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144-514: The brainchild of an army reserve lieutenant, Nobu Shirase , the expedition was privately funded. It left Japan in November 1910, and after its first season's failure was forced to spend the winter of 1911 in Australia. In its second Antarctic season, 1911–12, it made no major scientific or geographical discoveries, but could claim some significant achievements. These included the first landing on

288-553: A 15.7% lower enrollment into college from high school. Due to this noticeable and growing gap, the Japanese government has been lobbied by activists to research the Ainu's standard of living nationwide. The Japanese government will provide ¥ 7 million ( US$ 63,000), beginning in 2015, to conduct surveys nationwide on this matter. The existence of the Ainu has challenged the notion of ethnic homogeneity in post-WWII Japan . After

432-404: A 1591 Latin manuscript titled De yezorum insula . This document gives the native name of Hokkaido as Aino moxori , or Ainu mosir , 'land of the Ainu'. The terms Aino and Ainu did not come into common use as ethnonyms until the early 19th century. The ethnonym first appeared in an 1819 German encyclopedia article. Neither European nor Japanese sources conceived of the Ainu as

576-557: A North Pole expedition were halted when two Americans, Frederick Cook and Robert Peary , each claimed independently to have reached the Pole. Although Cook's claim was quickly discounted, Peary's was widely accepted at the time. Having thus been forestalled, Shirase switched his attention instead to the South Pole . He would have to move quickly, as other expeditions, notably those of Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen , were in

720-464: A beggar's life", Shirase later wrote. After a successful plea for further funding, Nomura and Tada returned to Sydney in October with money, provisions and a fresh supply of dogs. They also brought two new expedition members, a scientist and a film cameraman, replacing original members who had withdrawn on sickness grounds. Shirase now revised his expedition's goals; Scott and Amundsen – of whom there

864-493: A boundless plain of white ice stretching into infinity, meeting the blue sky and continuing beyond. Though we could sense the many secrets hidden in its depths, there was not a shadow to be seen. The sun was reflected off the white snow with dazzling brightness, and we were all struck to the very heart by a feeling of awe." — Nobu Shirase [1913], Nankyokuki (2007), p. 83. The unloading completed, Kainan Maru departed for King Edward VII Land , leaving seven men on

1008-429: A brief ceremony and salute to the emperor, the party began its journey back to base. Weather conditions were now much more favourable, and they covered the distance in three days, possibly the fastest polar sledge journey at that time. Arriving at their base camp on 31 January, they recovered from their exertions by sleeping for 36 hours. After leaving Shirase's party, Kainan Maru sailed eastwards, arriving off

1152-533: A brief visit to the Japanese ship. Communication proved difficult, although the Norwegians were received hospitably, with wine and cigars. Shirase had apparently gone to bed, and did not meet with these visitors. On 19 January, sea ice conditions having shifted, Kainan Maru was brought up close to the Barrier edge and the process of landing the shore party began. This proved difficult and dangerous, involving

1296-482: A commercial venture into fur farming. This was only partially successful, and by 1924 he was back in mainland Japan, eking out a living from the land. His former exploits were not quite forgotten; in 1927 he was invited to meet Amundsen, who was visiting Tokyo to publicise details of his forthcoming planned flight over the North Pole. The two had not previously met; when their two expeditions had briefly coincided in

1440-619: A distinct ethnic group until the late 1700s. The Ainu were also called the Kuye by their neighbors. The Qing dynasty called Sakhalin Kuyedao ("island of the Ainu"). The island was also called Kuye Fiyaka . The word Kuye used by the Qing is "most probably related to kuyi , the name given to the Sakhalin Ainu by their Nivkh and Nanai neighbors." When the Ainu migrated onto

1584-611: A double layer hull sheathed with iron plating, and extra protection at the stem. She was rigged as a barquentine , and her sailing power was augmented by a small (18 horsepower) auxiliary engine. At the suggestion of Admiral Togo , she was renamed Kainan Maru , meaning "Opener-up of the South", or "Southern Pioneer". The ship was placed under the command of an experienced seafarer, Captain Naokichi Nomura. Shirase set 28 November 1910 as his departure date, and announced details of

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1728-508: A few were present to see her go – "the most dismal sort of send-off ever accorded to any polar explorer", according to Shirase. After cargo trimming in Tateyama , the ship finally left Japan on 1 December, carrying 27 men and 28 Siberian dogs, leaving behind a debt that would increase considerably during the course of the expedition, and would burden Shirase for many years. In generally poor weather, Kainan Maru struggled southwards, crossing

1872-582: A fur tribute system, just as had the Yuan and Ming dynasties. Residents who were required to pay tributes had to register according to their hala ( ᡥᠠᠯᠠ , the clan of the father's side) and gashan ( ᡤᠠᡧᠠᠨ , village), and a designated chief of each unit was put in charge of district security as well as the annual collection and delivery of fur. By 1750, fifty-six hala and 2,398 households were registered as fur tribute payers, – those who paid with fur were rewarded mainly with Nishiki silk brocade , and every year

2016-517: A group composed mostly of the Ulchi , Nanai , and Oroch peoples of the Amur River, commonly interacted with the Ainu people independent of the Japanese government, especially in the northern part of Hokkaido. In addition to their trading ventures, Santan traders sometimes kidnapped or purchased Ainu women from Rishiri to become their wives. This further escalated Japan's presence in the area, as

2160-725: A hundred thousand years before the Children of the Sun came." The historical Ainu economy was based on farming as well as hunting, fishing, and gathering. The general consensus among historians is to associate the Ainu with the Satsumon culture , which was located in an area stretching from northern Honshu to Hokkaido. Linguists such as Juha Janhunen and Alexander Vovin argue for a Satsumon origin of Ainu dialects, with deeper links to cultures centered in Central or Northern Honshu . This

2304-435: A journey of nearly 50,000 km (31,000 miles), she entered Tokyo harbour to a tumultuous reception. Despite the lack of experience and the unsuitability of the ship, the expedition had demonstrated conclusively that the Japanese could mount an Antarctic expedition. There were no fatalities or serious injuries among the personnel – all returned safely home. Hamre praises Nomura's seamanship as worthy of comparison with that of

2448-553: A liaison between the expedition and local authorities and businesses, and with his advocacy the Australians' attitude to their visitors improved. In Parsley Bay, when the early suspicions had evaporated, large numbers of visitors came to see the camp and have their photographs taken with Shirase and the other team members. A member of the expedition described the camp in idyllic terms: "surrounded by dense overgrown old trees... guava, bottlebrush, evergreen oak and pine...Standing on

2592-427: A parliamentary question on May 20, 2008, by stating, It is a historical fact that the Ainu are the earlier arrivers of the northern Japanese archipelago , in particular Hokkaido. The Japanese government acknowledges the Ainu to be an ethnic minority as it has maintained a unique cultural identity and has a unique language and religion. However, as there is no established international definition of "indigenous people",

