Shiraoi Ainu Village

Day 5 of our vacation ~ Since it was nearing the end of our trip, it was important to visit the minority race in Hokkaido - the "Ainu".  "Ainu" is originally an Ainu word meaning "human".  Walking into the village, we were first greeted by the giant statue of chief.

At the village, we watched an Ainu performance in a thatched house performance theatre.  The performance allowed us to experience the historical and traditional Japanese lifestyle.  There was dancing, singing and demonstration on how the Ainu villagers will preserve their salmon for winter by smoking the fish.

Traditional Ainu folk dances feature songs and dances including the iyomante rimse (a ceremonial dance for sending bears' spirits back to heaven), upopo (a song performed by seated singers), saroruncikap rimse (a crane dance), emus rimse (an epic sword dance), and an Ainu musical instrument, mukkuri (mouth harp).

The Ainu people were highly religious and prayed to many Gods such as the God who rules the deers, the Owl Guardian and Lunar deities, etc.

Aside from the religious and hunting artifacts, the Folk Art Museum also gave us a general picture of the Ainu's life, displaying precious heirlooms and household utensils.

This picture is not of a man, its actually a drawing of an Ainu woman.  The blue design around the lips are tattoos not moustache.  Tattooing around the lips was an extremely painful process but was part of the coming of age rites and supposedly to help ward off evil.  In recent times however, the Japanese government has banned this tradition as they deemed it to be an inhumane practice.

In the outdoor museum there was also a botanical garden.  However, as it was only the start of summer, most of the plants were only in their seedling stage.

There was also an animal rearing area, where hunting dogs and bears were kept to mimic the life of the Ainu people.  It was rather to sad to see the huge brown bears being kept in such small cages and prowling back and forth in frustration...

If you recognise the puppy below, that's probably because it is a movie star puppy!  It's mum and dad have acted in Japanese movies before!

Right outside the Ainu museum, there was a shop selling wood carvings.  We did not purchase any wood carvings, but the shop had a roaring business selling the remaining chipped wood pieces.  One of the members of our tour group recommended that the pieces of chipped wood could be placed in cupboards to get rid of musty smells and prevent invasion of pests.  Its a very useful tip!