Paper short abstract:

In our opinion, Japan's policy towards Ainu and relations with Russia reflect the changes in Japan's economic and social life, worldview, intellectual history etc., and intertwining of these processes in the late 18th century marked the turning point in early modern Japan's history as a whole.

Paper long abstract:

The history of any state or society is a complex of various processes such as domestic and foreign politics, economy, culture, social thought and others. If we are facing a task to cut off any historical period, we can trace the bifurcation points by considering all these processes as dynamic systems and then clear up where they coincide with each other.

Edo (or Tokugawa) period of Japanese history was a time of systematic inclusion of Ainu into the area of Japanese intellectuals and central government attention. Starting from proclaiming the freedom of travel for Hokkaido Ainu in Tokugawa Ieyasu's black-seal certificate to Matsumae domain, relations with Ainu developed into the trading post enfeoffment system with trading posts established along the shores of Ainu lands and Matsumae domain vassals who, for their service, were granted with the right to send ships there for trading with Ainu. By the beginning of 18th century, this trading post enfeoffment system developed further into the trading post contract system after Matsumae domain vassals began to assign their rights to trade with Ainu to merchants for the fixed royalty. Finally, with Russia's advance to the Kuril Islands Ainu lands were brought under the Japanese political control in late 18th and early 19th centuries.

At the same time, though 18th century was marked by limited flow of information about Russia to Japan, Russia's first attempts to establish trade relations with Japan in the end of the century brought relations with Russia and Ainu together in central government's political agenda. From the beginning of 19th century, the performance of Russia-Japan relations was tied together with Japan's policy towards Ainu lands.

By collating the history of Japan relations with Ainu and Russia, we can manage to see their correlation as well as their influence on other activities of Japanese state and society.