ainu ethnogenesis and the northern fujiwara

Ainu Ethnogenesis and the Northern FujiwaraAuthor(s): Mark J. HudsonSource: Arctic Anthropology, Vol. 36, No. 1/2 (1999), pp. 73-83Published by: University of Wisconsin PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40316506 .

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AINU ETHNOGENESIS AND THE

NORTHERN FUJIWARA MARK J. HUDSON

Introduction

Abstract This paper argues that the Ôshû or Northern Fujiwara played a central role in precipitating the socioeconomic changes that led to Ainu ethnogenesis in early medieval Hokkaido. From their capital at Hiraizumi in modern Iwate Prefecture, the Northern Fujiwara ruled a large, semi-in-

dependent kingdom in northeastern Honshu from the end of the eleventh century until their defeat

by the Kamakura shogunate in 1189. Over the past few years, a number of Japanese scholars have discussed trading and other connections between the Northern Fujiwara and Hokkaido, but theoretical perspectives on this relationship remain poorly developed. Elsewhere, I have argued that

world-systems theory is a useful way of modeling the complex processes of interaction in early medieval Northeast Asia. Using that theoretical basis as a background, this paper looks in more detail at the relationship between the Northern Fujiwara and Formative Ainu society.

As a result of archaeological research over the past few decades, it has become clear that there was a major cultural transition in Hokkaido at the end of the Satsumon period (Table 1). Satsumon culture began around the seventh century AD and is char- acterized by iron tools, pottery influenced by Japanese Haji ware, pit houses with built-in earthenware ovens, and (at least in certain areas) millet and other plant cultivation (Crawford and Yoshizaki 1987; Crawford and Takamiya 1990; Yokoyama 1990). The end of the Satsumon is marked by (1) the disappearance of locally produced ceramics; (2) a switch from pit houses to surface dwellings with central hearths instead of ovens; (3) complex changes in economic activity which probably included a decline in plant cultivation; and (4) the increasing elaboration of "sending back" rituals which developed into the Classic Ainu iyomante (bear ceremony) by the eighteenth

century (Takasugi 1982; Utagawa 1992a; Watanabe 1972). The culture that was established at the end of the Satsumon was basically similar to the Ainu culture known ethnographically from the nineteenth century; the term "Ainu period" is therefore applied to the post-Satsumon era in Hokkaido. Uta- gawa (1988:162-168, 1992a:260) divides the Ainu period into "Proto-Ainu" and "New Ainu" stages, the latter beginning in the late eighteenth century with the fully developed iyomante. I have substi- tuted the terms "Formative" and "Classic" for Uta- gawa's stages and suggest that the increased Japanese settlement in southern Hokkaido that began around 1600 may be a more useful division between the two stages (Hudson 1999:204). My terminology will be used in this paper, which focuses on the Formative Ainu phase.

Biologically, it seems clear that the Ainu are descended from Jômon ancestors and form a separate population to the mainland Japanese, although widespread interbreeding has occurred since the

MarkJ. Hudson, Anthropology Program, College of Humanities, University of Tsukuba, Tennodai, Tsukuba, Japan 305-8571

ARCTIC ANTHROPOLOGY Vol. 36, Nos. 1-2, pp. 73-83, 1999



74 Arctic Anthropology 36:1-2

Table 1. Chronological phases of late prehistoric Hokkaido. The equivalent periods in Japan are shown in the righthand column.

Table 2. A three-tiered hierarchy of ethnic concepts. For further discussion of this scheme see Hudson (1999:7-9).

Japanese colonization of Hokkaido (Dodo and Ishida 1990; Hanihara 1991; Kozintsev 1992; Omoto and Saitou 1997).1 In view of the general population continuities in the region and the evidence of place-names, it is also likely that the Ainu language is derived from a language spoken in the Jômon period (Hudson 1994: 242-244). In assign- ing Ainu ethnogenesis to the Satsumon- Ainu transition, I am not denying these long-term continuities at the core population level (Table 2). Neither am I suggesting that the Ainu necessarily had a strong view of a shared ethnic identity at this time. As used in this paper, the term "Ainu ethnogenesis" refers to the formation of an etic ethnos, a cultural complex known at first primarily from archaeology, but which seems to be more closely re- lated to ethnographic Ainu culture than to the culture of the preceding Satsumon period.

