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Our Land Was a Forest: An Ainu Memoir
This book is a beautiful and moving personal account of the Ainu, the native inhabitants of Hokkaidō, Japan's northern island, whose land, economy, and culture have been absorbed and destroyed in recent centuries by advancing Japanese. Based on the author's own experiences and on stories passed down from generation to generation, the book chronicles the disappearing world―and courageous rebirth―of this little-understood people. Kayano describes with disarming simplicity and frankness the personal conflicts he faced as a result of the tensions between a traditional and a modern society and his lifelong efforts to fortify a living Ainu culture. A master storyteller, he paints a vivid picture of the ecologically sensitive Ainu lifestyle, which revolved around bear hunting, fishing, farming, and woodcutting. Unlike the few existing ethnographies of the Ainu, this account is the first written by an insider intimately tied to his own culture yet familiar with the ways of outsiders. Speaking with a rare directness to the Ainu and universal human experience, this book will interest all readers concerned with the fate of indigenous peoples.
172 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1980
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
February 6, 2018
"The Vanishing Ainu" are still there !
Sometimes the way things repeat themselves is uncanny. Just as the American literature of the early 20th century reflected the idea that the Native Americans would soon vanish, and writers in Australia and New Zealand pontificated on similar lines on their aboriginal neighbors, so in Japan, the aboriginal Ainu have long since been labelled "mysterious, but vanishing". To tell the truth, I thought they had already gone by the 1980s. I was wrong. Here is an autobiography, written by Kayano Shigeru, an Ainu of around 60 when he originally wrote, that informs us that the Ainu are far from gone. Kayano is personally responsible for building up a collection of Ainu artifacts, for preserving a great number of `yukar' or epic poems, for writing an Ainu-Japanese dictionary, for helping establish Ainu language primary schools in Hokkaido, and working in the political sphere to improve the lot of Japan's only aboriginal people. This memoir tells in very simple, matter-of-fact style about his early years of grinding poverty, the hardships suffered by all his fellow villagers, about being a draft laborer, about life hunting, fishing, and logging in the deep forests of Japan's northernmost island. Kayano's life is not specifically "Ainu", it is life in a mixed world of changing conditions. Japanese, Ainu, and even Western cultural strands mingle, but the author never tries to separate them. Whatever Ainu people of his generation faced, that, for him, is Ainu life. This is very effective in a way, though foreigners without much knowledge of Japan will be hard-pressed to figure out what is unique here. Kayano tells a straightforward tale, but natural reticence and perhaps lack of higher education mean that he does not delve much into psychology, he seldom develops other characters. A few sentences at most suffice. He often reports events with little comment. His feeling for his land and for his people's condition come straight from the heart, though. Nobody can remain unmoved by that.
OUR LAND WAS A FOREST reminds me very much of Native American memoirs, though in this case there is no attempt whatsoever to play up "mystical" aspects or try to be a "wise, traditional guru". The Ainu experience has been close to that of other aboriginal peoples from Siberia to Sydney, from Boston to Buenos Aires. The harmony of their life in nature was disrupted by the coming of greater numbers of more organized, materialistic peoples. The book is easily read and contains a number of useful black and white photographs. If you need much background knowledge on the Ainu, this might not be the place to begin, but if you are looking for an interesting book on a little heard-from people, choose this one.
Sometimes the way things repeat themselves is uncanny. Just as the American literature of the early 20th century reflected the idea that the Native Americans would soon vanish, and writers in Australia and New Zealand pontificated on similar lines on their aboriginal neighbors, so in Japan, the aboriginal Ainu have long since been labelled "mysterious, but vanishing". To tell the truth, I thought they had already gone by the 1980s. I was wrong. Here is an autobiography, written by Kayano Shigeru, an Ainu of around 60 when he originally wrote, that informs us that the Ainu are far from gone. Kayano is personally responsible for building up a collection of Ainu artifacts, for preserving a great number of `yukar' or epic poems, for writing an Ainu-Japanese dictionary, for helping establish Ainu language primary schools in Hokkaido, and working in the political sphere to improve the lot of Japan's only aboriginal people. This memoir tells in very simple, matter-of-fact style about his early years of grinding poverty, the hardships suffered by all his fellow villagers, about being a draft laborer, about life hunting, fishing, and logging in the deep forests of Japan's northernmost island. Kayano's life is not specifically "Ainu", it is life in a mixed world of changing conditions. Japanese, Ainu, and even Western cultural strands mingle, but the author never tries to separate them. Whatever Ainu people of his generation faced, that, for him, is Ainu life. This is very effective in a way, though foreigners without much knowledge of Japan will be hard-pressed to figure out what is unique here. Kayano tells a straightforward tale, but natural reticence and perhaps lack of higher education mean that he does not delve much into psychology, he seldom develops other characters. A few sentences at most suffice. He often reports events with little comment. His feeling for his land and for his people's condition come straight from the heart, though. Nobody can remain unmoved by that.
