The Ainu are a white race. The first samurai were not Japanese at all. Scientists about the Ainu

There is only one on earth ancient people, which has been simply ignored for more than one century, and has been subjected to persecution and genocide in Japan more than once due to the fact that by its existence it simply breaks the established official false history of both Japan and Russia.

Now, there is reason to believe that not only in Japan, but also on the territory of Russia there is a part of this ancient indigenous people. According to preliminary data from the latest population census, held in October 2010, there are more than 100 Ainov in our country. The fact itself is unusual, because until recently it was believed that the Ainu live only in Japan. They guessed about this, but on the eve of the population census, employees of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences noticed that, despite the absence of Russian peoples in the official list, some of our fellow citizens stubbornly continue to consider themselves Ain and have good reason for this.

As research has shown, the Ainu, or KAMCHADAL SMOKIANS, did not disappear anywhere, they just did not want to recognize them for many years. But Stepan Krasheninnikov, a researcher of Siberia and Kamchatka (XVIII century), described them as Kamchadal Kurils. The name "Ainu" itself comes from their word for "man", or "worthy man", and is associated with military operations. And as one of the representatives of this nation claims in a conversation with the famous journalist M. Dolgikh, the Ainu fought with the Japanese for 650 years. It turns out that this is the only people remaining to this day who, from ancient times, restrained the occupation, resisted the aggressor - now the Japanese, who were, in fact, Koreans with perhaps a certain percentage of the Chinese population, who moved to the islands and formed another state.

It has been scientifically established that the Ainu already inhabited the north of the Japanese archipelago, the Kuril Islands and part of Sakhalin and, according to some data, part of Kamchatka and even the lower reaches of the Amur about 7 thousand years ago. The Japanese who came from the south gradually assimilated and pushed the Ainu to the north of the archipelago - to Hokkaido and the southern Kuril Islands.

The largest concentrations of Ainu families are now located in Hokaido.
According to experts, in Japan the Ainu were considered “barbarians”, “savages” and social outcasts. The hieroglyph used to designate the Ainu means “barbarian”, “savage”, now the Japanese also call them “hairy Ainu”, for which the Japanese do not like the Ainu.

And here the Japanese policy against the Ainu is very clearly visible, since the Ainu lived on the islands even before the Japanese and had a culture many times, or even orders of magnitude, higher than that of the ancient Mongoloid settlers.
But the topic of the Ainu’s hostility towards the Japanese probably exists not only because of the ridiculous nicknames addressed to them, but also probably because the Ainu, let me remind you, were subjected to genocide and persecution by the Japanese for centuries.

IN late XIX V. About one and a half thousand Ainu lived in Russia. After World War II, they were partly evicted, partly they left along with the Japanese population, others remained, returning, so to speak, from their difficult and centuries-long service. This part mixed with the Russian population Far East.

In appearance, representatives of the Ainu people very little resemble their closest neighbors - the Japanese, Nivkhs and Itelmens.
The Ainu are the White Race.

According to the Kamchadal Kurils themselves, all the names of the islands of the southern ridge were given by the Ainu tribes who once inhabited these territories. By the way, it is wrong to think that the names of the Kuril Islands, Kuril Lake, etc. originated from hot springs or volcanic activity.
It’s just that the Kuril Islands, or Kurilians, live here, and “Kuru” in Ainsk means the People.

It should be noted that this version destroys the already flimsy basis of the Japanese claims to our Kuril Islands. Even if the name of the ridge comes from our Ainu. This was confirmed during the expedition to the island. Matua. There is Ainu Bay, where the oldest Ainu site was discovered.
Therefore, according to experts, it is very strange to say that the Ainu have never been in the Kuril Islands, Sakhalin, Kamchatka, as the Japanese are doing now, assuring everyone that the Ainu live only in Japan (after all, archeology says the opposite), so they, the Japanese, supposedly the Kuril Islands need to be given back. This is completely untrue. In Russia there are Ainu - the indigenous White People who have the direct right to consider these islands their ancestral lands.
American anthropologist S. Lorin Brace, from Michigan State University in the journal Science Horizons, No. 65, September-October 1989. writes: “a typical Ainu is easy to distinguish from the Japanese: he has lighter skin, thicker body hair, beards, which is unusual for the Mongoloids, and a more protruding nose.”

Brace studied about 1,100 crypts of Japanese, Ainu and other ethnic groups and came to the conclusion that members of the privileged samurai class in Japan are in fact descendants of the Ainu, and not the Yayoi (Mongoloids), the ancestors of most modern Japanese.
The story of the Ainu classes is reminiscent of the story of the upper castes in India, where the highest percentage of the White man's haplogroup is R1a1.
Brace further writes: “.. this explains why the facial features of representatives ruling class so often different from modern Japanese. The real Samurai - the descendants of Ainu warriors - gained such influence and prestige in medieval Japan that they intermarried with the rest of the ruling circles and introduced Ainu blood into them, while the rest of the Japanese population were mainly descendants of Yayoi.
It should also be noted that in addition to archaeological and other features, the language has been partially preserved. There is a dictionary of the Kuril language in “Description of the Land of Kamchatka” by S. Krasheninnikov.

In Hokkaido, the dialect spoken by the Ainu is called saru, but in SAKHALIN it is called reichishka.
As it is not difficult to understand, the Ainu language differs from the Japanese language in syntax, phonology, morphology and vocabulary, etc. Although there have been attempts to prove that they are related, the vast majority of modern scientists reject the assumption that the relationship between the languages goes beyond contact relations, involving the mutual borrowing of words in both languages. In fact, no attempt to link the Ainu language to any other language has gained widespread acceptance.

