“I needed it to mark the bodily affirmation of being extra myself,” stated Morita, 22. “My grandmother was very blissful to see it, as a result of her grandmother additionally had hajichi.”
Morita is amongst a rising variety of girls of their 20s and 30s who’re discovering the misplaced artwork type via social media and driving a small however passionate comeback. They’re half of a bigger motion to protect Okinawa’s uniqueness and present that it’s far more than its popularity as a vacationer vacation spot that’s residence to US navy bases.
Okinawa was the unbiased kingdom of Ryukyu earlier than it was annexed by Japan in 1879 after which occupied by the US for practically 30 years after World Conflict II. This yr marks the fiftieth anniversary of Okinawa’s return to Japan from American rule, however Okinawans they are saying they’re handled as second-class residents in Japan regardless of bearing the burden of the US navy presence.
Hajichi was banned in 1899 when the Japanese authorities pushed for assimilation and as new requirements of public decency emerged through the time when the nation opened as much as foreigners after greater than 200 years of isolationist insurance policies. Whereas tattoos have gotten extra trendy amongst youthful Japanese, they’re nonetheless stigmatized and infrequently related to the yakuza, the Japanese crime syndicate.
Now, the makes an attempt of a bunch of tattoo artists in Okinawa and Tokyo to revive hajichi have reached artists and shoppers in diaspora communities in Brazil and Hawaii. Some see the revival as a throwback to a time when Okinawan girls held highly effective positions akin to non secular leaders Y Help of the household. For them, it’s a image of empowerment in a rustic that ranks among the many lowest amongst developed nations when it comes to the development of girls.
“Hajichi can also be a part of this concept that ladies have energy. And residing in a patriarchal society like Japan, I feel that is a part of why I used to be drawn to hajichi,” stated Moeko Heshiki, 30, founding father of the Hajichi Mission. “Even within the tattoo trade, many tattoo artists are typically males. However hajichi was often finished by girls for ladies, so this felt particularly vital.”
Rising up in Tochigi, north of Tokyo, Heshiki skilled microaggressions associated to his Okinawan identification. “You are light-skinned for an Okinawan,” folks stated, noting that his identify would not sound like a typical Japanese identify. (It is Okinawan.) However being Okinawan was essential to her.
Whereas searching for a tattoo design to characterize her household, she got here throughout hajichi on Pinterest. She obtained her first hajichi from a tribal tattoo artist in Tokyo, then in 2020 she opened her personal studios in Tokyo and Okinawa. Tattoo artists in Okinawa now do hajichi, however Heshiki is the one hajichi, “hajicha,” specialist on the islands.
Hajichi’s origins are murky, courting again to the sixteenth century, based on researchers.
It was an indication of pleasure of femininity, magnificence and safety from evil spirits. It may additionally point out marriage. Younger girls typically obtained hajichi via a number of classes as a ceremony of passage via completely different levels of life, based on “Hajichi of Nakijin, a dying customized”, a analysis paper from 1983. Every of the Ryukyu islands had its personal designs and customs.
Heshiki tries to stay to the unique methods as carefully as potential, pricking by hand with bamboo needles and referencing designs in second-hand bookstore historical past books and materials from numerous areas.
He makes certain that his shoppers are of Okinawan origin earlier than tattooing them within the conventional areas of the fingers, fingers, and wrists. Many are younger girls of blended race who discover her on Instagram. For these attracted by aesthetic causes, he tattoos them on completely different components of the physique to protect the handmade tattoo for ladies of Okinawan descent.
The revival has led girls to new discoveries about Okinawa earlier than Japanese or American rule. For instance, when Heshiki confirmed her hajichi to her father, who was born in Okinawa underneath American occupation, she was reminded of her grandmother, who Heshiki realized additionally had the tattoo and spoke a unique dialect that disappeared. after annexation.
And so they hope to go it on. Akemi Matsuzaki, a 32-year-old Okinawan native, teaches hip-hop dance and is commonly requested about her hajichi by her college students, resulting in conversations about indigenous Okinawan tradition.
Matsuzaki, whose grandfather is American, obtained his first hajichi this yr and plans to finish a full design on each fingers. When she turns 37, a milestone age in Okinawa, he plans to get a particular design to mark the yr.
“After I completed it, it felt so good and every little thing felt so pure to me,” he stated. “Regardless that I used to be born in Okinawa and am working right here, getting hajichi made me really feel extra strongly about the truth that I’m truly right here, and I really feel extra comfy and pleased with who I’m.”
Nonetheless, hajichi is bizarre. Getting a tattoo, particularly on an uncovered physique half just like the fingers, is a significant dedication that would backfire professionally.
For such girls, Minami Shimoji, a 30-year-old occupational therapist in Okinawa, affords another: non permanent hajichi with fruit-based ink that was used for Amazonian tribal tattoos. Shimoji realized about hajichi when she noticed an aged affected person who had a mark on his hand that resembled 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 she has a part-time studio in an condominium constructing in Chatan. close to a US navy base.
Because the navy planes roared previous, drowning out the music in his studio, he scrolled via the a whole lot of feedback on a tik tok video she made about hajichi.
She is conscious of the rejection of traditionalists who don’t approve of her adaptation of hajichi to physique artwork that lasts solely two weeks. However even through the Ryukyu period, hajichi had developed, she stated.
“Hajichi initially had completely different designs primarily based on area or class, so it was by no means simply this kind,” he stated. “I really feel that tradition is rarely static and is one thing that individuals create collectively, and hajichi can evolve whereas respecting conventional points.”