ama
@amasugiru.bsky.social
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★ art, comics, games, archaeology, heritage, & museums ★ research fellow at hokkaido university all views are my own
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Looking through my photos, and I forgot to share one of my favorite parts of my Golden Jomon trip: Cultural Property Battle cards. Their stats are: Designation, Est. value, Rarity, Period. These are from Hachinohe in Aomori Prefecture. I would have absolutely tried to find them all with time.
Four upward facing cards featuring Japanese cultural properties from Aomori with stats. An additional card is reversed. The back reads Cultural Property Battle Cards in Japanese
Reposted by ama
Have you ever been so fucking delighted by a username/icon set that it made you follow a total stranger
URSUAL K LE GUN
We are past humidity. I’m awaiting yukimushi arrival. But also you should visit period.
Come visits. It’s 55 and sweater weather.
Just the biggest chins.
I do hope so! This is where my head goes when I try to conceptualize the two traits coexisting.
I *need* to know how you resolve researcher and himbo.
I think I binged it when it first came out so my memory of it is shot. I don't recall the store.
Oh no, I have to rewatch season 1 now.
Reposted by ama
Agreed. Consultancy matters. It's good to see the attempt made, but like you mention, there are still gaps. Given the series's previous criticism, I'm not surprised. The erasure of the Ainu presence is a glaring issue for me atm. It could've been set elsewhere if the "side quests" were removed.
The treatment of the Jomon as the true Indigenous people of Japan is a deep rabbit hole. Jomon is and has always been a highly politicized term. Currently, the Jomon are framed as the ancestors of the nation in support of coexistence. Whereas the Ainu people are confined to a historical period.
What’s left out is just as important. For example: forced labor dating back to the game's time period, assimilation policies from the Meiji period onwards (e.g., the Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act), the impact of epidemics, racial “science,” and the looting of Ainu ancestral remains.
Hunting for Ainu in Ghost of Yotei led me to a video that shows how educational resources in Japan can reproduce harmful perspectives on the Ainu people’s claim to sovereignty/denialist discourse. It also highlights why truth-telling is more impactful for Ainu than “coexistence” narratives.
Ghost of Yotei History DEEP DIVE: Ainu
YouTube video by DashBlue
www.youtube.com
I hope you enjoy the game when you get around to it, but from what I saw it felt very much like the region was just a backdrop for the story. Visually it feels nothing like Hokkaido, and the prevalence of Japanese that far into the island without the Ainu feeds into denialist discourse.
I was already worried after speaking to a source who assisted with the exchange, so this isn’t surprising… just disappointing. But I’m always glad to encounter more of Oki’s Sekine-san’s work
The game or lack of representation?
Also, spider lilies and tall bamboo are not commonly associated with Hokkaido. I miss the purples, yellows, and oranges...the tuberlilies and sasa. It doesn't feel deciduous. I'd be interested if anyone else living here shares the same sentiment.

I'm trying to remain optimistic and keep watching.
I'm two hours into a playthrough of Ghosts of Yotei and I'm worried about the lack of 1)Ainu presence in the landscape and 2)Ainu place names. They are a significant part of maintaining Indigenous claims to the land and challenging wilderness narratives. I worry they will appear as a side quest.
If anyone has accessible sources for more information on oracle bones, please share them below. For more intersections of TTRPG and Chinese culture/history, I recommend The Asians Represent Podcast on YouTube.
#archInk2025 Day 2: Shell
During prep, the Conch of Teleportation reminded me of oracle bones, divinatory records from the Shang. They feature some of the earliest writing in China. I thought dragon turtles, taken from Chinese mythological creatures, would help expand a focus on Chinese archaeology.
Reposted by ama
Super cool to learn that I was huffing cinnabar while laboriously excavating paintings at Çatalhöyük. #archink #pigment #inktober
A drawing with a finger held up and red pigment on the fingertip. Next to it is written “cinnabar, treasured world-wide for its fiery red hue, is toxic and poisoned those who sought its beauty.” Hashtags are in the tweet.