In principle, according to the famous Russian political scientist and journalist P. Alekseev, the problem of the Kuril Islands can be solved politically and economically. To do this, it is necessary to allow the Ainu (partially evicted to Japan in 1945) to return from Japan to the land of their ancestors (including their ancestral habitat - the Amur region, Kamchatka, Sakhalin and all the Kuril Islands, creating at least following the example of the Japanese (it is known that the Japanese Parliament only in 2008 did it recognize the Ainov as an independent national minority), the Russian dispersed autonomy of an “independent national minority” with the participation of the Ainov from the islands and the Ainov of Russia.

We have neither the people nor the funds for the development of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, but the Ainu do. The Ainu who migrated from Japan, according to experts, can give impetus to the economy of the Russian Far East by forming national autonomy not only in the Kuril Islands, but also within Russia and reviving their clan and traditions in the land of their ancestors.

Japan, according to P. Alekseev, will be out of business, because there the displaced Ainu will disappear, but here they can settle not only in the southern part of the Kuril Islands, but throughout their entire original range, our Far East, eliminating the emphasis on the southern Kuril Islands. Since many of the Ainu deported to Japan were our citizens, it is possible to use the Ainu as allies against the Japanese, restoring the dying Ainu language.
The Ainu were not allies of Japan and never will be, but they can become allies of Russia. But unfortunately, we still ignore this ancient People.
With our pro-Western government, which feeds Chechnya for free, which deliberately filled Russia with people of Caucasian nationality, opened unhindered entry for emigrants from China, and those who are clearly not interested in preserving the Peoples of Russia should not think that they will pay attention to the Ainu, only a CIVIL INITIATIVE will help here.

As the leading researcher of the Institute notes: Russian history RAS, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Academician K. Cherevko, Japan exploited these islands. Their law includes such a concept as “development through trade exchange.” And all the Ainu - both conquered and unconquered - were considered Japanese and were subject to their emperor. But it is known that even before that the Ainu gave taxes to Russia. True, this was irregular.
Thus, we can say with confidence that the Kuril Islands belong to the Ainu, but, one way or another, Russia must proceed from international law. According to him, i.e. According to the San Francisco Peace Treaty, Japan renounced the islands. Today there are simply no legal grounds for revising the documents signed in 1951 and other agreements. But such matters are resolved only in the interests of big politics, and I repeat that only its Brotherly people, that is, We, can help this people.

Dauria - the territory of Ain settlement

The largest concentrations of Ainu families are now located in Hokaido.

According to experts, In Japan, the Ainu were considered "barbarians", "savages" and social outcasts. The hieroglyph used to designate the Ainu means “barbarian”, “savage”, now the Japanese also call them “hairy Ainu”, for which the Japanese do not like the Ainu.

But the topic of the Ainu’s hostility towards the Japanese probably exists not only because of the ridiculous nicknames addressed to them, but also probably because the Ainu, let me remind you, were subjected to genocide and persecution by the Japanese for centuries.

At the end of the 19th century. About one and a half thousand Ainu lived in Russia. After World War II, they were partly evicted, partly they left along with the Japanese population, others remained, returning, so to speak, from their difficult and centuries-long service. This part mixed with the Russian population of the Far East.

In appearance, representatives of the Ainu people very little resemble their closest neighbors - the Japanese, Nivkhs and Itelmens.

The Ainu are the White Race.

It’s just that the Kuril Islands, or Kurilians, live here, and “Kuru” in Ainsk means the People.

Therefore, according to experts, it is very strange to say that the Ainu have never been in the Kuril Islands, Sakhalin, Kamchatka, as the Japanese are doing now, assuring everyone that the Ainu live only in Japan (after all, archeology says the opposite), so they, the Japanese, supposedly the Kuril Islands need to be given back. This is completely untrue. In Russia there are the Ainu - the indigenous White People who have the direct right to consider these islands their ancestral lands.

American anthropologist S. Lorin Brace, from Michigan State University in the journal Science Horizons, No. 65, September-October 1989. writes: “a typical Ainu is easy to distinguish from the Japanese: he has lighter skin, thicker body hair, beards, which is unusual for the Mongoloids, and a more protruding nose.”

The story of the Ainu classes is reminiscent of the story of the upper castes in India, where the highest percentage of the White man's haplogroup is R1a1.

Brace further writes: “.. this explains why the facial features of representatives of the ruling class are so often different from modern Japanese. The real Samurai - the descendants of Ainu warriors - gained such influence and prestige in medieval Japan that they intermarried with the rest of the ruling circles and introduced Ainu blood into them, while the rest of the Japanese population were mainly descendants of Yayoi.

It should also be noted that in addition to archaeological and other features, the language has been partially preserved. There is a dictionary of the Kuril language in “Description of the Land of Kamchatka” by S. Krasheninnikov.

In Hokkaido, the dialect spoken by the Ainu is called saru, but in SAKHALIN it is called reichishka.

As it is not difficult to understand, the Ainu language differs from the Japanese language in syntax, phonology, morphology and vocabulary, etc. Although there have been attempts to prove that they are related, the vast majority of modern scientists reject the assumption that the relationship between the languages goes beyond contact relations, involving the mutual borrowing of words in both languages. In fact, no attempt to link the Ainu language to any other language has gained widespread acceptance.

The Ainu were not allies of Japan and never will be, but they can become allies of Russia. But unfortunately, we still ignore this ancient People.

