The Koro-pok-kuru, or Pit-dwellers.
[Illustration: FLINT ARROW-HEADS.]
All over Yezo and the Kurile Islands remains of an extinct race of
pit-dwellers are to be seen. It is especially near lakes and swamps or
along the coast that rectangular, circular, and elliptical pits are
numerous, but square pits are not so common. None of these pits have yet
been discovered on the main island of Nippon, but many are still to be
found as far south as Hakodate, in Yezo. On the east and north-east side
of the peak, at the latter port, these pits, flint implements, and rude
pottery, mostly in fragments, are met with in great abundance. The
implements consist mostly of arrow-heads, stone adzes, hammers, flint
knives, and round pebbles, which were used as war ammunition. The
arrow-heads vary in size, length, and breadth. The larger ones I saw
measured an inch and three-quarters in length by an inch and
five-eighths in breadth, while the smaller were seven-eighths of an inch
by half an inch. They were triangular, with the angle at the point
sometimes more, sometimes less acute, or lozenge-shaped; they are
chipped, and not ground. Most of the arrow-heads and a good many of the
knives were made of a dark reddish siliceous rock. The adzes also, of
course, varied in size and shape, some being oblong in section, others
almost rectangular, while others again were oval. They were ground, and
always made so that the hand could have a good grip on them. The average
length from the sharp edge to the other end would be about four inches,
and the sides were rounded. It is apparent that most of these adzes were
not originally fastened to a stick or club, but were held in the hand.
They usually have a smooth surface, while the knives, as well as the
arrow-points, exhibit marks of chipping quite plainly; their edges are
very sharp. Hard stones are often found on which the people of the Stone
Age used to grind their implements. The knives are mostly rectangular,
with very sharp edges, sometimes on both sides. Then there are some in
the shape of a sword-blade, rounded at the top, and with a rounded place
at the other end, where they were held. Those with two sharp edges were
triangular in shape, and were held by the upper part of the triangle,
which point ends with a kind of knob. It is a curious fact that bone and
bamboo arrow-points--probably Ainu--are sometimes found in pits, and
this would lead me to believe, either that the conquering Ainu used
these weapons in their attacks upon the pit-dwellers, or, supposing for
a moment that the Ainu themselves were the pit-dwellers in former days,
that they had abandoned their stone implements and had adopted bone and
wood, which they found easier to work. I am inclined to the first
supposition as the correct one. The pits are numerous in Yezo, and,
following the southern coast from south-west to north-east, we find that
they increase in number towards the north. Though stone implements and
fragments of pottery are numerous nearly all along the southern coast,
but few pits are found either on Volcano Bay or on the south-west part
of the coast as far as Erimo Cape. As we pass this cape and go north, on
the south-east coast the pits become more numerous, and at Kushiro--or
Kossuri, as the Ainu call it--they are found in great quantities.
Further on are some at Akkeshi, and they are plentiful nearly all along
that stretch of the coast as far as Nemuro, and on Bentenjima, the small
island which forms one side of the harbour at that place. North-east of
that, in the Kuriles, at Kunashiri and Etorofu, we have abundant
evidence that a large population of these pit-dwellers once existed
there. In Etorofu particularly the pits, besides being frequent, are in
much better preservation than any on the island of Yezo.
[Illustration: FLINT KNIVES.]
The pit-dwellers do not seem to have been particular as to the shape of
their dwellings, though they evidently had a certain predilection for
the elliptical and rectangular forms. The pits at Kushiro are nearly all
rectangular, while those from Akkeshi to Nemuro are either rectangular
or circular.
The average dimensions of rectangular pits are about twelve feet by nine
feet, but I have seen some as large as sixteen feet by twelve feet. The
sides slope inwards, and the average depth is from three to six feet.
