Today's Ainu

This is a book about the life stories of the contemporary Ainu people living in Hokkaido, Japan. It is based on the author's on-going, in-depth, ethnographic study, which began in 2011. The Ainu are an indigenous minority group whose ancestors lived in the northern part of Honshu, Hokkaido, the southern part of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Chapter 1 introduces the readers to the basic information and statistics about the Ainu population, a few sociological concepts of race and ethnic groups, and the state of the Ainu today. Chapters 2 to 5 cover the history and the world of the Ainu depicted in GOLDEN KAMUY, a very popular Japanese comic and anime, my first encounter with the Ainu culture when I was a child living in Japan, and my first trip to the Ainu country in 2011. Chapters 6 to 13 tell the life stories of my Ainu informants and the brief introduction to the Ainu language and religion. My narratives vary from one section to another. Parts of this book reads like a series of interviews in popular magazines while other parts read more like a textbook. The book contains more than 100 beautiful photos that pertain to Hokkaido, the Ainu people, and their culture, history, and traditions.