Language: Ainu
Source: First mentioned in a 1643 handwritten journal by chief helmsman Cornelis Janszoon Coen.

Description

Makiri is the Ainu word for knife. The word first appears in a Dutch handwritten journal by chief helmsman Cornelis Janszoon Coen, sailing on the ship Castricum.¹ The term re-appears in 19th-century dictionaries and reports by ethnographers, indicating its continued unchanged use.²

They typically have curved, single-edged blades with a sharp point. The edge has a single bevel, on the right side. The hilt follows the same curve as the blade.

The hilt and scabbards are made of wood, usually carved with decorative motifs. Scabbards can be made of a single piece, or two pieces and with strips of cherry bark to reinforce them. 

Three makiri.
Sold by Mandarin Mansion.

Markings on the blades.

Notes
1. A. Leupe; Reize van Maarten Gerritsz. Vries in 1643 naar het Noorden en Oosten van Japan volgens het journaal gehouden door C.J. Coen, op het schip Castricum. Amsterdam, Frederik Muller. 1858. Page 368.

Use

The Ainu men used their makiri for woodcarving and for preparing food. Women carried a slightly smaller version called menoko-makiri which they used for food, and for the gathering of fruits and bark.

"The knife in cutting is frequently, perhaps generally, drawn toward the cutter."

-Frederick Starr; The Ainu group at the Saint Louis exposition.
Chicago, The Open Court Publishing Company, 1904. Page 106.

Ainu hunters. The one on the left carrying his makiri.
19th century painting. Anonymous.
Brooklyn Museum accession number X1085.

In the literature

Knives are the weapons on which a modern Ainu most relies. Some of these knives are of such length that they might pass for swords. The blade is single-edged, and is protected by a wooden sheath. Nearly every man possesses one, which he carries in his girdle when dressed; when naked, he carries it in his hand. 

The illustration shows knives of different sizes, and with different patterns worked on them. From an artistic point of view the sheaths of knives are the most carefully wrought over, and ornamented to a greater extent than any other article of Ainu manufacture.

-Arnold Henry Savage Landor
Alone with the Hairy Ainu
William Clowes and Sons, London, 1893
Page 224

Notable examples

The Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden has two makiri that were collected by Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold, who must have acquired them before 1826, which makes them the earliest provenanced makiri known to me. Both were purchased by the museum in 1837. Accession numbers RV-1-4108 and RV-1-3695.

A drawing of the latter appears in Siebold's Nippon, Leiden, C.C. van der Hork. 1832:

Illustration of Ainu items from the Nippon Atlas.

The British Museum has an Ainu knife that was brought back by Dr. John Andersen and donated to the museum in 1885. Accession number As1885,1219.3.a-b.

Glossary of terms