Traditional Tattoo In Japan Horikazu

Text in English, French & German. This book is a highlight for all fans of tattoo, and Japan as well! Photographer Martin Hladik attended the Japanese tattoo master Horikazu with his camera for years, and he presents now the lifework of a remarkable tattoo artist in spectacular images. With this book, comprising scant 500 pages with more than 460 pictures you are diving into the still hidden world of traditional Japanese tattooing. Interviews with the late master (2011) and his successor Horikazuwaka provide virtually intimate insights into the art of tattooing in Asakusa, and give a glance of the protagonists of a recognised dynasty of tattoo artists. Functioning and techniques of this handicraft are shown in-depth. Furthermore you will experience the fascinating aesthetics, and the complex conception of motifs in traditional Japanese tattoos displayed in gorgeous photographs, from Koi to Kabuki, from Buddha to Benzaiten. Anyone of the tattoos reproduced is one of a kind, it was exclusively created for the wearer, and made by hand. More highlights come with pictures of the personal, and familial life of the master. You may visit his studio, and watch him tattoo his clients. The present selection of not previously published designs is a true rarity! Downright sensational, and unique up-to-date is a series of full-page pictures of Horikazus clients, presenting their full body tattoos openly and with self-confidence. Total works of art of an ingenious artist, stung into the skin, lasting an eternity. HORIKAZU is an iconographical benchmark, and contains a fully comprehensive account of traditional Japanese tattooing. The illustrious Sanja festival in Asakusa is displayed in stirring images from past and presence. Finally photographs from Horikazus funeral reveal another aspect of Japanese tradition, whether closest friends pay their last respects to the master. Text input from qualified authors provides access to the secretive world of images of Japanese tattoo art. Tattooists, tattoo fans and any art lover will certainly be thrilled by this unrivalled illustrated book.

Thinking of getting a Japanese-style tattoo? Want to avoid a permanent mistake? Japanese Tattoos is an insider's look at the world of Japanese irezumi (tattoos). Japanese Tattoos explains the imagery featured in Japanese tattoos so that readers can avoid getting ink they don't understand or, worse, that they'll regret. This photo-heavy book will also trace the history of Japanese tattooing, putting the iconography and kanji symbols in their proper context so readers will be better informed as to what they mean and have a deeper understanding of irezumi. Tattoos featured will range from traditional tebori (hand-poked) and kanji tattoos to anime-inspired and modern works—as well as everything in between. For the first time, Japanese tattooing will be put together in a visually attractive, informative, and authoritative way. Along with the 350+ photos of tattoos, Japanese Tattoos will also feature interviews with Japanese tattoo artists on a variety of topics. What's more, there will be interviews with clients, who are typically overlooked in similar books, allowing them to discuss what their Japanese tattoos mean to them. Those who read this informative tattoo guide will be more knowledgeable about Japanese tattoos should they want to get inked or if they are simply interested in Japanese art and culture.

A collection of more than one hundred fifty full-color photographs of tattoos created by New York City tattoo artist Rodrigo Melo in the traditional Japanese style.

This richly illustrated book reveals the meaning and the secrets behind the most significant motifs from traditional Japanese tattooing--such as mythological and supernatural creatures, animals, Buddhist deities, flowers and historical characters--and turns this art form into a path toward personal knowledge and individual expression.

The history of Japanese body suit tattooing is a fascinating one that encompasses much more that just the application of inks to skin. An understanding of the subject requires knowledge of the social and political forces at work from prehistoric times to the present day. This book traces the development of those forces, their role in the growth of the military government and its efforts to control a people often less than willing to be controlled. With reference to the Edo period (1600-1867), urbanisation and the growth of Edo (modern Tokyo), the background to tattooing is carefully explained. The yakuza (Japanese mafia), their forebears and their attitudes to life, crime and tattooing are explored in great depth. The technical aspects of tattooing are similarly detailed and Horikazu, a modern practitioner of this traditional craft, is profiled. The authors visited Japan at the invitation of one of Tokyo's yakuza gangs, where they also interviewed other tattoo artists and conducted research, and they have produced a book that will doubtless serve its field as an outstanding reference resource for a generation. Tattooing is again fashionable. The authors hope this book contributes to calls for some tattoo practices to be elevated to the realm of art, of which the Japanese body suit must be the supreme example. The authors visited Japan to complete their research by interviewing the bosses of two Asakusa gangs, the tattooist Horikazu as well as other tattoo artists and tattoo specialists. They accessed documents hitherto unpublished in a European Language and returned with much exclusive illustrative material. Book jacket.

This text offers a treatment of the history, symbolism, and social function of tattooing in Japan, from its earliest beginnings to the present day.

Reproduces ukiyo-e prints from the incomparable collection of Japanese art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Many tattoo connoisseurs consider the Japanese tradition to be the finest in the world for its detail, complexity, and compositional skill. Its style and subject matter are drawn from the visual treasure trove of Japanese popular culture, in particular the colour woodblock prints of the early nineteenth century known as ukiyo-e. This book tells the fascinating story of how ukiyo-e first inspired tattoo artists as the pictorial tradition of tattooing in Japan was just beginning. It explores the Japanese tattoo's evolving meanings, from symbol of devotion to punishment and even to crime, and reveals the tales behind specific motifs. With lush, colourful images of flowers blooming on the arm of a thief, sea monsters coiling across the back of a hero, and legendary warriors battling on the chests of actors, the tattoos in these Japanese prints can offer the same vivid inspiration today as they did two hundred years ago.