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«IZVESTIYA IRKUTSKOGO GOSUDARSTVENNOGO UNIVERSITETA». SERIYA «ISTORIYA»
«THE BULLETIN OF IRKUTSK STATE UNIVERSITY». SERIES «HISTORY»
ISSN 2222-9124 (Print)

List of issues > Series «History». 2023. Vol 46

Kuril Ainu in Russo-Japanese Relations in the Second Half of 18th Century: Communication Aspect

Author(s)
V. V. Shchepkin
Abstract
The article examines one aspect of the role of the Kuril Ainu in the establishment of Russian-Japanese relations in the second half of the 18th century, namely their role in maintaining communication between the Russian and Japanese authorities and reporting about significant events. The aim of the study is to establish how information about internal events of the two countries could penetrate into Russia and Japan in the absence of direct bilateral relations, and to confirm the assumption that the Kuril Ainu played a key role in this process. The sources of the study are the journals of Russian expeditions to the southern Kuril Islands and Hokkaido in 1768–1769, 1778–1779 and 1792–1793, other documents related to their organization and preparation, as well as notes by Japanese officials on expeditions to the southern Kuril Islands in 1785–1791. The introduction briefly characterizes the Kuril Ainu, who were not a single sub-ethnic group but two communities – the North Kuril Ainu, who inhabited the northern and middle Kuril Islands, and the South Kuril Ainu, who lived in the southern Kurils and northeastern Hokkaido. Urup Island served as a place of meetings, trade contacts and information exchange between them. The main part of the article consists of two paragraphs. The first one is devoted to the rebellion of the Ainu on Kunashir Island and northeast Hokkaido in 1789, the penetration of information about it into Russia, as well as the process of clarification of the circumstances of the rebellion by the Russian side. The second paragraph describes an episode with the penetration into Japan of information about the impending return of shipwrecked Japanese by a Russian expedition in 1792. These two examples show how the exchange of information between Russia and Japan could have taken place in the absence of direct bilateral relations: it is confirmed that it took place through contacts between two groups of Kuril Ainu on the island of Urup.
About the Authors
Shchepkin Vasilii Vladimirovich, Candidate of Sciences (History), Senior Researcher Scientist, Institute of Oriental Manuscripts RAS, 18, Dvortsovaya emb., St. Petersburg, 191186, Russian Federation, е-mail: vshepkin@gmail.com
For citation
Shchepkin V.V. Kuril Ainu in Russo-Japanese Relations in the Second Half of 18th Century: Communication Aspect. The Bulletin of Irkutsk State University. Series History, 2023, vol. 46, pp. 73-83. https://doi.org/10.26516/2222-9124.2023.46.73 (in Russian)
Keywords
Russo-Japanese relations, Ainu, Indigenous peoples, expeditions, Kuril Islands, Japan.
UDC
93+94
DOI
https://doi.org/10.26516/2222-9124.2023.46.73
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