Have tattoos been common among Japanese people since ancient times? When did the current tattoo culture disappear? fashion?
2024-01-07
Category:Japanese culture
I'm participating in the ranking.Please click and cheer for me.
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 Sake is said to have originated from southern China's Shaoxing wine, which was originally made from sake-brewing technology that was brought to Japan.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.
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.
I'm participating in the ranking.Please click and cheer for me.
[related article]
The Rose of Versailles is a Japanese work that was a big hit in Western Europe - Lady Oscar in France.
Beautiful Oscar in male clothing
A fictional story that doesn't exist
The Rose of Versailles became very popular in Europe
The royal family was the axis of opposition to democracy
Japanese culture focuses on the enemy
Former President Moon Jae-in says South Korea started the French Revolution
The Rose of Versailles is a manga that was serialized from 1972 to 1973. It was adapted into a stage play by the Takarazuka Revue Company and became a big hit, attracting attention and being made into an anime. The story takes place on the eve of the French Revolution. The main character, Oscar, is a woman, and as a beautiful woman dressed as a man, she is beautiful and strong, and is as good as any man. She later serves as the commander of Marie Antoinette's bodyguard when she is executed.
This is a work that frankly depicts his relationship with Andre, a man who is in love with Oscar, and his personal and romantic relationship with Marie Antoinette, who is protected by Oscar. What is surprising is that the main characters Oscar and Andre in the worldview of this magnificent work do not actually exist.
As you know, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were publicly executed by guillotine during the French Revolution. In other words, this work depicts the French royal family, who were the enemy of the people at the time. The animated work has been broadcast in Europe and is extremely popular. Of course, it was also very popular in France.
This work was created by Japan, an island nation in the East that has little cultural or historical contact with the West. On the other hand, if a Westerner created a work depicting the Edo period, would it be appealing to Japanese people?
The French Revolution was a major event that transformed France into democracy, and had the energy to change world history. In that sense, the French royal family at the time could be said to be war criminals in World War II and Hitler in Germany.
Steven Spielberg's ``Schindler's List'' is a work that depicts the human condition from the perspective of Hitler and the Nazis. In other words, The Rose of Versailles can be said to be a magnificent piece of work that shines a spotlight on what is considered evil in history.
Why don't the Korean people, who have the highest human rights consciousness in the world, condemn works such as Schindler's List and The Rose of Versailles? The Korean people who are familiar with the Nazis and Jews should be educating the people of the world. Former President Moon Jae-in told former President Macron that ``Korea started the French Revolution'' regarding the impeachment of Park Geun-hye.
The danger of Japanese public opinion as a debate develops over the glorification of war following the comments made by athlete Hayata Hina
When asked "What do you want to do now?" at a press conference, Hayata Hina, a medalist in table tennis at the Paris Olympics, answered, "I want to go to the Kagoshima Kamikaze Museum. Because I want to feel that being alive and being able to play table tennis is not something to be taken for granted." This has caused a bit of a stir. Most opinions are praising her, but it seems that a commentator named Furuichi said something unnecessary and caused a stir.
In China, it is said that national team players unfollowed Hayata on Weibo, and it is questionable how they knew about it so quickly, but since Chinese players are truly national representatives, it is best to assume that they will be used for political purposes. This topic seems to have developed beyond what Hayata said into a discussion of whether past wars are glorified. It is better to know that the term "glorifying war" is a term used by the continent and the peninsula.
For the continental peninsula, it doesn't matter what that war was like for Japan or what its purpose was. Many Japanese people have simply been imprinted with the idea that it was all Japan's fault and have internalized that belief. Therefore, when something like Hayata's remarks come out, they instinctively jump to the conclusion that it should be glorified or not. In other words, there is no in-between. Before even evaluating past wars, it seems that many Japanese people only receive biased information about how past wars occurred, and this will not lead to a good outcome.
This may seem sudden, but have you ever seen Hideki Tojo's suicide note? He was a man who led the war at the time and was sentenced to death at the Tokyo Trials after the war.
Here is an excerpt from Hideki Tojo's suicide note.
South Korea, which tries to equate the Rising Sun flag with Hakenkreuz, is completely unaware of its history and meaning.
