The Ainu are an indigenous ethnic group who reside in northern Japan and southeastern Russia, including Hokkaido and the Tōhoku region of Honshu, as well as the land surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk, such as Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, the Kamchatka Peninsula, and the Khabarovsk Krai.

阿伊努人（阿伊努语：Ainu、苦夷），是日本北方的一个原住民族群，或译爱努人、爱奴人、阿衣奴人（元代、明代：骨嵬、苦夷和库野），是居住在库页岛和北海道、千岛群岛及堪察加的原住民。

阿伊努 （阿伊努語： Aynu，日语： アイヌ，俄语： Айны），或譯 愛努 、 愛奴，是 日本 北方及 俄羅斯 東南方的一个 原住民族群，主要聚居在 北海道 、 庫頁島 、 千島群島 及 堪察加 等地 [1]。 在 阿伊努語 中「阿伊努」即「人」的意思，該民族分佈的地區亦稱 阿伊努茅希利，即阿伊努語中「人居住的地方」。 至今，很多阿伊努人都希望人們稱謂他們為「ウタリ」（日語 羅馬拼音：Utari，阿伊努語中「夥伴」的意思）。 在官方文獻中，「阿伊努」和「烏塔利」此兩種稱 …

2025年2月12日 · Ainu, indigenous people of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands who were culturally and physically distinct from their Japanese neighbours until the second part of the 20th century. The Ainu may be descendants of an indigenous population once widely spread over northern Asia; many contemporary Ainu claim some connection to Japan ’s ...

Learn about the six core themes of Ainu culture showcased in the National Ainu Museum’s permanent exhibition. Originating from the lands of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands, the Ainu language has its own unique character. Distinct from Japanese, it shares some word order similarities yet has a number of grammatical differences.

2023年8月22日 · As Japan's indigenous inhabitants, the Ainu possess a rich cultural heritage, unique traditions, and a tumultuous history that has shaped their relationship with the broader Japanese narrative. The Ainu are believed to have inhabited the Japanese archipelago long before the emergence of the Yamato Japanese, the ethnic majority in Japan today.

The Ainus have traditionally believed that the earthly things that sustained them — hunting, knives, bamboo houses and the animals and plants they ate — were gods in disguise, spirits temporarily visiting the world of man. Ainu deities (“kamuy”) are not all that different from Japanese “kamis” (spirits).

In 1456, a young Ainu man had a quarrel with a blacksmith in Shinori (presently Hakodate) over a knife that he had ordered. In the heat of the argument the blacksmith stabbed the young man to death with the knife, prompting the father and son of Koshamain, an Ainu leader, to lead an uprising the following year.

The Ainu people, who are indigenous to the northern part of the Japanese archipelago, especially Hokkaido, have their own language, Ainu, and have developed a rich, diverse culture. This includes oral literature such as yukar epics, traditional rituals such as the iyomante ceremony, and unique Ainu patterns.

prominent hero in Ainu folklore who, according to the old man, came to Biratori in southern Hokkaidō from the heavens.1 Nowadays, the origin story of the Ainu is more uniform, and far less fantastical than those that came before it. It is commonly accepted that the Ainu are directly descended from the first