Ainu: The Story of the Indigenous People of Northern Japan
Event at New York's Japan Society
Here is what has me excited on these sweltering days of summer: Japan Society is unveiling a spectacular event, a must for any lover of Japanese culture. The Ainu Summer Festival, a multi-day program running July 22–23 and August 12–13, arrives to celebrate the story of the Ainu, the indigenous people of northern Japan.
If you have ever visited the island of Hokkaido, you are likely already acquainted with the story of the Ainu—an ethnic group native to the island whose traditional way of life centers on hunting, foraging, and fishing, and whose spiritual culture is rooted in a profound reverence for nature. Their endangered language and distinctive tattooing customs have come to symbolize the island itself. Today, approximately 24,000 Ainu live in Japan.
The festival illuminates Ainu customs and culture, introducing visitors to their cuisine, language, woodworking, embroidery, and traditional dance through a rich array of workshops, tastings, lectures, screenings, and live performances. I am especially drawn to the screening of a documentary that traces the Ainu story, filmed in the village of Nibutani—home to the highest concentration of Ainu residents in Japan. The filmmaker, Naomi Mizoguchi, began the project in 2015, driven by an urgent desire to preserve the Ainu’s history, language, and culture on film. The documentary features four Ainu elders who recount how their people were once compelled to conceal their cultural identity while assimilating into broader Japanese society. It also captures their lived experience as Ainu today, and their efforts to pass on tradition to the next generation. Absolutely fascinating.
