On sacred girdles and matrilineal descent in Ainu society

This study examines a mysterious item of Ainu women’s undergarment-upsor kut, or chakhchanki, which, in ethnographic collections and scholarly texts, is described as "belt of modesty". A comparative and historical analysis of Ainu women’s girdles from Hokkaido and Sakhalin was carried out. They are represented in very small numbers at museums of Russia, Japan, and the UK. These artifacts are rare, as women had to preserve their upsor kut (chakhchanki) from being seen by strangers, especially males. They became part of late 19th to early 20th century ethnographic collections, because scholars, such as B.O. Pilsudski and N.G. Munro, had been admitted to the natives ’confidence. In the past, Japan’s hard-line policy of assimilation for the natives, the banning of Ainu language and traditional culture, and the introduction of schooling and public health service resulted in an even greater secrecy of Ainu women and the gradual decline of the tradition of wearing secret belts, precluding field studies. The analysis of Ainu linguistic and folkloric materials analyzed by Japanese and European researchers sheds light on the function and meaning of these items of women’s undergarment. In essence, there were two important functions: determining the maternal lineage and protecting the family and the clan. This suggests that remnants of matrilineal exogamy existed in Ainu patriarchal society. They eventually disappeared in the late 19th to early 20th century.