Podcasts about Ainu

What do Catholic women in the Balkans, tattooed mummies in the Philippines, and Arctic medicinal ink have in common? They've all left their mark—literally and metaphorically—on the history of indigenous tattoo traditions. In this episode of For the Love of History, I sit down with renowned tattoo anthropologist Dr. Lars Krutak to explore his latest book: Indigenous Tattoo Traditions. We dive deep into the meaning, evolution, and resistance etched into skin across continents and centuries.

開業した国立アイヌ文化施設「民族共生象徴空間」、２０２０年７月、北海道白老町政府は２５日、英エディンバラ大学が保管するアイヌ民族の遺骨３体が日本側に返還される運びになったと発表した。 The Japanese government said Friday that the remains of three Ainu indigenous people kept at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland will be returned to Japan.

The Japanese government said Friday that the remains of three Ainu indigenous people kept at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland will be returned to Japan.

In questo episodio di Japan Wildlife, esploriamo il cuore pulsante del popolo Ainu, guidati da Valentina Piermartiri e le traduzioni degli ainu yukar, i canti tradizionali che la giovanissima Yukie Chiri raccolse in forma scritta per aiutare il linguista Kyōsuke Kindaichi nei suoi studi. La figura di questa giovanissima Ainu fu fondamentale per la comprensione e la conservazione di una cultura che ha rischiato di scomparire completamente e scopriremo molto di lei grazie al contributo appassionato di Valentina.Alla fine dell'episodio, inoltre, Alessia leggerà le traduzioni di due yukar tratti dalla raccolta.Segui Valentina su InstagramAcquista Ainu Yukar di Yukie Chiri su Amazon o dal sito di CafoscarinaJapan Wildlife è su Substack! Iscriviti alla newsletter per non perderti i prossimi episodi e aggiornamenti.Se vuoi sostenere Japan Wildlife, puoi anche lasciare una donazione su Ko-FiI nostri sponsor:Dirim: https://www.dirim.it/Granduomo: https://www.granduomocatania.it/Sinfonia del Gusto: https://www.sinfoniadelgustoroma.it/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit japanwildlife.substack.com

Fluent Fiction - Dutch: From Tulips to Cherry Blossoms: A Dance Across Cultures Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/nl/episode/2025-03-27-22-34-02-nl Story Transcript:Nl: In een klein dorp in Hokkaido, Japan, bloeiden de kersenbloesems in de lentezon.En: In a small village in Hokkaido, Japan, the cherry blossoms bloomed in the spring sun.Nl: Het Ainu-dorp was gevuld met traditionele houten huizen, en de mensen bereidden zich voor op een speciale dansvoorstelling.En: The Ainu village was filled with traditional wooden houses, and the people were preparing for a special dance performance.Nl: Casper, een gepassioneerde Nederlandse cultuurenthousiast, was speciaal naar Japan gereisd om meer te leren over de inheemse Ainu-tradities.En: Casper, a passionate Dutch culture enthusiast, had traveled to Japan specifically to learn more about the indigenous Ainu traditions.Nl: Casper liep over het pad dat bedekt was met roze blaadjes.En: Casper walked along the path that was covered with pink petals.Nl: Hij was vol verwachting en een beetje nerveus.En: He was full of anticipation and a bit nervous.Nl: Hij wilde graag deelnemen aan de traditionele Ainu-dans, maar hij kende de stappen en taal nog niet zo goed.En: He wanted to participate in the traditional Ainu dance, but he did not yet know the steps and language very well.Nl: Zijn hart klopte sneller bij het idee dat hij misschien niet kon bijhouden.En: His heart beat faster at the thought that he might not be able to keep up.Nl: Anouk, een ervaren danser, stond elegant in haar kleurrijke kleding bij de oefenplaats.En: Anouk, an experienced dancer, stood elegantly in her colorful clothing at the practice area.Nl: Zij had deze dans al vaak uitgevoerd en haar bewegingen waren sierlijk en precies.En: She had performed this dance many times, and her movements were graceful and precise.Nl: Casper besloot om haar zorgvuldig te observeren.En: Casper decided to observe her carefully.Nl: Hij bleef dichtbij, probeerde haar bewegingen te volgen met zijn ogen.En: He stayed close, trying to follow her movements with his eyes.Nl: Daarnaast zocht Casper hulp bij Sven, een lokale inwoner die een beetje Nederlands sprak.En: Additionally, Casper sought help from Sven, a local resident who spoke a bit of Dutch.Nl: Sven hielp Casper door de danspassen uit te leggen en vertaalde geduldig de instructies van de dansleider.En: Sven helped Casper by explaining the dance steps and patiently translated the dance leader's instructions.Nl: De grote dag van de voorstelling was aangebroken.En: The big day of the performance had arrived.Nl: Het dorpsplein was gevuld met mensen.En: The village square was filled with people.Nl: Iedereen had een plek gevonden om de dansers te zien.En: Everyone had found a place to watch the dancers.Nl: Casper stond in de rij naast Anouk.En: Casper stood in line next to Anouk.Nl: De muziek begon en hij bewoog mee, zich concentrerend op elke stap.En: The music began, and he moved along, concentrating on every step.Nl: Alles ging goed totdat hij plotseling een stap vergat.En: Everything was going well until he suddenly forgot a step.Nl: In een oogwenk improviseerde Casper een vloeiende beweging.En: In an instant, Casper improvised a fluid movement.Nl: Het leek wel alsof het een nieuw onderdeel was van de dans.En: It seemed as if it was a new part of the dance.Nl: De muziek vulde de lucht samen met het geluid van aanmoedigende kreten van het publiek.En: The music filled the air along with the sound of encouraging cheers from the audience.Nl: Casper voelde zijn zenuwen wegvallen en een glimlach verscheen op zijn gezicht.En: Casper felt his nerves fade away, and a smile appeared on his face.Nl: Na de voorstelling bedankten de dorpelingen Casper voor zijn oprechte poging en betrokkenheid.En: After the performance, the villagers thanked Casper for his sincere effort and involvement.Nl: Ze gaven hem een klein, ambachtelijk geschenk, als teken van hun waardering en erkenning.En: They gave him a small, handcrafted gift as a token of their appreciation and recognition.Nl: Het was een houtsnijwerk van een beer, het symbool van kracht en moed in hun cultuur.En: It was a wood carving of a bear, the symbol of strength and courage in their culture.Nl: Casper voelde zich trots en gelukkig.En: Casper felt proud and happy.Nl: Hij had niet alleen een nieuwe cultuur ervaren, maar had ook geleerd hoe belangrijk het is om flexibel te zijn.En: He had not only experienced a new culture but also learned how important it is to be flexible.Nl: Zijn verlangen om zich met andere culturen te verbinden was sterker dan ooit.En: His desire to connect with other cultures was stronger than ever.Nl: De warme ervaring in het Ainu-dorp zou hij nooit vergeten.En: The warm experience in the Ainu village was something he would never forget.Nl: Het landschap van Hokkaido, de geur van kersenbloesems en de klanken van de Ainu-muziek bleven in zijn hart.En: The landscape of Hokkaido, the scent of cherry blossoms, and the sounds of Ainu music remained in his heart. Vocabulary Words:village: dorpcherry blossoms: kersenbloesemsindigenous: inheemseanticipation: verwachtingnervous: nerveusparticipate: deelnemenelegantly: elegantgraceful: sierlijkprecise: preciesobserve: observerenfluid: vloeiendencouraging cheers: aanmoedigende kretensincere: oprechteinvolvement: betrokkenheidhandcrafted: ambachtelijktoken: tekenappreciation: waarderingrecognition: erkenningwood carving: houtsnijwerksymbol: symboolstrength: krachtcourage: moedflexible: flexibeldesire: verlangenconnect: verbindenexperience: ervaringlandscape: landschapscent: geursounds: klankenremained: bleven

Our guest today is Tim Anderson who is a chef and food writer based in London.  Tim's early interest in Japanese food led him to global adventures in L.A., Japan and the U.K.  A bowl of ramen he encountered in L.A. fueled his passion for studying it and he moved to Fukuoka, Japan.  Then he opened his ramen restaurants in the U.K. after winning the popular MasterChef competition on BBC One.  Now he writes and communicates his insight into various aspects of Japanese food culture. It is remarkable and inspiring to see how Tim's life unfolded into consecutive, unexpected lucky events through his interest in Japanese food. In this episode, we will discuss how Tim got into Japanese food, his life in Japan studying ramen and Japanese food culture, how he won the MasterChef competition with his Japanese food knowledge and skills, his excellent books that cover a variety of topics,  including Nanban dishes and Hokkaido food culture and much, much more!!!

This week on for our new tales we have two stories from the Ainu people of Japan - 'The Kind Giver and the Grudging Giver.' and 'The Man who was changed into a Fox.' To get more full stories and early access to all of the Folktale Project subscribe on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/folktaleproject!  

After centuries of forced assimilation, Japan's indigenous Ainu population, language and culture are emerging once more thanks to anime, the country's thriving sub-cultures and YouTube. This interview was first published in 2019. - 2月21日は、International Mother Language Day、国際母語デーです。関根摩耶さんは、アイヌであることを公表し、アイヌ語やアイヌ文化について発信しています。イベントに参加するため、2019年にシドニーに来豪した際のインタビューです。

It is truly an honor to have author Fritz Zimmernam with us tonight, he writes and speaks to topics that really resonate with me and my spirit. Independent researcher, author and antiquities preservationist Fritz Zimmerman, B.A. presents 10 years of research in his two-volume work, The Nephilim Chronicles.  It is the most complete reporting of ALL of the giant skeletons unearthed throughout the ages from across the globe.   The Nephilim Chronicles: Fallen Angels in the Ohio Valley (Volume I) trails the origins of the “Bedrock Race”, debunking Beringia, providing undeniable evidence and outlining – completely – the Nephilim's migration across the globe, as chronicled by mounds and earthworks they built and symbolism they used.  Those seeking factual, historical data on information such as:   who really built Stonehenge, and many other earthworks throughout the world most complete list of giant skeletons and artifacts – none have chronicled this many origins of New Age beliefs – how pre-Native American Indians really worshiped origins of numerology, and how it was used to align mounds and earthworks perfectly towards the rising and setting suns The Nephilim why the Beringia land bridge theory is a myth origins of Earth Mother worship, and common symbolism still used today origins of Sky/Sun Father worship and symbolism used today the Amorites of the Bible, and the Ainu …..and much more! (Graphic te Nephilim chronicles)  

