While traveling around Hokkaido, the northern most island of Japan, I visited two Ainu Museums. One was in Biratori called the Nibutani Museum and the other was in Shiraoi called The Ainu Museum. Both of these towns were visited by Hiram Hiller in 1901 where he collected many of the objects that now compromise our Ainu collection. It was quite a treat to see many other examples of artifacts in our collection. The exhibits gave the pieces context and provided insight into how they were put to use and created from the surrounding wildlife and plant life of the region.
The first museum was the Nibutani museum in Biratori, it had a small gallery packed with artifacts.
One case had much of the plant life that was turned into meals for the Ainu. Above is a photo of some lily root cakes and the starch that was mixed to make them. Hiller collected two cakes and brought them back to the Penn Museum.
A mock up of the weaving equipment used to make the Ainu robes.
They had a beautiful wooden cabinet that housed many of the Ainu robes. The cabinet had drawers that could be pulled out so you could see the front and back of the robes.
The second museum I went to was the Ainu Museum which was located in the Poroto Kotan a small Ainu village. They had traditional dances and music demonstrations every half hour and allowed you to watch weavers and wood carvers make various artifacts.
Dioramas, models, photos,video and paintings supplemented the objects in the displays.
An Ainu woman plays the mukkuri or jaw harp as part of a demonstration of Ainu music.
The Hiller collection has a child's hoop toy very similar to the ones seen here.
We also have a number of beaded necklaces similar to those seen above. I was particularly interested in the necklaces that had tsuba as the metal pendants that hung at the end of the necklace.
Each house had a firepit inside with artifacts hanging on the wall where they would be traditionally used as part of the household activities. For a small fee you could wear a robe and get your photo taken.
Ainu men and woman perform a ritual dance while tourists and school children watch with cameras and notebooks in hand.
The video of the weaving process from harvesting materials to finished robe was also very instructive.