OUR LAND WAS A FOREST reminds me very much of Native American memoirs, though in this case there is no attempt whatsoever to play up "mystical" aspects or try to be a "wise, traditional guru". The Ainu experience has been close to that of other aboriginal peoples from Siberia to Sydney, from Boston to Buenos Aires. The harmony of their life in nature was disrupted by the coming of greater numbers of more organized, materialistic peoples. The book is easily read and contains a number of useful black and white photographs. If you need much background knowledge on the Ainu, this might not be the place to begin, but if you are looking for an interesting book on a little heard-from people, choose this one.
October 9, 2015
Kayano Shigeru is probably the last person who could have written a book like this. The Ainu weren't even recognized as an indigenous people in Japan until 2008, and by that point it was mostly too little, too late. There are less than a dozen fluent speakers of the Ainu language left, most of whom are in their 80s, out of only around ~20,000 (officially-counted) Ainu in Japan, and in another generation the language will probably be just a memory and all the yukar and uwepekere that Kayano's grandmother told him around the fire in their ciset will never be recited again.
I was a bit surprised how much Our Land Was a Forest reminded me of the history of America's treatment of the Native Americans. The Ainu were driven out of their ancestral lands and left alone for a while until the national government decided that they wanted the Ainu's land and that it was important to "civilize" and assimilate them. As in America, that mostly consisted of giving the Ainu incredibly marginal land that was barely enough to support them and using the resultant grinding poverty as evidence that Ainu culture was inferior and the Ainu should adopt Japanese culture and practices, sending them to schools where they were minority, making them take on Japanese names, and otherwise making no effort to preserve their culture or heritage. And, well, the government's policy worked.
The book is the story of Kayano growing up on the Saru River in an Ainu village, learning stories at his grandmother's knee, fishing with his father in the river, hunting the forests, and being excited over getting rice once a year, when the salmon were spawning and there were enough that they could trade them to their Japanese neighbors for extra rice. He only completed primary school (and that barely), because he had to go work to help feed his family. Eventually he got work as a forester and put aside his heritage for several years, but seeing the scholars that would visit his village and take Ainu items away for study convinced him that the Ainu needed to take an effort to preserve their heritage, and he started buying up Ainu crafts, which eventually led to the foundation of the Nibutani Ainu Cultural Museum decades later.
There were a lot of awful things that happened on the way, though. Like the years-long traveling exhibition of Ainu culture that Kayano participated in, where the money was all stolen by the organizer and the performers received almost nothing (and Kayano even had extra money stolen because he extended the organizer a loan). Or Kayano's description of working as what he called a "display Ainu" at a tourist village and performing sacred ceremonies for tourists' consumption:
Kayano was eventually elected to the Diet, its only Ainu member, and he managed to get some funding for the Ainu museum and for translation of Ainu stories into Japanese. He failed at preventing the Saru River dam from flooding his childhood home, though, and after his death in 2006 much of the translation funding dried up. And while the Diet did pass that 2008 law, it's too little, too late by this point.
Well, at least they have a museum.
I was a bit surprised how much Our Land Was a Forest reminded me of the history of America's treatment of the Native Americans. The Ainu were driven out of their ancestral lands and left alone for a while until the national government decided that they wanted the Ainu's land and that it was important to "civilize" and assimilate them. As in America, that mostly consisted of giving the Ainu incredibly marginal land that was barely enough to support them and using the resultant grinding poverty as evidence that Ainu culture was inferior and the Ainu should adopt Japanese culture and practices, sending them to schools where they were minority, making them take on Japanese names, and otherwise making no effort to preserve their culture or heritage. And, well, the government's policy worked.
