Cover not available

Article published In: Language, Culture and Society
Vol. 6:1 (2024) ► pp.80–104

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Please take her as your wife

Mediatizing indigenous Ainu in the Japanese anime, Golden Kamuy

ORCiD logo with link | St. Olaf College
Published online: 19 March 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lcs.21020.ito
Abstract
This article investigates linguistic and visual representations of the Ainu, the indigenous people of northern Japan, in Satoru Noda’s popular televised Japanese anime Golden Kamuy (GK). The study employs multimodal analysis, focusing on content, context, characters, and perspectives related to the deployment of the Ainu language using the perspectives of raciolinguistics, coloniality, and intersectionality, to examine GK’s representations of Ainu regarding two Japanese national discourses on race: the current discourse of “ethnic harmony” (or multiculturalism) and Ainu as a dying race, popularized in the early 20th century. It argues that GK unintentionally constructs a sanitized Ainu-Japanese relationship that epitomizes the discourse of ethnic harmony by erasing Japan’s colonial past. Simultaneously, GK reproduces Ainu as a dying race discourse by contrasting a young bilingual Ainu co-protagonist and her monolingual grandmother. The article discusses how advanced/backward distinctions that the Japanese elites appropriated from the 19th-century colonial discourse are reinscribed in this anime with a modern twist. It also advocates our need to raise critical questions about language, race, and power for a just society in various contexts, including popular media.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • 1.Raciolinguistic enregisterment, sociolinguistics of fiction, & intersectionality
  • 2.Ainu in modern Japan and Japanese discourses on race/ethnicity
  • 3.The uniqueness of Golden Kamuy and methodology
  • 4.Mediatizing Ainu in GK
    • 4.1Erasing the historical context
    • 4.2Reproduction of the discourse of Ainu as a dying race
  • 5.Discussion and conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (65)
References
Agha, A. (2003). The Social Life of Cultural Value. Language & Communication, 231, 231–273. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2005). Voice, Footing, Enregisterment. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 15(1), 38–59. Social Science Premium Collection. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Alim, H. S. (2016). Introducing raciolinguistics: Racing language and languaging race in hyperracial times. In H. S. Alim, J. R. Rickford, & A. F. Ball (Eds.), Raciolinguistics: How language shapes our ideas about race (pp. 1–30). Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Androutsopoulos, J. (2016). Theorizing media, mediation and mediatization. In N. Coupland (Ed.), Sociolinguistics: Theoretical debates (pp. 282–302). Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Animeju+ (2023). Goruden Kamui dai yonki 4/3 hōsō kaishi! [Golden Kamuy the fourth season starts on April 3rd!] Retrieved July 20, 2023, from [URL]
Befu, H. (1993). Nationalism and Nihonjinron. In H. Befu (Ed.), Cultural nationalism in East Asia: Representation and identity (pp. 107–135). Berkeley, Calif.: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bucholtz, M., & Lopez, Q. (2011). Performing blackness, forming whiteness: Linguistic minstrelsy in Hollywood film. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 15(5), 680–706. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Crunchyroll. (n.d.). Retrieved from [URL]
Golden Kamuy. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from [URL]
Gross, T. (2022, December 27). “Reservation Dogs” co-creator says the show gives audiences permission to laugh. NPR. [URL]
Hiramoto, M., & Park, J. S.-Y. (2010). Media intertextualities: Semiotic mediation across time and space. Pragmatics and Society, 1(2), 179–188. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hokoreru bunka o imani. Ainugo no sensei, Sekine Maya-san. (2018, October 28). Nihon keizai shinbun. [URL]
