THE TRADITIONAL JAPANESE TATTOO: TABOO OR TREND INTRODUCTION
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THE TRADITIONAL JAPANESE TATTOO: TABOO OR TREND
INTRODUCTION
Introduction
World surveys of body decoration ultimately posit the Japanese tattoo as the pinnacle –
the final stage – in the evolution of the decorated body and consider Japanese tattooists
the most skilful tattooists in the world (Hambly 1925, Kitamura 2000, Buckland 1888).
The traditional Japanese tattoo, recognised in this thesis as the form of tattoo that comprises
integrated, multicoloured motifs that extend over the back, arms, chest and abdominal region ,
is a visual spectacle – from the large, eye-catching display of colour to the intricacy of the
designs where every detail is etched into the skin. In the application of a traditional Japanese
tattoo, the physical body transforms into a living breathing work of art as the tattooist brings
realism to a design through the manipulation of muscles and body shape. There is much
adulation and emulation of the Japanese tattoo around the world. Yet, in Japan today, this
visual phenomenon goes uncelebrated and remains largely suppressed. Representations of the
traditional Japanese tattoo, in academic scholarship as well as public sentiment, assert that
tattooing in Japan is taboo, and as such the physical display of tattoos elicits sentiment of
strong social prohibition.
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Nevertheless, an examination of Japanese history indicates this was not always the case.
Woodblock prints, kabuki, travel writings, and photographs by Western visitors to Japan
depict the tattooed body as an integral part of the cityscape during the Edo period (1602-
1867). While the conspicuous tattoo proudly displayed on the streets of Edo, is a drastic
contrast from the concealment necessitated the tattooed body today, suppression of the
Japanese tattoo has done little to curb development or attraction, and the practice continues
today. Essentially the traditional Japanese tattoo remains a fascinating phenomenon, in both
its visual mastery and its social aberration.
Central Question and Rationale
In current scholarship on traditional Japanese tattooing, there is recognition of its popularity
amongst specific groups of people, and allusion to the normative values of the tattoo within
these tattooed groups. However, the overall trend is for the representation of the traditional
Japanese tattoo, as inherently taboo. Notions of identification and disidentification through
criminal association, group exclusion, and prohibition are the themes most commonly
emphasised in both academic scholarship and visual media representations.
Paradoxically, the grounds for the taboo ascription are given as three elements: Confucianism,
punitive association, and religion, and further examination of these three elements indicate
that they were in fact catalytic in both the development of the tradition itself and its
undeniable appeal to specific groups of people. In recognising the origins of taboo and trend
in the same elements, there is implication that the tattoo was in fact more normative than is
recognised in the current literature. Moreover, it suggests that the traditional Japanese tattoo
needs to be read as both a trend and a taboo. Thus raising the question, which is at the centre
of this thesis: what is the traditional Japanese tattoo: taboo or trend?
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In order to ascertain whether the traditional Japanese tattoo can be categorised as trend or
taboo, two specific interrelated areas need to be examined. Firstly, to clarify the hypothesis
that the nature of Japanese tattoo is actually both trend and taboo, the origins by which the
Japanese tattoo is seen as characteristically taboo or trend, need to be examined. And
secondly, if the Japanese tattoo is read as both taboo and trend, what alternative explanations
or understandings of the Japanese tattoo can account for both the taboo and trend
characteristics, based on the understanding that current scholarship on Japanese tattooing does
not comprehensively account for the simultaneity?
Recognition of the Japanese tattoo as a ‘trend’ undermines the current assertions of inherent,
historicized taboo, necessitating a reconsideration of when the taboo characteristic was
actually formulated or popularised. This is based on the understanding that contemporarily,
the traditional tattoo is clearly stigmatised and suppressed based on the historically ascribed
sentiment of taboo and thus, these factors must be considered in any discussion on the nature
of the traditional Japanese tattoo.
In addition, questions of how or by what means has the Japanese tattoo continued to be
characterised as a taboo entity need also be examined, due to the fact, that current scholarship
refer to the taboo of today’s traditional style tattoo in the same light as the Edo tattoo.