The book is the story of Kayano growing up on the Saru River in an Ainu village, learning stories at his grandmother's knee, fishing with his father in the river, hunting the forests, and being excited over getting rice once a year, when the salmon were spawning and there were enough that they could trade them to their Japanese neighbors for extra rice. He only completed primary school (and that barely), because he had to go work to help feed his family. Eventually he got work as a forester and put aside his heritage for several years, but seeing the scholars that would visit his village and take Ainu items away for study convinced him that the Ainu needed to take an effort to preserve their heritage, and he started buying up Ainu crafts, which eventually led to the foundation of the Nibutani Ainu Cultural Museum decades later.
There were a lot of awful things that happened on the way, though. Like the years-long traveling exhibition of Ainu culture that Kayano participated in, where the money was all stolen by the organizer and the performers received almost nothing (and Kayano even had extra money stolen because he extended the organizer a loan). Or Kayano's description of working as what he called a "display Ainu" at a tourist village and performing sacred ceremonies for tourists' consumption:
I worked beside 'Bear Meadow' where an Ainu-style house had been built and where we presented half-hour shows of 'bear-sendings' songs and dances. What in real life took place once in five or ten years was repeated there three or four times a day. It is beyond words for me to explain to others how miserable it made us feel to sing and dance--albeit for money--in front of curious tourists from throughout Japan when we weren't even happy or excited.But in the end, at least, he comes away more hopeful. After being elected to the Biratori town council and spending time creating wooden crafts, he has enough money to live in some comfort, and the Ainu Cultural Museum is a testament to his success at protecting his heritage.
Kayano was eventually elected to the Diet, its only Ainu member, and he managed to get some funding for the Ainu museum and for translation of Ainu stories into Japanese. He failed at preventing the Saru River dam from flooding his childhood home, though, and after his death in 2006 much of the translation funding dried up. And while the Diet did pass that 2008 law, it's too little, too late by this point.
Well, at least they have a museum.
July 11, 2011
This struck me as a pretty important memoir. I gather that Kayano was one of the last half-dozen or so people who could have written anything like it. It was a quick read, it got me a little more context and background on the Ainu people (which I've been wanting ever since they were basically glossed completely over in my Japanese language and culture classes), and it raised a lot more questions than it answered. Especially recommended if you're interested in endangered languages and cultures and the type of work that goes into protecting them.
(Also, it's worth doing the Wikipedia Epilogue after you finish it, since history seems to be in the process of vindicating everything he spent the last half of his life working for.)
(Also, it's worth doing the Wikipedia Epilogue after you finish it, since history seems to be in the process of vindicating everything he spent the last half of his life working for.)
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June 12, 2021A memoir written in straightforward prose from one of the key contributors to the preservation of Ainu culture and language. His story gives a sense for the 20th century situation of the Ainu inhabitants of Ainu Mosir (the island of Hokkaido). The Ainu people were oppressed by Yayoi Japanese settler colonialists who arrived on their shores and enslaved many to work far from their hometowns during the Edo period. Later Japanese assimilationist policies (including forced relocation to less habitable places), similar to those leveled against indigenous peoples by settler colonialists around the world, and ecological abuses led to wide economic precarity and disrupted the cultural and linguistic practices of the Ainu people.
Kayano Shigeru spent his life cutting lumber in Ainu Mosir, saving up and buying Ainu artifacts from his neighbors, making Ainu carvings and, later in his life, assisting scholars in documenting Ainu stories and language. He helped establish two museums in southern Ainu Mosir / Hokkaido and also served on the city council there for many years.
If you're interested in hearing spoken Ainu, from what I can tell this YouTube creator was a young student of Kayano Shigeru and is teaching some basics on her channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsvS...
Though I have little confidence that it will happen, I will continue to hope that the Japanese government, as well as the United States government, will attempt to make some form of reparations to the indigenous people whose lives and culture have been so abused. Restitution could/should be in the form of the returning of large amounts of land where possible and also in the form of financial reparations and some forms of governmental self determination. But at the very least, current governments should ensure funds to support the preservation of culture and language, as well as ensure that indigenous minority groups are represented in the governing bodies of their parliaments/diets.
