utari or Ainu reference webpages as of May 2009
Regarding the personal and social identity of being Ainu, there are some similarities with other hybrid experiences. While practically no community members lead their lives using the Ainu language, depending on situation and occasion with whom one is, there is a consciousness different to being Japanese, which they also are part of. Elsewhere around the world today and in the past there are many examples of hybridity of the person's self-image and the image that they present: regional accents and sense of belonging around the British Isles (other markers of "insider" vs "outsider" include Memory-Places, local delicacies, local melodies, personages or symbols), immigrants and refugees of differing generations (1st generation can hold "local knowledge" from home country and the adopted country, but later generations seldom have much of that first-hand experience), the "culture" of one employer compared to another (or of one household compared to another), and perhaps the genesis one experiences in the course of embarking on a foreign language study that leads from outside but steadily better informed spectator to part-owner of the lifeways and pool of People, Places, Things shared in common among people of that language. Recognized diasporic communities include Lebanese, Chinese, Korean, people from many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and Jews of many historical waves. In each case many of the outward expressioins of one's ethnic identity fade, including language and traditions tied to the home country landscape, but still on the inside there can remain a consciousness of NOT being like the surrounding society - whether that separation is due to rejection by the host country, or due to the person's own self-definition in contrast to that wider society.
The Ainu Museum [in Shiraoi], http://www.ainu-museum.or.jp/english/english.html
The Ainu Association of Hokkaido, http://www.ainu-assn.or.jp/
Pirka Kotan, Sapporo Ainu Culture Promotion Center, http://www.welcome.city.sapporo.jp/pirka/index-e.html
>> in Japanese, http://www.welcome.city.sapporo.jp/pirka/index.html
http://city.hokkai.or.jp/~ayaedu/ [language & culture studies]
Foundation for Research and Promotion of Ainu Culture, http://www.frpac.or.jp/eng/index.html
--audio samples of mouth-harp melodies, mukkuri1.wav & mukkuri2.wav
>> in Japanese, http://www.frpac.or.jp/
Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies at Hokkaido University, www.cais.hokudai.ac.jp/
RANKO: Nibutani Museum of Ainu Culture [in Japanese], http://www.ainu-museum-nibutani.org/html/mainN.htm; panorama photos (5mb ZIP folder: download, then "un-Zip" to view; taken June 7, 2009)
see also, English wikipedia (including foods); Japanese wikipedia
language learning
Honda Yuko (Sapporo University) has been involved in Ainu language education. Her memoir, "Futatsu no kaze no tani: Ainu kotan de no hibi" (Chikuma Shobo, 1997), would be a good place to start for an account of her experiences teaching Ainu in Nibutani, a community with a substantial Ainu population.
On the education of Ainu children in general, particularly with regard to the special Ainu schools that existed before World War II, Ogawa Masahito is the leading authority. Indeed, Ogawa is perhaps the best historian of the Ainu in the twentieth century over all.
events and exhibitions
Ainu experiences (citizen seminar at Hokkaido University, 2/2011) PDF poster and announcement details
historical thoughts
Ainu schools and education policy in nineteenth-century Hokkaido, Japan,
Frey, Christopher J., Ph.D. Diss., Indiana University, 2007.
Yamamoto Masayo, A Brief History of Japanese Official Policies of Ainu Segregation and Assimilation, with a Focus on Language Policy, Faculty of Letters, St. Andrew's University in that institution's research bulletin,
総合研究所紀要 22(1), 83-92, 1996-09-30 桃山学院大学 (open access at: