Ainu

The Ainu lived in communities across Hokkaido, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, trading with their neighbors as Japanese settlement spread in southern Hokkaido. In 1457 Koshamain led Ainu attacks on Japanese forts on the Oshima Peninsula, but Takeda Nobuhiro's forces defeated them.

The Tokugawa shogunate granted the Matsumae clan exclusive trade with the Ainu in 1604. Discontent with Japanese control helped provoke Shakushain's revolt in 1669, and in 1789 Ainu on Kunashir and in Menashi attacked Japanese traders and workers; the Japanese executed 37 Ainu after the uprising.