What's the Tattoo that Okinawa has been Spread for Hundreds of Years?
Tattoo culture of the Ryukyu Kingdom’s
Okinawa, Japan, used to be the Ryukyu Kingdom. They have a culture completely different from the Japanese mainland, 「ハジチ(Hajichi)」is one of them.
From the southern tip of Japan's Amami Islands to the area around the Ryukyu Islands, women have been accustomed to tattoo from the fingertips to the elbow, and called it "Hajichi".
Women will stab such a tattoo on the hand, it used to ward off evil. Hajichi tattoo also a symbol of married and maturity, after the stabbed woman, will be blessed, and it has entered a new stage of life meaning.
There are different tattoo parts and patterns on each island. Some of the islands are also handed down the ancient belief that there is no "Hajichi" female afterlife will toil a lifetime.
Japan tattoo experienced appears and disappears constantly repeated, it has a great form and aesthetic development in the Edo period. On the other hand, the Ainu of Hokkaido is Japan's indigenous people. Adult women will tattoo on hands and beside the mouth. Currently, in the Ainu ceremony still is implemented in such a tradition, adult women will draw with paint next to the mouth.
Limited ancient art
Meiji government, strictly limited tattoos. Canceled the isolationist policy, trying to become civilized countries in Europe and America shoulder to shoulder, for both tattoo artists and tattoo off imposed strict limits.
In addition, the practice of female tattoo in Ainu and Okinawa regions is also affected. Although some people secretly tattoo, once they are found, they will be arrested by the police due to their fall behind and rough. And forced to remove with surgery or hydrochloric acid cleaning method. Now, tattoo customs from generation to generation in these areas are disappeared.
Now 70-year-old Lensman Hiroaki Yamashiro in 2012 published a collection entitled 《Hajichi》 of photography. He said all subjects lived to be 100 years old or more, and proudly showed off their tattoos. Introduction of this tattoo.
Today, people are working to restore the ancient art of the centuries-old grounds that Okinawa and Kagoshima's unique customs are of great significance in culture and history.
The 30-year-old Okinawan artist Yoshiyama Morika, has a spear-shaped tattoo on her finger.
Yoshiyama first heard hajichi when she was 20 years old when she was working in a museum, Okinawa Anna.
She said: "Because of government intervention, such an important custom is abandoned, it makes me very shocked." "I want more people aware of the existence of hajichi."
Many artists and cultural roots of recovery
49-year-old Taku Oshima is a tattoo artist in Tokyo, his style tattoos, including indigenous Ainu people of Hokkaido, Japan and New Zealand Maori and other indigenous tribes. Since then, he has put his work brought him a number of fans from Okinawa.
He said: "Because of discordant elements, the tattoo was abandoned in modern society, the minority culture has been obliterated. But with the diversity of inclusive, people are increasingly interested in their roots."
47-year-old Lee Tonouchiis fourth-generation Japanese-America writer in Okinawa, now living in Hawaii. In June this year, he published a children's picture book 《Princess Okinawa: Da Legend of Hajichi》, sharing henna tattoo history and young readers.
The story revolves around a girl's dreams of becoming a Western woman to start, her grandmother telling her about the history of hajichi.
2019 years October 5 to November 4, Japan Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art Gallery will hold a Japanese tattoos and tattoos Taiwan-themed special exhibitions. The exhibition will feature 10 Silicone handmade "Hajichi" tattoo replica.
"Taking into account all over the world who have come to watch the Rugby World Cup in Japan, Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, I want people to think about how society should look at the tattoo," the organizers of the exhibition, Tsuru University Cultural Anthropology Professor Yoshimi Yamamoto said.
And I also hope that this approach could be retained. Not as a social trend, but as an example of a valuable national culture.
Reprinted from this blog: https://wormholetattoosupply.com/blogs/news
