Nibutani Ainu Crafts Exhibition in New York City

I was very excited when my friend in NYC informed me about this exhibition. The gallery was having a reception the following day. Right away, I sent an email to my friend’s contact at the gallery to see if I could attend the reception, and they said yes!

When I got there, I was surprised and happy to see how good the turnout was because I hadn’t seen any publicity about this event in any Japanese news sources in NYC.

They selected a perfect combination of traditional and contemporary crafts. I recognized many familiar names from the Nibutani region in the town of Biratori, which is where I made my documentary.

The highlight of this exhibition is the Nosaku project. These are contemporary crafts and are just-finished products. It’s the first time these artworks have been displayed in the U.S.

In fact, I didn’t see or even hear about the project in Nibutani when I visited last summer.

The artwork is tableware made from tin. It’s a collaborative project between Nibutani and Takaoka City, Toyama Prefecture, an area that has been known for its metal casting for over 100 years. The complete information is here.

I was especially happy to see that most of the artists are young people. They use traditional Ainu patterns that are unique to Nibutani. As I was leaving, the gallery gave me a cutlery rest, as a souvenir which I am now using at home. You can purchase these crafts if you’d like.

This is a unique opportunity to see Ainu crafts in person, so, I strongly encourage you to go to see the exhibit. For more information about Nibutani Ainu Craft, see here.

Nibutani Ainu Craft Exhibition

When: March 1-11, Wednesday – Saturday, 12pm-5pm

Where: Onishi Gallery

521 West 26th Street Lower Level, New York, NY 10001

The first embroidered garment is made by Maki Sekine, the second one is made by Sumire Kaizawa

Ainu’s traditional dance at the Tokyo Olympics

I have never seen Ainu dance like this!! This is a special dance performance created for the Tokyo Olympics.

I knew that some Ainu people from each region had practiced for a few years before 2020 to perform at the opening ceremony but the Ainu dance was eliminated from the program in the winter of 2020 because of the time limitation, according to a newspaper I read.

After postponing one year due to the pandemic, Ainu dancers gathered with more participants from each region in Sapporo, where the marathon races took place.

In each region has unique Ainu pattern. Please pay attention to the clothes when you watch all videos.

Ainu doesn’t have a written language, so dances have an important role in communication. What do you see from the dance?

No translation needed. Just feel and think, and enjoy.

Stage 1 | Tomakomai | August 5th, 3pm

Stage 2 | Sappro | August 5th, 7pm

Stage 3 | Mixed regions | August 6th, 3:30pm

Stage 4 | Biratori&Urakawa | August 7th, 5:50am

Stage 5 | Obihiro & Lake Akan | August 8th, 6am

These are 30 seconds TV commercials from different regions.

Biratori

Tokyo/Nibutani *Nibutani is a region in the town of Biratori

Shiraoi

Lake Akan & Obihiro

Sapporo

Behind the camera #2 – My Personal Bond with the Ainu Community

During the three months between my first and second visits to Biratori, I took my first trip to Colombia to donate some second-hand video equipment and to teach filmmaking to the Nasa people who live on top of the Andes Mountains.

This was my first close encounter and living experience with indigenous people. The place I visited was a refugee camp that was formed after the explosion of a sacred volcano, called Grandfather by the Nasa people. The volcano awoke after 500 years of sleep.

I learned many things but I will have to save the details for a future post.

After my trip to Colombia, I flew to Hokkaido and stayed at the Kawananos, who are the people who offered to let me stay at their house.

I told them about my experience in Colombia and showed them some photos and videos. They were impressed and Kazunobu, the husband, called someone and told this person “An interesting woman is staying at my house. I want you to meet her.”

Soon after Kazunobu took me to visit the Nabesawas, who later became the second subject in my film.

Tamotsu Nabesawa is half Ainu and half wajin (a non-Ainu person living in Japan). He is one of the rare people who can actually speak Ainu and grew up surrounded by Ainu culture.

He loves making crafts influenced by Ainu culture for himself. When I started talking about the Nasa people, who live on the other side of the world, he found similarities between the Ainu and the Nasa, especially some customs in certain rituals.

Over the next ten years, I often visited the Nabesawas, and they sometimes offered to let me stay over.

Mr. Nabesawa usually spoke in Japanese, but he often spoke Ainu as well. One day, he asked me something in Ainu, and I had no idea what he was saying.

Then he laughed and told me “When someone visits, the first thing an Ainu asks the visitor is whether you will stay over or not. If they’re just visiting, we offer non-alcoholic drinks. If they are going to stay over, we offer alcoholic drinks and food and get ready for a long chat.”

