History of Japanese tattoos and irezumi horimono »myhappypond.com

History of Japanese tattoos and irezumi horimono

Japanese art of tattoo has two names - and irezumi horimono. Irezumi is the concept of traditional visible tattoo that covers large parts of the body such as the entire back. The history of Japanese tattoos is very long.

Due to the influence of Confucianism and Buddhism on Japanese culture, most Japanese have a negative attitude towards the art of tattooing. The average Japanese tattoo considered a sign of the Japanese mafia or yakuza macho symbol, characteristic of members of the underclass.

Early History of the Japanese art of tattooing

Archaeologists believe that the earliest settlers of Japan, the Ainu people of the tribe have tattoos on their faces. The Chinese chronicles 1,700 years ago mention the people Wah (Chinese name for Japan's neighbors) and their love to dive into the water for fish and shellfish and to decorate their bodies with tattoos. For highly developed Chinese culture, tattooing was a barbaric act. After transmission of Buddhism to Japan from China, Chinese culture yields high popularity of tattooing in Japan began to be viewed with hostility. The Japanese began to mark criminals with tattoos to punish them and to mark out to the public.

Tattoos in the Edo period

During the Edo period (1603 - 1868) The Japanese art of tattooing become part of ukiyo is - Changing the culture of / floating world. Prostitutes yudzho of the pleasure quarters used tattoos to be more attractive to customers. Tattooed and dyed their workers and firefighters.

By 1720 tattooing of criminals became official punishment and replaced the cutting of the nose and ears. The offender had been made in a round about shoulder tattoo for each offense or character tattoo on his forehead. Tattooing criminals lasted until 1870 when it was abolished by the new government of Meiji.

This visible punishment creates a new class, rejected by society, which can not be integrated. Many of these outlaws were ronin - samurai warriors without masters. They had no other alternative except to organized criminal gangs. These men laid the foundations of the yakuza - organized crime structure in Japan in the 20th century.

Japanese tatuirovachni pictures

In 1827, ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi published the first six designs from "108 heroes of the Suikoden." Suikoden been honorary bandits - something like ancient Robin Hood story is based on classical, Chinese novel "Shui Chi Chuan", dating from 13-14 century. For the first time the novel was translated into Japanese in 1757 by Okadzhima Kanzanion. In the transitional period from 18 to 19th century history was published together with Katsushika Hokusai illustrations. Novel about 108 honorable bandit become extremely popular in Japan and created a kind of mad Suikoden craze among Japanese people. Kuniyoshi's drawings represent characters with colorful tattoos on the body. Overall, just then tattooed prints and art of tattooing become stylish. Tattoos were considered SRI (cool), but it merely underclass. The richness and imagination of Japanese tracing designs Kuniyoshi still used today by some tattoo artists.

Meiji Restoration in Japan to predivoenna

In their desire to adopt Western civilization, Imperial Meiji government banned tattooing and condemned them as a barbaric relic of the past. The funny thing is that Japanese artists irezumi now attracting new customers - sailors from foreign ships calling to Japanese coasts. Thus, the Japanese art of tattooing spread in the Western world.

In the first half of the 20th century horimono remained banned art form until 1948, when the ban was officially lifted. According to some claims, it was necessary because of the insistence of American occupation soldiers to being made and horimono irezumi.

The art of tattooing in modern Japan

Although some young Japanese tattoos were fashionable, much of the Japanese population still considers them something related to the underworld and mafia gangsters or best - a bad habit of the underclass. Few young Japanese who think tattoos on SRI, they make partial tattoos in Western model of the upper arm, where you can not see very much when you wear clothes with sleeves.

The article is composed of materials www.artelino.com

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