The Japanese are not the native people of Japan. What do we know about the Russian people of Aina - Ainosa? Ainu people origin

Initially, the Ainu lived on the islands of Japan (then it was called Ainumoshiri - land of the Ainu), until they were pushed north by the proto-Japanese. But the ancestral lands of the Ainu are on the Japanese islands of Hokkaido and Honshu. The Ainu came to Sakhalin in the 13th-14th centuries, “finishing” their settlement in the beginning. XIX century.

Traces of their appearance were also found in Kamchatka, Primorye and Khabarovsk Territory. Many toponymic names of the Sakhalin region have Ainu names: Sakhalin (from “SAKHAREN MOSIRI” - “wave-shaped land”); the islands of Kunashir, Simushir, Shikotan, Shiashkotan (the endings “shir” and “kotan” mean “plot of land” and “settlement”, respectively). It took the Japanese more than 2 thousand years to occupy the entire archipelago up to and including Hokkaido (then called “Ezo”) (the earliest evidence of skirmishes with the Ainu dates back to 660 BC). Subsequently, almost all of the Ainu degenerated or assimilated with the Japanese and Nivkhs.

Currently, there are only a few reservations on Hokkaido where Ainu families live. The Ainu are perhaps the most mysterious people in the Far East. The first Russian navigators who studied Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands were surprised to note the Caucasoid facial features, thick hair and beards unusual for the Mongoloids. Russian decrees of 1779, 1786 and 1799 indicate that the inhabitants of the southern Kuril Islands - the Ainu - had been Russian subjects since 1768 (in 1779 they were exempt from paying tribute to the treasury - yasak), and the southern Kurile Islands were considered by Russia as its own territory. The fact of Russian citizenship of the Kuril Ainu and belonging to all of Russia Kuril ridge Also confirmed by the Instruction of the Irkutsk Governor A.I. Bril to the chief commander of Kamchatka M.K. Bem in 1775, and the “yasash table” - the chronology of the collection in the 18th century. c Ainu - inhabitants of the Kuril Islands, including the southern ones (including the island of Matmai-Hokkaido), the mentioned tribute-yasaka. Iturup means " the best place", Kunashir - Simushir means "a piece of land - a black island", Shikotan - Shiashkotan (the ending words "shir" and "kotan" mean "a piece of land" and "settlement" respectively).

With their good nature, honesty and modesty, the Ainu impressed Krusenstern the most best experience. When they were given gifts for the fish they delivered, they took them in their hands, admired them and then returned them. It was with difficulty that the Ainu managed to convince them that this was being given to them as property. In relation to the Ainu, Catherine the Second prescribed to be kind to the Ainu and not to tax them, in order to alleviate the situation of the new Russian sub-South Kuril Ainu. Decree of Catherine II to the Senate on the exemption from taxes of the Ainu - the population of the Kuril Islands who accepted Russian citizenship in 1779. Eya I.V. commands that the shaggy Kurilians - the Ainu, brought into citizenship on the distant islands - should be left free and no tax should be demanded from them, and henceforth the peoples living there should not be forced to do so, but try to continue what has already been done with them by friendly treatment and affection for the expected benefit in trades and trade acquaintance. The first cartographic description of the Kuril Islands, including them southern part, was made in 1711-1713. according to the results of the expedition of I. Kozyrevsky, who collected information about most of the Kuril Islands, including Iturup, Kunashir and even the “Twenty-Second” Kuril Island MATMAI (Matsmai), which later became known as Hokkaido. It was precisely established that the Kuril Islands were not subordinate to any foreign state. In the report of I. Kozyrevsky in 1713. it was noted that the South Kuril Ainu “live autocratically and are not subject to citizenship and trade freely.” It should be especially noted that Russian explorers, in accordance with the policy of the Russian state, discovering new lands inhabited by the Ainu, immediately announced the inclusion of these lands in Russia, began to study and economic development, carried out missionary activities, taxed local population tribute (yasak). During the 18th century, all the Kuril Islands, including their southern part, became part of Russia. This is confirmed by the statement made by the head of the Russian embassy N. Rezanov during negotiations with the commissioner of the Japanese government K. Toyama in 1805 that “north of Matsmaya (Hokkaido) all lands and waters belong to the Russian emperor and that the Japanese did not extend their possessions further." The 18th-century Japanese mathematician and astronomer Honda Toshiaki wrote that “... the Ainu look at the Russians as their own fathers,” since “true possessions are won by virtuous deeds. Countries forced to submit to force of arms remain, at heart, unconquered.”

By the end of the 80s. In the 18th century, enough facts of Russian activity in the Kuril Islands were accumulated so that, in accordance with the norms of international law of that time, the entire archipelago, including its southern islands, belonged to Russia, which was recorded in the Russian government documents. First of all, we should mention the imperial decrees (recall that at that time the imperial or royal decree had the force of law) of 1779, 1786 and 1799, which confirmed the Russian citizenship of the South Kuril Ainu (then called the “shaggy Kurilians”), and the islands themselves were declared possession Russia. In 1945, the Japanese evicted all the Ainu from occupied Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands to Hokkaido, while for some reason they left on Sakhalin a labor army of Koreans brought by the Japanese and the USSR had to accept them as stateless persons, then the Koreans moved to Central Asia. A little later, ethnographers wondered for a long time where in these harsh lands the people wearing the open (southern) type of clothing came from, and linguists discovered Latin, Slavic, Anglo-Germanic and even Indo-Aryan roots in the Ainu language. The Ainu were classified as Indo-Aryans, Australoids, and even Caucasians. In a word, the riddles became more and more, and the answers brought more and more new problems. The Ainu population consisted of socially stratified groups (“utar”), headed by families of leaders by the right of inheritance of power (it should be noted that the Ainu clan went through the female line, although the man was naturally considered the head of the family). "Uthar" was built on the basis of fictitious kinship and had a military organization. The ruling families, who called themselves “utarpa” (head of the Utar) or “nishpa” (leader), represented a layer of the military elite. Men of “high birth” were destined for military service from birth; high-born women spent their time doing embroidery and shamanic rituals (“tusu”).