Pits which are situated on cliffs, or at any height, are generally
deeper, probably for the extra shelter required by those living at an
altitude, compared with those living on the sea-level. The round pits
are from ten to fourteen feet in diameter, and the elliptical have a
length of about sixteen feet, and are about eight feet at the widest
part of the ellipse. The pits which I found on the north-east coast of
Yezo, from Shari to Cape Soya, were not so numerous as those on the
southern coast; but some of them were larger in size, as probably, owing
to the greater severity of the climate, more people lived in the same
hut for the purpose of creating natural heat. At Tobuts, on the Saruma
Lake, are three of elliptical shape. Near Abashiri several
well-preserved specimens of pottery have been found, especially in the
mud of swamps or lakes; but after leaving Lake Saruma, I did not see any
traces of the pit-dwellers till I approached Soya Cape. When these pits
are excavated, a stratum of sand is generally found, and beneath it a
large quantity of charcoal in the centre of the pit. Under the charcoal
the earth is burnt, showing that the hearth was in the centre of the
dwelling, as it is now in the Ainu huts. This goes to prove that there
was one fire, and not, as some travellers have endeavoured to show, five
or six burning at the same time, round which, or, rather, between which,
the pit-dwellers slept. I have often dug in different parts of pits, and
have invariably come upon this burnt charcoal in or near the middle. I
never saw any signs of more than one fire in the same pit. Digging in a
large pit at Kushiro, I found some stag-horns, and numerous bits of
black and red pottery. Some of the fragments had rough line
ornamentations on them. There was also a large quantity of war
ammunition, in the shape of big pebbles and round stones. Most pits
contain heaps of rubbish and bones of animals. Sometimes there are heaps
of oyster shells, as near the pits on Saruma Lake; and these shell-heaps
are similar to those found on the main island of Nippon. In another pit
on one of the forts at Kushiro I found what I thought was part of a
human skull; but on a closer examination it turned out to be the skull
of an animal--probably a fox or a stag. A bone arrow-point also came to
light in the same pit, and several stone defensive weapons. It was
interesting to note that this pit was built on the top of a small
conical hill, and that the hill itself was surrounded by a ditch only a
few feet wide, thus forming a kind of fort. On the side and at the
bottom of the fort I saw numbers of stones, which had in all probability
been used by the pit-dwellers as missiles against the attacking Ainu
during a battle. Besides forts, the pit-dwellers had camps, generally
situated in a commanding position above a river, a lake, or a harbour.
Single pits also are found only under similar conditions.
Near Kushiro, on the Lake Harutori, which is divided from the sea by a
sand isthmus, are several camps and one or two forts, the first of
which overlooks the sea. Along the Kutcharo River are forts and camps.
These camps are on the crowns of the hills, and each is surrounded by a
small ditch. In the last, about three miles from the coast, were several
square pits, larger than those on the other three forts. This last fort
stands some distance back from the river, and is situated in a little
plain at the summit of a detached mound, which has the appearance of
having been artificially cut from the larger remaining portion of the
hill itself. The shape of the fort is a broken cone, and the base
measures about nine hundred feet in circumference, while the upper one
is about three hundred. From the top, where there is only a small pit,
the entrance of the river can easily be watched; and it must have been
almost impregnable, as the walls of the fort, or, rather, the sides of
the conical hill, rise nearly perpendicularly from the plain. A small
stream runs at the foot of the fort.
On the Lake Harutori the range of hills which stretches from the sea for
three or four miles along its eastern shores is literally covered with
these pits, and on the sandy isthmus separating the sea from the lake
some very large pits can be observed. The fort near the sea is called
_Shirito_ by the Ainu, and that at the other end of the range goes by
the name of _Moshiriya_. It was in the latter fort that the well-shaped
bone arrow-point was found, as well as one or two stone adzes, which
were so shaped as to fit the hand, and evidently had been used as
hammers, or weapons of offence at close quarters. In the same fort I
found two stags' horns in good preservation, and many bones of different
animals. It is doubtful whether these heaps of horns and bones were
brought into the pits for the purpose of making arrow-points and other
weapons, or whether the stags had been used merely for food. The bone
arrow-point found in the same pit was not in such a decayed condition as
most of the bones I found there, which led me to believe that it was not
made out of the same kind of bone, or that the bone out of which it was
made had been cured before its conversion into an arrow-point. I believe
that in the neighbourhood of Kusuri--or Kushiro, as it is now called by
the Japanese--there are as many as a thousand or fifteen hundred pits.