Inoue, M. (2006). Vicarious language: Gender and linguistic modernity in Japan. University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ito, R. (2022). Edutaining with indigeneity: Mediatizing Ainu bilingualism in the Japanese anime, Golden Kamuy. Language & Communication, 871, 29–43. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2021). Teach me about liberalism: Constructing social elites and the English divide in the Japanese TV drama, Massan. Discourse, Context & Media, 421, 100495. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ito, R., & Bisila, M. (2020). Blond hair, blue eyes, and “bad” Japanese: Representing foreigner stereotypes in Japanese anime. Language Awareness, 29(3–4), 286–303. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Irankarapte. (n.d). Irankarapte campaign. Retrieved from [URL]
Japan Media Arts Festival. (n.d.). The 24th Social Impact Award Manga section: Golden Kamuy by Noda Satoru, Japan. Japan Media Arts Festival, Agency for Cultural Affairs. Retrieved from [URL]
Kanako Uzawa. (n.d.). Retrieved September 22, 2021, from [URL]
Kinsui, S. (2003). Vaacharu nihongo: Yakuwarigo no nazo [Virtual Japanese: Mystery of Role Language]. Iwanami shoten.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(Ed.). (2011). Yakuwarigo kenkyū no tenkai [Development of role language research]. Kuroshio shuppan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kinsui, S., & Yamakido, H. (2015). Role language and character language. Acta Linguistica Asiatica, 5(2), 29–42. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kitahara Jirōta Mokottunas. (2020, May 4). Retrieved from [URL]
Komori, Y. (2012). Rule in the Name of “Protection”: The Vocabulary of Colonialism. In M. Mason & H. Lee (Eds.), Reading Colonial Japan (pp. 60–76). Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lawrence, B. (2004). “ Real” Indians and others: Mixed-blood urban Native peoples and indigenous nationhood. Lincoln & London: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lippi-Green, R. (1997). English with an accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maegaard, M., Milani, T. M., & Mortensen, K. K. (2019). Mediatizing intersectionality. Discourse, Context & Media, 321, 100349. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mason, M., & Lee, H. (2012). Introduction. In M. Mason & H. Lee (Eds.), Reading Colonial Japan: Text, Context, and Critique (pp. 1–18). Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McElhinny, B. (2014). Theorizing gender in sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology:Toward effective interventions in gender equality. In S. Ehrlich, M. Meyerhoff, & J. Holmes (Eds.), The Handbook of Language, Gender, and Sexuality: Handbook of Language, Gender and Sexuality (Second, pp. 48–67). Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meek, B. A. (2006). And the Injun goes “How!”: Representations of American Indian English in white public space. Language in Society, 35(1), 93–128. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2013). Voice of (White) reason: Enunciations of difference, authorship, interpellation, and jokes. In S. T. Bischoff, D. Cole, A. V. Fountain, & M. Miyashita (Eds.), Persistence of Language: Constructing and confronting the past and present in the voices of Jane H. Hill (pp. 339–363). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2020). Racing Indian Language, Languaging an Indian Race. In H. S. Alim, A. Reyes, & P. V. Kroskrity (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Language and Race. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Merskin, D. (2016). Native Americans: The Denial of Humanity. In The Routledge Companion to Media and Race (pp. 222–230). Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (MOFA) (Director). (2018, January 9). MEIJI 150th: The Origin of Fundamental Values of Japan. [URL]
Mitchell, J. G. (2020). Watching in Tongues: Multilingualism on American Television in the 21st Century. Vernon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morris-Suzuki, T. (2018). Performing Ethnic Harmony: The Japanese Government’s Plans for a New Ainu Law. The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 16(21), 1–18.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moseley, Christopher (ed.). 2010. Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, 3rd edn. Paris, UNESCO Publishing. Online version: [URL]
Nakagawa, H. (2019). Ainu bunka de yomitoku Golden Kamuy [Interpreting Golden Kamuy by Ainu culture. Tokyo: Shūēsha.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nakamura, M. (2013). Honyaku ga tsukuru nihongo: Hiroin wa “onnakotoba’ o hanashi tsuzukeru [Japanese language that translation creates: Heroines continue to speak feminine language]. Hakutakusha.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