The chief's family had a dwelling within a fortification ("chasi"), surrounded by an earthen mound (also called a "chasi"), usually under the cover of a mountain or rock jutting out over a terrace. The number of embankments often reached five or six, which alternated with ditches. Together with the leader's family, there were usually servants and slaves (“ushu”) inside the fortification. The Ainu did not have any centralized power. The Ainu preferred the bow as a weapon. No wonder they were called “people with arrows sticking out of their hair” because they carried quivers (and swords, by the way, too) on their backs. The bow was made from elm, beech or euonymus (a tall shrub, up to 2.5 m high with very strong wood) with whalebone guards. The bowstring was made from nettle fibers. The plumage of the arrows consisted of three eagle feathers. A few words about combat tips. Both "regular" armor-piercing and spiked arrowheads were used in combat (possibly to better cut through armor or to get an arrow stuck in a wound). There were also tips of an unusual, Z-shaped cross-section, which were most likely borrowed from the Manchus or Jurgens (information has been preserved that in the Middle Ages the Sakhalin Ainu fought back a large army that came from the mainland). Arrowheads were made of metal (early ones were made of obsidian and bone) and then coated with monkshood poison “suruku”. Aconite root was crushed, soaked and placed in warm place for fermentation. A stick with poison was applied to the spider's leg; if the leg fell off, the poison was ready. Due to the fact that this poison decomposed quickly, it was widely used in hunting large animals. The arrow shaft was made of larch.

The Ainu swords were short, 45-50 cm long, slightly curved, with one-sided sharpening and a one-and-a-half-handed handle. The Ainu warrior - dzhangin - fought with two swords, not recognizing shields. The guards of all swords were removable and were often used as decoration. There is evidence that some guards were specially polished to a mirror shine in order to repel evil spirits. In addition to swords, the Ainu carried two long knives (“cheyki-makiri” and “sa-makiri”), which were worn on the right hip. Cheiki-makiri was a ritual knife for making sacred shavings "inau" and performing the ritual "pere" or "erytokpa" - ritual suicide, which was later adopted by the Japanese, calling it "harakiri" or "seppuku" (as, by the way, the cult of the sword, special shelves for sword, spear, bow). Ainu swords were put on public display only during the Bear Festival. An old legend says: Long ago, after this country was created by God, there lived an old Japanese man and an old Ain. The Ainu grandfather was ordered to make a sword, and the Japanese grandfather: money (it is further explained why the Ainu had a cult of swords, and the Japanese had a thirst for money. The Ainu condemned their neighbors for money-grubbing). They treated spears rather coolly, although they exchanged them with the Japanese.

Another detail of the Ainu warrior’s weapons were battle mallets - small rollers with a handle and a hole at the end, made of hard wood. The sides of the beaters were equipped with metal, obsidian or stone spikes. The beaters were used both as a flail and as a sling - a leather belt was threaded through the hole. A well-aimed blow from such a mallet killed immediately, or at best (for the victim, of course) disfigured him forever. The Ainu did not wear helmets. They had natural long thick hair that was matted together, forming something like a natural helmet. Now let's move on to the armor. Sundress-type armor was made from bearded seal leather (“sea hare” - a type of large seal). In appearance, such armor (see photo) may seem bulky, but in reality it practically does not restrict movement, allowing you to bend and squat freely. Thanks to numerous segments, four layers of skin were obtained, which with equal success repelled the blows of swords and arrows. The red circles on the chest of the armor symbolize the three worlds (upper, middle and lower worlds), as well as shamanic “toli” disks, which scare away evil spirits and generally have magical significance. Similar circles are also depicted on the back. Such armor is fastened at the front using numerous ties. There was also short armor, like sweatshirts with planks or metal plates sewn on them. Very little is currently known about the martial art of the Ainu. It is known that the proto-Japanese adopted almost everything from them. Why not assume that some elements of martial arts were also not adopted?

Only such a duel has survived to this day. Opponents holding each other left hand, struck with clubs (the Ainu specially trained their backs to pass this test of endurance). Sometimes these clubs were replaced with knives, and sometimes they fought simply with their hands until the opponents lost their breath. Despite the cruelty of the fight, no cases of injury were observed. In fact, the Ainu fought not only with the Japanese. Sakhalin, for example, they conquered from the “Tonzi” - a short people, truly the indigenous population of Sakhalin. From “tonzi”, Ainu women adopted the habit of tattooing their lips and the skin around their lips (the result was a kind of half-smile - half-mustache), as well as the names of some (very good quality) swords - “toncini”. It is curious that the Ainu warriors - Dzhangins - were noted as very warlike; they were incapable of lying. Information about the signs of ownership of the Ainu is also interesting - they put special signs on arrows, weapons, and dishes, passed down from generation to generation, so as not to confuse, for example, whose arrow hit the beast, or who owns this or that thing. There are more than one hundred and fifty such signs, and their meanings have not yet been deciphered. Rock inscriptions were discovered near Otaru (Hokkaido) and on the island of Urup.

It remains to add that the Japanese were afraid of open battle with the Ainu and conquered them by cunning. An ancient Japanese song said that one “emishi” (barbarian, ain) is worth a hundred people. There was a belief that they could create fog. Over the years, the Ainu repeatedly rebelled against the Japanese (in Ainu “chizhem”), but lost each time. The Japanese invited the leaders to their place to conclude a truce. Piously honoring the customs of hospitality, the Ainu, trusting like children, did not think anything bad. They were killed during the feast. As a rule, the Japanese were unsuccessful in other ways to suppress the uprising.

“The Ainu are a meek, modest, good-natured, trusting, sociable, polite people who respect property; brave on the hunt

and... even intelligent.” (A.P. Chekhov - Sakhalin Island)

From the 8th century The Japanese did not stop slaughtering the Ainu, who fled from extermination to the north - to Hokkaido - Matmai, the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. Unlike the Japanese, the Russian Cossacks did not kill them. After several skirmishes, normal friendly relations were established between the similar-looking blue-eyed and bearded aliens on both sides. And although the Ainu flatly refused to pay the yasak tax, no one killed them for it, unlike the Japanese. However, the turning point for the fate of this people was 1945. Today only 12 of its representatives live in Russia, but there are many “mestizo” from mixed marriages. The destruction of the “bearded people” - the Ainu in Japan stopped only after the fall of militarism in 1945. However, cultural genocide continues to this day.

