Passing the Pipe: Tobacco, Transcultural Networks, and Indigenous Resistance in Early-Modern Ainu Lands (c.1543-1855)

Tobacco is predominantly thought of as an Indigenous American commodity that was brought to Europe in the 16th century and spread throughout all levels of society.

Its routes into Asia, like its arrival in Japan in 1543 and subsequent circulation among the Ainu of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands, are less known. Tobacco was the first global commodity to flourish in Ainu society but the reason for this is unexplored.

My research adds to our understanding of how global connections transformed the lives of Ainu people and reconceptualises who had access to global commodities in the early modern period.