COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT

Ainu fight for return of plundered ancestral remains

Landmark case pits indigenous people of Hokkaido against local university holding lion's share of grisly trophies

Righting historical wrongs: A group of Ainu are captured on film in 1904, during a period when large numbers of sets of Ainu remains were unearthed by Japanese archaeologists for research and display at universities across the country. | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

By Simon Scott

Aug 12, 2013

Shigeru Kayano, one of the most well-known and respected Ainu figures of modern times, writes in his autobiography "Our Land Was a Forest" about the loathing he felt as a young man for the shamo (Japanese) researchers who used to visit his village and family home.

"In those days I despised scholars of Ainu culture from the bottom of my heart . . .

"Each time they came to Nibutani, they left with folk utensils. They dug up our sacred tombs and carried away our ancestral bones.

Ainu fight for return of plundered ancestral remains

Landmark case pits indigenous people of Hokkaido against local university holding lion's share of grisly trophies

In your social network

In your inbox

In your social network

In your inbox