The original people from Japan

[Elizabeth van Kampen]

Hi friends,

I love to know a lot more about the original people from Japan. I do know that there are still some of them living in today's Japan.
I believe that they are taller than the average Japanese. I know, or better, I think to know that they are called Emishi's.
Where do they live, and how many are there left? What type of jobs do they usualy have? What is their faith, do they follow the Shinto religion or are they Buddhists?

I sincerely hope that someone will tell me more about the Emish�'s or maybe there is another name? I am very interested!!

Elizabeth

[Maciamo]

I suppose you are referring to the Ainu people (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ainu_people). Very few (if any) pure Ainu have survived to this day. The last Ainu speaking people live in Hokkaido. However, most Japanese have partlu Ainu blood from centuries of mixing together. Most of the people who call themselves Ainu follow an animist religion (similar to Shintoism).

[RockLee]

Boy do they look angry in that picture ! :eek:
It's also remarkable that they look rather Indian/aboriginal-like than Japanese :o

[Elizabeth van Kampen]

I suppose you are referring to the Ainu people (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ainu_people). Very few (if any) pure Ainu have survived to this day. The last Ainu speaking people live in Hokkaido. However, most Japanese have partlu Ainu blood from centuries of mixing together. Most of the people who call themselves Ainu follow an animist religion (similar to Shintoism).

Hi Maciamo,

Thank you for your answer!! Hope you don't mind that I also went to Google to see if I could find just a little more about these people.
This is what I found: http://www.ishipress.com/aomori.htm


Best regards from Holland,

Elizabeth

[Sensuikan San]

Boy do they look angry in that picture ! :eek:
It's also remarkable that they look rather Indian/aboriginal-like than Japanese :o

I agree ... on both counts!

I am particularly interested on how much they do, indeed, have an (Australian) Aboriginal appearance. I would also like to see more of their artwork and learn more of their language/beliefs to see if there is a connection with the Pacific NW of Canada/USA.

Fascinating!

... am a little worried about their flag, though!

Is it just me - or is it a little .... phallic ..... in its symbolism .... ?:biggrin:

ジョン

[anjusan]

@ Sensuikan San - regarding the flag... it is probably not a true representation of the Ainu peoples considering that it was only designed in 1973... what do you think?

[newasian]

Hi friends,

I love to know a lot more about the original people from Japan. I do know that there are still some of them living in today's Japan.
I believe that they are taller than the average Japanese. I know, or better, I think to know that they are called Emishi's.
Where do they live, and how many are there left? What type of jobs do they usualy have? What is their faith, do they follow the Shinto religion or are they Buddhists?

I sincerely hope that someone will tell me more about the Emish・s or maybe there is another name? I am very interested!!

Elizabeth


Three major lineages of Asian Y chromosomes: implications for the peopling of east and southeast Asia

Atsushi Tajima1, I-Hung Pan2, Goonnapa Fucharoen3, Supan Fucharoen4, Masafumi Matsuo5, Katsushi Tokunaga6, Takeo Juji7, Masanori Hayami8, Keiichi Omoto9 and Satoshi Horai1,

Received: 14 August 2001 / Accepted: 22 October 2001 / Published online: 28 November 2001

Abstract. DNA variation on the non-recombining portion of the Y chromosome was examined in 610 male samples from 14 global populations in north, east, and southeast Asia, and other regions of the world. Eight haplotypes were observed by analyses of seven biallelic polymorphic markers (DYS257108, DYS287, SRY4064, SRY10831, RPS4Y711, M9, and M15) and were unevenly distributed among the populations. Maximum parsimony tree for the eight haplotypes showed that these haplotypes could be classified into four distinct lineages characterized by three key mutations: an insertion of the Y Alu polymorphic (YAP) element at DYS287, a C-to-G transversion at M9, and a C-to-T transition at RPS4Y711. Of the four lineages, three major lineages (defined by the allele of YAP+, M9-G, and RPS4Y-T, respectively) accounted for 98.6% of the Asian populations studied, indicating that these three paternal lineages have contributed to the formation of modern Asian populations. Moreover, phylogenetic analysis revealed three monophyletic Asian clusters, which consisted of north Asian, Japanese, and Han Chinese/southeast Asian populations, respectively. Coalescence analysis in the haplotype tree showed that the estimated ages for three key mutations ranged from 53,000 to 95,000 years, suggesting that the three lineages were separated from one another during early stages of human evolutionary history. The distribution patterns of the Y-haplotypes and mutational ages for the key markers suggest that three major groups with different paternal ancestries separately migrated to prehistoric east and southeast Asia.