2736-403: A passage: "The crunch and crack every time we smashed through a floe were not at all pleasant." On 12 March, when the ship's position was 74°16'S, 172°7'E, it was halted by heavy ice. They could go no further south, and were in danger of being trapped, to face a wintering in the ice that it was unlikely the ship would survive. In difficult and dangerous conditions, Nomura's skilful seamanship turned

2880-623: A polar expedition, the first such by any non-European country. It provided only the fourth instance of travel beyond the 80°S mark, and had surpassed all previous speed records for sledge journeys. Its landing on the King Edward's Land coast was an achievement that had previously defeated both Scott and Ernest Shackleton , and Kainan Maru had explored the Antarctic coast further east than any ship up to that time. Shirase and his companions were treated as heroes on their return, and given

3024-548: A reference to their hairiness and savagery. The term is considered an insult by contemporary Ainu. The Ainu are considered the native people of Hokkaido , southern Sakhalin , and the Kurils . Ainu toponyms support the historical view that the Ainu people lived in several places throughout northern Honshu. There is also a possibility that Ainu speakers lived throughout the Amur region as suggested by various Ainu loanwords found in

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3168-576: A relatively isolated group of people to having their land, language, religion, and customs assimilated into those of the Japanese. Their land was distributed to the Yamato Japanese settlers to create and maintain farms in the model of Western industrial agriculture. It was known as "colonization" (拓殖) at the time, but later by the euphemism , "opening up undeveloped land" ( 開拓  [ jp ] ). Additionally, factories like flour mills and beer breweries, along with mining practices, resulted in

3312-537: A second winter, during which several more succumbed to privation and scurvy. They were finally relieved in August 1895. Shirase blamed the disaster on poor organisation and leadership, but nevertheless found the experience of Arctic invaluable for his future plans. For the time being he remained in the army, and fought in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. In 1909, Shirase's long-standing ambitions to lead

3456-475: A sign recording their presence, and after some further exploration of the area and the collection of rock samples, returned to the ship. Kainan Maru then sailed further east, in an attempt to pass the most easterly longitude, 152°W, recorded by Scott's Discovery . They reached 151°20'W, thus exceeding Scott's mark by a distance calculated as 17.3 km (11 miles). On the way back to the Bay of Whales they paused at

3600-626: A sledge journey – the "Dash Patrol" – across an uncharted section of the Barrier, reaching a latitude of 80°5'S. Another party landed on King Edward VII Land – the first ever to do so from the sea – and explored there, also collecting geological samples. The expedition arrived back in Japan in June 1912 to general acclaim, with no loss of life, no serious injuries and all in good health. Although it had made no major geographical or scientific discoveries, it had proved Japan's ability to organise and execute

3744-456: A small bay which they named Okuma Bay in honour of the expedition's patron. On 1 February they arrived at the Bay of Whales, but ice conditions prevented them for two days from beginning the embarkation of Shirase's party. Deteriorating weather made this operation a fraught and hurried process, and resulted in much being left behind including, much to the men's distress, all the dogs. Shirase remembered these abandoned dogs in his daily prayers for

3888-438: A small inlet in the Barrier edge, which appeared to offer a suitable landing place. An advance party ascended the Barrier to examine the surface and judge its suitability for travel. They reported that the terrain was full of crevasses , some thinly covered with ice and snow, and that surface travel for any distance would be well-nigh impossible. After naming the inlet Kainan Bay , they sailed away. Shirase now decided to divide

4032-644: A society of hunter-gatherers, surviving mainly by hunting and fishing. They followed a religion that was based on natural phenomena. After the Mongols conquered the Jin dynasty (1234) , Karafuto (Sakhalin)-Ainu suffered raids by the Nivkh and Udege peoples . In response, the Mongols established an administration post at Nurgan (present-day Tyr, Russia ) at the junction of the Amur and Amgun rivers in 1263, and forced

4176-550: A source of photographs of the Japanese and Ainu close to the missions. The discrimination and negative stereotypes assigned to the Ainu have manifested in lower levels of education, income, and participation in the economy as compared to their ethnically Japanese counterparts. The Ainu community in Hokkaido in 1993 received welfare payments at a 2.3 times higher rate than that of Hokkaido as a whole. They also had an 8.9% lower enrollment rate from junior high school to high school and

4320-475: A south-easterly route. Clad in inadequate clothing and footwear, and with no experience of polar travel, the Dash Patrol set out at noon on 20 January. They faced severe weather, and were halted after only 13 kilometres (8.1 mi). The next day they were confined by the weather to their tents. Resuming on 22 January, over the next few days they battled on against strong winds and blizzards, while

4464-426: A southern latitude of 80°5′, and made the first landing on the coast of King Edward VII Land . Shirase had harboured polar ambitions since boyhood. By way of preparation, during his military service he participated in an expedition to the northern Kuril Islands . This venture was poorly organised and ended badly, but nonetheless provided him with useful training for future polar exploration. His longstanding intention

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4608-607: A triumphal parade through the streets of Tokyo. Shirase was invited to give a personal account of his experiences to the Imperial family. This, however, proved to be a short-lived period of fame; six weeks after the expedition's return the Emperor Meiji died; the national interest in Antarctica was diverted, and then faded away. Shirase's memoir, published in 1913, has a lukewarm reception, while beyond Japan's boundaries

4752-513: A wealthy resident in the exclusive suburb of Vaucluse , who permitted them to set up a camp in a corner of his land at Parsley Bay. Meanwhile, Kainan Maru was taken to the Jubilee Dock, to await repairs and refitting. Nomura and another expedition member, Keiichi Tada, went back to Japan to report on the situation, and to seek further funding for a renewed attempt in the following season. The expedition found another influential supporter, in

4896-532: Is called Shirase . In 1981 Shirase's hometown, Nikaho , erected a statue in his memory, and in 1990 opened a museum dedicated to his expedition. In 2011, to mark the expedition's centenary, the Shirase Expedition Supporters Association published a full English translation, by Lara Dagnell and Hilary Shibata, of the original expedition report ( Nankyokuki Tanken ) from 1913. Several Antarctic landmarks reference Shirase or

5040-678: Is in part supported by Ainu-derived loanwords observed in Eastern Old Japanese and the probable distant link between the Ainu and the Emishi . It has also been noted that the Okhotsk culture played a role in the formation of the later Ainu culture. The origin of the Okhotsk culture itself is subject to research. While Okhotsk remains display affinity to the modern Nivkh people of northern Sakhalin, both also display affinities to

5184-946: The History of Yuan , a group of people known as the Guwei ( 骨嵬 ; Gǔwéi , the phonetic approximation of the Nivkh name for Ainu) from Sakhalin invaded and fought with the Jilimi (Nivkh people) every year. On November 30, 1264, the Mongols attacked the Ainu. The Karafuto-Ainu resisted the Mongol invasions but by 1308 had been subdued. They paid tribute to the Mongol Yuan dynasty at posts in Wuliehe, Nanghar, and Boluohe. The Chinese Ming dynasty (1368–1644) placed Sakhalin under its "system for subjugated peoples" ( ximin tizhi ). From 1409 to 1411