With our pro-Western government, which is clearly not interested in preserving the Peoples of Russia, you shouldn’t think that they will pay attention to the Ainu, only CIVIL INITIATIVE.

As noted by leading researcher at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Academician K. Cherevko, Japan exploited these islands. Their law includes such a concept as “development through trade exchange.” And all the Ainu - both conquered and unconquered - were considered Japanese and were subject to their emperor. But it is known that even before that the Ainu gave taxes to Russia. True, this was irregular.

Thus, we can say with confidence that the Kuril Islands belong to the Ainu, but, one way or another, Russia must proceed from international law. According to him, i.e. According to the San Francisco Peace Treaty, Japan renounced the islands. Today there are simply no legal grounds for revising the documents signed in 1951 and other agreements. But such matters are resolved only in the interests of big politics, and I repeat that only its Brotherly people, that is, We, can help this people.

Ainu. Indigenous people of the Kuril and Japanese islands (36 photos)

Initially, the Ainu lived on the islands of Japan (then it was called Ainumoshiri - land of the Ainu), until they were pushed north by the proto-Japanese. But the ancestral lands of the Ainu are on the Japanese islands of Hokkaido and Honshu. The Ainu came to Sakhalin in the 13th-14th centuries, “finishing” their settlement in the beginning. XIX century.

Traces of their appearance were also found in Kamchatka, Primorye and Khabarovsk Territory. Many toponymic names Sakhalin region have Ainu names: Sakhalin (from “SAKHAREN MOSIRI” - “wave-shaped land”); the islands of Kunashir, Simushir, Shikotan, Shiashkotan (the endings “shir” and “kotan” mean “plot of land” and “settlement”, respectively). It took the Japanese more than 2 thousand years to occupy the entire archipelago up to and including Hokkaido (then called “Ezo”) (the earliest evidence of skirmishes with the Ainu dates back to 660 BC). Subsequently, almost all of the Ainu degenerated or assimilated with the Japanese and Nivkhs.

Currently, there are only a few reservations on Hokkaido where Ainu families live. The Ainu are perhaps the most mysterious people in the Far East. The first Russian navigators who studied Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands were surprised to note the Caucasoid facial features, thick hair and beards unusual for the Mongoloids. Russian decrees of 1779, 1786 and 1799 indicate that the inhabitants of the southern Kuril Islands - the Ainu - had been Russian subjects since 1768 (in 1779 they were exempt from paying tribute - yasak) to the treasury, and the southern Kuril Islands were considered Russia as its own territory. The fact of Russian citizenship of the Kuril Ainu and belonging to all of Russia Kuril ridge Also confirmed by the Instruction of the Irkutsk Governor A.I. Bril to the chief commander of Kamchatka M.K. Bem in 1775, and the “yasash table” - the chronology of the collection in the 18th century. c Ainu - inhabitants of the Kuril Islands, including the southern ones (including the island of Matmai-Hokkaido), the mentioned tribute-yasaka. Iturup means " the best place", Kunashir - Simushir means "a piece of land - a black island", Shikotan - Shiashkotan (the ending words "shir" and "kotan" mean "a piece of land" and "settlement" respectively).

With their good nature, honesty and modesty, the Ainu impressed Kruzenshtern the most best experience. When they were given gifts for the fish they delivered, they took them in their hands, admired them and then returned them. It was with difficulty that the Ainu managed to convince them that this was being given to them as property. In relation to the Ainu, Catherine the Second prescribed to be kind to the Ainu and not to tax them, in order to alleviate the situation of the new Russian sub-South Kuril Ainu. Decree of Catherine II to the Senate on the exemption from taxes of the Ainu - the population of the Kuril Islands who accepted Russian citizenship in 1779. Eya I.V. commands that the shaggy Kurilians - the Ainu, brought into citizenship on the distant islands - should be left free and no tax should be demanded from them, and henceforth the peoples living there should not be forced to do so, but try to continue what has already been done with them by friendly treatment and affection for the expected benefit in trades and trade acquaintance. The first cartographic description of the Kuril Islands, including them southern part, was made in 1711-1713. according to the results of the expedition of I. Kozyrevsky, who collected information about most of the Kuril Islands, including Iturup, Kunashir and even the “Twenty-Second” Kuril Island MATMAI (Matsmai), which later became known as Hokkaido. It was precisely established that the Kuril Islands were not subordinate to any foreign state. In the report of I. Kozyrevsky in 1713. it was noted that the South Kuril Ainu “live autocratically and are not subject to citizenship and trade freely.” It should be especially noted that Russian explorers, in accordance with the policy of the Russian state, discovering new lands inhabited by the Ainu, immediately announced the inclusion of these lands in Russia, began to study and economic development, carried out missionary activities, and imposed tribute (yasak) on the local population. During the 18th century, all the Kuril Islands, including their southern part, became part of Russia. This is confirmed by the statement made by the head of the Russian embassy N. Rezanov during negotiations with the commissioner of the Japanese government K. Toyama in 1805 that “north of Matsmaya (Hokkaido) all lands and waters belong to the Russian emperor and that the Japanese did not extend their possessions further." The 18th-century Japanese mathematician and astronomer Honda Toshiaki wrote that “... the Ainu look at the Russians as their own fathers,” since “true possessions are won by virtuous deeds. Countries forced to submit to force of arms remain, at heart, unconquered.”

By the end of the 80s. In the 18th century, enough evidence of Russian activity in the Kuril Islands was accumulated so that, in accordance with the norms of international law of that time, the entire archipelago, including its southern islands, belonged to Russia, which was recorded in Russian government documents. First of all, we should mention the imperial decrees (recall that at that time the imperial or royal decree had the force of law) of 1779, 1786 and 1799, which confirmed the Russian citizenship of the South Kuril Ainu (then called the “shaggy Kurilians”), and the islands themselves were declared possession Russia. In 1945, the Japanese evicted all the Ainu from occupied Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands to Hokkaido, while for some reason they left on Sakhalin a labor army of Koreans brought by the Japanese and the USSR had to accept them as stateless persons, then the Koreans moved to Central Asia. A little later, ethnographers wondered for a long time - where did these harsh lands people wearing loose (southern) types of clothing appeared, and linguists discovered Latin, Slavic, Anglo-Germanic and even Indo-Aryan roots in the Ainu language. The Ainu were classified as Indo-Aryans, Australoids, and even Caucasians. In a word, the riddles became more and more, and the answers brought more and more new problems. The Ainu population consisted of socially stratified groups (“utar”), headed by families of leaders by the right of inheritance of power (it should be noted that the Ainu clan went through the female line, although the man was naturally considered the head of the family). "Uthar" was built on the basis of fictitious kinship and had military organization. The ruling families, who called themselves “utarpa” (head of the Utar) or “nishpa” (leader), represented a layer of the military elite. Men of “high birth” were destined for military service from birth; high-born women spent their time doing embroidery and shamanic rituals (“tusu”).

The chief's family had a dwelling within a fortification ("chasi"), surrounded by an earthen mound (also called a "chasi"), usually under the cover of a mountain or rock jutting out over a terrace. The number of embankments often reached five or six, which alternated with ditches. Together with the leader's family, there were usually servants and slaves (“ushu”) inside the fortification. The Ainu did not have any centralized power. The Ainu preferred the bow as a weapon. No wonder they were called “people with arrows sticking out of their hair” because they carried quivers (and swords, by the way, too) on their backs. The bow was made from elm, beech or euonymus (a tall shrub, up to 2.5 m high with very strong wood) with whalebone guards. The bowstring was made from nettle fibers. The plumage of the arrows consisted of three eagle feathers. A few words about combat tips. Both "regular" armor-piercing and spiked arrowheads were used in combat (possibly to better cut through armor or to get an arrow stuck in a wound). There were also tips of an unusual, Z-shaped cross-section, which were most likely borrowed from the Manchus or Jurgens (information has been preserved that in the Middle Ages the Sakhalin Ainu fought back a large army that came from the mainland). Arrowheads were made of metal (early ones were made of obsidian and bone) and then coated with monkshood poison “suruku”. The root of aconite was crushed, soaked and placed in a warm place to ferment. A stick with poison was applied to the spider's leg; if the leg fell off, the poison was ready. Due to the fact that this poison decomposed quickly, it was widely used in hunting large animals. The arrow shaft was made of larch.

The Ainu swords were short, 45-50 cm long, slightly curved, with one-sided sharpening and a one-and-a-half-handed handle. The Ainu warrior - dzhangin - fought with two swords, not recognizing shields. The guards of all swords were removable and were often used as decoration. There is evidence that some guards were specially polished to a mirror shine in order to repel evil spirits. In addition to swords, the Ainu carried two long knives (“cheyki-makiri” and “sa-makiri”), which were worn on the right hip. Cheiki-makiri was a ritual knife for making sacred shavings "inau" and performing the ritual "pere" or "erytokpa" - ritual suicide, which was later adopted by the Japanese, calling it "harakiri" or "seppuku" (as, by the way, the cult of the sword, special shelves for sword, spear, bow). Ainu swords were put on public display only during the Bear Festival. An old legend says: Long ago, after this country was created by God, there lived an old Japanese man and an old Ain. The Ainu grandfather was ordered to make a sword, and the Japanese grandfather: money (it is further explained why the Ainu had a cult of swords, and the Japanese had a thirst for money. The Ainu condemned their neighbors for money-grubbing). They treated spears rather coolly, although they exchanged them with the Japanese.

Another detail of the Ainu warrior’s weapons were battle mallets - small rollers with a handle and a hole at the end, made of hard wood. The sides of the beaters were equipped with metal, obsidian or stone spikes. The beaters were used both as a flail and as a sling - a leather belt was threaded through the hole. A well-aimed blow from such a mallet killed immediately, or at best (for the victim, of course) disfigured him forever. The Ainu did not wear helmets. They had natural long thick hair that was matted together, forming something like a natural helmet. Now let's move on to the armor. Sundress-type armor was made from bearded seal leather (“sea hare” - a type of large seal). In appearance, such armor (see photo) may seem bulky, but in reality it practically does not restrict movement, allowing you to bend and squat freely. Thanks to numerous segments, four layers of skin were obtained, which with equal success repelled the blows of swords and arrows. The red circles on the chest of the armor symbolize the three worlds (upper, middle and lower worlds), as well as shamanic “toli” disks, which scare away evil spirits and generally have magical significance. Similar circles are also depicted on the back. Such armor is fastened at the front using numerous ties. There was also short armor, like sweatshirts with planks or metal plates sewn on them. Very little is currently known about the martial art of the Ainu. It is known that the proto-Japanese adopted almost everything from them. Why not assume that some elements of martial arts were also not adopted?

