Menasunkur Ainu (original) (raw)

The Menasunkur Ainu (Katakana: メナシクル) are an Ainu subgroup living on the eastern Hokkaido coast near Shizunai. Shakushain, the leader of the Menasunkur Ainu, led the Shakushain Revolts, the first large-scale attempt by the Ainu to dislodge the encroaching Japanese onto Hokkaido. The meaning of menas-un-kur is "the eastern people"; there is a theory that the Ainu adapted the concept "east" from Japanese peoples and adapted it into their name later.