[caocao74]

Any comments on comparisons or contrasts with other ethnic groups please...

[Gubook Janggoon]

This is kind of off, but I just saw Princess Mononoke and the main character turned out to be an Emishi. Arn't they thought to be the ancestors of the Ainu?

Did they really ride around on deer/antelope like the main character did?

[Inuyasha-sama]

They look Mongolian.

[Karakhan]

Inuyasha-sama, on Jan 5 2006, 03:01 AM, said:

They look Mongolian.

I find that the purer ones tend to look more Micronesian-ish

[Hang Li Po]

Ainu Sword = EMUSH

Gubook Janggoon, on Jan 5 2006, 10:47 AM, said:

This is kind of off, but I just saw Princess Mononoke and the main character turned out to be an Emishi. Arn't they thought to be the ancestors of the Ainu?

Did they really ride around on deer/antelope like the main character did?

Who Were the Emishi?

EMISHI = Japanese Babarian

Japan's first history books were written in the early 8th century in the form of the short Kojiki and the much larger Nihon Shoki. The contents in the books regarding the earliest ages are disputable. They become more or less reliable after the late 7th century AD.

Japanese territory today is composed of four main islands; however, 7th century Japan lacked the whole of Hokkaido and the northern half of the Tohoku (northeast) region of Honshu: the Emishi lived in the Tohoku and Hokkaido areas; the Ashihase lived in Hokkaido. By the 17th century, the Japanese inhabited all of Honshu and the southern edge of Hokkaido. By that time the Emishi of Hokkaido, known as Ezo, lived on that island as well as Chishima (Kuril islands), and Karafuto (Sakhalin): they are known today as Ainu. Little is known as to what happened to the Ashihase by the early modern period. Most likely they were displaced by the Ainu who moved further north.

The question regarding 'who were the Emishi?' breaks down into: were they the direct ancestors of the Ainu? Or were they the ancestors of modern Japanese? This is an interesting subject, and we don't intend to go into too much detail here (for further reading you can refer to the references section of this web page). However, since this site has to do with the conquest of the Emishi trying to give a summary answer to this question of who they were according to what we know from studies done in physical anthropology, archeology and historical scholarship is important.

There were three races in ancient Japan: Japanese, Emishi (later Ainu) and Ashihase (possibly Okhotsk). Historical literature supports the theory that the Emishi were considered rebels by the Japanese, and therefore potentially subjects by way of conquest. Consistently, the Japanese divided them into those who had submitted themselves to Yamato rule as allies and subjects, and those who were outside their authority. Those outside imperial authority were seen as "barbarians" beyond the frontier. Michinoku, the name the Yamato Japanese had given for the Tohoku, literally translates as "deepest road" with the connotation of a far away place: the Emishi were seen as inhabitants of this far away land, beyond the frontier. The Ashihase were thought of as a foreign people altogether, and it is not clear who they were; however, in the latest research there are tantalizing clues that the relationship between the Ashihase and the Emishi mirrored the relationship between the Japanese and the Emishi . That is, just as the Japanese were completing their conquest of the Tohoku region, Emishi began to consolidate more of Hokkaido. The Ashihase were most likely an Amur river people who were definitely East Asian hunter-gatherers who moved south from Sakhalin into Hokkaido and were either absorbed or conquered by the Emishi of the Satsumon culture. The Satsumon consolidated their hold about the same time that the Tohoku Emishi began to migrate into Hokkaido (see especially Yamaura 1999:42-45, and the in-depth discussion by Crawford implying that the Tohoku Emishi may have actually created the Satsumon culture http://www.pbs.org/w...aido/ainu.html). Satsumon is a name of a culture that is almost certainly ancestral to the Hokkaido Ainu.

According to archeological findings from the 5th to the 7th centuries AD, the northern half of Tohoku (roughly extending from northern Miyagi prefecture to northern Aomori) and the western part of Hokkaido formed a single cultural area, and many Ainu place names are left in the Tohoku. It is beyond the discussion of this introduction to go into the Jomon, epi-Jomon and Yayoi cultures as they affected the Tohoku region, but to simplify this discussion, it is now believed that evidence points to the Emishi tie in with the Tohoku Middle Yayoi pottery culture that is heavily influenced by Jomon forms--almost as if these peoples were gradually adopting Yayoi culture from the 5th to the 8th centuries.

A key piece of evidence, however, comes in the form of physical anthropology. In one study after another of cranial and skeletal measurements of past and present Japanese populations there is a historical correlation between the Ainu, the Jomon and the Japanese population from the middle of Japan outward to the peripheral areas, such as the Tohoku where the Emishi lived. In these findings, Jomon skeletal remains are most ancestral to the Ainu population. They had at one point inhabited nearly all of what is now modern Japan. When you compare the cranial measurements of the Jomon with other East Asian groups, including modern Japanese, they define one extreme deviation from mongoloid or East Asian groups. One could consider them to be a race apart from other East Asians, including modern Japanese (see Ossenberg 1986:199-215; Kidder 1993:79,101 in the references).

If you met a Jomon person today you would probably think him or her to be a combination European-Austronesian, certainly not Japanese or any other East Asian. We say this because the population was not quite Caucasian in appearance in the same way that someone from Europe is, but they were not Austronesian either in the sense of an Australian aborigine--for example, they were not dark skinned, but mostly fair-skinned. This would also account for the assertion even today that the Ainu are Caucasian. They are not Caucasian but they have some clear Caucasian features. The Ainu are midway between modern Japanese and the Jomon. This makes a great deal of sense since the modern Ainu have bloodlines that are intermixed with both historical Japanese and other East Asians from the Amur river region.

Even today, the traces of Jomon inheritance can be seen in the modern Japanese population. In areas furthest from the central areas of Japan the Jomon endowment is still present according to the same cranial and skeletal analyses above. As a whole there is a gradient from the modern Kinki (the Osaka, Kansai area), the modern Kanto (the Tokyo area), the modern Tohoku, the Ainu people, and finally the ancient Jomon population. The Jomon as we have previously stated are a race apart from the modern populations of Japan, and the Ainu are closest to them in affiliation, however, not surprisingly, the modern Tohoku population is closer to the Jomon than the modern Kinki group. This modern data corroborates the argument, that each area conquered by the continental Asian group who were the Japanese speakers became absorbed by them, so that those who were conquered later still conserved more Jomon traits than those who were conquered at an earlier time. The Emishi and the Ainu were the latest of the Jomon people to be conquered during historical time, and the conquest of the former is the subject of this web page. If we went further back in time the frontier between the Japanese population and the Jomon population is drawn further south, and there is definite evidence for this.

The place where the Emishi fit into this picture follows in the descriptions given about them in the historical period. They are known as "mojin" or "hairy people" by their Japanese conquerors, and contemporary Chinese court historians of the T'ang. And this is where history begins to corroborate physical anthropology. The Ainu are known for their abundant hair, both on the torso and limbs, and mostly in their heavy beards. It is absolutely certain that people ancestral to the Ainu lived in northern Honshu in this time period. We believe that the cultural area of the Emishi coincides with the areas that used to be under Ainu control. The very word Emishi is probably a Japanese derivation of the word "emchiu" or "enjyu" which translates to "man" in the Ainu/Emishi language. The kanji characters for Emishi are identical to Ezo. Before Ainu came into usage in the Meiji period they were known as Ezo.

Even if we accept these arguments plenty of questions remain. What were the differences between the Ainu and the Ashihase? What happened to the Emishi who migrated to Hokkaido, and how did they influence the development of Satsumon culture? What is the relationship between the Hokkaido and Tohoku Emishi, and when did the Ainu emerge? One thing is certain: we shouldn't even think of Yamato Japan as being composed of a single ethnic group like it appears today. Racial or ethnic affiliation did not determine who were or were not Japanese subjects: the connection between culture and blood came after centuries of political unity paid in part by bloody wars of unification. For example, ethnic Korean and Chinese immigrants migrated to Japan at this time to help consolidate the bureaucracy and form artisan groups.

Even if we answer the earlier question about Emishi ethnic affiliation as positively Ainu, they were different culturally from both Japanese and Ainu. They cannot be seen as either one or the other. First of all, as you will begin to see in the following web pages, the Emishi had a distinctive culture that differed from that of the Ainu. Like the North American Indians, there were different cultural groups among the Jomon tribes, and the primary difference was that the Emishi were horse riders, and much of their culture and style of warfare were adapted to the use of the horse. Second, the Emishi had a profound influence on the emerging Japanese Yamato state: they basically forced the Yamato to adopt much of their style of warfare, and even the title of Shogun came out of warfare against them. Historically, they certainly rejected affiliation with the Japanese. Further, to complicate matters, many Emishi became subject to the Japanese state and eventually disappeared as a separate ethnic group, becoming intermarried with other ethnic Japanese. It is almost certain that this intermixing took place in different degrees according to the time period and location. The western side of the Tohoku (towards Akita) probably has seen less due to the mountains making the western side less accessible, whereas, the Pacific side has seen to more thorough assimilation because of the broad Sendai plain, but even here not until the modern period when movement has been aided by economics (job concentration in Tokyo, for example) and transportation has the mixing become more complete.

The historical reality unfolds below. Many Emishi did not accept Yamato rule. They fought long and hard to preserve their independence, but in the end lost against sheer numbers, not because of technological disparity. However, after a couple centuries, the descendants of the Emishi gained de facto autonomy for a time under the Northern Fujiwara, though they had by that time become assimilated into Japanese culture.

This page has briefly introduced the Emishi from a cultural and ethnic perspective. A good comparison that goes beyond the scope of this discussion is between the American colonies and their eventual conquest of the Native Americans of the eastern seaboard, particularly the Iroquois, who resisted conquest for two centuries.

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/7817/im...ftheemishi9.jpg

Imaginatory picture of the Emishi

Emishi

The Emishi were natives of northern Honshu that opposed and resisted the rule of the Japanese Emperors during the late Nara and early Heian periods (7th-10th centuries A.D.). At the end of the Heian period (12th C.), those Emishi who were still outside the authority of the state became known as Ezo.

According to earlier Japanese tradition (and Ainu oral history) the Emishi are said to be ancestors of, or related to, the Ainu. There are arguments and evidence for [1] and against this theory.

The Emishi were represented by different tribes. The Emishi in northeastern Honshu were semi-nomadic and relied on their horses in warfare. Their livelihood was based on hunting and gathering as well as the cultivation of grains such as millet, barley, wheat and beans. They developed a unique style of warfare that relied on horse archery and hit and run tactics that proved very effective against the slower contemporary Japanese imperial army that relied on mostly heavily armed foot soldiers.

The first major attempts to subjugate the Emishi by the emperors of Japan, particularly Emperor Kammu in the late 8th century were largely unsuccessful. The imperial armies modelled after the mainland Chinese were no match for the guerrilla tactics of the Emishi.

During the 9th century the emperors began to rely on the powerful regional clans - introducing the title of Shogun and relying on hereditary warriors who became the Samurai. Ironically, it was the development of horse archery and the adoption of Emishi tactics by the early Japanese warrior class that led to the Emishi defeat. They either submitted themselves to imperial authority or migrated further north, some to Hokkaido. By the mid-9th century most of their land in Honshu was conquered and they ceased to be independent. However, they continued to be influential in local politics as powerful Emishi families who submitted themselves to Japanese rule eventually created feudal domains in the north that became semi-autonomous. In the two centuries following the conquest a few of these became regional states that came into conflict with the central government.

Recent scholarship has created a much more complicated portrait of this people. By and large, they are seen as indigenous to Japan and not simply as ancestors to the Ainu, but descendants of the Jomon. Even though historically they emerge as serious challengers to the nascent Japanese state they had inherited a rich and separate tradition that went back several millennia before the Japanese speakers came to the islands of Japan. Furthermore, some related people have now been identified as having been some of the first Americans to have crossed the Bering Sea as remains of one individual known as "Kennewick Man" found in 1996 in Washington State attest.

In the study of Jomon skeletal remains dating from thousands of years ago, a direct connection with the modern Ainu was confirmed, showing a definite linkage between the two groups. This linkage however, shows that the Jomon people were very different from modern Japanese and other modern East Asians. The physical appearance of a number of the Ainu who were first encountered by the Europeans in the 19th Century were similar to Caucasians, and thus caused quite a stir among contemporary academics, and has spurred debate about their origins. It is thus surmised that the Jomon also were physically unlike that of other East Asians. This said, physical anthropologists have found that diachronically, and geographically, the skeletal structure of the Jomon population changed over time from southwest to northeast, paralleling the actual migration of Japanese speakers historically, so that more Jomon traits are preserved in the north.

Soon after the Second World War, mummies were discovered in Hiraizumi (the capital city of the Northern Fujiwara), which were thought to be of people related to the Emishi who had originally submitted to Yamato rule, and hence were thought to have been related to the Ainu. However, after further research on the mummies it was found that the rulers of Hiraizumi were like other Japanese of the time, and certainly not related to ethnic Ainu. This was seen as evidence that the Emishi were not related to the Ainu. This had the effect of popularizing the idea that the Emishi were like other contemporary ethnic Japanese who lived in northeast Japan, outside of Yamato rule.