Only such a duel has survived to this day. The opponents, holding each other by the left hand, struck with clubs (the Ainu specially trained their backs to pass this test of endurance). Sometimes these clubs were replaced with knives, and sometimes they fought simply with their hands until the opponents lost their breath. Despite the cruelty of the fight, no cases of injury were observed. In fact, the Ainu fought not only with the Japanese. Sakhalin, for example, they conquered from the “Tonzi” - a short people, truly the indigenous population of Sakhalin. From “tonzi”, Ainu women adopted the habit of tattooing their lips and the skin around their lips (the result was a kind of half-smile - half-mustache), as well as the names of some (very good quality) swords - “toncini”. It is curious that the Ainu warriors - Dzhangins - were noted as very warlike; they were incapable of lying. Information about the signs of ownership of the Ainu is also interesting - they put special signs on arrows, weapons, and dishes, passed down from generation to generation, so as not to confuse, for example, whose arrow hit the beast, or who owns this or that thing. There are more than one hundred and fifty such signs, and their meanings have not yet been deciphered. Rock inscriptions were discovered near Otaru (Hokkaido) and on the island of Urup.

It remains to add that the Japanese were afraid of open battle with the Ainu and conquered them by cunning. An ancient Japanese song said that one “emishi” (barbarian, ain) is worth a hundred people. There was a belief that they could create fog. Over the years, the Ainu repeatedly rebelled against the Japanese (in Ainu “chizhem”), but lost each time. The Japanese invited the leaders to their place to conclude a truce. Piously honoring the customs of hospitality, the Ainu, trusting like children, did not think anything bad. They were killed during the feast. As a rule, the Japanese were unsuccessful in other ways to suppress the uprising.

“The Ainu are a meek, modest, good-natured, trusting, sociable, polite people who respect property; brave on the hunt

and... even intelligent.” (A.P. Chekhov - Sakhalin Island)

From the 8th century The Japanese did not stop slaughtering the Ainu, who fled from extermination to the north - to Hokkaido - Matmai, the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. Unlike the Japanese, the Russian Cossacks did not kill them. After several skirmishes, normal friendly relations were established between the similar-looking blue-eyed and bearded aliens on both sides. And although the Ainu flatly refused to pay the yasak tax, no one killed them for it, unlike the Japanese. However, the turning point for the fate of this people was 1945. Today only 12 of its representatives live in Russia, but there are many “mestizo” from mixed marriages. The destruction of the “bearded people” - the Ainu in Japan stopped only after the fall of militarism in 1945. However, cultural genocide continues to this day.

It is significant that no one knows the exact number of Ainu on the Japanese islands. The fact is that in “tolerant” Japan there is often still a rather arrogant attitude towards representatives of other nationalities. And the Ainu were no exception: their exact number is impossible to determine, since according to Japanese censuses they are not listed either as a people or as a national minority. According to scientists, the total number of Ainu and their descendants does not exceed 16 thousand people, of which no more than 300 are purebred representatives of the Ainu people, the rest are “mestizo”. In addition, the Ainu are often left with the least prestigious jobs. And the Japanese are actively pursuing a policy of assimilation and there is no talk of any “cultural autonomy” for them. People from mainland Asia came to Japan around the same time that people first reached America. The first settlers of the Japanese islands - YOMON (ancestors of the AIN) reached Japan twelve thousand years ago, and YOUI (ancestors of the Japanese) came from Korea in the last two and a half millennia.

Work has been done in Japan that gives hope that genetics can resolve the question of who the ancestors of the Japanese are. Along with the Japanese living on the central islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu, anthropologists distinguish two more modern ethnic groups: the Ainu from the island of Hokkaido in the north and the Ryukyu people living mainly in south island 0kinawa. One theory is that these two groups, the Ainu and Ryukyuan, are descendants of the original Yomon settlers who once occupied all of Japan and were later driven from the central islands north to Hokkaido and south to Okinawa by the Youi newcomers from Korea. Mitochondrial DNA research conducted in Japan only partially supports this hypothesis: it showed that modern Japanese from the central islands have much in common genetically with modern Koreans, with whom they share much more of the same and similar mitochondrial types than with the Ainu and Ryukuyans. However, it is also shown that there are practically no similarities between the Ainu and Ryukyu people. Age assessments have shown that both of these ethnic groups have accumulated certain mutations over the past twelve thousand years - this suggests that they are indeed descendants of the original Yeomon people, but also proves that the two groups have not had contact with each other since then.

Everyone knows that Americans are not indigenous people USA, just like the current population South America. Did you know that the Japanese are not the indigenous population of Japan?

Who then lived in these places before them?

Before them, the Ainu lived here, mysterious people, the origin of which still has many mysteries. The Ainu coexisted with the Japanese for some time, until the latter managed to push them north.

The fact that the Ainu are the ancient masters of the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands is evidenced by written sources and numerous names geographical objects, whose origin is associated with the Ainu language. And even the symbol of Japan - the great Mount Fuji - has in its name the Ainu word “fuji”, which means “deity of the hearth”. According to scientists, the Ainu settled the Japanese islands around 13,000 BC and formed the Neolithic Jomon culture there.

The Ainu did not engage in agriculture; they obtained food by hunting, gathering and fishing. They lived in small settlements, quite distant from each other. Therefore, their habitat was quite extensive: the Japanese islands, Sakhalin, Primorye, the Kuril Islands and the south of Kamchatka.

Around the 3rd millennium BC, Mongoloid tribes arrived on the Japanese islands, who later became the ancestors of the Japanese. The new settlers brought with them the rice crop, which allowed them to feed a large population in a relatively small area. Thus began difficult times in the life of the Ainu. They were forced to move to the north, leaving their ancestral lands to the colonialists.

But the Ainu were skilled warriors, fluent in their use of bows and swords, and the Japanese were unable to defeat them for a long time. A very long time, almost 1500 years. The Ainu knew how to wield two swords, and on their right hip they carried two daggers. One of them (cheyki-makiri) served as a knife for committing ritual suicide - hara-kiri.