This episode we are taking a trip down the Silk Road--or perhaps even the Spice Road--as we investigate references in this reign to individuals from "Tukara" who seem to have arrived in Yamato and stayed for a while. For photos and more, see our podcast webpage:  https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-119 Rough Transcript   Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  This is episode 119: The Question of “Tukara”   Traveling upon the ocean was never exactly safe.  Squalls and storms could arise at any time, and there was always a chance that high winds and high waves could capsize a vessel.  Most people who found themselves at the mercy of the ocean could do little but hold on and hope that they could ride out whatever adverse conditions they met with.  Many ships were lost without any explanation or understanding of what happened to them.  They simply left the port and never came back home. And so when the people saw the boat pulling up on the shores of Himuka, on the island of Tsukushi, they no doubt empathized with the voyagers' plight.  The crew looked bedraggled, and their clothing was unfamiliar.  There were both men and women, and this didn't look like your average fishing party.  If anything was clear it was this:  These folk weren't from around here. The locals brought out water and food.  Meanwhile, runners were sent with a message:  foreigners had arrived from a distant place.  They then waited to see what the government was going to do.     We are still in the second reign of Takara Hime, aka Saimei Tenno.  Last episode we talked about the palaces constructed in Asuka, as well as some of the stone works that have been found from the period, and which appear to be referenced in the Nihon Shoki—at least tangentially.   The episodes before that, we looked at the expeditions the court sent to the far north of Honshu and even past Honshu to Hokkaido. This episode we'll again be looking past the main islands of the archipelago to lands beyond.  Specifically, we are going to focus on particularly intriguing references to people from a place called “Tukara”.  We'll talk about some of the ideas about where that might be, even if they're a bit  far-fetched. That's because Tukara touches on the state of the larger world that Yamato was a part of, given its situation on the far eastern edge of what we know today as the Silk Road.  And is this just an excuse for me to take a detour into some of the more interesting things going on outside the archipelago?  No comment. The first mention of a man from Tukara actually comes at the end of the reign of Karu, aka Koutoku Tennou.  We are told that in the fourth month of 654 two men and two women of “Tukara” and one woman of “Sha'e” were driven by a storm to Hiuga.  Then, three years later, the story apparently picks up again, though possibly referring to a different group of people.  On the 3rd day of the 7th month of 657, so during the second reign of Takara Hime, we now hear about two men and four women of the Land of Tukara—no mention of Sha'e—who drifted to Tsukushi, aka Kyushu.  The Chronicles mention that these wayfarers first drifted to the island of Amami, and we'll talk about that in a bit, but let's get these puzzle pieces on the table, first.  After those six people show up, the court sent for them by post-horse.  They must have arrived by the 15th of that same month, because we are told that a model of Mt. Sumi was erected and they—the people from Tukara—were entertained, although there is another account that says they were from “Tora”. The next mention is the 10th day of the 3rd month of 659, when a Man of Tukara and his wife, again woman of Sha'e, arrived.  Then, on the 16th day of the 7th month of 660, we are told that the man of Tukara, Kenzuhashi Tatsuna, desired to return home and asked for an escort.  He planned to pay his respects at the Great Country, i.e. the Tang court, and so he left his wife behind, taking tens of men with him. All of these entries might refer to people regularly reaching Yamato from the south, from a place called “Tukara”.  Alternately, this is a single event whose story has gotten distributed over several years, as we've seen happen before with the Chronicles.  .  One of the oddities of these entries is that the terms used are not consistent.  “Tukara” is spelled at least two different ways, suggesting that it wasn't a common placename like Silla or Baekje, or even the Mishihase.  That does seem to suggest that the Chronicles were phonetically trying to find kanji, or the Sinitic characters, to match with the name they were hearing.   I would also note that “Tukara” is given the status of a “kuni”—a land, country, or state—while “sha'e”, where some of the women are said to come from, is just that, “Sha'e”. As for the name of at least one person from Tokara, Kenzuhashi Tatsuna, that certainly sounds like someone trying to fit a non-Japanese name into the orthography of the time.  “Tatsuna” seems plausibly Japanese, but “Kenzuhashi” doesn't fit quite as well into the naming structures we've seen to this point. The location of “Tukara” and “Sha'e” are not clear in any way, and as such there has been a lot of speculation about them.  While today there are placenames that fit those characters, whether or not these were the places being referenced at the time is hard to say. I'll actually start with “Sha'e”, which Aston translates as Shravasti, the capital of the ancient Indian kingdom of Kosala, in modern Uttar Pradesh.  It is also where the Buddha, Siddartha Gautama, is said to have lived most of his life after his enlightenment.  In Japanese this is “Sha'e-jou”, and like many Buddhist terms it likely comes through Sanskrit to Middle Chinese to Japanese.  One—or possibly two—women from Shravasti making the journey to Yamato in the company of a man (or men) from Tukara seems quite the feat.  But then, where is “Tukara”? Well, we have at least three possible locations that I've seen bandied about.  I'll address them from the most distant to the closest option.  These three options were Tokharistan, Dvaravati, and the Tokara islands. We'll start with Tokharistan on the far end of the Silk Road.  And to start, let's define what that “Silk Road” means.  We've talked in past episodes about the “Western Regions”, past the Han-controlled territories of the Yellow River.   The ancient Tang capital of Chang'an was built near to the home of the Qin dynasty, and even today you can go and see both the Tang tombs and the tomb of Qin Shihuangdi and his terracotta warriors, all within a short distance of Xi'an, the modern city built on the site of Chang'an.  That city sits on a tributary of the Yellow River, but the main branch turns north around the border of modern Henan and the similarly sounding provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi.  Following it upstream, the river heads north into modern Mongolia, turns west, and then heads south again, creating what is known as the Ordos loop.  Inside is the Ordos plateau, also known as the Ordos Basin.  Continuing to follow the Yellow river south, on the western edge of the Ordos, you travel through Ningxia and Gansu—home of the Hexi, or Gansu, Corridor.  That route eventually takes to Yumenguan, the Jade Gate, and Dunhuang.  From there roads head north or south along the edge of the Taklamakan desert in the Tarim basin.  The southern route travels along the edge of the Tibetan plateau, while the northern route traversed various oasis cities through Turpan, Kucha, to the city of Kashgar.  Both routes made their way across the Pamirs and the Hindu Kush into South Asia. We've brought up the Tarim Basin and the Silk Road a few times.  This is the path that Buddhism appears to have taken to get to the Yellow River Basin and eventually to the Korean Peninsula and eastward to the Japanese archipelago.  But I want to go a bit more into detail on things here, as there is an interesting side note about “Tukara” that I personally find rather fascinating, and thought this would be a fun time to share. Back in Episode 79 we talked about how the Tarim basin used to be the home to a vast inland sea, which was fed by the meltwater from the Tianshan and Kunlun mountains.  This sea eventually dwindled, though it was still large enough to be known to the Tang as the Puchang Sea.  Today it has largely dried up, and it is mostly just the salt marshes of Lop Nur that remain.  Evidence for this larger sea, however, can be observed in some of the burials found around the Tarim basin.  These burials include the use of boat-shaped structures—a rather curious feature to be found out in the middle of the desert. And it is the desert that was left behind as the waters receded that is key to much of what we know about life in the Tarim basin, as it has proven to be quite excellent at preserving organic material.  This includes bodies, which dried out and naturally turned into mummies, including not only the wool clothing they were wearing, but also features such as hair and even decoration. These “Tarim mummies”, as they have been collectively called, date from as early as 2100 BCE all the way up through the period of time we're currently talking about, and have been found in several desert sites: Xiaohe, the earliest yet discovered; Loulan, near Lop Nur on the east of the Tarim Basin, dating from around 1800 BCE; Cherchen, on the southern edge of the Tarim Basin, dating from roughly 1000 BCE; and too many others to go into in huge detail. The intriguing thing about these burials is that  many of them don't have features typically associated with people of ethnic Han—which is to say traditional Chinese—ancestry, nor do they necessarily have the features associated with the Xiongnu and other steppe nomads.  In addition they have colorful clothing  made from wool and leather, with vivid designs.  Some bodies near Hami, just east of the basin, were reported to have blonde to light brown hair, and their cloth showed radically different patterns from that found at Cherchen and Loulan, with patterns that could reasonably be compared with the plaids now common in places like Scotland and Ireland, and previously found in the Hallstadt salt mine in Central Europe from around 3500 BCE, from which it is thought the Celtic people may have originated. At the same time that people—largely Westerners— were studying these mummies, another discovery in the Tarim basin was also making waves.  This was the discovery of a brand new language.  Actually, it was two languages—or possibly two dialects of a language—in many manuscripts, preserved in Kucha and Turpan.  Once again, the dry desert conditions proved invaluable to maintain these manuscripts, which date from between the late 4th or early 5th century to the 8th century.  They are written with a Brahmic script, similar to that used for Sanskrit, which appears in the Tarim Basin l by about the 2nd century, and we were able to translate them because many of the texts were copies of Buddhist scripture, which greatly helped scholars in deciphering the languages.  These two languages were fascinating because they represented an as-yet undiscovered branch of the Indo-European language family.  Furthermore, when compared to other Indo-European languages, they did not show nearly as much similarity with their neighbors as with languages on the far western end of the Indo-European language family.  That is to say they were thought to be closer to Celtic and Italic languages than something like Indo-Iranian.  And now for a quick diversion within the diversion:  “Centum” and “Satem” are general divisions of the Indo-European language families that was once thought to indicate a geographic divide in the languages.  At its most basic, as Indo-European words changed over time, a labiovelar sound, something like “kw”,  tended to evolve in one of two ways.  In the Celtic and Italic languages, the “kw” went to a hard “k” sound, as represented in the classical pronunciation of the Latin word for 100:  Centum.  That same word, in the Avestan language—of the Indo-Iranian tree—is pronounced as “Satem”, with an “S” sound.  So, you can look at Indo-European languages and divide them generally into “centum” languages, which preserve the hard “k”, or “Satem” languages that preserve the S. With me so far? Getting back to these two newly-found languages in the Tarim Basin, the weird thing is that they were “Centum” languages. Most Centum languages are from pretty far away, though: they are generally found in western Europe or around the Mediterranean, as opposed to the Satem languages, such as Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Armernian, or even Baltic Slavic languages, which are much closer to the Tarim Basin.  So if the theory were true that the “Centum” family of Indo-European languages developed in the West and “Satem” languages developed in the East, then that would seem to indicate that a group of a “Centum” speaking people must have migrated eastward, through the various Satem speaking people, and settled in the Tarim Basin many thousands of years ago. And what evidence do we have of people who look very different from the modern population, living in the Tarim Basin area long before, and wearing clothing similar to what we associated with the progenitors of the Celts?  For many, it seemed to be somewhat obvious, if still incredible, that the speakers of this language were likely the descendants of the mummies who, in the terminology of the time, had been identified as being of Caucasoid ancestry.  A theory developed that these people were an offshoot of a group called the Yamnaya culture, which may have arisen around modern Ukraine as an admixture between the European Hunter Gatherers and the Caucasian Hunter Gatherers, around 3300-2600 BCE.  This was challenged in 2021 when a genetic study was performed on some of the mummies in the Tarim basin, as well as several from the Dzungarian basin, to the northeast.  That study suggested that the people of the Dzungarian basin had genetic ties to the people of the Afanasievo people, from Southern Siberia.  The Afanasievo people are connected to the Yamnayan culture. It should be noted that there has long been a fascination in Western anthropology and related sciences with racial identification—and often not in a healthy way.  As you may recall, the Ainu were identified as “Caucasoid” by some people largely because of things like the men's beards and lighter colored hair, which differ greatly from a large part of the Japanese population.  However, that claim has been repeatedly refuted and debunked. And similarly, the truth is, none of these Tarim mummy burials were in a period of written anything, so we can't conclusively associated them with these fascinating Indo-European languages.  There are thousands of years between the various burials and the manuscripts. These people  left no notes stashed in pockets that give us their life story.   And Language is not Genetics is not Culture.  Any group may adopt a given language for a variety of reasons.  .  Still, given what we know, it is possible that the ancient people of the Tarim basin spoke some form of “Proto-Kuchean”, but it is just as likely that this language was brought in by people from Dzungaria at some point. So why does all this matter to us?  Well, remember how we were talking about someone from Tukara?  The Kuchean language, at least, is referred to in an ancient Turkic source as belonging to “Twgry”, which led several scholars to draw a link between this and the kingdom and people called Tukara and the Tokharoi.  This leads us on another bit of a chase through history. Now if you recall, back in Episode 79, we talked about Zhang Qian.  In 128 BCE, he attempted to cross the Silk Road through the territory of the Xiongnu on a mission for the Han court.  Some fifty years earlier, the Xiongnu had defeated the Yuezhi.  They held territory in the oasis towns along the north of the Taklamakan dessert, from about the Turpan basin west to the Pamirs. The Xiongnu were causing problems for the Han, who thought that if they could contact the remaining Yuezhi they could make common cause with them and harass the Xiongnu from both sides.  Zhang Qian's story is quite remarkable: he started out with an escort of some 99 men and a translator.  Unfortunately, he was captured and enslaved by the Xiongnu during his journey, and he is even said to have had a wife and fathered a child.  He remained a captive for thirteen years, but nonetheless, he was able to escape with his family and he made it to the Great Yuezhi on the far side of the Pamirs, but apparently the Yuezhi weren't interested in a treaty against the Xiongnu.  The Pamirs were apparently enough of a barrier and they were thriving in their new land.  And so Zhang Qian crossed back again through Xiongnu territory, this time taking the southern route around the Tarim basin.  He was still captured by the Xiongnu, who spared his life.  He escaped, again, two years later, returning to the Han court.  Of the original 100 explorers, only two returned: Zhang Qian and his translator.  While he hadn't obtained an alliance, he was able to detail the cultures of the area of the Yuezhi. Many feel that the Kushan Empire, which is generally said to have existed from about 30 to 375 CE,was formed from the Kushana people who were part of the Yuezhi who fled the Xiongnu. In other words, they were originally from further north, around the Tarim Basin, and had been chased out and settled down in regions that included Bactria (as in the Bactrian camel).  Zhang Qian describes reaching the Dayuan Kingdom in the Ferghana valley, then traveling south to an area that was the home of the Great Yuezhi or Da Yuezhi.  And after the Kushan empire fell, we know there was a state in the upper regions of the Oxus river, centered on the city of Balkh, in the former territory of the Kushan empire. known as “Tokara”.  Geographically, this matches up how Zhang Qian described the home of the Da Yuezhi.  Furthermore, some scholars reconstruct the reading of the Sinic characters used for “Yuezhi” as originally having an optional reading of something like “Togwar”, but that is certainly not the most common reconstructed reading of those characters.  Greek sources describe this area as the home of the Tokharoi, or the Tokaran People.  The term “Tukhara” is also found in Sanskrit, and this kingdom  was also said to have sent ambassadors to the Southern Liang and Tang dynasties. We aren't exactly certain of where these Tokharan people came from, but as we've just described, there's a prevailing theory that they were the remnants of the Yuezhi and Kushana people originally from the Tarim Basin.  We know that in the 6th century they came under the rule of the Gokturk Khaganate, which once spanned from the Liao river basin to the Black Sea.  In the 7th and 8th centuries they came under the rule of the Tang Empire, where they were known by very similar characters as those used to write “Tukara” in the Nihon Shoki.  On top of this, we see Tokharans traveling the Silk Road, all the way to the Tang court.  Furthermore, Tokharans that settled in Chang'an took the surname “Zhi” from the ethnonym “Yuezhi”, seemingly laying claim to and giving validation to the identity used back in the Han dynasty.   So, we have a Turkic record describing the Kuchean people (as in, from Kucha in the Tarim Basin) as “Twgry”, and we have a kingdom in Bactria called Tokara and populated (according to the Greeks) by people called Tokharoi.  You can see how this one term has been a fascinating rabbit hole in the study of the Silk Roads and their history.  And some scholars understandably suggested that perhaps the Indo-European languags found in Kucha and Turpan  were actually related to this “Tokhara” – and therefore  should be called “Tocharian”, specifically Tocharian A (Kuchean) or Tocharian B (Turfanian). The problem is that if the Tokharans were speaking “Tocharian” then you wouldn't expect to just see it at Kucha and Turpan, which are about the middle of the road between Tokhara and the Tang dynasty, and which had long been under Gokturk rule.  You would also expect to see it in the areas of Bactria associated with Tokhara.  However, that isn't what we see.  Instead, we see that Bactria was the home of local Bactrian language—an Eastern Iranian language, which, though it is part of the Indo European language family, it is not closely related to Tocharian as far as we can tell. It is possible that the people of Kucha referred to themselves as something similar to “Twgry”, or “Tochari”, but we should also remember that comes from a Turkic source, and it could have been an exonym not related to what they called themselves.  I should also note that language is not people.  It is also possible that a particular ethnonym was maintained separately by two groups that may have been connected politically but which came to speak different languages for whatever reason.   There could be a connection between the names, or it could even be that the same or similar exonym was used for different groups. So, that was a lot and a bit of a ramble, but a lot of things that I find interesting—even if they aren't as connected as they may appear.  We have the Tarim mummies, which are, today, held at a museum in modern Urumqi.  Whether they had any connection with Europe or not, they remain a fascinating study for the wealth of material items found in and around the Tarim basin and similar locations.  And then there is the saga of the Tocharian languages—or perhaps more appropriately the Kuchean-Turfanian languages: Indo-European languages that seem to be well outside of where we would expect to find them. Finally, just past the Pamirs, we get to the land of Tokhara or Tokharistan.  Even without anything else, we know that they had contact with the court.  Perhaps our castaways were from this land?  The name is certainly similar to what we see in the Nihon Shoki, using some of the same characters. All in all, art and other information suggest that the area of the Tarim basin and the Silk Road in general were quite cosmopolitan, with many different people from different regions of the world.  Bactria retained Hellenic influences ever since the conquests of Alexander of Macedonia, aka Alexander the Great, and Sogdian and Persian traders regularly brought their caravans through the region to trade.  And once the Tang dynasty controlled all of the routes, that just made travel that much easier, and many people traveled back and forth. So from that perspective, it is possible that one or more people from Tukhara may have made the crossing from their home all the way to the Tang court, but if they did so, the question still remains: why would they be in a boat? Utilizing overland routes, they would have hit Chang'an or Louyang, the dual capitals of the Tang empire, well before they hit the ocean.  However, the Nihon Shoki says that these voyagers first came ashore at Amami and then later says that they were trying to get to the Tang court. Now there was another “Silk Road” that isn't as often mentioned: the sea route, following the coast of south Asia, around through the Malacca strait and north along the Asian coast.  This route is sometimes viewed more in terms of the “spice” road If these voyagers set out to get to the Tang court by boat, they would have to have traveled south to the Indian Ocean—possibly traveling through Shravasti or Sha'e, depending on the route they chose to take—and then around the Malacca strait—unless they made it on foot all the way to Southeast Asia.  And then they would have taken a boat up the coast. Why do that instead of taking the overland route?  They could likely have traveled directly to the Tang court over the overland silk road.  Even the from Southeast Asia could have traveled up through Yunnan and made their way to the Tang court that way.  In fact, Zhang Qian had wondered something similar when he made it to the site of the new home of the Yuezhi, in Bactria.  Even then, in the 2nd century, he saw products in the marketplace that he identified as coming from around Szechuan.  That would mean south of the Han dynasty, and he couldn't figure out how those trade routes might exist and they weren't already known to the court.  Merchants would have had to traverse the dangerous mountains if they wanted to avoid being caught by the Xiongnu, who controlled the entire region. After returning to the Han court, Zhang Qian actually went out on another expedition to the south, trying to find the southern trade routes, but apparently was not able to do so.  That said, we do see, in later centuries, the trade routes open up between the area of the Sichuan basin and South Asia.  We also see the migrations of people further south, and there may have even been some Roman merchants who traveled up this route to find their way to the Han court, though those accounts are not without their own controversy. In either case, whether by land or sea, these trade routes were not always open.  In some cases, seasonal weather, such as monsoons, might dictate movement back and forth, while political realities were also a factor.  Still, it is worth remembering that even though most people were largely concerned with affairs in their own backyard, the world was still more connected than people give it credit for.  Tang dynasty pottery made its way to the east coast of Africa, and ostriches were brought all the way to Chang'an. As for the travelers from Tukhara and why they would take this long and very round-about method of travel, it is possible that they were just explorers, seeking new routes, or even on some kind of pilgrimage.  Either way, they would have been way off course. But if they did pass through Southeast Asia, that would match up with another theory about what “Tukara” meant: that it actually refers to the Dvaravati kingdom in what is now modern Thailand.  The Dvaravati Kingdom was a Mon political entity that rose up around the 6th century.  It even sent embassies to the Sui and Tang courts.  This is even before the temple complexes in Siem Reap, such as Preah Ko and the more famous Angkor Wat.  And it was during this time that the ethnic Tai people are thought to have started migrating south from Yunnan, possibly due to pressures from the expanding Sui and Tang empires.  Today, most of what remains of the Dvaravati kingdom are the ruins of ancient stone temples, showing a heavy Indic influence, and even early Buddhist practices as well.  “Dvaravati” may not actually be the name of the kingdom but it comes from an inscription on a coin found from about that time.  The Chinese refer to it as  “To-lo-po-ti” in contemporary records.  It may not even have been a kingdom, but  more of a confederation of city-states—it is hard to piece everything together.  That it was well connected, though, is clear from the archaeological record.  In Dvaravati sites, we see coins from as far as Rome, and we even have a lamp found in modern Pong Tuk that appears to match similar examples from the Byzantine Empire in the 6th century.  Note that this doesn't mean it arrived in the 6th century—similarly with the coins—but the Dvaravati state lasted until the 12th century. If that was the case, perhaps there were some women from a place called “Shravasti” or similar, especially given the Indic influence in the region. Now, given the location of the Dvaravati, it wouldn't be so farfetched to think that someone might sail up from the Gulf of Thailand and end up off-course, though it does mean sailing up the entire Ryukyuan chain or really running off course and finding yourself adrift on the East China sea.  And if they were headed to the Tang court, perhaps they did have translators or knew Chinese, since Yamato was unlikely to know the Mon language of Dvaravati and people from Dvaravati probably wouldn't know the Japonic language.  Unless, perhaps, they were communicating through Buddhist priests via Sanskrit. We've now heard two possibilities for Tukara, both pretty far afield: the region of Tokara in Bactria, and the Dvaravati kingdom in Southeast Asia.  That said, the third and simplest explanation—and the one favored by Aston in his translation of the Nihon Shoki—is that Tukara is actually referring to a place in the Ryukyu island chain.  Specifically, there is a “Tokara” archipelago, which spans between Yakushima and Amami-Oshima.  This is part of the Nansei islands, and the closest part of the Ryukyuan island chain to the main Japanese archipelago.  This is the most likely theory, and could account for the entry talking about Amami.  It is easy to see how sailors could end up adrift, too far north, and come to shore in Hyuga, aka Himuka, on the east side of Kyushu.  It certainly would make more sense for them to be from this area of the Ryukyuan archipelago than from anywhere else.  From Yakushima to Amami-Oshima is the closest part of the island chain to Kyushu, and as we see in the entry from the Shoku Nihongi, those three places seem to have been connected as being near to Japan.  So what was going on down there, anyway? Well, first off, let's remember that the Ryukyuan archipelago is not just the island of Okinawa, but a series of islands that go from Kyushu all the way to the island of Taiwan.  Geographically speaking, they are all part of the same volcanic ridge extending southward.  The size of the islands and their distance from each other does vary, however, creating some natural barriers in the form of large stretches of open water, which have shaped how various groups developed on the islands. Humans came to the islands around the same time they were reaching the Japanese mainland.  In fact, some of our only early skeletal remains for early humans in Japan actually come from either the Ryukyuan peninsula in the south or around Hokkaido to the north, and that has to do with the acidity of the soil in much of mainland Japan. Based on genetic studies, we know that at least two groups appear to have inhabited the islands from early times.  One group appears to be related to the Jomon people of Japan, while the other appears to be more related to the indigenous people of Taiwan, who, themselves, appear to have been the ancestors of many Austronesian people.  Just as some groups followed islands to the south of Taiwan, some appear to have headed north.  However, they only made it so far.  As far as I know there is no evidence they made it past Miyakoshima, the northernmost island in the Sakishima islands.  Miyako island is separated from the next large island, Okinawa, by a large strait, known as the Miyako Strait, though sometimes called the Kerama gap in English.  It is a 250km wide stretch of open ocean, which is quite the distance for anyone to travel, even for Austronesian people of Taiwan, who had likely not developed the extraordinary navigational technologies that the people who would become the Pacific Islanders would discover. People on the Ryukyu island chain appear to have been in contact with the people of the Japanese archipelago since at least the Jomon period, and some of the material artifacts demonstrate a cultural connection.  That was likely impacted by the Akahoya eruption, about 3500 years ago, and then re-established at a later date.  We certainly see sea shells and corals trade to the people of the Japanese islands from fairly early on. Unlike the people on the Japanese archipelago, the people of the Ryukyuan archipelago did not really adopt the Yayoi and later Kofun culture.  They weren't building large, mounded tombs, and they retained the character of a hunter-gatherer society, rather than transitioning to a largely agricultural way of life.  The pottery does change in parts of Okinawa, which makes sense given the connections between the regions.  Unfortunately, there is a lot we don't know about life in the islands around this time.  We don't exactly have written records, other than things like the entries in the Nihon Shoki, and those are hardly the most detailed of accounts.  In the reign of Kashikiya Hime, aka Suiko Tennou, we see people from Yakushima, which is, along with Tanegashima, one of the largest islands at the northern end of the Ryukyu chain, just before you hit Kagoshima and the Osumi peninsula on the southern tip of Kyushu.  The islands past that would be the Tokara islands, until you hit the large island of Amami. So you can see how it would make sense that the people from “Tokara” would make sense to be from the area between Yakushima and Amami, and in many ways this explanation seems too good to be true.  There are a only a few things that make this a bit peculiar. First, this doesn't really explain the woman from “Sha'e” in any compelling way that I can see.  Second, the name, Kenzuhashi Tatsuna doesn't seem to fit with what we generally know about early Japonic names, and the modern Ryukyuan language certainly is a Japonic language, but there are still plenty of possible explanations.  There is also the connection of Tokara with “Tokan”, which is mentioned in an entry in 699 in the Shoku Nihongi, the Chronicle that follows on, quite literally to the Nihon Shoki.  Why would they call it “Tokan” instead of “Tokara” so soon after?  Also, why would these voyagers go back to their country by way of the Tang court?  Unless, of course, that is where they were headed in the first place.  In which case, did the Man from Tukara intentionally leave his wife in Yamato, or was she something of a hostage while they continued on their mission?   And so those are the theories.  The man from “Tukara” could be from Tokhara, or Tokharistan, at the far end of the Silk Road.  Or it could have been referring to the Dvaravati Kingdom, in modern Thailand.  Still, in the end, Occam's razor suggests that the simplest answer is that these were actually individuals from the Tokara islands in the Ryukyuan archipelago.  It is possible that they were from Amami, not that they drifted there.  More likely, a group from Amami drifted ashore in Kyushu as they were trying to find a route to the Tang court, as they claimed.  Instead they found themselves taking a detour to the court of Yamato, instead. And we could have stuck with that story, but I thought that maybe, just maybe, this would be a good time to reflect once again on how connected everything was.  Because even if they weren't from Dvaravati, that Kingdom was still trading with Rome and with the Tang.  And the Tang controlled the majority of the overland silk road through the Tarim basin.  We even know that someone from Tukhara made it to Chang'an, because they were mentioned on a stele that talked about an Asian sect of Christianity, the “Shining Religion”, that was praised and allowed to set up shop in the Tang capital, along with Persian Manicheans and Zoroastrians.  Regardless of where these specific people may have been from, the world was clearly growing only more connected, and prospering, as well. Next episode we'll continue to look at how things were faring between the archipelago and the continent. Until then thank you for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, please tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website,  SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  

Sailor Noob is the podcast where a Sailor Moon superfan and a total noob go episode by episode through the original Sailor Moon series!Hope is a precious commodity this week as Galaxia stands triumphant over the remains of Earth's defenders! Is there anyone who can stand against the Legendary Sailor Senshi and her campaign of destruction?In this episode, we discuss the Ainu people and their history and culture. We also talk about forgetful princesses, Bluey Time, point broken, Galactic Lampshade Attack, Chibi Wan, Sailor Cop, becoming fecund, abyss gazin', the very last "What Kal Thinks Is Going to Happen", panspermia, when Khabarovsk Krai, eating good with the Ainu, fur debt, getting your punishment beating, the God window, milder wolfsbane, small excrement, throwing yourself on a landmine, and a Lord acton reference?!Chibi Chibi and the Star Serious Lasers!Give the gift of a Sailor Noob Patreon subscription this holiday season!https://www.patreon.com/sailornoob/giftWe're on iTunes and your listening platform of choice! Please subscribe and give us a rating and a review! Arigato gozaimasu!https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sailor-noob/id1486204787Leave us a comment on Spotify!Listen to our new podcast, Mona Lisa Overpod!https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/mona-lisa-overpod--6195851Become a patron of the show and get access to our live-action PGSM, Animedification, Utena, Ghibli, and Evangelion podcasts!http://www.patreon.com/sailornoobPut Sailor Noob merch on your body!http://justenoughtrope.threadless.comSailor Noob is a part of the Just Enough Trope podcast network. Check out our other shows about your favorite pop culture topics and join our Discord!http://www.twitter.com/noob_sailorhttp://www.justenoughtrope.comhttp://www.instagram.com/noob_sailorhttps://discord.gg/Rjc2dZf8Buy us a coffee on Ko-Fi!https://ko-fi.com/justenoughtrope

Fluent Fiction - Japanese: Healing Snow: Yuma's Journey to Embrace Ainu Traditions Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/ja/episode/2025-01-09-08-38-20-ja Story Transcript:Ja: 雪が静かに降る北海道のアイヌの村。En: In an Ainu village in Hokkaido, snow fell quietly.Ja: 人々は木でできた伝統的な家の中で暖をとっていた。En: The people sought warmth inside their traditional wooden houses.Ja: 冬の空気は冷たく、しかし新たな希望を感じさせる。En: The winter air was cold, yet it brought a sense of new hope.Ja: 村では正月の準備が進んでいた。En: Preparations for the New Year were underway in the village.Ja: 家の中、主役のユマは暖かい毛布にくるまれ、窓の外をぼんやり見ていた。En: Inside one of the houses, the main character Yuma was wrapped in a warm blanket, gazing idly out the window.Ja: 彼女の隣には妹のサクラが座って、心配そうに話しかける。En: Next to her sat her younger sister Sakura, who spoke to her worriedly.Ja: 「お姉ちゃん、早く元気にならないと正月のお祝いに間に合わないよ！」En: "Sister, if you don't get well soon, you won't make it in time for the New Year's celebration!"Ja: ユマは、故郷に戻ったばかりだが、なぞの咳の病気に悩まされている。この病気のために村の人々と再び関わることができず、もどかしい思いを抱えていた。En: Yuma had just returned to her hometown but was plagued by a mysterious cough, which made it frustrating for her not to be able to reconnect with the village people.Ja: そこへ、村の治療師ハルトが訪れた。En: Just then, the village healer Harto visited.Ja: 彼は伝統医学の知識が豊富で、しかしかつての失敗から責任感を感じている。En: He was well-versed in traditional medicine but harbored a sense of responsibility from past failures.Ja: 「ユマ、私は君を手伝いたい。伝統の力を信じてみてはどうかな？」En: "Yuma, I want to help you. Why not believe in the power of tradition?"Ja: ユマはしばらく考える。En: Yuma pondered for a while.Ja: 現代医学に頼ろうか、それともアイヌの伝統に従うか。En: Should she rely on modern medicine, or follow the Ainu traditions?Ja: 最終的に彼女は決めた。En: Ultimately, she made her decision.Ja: 「お願いします、ハルトさん。私はこの村の一部でありたい。」En: "Please, Mr. Harto. I want to be a part of this village."Ja: ハルトは準備を始めた。En: Harto began his preparations.Ja: 彼はユマに特別なハーブを調合し、彼女の心を落ち着かせる歌を歌った。En: He concocted special herbs for Yuma and sang a song to soothe her heart.Ja: ユマは少しずつ、ハルトが伝える言葉に耳を傾けた。En: Yuma gradually started listening to Harto's words.Ja: 儀式が進むうち、ユマは不思議なビジョンを見た。En: As the ritual progressed, Yuma had a mysterious vision.Ja: 彼女は村を離れた自分が、過去の思い出に縛られていることに気づく。En: She realized that she had been bound by memories of the past since leaving the village.Ja: 彼女の心の中には「ここに居場所がないのではないか」という不安があった。En: In her heart, there was an anxiety of "perhaps there's no place for me here."Ja: その瞬間、ユマは涙を流した。En: In that moment, Yuma shed tears.Ja: しかし、その涙は徐々に彼女の心を洗い流し、重かった心が軽くなった。En: However, those tears gradually washed away her fears, and her heavy heart became light.Ja: 儀式が終わると、彼女は普通に呼吸できるようになっていた。En: When the ritual concluded, she found she could breathe normally again.Ja: 新年の朝、ユマは目を覚まし、以前よりも元気だった。En: On New Year's morning, Yuma awoke feeling healthier than before.Ja: 彼女は村の正月のお祝いに参加することができた。En: She was able to partake in the village's New Year celebrations.Ja: サクラと一緒に雪の村中を歩きながら、彼女は強く、そして故郷とのつながりを感じた。En: Walking through the snow-covered village with Sakura, she felt a deep connection to her homeland.Ja: みんなと共に、伝統的な踊りを楽しみながら、ユマはもう一度心の中でつぶやいた。En: Along with everyone else, she enjoyed the traditional dances.Ja: 「ここが私の居場所。この村と共に、私は生きていく。」En: "This is my place. Together with this village, I will live."Ja: ユマは自分を受け入れ、村の一員としての自信を取り戻した。En: Yuma accepted herself and regained her confidence as a member of the village.Ja: この冬の経験は、彼女をさらに強くし、伝統と現代のバランスを学んだのだった。En: This winter experience had strengthened her and taught her the balance between tradition and modernity.Ja: 彼女は誇りを持って再び村へと歩み出した。En: With pride, she stepped forward into the village once again. Vocabulary Words:village: 村quietly: 静かにhometown: 故郷plagued: 悩まされているmysterious: なぞのreconnect: 再び関わるhealer: 治療師well-versed: 知識が豊富でtradition: 伝統pondered: 考えるrely: 頼るconcocted: 調合しsoothe: 落ち着かせるritual: 儀式vision: ビジョンbound: 縛られているanxiety: 不安tears: 涙fears: 恐れpartake: 参加するconnection: つながりaccepted: 受け入れconfidence: 自信member: 一員experience: 経験balance: バランスpride: 誇りstep forward: 歩み出したwooden: 木でできたblanket: 毛布