So there are three groups:
1) North asian
2) Japanese
3) Han Chinese/southeast Asian populations

[newasian]

http://www.genekotech.com/dnatype/lab/pdf/Shin2000.pdf

Y chromosomal DNA variation in east Asian populations and its potential for inferring the peopling of Korea.

Kim W, Shin DJ, Harihara S, Kim YJ.

Department of Biology, Dankook University, Cheonan, Choong-Nam, Republic of Korea. wookkim@ansco.dankook.ac.kr

We have examined variations of five polymorphic loci (DYS287, DXYS5Y, SRY465, DYS19, and DXYS156Y) on the Y chromosome in samples from a total of 1260 males in eight ethnic groups of East Asia. We found four unique haplotypes constructed from three biallelic markers in these samples of East Asians. The Japanese population was characterized by a relatively high frequency of either the haplotype I-2b (-/Y2/T) or II-1 (+/Y1/C). These dual patterns of the distribution of Y chromosomes (I-2b/II-1) were also found in Korea, although they were present at relatively low frequencies. The haplotype II-1 was present in Northeast Asian populations (Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and Mongolians) only, except for one male from the Thai population among the Southeast Asian populations (Indonesians, Philippines, Thais, and Vietnamese). The Japanese were revealed to have the highest frequency of this haplotype (27.5%), followed by Koreans (2.9%), Mongolians (2.6%), and mainland Chinese (2.2%). In contrast, the frequency of the haplotype I-2b was found to be 17.1% in the Japanese, 9.5% in Indonesian, 6.3% in Korean, 3.8% in Vietnamese, and 2.7% in Thai samples. These findings suggested that the chromosomes of haplotype I-2b were likely derived from certain areas of Northeast Asia, the region closest to Southeast Asia. Phylogenetic analysis using the neighbor-joining tree also reflected a general distinction between Southeast and Northeast Asian populations. The phylogeny revealed a closer genetic relationship between Japanese and Koreans than to the other surveyed Asian populations. Based on the result of the dual patterns of the haplotype distribution, it is more likely that the population structure of Koreans may not have evolved from a single ancient population derived from Northeast Asians, but through dual infusions of Y chromosomes entering Korea from two different waves of East Asians.

PMID: 10721667 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

[newasian]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=14505036&dopt=Abstract
Human Genetics

© Springer-Verlag 2003
10.1007/s00439-003-1019-0

Original Investigation
Y-chromosomal DNA haplogroups and their implications for the dual origins of the Koreans
Han-Jun Jin1, Kyoung-Don Kwak1, Michael F. Hammer2, Yutaka Nakahori3, Toshikatsu Shinka3, Ju-Won Lee3, Feng Jin4, Xuming Jia4, Chris Tyler-Smith5 and Wook Kim1

(1) Department of Biological Sciences, Dankook University, 330-714 Cheonan, Korea
(2) Laboratory of Molecular Systematics and Evolution, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
(3) Department of Public Health, School of Medicine, University of Tokushima, 770-0085 Tokushima, Japan
(4) Institute of Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
(5) Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3QU, UK


Received: 18 April 2003 Accepted: 31 July 2003 Published online: 18 September 2003

Abstract We have analyzed eight Y-chromosomal binary markers (YAP, RPS4Y711, M9, M175, LINE1, SRY+465, 47z, and M95) and three Y-STR markers (DYS390, DYS391, and DYS393) in 738 males from 11 ethnic groups in east Asia in order to study the male lineage history of Korea. Haplogroup DE-YAP was found at a high frequency only in Japan but was also present at low frequencies in northeast Asia, including 2.5% in Korea, suggesting a northern origin for these chromosomes. Haplogroup C-RPS4Y711 was present in Korea and Manchuria at moderate frequencies: higher than in populations from southeast Asia, but lower than those in the northeast, which may imply a northern Asian expansion of these lineages, perhaps from Mongolia or Siberia. The major Y-chromosomal expansions in east Asia were those of haplogroup O-M175 (and its sublineages). This haplogroup is likely to have originated in southern east Asia and subsequently expanded to all of east Asia. The moderate frequency of one sublineage in the Koreans, haplogroup O-LINE1 (12.5%), could be a result of interaction with Chinese populations. In conclusion, the distribution pattern of Y-chromosomal haplogroups reveals the complex origin of the Koreans, resulting from genetic contributions involving the northern Asian settlement and range expansions mostly from southern-to-northern China.