The National Ainu Museum. (2020, July). About the museum. Retrieved from [URL]
NHK Hokkaido (2021, August 4). Upopoy kaigyō ichinen de mieta mono [What we learn from Upopoyʻs opening]. [URL]
Noda, S. (2015). Golden Kamuy (Vol. 11). Tokyo: Shūēsha.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Occhi, D. J., StrutzSreetharan, C. L., & Shibamoto-Smith, J. S. (2010). Finding Mr Right: New Looks at Gendered Modernity in Japanese Televised Romances. Japanese Studies, 30(3), 409–425. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Okazaki, T. (2019). Ainu language shift. In P. Heinrich & Y. Ōhara (Eds.), Routledge handbook of Japanese sociolinguistics (pp. 354–369). Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pietikäinen, S. (2003). Indigenous identity in print: Representations of the Sami in news discourse. Discourse & Society, 14(5), 581–609. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2016). Critical debate: Discourse, boundaries and social change. In N. Coupland (Ed.), Sociolinguistics: Theoretical Debates (pp. 263–281). Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Poplack, S. (2001). Code-switching (linguistic). International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, 121, 2062–2065. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pua, P., & Hiramoto, M. (2018). Meditatization of East Asia in James Bond films. Discourse, Context & Media, 231, 6–15. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rosa, J., & Flores, N. (2017). Unsettling Race and Language: Toward a Raciolinguistic Perspective. Language in Society, 46(5), 621–647. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Siddle, R. (2002). An epoch-making event? The 1997 Ainu Cultural Promotion Act and its impact. Japan Forum, 14(3), 405–423. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Siddle, R. M. (2009). The Ainu Indigenous people of Japan. In M. Weiner, Japan’s Minorities (2nd ed., pp. 21–39). London & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shibamoto Smith, J. S., & Occhi, D. J. (2009). The green leaves of love: Japanese romantic heroines, authentic femininity, and dialect. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 13(4), 524–546. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shimazu, R. (2018). Possibilities and issues of the Ainu cultural studies in Hokkaido: From the point of view of ESD. Bulletin of the Graduate School of Education, Hiroshima University, Part 3, Education and human science (67), 71–79. [URL]
Spiker, C. M. (2020). The Indigenous Shôjo: Transmedia Representations of Ainu Femininity in Japan’s Samurai Spirits, 1993–2019. The Journal of Anime and Manga Studies, 11, 138–168. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2023). Food as Contact Zone: Navigating the Ainu/Wajin Encounter in Golden Kamuy (2014–). Verge: Studies in Global Asias, 9(2), 245–271. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stamou, A. G. (2018). Sociolinguistics of fiction. Discourse, Context & Media, 231, 1–5. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Suzuki, S. (2022). Asian masculinity celebrated and otherised: Representations of Chinese and Korean men in Japanese written media. Gender & Language, 16(2), 173–194. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tomida, D. (2020). Future is MINE -Ainu My Voice-. [URL]
TV anime Golden Kamuy official site (n.d.). TV anime, Golden Kamuy Official site. Retrieved from [URL]
Ueda, M. (2021, July 21). Nittere “Sukkiri” ni Hōsō rinri ihan Ainu Hatsugen de BPO: Asahi Newspaper Digital. [Ainu statement of Nippon TV “Sukkiri” violates broadcasting ethics: BPO: Asahi Newspaper Digital] [URL]
Umeda, S. (2019, August 5). Japan: New Ainu Law Becomes Effective | Global Legal Monitor [Web page]. //[URL]
Uzawa, K., & Watson, M. K. (2020). Urespa (“growing together”): The remaking of Ainu-Wajin relations in Japan through an innovative social venture. Asian Anthropology, 19(1), 53–71. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wong, A. D., Su, H.-Y., & Hiramoto, M. (2021). Complicating raciolinguistics: Language, Chineseness, and the Sinophone. Language & Communication, 761, 131–135. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue