The road from Ainu barbarian to Japanese primitive:

A brief summary of Japanese-Ainu relations A brief summary of Japanese-Ainu relations from Edo to Meijifrom Edo to Meiji

Noémi GodefroyNoémi GodefroyPopulations Japonaises Research GroupPopulations Japonaises Research Group

Centre d’Etudes Japonaises (CEJ), INALCO, Centre d’Etudes Japonaises (CEJ), INALCO, ParisParis

The relationship between the Japanese and the Ainu

The “civilized vs. barbarian world-The “civilized vs. barbarian world-order” as a theoretical frameworkorder” as a theoretical framework

華夷秩序　華夷秩序　 (ka.i chitsujo)(ka.i chitsujo) ►Oppositional Oppositional

relationshiprelationship► Insider vs. outsiderInsider vs. outsider► Civilized center vs. Civilized center vs.

barbaric peripherybarbaric periphery►Dichotomous, yet

multi-layered and concentric distinction

The concept of boundaries and The concept of boundaries and frontiersfrontiers

Boundaries:►“separating factors” between adjacent political or ethnic units ►“inner-oriented”

Frontiers:► zones, rather than lines►“integrating factors” ►“outer-oriented”

The AinuThe Ainu

The Matsumae domain 松前藩

Conceptual framework

« Supplanting societies », or « internal colonies » > a national center exploits and subjugates people at its periphery, while making its claim superior to the pre-existing people, as well as being superior to any other society that might challenge it.

Edo period: Legitimizing Japanese authority

“Japanese-style middle kingdom order”日本型華夷秩序 (Nihon gata ka.i chitsujo)► Japan as a “closed country” > Sakoku

鎖国 ►Ryu-Kyu kingdom and Korea >

“diplomatic-partner states” 通信の国►China and Holland > “trade partner

states” 通商の国►Ezo

David L. Howell“Rather than establish a dichotomy between itself and

the rest of the world, Japan surrounded itself with peripheral areas that were neither fully part of the polity nor completely independent of it." He also submits that this "spurred the formation of a Japanese identity even before the emergence of a modern nation-state in the mid-nineteenth century." In this sense, “the demarcation of an ‘ethnic boundary’ … between the Ainu and the Japanese was a critical element in determining the political boundaries of the early modern Japanese state.”

« Ainu ethnicity and the boundaries of the early modern japanese state », Past and Present 142, 1994, pp.69

Emphasizing Emphasizing foreignness to foreignness to

legitimize legitimize authority: the authority: the

staging of staging of « barbarian « barbarian audiences »audiences »

►uimam 「御目見」 ( ウイマム )►umsa ( オムシャ )

Tessa Morris-Suzuki on « barbarian audiences »

“These “barbarian audiences” were the visual aspect of the subordination of a foreign people to Japanese dominion. Everything about the relationship, therefore, had to be structured in such a way as to magnify the exotic character of the peripheral societies."

Foreigneness 異邦性　(Ihôsei)

Emphasizing foreignnessEmphasizing foreignness “The Ezo’s [Ainu’s] hair is red, their beards are two shaku long […]. The women […] have no beard and inject ink with a hook to tattoo around their mouths. They also tattoo their hands.”

Matsumiya Kanzan松宮観山 「蝦夷談筆記」 1710

Arai Hakuseki 新井白石 (1720)

”Men have tangled, unbound hair and a long beard and wear silver hoops in their ears. They wear but one layer of clothing, and fold the left side over the right […]. Their clothes are made of bark, cotton and animal skin. […] Men and women alike go bare foot. […].”

― 『蝦夷志』

Kondô Jûzô 近藤重蔵 (1798)

“Ezo [Ainu] appearance is painful to see: their hair is dishevelled, their face is dirty, their clothes crude, they smell bad, their bodies are deformed/misshapen […]” 

― 「異国境取締ニ付内密上申書草案」

Habuto Masayasu Habuto Masayasu 羽太正養羽太正養 (1807)(1807)

► “They are not endowed with any humanity. They have dishevelled hair, they do not shave their beards. They were clothing made of bark, called attush, […] and fold the left side of their clothes over the right. The women also have dishevelled hair, to the point that their skull is visible in certain places […]. The married women have tattoos around their mouths and on their hands and also wear the left folded over the right. Men and women alike use rope as belts and many children go naked. They sometimes wear dog skins, or that of other animals.”

The Meiji period: The road from Ainu barbarian to Japanese primitive

Civilizing and assimilating the Primitiveto assert one’s degree of civilization

Fukuzawa Yukichi 福沢諭吉 > ►文明開化 (bunmei kaika), « opening to civilization »►脱亜入欧 (datsua nyûô), « rejecting Asia and

embracing Europe »

►« Nation as a family-state » 家族国家 (kazoku kokka)

►The Ainu become « common people » ( 平民 heimin) and yet « former aborigines » 旧土人 (kyûdojin)

Cultural assimilation ( アイヌ同化政策 ) – Civilizing the Other and making the Ainu

less Ainu  

Former aborigine schools (kyûdojin gakkô 旧土人学校 )

Displaying the Other:Displaying the Other:the Ainu as “living exhibits”the Ainu as “living exhibits”

Emphasizing primitive Emphasizing primitive featuresfeatures

Lauding oneself

through the other –« brave former

aborigines »(1904-5)

Defining oneself through thr Other –Searching for the origins of the Japanese

ethnos through the Ainu language

Denying the Other – The Ainu as a « dying people » ( 滅び行く民族 horobiyuku minzoku)

ConclusioConclusionn