[EdZiomek]

Elizabeth, I thank you for your question and the wonderful discussion.

Maciamo"s photo reference showed what seems to be "angry" people in a 1904 photograph. The "chief" seems to be wearing a fashion design (swirling snakes?, counter direction to each other?) which is particularly interesting to me, in that it strongly reflects the design on pottery found in the Tiwanaku ruins of the Andes, South America.

http://www.jqjacobs.net/andes/images/puma.jpg
and
http://www.jqjacobs.net/andes/tiwanaku.html

I had been researching this information for a discussion on a chinese discussion group website...

"Ancient Chinese "Dawanku", vs Tiwanaku of Peru"

The Dawanaku of China were neolithic and apparently pre-Han, and may have even been "Ainu", and who knows, may have been the originators of "Tiwanaku"... my discussion was not well received, I have to warn you.

also note: I am only the level of "tourist" cab driver, not an academic or scientist.

But the Ainu are a hugely interesting subject, and I am bolstered by other comments such as ....

"Craig's quote" on that Chinese website.....

"I've often wondered why it was that American Indian names sounded like provinces in China: Hopi, Hopei, Souix, Xiu, Apache, Pache, Maya, Miao, PiLu, Peru, Shan, Chan, Guatama, Guatemala... or why the Hawaiian word for 'knot' (Kipu'u) was also the Quechuan word for 'knot' (Quipu) and both were also the word for a knotted cord record-keeping device. I ponder why the Mayan word for 'spirit breath' (ik) is the mirror image of the Chinese word for spirit breath (ki), and the Mayan word for ritual (ok) is the mirror of the Chinese word for ritual (ko), or why a fourth century Chinese teachers name (paoputzu) is prounounced like the Mayan Book of Council (Popul Vuh)...or why, in that same Book of Council, there is the line 'The Sun that can be seen is not the real sun' which mimics the famous line from the Tao Te Ching; 'The Tao that can be known is not the real Tao'. Coincidences? Or co-incidences?
Intuitively, we know that there is something going on here that is not taught in sixth grade history. Find out what it is."

And also note... if Shintoism is an animist religion... how close does it come to Hinduism and ancient Egyptian? That is my own personal pursuit... I don't know, but now I am anxious to find out.

Great question, great posts...

[canadian_kor]

The Ainu of Japan basically look like very hairy Native Americans. I have a very good book (with really nice photographs) on the Ainu edited by Chisato O. Dubreuil and William Fitzhugh. There is no doubt that the Ainu are very distinctive from their Mongoloid counterparts in the rest of the Japanese islands.

I also browsed through a book at school examining the DNA of ancient Jomon skeletons. What is interesting is that they compared these ancient Jomon DNA with modern Japanese DNA (from Osaka and Tokyo). The researcher found out that the modern Japanese people from Osaka and Tokyo have very similar genotypes with modern-day Koreans and Tungusic tribesmen of Siberia. The ancient Jomon genotype was on the other side of the scale. While the modern-day Ainu genotype was half-way between ancient Jomon and modern Japanese. From this I gather that almost all the Ainu living in Hokkaido today have substantial amount of Tungusic/Mongoloid DNA.

If what is stated above is true, my guess is that either 1) the ancient Jomon people were very Caucasoid (practically European looking), or 2) the ancient Jomon people were very Australoid (like the Dravidians in India today).

[Grimmo]

Japanese seems to be fairly unique, but they are not pure.
I agree with the previous posts in that japanese can be split
into jomon and yayoi. Jomon/Ainu seems to be the original
inhabitant of islands, and they still seem to live in the
northern and southern parts of islands.

Genetics wise, YAP+ is unique in japanese, and no other east asian has that.

http://www.geocities.com/londonross1/china3.png
Fig. 2. Frequency distributions of the eight Y-chromosome haplotypes for the 14 global populations, with their approximate geographic locations. The frequencies of the eight haplotypes are shown as colored pie charts (for color codes, see upper left insert). JP Japanese

Only four Japanese populations exhibited ht1 (defined only by YAP+) at various frequencies (also see Table 1). The highest frequency (87.5%) was found in JP-Ainu, followed by JP-Okinawa (55.6%) living in the southwestern islands of Japan, JP-Honshu (36.6%), and JP-Kyushu (27.9%). The ht2 haplotype (defined by YAP+/M15+) was found in only two males, one each from Thais and Thai-Khmers; ht3 (defined by YAP+/SRY4064-A) was completely absent in the Asian populations examined, whereas Jewish in the Uzbekistan and African populations had this haplotype with a frequency of 28.3% and 100%, respectively. Thus, the YAP+ lineage was found in restricted populations among Asian populations, consistent with previous reports (Hammer and Horai 1995; Hammer et al. 1997; Shinka et al. 1999).

