Menashi–Kunashir rebellion

The Menashi-Kunashir rebellion or war (クナシリ・メナシの戦い, Kunashiri Menashi no tatakai) or Menashi-Kunashir battle took place in 1789 between the Ainu and the Yamato people (i.e. the ethnic Japanese) on the Shiretoko Peninsula in northeastern Hokkaido.^[1][2][3]

Through the Edo period the Matsumae clan developed the fishing industry in Hokkaido, where Yamato Japanese merchants oversaw Ainu fishers whose catch was processed and sold to the Yamato Japanese of Honshu.^[4][5] The Ainu working in this industry were forced into it, and subjected to rampant exploitation.^[4][3]

In response to the exploitation and the abuses of Ainu workers in the industry, and potentially a suspicion of poisoned sake being given to Ainu in a loyalty ceremony,^{[citation needed]} in May 1789 the Ainu attacked the Yamato on Kunashir and parts of the Menashi District, as well as at sea.^[6] More than 70 Yamato were killed. The Yamato executed 37 Ainu identified as conspirators and arrested many others.^[7]

After the battle, the Matsumae Domain commissioned the Ishūretsuzō series of portraits of twelve elders who had helped suppress the revolt.^{[citation needed]}

In literature

The battle is the subject of Majin no Umi, a children's novel by Maekawa Yasuo that received the Japanese Association of Writers for Children Prize in 1970.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Shakushain's revolt, a similar large-scale Ainu revolt against Yamato influence