Posted December 20th, 2011
A Quick Guide to Japanese Tattoos
Proof of tattooing in Japan extends back to over 12,000 years back. Archaelogists have found clay figures called dogu that show markings round the forehead, eyes, cheeks and lips and have suggested that these may indicate tattoos.In the Kofun period (300″600 AD) tattoos were used as a way of marking criminals as a punishment (similar to that used on slaves in ancient Rome), frequently with marks showing their crime.
Till the Edo period (1600″1868 AD) the role of tattoos in Japanese society sundry seriously. Tattooed marks were still used as a type of punishment, although it was during the latter years (post 1800) of the Edo period that Japanese ornamental tattooing (or horimono) developed into the advanced art form it is known as today.
The most significant artist in terms of the development of Japanese tattoing was Kuniyoshi who illustrated a Chinese novel called Suikoden which had been interpreted into Japanese [*T]. Kuniyoshi’s illustrations showed heavily tattooed warriors with tattoos of koi, dragons, ferocious tigers, mythical beasts and spiritual photographs.
In the 1800s skilled woodblock artists started to expand and use their talents and tools as tattoo artists. The technique known as tebori (‘to carve by hand’) was employed whereby steel needles were secured in a row to bamboo rods to were pushed into the skin.
Tebori (hand-tattooing) has mostly been replaced now by Yobori (machine tattooing). Tebori give a much better finish as it creates a categorization of tones that are hard to achieve using a tattoo machine.
Standard Japanese Tattoos (irezumi) are carried out by expert (often illusive) tattooists using the Tebori strategy. It is surmised that There are about 100 recognised proponents of alive today in Japan.
Full body irezumi (tebori) is painful, time-intensive and expensive: a normal standard body suit (covering the arms, back, higher legs and chest, but leaving an untattooed ‘river ‘ down the centre of the body where an unbottoned shirt or coat could conceal the tattoo) can take up to ten years to complete, with weekly visits to the tattooist and can cost in excess of US$30-50,000.
It is surmised that approximately 20 thousand Japanese have half body tattoos, with roughly two hundred carrying on with a full body tattoo.
Students are uncertain still as to who wore such tattoos.
At the start of the Meiji period the Japanese govt. made tattooing illegal as a technique of tidying up the Japanese image, which drove tattooing underground, and shortly tattoos became kind of a symbol of rank within criminal gangs. For many years, standard Japanese tattoos were linked with the Yakuza, Japan’s notorious mafia (even after re-legalisation in 1945). It is estimated that about 70% of Yakuza members are tattooed.
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Tags: dragon-tattoos, japanese tattoos, Tattooing, tattoos, tebori