A few quotes:
"I hope also to make it known that Matsuura Takeshiro who, angered by the cruelty of Matsumae province and the 'location' contractors (read: enslavers of Ainu people), made repeated proposals that eventually led to the abolition of forced labor." pg 31
At one point in his childhood, Kayano Shigeru's father is arrested and put in jail for salmon fishing based on laws set up by the Japanese. "We only caught enough to feed our families. It was in fact the shamo's (Japanese) indiscriminate fishing that caused the decrease in salmon around that time. The shasmo were in essence blaming the Ainu for a problem they themselves had created."
The Japanese 'provided' land for the Ainu to farm on (even though the Ainu were a 'hunting people.' "In 'providing' land, the Japanese also legitimated their plunder of the region. The mountains around Nibutani, among others, became the Japanese nation's 'national forests' before we realized it and later were sold off to a big financial combine."
"This makes for an unqualified invasion. I have no knowledge of the usual methods by which strong countries invade weaker ones. There is no denying, however, that the people belonging to the 'Japanese nation' ignored the rights of the Ainu, the prior inhabitants, and—without so much as removing their soiled shoes—stormed into Ainu Mosir, the land of the Ainu... This is perhaps a crude rendering, but in simple terms we have no recollection of selling or lending Ainu Mosir to the Japanese state."
Kayano Shigeru spent his life cutting lumber in Ainu Mosir, saving up and buying Ainu artifacts from his neighbors, making Ainu carvings and, later in his life, assisting scholars in documenting Ainu stories and language. He helped establish two museums in southern Ainu Mosir / Hokkaido and also served on the city council there for many years.
If you're interested in hearing spoken Ainu, from what I can tell this YouTube creator was a young student of Kayano Shigeru and is teaching some basics on her channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsvS...
Though I have little confidence that it will happen, I will continue to hope that the Japanese government, as well as the United States government, will attempt to make some form of reparations to the indigenous people whose lives and culture have been so abused. Restitution could/should be in the form of the returning of large amounts of land where possible and also in the form of financial reparations and some forms of governmental self determination. But at the very least, current governments should ensure funds to support the preservation of culture and language, as well as ensure that indigenous minority groups are represented in the governing bodies of their parliaments/diets.
A few quotes:
"I hope also to make it known that Matsuura Takeshiro who, angered by the cruelty of Matsumae province and the 'location' contractors (read: enslavers of Ainu people), made repeated proposals that eventually led to the abolition of forced labor." pg 31
At one point in his childhood, Kayano Shigeru's father is arrested and put in jail for salmon fishing based on laws set up by the Japanese. "We only caught enough to feed our families. It was in fact the shamo's (Japanese) indiscriminate fishing that caused the decrease in salmon around that time. The shasmo were in essence blaming the Ainu for a problem they themselves had created."
The Japanese 'provided' land for the Ainu to farm on (even though the Ainu were a 'hunting people.' "In 'providing' land, the Japanese also legitimated their plunder of the region. The mountains around Nibutani, among others, became the Japanese nation's 'national forests' before we realized it and later were sold off to a big financial combine."
"This makes for an unqualified invasion. I have no knowledge of the usual methods by which strong countries invade weaker ones. There is no denying, however, that the people belonging to the 'Japanese nation' ignored the rights of the Ainu, the prior inhabitants, and—without so much as removing their soiled shoes—stormed into Ainu Mosir, the land of the Ainu... This is perhaps a crude rendering, but in simple terms we have no recollection of selling or lending Ainu Mosir to the Japanese state."
March 8, 2023
For Indigenous People’s Day today, here is a review of Our Land Was a Forest, by the late Ainu cultural historian, museum founder, school director and statesman Dr Kayano Shigeru (1926 – 2006). This memoir is a heartfelt, though at times bleak and rather bracing, read. I searched for it for a long time during my quest to find more source books in English about the Ainu, and turned to it after being rather disappointed with Dr Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney’s treatment of the Ainu living in Sakhalin Oblast in Russia. As clearly well- and methodically-researched as it was, and as clearly motivated as it was by good scholarly intentions on Ohnuki-Tierney’s part, it still nevertheless reflected an outsider’s view looking in at Ainu culture. The limits of this approach became more and more glaringly obvious the more I read, and the more I found myself longing to hear an Ainu perspective, speaking genuinely about themselves to outsiders.