5328-609: The Ainu language was forbidden. In 1966, there were about 300 native Ainu speakers; in 2008, there were about 100. In recent years, there have been increasing efforts to revitalize the Ainu language. This people's most widely known ethnonym , Ainu ( Ainu : アィヌ ; Japanese : アイヌ ; Russian: Айны ), means 'human' in the Ainu language , particularly as opposed to kamui , 'divine beings'. Ainu also identify themselves as Utari ('comrades' or 'people'). Official documents use both names. The name first appeared as Aino in

5472-506: The Australian Museum now holds the samurai sword presented to Edgeworth David by Shirase just before the expedition began its second voyage to Antarctica in November 1911. The sword was given to the museum in 1979 by David's daughter, and has become a particular point of interest to many Japanese visitors. In 1981, JARE named its new icebreaker vessel Shirase . This remained in service for 28 years; its replacement, from 2009,

5616-562: The Boshin civil war of 1868–69, the shogunate was replaced by the Meiji dynasty and the slow process of modernisation began. Although the concept of geographical exploration was alien in Japan, from an early age Shirase developed a passionate and enduring interest in polar exploration, inspired by the stories he received of the European explorers such as Sir John Franklin and the search for

5760-597: The Jōmon peoples of Japan, pointing to a possible heterogeneous makeup of Okhotsk society. Satsumon pottery has been found among Okhotsk sites, pointing to a complex network of contacts in the wider area around the Sea of Okhotsk. The emergence of the Ainu culture is henceforth primarily attributed to the Satsumon culture, which later received some contributions from the Okhotsk culture via cultural contacts in northern Hokkaido after

5904-625: The Northwest Passage . After leaving school in 1879 he began preparation for the priesthood, but this conflicted with his deeper desire to become an explorer. So he left the temple and began training for a career in the Imperial army . In 1881 he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Transport Corps. To prepare himself for future rigours, he adopted a deliberately spartan lifestyle, avoiding drink and tobacco, and forsaking

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6048-519: The South Magnetic Pole was causing violent disturbances to the compass needle. The consequences of their late departure were now becoming evident; with the onset of winter, the sea was beginning to freeze around them. The ice "took the form of small lotus leaves, which ... gradually spread out over the sea to cover the whole surface". The small leaves turned to large disks, four metres across, through which Kainan Maru attempted to drive

6192-867: The Tōhoku region of Honshu, as well as the land surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk , such as Sakhalin , the Kuril Islands , the Kamchatka Peninsula , and the Khabarovsk Krai . They have occupied these areas, known to them as "Ainu Mosir" ( Ainu : アイヌモシㇼ , lit.   'the land of the Ainu';), since before the arrival of the modern Yamato and Russians . These regions are often referred to as Ezochi ( 蝦夷地 ) and its inhabitants as Emishi ( 蝦夷 ) in historical Japanese texts. Along with

6336-503: The Uilta and Ulch languages. Ainu shares a number of cognates with Old Korean , that appear to be unlikely to be the result of a Japonic intermediary. The ancestors of the Ainu, who were referred to as Emishi, came under Japanese subjugation starting in the 9th century and were pushed to the northern islands. Following the Zoku-Jōmon period , which began in the 5th century BC, and

6480-464: The indigenous Japanese hunter-gatherers who lived in Japan during the Jōmon period ( c. 14,000 to 300 BCE). The exact origins of the early Ainu remain unclear, but it is generally agreed to be linked to the Satsumon culture of the Epi-Jōmon period , with later influences from the nearby Okhotsk culture . The Ainu culture may be better described as an "Ainu cultural complex", taking into account

6624-430: The 1899 Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act . This law and its associated policies were designed to fully integrate the Ainu into Japanese society while erasing Ainu culture and identity. The Ainu's position as manual laborers and their forced integration into larger Japanese society have led to discriminatory practices by the Japanese government that can still be felt today. Intermarriage between Japanese and Ainu

6768-629: The 18th century, there were 80,000 Ainu, but by 1868, there were only about 15,000 Ainu in Hokkaido, 2,000 in Sakhalin, and around 100 in the Kuril Islands. Despite their growing influence in the area in the early 19th century as a result of these policies, the Tokugawa shogunate was unable to gain a monopoly on Ainu trade with those on the Asian mainland, even by the year 1853. Santan traders,

6912-410: The Ainu as an ethnically distinct group, political figures in Japan continue to define ethnic homogeneity as key to the overall Japanese national identity. For example, then Deputy Prime Minister Tarō Asō notably claimed in 2020, "No other country but this one has lasted for as long as 2,000 years with one language, one ethnic group, and one dynasty ." The Ainu are regarded as having descended from

7056-661: The Ainu') or "Kuye Fiyaka" ( ᡴᡠᠶᡝ ᡶᡳᠶᠠᡴᠠ ). The Manchus called it "Sagaliyan ula angga hada" (Island at the Mouth of the Black River). The Qing first asserted influence over Sakhalin after the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk , which defined the Stanovoy Mountains as the border between the Qing and the Russian Empires . In the following year the Qing sent forces to the Amur estuary and demanded that

7200-459: The Ainu. The Emishi may, however, have also included non-Ainu groups, which can either be associated with groups distantly related to the Ainu (Ainu-like groups) but forming their own ethnicity, or early Japonic-speakers outside the influence of the Yamato court. The Emishi display clear material culture links to the Ainu of Hokkaido. Based on Ainu-like toponyms throughout Tohoku, it is argued that

7344-576: The Antarctic again. He had by this time modified his plans; he recognised that the conquest of the Pole was beyond his reach – Scott and Amundsen were too far ahead of him – and settled for more modest objectives in the fields of science and general exploration. They arrived at the Great Ice Barrier in the Ross Sea in January 1912, where they collected meteorological data while Shirase led

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7488-667: The Antarctic revived in 1956, when the first Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE) sailed with the research ship Soya to East Ongul Island and established the Showa research station . JARE named numerous features in the area, including the Shirase Glacier . In 1961 the New Zealand Antarctic Place-Names Committee (NZ-APC) gave the name Shirase Coast to a part of the coastline of King Edward VII Land. In Sydney, Australia,

7632-719: The Arctic. In 1893, by way of preparation, Shirase joined an exploration party to the Chishima Islands , led by Meiji Gohji. This expedition turned into a disaster, from which Shirase emerged in 1895 as one of few survivors, most of the party having succumbed to privation or scurvy . The harshness of these experiences did not diminish his Arctic ambitions. He dreamt of conquering the North Pole until, in 1909, he learned that two American rivals, Frederick Cook and Robert Peary , were each claiming, separately, to have reached

