The incident known, to the Japanese, as Kanmon Ku Nen No Ezo Hoki ("Ainu Uprising of Kanmon 9th Year"), or Shakushain No Ran ("Shakushain's Revolt"), took place in 1669 on Hokkaido. It began with the slaughter of some 270 Japanese by the Ainu, when the Japanese visited Ainu villages. The Japanese authorities in Hokkaido were so astonished at the scale of the massacre that they requested relief armies from the main island. At the same time, they prepared themselves for a wholesale war against the total Ainu population on that island. The physical confrontations of this war lasted into the following year, 1670. The final settlement was brought about in 1672. This study is a reconstruction of that war, using the Japanese sources.
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