The Japanese were able to defeat the Ainu only after the invention of cannons, by which time they had learned a lot from them in terms of military art. The samurai code of honor, the ability to wield two swords and the mentioned hara-kiri ritual - these seemingly characteristic attributes of Japanese culture were actually borrowed from the Ainu.

Scientists are still arguing about the origin of the Ainu. But the fact that this people is not related to other indigenous peoples of the Far East and Siberia is already a proven fact. A characteristic feature of their appearance is very thick hair and a beard in men, which representatives of the Mongoloid race lack. For a long time it was believed that they may have common roots with the peoples of Indonesia and the aborigines Pacific Ocean because they have similar facial features. But genetic studies ruled out this option as well.

And the first Russian Cossacks who arrived on the island of Sakhalin even mistook the Ainu for Russians, they were so unlike the Siberian tribes, but rather resembled Europeans. The only group of people from all the analyzed variants with whom they have a genetic relationship were the people of the Jomon era, who presumably were the ancestors of the Ainu.

The Ainu language is also very different from the modern linguistic picture of the world, and it has not yet been found suitable place. It turns out that during their long isolation the Ainu lost contact with all other peoples of the Earth, and some researchers even distinguish them into a special Ainu race.

Today there are very few Ainu left, about 25,000 people. They live mainly in the north of Japan and are almost completely assimilated by the population of this country.

Ainu in Russia

The Kamchatka Ainu first came into contact with Russian merchants at the end of the 17th century. Relations with the Amur and North Kuril Ainu were established in the 18th century. The Ainu considered the Russians, who were racially different from their Japanese enemies, as friends, and by the middle of the 18th century, more than one and a half thousand Ainu accepted Russian citizenship. Even the Japanese could not distinguish the Ainu from the Russians because of their external similarity (white skin and Australoid facial features, which are similar to Caucasoid ones in a number of ways).

When the Japanese first came into contact with the Russians, they called them the Red Ainu (Ainu with blond hair). Only at the beginning of the 19th century did the Japanese realize that the Russians and the Ainu were two different peoples. However, to the Russians the Ainu were "hairy", "swarthy", "dark-eyed" and "dark-haired". The first Russian researchers described the Ainu as looking like Russian peasants with dark skin or more like gypsies.

The Ainu sided with the Russians during the Russo-Japanese Wars of the 19th century. However, after defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, the Russians abandoned them to their fate. Hundreds of Ainu were killed and their families were forcibly transported to Hokkaido by the Japanese. As a result, the Russians failed to recapture the Ainu during World War II. Only a few Ainu representatives decided to stay in Russia after the war. More than 90% went to Japan.

Under the terms of the St. Petersburg Treaty of 1875, the Kuril Islands were ceded to Japan, along with the Ainu living there. 83 Northern Kuril Ainu arrived in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on September 18, 1877, deciding to remain under Russian control. They refused to move to the reservations for Commander Islands, as the Russian government suggested to them. After which, from March 1881, for four months they traveled on foot to the village of Yavino, where they later settled.

Later the village of Golygino was founded. Another 9 Ainu arrived from Japan in 1884. The 1897 census indicates a population of 57 in Golygino (all Ainu) and 39 in Yavino (33 Ainu and 6 Russians). Both villages were destroyed by Soviet authorities, and the residents were resettled to Zaporozhye, Ust-Bolsheretsk region. As a result, three ethnic groups assimilated with the Kamchadals.

Northern Kuril Ainu this moment- the largest Ainu subgroup in Russia. The Nakamura family (South Kuril on the paternal side) is the smallest and has only 6 people living in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. There are a few on Sakhalin who identify themselves as Ainu, but many more Ainu do not recognize themselves as such.

Most of the 888 Japanese living in Russia (2010 census) are of Ainu origin, although they do not recognize it (pure-blooded Japanese are allowed to enter Japan without a visa). The situation is similar with the Amur Ainu living in Khabarovsk. And it is believed that none of the Kamchatka Ainu are left alive.

Final

In 1979, the USSR deleted the ethnonym “Ainu” from the list of “living” ethnic groups in Russia, thereby declaring that this people had become extinct on the territory of the USSR. Judging by the 2002 census, no one entered the ethnonym “Ainu” in fields 7 or 9.2 of the K-1 census form

There is information that the Ainu have the most direct genetic connections through the male line, oddly enough, with the Tibetans - half of them are carriers of the close haplogroup D1 (the D2 group itself is practically not found outside the Japanese archipelago) and the Miao-Yao peoples in southern China and in Indochina.

As for female (Mt-DNA) haplogroups, the Ainu group is dominated by the U group, which is also found among other peoples of East Asia, but in small numbers.

In the heat of the ongoing dispute between Russia and Japan over the right to own Kuril Islands It’s somehow forgotten that the true owners of these lands are the Ainu. Few people know that this mysterious people created one of the most ancient cultures in our world. According to some scientists, the Ainu culture is older than the Egyptian one. The average person knows that the Ainu are an oppressed minority in Japan. But few people know that there are Ainu in Russia, where they also do not feel comfortable. Who are the Ainu, what kind of people are they? What is their difference from other peoples, to whom they are related on this Earth in origin, culture and language.