It is significant that no one knows the exact number of Ainu on the Japanese islands. The fact is that in “tolerant” Japan there is often still a rather arrogant attitude towards representatives of other nationalities. And the Ainu were no exception: their exact number is impossible to determine, since according to Japanese censuses they are not listed either as a people or as a national minority. According to scientists, the total number of Ainu and their descendants does not exceed 16 thousand people, of which no more than 300 are purebred representatives of the Ainu people, the rest are “mestizo”. In addition, the Ainu are often left with the least prestigious jobs. And the Japanese are actively pursuing a policy of their assimilation and about no “ cultural autonomies“For them it’s out of the question. People from mainland Asia came to Japan around the same time that people first reached America. The first settlers of the Japanese islands - YOMON (ancestors of the AIN) reached Japan twelve thousand years ago, and YOUI (ancestors of the Japanese) came from Korea in the last two and a half millennia.

Work has been done in Japan that gives hope that genetics can resolve the question of who the ancestors of the Japanese are. Along with the Japanese living on the central islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu, anthropologists distinguish two more modern ethnic groups: the Ainu from the island of Hokkaido in the north and the Ryukyu people living mainly in south island 0kinawa. One theory is that these two groups, the Ainu and Ryukyuan, are descendants of the original Yomon settlers who once occupied all of Japan and were later driven from the central islands north to Hokkaido and south to Okinawa by the Youi newcomers from Korea. Mitochondrial DNA research conducted in Japan only partially supports this hypothesis: it showed that modern Japanese from the central islands have much in common genetically with modern Koreans, with whom they share much more of the same and similar mitochondrial types than with the Ainu and Ryukuyans. However, it is also shown that there are practically no similarities between the Ainu and Ryukyu people. Age assessments have shown that both of these ethnic groups have accumulated certain mutations over the past twelve thousand years - this suggests that they are indeed descendants of the original Yeomon people, but also proves that the two groups have not had contact with each other since then.

Ainu(Ainu) - a mysterious tribe, because of which scientists different countries a great many copies have been broken. They are white-faced and straight-eyed (men are also very hairy) and in their appearance they are strikingly different from other peoples of East Asia. They are clearly not Mongoloids, but rather gravitate towards the anthropological type South-East Asia and Oceania.

Ainu in traditional costumes. 1904

Hunters and fishermen, who for centuries knew almost no agriculture, the Ainu nevertheless created an unusual and rich culture. Their ornamentation, carving and wooden sculpture are amazing in beauty and invention; their songs, dances and stories are beautiful, like any genuine creations of the people.

Each nation has a unique history and distinctive culture. Science, to a greater or lesser extent, knows the stages of historical development of a particular ethnic group. But there are peoples in the world whose origin remains a mystery. And today they continue to excite the minds of ethnographers. These ethnic groups primarily include the Ainu - the aborigines of the Far Eastern region.

They were the most interesting, beautiful and naturally healthy people who settled on the Japanese Islands, southern Sakhalin and Kuril Islands. They called themselves by various tribal names - “soya-untara”, “Chuvka-untara”. The word “Ainu”, which they are used to calling them, is not the self-name of this people. It means "man". These aborigines are identified by scientists as a separate Ainu race, combining Caucasoid, Australoid and Mongoloid features in their appearance.

The historical problem that arises with the Ainu is the question of their racial and cultural origins. Traces of the existence of this people were found even in Neolithic sites on the Japanese Islands. The Ainu are the oldest ethnic community. Their ancestors are carriers of the Jomon culture (literally “rope ornament”), which dates back almost 13 thousand years (on the Kuril Islands - 8 thousand years).

The beginning of the scientific study of Jomon sites was laid by the German archaeologists F. and G. Siebold and the American Morse. The results they obtained varied significantly. If the Siebolds asserted with all responsibility that the Jomon culture was the creation of the hands of the ancient Ainu, then Morse was more careful. He disagreed with the point of view of his German colleagues, but at the same time emphasized that the Jomon period was significantly different from the Japanese.

But what about the Japanese themselves, who called the Ainu with the word “ebi-su”? Most of them did not agree with the archaeologists' conclusions. For them, the aborigines were always only barbarians, as evidenced, for example, by the recording of a Japanese chronicler made in 712: “When our exalted ancestors descended from the sky on a ship, on this island (Honshu) they found several wild peoples, among them the wildest there were Ainu."

But as archaeological excavations testify, the ancestors of these “savages”, long before the Japanese appeared on the islands, created an entire culture there that any nation can be proud of! That is why official Japanese historiography has made attempts to correlate the creators of Jomon culture with the ancestors of modern Japanese, but not with the Ainu.

Yet most scholars agree that the Ainu culture was so vital that it influenced the culture of its enslavers, the Japanese. As Professor S.A. Arutyunov points out, Ainu elements played a significant role in the formation of samuraiism and the ancient Japanese religion - Shintoism.

So, for example, the Ainu warrior - Dzhangin - had two short swords, 45-50 cm long, slightly curved, with one-sided sharpening and fought with them, not recognizing shields. In addition to swords, the Ainu carried two long knives (“cheyki-makiri” and “sa-makiri”). The first was a ritual knife for making sacred shavings "inau" and performing the ritual "pere" or "erytokpa" - ritual suicide, which the Japanese later adopted, calling it hara-kiri, or seppuku (as, by the way, is the cult of the sword, special shelves for swords, spears , onions).

Ainu swords were put on public display only during the Bear Festival. An old legend says: “Long ago, after this country was created by God, there lived an old Japanese man and an old Ainu man. The Ainu grandfather was ordered to make a sword, and the Japanese grandfather was ordered to make money.” It further explains why the Ainu had a cult of swords, and the Japanese had a thirst for money. The Ainu condemned their neighbors for money-grubbing.

The Ainu did not wear helmets. By nature, they had long thick hair, which was matted together, forming something like a natural helmet. Very little is currently known about the martial art of the Ainu. It is believed that the proto-Japanese adopted almost everything from them. In fact, the Ainu fought not only with the Japanese.

