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Indigenous Diplomacy: Sakhalin Ainu (Enchiw) in the Shaping of Modern East Asia (Part 2: Voices and Silences)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
Abstract
Indigenous people are often depicted as helpless victims of the forces of eighteenth and nineteenth century colonial empire building: forces that were beyond their understanding or control. Focusing on the story of a mid-nineteenth century diplomatic mission by Sakhalin Ainu (Enchiw), this essay (the second of a two-part series), challenges that view, suggesting instead that, despite the enormous power imbalances that they faced, indigenous groups sometimes intervened energetically and strategically in the historical process going on around them, and had some impact on the outcome of these processes. In Part 2, we look at the Nayoro Ainu elder Setokurero’s intervention in imperial negotiations between Japan and Russia in the early 1850s, and consider what impact this may have had on the experiences of Sakhalin Ainu during the early phases of Russian and Japanese colonial rule in Sakhalin.
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- Copyright © The Authors 2020
References
Notes
1 Busse, Ostrov Sakhalin i Ekspeditsiya 1853-1854 gg, St. Petersburg, F. S. Sushchinhskii, 1872, p. 34.
2 Russian officer N. K. Boshnyak recorded the following account given to him by Sakhalin Nivkh in 1852: ‘Constantly inquiring whether there were Russians who had settled somewhere on the island, I found out in the village of Tangi, the following: 35 or 40 years ago, on the eastern coast of the island and just near the village of Ngabi, a ship was wrecked; The surviving crew lived for a long time in the said village, built a house for themselves, and after a while a ship. On this vessel, the unknown people passed the La Perouse Strait and near the village of Mgach and again suffered a wreck, and only one person, called Kemts, was saved. Shortly after this incident, two Russians, Vasily and Nikita, arrived from the Amur. They joined Kemts and built a house for themselves in the village of Mgach, led a life like ordinary industrial Gilyaks, hunted fur-bearing animals and went to bargain with the Manchus and the Japanese’; Nikolai Konstantovich Boshnyak, ‘Ekspeditsiya v Priamurskii Krai: Ekspeditsiya na Sakhalin s 20 Fevralya do 3 Aprelya 1852 Goda’, Morskoi Sbornik, no. 7, 1858, pp. 179-194.
3 Akizuki Toshiyuki, Nichiro Kankei to Saharin-tō: Bakumatsu Meiji Shoki no Ryōdo Mondai, Tokyo, Chikuma Shobō, 1994.
4 See S. C. M. Paine, Imperial Rivals: Russia, China and their Disputed Frontier, Armonk NY, M. E. Sharpe, 1996, pp. 37-39; E. G. Ravenstein, The Russians on the Amur: Its Discovery, Conquest and Colonisation, London, Trūbner and Co, 1861, pp. 116-117.
5 Boshnyak wrote that the sum total of his provisions consisted of ‘a sled of dogs, 35 days’ worth of biscuits, tea and sugar, a small hand compass, and most importantly - a crucifix belonging to Captain Nevelskoy and encouragement that if there is a biscuit to satisfy hunger and a mug of water, drink, and then all will be possible with God’s help’; Boshnyak, ‘Ekspeditsiya v Priamurskii Krai’.
6 Busse, Ostrov Sakhalin, p. 34
7 Busse, who heard this story from one of Orlov’s Saha companions and recorded it in his journal, does not name Setokurero as the source of this information, simply saying that it came from an ‘elderly Ainu’ who had recently come from the south”, but the explanation in Rudanovskii’s journal makes clear that the ‘elderly Ainu’ was Setokurero, and the son was Kanchomante; see Busse, Ostrov Sakhalin, p. 35; Rudanovskii, ‘“Poezdki moi po Ostrovu Sakhalinu”‘ p. 144.
8 His name is also sometimes given as ‘Kanchomanke’ or, by Rudanovskii, as ‘Kanchiomangin’, but appears as ‘Kanchomante’ in the official Japanese documents of the day.
9 Busse, Ostrov Sakhalin, p. 34; Rudanovskii, “Toezdki moi po Ostrovu Sakhaliny”’, p. 144; see also Akizuki, Nichiro Kankei to Saharintō, p. 112.