7776-516: The Barrier edge, they turned east to look for a likely landing place in the vicinity of King Edward VII Land. As they sailed beyond the Bay of Whales , the ship was attacked by a school of killer whales , who soon withdrew when they realised the nature of their attempted prey, but not before they had caused considerable alarm to the deeply religious Ainus, who prayed fervently throughout the attack. On 16 January, at 78°17'S, 161°50'W, Kainan Maru came upon

7920-476: The Barrier. Two would remain at a base camp to carry out meteorological observations, while a five-man Dash Patrol marched southward; these five men were Shirase, Takeda, Miisho and the two Ainu dog drivers. The patrol's aim was to travel as far south as possible in the limited time available, over unexplored terrain. Hence, rather than heading due south, which would have placed them in Amundsen's tracks, they chose

8064-650: The Bay of Whales, in January 1912, Amundsen had been away on his polar journey. As a further sign of increasing recognition, in 1933, when the Japanese Polar Research Institute was founded, Shirase became its honorary president. In that same year, the first English language account of the Japanese Antarctic Expedition was published in the Geographical Journal . Two years later, in 1935, Shirase

8208-449: The Emishi, like the Ainu, descended from the Epi-Jōmon tribes and initially spoke Ainu-related languages. The term "Emishi" in the Nara period (710–794) referred to people who lived in the Tohoku region and whose lifestyle and culture differed markedly from that of the Yamato people ; it was originally a highly cultural and political concept with no racial distinction. From the mid-Heian period onward, Emishi who did not fall under

8352-448: The Equator on 29 December, and arriving in Wellington, storm-battered and unannounced, on 7 February 1911. Many of the dogs had died en route. The two contemporaneous South Pole expeditions, led respectively by Scott and Amundsen , were by this time well established in their Antarctic bases. Initial reactions in Wellington to this unexpected late arrival were of amusement and suspicion. Many New Zealanders found it hard to accept that this

8496-563: The Japanese government and mainstream population regarded them as dirty and primitive barbarians. The majority of Ainu were forced to be petty laborers during the Meiji Restoration , which saw the introduction of Hokkaido into the Japanese Empire and the privatization of traditional Ainu lands. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the Japanese government denied the rights of the Ainu to their traditional cultural practices, such as hunting, gathering, and speaking their native language. The legal denial of Ainu cultural practices mostly stemmed from

8640-408: The Japanese government passed an act labeling the Ainu as "former aborigines", with the idea that they would assimilate . This resulted in the Japanese government taking the land where the Ainu people lived and placing it under Japanese control. Also at this time, the Ainu were granted automatic Japanese citizenship, effectively denying them the status of an indigenous group. The Ainu went from being

8784-441: The Jomon and Epi-Jomon periods, which were anterior to the Ainu cultural period. This implies that the Okhotsk culture contributed to the formation of the Ainu culture. While the view that the ancient Emishi were identical to the Ainu has been largely disproven by current research, the exact relationship between them is still under dispute. It is agreed that at least some Emishi spoke Ainu languages and were ethnically related to

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8928-412: The King Edward VII Land coast in Biscoe Bay on 23 January at 76°56'S, 155°55'W. Two land parties disembarked to explore what they thought was virgin territory, unaware that a team from Amundsen's expedition, led by Prestrud, had entered the land from the Barrier the previous year. The Japanese were, however, the first to make a successful landing on King Edward VII Land from the sea. The two groups crossed

9072-499: The Matsumae, took control of Sakhalin in 1807. Mogami's interest in the Sakhalin trade intensified when he learned that Yaenkoroaino, the above-mentioned elder from Nayoro, possessed a memorandum written in Manchurian, which stated that the Ainu elder was an official of the Qing state. Later surveys on Sakhalin by shogunal officials such as Takahashi Jidayú and Nakamura Koichiró only confirmed earlier observations: Sakhalin and Sóya Ainu traded foreign goods at trading posts, and because of

9216-667: The Ming established an outpost called the Nurgan Regional Military Commission near the ruins of Tyr on the Siberian mainland, which continued operating until the mid-1430s. There is some evidence that the Ming eunuch Admiral Yishiha reached Sakhalin in 1413 during one of his expeditions to the lower Amur, and granted Ming titles to a local chieftain. The Ming recruited headmen from Sakhalin for administrative posts such as commander ( 指揮使 ; zhǐhuīshǐ ), assistant commander ( 指揮僉事 ; zhǐhuī qiānshì ), and "official charged with subjugation" ( 衛鎮撫 ; wèizhènfǔ ). In 1431, one such assistant commander, Alige, brought marten pelts as tribute to

9360-633: The Ming took tribute from Sakhalin and the Amur River region. Due to Ming rule in Manchuria, Chinese cultural and religious influence such as Chinese New Year , the " Chinese god ", and motifs such as dragons, spirals, and scrolls spread among the Ainu, Nivkh, and Amur natives such as the Udeghes , Ulchis , and Nanais . These groups also adopted material goods and practices such as agriculture, husbandry, heating, iron cooking pots, silk, and cotton. The Manchu Qing dynasty , which came to power in China in 1644, called Sakhalin "Kuyedao" ( Chinese : 库页岛 ; pinyin : Kùyè dǎo ; lit. 'island of

9504-440: The New Zealand public; the Lyttelton Times sympathetically offered "the last Godspeed to the plucky little band of explorers from the Far East". The Christchurch Press thought they were "running it fine, even with their determination and daring". Leaving Wellington on 11 February, Kainan Maru soon ran into stormy seas, with waves among the biggest that Captain Namora had ever encountered. By 17 February, in calmer weather,

9648-542: The Pole in the 1911–12 season. But Shirase had departed too late; he did not reach Antarctica until March 1911, when the seas had frozen and he was unable to approach land. He was forced to retreat to Sydney, Australia, and winter there. In Australia the expedition received much help and encouragement from the distinguished geologist and Antarctic explorer, Edgeworth David , to whom, as a token of appreciation, Shirase presented his samurai sword. In November 1911, his expedition refreshed and replenished, Shirase set out for

9792-413: The Pole. Undaunted, Shirase then changed his plans; he would go south instead, and aim for the still unconquered South Pole . Shirase knew that other nations were developing similar plans, and that if he were to have any hope of success he would have to move quickly. Early in 1910 he presented an outline of his plans to the government, declaring that, within three years, he would raise the Japanese flag at

9936-402: The Qing dynasty when the Qing exercised jurisdiction in Sakhalin and took tribute from them. In 1635, Matsumae Kinhiro , the second daimyō of Matsumae Domain in Hokkaidō, sent Satō Kamoemon and Kakizaki Kuroudo on an expedition to Sakhalin. One of the Matsumae explorers, Kodō Shōzaemon, stayed in the island in the winter of 1636 and sailed along the east coast to Taraika (now Poronaysk ) in

