JAPANESE PRINTS

A MILLION QUESTIONS

TWO MILLION MYSTERIES

Ukiyo-e Prints

浮世絵版画

Port Townsend, Washington

None of the examples shown on this

page or future tattoo pages is for

sale - unless specified otherwise!

THE TATTOO IN CHINA

The general consensus is that the application of the tattoo in China was almost if not exclusively a form of punishment. That is what most books have stated and for that reason that is how it is viewed on the street. But there are exceptions and we will discuss them. But first I want to cite a passage from an unexpected source, Paris Inside Out by David Applefield published in 1998, in which the author talks about the contemporary Chinese community in that city. He notes that there culture is in high vogue, but has it low commercial elements that go along with this. Applefield tells us about the "Chinese men and women [who] sit outside the Center Pompidou..." and other popular tourist sites and offer to write your name in Chinese characters - Votre prénom en Chinois. The only problem is that "...most Chinese people find this calligraphy substandard, at best." Not only that but "...semi-meaningless Chinese characters pepper both Parisian clothing and skin." I would think this is probably the case in the U.S. as well. Applefield finishes by noting parenthetically that tattoos are almost non-existant in China today because of their historical association with the criminal element.

Joe Studwell in his 2003 The China Dream: The Quest for the Last Great Untapped Market on Earth makes the same point: "The curiosity of Chinese character tattoos in Europe and America leaves Chinese observers baffled and somewhat amused. The tattoos are often done by non-Chinese artists and are frequently misdrawn. The sight of Caucasians with 'Butterfly' or 'Enemy' or some such incongruous word scrawled on them is a strange one."

THIS PAGE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS.

WE HAVE ONLY BEGUN.

THERE IS MUCH MORE TO COME SOON.

Below are two book illustrations by Hokusai to Bakin's 'Shinpen Suiko Gaden' which first appeared in 1805.

They illustrate two of the outlaws of the marsh best known generally through the Japanese name the Suikoden.

The first one is adorned with dragon tattoos and the lower one is clearly blossoms. (I added the color.)

These predate Kuniyoshi's famous prints created decades later.

Below is a cropped version of a Yoshiharu print from c. 1854. Here the marsh bandit

Kyūmonryū Shinshinis struggling with the robber chief Chōkanko Chintatsu.

Compare this Suikoden figure's dragon tattoo with that done by Hokusai

nearly fifty years earlier shown above. The same character is shown in

the Hokuei section lower down this page. It dates from 1835.

OPPROBRIUM IN CHINA...

AND EVERYWHERE ELSE

FOR THAT MATTER

 Somewhere in this site I am sure I mentioned that when I was a child tattoos were definitely looked down upon by almost. Only low-lifes got them or occasionally the scions of respectable families who had decided to go slumming on a drunken lark. Sailors had them and so did carnies, not to mention convicts and generally scary types. But now tattoos are almost de rigeur. Not only the children of wealth have them and many great athletes and more not so great, but also people who use terms like de rigeur. It has even been said that the future leaders of commerce and industry will be sporting visible tattoos and piercings in the board room. One U.S. senator has three tattoos: 2 visible and one a little more discretely placed. (Of course, it helps to know that he is an ex-Marine.) Boy have things changed.

In the late 19th century James G. Blaine tried three times to obtain his party's nomination for president. He finally got his wish in 1884

as the Republican candidate. He had served in the House of Representatives and the Senate. He had even been Secretary of State in

the cabinets of three different presidents: two before his run and one after. Blaine was a man with a history. He was accused of

being anti-Catholic even though his mother was one and his sister was a nun. He was a big target and as such was the object of

scorn in one of the most famous political cartoon ever. He was swift-boated even before there was such a term.  Accused of

corruption at many levels his indictments appeared etched into his skin in the "Tattooed Man". Revealed for what he

'really' was before his peers he hides his face in shame.

But the cartoon had a double whammy to it because it was based on the 1861 painting by Jean-Leon Gerome of

Phryne Before the Areopogus shown below.

Phryne had posed for a statue of Venus by Praxitiles, the most famous sculptor of his day. As I recall, she was charged with blasphemy

for presuming to believe that she was as beautiful as the goddess. Brought before a panel of judges, the Areopogus, her lawyer is losing

her case. In desperation her advocate rips off her robe and declares something like "Gentlemen, judge for yourselves." They were

astounded and she was acquitted. [Remember, I am doing this from memory and may not be completely on the mark.]

Phryne may have come out of this a winner, but James G. Blaine didn't.

Grover Cleveland won! The tattoos may have decided the election.

A PIÈCE DE RÉSISTANCE

A HOKUEI MASTERPIECE

THIS FOUR PANEL MASTERPIECE IS ONE OF MY FAVORITES OF ALL JAPANESE WOODBLOCK PRINT CREATIONS

THE TWO END PANELS BOTH DISPLAY ELABORATELY TATTOOED ACTORS

SNAKES & DRAGONS

DOES IT GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS?

SOME MAY THINK SO. SOME MAY PREFER

KUNIYOSHI SUIKODEN IMAGES, BUT I LIKE

THEM BOTH!

This Osaka tetraptych dates from ca. 1835.

I HAVE A FEW QUESTIONS FOR YOU.

WHAT KIND OF MAKEUP DID THEY USE

TO PAINT THE BODIES OF THESE ACTORS?

WAS THIS KIND OF MAKEUP APPLIED

DIFFERENTLY THAN THE STANDARD

PROCESS?

HOW LONG DID ONE APPLICATION LAST?

DID THEY HAVE TO REAPPLY IT EVERY DAY

FOR EACH NEW PERFORMANCE?

***

VERISIMILITUDE

If anyone out there knows anything about this technique would you please fill me in. Dean J. Schwabin his Osaka Prints (pp. 172-3) notes that these four panels illustrate a scene from a play which was never staged. So, not only does it represent a scene with two tattooed figures which never took place, but the tattoos are not really real. They are stage craft - or would have been if they hadactually shown a genuine performance.

This four-panel composition raises all kinds of puzzling issues. Although this is not the place nor the time to wrestle with them it does not change the fact that actors more than likely decorated their bodies with faux tattoos. The illustration of Benten Kozo Kikunousuke on our first "Bad Boys and Their Tattoos" page is a case in point. Click on the name above to see what we mean.

I can't help think of all of those interminable interviews with actors and directors who lament the time it took every day to put on their makeup for such movies as "Planet of the Apes" or "Star Wars". Or, were they bragging?

My friend M. gave me permission to use these prints.

Thanks M!

BELOW ARE LINKS TO

THE OTHER THREE PAGES

DEVOTED TO BAD BOYS AND THEIR TATTOOS

CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO GO TO THOSE PAGES

PAGE ONE

PAGE TWO

PAGE THREE

Any questions or comments? Please contact us.

jv@printsofjapan.com