The oldest population of the Japanese archipelago

Ainu, or Ainu, means literally "man". The names of many other peoples, such as, for example, “nanay”, “Mansi”, “hun”, “nivkh”, “Turk” also mean “man”, “people”, “people”. The Ainu are the oldest population of the Japanese islands of Hokkaido and a number of nearby islands. They once lived on lands that now belong to Russia: in the lower reaches of the Amur, i.e. on the mainland, in the south of Kamchatka, on Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Currently, the Ainu remain mainly only in Japan, where according to official statistics there are about 25,000 people, and according to unofficial data, more than 200,000. There they are mainly employed in the tourism business, serving and entertaining tourists thirsty for exotic things. In Russia, according to the results of the 2010 census, only 109 Ainu were recorded, of which 94 Ainu were in the Kamchatka Territory.

Mysteries of origin

Europeans who encountered the Ainu in the 17th century were surprised by their appearance. Unlike the Asian Mongoloids, i.e. with a Mongolian fold of the eyelid, sparse facial hair, the Ainu were very “hairy and shaggy”, had thick black hair, large beards, high but wide noses. Their Australoid facial features were similar to European ones in a number of ways. Despite living in a temperate climate, in the summer the Ainu wore loincloths, like equatorial southerners. Existing hypotheses of scientists about the origin of the Ainu as a whole can be combined into three groups.

The Ainu are related to the Indo-European/Caucasian race- this theory was adhered to by J. Batchelor, S. Murayama and others. But latest research DNA has decisively removed this concept from the scientific agenda. They showed that no genetic similarity with Indo-Europeans and Caucasian populations was found among the Ainu. Only the “hairy” resemblance to the Armenians: the world maximum hairiness among Armenians and Ainu is 6 points. Compare photos - very similar. The world minimum for beard and mustache growth, by the way, belongs to the Nivkhs. In addition, Armenians and Ainu are brought together by another external similarity: the consonance of the ethnonyms Ay - Ain (Armenians - Ay, Armenia - Hayastan).

The Ainu are related to the Austronesians and came to Japanese islands from South- this theory was put forward by Soviet ethnography (author L.Ya. Sternberg). But this theory was not confirmed either, because it has now been clearly proven that the Ainu culture in Japan is much older than the culture of the Austronesians. However, the second part of the hypothesis - about the southern ethnogenesis of the Ainu - has survived due to the fact that the latest linguistic, genetic and ethnographic data suggest that the Ainu may well be distant relatives of the Miao-Yao people living in Southeast Asia and Southern China.

The Ainu are related to Paleo-Asian peoples and came to the Japanese Islands from the north and/or from Siberia- this point of view is held mainly by Japanese anthropologists. As you know, the theory of the origin of the Japanese themselves also starts from the mainland, from the Tungus-Manchu tribes of the Altai family of Southern Siberia. "Paleo-Asian" means "ancient Asian". This term was proposed by the Russian researcher of the peoples of the Far East, Academician L. I. Shrenk. In 1883, in his monograph “On Aliens of the Amur Region”, Schrenk outlined interesting hypothesis: once in ancient times, almost all of Asia was inhabited by peoples who differed from representatives of the Mongoloid race (Mongols, Turks, etc.) and spoke their own special languages.

Then the Paleo-Asians were supplanted by the Mongoloid Asians. And only in the Far East and Northeast Asia were the descendants of Paleo-Asians left: the Yukaghirs of Kolyma, the Chukchi of Chukotka, the Koryaks and Itelmens of Kamchatka, the Nivkhs at the mouth of the Amur and on Sakhalin, the Ainu in northern Japan and on Sakhalin, the Eskimos and Aleuts of Komandor and Aleut and other regions Arctic. The Japanese consider the Ainu to be mestizos of Australoids and Paleo-Asians.

Ancient inhabitants of Japan

According to the main anthropological characteristics, the Ainu are very different from the Japanese, Koreans, Chinese, Mongols-Buryat-Kalmyks, Nivkhs-Kamchadals-Itelmens, Polynesians, Indonesians, aborigines of Australia and, in general, the Far East. It is also known that the Ainu are only close to the people of the Jomon era, who are the direct ancestors of the Ainu. Although it is unknown where the Ainu came from to the Japanese islands, it has been proven that in the Jomon era the Ainu inhabited all the Japanese islands - from Ryukyu to Hokkaido, as well as the southern half of Sakhalin, the southern third of Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands.

This has been proven by archaeological excavations and Ainu names of places: Tsushima - “distant”, Fuji - the deity of the hearth of the Ain, Tsukuba (tu ku pa) - “the head of two bows”, Yamatai - “the place where the sea cuts the land”, Paramushir - “wide island”, Urup - salmon, Iturup - jellyfish, Sakhalin (Sakharen) - wavy land in Ainu. It has also been established that the Ainu appeared on the Japanese islands around 13 thousand years BC. and created a very highly developed Neolithic culture of Jomon (12-3 thousand years BC). Thus, Ainu ceramics are considered the oldest in the world - 12 thousand years old.

Some believe that the legendary Yamatai state of the Chinese chronicles is the ancient Ainu state. But the Ainu are an unliterate people, their culture is the culture of hunters, fishermen and gatherers of the primitive system, who lived dispersedly in small settlements at a great distance from each other, who did not know agriculture and cattle breeding, although they already had onions and ceramics. They practically did not engage in agriculture or nomadic cattle breeding. The Ainu created an amazing system of life activity: in order to maintain harmony and balance in the natural environment, they regulated the birth rate, preventing population explosions.

Thanks to this, they never created large villages, and their main units were small settlements (in Ainu - utar/utari - “people living in one place near one river”). They, gatherers, fishermen and hunters, needed a very large territory to survive, so the small villages of the Neolithic primitive Ainu were far removed from each other. Even in ancient times, this type of economy forced the Ainu to settle scatteredly.