10080-418: The Qing office. The Ainu also sold the silk uniforms ( mangpao , bufu , and chaofu ) given to them by the Qing, which made up the majority of what the Japanese knew as nishiki and jittoku . As dynastic uniforms, the silk was of considerably higher quality than that traded at Nagasaki , and enhanced Matsumae prestige as exotic items. Eventually the Tokugawa government, realizing that they could not depend on

10224-450: The Qing sent officials directly to these regions every year to collect tribute and to present awards. By the 1730s, the Qing had appointed senior figures among the indigenous communities as "clan chief" ( hala-i-da ) or "village chief" ( gasan-da or mokun-da ). In 1732, 6 hala , 18 gasban , and 148 households were registered as tribute bearers in Sakhalin. Manchu officials gave tribute missions rice, salt, other necessities, and gifts during

10368-450: The Satsumon culture expanded northwards and into Sakhalin. This view has been corroborated by later analyses. Archaeologists have considered that bear worship, which is a religious practice widely observed among the northern Eurasian ethnic groups (including the Ainu, Finns, Nivkh, and Sami), was also shared by the Okhotsk people. On the other hand, no traces of such a religious practice have ever been discovered from archaeological sites of

10512-536: The South Pole. He added that his expedition would also advance the cause of science: "The powers of the world ridicule the Empire of Japan, saying we Japanese are barbarians who are strong and brave in warfare, but cowardly when it comes to the realm of science. For the sake of bushido (honour) we must correct this regrettable situation". The government's response was lukewarm; it agreed a financial contribution and

10656-604: The Tokugawa shogunate believed a monopoly on the Santan trade would better protect the Ainu people. In 1869, the imperial government established the Hokkaidō Development Commission as part of the Meiji Restoration . Researcher Katarina Sjöberg quotes Baba 's 1890 account of the Japanese government's reasoning: ... The development of Japan's large northern island had several objectives: First, it

10800-629: The Wuliehe post. In 1437, four other assistant commanders (Zhaluha, Sanchiha, Tuolingha, and Alingge) also presented tribute. According to the Ming Veritable Records , these posts, like the position of headman, were hereditary and passed down the patrilineal line. During these tributary missions, the headmen would bring their sons, who later inherited their titles. In return for tribute, the Ming awarded them with silk uniforms. Nivkh women in Sakhalin married Han Chinese Ming officials when

10944-433: The Yamato and Ryukyu ethnic groups, the Ainu people are one of the primary historic ethnic groups of Japan . Official estimates place the total Ainu population in Japan at 25,000. Unofficial estimates place the total population at 200,000 or higher, as the near-total assimilation of the Ainu into Japanese society has resulted in many individuals of Ainu descent having no knowledge of their ancestry. The Ainu are one of

11088-418: The absence of a proper scientific team, Shirase had to scale down his scientific programme; he would concentrate on the conquest of the Pole. Among the personnel selected were two Ainu people from the far northern Japanese islands, chosen for their skills with dogs and sledges. Dogs would be the prime mode of transport in the Antarctic; Shirase's initial preference for Manchurian ponies was impractical, since

11232-412: The coast of King Edward VII Land , the fastest recorded sledging journey, and the most easterly point along the Antarctic coast, to that date, reached by a ship. It also became only the fourth team to travel beyond the 80°S mark. On their return, Shirase and his team were greeted as heroes, but interest swiftly died, and Shirase was burdened with expedition debts that took years to clear. Outside Japan,

11376-414: The coast than any previous ship; the Dash Patrol sledged faster than anyone before, and became only the fourth team up to that time to travel beyond 80°S. The scientific data brought back by the expedition included important information on the geology of King Edward VII Land, and on ice and weather conditions in the Bay of Whales. On its return, the expedition was given a hero's parade through Tokyo. Shirase

11520-428: The creation of infrastructure such as roads and railway lines during a development period that lasted until 1904. During this time, the Ainu were ordered to cease religious practices such as animal sacrifice and the custom of tattooing. The same act applied to the native Ainu on Sakhalin after its annexation as Karafuto Prefecture . The Ainu have historically suffered from economic and social discrimination, as both

11664-406: The crew captured its first penguin, an item of great curiosity: "It walked upright, looking for all the world like a gentleman in an overcoat". On 26 February the first iceberg was sighted, after which the ship was surrounded by ice of all kinds, from loose brash to huge bergs. On 1 March the sky produced a brilliant aurora . On 6 March the crew sighted distant land, about 65 km (40 miles) to

11808-410: The cutting of an ice path through the steep cliffside to the Barrier summit to enable the transfer of men, dogs, provisions and equipment. While the landing proceeded, Nomura visited Fram and was much impressed by what he saw. The Norwegians were less flattering in their observations of the Japanese expedition, noting in particular the barbaric fashion in which wildlife was captured and killed. "We saw

11952-549: The demise of the multi-ethnic Empire of Japan in 1945, successive governments forged a single Japanese identity by advocating monoculturalism and denying the existence of more than one ethnic group in Japan. Following the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, Hokkaido politicians pressured the government to recognize Ainu rights. Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo answered

12096-541: The dramas surrounding Amundsen and Scott and also because the only available reports were in Japanese, a language little understood outside Japan. In Britain, the Royal Geographical Society 's secretary, John Scott Keltie , was reluctant even to acknowledge the Japanese expedition, and no report of it appeared in the Society's journal for many years. The former RGS president Clements Markham ignored

12240-468: The duration of their mission. Tribute missions occurred during the summer months. During the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735–95), a trade post existed at Delen, upstream of Kiji (Kizi) Lake, according to Rinzo Mamiya . There were 500–600 people at the market during Mamiya's stay there. Local native Sakhalin chiefs had their daughters taken as wives by Manchu officials as sanctioned by

12384-550: The dynasty supplied the chief of each clan and village with official silk clothes ( mangpao , duanpao ), which were the gowns of the mandarin. Those who offered especially large fur tributes were granted the right to create a familial relationship with officials of the Manchu Eight Banners (at the time equivalent to Chinese aristocrats) by marrying an official's adopted daughter. Further, the tribute payers were allowed to engage in trade with officials and merchants at

12528-582: The expedition altogether in his polar exploration history, The Lands of Silence . The first substantial account in English, by Ivar Hamre in The Geographical Journal , did not appear until 1933. Shirase devoted most of the rest of his life to clearing the expedition's debts. He sold his house in Tokyo and moved to the Kuril Islands, where he raised money through the fox-fur business. By 1935

12672-412: The expedition into two parts. One party would land at the Bay of Whales and form a "Dash Patrol" that would make a southern march across the Barrier, with the dogs. Meanwhile, Kainan Maru would take a second party to King Edward VII Land, where it would land and explore. This decided, the ship turned westward towards the Bay of Whales; as they approached, they found to their astonishment that another ship

12816-401: The expedition reached Coulman Island, the turning point of the previous season. The Ross Sea was open, and Kainan Maru proceeded swiftly south, so that on 10 January they had their first sight of the Great Ice Barrier . Appearing first as a faint line on the horizon, as they grew closer it took on, Shirase later wrote, the appearance of "a gigantic white snake at rest". The next day, close to

