2 Best Sights in Hokkaido, Japan

An excellent resource for information about the Ainu, this museum remains sadly unknown to many Japanese. Ainu artifacts, such as shoes of salmon skin, water containers made from animal bladders, and heavy blue-and-black embroidered coats, are on display, as well as implements used in iyomante, an Ainu ritual that sent the spirit of the bear back to the nonhuman world. There is an hour-long movie in English and a selection of tapes with traditional Ainu chants and songs.

This small but important museum puts a spotlight on Ainu clothing and other items used in sacred rites, all of it collected by the late prominent Ainu activist and Nibutani resident Shigeru Kayano. Until his death in 2006, Kayano traveled extensively, and the archive contains presents to the Ainu from other indigenous peoples. The museum is across the main road from the Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum.