We went to Southern Hokkaido from Aug. 6th to 11th to research about the history of Hokkaido. This trip focuses the war between Japanese and Ainu. Shakushain is a Ainu general who fought against Japanese. What was the cause and the end result was the main focus. This gives us what to pray for Ainu and what it needs to redeem the people in Hokkaido. The cause of the war was Japanese governor who was in financial crisis forced Ainu to trade in unfair exchange rate. He raised the price up to 6 to 7 times where Ainu was not able to survive in that rate. Rice could not obtained […]
Continue Reading2016 Prayer Journey #1 from March 26th to April 3rd with UPDATES!
This year we are planning our 1st prayer journey to South Western Hokkaido from March 26th to April 3rd, 2016. This is our 4th time to South Western Hokkaido area for prayer journey. This area includes Iburi, Oshima, Hiyama and Shiribeshi sub-prefectures. There are 14 sub-prefectures in Hokkaido. Here is our 1st prayer trip schedule: The places where we are visiting this trip from March 26 to April 3 shows on the google map with water drop icon(?). There are 26 towns and villages in the south western area: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zYnkF9ZshZ30.kRvleGbBZwVY Here is the schedule: March 26th, 2016 (Sat.) Iburi Sub-Prefecture： Note: Hokkaido has 14 sub-prefectures. Iburi is one of 14 […]
Continue ReadingAinu People in Hokkaido
While I was at the museum in Shari, I took some pictures of Ainu cultural exhibitions. The picture at the left is very important Ainu festival relating to bears. They consider bear as an important symbol for their lives. Each year they celebrate this festival and keep the bear at the festival. Spiritually bear is worshipped as a form of god. Every museums I visited around Hokkaido, I could see this kind of pictures on festivals for bears. There must be very strong tie with bear in Ainu’s life style. Ainu knew how to catch salmon from the rivers. Salmon was major food source for their winter survivor. They used […]
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