Local Cultures – Global Spaces

Abstract

Hokkaido, a northern island, celebrated its naming 150th anniversary in 2018, have been developed by the Japanese government since 1869. “Ezo-ti” was the words used referring to the place of residence of Ainu in Edo-era, before 1868. Act Promoting Measures to Achieve a Society in which the Pride of Ainu People is Respected enacted in 2019 and specified Ainu People as indigenous people of the northern part of the Japanese archipelago, in particular Hokkaido for the first time. One of “Important Cultural Landscapes”, under the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties, is in Biratori town, evaluated as being Ainu landscape that reflects their lives and livelihoods as well as the landscape that illustrates early-Meiji administrative unit for Hokkaido development. It is the first-ever and only “Important Cultural Landscapes” evaluated as indigenous people’s lives and livelihoods landscape in Japan as well as the only “Important Cultural Landscapes” in Hokkaido. Ainu, hunting people, built up their own culture before Meiji, however, their life had been changed under Japanese assimilation policy since Meiji, the beginning of the development of Hokkaido by the government of Japan. This paper clarified the transformation of Ainu’s houses from 1940s to 1960s in Biratori to understand how they adjusted their way of life.