I don't want tattoos just to be about art.
In the beginning, I didn't have any pompous ideas.
I just liked shisei, and wanted to live off of it.
To do this, I needed to enhance my skills,
meaning I had to work hard.
In doing so, I learned life lessons from shisei.
The key factors for a beautiful shisei are
first, the drawing.
Without a drawing, you can't go to the next step - outlining.
Without a precise outline, you can't go to the next step, which is shading.
Only when outlining and shading are complete can color be applied.
These steps are integral for a perfect shisei.
Let's compare life to these steps.
First, outlining is like a life plan.
You need to clarify your ideas.
Every stroke of the needle counts, just like every day, every second of your life.
Neglecting even a second, or a single stroke of the needle
results in imperfect lines.
What we can learn here
is that it's important
to cherish this moment.
These moments accumulate into a minute, an hour, a day, a year, and so on.
Cherish each stroke of the needle, and each second of life.
Through this
accumulation,
one naturally improves one's skills and acquires more knowledge.
By more knowledge, I mean
you must study to improve your designs, right?
Through this process, you gain knowledge.
Through knowledge, you acquire wisdom,
which helps you improve even more.
This is the natural process of "Shu-ha-ri"
[Shu-ha-ri] A dictum stating that students must confront their masters and themselves to reach true mastery.
"Shu" or "to protect" means learning from your master.
Learning the tradition and preserving it.
But simply preserving is no good
if you want a living culture to thrive.
Preservation hinders evolution.
To evolve, you must break away from what you've learned.
This isn't betrayal.
They say, "Transcend your master."
This is "ha" or "to break".
After moving through "shu" and "ha"
next, you must transcend yourself.
I haven't done that yet.
"Ri" or "to transcend".
Whether I can reach that level,
or if anyone else has, I don't know.
I think I'm still in the middle of breaking away.
Let's use this Goddess Kannon.
Which side looks better?
It's so convenient nowadays.
We didn't have copying machines,
so we had to draw everything big. So inefficient.
Unproductive steps are important.
In everything.
If artisans take shortcuts to learn
they only end up learning half of what they should.
Not taking a detour prevents them from learning.
Instead of a curve,
they go straight.
The path of learning is too short.
In the past, you'd take a long detour and learn lots of things.
Those things were extremely important.
If you had the skill, you could draw the same picture. But the result won't look the same.
It'll lack essence.
Professionals can tell straight away.
I can't quite explain, but artisans know just by looking at it.
I guess you could say the essence is the unique touch of each artist.
It's not about good or bad.
Sometimes, copies can technically be better
than the original shisei.
But the copy lacks the essence instilled in the authentic version.
So it's not about technique, it's about whether or not it has that essence.
- Was your teacher Horiyoshi I?
Yes.
When I asked him a question, he'd just reply with "mmm".
From that "mmm"
I had to figure out what he was trying to say.
"Mmm?" or "mmm..."
There'd be different tones.
I would practice on my legs. Then one day, he finally said, "You try".
The most interesting are myths and fantasies.
Sun Wo Kung doesn't exist, but we draw him
like he does. Same with dragons.
A realistic portrait of a real person doesn't quite work as a shisei.
They must be depicted as legends.
Make legends look real, and real people like legends for a great shisei.
If I'm asked about the finished image,
my answer would be "I have no idea".
Nor will I know how the image will be placed across the body.
I won't know until you stand in front of me.
Every moment matters.
Inspiration is everything.
If I draw a draft beforehand, I'll miss the magic of the moment.
So I don't plan ahead.
That's how to make interesting work.
But it also means you need sufficient knowledge to move ahead.
Even an idiot can draw pictures if he keeps at it.
But knowledge only comes from books.
There are quite a few books containing falsehoods.
You have to read until you can tell what's false.
I focus on the shisei itself rather than the client.
I don't care about the client's taste or personality.
A shisei should stay true to the design.
If I think about the client too much, I won't be able to go forward with it.
But I do listen to where they want the shisei to be on their body.
Otherwise, it'll be like I'm shutting them out completely.
But that's where I draw the line.
Beyond that, I ignore the client and even myself.
My hands move spontaneously.
Say you're drawing waves.
If you're following the outlines of a draft,
you won't be able to draw spontaneously.
You need to free your mind.
That's why every moment matters.
People get shisei for various reasons
but the real appeal is being able to
flaunt your manliness.
Your pride as a man.
Flaunt it.
Maintain it.
I think that's it.
If you can't tolerate the pain, you're not a man.
I don't mean to exclude women here,
but I don't think women get shisei to flaunt their femininity.
Women get it because they think it's beautiful or cool.
I guess it gives them the image of a female outlaw.
But for men,
if you can't tolerate the pain,
you're not a man, right?
You can't give up halfway.
You have to overcome physical pain with mental strength.
It's that simple.
Overcome yourself, or not.
Initially, young people preferred small American tattoos.
But they soon got bored,
and started paying attention to Japanese shisei.
They wanted to have a background like shisei
so they could connect their smaller tattoos in a Japanese style.
Now, Japanese shisei is prevalent overseas as well.
The appeal of Japanese shisei is
its long history
and its aesthetic style.
Also, its appreciation for the body,
and coming up with designs that will make it look most beautiful.
The people who discovered the formal beauty of shisei are the Japanese and Polynesians.
The Polynesians and Micronesians in the South Pacific.
They also created tattoos that perfectly adorned the human body.
Tribal tattoos.
Tribal tattoos today have become copies of copies.
Meaningless patterns.
Originally, the designs were symbolic of sorcery
and were designed to perfectly fit parts of the body, like the face and arms.
Japanese shisei are also designed specifically for each body part.
They were shaped to perfectly fit those parts.
They didn't have this in the West, which is why they became interested in formal beauty
especially that of Japanese shisei.
Prof. Osamu Matsuda of Hosei University was an expert in Japanese shisei. He passed away.
The professor
loved shisei, and came here several times.
He said, "Never make shisei commonplace
among the general public".
Shisei should be reserved for the special few in order to preserve its value.
That making them commonplace would be an insult to tattoos.
That it will jeopardizes the aesthetic appreciation of shisei.
I agree.
Nowadays we see young people on the train flaunting tribal arm pieces
or hand pieces.
Or tattooed entertainers on TV.
As the prof. said, it's disrespectful to shisei. It's evidence that the aesthetic value has waned.
Like I said, a spiritual element was lost because artisans took detours.
That spiritual depth is integral in making a shisei shine.
It shouldn't all be about light.
Shisei won't genuinely shine unless there's an element of shadow.
The real attraction of shisei cannot come through if it's exposed too much in the light.
You need a feeling of the underground
to truly convey the beauty and history that's behind them.
That's what I want to leave behind.
I don't want tattoos to only be about art.
The true aesthetics of Japanese shisei
requires both art and spirit.
I don't think I can ever reach my goal.
I'll forever be unsatisfied
but that's good in a way.
I don't think anybody has died contently.
My ultimate goal is to die.
To die well.
By this I mean
I hope people will consider my death a huge loss. In essence, it's to live effectively.