In the western literature one still often comes across the idea that the Ainu were extremely iso- lated from their neighbors (e.g., Banks 1994). In fact, all four of the defining characteristics of the Ainu period mentioned above can be linked to increasing Japanese influence on Hokkaido: (1) Lo- cally produced pottery was replaced by imported

iron, lacquer, and porcelain vessels; (2) Japanese iron pots were designed to be suspended over open hearths, removing the need for ovens which dropped out of use after the Satsumon period; (3) The move to surface dwellings in Hokkaido followed a similar trend in the rest of the Japanese archipelago; (4) A decline in cultivation in favor of more specialized hunt- ing activities was probably linked to an increase in trade in furs and other products with both Japan and Manchuria; and (5) The classic iyomante was a ritual in which ikor- lacquer, brocade, and other "treas- ures" imported from Japan and China - played a central role. Elsewhere, I have argued that these changes must be seen as resulting from the participation of Hokkaido in the medieval East Asian world-system (Hudson 1999:201-228). Chase-Dunn and Hall (1993:855) define world-systems as "intersocietal networks in which the interactions (e.g., trade, war- fare, [and] intermarriage) are important for the repro- duction of the internal structures of the composite units and importantly affect changes that occur in these local structures." Within a world-system, the exchange of goods and ideas is conducted on an unequal basis resulting in the dependence of pe- ripheral regions on the core or cores. These struc-

Hokkaido Approximate Dates Japan Epi-Jomon 100 BC-AD 600 Yayoi & Kofun Satsumon AD 600-1100 Nara & Heian Ainu:

Formative 1 100-1600 Kamakura & Muromachi Classic 1600-1869 Tokugawa

Japanese colonization 1869-present Meiji onwards

Theoretical Concepts Ainu Core Population

(Basic biological & Jômon population; Proto- Ainu often linguistic continuity) spoken by at least some groups

Etic Ethnos (Archeaological or Ainu period culture (ca. 1100 to ethnographic culture) Japanese colonization)

Ernie Ethnos (Imagined self-identity) "Indigenous people of Hokkaido"



Hudson: Ainu Ethnogenesis 75

tures of dependence change over time with the rise and fall of core and periphery. Spatially, world-systems can be said to operate across a hierarchy of levels from the regional to the global.

This paper takes as its basis of analysis an East Asian world-system based on medieval China. This system resulted from an agricultural and commercial revolution which began in late Tang times but reached its peak during the Song dynasty (960-1279). China's population began to expand southward with the intensive development of the Yangzi River basin and of southern coastal areas. Growth in agricultural output resulted from tech- nological innovations as well as from an expansion of the area under cultivation. There was an increase in the market exchange of goods, some of it long-distance through an impressive network of roads and canals, and the economy of China became increasingly monetized at this time. These developments in China had a wide-ranging influence on the Japanese Islands which, from the late Heian to early Kamakura periods, underwent economic growth similar to that seen in China: production became more specialized, market exchange more common, and urbanization more extensive.2

Limitations of space prevent a detailed discussion here of this medieval East Asian world- system. This paper focuses on one component of the system, the Northern Fujiwara family. It is argued that the Northern Fujiwara are an excellent example of the world-systems perspective since their economic power was based both on trading contacts with the core areas of China and Japan and on exchange with the northern periphery of Hokkaido. The Northern Fujiwara and the Ainu cannot simply be seen as interacting self-con- tained units; rather, their very existence was de- fined through the social and economic processes engendered by that interaction.

Chronology When did the transition from the Satsumon to the Ainu period take place? If we are to link the transition with the Northern Fujiwara who flourished in the twelfth century, then tight chronological con- trols are necessary. The few available radiocarbon dates, such as those from the Nakajimamatsu site (Eniwa BOE 1988:347), are broadly consistent with a twelfth century transition, but radiocarbon dating does not offer the degree of precision required here. More traditional archaeological dating is complicated by the very nature of early Ainu period assemblages which, as noted above, are char- acterized by the disappearance of pottery and easily recognizable pit houses. In fact, the Forma- tive Ainu period is poorly known archaeologi- cally, perhaps because the new imported items

such as iron pots were recycled or retained as heir- looms for several generations. It is, however, possible to cross-date various Japanese and continental artifacts with pottery of the last stage of the Satsumon.

A Song dynasty square bronze mirror is known from a pit house of the end of the Satsumon at the Zaimoku-chô 5 site in Kushiro. This type of mirror was used in Japan in the late Heian to early Kamakura periods (i.e., twelfth-thirteenth centuries) and there is no reason to believe that the Kushiro example dates from much later than this (Yokoyama 1990:41). Song coins minted in the mid- eleventh century are also known from at least two late Satsumon sites, giving a terminus post quern for the transition (Yokoyama 1990:40). Although iron pots from the Satsumon era have not yet been found in Hokkaido, their spread into northernmost Tohoku in the twelfth-thirteenth centuries and the presence of late Satsumon pottery vessels with interior lugs which seem to be copies of iron pots, suggest that they also spread into Hokkaido at this time (Utagawa 1988:321). Two sites in Aomori Prefecture have produced iron pots in association with Sat- sumon pottery; one of these sites also produced interior-lug pottery (Utagawa 1992b:139). The wide availability of these vessels is further supported by the disappearance of interior-lug pottery in Hokkaido in the Formative Ainu phase.

A further piece of the chronological puzzle is provided by the late fourteenth century Yuan shi, the official history of the Mongol Yuan dynasty, which describes a people it calls the Guwei on Sakhalin in the late thirteenth century. For reasons discussed by Hudson (1999:221-222), the Guwei are usually identified with the Ainu. Although the formation of Ainu culture on Sakhalin remains poorly understood, the theory that the Ainu were recent arrivals from Hokkaido is widely accepted (Ohyi 1975:149; Hudson 1999:220-221). Since Sat- sumon artifacts are not known from Sakhalin, an Ainu expansion from Hokkaido at the beginning of the Ainu period would seem to be the most likely scenario. The Yuan shi thus provides a terminus ante quern for that migration of ca. 1250. Generally speaking, one can speculate that the social changes associated with the Satsumon/ Ainu transition were part of the same process that led to Ainu colonization of southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.

The available chronological data, therefore, are consistent with a twelfth century date for the transition from the Satsumon to the Ainu periods, at least in southwestern Hokkaido. I am not argu- ing that all the complex social changes associated with the formation of Ainu culture can be assigned to the hundred years between 1100 and 1200, but it is proposed that the twelfth century marked a crucial threshold in the continuing process of Ainu ethnogenesis.




The Northern Fujiwara and the Late Heian Periphery

From their capital at Hiraizumi, four generations of the Northern Fujiwara family ruled northeastern Honshu as a semi-independent kingdom in the twelfth century (Fig. 1). The power of the Northern Fujiwara has tended to be underestimated in traditional historiography which has centered on the lit- erary and artistic accomplishments of the Heian court (Hudson 1995). There are several reasons for this, including the fact that most historical sources from ancient Japan are biased in favor of the court. Another factor is the problem of the rise of the provincial warriors who eventually wrestled de facto power from the emperor. A recent trend in both Japanese and Western historiography has been to stress the continuing authority of the court and the inability of provincial warriors to overcome their dependence on Kyoto until well into the medieval era (e.g., Mass 1990). In this "evolutionary" approach, the importance of the warriors lies in their ability to control national administration rather than in their regional economic and political power. This view leads Mass to conclude that "The proper emphasis for the Heian age is not what warriors were doing but rather what they were not doing" (Mass 1992:196, original emphasis).

