Masashi Kawakami telling a story at the Upopoy National Ainu Museum and Park in Shiraoi, Hokkaido, Japan on June 14, 2023. (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)
MASAKI Sashima gazed through the fog one recent afternoon onto the grey waters of the Tokachi River in Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island. From here, his indigenous people, the Ainu, once used spears and nets to catch the salmon they regarded as gifts from the gods.
Under Japanese law, river fishing for this salmon, an essential part of Ainu cuisine, trade and spiritual culture, has been off limits for more than a century. Sashima, 72, said it was time for his people to regain what they see as a natural right, and restore one of the last vestiges of a decimated Ainu identity.
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