What is Shakushain’s Revolt

This chapter attempts to find how the Matagi hunters of Tohoku region in Japan contacted the Ainu hunters and how the Matagi language absorbed the Ainu vocabulary. The Ainu hunters contacted the Japanese hunters there on a routine basis because the Ainu people settled down in Tohoku region before the Old Japanese period and have lived there since. The Japanese hunters borrowed some Ainu words necessary for living, hunting, and rituals in the mountains after the Middle Japanese period. The term Matagi, however, might have been employed long before the Middle Japanese period. During the Middle Japanese period the Yamato state came to dominate the entire Tohoku area. Although some Ainu adjusted to the Japanese living environment there, the rest probably escaped up toward Hokkaido. Hence, the Ainu people became less and less in Tohoku region. Eventually the Ainu words remained mainly in the Matagi language, although they are never spoken again.