Junichiro Tanizaki’s biography has
been already presented in my blog, for that reason he doesn't have to be portrayed
and well-described. His works are shocking, filled with sexuality, sensuality,
wild erotic obsessions and destruction. He describes the rapid changes of
Japanese society of the XX century. The “West Traditions” jeopardizes the
orient Japan
“... to His sharp eyes a human foot
was as expressive as a face …”
“…is a foot to be fed by men’s
blood, a foot to trample on their bodies…”
The setting of the novel is
important, the declining [2]Edo period. The tattooer loves the way he creates his tattoos
– he engraves them – he wants them “photograph” them into his mind, soul – for that
reason he chooses beautiful girls. The spirit
is essential to “engrave” the tattoo. He sees the girl and suddenly knows what kind of “image of soul” is going to be pained on her. It is just a
predestination which works perfectly. Some of the images are very cruel – and represent
the cruel art – the dark side of the human soul, the mirror reflection of the
soul of the girl who is going to have it – filled with pain. The beginning of
the book presents a young girl – a tea-house girl. She is presented an image of an execution of a prisoner, namely, the picture describes a Chinese queen who witnesses
the executions of the prisoner, a cruel and a very brutal one; the other
picture presents a woman who looks at the corpses, the dead bodies filled her
soul with satisfaction. Seikishi knows
how impressive notion the image will have on a girl but somehow he feels it is
right for her. He is not mistaken, the girl confesses that she feels alike,
that her life is full of pain and suffering. She agrees to have this tattoo;
she agrees to be drugged, while she is unaware of real world, she sees a dream
one, Seikishi does his work day and night “engraves” on her a torment of
pain, the reflection of her soul. When she wakes up she noticed that the legs
of the spider she had tattooed on moves to her waist, the girl’s soul had
changed, she is not an innocent “lamb” now rather a devilish, powerful “tiger” – a
sexual demon, who devour every men’s soul. The romantic story of Tanizaki is
perverse, the images of naked, smooth tea-house girls – their sexual desires,
scent, the perverse “engravings” on their bodies – woke up lust and unstoppable
drive to overwhelm men’s body and soul. The tattoo is a piece of art, when
finally engraved it stops being mortal, becomes immortal. Its beauty is for it
sake! Exposed by the beautiful girl it becomes alive. Tanizaki alike [3]Baudelaire
was fascinated by the decay of the body and soul, evil forces that occupied human
mind, the brothels and whores who were beautiful, glorified, yet, rotten inside, devilish and cruel, died the same way
quite often. Tanizaki indeed describes a carnal horror, terror, demons, the treacherous
beauty one must be beware of. The women are still traditional Japanese one,
but, some of them yearn to be “Westernized” – they accepted certain western patterns and they are proud of it, they do not reject the Japanese way of life, however, they try
to follow a new pattern of life, a new way of life. The pure beauty and
innocence is transformed into the sexual demon, the girls are so breathlessly
beautiful that they must be devilish. No matter how many changes the woman undergoes,
she knows her hierarchy, she knows her place in the society. His work is a very
metaphorical one, is describes Japan changes, the Japan modernity, the tattoo
making is a painful process, one would
call it a sadomasochistic one, in which a young beautiful woman wants to purify
her pain, wants to restrain to any kind of suffering she will have to
encounter, it makes her strong and powerful. Despite of the drugs she feels the
pain, she is proud of it. The western world was for Japanese society strange, beautiful and seductive, the source of freshness and unknown, they sometimes “unwillingly”
– took it and accepted it. The pictures the tattooer takes as his source of
inspiration are of [4]ukiyoye
style, vulgar but very profound.
“… Pictures of such scenes tend to
vulgarity, but so skillful had the painter portrayed the expressions of the
princess and of the condemned man that this picture scroll was a work of
consummate art…”
This art is “an underground art” it
is not acknowledged by outside world. It is hidden deep into Japanese society,
dark world, it has still to be legitimated. The images are a fairy tale ones,
folklore ones which have a certain, particular image, a single one was first
tattooed, the rest came later. In Tnizaki’s art it will be always an idealized one,
as much as the woman he engraves it on … a perfect fame fatal it completes her, unites with her as one. The artist
creates a new woman, a new being of the same person, more aggressive, more beautiful,
more self-confident. Woman is not a victim but a winner.
[1] It is dated from Jomon period to
nowadays, contemporary culture. It comprises within all styles; Asian,
European, North American ones. All of them changed or at least tried to change Japan
[2] The Edo
period lasted between 1603-1868. The Japan
[3] Charles Pierre Baudelaire – a French poet and writer, art critic and a translator of Edgar Allan Poe; his most
profound works were “Flowers of Evil”. He is associated with decadence and Richard
Wagner, his music and paintings. He was a critic of a romanticism, Goethe. Alike William
Blake his poems are reflected in his paintings, he was not an engraver as
Blake, nonetheless, his full of passion, pain and cruelty paintings cannot go
without his poems, which are rich in lines.
[4] It represent wood-print art works, emerged
in XVII till
XIX centuries inJapan
XIX centuries in
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