Japanese Tattoos

[Kraut and Tea]

Maybe someone else noticed aswell, the unit card of the "Mori Wako Raiders" shows the unit having tattoos across one of it`s arms and it`s breast.



I also recall seeing tattoos in the movie 13 Assassins. There is a scene in which Shimada Shinrokuro is gambling in a gambling hall. During that scene a group of half naked men throw the dice, their shoulders and arms are covered in tattoos. The movie is set a few years before the collapse of the shogunate so I guess it isnt enitrely inaccurate to conclude that it might say a few things about the 16th century (considering the isolationist policy of the Tokugawa shogunate). Gambling was illegal during the rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate, so I think tattooing might have been something very common amongst criminals during the Edo period.

quote from wikipedia:

Despite uncertainty about the single origin of yakuza organizations, most modern yakuza derive from two classifications which emerged in the mid-Edo Period (1603–1868): tekiya, those who primarily peddled illicit, stolen or shoddy goods; and bakuto, those who were involved in or participated in gambling.^[3]
Tekiya (peddlers) were considered one of the lowest social groups in Edo. As they began to form organizations of their own, they took over some administrative duties relating to commerce, such as stall allocation and protection of their commercial activities. During Shinto festivals, these peddlers opened stalls and some members were hired to act as security. Each peddler paid rent in exchange for a stall assignment and protection during the fair.

The Edo government eventually formally recognized such tekiya organizations and granted the oyabun (leaders) of tekiya a surname as well as permission to carry a sword — the wakizashi, or short samurai sword (the right to carry the katana, or full-sized samurai swords, remained the exclusive right of the nobility and samurai castes). This was a major step forward for the traders, as formerly only samurai and noblemen were allowed to carry swords.
Bakuto (gamblers) had a much lower social standing even than traders, as gambling was illegal. Many small gambling houses cropped up in abandoned temples or shrines at the edge of towns and villages all over Japan. Most of these gambling houses ran loan sharking businesses for clients, and they usually maintained their own security personnel.

The places themselves, as well as the bakuto, were regarded with disdain by society at large, and much of the undesirable image of the yakuza originates from bakuto; this includes the name yakuza itself (ya-ku-za, or 8-9-3, is a losing hand in Oicho-Kabu, a form of blackjack).
Because of the economic situation during the mid-period and the predominance of the merchant class, developing yakuza groups were composed of misfits and delinquents that had joined or formed yakuza groups to extort customers in local markets by selling fake or shoddy goods.^[3]
The roots of the yakuza can still be seen today in initiation ceremonies, which incorporate tekiya or bakuto rituals. Although the modern yakuza has diversified, some gangs still identify with one group or the other; for example, a gang whose primary source of income is illegal gambling may refer to themselves as bakuto.

The form of tattooing used by the japanese is called "Irezumi"

from wikipedia:

Irezumi (入れ墨, 入墨, 紋身, 刺花, 剳青, 黥 or 刺青) is a Japanese word that refers to the insertion of ink under the skin to leave a permanent, usually decorative mark; a form of tattooing.
The word can be written in several ways, each with slightly different connotations. The most common way of writing irezumi is with the Chinese characters 入れ墨 or 入墨, literally meaning to "insert ink". The characters 紋身 (also pronounced bunshin) suggest "decorating the body". 剳青 is more esoteric, being written with the characters for "stay" or "remain" and "blue" or "green", and probably refers to the appearance of the main shading ink under the skin. 黥 (meaning "tattooing") is rarely used, and the characters 刺青 combine the meanings "pierce", "stab", or "prick", and "blue" or "green", referring to the traditional Japanese method of tattooing by hand.

and here is some info on the role which tattooing played in Japan during the Edo period:

Until the Edo period (1600–1868 AD) the role of tattoos in Japanese society fluctuated. Tattooed marks were still used as punishment, but minor fads for decorative tattoos, some featuring designs that would be completed only when lovers' hands were joined, also came and went. It was in the Edo period however, that Japanese decorative tattooing began to develop into the advanced art form it is known as today.
The impetus for the development of the art were the development of the art of woodblock printing and the release of the popular Chinese novel Suikoden, a tale of rebel courage and manly bravery illustrated with lavish woodblock prints showing men in heroic scenes, their bodies decorated with dragons and other mythical beasts, flowers, ferocious tigers and religious images. The novel was an immediate success, and demand for the type of tattoos seen in its illustrations was simultaneous.
Woodblock artists began tattooing.^{[citation needed]} They used many of the same tools for imprinting designs in human flesh as they did to create their woodblock prints, including chisels, gouges and, most importantly, unique ink known as Nara ink, or Nara black, the ink that famously turns blue-green under the skin. There is academic debate over who wore these elaborate tattoos. Some scholars say that it was the lower classes who wore—and flaunted—such tattoos. Others claim that wealthy merchants, barred by law from flaunting their wealth, wore expensive irezumi under their clothes. It is known for certain that irezumi became associated with firemen, dashing figures of bravery and roguish sex-appeal who wore them as a form of spiritual protection.

I also found an article on this type of tattooing as it is practiced today, which gives some more details:

In old days, Japanese tattooists worked at their own houses and ran business quietly (without using the ads.). They didn’t put up a sign and list telephone numbers on the book. The practice of tattooing was forbidden in Japan (until the end of World War II). The customers used to find the tattoo shops by word of mouth.When I was an apprentice, feudal customs still existed in Japan. The apprenticeship was one of the feudal customs called uchideshi in Japanese. Normally, pupils lived with their masters, and were trained for 5 years. After 5-year training, the pupils worked independently, and gave the masters money that he earned for one year. The one-year service was called oreiboko in Japanese, the service to express the gratitude towards the masters. The masters usually told new pupils about this system, 5-year-training and 1-year service, when they began the apprenticeship.

The article is more about the personal accounts of a pupil than about the history of Irezumi and who the customers during the Edo period and sengoku jidai may have been.
Yet it also gives some pritty awsome pictures, mainly from the 1950s which (if tattoing really didnt change that much during 400 years of Japanese history) might also give a pritty decent hint on what the tattoos back then might have looked like:




This is a traditional group of gamblers, with "the chief" of the group sitting amongst them.





This is a tattoo master working on the tattoos of a yakuza.



a gathering of tattoo devotees.



skin covered with tattoos, "donated" by it`s owner.

source:

http://theselvedgeyard.wordpress.com...nk-in-harmony/

I also found this impressive image on wikipedia, showing some yakuzas during a festival:

[RubiconDecision]

I think it's a bit more complex. There were periods in early Japanese feudal history when the chief currency was in Chinese coins. Merchants could trade in China and then come home with coin, but it was sometimes better to ships goods directly into Japan and get paid in Chinese coins at a higher value. Then there were problems with China and so a lot of the Japanese economy was reliant upon trade shipments between China to Okinawa, and then this made the Satsumas rich because they controlled Okinawa and the only quasi-legal means of getting Chinese goods. Likewise trade could go from Japan to Okinawa and then to China.

What does this have to do with the yakuza? Well while the yakuza were shady characters that ran the criminal enterprises, they also were involved in the smuggling trade from wako pirates, Japanese smugglers and merchants. The yakuza started out as a means of self-protecting themselves from the samurai and those in authority. Remember punishments could at the very least be being beaten to death, beheadings, and crucifixions.

They needed muscle in Kyushu. Someone had to keep things in order and there were lots of ronin wandering around. Some worked as merchants, muscle, crime bosses, pimps, taverns, etc. (Don't think all of the sex trade was Geishas. Also don't think of the Geishas as prostitutes. They were more very well trained and artistic courtesans. This meant that the sex trade was very important since most people could never hope to frequent a Geisha house.) There even was counterfeiting of Chinese coins! That makes sense, right? Who would be the wiser?

In a big way, the direct loss of status of the samurai in peace time plus the economic trade sanctions created a perfect opportunity for the yakuza.

If you're a fan of the samuria genre, then an essential satire is Samurai Fiction. It can often be found in the US, but not many people outside of the Japanese have seen it. It pokes fun of every samurai film every made and is hysterical.

Here's a clip from the yakuza and in their gambling den:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY_zyQ9GMlU

Another clip of an ninja who's getting older and needs to retire:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxByyPtGzuU