Kotan no kuchibue (1959)

Masa and Yukata live in poverty with their alcoholic father in a kotan, an Ainu village on the outskirts of a town on the island of Hokkaido. He tells them the legends of their people. Both do well at school and have the support of their teachers, but because they belong to the Ainu, a minority ethnic group on the island, some of their classmates treat them with contempt and mock them. They face discrimination from the “Shamos,” the name the Ainu give to the Japanese—a kind of discrimination their elders know all too well, having endured it throughout their lives. When one of Masa’s classmates can’t find her wallet, Masa is unjustly suspected; when Yukata gets the highest mark on an English assignment, some accuse him of cheating. Yukata challenges Sato Gon, the student who claims they don’t have the same blood, to cut his finger so they can compare, but Sato evades the challenge. Fortunately, Masa and Yukata also have friends and caring teachers, such as Mr. Taniguchi, the drawing teacher, who asks Masa to pose for a painting he plans to enter in a competition in Sapporo. Next door lives Ikante, an elderly woman raising her granddaughter Fue on her own. Eighteen-year-old Fue works in a factory and is in love with Kiyoshi, the son of Teacher Tazawa, whom everyone in the village likes for his kindness. Aware that her health is failing, Ikante wants to secure Fue’s future and takes the initiative to meet Teacher Tazawa to discuss a marriage between Kiyoshi and her granddaughter. Tazawa refuses, shattering Fue’s dream. Ikante becomes seriously ill and dies, while Fue disappears from the village without anyone knowing where she has gone. Mr. Taniguchi wins the Sapporo drawing competition with the portrait he made of Masa. This gives him the opportunity to leave and study fine arts in Tokyo, much to the girl’s regret. Yukata continues to be mocked by Sato and again challenges him to come fight after dark in the schoolyard. But Sato arrives with a classmate carrying a baseball bat. When Yukata doesn’t come home, Masa, her father, and Teacher Nakanishi go looking for him and eventually find him unconscious in the schoolyard. As Masa gradually recovers from her injuries, her father promises to stop drinking and look for work. Masa and Yukata consider taking on small jobs—sewing for her and woodcarving for him—to help their father. He eventually finds work as a lumberjack in the mountains, but an accident occurs on the first trip, and he is crushed by a falling tree. Masa and Yukara’s uncle returns to the village to arrange a simple funeral for his brother. He also decides to sell their house, which he actually owns, and sends the two children to town to work in a shop for an acquaintance.