The fact that the new Ghost of Yotei, which will serve as a sequel to Ghost of Tsushima, was presented with music more typical of a western than the usual Japanese tunes is no coincidence. What happened at Mount Yotei in Japan in the 17th century was the prelude to what would happen 200 years later on the other side of the Pacific with the indigenous conflict in North America.
Just as it happened in the Wild West, in a story that the world of cinema has taken the task of telling us over and over again, Japan also had its own purge against a population with its own culture, language, and religion. This is the story of the Ainu and their struggle against Feudal Japan that Ghost of Yotei, the new open-world game for PS5, seems to want to tell.
The Japanese tribe of Mount Yotei
Known as the Mount Fuji of Hokkaido and now a tourist attraction for its beautiful views, numerous excursions surrounded by untouched nature, and the challenging ascent to its peak, Mount Yotei had a much deeper meaning in the past among the members of the tribe that inhabited the area.
Although dating the origin of the Ainu is difficult, archaeological remains of this particular tribe date back to 14,000 B.C., when the Jomon culture settled on the island of Hokkaido spreading its culture and customs. While the Japanese people evolved in one direction, that culture and the resulting Ainu tribe evolved in another very different direction.
If the Japanese focused on agriculture and had shaped Buddhism and Shintoism, the Ainu, like the Native Americans, were a people connected to nature who relied on hunting, fishing, and trade as their main way of life. Just like their customs and language, the religion of this tribe was also different.
The Ainu were an animistic people who believed that everything around them had its own spirit, so even though their survival depended on hunting and gathering, it was always done with a sense of respect and unity towards their surroundings. Mount Yotei, for example, was the embodiment of everything they revered, and as a now dormant volcano, it represented natural forces in the form of fire, water, and earth.
As their resources were the key to their existence, they paid homage to the sacred mountain while striving to maintain a balance between humans and nature through sustainable practices that did not anger the spirits. However, when Japan set its sights on expanding to the island, the Ainu saw how all the respect that their people had passed down from generation to generation over millennia was in danger.
The conflict behind Ghost of Yotei
Coinciding with the Meiji period, what had been a timid communion and collaboration turned into a full-blown colonial invasion. The Japanese government, seeking to expand its territory to promote agriculture in other regions and sustain its expansion and development, targeted Hokkaido.
Far from seeking collaboration, this meant the struggle of a people of nearly 30 million Japanese, against an Ainu population that remained in small tribes and communities of about 20,000 to 30,000 people. So when forced communion by prohibiting their practices, language, and religion did not work, Japan resorted to attack.
Using the strength of the army and its weapons, the Japanese government took control of Ainu lands and forced them to practice agriculture on them, breaking the bond of balance with nature that they sought to maintain. The fact that the Ainu lived among isolated tribes made this fight more difficult, but when the chief of one of those tribes managed to unite them to face the Japanese, gaining ground against the expansion, the feudal government went all in.
By deceiving Shakushain to attend peace negotiations, the chief was assassinated, ending the revolt and clearing the way for the Japanese conquest of Hokkaido. From that point on, a period of marginalization and repression began in which the Ainu would lose almost all of their territory and population.
It was not until 2008 when, after a resurgence of the few Ainu still left in Japan seeking justice for the atrocities their people had been subjected to, the Japanese government officially recognized the Ainu as an indigenous minority. The first step in a long struggle that, to this day, seeks forgiveness and the restoration of the rights of their people.
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