Kanji tattoo
Kanji Tattoo symbol: The Japanese use three kinds of scripts in their literature, kanji, hiragana and katakana. These scripts are used either independently or in combination. Japanese characters can be written both, horizontally and vertically. Expressive and artistic, Japanese Kanji characters are ideographic, which means that the characters depict a whole object, idea or meaning in graphics. The Japanese Kanji Tattoo is known as horimono or irezumi. Japanese tattoo is believed to have originated by the early settlers in Japan, the Ainu warrior people who sported facial tattoos. Extremely popular among tattoo enthusiasts, Kanji characters can easily symbolize any meaning.
The Japanese have two classes of alphabet, Hiragana and Katakana. The Hiragana alphabet is used when no Japanese characters or Kanji are used to signify the words. Katakana is mainly put to use to graphically depict foreign names.
Fundamentally, Japanese has only five vowels, a, i, u, e, o and the consonants include k, s, t, n, h (or f) m and y. The Japanese language has 48 alphabets.
Japanese Kanji Tattoo: The art of Tattooing is popular in Japan. Adopted for spiritual and decorative purposes in Japan, Japanese tattoos have ancient history that extends back to the Paleolithic period. Research scholars are of the belief that the distinctive designs and patterns observed on the faces and bodies of figures of the paleolithic period were in fact tattoos.
Ancient Chinese documents offer accounts about the WA people (the ancient Japanese people) and their practice of diving into water for fish and shells and ornamenting the whole body with tattoos. For the higher industrial Chinese culture, tattooing was a barbaric ritual. Criminals were marked with tattoos to punish and identify them in society.
These ancient documents dated back to the Yayoi period, C. 300BC – 300 AD. During this period, designs of Japanese tattoos were observed and criticized by Chinese visitors. However, in Japan, these designs were considered to have a spiritual significance and a status symbol.
In 300-600 AD, the beginning of the Kofun period, tattoos carried negative implications. The regime stamped criminals with tattoos as a punishment. Prostitutes used tattoos to beautify their bodies for customers. Firemen and laborers also used body tattoos. In the sixteenth century, the tattooing of criminals became a certified punishment and replaced the medieval technique of the amputation of the nose and the ears.
Tattoos remained revered and sacred among the Ainu people of Japan. These Ainu people, the indigenous people of Japan are known to have sported tattoos for decorative purpose.
Kanji Japanese Tattoo design: In tattoo symbolism, kanji characters are often used in the spirit of artistic achievement. The kanji free designs simulate literary work in traditional alphabets. Kanji designs are used to frame Japanese tattoo symbols, such as the cherry blossom picture. The kanji characters used to depict the cherry blossom runs the entire gamut, from whole phrases to personal names or a single thought.
Kanji characters are also used to express names in Latin script. The tattoo is designed by using the phonetic equivalents associated with each kanji character. The use of kanji for western names provides an opportunity to add a second meaning to the phonetic spelling.
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