THE AINOS
A book on Japan would be incomplete
without some reference to the Ainos, that mysterious
race found, and found only, in the northern island
of Yesso. The Ainos have long been the puzzle
of the ethnologist. Where the Ainos came from
or to what other race they are akin are problems that
have given occasion for much learned dissertation,
but are still as far off solution as ever. Mr.
Basil Chamberlain, all of whose writings upon Japan
are replete with erudition and information, has observed
that the Aino race deserves to be studied because
“its domain once extended over the entire Japanese
Archipelago,” and also “because it is,
so to speak, almost at its last gasp.”
Unfortunately the evidence for the latter fact is more
conclusive than for the former. The Ainos are,
it seems, to be no exception to that mysterious law
of the survival of the fittest, which decrees that
an inferior race shall go down before the superior,
and in due course become merely a name. I have
called this a mysterious law because such disappearance
is not necessarily the result of conquest or of ruthless
destruction. When the inferior race is brought
into contact with the superior it seems, by some mysterious
process, to be infected with the elements of decay,
to be impregnated with the germs of annihilation.
And, accordingly, it comes about, in accordance with
the dictates of the law I have referred to, that although
a society has been founded in Japan very much on the
lines of our Aborigines Protection Society, an Aino
Preservation Society, the Ainos seem doomed to extinction
at no far-distant date.
Whether or not the Ainos once inhabited
the whole of the Japanese islands and trekked north
to get away from their conquerors, there can be no
doubt of the fact that they are in almost every respect
the very antithesis of the Japanese. The latter
are a smooth-skinned race, the Ainos an extremely
hairy one. The Japanese are essentially a clean,
a scrupulously clean people, the Ainos just as essentially
dirty. The long beards and general facial appearance
of the latter are altogether in startling contrast
to the physiognomy of the average Japanese.
When ethnology fails to place a race,
philology often steps in with more or less of success.
The Aino language has been profoundly studied by many
eminent philologists, but I do not think the results
have tended to throw much, if any, light on the mystery
as to the origin and racial affinities of the Ainos.
In general structure the language is not unlike that
of the Japanese, but this might be expected as the
result of centuries of intercourse between the two
people.
The Ainos live almost solely by fishing
and hunting. The Japanese laws, which have year
by year been made more stringent, have somewhat interfered
with the sporting proclivities of the people.
Nets and fish traps are now forbidden, and fishing
for the most part is effected by means of a spear
or harpoon, either from the shore or from the somewhat
primitive canoes used by the people. Poisoned
arrows were once largely used for the purpose of capturing
game, but they are now forbidden by law. Originally
the modus operandi in hunting was to set a
trap with one of these arrows placed in it, and drive
the game on to the same. The head of the arrow
was only loosely fastened, and broke, leaving the
poison inside even if the animal managed to pull out
the shaft. The bear is found in Yesso, and that
animal has entered very largely into every phase of
Aino life, somewhat circumscribed though this is.
That animal was, or used to be, the objective point
of Aino festivals, and seems, to some extent at any
rate, to have had a part in their crude religious
ideas. Bears, are, however, becoming rare in
Yesso, and the Japanese Government, which is paternal
even in regard to the fauna of the islands, has from
time to time interfered with many venerable Aino customs.
The religion of this interesting race
is almost as mysterious as everything else appertaining
to it. The Ainos have no idols and no temples,
and their religious rites are of a decidedly simple
nature. They, however, seem to believe in an
infinity of spirits inhabiting various and varied
things, and their pantheon is seemingly a crowded
one. I have said seemingly, because the beliefs
of a people such as this are difficult to get at,
and even when one has got at them almost impossible
to comprehend. One writer has termed the religion
of the Ainos, “a very primitive nature-worship,”
and their gods “invisible, formless conceptions.”
Such definitions do not convey much information.
Nature-worship is a vague description and “invisible,
formless conceptions” of the deity or deities
are not confined to the Ainos. Possibly, like
all peoples but little advanced or developed mentally,
their religious conceptions are of the vaguest and
have assumed no definite shape. A fear of the
unknown, a blind groping in the dark are, mayhap,
all that the Aino possesses in reference to the spiritual
world.
Although the religion of the Aino
when living is somewhat incomprehensible his religious
ceremonies in reference to the dead are of a somewhat
elaborate nature. After life has become extinct
the first proceeding is to light an enormous fire
in the house. The corpse is then dressed in its
best clothes and laid beside the fire, where are also
placed dishes, a drinking-cup, and the implements of
the chase. In the case of a woman, instead of
these, her beads and other ornaments are laid alongside
of her; for both sexes a pipe and a tobacco-box, so
greatly used during life, are considered essentials
when dead. Cakes made of rice or millet and a
cup of sake, are also put upon the floor. A kind
of wake or funeral feast follows, at which the mourners
throw some sake on the corpse as a libation to its
departed spirit, break off pieces of the cake and bury
it in the ashes. The body is covered with a mat
slung upon a pole and carried to the grave, followed
by the mourners, each of whom places something in
the grave, which, it is believed, will be carried to
the next world with the spirit of the deceased person.
At the conclusion of the ceremony the mourners wash
their hands in water which has been brought for the
purpose. This is then thrown on the grave and
the vessel which conveyed it is broken in pieces and
also thrown on the grave. The widow of the deceased
shaves her head, while the man cuts his beard and
hair, as outward symbols of grief. Many of these
ceremonies, it will be seen, are such as are more
or less common to all primitive races. There
is, indeed, a marked resemblance between the habit
of the Ainos in burying articles with the deceased
for his use in the next world and that of the North
American Indians. But I am not inclined to deduce
any theory in reference to the origin of the Ainos
from the existence of these customs. Mankind,
in every part of the world, seems to have evolved
his religious beliefs in very much the same way.
