Bandana with owls inspired by Ainu patterns. Tourist art.

Portrait of Ainu sculptor, Bikky Sunazawa.

The typical Shiraoi Ainu house, entered through an anteroom in the west end, was laid out around a central rectangular hearth where most everyday activities took place. Family treasures were stored in the lacquerware containers along an elevated…

As Japanese cotton became more affordable, garments known as chikarkarpe, meaning "our embroidered thing," were developed by substituting cotton for attush (elm-bark cloth); Ainu often used old Japanese kimonos or yukata for the base fabric. The use…

Sakhalin Ainu shamans produced abstract wooden figurines called nipopo ("wooden baby"), used primarily as amulets for curing or warding off childhood disease. The addition of strips of red and blue cloth or a blue bead (on the upper figure) was…

Originally all Ainu garments were made of skin, fur, and feathers, and these types of clothing survived in Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands into the twentieth century. Salmon skin was highly prized for making strong, light, durable waterproof…

Group of Ainu people. Photo taken in 1904.

Portrait of a present day Ainu man.

A portrait of an Ainu woman from the 1920s.