SAPPORO, Japan: When Yuko Honda, a professor at Japan's Sapporo University, tried to start a scholarship for Ainu Indigenous students and a club to celebrate their culture, she ran into fierce resistance.
'We faced a terrible backlash,' Honda, a professor of cultural studies at the university in the northern Hokkaido region, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
A RADICAL MOVE In this picture taken on Nov. 17, 2022, Manao Kanazawa (center), a member of the Ainu Indigenous culture club ‘Urespa’ practices ethnic dancing at Sapporo University in Sapporo. Kanazawa, who is ethnically Japanese, joined the club because she was curious about traditional Ainu hunting methods. For centuries, Ainu traded with Japanese from the mainland, known to them as Wajin. But in 1869, Japan’s imperial government annexed Ainu lands and banned ‘barbarian’ practices like facial tattoos for the community’s women. Ainu were forced to abandon traditional hunting practices, speak Japanese, and take Japanese names. AFP PHOTO
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