Sakhalin, for example, they conquered from the “Tonzi” - a short people, truly the indigenous population of Sakhalin. It remains to add that the Japanese were afraid of open battle with the Ainu, conquered and ousted them by cunning. An ancient Japanese song said that one “emishi” (barbarian, ain) is worth a hundred people. There was a belief that they could create fog.

Initially, the Ainu lived on the islands of Japan (then it was called Ainumoshiri - land of the Ainu), until they were pushed north by the proto-Japanese. They came to the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin already in the 13th-14th centuries. Traces of their presence were also found in Kamchatka, Primorye and Khabarovsk Territory.

Many toponymic names of the Sakhalin region have Ainu names: Sakhalin (from “Sakharen Mosiri” - “wave-shaped land”); the islands of Kunashir, Simushir, Shikotan, Shiashkotan (the endings “shir” and “kotan” mean “plot of land” and “settlement”, respectively). It took the Japanese more than two thousand years to occupy the entire archipelago up to and including Hokkaido (then called Ezo) (the earliest evidence of clashes with the Ainu dates back to 660 BC).

There are enough facts cultural history Ainu, and it would seem that their origin can be calculated with a high degree of accuracy.

Firstly, it can be assumed that in ancient times, the entire northern half of the main Japanese island of Honshu was inhabited by tribes that were either the direct ancestors of the Ainu or were very close to them in their material culture. Secondly, two elements are known that formed the basis of the Ainu ornament - a spiral and a zigzag.

Thirdly, there is no doubt that the starting point of the Ainu beliefs was primitive animism, that is, the recognition of the existence of a soul in any creature or object. And finally, the social organization of the Ainu and their method of production have been studied quite well.

But it turns out that the factual method does not always pay off. For example, it has been proven that the spiral ornament was never the property of the Ainu alone. It was widely used in the art of the inhabitants of New Zealand - the Maori, in the decorative designs of the Papuans of New Guinea, and among the Neolithic tribes who lived in the lower reaches of the Amur.

What is this - a random coincidence or traces of the existence of certain contacts between the tribes of East and Southeast Asia at some distant period? But who was the first and who adopted the discovery? It is also known that the worship of the bear and its cult were widespread over vast areas of Europe and Asia. But among the Ainu it is sharply different from similar ones among other peoples, for only they fed the sacrificial bear cub at the breast of a female nurse!

Ainu and the cult of the bear

The Ainu language also stands apart. At one time it was believed that it was not related to any other language, but now some scientists bring it closer to the Malayo-Polynesian group. And linguists have discovered Latin, Slavic, Anglo-Germanic and even Sanskrit roots in the Ainu language. In addition, ethnographers are still grappling with the question of where in these harsh lands people wearing the swinging (southern) type of clothing came from.

The robe dress, made from wood fibers and decorated with traditional patterns, looked equally good on men and women. Festive white robes were made from nettles. In the summer, the Ainu wore a loincloth of the southern type, and in the winter they sewed fur clothes for themselves. They used salmon skins to make knee-length moccasins.

The Ainu were alternately classified as Indo-Aryans, Australoids, and even Europeans. The Ainu themselves considered themselves to have flown from heaven: “There was a time when the first Ainu descended from the Land of Clouds to the earth, fell in love with it, took up hunting and fishing in order to eat, dance and bear children” (from an Ainu legend). And indeed, the life of these amazing people was completely connected with nature, the sea, the forest, the islands.

They, engaged in gathering, hunting, and fishing, combined the knowledge, skills and abilities of many tribes and peoples. For example, as taiga dwellers, we went hunting; they collected seafood like southerners; They beat the sea beast, like the inhabitants of the north. The Ainu strictly kept the secret of mummifying the dead and the recipe for a deadly poison extracted from the root of the aconite plant, with which they impregnated the tips of their arrows and harpoons. They knew that this poison would quickly decompose in the body of a killed animal and the meat could be eaten.

The tools and weapons of the Ainu were very similar to those used by other communities of prehistoric people who lived in similar climatic and geographical conditions. True, they had one significant advantage - they had obsidian, which the Japanese islands are rich in. When processing obsidian, the edges were smoother than those of flint, so that the arrowheads and axes of the Jomon can be classified as masterpieces of Neolithic production.

The most important weapons were the bow and arrows. The production of harpoons and fishing rods made from deer antlers reached a high level of development. In a word, both the tools and weapons of the Jomon were typical for their time, and the only surprise was that people who knew neither agriculture nor cattle breeding lived in fairly large communities.

And how many mysterious questions the culture of this people gave rise to! The ancient Ainu created amazingly beautiful ceramics by hand molding (without any device for turning dishes, much less a potter's wheel), decorating them with intricate rope patterns, and mysterious dogu figurines.

Ceramics of the Jomon culture

Everything was done by hand! And yet Jomon pottery has a special place in primitive pottery in general - nowhere does the contrast between the polishedness of its ornamentation and the extremely low “technology” look more striking than here. In addition, the Ainu were perhaps the earliest farmers Far East.

And again the question! Why did they lose these skills, becoming only hunters and fishermen, essentially taking a step back in development? Why do the Ainu intertwine in the most bizarre way the features of different peoples, elements of high and primitive cultures?

Being a very musical people by nature, the Ainu loved and knew how to have fun. We carefully prepared for the holidays, of which the most important was the bear holiday. The Ainu deified everything around them. But they especially revered the bear, the snake and the dog.

Leading a seemingly primitive life, they gave the world inimitable examples of art and enriched the culture of mankind with incomparable mythology and folklore. With their whole appearance and life, they seemed to deny established ideas and habitual patterns of cultural development.

Ainu women had smile tattoos on their faces. Culturologists believe that the tradition of drawing a “smile” is one of the oldest in the world; it was followed by representatives of the Ainu people for a long time. Despite all the prohibitions from the Japanese government, even in the 20th century, Ainu were tattooed; it is believed that the last “correctly” tattooed woman died in 1998.

Tattoos were applied exclusively to women; it was believed that this ritual was taught to the Ainu ancestors by the ancestor of all living things - Okikurumi Turesh Machi, the younger sister of the creator God Okikurumi. The tradition was passed down through the female line; the design was applied to the girl’s body by her mother or grandmother.

In the process of “Japanization” of the Ainu people, a ban on tattooing girls was introduced in 1799, and in 1871 a second strict ban was proclaimed in Hokkaido, since it was believed that the procedure was too painful and inhumane.

For the Ainu, refusing tattoos was unacceptable, since it was believed that in this case the girl would not be able to get married, and after death, find peace in the afterlife. It is worth noting that the ritual was indeed cruel: the drawing was first applied to girls at the age of seven, and later the “smile” was completed over the course of several years, the final stage being on the day of marriage.

In addition to the characteristic smile tattoo, geometric patterns could be seen on the hands of the Ainu; they were also applied to the body as a talisman.

In a word, the number of mysteries became more and more numerous over time, and the answers brought more and more new problems. Only one thing is known for sure, that their life in the Far East was extremely difficult and tragic. When Russian explorers reached the “farthest east” in the 17th century, a vast, majestic sea and numerous islands opened up to their eyes.

But they were more amazed by the appearance of the natives than by the bewitching nature. Before the travelers appeared people overgrown with thick beards, with wide eyes like Europeans, with large, protruding noses, looking like anyone: men from Russia, residents of the Caucasus, gypsies, but not the Mongoloids that the Cossacks and servicemen were accustomed to see everywhere beyond the Ural ridge. Explorers dubbed them “furry smokers.”

Russian scientists gleaned information about the Kuril Ainu from the “note” of the Cossack ataman Danila Antsyferov and the captain Ivan Kozyrevsky, in which they notified Peter I about the discovery of the Kuril Islands and the first meeting of Russian people with the aborigines of those places.

This happened in 1711.

“Leaving the canoes to dry, we went along the shore at noon and by evening we saw either houses or plagues. Holding the squeaks at the ready - who knows what kind of people there are - we headed towards them. About fifty people dressed in skins poured out to meet them. They looked without fear and had an extraordinary appearance - hairy, long-bearded, but with white faces and not slanted, like the Yakuts and Kamchadals.”

For several days, the conquerors of the Far East, through an interpreter, tried to persuade the “shaggy Kurilians” to submit to the sovereign’s hand, but they refused such an honor, declaring that they had not paid yasak to anyone and would not pay them. All the Cossacks learned was that the land to which they sailed was an island, that at noon there were other islands behind it, and even further away - Matmai, Japan.

26 years after Antsyferov and Kozyrevsky, Stepan Krasheninnikov visited Kamchatka. He left behind a classic work, “Description of the Land of Kamchatka,” where, among other information, he gave a detailed description of the Ainu as an ethnic type. This was the first scientific description of the tribe. A century later, in May 1811, the famous navigator Vasily Golovnin visited here.

The future admiral spent several months studying and describing the nature of the islands and the life of their inhabitants; his truthful and colorful story about what he saw was highly appreciated by both lovers of literature and scientific experts. Let us also note this detail: Golovnin’s translator was a Kurilian, that is, an Ain, Alexey.

We do not know what name he bore “in the world,” but his fate is one of the many examples of contact between Russians and the Kurils, who willingly learned Russian speech, accepted Orthodoxy, and conducted lively trade with our ancestors.

The Kuril Ainu, according to eyewitnesses, were very kind, friendly and open people. Europeans who visited different years islands and usually boasting of their culture, had high demands on etiquette, but they noted the gallantry of manners characteristic of the Ainu.

The Dutch navigator de Vries wrote:
“Their behavior towards foreigners is so simple and sincere that educated and polite people could not have behaved better. Appearing before strangers, they dress in their best clothes, say their greetings and wishes with forgiveness, and bow their heads.”

Perhaps it was precisely this good nature and openness that did not allow the Ainu to resist harmful influence people with Mainland. Regression in their development occurred when they found themselves between two fires: pressed from the south by the Japanese and from the north by the Russians.

Modern Ainu

It so happened that this ethnic branch - the Kuril Ainu - was wiped off the face of the Earth. Nowadays the Ainu live in several reservations in the south and southeast of the island. Hokkaido, in the Ishikari River valley. Purebred Ainu practically degenerated or assimilated with the Japanese and Nivkhs. Now there are only 16 thousand of them, and the number continues to decline sharply.

The life of modern Ainu is strikingly reminiscent of the life of the ancient Jomon. Their material culture has changed so little over the past centuries that these changes may not be taken into account. They leave, but the burning secrets of the past continue to excite and disturb, inflame the imagination and feed an inexhaustible interest in this amazing, original and unlike any other people.

"All human culture, all the achievements of art,
science and technology that we are witnessing today,
- the fruits of the creativity of the Aryans...
He [the Aryan] is the Prometheus of humanity,
from whose bright brow at all times
sparks of genius flew, igniting the fire of knowledge,
illuminating the darkness of gloomy ignorance,
what allowed a person to rise above others
creatures of the Earth."
A.Hitler

I’m moving on to the most difficult topic, in which everything is mixed up, discredited and deliberately confused - the spread of the descendants of settlers from Mars across Eurasia (and beyond).
While preparing this article in the institute, I found about 10 definitions of who the Aryans are, the Aryans, their relationship with the Slavs, etc. Each author has his own view on the question. But no one takes it broadly and deeply into millennia. The most profound thing is the self-name of the historical peoples of Ancient Iran and Ancient India, but this is only the 2nd millennium BC. Moreover, in the legends of the Iranian-Indian Aryans there are indications that they came from the north, i.e. The geography and time period are expanding.
Whenever possible, I will refer to external data and the y-chromosome R1a1, but as observations show, this is only “approximate” data. Over the millennia, the Martians (Aryans) mixed their blood with many peoples on the territory of Eurasia, and the y-chromosome R1a1 (which for some reason is considered a marker of true Aryans) appeared only 4,000 years ago (though I already saw that 10,000 years ago, but that’s still has not yet beaten 40,000 years ago, when the first Cro-Magnon man, also known as a Martian migrant, appeared).
The most faithful remain the legends of peoples and their symbols.
I’ll start with the most “lost” people - the Ainu.

Ainy ( アイヌ Ainu, lit.: “person”, “ real man") - people, ancient population Japanese Islands. The Ainu once also lived in Russia in the lower reaches of the Amur River, in the south of the Kamchatka Peninsula, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Currently, the Ainu remain mainly only in Japan. According to official figures, their number in Japan is 25,000, but according to unofficial statistics, it can reach up to 200,000 people. In Russia, according to the results of the 2010 census, 109 Ainu were recorded, of which 94 people were in the Kamchatka Territory.

A group of Ainu, photo from 1904.

The origin of the Ainu remains unclear at present. Europeans who encountered the Ainu in the 17th century were amazed by their appearance. Unlike the usual appearance of people of the Mongoloid race with yellow skin, a Mongolian fold of the eyelid, sparse facial hair, the Ainu had unusually thick hair covering their heads, wore huge beards and mustaches (holding them with special chopsticks while eating), their facial features were similar to European ones. Despite living in a temperate climate, in the summer the Ainu wore only loincloths, like the inhabitants of equatorial countries. There are many hypotheses about the origin of the Ainu, which can generally be divided into three groups:

• The Ainu are related to the Indo-Europeans of the Caucasian race - this theory was adhered to by J. Batchelor and S. Murayama.

• The Ainu are related to the Austronesians and came to the Japanese Islands from the south - this theory was put forward by L. Ya. Sternberg and it dominated Soviet ethnography. (This theory has not currently been confirmed, if only because the Ainu culture in Japan is much older than the Austronesian culture in Indonesia).

• The Ainu are related to Paleo-Asian peoples and came to the Japanese Islands from the north/from Siberia—this point of view is held mainly by Japanese anthropologists.

So far, it is known for certain that in terms of basic anthropological indicators the Ainu are very different from the Japanese, Koreans, Nivkhs, Itelmens, Polynesians, Indonesians, aborigines of Australia, the Far East and Pacific Ocean, but only become close to the people of the Jomon era, who are the direct ancestors of the historical Ainu. In principle, there is no big mistake in equating the people of the Jomon era with the Ainu.

The Ainu appeared on the Japanese Islands about 13 thousand years ago. n. e. and created the Neolithic Jomon culture. It is not known for certain where the Ainu came to the Japanese islands, but it is known that in the Jomon era the Ainu inhabited all the Japanese islands - from Ryukyu to Hokkaido, as well as the southern half of Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands and the southern third of Kamchatka - as evidenced by the results archaeological excavations and toponymy data, for example: Tsushima— Tuima— “distant”, Fuji — Huqi- "grandmother" - kamui of the hearth, Tsukuba— tu ku pa- “head of two bows” / “two-bow mountain”, Yamatai mdash; I'm mom and- “a place where the sea cuts the land” (It is very possible that the legendary state of Yamatai, which is mentioned in Chinese chronicles, was an ancient Ainu state.) Also, a lot of information about place names of Ainu origin in Honshu can be found in the institute.

Historians have discovered that The Ainu created extraordinary ceramics without a potter's wheel, decorating it with intricate rope designs.

Here is another link to those who decorated pots with a pattern by wrapping a rope around it, although in this article they are called “laces.”

Initially they lived on the islands of Japan (then called Ainumoshiri - land of the Ainu), until they were pushed north by the proto-Japanese. They came to Sakhalin in the 13th-14th centuries, “finishing” settlement at the beginning. XIX century. Traces of their appearance were also found in Kamchatka, Primorye and Khabarovsk Territory. Many toponymic names of the Sakhalin region have Ainu names: Sakhalin (from “SAKHAREN MOSIRI” - “wave-shaped land”); the islands of Kunashir, Simushir, Shikotan, Shiashkotan (the endings “shir” and “kotan” mean “plot of land” and “settlement”, respectively).

It took the Japanese more than 2 thousand years to occupy the entire archipelago up to and including (then called “Ezo”) (the earliest evidence of skirmishes with the Ainu dates back to 660 BC). Subsequently The Ainu almost all degenerated or assimilated with the Japanese and Nivkhs. Currently, there are only a few reservations on Hokkaido where Ainu families live. The Ainu are perhaps the most mysterious people in the Far East.

The first Russian navigators who studied Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands were surprised to note the Caucasoid facial features, thick hair and beards unusual for the Mongoloids. A little later, ethnographers wondered for a long time where in these harsh lands people wearing open (southern) type of clothing came from, and linguists discovered Latin, Slavic, Anglo-Germanic and even Indo-Aryan roots in the Ainu language. The Ainu were classified as Indo-Aryans, Australoids, and even Caucasians. In a word, the riddles became more and more, and the answers brought more and more new problems.

Here is a summary of what we know about the Ainu:

AIN SOCIETY

The Ainu population consisted of socially stratified groups (“utar”), headed by families of leaders by the right of inheritance of power (it should be noted that the Ainu clan went through the female line, although the man was naturally considered the head of the family). “Uthar” was built on the basis of fictitious kinship and had a military organization. The ruling families, who called themselves “utarpa” (head of the Utar) or “nishpa” (leader), represented a layer of the military elite. Men of “high birth” were destined for military service from birth; high-born women spent their time doing embroidery and shamanic rituals (“tusu”).

The chief's family had a dwelling within a fortification (“chasi”), surrounded by an earthen mound (also called a “chasi”), usually under the cover of a mountain or rock jutting out over a terrace. The number of embankments often reached five or six, which alternated with ditches. Together with the leader's family, there were usually servants and slaves (“ushyu”) inside the fortification. The Ainu did not have any centralized power.

WEAPONS

The Ainu preferred weapons. No wonder they were called “people with arrows sticking out of their hair” because they carried quivers (and swords, by the way, too) on their backs. The bow was made from elm, beech or euonymus (a tall shrub, up to 2.5 m high with very strong wood) with whalebone guards. The bowstring was made from nettle fibers. The plumage of the arrows consisted of three eagle feathers.

A few words about combat tips. In combat, both “regular” armor-piercing arrowheads and spiked arrowheads were used (possibly to better cut through armor or to get an arrow stuck in a wound). There were also tips of an unusual, Z-shaped section, which were most likely borrowed from the Manchus or Jurjens (there is information that in the Middle Ages they repulsed a large army that came from the mainland).