In Etorofu, at Bet-to-bu, on the north-west coast of the island, nearly
as many are to be found along the seashore, mostly on the plain at the
top of the cliffs overlooking the sea, while the rest are situated on
the banks of a narrow stream and along what appears to have been a river
course. On the same island, at Ru-pets, are several pits of a similar
description, and a fort.
As the pit-dwellers have disappeared from Yezo and the Kuriles, and only
pre-historic remains and relics have been left behind to indicate their
former existence, the questions naturally arise: Who were these
pit-dwellers? Whence did they come? and whither have they gone? We can
place no reliance on the accounts given by the Ainu or by the highly
imaginative Japanese, who, moreover, are perfectly ignorant on this
subject. Some Ainu say that Yezo was formerly peopled by a race of
dwarfs, who were their enemies, and were extirpated by them after many
sanguinary battles. The Ainu are very vague as to when and where these
battles were fought, but according to their accounts these pit-dwellers,
whom they call the _Koro-pok-kuru_--literally "men of holes"--once
inhabited Yezo and the Kuriles. They were only three or four feet in
height, and some semi-Ainu stories represent them as being only a few
inches tall. This of course might be taken to mean that they were very
small by comparison. A few Ainu, yet more imaginative than others, go so
far as to say gravely that the Koro-pok-kuru were so tiny that when a
shower of rain came they hid under burdock leaves for shelter. Others,
however, tell us that these Koro-pok-kuru were their ancestors, and much
more hairy than the Ainu of the present day. They were strong, fond of
hunting, and able to cross the mountains with great facility and speed.
According to Mr. Batchelor, some Ainu state that they themselves
formerly lived in huts over pits, and that they changed their method of
house-building on coming in contact with the Japanese; but if this were
the case it seems unaccountable that they should distinguish their
predecessors as pit-dwellers. Moreover, if the influence of the Japanese
was sufficiently strong to cause them to make this most important change
in their habitations and mode of living, how comes it that in other
matters they have not adopted Japanese customs? I was unable to trace
the slightest resemblance between Ainu huts and Japanese edifices of any
kind, either in their general appearance or in any of the smaller
details, and I was always struck by the small extent to which the Ainu
have adopted the customs of the dominant race. Indeed, the character of
Ainu buildings is peculiar to the Ainu themselves, and, far from
constructing their dwellings over pits, they go to the other extreme,
and perch their storehouses on piles or posts. It is a remarkable
coincidence that on the Lake Kutcharo, not many miles from Kusuri, where
the Koro-pok-kuru pits are numerous, the roofs of the Ainu huts and
storehouses are not angular, but circular, which gives them the
appearance of half a cylinder resting on the ground. This struck me as
being in all probability the shape of structures built over rectangular
pits, while the coverings of round pits must have been shaped like half
a sphere, similar to the snow houses of the Esquimaux, and the
elliptical like the longer half of an egg.
The present houses of the Kutcharo Lake Ainu, however, are not built on
pits; and on my questioning the few inhabitants of the village, all were
perfectly ignorant of the existence of the Koro-pok-kuru, and they knew
nothing of their own ancestors, nor whether they had built structures
over pits or not. The idea seemed to them highly ludicrous, and afforded
them a great deal of amusement.