Japan's national anthem, ``Kimigayo,'' is based on an unknown tanka that was published in the Kokin Wakashu of the Heian period. It's a song whose author is unknown. In the Kokin Wakashu, it says, ``My lord will ripple through a thousand and eight thousand generations until he becomes a rock of stone and becomes a child of moss.'' Who this ``my lord'' refers to is a hot topic, but the original meaning of this poem is ``You... It means "May you live a long and healthy life forever."
This song has been sung during birthdays, weddings, and celebrations of life milestones throughout Japan's long history. After the Meiji Restoration, it was put to music and performed as a song wishing for the long life of the Emperor. In other words, this era was the song of the Meiji Restoration. After that, Japan entered the war, and some forces denounce this as a symbol of militarism, but it only describes Japan for a short period of time in its long history.
A similar story can be said about the Rising Sun flag. There are various theories about the design of the Rising Sun flag, but one theory is that it is a legend that Amaterasu Omikami, the sun god, came out of a rock and the sun returned to this world. The legend of Iwato dates back to the time of the first Emperor Jinmu. In this way, the rising sun pattern has been used for various celebrations since ancient times in Japan, and when Japan entered World War II, it was adopted as the flag of the Japanese military. In other words, it is merely an explanation of Japan for a short period of time.
Considering this timeline, the Hakenkreuz was first the party flag of the Nazi Party, which then became the national flag. The reason why the swastika was adopted as the flag of the Nazi Party is that the swastika, which was painted on the ruins of Troy, was thought to be a symbol of the Aryan race and was adopted.
In other words, the national symbol associated with the idea of a chosen people coincided with the thinking of the Nazi Party, which advocated the principle of Germanic first, and became a symbol of the genocide of the Jews. In other words, this flag was adopted based on the consistent ideology of the chosen people.
Please tell Professor Seo Kyung-deok, who has never studied history, a little bit.
A celebration of shadows, a blend of Japanese and Western Japan.The continent abolished writing and destroyed its past.A completely different approach to history.
Japanese culture and shadow worship
Beautiful Japanese lacquerware in the dim light
Japanese aimed for balance and harmony
What was done on the continent was the denial of the past
Kanji abolished in Korea
The introduction of simplified Chinese makes it difficult to read the past
If you can't read past documents, you can't read history
Learn ancient Japanese and Chinese texts
A continent that burns the past and creates history
Japan's imperial family continued to exist
When I think about Japanese culture, I sometimes think of Junichiro Tanizaki's ``In Praise of Shadows.'' He remembers that during his junior high school Japanese class, he encountered some difficult sentences and had trouble understanding them. He talked about how you can rediscover the wonders of Japanese culture by learning about the background in which that culture was born.
Japanese lacquerware is based on black, and Japanese lacquerware was created in an era without electricity to create a beautiful appearance on a dimly lit dining table lit by candles. It was explained that.
White plates and glass cups became prized, perhaps because black dishes didn't look good in the light of a light bulb. However, if you eat on Japanese tableware in the dim darkness of candlelight, you will notice something beautiful about it.
To put it simply, in Japan there is a term called fusion of Japanese and Western styles. During the Meiji and Taisho eras, a large amount of Western culture flowed into Japan, but the Japanese strived to balance and harmonize with Japan's ancient culture. This is inheritance based on compatibility and harmony.
Yukichi Fukuzawa described Western culture as being like an epidemic. He preached that resisting these things would not prevent them from becoming infected, so we needed to think in terms of accepting them.
Japan sought compatibility and harmony not only in vessels and cultural customs, but also in the letters and documents that conveyed them.
On the other hand, what happened on the continent seems to be different. What is China's Cultural Revolution? In introducing socialism and communism, it was a movement to destroy the historical Chinese culture that they were proud of, and they actually destroyed cultural properties and slaughtered the people who had protected them.
What about in Korea? After becoming an independent country after the war, in 1948, it was decided that official documents should be written in Hangul under the Hangul Special Law, and in 1970, the abolition of Chinese characters was declared, and Chinese characters began to disappear from textbooks one after another. It seems that there is no problem with using Hangul as the national script, but by abolishing Hanja, it became impossible to read past documents. Efforts to abolish writing are incomprehensible to Japanese people.