This memoir by Kayano Shigeru does provide precisely that perspective about the Ainu people. It gives voice to the concrete historical experience of the Ainu as a people, and to one man’s struggle to preserve as much of the material history (in folk utensils and artefacts) and as much of the non-tangible history (the yukar tales, the funerary rites and the language in general) as possible. But more importantly even than these narrow goals, perhaps—Kayano gives voice to an entire body of experience which seems to be common to a broad swathe of Indigenous peoples worldwide. When he speaks of his grandmother’s worries about the traditional ways being passed on, of his grandfather’s family being decimated by TB, of his father’s struggles with alcoholism, or of his own attempts in his youth to distance himself from anything Ainu… and then when he speaks of the historical acts of dispossession, forced labour, forced relocation and forced assimilation—he is not merely speaking for himself, and not merely speaking for his own people...
Read the rest of the review here: https://www.silkandchai.info/2022/10/...
This memoir by Kayano Shigeru does provide precisely that perspective about the Ainu people. It gives voice to the concrete historical experience of the Ainu as a people, and to one man’s struggle to preserve as much of the material history (in folk utensils and artefacts) and as much of the non-tangible history (the yukar tales, the funerary rites and the language in general) as possible. But more importantly even than these narrow goals, perhaps—Kayano gives voice to an entire body of experience which seems to be common to a broad swathe of Indigenous peoples worldwide. When he speaks of his grandmother’s worries about the traditional ways being passed on, of his grandfather’s family being decimated by TB, of his father’s struggles with alcoholism, or of his own attempts in his youth to distance himself from anything Ainu… and then when he speaks of the historical acts of dispossession, forced labour, forced relocation and forced assimilation—he is not merely speaking for himself, and not merely speaking for his own people...
Read the rest of the review here: https://www.silkandchai.info/2022/10/...
January 11, 2018
“Twenty full years have passed since I bought a tape recorder with money from the household welfare loan fund and started recording. Those taps now exceed 500 hours of material. I must do something with them, for I am unable to forget the words of one old man who allowed me to record him: ‘Mr. Kayano, listen carefully. When you dig in the earth, you find stone and earthen implements, but not words��not the words of our ancestors. Words aren’t buried in the ground. They aren’t hanging from the branches of trees. They’re only transmittd from one mouth to the next. I beg you please to teach young Ainu their own language.’ I must keep working for the renewal of Ainu, the language of a people who had no writing system.”
January 25, 2016
An essential read for anyone interested in Hokkaido
July 26, 2023
Quick read about the colonization, commodification and museumification of Ainu indigenous peoples in Hokkaido. The writer shows a deep love and connection to the villages he grew up in and discusses his life, which is framed as him trying out all sorts of jobs - woodcutter, travelling performer, politician, museum organizer, etc. what we get is sort of this tragedy of a culture in decline due to modernization and japanese colonization - and what it looked like"on the ground" as Ainu and Japanese people struggled to preserve and document the culture.
the way this is written gives me the sense there is some controversy to the authors views, but idk what they would be other than maybe there are other indigenous groups in Hokkaido with histories overlooked?
anyways, much to think about with the way we historicize, preserve or revitalize cultures near to us.
lastly the story about being a woodcutter living and delving into mountains to build base camps and ward off insects was interesting, quite terrifying having to do that kind of job..
the way this is written gives me the sense there is some controversy to the authors views, but idk what they would be other than maybe there are other indigenous groups in Hokkaido with histories overlooked?
anyways, much to think about with the way we historicize, preserve or revitalize cultures near to us.
lastly the story about being a woodcutter living and delving into mountains to build base camps and ward off insects was interesting, quite terrifying having to do that kind of job..
February 8, 2023
I think this might be one of my favorite books—it provides a fascinating look into the history of the Ainu people, and of Japan, in the 20th century, and compelling chronicles the author’s efforts to preserve Ainu culture while facing the challenges of colonization, industrialization, and the passage of time itself. I particularly appreciated Kayano Shigeru’s reflections on the tensions between the colonial market for certain kinds of histories and media about their colonial subjects (such as exemplified by the “Ainu Village” theme park where he briefly worked) and the histories that they themselves produce. If I ever have the opportunity to do a course on 20th century history via the memoir, or global narratives of colonization, or Ecology and the history of 20th cen colonization, or the understanding and construction of racial categories in the early 20th century (and the role that anthropology played in that), this book would definitely be a cornerstone of the syllabus.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 30, 2023
This is a wonderful story of saving history and culture before it was lost. For someone with limited education, the author is a pretty good writer, and he did an impressive amount of research. Thankfully he collected a great many historical Ainu objects - or re-created them, with help from his wife talented in weaving. I love his story of growing from a young man who wanted to "discard everything Ainu" to someone who came to value his heritage as he saw it disappearing. He sat with elders, including his grandmother and father, to listen to and record their stories and the "yukar" and "uwepekere" folktales in poetry and prose. This memoir of history and lived experience is so valuable, filled with details of Ainu village daily life, sprinkled with Ainu words, while capturing that common experience of indigenous peoples having their land taken and their language and culture discouraged. I hope many universities have a copy of this book in their libraries.