12960-439: The expedition was either unnoticed or disregarded. Meanwhile, the costs of the expedition had risen considerably as a result of the extra time spent in the south. The government offered no help, and Shirase was faced with responsibility for a large debt. Shirase sold his house to raise funds. For several years, he toured the country giving lectures. In 1921 he returned to the Kuril Islands, hoping to raise further funds through

13104-485: The expedition was generally dismissed, or ignored altogether. Only many years after Shirase's death in obscurity, in 1946, did the Japanese begin to honour him and his achievements. The availability since 2011 of an English translation of Shirase's account has revealed the story of the expedition to a wider audience. The first Japanese expedition is further commemorated in the names of several geographical features in Antarctica. Japan's slow emergence from isolation, following

13248-488: The expedition's achievements were modest, it demonstrated that the Japanese were competent Antarctic travellers, and Shirase returned to Japan in June 1912 to much local acclaim, although the rest of the world showed little interest in his exploits . Even in Japan his fame was short-lived, and Shirase soon found himself faced with a burden of expedition debt that took him most of the rest of his life to redeem. He died in relative poverty in 1946. Long after Shirase's death, there

13392-456: The expedition's ship, acquired with the assistance of Okuna, was too small to carry horses. This ship was the Hoko Maru , a former fishing industry service boat. At 30.48 m (100 ft) in length and registering 204 GRT , she was much smaller than the other Antarctic ships of the era – less than a third the size of Robert Falcon Scott 's Terra Nova . But she was strongly built, with

13536-541: The expedition: the Shirase Coast , the Shirase Glacier , as well as Okuma Bay and Kainan Bay. The ship itself, Kainan Maru , was sold back to its former owners, and resumed its fishery duties; its subsequent history is unknown. In 1979 Mary Edgeworth David donated her father's samurai sword to the Australian Museum, where it is a focus of interest to many Japanese visitors. In 2002, a memorial tablet

13680-484: The fall of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868, kept it largely aloof from the growing international interest in polar exploration that escalated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, the idea intrigued and became a private passion for an army officer, Lieutenant Nobu Shirase , who, inspired by the tales that reached him of European explorers such as Franklin , nursed a desire to emulate his heroes and explore

13824-472: The few days spent in the port, the crew scoured the town for sources that might provide them with information about ice conditions further south. More particularly, they sought up-to-date charts; all they possessed for navigation beyond 60°S was a small-scale photocopy of an admiralty chart marking Ernest Shackleton 's 1907 route in Nimrod . By the time they were ready to depart, they had earned some respect from

13968-519: The few ethnic minorities native to the Japanese islands. They were subject to forced assimilation and colonization by the Japanese since at least the 18th century. Japanese assimilation policies in the 19th century around the Meiji Restoration included forcing Ainu peoples off their land. This, in turn, forced them to give up traditional ways of life such as subsistence hunting and fishing. Ainu people were not allowed to practice their religion and were placed into Japanese-language schools, where speaking

14112-399: The field. Neither the Japanese government nor the learned societies would support his plans, but in 1910, with help from the influential Count Okuma , he was able to raise funds for an Antarctic expedition, which sailed from Tokyo in the converted fishing vessel Kainan Maru , on 29 November 1910. The plan was to arrive in Antarctica early in 1911, establish winter quarters, and march to

14256-552: The government is not in a position to conclude whether the Ainu should be referred as "indigenous people"... On June 6, 2008, the National Diet of Japan passed a non-binding, bipartisan resolution calling upon the government to recognize the Ainu as indigenous people . In 2019, eleven years after this resolution, the Diet finally passed an act recognizing the Ainu as an indigenous people of Japan. Despite this recognition of

14400-402: The great navigators. While often treated as a footnote to the concurrent expeditions of Amundsen and Scott, the Japanese party achieved several notable distinctions. They were the first non-European team to explore in the Antarctic; they made the first landing from the sea on King Edward VII Land, where both Scott (1902) and Shackleton (1908) had failed. Kainan Maru was taken further east along

14544-445: The harbour, where in contrast to the mood at their arrival, they were seen off by throngs of well-wishers, "cheering and waving their white handkerchiefs and black hats in the air". Edgeworth David and other supporters accompanied them for the short distance to Shark Island . Kainan Maru left Sydney in fair weather, and made good progress southwards. After celebrating New Year's Day in the traditional Japanese manner, on 4 January 1912

14688-449: The help he had given: "You were good enough to set the seal of your magnificent reputation upon our bona fides, and to treat us as brothers in the realm of science ... Whatever may be the fate of our enterprise, we will never forget you". Just before their departure, as a further sign of his regard, Shirase presented David with his 17th century samurai sword , a rare gift indeed to a non-Japanese. On 19 November 1911 Kainan Maru sailed from

14832-417: The last outstanding amounts had been finally paid. By then, Shirase had received belated public recognition; in 1933 he became honorary president of the newly formed Japanese Polar Research Institute. He died in relative obscurity in 1946. Japan's interest in Antarctic research revived in 1956, with the first Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition . JARE has remained active since; its current research vessel

14976-663: The mainland, the Chinese described a "strong Kui (or Kuwei, Kuwu, Kuye, Kugi, i.e. Ainu) presence in the area otherwise dominated by the Gilemi or Jilimi (Nivkh and other Amur peoples)." Related names were in widespread use in the region, for example the Kuril Ainu called themselves koushi . The Old Japanese exonym 蝦夷 ( Emi 1 si ) was coined according to the Kojiki-den from 蝦 ("shrimp") + 夷 ("barbarian") as

15120-503: The north. Ownership of the islands had long been in dispute between Japan and Russia, until the Treaty of St. Petersburg , signed in May 1875, awarded the entire chain to Japan which in return gave up its territorial claims on the island of Sakhalin . An opportunity arose in 1893, when Shirase was able to join an expedition led by Naritada Gunji to the northern islands in the chain. The aim

15264-557: The person of Tannatt Edgeworth David , professor of geology at the University of Sydney . David had been to the Antarctic with Shackleton, and was one of the party of three who had discovered the location of the South Magnetic Pole . He accepted the Japanese expedition as genuine – only their late start, he argued, had forced them to seek shelter in Australia. David formed a close friendship with Shirase, with whom he shared his knowledge and experience of Antarctic conditions. He acted as

15408-566: The population. In an early colonization attempt, a Japanese settlement was established at Ōtomari on Sakhalin's southern end in 1679. In the 1780s, the influence of the Japanese Tokugawa Shogunate on the Ainu of southern Sakhalin increased significantly. By the beginning of the 19th century, the Japanese economic zone extended midway up the east coast, to Taraika. With the exception of the Nayoro Ainu located on

