Following the first article of the irezumi, the origin of tattoos in Japan, today we will see how the art of tattooing evolved in this country from the Edo period, comprising the years 1603 to 1868.
And is that During this period, in which at the beginning in the world of tattoos everything remained the same, something totally unexpected happened that changed the history of the tattoos from japan forever.
The novel that changed everything
And this change for the tattoos of Japan was neither more nor less than ... a novel.
Human passions, as Michel Ende said, are a mystery. Sometimes a work of fiction appears that creates real legions of fans. Getting a tattoo related to popular culture is not a modern thing, limited to fans of Harry Potter or video games.
Rather, we can date these fiction and tattoo fevers to at least 1805, when one of the Japanese translations of Suikoden (o shui huzhuan, in Chinese, the language in which the novel was originally written).
Very cool bandits
Tammeijiro Genshogo, one of the heroes of the novel.
Suikoden, one of the four great novels of Chinese literature, tells the story of 108 bandits who fought with honor and courage. The Japanese edition came with some incredible illustrations done with woodcut (following the well-known style ukiyo-e). In the illustrations, the bandits had their bodies decorated with drawings of tigers, flowers, and dragons.
The population went crazy for the bandits, and they began to demand more and more tattoos of the style of Suikoden. So artists who had specialized in woodcuts began to specialize in tattoos as well.
And that is how tattoos from Japan experienced a brutal increase in wearers, and a specialization by artists. of drawing that would take this art to a new level.
We hope you liked and interested this article about tattoos in Japan. Tell us, did you know the history of Japanese tattoos? Do you have a tattoo of this style? Tell us what you want in the comments!