Information

Shown below are items associated with Misato Yamada available without first logging in. This person appears in records from MOA.

Knowledge shared by institutions

Born in 1966 to Ainu parents in Shiraoi town in Hokkaidō, Misato Yamada (cikenkio)/山田美郷 (チケンキオ) is an Ainu artist and a staff of the Foundation for Ainu Culture, working at Upopoy (National Ainu Museum and Park). Her Ainu nickname, cikenkio means matchstick/”to place”, and derives from an episode when her mother placed a matchstick on her eyelashes. Her father danced traditional Ainu dance while her mother cooked Ainu traditional food and they spoke some Ainu language, however Misato grew up disliking anything Ainu because of her rather distorted ideas about the Ainu as a child. After she graduated from high school, she worked locally before relocating to Tokyo at the age of twenty-five. She then studied oil painting while working part-time. Recommend by her colleague, reading Out on a Limb (1983) by Shirley MacLaine made a huge impact on her. She saved enough and left for Bolivia at the age of thirty and learnt to make charango (small Andean string musical instruments) and interacted with Indigenous community members there for two years. When she was thirty-five, she returned to Shiraoi to take care of her ill mother. It was when she turned forty-two that she joined the first cohort of the training program for the Ainu people to learn about their traditional culture. Upon finishing this program, she was involved with the project to transcribe Ainu stories at the former Ainu Museum in Shiraoi for two years. She then learnt various kinds of handiwork such as attus (アットゥㇱ; clothing made of inner barks), kaparamip (カパラミㇷ゚; cotton clothing) and kina (キナ; traditional woven mats). Thanks to the program, she also participated in the Shiraoi performing arts preservation committee, Ainu language classes and the group led by Shimako Yamazaki (山崎シマ子) to preserve and disseminate Ainu songs, rituals, language and handiwork. Since 2019, she has worked as a staff of the Foundation for Ainu Culture, working at Upopoy (National Ainu Museum and Park) in the section to offer educational and public programs. She also regularly offers workshops about Ainu handiwork, songs and storytelling in other parts of Japan.

Born: 1966