Fluent Fiction - Japanese: Sakura's Dance: Embracing Ainu Roots in a Winter Village Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/ja/episode/2025-01-09-23-34-02-ja Story Transcript:Ja: 澄んだ冬の空の下、雪に包まれたアイヌの村が静かに佇んでいます。En: Under the clear winter sky, an Ainu village, wrapped in snow, stands quietly.Ja: 伝統的な家々が新年の装飾で飾られ、煙が煙突から立ち上ります。En: Traditional houses are decorated with New Year's ornaments, and smoke rises from the chimneys.Ja: そこに、若い女性、さくらが訪れました。En: A young woman named Sakura has arrived there.Ja: 彼女は、初めて自分のルーツに触れるため、家族の再会に参加しますが、少し不安を感じています。En: She is participating in a family reunion to connect with her roots for the first time, but she feels a bit anxious.Ja: さくらは村の中に立ち、遠い親戚たちと向かい合います。En: Sakura stands in the village, facing her distant relatives.Ja: 「こんにちは、私はさくらです。よろしくお願いします。」と、勇気を出してあいさつしました。En: "Hello, I am Sakura. Pleased to meet you," she greets them courageously.Ja: しかし、みんなが伝統的な服装で楽しそうに話す姿を見て、自分がよそ者のように感じてしまいます。En: However, seeing everyone dressed in traditional clothes and enjoying each other's company, she feels like an outsider.Ja: 彼女の目の前に立っていた中年男性、かいとが優しく話しかけます。En: A middle-aged man standing in front of her, Kaito, speaks to her gently.Ja: 「君はここに来るのを楽しみにしていたと聞きました。新年の祭りに参加してみんなと交流してみましょう。」En: "I heard you were looking forward to coming here. Let's participate in the New Year's festival and interact with everyone."Ja: 冬の寒さが刺さる夜、祭りの時が来ました。En: On a night when winter's cold pierces through, the time for the festival arrives.Ja: 囲炉裏の火が暖かく、村の人々は集まり、伝統的な曲が流れます。En: The hearth fire is warm, villagers gather, and traditional music plays.Ja: みゆき、地元の少女がさくらの手を取り、微笑みながら言いました。「一緒に踊りましょう。心配しないで。」En: Miyuki, a local girl, takes Sakura's hand and says with a smile, "Let's dance together. Don't worry."Ja: 最初は不安でしたが、さくらは徐々にリズムに乗り始めます。En: Initially anxious, Sakura gradually begins to move to the rhythm.Ja: 彼女の心配は少しずつ溶けていき、ダンスは彼女を解放しました。En: Her worries slowly melt away, and the dance frees her.Ja: 自分の中の何かが開花し、家族と一つになったように感じました。En: She feels as if something within her is blooming, and a connection with her family is forming.Ja: 村の人々はさくらの勇気を認め、踊り終わった彼女を温かく迎えます。En: The villagers acknowledge Sakura's courage and warmly welcome her as she finishes dancing.Ja: かいともにっこりと、「君は立派だよ。もっとアイヌの文化を学んでみないか？」と声をかけました。En: Kaito also smiles and says, "You were wonderful. How about learning more about Ainu culture?"Ja: その夜、星空の下で、さくらは暖かさに包まれながら、初めて自分がこの村の一部であると感じました。En: That night, under the starry sky, Sakura, wrapped in warmth, felt for the first time as though she was a part of this village.Ja: 彼女の心には、今まで以上にしっかりとした自信と、ルーツへの感謝が息づいていました。En: In her heart, there was a newfound confidence and gratitude for her roots more than ever before.Ja: そして、新しい年は新しいつながりと共に始まります。En: And so, the new year begins with new connections. Vocabulary Words:decorated: 飾られchimneys: 煙突anxious: 不安courageously: 勇気を出してoutsider: よそ者gently: 優しくpierces: 刺さるgather: 集まりblooming: 開花acknowledge: 認めconfidence: 自信gratitude: 感謝reunion: 再会interact: 交流hearth: 囲炉裏rhythm: リズムmelts: 溶けてconnection: つながりwarmly: 温かくculture: 文化inspiration: インスピレーションembrace: 抱きしめglimpse: 垣間見るtraditions: 伝統heritage: 遺産steadfast: 堅牢solidarity: 連帯enlightenment: 啓発bonds: 絆refreshing: 爽やか

rWotD Episode 2790: Kuril Ainu language Welcome to Random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia’s vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Monday, 23 December 2024 is Kuril Ainu language.Kuril Ainu is an extinct and poorly attested Ainu language of the Kuril Islands. The main inhabited islands were Kunashir, Iturup and Urup in the south, and Shumshu in the north. Other islands either had small populations (such as Paramushir) or were visited for fishing or hunting. There may have been a small mixed Kuril–Itelmen population at the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula.The Ainu of the Kurils appear to have been a relatively recent expansion from Hokkaidō, displacing an indigenous Okhotsk culture, which may have been related to the modern Itelmens. When the Kuril Islands passed to Japanese control in 1875, many of the northern Kuril Ainu evacuated to Ust-Bolsheretsky District in Kamchatka, where about 100 still live. In the decades after the islands passed to Soviet control in 1945, most of the remaining southern Kuril Ainu evacuated to Hokkaidō, where they have since been assimilated.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:07 UTC on Monday, 23 December 2024.For the full current version of the article, see Kuril Ainu language on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Aditi.

This is the second of two episodes talking about the people in the north of the Japanese archipelago:  The Emishi and the Mishihase.  Last episode we covered things from an archaeological overview, looking at the traces of the Epi-Jomon, Satsumon, and Okhotsk Sea cultures.  This episode focuses more on what was actually written in the Nihon Shoki, including a journey to introduce Emishi to the Tang Emperor himself! For more information, check out our podcast blog at: https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-117   Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua and this is episode 117: The People of the North, Part 2 Abe no Hirafu gazed out at the sea, waiting for his opponents to appear.  He had traveled with a fleet to the far north, into a land that was unlike anything that most of his men had ever seen.  They were far away from the rice fields of their home villages.  Up here, the people made their way by hunting and fishing, and the land was much more wild.  Besides the people, the land was also home to giant bears, much larger than anything back in the Home Provinces.  Giant beasts with paws the size of a man's head.  They were truly incredible, but they were not his target this time. As he watched the waves, he saw his prey emerge.  They rowed their ships around the cape, coming out from the defensive position they had previously established.  Where Hirafu's men flew banners made of silk, his opponents had created flags made of feathers, which they hoisted high in their boats.  They were small in number, but they knew this land and these waters.  They were comfortable traveling in the cold and unforgiving seas, and they no doubt had reinforcements.  Hirafu may have had the upper hand, but he knew he couldn't get too cocky. It was probably too much to hope for that the size of his fleet alone would cause them to submit.  If they could be bought off, then perhaps that was best, but Hirafu knew that was probably unlikely.  This was going to be a fight, and Hirafu and his men were ready for it. Before we jump into the episode proper, a quick thank you to Hakucho for donating to support Sengoku Daimyo.  We always appreciate any support, and there is information at the end of each episode on how to help out if you would like to join them. Last episode we introduced the Emishi and the Mishihase and talked about them and their connections to the Yamato and Japanese state, as well as to the modern Ainu people.  We went over a lot of the archaeological findings, and talked about how the Jomon period, uninterrupted in northern Honshu and Hokkaido, eventually gave way to the Epi-Jomon and Satsumon cultures, while the Ohokotsk Sea Culture is observed from around the 5th to 9th centuries, and we talked about how these existed in the lands we know as being connected to the Emishi and the Mishihase people mentioned in the Chronicles. This episode we are going to rely a lot more on the narrative found in the Nihon Shoki, but I wanted to make sure that we had that discussion about the archaeology, first, so that people would have a background.  If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend going back and giving Part 1 a listen. So let's back up a bit, and let's set the scene on the peninsula and the archipelago, and see what led up to this moment. In 654, the sovereign of Yamato, Karu, aka Kotoku Tennou, had passed away in his palace in Naniwa.  His sister, Takara Hime, and other members of the royal family had gathered once more in Naniwa when they caught word of his illness, but their visit was brief.  Karu passed away on the 1st day of the 10th month, and a little over two months later he was buried.  After that, rather than taking up residence again in Naniwa, the court moved back to the old capital of Asuka, where Takara Hime re-ascended the throne.  It was now the year 655, almost a decade since Crown Prince Naka no Oe had orchestrated the murderous coup that had seen the powerful scions of the Soga family cut down in front of Takara Hime and others, causing her to abdicate.  And now, well, perhaps Naka no Oe was comfortable controlling things from behind the scenes, because Takara Hime was once again the one in power—or at least the one sitting on the throne.  And there's a LOT that would go on during this reign according to the chronicles. On the peninsula at this point, the Tang-Goguryeo war was in full swing, with the Tang dynasty regularly harassing Goguryeo.  Goguryeo was at least nominally allied with Baekje, whose ruling family also claimed descent from a shared Buyeo ancestor, and Baekje was, of course, a long time ally of Yamato.  Meanwhile, Silla had thrown their lot in with the Tang dynasty, though as alliances went it was not exactly an alliance of equals – and most alliances came and went as the political winds changed throughout the peninsula. Over time, we'll see some resolution coming to the situation on the peninsula.  But overall, one of the biggest trends is that during Takara Hime's second reign, Yamato was reaching out to a much wider world than it had in the past.  This included connections to the south—to those on the Ryukyu islands, and possibly beyond.  And there were continued efforts to reach out to the Tang empire, with varying degrees of success.  Those that did go would sit and learn at the feet of some of the most famous scholars in the world, including the Buddhist priest, scholar, and traveler, Xuanzang, someone I cannot wait to get into in a future episode, as he really demonstrates just how connected the world had become at this time in a way that is often hard for us to comprehend, today. But there is also plenty happening in the archipelago, and even just in Asuka.  In fact, regardless of what the Chronicles say, there are a lot of ancient monuments and archaeological finds in the Asuka region that aren't directly mentioned in any historical record, but can be generally traced to this era - reminders of this period that are literally carved in stone.  We still have plenty of questions as to just what was going on, but we're starting to see more and more lasting physical traces. Our first relevant entry in the Nihon Shoki for the topic of this episode comes from the 7th month of 655, the year that Takara Hime had taken the throne.  We are told that 99 Northern Emishi and 99 Eastern Emishi were entertained at the court of Naniwa—presumably using the government facilities built during Karu's time.  At the same time, there were 150 envoys from Baekje who were likewise feted.  Caps of honor, of two grades in each case, were bestowed on nine Emishi of Kikafu and six Emishi of Tsugaru.  This is an interesting record, and let's explore what it means for Yamato's view of itself and its own authority.  First, the Baekje and the Emishi are being streated similarly—they both appear to be groups that are from *outside* Yamato conducting some kind of diplomacy with the court.  That said, it is quite clear from the way that the Chronicles deal with them that Yamato viewed each group as distinctly different.  Baekje was Yamato's continental ally, and their primary means through which they could access the continent and all that it had to offer.  They had helped bring Buddhism to the archipelago, and were clearly seen as a civilized country.  The Emishi, on the other hand, were Yamato's own “barbarians”.  They were outside and Yamato clearly saw them as less civilized.  In many ways Yamato viewed the Emishi similar to how the Tang court likely viewed Yamato.  After all, just as Tang literature talked about the differences between the quote-unquote “civilized” center of the empire and the so-called “barbaric” lands beyond their borders, Yamato could place itself in a similar position, simply by placing the Nara Basin at the “Center” and with the Emishi helping define that which was outside.  So in an odd way, this may have been uplifting for Yamato's own self-image. And just as the Tang court enticed border states into their sphere of influence with the promise of imperial titles, the Yamato court similarly was bestowing rank upon the Emishi, making themselves the granter of prestige and recognition.  By being a part of the system, you were rewarded with recognition of your status, something that likely appealed to many. As to the places referenced – Kikafu and Tsugaru – Aston isn't certain about Kikafu, but Tsugaru seems quite obvious as the northernmost tip of Honshu, in modern Aomori prefecture, where the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido are separated by none other than the Tsugaru strait. The fact that the Chroniclers differentiated between the Eastern and Northern Emishi likewise suggests that this was not a monolithic state.  Yamato saw a difference between the Emishi in one part of the archipelago versus the other. Three years later, in the 4th month of 658, Yamato sent one of the largest expeditions against the northeast.  Abe no Omi—other entries name him as Abe no Omi no Hirafu—took 180 ships up north on an expedition to the Emishi.  We are told that he met with the Emishi in the districts of Aita and Nushiro, believed to be in modern Akita prefecture.  Akita prefecture is on the western side of Tohoku, towards the very northern tip.  It is opposite Iwate prefecture on the east, and just below Aomori prefecture, which, at the time, was known as Tsugaru.  This was on the extreme end of Honshu. Both Aita and Nushiro quickly submitted to the Yamato mission.  Still, Abe drew up his ships in order of battle in the bay of Aita, where an envoy from the Emishi named Omuka came forward and made an oath.  He swore that they had no ill-intentions.  The fact that the Emishi were armed with bows and arrows was not because they were at war, but because up in that area of Tohoku, they were all hunters, and so it was their regular tool.  They swore to the gods of Aita bay that they had not raised arms against Yamato, but they were willing to submit to Yamato rule. For his part, Omuka was granted court rank, and local governors were established at Nushiro and Tsugaru—likely meaning they recognized local chieftains and made them responsible for representing the others.  Finally, they summoned the Emishi of Watari no Shima to the shores of Arima, and a great feast was provided.  After that, they all returned home. The  term “Watari no Shima” seems to almost undoubtedly refer to the island of Hokkaido.  “Watari” means to cross, so referring to the “Emishi of Watari no Shima” likely referred to the Emishi on Hokkaido vice those in the Tohoku region. The entire entry seems a bit suspect.  Abe no Hirafu takes an armed party up north and then they all… just sit down and have tea together?  There seems to be a lot of missing context.  Of course, from Yamato's perspective, they were the civilized center.  Does that mean that any violence they committed was simply swept under the rug of history?  Or did they truly meet with such quick submission that only a show of force was necessary? There is one other entry for 658, relative to all of this. It isn't given a specific date, so it is unclear when, exactly it occurred, but it may shed some light.  That entry states that Abe no Hikida no Omi no Hirafu, warden of the land of Koshi, went on an expedition not against the Emishi, but against the Mishihase, or Su-shen.  He is said to have brought back from this trip two live “white bears”, or “shiguma”. So was his expedition really against the Emishi, or was his actual goal to fight the Mishihase, which means he didn't just stop at the end of Honshu, but he continued on to Hokkaido—Watari no Shima—and up at least to Central Hokkaido, where he would have met with the people of the Okhotsk Sea culture—likely the Mishihase of the Chronicle?  Or was he sailing against both? This also leads to numerous other theories as to just what was going on.  While Yamato was pushing on the Emishi from the south, were these Mishihase likewise encroaching on the Emishi in the north?  Were they pushing them south or absorbing those in the farthest north?  There seems to have clearly been a difference and some conflict between them, as evidenced by later entries, which we'll cover in a bit. Quickly, though, I do want to touch on the idea that they brought back two “white bears”.  “Shiguma” appears to refer to a “white bear”, and at its most simplistic understanding, this would seem to refer to a polar bear, but that seems quite a stretch.  Today, polar bears largely live in the arctic regions, out on the permanent sea ice, where they are able to hunt.  They are considered an aquatic animal, living mainly in the ocean, though they will come ashore to hunt, on occasion.  Still, they are mostly adapted to life on the sea ice. While the climate of the 700s was different, I don't know that the sea ice extended that far south.  It is possible that polar bears had been captured much further north, and then sold to people further south, through the extensive trade networks that ran up through Kamchatka, Siberia, and even across the Aleutian chain, but as far as I can tell, polar bears would not have been living in Hokkaido or even in the Kuril or Sakhalin islands at that time. It is much more likely that the “Shiguma” was one of the Hokkaido brown bears.   They may have been albino, but more likely it was simply an easy designation to distinguish them from the bears of the rest of the archipelago—the Asian black bear.  These are clearly black bears, though their fur can appear lighter in some instances.  Meanwhile, although brown bears can be a very dark brown, their fur can vary to almost a blond, and if you look at many photos you can see how they might be considered “white”, especially compared to the black bear that was the norm in Yamato.  I suspect that this is actually the species that Hirafu brought back, and which would be referenced in later entries, where “shiguma” furs appear to be have been quite plentiful, suggesting it wasn't just a rare mutation. In addition, I can't help but note that the presence of bears, here, seems to also further connect with modern traditions of the Ainu of Hokkaido.  Most notably in their reverence for bears, including the traditional Iyomante ceremony.  There is also evidence of the importance of bears in what we see of the Okhotsk Sea Culture.  It is hard to tell if there is more from this interaction, but it still raises some questions. But I digress.  While there are still a lot of gaps, we can see that the Emishi were being brought into the fold, as it were, while the Mishihase were apparently the threat that Yamato would be fighting.  In fact, I can't help but wonder if the threat posed by the Mishihase didn't help encourage the Emishi to ally themselves with Yamato in an attempt to protect themselves. Whatever happened, the relationship with the Emishi, from that point, seems to place them as subjects of Yamato.  We are told that three months later, over 200 Emishi visited the Yamato court, bringing presents for the sovereign.  These were not just the Emishi of the far reaches of Tohoku, but seems to have included Emishi from several different regions.  We are also told that the entertainment and largess provided by the court was even greater than any time before, no doubt presenting the carrot in contrast to Abe no Hirafu's stick. One of the carrots handed out was court rank,  We are told that two Emishi of the enigmatic Kikafu region each received one grade of rank while Saniguma, the Senior governor of Nushiro, was granted two steps in rank, making him Lower Shou-otsu in the rank system of the time, and he was given the superintendence of the population register—likely meaning he had a charge similar to the other governors dispatched to take a census and let the court know just how many people there were in the region.  His junior governor, Ubasa, received the rank of Kembu, the lowest rank in the system. Meanwhile, Mamu, the Senior governor of Tsugaru was granted the rank of Upper Dai-otsu and Awohiru, the Junior governor of Tsugaru, was granted the rank of Lower Shou-out. At the same time, two ranks were granted on the Miyatsuko of the Tsukisara Barrier and one rank was granted to Inadzumi Ohotomo no Kimi, Miyatsuko of the Nutari Barrier.  These last two appear to have been members of Yamato rather than Emishi, but clearly all related to the issue of the borders and beyond. And so we are given three different locations.  We are not told the names of the Emishi from Kikafu, but we are given the names of the senior and junior governors—likely local chieftains co-opted into the Yamato polity—of Nushiro and Tsugaru.  Together with the name “Omuka” we have some of our earliest attestations to possible Emishi names—though whether these were names, titles, or something else I could not say.  We have Saniguma, Ubasa, Mamu, and Awohiru.  None of these are given with family names, which seems to track with the fact that formal “family” names appear to have been an innovation of the Kofun culture, rather than an indigenous phenomenon. I would also note that I am not sure if these ranks came with any kind of stipend: after all, much of that region wasn't exactly suited to rice-land, so where would the stipend come from?  That said, there were certainly more practical gifts that were laid out for them as well.  The governors of Nushiro and the governors of Tsugaru were each given 20 cuttle-fish flags—likely a banner similar to the koi nobori, or carp banners, in use today—as well as two drums, two sets of bows and arrows, and two suits of armor.  This seems to be one for the Senior and one for the Junior governor.  In addition, Saniguma was commanded to “investigate” the Emishi population as well as what Aston translates as the “captive” population—by which I suspect they mean those living in bondage within the Emishi communities.   It is interesting to me that even though the senior governor of Tsugaru was given a higher rank, this last duty was only given to the governor of Nushiro. And there you have it.  With all of that the Emishi were at least nominally subject to the Yamato court.  They were still, however, cultural outsiders.  It is quite likely that they spoke a different language, and given the number of placenames in Tohoku that seem to correspond with the modern Ainu language, it is quite likely that a language at least related to modern Ainu was spoken in the Emishi controlled areas. A similar pattern to the year 658 took place in the entries for the following year.  Once again, Abe no Hirafu went north with 180 ships on what we are told, at least in Aston's translation, was an expedition against the Emishi.  He assembled a selection of the Emishi of Akita and Nushiro, totaling 241 people, with 31 of their captives, as well as 112 Emishi of Tsugaru with 4 of their captives, and 20 Emishi of Ifurisahe.  Once he had them all at his mercy he then… feasted them and gave them presents.  Is this really what an expedition *against* the Emishi looked like?  It almost sounds more like a diplomatic mission. We are told that after feasting and giving the assembled Emishi presents, Abe no Hirafu made an offering to the local gods of a boat and silk of various colors. He then proceeded to a place called “Shishiriko”, where two Emishi from a place called Tohiu, named Ikashima and Uhona, came forward and told him that Yamato should create an outpost at Shiribeshi, on the west coast of Hokkaido, which would be the seat of local Yamato government.  This sounds not entirely dissimilar from the idea of the Dazai in Kyushu.  Abe no Hirafu agreed and established a district governor there. Relevant to this, between the 7th and 8th centuries, we see clusters of pit dwellings in Hokkaido largely in the areas corresponding to the modern sub-prefectures of Sorachi, Ishikari, and Iburi, with many of them clustered near modern Sapporo, and a very small number near Rumoi, further north along the western coast. Once more it is another account, not the main narrative of the Nihon Shoki, where we might see what was really going on.  That entry claims that Abe no Hirafu went north to fight with the Mishihase and, on his return, he brought back some 49 captives.  So was this what all of this was really about?  Was he going up there to fight the Emishi, or was he perhaps fighting with the Emishi against the Mishihase? When Abe no Hirafu finally returned, it seems that the provincial governors of Michinoku—pretty much the whole of Touhoku—and Koshi, which was also a land known for being home to Emishi, were granted two grades of rank.  Their subordinates, the district governors and administrators, each received one grade of rank. We are also told that on the 17th day of the 3rd month of 659, that a copy of Mt. Meru was constructed on the riverbank east of Amakashi no Oka and that Emishi of Michonoku and Koshi were both entertained there.  Little more is given, and, again, it isn't clear if this is before or after Hirafu's expedition of that year. Mt. Meru—read as Shumisen, today—is the mountain at the center of the world, according to some Buddhist traditions.  Building a copy would have been a statement, creating a copy of the mountain and bringing the center of the universe to you.  This was probably a feature in a garden—at least that is how it was conceived of during the reign of Kashikiya Hime.  This second one may have been made with a pile of stones, and there have even been found some features in Asuka that some think could be remnants of this ancient model of the universe, but they aren't without controversy. In any case, that same year that the Emishi were brought to Asuka to view this Buddhist monument, in 659, a mission was sent to the Tang court.  We'll talk about the mission at some other time, but for now I want to focus on the fact that they brought with them an Emishi man and a woman to show the Tang emperor.  Regrettably, we don't know their names, and we don't know their status in Emishi society.  Were these captives, possibly enslaved?  Or were these volunteers, who had gone willingly with the envoys to see the lands beyond their home.  They likely had heard of the Tang empire from Yamato, and so it wouldn't be so surprising if they decided to go see it for themselves. Where it is of particular interest to us right now is that we have an apparent eyewitness account of the description given to the Tang Emperor about the Emishi by the Yamato envoys.  Be aware that the envoys were not necessarily experts in Emishi culture, and may not have met any other than their travel companions, but the description, given by none other than Yuki no Hakatoko, who was apparently there, at the Tang court, when it happened, gives us invaluable insight into how Yamato viewed the Emishi. The entire thing is a bit of a question and answer session as the Tang Emperor, Tang Gaozong, inquired about the Emishi and who they were.  In response to his questions, the envoys assured him that Yamato and the Emishi were at peace with each other.  They further noted that there were three different groups of Emishi.  Those farthest from Yamato were the Tsugaru Emishi.  Next, slightly closer to Yamato, were the Ara-Emishi.  “Ara” in this case means “soft”, and was probably a reference to the fact that those Emishi closer to Yamato were seen as more compliant.  Finally ,there are the “Nigi-Emishi”, living right on the borders.  “Nigi” in this case seems to refer to them being the “Gentle” or even “Civilized” Emishi.  I suspect that those living closest to Yamato were also the ones doing things like farming, and possibly building burial mounds.  They may have even mixed with some of the border communities, and may have included Wa communities that were outside of Yamato's influence.  After all, it isn't entirely obvious that “Emishi” referred to a single ethnic identity. In providing further answers to the emperor's questioning, we are told that the Emishi, at least according to the Yamato envoys, didn't farm, but instead they sustained themselves through hunting and fishing.  Furthermore, we are told that they didn't live in houses, but instead they dwelt under trees and in the recesses of the mountains.  This one is a little more questionable, after all, we have evidence of pit houses and villages all the way up to Aomori and back to Jomon times.  However, it is quite possible that Yamato was often encountering hunting parties, which very likely may have been using makeshift shelters or utilizing natural features like caves when they were out traveling.  Some of this, though, may have been built around ideas and concepts of how quote-unquote “barbaric” people lived, focusing on the exceptional, exotic, and sensationalist instances rather than on the more mundane day-to-day details.  Finally, the emperor himself commented on the “unusual appearance” of the Emishi.  We know that the Japanese terms for the Emishi refer to them as hairy barbarians, and if they were anything like modern Ainu, they were likely a good deal more hirsute than their Yamato neighbors.  This was no doubt a stereotype, as, again, Emishi may have also included some members of the Wa in their numbers, but they also appear to have included groups of people that were quite physically distinct.  Some DNA evidence also bears this out, and even today many people with deep ancestral ties to the Tohoku region demonstrate closer ties to ancient Jomon populations than to the succeeding Yayoi population that came over from the continent with their rice farming techniques. And so that gives us mostly what we know about the Emishi, except that they seem to have left out the Emishi of Watari no Shima—the Emishi of Hokkaido.  They would have been beyond the Tsugaru Emishi, unless they were considered similar, and painted with the same brush. And speaking of Watari no Shima, we have one more entry before we bring things to a close, and that is from the third month of the year 660.  Once more, Abe no Omi, who must have been getting his frequent sailor miles in by this point—or at least one hopes he had been invited to the Captain's circle at least.  Anyway, Abe no Omi was sent on yet another expedition, this time with 200 ships, and this time quite specifically against the Mishihase.  He made a stop in Michinoku on the way up where he brought some of the Emishi on his own boat—possibly as translators and guides.  They then continued northern until they reached a large river—Aston suggests that it was possibly the Ishikari river, north of modern Sapporo.  There they found a thousand Emishi of Watari no Shima encamped. Upon seeing the Yamato forces, two men came out from the camp to let Hirafu and his men know that the Mishihase had arrived in their own fleet, threatening to kill all of them.  And so they asked permission to cross the river over to Hirafu and join him.  Specifically we are told they asked to “serve the government” suggesting that they were willing to suborn themselves if Hirafu would assist with driving off the Mishihase. Hirafu had the two spokespersons come aboard his ship and then show him where the enemy was concealed.  They showed him where, telling him that the Mishihase had some 20 ships. Hirafu sent for the Mishihase to come and face him, but they refused.  And so instead he tried a different tactic.  He piled up colored silk cloth, weapons, iron, etc., in sight of the Mishihase, hoping that their curiosity and greed would get the better of them.  Sure enough, they drew up in their boats, which were decorated with feathers tied on poles like a flag.  Their vessels were powered with oars, and they brought them to the shallows.  From there, they sent two older men out to inspect the pile.  The men came out, and when they saw what was there, they exchanged their clothes for some from the pile and took some of the silk cloth and then returned to their ship.  After some time, they came back out, took off the exchanged garments and laid them down with the silk.  With that, they then boarded their ship and departed. Aston suggests that this behavior mimics an aspect of something called an “unseen trade” which he claims had been common in the region of Hokkaido until recently.  I hadn't found anything specifically about that, but it does make a kind of sense, especially if groups are possibly hostile and perhaps don't speak the same language. So does that mean that, for all of his military might, Hirafu was basically just buying off the Mishihase? In any case, it seems they did not take it.  They left the garments and the silk, which seems to have indicated that they had no deal, and they departed.  Hirafu pursued the Mishihase, and tried to get them to come out again—presumably looking for a stand up fight between his 200 ships and the MIshihase's 20, but instead the Mishihase headed to the island of Herobe, in another part of Watari no Shima.  After a while of being holed up, the Mishihase did sue for peace, but by that point, Abe no Hirafu was having none of it.  So they took themselves to their palisades and there they tried to hold out against Abe no Hirafu's forces.  Noto no Omi no Mamukatsu was slain in the fighting, as we can only suspect that others were as well, but over time the Yamato forces began to wear them down. Finally, when it seemed there was no way they could win or escape, the MIshihase took the drastic step of killing their own women and children, perhaps fearing what the Yamato soldiers would do to them if they were caught. And with that, it was over.  There are only a few mentions of the Mishihase, or even the Emishi, in the rest of the Nihon Shoki.  Granted, as we will eventually see, the people of Yamato were no doubt pre-occupied with what was going on to the west, where the Baekje-Tang war would be soon coming to a close.  Abe no Hirafu would be called on, once more, in that famous conflict, but we are going to save that for another day. For now, I think we can end things here.  Or just about.  I would be remiss if I didn't mention that there is a theory that many of these expeditions were actually the same thing, but recorded slightly differently in different ways, with some confusion about the actual dates.  Even if that was the case, it doesn't necessarily discount the overall information provided, and that information seems to at least somewhat conform to what we know about the archaeological record, as far as I can tell.  Granted, this is still the story as told by outsiders.  Since the people labeled “Emishi” didn't leave us with any records of this time, themselves, we don't exactly have their side of things, which is something we should keep in mind. This isn't the last time the Emishi will pop up in Japanese history.  Even if they were being granted rank, the Emishi remained a group apart.  Succeeding generations of Japanese would settle in the Tohoku region, eventually absorbing or pushing out the Emishi, or Ezo, while on Hokkaido, the people we know as the Ainu, who were likely an amalgamation of both Okhotsk Sea people and Epi-Jomon and Satsumon cultures, would eventually become dominant across the island of Hokkaido—at least until the 19th century. But that is for much later episodes.  For now, we'll continue to stick with our small, but active corner of the 7th century.  There is still a lot more to explore in this reign.  Next episode will be our annual New Year's recap, and then we will continue on with more from this episode in the following year. Until then thank you for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, please tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website,  SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.

