Tattoo History in China and Japan

Japanese and Chinese tattoo styles have had an enormous impact on the modern global tattoo culture. The proliferation of far eastern Asian derived images like dragons, koi fish, Chinese and Japanese characters, wind and water bars, and even the very notion of the body as a canvas for a gigantic body-suit tattoo in contrast to the more European badge-like quality of tattoos has done much to revitalize the custom and give it an artistic legitimacy that it did not have before, in Western eyes at least. But how did this cultural tradition evolve?

Around 500 BC, Confucius preached a moral code that civilized people were to live by. These tenants included honor and respect for parents and ancestors. Any willful mutilation of the body such as the shaving of body hair or tattooing was seen as an insult to one's family and community. The Chinese distinguished themselves from the "wild tribes" on their periphery and the lowest social classes within their own society by disdaining customs that were common among them, including tattooing (van Dinter 2005:56-59).

The first report of an Asian tattooing culture appears in Chinese literature around 200 BC and describes the Yue people who decorated themselves with tattoos in order to protect themselves from dragons and sea monsters. Tattoos were also common among Chinese slaves, criminals, prostitutes, servants, concubines, and soldiers. These tattoos were meant for identification and to show ownership as well as for punishment. For example, if a concubine was found to be unfaithful, her eyebrows would be cut away and the wound filled with pigment. Those convicted of stealing would have a small ring tattooed behind the ear while a man convicted of repeated adultery would be tattooed on the forehead (van Dinter 2005:56-59). No one with a facial tattoo was allowed within the limits of the city, so once a person was tattooed they were effectively relegated to marginality. Warlords exploited this in order to build up their armies, kidnapping farmers and tattooing them immediately so that they had no choice but to remain in the army. As a consequence of their prevalence in the army, tattoos began to lose their stigma on the fringes of society, and tattooed people began to add their own designs to the existing ones (van Dinter 2005:59). Van Dinter writes of "beautiful, realistic tattoos of mountains, rivers or animals, and even anti-government slogans" that were the major motifs of these self-applied tattoos (2005:59). Eventually, tattooing caught on among the upper classes of Chinese society where elites would have images of mythical beasts or texts tattooed on their backs and chests. Pre-cut woodblocks with hundreds of needles protruding from them were used as stamps to inscribe the same design over and over, suggesting that certain designs were very popular. A story from the ninth century tells of a government official whose nearly full body snake tattoo was so realistic that he would terrify unsuspecting persons by suddenly ripping off his clothes and revealing it (van Dinter 2005:60).

A major influence on tattoo culture in China and Japan was the fourteenth century Chinese novel Shuihuzhuan (also known as Shui Hu Zhuan) which relates the adventures of a gang of bandits, some of whom were tattooed. The stories of these bandit heroes are believed to be based on actual events that took place sometime around 1120 AD. The gang's leader had a punitive tattoo on his face, another bandit attributed his superior fighting skills to the nine dragons on his body, and a third had tattoos so beautiful that it made him irresistible to women (van Dinter 2005:60). The heroes' Robin Hood-style adventures made the book very popular and influenced young men to get themselves tattooed. This trend was short-lived in China, and tattoos were never quite able to shake off the negativity surrounding them. Today, tattooing is still associated with low social status and the criminal element in China, and most ordinary ethnic Chinese do not get tattooed.

The book's greatest impact on tattoo history, however, was its contribution to the development of the Japanese body-suit tattoo style. Translated into Japanese as Suikoden, the novel became very popular in Japan in the early 19^th century. In 1805 the Japanese writer, Takizawa Bakin wrote a new version of the story that was illustrated by the Ukiyo-e woodblock print master, Hokusai Katsushika. During the Edo Period (1603-1868), this adaptation became a great success among the urban population of Japan. According to Heroes of the Suikoden, "it produced a kind of craze like the Beatlemania in the sixties. Everything connected with the Suikoden was suddenly iki - cool, trendy," mostly because of the rigidity of Japanese social classes at the time (2006). The combination of the great economic prosperity enjoyed during this time and the inability to move up the social scale made this story about heroes who dared to challenge the entrenched powers very appealing. The amazingly vivid woodblock illustrations by Katsushika and subsequent ones for an 1827 version of the book by Kuniyoshi, who is today considered the best print-maker of his time, sparked the imagination of the working classes. Tattoos became popular among prostitutes, construction workers, and firemen, who were admired by the public for their bravery but also feared for their rough and wild behavior (2006 Heroes of the Suikoden).

Prior to this flowering of decorative styles in the early 19^th century, tattoos in Japan were used only as degrading punishment. Those convicted of extortion, fraud, or theft were tattooed on the upper or lower arm or on the forehead. The upper classes could avoid this fate while those of the lower classes were punished by tattooing a line on the forehead for each conviction until the character for "dog" was formed after three transgressions (van Dinter 2005:60-62). As in China, a tattoo was a life sentence that made it impossible for a person to return to normal society, so criminals began to cover their tattoos with figures that were purely decorative, such as flowers or animals. This form of punishment also increased the number of bandit gangs who lived outside the social hierarchy, terrifying the populace, so that finally in 1870 punitive tattooing was made illegal (van Dinter 2005:62).

Increasing demand for more intricate and detailed tattoos, reflecting the intricacy of the Ukiyo-e prints, led to the formation of a group of professional tattooists, many of whom began their careers as printmakers. Even the Japanese terms for 'tattoo master,' horishi or horimono-shi, reflect the close link that tattooing had with woodcarving. Horishi means 'woodcarver,' and horimono is the term for 'the fashioning of objects' (van Dinter 2005:66). Japanese tattooists soon became known the world over for their excellent designs and unmatched execution. A tattoo master's kit contained over 50 different instruments, "including handgrips with shafts ending in between one and 30 needles" (van Dinter 2005:67). The tattoos were done in five basic colors: black, green, indigo, red, and yellow; white face powder was sometimes used but designs in this color were only visible if the skin reddened. The body suit tattoo left the lower legs, lower arms, and the middle of the chest empty of designs so that the tattoos would not be visible while wearing a kimono, allowing the tattooed person to move about freely even in social circles where tattooing was frowned upon.

With the arrival of Admiral Perry in 1853, Japan was forced to open up to the outside world, and soon Japanese tattoos became known the world over and were very much in demand by European aristocracy. This was the beginning of Japanese influence on world tattoo culture, an influence that continues to this day despite the fact that tattooing is no longer very fashionable in Japan. It is mainly practiced by a small minority of enthusiasts, including most notoriously, the Yakuza, or Japanese mafia.

Sources

http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Novels/shuihuzhuan.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukiyo-e

http://www.artelino.com/articles/heroes_suikoden.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza

van Dinter, Maarten Hesselt

2005. The World of Tattoo. Amsterdam: KIT Publishers