Just received: the first of a series of articles on Japanese tattooing by
our correspondent in Japan, master tattoo artist Kazuo Oguri. Oguri was
the first Japanese tattoo artist to visit the U.S. after World War II. In
1970 he began to correspond with Sailor Jerry Collins of Honolulu, and in
1972 went to Honolulu, where he met Sailor Jerry, Mike Malone and Ed Hardy.
In the summer of 1973 he visited the west coast of the U.S., where he
demonstrated tattooing by hand and exchanged designs and tattoo information
with Malone, Hardy and others. In 1975 he attended the first tattoo
convention in Houston Texas. His good will and enthusiasm have done much
to promote an appreciation of Japanese tattooing in the West.
Most Japanese tattoo artists today use designs based on woodblock prints by
19th century Japanese artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi. In the 19th century tattoo
artists drew Kuniyoshi's designs on the skin with a brush and then did the
tattoo using hand-held needles. Sometimes a tattoo artist would get
Kuniyoshi himself to draw the design on the skin. But when Kuniyoshi
became famous he was very busy and didn't have time to fill all his
commissions, so tattoo artists had to study drawing and do the designs
themselves.Kuniyoshi left many tattoo designs and after his death Japanese tattoo artists collected his prints. But today there are very few of Kuniyoshi's
prints in Japan because almost all of them have been bought by collectors
in England and the US. So Japanese tattoo artists collect the prints of
Kuniyoshi's pupil, Yoshitoshi, and use them as inspiration for tattoo
designs. They also sometimes use the prints of Hokusia.My teacher's designs were based on the work of Kuniyoshi, but my teacher did not have any Kuniyoshi prints. He had only copied the designs that his teacher had drawn for him. He had about a hundred of these designs.
Kuniyoshi was the first artist who drew true tattoo designs. I read about Kuniyoshi and I read that he had drawn thousands of tattoo designs. I longed to see his prints and I tried to find them. Now altogether I have drawn about 350 designs based on Kuniyoshi's prints, and I have collected many reproductions and photographs of his work.
Unfortunately at this time in Japan there is no published book of tattoo designs. If one is published members of the Japan tattoo club will be informed immediately.
Tebori, or Tattooing by Hand
In Japan today there are very few artists who work in the traditional
method by hand. Almost all of them use tattooing machines. I only use
machines for color and shading. Tattooing by machine is less expensive
than tattooing by hand. Tattooing by hand costs 200 US dollars per hour,
but tattoo artists who use machines only charge 75 US dollars per hour.
Japanese customers like tattooing by hand because it is less painful than
machine tattooing.
Original drawings and hand-written specimens of calligraphy are more
valuable than printed pictures and text. It is the same with tattooing. A
tattoo done by hand has a certain prestige and a unique spirit which
machine work can never equal. When customers see a tattoo outlined by hand
they express surprise and think it is wonderful, but they are not so
impressed by the outline done with a machine.
We have a word in Japanese, inshindenshin, which means telepathy, sympathy,
or tacit understanding. This is what happens when I am tattooing by hand.
My hand and my heart have the same thought, and the thought is transmitted
by the tip of my finger to the customer's skin. That is why it is not
painful and there is no blood. There is never any swelling or inflammation
of the tattooed area.
Because I tattoo by hand my customers come to me from all over Japan. I am
proud of my work by hand, and I am grateful to my teacher, who made it
possible for me to become a tattoo artist. I will never forget my teacher.
Traditional Japanese tattooing should be preserved. But young tattoo
artists today do not want to learn how to tattoo by hand because it is too
difficult. It is unfortunate. I get phone calls from customers all over
Japan who want me to travel to their cities and tattoo by hand, but I have
to refuse because I am an old man. I am not young any more, so I don't
want to travel.When a tattoo artist's heart is right we call it a Buddha heart. Some people think I have a secret or some magic, but there is no secret and there is no magic. When I tattoo I have what we call zen (wholeness or goodness) of heart, and I practice total concentration. We call this state of mind seishin toitsu (seishin means spirit, soul, or mind; toitsu means unity or uniformity). This is the same kind of concentration one must practice if there is a serious problem in one's life. One practices seishin toitsu, or total concentration, to find the right solution.
