Efforts by an independent TV producer in Tokyo to hand down the traditions of the Ainu and their history have come to fruition via an illustrated storybook and a compact disc.

Tatsumine Katayama, 59, recently published the second version of "Upaskuma," which is Ainu for "Traditional Wisdom Handed Down by Ancestors."

The illustrated books contain five short stories each -- in Japanese, English and Ainu. As Ainu does not have its own script, Katayama used the Roman alphabet.