On the north-east coast of Yezo, where pits are found, some Ainu huts
have round and others angular roofs; but even in the latter instance,
the angle of the two sides of the roof is not as acute as with the huts
on the Saru and the Tokachi River; but both slant in a more gentle way,
forming an obtuse angle of about 135°. In fact, these variations in the
Ainu architecture have not yet been accounted for, and whether they
copied their roofs from their foes the Koro-pok-kuru, or whether it is a
mere chance that the roofs bear a certain resemblance, cannot be
discovered from tradition or hearsay. I may mention incidentally my own
theory, which may afford an explanation of this point. As the Saru, the
Tokachi, and the Ishikari districts have no very severe weather in
winter, and only a comparatively small quantity of snow falls during the
colder months, the Ainu build huts with very slanting roofs, so that the
snow should not remain on them in winter, while during the summer months
the rain should fall off the steep incline of the roof before it could
filter through into the hut. On the Kutcharo Lake and on the north-east
coast, where strong winds are prevalent, the huts have round roofs, so
as to offer the least possible resistance to the gales, and thus escape
the danger of being blown down.
With regard to the snow, the opposite of the Saru Ainu method is
practised. Instead of preventing the snow from resting on their roofs,
the Ainu of the colder regions do all they can to let it remain, for by
thus forming an air-tight vault it renders the hut much warmer in
winter. In other words, the system is the same as that adopted by the
Esquimaux, with the exception that the latter, I believe, have no frame
to their huts, and the vault is entirely of snow and ice; while with the
Ainu of the north-east coast the snow vault is directly over the hut
itself. I invariably noticed on the north-east coast, where the Ainu
have a mixed architecture, that wherever a hut was built in an exposed
position it had a round roof, while those built under the shelter of a
cliff or a hill had angular ones, and this is what led me to the above
conclusion.
To return to the Koro-pok-kuru, they undoubtedly must have had
semi-spherical and semi-cylindrical roofs over their pits, whether the
vault was constructed of mud, sticks, and reeds, or simply of snow and
ice, like the Esquimaux dwellings. For all that we know, the
Koro-pok-kuru huts may have had conical roofs, like those of the present
American Indians; but one fact is certain, that whatever shape the roof
may have had, it was not supported by a central pole, for the hearth is
invariably in the centre of the pit.
The curious fact already mentioned, that in every pit we find a thick
layer of sand, seems to prove that it was certainly intended to render
the ground less damp; and it is my own impression that these
pit-dwellers, having snow or ice vaults over their heads, resorted to
that expedient to keep the floor of their huts dry under the continuous
dripping of the vault, melted by the heat of the fire inside.
Undoubtedly Yezo was a much colder country in bygone years than it is
now; and though we cannot implicitly rely on the information given by
the Ainu, they are all of one opinion in believing that their country
was all ice and snow in former days, and to give a proof of it they say:
"Why should we be as hairy as a bear if not to keep the cold out?"
The Japanese know the pit-dwellers by the name of "Ko-bito," or
"Ko-shto," the latter word meaning "men of the lakes,"[28] but they know
nothing of their history.
[28] _Ko_, lake; _shto_, man. _Ko_ is probably a corruption of the
Ainu word _to_, a lake or a swamp, and it is used by the
Japanese of Yezo for "lake," instead of the word "_numa_."
One fact still remains to be explained, namely, who made the pottery
that is disinterred in almost every pit and by the shores of lakes. The
present Ainu do not know how to make pottery, and they have never been
known to manufacture anything of the kind. All Ainu implements are made
of wood, though of course the more civilised tribes have now purchased
iron or porcelain implements from the Japanese. The question, then, is,
supposing that the Ainu were formerly the pit-dwellers, have they lost
the art of making pottery, or did the pottery belong to a different race
of people?
[Illustration: KORO-POK-KURU POTTERY AND FRAGMENTS OF DESIGNS.]
It seemed singular to me that, conservative as the Ainu are of their
relics, even allowing for its brittle nature, no pottery of the kind
found in pits is ever to be seen in any Ainu hut. Had they made the
pottery themselves, surely some specimens or parts of specimens would
have been preserved.
Comparing facts, we find, then, that the Koro-pok-kuru built their huts
over pits, made pottery, and used stone and flint implements; while the
Ainu have never been known to dwell in pits, have never made pottery,
and have always used bone or bamboo implements. Moreover, Ainu
traditions of internecine wars, vague as they are, and their designating
the enemy by the name of Koro-pok-kuru, are further proofs that the Ainu
themselves do not regard the pit-dwellers as their forefathers. As,
then, the few facts collected tend to prove that the Ainu and the
Koro-pok-kuru were two distinct races, it would be interesting to know
who the latter really were, and what became of them. A learned
missionary, Mr. Batchelor, writing on this subject, says:--"But I am of
opinion that these pit-dwellers were closely allied to the Ainu in
descent, and that the remains of them may now be seen in Shikotan and
other islands of the Kurile Group. The inhabitants of Shikotan are much
shorter in stature than the Ainu of Yezo. They are not so good-looking,
and are said to be a very improvident race. The Ainu look upon the
Kurile Islanders as the remnants of the Koro-pok-gurus; but this is a
mere opinion, to be adopted or rejected at pleasure. That they are
pit-dwellers _is quite certain_, for _they live in pits_ at the present
day."
Before being so certain as to what he was stating, it would have been
well had the writer of the above lines visited the island in question.
He would not then have committed so many blunders in so few lines. The
inhabitants of Shikotan are _not_ shorter than the Ainu of Yezo, and I
cannot give a better proof of this than by asking my readers to compare
the measurements which I took while there with the measurements of the
Yezo Ainu. The medium height of the Shikotan Ainu is between sixty-one
inches and sixty-two and three-quarter inches; the medium height of the
Yezo Ainu is between sixty-one inches and sixty-two and three-quarters,
or exactly the same. The chest inflated measures thirty-seven and a half
inches with the Shikotan Ainu, and thirty-seven and a half with the Yezo
Ainu, while the spinal column is only twenty-four inches with the
Shikotan Ainu, and about twenty-six and three-quarters with the Yezo
Ainu.
The Shikotan Ainu have the same structural peculiarity as the Yezo Ainu,
namely, the length of their arms, which peculiarity, by the way, is
greatly accentuated with them. The humerus is much longer than with the
Yezo Ainu, while the ulna and radius are shorter; the hand is the same
length. A Shikotan Ainu with outstretched arms is generally the length
of one hand longer than his own height, which is more than is usually
found with the Yezo Ainu. The medium foot is nine and a half inches with
both Ainu. In the Ainu the tibia is rather flattened at its angular
part, but the Shikotan Ainu have a nearly circular tibia. I do not know
of any other existing race in the world in which such an extraordinary
phenomenon occurs, and the tibia struck me also as being extremely long,
while the femur appeared proportionately short. However, with the
exception that the tibia is more circular than with the Ainu of Yezo, I
could not see any material difference between them and the other Ainu.
As we have already seen, each tribe in Yezo has certain characteristics
which other tribes have not; each tribe has conformed its habits to the
climate of the district in which it lives, as well as to other
circumstances; and each of these tribes has adopted a slightly different
architecture for its dwellings; but it is plain that all belong to the
same original race. The same might be said of the Shikotan Ainu. At this
point it is well to explain that the Kurile Islands not many years ago
belonged to Russia; but they were exchanged for the southern half of
Sakhalin, then belonging to Japan, and now form part of the Japanese
Empire. The two larger islands--Kunashiri and Etorofu--are inhabited
mainly by Ainu and a few Japanese, who migrate there from Yezo during
the fishing season; while the Island of Shikotan is inhabited by sixty
Ainu, brought there from the northern islands of Shirajima or Shimushir,
and Urup, leaving thus all the islands north-east of Etorofu
uninhabited.
Of Kunashiri and Etorofu I shall say no more in connection with the
pit-dwellers, but a few more words on the Shikotan inhabitants may prove
interesting, especially as people have been led to believe that they are
the descendants of the Koro-pok-kuru, and not really Ainu.