Hiraizumi was chosen as the capital of the Northern Fujiwara sometime between 1094 and 1104 and was used until the defeat of the family by the Kamakura shogunate in 1189. A number of small excavations had been conducted at Hi- raizumi since the 1950s, but it was not until the late 1980s that wide-area salvage archaeology began to give us a detailed picture of the ancient city. From 1988 to 1993, some 40,000 m2 were dug in the area between the Chûsonji and Môtsuji temples and the Kitakami River. These excavations demonstrated that the Northern Fujiwara pos- sessed considerable economic power and that Hi- raizumi was one of the largest provincial cities in twelfth century Japan (Hiraizumi Bunka Kenkyûkai 1992; Saitô 1992; Hudson 1997). Ce- ramics excavated at Hiraizumi include both domestic and imported wares. Some 100,000 unglazed earthenware bowls, weighing over 15 tons in total, appear to have been used once in rituals or banquets and then thrown away, a custom clearly introduced from Kyoto. Only a very few of these bowls, which are known as kawarake, have been found at other, contemporary sites in the To- hoku region. The fine ceramics excavated at Hi- raizumi testify to the active trading role of the city. Domestic earthenware came from the Tokoname and Atsumi kilns near modern Nagoya. White and green Song dynasty porcelain was excavated in some quantity, Hiraizumi having produced more imported Chinese porcelain than any other con-

Figure 1. Ezo and surrounding regions.

temporary site except Kyoto and the Kyushu port of Hakata (Miura 1993:79).

In the twelfth century, therefore, Hiraizumi was the political and economic metropolis of northern Japan and, with its many fine temples, was one of the most advanced cultural centers outside Kyoto. What was the basis of the wealth that enabled the Northern Fujiwara to build such a city? It is clear that rice cultivation did not play as important an economic role as it did in western Japan. Until quite recently millet and other non- rice crops were major components of the diet in the Tohoku region, particularly on the Pacific side of northern Tohoku where relatively low summer temperatures impede rice production (Yabuno 1987). The importance of millet in the twelfth century is confirmed by the presence of a large quantity of barnyard millet {Echinochloa utilis) in the coffins of the first three Northern Fujiwara chieftains, rice being present in only small amounts (Ôga 1950). For these reasons, it is thought that the wealth of the Northern Fujiwara was based largely on trade, rather than rice. Although almost no quantitative data are available, it is widely agreed

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that gold and horses were the most important items in the trade between Hiraizumi and Japan (Ôishi 1987, 1993a; Hondo 1995). Ôishi (1993b: 122) notes that these items were very much goods of the age, horses being ridden by the new warrior class, and gold being used to finance the growing trade with Song China. Other items traded by the Northern Fu- jiwara included silk and other cloth (cf. Chujo et al. 1996), lacquer, animal furs, and eagle feathers.

Most of these trade items would probably have been produced locally in the Tohoku region. The presence of large areas of pasture meant that Tohoku was well suited for horses and considerable documentary evidence supports the antiquity of horse production in the region (Ôishi 1987). Niino (1973:109-111) has argued that the famous horses of northern Tohoku derived from stock brought over directly from Northeast Asia. While this possibility cannot be totally dismissed, at present there would appear to be no skeletal or documentary evidence to support such a theory. Gold from Mutsu Province is recorded as early as 701, and the Kesen region to the east of the Kitakami River is regarded as a probable source during the time of the Northern Fujiwara (Hondo 1995:55-56). In later times, however, gold was also obtained from Hokkaido. The Englishman John Saris, who was in Japan in 1613, wrote that the Ainu used "silver and sand gould" to pay for rice, cotton, iron, and lead, but noted that according to his source the Japanese preferred "Salmon, and dried fish of sundrie sortes" rather than silver (Otsuka 1941:245-246). The antiquity of gold production in Hokkaido is unknown.

