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Akanko

■Akan National Park

This was Japan’s second national park, and it’s easy to see why it received such recognition. A geological marvel, the park contains no less than 22 volcanoes, as well as three caldera or crater lakes, each of which is unique.

The most visited lake is Akan-ko. Akan-ko is famous for the fuzzy green algae known in Japanese as marimo, which grows only here and in a handful of other places around the world. Marimo forms fuzzy green balls, which grow very slowly over time, reaching a foot in diameter after 200 years or so. Smaller marimo in glass bottles are a popular souvenir, showing up on desktops and in windows throughout Japan. Akan-ko is also home to Akan-ko onsen, a small hot spring resort village with a number of ryokan and minshuku where travelers can stay. The Ainu Kotan village is also located here, though the Ainu who lived in this area were historically closer to Kussharo-ko, another of the National Park’s lakes. Nevertheless, the village is a good place to see Ainu handicrafts. The thatch-roofed lodge past the souvenir shops is also an excellent place to see Ainu dances accompanied by traditional instruments. The other two lakes are less visited, but certainly no less interesting, than Akan-ko. Kussharo-ko, in addition to being one of Japan’s largest alpine lakes, is also geothermally active, with bubbling hot springs near enough to the shore in places that visitors can dig holes in the sand and bask in hot water right next to the beach.

Mashu-ko is amazing. Ringed by steep rock cliffs, the lake is inaccessible and can only be viewed from two scenic overlooks. It’s a deep, crescent shaped crater lake and one of the most pristine bodies of fresh-water on earth. Interestingly, despite the fact that no water visibly flows either into or out of the lake, its level remains constant, a fact which prompted the Ainu to call Mashu-ko the “devil’s lake.” The stunted, wind-twisted trees that overlook the lake in places, as well as the mist that often wreaths the surface of the water, lend Mashu-ko an otherworldly aspect that isn’t easily forgotten.

■The Ainu

Similar in some ways to the Basques of Spain, Japan’s Ainu people are an indigenous people of obscure origin, with a unique culture and a language apparently unrelated to any other, who have been pushed to the fringes of their ancestral territory by a dominant culture that has not always been especially welcoming.

No one is sure where the Ainu’s ancient ancestors may have lived before arriving in the Japanese islands. The theory of European origins, still advanced from time to time, has been satisfactorily dismissed, and other current theories link them to populations as diverse as the Tibetans, Andaman Islanders, Australian aboriginals and the peoples of Okinawa. The Ainu themselves often claim a link to the ancient Jomon culture of Japan, and it’s known that at one time they inhabited all four of the archipelago ’s major islands. Japanese incursion into their homelands, punctuated by a series of wars in which the Ainu were invariably defeated, pushed them north to Hokkaido, where they were relatively secure until the Meiji era drive to colonize and exploit that island.

Their language, too, appears unrelated to any other living family of languages. Though the Ainu language in Japan and Sakhalin Island may once have had as many as 19 dialects, today it is extremely endangered, with second language learners vastly outnumbering native speakers. Some researchers put the number of native speakers at less than 1,000 across all of Hokkaido, and the last Sakhalin speaker died in 1996. Even the number of Ainu is difficult to determine, with estimates varying roughly between 24,000 to 150,000, very few of whom are “pure” blooded. Historically a stocky, famously hirsute people, centuries of intermarriage with Japanese (often encouraged by the Ainu themselves) has meant that many self-identifying modern Ainu are physically indistinguishable from Japanese.

The Ainu were a semi-nomadic people, practicing hunting, trapping and fishing and living in small villages that were periodically abandoned. Both sexes practiced extensive tattooing, and the men were well known for their wonderful beards. The religion, practiced sporadically today, was animistic, with all objects having an indwelling kamuy, or spirit. The bear was especially significant, and the most important religious ritual was iyomante, in which a young bear was sacrificed and its spirit sent home to the gods with a feast and dancing.

Under Meiji era policies, attempts were made to force the Ainu into agricultural pursuits, and many were subjected to near slavery conditions in Hokkaido’s fisheries. Use of the language was discouraged, and the accumulation of hardship and disease was devastating. It’s thought that many modern Japanese of Ainu ancestry may not be aware of their heritage at all, family histories having been deliberately hidden from children to prevent discrimination. However, the news for the Ainu is not all bad. In 1997, the Japanese government formally acknowledged the Ainu’s status as an indigenous and minority people. Though the language is critically endangered, various efforts are underway to preserve and pass it on to future generations. A large number of civic and political groups pursue agendas on behalf of the Ainu, albeit it with somewhat limited success. Associations to preserve cultural traditions have also appeared or been strengthened in a number of communities, and even the iyomante is still practiced in places. It’s hard to say what the future holds for the Ainu, but they are an essential part of Japanese culture and history in the largest sense, and one certainly hopes that their efforts to sustain and pass on their culture will gain more attention and support in coming years.

●Lake Akanko/Ainu Kotan Village
>>Access
Kushiro Airport ====(70 min. by bus or car)====
Lake Akanko/Ainu Kotan Village

JR Kushiro Station====(100 min. by bus or car)====
Lake Akanko/Ainu Kotan Village

>>Websites
Akan Tourism Association & Community Development Promotion Organization (English, Korean, Chinese)

●Onnechise
>>Fee
Adult (Junior high and older): 1,000 yen, Elementary student: 500 yen

>>Schedule
May - Oct. : from 11:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m. 9:00 p.m. (30 min.)

Nov. - April: once at night (contact required for detailed schedule)

-Matt Mangham

>>Hotels and Ryokans near Akanko
>>Tours in Hokkaido