As I was getting undressed and into my fundoshi, Shinji
said, “I think we do regular background.”
“Okay,” I said, surprised.
“Since we have to connect background here,” he said,
pointing to my shoulders, “we should do regular background.”
My tattooed arms both end on the top of my shoulders with
clouds; the right side from Horiyoshi, the left from Shinji. I guess that means
the plain wind bars are no longer the plan.
“Is fine,” I said. “It’s just that you tell me what we are
doing, and then I spend a month thinking about it, and next appointment it’s
something different,” I said, mock-exasperated.
Shinji laughed. “Trust me,” he said, smiling.
Shinji applied stencils of two of the three flowers and then
freehanded the rest. The session was similar to the last several: an hour of
drawing, followed by two hours of tattooing. As he was drawing, I was looking at the
stencils he had tacked up to the wall, in preparation for other clients. There
was a new one, a wonderful hero figure that looked like a cross between a
samurai and a hula girl. I asked him about it after the session.
“That Tamatori Hime,” he said. I asked if it was a warrior,
as I didn’t think there were many women warriors. “Not warrior,” he said, searching
for how to describe her. “Diver,” he said, settling on that word. “She went
into the ocean and stole a ball from dragon,” he explained, pronouncing “ball”
like “bowl,” so much I wondered which he meant. “She stole a ball and cuts her
chest, putting it inside. Very famous person—not real person though,” he said,
not sure I understood it was a myth. I asked him to write down the name so I
could Google it later. Wikipedia says:
“The
fable of Tamatori-hime 玉取姫 ‘Princess Jewel Taker,’ which was a favorite ukiyo-e subject of Utagawa
Kuniyoshi, is a variation of the Hoori and Toyatama-hime love story.
Tamatori was supposedly an ama diver who married Fujiwara no Fuhito and recovered a precious jewel that
the Sea God stole.
“The
legend of Princess Tamatori (Tamatorihime), or Ama, developed around the
historical figure Fujiwara no Kamatari (614-69), who was the founder of the
powerful Fujiwara clan. Upon Kamatari’s death, the Tang dynasty emperor, who
had received Kamatari’s beautiful daughter as a consort, sent three priceless
treasures to Japan in order to comfort his grieving lover by honoring her
father. One of the treasures, a pearl, was stolen by the dragon king during a
storm on its way to Japan in the inlet of Fusazaki. Kamatari’s son Fujiwara no
Fuhito (659-720) went in search of the pearl to the isolated area where he met
and married a beautiful pearl diver named Ama, who bore him a son. Ama, full of
love for their son, vowed to help recover the stolen pearl. After many failed
attempts, Ama was finally successful when the dragon and grotesque creatures
guarding it were lulled to sleep by music. Upon reclaiming the treasure, she
came under pursuit by the awakened sea creatures. She cut open her breast to place
the pearl inside for safekeeping the resulting flow of blood clouded the water
and aided her escape. She died from the resulting wound but is revered for her
selfless act of sacrifice for her husband Fuhito and their son. (Miller
2007:137)”
When
we were first discussing ideas for my back, at my first visit, Shinji asked if I wanted a human figure on my
back, a mythological hero.
“No,”
I said. Explaining that I wasn’t familiar with the myths, and that I didn’t
feel right getting on tattooed on me.
“Good,”
he said, obviously relieved. I got the impression he was glad to not have to
talk and American out of appropriating a mythos he knew nothing about. “Is
better, I think, something else.”
I wonder who is getting the Tamatori Hime piece. I didn’t ask.