Of particular interest here are the trade goods that would almost certainly have been obtained in Hokkaido - primarily animal furs and eagle feathers. The overall economic importance of these items may not have been especially significant, but I am proposing that the process of exchange of these goods played a major role in precipitating social changes in Satsumon society. Documentary evidence linking the Northern Fujiwara with the Hokkaido trade comes from the Taiki, the diary of Kyoto aristocrat and Minister of the Left, Fujiwara no Yorinaga (1120-1156). The second Northern Fu- jiwara chieftain, Motohira, controlled tax collec- tion from the northern Tohoku estates of the Sekkanke Regents. Yorinaga owned the Takakura and Motoyoshi estates in Mutsu Province and the Ôsone, Yashiro, and Yusa estates in Dewa Province. Tax from these estates included gold, horses, cloth, lacquerware, eagle feathers, and seal furs.3 Of these items, the last must have been obtained by trade from Hokkaido or regions to the north since there are no seals in inland Yamagata Prefecture, and a similar route is likely for the eagle feathers (Ôishi 1993a:127-129).

Exchange between Hokkaido and Japan did

not begin with the Northern Fujiwara. The apparently widespread presence of iron tools and plant cultivation in the Satsumon attests to regular contact with northern Honshu. Segawa (1989, 1996) has argued that Satsumon settlement patterns in some areas of Hokkaido were already being influenced by the desire to trade dried salmon with Japan. The changes associated with the Sat- sumon/ Ainu transition can thus be seen as a con- tinuation of these trading contacts. That this trade achieved a new intensity in the twelfth century, however, is suggested by the economic and political power of the Northern Fujiwara and by the increased tempo of cultural change in Hokkaido which resulted in the establishment of the basic Ainu cultural pattern known ethnographically. Powerful warlords, notably the Abe and Kiyohara, had existed in northern Tohoku since at least the ninth century, but the Northern Fujiwara were the first to establish a single polity covering the whole region. Though this polity maintained formal links with the imperial court in Kyoto, in many respects it may be regarded as a separate state. Economi- cally, the increased scale of trade across the North- east Asian region from the early medieval era marks an important distinction from the preexist- ing exchange system which was based primarily on official tax and tribute.

The important role played in the Hokkaido trade by the clans of northern Tohoku has long been recognized by historians (e.g., Harrison 1954:28), but lack of documentary evidence pre- cludes a detailed reconstruction of the trading activities of the Northern Fujiwara. The medieval era saw the rise of the Japan Sea as a major shipping and trading zone, a role which continued in the Tokugawa era (see Flershem 1966). Kanno (1996) has described the Northern Fujiwara as "lords of the sea" (umi no ryôshu), making an explicit com- parison with the contemporary Taira clan whose power was based on the Inland Sea. While it is probable that some long-distance trade was indeed carried out by sea, however, it is not clear which port or ports were used to serve Hiraizumi, which lies over 40 km inland. The major port city of medieval Tohoku was Tosaminato in northwest Ao- mori. Various legends link Tosaminato to the Northern Fujiwara, but recent archaeological excavations have shown that the real florescence of the port occurred from the thirteenth to fourteenth centuries under the Andò clan (Senda 1994). A post- Northern Fujiwara date for the expansion of the Japan Sea trade is confirmed by finds of porcelain which only became common in Aomori from the late thirteenth to early fourteenth centuries (Yosh- ioka 1981). Since Tosaminato was used as a harbor from the twelfth century (Senda 1994), it is by no means impossible that in some capacity it also served this function for the Northern Fujiwara.




Iron pots Most of the archaeological changes associated with the Satsumon/Ainu transition cannot be specifi- cally linked with the Northern Fujiwara. One ex- ception, however, is provided by iron pots. By the twelfth century, the iron pot had become the main cooking vessel in northern Tohoku (Suzuki 1994:58). Interior-lug iron pots were used in eastern Honshu, especially in north Tohoku, whereas tripod and flanged pots were used in western Japan (Isogawa 1992). As mentioned already, a few ce- ramic versions of the Tohoku type interior-lug pot were produced at the very end of the Satsumon period and it has been suggested that this type of vessel may have originated in Hokkaido, original pottery vessels being later copied in iron (cf. Kikuchi 1992). From the fact that interior-lug iron pots began to be used in northern Tohoku before they were used in Hokkaido, and from discoveries of iron pots with final Satsumon pottery, however, the northward spread of iron pots from Tohoku would seem to be the most likely scenario (Suzuki 1994:57). Kikuchi (1984:208-209, 1992) has argued that it was interior-lug iron pots from twelfth century northern Tohoku that moved north to Sat- sumon Hokkaido. One such vessel has been excavated from Hiraizumi, and it seems likely that the spread of iron pots may be linked with the Northern Fujiwara's attempts to increase trade with the north.