September 8, 2021
A quick and interesting read; I'm glad this was assigned for class. I've been wanting to learn more about the Ainu for a while, and I'm very grateful that this had the format of a story (that is, it had emotion and wasn't just filled with dates like a textbook) while still holding the accuracy of a textbook. While a lot of the innards are supremely depressing to read (though important to know), Kayano makes sure to both start and end on a hopeful note, which is something I definitely appreciate.
June 9, 2021
An interesting look into the culture of a people that I don't know much about. As an Indigenous person (Native American) from North America I found a lot that I could relate to. But I also learned a lot about this unique and beautiful culture. It's not a collection of historical or anthropological facts, Mr. Shigeru's personal stories and thoughts make this book come to life.
February 4, 2019
A beautiful story of a man and his efforts to preserve his culture.
March 25, 2020
4.5 stars. This book was eye opening. I loved it.
Read
June 26, 2020I want to know about Ainu
November 11, 2020
It's a very good book.
February 18, 2021
Oh, boy, did I cry with this book
June 9, 2022
Literally took me 5 years to find a copy but worth it
June 25, 2018
“‘Whoever dies first is the lucky one.’ - I repeated it again and again in my heart. I was saddened by their words. Their import cannot possibly be grasped by those who have not been robbed of the very roots of their culture and language.”
June 23, 2023
Fascinating memoir of an Ainu man and their culture. The Ainu are indigenous to Ainu Mosir (now known as Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island) but not considered Japanese.
May 22, 2019
Summary:
This book is a memoir written by Kayano Shigeru, an Ainu who strove to preserve his people's cultural heritage and sense of nationhood through preservation of Ainu objects, campaigning for cultural preservation and was the first Ainu politician to sit in the Diet of Japan.
It details a very harsh life rife with discrimination and witnessing the fading of your people. However, his work went a long way in preserving Ainu culture including acknowledgement of the Ainu as the indigenous people of Hokkaido for the first time, the repealing of the The Protective Act for the Ainus of Hokkaido and the enacting of the Act for the Promotion of Ainu Culture and Dissemination of Knowledge Regarding Ainu Traditions.
I think this book is a fantastic starting point for anyone seeking to understand the struggles the Ainu faced and constinue to face. It provides a strong insight into Ainu culture and language as well.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the Ainu and anyone interested in indigenous cultures.
The main message I took from this book is that how quickly an established culture can lose it vitality, population and identity and become exposed to the threat of disappearing completely.
Some notable points:
- The author spent considerable time and resources collecting and protecting various Ainu objects. These objects were carefully preserved and some were displayed in the Nibutani Museum. The author regards this chance to collect them as an act of the gods, who may manipulate a human being to perform a task they are unwilling to undertake themselves.
- The author went to China in February 1976 and was welcomed as such: "We welcome you all not as Ainu people of the Ainu nation, but as a minority nationality among the Japanese people of the nation Japan. Therefore, please do not misrepresent yourselves as members of an Ainu tribe from the land of the Ainu. We will not speak of nor recognise the Ainu nation, as that would be a criticism of Japanese internal affairs. The Chinese people, however, extend a full welcome to the Ainu minority nationality of Japan." Needless to say the author was not entirely impressed by this.
