“Ainu Puri”: What Does it Mean to Live “the Ainu Way” Today?

Cinema Family Jan 22, 2025

A new documentary from the director Fukunaga Takeshi follows an Ainu family in Hokkaidō, shedding light on questions of culture and the path traditions take in a modern world. A talk with the director and the people featured in the film.

Fukunaga Takeshi

Born in Date, Hokkaidō, in 1982. Moved to the United States in 2007, where he majored in film at City University of New York Brooklyn College. His first feature film, Out of My Hand, premiered in 2015. The film was shown in the Panorama section at the Berlinale and other international film festivals. It won the Best US Fiction Award at the LA Film Festival and the Emerging Filmmaker Award at the San Diego Asian American Film Festival. In 2020, he released his second feature, Ainu Mosir, which had its world premiere in the International Narrative Competition of the Tribeca Film Festival (New York), receiving a special jury mention. His third feature film, Yamaonna (Mountain Woman), premiered in 2023. Most recently, has directed episodes for the US drama Shōgun and for season two of Tokyo Vice.

English
日本語
简体字
繁體字
Français
Español
العربية
Русский

Documentary Inspired by Ainu Salmon Fishing

Ever since its official release at the Busan International Film Festival and the Tokyo International Film Festival, Ainu Puri (The Ainu Way) has attracted a lot of attention. A documentary that follows an Ainu family living in Shiranuka, Hokkaidō, Ainu Puri shows the larger-than-life Amanai family enjoying themselves as they share with each other and viewers the culture, beliefs, forms of entertainment, and fishing techniques inherited from their Ainu ancestors.

Ainu Puri is film director Fukunaga Takeshi’s first foray into documentary making. Fukunaga previously made the feature film Ainu Mosir set in Akanko Ainu Kotan, an Ainu village on the shores of Lake Akan. It was during the movie’s filming that Fukunaga first met Amanai Shigeki—known affectionately as “Shige” to everyone around him.

Ainu Mosir features a scene from the Marimo Festival, an important event in Ainu Kotan. Shige, who lives in Shiranuka, more than 80 kilometers from Lake Akan, also participated in this festival. Shige is the president of the Shiranuka Ainu Association and is known for being skilled at salmon fishing using a marep, a traditional Ainu fishing implement.

Indeed, Fukunaga got to know Shige after observing him during a marep fishing trip in the autumn of 2018.

Director Fukunaga together with Shige and his son during an interview. (© Watanabe Reiko)

Fukunaga recounted the experience when I interviewed him and the Amanai family just after the documentary’s release. “Shige would wade into the cold river in the dark purely because he simply wanted to,” he recalled. “He seemed at home happily catching salmon with this handmade spear.”

Fukunaga was so impressed by Shige that about a year later, as he was wrapping up the filming of Ainu Mosir, he decided to reach out to him to see if he wanted to be involved in making a documentary.

Shige notes that if it was anyone other than Fukunaga, he would have hesitated: “If any old stranger suddenly turned up and said they wanted to get close and film me, I think I would have refused. But Fukunaga had already become friends with a lot of people in the area during the filming of Ainu Mosir, so I trusted him.”

Filming began in the fall of 2019 and lasted for about three and a half years.

The film begins with Shige standing on the riverbank just before dawn. Before he starts fishing, he lights a cigarette and makes an offering (onkami) to the gods. The offerings are wood shavings made by Shige using an inaw—a ritual wood-shaving stick that connects people in this world to the gods.

The marep that Shige uses for salmon fishing is different from a normal fishing spear. It has a metal hook attached to the shaft by a piece of string that forms an oval arc and provides some give so that the fish find it harder to slip off. When a fish is skewered, the hook detaches from the shaft and the catch dangles.

When Shige successfully makes a catch, he takes the salmon off the hook, grabs its tail with his left hand, and dangles it while chanting inaw kor (“hold the inaw”). Shige then hits the fish on the head three times with a stick called a ipakikni held in his right hand. Then, he thanks the now deceased salmon for its hard work. Salmon is a revered food that the Ainu call kamuy cep (the divine fish) or sipe (true food). This ritual is to express their gratitude for the catch.