This is the first in a two part series on the people living to the Northeast of Yamato, in the areas of Tohoku and Hokkaido.  They are called in the Chronicles, the Emishi and the Mishihase, and these designations appear to refer to areas that include the Epi-Jomon and later Satsumon cultures as well as members of the Okhotsk Sea Culture, all archaeological designations for various people whom we know primarily through their archaeological remains.  We also discuss a bit about how all of this ties in (or doesn't) with the modern Ainu, and why we don't necessarily use that term until much later in the historical record. For more, check out our podcast blog at: https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-116   Rough Transcript   Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua and this is episode 116: The People of the North, Part 1   A soldier stood watch on the Nutari Barrier.  It was only a few years old—built to define and defend the boundaries between the lands under Yamato rule and the untamed wilds, beyond.  Looking behind him, the soldier could see the smoke from the nearby settlement, also newly constructed, which would supply him and his fellow guards with food and clothing while they took their turn at the border. Looking outwards, the soldier wondered what life beyond the barrier was like.  He had seen people crossing through, mostly with various trade goods.  For the most part, they didn't seem all that different, but he had heard stories: stories of wild men and women who lived in caves and slept under the trees.  They were hunters who knew the woods and could easily slip through areas that didn't even have roads. As one traveled further north, things grew only more wild and untamed—or so the stories said.   Giant bears with paws as large as a human head roamed the land—he'd seen a skin once and it was massive.  The people of the north fought with them and, or so he'd heard, even kept them as pets. Further, well beyond the pale, there were people who lived on the sea.  They traveled between islands in the frozen north, and hunted the beasts of the ocean.  They were few, but they were mighty people. A chill went through the soldier's spine.  He'd only ever heard stories of most of these outsiders, and even then it was hard to tell what was truth and what was merely exaggeration.  He had never actually gone out to see it himself, though he'd met some who claimed they had. It gave him some sense of worth that he was out here, defending the settled, civilized lands of his people from the wild, ungoverned tribes beyond the border.  That said, he hoped with all his heart that things remained peaceful.  Yes, it would certainly be better that way for all involved.   We are just starting out the second reign of Takara Hime, which started in the year 655.  For her first reign, the Chroniclers would give her the title of Kougyoku Tennou, but when she retook the throne they named her Saimei.  As we talked about in the last couple of episodes, there was a lot going on at this point, not just on the archipelago, but in the rest of Asia as well.   We'll summarize that briefly just to set the stage for the beginning of Takara Hime's reign, but this episode we're going to primarily focus on the expansion of Yamato authority throughout the rest of the archipelago, or at least the rest of Honshu.  In this context, we'll be talking extensively about the people that the Chronicles call the Emishi, since this section of the Chronicles contains numerous entries that give us our clearest look, to date, at who they were, at least from a Yamato perspective.  We'll also be looking at another group in the north, known to us as the Mishihase, for whom we have even less information. As this whole episode got a bit long, we are going to be doing this in two parts.  This episode, I'd like to introduce you to some of the terms, discuss some of the problems and considerations around these topics, and touch on what we know based largely on the archaeological record.  In the second episode we'll focus on the narrative as it appears in the Nihon Shoki, which hopefully will be something that makes more sense once we have that archaeological context.  While there are certainly some things that appear to coincide between the two narratives, there are a lot of differences.  Archaeology can help us understand the material culture, and give us some insights into the lifeways of a particular group of people, but it doesn't let us know what they said, and rarely gives us information about a particular event. Before we dive into this, I think it would be useful to touch on terms that we are going to be using this episode, and next.  I mention this because while we are dealing with the past, our story of the past is very much affecting the lives of people in the present.  Most specifically, the lives of the Ainu people of Hokkaido, and how their history and experience intertwines with the concept of the “Emishi” that we see in the Chronicles.  So let's explore these terms, and see where it takes us. First, I should probably make a note about the difference between “Wa” and “Yamato”, at least as I'm using it in this episode.  When I use “Wa” I'll be referring to the ethnic group, while “Yamato” refers to the state.  For the most part, as we are focused on the historical state forming in central Honshu, we'll talk about Yamato, or the State of Yamato. That is a political entity that is majority Wa in its make-up, but that doesn't mean that there weren't Wa people outside of the Yamato state, nor that Yamato was made up of only people who identified, ethnically as Wa.  As we've seen, the Yamato state also included immigrants who identified as people of Baekje, Silla, Goguryeo, and even Emishi. Next, the Emishi.  The term “Emishi” is an exonym used by Yamato to describe those who are outside of Yamato's borders and controls, especially up in Tohoku.  By “exonym”, I mean that it's a term imposed from outside – in this case, by Yamato – on the group of people known as the Emishi, because we really don't know what they called themselves. Moreover, the term “Emishi” is complex, and doesn't necessarily describe a single, monolithic ethnic group or culture – more a group of possible ethnicities, that occupied a particular “slot” relative to Yamato cultural identity, namely that of outsiders.  The Chronicles refer to several different geographic regions as “Emishi”, situated relative to the core of the Yamato polity -- but the archeological evidence is much more nuanced.  A prime example are the studies carried out on the “Emishi” mummies of the Oshu Fujiwara, a 12th century ruling elite who lived in Hiraizumi and who were considered “Emishi” by the court in Heian-kyo—modern Kyoto.  In studying the mummies, it was determined that they were closely related to the Wa people of Japan and the Kinki region.  This finding is important and I'll come back to it in a bit, but the takeaway is that “Emishi” doesn't automatically mean physical or cultural differences like we might assume.  There were likely ethnic Wa Emishi, along with Emishi who were more closely connected with the indigenous people—descendants of the Jomon and possible ancestors to the later Ainu people. Finally, the Ainu.  It's extremely likely that some of the people that the Chroniclers called “Emishi” may have been the ancestors of the Ainu people of today.  But the correspondence is definitely not one-to-one, as some historians used to think.  And since this is a sensitive topic with ongoing patterns of inequity and silenced voices, it's important to lay some groundwork before going further. For my part, I would like to do my best to introduce the people and the history as we know it with as little bias as I can manage, but please realize that there are certainly controversies around this area and open wounds that have not yet healed. The modern Ainu are the indigenous inhabitants of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and Kuril islands.  They also once inhabited the very northern part of Tohoku.  In their own language, Ainu Itak, these islands are part of Ainu Mosir, the Lands of the Ainu, and “Ainu” itself is simply a word for “humans” or “people”.  While there are many cultural and linguistic ties to the Japanese—they have been neighbors for centuries—they are culturally distinct, and their language, Ainu Itak, is considered a linguistic isolate, with no known relatives outside of the Ainu homelands. The relationship between the Ainu and the Wa people—the general term for ethnic Japanese—has been one of tension and conflict born of colonization.  In the 19th century in particular, the nation of Japan claimed Hokkaido and began to settle it.  The wide open spaces were great for new industries, such as cattle ranching, which could supply dairy and beef, two things that had come into vogue with other aspects of Western culture.  I won't get into the entire history of it, but the Japanese government used tactics similar to those used in the United States against indigenous populations, often forcing people to speak Japanese instead of their native language in a paternalistic attempt to quote-unquote “civilize” the Ainu people.  Only relatively recently have the Ainu been accorded some protections in Japanese law. For our part, the study of Ainu history has long been one conducted by outsiders looking in, which of course has come with all sorts of baggage.  For instance, as I alluded to above, there has long been a tendency to equate the Ainu with the Emishi, which along with everything else cast the Ainu as somewhat less culturally evolved.  Much of this study was also taking place during a time when Marxist concepts of societal evolution were in vogue.  Add to that the generally patronizing and Colonialist concepts that were rampant in Western anthropology at the time—things like the stereotype of the “noble savage” and even the concept of “primitive” societies—and there were definitely some problematic concepts that continue to echo through into modern discussions.  Another complexity in understanding Ainu culture and history has been that the Ainu people do tend to be physically distinct from many other Japanese, which has been linked to outdated ideas about physical types and ethnicity.  Many Ainu people show more tendency towards body and facial hair than mainland Japanese, with bushy beards being common among men, and blue eyes aren't uncommon – which, combined with overall light skin, led to early identification of Ainu people as being of “Caucasian stock” according to outdated racial classifications.  The theory was that they traveled from the west across Asia in the distant past and somehow settled in the islands north of Japan.  This ties into how much of the archaeological fervor of the 19th and 20th centuries in Japan was wrapped around ethno-nationalist ideals and looking to find the origins of the Japanese people, often using concepts of eugenics to seek out physical and cultural differences between the Japanese and “other” people, such as the Ainu, to help better define who are—and who are not—Japanese.  For example, remember those Oshu Fujiwara mummies and how they were from a group described by the Chronicles as “Emishi” but ended up being more physically similar to modern Wa than modern Ainu?  Some scholars took this finding to mean that all of the Emishi were Wa people, effectively denying any ancestral claims or links that Ainu people may have had to Honshu, other than those historically attested to from about the 15th century onwards.  In similar ways, for each instance of some new “finding”, there have often been those who would use it as a further reason to discriminate against the Ainu. There is a lot of important archaeological work that has been done in Tohoku and elsewhere to help shed more light on the people living in areas that the Chronicles associate with the Emishi and beyond.  But while archaeological digs in places like Honshu and Kyushu were often done with great public support, archaeological work in places like Hokkaido often involved investigating burials of potential ancestors without consent, and even today there is some contention over how various artifacts were acquired.  As with too many places in the world, the data was not always gathered under what we may consider, today, the strictest of ethical standards.  So as important as the archeological perspective is – at least we are going off of physical items that we find rather than on the narrative imposed on the region by those in Yamato – it's important to keep that context in mind. Even recent attempts to better contextualize Ainu history at places like the Upopoy National Museum in Shiraoi, while apparently doing their best to provide that context, are still hampered by the weight of previous missteps in the relationship between the Ainu and the government.  Activists have noted that even Upopoy, the first such national museum devoted to the Ainu themselves, is still built on colonialist policies and artifacts and human remains acquired without all of the necessary consent and consultation with local Ainu.  Upopoy, for its part, appears to have reached out to those willing to work with them, and for all that there may be some controversy, it certainly has a lot of information for those interested in it. So, given these caveats, what does the archeological record tell us about the wide range of people and areas called “Emishi” by the Chronicles, including both those areas closer to the Yamato heartland, and the areas we know today as Ainu Mosir? To understand the patterns of settlement and cultural trends that we see up north – in Tohoku and Hokkaido --let's go back to the end of the Jomon period and the very start of the Yayoi.  As wet rice paddy cultivation (and accompanying pottery styles and other material goods) began to make its way into the archipelago, up through about the Kinki region—the original land of Yamato, or Yamateg—it was brought by a people that seem quite strongly connected to other people in east Asia, and these people largely replaced the indigenous Jomon era populations in western Japan.  However, the new material culture traveled faster and farther than the new people themselves, and it appears that in eastern Honshu, at least, much of the new farming technology, pottery, and other lifeways of the Yayoi culture were adopted by people that appear to share a great deal in common, physically, with the previous Jomon populations, suggesting that local populations were, themselves, adopting the new technology and being absorbed into the Yayoi culture.  This expansion of Yayoi culture and rice farming initially exploded all the way up to the very northern edge of Tohoku, but over time it started to decline in the northernmost regions.  Whether due to a change in the climate or simply the fact that the colder, snowier regions in Tohoku were not as hospitable to farming, we see that rice cultivation fell into disuse, and people seem to have once again picked up the lifeways of their ancestors in the region, returning to a more hunter-gatherer style of subsistence.  Indeed, in northern Tohoku and Hokkaido we see the continued evolution of Jomon culture in a phase that is generally known as the Epi-Jomon, or, in Japanese, the Zoku-Jomon period, which generally lasted through the end of the 7th century.  This Epi-Jomon or Zoku-Jomon cultural region lay far outside the “official” Yamato borders according to the Chroniclers in an area considered to be part of “Michinoku” – literally past the end of the road – so it's understandably commonly associated with the Emishi.  But once again, it's not that simple, because we do see Yayoi and Kofun culture extending up into this region.  In fact, there are even keyhole shaped kofun up in Tohoku, the largest of these being Raijinyama kofun, thought to have been built between the late 4th and early 5th centuries.  It sits south of modern Sendai, and there are numerous other tombs there as well, suggesting it was well connected to Yamato and the kofun culture of central Honshu. Another complication is that we have regions officially designated Emishi that were much closer in – on the borders of Yamato itself.  Based on simply the written record, it would seem that “Emishi” resided as close to Yamato as the lands of Koshi and the land of Hitachi, at the very least.  The Emishi in Koshi are mentioned several times in the Chronicles, and both the Nihon Shoki and works like the Hitachi Fudoki mention Emishi or people who are at least outside of the Yamato cultural sphere.  This area bordering Yamato seems to have been the most affected by kofun and even Yamato culture, and also would have likely come into the most direct conflict with Yamato itself.  It is also the area most likely to include those who, for one reason or another, decided to yet themselves outside the growing reach of the Yamato state, a pattern that would continue for centuries to come.  On top of that, there is something else going on in northern Hokkaido, where, starting around the 5th century, we see different archeological assemblages from the south, indicating further cultural distinctiveness from the Tohoku and southern Hokkaido inhabitants.  These are mostly found on the coast in the northern part of Hokkaido, and match closely with the culture we see first in the Sakhalin island, and later the Kurils, along the edges of the Okhotsk Sea.  Hence the name we've given to this unknown culture:  The Okhotsk Sea Culture, or just the Okhotsk culture. From what we can glean, the people of the Okhotsk culture subsisted largely off the hunting of marine mammals, such as seals, sea lions, sea cows, and whales.  In contrast, the Epi-Jomon people appear to have subsisted more on inland hunting strategies, along with coastal fishing, which is represented in their settlement patterns, among other things.  This latter description likewise tracks with descriptions of the Emishi as subsisting largely off of hunted game. It is unclear what exactly happened to the Okhotsk Sea Culture, but they appear to be one of the ancestral groups of the modern Nivkh people, on the northern part of Sakhalin and the lower Amur River and coastal regions, though the Okhotsk Sea Culture also seems to have had a large influence on the development of the people known today as the Ainu.  Modern DNA testing of Ainu demonstrate connections both with the earlier Jomon people of Japan—a connection that is much stronger than in most Japanese—but also with people from the Okhotsk Sea region.  Still, how and in what ways those people came together is not clear. The connection to the Jomon and Epi-Jomon people appears to be strengthened by the fact that throughout Tohoku there are placenames that appear to be more closely related to the Ainu language than to Japanese.  For example, in Ainu itak, terms like “nai” and “pet” refer to rivers and streams, and we find a lot of placenames ending with “nai”, “be”, or “betsu”.  These are often written with kanji that would be understandable to Japanese speakers, but the prevalence and location of these names often make people think that they are likely related to Ainu itak, in some way—possibly a proto-Ainuic language or dialect that is now lost. While I can't discount the fact that some this could be due to false etymologies, we can add to it the fact that the term “Emishi” was eventually changed to “Ezo”, which itself came to be used primarily for Hokkaido and the people there, including the people we know of today as the Ainu.  However, it isn't clear that the term Emishi, or even “Ezo”, was consistently applied to only one group, and its usage may have changed over time, simply being used in each period to refer to the people of the Tohoku and Hokkaido regions outside of the control of the Japanese court. Another aspect of the archaeological record is the change in the Epi-Jomon culture to what we know as the Satsumon culture around the time of our narrative.  Satsumon, like Jomon, is derived from the distinctive pottery styles found.  “Jomon” means “cord-marked”, referring to the use of pressed cords and similar decoration on the pottery, and starting in the 7th century we see a new style using wood to scrape designs, instead.  Thus the term “Satsumon”.  It first pops up in Honshu, but by the 9th century it had spread to Hokkaido and eventually even spread to areas associated with the Okhotsk Sea Culture.  It would last until roughly the 13th century, when it was replaced by a culture that is more clearly related to the modern Ainu people. But the Satsumon culture wasn't just new types of pottery.  We see more ironwork appearing in the Satsumon culture, as well as the cultivation of millet and other types of agriculture.  Tohoku and Hokkaido were still a bit cold for the ancient forms of wet rice agriculture that were prevalent in more southern regions, and millet and other crops likely fit more easily into the lifeways of the people in these areas. Likewise, by the 8th century, we also see a new type of stove appearing in Satsumon villages.  This “kamado” seems clearly related to the type of stove that came over to Honshu from the Korean peninsula around the 5th century, reaching Hokkaido by the 8th, and eventually finding purchase on Sakhalin by the 11th, demonstrating a slow yet continuous adoption. Some of these changes might be explained by greater contact with Wa people and the trade networks that extended through Honshu and over to the mainland, but there were also trade routes through Sakhalin island over to the Amur River delta and beyond that should not be overlooked, even if they weren't as prevalent in the written histories of the time. I previously mentioned that in the next episode, we'll dive into more of what the Chronicles have to say about the Emishi, but to give a preview, the Chronicles have already mentioned the Emishi several times as trading and treating with the Yamato state.  Back in the era before the Isshi Incident, Naka no Oe's coup in 645, Soga no Emishi himself had dealings with the Emishi of the land of Koshi, which we covered in episode 107.  Then, in the previous reign, Emishi had attended court, but the court had also erected barriers and barrier towns in Nutari and Ihabune in 647 and 648 to protect the border areas from purported raids by the Emishi.  Hence the episode opener, imagining what it might be like for a soldier at one of these barrier towns.  But, there is also another people that we've already talked about, mentioned in the Chronicles:  The Sushen people, also glossed as either the Mishihase or Ashihase people.  In the Nihon Shoki, they first appeared in an entry in the reign of Kimmei Tennou, when a group of them came ashore on Sado island, which we discussed back in episode 86.  In this period, however, the  appear to be referencing a people who were living in the north of Hokkaido, and who were putting pressure on the people to their south, much as Yamato was putting pressure on the people to their northeast. The Sinitic characters, or kanji, used to name them in the Nihon Shoki uses a term from mainland writings for the Sushen people.  This name is first given to people mentioned in early Warring States documents, such as the Classic of Mountains and Seas, as living on the Shandong peninsula.  Eventually, however, as empires expanded, the term was used to refer to people along the Amur river region and the coast, in modern China and Russia—the eastern areas of what we know as “Manchuria”.  These were probably not the same people originally referred to as living in Shandong, and instead seems to apply to the Yilou people, and likely also is cognate with the later term “Jurchen”. In the ancient Sinic documents, the Sushen are described as hunter-gatherers who live in the open, using caves and other such natural features for temporary shelter.  They hunted with bows and arrows, which were tipped with stone arrowheads.  To the settled cultures of the Yellow River basin, they were considered a primitive and barbaric people. As for the people mentioned in the Nihon Shoki, it is quite likely that the term “Sushen” was used differently.  Rather than referring to Jurchen people, or someone from mainland northeast Asia, it is thought that the characters were used because of the similar role played by the people of northern Hokkaido and Sakhalin island—and possibly because of connection with the Amur river region, including the area referred to in older documents as “Su-shen”.  Still, the people referred to in the Nihon Shoki were probably what we know as the Okhotsk Sea culture, especially based on what we know from later descriptions.  From Yamato's point of view, they were likewise living in the extreme northeast and they were a hunter-gatherer society that used stone arrowheads in their hunting.  The fact that it is glossed as either Mishihase or Ashihase by later commentators suggests that this was the name by which the Yamato knew these people, and the kanji were just borrowed for their meaning of a people in the northeast. And so in the 7th century we have both the Emishi and the Mishihase, at least in the northeast.  There are also the Hayato, another group of people in the southern reaches of Tsukushi.  We are told that they and the Emishi both attended the court in 655 in great numbers.   Discussion of who the Hayato were is probably best left for another episode.  Suffice it to say that they appear to be culturally distinct from the groups in the northeast, at least at this point. And that's where we are going to pause things for now.  The archaeological record gives us some idea of the people inhabiting the areas of Tohoku and up to Hokkaido, but it only tells part of the story—and it is a story that we are continuing to uncover.  Even today people are working on archaeological sites that just may turn up new information that will change how we see things. Next episode, we'll dive into the narrative of the Nihon Shoki and take a look at the actions of individuals—especially the actions of Abe no Hirafu, a key player in what was to happen in the north. Until then thank you for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, please tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website,  SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.

