NAHA, Japan — Hana Morita was scrolling by way of Pinterest when she got here throughout hajichi, a minimalistic tattoo worn by Okinawan girls on their fingers and fingers. As soon as frequent on the subtropical islands the place traces of a definite tradition stay, the artwork had nearly disappeared over a century of assimilation.
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In Okinawa, a push to revive a lost tattoo art for women, by women
“I needed it to mark the bodily affirmation of changing into extra of myself,” Morita, 22, mentioned. “My grandma was actually blissful to see it, as a result of her grandma additionally had hajichi.”
Morita is amongst a rising variety of girls of their 20s and 30s who’re discovering the misplaced artwork kind by way of social media and driving a small however passionate comeback. They’re half of a bigger motion to protect the distinctiveness of Okinawa and present it’s so rather more than its fame as a resort vacation spot that hosts American navy bases.
Okinawa was the unbiased Ryukyu kingdom earlier than it was annexed by Japan in 1879 after which occupied by the USA for nearly 30 years after World Warfare II. This 12 months marks the fiftieth anniversary of Okinawa’s return to Japan from U.S. rule, however Okinawans say they’re handled as second-class residents in Japan regardless of shouldering the burden of the U.S. navy presence.
Hajichi was banned in 1899 because the Japanese authorities pushed assimilation and as new norms about public decency emerged throughout the time when the nation opened to foreigners after greater than 200 years of isolationist insurance policies. Whereas tattoos have gotten extra trendy amongst youthful Japanese, they continue to be stigmatized and sometimes related to the yakuza, the Japanese felony syndicate.
Now, makes an attempt by a handful of tattoo artists in Okinawa and Tokyo to revive hajichi have reached artists and shoppers in diasporic communities in Brazil and Hawaii. Some view the resurgence as a callback to a time when Okinawan girls held highly effective positions as spiritual leaders and breadwinners. For them, it’s a logo of empowerment in a rustic that ranks among the many lowest amongst developed nations on girls’s development.
“Hajichi can also be part of this concept that girls possess energy. And dwelling in a patriarchal society like Japan, I believe that’s a part of why I used to be drawn to hajichi,” mentioned Moeko Heshiki, 30, founding father of the Hajichi Venture. “Even within the tattoo business, numerous tattoo artists are usually males. However hajichi was often completed by girls for ladies, so this felt particularly significant.”
Rising up in Tochigi, north of Tokyo, Heshiki skilled microaggressions referring to her Okinawan id. “You’re light-skinned for an Okinawan,” folks would say and level out how her title doesn’t sound like a typical Japanese title. (It’s Okinawan.) However being Okinawan was vital for her.
As she regarded for a tattoo design that represented her household, she got here throughout hajichi on Pinterest. She obtained her first hajichi from a tribal tattoo artist in Tokyo, then in 2020 opened her personal studios in Tokyo and Okinawa. Tattoo artists in Okinawa now do hajichi, however Heshiki is the only real hajichi specialist — “hajicha” — on the islands.
Hajichi’s origins are murky and date way back to the sixteenth century, in accordance with researchers.
It was an indication of satisfaction of womanhood, magnificence and safety from evil spirits. It might additionally point out marriage. Younger girls typically obtained hajichi by way of a number of classes as a ceremony of passage by way of completely different phases of life, in accordance with “Hajichi of Nakijin, A Vanishing Customized,” a 1983 analysis paper. Islands in Ryukyu every had their very own designs and customs.
Heshiki tries to stay to unique strategies as carefully as potential, hand-poking with bamboo needles and referencing designs in historical past books from secondhand bookstores and cloth from numerous areas.
She makes certain her shoppers are of Okinawan heritage earlier than she provides them tattoos within the conventional places of fingers, fingers and wrists. Many are younger, mixed-race girls who discover her on Instagram. For these drawn to it for aesthetic causes, she tattoos them on completely different elements of the physique to protect the hand-worn tattoo for ladies of Okinawan descent.
The resurgence has led girls to new discoveries about Okinawa earlier than Japanese or U.S. rule. For instance, when Heshiki confirmed her hajichi to her father, who was born in Okinawa underneath U.S. occupation, it triggered reminiscences of his grandmother, who Heshiki realized additionally had the tattoo and spoke a distinct dialect that disappeared after the annexation.
And so they hope to cross it down. Akemi Matsuzaki, a 32-year-old Okinawan native, teaches hip-hop dance and is usually requested about her hajichi by her college students, which results in conversations about Okinawan Indigenous tradition.
Matsuzaki, whose grandfather is American, obtained her first hajichi this 12 months and plans to finish a full design on each fingers. When she turns 37, a milestone age in Okinawa, she plans on getting a particular design to mark the 12 months.
“After I obtained it completed, it simply felt so nice and it simply all felt so pure to me,” she mentioned. “Although I used to be born in Okinawa and am working right here, getting hajichi made me really feel much more strongly of the truth that I actually am right here, and I really feel extra snug and pleased with who I’m.”
Nonetheless, hajichi is uncommon. Getting a tattoo, particularly on an uncovered physique half just like the fingers, is a significant dedication that might backfire professionally.
For these girls, Minami Shimoji, a 30-year-old occupational therapist in Okinawa, gives another: short-term hajichi utilizing fruit-based ink that was used for Amazonian tribal tattoos. Shimoji realized about hajichi when she noticed an aged affected person who had a marking on her hand that resembled the artwork.
Shimoji had grown up performing Okinawan dances and needed to study extra. She aspires to be a full-time tattoo artist, however for now runs a studio half trip of an residence constructing in Chatan, close to a U.S. navy base.
As navy airplanes roared by, drowning out the music in her studio, she scrolled by way of the a whole lot of feedback on a TikTok video she made about hajichi.
She’s conscious of pushback from traditionalists who don’t approve of her adaptation of hajichi into physique artwork that lasts simply two weeks. However even throughout the Ryukyu age, hajichi had advanced, she mentioned.
“Hajichi initially had completely different designs relying on area or class, so it was by no means simply this one kind,” she mentioned. “I really feel that tradition is rarely static and it’s one thing that’s created collectively by folks, and hajichi can evolve whereas respecting the normal points.”