Up Close and Personal with the Amanai

Before long, the camera shifts its focus to the Amanai household. It records their experiences with such intimacy that it seems to even reveal the pores on their skin.

Shige relates one particularly surprising experience. “I remember one time the cameraman and sound engineer were in the house, and I didn’t know. They were wearing special socks, so they didn’t make any noise. They were able to creep up on me like a ninja! I got a jolt when I realized they were there! They were often inconspicuous like this. Nevertheless, when they finished their filming, we often sat down to eat dinner together.”

From the outset of filming, Shige’s son, Motoki, is innocent and carefree in front of the camera. We get to see him grow up over the course of the three and a half years of filming.

Motoki says was not bothered by the presence of the film crew: “I looked forward to when they would come every autumn. Even with the camera there, I would still act just like normal. It was so fun fooling around with them too.”

Shige’s wife, Aika, also accepted the filming in a natural way. “I told the crew to just film whenever they wanted. Once, they actually came into my room while I was still asleep and began filming me! [Laughs] When I watched the finished film, I was surprised to see that they once had filmed me making breakfast while still half asleep!”

Fukunaga looks back on his approach to filming. “This was my first time making a documentary, and I thought I’d never be able to film it unless I also got involved and up close. I was fascinated by Shige, and I wanted to capture his true self on film. There are not many films or productions about the Ainu, so I felt it would be something of great meaning to keep shining a light on their lifestyle.”

The director, however, notes that “no matter how much I wanted to film them,” it would have been impossible without the cooperation and the acceptance of the local people, including the Amanai household. Fukunaga did promise not to film anything they didn’t want filmed, and he always showed them the footage he intended to use. Ultimately, however, it was the special personalities of the Amanai family that made them so open to Fukunaga and for a successful documentary.

Being Grateful for the Gifts of Life

On another day, we see Shige out hunting for deer. Shige lures a deer in with a deer whistle and makes the kill.

Shige suggests things don’t always work as well as they did on film: “Things aren’t so decisively done. When I saw the footage of myself hunting, I thought, ‘Wow, I look like a really skilled hunter!’ [Laughs] The conditions just happened to be not right that day at the beginning. In fact, I was just about to give up and move on. I looked up and then spotted the deer. In order to use it for meat, you need to aim for the head or neck, and it’s really difficult to do that while standing. But on that day, I managed to hit it right between the eyes.”

As soon as the deer is killed, Shige uses a knife to cut open its belly and drain the blood. He then removes the internal organs on the spot. As with the scene with the salmon, the director is aware that viewers may react negatively to animals being killed onscreen. Fukunaga was nevertheless determined to show the deer scene as it took place, without adding any mosaic effects to cover up the gory details.

“Some people felt uncomfortable with the scene where the deer is being butchered,” he notes. “But I think that if you just buy meat at the supermarket, you tend to lose sight of the fact that you are taking a life. Shige also feels similarly about this. So, I couldn’t leave that scene out.”

As is shown in the film, Shige makes a living as an employee of a company that sells deer and bear meat. Therefore, it is no surprise when Shige carries the deer meat to the abattoir by himself and skillfully wields a knife when he skins and cuts up the meat.

Shige’s cousin’s son Ryūtaro, who sometimes accompanies Shige marep fishing, is also featured. Ryūtaro’s is a professional fisherman and is more often aboard a modern boat, catching large amounts of fish with a net. The Ainu spirit is to catch only as much as you need to eat, but Ryūtaro is clear that his work is separate from his personal life. His words stand out: “If you only think about being Ainu and doing things that way, you can’t make a living.”

Complex Youth Feelings for Traditional Culture

The film focuses on the passing down of knowledge and culture from generation to generation, but it also reveals the true, complex nature of the young people as they are, including their feelings about being Ainu.

The first time Shige takes Motoki out marep fishing, the father and son engage in a profound conversation about the blessings of life. It is a conversation well worth listening carefully to.

