8housesofelixir
Emperor
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- Jul 15, 2020
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Random fun fact: Ainu people wearing Chinese-style official garbs is actually kind of historically accurate.
In Qing times, the Qing emperor would send Qing official garbs to the Tungusic tribes (mostly the Ulch people) living in the Amur River valley as gifts. However, for these hunter-gatherer tribes, the silk garbs were not very useful besides prestige goods, so they traded them away to neighboring tribes. The neighboring tribes then traded the slik grabs away to their neighbors, and eventually, these slik products moved around the Okhotsk and eventually ended up in the Ainu lands.
The Ainu people then sold the silk garbs to the Japanese, which was part of the important Edo Japanese-Ainu trade at the time. The Japanese were amazed (and puzzled) that the Ainus had such impressive silk products, and they called these garbs "Ezo Brocades" 蝦夷錦, Ezo being the old exonym for the Ainu in Japanese.
The Japanese desire for more precious Ainu products eventually resulted in the Japanese takeover and colonization of Hokkaido in the 1700s and 1800s, but that's another story.
In Qing times, the Qing emperor would send Qing official garbs to the Tungusic tribes (mostly the Ulch people) living in the Amur River valley as gifts. However, for these hunter-gatherer tribes, the silk garbs were not very useful besides prestige goods, so they traded them away to neighboring tribes. The neighboring tribes then traded the slik grabs away to their neighbors, and eventually, these slik products moved around the Okhotsk and eventually ended up in the Ainu lands.
The Ainu people then sold the silk garbs to the Japanese, which was part of the important Edo Japanese-Ainu trade at the time. The Japanese were amazed (and puzzled) that the Ainus had such impressive silk products, and they called these garbs "Ezo Brocades" 蝦夷錦, Ezo being the old exonym for the Ainu in Japanese.
The Japanese desire for more precious Ainu products eventually resulted in the Japanese takeover and colonization of Hokkaido in the 1700s and 1800s, but that's another story.
