Ainu in the house

TOKYO — World music is filled with so many fusions that it should not be surprising to hear a group of young Ainu musicians injecting turntables and samples into a traditional style built upon warbling vocals, a open-stringed tonkori and a jaw harp. The mix gives a modern voice to a culture with a precarious grip in Japan, a country that refuses to recognize the Ainu as an indigenous people, with the rights that go with that.

"There are people who try to keep Ainu culture alive by reviving the traditional culture," says Atsushi Sakai, a 27-year-old rapper in a Tokyo-based band called the Ainu Rebels. "But our idea is to develop it in new ways. We need to prove that the Ainu have a living culture."

That's a challenge when many younger Ainu are losing their language altogether. Sakai raps in Japanese because that's the only language he speaks, and it's the only language most of his audience understands. "I throw in a little Ainu in the lyrics but most of my generation wouldn't understand me if I spoke in Ainu," he says. "If you want to get a message out, it has to be in Japanese, unfortunately."

Most of the 23,000 or so registered Ainu live in Hokkaido, the Japan's northernmost island and their spiritual center, where the Ainu were the first settlers. They were brought under Japan's thumb during the Meiji era's push north, and the true size of the population is unknown because many are believed to hide their ethnic origin to avoid discrimination. Sakai recalls how, as a child, he and his friends would keep their heads down while doing traditional dances at local community halls, embarrassed at their ethnic identity. With the word "Ainu" easily transposed to "inu," the Japanese word for "dog," many now prefer to call themselves "Utari," meaning "comrade."

Thousands of Ainu have left Hokkaido for Tokyo and other large Japanese cities in search of better jobs or education, and many continue to disguise their ethnic origins. The Ainu Rebels, formed a year ago, are as much about overcoming shame as about music. One member is Megumi Murakami, the granddaughter of the late Umeko Ando, one of the most famous traditional Ainu mukkuri — or jaw harp — musicians. Murakami never tapped into her grandmother's music, Sakai says, and only recently has acquired the confidence to sing with the Rebels.

The video was recorded at an early evening performance in Tokyo, during a cultural festival celebrating both Ainu and Okinawan cultures. It concludes with Sakai's rap, lyrics he wrote by texting into his cellphone that speak of the anxiety and the need for pride felt by an ancient people in the 21st century.

Quickening fear and worry

Once I decided to forget about Ainu

One day my girlfriend told me over the phone

Ainu people are creepy.

My brain went completely blank

I froze up and ignored it, but cried the back of my mind

Difference of face? Difference of blood? Is that your standard to select?

What's different between you and me? How could you help me when I'm suffering?

Endangered nation, Ainu

Get real, we are alive now!

Now stand up, Utari,

Now is the time to change the direction, Utari

Free everything, Utari,

Now is the time