I don’t remember how many nights I stayed over at the Nabesawas, but I remember sitting next to him, chatting, laughing, eating, and drinking.

He knew more about the Ainu than most of the community.

I didn’t film him much until 2016, when I started making my documentary about the Ainu. However, I wish I had started filming him as soon as I met him because he passed away in 2018.

But at the same time, because he and I had a bond before filming, he felt much more comfortable when I did film him.

Rome Prisma Independent Film Festival

Glad to hear that the film was selected up to semi-finalist at January 2021 at Rome Prisma Independent Film Festival

Behind the Camera Story #1 from Ainu – Indigenous People of Japan

So far, Ainu – Indigenous People of Japan has had screenings at over 20 places all over the world. I am glad that many people are interested in the Ainu, and I think my job is to keep learning more about the Ainu and disseminating information about what the indigenous people in my home country are doing.

One of the questions I have been asked the most is why did you choose this particular town, Biratori because there are other towns that are famous for their connection to Ainu culture. Back in 2008, I was co-running a non-profit organization, Cinemiga, to teach filmmaking and co-produce films with indigenous people around the world, and the first location was Colombia. One day, my colleagues asked me about the indigenous people of Japan, and it made me realize that I didn’t know anything about the Ainu.

Therefore, I started searching for information about the Ainu, and I found out there was a small Ainu radio station in the town of Biratori, where the late Shigeru Kayano is from. Mr. Kayano had done extraordinary work to preserve the Ainu language and culture, including putting together and publishing an Ainu-Japanese dictionary and writing more than a hundred books and articles about the Ainu. On top of this, he also recorded native Ainu speakers sharing oral history, information about themselves, and general conversations. In addition, he started an Ainu radio station and the first community based Ainu language class in Japan. It was a no brainer for me. Of course, I would base my learning in Biratori. First, I visited the language class. At that time, Mr. Kayano had already passed away, and his son was running the class as well as the radio station. Around 15 people were in the class when I visited, and I didn’t know anyone.

At the end of the class, I thanked everybody for letting me observe the class, and I was about to leave to go to my room at a local ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn. Then, a man approached me and said “I’ve never seen you before. Where are you from?” I answered that I was from Hyogo (around 670 miles from Hokkaido). Then he said, “If you are interested in learning about the Ainu, come back often.” I thanked him, and I decided to be honest with him. I said, “I would love to come back more often, but I live in New York and it’s really expensive to come to Biratori from there.” He said, “Then, you can stay at my house instead of at a ryokan, and use my car instead of renting a car.” I was very surprised because we had just met and had talked for only about five minutes and this man was offering to let me stay at his house. That’s how my close relationship started with the Ainu living in Biratori. (to be continued)

Recording of the online discussion in London

Thank you to the Native Spirit Festival and Japan House London for organizing a group discussion about the Ainu on October 15th. I was fortunate to be a part of this global community which included panelists from the UK, USA, and Japan. In addition, around 200 people from across the world viewed the event and asked questions.

In fact, due to popular demand, the Native Spirit Festival just extended the availability of “Ainu: Indigenous People of Japan” until November 15th. (Very excited about this!)

Participating in this festival was the perfect opportunity for me because I have been wanting to have a virtual screening and discussion with the Ainu community. I am looking forward to many more because I think it is very important to keep the dialogue going. I encourage anyone who wants to host a screening to please contact me for details.

And just an FYI: Should you watch the discussion, I mistakenly said that the year I started making my film was 2004, but in fact it was 2015. I must have been nervous. The year 2004 was when I arrived to the US from Japan!

Third most viewed film at Nippon Connection

Nippon Connection Film Festival was held from June 9th – 14th in Germany.

It was an online festival due to the pandemic. My film “Ainu – Indigenous People of Japan” got the third most views in the documentary category. I was very happy to receive the good news.

It was a close second (only three views difference) to “i – Documentary of the Journalist” directed by Tatsuya Mori, who is well known for making a documentary about a controversial cult in Japan, Aum Shinrikyo, in 1998.

It was great to know about this fact, and especially that many people in Germany are interested in Ainu.

I can tell that the festival staff made a big effort to make this first online festival fun and I really appreciate that the staff gave me follow-ups.

The Nippon Connection’s blog post of my interview “Guest in Focus” still exists here as well as a video interview by festival staffer Maximilan Himpsl.

A German film critic Rouven Linnarz also interviewed me, mostly about the film’s behind-the-scenes. You can read the interview on Aisan Movie Pulse. He also published it on Film-rezensionen.de in German.

Thank you for those who helped spread the word. I really had a (virtual) good time at this festival!!