ABSTRACT

Once thought of as a 'vanishing people', the Ainu are now reasserting both their culture and their claims to be the 'indigenous' people of Japan. Race, Resistance and the Ainu of Japan is the first major study to trace the outlines of Ainu history. It explores the ways in which competing versions of Ainu identity have been constructed and articulated, shedding light on the way modern relations between the Ainu and the Japanese have been shaped.

chapter |25 pages

Barbarians and demons

chapter |25 pages

Former natives

chapter |37 pages

The dying race

chapter |34 pages

With shining eyes

Ainu protest and resistance, 1869–1945

chapter |24 pages

Amu liberation and welfare colonialism

The new Ainu politics and the state's response

chapter |19 pages

Beginning to walk for ourselves

The emergence of the Ainu nation