The ht4 haplotype (defined only by M9-G) was widely distributed among north, east, and southeast Asian populations, except for the Ainu. This haplotype was frequent (60.5%) in overall Asian populations (Table 1). Among them, the Han Chinese and southeast Asian populations were characterized by high frequencies ranging from 81.0% to 96.0%. In contrast to ht4, ht5 (defined by M9-G/DYS257108-A) and ht6 (defined by M9-G/DYS257108-A/SRY10831-A) were small contributors to Asian populations. The highest frequency of ht5 was observed in Nivkhi (19.0%) and that of the ht6 in Thai-Khmers (10.8%). The ht5 haplotype is widely distributed among European, Asian, and Native American populations and is proposed to be one of the candidates for founder haplotypes in the Americas (Karafet et al. 1999). Furthermore, high frequencies of ht6 were observed in north Europe, central Asia, and India (Karafet et al. 1999). Thus, the presence of ht5 in Nivkhi may account for the founder effect of peopling of the Americas.

The ht7 haplotype (defined by RPS4Y-T) was also widely distributed throughout Asia with the exceptions of Malaysia and the Philippines, whereas this was absent in two non-Asian populations. The highest frequency of ht7 was found in Buryats (83.6%), followed by Nivkhi (38.1%). Thus, the geographic distribution of ht7 in Asia appears to contrast with that of ht4.

Only eight individuals (1.4%) in Asia belonged to ht8, which was the major haplotype in Jewish population (Table 1). The ht8 haplotype may not be useful for inferring population relatedness among Asian populations because it is defined by no mutations. Additional Y-polymorphic markers such as M89 and M168 (Underhill et al. 2000; Ke et al. 2001) will be needed to investigate details of the formation of modern Asian populations.

[Grimmo]

So what does Ainu and Northern Japanese really look like?

Superficially, we have to consider the representative of the population rather than averaging out. I think the person from the noble family seems to be the most suitable sample for dissecting the phenotype of northern japanese.

Mutsu Munemitsu, A minister of Foreign Affair
http://www.jacar.go.jp/img3/mutsu.jpg

He is nothern japanese. From a noblest family in northern japan.
His family tree is from Hiraizumi clan (Emishi related to Ainu).
His ancestor includes some figures like Date Masamune, and the origin of family dates back 1000 years ago,

The same person
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Munemitsu_Mutsu_2.jpg

« Zuletzt bearbeitet: Heute um 02:46:40 von newasian »

[Grimmo]

Now, having said the nothern japanese (northern can be replaced by northernmost). I would like to mention about the southernmost japanese.
They are known to be related to Ryukyuan/Okinawan, and their phenotypes seem to be fairly ainu, but they seem to be mixed with continentals, so they show more varieties. Prime Minister Koizumi's family comes from the noble family in Kagoshima-ken, and he belongs to this class of people.

Togo Heihachiro, An admiral, A national hero in Japan-Russo War (no involvement in WWII)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4f/Togo%28Europe%29.JPG

Southernmost Japanese. His ancestor was a neighbor of koizumi's.

Togo Heihachiro in his 58 years old

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c6/ADMIRALTOGO.JPG
« Zuletzt bearbeitet: Heute um 02:53:35 von newasian »

[Yank]

I got some photos. From around 1912 I think they are. Some of them. Some are modern. But you can see clearly the pure white european looking ones, but also the mixed race one. They were already being bred out. But in some you can see the taller height, facial structure, lighter hair color, and the very different hair type all together. Very European looking.

[Yank]

That there are still pure ones at that point in history. But also notice. That there seems to be only two pure females in that large group photo, that are at the far left. Also notice how the village buildings are built. Very similar to what you find in Northern Europe and even in North America. I'm fully convinced that they are related to European groups. Or were. Why even their language shares around 300 words with the Basques of Spain. Very interesting! Now what is even more interesting. Is that the Kennewick man of Washington State could very well be an Ainu of Japan. The news articles tried to make it sound like he was not White. By saying he was an Ainu of Japan failing to mention that Ainu were in fact white at one point in their history. They have found a bunch of sites in North America with European bones pre-dating "Native Americans Indians" or Ameridians if you will. I would check out neara.org. Many megalithic sites in North America are connected to this long lost European race. Standing stones and buildings like you'd find in iron age europe.

