A Brief History of the Ainu People in Japan.... "Ainu" means "human". The Ainu people, are an indigenous ethnic group of people who live in Hokkaido, Japan today as well as in parts of Russia (the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin), who regard things useful to them or beyond their control as "kamuy" (gods). In daily life, they pray to and performed various ceremonies for these 'gods', which include "nature" gods such as of fire, water, wind and thunder; "animal" gods, such as of bears, foxes, spotted owls and gram-puses; "plant" gods, such as of aconite, mush-room and mugwort; "object" gods, such as of boats and pots; and gods which protect houses, gods of mountains and gods of lakes. The word "Ainu" refers to the opposite of these gods. In their Yukar Upopo (Ainu Legends) is told, “The Ainu lived in this place a hundred thousand years before the Children of the Sun came”. Traditionally, the Ainu sac...
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