The Daily Shower Thoughts podcast is produced by Klassic Studios. [Promo] Check out the Daily Dad Jokes podcast here: https://dailydadjokespodcast.com/ [Promo] Like the soothing background music and Amalia's smooth calming voice? Then check out "Terra Vitae: A Daily Guided Meditation Podcast" here at our show page [Promo] The Daily Facts Podcast. Get smarter in less than 10 minutes a day. Pod links here Daily Facts website. [Promo] The Daily Life Pro Tips Podcast. Improve your life in less than 10 minutes a day. Pod links here Daily Life Pro Tips website. [Promo] Check out the Get Happy Headlines podcast by my friends, Stella and Mickey. It's a podcast dedicated to bringing you family friendly uplifting stories from around the world. Give it a listen, I know you will like it. Pod links here Get Happy Headlines website. Shower thoughts are sourced from reddit.com/r/showerthoughts Shower Thought credits: wcslater, Foxfox105, Kazadure, JediGRONDmaster, JLF2411, Morighant, lionstigersbearsomar, TriDave1200, CharlieMike111, tuxedonyc, Wickham12, ethereal3xp, Vegetable_Run7792, suitably_ginger, 9p83fhsa312, blantonsucks, No_Salamander_6579, Im_mbn, Yeetaboii, , neimad66, meelonhusk, PleasFlyAgain_PLTR, KOALANET21, Spookyfan2, metapolymath98, Wizlect, Ainu_, PangolinMandolin, subuso Podcast links: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ZNciemLzVXc60uwnTRx2e Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daily-shower-thoughts/id1634359309 Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/daily-dad-jokes/daily-shower-thoughts iHeart: https://iheart.com/podcast/99340139/ Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/a5a434e9-da18-46a7-a434-0437ec49e1d2/daily-shower-thoughts Website: https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/dailyshowerthoughts Social media links Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DailyShowerThoughtsPodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DailyShowerPod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DailyShowerThoughtsPodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dailyshowerthoughtspod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In der Folge 324 von Rolling Sushi geht es um viel Käse, Beherbergungssteuern, eine peinliche KI-Webseite, Bonsai-Diebe, die Leugnung der Ainu, den kontroversen Gouverneur von Hyogo, einen tierischen Schuhdieb, steigende Atomkraft und noch mehr.

Sam Clements is curating a fictional film festival. He'll accept almost anything, but the movie must not be longer than 90 minutes. This is the 90 Minutes Or Less Film Fest podcast. In episode 131 Sam is joined by returning podguest Tim Anderson, cookbook author & food writer. His new book, Hokkaido: Recipes from the Seas, Fields and Farmlands of Northern Japan, is out now.  Chris has chosen Ainu Mosir (84 mins). Written and directed by Takeshi Fukunaga, the film was shot on location in Hokkaido and released in 2020. It stars Kanto Shimokura, Debo Akibe, Emi Shimokura, Toko Miura, and Lily Franky. Sam and Tim discuss writing and researching his latest book Hokkaido, how the film Ainu Mosir represents the Ainu people, and why you should really visit Upopoy on your trip to Japan.  Thank you for downloading. We'll be back in a couple of weeks! Rate and subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/90minfilm If you enjoy the show, please subscribe, rate, review and share with your friends. We're an independent podcast and every recommendation helps - thank you!  You can also show your support for the podcast by leaving us a top at our Ko-fi page: https://ko-fi.com/90minfilmfest Website: 90minfilmfest.com Tweet: @90MinFilmFest  Instagram: @90MinFilmFest  We are a proud member of the Stripped Media Network. Hosted and produced by @sam_clements. Edited and produced by Louise Owen. Guest star Tim Anderson. Additional editing and sound mixing by @lukemakestweets. Music by @martinaustwick. Artwork by @samgilbey. 

As the Meiji leaders continued to consolidate power and enact radical reforms, they also sought to expand Japan's sovereignty over the northern island of Ezo and the Ryukyu islands to their south.Support the show My latest novel, "Califia's Crusade," is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Bookshop.org, and many other online platforms!

Fluent Fiction - Japanese: Unraveling Roots: A Journey to an Enchanted Ainu Village Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.org/unraveling-roots-a-journey-to-an-enchanted-ainu-village Story Transcript:Ja: 秋の葉が鮮やかに色づく北海道のアイヌの村。木々の間には風が吹き、古い木造の家々が静かに佇んでいました。En: In a Ainu village in Hokkaido, where the autumn leaves colored vividly, the wind blew through the trees, and the old wooden houses stood quietly.Ja: 村全体には、どこか神秘的な雰囲気が漂っていました。En: There was a somewhat mystical atmosphere floating throughout the village.Ja: 久々にこの村を訪れた春人は、一人の青年でした。En: Haruto was a young man who visited this village after a long time.Ja: 彼は東京から来ましたが、実は自分のルーツに強い関心を持っていました。En: He came from Tokyo, but he had a strong interest in his roots.Ja: 家族の間では、アイヌの血が混ざっているという話が囁かれていたのです。En: There was a whisper among his family that they had Ainu blood mixed in.Ja: それを確かめたいと思い、この村へとやってきました。En: Wanting to confirm this, he came to this village.Ja: 村に到着すると、春人はまず村の広場に足を運びました。En: Upon arriving, Haruto first headed to the village square.Ja: そこには多くの村人たちが集まり、日々の雑談を楽しんでいました。En: Many villagers were gathered there, enjoying their daily chats.Ja: 広場の片隅に、彼の目を奪うような美しい女性がいました。En: In a corner of the square was a breathtakingly beautiful woman who caught his eye.Ja: 彼女の名前は桜、村に生まれ育ち、伝統に詳しい女性でした。En: Her name was Sakura, she was born and raised in the village and was well-versed in its traditions.Ja: 「春人さんでしょうか？」桜が声をかけてきました。En: "Are you Haruto?" Sakura called out to him.Ja: 彼女の表情には警戒心がありました。En: There was a wariness in her expression.Ja: 「何をしにここへ？」En: "What brings you here?"Ja: 春人は一瞬戸惑いましたが、素直に自分の目的を話しました。En: Haruto hesitated for a moment but honestly spoke of his purpose.Ja: 「家族の歴史を知りたいんです。ここでの繋がりを探しています。」En: "I want to know my family's history. I'm searching for connections here."Ja: しかし、桜の顔は険しくなります。En: However, Sakura's face grew stern.Ja: 「村の歴史は簡単に明かせるものではありません。En: "The history of the village is not something easily revealed.Ja: 特に、外の人には。」En: Especially not to outsiders."Ja: 彼女の声には、村を守る強い意思が感じられました。En: Her voice carried a strong determination to protect the village.Ja: それでも春人は諦めませんでした。En: Still, Haruto did not give up.Ja: 村で彼は、伝統的な舞踊の祭りに参加することを決意しました。En: He decided to participate in a traditional dance festival in the village.Ja: この祭りこそ、村人たちとの絆を深める唯一の方法だと直感したのです。En: He instinctively felt that this festival was the only way to deepen his bonds with the villagers.Ja: 祭りの準備が進む中、春人は村人たちの手伝いをしつつ、村の歴史や文化を学び始めました。En: As the festival preparations progressed, Haruto began to help the villagers while also learning about the village's history and culture.Ja: その姿勢が次第に村人たちの心を開かせました。En: His attitude gradually opened the hearts of the villagers.Ja: ついに、祭りの夜、彩り豊かな衣装に身を包んだ春人は、村人と共に踊りの輪の中へと入りました。En: Finally, on the night of the festival, dressed in vibrant attire, Haruto stepped into the circle of dance with the villagers.Ja: 祭りの終わり頃、桜はそっと彼に近づきました。En: Towards the end of the festival, Sakura approached him quietly.Ja: 「あの場所に行く準備はできていますか？」彼女の声は柔らかく、そこにはもうあの警戒心はありませんでした。En: "Are you ready to go to that place?" Her voice was soft, and the wariness was gone.Ja: 「あなたの誠意を感じました。」En: "I felt your sincerity."Ja: そして、彼女は春人を村の古い文書庫に案内しました。En: Then, she led Haruto to the old archive of the village.Ja: その中で、春人は自分の家族の名前が記された古い記録を見つけました。En: There, he found old records with his family's name.Ja: それは、彼の祖先が村と深い繋がりを持っていたことを証明するものでした。En: They proved that his ancestors had a deep connection with the village.Ja: その瞬間、春人の心には温かな気持ちが広がりました。En: At that moment, a warm feeling spread in Haruto's heart.Ja: 彼は自分のルーツを知り、村に対する深い感謝と敬意を抱くようになりました。En: He came to know his roots and felt a deep gratitude and respect for the village.Ja: 東京に戻ってからも、彼はアイヌ文化の保存のために尽力することを心に決めました。En: Even after returning to Tokyo, he made it his mission to contribute to the preservation of Ainu culture.Ja: そして、彼の新たな旅が始まりました。En: And so, a new journey of his began.Ja: 彼はもうただの訪問者ではなく、この地の一部となったのです。En: He was no longer just a visitor but had become a part of this land.Ja: 村の景色は変わらず美しく、春人の心にその美しさは永遠に刻まれるのでした。En: The village landscape remained beautiful, and its beauty was forever etched in Haruto's heart. Vocabulary Words:vividly: 鮮やかにmystical: 神秘的なatmosphere: 雰囲気roots: ルーツwhisper: 囁きancestors: 祖先assembly: 集まりchat: 雑談breathtakingly: 目を奪うようにexpression: 表情hesitate: 戸惑うpurpose: 目的stern: 険しいoutsiders: 外の人determination: 意思participate: 参加するinstinctively: 直感的にpreparations: 準備attire: 衣装vibrant: 彩り豊かなsincerity: 誠意archive: 文書庫records: 記録warm: 温かいgratitude: 感謝preservation: 保存mission: 使命landscape: 景色etched: 刻まれるcontribute: 尽力する

Rufflet and Braviary.America, eagles, war and Ainu myths.Get in touch!twitter: https://twitter.com/LukeLovesPKMNfacebook: https://facebook.com/LukeLovesPKMNCheck out other podcasts I make:Hyrule Field Report https://hyrulefieldreport.transistor.fm/Films and Filth. https://filmsandfilth.transistor.fm/Game Game Show. https://gamegameshow.transistor.fm/Support the show!https://patreon.com/PodcastioPodcastius ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Join KC, Damon and Ryan on a far roaming journey through Japan's wild and beautiful Aomori prefecture, the conversation also goes far and wide chat about the Ainu tribes of Japan, the golfing Sumo of Japan, the amazing Ryu Takeda absolutely on a tear this season on the Japan ladies tour, and finally recap on what was an entertaining yet forgone President's cup in Canada.Today's Podcast is in association with Titleist:https://golf-in-japan.com/titleist-fitting-experienceFeatured: Aomoriprefecturehttps://golf-in-japan.com/courses/aomori

The Daily Shower Thoughts podcast is produced by Klassic Studios. [Promo] Check out the Daily Dad Jokes podcast here: https://dailydadjokespodcast.com/ [Promo] The Daily Facts Podcast. Get smarter in less than 10 minutes a day. Pod links here Daily Facts website. [Promo] The Daily Life Pro Tips Podcast. Improve your life in less than 10 minutes a day. Pod links here Daily Life Pro Tips website. [Promo] Check out the Get Happy Headlines podcast by my friends, Stella and Mickey. It's a podcast dedicated to bringing you family friendly uplifting stories from around the world. Give it a listen, I know you will like it. Pod links here Get Happy Headlines website. Shower thoughts are sourced from reddit.com/r/showerthoughts Shower Thought credits: TheCuriousBread, CitizenCue, mekazu, Ainu_, DarwinsMonkeyOne, gbgbgbgbbb, RedBeardx86, bluesushi, leeron2000, indy_110, skeleton_made_o_bone, minddoor, roboroaster, Kamehamehachoo, VGK9Logan, unit2981, ConnorDZG, WaCandor, seekingfreedom00, , SquirrelsDriveMeNuts, fyngrzadam, Sulkiness, ispankyourass, janneke137, Professional_Denizen, Ok-Factor9509, riviery, Half-rated, LeftOnQuietRoad Podcast links: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ZNciemLzVXc60uwnTRx2e Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daily-shower-thoughts/id1634359309 Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/daily-dad-jokes/daily-shower-thoughts iHeart: https://iheart.com/podcast/99340139/ Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/a5a434e9-da18-46a7-a434-0437ec49e1d2/daily-shower-thoughts Website: https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/dailyshowerthoughts Social media links Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DailyShowerThoughtsPodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DailyShowerPod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DailyShowerThoughtsPodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dailyshowerthoughtspod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Külas on EdTech entusiast ja DreamApply kaasasutaja Märt Aro, kellega rääkisime tehnoloogia ja innovatsiooni rakendamisest hariduses. Nagu ikka, on magusamad arutelud just episoodi lõpuosas.Meil on ka käimas brändi uuendus "võistlus": aita Algorütmile kujundada uus välimus ja saa osa esimesest ägedast swagist. Ootame uut logo ja episoode sisse juhatavaid heliklippe aadressile podcast@algorytm.ee-----Jaga meile enda jaoks olulisimat mõtet episoodist meie Discord kanalis: https://discord.gg/8X5JTkDxccEpisoodi veavad Priit Liivak, Tiit Paananen ja Martin KappAlgorütmi toetavad Patchstack https://patchstack.comNortal https://nortal.com/Veriff https://www.veriff.com/

Fluent Fiction - Japanese: Lanterns and Legacies: An Unforgettable Obon Festival Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.org/lanterns-and-legacies-an-unforgettable-obon-festival Story Transcript:Ja: 北海道のアイヌ村。En: Ainu Village in Hokkaido.Ja: 夏の夜、色とりどりの提灯が輝いている。En: On a summer night, colorful lanterns glowed brightly.Ja: お盆祭りが始まった。En: The Obon festival had begun.Ja: 春斗はアイヌ文化に興味があった。En: Haruto, a university student, was interested in Ainu culture.Ja: 大学生の春斗と幼なじみの愛子は、村を訪れていた。En: He and his childhood friend Aiko were visiting the village.Ja: 地元のアイヌの少女、りなは彼らを歓迎した。En: Rina, a local Ainu girl, welcomed them.Ja: 「こんにちは」春斗がぎこちなく声をかけた。En: "Hello," Haruto said awkwardly.Ja: 「こんにちは」りなが微笑んだ。En: "Hello," Rina smiled.Ja: 「お盆の踊りながしを見にきたの？」En: "Are you here to see the Obon dance?"Ja: 「はい」と春斗が答えた。En: "Yes," Haruto replied.Ja: 「アイヌの伝統についてもっと知りたいです。」En: "I want to learn more about Ainu traditions."Ja: 愛子も頭を下げてあいさつしたが、心の中では自分の未来について悩んでいた。En: Aiko also bowed and greeted, but inside, she was worried about her own future.Ja: 祭りが進む中、りなは自分の役割にプレッシャーを感じていた。En: As the festival progressed, Rina felt pressure about her role.Ja: 伝統を守りたい一方で、現代的な生活にも興味があったのだ。En: She wanted to preserve traditions but was also interested in modern life.Ja: 春斗と話すことで、彼女の思いはさらに揺れ動いた。En: Talking with Haruto made her feelings even more conflicted.Ja: 祭りの夜、春斗は決意した。En: During the festival night, Haruto made up his mind.Ja: 「踊りの競技に参加します。」En: "I will participate in the dance competition."Ja: 彼はそう宣言した。En: He announced.Ja: 「え？」りなが驚いた。En: "What?" Rina was surprised.Ja: 「外国人は難しいかも。」En: "It might be difficult for an outsider."Ja: 「大丈夫です。やってみたいです。」En: "It's okay. I really want to try."Ja: 春斗の目は真剣だった。En: Haruto's eyes were serious.Ja: 愛子は春斗の姿を見て、心の中で決意した。En: Seeing Haruto, Aiko decided in her heart,Ja: 「ここにもっと長くいたい。自分を見つけたい。」En: "I want to stay here longer. I want to find myself."Ja: 競技の夜、祭りの主舞台で春斗とりなは一緒に踊った。En: On the night of the competition, Haruto and Rina danced together on the festival's main stage.Ja: 観客の目が二人に注がれた。En: The audience's eyes were fixed on them.Ja: 突然、春斗はステップを間違えた。En: Suddenly, Haruto missed a step.Ja: りなが手を差し伸べ、彼を導いた。En: Rina reached out her hand and guided him.Ja: 「私たちは同じ踊りを踊る。」りなは優しく言った。En: "We are dancing the same dance," Rina said gently.Ja: その瞬間、愛子はすべてがクリアになった。En: At that moment, everything became clear to Aiko.Ja: 村での時間が自分の未来を照らしているように感じた。En: She felt that her time in the village was illuminating her future.Ja: 春斗は踊りを通じて文化の深さを感じた。En: Through the dance, Haruto felt a deep connection to the culture.Ja: 彼はりなに感謝した。En: He thanked Rina.Ja: 「りな、ありがとう。アイヌ文化をもっと理解できました。」En: "Rina, thank you. I gained a deeper understanding of Ainu culture."Ja: りなは頬を赤らめた。En: Rina blushed.Ja: 「私も新しい視点をもらった。En: "I also gained a new perspective.Ja: 伝統を守りながら、現代も大事にする。」En: It's important to cherish both tradition and modernity."Ja: 祭りの終わり、三人は夜空を見上げた。En: At the end of the festival, the three looked up at the night sky.Ja: 提灯の光が空に映え、彼らの心に新しい決意を灯した。En: The lights of the lanterns shone in the sky, igniting new resolutions in their hearts.Ja: 春斗は、文化の理解が深まり、愛子は新しい未来の見方を得て、りなは自分の道を見つけた。En: Haruto deepened his understanding of the culture, Aiko found a new outlook on her future, and Rina found her path.Ja: それぞれが変わり、成長した夜だった。En: It was a night in which each of them changed and grew. Vocabulary Words:curious: 興味があるawkwardly: ぎこちなくfestival: 祭りlocal: 地元のpreserve: 守るtraditions: 伝統conflicted: 揺れ動いたrole: 役割competition: 競技resolution: 決意difficult: 難しいunderstanding: 理解pressure: プレッシャーcherish: 大事にするlanterns: 提灯announce: 宣言illuminating: 照らしているperspective: 視点outsider: 外国人sum: 始まったglowing: 輝いているbowed: 頭を下げてcleared: クリアguide: 導くdepth: 深さperspective: 視点village: 村missed: 間違えたwelcomed: 歓迎したmodernity: 現代

Franz Lidz returns to the podcast to talk about his recent bylines in the New York Times, where he covers the science and archaeology beat. He takes complex topics and distills them down to highly informative, entertaining and useful narratives. The NYT published his story, headlined "They Shoot Owls in California" about the invasive Barred Owls, which are displacing the endangered Spotted Owl throughout much of its range. A new Fish & Wildlife initiative will pay hunters to shoot these aggressive raptors, and it is pitting scientists against animal lovers. He also recently wrote a story about daily life in Britain 3,000 years ago, thanks to a recent excavation in which a well-preserved village has been exhumed, as well as how the Stone Age was actually the Wood Age. We also talked about his "beat" of covering stories that pique his interest, of Ojai life and politics, food culture and much more. We did not talk about graphic design, wool-carding technology of the Middle Ages or Ainu culture. You can read more about Franz and his brilliant career through your New York Times subscription.