However, the so-called Emishi rulers of Hiraizumi were not actually direct descendants of that ethnic group. It was customary for local rulers to take on local titles that would suggest a direct ancestry. There is some doubt that the Northern Fujiwara had some Emishi blood in them, and for the most part they were part of the Japanese aristocracy.

If the Northern Fujiwara (not related to the Fujiwara of Kyoto) were related to Kyoto aristocracts the whole idea of intermarriage with local Emishi may not have been possible. On the other hand, the Abe, thought to be an Emishi family, had some connection to the Northern Fujiwara, if so they may have been a quarter Emishi. This just shows that among historians the bloodline of the Northern Fujiwara is not at all clear.

It is not known how much the Emishi population changed as Japanese settlers and frontiersmen began to live in their territories even before the conquest. The Japanese established trading relations with them where horses were imported and iron tools and weapons exported. To complicate matters, some ethnic Japanese allied themselves with the Emishi in their wars against the Yamato court. The latter were known in the Nihongi as "Japanese captives" of the Emishi.

The strongest argument for the theory that the Emishi were ancestors of the Ainu comes from historical documents. One of the best sources of information comes from outside Japan, from contemporary Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty histories as these describe dealings with Japan. For example, there is a record of the arrival of the Japanese foreign minister in AD 659 where conversation is recorded with the Tang Emperor. In this conversation we have perhaps the most accurate picture of the Emishi recorded for that time period.

Two Emishi, a man and woman, from contemporary Tohoku (northeastern Japan) known as "Michi-no-oku" by the Japanese accompanied the minister Sakaibe no Muraji to Tang China. The emperor was delighted with the two Emishi because of their "strange" physical appearance. This was an emperor who was most likely the illustrious Emperor Tang Taizong who was familiar with many ethnic groups throughout his Empire, from Uighurs and Turks to Middle Eastern traders. However, he probably did not have any contact with Europeans. The Japanese envoy for his part describes the contemporary relationship with the Emishi as allies (gentle Emishi), enemies (rough Emishi), and distant Tsugaru Emishi (located in present-day northern Aomori, southern Hokkaido). All Chinese documents refer to them as having a separate state north of Japan and calls them "mojin", literally 'hairy people'. This is also corroborated by Japanese sources such as the Nihongi, described consistently as having long beards and as "hairy", characteristics that have been used to describe the Ainu into the modern period.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emishi

This post has been edited by Hang Li Po: 04 January 2006 - 11:53 PM

[qrasy]

Many look similar to Indonesian.

[ren]

You call these Ainu?
Check purer Ainu: http://journeyofman....p?showtopic=453

[Gubook Janggoon]

One thing that I noticed with the older paintings was a seeming oversizing of the head and an exaggeration of hair.

Is it just me or could this be an example of demonizing/de-humanizing the Ainu on the part of the Yamato?

[Hoa Phau]

these pictures of ainu tribe shows that they want to preserve their culture. for me, they are the real natives of japan and not the ones we familiarise.

[Karakhan]

rudeboy, on Jan 7 2006, 10:25 PM, said:

http://journeyofman....p?showtopic=453.

great link! I think they're scans from this large black book, whose name I forgot, but featured Emiko Tierney as one of the contributors.

Speaking of which, I recalled the following were mentioned in that book:

-the Ainu's were divided down into 3 groups:
1. Hokkaido Ainu
2. Kuril Ainu
3. Sakhalin Ainu
there were some Ainu settlements as far as Kamchatka, but I guess they were very few and far between and more closely associated with the Kuril Ainu.

-Historically, when not fighting the Japanese.. these Ainu groups frequently raided one another.. usually Sakhalin Ainu vs Hokkaido Ainu.

-the Sakhalin Ainu inhabitted primarily the southern half of the Island. the Nivkhs (Gilyaks) occupied the North..and the Nanai came recently and lived in the central eastern areas. It would seem that the Sakhalin Ainu had some conflicts with the Nanai, but were largely tolerable as the 3 traded with each other.

-It is also noted that the Sakhalin Ainu tended to have more Tungusic physical features than their Hokkaido counterparts.

-Today there are virtually no Sakhalin and Kuril Ainu as they were all forced out and now live in Hokkaido and other areas of Japan. However you could still find "mixes" in Russia, such as some one being a Quarter Ainu, quarter Nanai, half Russian, etc.

