[ Sept.2014 ] One of my purposes of our trip to Hokkaido in Japan was to learn about Ainu people, indigenous people in north part of Japan.
We went to The Ainu Museum in Shiraoi.
This museum’s main visitors are obviously the bus loaded group tour, and it was a bit of a journey to get there by train.
The main problem was that the train was not frequent at all.
Anyway, it was worth a journey.
First, we joined the tour people to listen to some explanation about Ainu people and saw the dance and heard their music.
This window on the photo is facing east.
Apparently Ainu people believed that the god was in the east and this window was holy where people could communicate with the god.
So you must not throw things from here or peep into the house here.
Another interesting thing was that women had some tatoos on their mouth and back of their hands when they became a certain age and that was the token of becoming an adult and they got married.
The dance was elegant.
They pretended being cranes.
It was accompanied only by people’s calls.
The music by traditional instuments was interesting, too.
The hanging salmons above the fireplace were real ones.
They were not only preserved food, but also used as trading goods.
Everytning was so interesting, but only regrettable thing was the ill behaviour of the audience.
I could not work out exactly where they were from, but they were one of the South East Asian countries’ tourists.
The cultural level of people shows in these occasions, doesn’t it.
