ABSTRACT
Japan embarked upon the course of a modern nation state with the Meiji Restoration in 1868. A year later, the island known as Ezogashima was renamed Hokkaido and the Kaitakushi (Colonisation Commission) was set up, accompanied by an Imperial Rescript which proclaimed that 'the flourishing condition of the Imperial Power is dependent upon the colonisation and exploitation of Hokkaido' (Harrison 1953:64). Ainu Moshir, the name given by the Ainu to the areas they inhabited, now 'belonged' to the Kaitakushi although the Ainu had never agreed to sell or rent it. In 1871 the Family Registration law was promulgated, and the Ainu became heimin, or commoners, of the modern Japanese nation-state, although, again, they were never asked for their opinion on the matter. Most Ainu were entered in family registers (koseki) in 1875-76. In other official documents they were distinguished by various designations which were then standardised to kyudojin, former aborigine, in 1878 (see Emori 1987 on Ainu history; Takakura 1972 on Ainu policy).
