Ainu cuisine differs markedly from that of the Wajin, or ethnic Japanese. Ainu cuisine, for instance, does not prepare raw meats like sashimi instead prefering to boil, roast or cure meat. The island of Hokkaido in northern Japan is where most Ainu live today; however, they once inhabitated most of the Kurile islands and the southern half of Sakhalin island. Up to 1 million descendants of interbreeding between Ainu and Wajin live throughout Japan. Until recently they were thought to be exclusively a hunter-gatherer society, but recent excavations on the Hokkaido University campus have revealed extensive fossilized grains by using something called the flotation method. Ashiri Kotan Nakanoshima and Rera Cise are the only Ainu restaurants in the world. The Japanese (日本人, Nihon-jin) are the Yamato, Ainu, Ryukyuans, Uilta and Nivkhs of the Japanese Archipelago. ... Assorted sashimi Sashimi (Japanese: 刺身, lit. ... Boil or furuncle is a skin disease caused by the inflammation of hair follicles, thus resulting in the localized accumulation of pus and dead tissues. ... Roast is a term used in a number of contexts. ... Cure can be: successful treatment of disease preserve (meat, for example), as by salting, smoking, or aging (see curing) prepare, preserve, or finish (a substance) by a chemical or physical process The Cure refers to more than one thing: The Cure are an English rock band. ... Hokkaido â–¶ (help· info) (北海道 Hokkaidō, literal meaning: North Sea Route, Ainu: Mosir), formerly known as Ezo, is the second largest island and largest prefecture of Japan. ... The Ainu (pronounced , eye-noo, アイヌ / aynu) are an ethnic group indigenous to Hokkaido, the northern part of Honshu in Northern Japan, the Kuril Islands, much of Sakhalin, and the southernmost third of the Kamchatka peninsula. ... The Kuril Islands The Kuril Islands (Russian: Кури́льские острова́), also known as Kurile Islands, stretch northeast from Hokkaido, Japan, to Kamchatka, separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the North Pacific Ocean. ... Sakhalin (Russian: Сахалин), also Saghalien, 库页岛 (Ku Ye Dao, Chinese), or Karafuto (Japanese: 樺太) is a large elongated island in the North Pacific, lying between 45° 50 and 54° 24 N, in East Siberia, Russia. ... Main Gate of the Sapporo Campus (Feb. ...

Ingredients of the Ainu

Crops

• Deccan grass
• Foxtail and Chinese millet
• Wheat
• Buckwheat
• Beans

Wild plants Pearl millet in the field Ripe head of proso millet The millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal crops, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. ... Species T. boeoticum T. durum T. monococcum T. spelta References:   ITIS 42236 2002-09-22 Wheat (Triticum spp. ... Binomial name Fagopyrum esculentum Common Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is a plant in the genus Fagopyrum (sometimes merged into genus Polygonum) in the family Polygonaceae. ... Green beans a plenty Bean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genera of Fabaceae (formerly Leguminosae) used for food or feed. ...

• Kitopiro, a wild garlic grass

Animals

• Bear
• Salmon
• Seals
• Whales
• Deer
• Raccoon dogs

Much of the legend of their hunting prowess has been handed down to the current generation in the form of songs and epic poems from Ainu music. Genera Ailuropoda Ursus Tremarctos Arctodus (extinct) A bear is a large mammal of the order Carnivora, family Ursidae. ... The Chinook or King Salmon is the largest salmon in North America and can grow up to 58 long and 126 pounds. ... Look up seal in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Whales are the largest species of exclusively aquatic mammals, members of the order Cetacea, which also includes dolphins and porpoises. ... Subfamilies Capreolinae Cervinae Hydropotinae Muntiacinae A deer is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. ... Binomial name Nyctereutes procyonoides (Gray, 1834) The Raccoon Dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides, with nyct = Gr. ... The Ainu people of northern Japan have an autonomous musical tradition. ...

Recipes and dishes of note in Ainu cuisine

• Kitokamu, a sausage flavored with kitopiro
• Munchiro sayo, millet porridge

Porridge (also known in American English as hot cereal), is a simple dish made by boiling oats (normally crushed oats, occasionally oatmeal) or another meal in water, milk or both. ...

Sources

• Ainu Agriculture
• Origins of Ainu
• English site of the Ainu Museum