An Examination of Colonialism in the Korobokkuru Monogatari Series

From the Perspectives of the Ainu and the Wajin-Japanese

Abstract

This study examines the possibility that SATO Satoru’s monumental work Dare mo Shiranai Chiisana Kuni (A Little Country Nobody Knows, 1959), along with the subsequent Korobokkuru Monogatari series, inherited the distorted perceptions of Indigenous peoples that were prevalent in the 1920s and unconsciously aligns with colonialist ideology. It explores how the use of the term “korobokkuru” may constitute cultural appropriation from the Ainu, and how the protagonist’s nation-building efforts may reflect traces of colonial practices historically enacted by the Wajin-Japanese.