The Colonization of Hokkaido 

Polynesian ancestors of today’s māori cultures began arriving in what was then known as Hawaikitautau between 2,000 to 1500 years ago. At the early arrival of Kupe the islands were named Aotearoa - lands of the long white clouds. From 1405 until 1433, the Chinese imperial eunuch Zheng He led seven ocean expeditions for the Ming emperor that are unmatched in world history. Anecdotal data suggests he had knowledge of the islands of the South Pacific that would become known as New Zealand in the 17th century. Abel Tasman arrived in 1642. It was Abel Tasman who gave the name now rendered in English as New Zealand. His men were the first Europeans to have a confirmed encounter with Māori. The expedition departed from the company's base at Batavia (Jakarta) in August 1642. After sailing west to Mauritius they turned south before being forced back by the cold to the 45th parallel. Continuing eastwards they sighted the mountains of a land that Tasman named Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) after the governor general of Batavia. They continued east on 4 December and sighted the west coast of the South Island on the 13th. They anchored at Wharewharangi Bay, near Wainui Inlet to the north of what is now Abel Tasman National Park, on 18 December. The initial meeting between European and Maori was tense but peaceful. The following day, though, the Dutch had a violent encounter with local Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri. Tasman named the place Moordenaers (Murderers) Bay before sailing east to the Manawatu coast of the North Island. Shortly afterwards they sheltered from a storm east of Stephens and D'Urville islands and celebrated the first Christmas dinner in New Zealand. The Dutch continued up the west coast of the North Island reaching Cape Maria Van Diemen (named after van Diemen's wife) on 4 January 1643. In need of fresh water, they investigated Great Island in the Three Kings group on the 5th but were put off by a heavy surf and rocky shore - not to mention up to 35 inhabitants who shouted ‘with rough loud voice’ and threw stones from the cliff-tops. Sailing a north-east course, the expedition arrived in Tonga on 21 January. After obtaining ample supplies of food and water they sailed on, sighting but not landing in the northern islands of Fiji. After turning west the expedition reached New Guinea in April before returning to Batavia on 15 June 1643. Lieutenant James Cook captained the Endeavour and was brought to New Zealand by Tahitian navigator Tūpaia - they arrived on the 8th of October 1769. This initiated the intensification of European settlement and colonisation to the modern era. New Zealand’s history is marked by English Imperialism, the racist doctrine of discovery, colonisation, deceit, and military invasion supported by political duplicity, educational assimilation, hegemony and institutional inequality. Despite late 19th century expectations for racial genocide to spell the end of the Māori culture the opposite has occurred. Poverty, inequality and racism still mark New Zealand’s race relations. But ... and poignantly - Māori have survived, our language (though endangered) is still strong and growing slowly ... our population growing. We enjoy several conferences with our Ainu relatives sharing in collaborative cultural restoration strategies and language revival aspirations with a diverse range of indigenous cultures sharing similar cu;trial historical contexts. While covid gas slowed the world down - technology keeps us connected.

Playing through Legends Arceus right now. I’m kind of hoping that the Galaxy Team turns out to be evil and I betray them, considering the history the setting + story is based on. I don’t have that much hope but idk. I’ve just gotten to the Crimson Mirelands so I can still dream lol

Thanks for letting us know! Hokkaido is a wonderful place to visit; highly recommended. Also, Noah actually wrote a fair bit about Kagoshima in his recent three-part series on Saigo Takamori for our website. Seems like another fascinating place to explore.

Embarrassed to say that I still haven't watched Golden Kamuy, especially since it's one of the few anime to feature Sakhalin - which was just recently the topic of my MA thesis. Should finally have time to watch it soon, which I'm looking forward to.

Very interesting! Would love to have seen that exhibit. Hope you do manage to get to Hokkaido some day -- it's worth it!

Thank you for your insightful commentary and suggestions, Reina. We're glad to do our part in spreading the story of the Ainu and Hokkaido. We'll pass on the message to Noah!

@@UnseenJapan Oh I see. Unseen Japan and Noah are separate entities (as in he isn't the creator or founder of this organisation.) He just put the video together independently? To follow up, would I have to go through unseen Japan as an organisation first?

Hey Reina, really appreciate the commentary! Glad to hear from someone who cares so much about the often-overlooked subalterns of Japanese history and modern society. I agree that it's all a lot of information, sadly a product of this video essentially being a direct adaptation of my original article. I'll work to get subtitles on to make it easier to follow along with, and I'll probably start adapting my writings more loosely for future videos to better fit the format. Appreciate the critique! I was extremely lucky to get access to such beautiful footage -- it was thanks to two Hokkaido-based videographers who appreciated the mission of the video (spreading information about Hokkaido history in English). If you want to message me directly you can find a link to my twitter profile in the video description! Thanks again for your comment! -Noah

I'm interested in the Olympic thing. Hopefully delaying the games will bring the small silver lining of getting the Ainu the recognition they deserve during the ceremony.

Would be really wonderful if that would end up happening - but honestly, the Olympics occurring at all at this point is very much up in the air. Either way, any Japanese olympics that strives to truly showcase the varied reality of Japan needs both Ainu and Ryukyuans.