Mummification and the North Another possible direct link between the Northern Fujiwara and the islands to the north is the custom of mummification. The mummified remains of the four Fujiwara chieftains are preserved in the Kon- jikidô Hall of the Chûsonji temple in Hiraizumi (Asahi Newspaper Company 1950; Chûsonji 1995; Hudson 1996), and several scholars have suggested that the roots of the Hiraizumi mummification custom may lie to the north (e.g., Yiengpruksawan 1993). Human mummies are quite rare in Japan, almost all known examples being Buddhist monks (Sakurai and Ogata 1980; Yamada et al. 1996). Ya- mada et al. (1996:77) follow Matsumoto (1991) in linking the Konjikidô mummies with Amida Bud- dhism, proposing that this is the oldest type of mummy in Japan. Apart from the four Northern Fujiwara chieftains, however, the only other mummy in this group dates from 1686 and it seems hard to see this as a separate cluster. Although the Konjikidô is nominally an Amida Hall, several scholars have noted that it is unique in Japanese Buddhism for its covering of gold leaf and for its mummies (Saitô 1992:117). As Yiengpruksawan (1993:37) puts it, "One wonders why . . . there are dead people in Konjikido's altar, for their presence is an oddity, even an abomination in the context of

the hall's apparently Pure Land iconography." It is not therefore possible to explain the Hiraizumi mummies in terms of Amida Buddhism as nor- mally understood.

Mummification is not known from Hokkaido but is there any evidence of the custom in the regions farther north? Artificial mummies are known from the Aleutian Islands from the eighteenth century, but the antiquity of this custom among the Aleuts is unclear. Zimmerman (1996:89) notes that caves with volcanic vents used to dry mummified bodies "were probably only used for a few hundred years before the Russian contact of the early 18th century." On present evidence, therefore, it seems difficult to link the Aleutian mummies with Hi- raizumi as early as the twelfth century.

Another, much closer possible source is Sakhalin. The Japanese explorer Rinzô Mamiya (1775-1844) recorded the following practices amongst the Sakhalin Ainu in the first decade of the nineteenth century:

Funeral practices vary considerably from those of Yezo [Hokkaido]. When a chieftain dies his ab- domen is opened and the intestines removed. A bed ... is set up outside the house and the body placed on it. A woman is charged with washing it, pouring water over it and drying it in the sun every day to prevent corruption. ... If, after the lapse of one year (a coffin cannot be completed till one year after the death), the body does not smell, the woman is rewarded and given clothes, to- bacco, liquor, etc. If, however, there is any corruption of the body, the woman is killed and buried and then the corpse is buried. . . . After [the coffin] is completed the body is put into it and a funeral service is held. However, the coffin is not buried, but left exposed on the earth (Harrison 1955:108-109).

Earlier Chinese records describe similar practices. The Liaodong zhi, a late Ming work based on a now-lost Yuan geography of Manchuria, the Kaiyuan Xinzhi, records that amongst the Guwu people, "When a parent dies, they take out the en- trails and dry the body in the sun. As they come and go, they carry the body. When they have any- thing to eat or drink they always first serve it to the body. In their house, they never sit beside it. When about three years pass, the body is thrown away" (Wada 1938:81). The Guwu are the same as the Guwei who, as mentioned above, are usually identified with the Sakhalin Ainu.