Heute in unserem Japan-Podcast: Urteil gegen eine Manga-Piraten-Webseite, Phishing-Attacke auf Booking.com, steuerfreies Einkaufen in Japan ändert sich, Klage zur Benachrichtigung der Vollstreckung von Todesurteilen, Lachs-Fangrechte für Ainu eingeschränkt, Prozess wegen Racial Profiling und großer Ärger für Google.

The Daily Shower Thoughts podcast is produced by Klassic Studios. [Promo] Check out the Daily Dad Jokes podcast here: https://dailydadjokespodcast.com/ [Promo] The Daily Facts Podcast. Get smarter in less than 10 minutes a day. Pod links here Daily Facts website. [Promo] The Daily Life Pro Tips Podcast. Improve your life in less than 10 minutes a day. Pod links here Daily Life Pro Tips website. [Promo] Check out the Get Happy Headlines podcast by my friends, Stella and Mickey. It's a podcast dedicated to bringing you family friendly uplifting stories from around the world. Give it a listen, I know you will like it. Pod links here Get Happy Headlines website. Shower thoughts are sourced from reddit.com/r/showerthoughts Shower Thought credits: EitherCrazy, Wild-Truth4756, bearcat42, canthaveyouknowbro, bafras, Sweet_hivewing7788, Digdugdeeper, Weary_Word_5262, URlNAL_CAKE, Danonymous84, YellowRasperry, OkTower4998, shockwave6969, lIllIlllIlllIlIllIll, nnikki100, jonburd, AxelFive, Stonk-Monk, Desired-Effect, , Permitty, TheLieu7enan7, Ainu_, East-Bluejay6891, MooseRoof, KyOatey, itsvoogle, dickless_dan_420, _StygianBlueGames_, elmwoodblues Podcast links: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ZNciemLzVXc60uwnTRx2e Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daily-shower-thoughts/id1634359309 Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/daily-dad-jokes/daily-shower-thoughts iHeart: https://iheart.com/podcast/99340139/ Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/a5a434e9-da18-46a7-a434-0437ec49e1d2/daily-shower-thoughts Website: https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/dailyshowerthoughts Social media links Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DailyShowerThoughtsPodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DailyShowerPod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DailyShowerThoughtsPodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dailyshowerthoughtspod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

判決後に記者会見する原告「ラポロアイヌネイション」の差間啓全会長代行らと弁護団、１８日午後、札幌市北海道浦幌町のアイヌ民族団体が、河川でのサケの捕獲は先住民族が持つ「先住権」だとして、国と道を相手に、浦幌十勝川の河口周辺での捕獲権の確認を求めた訴訟の判決が１８日、札幌地裁であり、中野琢郎裁判長は請求を退けた。 Sapporo District Court on Thursday rejected a claim by a group of Ainu indigenous people in the town of Urahoro in Hokkaido, northernmost Japan, that they have an "indigenous right" to catch salmon in local rivers.

アイヌ民族の伝統的な衣装日本文化人類学会は２日までに、アイヌ民族に対するこれまでの研究姿勢を反省し、謝罪の意を表す声明を出した。 The Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology has issued a statement expressing regret and apology for its past research stance on the country's Ainu indigenous people.

This episode we look at the reign of Tamura, aka Jomei Tenno. For references and more, check out https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-105   Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua and this is episode 105: Onsen and Uprisings The general paced back and forth behind the walls of the fortress.  Glancing around, he couldn't help but notice how empty it now seemed.  The palisades were holding, but most of the soldiers had gone, disappearing in the night.  Outside the walls of the fortress, he could hear the Emishi laughing and singing.  They were in good spirits—and why wouldn't they be?  The great army of Yamato sent to chastise them had been routed, and they had besieged them in their fortress, built in these still wild lands of northeastern Honshu, on the edge of an area known to many as Michi no Oku, roughly: the end of the road. And for the general, it looked like this might be the end of the road for him.  His options were limited, and he was clearly outnumbered.  It was beginning to look like his troops had the right idea.  Of course, it meant leaving his wife and other women to fend for themselves, but fear can do a lot to motivate someone.  The general eyed the walls and the trees beyond.  If he could slip past the besieging forces in the darkness, perhaps he could escape.  It wouldn't be the most honorable way out of this situation, but it would at least leave him with his head.  And so, as night fell, he decided to make his move… Greetings everyone, and welcome back!  Before I get into it, a quick shout out an thank you to YamiRaven for supporting us on Patreon, and thanks to Johnny for a supporting us on Ko-Fi.com.  If you'd like to join them, and help us keep this thing going, we'll have more info at the end of the episode. Speaking of: This episode we are going to be talking about events during the reign of Prince Tamura, also known as Okinaga Tarashi-hi Hiro-nuka, or by the name given to him by the 8th century chroniclers: Jomei Tennou.  As we discussed back in episode 103, Prince Tamura came to power in an interesting turn of fate.  The grandson of Nunakura Futodamashiki, aka Bidatsu Tenno, his father, Prince Hikobito no Ohoye was killed during the tumultuous period following Nunakura's death.  After several short-lived reigns, it was Kashikiya Hime, wife to Nunakura, who took the throne, known to us as Suiko Tennou. Kashikiya Hime had named an heir, Crown Prince Umayado, aka Shotoku Taishi, but he died before she did and by the time that Kashikiya Hime passed away, there was nobody clearly set up to take the throne, though two candidates did stand out.  There was Prince Yamashiro no Ohoye, the son of Crown Prince Umayado, whom a strict lineal succession might seem to indicate was next up to inherit, but Yamato inheritance tradition was not so cut and dried.  Soga no Emishi, the son of Soga no Umako, the powerful Oho-omi who helped run the government during Kashikiya Hime's reign, campaigned to put Prince Tamura on the throne, rather than Yamashiro no Ohoye, despite—or perhaps because of—the fact that Yamashiro no Ohoye was actually a close relative to Emishi. Now Prince Tamura was on the throne and Soga no Emishi was the Oho-omi, taking his father's place. And yet, despite the chaotic start to the reign in 629, the majority of it was almost tame and nondescript.  Don't get me wrong, Tamura, as I'll keep referring to him, was on the throne for a respectable thirteen years, and during that time there were certainly events that move our narrative forward in many ways.  However, much of the years of his reign are filled with discussions of things like rain storms and celestial phenomena.  In fact, the only thing that apparently happened in all of 634 was that they saw a comet in the sky.  The year before that, in 633, the only entry was the return of envoys from the Tang.  For two years, then, there is hardly a mention of politics and anything else going on.  And yet, this is a period that would set the stage for what was coming next. Shortly after Tamura was appointed sovereign, he appointed his consort, Princess Takara, as his queen.  Takara was, herself, a great-great grand-daughter of Nunakura Futodamashiki, a granddaughter of Prince Hikobito and daughter of Prince Chinu—presumably niece to Tamura, then, which is basically par for the course.  She was also a royal descendant on her mother's side, tracing back to Nunakura's father, Ame Kuniyoshi, aka Kinmei Tennou.  In fact, her mother, Kibitsu Hime, is said to have been buried in her own kofun at the head of Ame Kuniyoshi's kofun—and today it is the site of the 7th century saruishi figures that I mentioned in the talk about traveling around Asuka. Takara would give birth to three children of note.  The first was her eldest son, Prince Katsuraki, who would, spoiler alert, later be known as Crown Prince Naka no Ohoye.  He was around three years old when his father took the throne.  He had a sister by Takara, named Hashibito, and a brother, whose name you may have heard me mention previously:  Oho-ama. Yes, Naka no Ohoye and Oho-ama are the future sovereigns Tenji and Temmu, but for now they are still relatively young.  In fact, Oho-ama wouldn't be born until several years into his father's reign, in 631. Some of the early events of the reign were carryover from Kashikiya Hime's time on the throne.  In 629, for instance, Tanabe no Muraji went to Yakushima, returning the following year, and with people coming to Yamato from Yakushima the year after that. There were also a fair number of foreign embassies, including an Embassy from Goguryeo and Baekje.  These may have been missions of condolences and congratulations—typical international diplomacy at the time when a neighboring ruler passed away and a new one ascended the throne, it would seem.  They arrived in the third month of 630 and departed in the 9th month of that same year—a 6 month visit, all told. We also have the first actual account of ambassadors sent off to the Tang dynasty: Inugami no Mitasuki and Yakushi no E'nichi, each of Dainin rank.  These are some of the first true kentoushi, or Ambassadors to the Tang court, that were sent, but over time their influence would be felt across Yamato and the archipelago. These ambassadors—or at least Mitasuki—would return in 632 with a Tang ambassador, Gao Biaoren, along with student-priests Ryou'un and Soumin, as well as Suguri no Torikahi.  Perhaps most tellingly, they would arrive with Silla escort envoys, which would seem to indicate that passage to the Tang court was not done without Silla's assistance.  As you may recall, Silla had entered into a nominal alliance with the Tang against Goguryeo.  The Tang Ambassadors eventually reached Naniwa, where they were met with boats decked out with drums, flutes, and flags, and where they exchanged formal greetings before being escorted into the official residence.  The Nihon Shoki takes pains to note the different individuals involved in the duties, from the initial greeting, guiding them to the residence, and then preparing them in the residence, along with a welcome drink of sake brewed on temple rice land. And then, three months later, they depart once more.  Nothing else is said of their visit. Meanwhile, in the time between when Mitasuki went to the Tang court and when he returned with Gao Biaoren and company, a few things had happened.  For one we get a note about Tamura moving to a new palace complex known as Okamoto no miya, supposedly at the foot of Asuka hill, hence the name, which means “foot of the hill”.  This would not have been much of a change from Kashikiya Hime's palace, still within the sacred area defined by the Soga temple of Asukadera as well as various other temples being stood up in that area as well.  A move was to be expected, though in this case it is interesting that he didn't go very far. There is also mention, still in 630, of the repairing the official residences in Naniwa where ambassadors from the continent would be quartered during their trips to Yamato 631 opens with something of a treat – so it would seem, anyway.  We are told that in the third month of Tamura's third year on the throne, Prince Pung—named Pungjang in the Chronicles—was sent to the Yamato court by his father, King Wicha of Baekje.  On the one hand, the Korean sources do agree that Prince Pung was, indeed, sent to Yamato, where he would live as a guest and diplomatic hostage.  We've talked about this practice in the past, which seems to have strengthened bonds between nations, although we rarely hear of Yamato returning the favor by sending hostages to the continent.  It may have also helped keep a potential heir out of harm's way in case of a coup or other such politics.  Several times, heirs returned to Baekje to be enthroned with Yamato assistance, if the Chronicles are to be believed. Except that this entry is probably not quite right.  You see, Wicha wouldn't even come to the throne until 641—he wasn't even made Crown Prince until 632—so why would he send his son as a diplomatic hostage in 631?  Johnathan Best, translating the Baekje records of the Samguk Sagi, suggests that perhaps the Chroniclers were off by a factor of 10 or 12 years.  You see, as we mentioned earlier, the East Asian calendrical system was based on a series of ten stems and twelve branches.  The stems represented the elemental forces, and the branches were identified with the twelve signs of the zodiac.  Incrementing each one each year led to a series of 60 years before it started repeating, and based on the way that the records for this reign are dated, it looks like the records the Chroniclers were drawing from used this system for their dates.  However, if you misread—or even miswrite—one of these characters it can change your date by ten or even twelve years.  It would make much more sense for Prince Pung to have arrived twelve years later, in 643.  Similarly, we find other records, particularly having to do with Baekje, which may be a bit jumbled, possibly indicating they came from a similar source that either had things in the wrong chronological order or was simply vague or poorly scribed so that the Chroniclers had to figure out exactly what was happening when—which they may have made mistakes with, from time to time. So Prince Pung arriving as a hostage is probably misplaced, and likely didn't happen during Tamura's reign.  Which means that other than people from Yakushima showing up in 631 the only other major event of the year was Tamura going to the hot springs of Arima, in Settsu, where he stayed for about three months. Now I know I've mentioned hot springs, or onsen, before in the narrative.  After all, the volcanic islands that make up the Japanese archipelago are full of them, and it isn't like they were suddenly discovered during this reign, but it does look like this might be the first formal mention of them in the Nihon Shoki—which gives Arima, in the mountains north of Kobe, some serious bona fides to be considered the oldest known hot spring town in Japan. And that would be a cool side note in most reigns, but for Tamura it seems to have been a habit.  He apparently went for a dip at least three times in his reign—the second time, in 638, he apparently went to the “Arima no Miya”, or the Arima Palace, which suggests that he had something built specifically for his visits.  And then, in 639, he headed to the hot springs in Iyo. The country of Iyo is better known today as Ehime prefecture, on the western edge of the island of Shikoku.  The largest city in Ehime is Matsuyama, home to the famous Dougou Onsen, which also lays a claim to being the oldest operating hot springs in the archipelago.  Dougou Onsen is not only the traditional place in Iyo where Tamura, aka Jomei Tennou, took the waters, as they might say in the west, but in the Iyo Fudoki it is said that its fame goes back even further.  As we mentioned back in Chapter 18, it is said that the legendary figures Ohonamuchi and Sukuna Bikona met there, back in ancient times.  In more recent times, relatively speaking, Dougou Onsen was the inspiration behind the fantastical bathhouse created by Hayao Miyazaki in the Studio Ghibli film, Spirited Away. For all that these visits to the hot springs are somewhat interesting, they don't exactly tell us a lot about what was happening with government, and in fact tend to make it seem almost as though Tamura was skipping out, at least in the fall to early winter.  And to be honest, can you blame him?  Winter is one of the best times to go take advantage of the volcanic springs. Many of the other records appear to be natural phenomena, mostly having to do with the heavens: rain, storms, lightning, and more.  Some of the more intriguing are comets—stars with “long tails” that appeared in the skies.  There are also mentions of eclipse and what may have been a meteor—a star in 636 “floated east to west, with a noise like thunder.”  The Priest Soumin, from the Tang, said it was the sound of the Celestial Dog, a creature from the ancient Han or possibly pre-Qin text, the Classic of Mountains and Seas, a fantastical account of mythical geography and various animals, including the nine tailed fox and the celestial dog, whose bark was said to be like Thunder.  This book was considered to be a true account up through the Tang dynasty. One could probably track the celestial phenomena and see if there is any correlation with known sightings, but it is also just as likely that some of it was taken from continental records and inserted into the Chronicles as appropriate. Besides such phenomena, there were accounts of more missions, especially from Baekje.  Yamato was still using the cap rank system attributed to Prince Umayado during Kashikiya Hime's reign, and some of the envoys were given cap rank, or granted a promotion—a gesture that was likely pure diplomacy, as the rank wouldn't necessarily convey any special rights back in their home country. There are a few more things of note.  First, in 636, we are told that all those who had affairs with the uneme at court were put on trial and punished—which likely means they were put to death.  The uneme, as you may recall, were women sent to serve at the court, and as such they were apparently off-limits, at least while they were serving.  That clearly didn't stop people from having some late night escapades, though. The main reason it likely comes up, though, is that we are told that one of the accused was a man named Miwa no Kimi no Osazaki, and that he took his own life by stabbing himself in the throat because the examination—by which I'm sure they meant torture—was too much to bear.  And here I have to wonder how similar Yamato's sense of justice was to that of their neighbor, the Tang dynasty.  In the case of the latter, there was often a suspicion that any person accused of a crime must be guilty of at least something—after all, why would they have been accused if they didn't do something to upset the peace, even if it was just that they didn't get along with their neighbors.  It was considered de rigeur to submit suspected criminals to torturous ordeals with the idea that this would elicit a confession.  Unfortunately, this idea that harsh and torturous examinations can be used to uncover the truth often still persists, despite evidence that, under enough duress, most people will say anything.   In this case, it drove Osazaki to take his own life. Later in that same year, the Okamoto palace caught fire and burned down, and so Tamura moved to a new palace, called the Tanaka palace, or the Palace in the Middle of the Rice Fields.  We also have a little more court action, as Prince Ohomata, a son of Nunakura Futodamashiki by one of his consorts, reached out to Soga no Emishi—called in this record the Toyoura no Oho-omi, likely because his mansion was in or near Toyoura, in Asuka. Prince Ohomata suggested to Soga no Emishi that the ministers had not been attending court properly.  He suggested that they should be there by roughly 5 or 6 AM—an hour before daybreak—and they should stay until 10 or 11 AM.  Specifically he mentioned the hour of the hare and the hour of the serpent, as each ancient hour was actually two, with twelve hours making up the day, each named for one of the twelve signs of the Asian zodiac. To enforce all of this, Ohomata also recommended having a bell rung that would let people know that it was time to start or end work.  This was all common practice in the continental courts of the day, and it wasn't like they were asking for a modern 40 hour work week, even:  the court ministers would literally be serving for maybe 5 to 6 hours at court, with the rest of the time to handle their own affairs.  Still, Soga no Emishi apparently didn't think much of the idea and so was not inclined to support it. All of this is kind of an odd mention.  First, Ohomata is an obscure Prince—he's only mentioned three times in the Chronicles, and once just in a list of Nunakura's children.  Second, the idea doesn't go anywhere.  Third, they don't call Soga no Emishi by the name they used in both the previous or the next reign, but use Toyora no Ohoomi, for whatever reason.  It just sticks out as odd, and I wonder if it was added to show that Soga no Emishi was resistant to change and new ideas. At the same time, it does give us a clue that Soga no Emishi was still running things.  His name may not have been on a lot, but then again, neither was Tamura's, so we can only infer what was actually going on during this period.  It's  almost a lacuna in the history. There were a few other events worth noting, however, one of which took more than a bit of the Chroniclers' ink, and this was a rebellion by the Emishi people. First off, because it can be confusing:  There is no apparent link between Soga no Emishi and the Emishi people that I'm aware of.  Emishi, of course, is the name given to the people living outside of the Yamato cultural sphere in the northeast, from modern Ibaraki prefecture north.  They were apparently expected to pay tribute at court, and are clearly treated differently from other outside groups, like Baekje and Silla.  Some of them were likely members of the groups that had lived in the region since the Jomon period, who never fully adopted the Yayoi and later Kofun lifeways, and they may be related to the Ainu people who still live in modern Hokkaido, though there is also evidence that some of the Emishi may have been ethnic Wa people who had gone to live outside the Yamato court's reach—though that is more evident in later centuries than in the current narrative. I would also note that “Emishi” is an exonym—that is a name given by outsiders, in this case, by the Wa people of Yamato.  In fact, other than what we can see in the archaeological record, what we know of the Emishi comes from Yamato sources, which are almost entirely biased.  We don't really have any good telling of their story from their own perspective.  For instance,did they feel oppressed by Yamato in general, and not think they should have to keep bringing tribute?  Or was there a more specific event that occurred, much like the conflicts we see later between the Wajin, the ethnic Japanese, and the Ainu up in Hokkaido? It is unclear. To subdue the Emishi, and bring them back under Yamato hegemony, the court appointed Kamitsukeno no Kimi no Katana, a courtier of Dainin cap rank, as general. Spoiler alert: he's the general in the story at the beginning of this episode.  Based on his name, it would seem he was from the family in charge of Kamitsukenu, later shortened to Kozuke Province in modern Gunma prefecture, north of Tokyo.  As such, he would have been well positioned to know something of the Emishi on his border.  That said, he apparently didn't know them so well that it gave him an advantage.  His forces were routed and they retreated back to their fortress, where they were besieged by the Emishi. Now when I say “fortress” please don't picture some grand castle, like Himeji, Azuchi, or Matsumoto.  In fact, don't really picture a castle at all.  More likely than not, this was simply an area enclosed by a wall—possibly some earthworks and maybe a moat, but perhaps just a quickly erected palisade structure.  True castle structures wouldn't come until later.  For those familiar with American history, this may have been something like the fort at Jamestown or even the quickly assembled and ill-fated Fort Necessity—though perhaps a little larger if it was capable of housing the forces and the noncombatants that had accompanied them. And so, when some of Katana's soldiers decided they didn't really want to be there any longer they apparently just up and left.  Presumably they found a time when nobody was looking and just yeeted themselves over the walls and did their best to hide from the surrounding Emishi forces.  Pretty soon just about all of the able-bodied soldiers had taken this approach, and Katana was thinking about joining them.  In fact, he was getting ready to when his own wife noticed what he was doing. That's right, his wife was there with him.  Whether she was a combatant or simply part of the train it isn't entirely clear, but she wasn't going to have her husband run off and abandon his post.  She poured out sake for him to drink and as he did so, she took his sword and girded it to herself.  She then went and found all of the bows and handed them out to all of the other women and people who had been left behind when the soldiers deserted, and they started pulling the bowstrings back and making a sound like they were being shot. Upon seeing this, Katana roused himself, grabbed a weapon himself, and advanced out of the fortress. The besieging Emishi were not sure what to make of this.  They could hear the twang of bows, and it sounded as though there was quite a force, so as general Katana stepped out of the fortress they pulled back, thinking that there was a much bigger force than he actually had.  As they did that, some of Katana's own forces, who had escaped, but not too far, started to gain hope.  They regrouped and attacked the Emishi with fresh energy, eventually defeating them. Of course, Katana's wife remains nameless throughout this whole episode, even though she was the one who helped turn the tide—first by turning her husband, but then by organizing the others to make it seem like they had a lot more people than they did. After this fascinating story, the Chronicles getback to the normal records of storms, of fruit trees blossoming, of hot springs, and tribute.  It wasn't until two years later, in 639, that we get something interesting that we might easily overlook.  This was the start of a new temple on the banks of the Kudara River, known to us as Kudara dera, or Kudara Temple. Kudara Temple is definitely a bit of an enigma.  It is mentioned quite heavily in later records, and yet it would eventually disappear without a trace, or so it seemed.  It wasn't until modern times that archaeologists identified a temple that we believe is Kudara dera.  We are told that it had a nine-story pagoda, which may reflect ideas from Tang or Silla practice—somewhat ironic given that “Kudara” is a name used to refer to Baekje.  In this case, the name seems to have come from the Kudara River, on whose banks the temple was built.  From the 80s through the 2000s there were a series of excavations at the site of Kibi Pond north of Asuka, closer to the center of Sakurai.  Here a temple was found, which we believe to be the site of Kudara dera.  The pond itself was dug at a later point in time, on the site of the temple, which was likely moved.  Today, there is a small Kudara temple to the northwest of the old site, but it isn't nearly as grand as it once was. By all accounts, the construction of Kudara temple took years, in contrast to the building of royal palaces, which went up relatively quickly.  This is because the palaces, for all of their size, were still being made using largely local construction methods.  Posts were placed directly into the ground and the roofs were thatched.  Being made of wood, these buildings went up relatively quickly, which was good seeing as how every reign the sovereign and court would move to a new palace.  Of course, I also wonder if the tradition of moving didn't come from the fact that the palace would likely have started rotting away on its own after a while.  Then again, even in a single reign you might change palaces multiple times, as Tamura did. In contrast, we have temple construction from the mainland.  Here, rocks were set down, and the posts were placed on those, which gave a firm foundation and prevented water from easily getting in and ruining the base of the pillar.  Packed earth and stone construction were used in places, along with heavy tile roofs, for which thousands of rooftiles had to be constructed.  Centuries of architectural knowledge were used to design and create structures that were meant to outlast any patrons who helped to build them. Add on to that the nine story pagoda.  If you consider that the beautiful and imposing tenshukaku, or main keep, of Himeji castle, built in the early 17th century, is six stories and rises over 46 meters, or about 152 feet, this pagoda may have been about the same height or even a bit higher, assuming that relative proportions were similar to those in other pagodas from the time, such as that of Yakushiji.  It must have been a towering beacon at the time, and the temple is considered one of the four great temples of the Asuka era, at least by some. That this temple was commissioned by Tamura and not by Soga no Emishi is something that may indicate some unspoken tensions at the time.   Tamura's previous palaces were in Asuka, near Asuka temple, the chief temple of the Soga family, and situated in a Soga stronghold.  Kudara temple was built significantly outside of this area, though still within walking distance, so not so far as to be a complete move—it isn't like he moved it up to lake Biwa or anything, wink wink. In 640, Tamura returned from his trip to the hot springs in Iyo—again, modern Ehime prefecture—and came back to a new palace at Umayazaka, but just six months later he moved into the Kudara palace, which was presumably nearby Kudara temple, effectively moving the court out of—or at least to the periphery of—Soga controlled territory. Unfortunately, his stay at Kudara palace would only last about a year, as he passed away there in the 10th month of 641.  He was roughly 48 years old.  His son, and heir apparent, Prince Hirakasuwake, aka Naka no Oe, pronounced the funeral elegy. And just like that, the throne was vacant again.  There was an heir apparent, but Naka no Oe was only 16 years old, and so his mother, Takara, would take the throne, presumably until he was ready.  She would be known as Ame Toyo Takara Ikashi-hi Tarashi Hime, aka Kougyoku Tennou, and her reign was anything but quiet.  To give some context: if we had a little over 50 or so events recorded during the 13 years that Tamura was on the throne, while we have over 60 events recorded in just the first year of Takara's reign.   So, you know, there's that. But I'm going to have to ask you to wait a little bit for us to dig into that.  For one thing, the politics are going to start getting hot and heavy, as anyone who may recognize the name “Naka no Oe” likely knows.  As this young prince was coming into his own he was going to come face to face with the power of the Soga family.  All that, starting next episode. Until then, thank you for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website, SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to Tweet at us at @SengokuPodcast, or reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for her work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.