Ainu as an object of colonization

From the middle of the Jomon era (8-7 thousand years BC), groups from South-East Asia who spoke Austronesian languages. Then they were joined by colonists from southern China, who brought the culture of agriculture, primarily rice - a very productive crop that allowed a very large number of people to live in a small area. At the end of Jomon (3 thousand BC), Altai-speaking pastoralists arrived on the Japanese Islands, who gave rise to the Korean and Japanese ethnic groups. The established state of Yamato is pushing back the Ainu. It is known that both Yamatai and Yamato viewed the Ainu as savages and barbarians. The tragic struggle of the Ainu for survival went on for 1500 years. The Ainu were forced to migrate to Sakhalin, Amur, Primorye and the Kuril Islands.

Ainu - the first samurai

Militarily, the Japanese were inferior to the Ainu for a very long time. Travelers of the 17th-19th centuries. noted the amazing modesty, tact and honesty of the Ainu. I.F. Krusenstern wrote: “The Ainu people are meek, modest, trusting, polite, respectful of property... unselfishness, frankness are their usual qualities. They are truthful and do not tolerate deception.” But this characteristic was given to the Ainu when they had lost all fighting spirit after only three centuries of Russian colonization. Meanwhile, the Ainu were a very warlike people in the past. For 1.5-2 thousand years they heroically fought for the freedom and independence of their homeland - Ezo (Hokkaido).

Their military units were led by leaders, Peaceful time former heads of villages - "utar". Utar had a paramilitary organization, like the Cossacks. Among the weapons, the Ainu loved swords and bows. In battle, they used both armor-piercing arrows and spiked arrowheads (to better cut through armor or get the arrow stuck in the body). There were also Z-shaped tips, apparently adopted from the Manchus/Jurjens. The Japanese adopted the art of combat, the samurai code of honor, the cult of the sword, and the ritual of hara-kiri from the warlike, and therefore invincible, Ainu. The Ainu swords were short, 50 cm long, adopted from the Tonzi, also warlike aborigines of Sakhalin, conquered by the Ainu. The Ainu warrior - dzhangin - famously fought with two swords, not recognizing shields. It is interesting that in addition to swords, the Ainu wore two daggers on their right hip ("cheyki-makiri" and "sa-makiri"). Cheiki-makiri was a ritual knife for making sacred shavings "inau" and performing the ritual of ritual suicide - hara-kiri. The Japanese, only by adopting many of the techniques of war and the spirit of a warrior from the Ainu, and finally inventing cannons, turned the situation around and established their dominance.

The fact that Japanese domination in Ezo (Hokkaido), despite the injustice of any colonial administration, was still not as savage and cruel as in northern islands, subject to Russia, note almost all researchers, including Russians, pointing to waves of Ainu flights from Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands and other lands of Russia to Japan, to Hokkaido-Ezo.

Ainu in Russia

Ainu migrations to these territories began, according to some sources, in the 13th century. How they lived before the arrival of the Russians is a virtually unexplored question. The Russian colonization of the Ainu was no different from the Siberian conquest: pogrom, conquest, taxation. The abuses were also of the same type: repeated imposition and knocking out of yasak by ever new detachments of Cossacks, and so on. The Ainu, a proud people, flatly refused to pay tribute and accept Russian citizenship. By the end of the 18th century. The fierce resistance of the Ainu was broken.

Doctor Dobrotvorsky wrote that in the middle of the 19th century. V Southern Sakhalin near Busse Bay there were 8 large Ainu settlements, each with at least 200 people. After 25 years there was not a single village. Such an outcome was not uncommon in the Russian area of Ainu villages. Dobrotvorsky saw the reasons for the disappearance in devastating wars, low birth rates “due to the infertility of the Ainok” and diseases: syphilis, scurvy, smallpox, which “decimated” small nations. Under Soviet rule, the Ainu were subjected to political persecution - before and after the war they were declared “Japanese spies.” The most “smart” Ainu corresponded with the Nivkhs. Nevertheless, they were caught and moved to Commanders and other places where they assimilated, for example, with the Aleuts and other peoples.

“Nowadays, an Aino, usually without a hat, barefoot and in ports tucked above the knees, meeting you on the road, curtsies to you and at the same time looks affectionately, but sadly and painfully, like a loser, and as if he wants to apologize for the beard he has grown a big one, but he still hasn’t made a career for himself,” wrote the humanist A.P. with great bitterness. Chekhov in his "Sakhalin Island". Nowadays there are 109 Ainu people left in Russia. Of these, there are practically no purebreds. Chekhov, Kruzenshtern, and the Polish exile Bronislaw Pilsudski, a voluntary ethnographer and patriot of the Ainu and other small peoples of the region, are a small handful of those who raised their voices in defense of this people in Russia.

Ainu in Japan

In Japan, according to unofficial data, there are 200,000 Ainu. On June 6, 2008, the Japanese Diet recognized the Ainu as a separate national minority. Now various events are held here and government assistance is provided to this people. The life of the Ainu in material terms is practically no different from the life of the Japanese. But the original Ainu culture practically serves only tourism and, one might say, acts as a kind of ethnotheater. The Japanese and the Ainu themselves exploit ethno-exotica for the benefit of tourists. Do they have a future if there is no language, ancient, guttural, but native, thousand-year-old, and if the spirit is lost? Once warlike and proud. A single language as the code of the nation, and the proud spirit of self-sufficient fellow tribesmen - these are the two fundamental bases of the nation-people, two wings that lift it into flight.

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