Japanese-Inuit Connections
A look into cultural similarities and shared affinity
In my native homeland of Canada, there are about 70,000 Inuit, with thousands more living in Greenland and Alaska and a few in Russia.
Prior to moving to the United States when I was a child, I had spent time living in cities such as Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver, exploring the fascinating communities within and learning about the history of these lands. While I had not yet learned about my mother’s Inuit heritage when we left Canada, I had already taken Shotokan Karate classes and studied some Japanese from a book I picked up at the library.
I was always fascinated with Japanese culture, so decades later when I began to study genetics and ancestry, it was great to learn that others shared my interest, and that efforts were already underway to explore cultural links between the Japanese and Inuit communities, especially at places like the Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples in Japan.
Ancestry
While the Inuit are considered early inhabitants of North America, they are not part of the larger group known as Native Americans. The modern Inuit descend from the Thule culture as it migrated Eastward out of Alaska, with the most recent phase occurring just a few hundred years prior to the arrival of Europeans in the Americas.
This places the ancestors of the Inuit in close proximity with the Ainu, who mostly live in Hokkaido with a smaller population in Sakhalin, Russia.
The words “Ainu” and “Inu” both translate roughly into “human being” in English, and both cultures share common genetic ancestry falling under a wider group that descends from Siberia. In fact, the Katakana for these words are similar (アイヌ / イヌイット) and the Japanese pronunciation “Inuitto” can also roughly be translated into “dog person”: 犬 (dog) + 人(person) which even contain the same Kanji radical. There are also many other similarities, such as the root word “ani-” which means “brother” in both Japanese and Inuktitut (similar to “anaia” in Basque).
The above map shows the distribution of the gene responsible for adaptation to extreme cold, which is inherited largely from Denisovans. Although there is some gene flow into West Europe, most of the distribution beyond the Arctic is in East Asians and Native Americans in the Southwestern United States and in Western South America.
This is why DNA tests will often show someone from Peru having Inuit heritage, or someone from Greenland showing ancestry in Mongolia. Since these numbers are approximations and averages, and there is no such thing as “100% Inuit” or “100% Mongolian” due to everyone on Earth having admixture from numerous genetic lines, we may often find affinity to similar cultures that show up in DNA tests. These also change over time as algorithms are updated and datasets grow with new customers.
Traditions
The spiritual practices of Inuit and Ainu peoples are rooted in both shamanism and animism. Shinto, which is practiced by a large majority of Japanese people, is also a form of animism, as is the religion of the Ryukyuan people of Okinawa and surrounding islands (Ryukyuan Shinto).
The wolf plays an important part in these traditions, often appearing in creation stories and other religious contexts. The bear is also considered to be a sacred creature in Ainu and Inuit mythology.
Instruments such as the frame drum are used by shamans and performers to guide listeners through various ceremonies depending on the occasion.
Another interesting similarity is a unique style of throat singing known as Rekuhkara (Ainu) and Katajjaq (Inuit) which is performed by two women face-to-face which induces resonance between the two performers that changes and increases the intensity of the sound produced.
Food and Art
Japanese printmaking techniques began to find their way into Inuit artwork in the 1950’s when Canadian artist James Houston studied in Japan and brought the techniques to the Inuit town of Cape Dorset. This experience is documented in the book Inuit Prints: Japanese Inspiration: Early Printmaking in the Canadian Arctic.
In 2015, the famous Japanese-Canadian sushi chef Hidekazu Tojo — credited for inventing the California Roll — set out across the Arctic to teach the art of preparing sushi to Inuit communities, which was greatly welcomed and an easy adaptation for a culture rooted in eating raw food, especially seafood.
A Bright Future
Japan and Canada enjoy highly successful trade and commerce arrangements that stem naturally from shared ancestral and cultural roots. Japanese tourists rank third in all visitors to Canada, just behind the United States and Britain. There are roughly as many Japanese citizens living in Canada as there are Inuit (about 75,000), and Tokyo was the location to receive a Canadian consulate, just after Washington DC and Paris.
Travelers between Japan, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland are often welcomed into each other’s lands with open arms, and programs often exist within universities and cultural centers to foster exchange between the people of these regions. Posts on social media and discussion forums reflect the level of affinity shared between these people, who are easily able to find common ground from ancient traditions and more.