Methodology
This thesis comprises a historical and thematic analysis of tattooing in Japan. The two themes
in question are the characteristics of trend and taboo. ‘Trend’ in this discussion is considered
to mean both ‘fashion or craze’ and ‘inclination or tendency’. Therefore, reference to the
‘trend of tattooing’ has the connotations of both popularity and acceptance. Given that there
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is no comprehensive empirical data1 available on this subject, the assertion that tattooing was
indeed a trend is based on the understanding that the popular arts of the time, wood block
prints, kabuki, and e-hon, picture books, are representational of real life as suggested by (Van
Gulik 1982: 78-83). Van Gulik (1982: 41-53,78-83,) and Kitamura (2003) give detailed
accounts of numerous prints, and kabuki featuring tattooed characters. Accounts by early
travellers to Japan, such as Cortazzi (1987: 127), Rein (1888: 414), Bird (1905: 82) and
Faulds (1973: 285), in their description of the prolifera of tattooed palanquin carriers and
coolies, corroborate this reading of trend in the popular arts.
Taboo is defined as the sentiment of “strong social prohibition, relating to any area of human
activity or social custom acknowledged as sacred and forbidden”. In order to identify and
situate the formation of tattoo in the three elements of Confucianism, punitive tattooing and
religion, Mary Douglas’s theory on the construction of taboo is taken as a framework.
Discussion throughout this thesis is informed by the concept that a body is best read as a ‘text
of culture’, as proposed by sociologist Michael Atkinson (2003). Atkinson states that recent
body theory with its multitude of foci and divergent interpretations of bodies encourage such
an approach, precisely in order to divulge accurate meaning and motivations of corporeal
marking. Reading the body as a text of culture requires the understanding of both relevant
cultural contextualisation. Accordingly, cultural context is defined as the historicized societal
structures and meta- narratives of religion and ideology of a particular culture.
Atkinson’s concept has been particularly germane in the formation of not only a framework
for discussion in chapter three, but first, in initially realising the possibility of alternative
1 Extant figures suggest there were around ten thousand tattooed fire fighters during the mid nineteenth century
(Tamabayashi 1936 ) and over thirty thousand tattooed people in Edo in the late nineteenth century despite the prohibitory
laws (Van Gulik 1982, 85).
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readings of the Japanese tattoo. Current scholarship on Japanese tattooing, while emphasising
the importance of socio-cultural influence and history, discusses only motivations and
meanings as derived from the objectified tattoo, scarcely recognises the body that the tattoo
occupies. Furthermore, reading the body as a text of culture, replete with cultural context and
historicity, is necessary for accurate representation of the traditional Japanese tattoo.
Terminology
As above, throughout this thesis the term ‘traditional Japanese tattoo’ is used to refer to the
integrated, multicoloured motifs that extend over the back, arms, chest, and abdominal region.
In Japanese there are a multitude of words for tattooing, each of them has an implicit meaning.
The character, ? , defined as mark of criminals, and the characters, bunshin, ? ? , literally
‘decorated body’ were used in the earliest references to tattooing in Japan. In the Tokugawa
period (1602-1867), the same characters, ? ? were used but pronounced irezumi. The
characters, ? ? ? , also pronounced irezumi, were also used during this period. With a literal
meaning of ‘insertion, ireru,? ? , of ink, sumi, ? ’ this word was largely reserved for
reference to punitive tattooing and hence retains those connotations today. At the beginning
of the Meiji period (1868-1912), ? ? , ‘irezumi’, was popularised by novelist Tanizaki
Junichiro in his short story of the name. ? ? is a combination of the verb sasu, ? ? , to
poke, prick or pierce, and the noun, aoi, ? , meaning green or blue – a literal description of
the characteristically blue colour the ink becomes on insertion under the skin.
In the early part of the Tokugawa period, irebokuro, ? ? ? , was used to denote the ‘beauty
spot’ style love pledges, particularly in Osaka and Kyoto. In Osaka, tattooing was also known
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