Description - Early European Writings on Ainu Culture by Kirsten Refsing
This new collection includes rare records of the first European encounters with the Ainu: in the main, travelogues and descriptions of the people, their culture and distinctiveness. Many earlier works were published in limited quantity and in obscure places, and they are often hard to trace for a researcher today. Republication of early western works will help scholars studying the Ainu, and will also be of interest to scholars of anthropology, religion, material culture, oral traditions, and linguistics. The Ainu people of Japan have been referred to in Japanese works at least as far back as the 14th century, and the first Westerners to report on the inhabitants of Japan's northernmost island were Jesuit monks in the 17th century. First-hand reports came from sea voyagers who managed to visit Sakhalin, The Kurile Islands, and even Hokkaido in spite of the ban on foreigners in Japan in the 17th and 18th century. After the opening of Japan to the West in the mid-19th century, a number of Europeans began to study the Ainu more seriously.
Europeans and Americans were attracted to the mystery of the origins of the Ainu language, race, and culture, and many attempts were made to solve this mystery. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Hokkaido was still not easily accessible, and both female and male scholars and adventurers set out to prove their bravery by making their way through the wilderness to bring back reports of 'the hairy Ainu'. Travellers especially noted the gentleness and hospitality of the Ainu, but also their lack of hygiene and their often strange customs.
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