-very recently (this is not part of the book, but in the news), some Ainu nationalists have demanded a formation of their own country in the Kuriles.
http://english.people.com.cn/200511/15/eng...115_221367.html

[Hoa Phau]

the real natives of japan are caucasians like the ainu. not the ones from korea.

[Kediren]

Hoa Phau, on Feb 2 2006, 10:53 AM, said:

the real natives of japan are caucasians like the ainu. not the ones from korea.

nice speculation..




"Ainu" means "human." The Ainu people regard things useful to them or beyond their control as "kamuy"(gods). In daily life, they prayed to and performed various ceremonies for the gods. These gods include : "nature" gods, such as of fire, water, wind and thunder ; "animal" gods, such as of bears, foxes, spotted owls and gram-puses ; "plant" gods, such as of aconite, mush-room and mugwort ; "object" gods, such as of boats and pots ; and gods which protect houses, gods of mountains and gods of lakes. The word "Ainu" refers to the opposite of these gods.

Scholars have advocated various theories about the origin of the Ainu people. The theories include the Caucasoid (Caucasian) Theory, the Mongoloid Theory, the Oceania Race Theory, the Old Asian Race Theory, and the Solitary Race Theory. Some scholars have recently advocated the following hypothesis into which the Mongoloid Theory has developed. Mongoloid peoples once were of two types : Southern Mongoloid and Northern Mongoloid. Before the Jomon Period (several tens of thousands of years ago), the Southern Mongoloid started moving northward and settled the Japanese archipelago, including Okinawa, over a long period of time. Later, the Southern Mongoloid played a major role in the Jomon Period throughout Japan. However, in the Yayoi and Tumulus Periods, the Northern Mongoloid came across the sea to Japan in great numbers. The ethnic Japanese (non-Ainu) are the people who have evolved rapidly through the strong influences of these migratory processes. On the other hand, the Ainu in Hokkaido and the Tohoku region and the Ryukyu people in Okinawa are the ones who have hardly affected by this process.

The language of the Ainu bear-worshippers of Northern Japan has generally been considered a language-isolate, supposedly being unlike any other language on earth. A few researchers noticed a relationship with languages in south-east Asia, others saw similarity with the Ostiak and Uralic languages of northern Siberia. The Ainu look like Caucasian people, they have white skin, their hair is wavy and thick, their heads are mesocephalic (round) and a few have grey or blue eyes. However, their blood types are more like the Mongolian people, possibly through many millennia of intermixing. The Ainu are a semi-nomadic hunting and fishing tribe but also practice simple planting methods, which knowledge may have been acquired from the newcomers. The invading people, under their Yamato government, called them the Ezo, the unwanted, and forced the Ainu in fierce fighting to retreat north to the island of Hokkaido. The name Ezo likely is an abbreviation of the Basque word ezonartu (to disapprove of)
The Ainu are a people with a cultural and racial background which is different from that of the ethnic Japanese. They have been populating Hokkaido, northern Tohoku, the Kurile Islands and Sakhalin, but today only a small population remains mainly in Hokkaido.

According to one of several theories, the Ainu are descendants of Mongoloid migrants who entered the Japanese islands before the Jomon period. They were later displaced and assimilated, when the ethnic Japanese expanded their territory northernwards.

The Ainu people originally did not have an alphabet. Therefore, they have orally transmitted literature such as tales, Iegends, experiences, and morals for everyday life from generation to generation.

" Yukar" are the tales of heroes. They are also called "yayerap," "sakorpe," or "haw" in some areas. Yukar are called "hawki" in Sakhalin. The hero is an orphan boy called by various names, including "Poiyaunpe," "Pon-shinutapkaunkur," "Pon-otasamunkur," and " Yayresupo," depending on the area. The narrator of yukar sits at the fireside and recites the adventure stories of this boy all night, beating the fireside with a stick called "repni. "

In some stories, the heroes are men ; in others, they are gods whose appearance resembles men. In a story in which heroes are gods, gods with such names as "Aeoynakamuy," "Ainurakkur" and "Okikurmi" descend from the heavens to the human world and experience various dramatic events with man. In the lburi and Hidaka districts, such stories are called "oyna." However, in other areas, such stories are included in " kamuy yukar" as described below

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.ainu-muse...sh/english.html

History

About 300 B.C., Honshu (Japan's mainland) experienced the Yayoi Period. Between the Yayoi and Muromachi Periods, Hokkaido experienced periods of earthenware cultures, such as the Zoku-Jomon Period, the Satsumon Period, and the Okhotsk Culture.