I shall begin by saying that the Shikotan people call themselves
Kurilsky _Ainu_, and that they speak both Ainu and Russian. Their
features are not very massive, and their cheek and temple bones slightly
project. They have strong mouths, and eyes identical in shape and colour
with those of the Yezo Ainu. They are as hairy; they live by fishing and
hunting; they clothe themselves in skins; and they are fond of beads and
shining ornaments. Their huts have angular roofs, and are built in the
same style as those of the Yezo Ainu, but on a smaller scale. The
interiors are also alike, and equally dirty, if not more so. The Ainu
huts at Shikotan are sixteen in number, and _not one_ of them is built
over a pit, thus showing that Mr. Batchelor was a little rash, when,
relying on mistaken information, he drew a conclusion which is not in
accordance with the facts. One thing that has misled most people as
regards these Kurilsky Ainu is, that they were compelled to cut their
hair and shave their beards. To the superficial observer this naturally
gives them a different physiognomy from that of the Yezo Ainu, who let
their hair grow long, and have flowing beards. Prof. Milne, who some
years ago visited the Island of Shumshu,[29] relates that he saw there a
small group of Kurilsky Ainu, who, all included, numbered twenty-two.
Their dress, although made of skins, was European in form, and the upper
garment, shaped like a shirt, was made of bird-skins (puffins) with the
feathers inside. The back was ornamented with the plumes of the yellow
puffin, and the edge was trimmed with seal-fur. The men wore garments
tied at the waist with a belt of sea-lion hide. Their feet and legs up
to the knee were covered with moccasins, also made of sea-lion skin, and
their food consisted of a few berries, the eggs and flesh of sea-birds,
seals, and other meat. They were few and migratory, and carried with
them all their property when migrating. Prof. Milne, in a paper
contributed to the Asiatic Society of Japan, thinks that the chief point
in connection with these people is, that they constructed houses by
making shallow excavations in the ground, which were then roofed over
with turf, and that these excavations had a striking resemblance to the
pits now found further south. I believe, however, that Prof. Milne never
saw them excavating these pits, and the fact that hardly two dozen
people in the extreme north-east Kuriles having temporarily adopted
shallow excavations which they roofed over, is barely sufficient proof
that they were pit-dwellers, and, as will be seen later, I had ample
evidence afterwards that they were not. It is probable that this
wandering band, owing to the scarcity or difficulty of procuring timber
in those regions--the smallness of their canoes not permitting them to
transport the materials for above-ground structures from one island to
another--it is probable, I say, that, having come upon pits already dug,
they had roofed them over and lived in them, finding them suitable to
the severe climate. When I visited Shikotan (September, 1890), where not
only these Shimushir people, but all the Kurilsky Ainu, numbering sixty,
are now collected, and where they have built dwellings in their own
style, the architecture and mode of construction were identical with
those of the Yezo Ainu, and there were _no_ pits whatever to their huts.
[29] The correct name and pronunciation is _Shimushir_.
Had they been pit-dwellers, why should they have so suddenly modified
their habits as to construct huts wholly above-ground without any reason
for so doing? Supposing they were actually pit-dwellers, and had lived
generation after generation in pits, why should they abandon this chief
structural characteristic in a place where the climate is as severe as
in the islands they formerly inhabited? I am willing to admit that the
Kurilsky Ainu, like all barbarians, made the best of what they found in
their migrations from one island to another, and that, having found pits
already dug, they had lived in them simply for convenience, and to
protect themselves from the cold. The impossibility of constructing
their own style of dwellings, which would have required too much time
and a great amount of timber and reeds--two articles scarce in the
north-east Kuriles--may account for their being driven to occupy pits
already dug; but I am certainly not inclined to admit that therefore the
few remaining Kurilsky Ainu are in any way connected with or related to
the Koro-pok-kuru. I believe that I have given sufficient evidence to
prove this. At any rate, I have given such evidence as it was in my
power to collect, and I have based my statements on what I actually saw,
and not on what I heard people say. As others have speculated on this
subject, I shall now ask the forgiveness of the reader if I am also
dragged into a little pre-historic speculation as to who the
Koro-pok-kuru were, and whence they came.
As I remarked at the beginning of this chapter, we find that pits are
more numerous as we go in a north-east direction. Thus, few are found at
Hakodate; and though none or few have been found along the south-west
coast of Yezo, still, flint arrow-heads, pottery, and stone adzes
collected here and there, show us that the Koro-pok-kuru had travelled
along that coast, probably journeying in their canoes, landing to hunt,
or to fight the Ainu.
Along the south-east coast the pits increase in number as we approach
Kusuri, and at this place the largest number of pits in Hokkaido is
found; then they are numerous all along the coast as far as Nemuro; and
in the islands of Kunashiri and Etorofu the population must have been
large, as there are numerous pits throughout. Pits are found in the
smaller islands of the Kurile group, and I believe also in Kamschatka.
From Nemuro, following the coast-line of Yezo, we find some along the
north-east coast of Yezo, and none down the west coast until we reach
the narrower part of the island near Sappro. This said, we have two
points to consider:--
(1.) That the pit-dwellers moved from north-east to south-west.
(2.) That the main bulk of the population settled in Etorofu, Kunashiri,
and at Kushiro. Few went further south to settle.
All evidence tends to show that they came either from Kamschatka, or
perhaps more probably from the Aleutian Islands. It seems not
improbable, looking at the volcanic formation of the Kurile group, that
in bygone days Yezo was joined to Kamschatka, affording a land passage
to the migratory people; but this we need not take into consideration.
From what one can gather of this race, the habits and customs of the
Koro-pok-kuru must have had many points in common with the present
Esquimaux. Very likely their pits were roofed over with a snow vault.
They evidently lived by fishing and hunting, like the Esquimaux, and all
that we know identifies them more with the latter race than with the
Ainu.
I believe that the present Aleuts have a striking resemblance to the
Esquimaux; and if this were the case, there is no reason why we should
not suppose that they in former days inhabited the Kuriles, part of
Kamschatka and the north-east portion of Yezo. It is a well-known fact
that the Esquimaux formerly lived in corresponding latitudes on the east
coast of America, and that they withdrew little by little to the more
inhospitable regions of the north, and the same might have occurred here
after the Ainu invasion of Yezo. The Koro-pok-kuru were apparently more
civilised than their conquerors the Ainu, for they made pottery and
worked stone; but owing to their retiring nature and weaker physique,
and outnumbered by the savage hairy people, they became extinct. As to
the Ainu, they also are undoubtedly a race of the north. Their music,
their decorations, their habits, display characteristics of northern
origin; but the Ainu, as we have seen from their structures and customs,
were by no means accustomed to so cold a climate as their predecessors
the pit-dwellers. In my opinion they did not invade Yezo from the
Kuriles, but came from the continent of Asia, probably across Siberia,
and descended as far as Sakhalin Island, where many Ainu are still to be
found. As the Koro-pok-kuru resemble the Esquimaux, the Ainu have a
striking resemblance in many ways to the Northmen of Europe, and this is
what makes me suppose that they came across the northern part of the
continent, and not from the northern islands of the Pacific. They made
their way south, probably crossing over the La Perouse Strait, and the
main contingent of them came down the north-east coast of Yezo. I base
this theory on the fact that the strong current which passes through the
La Perouse Strait from west to east would have made it impossible for
the Ainu in their light "dug-outs" to navigate against it, or straight
across from Sakhalin to Soya Cape, and in crossing they were undoubtedly
drifted far south-east on the north-east coast, probably landing near
Abashiri or Shari. Another evidence which made me think that the Ainu
came from Sakhalin is, that all knew of another island besides Yezo,
which they called Krafto, by which name they designate Sakhalin. Of the
Kuriles no one knew except those in the immediate neighbourhood. At one
time the Ainu are said to have inhabited the whole of Japan as far south
as Satsuma. Archæologists are puzzled by the discovery in the main
island of Nippon of various kitchen-middens, which include fragments of
pottery identical with those attributed to the Koro-pok-kuru, and also
of shell heaps, which some consider of Ainu origin, others as pre-Ainu.
No pits, however, have been found near these shell heaps, nor on any
part of Nippon. Thus another question is raised as to who the
originators of these shell heaps and kitchen-middens were. Is it not
likely that, as the Ainu proceeded south, they encountered the
Koro-pok-kuru at Nemuro and then at Kushiro, and, having easily defeated
them, forced some of them to retreat in the direction of the Kuriles,
while the rest went towards the south? They probably fled along the
coastline in their "dug-outs," those who moved south occasionally
landing to hunt or to attack their pursuers. Thus we can account for the
occurrence along that coast of some of their implements, but of no pits,
which they were not likely to dig in such circumstances. Having then
retreated as far south as Ushongosh (Hakodate), and with the conquering
Ainu still at their heels, there was nothing more natural than that they
should cross the Tsugaru Strait,[30] only a few miles in width, carrying
with them their kitchen-middens and pottery.
[30] The opposite coast of Nippon can be seen plainly from Hakodate.
The Ainu crossed after them, and, pushing the retreating Koro-pok-kuru
further and further south, exterminated them, and became the masters of
the whole of Japan, the Kuriles, and Sakhalin. As they were thus pursued
by the Ainu, whom they knew as a warlike people, and stronger than
themselves, there seems to me no cause for wonder that the Koro-pok-kuru
did not dig any pits while on the main island of Nippon, first, because
these pits would have been the sure means of bringing the Ainu on their
track, to their certain annihilation; next, because the climate, being a
great deal warmer, they had no need for them. On the other hand, it is
more than probable that the retreaters carried with them their
kitchen-middens and pottery, which constituted their treasures, and
without which they could not have prepared their food. The barbarous
Ainu then came in contact with the Japanese, at whose hands they
received the same treatment as that which they had inflicted on the
Koro-pok-kuru. Little by little the land so easily conquered was lost
again, and the conquering Ainu were ere long in retreat towards the
north. They were beaten and defeated by the more civilised Japanese, and
the few who survived had to cross over the Tsugaru Strait back to Yezo.
There is not a single Ainu now to be found in Nippon, with the exception
of a child, a half-caste, whose mother was an Ainu, and who lives about
sixty miles south of Awomori. The mother of this child was the last of
her race who was born on and who inhabited the main island of Nippon.
Ainu blood can be traced in many of the Japanese in the northern part of
Nippon, especially between Shiranoka to Awomori, and also some corrupted
Ainu words are still in use in the dialect spoken in that part of
Japan. Names of places, rivers, towns, etc., of Ainu origin, are common
all over Japan. It was this former occupation of Japan by the Ainu that
for some time led people to believe that the Ainu were the forefathers
of the Japanese; and when pits were found in Yezo, the same
hastily-judging people attributed them to the Ainu; and then, when
mention was made of the Koro-pok-kuru and the Ko-shto, they affixed this
name to the Kurilsky Ainu whom they had never seen nor studied.
I am not prepared to say whether or not traces of these Koro-pok-kuru
are to be found in the Aleutian Islands, as I have not visited them; but
it would prove interesting to trace a connection between them and some
existing race, in case my supposition be not correct, though I am sure
that it is nearer the mark than any of the conjectures made by others
with regard either to the Ainu or the Koro-pok-kuru. At any rate, as I
do not pretend to infallibility; should my supposition be wrong, the
facts given above will remain, and a more successful student and
investigator will be able to work on them with a decided advantage over
the writer, who had to start from the very beginning, and work on
information which was more of an obstacle than a help.
[Illustration: STONE ADZES AND HAMMERS.]
[Illustration: AINU HUTS AND STOREHOUSES ON KUTCHARO LAKE.]