POLISH STUDIES OF THE MEDICAL TRADITIONS OF THE AINU

Present knowledge of the history of Ainu culture is owed in significant part to Polish Far-East researchers Bronisław Piłsudski (1866-1918) and Wacław Sieroszewski (1858-1945). They were both exiled to Siberia for their patriotic activity at the time where Poles struggled for independence. Bronisław Piłsudski is known for using glass photographic plates and wax recording cylinders for recording the already disappearing culture of the Ainu people. It is thanks to his research that we are able today to trace back the names of over 100 plants that had therapeutic, and as believed by Ainu, also magical power. The plants with the highest therapeutic significance had common characteristics: strong effects, intensive scent and stings. Nowadays, the Ainu people constitute an ethnic minority in Japan (population of over 20 000) and are supported by the Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies at the Hokkaido University in Sapporo.