Have tattoos been common among Japanese people since ancient times? When did the current tattoo culture disappear? fashion?

2024-01-07 Category:Japanese culture

Photo by Utagawa Kunisada I (licensed under CC0 1.0)

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[Table of contents]

Japan has had a tattoo culture since ancient times.
Influence from southern Asia?
Tattoos that have been banned since the Meiji era
Enactment of the Organized Crime Countermeasures Act
Public baths where you cannot enter if you have a tattoo
Is it OK for men to take women's baths?

Japan has had a tattoo culture since ancient times.

You may hear people say that Japan does not have a culture of tattooing, but tattooing is actually an ancient Japanese culture. In Gishi Wajinden, it is written that Wa people liked tattoos, and both men and women had tattoos on their faces and all over their bodies. People in China and the peninsula don't have tattoos. It is said that these things are not done due to Confucianism. This is not a recommendation. People who don't want to don't have to.

Influence from southern Asia?

Many cultures were introduced to Japan from southern China, and there were people living in what is now Southeast Asia in the southern part. The method of preserving fish in vinegared rice, which is the origin of sushi, is said to have come from Southeast Asia, where tattoos are common. Sake is said to have originated from southern China's Shaoxing wine, which was originally made from sake-brewing technology that was brought to Japan. Northern China has a field farming culture, and southern China has a rice farming culture.

Tattoos that have been banned since the Meiji era

Tattoos began to be banned in Japan due to the influence of Confucianism. Even so, Toyama Kinshiro Kagemoto of Toyama Kin-san had a tattoo. Even judges had tattoos back then. It is said that tattoos were completely banned after the Meiji Restoration. The reason is for westernization. Even in the West, some people got tattoos, but they were only one-point tattoos, and they were not tattoos that covered the entire body like in Japan at the time. Amid these regulations, Japan's tattoo culture was inherited by the world of chivalry.

Read it together

Sphinx and Nagaoki Ikeda. Samurai takes a commemorative photo of Egypt and visits the Suez Canal Mysterious group of samurai in front of the Sphinx Goes to France to apologize for Idogaya Incident The Suez Canal is a huge waterway for the colonization of Asia Edo shogunate that canceled the Paris Agreement Edo shogunate's country opening theory The first photo was taken by a samurai in front of the Sphinx in Egypt. It is often introduced as a humorous image. In the scorching heat of Egypt, wearing a crested hakama seems to convey the heat. The second photo is Nagafuku Ikeda, a foreign magistrate of the Edo Shogunate who was participating in this group. In 1863, the Idogaya Incident occurred in Japan, where three ronin, believed to be members of the Joi group, murdered a French military officer near Yokohama. A 34-person delegation, including Nagafatsu Ikeda, traveled to France to apologize and make peace with the incident. The group arrived in Paris, had an audience with Emperor Napoleon III, apologized to the French government for the incident, and paid 195,000 francs in support to the family. The 34-member delegation arrived in Cairo from Suez via India from Shanghai on their way to Paris, where they posed for a commemorative photo in front of the Sphinx. This is a picture of a samurai in front of the Sphinx. The Suez Canal is an bypass built by France to allow ships from Europe to go to Asia without passing through Cape Hope at the southern tip of Africa. Ikeda and his colleagues inspected it. Afterwards, reconciliation with France was reached in Paris, and the group, recognizing the power of Western civilization, signed the Treaty of Paris, which promised the opening of three ports, including Yokohama, as free ports. The Edo shogunate ordered a mission to negotiate the closure of Yokohama Port, but this was difficult due to French resistance. Nagafuku Ikeda, seeing the strength of Western culture, abandoned negotiations and concluded the Treaty of Paris. After returning to Japan, Nagafuku Ikeda appealed to the shogunate about the importance of opening the country, but it was not accepted, and the shogunate, which had a policy of closing ports, canceled the Treaty of Paris, and as punishment, Ikeda's stone allowance was cut in half. Although Ikeda was later forgiven and returned to politics, he soon resigned from his post and died at the age of 42. What kind of truth did Ikeda see during this trip? Ikeda Nagafuku, as a member of the Edo Shogunate, called for the opening of the country. He was a member of the shogunate, which was on the opposite side of Sakamoto Ryoma, Katsu Kaishu, and Saigo Takamori, who started the Meiji Restoration. It can be said that the scale of the Western Industrial Revolution was shocking. The Meiji Restoration side looked overseas and considered the future of Japan, but the Edo shogunate tried to maintain isolation and the shogunate system. Ikeda, who saw the West with his own eyes, felt the same feeling as the young people on the Meiji Restoration side.

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Enactment of the Organized Crime Countermeasures Act

Due to this background, tattoos came to be considered anti-social forces. This is now called Japanese culture. Furthermore, in Japan, the anti-organized crime law was enacted in １９９２, placing significant restrictions on the activities of anti-social forces in general society, and these groups are currently on the decline, with public baths now being sought after in the city. You no longer see people who were once members of organized crime groups.

Public baths where you cannot enter if you have a tattoo

Young people in Japan now have tattoos as a fashion item. In other words, they seem to be trying to create their own individuality by drawing something on their bodies, just like the Japanese of old. The pattern is a so-called tattoo that looks good on clothes. Tourists coming from foreign countries are told that if they have a tattoo, they won't be able to go to the traditional Japanese hot springs that they were looking forward to, so they wrap them in some kind of cloth to hide it, but they are told that the cloth is also bad. It seems that there are cases where the application is refused. On the contrary, it is said that young Japanese people with tattoos cannot go to hot springs, which is a part of Japanese culture.

Is it OK for men to take women's baths?

You may be wondering what I'm trying to say, but Japanese people need to protect the culture of public baths, which is unique to Japan, in a healthy manner. Nowadays, it seems that men who are women at heart are thinking about how to bathe women.