Ainu Relief, Profile Of A Woman 1970 Japan - #686

About the Ainu: aboriginal population of northern Japan. Arrived around the 14th century BC, in the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. During the Meiji era, forced assimilation prohibited their culture, dispossessed them of their lands, until the complete annexation of Hokkaido. Just like the Eskimo populations of Canada, Chukchi of Siberia, the Ainu are animists. It was from 1928 that an ethnographic and scientific interest in this people appeared. In 1933 the young emperor Hirohito bought statuettes (bears) from artisans. This event brought public attention, and led to the development of workshops; allowing this population to survive. This relief is representative of Ainu productions of the 70s-90s: elongation, emerging fluid forms, smiling subjects. Traditional headdress. Weight 3.8 kg.