リラの花忘れじ

A history drama portraying the confrontation between the indigenous Ainu people living on Japan’s northernmost main island—then called “Ezo” and now known as “Hokkaido”—and the “sisam”, the Ainu word for ethnic Japanese.

An intimate documentary about one family's endeavor to live as Ainu in today's Japan.

On the Hokkaido frontier, a war veteran and Ainu girl race against misfits and military renegades to find treasure mapped out on tattooed outlaws.

Kanto, 14, a descendant of Japan's indigenous Ainu people, decides to visit a hole in the forest — a path to the other side of the world where dead people live, hoping to see his deceased father.

TOKYO Ainu features the Ainu, an indigenous people of Japan, living in Greater Tokyo (Tokyo and its surrounding areas), who are and actively in promoting their traditional culture in a metropolitan environment away from their traditional homeland, Hokkaido. Shedding a common assumption that all Ainu live in Hokkaido, the film captures the feelings, thoughts and aspirations of Ainu people that who try to follow the Ainu way no matter where they live.

This documentary started as part of a photography project about the indigenous Ainu population in northern Japan, portraying people from tightly knit communities. They feel deeply connected by their culture and tradition. With gorgeous pictures, the directors explore how different generations of Ainu reflect on their identity after centuries of oppression.

In 1986, for the first time in 75 years, the "Chironnup Kamuy Iomante (the sending off of the spirit of the fox)" was held at Bihoro Pass, in Hokkaido. According to the Ainu's traditional beliefs, animals are "gods" called "Kamuy" who live in the "land of gods" ("Kamuimosiri"), but sometimes they come to the "land of humans" ("Ainumosiri"), to offer their meat and furs as gifts. The Ainu take care of them, and they eventually hold an "Iomante (spirit sending)". In this ceremony, people offer prayers, sing songs, and dance, and send the animal back to the "land of the gods" with food and souvenirs.