Bronisław Piłsudski (1866–1918)

Bronisław Piłsudski was a Polish ethnologist who, after exile to Sakhalin, devoted years to documenting the languages and cultures of the Ainu, Nivkh, Uilta and other peoples of the region. His work ranged from kinship and material culture to oral literature, ritual and everyday life.

Piłsudski’s wax-cylinder recordings of Ainu speech and song are among the most important early sound documents of the people. Because his records preserve voices, vocabulary and traditions from communities undergoing rapid colonial disruption, his archive remains a major source for Ainu linguistic and folkloric research.