Motoki himself appears to waver throughout the documentary about the cultural baton being passed from father to son. During the process of filming, he seems to change his mind about where he wants his life to head. At one point, Motoki surprises Fukunaga by asking whether the director could cut out the scenes where he was being interviewed. Fukunaga shoots back in a hardnosed way: “There’s no way I can do that now.”

However, his mother quickly follows up to clarify his true feelings, explaining with a laugh: “Motoki wanted to be filmed in his favorite T-shirt. Due to trademark concerns, he was forced to change into a plain shirt, though. Just for that reason, he felt down on the whole project.”

In one interview, Motoki reflects on the changes in his feelings on his education during the filming: “I once said that I wanted to go to a certain technical school because it was the closest one to my house at the time. But now there’s a new high school in Shiranuka. It’s much closer and I like the idea of being able to sleep in until the last minute in the morning. At the same time, a technical school would open the way to higher-paying jobs than a high school diploma.”

Fukunaga reveals that, if asked, Motoki thinks actually his father, who goes hunting for sea otter and deer, is “really cool.” But when asked if he wants to do the same, Motoki is less than committed, saying that he is more interested in going to a technical school and getting a good salary.

Despite this, Fukunaga notes that Motoki is not rejecting his culture: “At school, Motoki took the initiative in setting up a committee to introduce Ainu culture. He even became the committee chair. All of this remains a part of who he is.”

Shige also reflects upon how his son is changing. “Motoki is entering adolescence, and he has to contend with all sorts of thoughts and feelings. His changing awareness is apparent in the things he talks about with me—like his interest in the fact that at Shiranuka High School, if you participate in an Ainu event, it counts as a public holiday, and you’re allowed to miss classes.” During the COVID-19 pandemic, when there was no filming for a while, there were quite a few changes for the Amanai family, including in the work available for Shige. “But come what may, we’re dealing with it just fine,” he says.

These shifts, and the span over which they take place, are an important part of what he has created, Fukunaga explains. “Life goes on even after the filming is over. If you’re documenting a family over a long period of time, it’s only natural that they will see various changes. It’s important to remember that not all young people living in Ainu communities think the same way as Shige. Indeed, I didn’t want to make the film just to shine a light on people working to promote Ainu traditional culture. Shige was just an interesting character doing what he liked, and that is what led to the documentary we produced.”

Shige, too, notes that he does not necessarily himself as an activist for promoting Ainu culture. “From a young age, this was all a natural part of my life. I just happened to have the chance to learn the traditional Ainu salmon fishing style while I was growing up. But I was never particularly aware that I was ‘inheriting a culture’ when doing these things. That’s why I don’t want to force my children to do it either. I think it’s best if they grow up with an interest in it naturally and come to it in their own way.”

Shige is not completely free of anxiety about the release of the movie. He tells us that there are many Ainu people living in Shiranuka, and there is still deep-rooted discrimination. Some children at the school that Motoki attends have not been told about their Ainu roots by their parents.

Shige shares what he told his son Motoki about this issue: “Some people care about whether someone is Ainu or not, and others don’t. You don’t need to worry about this. No one has the right to discriminate against you. Your father is proud of you, so if anyone says anything to you, you just need to stand tall and be proud as well.”

More than anxiety, excitement surrounds the Amanai family about the film’s release. I spoke to the family at the end of October, when they came to Tokyo to attend a screening at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

Motoki, still thrilled about the events of the day, asks Fukunaga: “Hey, Takeshi . . . I really did meet Saitō Takumi [a famous actor], right? It wasn’t a dream, right?”

Fukunaga laughs while reassuring Motoki: “Don’t worry, I’ve got the evidence photo.”

Shige, meanwhile, reflects on how he felt walking the red carpet the day before our interview. “Up until now, I was just hanging out this director as a friend. But yesterday, it was like being in a different world with ‘the famous Fukunaga Takeshi.’ He was giving a fluent English speech in front of a large crowd and the media, and he looked so cool. Thanks to him, Motoki and I had an incredible time. The two of us later made an onkami offering to give thanks for this.”

Film Information

Director: Fukunaga Takeshi
Running Time: 82 minutes
Official Site: ainupuri-movie.jp (in Japanese only)

Trailer

Hokkaidō cinema movie Ainu