Ainu Puri Director Takeshi Fukunaga On Raising Awareness of the Ainu

As Shogun was bathing in the glory of its record 18 wins at the Emmy Awards ceremony at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater in September, Japanese director Takeshi Fukunaga was caked in mud and sweat in a small village on Hokkaido. He was there with a tiny crew to shoot a bear ritual of the indigenous Ainu people of Japan’s northernmost islands that was being performed for the first time in decades.

Fukunaga plans to use the footage for a short film as a follow-up to his documentary Ainu Puri (Ainu ways) that is screening at this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival. Both the doc and the short film are far removed from the huge budgets and large-scale productions he experienced on FX’s Shogun and Max’s Tokyo Vice as the only Japan-born director to helm episodes on both acclaimed series. Fukunaga seems to move largely frictionless between the two worlds, appreciating each for what they bring. 

“Independent filmmaking always feels like home for me,” Fukunaga told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview during the Tokyo Film Festival. “It’s freer, and I’m much closer to the cast and crew.”

But he acknowledges that his experience on tentpole projects “kind of upgraded my skills as a director,” and that the financial rewards allow him to pursue his passion projects and return to his roots. The new documentary is one such labor of love.

“I was born and raised in Hokkaido, but never really had a chance to learn about the Ainu. Even when there were Ainu kids in the class, we didn’t know how to talk about it,” explained Fukunaga.

While studying filmmaking in the U.S. Fukunaga realized that nearly everyone there understood what had happened to Native Americans, while awareness among Japanese people of the plight of the Ainu people, the Indigenous ethnic group who reside in northern Japan, was much lower. Feeling a “sense of shame,” Fukunaga resolved to address it in the best way he knew how, through film.

The Ainu’s story is poignantly reminiscent of that of aboriginal folk elsewhere: lost land, language, culture and rights. “Indigenous people around the world are probably the biggest victims of the capitalist system,” said Fukunaga.

Ainu Puri doesn’t shy away from these realities, but it brims with humanity and humor, largely courtesy of the engaging presence of Shigeki Amanai, his family and local community. Amanai revived traditional Ainu salmon fishing over a decade ago, a practice nearly lost to modernity, part of his efforts to do what he can to preserve and pass on his people’s ways. But he and his friends are not afraid to mock themselves when they make use of plastic instead of hand-crafted materials to fish. Amanai’s standard offering to the sacred Ainu god of fire is a lit cigarette. 

There are inevitably more serious moments in Ainu Puri. Amanai questions why he must get a special permit from the authorities to fish, a centuries-old practice on land taken from his people by Japan when it annexed the island in 1869. He also points out that in a territorial dispute that has continued since the Second World War between Japan and Russia over the Kuril Islands to Hokkaido’s north, the Ainu, the original inhabitants, “are not even part of the conversation.”

Fukunaga’s film journey with the Ainu began with his second feature, Ainu Mosir (2020), for which he used local people rather than professional actors.

The Ainu cultural touchpoint for many Japanese people is the popular manga and anime Golden Kamuy (a kamuy is an Ainu spirit, similar to a Japanese kami). A live-action version released this year had Japanese actors playing the Ainu roles. “It’s unacceptable by international standards,” said Fukunaga.

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Determined not to romanticize or fetishize his subjects, Fukunaga confesses to struggling during the editing process, and not always getting the calls right.

Having filmed Amanai and his son performing a sword dance dressed in traditional Ainu attire usually reserved for special rituals and ceremonies, he decided to cut the scene, concerned it felt staged. But when Fukunaga showed them the edit, Amanai wanted to know what had happened to the dance sequence, which he was particularly fond of.  

“It was a moment that reminded me that not everything is about stereotypes or authenticity,” reflected Fukunaga. “Sometimes it’s just because it looks cool.”

Amanai and his son brought some of that cool to the Tokyo Film Festival opening ceremony, where they walked the red carpet in Ainu kimonos, in what Fukunaga believes is a first for the festival.

“It was a very special moment,” he added with a proud smile.