Satsumon culture

The Satsumon culture (Japanese: 擦文文化, Hepburn: Satsumon Bunka; lit. 'brushed pattern culture') is a partially agricultural, archeological culture of northern Honshu and southern Hokkaido (700–1200) that has been identified as Emishi, as a Yamato-Emishi mixed culture, as the incipient modern Ainu, or with all three synonymously.

Scholars frequently equate the Satsumon culture with the Emishi, a people who emerged in northern Honshu as early as the 5th century, and with the ancestral Ainu. This proposition is based on similarities between Ainu and Emishi skeletal remains, as well as a number of place names across Honshu that resemble Ainu words. It is possible that the emergence of the Satsumon culture in Hokkaido was triggered by the immigration of Emishi from Honshu. However, there are many differences between Emishi and Satsumon. For instance, horse riding and rice agriculture, neither of which were present in ancient Hokkaido, were both central to Emishi lifestyle.

The Satsumon culture may have arisen from a merger of the Yayoi and subsequent Kofun cultures with the Jōmon culture. It appears to have spread from northeastern Honshu into southern Hokkaido. The Satsumon culture is regarded to be ancestral to the later Ainu culture, under some influence of the Okhotsk culture.