The "Ainu Culture" extended from about 1400 to the early 1700 s. According to one theory, the Satsumon Culture developed into the Ainu Culture through the influence of the Okhotsk Culture.

However, this theory is not a proven one. In the mid-1400 s, the Japanese extended their influence over southern Hokkaido, primarily Esashi and Matsumae. Later, they came to op-press the Ainu. To resist the oppression by the Japanese, the Ainu waged the Battle of Kosyamain in 1457, the Battle of Syaksyain in 1669, and the Battle of Kunasiri-Menasi in 1789. The Ainu lost each time. After losing the Battle of Kunasiri-Menasi in particular, the Ainu fell completely under the control of the Japanese.

They remained oppressed and exploited by the Japanese until the Meiji era. In the Meiji era, under the government policy of assimilation, the Ainu were prohibited from observing their daily customs. Given the status of former aborigines, the Ainu were forced to abide by Japanese daily customs. In 1899, the Hokkaido Aborigine Protection Act was passed. The act primarily aimed to provide relief for the Ainu and help them become engaged in agriculture. However, the act designated the Ainu as "former aborigines" and clarified the distinction between the Japanese and the Ainu.

In the late Meiji era, with an increasing number of Japanese colonizing Hokkaido from Honshu, the oppression and exploitation of the Ainu was replaced by discrimination against them. Discrimination against the Ainu still remains today and has become a major social problem.

At the Hokkaido Ainu Convention in Shizunai, Hokkaido, in 1946, the Hokkaido Ainu Association was established primarily to provide higher education and collaborate in the construction of social welfare facilities. In 1961, the association changed its name to the Hokkaido Utari Association. The association is actively engaged tackling in various problems regarding the Ainu. In 1984, the Hokkaido Utari Association resolved that the Government should enact the New Ainu Law (tentative name), a new law which replaces the current "Hokkaido Aborigine Protection Act." Since then, the association has been conducting an active campaign to demand that the national government enact the New Ainu Law as soon as possible. Furthermore, these days, various activities are being vigorously promoted to revive the Ainu language and to preserve and maintain Ainu culture, such as traditional dancing and various ceremonies. Ainu language classes are being held in various parts of Hokkaido. Moreover, associations to preserve traditional dancing have been organized to revive and conduct ceremonies such as iyomante and chipsanke.




http://www.artsofthesamurai.com/arms/html/...0ainuknife.html

This post has been edited by Kediren: 02 February 2006 - 05:32 AM

[caocao74]

Hoa Phau, on Feb 2 2006, 06:53 PM, said:

the real natives of japan are caucasians like the ainu. not the ones from korea.

I think only white supremacists/racists on forums such as Stormfront (I think that's the name) still discuss Ainu being Caucasian. Perhaps they 'look' more Caucasian than the "average" Northeast Asian

[mcchelton]

caocao74, on Feb 3 2006, 08:58 AM, said:

I think only white supremacists/racists on forums such as Stormfront (I think that's the name) still discuss Ainu being Caucasian. Perhaps they 'look' more Caucasian than the "average" Northeast Asian

That would be pretty nonsensical... even for a bunch of boneheads like those.

First of all, there are no "pure" ainu anymore. The most you can see are mixed Japanese-Ainu.

Second, having Ainu blood is a big shame for most Japanese, so many of them will hide it, or just ignore it because their parents won't tell (if they ever knew). There are reasons for this, one plain racism, the other more social, because the Ainu were regarded as sub-human and didn't have any citizenship rights until pretty recently, just four generations ago or so.

I met one girl who only got to know that she had had one Ainu-ish grandmother when she was an adult. Her parents didn't want other kids to laugh at her and apparently a lot of tears were shed when informing the girl and thus "passing this big burden onto her"...
Indeed, she didn't look as "Eastern Asian" as most Japanese people, and definitely she had as much hair in her arms and legs as, say, a European girl. But still, we are talking about one eighth of her blood being Ainu-*mixed* (they said grandma "had Ainu ancestors").

Anyway, I deeply despise politics based on race, so I strongly encourage all the pure, half-blooded, slightly-stained-blooded and not-Ainu-at-all-blooded Polar Asia citizens who feel comfortable with Ainu culture and assume it as their own to make as many efforts as necessary to keep Ainu language and culture alive and up to date (folklore? no, thanks)