[Color red]

Ainu complexion can also be admixtured with polynesian, and australian aborigines stock. Sibelian hypothesis, and dual origin hypothesis are getting more popular, but we never know the passages of their migrations into japanese archipelago.

[ArmandV]

Japanese composer Akira Ifukube was influence by Ainu music.

[Naito-Kori]

Truth: The Ainu are Japan oldest inhabitants refered to a race of (Black dwarfs) Who inhanited Japan long before they did. The Ainu originated in Egypt and are recoreded as making large migrations to the Asian continent,taking with them 1000 of years of African knowledge and infleunce.
Ainu were more Africoid- from their physical apperance, (Wavy Coarse hair in beard ) a thinner nose. Short in height then the average person standing anywhere from. 4/5 to 5/5. Their complexion ranged from Dark-brown to Fair skin. The women tradionally Tattoo thier faces with lines representing beards. Some Scientists believe that the Ainu are one of the oldest existing people on the earth. The Japanese have tried to suppress the Ainu lanuage, religion, and customs, but they have had little success with the older members of the group. Younger Ainu, however, attend Japanese schools and intermarried with Japanese. Many no longer learn the Ainu language or keep Ainu traditions. These finding to the Afrikan concept that all races originated from Afrika, which was orginally the aboriginal black Afrikan's race from the tropical region of Afrika. The Archaepalago of Japan to southern islands of Okinawa were ruled by these africans until around 1000-700 B.C.

[kireikoori]

I'm really worried about the ainu culture dying out. It truly is a precious gem.

While they are very facially European...oddly the DNA mostly found in ainu, haplogroup D isn't found very much in Europe to my knowledge. Weird.

[StandAlone2323]

yea, thats actually really interesting. i was reading that wikipedia article about the ainu and i find not only that but all language isolates fascinating. just that they somehow managed to skip out on the language formation, that they were absent, distraught, whatever it be, i think its amazing. im really happy that this topic was started.

actually, mother is similar in a lot of languages

mom-english
mamma-italian
maman-french
mā-mandarin chinese
mamá-spanish
haha-japanese

the japanese one is a little different, but its not so far off, where it gets different when is you say お母さん

and i know its also similar in hindi, but dont remember exactly what it is.

[blessed]

From what I understand, the Ainu are not really the original people of the Joumon period, being a more northern tribe that extends into Sakhalin even today, though they are certainly much more closely related to them than the Japanese... The original tribes were basically conquered, and although some were pushed north, I've never heard the Ainu as one of them.
Interestingly, within the Japanese themselves, there is supposedly a difference between southern and northern, the southern being more Korean looking (as that is where the migration came in from), and the northern Japanese, who look less Korean, and more Ainu-ish (though myself, I find it hard to notice these things :p).

[blessed]

From what I understand, the Ainu are not really the original people of the Joumon period, being a more northern tribe that extends into Sakhalin even today, though they are certainly much more closely related to them than the Japanese... The original tribes were basically conquered, and although some were pushed north, I've never heard the Ainu as one of them.
Interestingly, within the Japanese themselves, there is supposedly a difference between southern and northern, the southern being more Korean looking (as that is where the migration came in from), and the northern Japanese, who look less Korean, and more Ainu-ish (though myself, I find it hard to notice these things :p).

[blessed]

From what I understand, the Ainu are not really the original people of the Joumon period, being a more northern tribe that extends into Sakhalin even today, though they are certainly much more closely related to them than the Japanese... The original tribes were basically conquered, and although some were pushed north, I've never heard the Ainu as one of them.
Interestingly, within the Japanese themselves, there is supposedly a difference between southern and northern, the southern being more Korean looking (as that is where the migration came in from), and the northern Japanese, who look less Korean, and more Ainu-ish (though myself, I find it hard to notice these things :p).

[White Girl]

The Emishi, also called Ebisu, are different from the Ezo, but became very confused by Japanese speakers because they both are spelled the same（蝦夷）, the second character of which was derogatory term used to refer to the Eastern races. The Ainu are also different, although likely related, but eventually the new Japanese just lumped them all together and refer to "Ezo" and "Ainu" as the same thing (so "Ezo" is often used to refer to Hokkaido in specific names, such as the "Ezo deer" found in Hokkaido).

