A group of people constituting several tribes who lived in northeastern Honshuu, possibly indigenous and descended from the Joumon people and/or related to the Ainu, ethnically separate from the Japanese with their own language.

Some tribes became allies of the Japanese, while others were hostile. In warfare they engaged in guerilla tactics with horse archery and hit-and-runs, which were effective against the less mobile Imperial infantry until early Japanese warriors adopted these strategies as well. Though efforts to subjugate the Emishi in the 8th Century were initially unsuccessfully, Sakanoue no Tamuramaro succeeded in his campaigns against the Emishi, beginning the gradual submission of tribes and the conquest of their lands.