15552-517: The possible loan of a ship, but in the event, parliament would not release the funds. The learned societies were uninterested; in their view, Shirase was neither a scholar nor a scientist, and his plans, despite his statements to the contrary, were focused more on adventure than on science. Even the Tokyo Geographical Society refused its backing. Amid public indifference and press derision, Shirase's fortunes turned when he secured

15696-549: The pressure to meet quotas, they fell into debt. These goods, the officials confirmed, originated at Qing posts, where continental traders acquired them during tributary ceremonies. The information contained in these types of reports turned out to be a serious blow to the future of Matsumae's trade monopoly in Ezo. From 1799 to 1806, the Tokugawa shogunate took direct control of southern Hokkaido. Japan proclaimed sovereignty over Sakhalin in 1807, and in 1809 Mamiya Rinzō claimed that it

15840-431: The rapidly-changing Japan, the taste for the "Boys Own" type of adventure story had diminished – he had become, as Stephanie Pain puts it in her New Scientist account, "the wrong sort of hero". A documentary film, constructed from Taizumi's footage, was a commercial success, but this did not benefit Shirase, who had sold the rights to the film company. In the wider world the expedition attracted little notice, eclipsed by

15984-490: The regional variable subgroups of Ainu peoples. While the Ainu can be considered a continuation of the indigenous Jomon culture, they also display links to surrounding cultures, pointing to a larger cultural complex flourishing around the Sea of Okhotsk . Some authors have also described the development of the Ainu culture as the "resistance" of a Jomon society to the emerging Japanese state. One of their Yukar Upopo , or legends, tells that "[T]he Ainu lived in this place

16128-428: The residents, including the Sakhalin Ainu, pay tribute. This was followed by several further visits to the island as part of the Qing effort to map the area. To enforce its influence, the Qing sent soldiers and mandarins across Sakhalin, reaching most parts of the island except the southern tip. The Qing imposed a fur-tribute system on the region's inhabitants. The Qing dynasty ruled these regions by imposing upon them

16272-582: The rest of his life. Kainan Maru left the bay on 4 February. Shirase had intended to make a landing at Coulman Island on the way home, but the weather was poor and this idea was abandoned. Kainan Maru arrived at Wellington on 23 March, where Shirase and a small party left the ship to take a faster steamer home, so they could prepare for the expedition's return. After taking on fresh coal and provisions, Kainan Maru left Wellington on 2 April, and arrived in Yokohama on 19 June. The next day, 20 June 1912, after

16416-406: The rising ground behind the encampment you can gaze up at the hillside or turn to look at the sea below...like a landscape painting come alive". On 22 June, the camp was decorated with flags to mark the coronation of King George V , and visitors were entertained with exhibitions of traditional martial arts. Nevertheless, life during the long winter months was generally frugal and monotonous, "almost

16560-421: The scientific community remained aloof, and the journal of the Tokyo Geographical Society, while reporting on other countries' expeditions, ignored the Japanese venture entirely. Hundreds applied to join the expedition, though none with any polar experience and only one, Terutaro Takeda, with any pretensions to a scientific background – he was an ex-schoolteacher who had also served as a professor's assistant. In

16704-612: The sea ice and climbed the ice wall which surrounded the coast. One party, led by Tomoji Tsuchiya, headed south but were soon stopped by impassable ice. The other party of three (Nishikawa, Watanabe and the cine-cameraman Taizumi), made better progress towards the Alexandra Mountains , which Scott had observed from the sea in 1902, and named after the British queen . The three men reached the foothills of this range but were then halted by an unbridgeable crevasse. They erected

16848-439: The ship northwards, and they were able to escape from the danger. Kainan Maru would now make for Sydney , Australia, to sit out the southern winter and prepare for a second season. Of 28 dogs that had left Japan, only 12 had reached New Zealand alive, and as they set out for Sydney, only one of these was left; poor conditions, combined with tapeworm infection, had proved fatal to the rest. After enduring another very rough passage,

16992-687: The ship reached the Australian port on 1 May. The initial reception in Sydney was cool, even hostile. Tension had grown following Japan's recent military victories in Russia and China, and as in New Zealand, there was considerable suspicion about the party's true purpose. One newspaper demanded their immediate expulsion, and castigated the "supineness" of the government in failing to take immediate action. However, Shirase and his party found support from

17136-599: The south-east – the peaks of the Admiralty Range in Victoria Land . As they drew nearer, expectations of a landing grew; on 8 March Kainan Maru stood off Dorset Point, but ice conditions made it impossible to get nearer to the shore. The ship sailed on, past the Possession Islands and towards Coulman Island , where ice conditions were even worse. To their further discomfort, their proximity to

17280-651: The southeastern or Hidaka region of Hokkaido where ethnic Ainu live, such as in Nibutani ( Niputay ). From the early 1870s, Christian missionary work was conducted among the Ainu. The Anglican Communion missionaries included the Rt. Rev. Philip Fyson , Bishop of Hokkaido , and the Rev. John Batchelor . Batchelor wrote extensively in English about the beliefs and daily life of the Ainu in Yezo (or Ezo ), and his publications are

17424-503: The spring of 1637. The Tokugawa bakufu (feudal government) granted the Matsumae clan exclusive rights to trade with the Ainu in the northern part of the island. Later, the Matsumae began to lease out trading rights to Japanese merchants, and contact between Japanese and Ainu became more extensive. Throughout this period, Ainu groups competed with each other to import goods from the Japanese, and epidemic diseases such as smallpox reduced

17568-594: The submission of the two peoples. In 1264, the Krafuto-Ainu invaded the land of the Nivkh people. They also started an expedition into the Amur region, which was then controlled by the Yuan dynasty , resulting in reprisals by the Mongols who invaded Sakhalin . From the Nivkh perspective, their surrender to the Mongols essentially established a military alliance against the Ainu who had invaded their lands. According to

17712-563: The subsequent Satsumon period , from around the 13th century the Ainu established their own culture by absorbing the surrounding culture while engaging in transit trade between Honshu and north-east Asia. This is called the Ainu Culture period or Nibutani period. Active contact between the Wa-jin (ethnonym for Japanese, also known as Yamato people) and the Ainu of Ezogashima (now known as Hokkaidō ) began in this period. The Ainu formed

17856-564: The support of Count Okuma , the former prime minister, a figure of great prestige and influence. Okuma formed and presided over the Antarctic Expedition Supporters Association, and the public began to contribute, mainly in small amounts from what Shirase described as the "student class". Shirase also obtained important backing from one of Japan's leading newspapers, the Asahi Shimbun . Still

18000-445: The temperature fell to −25 °C (−13 °F). Some of the dogs fell out, lame or frostbitten. By 28 January, they calculated that they had covered 250 kilometres (160 mi), and that their position was 80° 5' S, 156° 37' W. Here, they buried a canister containing the names of the group, and raised the Japanese flag. The surrounding plain was named by Shirase as Yamato Yukihara ("Japanese Snow Plain"). After