His conception of the hereafter appears to have proceeded
on precisely similar lines. The higher his scale
in civilisation the more spiritual and the less material
his conception of the future. The lower his scale
precisely the reverse is the fact. The savage,
which of course the Aino really is, cannot imagine
a future state where there is no eating and drinking
and hunting, and he, accordingly, thinks it incumbent
on him, in order to show his respect for the dead,
to provide the corpse with those articles which he
deems essential in that unknown world where, according
to his conception, eating and drinking and hunting
will be as prevalent as in this.
The Ainos have a great respect for
the graves of their dead, and Japanese legislation
has taken the necessary steps to prevent any tampering
therewith. Some years ago a few scientists from
Europe went on an expedition from Hakodate with a
view of obtaining information respecting the manners
and customs of the Ainos. In the course of this
expedition some graves were broken into and skulls
and limbs extracted therefrom for the purpose of being
taken to Europe for scientific research. This
proceeding occasioned an angry outburst on the part
of this usually placid people, and the Japanese authorities
gave the necessary instructions to prevent the possibility
of such an occurrence in future. I suppose the
scientists, in the ardour of their enthusiasm, are
hardly to be blamed. Science too frequently overlooks
sentiment, which is, after all, one of the most potent
forces in the world.
The dwellings of the Japanese are
supposed to have been evolved from those of the Ainos.
Both build their houses roof first, making the framework
and placing the supports with shorter pieces for rafters,
all being tied together with a rope made of some kind
of fibre. Poles, 5 or 6 feet high at regular
intervals are then placed in the ground, each pole
having a fork at the top and short horizontal pieces
from one to the other, the roof frame is then erected
on and secured to the poles and subsequently thatched
with straw. The floor is of earth, with the fireplace
in the centre. As in Japanese houses, mats are
used for sitting and sleeping purposes. The utensils
of the Ainos are much more primitive than those in
use by the Japanese people, and generally it may be
remarked of the Ainos that their wants are few and
that the people are content to live their own life
in their own way and only desire to be severely left
alone.
The dress is very similar to that
of the Japanese peasant. The men, however, wear
at certain seasons thick rain-coats made of salmon
skin, as also leggings made of a fibre peculiar to
themselves, and high boots constructed of straw.
I am sorry to have to relate that the Ainos have a
fondness for sake, and there is a good deal of intoxication
among them. The climate of the island of Yesso,
as I have already remarked, is extremely severe in
the winter-time, and there can be little doubt that
many of the Ainos suffer extreme privations.
There have been a few cases of intermarriage between
the two races, but unions of this nature are not looked
on with any favour by either.
Attempts have been made by some of
the missionaries in Japan to convert the Ainos to
Christianity, but I fear the attempts made in this
direction have been attended with a very scant measure
of success. A people such as this possesses minds
of childlike simplicity, and to endeavour to get it
to comprehend the abstruse doctrines and dogmas of
Christianity is an almost hopeless task. The
climate of Yesso is such as to render it possible for
missionary efforts to take place only at certain seasons
of the year, and I do not think there has been, so
far as my information goes, any systematic propaganda
of Christianity among this interesting race.
It is certainly a somewhat extraordinary
fact that while the other islands of Japan have been
rapidly assimilating and are being steadily influenced
by the civilisation of Europe and America, the northern
island appears to be, except possibly at Hakodate,
in a state of complete isolation from all these influences
and effects. Whether the Ainos have any conception
of the influences at work in and the progress being
made by the Empire of which they are subjects, I do
not know, but to me it is both interesting and curious
to regard this ancient and decaying race, either indifferent
to or ignorant of all the bustle and hurry and worry
of modern civilisation so close to them and yet so
far removed from their childlike minds and ideas.
The question may be asked, How comes
it that a highly civilised people such as the Japanese
have been for many hundreds of years, have exercised
practically no influence upon this subject race inhabiting
a portion of their territory? A nation such as
Japan, with a literature and an art of its own, with
two highly developed religious systems, and with many
of those other characteristics which are included in
the term civilisation? How is it that neither
art nor literature nor religion, nor any other characteristic
of civilisation has, in the slightest degree, influenced
this aboriginal race? Indeed, if the theories
of ethnologists in regard to the Ainos be correct,
and we are to judge by the ancient remains that have
been found throughout Japan, the Ainos, when they
were in undisputed possession of the Japanese Archipelago,
were in a much more advanced condition of civilisation
than they are to-day. The questions that I have
put afford food for reflection, but they are difficult,
if not impossible, to answer. I am certain, however,
that the Japanese Government desires to, if possible,
preserve the Aino race from extinction, and that it
aspires to give this ancient people all the advantages
of education and civilisation generally. Unfortunately
the Ainos themselves are the obstacle to the carrying
into effect of this project. They desire to live
their own life in their own way. They have not
only no wish to be, but they resent any effort to
make them, either educated or civilised. They
are what some people would term children of nature,
out of place decidedly in a modern go-ahead eclectic
Power like Japan, but an interesting survival of the
past, and likewise an interesting reminder that the
highly civilised races of to-day have, in their time,
been evolved from very similar children of nature.