The Japanese Tattoo And Britain During The Meiji Period
The Japanese Tattoo
and Britain during
the Meiji Period
Noboru Koyama
Cambridge University
Library
1
The Japanese tattoo and Britain
during the Meiji period
1. Introduction
5. The two Princes are
2. Tattooing in Meiji
tattooed
Japan
6. The legend of Hori
3. The tattoos of the
Chiyo
British Royal family
7. The real Hori Chiyo
4. Prince Alfred’s visit
8. The final Royal tattoo
and after
2
刺青師（文身師、彫師）
幕末・明治時代
• Karakusa Gonta ( 唐草権太）
• Daruma-kin ( 達磨金）
• Chari-bun ( ちゃり文）
• Iku ( 幾）
• Yatsu-hei ( 奴平）
• ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー
• Hori-iwa ( 彫岩 )
• Hori-kane ( 彫兼 )
• Hori-uno ( 彫宇之 )
Bunshin hyakushi ( 玉林晴朗著「文身百姿」）より
3
Henry Keppel, A sailor’s life under
four sovereigns
• ‘Japs making great preparations to receive the Duke
of Edinburgh’
• ‘Suits of apartments completely furnished in
European style, while the walls were covered with
curiously painted Japanese paper’
• ‘H.R.H. took a quiet breakfast with us this
morning[12th September], approving of our curry,
and then went home to be tattooed’.
4
Charles Beresford, The memoirs of
Admiral Lord Charles Beresford
• [In Tokyo] I was tattooed by the native
artificers, to the astonishment of Japanese
officials and nobles; for in Japan none save the
common people is tattooed. The Japanese
artist designs in white upon dark, working
upon the skin round the chief ornament in his
scheme; whereas the English tattooer designs
dark upon white, using the natural skin as a
background. Both methods are beautifully
illustrated upon my person.
5
Prince Albert Victor et al., The cruise of Her Majesty’s Ship
“Bacchante” 1879-1882
• Oct. 27th. … We came back quite hungry for
breakfast, after which we were tattooed on the arms.
At 9.30 A.M. we got into uniforms, and the Mikado
came to cal at the En-riô-kwan.
• Oct. 28th. … Back to breakfast at 9.30 and then the
tattooer finished our arms. He does a large dragon in
blue and red writhing al down the arm in about three
hours.
• The man who did most of our party was beautiful y
tattooed over the whole of his body, and the effect of
these Japanese drawings in various colours and
curves on his glistening skin was like so much
embroidered silk. Like so many of their old customs
tattooing has been abolished by law, but these two
artists were al owed to come to us in our own room
6
here.
• Two others went on board the Bacchante,
where they took up their quarters for two or
three days, and had their hands ful with
tattooing different officers and men.
(The cruise of Her Majesty’s Ship “Bacchante”
1879-1882)
• ‘some of the young men on board had chosen
to undergo the operation of tattooing when they
were in the ports of Japan’
(‘Tattooing in Japan’, Il ustrated London news)
7
Tattooing at Nagasaki, Japan (Illustrated London news )
• ‘some of the young men on board had chosen to
undergo the operation of tattooing when they were in
8
the ports of Japan’. (Il ustrated London news )
• Prince Louis of Battenberg ‘sported the massive tattoo
of a dragon across his chest and down his legs’.
(Hugo Vickers, Alice: Princes Andrew of Greece )
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• We have been Tatoed by the same old man that
tatoed Papa & the same thing too the 5 crosses [the
Jerusalem Crosses]. You ask Papa to show his arm.
(Harold Nicolson, King George the fifth: his life and reign )
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Duke of York very affable. Asked after Laurie. & talked a
good deal about his visit to Japan. He does not seem to
have liked Japs. He took off his coat and showed us his
tattooing.
( Ernest Satow’diary 11th August 1897, PRO.30:33/16/1)
9
Hori Chiyo
• He was regarded as the ‘emperor’ among the various
‘kings’ of tattooing’.
• Albert Parry mentioned him as the Shakespeare of
tattooing in his book Tattoo ‘because none other
approaches him’
• one is bound to admit that there is more or less of Art
in the work done by Hori (i.e., the tattooer) Chyo, of
Yokohama, who had the honour of placing several
designs on the late Duke of Clarence, and his
brother, the Duke of York. (Gambier Bolton, ‘Pictures on
the human skin’, Strand magazine)
• He [Hori Chiyo] had tattooed many royal personages,
including the Duke of Clarence and the Duke of York,
who later became King George V, when the two
brothers served as midshipmen aboard H.M.S.
Bacchante which visited Yokohama in 1882
10
[1881].(George Burchett, Memoirs of a tattooist)
Prince George receiving a tattoo on his left arm from Hori Chiyo
（ George Burchett, Memoirs of a tattooist ）
11
TATTOOING. Hori Chiyo.- The celebrated tattooer, patronized by
T.R.H. Princes Albert Victor and George, and known all over the world
for his fine and artistic work, is retained by us ; and designed and
samples can be seen at the Tattooing Room
12
• I [Hori Chiyo] had a taste of drawing from very
young age. I entered the Tokyo Fine Arts
Academy, and after graduating in the drawing
course, I studied assiduously the art of tattooing.
Being not satisfied with common crude works
of the profession, I devised various new
methods, and attained to the highest degree of
profession, as to the minuteness and artistic
effects, which wil delight and surprise to behold.
(Charles M. Taylor, Vacation days in Hawaii and Japan )
13
Hori Chiyo
（ from Fujin Sekai, October 1924)
14
• My chief disappointment is not being able to get
tattooed in Japan; but it seems that it’s been made
illegal, though I can’t think why. Still, under these
conditions, I’ve left it severely alone!!
(Duke of Windsor, A family Album )
15
• In the 1890s two of the greatest exponents of the craft
who have ever lived, men who put the word tattooing
and art together for the first time in the West and who
only needed to bow in mutual salute towards the
Japanese, achieved fame and modest fortunes. They
were Tom Riley and Sutherland Macdonald.(George
Burchett, Memoirs of a tattooist )
• From Japan came the first lessons in the real art such
as we know it to-day, and the suggestions that
Japanese work carried were adopted by at least three
popular British tattooists – namely, Mr. Riley (an
Irishman), Mr. Macdonald (a Scotsman, we believe),
and Mr. South (an Englishman).(Mulvy Ouseley
16
Marked for life” , Royal magazine )
