Kuniyoshi leaves his mark on tattoo history

In these days the Suikoden is already a very successful work and more since the illustrated publication by Hokusai.  

In 1827, Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861) is invited to make some  woodcuts on this novel. Then the still unknown artist depicts six heroes, two of them tattooed. The publication is so well received that he is commissioned to represent the other heroes.work that ends in 1830 and achieves immediate and overwhelming success. 

The series is entitled Tzūzoku Suikoden Gōketsu Hyakuhachinin na Hitari (The popular heroes of the Suikoden) and is the first representation of these heroes in the format musha-ewarrior stamps on individual sheets. In the 74 stamps made in nishiki-e(color prints, other than those of Hokusai) fifteen to seventeen tattooed heroes appear (the sources I have consulted disagree, I have counted seventeen). Some of the engravings show two heroes together, and some of them are repeated in the engravings. The character Kyumonryu Shishin has a tattoo of nine dragons that covers almost his entire body and is depicted on three of these plates.  

Kuniyoshi is a great admirer of the famous Hokusai and is quite influenced by his work, but as far as the composition of these engravings is concerned, the young artist is centered around the hero and his action, different from Hokusai that focused more on narrative.  

Since 1820, tattoos have been datebori y ikakubori They begin to be replaced by larger ones that cover the back, arms, thorax and occasionally the legs. With the publication of the suikoden from Kuniyoshi the link between tattooing and nishiki-e. In this same period, the gakubori in the horimono. 

This typical black background of the Japanese tattoo which serves as a sort of frame for the main motif appears for the first time in a publication with the heroes depicted by Kuniyoshi. 

It is not known for sure if the artist was the first to think of the Japanese tattoo accompanied with the gaku and this has inspired tattoo artists, or if, on the contrary, he has simply reproduced what he saw on the tattooed bodies of the time. 

It should be noted that this has been the first artist of ukiyo-e to devote himself both in the representation of the tattoos. 

The prestige of his work made the demand and popularity of tattoos soar at the time, and they continue to serve as a reference for tattoo artists and tattooed people to this day. 

Likewise, it is the importance of Kuniyoshi's warrior plates in the development and consolidation of Japanese figurative tattooing is undeniable..    

Bibliography

• Moriarty, Yori. (2015) : Irezumi Itai. Traditional Japanese Tattoo. Gijón, Satori Ediciones.
• Pinheiro Maués, Juliana (2019): Bravos citadinos: estudio das representações da tatuagem em estampas de ator do kabuki de Utagawa Kunisada. Repository of Unicamp's scientific and intellectual production.
• https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horimono_(tattoo)#CITAREFPinheiro_Maués2019
• http://www.kuniyoshiproject.com/