How the Ainu Became Jōmonese: Ainu Ancestry Through Japanese Eyes

Abstract

Despite only being declared Japan’s indigenous people in 2019, the Ainu within its borders have long been associated with the Jōmon, the archipelago’s earliest known inhabitants. Unpacking the labels of “Jōmon” and “Ainu” reveals the traits that caused these two peoples to be almost exclusively joined together in the first place, which in turn helped to influence the Ainu’s ability to claim indigeneity. Through this paper, I aim to show that the ways in which the Japanese have looked at the Ainu, from the time when Japanese chroniclers first started recording their state’s history to the present day, has contributed to the association of Hokkaidō’s indigenes with the Jōmon. Starting with the Emishi, the people(s) living on the outskirts of the Japanese polity were looked down on as barbaric or backwards in comparison to the refined Japanese. These views, while generally remaining static into the Meiji period, could shift depending on socio-political necessity and the acquisition of new ways of understanding their subjects, eventually culminating in a theory that the Neolithic residents of Japan and the Ainu were related. This theory was later confirmed by bioanthropological findings. Further reinforcing the bond are the ways in which the Ainu and their culture are currently presented to the Japanese public through museum exhibits and events.