J im and Akiko visited the Ainu crafts village at Lake Akan, Hokkaido, Japan in February, 2004. Lake Akan is a traditional location for the Ainu, the native peoples of Hokkaido. Here there is an Ainu community side by side with the Japanese onsen (hot spring bath) resort hotels.

Snow and ice in Hokkaido,
Japan in February.

Lake Akan is frozen over in winter.

Ainu traditional craft shops and the Ainu culture center that houses a museum and traditional dance performances of the Ainu people are part of the attraction at Lake Akan.

We attended an Ainu dance performance in the performance hall below.

This dance mimics the "dance" of the Japanese crane.

The shops have great selections of original art quality wood carvings made by local Ainu artisans.

Animal statues- Ainu bear, owls and other wood carving.

Wonderful Ainu carved jewelry.

We are in the process of making arrangements with artisans to carry their crafts at EarthTrend Shop. Look for these listings in the future.

We will make larger and higher end art items made by Ainu artisans available from this website on a special order basis.

Items like this large Ainu bear will be available. This will likely involve a longer delivery time to you for the item ordered, as it will come from Japan, but will allow us to make available to you hard to find productions.

After leaving Lake Akan and the Ainu Craft village we visited a Japanese Crane preserve and watched a large flock of these beautiful birds for several hours.

T he Ainu have had a close relationship with the wildlife of their environment. The bear, crane, little deer, squirrels, owls, and many other animals have been integral to their survival and are deeply part of the Ainu culture. Images of these many animals show up in their carvings, dance, and stories.