10 See, for example, Busse, Ostrov Sakhalin, p. 32. In the winter of 1853, there were just 47 Japanese people in Kushunkotan and the surrounding area - see Nikolai Busse, trans. and ed. Akizuki Toshiyuki, Saharintō Senryō Nikki 1853-1854: Roshiajin ga Mita Nihonjin to Ainu, Tokyo, Heibonsha, 2003, pp. 6-40, citation from pp. 21-22.
11 Busse, Ostrov Sakhalin, p. 34; Rudanovskii, “Toezdki moi po Ostrovu Sakhaliny”’, p. 144.
12 Busse, Ostrov Sakhalin, pp. 29, 33, 51, 94 and 95.
13 (ed. I. A Samarin), “Toezdki moi po Ostrovu Sakhalinu Ya Delal Osen’yu i Zimoyu”: Otchyoty Leitenata N. V. Rudanovskovo 1853-1854 gg.’, reprinted in Vestnik Sakhalinskovo Muzeya, no. 10, 2002, pp. 137-166’, p. 144.
14 Rudanovskii, “Toezdki moi po Ostrovu Sakhaliny”’, p. 145.
15 Rudanovskii, “Toezdki moi po Ostrovu Sakhaliny”’, p. 145.
16 ‘Русские и Японцы живут ладно.
17 Mikhailovich Dobrotvorskii, Ainsko-Russkii Slovar ‘, Kazan, Universiteskaya Tipografiya, 1876, p. 370.
18 Rudanovskii, “Toezdki moi po Ostrovu Sakhaliny”’, p. 145.
19 Busse, Ostrov Sakhalin, p. 85.
20 The Russians commonly referred to Ainu elders and Japanese functionaries as ‘janchin’, derived from the Manchu word for ‘official’.
21 Busse, Ostrov Sakhalin, p. 86.
22 Busse, Ostrov Sakhalin, p. 86.
23 Busse, Ostrov Sakhalin, p. 71.
24 See, for example, Busse, Ostrov Sakhalin, p. 58.
25 Busse, Ostrov Sakhalin, pp. 86-87.
26 Busse, Ostrov Sakhalin, p. 87.
27 Busse, Ostrov Sakhalin, p. 87.
28 Akizuki, Nichiro Kankei to Saharintō, p. 112.
29 Busse, Ostrov Sakhalin, pp. 88; see also Akizuki, Nichiro Kankei to Saharintō, p. 112.
30 Busse, Ostrov Sakhalin, pp. 89.
31 Busse, Ostrov Sakhalin, pp. 89.
32 See Hiwa Mizuki, Jinsei Ideorogī to Ainu Tōchi, Tokyo, Yushisha, 2014, pp. 33-39.
33 Hiwa, Jinsei Ideorogī, pp. 33-34; see also Suzuki Naoko, ‘Japanese-German Mutual Perceptions in the 1860s and 1870s: The Eulenberg and Bunkyū Missions’, in Sven Saaler, Kudo Akira and Tajima Nobuo, Mutual Perceptions and Images in Japanese-German Relations, Leiden, Brill, 2017, pp. 89-109, citation from p. 98.
34 Suzuki Shigehisa, ed. Matsuura Takeshirō, Kōin Karafuto Nikki, (1860) National Archives of Japan, search no. 178-0328, pp. 26-29. Suzuki seems to have interpreted the decay of Yochite’s grave as reflecting a lack of proper respect for his elders on Setokurero’s part, but in fact, it was probably a reflection of the wide difference between Japanese and Ainu funerary customs. Japanese tradition requires regular visits to care for the graves of the dead, whereas in Ainu culture, the spirits of the dead should be left to rest undisturbed.
35 Suzuki, Kōin Karafuto Nikki, p. 27.
36 Quoted in Akizuki, Nichiro Kankei to Saharintō, p. 129.
37 See Hori and Muragaki, ‘Hori Toshitada Muragaki Norimasa Karafuto-tō Keibi Mikomisho’; Hiwa, Jinsei Ideorogī, pp. 40-41.
38 Hiwa, Jinsei Ideorogī, pp. 40-41.
39 Hiwa, Jinsei Ideorogī, pp. 42.
40 N. V. Rudanovskii, ‘Ekspeditsiya na Ov. Sakhalin’, p. 58.
41 See the collection of documents from Setokurero’s family held in the Library of Hokkaido University (accessed 10 October 2020). The relevant documents in this collection (nos. 10-13) are simply labelled ‘Year of the Boar’, using the twelve-year cycle. This could be either 1851 or 1863, or even a date earlier than 1851. Nishizuru Sadayoshi, in his 1941 Karafuto no Rekishi, interpreted this as a reference to 1851, but Setokurero clearly still held the position of elder in 1853 and 1854, so the succession documents must refer to 1863. See Nishizuru Sadayoshi, Karafuto no Rekishi, Tokyo, Kokusho Kankōkai, 1977 (original published in 1941), pp. 161-162.
42 Akizuki, Nichiro Kankei to Saharintō, p. 119.
43 Hiwa Mizuki, Jinsei Ideorogī to Ainu Tōchi.
44 Rudanovskii, “Poezdki moi po Ostrovu Sakhaliny”’, p. 146.
45 Rudanovskii’s journals indicate, that, like a number of well-to-do Ainu of that era, Setokurero probably had more than one wife; on polygyny, see Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, Illness and Healing among the Sakhalin Ainu: A Symbolic Interpretation, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, p. 25.
46 Rudanovskii, “Toezdki moi po Ostrovu Sakhaliny”’, p. 146.
47 In 1787, Ainu villagers from Tomarioro, a little to the south of Nayoro, drew a map of the west coast of Sakhalin for La Pérouse, and informed him that Sakhalin was an island with a navigable passage between it and the mainland, but a misunderstanding of later information provided by Oroch villagers from the Lower Amur region led La Pérouse to report incorrectly that the Tartar Straits were not navigable by ocean-going vessels. See Tessa Morris-Suzuki, On the Frontiers of History: Rethinking East Asian Border, Canberra, ANU Press, 2019, chapter 5.
48 Akizuki, Nichiro Kankei to Saharintō, pp. 123-125 and 132.
49 Leopold von Schrenck, Reisen und Vorschungen, St. Petersburg, Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vol. 3, part 2, p. 622.
50 Dobrotvorskii, Ainsko-Russkii Slovar’, p. 46; this passage has been translated into Japanese as meaning that the Manchus taught Yōchite to read and write their language, but this seems to be a mistranslation of the Russian word ‘gramota’, as ‘literacy’, whereas in this context it means an official document or diploma; see Nakamura Kazuyuki, ‘Chūgoku Shiryō kara Mita Ainu no Hoppō Kōeki’, lecture presented to the Ainu Minzoku Bunka Zaidan, 20-21 August, 2005, p. 148.
51 See Akizuki, Nichiro Kankei to Saharintō, p. 131
52 Bronislaw Piłsudski, ‘Selected Information on the Ainu Settlements of Sakhalin’, in Bronislaw Piłsudski, ed. Alfred F. Majewicz, The Collected Works of Bronislaw Piłsudski, vol. 1, Berlin and New York, De Gruyter Mouton, 1998, pp. 311-330, citation from p. 330.
53 Piłsudski, ‘Selected Information on the Ainu Settlements of Sakhalin’, p. 330.
54 See Tom Stoppard, Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, London, Faber and Faber, 1967.
55 For example, Nishizuru, Karafuto no Rekishi, pp. 161-162; Hora, Karafuto Shi Kenkyū, pp. 146-148; Nakamura ‘Chūgoku Shiryō’ The best account of the story is still the information given in Akizuki Toshiyuki’s Nichiro Kankei to Saharintō, particularly pp. 50, 112-113, and 129-130, on which I have drawn with gratitude. Akizuki is always conscious of the Ainu role in Japan-Russia relations; but his book is an overview of the two countries’ negotiations, so the role of Setokurero and his family occupies only a few sentences, with some of the most interesting information appearing in the footnotes.
56 Author unknown, trans. Bronislaw Piłsudski, ed. Alfred F. Majewicz, ‘Prayer to Guardian Deities upon a Journey on Foot in the Forest (from the Bay of Patience to the Valley of the River Tym)’, in Bronislaw Piłsudski, ed. Alfred F. Majewicz, The Collected Works of Bronislaw Piłsudski, vol. 2, Berlin and New York, De Gryuter Mouton, 1998, pp. 353-356. (I have made minor punctuation and grammatical adjustments for the sake of clarity).