What would an Ainu Centric Japan be like?

P.O.D. The Ainu experience A Population Boom prior to Chinese&Korean settlement.To avoid Over hunting&Over fishing in their territories,They embark on A greater expansion than OTL.By the time new settlers&exiles begin to arrive the Ainu already have A flourishing civilisation&culture.Some New Settlers make peaceful contacts in the Larger Cities,But as greater numbers trickle in,Conflict soon breaks out with isolated villages&townships falling to the new advanced weapons of the Newcomers.
 
If they became fishermen it could help them a bit.
They see a Korean boat wash up on the beach, get some ideas from it and start using the maritime resources more efficiently. They get a population boom and form some villages and more structured society based on fish.
When the farmers come over, they won't be so overwhelmed and can either absorb the first few new comers, getting the crops that way, or raid them and get the crops anyways.
 
If they became fishermen it could help them a bit.
They see a Korean boat wash up on the beach, get some ideas from it and start using the maritime resources more efficiently. They get a population boom and form some villages and more structured society based on fish.
When the farmers come over, they won't be so overwhelmed and can either absorb the first few new comers, getting the crops that way, or raid them and get the crops anyways.

I thought they were fishermen and that was part of the reason why stone-age Japan was able to maintain such a large population compared to other stone age peoples? Sort of a similar situation to the Pacific Northwest of North America...
 
The Ainu (Ezo?) would probably end up importing most of the Chinese package, though they might very well keep their native grains (foxtail millet, deccan grass etc) more than OTL Japanese did, thus leading to less reliance on paddy agriculture. So, one difference might be that the idea of a centralised government could be so difficult to enforce, and so expensive to try, that it would, at most, remain an ideal.


OTL Japanese were bad enough pirates to China, and they theoretically revered Chinese civilisation. Our Ainu might even conquering some of China's coasts, or at least be an even worse plague to east Asia. They might look further afield than China, too, and adopt more from India/Indonesia.


Buddhism and Confucianism have been so successful, they'd probably make inroads here, too. But Confucianism's reverence for tradition might end up reinforcing nativism, and Buddhism remain a slandered minority.

One detail...the Chinese have fox demons. If the natives have to fight them long and hard, they might feel the foxes are somehow the national symbol, or even claim some descent.
 
I thought they were fishermen and that was part of the reason why stone-age Japan was able to maintain such a large population compared to other stone age peoples? Sort of a similar situation to the Pacific Northwest of North America...
They did, but it was mostly onshore or very shallow waters. Give them better boats and they can start fishing in deeper waters for bigger fish.
 
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