If you knew the Ainu that I knew ...

[Anchorman]

Mina Sakai creates quite an impression as she uses black lipstick to mark her face in the way Japan's indigenous people, the Ainu, once tattooed women's face to mark their entry into adulthood, according to AERA (8/13-20).

Sakai, whose ritual opens each performance put on by the Ainu Rebels, wanted to mark her face to express a traditional symbol of Ainu beauty and have it recognized by wider Japanese society, but worried over whether she was not giving her act enough dignity by only using her lippy instead of getting the real thing done.

Ainu Rebels were formed last year by a group of mostly 20-something Ainu men or women who have made it their aim to make it easy for members of Japan's indigenous race to be proud of their heritage.

"We want to create a society where Ainu can say they're proud to be Ainu," Sakai tells AERA. "To do that, we put on an energetic, cool and fun show, doing it all in Ainu."

Nearly all the Ainu Rebels live in Tokyo. Not all of them have always been proud of their Ainu roots. In fact, when Sakai was growing up in Obihiro, Hokkaido, she used to keep the fact she was Ainu a secret.

Japan's government has never been keen on the Ainu. In the 19thy century, the government took over Hokkaido, the last major domain of the Ainu, in the name of development, and went about suppressing the Ainu language and culture.

Most Ainu were made to feel ashamed about their background.Ainu Rebels, however, are all about putting a bit of indigenous pride into their people, with their shows a collection of popular rock, pop and hip-hop numbers all sung in Ainu.

Members of the group have found being in the Ainu Rebels has given them a greater understanding of where they come from.

"Just before my grandma died, one of the people who came to visit her in the hospital came in and they started jabbering away in Ainu. Until that time, I didn't even know my grandma could speak Ainu," one member says. "I just thought about how sad she must have been by not passing on her language to her grandchildren, which made me promise myself I wouldn't be like that."

Sakai hopes that other young Ainu will jump on the bandwagon.

"Somebody once told me that life is filled with all sorts of different events," Sakai tells AERA. "I'm happy with what I am. I'm an Ainu and that me is beautiful." (By Ryann Connell)