Ainu Displacement in Japan

[buddyrydell]

Approximately when did the ancestors of the modern Japanese invade the Japanese archipelago, displacing the Ainu and pushing them northward to Hokkaido? Also, does genetic evidence support possible traces of Ainu admixture in the modern Japanese?

[buddyrydell]

C'mon, surely somebody has to have a hypothesis/explanation.

[buddyrydell]

human2 said:

About 2,000 thousand years ago. I'd say of course there is admixture.

Thanks Human. That's really interesting too, 2,000 years is really rather recent. I was thinking it was more like 3,000 years ago.

[Ponto Hardbottle]

I don't know that displacement is the right word. The Ainu are partly native to Japan, they had settlements along the Amur river, Sakhalin, the Kamchatka, the Kurile islands, Hokkaido and a small part of Northern Honshu. The Ainu were in the invidious position of being caught between a rock and a hard place, between the Russian empire and the Japanese Empire. According to Japanese history, humans started living in Japan 35 to 30 kya and it is believed they came from East and SE Asia. During the Jomon period, the peoples that went to Japan were from Southern Mongoloid sources. This changed during the Yayoi period 300 BCE to 300 CE to Northern Mongoloid sources. The Japanese are mainly the descendents of Northern Mongoloids mixed with the earlier but numerically less, Jomon period Southern Mongoloids. Japanese and Ainu contacts occurred on Honshu more recently probably in the 1400s. Initially the contact was peaceful but the Japanese became rapacious and enslaved the Ainu. The Ainu fought back during three wars but lost each time. The Ainu became concentrated on Hokkaido by both Japanese and Russian action in depopulating the Kamchatka peninsula, the Kuriles, Northern Honshu and Sakhalin island and forcing the Ainu out. Since then the Japanese have actively colonised Hokkaido and forced the Ainu to assimilate. In a sense the Ainu have been pushed aside by the actions of two nations Japan and Russia.

[Cerdic]

The Japenese probably owe their often higher-bridged, narrower noses and greater hirsuteness, relative to the nearby Asian mainlanders, to some level of Ainu, or Ainu-related admixture.

When Japan became partially Westernised in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the current Western fashion for beards was easy for the Japanese to adopt. After many centuries of male facial depilation they instantly managed to produce some very respectable beards. Have a look at a photo of the Japanese naval hero Admiral Togo - great beard!