It is tempting to link these burial practices with the Konjikidô mummies but there are several problems involved. Most serious is the fact that this is not mummification at all but merely a series of measures to temporarily reverse the decay of the corpse. In both cases the corpse is intentionally left to decay after a relatively short period of mourning. There are no existing mummies or ar-



Hudson: Ain u Ethnogenesis 79

chaeological evidence for the custom from Sakhalin. Another problem is that the Konjikidô mummies predate even the earliest records of mummification-type practices on Sakhalin and there is thus no basis to argue that the custom spread from north to south. From the known chronology, a spread from south to north is more logical but on present evidence it seems most likely that the mummification of the Northern Fu- jiwara chieftains was an original development in northeast Japan.

Geographical Perceptions A final factor that needs to be mentioned is the shift in the Japanese terminology used to refer to Hokkaido during the period under consideration. During the Nara and Heian periods, the term "Em- ishi" was used to refer to the "barbarians" of the eastern archipelago. Although some scholars believe that the Emishi included ethnic Japanese who opposed the expansion of the Ritsuryo state, the term was a vague one and almost certainly also included the Ainu people of Hokkaido (cf. Hudson 1999:193-195). From the twelfth century, however, "Emishi" began to be replaced by the word "Ezo" (Kaiho 1987:10-36), a shift which was accompa- nied by a somewhat more detailed geographic knowledge of Hokkaido than had existed previously. Kaiho (1996:65) argues that the spread of the word "Ezo" in the poetry produced in twelfth century Kyoto reflects the influence of the Northern Fujiwara who, despite their status as provincial warlords, maintained links with the Kyoto aristoc- racy. Such a direct link is by no means improbable and it seems highly likely that the Northern Fuji- wara were important in changing Japanese perceptions of the north during this period.

The Role of Manchuria If the rise of the Northern Fujiwara is to be seen as part of a wider commercial revolution in East Asia, then might not other components of that East Asian system have had more of a direct influence on Hokkaido than the Hiraizumi polity? In this final section I would like to briefly consider the role of Manchuria and the Amur Basin in Ainu ethnogenesis. The Khitan Liao dynasty (947-1125) was the first state to control all of Manchuria (Led- yard 1983:323). From its inception, the Liao de- pended on trade: horses, fox and marten furs, brocade, lumber, and slaves from Manchuria were traded for silk, tea, ginger, weapons, and other Chinese goods (Shiba 1983:97-100). The same pattern continued under the Jurchen Jin dynasty (1115-1234). The Jin economy was stimulated by the acquisition of massive amounts of silver from the Northern Song, which the Jurchen defeated in

the 1120s, and paper money became widely used through Manchuria (Shiba 1983:102). Trade is tra- ditionally thought to have been less significant to the following Mongol Yuan dynasty, but Rossabi (1982:7) criticizes earlier views that the Mongol conquests had a totally negative effect on the economy of Manchuria: "Though the Mongols devas- tated Jurchen territory in their initial conquests, they generally sought, during more than a century of rule, to encourage the economic revival of Manchuria" (Rossabi 1982:54). The Mongol conquests created a vast zone of interaction unlike any- thing that had been seen previously. Abu-Lughod (1989) has proposed the existence of a Eurasian world-system between 1250 and 1350 and, while the Mongol attacks on Sakhalin may have been motivated more by political or ideological factors than economic ones (cf. de Rachewiltz 1973), it is probably no coincidence that direct Chinese influence was first extended to Sakhalin between 1264 and 1320, precisely at the time of this thirteenth century Eurasian world-system.

