made us feel to sing and dance – albeit for money – in front of curious tourists from throughout Japan when we weren't even happy or excited,". The government was, in effect, encouraging certain aspects of Ainu culture while concurrently suppressing it as a whole. Ceremonial songs and dances became both a viable means of making a living and a shameful badge of dishonor. Revival In recent years, Ainu music has begun to take part in an intense Ainu cultural revival. The Ainu began reclaiming their identity as a cultural group in the 1960s and 1970s, meeting with one another, creating organized groups, and even developing an Ainu flag. While most of this reclamation occurred by way of peaceful meetings and beneficial organizations such as Kayano Shigeru's work for a national Ainu museum, some groups, like Ainu Liberation, used terrorist tactics such as the bombing of 23 October 1972, to attract attention to their cause. As a whole, however, the movement for Ainu cultural identity has been exacted through cultural media such as art, storytelling, and music, and political tactics like voting blocs and nonviolent protests. In the 1970s and 1980s, festival and ceremonial revivals began to occur, acting as a catalyst for cultural unity. When Ainu ceremonies were performed regularly for the first time in years, it allowed Ainu to come together, to identify and get to know one another through the avenue of culture, and to bond through that avenue as well. In addition to the creation of community in this way, and because Ainu song is so firmly rooted in history, Ainu were able to reclaim their folkloric history through these ceremonies. The revival of Ainu culture, and especially music, has meant more than just the development of a cohesive group of Ainu people, however. It has, not surprisingly, also resulted in the rise of an Ainu-music pop star on the Japanese stage. Oki Kano, the most prominent player of Ainu-inspired pop music in Japan, plays songs that are based on Ainu ceremonial songs. They use indigenous Ainu instruments, Ainu language, and Ainu subject matter, but also include Western influences such as guitar and bass, and sound similar to British ska music. Oki Kano is fairly well known in Japan, and represents the idea of Ainu music to many Japanese people, even though his music is very Westernized. List of Ainu musicians and composers Akira Ifukube was