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Has Ainu culture influenced Japanese culture at all??

Tokis-Phoenix

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As the title says, has Ainu culture influenced Japanese culture at all??
I was thinking about this the other day, and i so far i cannot think of anything in which Ainu culture has influenced Japanese culture- even traces of Ainu culture seem hard to find.
In Australia with Australian aborigines, australian aborigine culture is very prevalent in Australian society, you see aborigine artwork everywhere, aborigine culture and their rights are openly celebrated and encouraged, and kids in schools are taught a great deal about aborigines and their history and culture etc.
A lot of people say that the Ainu are Japan's version of its own native aborigines, however have the two cultures ever influenced each other much culturally, and how are Ainu treated and received in Japanese society now days? Do Japanese people want to know about them much and teach their kids about them and celebrate Ainu culture in general etc, or is this not really the case?
 
Ainu

I don't know much about the Ainu, I'm sorry. I wish I knew more about their beliefs, though. They sound very interesting.

It is interesting that there are people who were here before the Mongolian people came to Japan. These people believe in animism, much like the belief systems of the aboriginals of America. They continue to hold onto their traditions but it is difficult, as they are forced to integrate themselves among the rest of the population. They will not admit to you that they are Ainu when they are at work or in other social situations. They are seen as taboo. My friend at the Ainu Festival in November told me that she heard people saying that they are very strange. So the discrimination is still strong. Ainu means "human" in their own dialect. The Ainu youth are experimenting with music and lore. They remind me of the "rai" movement in Africa, using rap and RnB to express themselves as a new generation. The reason they don't effect the Japanese culture is because of the discrimination and taboo of their traditions.
 
To a certain extent Ainu probably did influence Japan. But not enough worth talking about.
In Australia they have aboriginal artwork etc because of the way westerners took over (eg rather than colonize it fully it was just a mass-prison camp.)
It seems many people have grown up linked with aboriginals and therefore encourage it. The Ainu are a bit different.

The previous poster said that the Ainu share a belief system similar to that of American natives. They are descendants of the same people.

People from Russia/India/V.Eastern Europe move east. Some cross the bering straight. Settle in America/Canada, some move north and become the current Inuit people. Some also seem to have crossed from Korea by sea (if you think about when this occurred, you may have been able to see Japan from Korea (dunno if you still can)) and settled in Japan and islands around it, and some in russia.



A picture of the Ainu. It seems that the Ainu may have influenced Japanese dress such as the kimono, shown by the chap in the middle. He definetly isn't wearing a kimono or yukata, but he is wearing something similar.
 
Hmmm...it's been said that the Jomon Japanese culture closely resembles the Ainu culture. And considering Jomon period is the foundation of Japanese culture, yeah I'd say the Ainu are influential.

Sjoberg, Katarina (1993). The Return of the Ainu: Cultural Mobilization and the Practice of Ethnicity in Japan (Studies in Anthropology & History). Routlege, p 155.

Umm...in pop culture...the game Okami... the whole Northern Realm(Ancient Hokkaido basically) of Okami was based on Ainu culture. Modern pop-culture certainly isn't anything big, but it is at least something.
 
today's ainu was isolated ppl in Hokkaido
It has already assimilated and mixed in the japan Mainland.
There are a lot of Shinto shrines of Ainu in Tohoku.



okinawan is same.
 
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Actually i was wondering, since i am not knowledgeable on either religions, how much in common does the Ainu's religion have in common with Shintoism?
 
Religion of Ainu and commonness of Shinto are nature worship.
Ancestor's soul religious service is Yamato and commonness.
Polytheism is common to, too.
In Ainu religion, a god of the mountain is a bear.
A fish of God is a salmon.
In addition, a tree and water get a name of God.
A tree and water are enshrined in Yamato too.

A difference,
A lifestyle of Yamato was farming.
However, as for the lifestyle of Ainu, hunting is basic.
A difference of a social system occurred.
 
Hi , I have been researching the Ainu people that are later ancestors of the jomon the non asian people that were in the Nippon islands 11,000 years before the yayoi or Japanese people . I found the Ainu languge has many words that are the same as Basque so i think they later became the basque people in europe ? They think Jomon people came from the Russian stepps 17,000 years ago ? I was amazed to learn they ate raw salmon called ruibe that was frozen and then thinly sliced and used wasabi to preserve
So the Ainu people showed the Japanese sashimi so cool !. Other Ainu
Contributions to Japanese culture are red and black lacquare wood bowls , buckwheat soba noodles ,
Eating whale , the Ainu invented the harpoons the Japanese still use ,the oldest know ceramic pots were made by the Jomon people Ainu ancestors . The ainu were the first people to make hot pot with fish or other meat and vegetables, they ate sea urchins , and blow fish that make your lips tingle . Don't forget the Samuri
Or exhaulted warriors they were Aniu ! So many things we think of Japanese culture were created by the early aboriginals of the Japan islands the Jomon And later Ainu
10 minutes ago

+ Quote Reply
 
 
The other way Ainu are descended from Jomon DNA here is one proof below :

 
Anthroalan said:
The other way Ainu are descended from Jomon DNA here is one proof below :
Click to expand...

But earlier you said the exact opposite:

The Ainu were ancestors of the Jomon people
Click to expand...

These are mutually contradictory statements.
 
Anthroalan said:
You do your own research your a waist of time
Click to expand...

I don't give a damn about your Ainu obsession. I'm just curious why you contradict yourself. You make the fourth American I have recently encountered saying "ancestor" when what they really meant was "descendant". This strikes me as very odd.
 
Wait, American?

EDIT: Whoa! 50 years of age, no less! I was presuming youthful ESL.
 
I think maybe, despite his profile saying he's in California, English isn't Anthroalan's first language, which (I hope) may explain some of his misuse of words?
 
nice gaijin said:
I think maybe, despite his profile saying he's in California, English isn't Anthroalan's first language, which (I hope) may explain some of his misuse of words?
Click to expand...

I've recently heard three other Americans, including native speaking university graduates say "ancestor" in the place of "descendent". (Ex: "Moby is the ancestor of Herman Melville").
 
Mike Cash said:
I've recently heard three other Americans, including native speaking university graduates say "ancestor" in the place of "descendent".
Click to expand...

That is because they were speaking American. Were you expecting English? :joyful:
 
Mark of Zorro said:
That is because they were speaking American. Were you expecting English? :joyful:
Click to expand...

I've been thinking about starting a thread in the Chit-Chat section seeking info from people who have more frequent/recent contact with Americans than I do regarding some aspects of American speech I find quite annoying and which I have no idea if they are new or if I just never noticed them when I lived there. I just can't think of a way to do it without it sounding like some contrived "I've been here so long English sounds strange to me" a**holery.
 
All the Ainu/Jomon BS here... whew!

People who can post like that deserve PhDs in Internet Forumology.
 
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