At present neither the archaeological nor the historical records support a noticeable increase in trade between Sakhalin and Manchuria during the era of Mongol influence. However, archaeological research in Sakhalin remains poorly developed and little work has been done on the historical sources relating to this remote outpost of the Yuan world. As with Hokkaido, archaeological study of trade with Sakhalin is complicated by the fact that most of the products involved are likely to have been perishable materials such as furs, feathers, and tex- tiles. The Amur and Sungari rivers were the major transportation routes across north Manchuria in ancient times and the focus of political power in the region (Wada 1938:44). Sakhalin's position at the mouth of the Amur thus predetermined its importance in Manchurian affairs. The geography of the region means that as long as trade, in furs and other items, occurred between Manchuria and China, then Sakhalin is likely to have played a role in that trade. We know that the Manchurian fur trade was important even during periods when the Chinese did not actually occupy the Amur, for in- stance during the late Ming (Kawachi 1992:592-656). It is not until the eighteenth century, however, that historical records enable us to discuss the so-called "Santan" trade between Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the peoples of the Amur in some detail (Harrison 1954; Stephan 1971:21-29; Sasaki 1996). Brocades came from Yangzi cities such as Nanjing and Hangzhou via Manchuria; furs and eagle feathers flowed both ways from Sakhalin; and iron pots and tools trav- eled north from Japan. This Santan trade may have reached its peak during the eighteenth century (Ohnuki-Tierney 1974:8), but its roots are clearly much older. A mention of "Ezo brocade" in a




Japanese document of 1143 suggests the basic pattern of the trade may date back to at least the twelfth century (Kaiho 1990:270).

More work needs to be done on the early medieval links between Manchuria, Sakhalin, and Hokkaido, but on present evidence it seems clear that trading relations between Japan and Hokkaido had a far more direct influence on Satsumon/Ainu society than did relations with the Northeast Asian mainland.

Conclusions This paper has argued that the Northern Fujiwara played a major role in the sociocultural changes that led to the Satsumon-Ainu transition in Hokkaido. Various lines of evidence supporting this hypothesis have been considered. Although the available evidence is largely circumstantial, I believe that this is entirely consistent with the relationship between Hiraizumi and Hokkaido proposed here. We know that the Japanese had no direct political control over Hokkaido as early as the twelfth century. At that time Satsumon society was organized around relatively small-scale tribal or segmentary groups and trade with Hokkaido was probably still at a pre-market stage. Documents linking the Northern Fujiwara with specific places in Hokkaido would be nice to have, but written records relating to the Northern Fujiwara as a whole are sparse and Hokkaido was still, of course, prehistoric. We are thus reliant on the archaeological evidence which, although it cannot easily be re- lated to specific groups of people such as the Northern Fujiwara, is nevertheless consistent with a model of increasing exchange between Hokkaido and northern Tohoku during the twelfth century.

A view of the Ainu as a primitive, hunter-gath- erer people, essentially unchanged since the Jômon, has long dominated the Western literature. Bic- chieri's (1972:448) comment that "Despite historical contact with the Japanese, the culture of the mainland had little impact upon the lives of the Ainu until Japanese colonization ... in the late nineteenth century" is typical of many. Japanese scholarship has been much more aware of the historical context of the Ainu, but medieval Hokkaido has only become an important focus of research in the last ten to 15 years. In particular, it is only during this period that Ainu archaeology has become a viable subject. Since Ainu origins are to be found in an essentially prehistoric era, a real understanding of Ainu ethnogenesis was not possible without the evidence of the archaeological record. Despite recent advances, however, it must be said that Japanese theoretical approaches to interregional relations and ethnogenesis in the medieval north remain poorly developed. Whether or not one adopts a formal world-systems approach, it is clear that the Ainu cannot be seen as a relict Stone

Age culture, surviving in the remote north due to lack of contacts with the outside. In other words, the apparently "primitive" aspects of ethnographic Ainu culture did not result simply from the failure of advanced, metropolitan features to diffuse north. In- stead, the historical (under)development of Ainu society must be seen as a direct result of complex interactions within the East Asian region as a whole.

End Notes 1. In this paper, the term "mainland Japanese" is used to refer to the ethnic Japanese inhabitants of Kyushu, Shikoku, and Honshu.

2. For overviews of these economic developments see Elvin (1973) and Yamamura (1990).

3. See the entry for 9/14 of Ninpei 3 (1153). Zôho Shiryô Taisei, Taiki, Vol. 2, pp. 101-102, Nozo- gawa Shote, Tokyo, 1965.

Acknowledgments. I would like to express my gratitude to Allen McCartney and to the anony- mous reviewers for their comments on this paper. Thanks are also due to Igor de Rachewiltz for his help with the Yuan sources.

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