When the Japanese took possession of the beautiful dragon-fly shaped land is a matter of uncertainty. Search their annals, consider their legends and traditions, question their archives and historical books -- all we can discover is that from time immemorial there were strange specters, the “Khon Bal Yai,” or “Feathered Men” -- which name was given them by the Mongolian invaders, because of the long, soft hair with which their bodies are covered -- and that these were the ancient people called Ainos. But how and when the Ainos themselves obtained a footing on the Dragon-Fly Land, is a subject of deep mystery to the ethnologist.
All we know is that the Ainos, or “hairy Kuriles,” as they are sometimes called (now mostly to be found in the island of Yesso), once occupied the greater part of the country; and that they were driven north by adventurous races coming from the southwest. They are small, well-proportioned, strongly-built, of an Aryan type of countenance, and of a singularly kind and gentle disposition. Their women, however, render themselves hideous by tattooing their hairy bodies with grotesque figures, and letting the hair of their heads fall over their shoulders to their knees. The winter dress of both sexes consists of robes of wild beast skin; in summer of cotton tunics reaching to the knee, with a leathern girdle.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
