Ethnological Study of Frederick Starr's Ainu Collections

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[1] On the basis of information elucidated through the international scientific research project on Ainu Collections in North American Museums, we have learned that Frederick Starr's Ainu collections are now housed in The Brooklyn Museum, Logan Museum of Anthropology(Beloit College), University of Chicago Library, and University of Oregon Library and Art Museum.[2] Analysis of accession papers and Starr's fieldnotes as well as some research results by Prof. Josef Kreiner and his associates on Ainu collections in Western Europe, indicate the following aspects of Ainu culture changes after the Meiji Restoration ;(1) Types of artifacts suggest that rates of acculturation among the Ainu were not geographically uniform, and that the Saru River Ainu, who enjoyed the highest population density in Jokkaodo, were also experiencing rapid cultural changes during the last decade of the Meiji Era ;(2) Contents of Starr's fieldnotes are rich sources of information on Ainu ways of life during the early 1900s, exactly prior to systematic efforts by Japanese scholars to study and secure the Ainu culture and their material aspects.(3) Both artifact types and contents of fieldnotes indicate that the decade around 1910 was the last state when the Hidaka Ainu, especially those along the Saru River, barely managed to maintain their traditional ways of life. This is clearly suggested types of artifacts collected before the World War I.Collections secured afterwards, especially after the World War I, reflect gradual deteriorations of their traditional ways.(4) Frederick Starr's Ainu collections which were secured between 1904 and 1912, therefore, constitute the basic sources of scientific information by an anthropologist on culture changes or acculturation processes among the HokkaidoAinu.