- Whenever the author had the opportunity to speak to the Hokkaido legislature, they proposed the following: "The Ainu have no recollection of either selling or lending Ainu Mosir, or what the 'Japanese' have arbitrarily renamed Hokkaido, to the nation of 'Japan'. I know that even if we were to tell you 'Japanese' to go back to the 'Japanese mainland', it would be no easy matter for you to leave. I do not ask for such impossibilities. I wish for the Ainu and the 'Japanese' in Ainu Mosir to work together to protect our natural surroundings. I want you to put into effect policies that would effectively improve the living conditions of the original settlers, the Ainu, who have constantly suffered discrimination. Build homes for people who have none. Offer scholarship to serious students who cannot afford higher education. Since the Ainu are too few to be elected as Diet members or prefectural legislators, create laws and regulations that would allow us to have our own representatives. In order to revive the Ainu language and share the benefits of Ainu culture, establish, in regions that want them, nursery schools and elementary, junior high, and high schools that teach the Ainu language. Funding should be provided by the national and state governments as a form of restitution of land taxes to the yet unpaid original landholders. The country, this prefecture, and its cities, town, and villages all lack any modicum of sensitivity regarding the issue of the Ainu as an ethnic minority. In neighbouring China, regions populated by ethnic Koreans have bus schedules printed in both Korean and the standard dialect, Mandarin, In fact, all fifty-four minority nationalities in autonomous regions throughout China similarly display two languages."
- While discussing the learning environment and how Japanese students who grow up seated next to Ainu students would not be discriminatory, the author noted how on numerous occasions, when an Ainu and a Japanese fell in love, the parents of the Japanese person would protest saying that if their blood mixes they won't be able to face their ancestral spirits. This was despite the parents having sat side by side with Ainu students in school.
This book is a memoir written by Kayano Shigeru, an Ainu who strove to preserve his people's cultural heritage and sense of nationhood through preservation of Ainu objects, campaigning for cultural preservation and was the first Ainu politician to sit in the Diet of Japan.
It details a very harsh life rife with discrimination and witnessing the fading of your people. However, his work went a long way in preserving Ainu culture including acknowledgement of the Ainu as the indigenous people of Hokkaido for the first time, the repealing of the The Protective Act for the Ainus of Hokkaido and the enacting of the Act for the Promotion of Ainu Culture and Dissemination of Knowledge Regarding Ainu Traditions.
I think this book is a fantastic starting point for anyone seeking to understand the struggles the Ainu faced and constinue to face. It provides a strong insight into Ainu culture and language as well.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the Ainu and anyone interested in indigenous cultures.
The main message I took from this book is that how quickly an established culture can lose it vitality, population and identity and become exposed to the threat of disappearing completely.
Some notable points:
- The author spent considerable time and resources collecting and protecting various Ainu objects. These objects were carefully preserved and some were displayed in the Nibutani Museum. The author regards this chance to collect them as an act of the gods, who may manipulate a human being to perform a task they are unwilling to undertake themselves.
- The author went to China in February 1976 and was welcomed as such: "We welcome you all not as Ainu people of the Ainu nation, but as a minority nationality among the Japanese people of the nation Japan. Therefore, please do not misrepresent yourselves as members of an Ainu tribe from the land of the Ainu. We will not speak of nor recognise the Ainu nation, as that would be a criticism of Japanese internal affairs. The Chinese people, however, extend a full welcome to the Ainu minority nationality of Japan." Needless to say the author was not entirely impressed by this.
- Whenever the author had the opportunity to speak to the Hokkaido legislature, they proposed the following: "The Ainu have no recollection of either selling or lending Ainu Mosir, or what the 'Japanese' have arbitrarily renamed Hokkaido, to the nation of 'Japan'. I know that even if we were to tell you 'Japanese' to go back to the 'Japanese mainland', it would be no easy matter for you to leave. I do not ask for such impossibilities. I wish for the Ainu and the 'Japanese' in Ainu Mosir to work together to protect our natural surroundings. I want you to put into effect policies that would effectively improve the living conditions of the original settlers, the Ainu, who have constantly suffered discrimination. Build homes for people who have none. Offer scholarship to serious students who cannot afford higher education. Since the Ainu are too few to be elected as Diet members or prefectural legislators, create laws and regulations that would allow us to have our own representatives. In order to revive the Ainu language and share the benefits of Ainu culture, establish, in regions that want them, nursery schools and elementary, junior high, and high schools that teach the Ainu language. Funding should be provided by the national and state governments as a form of restitution of land taxes to the yet unpaid original landholders. The country, this prefecture, and its cities, town, and villages all lack any modicum of sensitivity regarding the issue of the Ainu as an ethnic minority. In neighbouring China, regions populated by ethnic Koreans have bus schedules printed in both Korean and the standard dialect, Mandarin, In fact, all fifty-four minority nationalities in autonomous regions throughout China similarly display two languages."
