If there’s one thing that makes the Ainu language strikingly different from other languages, it’s the fact that it is a “language isolate,” meaning it has no connection whatsoever to other established languages, making it impossible to track its source or even those who are knowledgeable enough to speak it accurately. The downside, however, is its current state of being endangered after the enactment of the Meiji Restoration during the 1860’s which resulted to “the assimilation of its speakers, the indigenous inhabitants of Hokkaido, into Japanese society” and countless times of displacement for the Ainu people. Despite this, there are many present solutions being made which aims to restore the Ainu people of their rightful culture and the ability to express them without the stinging effect of colonization and possible discrimination from a society that predominantly speaks Japanese. Originally, the Ainu people were facing difficulty in taking note of their history and origin due to their choice of not establishing “any method of writing” but in present times, the Ainu language is now written using a modified version of the Japanese Hiragana syllabary.
Before anything else, it is worth mentioning the current state of the Ainu language since this will be the main phenomenon which will be explored upon. It should be given notice, however, that the following statistics to be mentioned should be understood relatively since not all descendants of the Ainu population choose to disclose their identity, resulting in a difficulty to determine how many speak the language in actuality. Based on a Hokkaido survey done in 2017, nearly less than one percent out of 600+ respondents professed some ability to speak Ainu. In an even older poll done in 2006, it depicts the picture that “out of 23,782 Ainu, 304 know the language, and among these, 4.6% feel they master it to the point of being able to teach it.” All of these result in the Ainu language being critically endangered; with the number of people learning the language slowly dwindling to the point of extinction. Aside from the aforementioned Meiji Restoration where “Ainu were forced to use the dominant languages and customs of the Wajin, the dominant people of Japan,” the people themselves also face “systematic discrimination by Wajin,” a group of ancient people who were believed to first inhabit the Japanese archipelago.
Such examples on how the Ainu were viewed differently in a negative way and were being taken advantage of by the Wajin are seen in a journal article by Mitsuharu Vincent Okada titled, “The Plight of Ainu, Indigenous people of Japan.”
According to a young Ainu singer and performer named Tsunami Matsudaira, the reason why those belonging to the Ainu culture choose to hide their identity stems from the fear of being discriminated against. If one exclaims that he/she is an Ainu while in the process of applying for a job, the end result leans more towards the path of rejection. If an Ainu wishes to get married, the family will more likely not welcome them in their homes. Scenarios like these led to Matsudaira’s grandfather, grandmother, and mother not wanting others to know their Ainu heritage and this only adds up to the derogative historical perspective of Ainu people being looked as “dirty”, “backward,” or “primitive” people that were forced to do petty labor. Even ordinary aspects such as having a place for cultural practices or being a woman prove difficult in the desire of expressing the Ainu culture. Based on a segment from a podcast by Patrick Cox, Ainu activist Koichi Kaizawa says the language portion of Ainu culture is indeed relevant, but with no place to use such culture, there is no room for development and the act of passing it on to future generations will be easier said than done. He even goes on to say “Just winning the right to a stretch of land that the Ainu can call their own, that would be near impossible” given the fact that Japan is densely populated and to force other non-Ainu people to learn their language is not ideal. Even the practices of deer hunting and salmon fishing which reflected their “animist belief system revered all things—animals, trees, lakes, mountains—believing them to be inhabited by spirits” were affected by the Meiji government: making the preservation of the culture even bleaker than before.
For Ainu women, an Ainu rights activist who teaches its history by the name of Kaori Tahara explains that they face “double discrimination” not only by the Japanese but by Ainu men as well. Together with the Ainu language being forbidden, they were also forced to take Japanese names in response to the new form of government and possibly by the overarching theme of discrimination present. Through these glimpses of an indigenous culture like Ainu, there is an evident contrast between what society and such ethnic groups see as normal and unfortunately, only one side takes full control over such dispute. Going back to the almost non-existent number of Ainu having the courage to claim their heritage, it makes sense as to how an indefinite yet seemingly relevant number of Ainu people choose to reveal their true origins only to themselves, away from Japanese influence that only settles for one, clear identity.
Fortunately, laws that strictly prohibited Ainu culture in the past like the Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act were made null by better intentioned laws such as the Ainu Culture Promotion Act which “officially acknowledged the existence of the Ainu ethnic groups in Japan, but stopped short of recognizing Ainu as Indigenous Peoples.” For private groups who wish the Ainu culture to return to its former glory as a second national language, the Upopoy National Ainu Museum opened in the city of Shiraoi, Hokkaido, “featuring explanatory panels written in Ainu and activities, such as puppet shows, through which visitors can experience the language.” There are also creative ways that showcase the Ainu culture and one of them is a private radio station in Sapporo which has been broadcasting language classes over the city of Hokkaido since the 1980’s. There is indeed an upsurge of interest in terms of Ainu heritage but it should be reminded by the words of Kaori Tahara that unlike them, the real Ainu “are for the most part marginalized and have little time to devote to learning their language.” Until there is a significant presence of Ainu culture in Hokkaido school curriculums, the state of Ainu heritage will stay on the balance of being endangered or not.
To end on a good note, it was only recently that Ainu as an indigenous people was recognized through the Ainu Policy Promotion Act, but in Japan’s pursuit of modernization “countless Ainu persons were discriminated against, and forced to live in great poverty.” The fallacious mindset of Japanese government and Japanese people being “one nation, one people, and one language” should be forgotten since Tahara believes the opposite: that Japan “is a multicultural, multilingual, and multiethnic country” Even those who are foreign but still choose to document endangered languages around the world like K. David Harrison have an interesting take on such cultures. He says, “Deep knowledge of plants and animals is possessed by indigenous cultures and not yet known to science.” This is looked upon by Harrison as free knowledge but the act of translating such information into better known languages is not the right way since human knowledge picks no universal culture. In essence, to preserve the Ainu language does not only benefit Japanese society, but the whole world as well. Applying this to any indigenous language throughout the world while knowing that there are still undiscovered aspects of the world we live in, it is only right that we human beings give respect in learning other indigenous cultures the right way and also allowing those people to express them authentically and freely.
About the author
Kurt Gavieta is a first-year student studying AB Psychology at the Ateneo de Manila University and a fun fact about him is that the topic of mythology is what sparked his hobby of reading which is why looking into different cultures can be an exciting journey to take! When possible, his dream is to travel to more countries abroad with family and friends since according to his parents, he has already been to famous tourist spots in the US like the White House and the statue of Abraham Lincoln but sadly does not remember said experiences.
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