Opened in 1916, the museum calls itself Japan’s oldest Ainu museum and has been run privately for more than a century. Its exterior was designed by the Ainu sculptor Bikky Sunazawa.[37][14]
A chise house thatched with bamboo grass stands in the grounds, and the curator lights its hearth every day. The museum still gives its address in Ainu: Yaunmosir Chiwpet-kotan.[14]
Book a workshop to play or make the mukkur mouth harp, or to try Ainu embroidery, Ainu cooking or traditional dance. In June the museum marks Chiri Yukie’s birthday with “The Day the Silver Drops Fall”.[38][32]
The carved wooden bear, Hokkaido’s classic souvenir, began among the Chikabumi Ainu, who carved to make a living.[16]
Read the storyChiw-pet: the river before the city
