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Ainu Sea Otter Hunting from the Perspective of Sino-Japanese Trade
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Tezuka, Kaoru テヅカ, カオル 手塚 薫. |
| Copyright Year | 2009 |
| Abstract | It has been assumed by both scholars and the general public that the Ainu people freely hunted, fished, and gathered food until very recent years in a land rich in natural resources, of their own volition rather than as a result of compulsion. The hunting of small fur-bearing animals has attracted less interest to date, because people are more interested in the bear hunting that was thought to be at the core of the religion, economy and society of the Ainu culture, and in the deer hunting and salmon fishing that provided their staple diet. Hunting activities were considered as an issue for Ainu society alone regardless of trends in Northeast Asia as a whole. However, there are absolutely no valid grounds for this conclusion, and a historical analysis of diachronic changes in Ainu society and culture does not support the idea (Tezuka 1998). It is therefore important to investigate the hunting activities of indigenous peoples in Northeast Asia from the viewpoint of the acquisition and circulation of trade goods. Ainu hunting in the pre-modern and modern periods was influenced by neighbor states and can be categorized as enforced hunting in some respects. Their hunting activities were strongly influenced by the demand from Imperial Russia and China for highly valuable furs. This overview can also be applied to the hunting of marine animals, such as seals, sea otters, and sea cucumbers, as well as to that of land animals. These marine products were produced by the Ainu in the Ezo-chi area (the former name of the area consisting of Hokkaido, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands) during the Edo period (1600-1868) (Figure 1). In this paper I describe the changes in the circulation and quantity of sea otters that were hunted by the Ainu in the Kuril Islands during the eighteenth century, especially around the island of Urup. 2. The rule of Ezo-chi: Historical Overview After the Matsumae feudal domain was incorporated into the Tokugawa Shogunate system, the domain was granted exclusive trading rights with the Ezo people (the ancestors of the present-day Ainu) by the Tokugawa Shogunate. The Matsumae domain consolidated its position in Ezo-chi and tried to control trade activities in the region by setting up a border and advancing a new trade zone system (giving vassals the right to trade with the Ainu within a certain zone), eventually limiting Ainu economic activities within the region. As a |
| Starting Page | 117 |
| Ending Page | 131 |
| Page Count | 15 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Volume Number | 72 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://minpaku.repo.nii.ac.jp/index.php?action=pages_view_main&active_action=repository_action_common_download&attribute_id=18&block_id=21&file_no=1&item_id=2612&item_no=1&page_id=13 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