RAB MARCOS METTA- LA HAGADA DE PESAJ- 03- LA RESPUESTA DE ABADIM AINU by TALMUD TORA MONTE SINAI

Sugimoto and Asirpa go on a cool arctic whale quest to discover more cooking manga shenanigans, as well as uncovering a terrifying secret about the origin of the skin map's to Ainu gold. This week, Matt, Sam, Jae, and Jacob read and discuss Golden Kamuy by Satoru Noda.Read along, meme along, or just yell at our bad opinions by following @OverMangaCast on Twitter.YouTube / Instagram / FacebookLeave a review: Podchaser

Reveals the Pacific Ur-culture that seeded the ancient civilizations of China, Egypt, India, Mexico, and Peru • Shows how the Pan diaspora explains the similarities between Gobekli Tepe and Toltec carvings and stone towers in Japan and on Easter Island • Reveals the mother tongue of Pan hidden in shared word roots in vastly different languages, including Quechua, Sanskrit, Japanese, Greek, and Sumerian • Explains the red-haired Caucasian mummies of China, the Ainu of Japan, the presence of “white” humans in early Native American legend, and other light-skinned peoples found in Southeast Asia and the Middle East The destruction of the vast continent of Pan--also known as Lemuria or Mu--in the Pacific Ocean 24,000 years ago was the greatest catastrophe that ever befell humanity. Yet it resulted in a prehistoric Golden Age of arts and technology thanks to the Sons of Noah, who, forewarned and prepared for the disaster, escaped in 5 organized fleets. Theirs was the masterful Ur-culture that seeded China, Egypt, India, Mexico, and Peru, explaining the sudden injection of the same advanced knowledge and sophisticated arts into those widely separated lands. Examining the diaspora from the sunken continent of Pan, Susan B. Martinez finds traces of the oceanic Pan civilization in arts and technologies from canal-works, masonry, and agriculture to writing, weaving, and pottery, but most importantly in the art of navigation, the hallmark of the survivors of the catastrophe. Using archaeo-linguistic analysis, she reveals the mother tongue of Pan hidden in strikingly similar words for royalty, deities, and important places in vastly different languages, including Quechua, Maori, Sanskrit, Japanese, Chinese, Greek, and Sumerian, as well as English through the prefix “pan” which denotes “all-encompassing.” The author reveals how the Pan diaspora explains the mound builders on each continent, the presence of “white” humans in Native American legend, the red-haired mummies found in China, and the Ainu of Japan. She shares recent genetic studies that reveal Polynesian DNA in central Europeans, Mesopotamians, South Americans, and the 9000-year-old Kennewick man and shows how Pan provides the missing link. She reveals why carvings at Gobekli Tepe are similar to Toltec artistry, why stone towers in Japan and Easter Island are identical, and how the Pacific Ring of Fire was activated. Moving the Garden of Eden from the Fertile Crescent to the South Seas, Martinez strikes down the pervasive view of Atlantis as the source of ancient knowledge and exposes the original unity of mankind on the ancient Pacific continent of Pan.

This episode we review the cult classic Shaw brothers film, Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan. https://letterboxd.com/film/intimate-confessions-of-a-chinese-courtesan/ Send us an email at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠zafilm2film⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or tweet us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/zafilm2film⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ !

The destruction of the vast continent of Pan--also known as Lemuria or Mu--in the Pacific Ocean 24,000 years ago was the greatest catastrophe that ever befell humanity. Yet it resulted in a prehistoric Golden Age of arts and technology thanks to the Sons of Noah, who, forewarned and prepared for the disaster, escaped in 5 organized fleets. Theirs was the masterful Ur-culture that seeded China, Egypt, India, Mexico, and Peru, explaining the sudden injection of the same advanced knowledge and sophisticated arts into those widely separated lands. Examining the diaspora from the sunken continent of Pan, Susan B. Martinez finds traces of the oceanic Pan civilization in arts and technologies from canal-works, masonry, and agriculture to writing, weaving, and pottery, but most importantly in the art of navigation, the hallmark of the survivors of the catastrophe. Using archaeo-linguistic analysis, she reveals the mother tongue of Pan hidden in strikingly similar words for royalty, deities, and important places in vastly different languages, including Quechua, Maori, Sanskrit, Japanese, Chinese, Greek, and Sumerian, as well as English through the prefix “pan” which denotes “all-encompassing.” The author reveals how the Pan diaspora explains the mound builders on each continent, the presence of “white” humans in Native American legend, the red-haired mummies found in China, and the Ainu of Japan. She shares recent genetic studies that reveal Polynesian DNA in central Europeans, Mesopotamians, South Americans, and the 9000-year-old Kennewick man and shows how Pan provides the missing link. She reveals why carvings at Gobekli Tepe are similar to Toltec artistry, why stone towers in Japan and Easter Island are identical, and how the Pacific Ring of Fire was activated.  

In Episode 23 of the podcast I speak with David Laichtman - a doctoral candidate at Sophia University in Tokyo - about the historical and contemporary practice of bear worship in Japan by cultures including the Matagi in Tohoku and Ainu in Hokkaido. In doing so, this episode draws attention to the often-overlooked fact that Japan is home culturally and ethnically distinct people, many of whom are most identifiable in the snow country. This episode includes discussion regarding traditional practices which result in the physical death of bears. We discuss how that occurs including ritualistic aspects of the death and the consumption of the bear. Given the nature of our conversation, this episode may not be suitable for all audiences and for that reason, I ask for your discretion as to whether you want to listen to it. David and I discuss peoples including the Matagi and Ainu cultures. Neither of us are Matagi or Ainu and we do not speak on their behalf. My questions are asked from a place of true interest and it is my sincere intention that all questions are appropriate and engaging, while David's answers are based on his own research and observations. Should you be interested to learn more, Mataginoyu and Matagi Museum, both in Akita Prefecture, profile the culture of the Matagi. Upopoy National Ainu Museum and Park in Hokkaido is the largest public facility dedicated to the promotion of Ainu culture. As David suggests, it might be best to visit Upopoy in conjunction with or prioritise a visit to Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum, along with the Kayano Shigeru Nibutani Ainu Museum. David will be a guest speaker at the event ‘New and Critical Perspectives on Global Studies', presented by the Graduate School of Global Studies (GSGS) Sophia University on February 16th 2024.  Make sure to checkout the episode page on the Snow Country Stories Japan website for more information, images and links.  00:00  Episode Introduction 03:09  A Little of David's Story 05:01  Arctolatry: A (Very) Brief History 07:30  Bear Worship in Japan: Where & By Whom Is It Practiced? 09:49  The Matagi & The Ainu 14:08  Matagi ‘Kuma Matsuri' & Ainu Bear ‘Iomante' / Part 1 22:41  Matagi ‘Kuma Matsuri' & Ainu Bear ‘Iomante' / Part 2 26:23  The Story of Japan: One People, One Culture? 28:45  Matagi & Ainu Museums in Northern Japan 35:02  Recommended Reading & Where to Follow David 38:46  Episode CloseSnow Country Stories Japan is a bi-weekly podcast about life and travel in Japan's legendary 'yukiguni'. For more information about the show and your host, visit our website - www.snowcountrystories.com - and make sure to subscribe, rate and review the podcast and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Last time we spoke about the legendary battle of Tsushima. Admiral Rozhdestvenski traveled across the globe to bring the Baltic fleet to the Pacific to give a climactic fight to Admiral Togo's combined fleet. Yet during the journey, Port Arthur fell leaving the only destination to be Vladivostok and they would have to take a perilous journey through the Tsushima strait to get to her. Rozhdestvenski's grand journey meant his ships were ill maintained and the crews had no time for training. The Japanese meanwhile had trained vigorously and brought new technological advantages into the mix that would significantly tip the scale. The Russian baltic fleet was absolutely annihilated at a minimal lose for the IJN. The battle of Tsushima became one of the most famous naval battles in history and its decisive nature would become indoctrinated in the IJN until the end of WW2.    #84 The Russo-Japanese War part 11: The Portsmouth Treaty    Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. I have to start this podcast by repeating a funny little bit from this week. One of my bosses over at Kings and Generals suddenly messages me on discord and says “hey what's going on with the China Podcast, are we doing a series on the Russo-Japanese War now?” And to this I laughed, because he had a good point, I am sure there are a lot of you who were wondering….well why are we spending so much time on this, if the Fall and Rise of China podcast is ..well about China. The Russo-Japanese War would have a profound effect on China and global history. Something many forget, this entire war occurred within China, a nation not officially taking part in the conflict! Having a war break out between two other empires within your borders was an absolutely humiliating situation. China had just lost a war against the Russians in Manchuria. When the war broke out, China declared neutrality and asked both sides to not violate her territory, which both did without a care in the world. The Chinese did help the Japanese, especially the Honghuzi. Now the 1st Sino-Japanese War had left quite a foul taste in the mouth of the Chinese, but during the Russo-Japanese War some Pan-Asianim did develop. The Chinese public gradually began supporting the Japanese, there were quite a lot of youth in China demanding the Qing government allow them to enlist and help fight off the Russians. Countless Chinese helped with labor, working in a vast spy network and sold both sides provisions. When the Russians lost the battle of Tsushima and Mukden, there were many influential and future influential figures that celebrated this. Notably Mahatma Gandhi, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sun Yat-Sen were deeply influenced by the Japanese victory. Why were they so influenced, because it was the first time a non-white nation had defeated a white one, and not just that, one of the great powers. The Russian Empire was in the public's mind, defeated handily by a small asiatic nation, it was a david and goliath story come true. Ironically, the Yellow Peril which Kaiser Wilhelm had utilized to usher in the war was turned up to 100 when the Japanese won.Now all that is fine and dandy, but there was another dramatic effect this war would hold over Japan and China. We technically have not spoken about “the end” of the Russo-Japanese War, there is actually another battle and the peace negotiations to discuss. It is here things will occur that will actually lay the groundwork for WW2. So now we are heading back into the story. The Japanese had won at Mukden and now at Tsushima, so that was that, they had won the war right? The Russians had taken up a new defensive position in northern Manchuria and were still being reinforced, 2 corps were enroute. In the war of attrition, the Russians would eventually win, despite having no naval ability, they would simply overwhelm the Japanese with numbers. Both nations faced bankruptcy, but the Russians were able to take larger loans from France and Germany, thus the situation was from a financial point of view more perilous for Japan. 53% of Japan's annual revenue had been devoted to the war effort. For Russia, the humiliation and financial ruin was accompanied by a full blown revolution. Thus both nations really needed the war to end and fast. Now comes in my favorite US president, Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt was one of the few at the offset of the war to place his bet on a Japanese victory. He also attempted to resolve the disputes between the two empires before the war broke out, often citing the Kaiser's Yellow Peril propaganda as being a main culprit to the hostilities. Roosevelt wrote to the British diplomat, Cecil Spring Rice that he believed Wilhelm should bear partial responsibility for the war "as he has done all he could to bring it about". Roosevelt is a fascinating figure. He was of course a product of his time, a 19th century man, he had views of white superiority, but demonstrated a certain tolerance towards nonwhites. This extended itself a lot towards the Japanese, there was a lot about the Japanese he admired. After the battle of Tsushima Roosevelt wrote “even the battle of Trafalgar could not match this. I grew so excited that I myself became almost like a Japanese, and I could not attend to official duties.” Roosevelt famously practiced judo with Japanese opponents and avidly read Nitobe Inazo's “Bushido”. Roosevelt was sent many books from his friend at Harvard, Kaneko Kentaro and wrote in appreciation “Perhaps I was most impressed by this little volume on Bushido. …It seems to me, my dear Baron, that Japan has much to teach to the nations of the Occident, just as she has something to learn from them. I have long felt that Japan's entrance into the circle of the great civilized powers was of good omen for all of the world.Certainly I myself, hope that I have learned not a little from what I have read of the fine Samurai spirit, and from the way in which that spirit has been and is being transformed to meet the needs of modern life.” In some ways perhaps you could call Roosevelt a Japanophile, but I would stress, like any white elites of the 19th century, he still had ingrained in him a sense that whites, notably white anglo saxons were the most civilized in the world.  It should come to no surprise, Roosevelt who publicly spoke well of the Japanese during the war, found the Japanese coming to him to help mediate the peace. Now as much as Roosevelt had openly favored the Japanese during the conflict, now there was a looming issue on the American president's mind. The Japanese were aggressively expanding in Asia and the Pacific, this was not something Roosevelt liked very much. After the fall of Port Arthur, Roosevelt wrote “if Japan tries to gain from her victory in the Russo-Japanese War more than she ought to have, she will array against her all the great powers, and however determined she may be she cannot successfully face an allied world”. Roosevelt was greatly troubled by the potential threat Japan posed against America's own increasing strength and influence in the asia-pacific. He would dispatch one General Arthur MacArthur, for you Pacific War week by week podcast listeners, yes I managed to bring MacArthur into this one. Arthur MacArthur was sent on a tour of the far east in 1905 and he was of course accompanied by his wife and a young Lt Douglas MacArthur who would go on to write ‘The purpose of our observations was to measure the strength of the Japanese Army and its method of warfare … But I had the uneasy feeling that the haughty, feudalistic samurai who were their leaders, were, through their victories, planting the seed of eventual Japanese conquest of the Orient.' No worries I am not going to turn this into a MacArthur rant. Roosevelt's agreed to act as a mediator before the battle of Tsushima. After the Tsushima victory, the Japanese expected they would receive large benefits from peace talks. They had good reason to believe so, Russia had lost on the land and sea, revolution was burning within the empire. Anarchists attacked the Tsar's uncle and brother in law, Grand Duke Serge Alexandroitich, the governor general of Moscow. Riots and anti-war demonstrations were widespread, violence was found in major Russian cities. From the Russian point of view, the Japanese had committed all her available manpower in the field, thus only mediation could save Japan from incoming disaster. In many ways it was a kind of race, who would run out of men first? Japan because she literally had a much smaller population, or would the Russian people simply overthrow the Tsar regime? Both regimes also were verging bankruptcy, whose dollar would run out first? Russia had not lost any of “her” territory, something Roosevelt was quick to point out to the Japanese. Thus Roosevelt was sort of winking at the Japanese that they should secure Russian territory so they had more bargaining power at the peace table, so the Japanese went to work. Japan and Russian had signed a treaty in 1875, the Treaty of Saint Petersburg that saw Japan ceding part of Sakhalin island to Russia in exchange for the Kuril islands. Now by the time of the Russo-Japanese war the population of Sakhalin was roughly 30,000 including 4000 Ainu. The island held a large prison and was used as a place for those Russia sought to exile. Overall it was not a very significant territory to the Russians. Its climate as you can imagine, was quite harsh, even by Russian standards. The Russians had a garrison of 7280 men on the island, the majority were conscripted farmers, hunters and prisoners with little in terms of training or equipment. They were led by General Mikhail Nikolaevich Lyapunov, who had been appointed military governor of Sakhalin in 1898. He had joined the military academy at the age of 16, but quickly found a talent in law, so he became a lawyer, while continuing his military career on the side. Thus the man was not particularly experienced in terms of war.  After the battle of Tsushima, the Japanese quickly wrangled together a force of 14,000 men for the brand new 13th IJA division led by General Haraguchi Kensai. Admiral Kataoka Shichiro assembled a naval force at Aomori Bay of 8 armored cruisers, 9 destroyers, 4 coastal defense ships and 12 torpedo boats to transport the division for an invasion of Sakhalin. The naval force departed on July 5th and landed in Aniwa Bay and near the port of Korsakov. They faced little opposition, a second group landed closer to Korsakov where they destroyed a battery of field artillery and defeated a small Russian force. The Japanese quickly advanced against Korsakov the next day, but the garrison of 2000 Russians led by Colonel Josef Arciszweski there had burned it to the ground. On July 8th the IJN force cleared Chitose Bay and on the 10th occupied Kindo Cape. Meanwhile the 13th division advanced north, taking the village of Vladimirovka. Colonel Arciszweski had dug to resist the Japanese, but his force was quickly outflanked and they withdrew into mountains within the interior of the island. By July 16th, Arciszweski surrendered his forces. Around 200 Russians were captured, the Japanese had suffered 18 deaths and 58 wounded. On the 17th 1905 General Lyapunov, through a representative, sent a message to General Kensai "Your Excellency! The lack of medicines and dressings and, as a result, the lack of the possibility of rendering assistance to the wounded, forced me to propose to Your Excellency to cease hostilities for purely humane reasons." General Haraguchi responded by demanding that General Lyapunov surrender all weapons and all movable and immovable state property that were intact, as well as the surrender of all maps, documents, papers related to the military department and administration. On the 19th General Lyapunov at his headquarters in the village of Onor gave the order: "The lack of food and firearms, as well as entrenching tools, the lack of sanitary facilities, the enormous numerical superiority of the Japanese army and the absence of a prepared path of retreat put us in such a situation when which further resistance would be useless bloodshed. In view of this, having received an offer from the commander of the Japanese army, which landed on the island, to surrender, I convened a military council, at which, to discuss the general situation...". On the 24th the Japanese landed in northern Sakhalin near Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky. The Russians had 5000 troops under the direct control of General Lyapunov. Lyapunov chose to flee the city with his forces and later surrendered seeing the Japanese capture 3200 men, 79 officers and General Lyapunov. He was the only Russian governor to surrender during the war. The Japanese would also capture another 1260 soldiers around Onor with a large stockpile of weapons, ammunition and food. After all was said and done, the battle for Sakhalin saw the Russians suffer 181 deaths, thousands taken prisoner. With that done with, the Japanese now had officially seized Russian territory. Alongside this the Japanese re-signed the Anglo-Japanese alliance for another 10 years and entered talks with the US regarding their positions over Korea and the Philippines. The Taft-Katsura agreement between William Howard Taft and Count Katsura Taro saw the US agree Japan should seek a protectorate over Korea, and Japan agreed the Philippines should be left under the good governance of the US. It should be noted this was all “a agreement” nothing was signed. In many ways it was a betrayal of Korea by the US, as the Americans and Koreans had signed an amity and commerce treaty in 1882, which the Koreans assumed was a mutual defense treaty. Regardless, the Japanese were securing their poker hand before heading into the negotiations. The peace negotiations were held at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The Russian peace team was led by Sergius Witte who quickly stressed Russia had not been beaten and the war was very much still on. He also began privately complaining to all that it was his view the Japanese sought to gain as much loot from an agreement as possible. He was 100% correct in that assumption. Witte also made it clear, the Tsar's position in regards to Korea had not changed and that Russia would never pay a rouble in war indemnities. The Japanese were lead by Baron Komura, a harvard graduate. He came into the negotiations immediately demanding Korea was in the sphere of Japanese influence, that the Russians should depart Manchuria, the cession of Sakhalin, the granting of new fishing rights along the Russian coast, the spoils of war to be agreed upon and of course a fat sum of war indemnities. The teams had arrived on August 8th of 1905, and would stay at the Hotel Wentworth in New Castle. The actual negotiations took place at the General Stores Building, furnished with Mahogany furniture from the Cabinet Room of the White House. The conference was arranged so the most difficult parts would come last, namely, indemnities and Sakhalin. There were 12 sessions held between August 9th to the 30th. During the first 8 sessions, both sides reached an agreement on 8 points.  There should be an immediate ceasefire. The Russians would recognize  Japanese claims over Korea. The Russian forces would evacuate Manchuria.  Russia would cede its leases over Port Arthur and Dalien, the South Manchuria Railway and some mining concession, and Russia would retain the Chinese Eastern Railway in northern Manchuria. The next 4 points were much trickery.  On August the 15th the two vexed subjects were brought forth, Sakhalin and indemnity payments. It seemed the American public opinion over these issues had swung to the Russians. Witte, briefed by the Tsar stated there would be no payments for the return of Sakhalin and no indemnities, and stressed the Russians remained resolved to continue fighting. The Russians were very aware of Japan's financial distress and concluded that a demand for indemnity would be their most pressing concern. During the talks Roosevelt would later write ‘This (the indemnity) would never have been entertained by him, and he had calculated that the Peace Conference would break down on this point, and the struggle be continued until Japan could raise no more money.'On the issue Roosevelt intervened and advised the Japanese that if she did not abandon her claims for an indemnity, the world would come to believe the war had been fought for financial gain. Roosevelt on the 18th proposed dividing Sakhalin. Witte countered this on the 23rrd proposing Japan keep Sakhalin and drop her claims of indemnities. Komura rejected this proposal prompting Witte to warn him he was instructed to cease negotiations and resume the war. This ultimatum was met by 4 new Russian divisions arriving to Manchuria and Witte made a public display of literally showing everyone himself packing his bags preparing to leave. The Russians were convinced the Japanese could not afford to resume the war and were making a grand display to the Americans and Japanese that Russia would never agree to paying a single rouble. Komura was not in a good position and caved into the demands. The Japanese agreed in exchange for the southern half of Sakhalin they would drop their claims for indemnities. On September 5th, the treaty was signed, and ratified on the 10th of October in Japan, and the 14th for Russia. A random little side note, during the war Montenegro had declared war on Japan, but everyone kind of forgot about this and no mention of Montenegro was made in the treaty so technically Japan and Montenegro were at war until 2006 when Japan officially ended the war. Witte wrote to the New York Times about the treaty “The judgement of all observers here, whether pro-Japanese or pro-Russian, is that the victory is as astonishing a thing as ever was seen in diplomatic history. A nation hopelessly beaten in every battle of the war, one army captured and the other overwhelmingly routed, with a navy swept from the seas, dictated her own terms to the victory”. His rather bombastic claims were well warranted as the treaty signing had a profound effect on Japan. The Japanese public exploded. The over taxation for the war effort, the loss of so many sons and fathers had prompted the Japanese public to believe they were owed a lot. From the point of view of the Japanese public, the only news they received was endless victories over the lands and seas, they had no idea of the financial plight of their nation. When they heard the terms of the treaty, riots exploded. The most famous riots occurred in Hibiya Park in central Tokyo where activities and protesters assembled some 30,000 people strong. They marched upon the Imperial Palace grounds and rampaged the city for over 2 days. They especially targeted government buildings, the police, Russian property, but notably that of the US. From the publics view, Roosevelt and America had backstabbed them. Russian and American missionary churches were vandalized, martial law was erected. Over 350 buildings were damaged, 17 people were killed, 450 policemen, 48 firemen and civilians were injured. Prime Minister Katsura Taro's cabinet collapsed. While Roosevelt earned a nobel peace prize for his efforts, Japan's extremely positive view of America had dramatically soured. Its hard to picture it given the history of WW1 and WW2, but until this point America was kind of seen as a good big brother to Japan all things considered. The Japanese felt cheated of their rightful claims as victors of the war. Take this into consideration. During the 1st sino-Japanese War, Japan was denied her spoils by the triple intervention of France, Germany and Russia. During the Boxer Rebellion, the Russians used the situation to encroach into Manchuria, which Japan saw as a direct threat. Japan from her perspective won the Russo-Japanese War and now the US was stealing her spoils from her. From the Japanese perspective she deserved recognition as a great power and furthermore recognition as being racially equal. I wont delve to deeply into it, but after WW1, Japan would receive another similar and egregious wound when President Woodrow Wilson denied Japan's request to be recognized as racially equal to the other great powers. That would become the last straw, that drove Japan away from the west and towards WW2. But this is not a Japanese podcast haha, I apologize if I sometimes go in that direction its what I specialized in.  The Russo-Japanese War saw the Japanese suffer 58,000 to 86,000 deaths, for the Russians it was between 43,000 and 120,000. Of the casualties, the Japanese had lost perhaps 59,000 from combat, 27,000 from disease. For the Russians 34-53,000 died from combat and 9-19,000 from disease with another 75,000 captured. And let us not forget the Chinese who would see 20,000 civilian deaths and a financial loss of over 69 million taels. While the Japanese treated the tens of thousands of Russian prisoners extremely well considering what POW treatment would look like during WW1 and WW2, the treatment of Chinese was abysmal. The war between Russia and Japan occurred on Chinese soil, but China was powerless to prevent it and suffered human and financial loss. This added to the Chinese public's sense of humiliation. Alongside this, the treaty of Portsmouth basically started an annexation process of Korea to Japan, but it also handed a ton of privileges and extraterritorial rule over to Japan. Now Japan had her feet firmly set in Manchuria, weakening Qing rule. If you were part of the elites in the Qing dynasty and your responsibility was to improve the empire, it seems investigating how Japan beat Russia should be on top of your list of “to do's”.  Indeed, as we spoke a lot about during the 1st sino japanese war, Japan and China took different paths to modernization in the face of western imperialism. Japan did not defeat Russia solely because of the modernization of her army, Japan had thoroughly organized and prepared her populace for modern politics, military, economic, social and culture….while China struggled behind. China needed to emulate certain aspects, like Japan had to strengthen herself. When Japan and Russia signed the treaty of Portsmouth they were exchanging benefits and many of these were not theirs to take or give, but rather Chinas! Imagine you were a subject of the Qing dynasty living in Manchuria where your home may have been destroyed, perhaps you lost loved ones to the conflict, what did your government do? Nothing. It was a watershed moment for the common people of China, their government did absolutely nothing in the face of all of it. The intellectual class of China was enraged and invigorated by it all. There was this tremendous sense they as a people needed to improve in terms of politics, military, societal, economic, education and culture, China needed to actually modernize. The Qing dynasty was being seen by many as decrepit, too old and stuck in its ways.   In the historical context China was entering the “late Qing reforms” or “new policies” period. This actually began in 1901, but I believed it was very important to get the Russo-Japanese War story into the mix before I dabbled into this very complex part of modern Chinese history. The Qing dynasty is soon coming to its end. Stating all of that I thought it would be a cool time to do a bit of housekeeping. You Mr or Mrs listener, I'd love to hear from you. As you likely know I write and narrate the two podcast Pacific War week by week and the Fall and Rise of China Podcast's for Kings and Generals. However, I also happen to be a Youtuber, and Podcaster on the side. I have the Pacific War Channel where you can find content about the history of Asia from the 1830's until the end of the Pacific war in 1945, in many ways its like this podcast. I also awkwardly have a podcast platform called “the pacific war channel”, and as you can imagine its a bit directionless since …well lets be honest its redundant given these two podcasts I do. I have been trying to think about how to change that podcast around and I would love to hear from you guys. Best way to give feedback, toss comments on my Youtube channel, or join my Pacific War Channel discord, found on my Youtube channel page. I have a few idea's myself, perhaps doing a more general history focused podcast where I tell stories just like the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, but my god in much short series haha, let's say in 3 parters and such. Or I could do an entire other podcast series on The Rise and Fall of Japan, see what I did there with the titles? Yeah that ones been in the back on my mind for awhile. I could also take on a co-pilot for the podcasts so its not only single narration, similar to Tom Holland's “the rest is history”. There's a ton of directions I can go in, but one thing is for sure, the “Pacific War Channel Podcast” needs a new direction, probably a new name as well.  Also and I know its annoying, but a big thank you to all of you who check out the Pacific War channel on Youtube and my Patreon where I make monthly patreon exclusive podcasts. I would love to go full time one day, but alas the Youtube game is a hard one. If you get the chance please check out my Youtube channel, I am now as we speak unleashing a multiple part series on the Japanese invasion of Manchuria 1931-1932, something barely anyone covers. Most historians give it about a few paragraphs, but it was quite a complicated event. I am trying to tackle the 15 year war between Japan and China from 1931-1945 in a chronological order, event by event and such. Stating all of that I love all you guys, and here comes the same outro I do every single time haha. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. One Empire has Risen like a bright Sun as another, tumbles down like a large bear. Asia henceforth will completely change, now the Japanese dominate the landscape. Yet what of China? How will the common Chinese take to this latest round of humiliation? The Qing dynasty is hanging by a thread and that thread is about to be cut. 

