Emishi
The Emishi were natives of northern Honshu that opposed and resisted the rule of the Japanese Emperors during the late Nara and early Heian periods (7th-10th centuries A.D.). At the end of the Heian period (12th C.), those Emishi who were still outside the authority of the state became known as Ezo. In fact, the whole of Hokkaido island came to be known as "Ezo-ga-shima" or simply "Ezo."According to earlier Japanese tradition (and Ainu oral history) the Emishi are said to be ancestors of, or related to, the Ainu. There are arguments and evidence for [1] and against this theory.
Much like the Native American represented by a large number of different tribes, so the Emishi were also represented by different tribes. The Emishi in northeastern Honshu were semi-nomadic and relied on their horses in warfare. Their livlihood was based on hunting and gathering as well as the cultivation of grains such as millet, barley, wheat and beans. They developed a unique style of warfare that relied on horse archery and hit and run tactics that proved very effective against the slower contemporary Japanese imperial army that relied on mostly heavily armed foot soldiers.
The first major attempts to subjugate the Emishi by the emperors of Japan, particularly Emperor Kammu in the late 8th century were largely unsuccessful. The imperial armies modelled after the mainland Chinese were no match for the guerilla tactics of the Emishi.
During the 9th century the emperors began to rely on the powerful regional clans - introducing the title of Shogun and relying on hereditary warriors who became the Samurai. Ironically, with the development of horse archery and the adoption of Emishi tactics by the early Japanese warrior class, the Emishi were defeated and either submitted themselves to imperial authority or migrated further north, some to Hokkaido. By the mid-9th century most of their land in Honshu was conquered and they ceased to be independent. However, they continued to be influential in local politics as powerful Emishi families who submitted themselves to Japanese rule eventually created feudal domains in the north that became semi-autonomous. In the two centuries following the conquest a few of these became regional states that came into conflict with the central government.
Recent scholarship has created a much more complicated portrait of this people. By and large, they are seen as indigenous to Japan and not simply as ancestors to the Ainu, but descendants of the Jomon. Even though historically they emerge as serious challengers to the nascent Japanese state they had inherited a rich and separate tradition that went back several milleniums before the Japanese speakers came to the islands of Japan. Furthermore, some related people have now been identified as having been some of the first Americans to have crossed the Bering Sea as remains of one individual known as "Kennewick Man" found in 1996 in Washington State attest.
In the study of Jomon skeletal remains dating from thousands of years ago, a direct connection with the modern Ainu was confirmed, showing a definite linkage between the two groups. This linkage however, shows that the Jomon people were very different from modern Japanese and other modern East Asians. The physical appearance of a number of the Ainu who were first encountered by the Europeans in the 19th Century were similar to Caucasians, and thus caused quite a stir among contemporary academics, and has spurred debate about their origins. It is thus surmised that the Jomon also were physically unlike that of other East Asians. This said, physical anthropologists have found that diachronically, and geographically, the skeletal structure of the Jomon population changed over time from southwest to northeast, paralleling the actual migration of Japanese speakers historically, so that more Jomon traits are preserved in the north.
Soon after the Second World War mummmies were discovered in Hiraizumi (the capital city of the Northern Fujiwara) who were thought to be related to the Emishi who had originally submitted to Yamato rule, and hence were thought to have been related to the Ainu. However, after further research on the mummies it was found that the rulers of Hiraizumi were like other Japanese of the time, and certainly not related to ethnic Ainu. This was seen as evidence that the Emishi were not related to the Ainu. This had the effect of popularizing the idea that the Emishi were like other contemporary ethnic Japanese who lived in northeast Japan, outside of Yamato rule.
However, the so-called Emishi rulers of Hiraizumi were not actually direct descendants of that ethnic group. It was customary for local rulers to take on local titles that would suggest a direct ancestry. There is some doubt that the Northern Fujiwara had some Emishi blood in them, and for the most part they were part of the Japanese aristocracy.
If the Northern Fujiwara (not related to the Fujiwara of Kyoto) were related to Kyoto aristocracts the whole idea of intermarriage with local Emishi may not have been possible. To get an idea of the aversion, many Kyoto aristocrats at this time would think it impossible to marry someone from the warrior class no matter how powerful. How much more so an Emishi who was seen as a "foreigner?" This just shows that among historians the bloodline of the Northern Fujiwara is not at all clear.
It is not known how much the Emishi population changed as Japanese settlers and frontiersmen began to live in their territories even before the conquest. The Japanese established trading relations with them where horses were imported and iron tools and weapons exported. To complicate matters, some ethnic Japanese allied themselves with the Emishi in their wars against the Yamato court. This is one of the main reasons modern Japanese historians have theorized that the Emishi on the whole were similar to other contemporary Japanese. However, this does not account for the different language the Emishi spoke, and for the differences mentioned here.
The strongest argument for the theory that the Emishi were ancestors of the Ainu comes from historical documents. One of the best sources of information comes from outside Japan, from contemporary T'ang and Sung histories as these describe dealings with Japan. For example, there is a record of the arrival of the Japanese foreign minister in AD 659 where conversation is recorded with the T'ang Emperor. In this conversation we have perhaps the most accurate picture of the Emishi recorded for that time period.
Two Emishi, a man and woman, from contemporary Tohoku (northeastern Japan) known as "Michi-no-oku" by the Japanese accompanied the minister Sakaibe no Muraji to T'ang China. The emperor is delighted with the two Emishi because of their "strange" physical appearance! This is an emperor who is most likely the illustrious Tai Tsung who was familiar with many ethnic groups throughout his Empire, from Uighurs and Turks to Middle eastern traders. However, he probably did not have any contact with Europeans. The Japanese envoy for his part describes the contemporary relationship with the Emishi as allies (gentle Emishi), enemies (rough Emishi), and distant Tsugaru Emishi (located in present-day northern Aomori, southern Hokkaido). All Chinese documents refer to them as having a separate state north of Japan and calls them "mojin", literally, hairy people.
It is also clear that the ancestors of the Ainu speakers left many Ainu place names in the main island of Honshu, indicating that an Ainoid population had lived in the area before the Yamato expansion. Though still inconclusive, Satsumon culture, seen by all scholars as definitely ancestral to Ainu culture in Hokkaido, may have gotten its start from migrants from northeastern Honshu coinciding with Yamato attacks in the region.
It seems that the Emishi were remnant Jomon people who resisted the incursions of the Japanese, and as they were conquered in northern Japan, many submitted themselves to Japanese rule and became assimilated into the culture, but some independent tribes still existed side by side with those who became "Japanized." Those who continued to resist entry into the poitical and cultural relationships of the Japanese state became known as "Ezo" who continued to create a vigorous society surrounding the Tsugaru strait and in Hokkaido. As Japan itself broke up into separate feudal states after the Heian period, the Ezo were able to conquer most of Hokkaido against the people of the Okhosk culture to form the beginnings of Ainu society there.
At a time when the Ainu of Hakkaido have been more vocal in breaking the majority's silence in regard to the ethnic diversity of Japan, their history is still being denied them through the back door--a history that was not confined to Hokkaido but included the main island of Honshu.
(edited 7/20/2004 Kenjiro)