Various cultures have their ways of immortalising their real and mythical heroes and history. They capture such in folklore and symbolism. For the Japanese, tattooing like the Irezumi suit serves that purpose. The process of creating an Irezumi suit is elaborate and spans several years. Such tattoos cover a large body section, and the images make for an intriguing tale.
Irezumi Suit: Adorning Mythical Glory
Irezumi is Japanese tattooing that inks mythical animals, human characters, plants and other images. The art also draws content from myths, stories and tales and involves some calligraphy. Irezumi involves dense decoration with a combination of dark and bright colours. The correct term for this tattooing in Japanese is Horimono.
- The Inking of a Suit
The history of tattooing in Japan dates back to 3 B.C., though it was different from what it is today. In that culture, Irezumi started as a means of marking delinquents. It also depicted roguish characters that performed redeeming good deeds. In recent times, it has become an art in body decoration, and as in Horimono, the tattoos cover most of the body. That is the creation of an Irezumi suit.
The body becomes a coherent background or canvas for the carvings, and the story flows in images that outline a captivating plot. The story often begins with a central design on the back from which the rest of the images flow. All the images relate to the theme set by the motif drawn on the subject’s back.
That initial part of the design on the back becomes the back piece of the Irezumi suit. The tattoo covers the backside from the neck to close to the bottoms and is known as the nukibori. The most significant part of the Irezumi suit is that the back part of the tattoo is visible in one glimpse.
The rest of the body only complements what started at the nukibori. Other body parts also form secondary aspects of the tattoo and any recurrent highlights. The tattoo pattern flows to the arms and chest- the hikae. A full sleeve tattoo is the Nagasode, while the partial is the gobu.
Notable, too, is that the suit design changes depending on the subject’s gender. One gender-based distinction seen is that the nukubori technique applies to men. For female subjects, the back does not have to be the origin of the design.
The female’s tattoo follows the gakubori mode. The design can begin with the arms, which are the suit’s sleeves. Then, the artist can work towards her back to complete the pattern. Still, the design option is up to the subject, and some women prefer to have their Irezumi start from the back, like the nukibori.
- Sumi and Tebori
The basic technique in Irezumi uses a batch of needles inserted into the skin. The tattooist attaches a needle to a bamboo stick and uses it to poke the skin. The poking method follows a circular motion called tebori. They used ink made of cadmium powder and compressed charcoal, which they applied using sticks called sumi.
The hues were limited to a palette of red, brown, grey, and black. To expand their options, they mixed the colours and dissolved them in water. Today, foreign tattooists have infiltrated the authentic Japanese Irezumi culture
The modern aspects of Irezumi involve a wider colour spectrum, unlike the original and basic Irezumi offerings. They also use tattooing machines instead of the traditional toolset of the sumi affair and shibori techniques. Traditional tattooing involved hand drawing images that used two foundation colours.
Conclusion
An Irezumi suit is an elaborate undertaking. The intensity and theme of designs depict many cultural and personal aspects of the subject’s life and their interpretation. It is a traditional and aesthetic statement. Even though Irezumi now embraces modern tattooing styles and resources, it remains a mainstay of Japanese culture.