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In 1899, the Hokkaido Former Natives Act<br />
was put in place by the Meiji government.<br />
The act labeled the Ainu as former<br />
aborigines, their names were taken from<br />
them, and replaced with Japanese<br />
sounding surnames. They were then forced<br />
to become Japanese citizens. This<br />
effectively denied the Ainu their existence<br />
as an indigenous group. Their land was<br />
taken by the Japanese government, and<br />
they lost their right to fish and hunt, their<br />
main activities for livelihood and cultural<br />
identity. It also became forbidden to use<br />
the Ainu language. During this time, the<br />
Ainu were forced from place to place, spat<br />
upon, and maligned by the Hondo<br />
Japanese who had moved to Hokkaido in<br />
droves after the northern expansion of the<br />
Japanese empire.<br />
What we now think of as Japanese<br />
vegetables were introduced, these included<br />
daikon radish, carrot, kabocha squash, as<br />
well as the potato. The Ainu were expected<br />
to farm, but were obviously not<br />
accustomed to the ways of contemporary<br />
farming at the time. The women of the<br />
house had generally had small gardens,<br />
but large-scale farming was not something<br />
they had ever needed to do. The land had<br />
always provided. Given the restrictions on<br />
the Ainu way of life, food began to become<br />
scarce, and desperate times had fallen<br />
upon the tribe. Japanese farmers collected<br />
the large, dense potatoes for market, and<br />
let the smaller or uglier specimens lay in<br />
the field throughout the winter.<br />
Ainu people, while out foraging in the<br />
Spring would collect these potatoes, and<br />
cook them in their homes. These gray, frost<br />
weathered potatoes had been cast aside<br />
by the Hondo Japanese farmers, and<br />
would now become a staple in the pantries<br />
of the Ainu. They transformed this flat,<br />
beaten, dirty potato, into a delicious<br />
pancake, to be served with butter and<br />
honey.<br />
This is an irrevocable symbol of the Ainu<br />
people’s ability to endure during even the<br />
grimmest of times.<br />
Given that the Ainu could no longer<br />
legally hunt or fish, they were forced to<br />
become more agrarian than they had ever<br />
been. Millet, which had always been the<br />
staple grain of the Ainu people, began<br />
cultivation as a crop, rather than a foraged<br />
grass.
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