These groups of people were most likely not united and lived pretty loosely in Hokkaido and the mainland of Honshu, mainly in the Eastern and Northern parts, and were hunted down and exterminated by the invaders from mainland Asia, much like the Native Americans were by the Europeans. Eventually they were pushed back to Hokkaido.

The Jomon also seem to be separate but related. Personally I think it all sounds quite similar to the situation with Native Americans. And then there is the recent theory that many Native Americans actually crossed over FROM Japan and are in fact Jomon...interesting...

Haha, that would make me part Japanese!

[bakaKanadajin]

My anthropology is a little hazy but as White Girl pointed out, there is a popular theory out there that sees the movement of peoples between the Asian and North American continents, specifically the Clovis peoples between Alaska and Siberia at the end of the last ice age. At first-glance the genotypical expression (a politically correct way to say 'how they look', not trying to be smart just sensitive!) between North America's first nations peoples and Japan's are quite startling.

A very interesting topic!

[caster51]

about Emishi..

a first, nihonshoki is a story of history....
according to Nihonshoki, Yamato fought against emishi when it conquered in Japan.
what is the Yevusi in Holy bible? I guess....

what does ananiyashi mean in ancient Hebrew Aramaic
?.
in Nihonshoki , when Izanagi and Izanami got married, they shout " ananiyashi(ana-nisa)"

[Chi65]

"I've often wondered why it was that American Indian names sounded like provinces in China: Hopi, Hopei, Souix, Xiu, Apache, Pache, Maya, Miao, PiLu, Peru, Shan, Chan, Guatama, Guatemala... or why the Hawaiian word for 'knot' (Kipu'u) was also the Quechuan word for 'knot' (Quipu) and both were also the word for a knotted cord record-keeping device. I ponder why the Mayan word for 'spirit breath' (ik) is the mirror image of the Chinese word for spirit breath (ki), and the Mayan word for ritual (ok) is the mirror of the Chinese word for ritual (ko), or why a fourth century Chinese teachers name (paoputzu) is prounounced like the Mayan Book of Council (Popul Vuh)...or why, in that same Book of Council, there is the line 'The Sun that can be seen is not the real sun' which mimics the famous line from the Tao Te Ching; 'The Tao that can be known is not the real Tao'. Coincidences? Or co-incidences?
Intuitively, we know that there is something going on here that is not taught in sixth grade history. Find out what it is."


I visited the village of Taos(!) in New Mexico some time ago, made friends with the local medicinman, who suddenly looked like an old chinese to me.

This was the turn for my travels and researches, I did go to China later on, where also my grandfather has been in the age of 25.

Then I was invited to Korea, where I found similar patterns of basically shamanistic drummings and voices, the way I heard them around the native indians in USA, it was stunning!

By the way, the chinese tradition of native drummings has been widely lost, but does come to life again lately and is as interesting in this context. I hope for more from there (Beijing based).

But not enough, I happened to be contacted by a korean member of the Seoul Universitiy in Korea and told him about the native US indian's music, it was a very long talk, he was into sociology, but never thought of such similarities of native indians to koreans and was highly "alarmed".
By the way, somewhere else I read about a certain asian speer(?) plus according picture, that was carried for long and still at use or somewhere in the Taos indian tribe (pueblos).

When I was back in Berlin another time, I suggested to some korean friends, to cooperate with some african drummers. It so turned out, that they just rehearsed with some, because they had found out similar patterns, as they told me! It then was a wonderfull concert indeed!

There also is a strong liking and cooperations from the japanese side towards african drummings. On this level, they have a wonderfull understanding for each other, as many can confirm here, I suppose. One summer, the main theme for most music-festivals in Japan was percussion, and I happened to be there and could confirm this even more. Some Koreans were also invited, Africans anyhow...

And, if I am not mistaken, somewhere there are reports of very early chinese sailors to South America, actually. So, it then did go via more than just the Bering street, as for language-traces.

All bits and pieces, but something to think about.

[tokapi]

Genetic connection between Ainu & 縄文 Jomon,Japanese are more of indigenous stock ( not related to Koreans ) than previously realized.

English-titled video http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=CguNE9vcd-8

[yumeitsumo]

From what I know: The Japanese are of Mongolian Race. The Ainu are of caucasian type. Um... The origins of the Japanese are mixed and obscure. It's very controversial where the Japanese people came from.

[tokapi]

Japanese are mostly of northern Mongoloid stock.

[yumeitsumo]

True. Thank you. The more information I gather. THE BETTER....