Ainu cuisine is the cuisine of the ethnic Ainu in Japan. The cuisine differs markedly from that of the Wajin, or ethnic Japanese. Ainu cuisine, for instance, does not prepare raw meats like sashimi instead preferring to boil, roast or cure meat. The island of Hokkaido in northern Japan is where most Ainu live today; however, they once inhabitated most of the Kurile islands, the southern half of Sakhalin island, and parts of northern Honshu Island. Up to 1 million descendants of interbreeding between Ainu and Wajin live throughout Japan. Until recently they were thought to be exclusively a hunter-gatherer society, but recent excavations on the Hokkaido University campus have revealed extensive fossilized grains by using something called the flotation method. Ashiri Kotan Nakanoshima and Rera Cise are the only Ainu restaurants in the world.

Ingredients of the Ainu

Crops

• Deccan grass
• Foxtail and Chinese millet
• Wheat
• Buckwheat
• Beans

Wild plants

• Kitopiro, a wild garlic grass (commonly known as ギョウジャニンニク to the ethnic Japanese)

Animals

• Bear
• Salmon (usually snout)
• Seals
• Whales
• Deer
• Raccoon dogs

Much of the legend of their hunting prowess has been handed down to the current generation in the form of songs and epic poems from Ainu music.

Recipes and dishes of note in Ainu cuisine

• Kitokamu, a sausage flavored with kitopiro
• Munchiro sayo, millet porridge

Sources

• Ainu Agriculture
• Origins of Ainu
• English site of the Ainu Museum

Native cuisine | Japanese cuisine | Ainu