Irezumi
Irezumi is the Japanese word for tattoo. In English, it is used to talk about many types of Japanese tattoos. It is also used to talk about ways of tattooing people that came from Japanese people, such as the Ainu and Ryukyuan people.[1]
Irezumi is not done with any tattoo machines. It is done with metal needles that are put on wooden sticks with silk. It uses a special type of ink called Nara ink. Ainu and Ryukyuan tattoos use ink from indigo plants. Making irezumi in this way takes a long time. It is also painful to get irezumi. Tattoos are made by a small number of people named horishi. Horishi usually have apprentices that work with them.[2]
During the Edo period, criminals were given tattoos.[3] Where these tattoos were put was based on what crime someone did. For example, murderers were tattooed on the head. This made tattoos connected to crime in Japan. In the 19th century, the Japanese government made tattoos illegal.
Irezumi Media
An Ainu woman with a tattoo around the mouth, 1910
A tattooed man's back, c. 1875
Tammeijiro Genshogo by Utagawa Kuniyoshi. Brooklyn Museum
Tattooed Yakuza gangsters
Tattoo artist working on a body suit
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References
- ↑ Lewallen, Ann-Elise (2016-01-02). ""Clamoring Blood": The Materiality of Belonging in Modern Ainu Identity". Critical Asian Studies. 48 (1): 50–76. doi:10.1080/14672715.2015.1131400. ISSN 1467-2715. S2CID 146832984.
- ↑ Bagot, Pascal. "The Way of the Ink". 2010.
- ↑ "The Tattoos that Marked the Criminals of the Edo Period". Pen Magazine International. 2020-09-10. Retrieved 2023-02-14.