- While discussing the learning environment and how Japanese students who grow up seated next to Ainu students would not be discriminatory, the author noted how on numerous occasions, when an Ainu and a Japanese fell in love, the parents of the Japanese person would protest saying that if their blood mixes they won't be able to face their ancestral spirits. This was despite the parents having sat side by side with Ainu students in school.
July 18, 2022
Ainu no Ishibumi, or “Monument of Ainu” (the English edition is titled Our Land was a Forest), is the 1980 memoir of Kayano Shigeru, one of the most prominent Ainu activists of the 20th century. This book is a collection of stories, ranging primarily from his childhood to young adulthood as he grew up in Ainu Mosir, the Ainu name for what is known today as Hokkaido, Japan.
Born in 1926, Kayano was raised in poverty, living the legacy of just a few generations of colonization. Upon the arrival of Japanese in the latter half of the 19th century, Ainu were displaced from their homes and forced to live on less resourceful land, land essentially deemed “unnecessary” for the Japanese. Alongside this, many Ainu were forced into slavery, and later underpaid labor in order to survive. (Kayano’s grandfather was enslaved as a child.)
With this backdrop, Kayano grew up in the impoverished Ainu town of Nibutani, playing in the snow and listening to his grandmother’s stories. (Thanks to his grandmother, Kayano grew up learning Ainu and listening to Ainu folklore, the latter of which he later published in highly-acclaimed books.) Upon graduating elementary school, Kayano went off to work to help support his family.
Each story builds seamlessly onto the next, illustrating Kayano’s struggles into adulthood, and then his transition into activism and advocacy. He’s known today for his many publications, the foundation of the Nibutani Culture Museum, and his political work in getting Ainu people legally recognized and protected.
I wholeheartedly recommend this highly readable memoir to anyone interested in learning about Ainu people, particularly in the context of Japanese colonization. Not only is it an excellent introduction to Ainu people, culture, and history, but it is also a great way to get to know one of the most prominent Ainu figures in modern times.
Born in 1926, Kayano was raised in poverty, living the legacy of just a few generations of colonization. Upon the arrival of Japanese in the latter half of the 19th century, Ainu were displaced from their homes and forced to live on less resourceful land, land essentially deemed “unnecessary” for the Japanese. Alongside this, many Ainu were forced into slavery, and later underpaid labor in order to survive. (Kayano’s grandfather was enslaved as a child.)
With this backdrop, Kayano grew up in the impoverished Ainu town of Nibutani, playing in the snow and listening to his grandmother’s stories. (Thanks to his grandmother, Kayano grew up learning Ainu and listening to Ainu folklore, the latter of which he later published in highly-acclaimed books.) Upon graduating elementary school, Kayano went off to work to help support his family.
Each story builds seamlessly onto the next, illustrating Kayano’s struggles into adulthood, and then his transition into activism and advocacy. He’s known today for his many publications, the foundation of the Nibutani Culture Museum, and his political work in getting Ainu people legally recognized and protected.
I wholeheartedly recommend this highly readable memoir to anyone interested in learning about Ainu people, particularly in the context of Japanese colonization. Not only is it an excellent introduction to Ainu people, culture, and history, but it is also a great way to get to know one of the most prominent Ainu figures in modern times.
January 9, 2009
This was a very good book, not because the writing was the most moving, but because the story was. This biography was written by Kayano Shigeru, the founder of the Nibutani Museum of Ainu Cultural Resources and curator of the Kayano Shigeru Ainu Memorial Museum. Because of the author's dedication throughout his life to acquire artifacts and document and translate Ainu language, information on the Ainu, including the political injustices they endured, can be passed on to us. The story of his life was very moving and I am interested to learn more about Ainu history after reading this book.
January 22, 2008
Kayano Shigeru's memoir (June 15, 1926 – May 6, 2006), covering his life until just before he became the first Ainu (indigenous person) to sit in the Japanese Diet. This is a beautiful, courageous, and eloquent account of true struggle. Anyone who wants to know anything about "Japan" and "Japanese" history should read this.
January 5, 2009
Really, it wasn't a bad book as far as telling the story of the Ainu but the writing style was blander than saltines.
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September 6, 2016Really instructive on the importance of preserving cultural memory
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