This is the catalog for the special exhibition of the same name held at the end of 2025 at the Kushiro Art Museum in Hokkaido, focusing on "irodori" (color) and "hikaru" (Radiance) in Ainu traditional crafts through high-resolution color plates and detailed explanations, serving as a precious visual compendium for researchers of Japanese indigenous cultures and aesthetics enthusiasts. The Ainu people, as the indigenous inhabitants of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands, draw their aesthetic consciousness from natural inspirations as its source. This book features over 100 selected representative works, including clothing, woodcrafts, embroidery, Kuril tattoo tools, and adornments, from traditional emushi (robes) and makiri (embroidery) to creations by modern artists such as Mieko Chikappu and Toru Kaizawa, showcasing how layered blues, reds, and metallic lusters symbolize the souls of mountains and rivers and ancestral wisdom.
