Omusha

• Japanese: オムシャ (omusha)

Omusha were ritual meetings between representatives of Ainu communities and Matsumae han retainers. They stemmed out of a traditional Ainu practice known as umusa, in which gifts were exchanged as a polite custom when meeting someone again that one had met before. However, over the course of the Edo period, these ritual meetings and gift exchanges evolved from something performed voluntarily by the Ainu out of a sense of tradition, propriety, and etiquette, into something the Japanese obliged them to perform each time Matsumae domain retainers or officials made their annual visit to a given village.

References

• Gallery labels, Hokkaido Museum.[1]