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Bezig met laden... Our Land Was a Forest: An Ainu Memoirdoor Shigeru Kayano
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This book is a beautiful and moving personal account of the Ainu, the native inhabitants of Hokkaido, Japan's northern island, whose land, economy, and culture have been absorbed and destroyed in recent centuries by advancing Japanese. Based on the author's own experiences and on stories passed down from generation to generation, the book chronicles the disappearing world--and courageous rebirth--of this little-understood people.Kayano describes with disarming simplicity and frankness the personal conflicts he faced as a result of the tensions between a traditional and a modern society and his lifelong efforts to fortify a living Ainu culture. A master storyteller, he paints a vivid picture of the Ainus' ecologically sensitive lifestyle, which revolved around bear hunting, fishing, farming, and woodcutting.Unlike the few existing ethnographies of the Ainu, this account is the first written by an insider intimately tied to his own culture yet familiar with the ways of outsiders. Speaking with a rare directness to the Ainu and universal human experience, this book will interest all readers concerned with the fate of indigenous peoples. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)952.4History and Geography Asia Japan HokkaidoLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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The book starts with a lot of descriptions of traditional ainu objects, houses, festivals, taught to the author by his beloved grandmother. These first 40 or so pages are interesting but less striking than the rest of the book, an account of Shigeru Kayano's life from his first years at school, to his creation of an Ainu museum in the 1970s.
Interesting is the way the Pacific War/WW2 barely mentioned, other than a few pages at the end of which Mr. Kayano recalls how his greatest loss was to have been forced to burn his diary, at the end of the war. Maybe this is to show how much "barely living" was a war in itself, for these people "assimilated", or clearly speaking, almost turned into slaves by the mainland Japanese government.
A beautiful book about a courageous man and his fight for the survival of his nation. ( )