The change of seasons, love and celebrations of culture are all popular themes in Japan. But with the minority people known as Ainu, these are mixed with more mystical ideas about the transience of nature and life.

The Ainu people inhabit the northern island of Hokkaido. Humans first landed on Hokkaido at least 20,000 years ago, probably arriving from Siberia via a land bridge in search of a less frigid environment. By the end of the last ice age, their descendants had developed a culture of hunting, foraging, and fishing.

The northerners’ ancient culture persisted largely unchanged until the seventh century when the traditional Ainu way of life became more visible in the archaeological record on Hokkaido, Kamchatka, and nearby smaller islands. In time, a nature-centered society of fishers, hunters, horticulturalists, and traders emerged that has persisted to this day.

In a society which was very closed and very controlled with strong associations with honour and class, woven fabrics were a means of expression that transcended these boundaries. Textiles provide an aperture into the beliefs of Ainu society.

While Ainu textiles are far removed from the decorative robes of the royal court and upper classes, the motifs they employ express universal yearnings for luck, fertility, prosperity, happiness and security. In Ainu robes for example, animal-style motifs (probably of Scythian and Siberian descent) were believed to have magical properties of protection by waring off evil spirits. These and other Ainu garments were fashioned from bast fibre plants, such as nettles and hemp, as well as elm bark and salmon skin, and transformed by a sort of textile alchemy into wondrously patterned fabrics that are now sought after by collectors.

Textiles of the Ainu