When, in the 17th century, Russian explorers reached the "farthest east", where, as they thought, the earthly firmament was connected to the heavenly firmament, and there were a boundless sea and numerous islands, they were amazed at the appearance of the natives they met. Before them appeared people overgrown with thick beards with wide, like those of Europeans, eyes, with large, protruding noses, similar to the men of southern Russia, to the inhabitants of the Caucasus, to overseas guests from Persia or India, to gypsies, - to anyone, just not on the Mongoloids, whom the Cossacks saw everywhere beyond the Urals
The explorers christened them Kurils, Kurilians, endowing them with the epithet "furry", and they themselves called themselves "Ainu", which means "man." Since then, researchers have been struggling with countless mysteries of this people. But to this day they have not come to a definite conclusion.
First of all: where did a tribe appear from in the continuous Mongoloid massif that is anthropologically, roughly speaking, inappropriate here? Now the Ainu live on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, and in the past they inhabited a very wide area - the Japanese islands, Sakhalin, the Kuriles, the south of Kamchatka and, according to some data, the Amur region and even Primorye up to Korea. Many researchers were convinced that the Ainu were Caucasians. Others argued that the Ainu are related to Polynesians, Papuans, Melanesians, Australians, Hindus …
Archaeological evidence convinces of the deep antiquity of the Ainu settlements in the Japanese archipelago. This especially confuses the question of their origin: how could people of the ancient Stone Age overcome the enormous distances separating Japan from the European west or the tropical south? And why did they need to change, say, the fertile equatorial belt to the harsh northeast?
The ancient Ainu or their ancestors created amazingly beautiful ceramics, mysterious dogu figurines, and besides, it turned out that they were almost the earliest farmers in the Far East, if not in the world. It is not clear why they completely abandoned both pottery and agriculture, becoming fishermen and hunters, in fact, taking a step back in cultural development. The Ainu legends tell of fabulous treasures, fortresses and castles, but the Japanese and then Europeans found this tribe living in huts and dugouts. The Ainu bizarrely and contradictoryly intertwine the features of northern and southern inhabitants, elements of high and primitive cultures. With all their existence, they seem to deny the usual ideas and habitual schemes of cultural development. e. migrants began to invade the lands of the Ainu,which were later destined to become the basis of the Japanese nation. For many centuries, the Ainu fiercely resisted the onslaught, and sometimes quite successfully. Around the VII century. n. e. for several centuries, a boundary was established between the two peoples. There were more than military battles on this border line. There was trade and an intensive cultural exchange. It happened that the noble Ainu influenced the policy of the Japanese feudal lords. The culture of the Japanese was significantly enriched at the expense of their northern enemy. Even the traditional Japanese religion, Shinto, shows obvious Ainu roots; of Ainu origin, the hara-kiri ritual and the bushido complex of military valor. The Japanese ritual of sacrifice of Gohei has clear parallels with the installation of Inau sticks by the Ainu … The list of borrowings can be continued for a long time. During the Middle Ages, the Japanese increasingly pushed the Ainu to the north of Honshu.and from there to Hokkaido. In all likelihood, a part of the Ainu had moved to Sakhalin and the Kuril ridge long before that … unless the process of settlement went in the diametrically opposite direction. Now only a tiny fragment of this people remains. Modern Ainu live in the southeast of Hokkaido, along the coast, as well as in the valley of the large Ishikari River. They have undergone a strong ethno-racial and cultural assimilation, and to an even greater extent - cultural, although they are still trying to preserve their identity. They have undergone a strong ethno-racial and cultural assimilation, and to an even greater extent - cultural, although they are still trying to preserve their identity. They have undergone a strong ethno-racial and cultural assimilation, and to an even greater extent - cultural, although they are still trying to preserve their identity.
The most curious feature of the Ainu is their noticeable and to this day external difference from the rest of the population of the Japanese islands.
Although today, due to centuries of mixing and a large number of inter-ethnic marriages, it is difficult to meet "pure" Ainu, Caucasian features are noticeable in their appearance: a typical Ainu has an elongated skull shape, an asthenic physique, a thick beard (facial hair is uncharacteristic for Mongoloids) and thick, wavy hair. The Ainu speak a special language that is not related to either Japanese or any other Asian language. Among the Japanese, the Ainu are so famous for their hairiness that they have earned the contemptuous nickname "hairy Ainu". Only one race on Earth is characterized by such a significant hair cover - the Caucasian.
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The Ainu language is unlike Japanese or any other Asian language. The origin of the Ainu is unclear. They entered Japan through Hokkaido between 300 AD. BC. and 250 AD (Yayoi period) and then settled in the northern and eastern regions of the main Japanese island of Honshu.
During the reign of Yamato, about 500 BC, Japan expanded its territory in an eastward direction, in connection with which the Ainu were partly pushed northward, partly assimilated. During the Meiji period - 1868-1912. - they received the status of former aborigines, but, nevertheless, continued to be discriminated against. The first mention of the Ainu in Japanese chronicles dates back to 642; in Europe, information about them appeared in 1586.
American anthropologist S. Lauryn Brace, from Michigan State University in Horizons of Science, No. 65, September-October 1989. writes: "The typical Ainu is easy to distinguish from the Japanese: he has lighter skin, thicker body hair and a more prominent nose."
Brace studied about 1,100 crypts of Japanese, Ainu and other Asian ethnic groups and came to the conclusion that representatives of the privileged class of samurai in Japan are in fact the descendants of the Ainu, and not the Yayoi (Mongoloids), the ancestors of most modern Japanese. Brace goes on to write: “… this explains why the facial features of the ruling class are so often different from those of today's Japanese. Samurai - the descendants of the Ainu acquired such influence and prestige in medieval Japan that they intermarried with the ruling circles and brought in the blood of the Ainu, while the rest of the Japanese population was mainly the descendants of the Yayoi.
So, despite the fact that information about the origin of the Ainu has been lost, their external data indicate some kind of advancement of the whites, who reached the very edge of the Far East, then mixed with the local population, which led to the formation of the ruling class of Japan, but at the same time, a separate group of descendants of white newcomers - the Ainu - are still discriminated against as a national minority.
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