3 • The Ainu
Abstract
The Ainu today inhabit Hokkaido, the northernmost island of the Japanese archipelago, known before as Yezo or Ezo. Historically, their territory, called Ainu Mosir – the world of humans – included southern Sakhalin, the Kurile Islands, the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula, the lower Amur River region and the Tohoku region of the Japanese main island of Honshu. Although geographically reduced today, the Ainu population was once considerable, sustained by a maritime culture and a regional trade network connecting them with neighbouring groups in Northeast Asia. The Ainu spoke their own language, separate from Japanese and developed a cultural tradition shaped by sustained interaction and respect for the environment and by regional trade networks connecting them with Chinese, Koreans, Russians, northern Indigenous Peoples of Asia and Alaska and the Yamato people, ancestors of the Japanese today.
open access | peer reviewed
Submitted: April 21, 2026 | Accepted: June 25, 2026 | Published Sept. 9, 2026 | Language: en
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