LAKE KUSSHARO Around this lake, hot spring wells up  from several cm below the sand surface.   Young couple (in swimsuit) are digging the  sand to try "sunayu" (sand hot spring).
Sounkyo, a part of Mount Daisetsu  Nationall Park	Kitakitsune (red fox) slept near BusyBird's  car was so tame (?) it would give a yawn  in front of human beings.
Torikabuto(Japanese monkshood;  Aconitum chinese) notorious for  its toxic sap.
Oobako is one of scenic spots in  Sounkyo.	"alligator"bread in Wani No Ie  (meaning "house of alligator"),  a pension near Lake Abashiri
Nottori Misaki (misaki="cape") has a  municipal farm. The visitors see the  Okhotsk Sea over the meadow.	The Eisen Temple was established  by Teranaga Eisen who started  relief work for people released from  Abashiri Prison. The gate of the temple was the old prison gate disposed of by the prison when the present gate was made.
Still many wild animals including higuma  (brown bear) live in Shiretoko area.   Parent and child ezojika (shika deer) on a  flowery slope.