Arrowheads were made of metal (early ones were made of obsidian and bone) and then coated with aconite poison “suruku”. The root of aconite was crushed, soaked and placed in a warm place to ferment. A stick with poison was applied to the spider's leg; if the leg fell off, the poison was ready. Due to the fact that this poison decomposed quickly, it was widely used in hunting large animals. The arrow shaft was made of larch.

The Ainu swords were short, 45-50 cm long, slightly curved, with one-sided sharpening and a one-and-a-half-handed handle. Ainu warrior - dzhangin– he fought with two swords, not recognizing shields. The guards of all swords were removable and were often used as decoration. There is evidence that some guards were specially polished to a mirror shine in order to repel evil spirits. Besides the swords Ainu They wore two long knives (“cheyki-makiri” and “sa-makiri”), which were worn on the right hip. Cheiki-makiri was a ritual knife for making sacred shavings “inau” and performing the ritual “pere” or “erytokpa” - ritual suicide, which the Japanese later adopted, calling it “ ” or “ ” (as, by the way, is the cult of the sword, special shelves for sword, spear, bow). Ainu swords were put on public display only during the Bear Festival. An old legend says: A long time ago, after this country was created by God, there lived a Japanese old man and an Ain old man. The Ainu grandfather was ordered to make a sword, and the Japanese grandfather: money (it is further explained why the Ainu had a cult of swords, and the Japanese had a thirst for money. The Ainu condemned their neighbors for money-grubbing). They treated spears rather coolly, although they exchanged them with the Japanese.

Another detail of the Ainu warrior’s weapons were battle mallets - small rollers with a handle and a hole at the end, made of hard wood. The sides of the beaters were equipped with metal, obsidian or stone spikes. The beaters were used both as a flail and as a sling - a leather belt was threaded through the hole. A well-aimed blow from such a mallet killed immediately, or at best (for the victim, of course) disfigured him forever.

The Ainu did not wear helmets. They had natural long thick hair that was matted together, forming something like a natural helmet.

Now let's move on to the armor. Sundress-type armor was made from bearded seal leather (“sea hare” - a type of large seal). In appearance, such armor (see photo) may seem bulky, but in reality it practically does not restrict movement, allowing you to bend and squat freely. Thanks to numerous segments, four layers of skin were obtained, which with equal success repelled the blows of swords and arrows. The red circles on the chest of the armor symbolize the three worlds (upper, middle and lower worlds), as well as shamanic “toli” disks, which scare away evil spirits and generally have magical significance. Similar circles are also depicted on the back. Such armor is fastened at the front using numerous ties. There was also short armor, like sweatshirts with planks or metal plates sewn on them.

Very little is currently known about the martial art of the Ainu. It is known that the proto-Japanese adopted almost everything from them. Why not assume that some elements of martial arts were also not adopted?

Only such a duel has survived to this day. The opponents, holding each other by the left hand, struck with clubs (the Ainu specially trained their backs to pass this test of endurance). Sometimes these clubs were replaced with knives, and sometimes they fought simply with their hands until the opponents lost their breath. Despite the brutality of the fight, no injuries were observed.

Actually, they fought not only with the Japanese. Sakhalin, for example, they conquered from the “Tonzi” - a short people, truly the indigenous population of Sakhalin. From “tonzi”, Ainu women adopted the habit of tattooing their lips and the skin around the lips (the result was a kind of half-smile - half-mustache), as well as the names of some (very good quality) swords - “toncini”. It's interesting that Ainu warriors - Dzhangins– were noted as very warlike, they were incapable of lying.

Information about the signs of ownership of the Ainu is also interesting - they put special signs on arrows, weapons, and dishes, passed down from generation to generation, so as not to confuse, for example, whose arrow hit the beast, or who owns this or that thing. There are more than one hundred and fifty such signs, and their meanings have not yet been deciphered. Rock inscriptions were discovered near Otaru (Hokkaido) and on the island of Urup.

There were also pictograms on “ikunishi” (sticks for supporting the mustache while drinking). To decipher the signs (which were called “epasi itokpa”) it was necessary to know the language of the symbols and their components.

It remains to add that the Japanese were afraid of open battle with the Ainu and conquered them by cunning. An ancient Japanese song said that one “emishi” (barbarian, ain) is worth a hundred people. There was a belief that they could create fog.

Over the years, they repeatedly rebelled against the Japanese (in Ainu “chizhem”), but lost each time. The Japanese invited the leaders to their place to conclude a truce. Sacredly honoring the customs of hospitality, Ainu, trusting like children, they did not think anything bad. They were killed during the feast. As a rule, the Japanese were unsuccessful in other ways to suppress the uprising.

Not everyone knows that the Japanese are by no means the natives of the Japanese islands. Long before their appearance, the archipelago was inhabited by the Ainu, a mysterious tribe that causes a lot of controversy in the scientific world. White-skinned, not narrow-eyed (and men also have “increased hairiness”), just by their appearance, the Ainu are strikingly different from the Japanese, Chinese, Koreans and other Mongoloids living in the neighborhood. The Ainu are clearly not Mongoloids. Outwardly, they look either like the inhabitants of Oceania or like Europeans.

The main hypotheses regarding the origin of the Ainu are as follows:

1. The Ainu are related to Caucasians (in ancient times they migrated across all of Asia);
2. The Ainu are related to the inhabitants of Oceania and sailed to the Japanese Islands from the South;
3. The Ainu are related to the Paleo-Asian peoples and came to the Japanese Islands from the North or from Siberia.

Differences between Japanese and Ainu

Appearing on the Japanese islands about 13 thousand years ago, the Ainu created the Neolithic Jomon culture. They inhabited not only the Japanese islands, but also the southern part of Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands and the southern third of Kamchatka.

If the appearance of the Ainu indicates that there is nothing in common between them and the Japanese, then their way of life differs from the way of life of the Japanese (whose ancestors moved to the islands from China) in an even more striking way.

The Japanese have been cultivating rice since ancient times. It is from there that their collectivism, extraordinary performance, and the desire not to stand out from the team, but to be, originate. The Ainu are people of a completely different type. Collectivism, in which the personal qualities of an individual person are leveled out, dissolving into the general mass, and the person himself becomes a kind of “cog” of the system, is not even close to the Ainu. From childhood, the Ainu were taught to take responsibility for themselves; from childhood, they were instilled with courage and self-confidence - qualities necessary for a hunter. The Ainu did not engage in agriculture at all, but instead fed themselves by hunting, gathering and fishing. What kind of rice is there! The Ainu didn’t even know what it was. Their diet consisted mainly of fish, shellfish and the meat of sea animals. they ate in incredible quantities, and therefore, near the remains of ancient Ainu settlements, archaeologists find mountains of gutted shells.

Given this way of life, it was vital for the Ainu to maintain natural balance, avoiding population explosions. The Ainu never had large settlements. The Ainu villages were located far from each other (so that no one would disturb anyone), for the same reason, even in ancient times, the Ainu populated all the islands of the Japanese archipelago.

Confrontation of peoples

But when settlers from Southeast Asia and China, and then several tribes from Central Asia, began to arrive on the Japanese islands, the natural balance was disrupted. Agriculture (and rice production in particular) allows you to produce huge amounts of food in a limited area of ​​territory. Therefore, the colonists multiplied rapidly. The Ainu were forced to make room and go north - the island of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands. But the Japanese got them there too. However, the Ainu also did not intend to give up their territory. For a long time (from the eighth to almost the fifteenth century), the border of the Yamato state passed in the area of ​​​​the modern city of Sendai and Northern part the island of Honshu (the main Japanese island) was very poorly developed by the Japanese.

All this time (about a millennium and a half) there were relations between the Ainu and the Japanese.

This is how one of the Japanese chronicles describes the Ainu.

“Among the eastern savages, the most powerful are the Emisi. Men and women are united randomly; who is the father and who is the son does not differ. In winter they live in caves, in summer in nests (in trees). They wear animal skins, drink raw blood, older and younger brothers to each other. They climb mountains like birds, and rush through the grass like wild animals. They forget what is good, but if harm is done to them, they will certainly take revenge. Also, having hidden arrows in their hair and tied a blade, they, gathered in a crowd of fellow tribesmen, violate the borders or, having scouted out where the fields and mulberries are, rob the people of the country of Yamato. If they are attacked, they hide in the grass; if they are pursued, they climb into the mountains. From ancient times to this day they do not obey the lords of Yamato."

There were much fewer Ainu, but each of their warriors was worth several dozen Japanese. For a long time, the Japanese lost, but in the end they crushed the Ainu in numbers, as well as with the help of such “forbidden techniques” as bribing leaders. The Japanese bribed the Ainu leaders and awarded them titles. But still, things moved slowly. In order to speed up the process, the Japanese rulers took extreme measures. They armed the settlers going north.

Thus, the samurai class was born - the serving nobility, which later became a kind of calling card of the Country Rising Sun. But, it must be said that the samurai adopted very, very many things, including strategy, tactics, fighting techniques and traditions, from their sworn rivals, the Ainu. On the island of Honshu, the surviving Ainu were assimilated by the Japanese. True, some of them moved to the northernmost of the Japanese islands, Hokkaido (the Japanese themselves called it Ezo, that is, “wild,” “land of barbarians”)

Only in the middle of the 15th century did the large feudal lord Takeda Nobuhiro manage to found the first fortified settlement in Hokkaido. It took more than two centuries to conquer this island, and only in 1669 was the Ainu resistance broken. The firearms supplied to the Japanese rulers by the Europeans had their say.

The further fate of the Ainu is tragic. The Japanese actually turned them into slaves. They confiscated fishing equipment and dogs, and banned hunting. Currently, there are no more than 25 thousand Ainu left. But even now they retain their originality.

Ainu culture

The Ainu pantheon of gods mainly consists of "kamuy" - the spirits of various animals, such as the bear, killer whale, snake, eagle, as well as mythical characters such as Ayoina, the creator and teacher of the Ainu. and also “unti-kamuy” - a female deity, the goddess of the hearth, to whom, unlike other deities, people can turn directly.

Until the end of the 19th century, the Ainu sacrificed a specially raised one, which one of the women of the community had breastfed for several years. They tried to invite as many guests as possible to this event, and after the ritual killing, the bear’s head was placed in the eastern window of the house (a sacred place in every Ainu home); according to legend, the spirit of the bear resides in the bear’s head. Each person present at the ceremony had to drink the bear's blood from a special cup passed around, which symbolized the division of the bear's power among those present and emphasized their involvement in the ritual before the gods.

But the Ainu considered the Heavenly Serpent to be the greatest spirit. He was revered and feared at the same time. This cult has common features with the religious beliefs of the aborigines of Australia and Micronesia, the inhabitants of Sumatra, Kalimantan, Taiwan and the Philippines. The Ainu never kill snakes, because they believe that, living in the body of a snake, evil spirit, after killing the snake, it will leave its body and move into the body of the killer. In addition, the Ainu believe that a snake can crawl into a sleeping person’s mouth and take over his mind, causing the unfortunate person to go crazy.

A special place in Ainu rituals is occupied by the so-called "inau". This is how the Ainu call a wide variety of objects that are almost impossible to unite by common origin. In different cases they are given different explanations. Most inaus are man-made and decorated with bunches of long shavings. “Inau” are a kind of intermediaries, “helping” the Ainu “negotiate” with the gods.

An interesting point: the spiral pattern, very common among the Ainu, is also widespread among the Maori, the inhabitants of New Zealand, in the decorative designs of the Papuans of New Guinea, among the Neolithic tribes who lived in the lower reaches of the Amur, as well as many peoples of Oceania. (By the way, a spiral is nothing more than an image of a snake). This is unlikely to be a coincidence and, most likely, certain contacts took place between these peoples. But where does this spiral come from? Who was the first to use the spiral pattern, and who adopted it and made it their own?

In general, the art of the Ainu, their songs, dances, stories, ornaments, bone carvings and wooden sculptures are amazingly beautiful and talented, especially for a people who have lived in isolation for a long time.

By the beginning of the new era, the Ainu were in the Neolithic stage in their development, but, nevertheless, the culture of the Ainu had a huge influence on the culture of their conquerors and gravediggers, the Japanese. Ainu elements formed the basis of both Shintoism, the ancient religion of the Land of the Rising Sun, and in the formation of the samurai class.