Hokkaido, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is the second largest island of Japan, and the largest and northernmost prefecture. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu. The two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The largest city on Hokkaido is its capital, Sapporo, which is also its only ordinance-designated city. About 43 km north of Hokkaido lies Sakhalin Island, Russia. To its east and north-east are the disputed Kuril Islands.
Hokkaido Ainu is a language spoken by members of the Ainu people on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
Koro-pok-guru, also written Koro-pok-kuru, korobokkuru, or koropokkur, are a race of small people in folklore of the Ainu people of the northern Japanese islands. The name is traditionally analysed as a tripartite compound of kor or koro, pok, and kur or kuru ("person") and interpreted to mean "people below the leaves of the Fuki" in the Ainu language.
Yukar are Ainu sagas that form a long rich tradition of oral literature. In older periods, the epics were performed by both men and women; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, when Ainu culture was in decline, women were generally the most skillful performers.
Ainu music is the musical tradition of the Ainu people of northern Japan.
Biratori is a town located in Hidaka Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. The name of the town means 'between the rocky cliffs' in the Ainu language.
Ainu language(s) is a small language family or a language isolate originally spoken on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaidō, the southern half of the island of Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula.
Saru River is a river in Hokkaidō, Japan.
The most widely spoken language in Japan is Japanese, which is separated into a large number of dialects with Tokyo dialect considered standard Japanese.
The tonkori (トンコリ) is a plucked string instrument played by the Ainu people of Hokkaidō, northern Japan and Sakhalin. It generally has five strings, which are not stopped or fretted but simply played "open". The instrument is believed to have been developed in Sakhalin. By the 1970s the instrument was practically extinct, but is experiencing a revival along with the increased interest in Ainu heritage.
Oki Kano known professionally as OKI, is an Ainu Japanese musician, from Kanagawa Prefecture. He studied industrial arts at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. His father, Bikki Sunazawa, was a renowned wood sculptor. Oki uses the tonkori, an Ainu stringed instrument, in his performances and mixes traditional Ainu music with reggae, dub and other styles of world music. He also plays guitar and traditional Ainu percussion instruments.
Kamuy-huci is the Ainu kamuy (goddess) of the hearth. Her full name is Apemerukoyan-mat Unamerukoyan-mat, and she is also known as Iresu Kamuy. She is among the most important kamuy of Ainu mythology, serving as keeper of the gateway between the world of humans and the world of kamuy.
Shakushain's revolt was an Ainu rebellion against Japanese authority on Hokkaidō between 1669 and 1672. It was led by Ainu chieftain Shakushain against the Matsumae clan, who represented Japanese trading and governmental interests in the area of Hokkaidō then controlled by the Japanese.
Rekuhkara is a style of singing, similar to Inuit throat singing, that was practised by the Ainu until 1976 when the last practitioner died, The Sakhalin spelling rekuxkara or the Japanese spelling rekukkara can also be encountered.
Mukkuri is a traditional Japanese plucked idiophone indigenous to the Ainu. The Mukkuri is made from bamboo and is 10 cm long and 1.5 cm wide. Similar to a jaw harp, sound is made by pulling the string and vibrating the reed as it is placed in the performer's mouth.
The Ainu in Russia are an indigenous people of Russia located in Sakhalin Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai and Kamchatka Krai. The Russian Ainu people, also called Kurile (Курилы), Kamchatka's Kurile or Ein (эйны), can be subdivided into six groups.
Several types of Ainu fiddle have been described by anthropologists of the Ainu people of Northern Japan and the adjoining Russian Far East islands of Sakhalin and Kuril.
The Emishi or Ebisu (蝦夷) constituted an ethnic group of people who lived in northeastern Honshū in the Tōhoku region which was referred to as michi no oku (道の奥) in contemporary sources. The first mention of them in literature dates to AD 400, in which they are mentioned as "the hairy people" from the Chinese records. Some Emishi tribes resisted the rule of the Japanese Emperors during the late Nara and early Heian periods.