One of the leading players in Ainu music. His OKI DUB AINU BAND is renowned for their work internationally. - 日本のアイヌ音楽の代表的なミュージシャンの一人、加納沖さんです。彼のOKI DUB AINU BANDはアイヌ音楽の現代的なアレンジで世界的に人気があります。

Hear about travel to the northern island of Hokkaido in Japan as the Amateur Traveler talks to Inga from Inga's Adventures about a trip to hike in the Daisetsuzan National Park. https://amateurtraveler.com/travel-to-hokkaido-japan/ Why should someone go to Hokkaido? Inga says, "The natural beauty is the main reason to go to Hokkaido. The rugged landscapes and the feeling that you're far away from civilization is an experience. That you don't find in a lot of other places on the main island of Japan, which is Honshu. Many beautiful places to go down there, but it's a very different landscape in Hokkaido." Inga recommends this 7-day itinerary for travelers interested in exploring Hokkaido, particularly focusing on the Daisetsuzan National Park: Day 1-2: Tokyo Arrive in Tokyo and spend a day or two decompressing and adjusting to the time difference. Stay in a hotel near Tokyo Station for convenience. Day 3: Tokyo to Sapporo Exchange the JR rail pass for the Shinkansen train journey to Hokkaido. While you can fly directly to Hokkaido and save the 8-hour train journey, for Inga the journey was part of the point. You can watch the mountains rise up and the population thin out as you head north. Stay one night in Sapporo, exploring the city and visiting places like the Tokyo train station and the Sapporo Brewery. Inga and her husband also visited the Hokkaido University Botanic Garden and a museum about the Ainu, the indigenous people of Hokkaido. Day 4: Sapporo to Asahikawa Take a train to Asahikawa, a smaller town. Explore Asahikawa, staying overnight. Day 5-7: Asahikawa to Daisetsuzan National Park Take a bus to Asahidake within Daisetsuzan National Park. Stay in a traditional onsen hotel in the park, such as Daisetsuzan Shirakaba Soryokan. Explore hiking trails, including the Sugatami Loop, nature trails, and hikes to the Nakadate Onsen. Enjoy the onsen experience in the hotel. Consider exploring other hikes within the national park if time allows. Return to Tokyo: Take a bus back to Asahikawa and a train from there to Hakodate. The journey back to Tokyo can be completed in the remaining two days, either by train or by taking a flight from Hokkaido. Inga also mentions renting a car for more flexibility in exploring the national parks.  If you want a Japan experience with a heavy dose of hiking, ropeways, natural hot springs, and fumaroles consider heading north to Hokkaido.

This week, friend of the pod John Bellamy Poster commandeered a gunship and made his way onto Gladio Free Europe to discuss 19th century Japanese history in the backdrop of the unique historical manga Golden Kamuy. Exploring the pivotal moments that reshaped Japan, John takes us through the monumental arrival of Commodore Perry's black ships, an event that broke Japan's 220-year-old policy of isolation and precipitated a domino effect of change. We delve into the Meiji Restoration, an era of rapid modernization and westernization, which saw the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate and the reinstatement of imperial rule. The Boshin War, a civil war that symbolized the end of the samurai era, is examined through the lens of its influence on Japanese society and politics. Lastly, we traverse the rugged terrains of Hokkaido and discuss the beginning of its colonization, shedding light on the cultural and economic impacts this had on the indigenous Ainu people, as well as Japan itself. Interspersed with references to the gripping saga of Golden Kamuy, John explains how this historical manga offers a visceral narrative that intertwines these significant events with the lives of its richly developed characters. Join us on Gladio Free Europe for a journey through the transformative epochs of Japan, brought to life by history and manga alike.

On this replay of Twitter Spaces' US Rugby Happy Hour LIVE, USA Eagle and Stade Toulousain's David Ainu'u joined Bill & John… well, mostly John. Damn technical issues! A great conversation was had about USA Rugby, the LIV International Rugby Tournament, Stade Toulousain and much more!   Be sure to listen to the second first half of the show with USA Eagle and Coventry Rugby's Paddy Ryan, here on the US Rugby Happy Hour LIVE Podcast. Follow @eaglesoverseas and @rugbymorning on Twitter and Instagram for the latest in USA Rugby and MLR news.   Show Links: Eagles Overseas Rugby Morning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk-en58gnAk https://www.hebrewpod101.com/blog/2011/01/15/hebrew-word-of-the-day-horse/ replace the bear with Jesus the horse... #2023 #art #music #movies #poetry #poem #photooftheday #volcano #news #money #food #weather #climate #monkeys #horse #puppy #fyp #love #instagood #onelove #eyes #getyoked #horsie #gotmilk #book #shecomin #getready

⁠⁠Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- In 1869, the Meiji Emperor declared the northern island of Hokkaido to be sovereign territory of Japan. In a process direclty inspired by American colonization, Japanese settlers were brought in to "civilize" the territory, a process which would have terrible consequences for the indigenous inhabitants -- a non-Japanese people known as the Ainu. Japanese colonists and western onlookers derisively viewed the Ainu as isolated primitives, at best isolated remnants of the ancient Jomon people ancestral to the mainland Japanese. This is nonsense. The Ainu and their predecessors have a rich history of interaction with the peoples of Asia, including the Japanese, and have an illustrious history that goes back many hundreds of years. This episode of Gladio Free Europe charts the course of Ainu history before the conquest of Hokkaido. Using archaeology and archaeogenetics, cover the ancient mingling of various Northeast Asian peoples who populares the island and investigate longstanding claims that the Ainu are related to various outside groups. Chinese early Japanese sources also give us incredibly insights into early relations between Hokkaido and the outside world. We discuss the fearsome Emishi people, a medieval community that has long been associated with the Ainu, who feature prominently in the film Princess Mononoke, and recount how the expansion of Ainu people into mainland Siberia led to a long war against the Mongols. By the Sengoku Era, feudal warlords began competing for access over the growing Hokkaido trade, which led to the establishment of Japanese settlements on the island. In this period, the Ainu came under Japanese occupation without falling under the protection of Japanese law. This exploitative situation had profoundly negative consequences for the indigenous people, leading to two major revolts against the settlers. While the Ainu remain colonized by Japan today, their survival exposes the myth of homogeneity central to Japanese nationalism. Please join us for this discussion on one of Asia's most intriguing and inspiring peoples.

In this episode, Dr. Ma'asehyahu Isra-Ul sits down with Dr. Michael Robison to discuss his book, "The Lost White Tribe". In his text, Robinson traces the rise and fall of "the Hamitic Hypothesis." In addition to recounting Stanley's "discovery," Robinson shows how it influenced encounters with the Ainu in Japan; Vilhjalmur Stefansson's tribe of "blond Eskimos" in the Arctic; and the "white Indians" of Panama. Delving deeply into 19th and early 20th century ideas of racial supremacy and racial classifications, this episode will deepen your knowledge of how false interpretations of the Bible and unorthodox Christian ideals led to imperialism and eventually genocide. This is an episode that you want to take your time with. (This is an extended episode with no breaks) Tune in now! *Update: Technical issues with the host microphone persists in this episode. We have edited for the best possible quality. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/leadingbyhistory/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/leadingbyhistory/support

Roma Shatrov is the founder of the Silent Cape Nature Park in Sakhalin. Irina Grudova is Ainu, the indigenous inhabitants of Sakhalin. Roma is obsessed with Ainu history and culture and has dedicated the Silent Cape to preserving their memory. Irina is a local Ainu activist and is skeptical of such outsiders looking to exploit her heritage. Yet Roma and Irina instantly hit it off and formed a strong bond over their mutual love of the Ainu. Rusana Novikova brings us a story about the romanticism and self-discovery at the heart of Irinia and Roma's complicated friendship, and its potential promise for Ainu and Russian relations. The post Ainu Fever appeared first on The Eurasian Knot.

The popular image of Japan is often the modern metropolis of Tokyo or its feudal history, samurai and all. But there's also a culture you may not know about. It predates even the concept of Japan as a nation, while still existing today. So, what is this culture and why are the people still so little-known relative to other aspects of the nation they're a part of? Professors Kinko Ito and Kirsten Ziomek guide us through the history of the Ainu people in Hokkaido, Japan, revealing how that history has led them into the modern era — as well as, of course, how travelers can learn more and interact with the culture in a responsible way. For more info visit travelandleisure.com/lostcultures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of Beneath the Skin we're starting off our journey in the East with the first instalment of our 3 part series on the history of Japan and Japanese tattooing. In this first episode we learn about the indigenous Ainu people of Japan, native to Hokkaido, who's unique tattoo tradition has been almost wiped out from contemporary Japanese society.  BONUS EPISODES + SUPPORT THE SHOW Follow Us Production by Thomas O'Mahony Artwork by Joe Painter (jcp_art) Intro Music by Dan McKenna If you would like to get in touch you can email the show on beneaththeskinpod@gmail.com

Canary Cry News Talk #506 - 07.08.2022 MOUNT OF GODS AND GUNS Abe Shot Dead, Bye Boris, Rogers Cyber-Pandemic, Saudi Inc, Network States TAKE THE SURVEY HERE: https://bit.ly/39VCG4D LINKTREE: CanaryCry.Party SHOW NOTES: CanaryCryNewsTalk.com CLIP CHANNEL: CanaryCry.Tube SUPPLY DROP: CanaryCrySupplyDrop.com SUPPORT: CanaryCryRadio.com/Support MEET UPS: CanaryCryMeetUps.com Basil's other podcast: ravel Gonz' New Youtube: Facelikethesun Resurrection  Gonz' Video Archive: Facelikethesun.Live App Made by Canary Cry Producer: Truther Dating App   PODCAST T-2:31 START SHOW PRE LEAD  5:38 V/ 3:07 P Biden's executive order on abortion (AP) Elon musk terminates twitter deal (MarketWatch)   GATES OF THE GODS [Brief]  16:33 V / 14:02 P No, CERN did not open a portal into another dimension (Snopes)   NOTE: Not mentioned in Snopes: Gotthard Tunnel opening ritual, Lord Shiva monument, CERN announces largest particle accelerator discovered on Mars, Science Gateway 2023, WWW invented by CERN scientist…on and on…   GUN CONTROL/TRUMP/NWO  25:48 V / 23:17 P → → Creator of Japanese hit anime Yu-Gi-Oh found dead off Japanese coast (NY Daily/MSN) → → Japan makes online insults punishable by 1 year in prison (CNN, Sir Sigrah) **Japan's Shinzo Abe sought to revive economy, fulfill conservative agenda (Reuters) **Assassination shocks nearly gun-free Japan (NY Times) **Tetsuya Yamagami used homemade gun, served in Japanese Navy (News18) Source: Abe is a conservative…widely described as right-wing Japanese nationalist (Wiki) Source: Thread with image and video from the Abe shooting scene (Twitter) Gonz Notes: Shinzo 安倍 means [safe][double]; Abe means “Sun Festival” in Ainu; shooter named Tetsuya Yamagami Note: Yen rises to 135.33 per dollar in Abe shooting aftermath (Aljizeera)   POLYTICKS/TRUMP/GREAT RESET  50:48 V / 48:17 P Why Boris Johnson fell but Trump remains his party's de facto leader...for now (CNN)   INTRO (M-W-F) 1:01:58 V / 59:27 P B&G Update V4V/Exec./Asso./Support   FLIPPY 1:09:11 V / 1:06:40 P Ukraines Killbots (The All I Need)   [Party, Ravel, Clips, Clue]  1:19:06 V / 1:16:35 P  CLUE   BEAST SYSTEM / NWO 1:20:55 V / 1:18:14 P  Georgia Guidestones had to be totally demolished for safety (Newsweek)   TRANSHUMAN/BEAST SYSTEM [Note] - For the next show → The Making of Saudi Inc. (Bloomberg) The Network State becoming mainstream (Tim Ferris) Note: Description of the “Network State” (Foresight Institute)   [TREASURE/SPEAKPIPE/BYE YOUTUBE] 1:49:31 V / 1:47:00 P   POLYTICKS 2:16:46 V / 2:14:15 P   Treasury faces scrutiny for giving Hunter Biden 'cover' with new rule for doc requests (Fox)   CHICAGO 2:25:21 V / 2:22:50 P   Lightfoot Hypocrisy  (Fox) Chicago's 4th of July Weekend Bloodier than Highland (WAPO) Only Chicago Rules can defeat Russia (Atlantic)   CHINA 2:50:42 V / 2:48:11 P  China holds combat exercises around Taiwan as U.S. senator visits (Reuters) “I'm getting slapped by my child.” 2:54:47 V / 2:52:16 P   [TALENT] 3:02:45 V / 3:00:14 P   ANTARCTICA  3:37:07 V / 3:34:36 P  Antarctica Castle Discovered (Antarctica Journal) → Simulations show Antarctica's only insect is at risk due to global warming (Phys.org) → Two Crystal Ships "Arrested," Crystal Endeavor Sails From Argentina (Travel Agent Central!)   NEPHILIM UPDATE  3:56:05 V / 3:52:44 P  Argentine 'gargoyle' shows how huge predatory dinosaurs evolved (Reuters)   [TIME/OUTRO]  4:02:46 V / 4:00:15 P    EPISODE 506 WAS PRODUCED BY… Executive Producers Lotte** CK from Calgary**   Producers Lady Knight Littewing, Isaac G, Marti K, Red Hood, CAM, MORV, LX Protocol V2, Runksmash, Jeanette R, Sir Casey the Shield Knight, Gail M, Darrin S, Veronica D   AUDIO PRODUCTION (Jingles, Iso, Music): JonathanF, Psalm40, AlaskaFour9, Runksmash   ART PRODUCTION (Drawing, Painting, Graphics): Dame Allie of the Skillet Nation, Sir Dove Knight of Rusbeltia, DarrinS, BrotherG, JOLMS, MikeB   CONTENT PRODUCTION (Microfiction etc.): MrJag: And that day and hour has finally come. The waiting is now done. Changed in a twinkling of an eye, Caught up to cloud of isle. As I looked aside, Am seeing some googly eyes. It's not just any googly eyes, but it's Basil's glorified eyes!    CLIP PRODUCER Emsworth, FaeLivrin, Epsilon   Timestamps: Mondays: Jackie U Wednesdays: Jade Bouncerson Fridays: Christine C   Social Media: MissGBeauty   ADDITIONAL STORIES: Maldives building first floating city on the ocean (Traveller) Bezos quote tweets Biden plea for gas stations to lower prices (Twitter) Giant African land snails put Florida town in quarantine (METRO) Did CERN open a portal to another dimension? (PopCrush) How Jack Parsons and the Suicide Squad Created a ‘New Paradigm in Rocketry' (Pasadena) Got COVID? Doctors warn powering through it, even from home, can worsen health (LA Times) Comey and McCabe, Two Trump Foes, Both Faced Intensive I.R.S. Audits (NY Times) Rogers network outage across Canada hits banks, businesses and consumers (CNBC) Teledyne wins Pentagon contract to make bomb disposal robots (Yahoo) The Most Haunting Robots That Are Actually Real (SlashGear)