9.Okhotsk Culture
The Okhotsk Culture is a culture which flourished along the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk from around the 5th to 12th centuries. This culture differed from that of the people who were originally in Hokkaido during the coinciding Epi-Jomon and Satsumon Periods, and was introduced by different people from foreign lands. The people lived lives mainly focused around hunting and fishing in the sea, and also left behind many ruins along the coastal areas.
This culture first appeared in the area around the Soya Straight, before making its way to eastern Hokkaido around the 6th to 7th centuries. It then spread in a greater area, from Sakhalin Island to Hokkaido and the Kuril Islands, during the 8th and 9th centuries.
【Figure: Changes in the areas of distribution of ruins from the Okhotsk Culture】
The designs of pottery, structures of dwellings, and other aspects of the Okhotsk Culture have some unique characteristics. In particular, the culture venerated bears through practices such as collecting and enshrining the skulls of bears within dwellings, and it is thought this culture had an influence on the later Ainu Culture.
Around the 10th to 11th centuries, the Okhotsk Culture came into contact with and merged with the Satsumon Culture in the eastern part of Hokkaido, becoming the Tobinitai Culture. This culture was characterized as falling somewhere between Satsumon Culture and Okhotsk Culture, and it is thought this is evidence of the people of the Okhotsk Culture coming to intermingle and live with the people of the Satsumon Culture, who originally lived in Hokkaido.
【Figure: Tobinitai pottery which has the shape of Satsumon pottery with the patterns of Okhotsk pottery】