The same meaning applies to simplified characters (current Chinese characters that have been simplified and symbolized), which were introduced during China's Cultural Revolution. By replacing Traditional Chinese (old Chinese characters) with simplified Chinese, people who received subsequent schooling were unable to read documents written in Traditional Chinese in the past.
Currently, traditional Chinese characters are used in Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. This was because he wanted to be influenced by the Cultural Revolution.
Particularly in South Korea, historical perceptions change so freely that one major reason can be said to be the inability to approach past documents.
Documents from the Japanese colonial period and even earlier were written in Chinese characters, and modern Koreans are unable to read any of them. You probably don't even want to read it. Does it mean that history does not already exist in documents?
As an Asian, this is truly deplorable and pitiful. Is it possible to foster national consciousness and culture in this way? Both of these are unthinkable in Japan.
Japan continued to utilize the writings of the past, reinforcing the sounds with hiragana called Manyogana and inventing Japanese writing.
Texts from the past also have different phrasing and adjectives, so in Japanese education, we study classical and Chinese texts and try to read past documents. This is to experience the way of thinking and cultural customs of Japanese people who lived in the past.
To begin with, the history of the continent is one in which kings kill other kings due to wars, and dynasties change. At that time, many things built by past dynasties will be destroyed, creating a structure in which a good king reigns after defeating a bad king. At that time, something called ``book burning'' is performed. Documents from the previous dynasty were burned and destroyed. The destruction and fabrication of history is not new.
The only dynasty in Japan exists outside of the imperial family, and the Japanese imperial family has been protected and maintained through all eras. The Japanese never thought of abolishing the imperial family in any social change. For this reason, we can know that Japan existed with the Emperor even during the #Imperial Era.
In other words, the continent's approach to the past and Japan's approach to the past are fundamentally different.
When Japan meets the king, the royal family protects the world, and Japan gathers together with the world.
Sunjong, the last emperor of the Korean Empire, lived in Changdeokgung Palace as a member of the royal family during the Japanese colonial period. When Changdeokgung Palace was destroyed in a fire, he lived in Nakseonjae, which was left over from the fire, but when asked to move to Deoksugung Palace, he reprimanded Lee Wanyo, saying, ``You can't move because it's Changdeokgung Palace, which was given to us by His Majesty the Emperor.'' did.
Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, lived in the Forbidden City during the Xinhai Revolution in exchange for his abdication. The Xinhai Revolution was a collaboration between Japan and Sun Yat-sen. At the time of the Great Kanto Earthquake in Japan, Puyi converted the treasures in the Forbidden City into gold and entrusted a large amount of donations to Kenkichi Yoshizawa. After Yuan Shikai's death, Puyi was expelled from the Forbidden City, placed under Japanese protection, and became Emperor of Manchukuo. The Qing Dynasty was an enemy country of Japan that fought in the Sino-Japanese War.
There are a small number of countries that cry out that Japan has invaded or invaded without drawing much attention to this kind of Japanese thinking. At least the former monarchs of these countries were treated respectfully and protected by Japan. China itself expelled the Qing dynasty's Ai Xinjuo Luo clan.
Izumo Taisha is a shrine that is famous both in Japan and among overseas tourists. Many tourists visit from Japan and abroad. The reason is magnificent, and the scenery is truly art itself. In the first place, Izumo Taisha Shrine was built for the god Okuninushi, who surrendered the country. This is a story from Japanese mythology.
At first in Japan, Izanagi's son Susanoo no Mikoto was banished from the heavenly world (Takamagahara) and landed on earth (Ashihara no Chugoku), where he expanded his country. Okuninushi is his descendant. In the first place, it was Amaterasu Omikami who was ordered by Izanagi to rule the earth, but in order for Amaterasu Omikami's grandson to come down to earth to create a country, he sent Takemikaraijin to earth in advance and ruled the country. Concession negotiations will take place.
Takeminakata, the second child of Ōkuninushikami, resisted and was cornered by the battle with Takemikaraijin and would not leave the province of Shinano, so he asked to be allowed to live here, and was enshrined in the province of Suwa. This is Suwa Shrine in Nagano Prefecture. As a result, Okuninushi committed suicide, saying that if he would build a palace in the country of Izumo, he would serve him from a faraway world. It is said that Izumo Taisha was built there. In response to this broken myth, he built Izumo Taisha, which still stands magnificently in modern times. There is no doubt that this is Japanese culture.