The Racing of Ainu Hearts: Our Wish for One Salmon River

Abstract

We had once traded across the northern sea, hunted deer in the meadows and hills of Ainu Mosir (the land of the Ainu), picked edible wild plants and captured salmon swimming upstream in the rivers. But in the Edo period (1603–1868), the shogunate system made its presence felt on Ainu Mosir and the Matsumae Domain was set up in its southern part, the Oshima Peninsula. Our ancestors were forced to stop trading over the seas and the area in which they could conduct business was limited. The Ainu economy was seized exclusively for the support of the Matsumae Domain.