Horimono: The Japanese Tattoo

Horimono

Historical Perspectives of Traditional Japanese Tattooing

*An electronic preview of the book*

**Horimono: The Japanese Tattoo is currently in press and will be on sale in Spring 2004**

Acknowledgements

Preface

Chapter One: An Introduction

Tattooing in Pre-Edo Period Japan

The beautiful and unique Japanese tattoos known variously as horimono, irezumi or bunshin so highly prized worldwide today are a comparatively recent occurrence, although tattooing in Japan has a much longer history.

Chapter Two: The Evolution of Horimono

1. Introduction

Since it is difficult to describe simplistically how and why horimono evolved into what we see today I have arranged this chapter into a series of descriptions of various aspects of Edo period Japanese culture related to tattoos followed by a summary of these observations and how they all tie into the develop of horimono. Because of the feudal and insular nature of Tokugawa Japan the culture of the time was unique and quite without parallel in any other society of the period, Asian or European. Some of these discussions are quite disparate, ranging from criminal justice, traditional theatre and Japanese religion to Chinese epics, fire-fighters and prostitution but the single common factor relating all these subjects is tattooing, as hopefully will become clear to the reader by the end of the chapter.

Chapter Three: Horimono during the Meiji Era and Beyond

1. Introduction

This chapter is an examination of horimono culture from the end of the Edo Period and into the Meiji Era and beyond. This period in Japanese history is important for many reasons, as it saw the transition of Japanese society from a feudal, totalitarian military state to one of a fledgling democracy with a government, social hierarchy and economy modelled on the major Western powers of the time. It is a fascinating period for the historian to study, but in this case I must declare my knowledge of Meiji Period history quite inadequate for a robust summary and I shall restrict as much of my writing as possible to that which is related to horimono only. Despite the great changes that swept through all aspects of Japanese society during the Meiji Period, horimono continued to evolve and flourish and I have attempted to document this here. The advent of photography in Meiji Period Japan makes it possible to see firsthand – and not ukiyoe artists’ interpretations of – horimono and the tattoo culture of the period is also most meticulously recorded in the research of historian Tamabayashi Haruo. In the transition from Meiji to the Shōwa Period (via the brief Taishō reign) the early Shōwa years were turbulent as the young democracy descended into military totalitarianism and the shocking nature of Japan’s pursuit of warfare led to tremendous suffering and ultimately the nation’s utter ruin. However, horimono survived this by being maintained by a small group of dedicated and enormously skilled tattoo artists. In this chapter I describe the life and times of some of Japan’s most famous tattoo artists of this period and describe the advent of the tattoo ‘societies’ that came into being at the beginning of the 20th century. This concludes my examination of historical perspectives of traditional Japanese tattooing since the following chapter is devoted to only technical aspects of tattooing.

Chapter Four: Tattooing In Practice

1. Introduction

In this chapter I will describe the actual technique of traditional horimono tattooing called tebori, and also describe the history and meaning of some of the more popular horimono designs that can be seen today and the origins of the ukiyoe art that inspired them. I will also describe a few of the more unusual tattoos I have come across either in person or in the literature, and close with a brief treatise on the horimono culture of today both in Japan and the West.

Figures

Epilogue

Appendices

1. Romanised Japanese in this Book

2. Japanese Dates and Eras

3. Glossary

4. Map of 19th Century Edo

Bibliography

Further Reading

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