1/19/08

I am Ainu

A segment on the Ainu Rebels, a group of young people trying to revive Ainu culture and pride. As you can see, as many researchers say (and for some reason many Koreans like to vehemently disagree), Ainu do indeed look old japanese-japanese (or Jomon) , or a bit caucasian.

On the other hand I do think parts of this are strange. I have only been to Hokkaido once, I am from Osaka so may be I am ignorant of the situation there but at least here, just like how she says, there really is no discrimination against Ainu. It is like these people are showing that there is discrimination. I mean, is'nt that something we should know on our own?

Hell, I think there is more discrimination against us people from Osaka than Ainu. Listen to this guy, The Japanese Rightist say that "Yes, this town is full of homeless people who seldom take a bath." Lol! And take a look at this anti-Osaka website (it is in very poor English) Osaka-Minkoku. In short, they like to say that we are uncultured, loud, poor, violent, naturally criminal people. Notice that the word Osaka Minkoku (Republic of Osaka, 大阪民国) is a play on Daikan Minkoku (Republic of Korea, 大韓民国). Hehe!





Also Watch:
Looking for the Genetic Roots of the Japanese
In this documentary, it shows that the Ainu and the Jomon Japanese are genetically identical. The modern Japanese are believed to be made up of the Jomon Japanese and the Yayoi Japanese, who are believed to be more from China.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good to see you've got your new blog up and running, interesting stuff about the Ainu but it doesn't sound like they've got it that bad. I'm sure I'd have trouble spotting one out of a crowd of other Japanese people.

oniazuma said...

I meant old japanese as in jomon japanese because there are many japanese that look chinese, or whatever else. Do you know what I mean? Like how there are very italian looking italian people but then there are also blonde italian people.

But then in a overall sense we all look the same.

Anonymous said...

I think I understand now, modern Japanese don't necessarily look like ancient Japanese(Jomon) because of the Korean/Chinese influence on modern Japanese people but the Ainu and the ancient Japanese were identical.

Anonymous said...

Nice, Onizauma. Any more material?

I think what Oniazuma means by Jomon is Jomon vs. Yayoi - the Jomon are the ones with thicker eyebrows whereas the Yayoi ones look more like other Asians.

PS: Oniazuma, this is Boongaman. :)

Anonymous said...

Thanks Oniazuma, hopefully you can get some more stuff on Ainu and also Ryukyuan people. This blog is hella interesting. Good on them for being proud of who they are.

Anonymous said...

I would be glad if you posted this subtitled Ainu video on YouTube.

oniazuma said...

I dont like Youtube.

AsiaUnity said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
AsiaUnity said...

Great video and thanks for posting it Oniazuma. I am proud of those people on the video for standing up and being proud to be who they are as Ainu.
I am Chinese I am proud to be just that and as Asian I have respect and no discrimination to any other Asians or nationality. Peace!

Anonymous said...

I think its kind of stupid on how they discriminate their own people despite the only difference with the Ainu and standard Japanese people is the way they look (with the Ainu looking more *Western*).

Btw Oniazuma, nice work on uploading the videos.

And you know when you said how Japanese look Chinese, what exactly do you mean by that? You can identify Chinese and Japanese from their facial features?

oniazuma said...

Yes there are Japanese-Japanese looking people, or Jomon Japanese, who are the same as the Ainu. The Ainu descend from the Jomon Japanese, they are genetically identical.

Then there are whatever else looking Japanese people, because Japan is a genetically diverse country.

Anonymous said...

Interesting video. Keep up the good work.

Yah, there is definitely facial characteristics based on geography.

Typically, people who are from the middle of japan have a thinner build and thinner eyebrows. Towards the south and up north towards hokkaido people have thicker eye brows, and rounder eyes.

I often think that people from some ryukyu islands (not so much okinawans) and some Ainu people have similarities. It might be related to when Yayoi migrated to Japan.

rubycore said...

hi,

My name is Ruby and I am from Ink Publishing (Singapore).

I need an Osakan to answer some questions for me to put in an in-flight magazine. Do you think you can help me out? Please drop me an email. Thank you very much.

Ruby.Tan@ink-publishing.com.