Ainu language
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Ainu, also known as Hokkaido Ainu, is a language native to the Ainu people of the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It is a member of the Ainu language family, considered to be an independent lang
Multilingual sign in Japanese, Ainu, English, Korean, and Chinese. The Ainu text, in katakana, is second down from the top and reads イヤイライケㇾ (iyairaiker).
Pirka Kotan Museum, an Ainu language and cultural center in Sapporo (Jozankei area)
Colonisation of Hokkaido
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The colonisation of Hokkaido was the process from around the fifteenth century by which the Yamato Japanese took control of Hokkaido and subjugated and assimilated the indigenous Ainu people, whose cu
Ainu language
…Hokkaido, the southern half of the island of Sakhalin and by small communities in the Kuril Islands, up to the southern tip of Kamchatka. Following the colonization of Hokkaido, the number of Hokkaido Ainu speakers declined steadily throughout the 20th century, eventually becoming critically endangered. By 2008, only two native…
![Ainu people, by Murase Yoshinori [ja], 1918](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7c/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E7%94%BB%E5%AE%B6%E3%83%BB%E6%9D%91%E7%80%AC%E7%BE%A9%E5%BE%B3%E3%81%AB%E3%82%88%E3%82%8B%E3%80%8C%E3%82%A2%E3%82%A4%E3%83%8C%E7%86%8A%E7%A5%AD%E5%B1%8F%E9%A2%A8%E3%80%8D%EF%BC%88%E5%B7%A6%EF%BC%89%E5%B8%82%E7%AB%8B%E5%87%BD%E9%A4%A8%E5%8D%9A%E7%89%A9%E9%A4%A8%E8%94%B5.jpg/500px-%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E7%94%BB%E5%AE%B6%E3%83%BB%E6%9D%91%E7%80%AC%E7%BE%A9%E5%BE%B3%E3%81%AB%E3%82%88%E3%82%8B%E3%80%8C%E3%82%A2%E3%82%A4%E3%83%8C%E7%86%8A%E7%A5%AD%E5%B1%8F%E9%A2%A8%E3%80%8D%EF%BC%88%E5%B7%A6%EF%BC%89%E5%B8%82%E7%AB%8B%E5%87%BD%E9%A4%A8%E5%8D%9A%E7%89%A9%E9%A4%A8%E8%94%B5.jpg)
Ainu people, by Murase Yoshinori [ja], 1918
A Japanese samurai with a group of Ainu, c. 1775
The Goryōkaku fort in Hakodate, completed 1866, was the headquarters of the Tokugawa loyalist army.
![Omusha ceremony involving the Hidaka Ainu, by Hirasawa Byōzan [ja] c. 19th century](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/Hidaka_Ainu%E2%80%94Umsa_by_Hirasawa_By%C5%8Dzan_%28Hakodate_City_Central_Library%29.jpg/500px-Hidaka_Ainu%E2%80%94Umsa_by_Hirasawa_By%C5%8Dzan_%28Hakodate_City_Central_Library%29.jpg)
Omusha ceremony involving the Hidaka Ainu, by Hirasawa Byōzan [ja] c. 19th century