Glad to be of service!

Thanks for watching, and glad you enjoyed it!

You should! It's a wonderful place.

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! We're getting more views, slowly but surely - appreciate the viewership!

Hokkaido is indeed wonderful! Hope you can get there one day.

Glad you appreciated it!

That is not true.

I think the Ryukyuan people are a Japonic people, unrelated to the Ainu.

Glad it was helpful!

Lmao so kids are doing projects on "colonization" in ART HISTORY, now? Lmao. Lovely.

@@noseriouslyimserious4073 wow, almost like colonization was a massive, long-lasting historical project that affected almost every region of the earth and, thus, would also affect art - something which, it turns out, doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Incredible.

Glad you enjoyed it! We actually have an article on our site about the history of the Ryukyu people of Okinawa, whose colonization echoes that of the Ainu in many ways. Would be great to eventually make a video a video about their history as well - their story is one that deserves to be told more often.

Really glad you enjoyed it! Hokkaido does feel very different from the rest of Japan when visiting -- so few structures date from before the Kaitakushi (settlement agency) days at the earliest. I've never been to Matsumae either, but Hakodate at least does have some impressive historical structures -- the huge Goryokaku fort in particular.

Thanks Erik, really appreciate you saying so! Hokkaido does have a very different vibe to its cities than, say, Yamagata ;)

Thank you, and true! I would've liked to have been able to go a bit into the Santan trade and the Ainu conflict with the Nivkh and their Mongol allies in the Yuan dynasty, but it was a bit beyond the Hokkaido-focused scope (and the video is already pretty long, ha). I'm doing some more writing on the Ainu at the moment (specifically in regards to Sakhalin) so I'll be going deeper into the topic soon.

It's "Righteous Soul," the ending theme from the PS2 game Way of the Samurai! Been really into that soundtrack since I was in high school.

The Ainu are finally being recognized as indigenous by the Japanese government, and the Hokkaido prefectural government is putting a lot of work into including more information on them in school textbooks, so there is some positive movement happening right now (although some Ainu activists say they should be more directly involved).

@@UnseenJapan good to know. That old videos that you showed us were very interesting. Where did you found them?

The archival video footage of the Ainu comes from the 1935 documentary "Iyomande: the Ainu Bear Festival" directed by Kindaiichi Kyosuke. If you'd like to see the entire documentary, it's been uploaded to RU-vid! It's very much worth a watch.

@@UnseenJapan thank you very much, you really made a nice investigation. Keep with the great work👍👍👏👏

Here's hoping!

Appreciate the vote of confidence!

@@UnseenJapan I believe in you

@@UnseenJapan and could you do a video on how Japan. Aquired the small island to there South

We'll definitely get around to discussing Okinawa - likely in a video similar to this one!

It does get quite cold - Hokkaido has the coldest climate in Japan, as befits its northern location. It's still pretty southern compared to Alaska, though, and its winters are probably a bit more comparable to northern Germany or Minnesota.

what does that mean?

Many people don’t even know what Yamato means lol. Some Japanese people probably thought Yamato is some spaceship from sci-fi movies

Ainu, like many languages worldwide, doesn't have it's own indigenous writing system. Stories, folklore, and histories were instead memorized and recited at gatherings, often in the form of Yukar - heroic sagas. These days Ainu can be written in either Roman characters or in a specialized version of katakana, like you mentioned. If you want to learn a bit more about Yukar, we actually have a new essay on our main website about Ainu translator Chiri Yukie, who was the first person to transcribe Yukar en mass into Japanese.

@@UnseenJapan Thanks for the reply, soo ainu just worked as gibbirish that was told in gatherings before the yamato influence on the language?

Ainu was a fully-functioning language used for everyday life and society for at least hundreds of years before major Yamato incursions into Ainu lands. It just didn't have a writing system, something which isn't historically uncommon for languages.

@@UnseenJapan oh that makes sense, thanks

Some studies have found commonalities between them and native Americans.

The word Ainu means "human" in Ainu. Some modern Ainu prefer to be called 'Utari' (comrade) though.

The unreleased original version of Horus, Prince of the Sun, clearly.

🙄

I actually do my fair share of professional voice work, but I appreciate your input :) I'll try to continue to improve my narration skills. And I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Please feel free to switch on the English subtitles.

Lol, please tell me about the "whole bunch" of anime that have accurately portrayed the colonization of Hokkaido and the subjugation of the Ainu lands without saying the single obvious entry, Golden Kamuy. Would also love to hear your additional nuance or about the facts omitted.

Thanks for your input! Please direct us to which part of Hokkaido history you consider "filler."

@@NounOzlos see golden kamui you smug jerk

@@UnseenJapan none of it is filler just that lots of the stuff you say is filler that has nothing to do with the topic

@@TheGameDomeGuy Lol did you not see that I literally wrote "without saying the single obvious entry, Golden Kamuy?" So not only were you completely unable to answer the question, you also took an entire month to do so. Sorry if I don't mark you as an expert on the Ainu or Hokkaido history, or see you as anything other than someone trying to somehow "defend" anime or Japan from historical fact (pro tip: it's ok to like anime without falling into the trap of thinking it's a great source to learn all your history from).