18144-470: The timetable he planned to follow. The expedition would reprovision in Wellington , New Zealand, before proceeding to Antarctica, where they would set up winter quarters. Then: "On 15 September, when the winter will have ended, the party will proceed to the Pole", before returning to their base in late February 1912. Realistically, it was far too late in the season for this schedule to be viable, but this

18288-542: The tribute location. By these policies, the Qing dynasty brought political stability to the region and established the basis for commerce and economic development. The Qing dynasty established an office in Ningguta , situated midway along the Mudan River , to handle fur from the lower Amur and Sakhalin. Tribute was supposed to be brought to regional offices, but the lower Amur and Sakhalin were considered too remote, so

18432-582: The warmth of the fireside for a regime of hard exercise. In the course of his military duties, Shirase discussed his ambitions to explore the Arctic with a more senior officer, Kodama Gentarō , who advised him that he should first try exploring the Kuril Islands (known in Japan as the Chishima Islands. These islands form a long archipelago that stretches from Hokkaido in the south to the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula in

18576-480: The west coast in close proximity to China, most Ainu stopped paying tribute to the Qing dynasty. The Matsumae clan was nominally in charge of Sakhalin, but they neither protected nor governed the Ainu there. Instead they extorted the Ainu for Chinese silk, which they sold in Honshu as Matsumae's special product. To obtain Chinese silk, the Ainu fell into debt, owing much fur to the Santan ( Ulch people ), who lived near

18720-469: Was a genuine Antarctic expedition, given the lateness in the season, the inadequate-looking vessel, the unsuitable equipment and food, the apparent lack of charts. While some suspected them as being part of a Japanese plan to expand its influence southwards, the New Zealand Times mocked the crew as "gorillas sailing about in a miserable whaler", a remark that caused Shirase deep offence. During

18864-552: Was able to settle the last of his expedition's outstanding debts. Soon afterwards, the country was embroiled in the Second Sino-Japanese War , and all further interest in polar exploration was shelved. Shirase lived through the war years unobtrusively, in a rented room above a fish shop, and died on 4 September 1946 at the age of 85. Since his death, Shirase's contribution to Antarctic history has been widely recognised, in Japan and elsewhere. Japan's interest in

19008-444: Was actively promoted by the Ainu to lessen the chances of discrimination against their offspring. As a result, many Ainu today are indistinguishable from their Japanese neighbors, but some Ainu-Japanese are interested in traditional Ainu culture. For example, Oki , born as the child of an Ainu father and a Japanese mother, became a musician who plays the traditional Ainu instrument, the tonkori . There are also many small towns in

19152-721: Was also named Shirase . Also in 1981, Shirase's home town of Nikaho erected a statue close to the explorer's birthplace. The Shirase Antarctic Expedition Party Memorial Museum, dedicated to the explorer's memory, opened in Nikaho in 1990. Each year, on 28 January, the museum holds a special festival, the Walk in the Snow, as a tribute to Shirase's unwavering dedication to the cause of Antarctic exploration. Ainu people The Ainu are an indigenous ethnic group who reside in northern Japan and southeastern Russia, including Hokkaido and

19296-415: Was an island. During this period, Ainu women were separated from their husbands and either subjected to rape or forcibly married to Japanese men. Meanwhile, Ainu men were deported to merchant subcontractors for five- and ten-year terms of service. Policies of family separation and assimilation, combined with the impact of smallpox, caused the Ainu population to drop significantly in the early 19th century. In

19440-483: Was as yet no direct news – were, he reckoned, too far ahead of him for his aim of conquering the South Pole to be tenable. Instead, he decided, the Japanese expedition would focus on more modest objectives in science, surveying, and exploring in King Edward VII Land . When the ship's refurbishment was complete and the expedition ready to depart, Shirase and his officers wrote to David thanking him for all

19584-409: Was belated recognition in Japan of his pioneering endeavours. Several geographical features in Antarctica were named after him or his expedition; the revived Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition named its third and fourth ice-breaking vessels Shirase ; his home city of Nikaho erected a statue in 1981, and in 1990 opened a museum dedicated to his memory and the work of his expedition. Nobu Shirase

19728-540: Was born on 13 June 1861, in the Jorenji temple at Konoura (now part of the city of Nikaho in the Akita Prefecture ), where his father served as a Buddhist priest. At the time of Shirase's birth, Japan was still largely a closed society, isolated from the rest of the world and ruled by the Tokugawa shogunate which forbade citizens to leave Japan on pain of death. Shirase was seven years old when, following

19872-435: Was not yet apparent to Shirase or his supporters. On departure day, large crowds gathered to see the expedition off. In his account to The Geographical Journal , Ivar Hamre describes a gala occasion, with flags and bunting flying, while others write of brass bands, speeches and around 50,000 supporters present. The event proved anticlimactic; Kainan Maru was not ready to sail that day. When she left Tokyo 24 hours later, only

20016-493: Was placed in Parsley Bay, to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Japanese expedition's sojourn there. The inscription describes the plaque as "a symbol of everlasting friendship between both countries". Nobu Shirase Nobu Shirase ( 白瀬 矗 , Shirase Nobu ) (20 July 1861 – 4 September 1946) was a Japanese army officer and explorer. He led the first Japanese Antarctic Expedition , 1910–12, which reached

20160-464: Was received by the imperial family, and widely feted. But this fame proved short-lived; six weeks after the triumphal return, the Emperor Meiji died, and public interest in the expedition withered. Shirase found himself burdened with considerable expedition debts, with no government intervention. He had hoped to raise substantial funds from the sale of his expedition account, but found that, in

20304-495: Was seen as a means to defend Japan from a rapidly developing and expansionist Russia . Second ... it offered a solution to the unemployment for the former samurai class ... Finally, development promised to yield the needed natural resources for a growing capitalist economy. As a result of the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875) , the Kuril Islands—along with their Ainu inhabitants—came under Japanese administration. In 1899,

20448-490: Was there. After an initial speculation about pirates, they saw as they drew nearer that the ship was flying the Norwegian flag, and realised that this was Amundsen's ship, Fram . Thick sea ice had formed in the inner part of the bay, so Kainan Maru could not approach the Barrier edge, and had to moor to the ice some distance away. On 17 January, two officers from Fram , Thorvald Nilsen and Kristian Prestrud , paid

20592-479: Was to establish a permanent Japanese colony on the northernmost island of Shumshu . The expedition included a diversion to Alaska, on a covert military mission. Poorly organised and ill-equipped, the expedition went badly; during the winter of 1893–94, ten of its members died. Its leader, Gunji, left after a year to fight in the First Sino-Japanese War , leaving Shirase and the survivors to face

20736-423: Was to lead an expedition to the North Pole, but when this mark was claimed by Robert Peary in 1909, Shirase switched his attention to the south. Unable to attract government support for his Antarctic venture, Shirase raised the finance privately. In its first season, 1910–11, the expedition failed to make a landing, and was forced to winter in Australia. Its second attempt, in 1911–12, was more successful. Although

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