Hajichi: the Banned Women's Tattoos of Okinawa

Hajichi: the Banned Traditional Tattoos of Okinawa

"These tattoos, native to the Ryukyuan people, were once banned from being practiced. Now, they're making a comeback. "Just more than a century previous, these tattoos – small crosses, dots, sauwastikas, and other minimalistic designs – graced the hands of women from Yaeyama in the south to Amami in the north. Then, in 1899, the modernizing Meiji government of Japan, having recently incorporated Okinawa into its polity, banned hajichi tattoos as part of an overall attempt to quash “backwards” Okinawan culture. The hand markings, once ubiquitous, slowly dissapeared. Now, even someone like Mim, only some generations separated from her ancestors on Miyakojima, was able to reach adulthood without ever learning of the old tradition.

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"Mim is playing her part in what has become a general revival of Ryukyuan culture. Across the islands, Okinawans are reconnecting with their languages. (These represent a separate branch of the Japonic family, having split off from Japanese perhaps a thousand or more years ago). Traditional dance, theater, and music are blossoming. And now, as knowledge of the separate history of Ryukyu spreads, so too does the story of the hajichi tattoos.

"Ryukyu was a major regional trading power, and with its location so close to Southeast Asia, its nobility may have been influenced by tattooing cultures from neighboring Taiwan or further afield in other islands of the Pacific like Samoa or Palau. (Interestingly, Japan’s other indigenous group, the Ainu, also had a female-centric tattooing tradition quashed by their colonizers. Ainu women would usually tattoo the areas around their lips a dark color following marriage.)

"Although perhaps first popularized amongst the Ryukyuan upper crust, over the centuries hajichi became widespread in every social level across the five main island groups. Styles differed in each region; Yaeyama, Miyako, Okinawa, Amami, and more all had their own versions of the tattoos. The peoples of the various islands used different names to refer to the tattoos; “Hajichi” was used in Okinawa and Amami, but in Miyakojima, for example, they were often called “pizukki” (ピ ヅ ッ キ) (among other names). Moreover, the styling of similar symbols could differ between classes. Highborn Ryukyuan women often bore refined lines on the back of their hands and fingers. Women of the lower classes, however, might have thicker, darker tattoos.

"When Woman Was One with the Gods. The most common explanation regarding the practice of hajichi is that the tattoos serve to signal the process of coming of age. At around 11, a young Uchinanchu girl would go to a tattooist (hajitiya), sometimes a paid professional, sometimes a close family friend. The painful process might begin with a single marking. Over the next years, as the girl aged, more symbols would be added; each finger would receive its trademark line. Once both hands were done, the girl would be a woman, and ready for marriage.

"Some label this version of the hajichi as regressive, and a demonstration of patriarchal Ryukyu culture [actually Okinawa stands out for its matriculture].... The Ryukyus have a long history of female-centric spiritualism, known as Onarigami (おなり神). Within this conception, women are the masters of the spiritual domain. Indeed, while Ryukyu was still independent, women held all the important spiritual positions of the state. While great priestesses enacted the royal court’s most important rites, local communities were serviced by white-robed priestesses called Noro; they were believed to be the incarnation of a certain kami, a god. Shamans and mediums called Yuta also [served in] local villages.

"These beliefs were not relegated to those women who held certain titles or positions, however. Within Ryukyuan religion, all women possess spiritual power. The brother-sister relationship is important in Okinawa because of the sister’s ability to bless the conduct of the brother; many rituals and even festivals revolve around this concept. In this framework, it’s easy to see the important symbolism inherent in hajichi, which were symbols born only by women. They were another symbol of the spirituality possessed by women; indeed, surveys conducted among the last generations of Okinawan women who still had hajichi often revealed spiritual reasons behind getting the tattoos."

"For many Ryukyuan [Okinawan] women, the hajichi tattoos were associated with being spiritually clean. They helped assure a pathway to heaven; 35.6% of Miyakojima women listed this as their main purpose. Each symbol also had its own meaning. For example, the “x” and “+” symbols so often seen in Miyakojima hajichi were for protection.

"Many women also continued the tattooing process after marriage. Markings could cover the fingers, back of the hand, and down the forearm. Women with impressive hajichi were much admired; young girls dreamt of receiving decadent [sic!] tattoos, and men were said to find them quite beautiful. ....

Then came the Japanese conquest, from 1609 and over the next two centuries: "For the samurai, the power women wielded in Ryukyu was especially unsightly. Ironically, despite long centuries where women had comparably high status, the rise of the samurai in the 11th century coincided with a slow decline in rights for women in mainland Japan; by the Satsuma invasion, Japan had become a remarkably patriarchal society. The Satsuma pressed the Ryukyu court to ban women from powerful positions in government.

"Eventually, the royal court became more invested in Confucianism and Buddhism, palatable to both the Chinese and Japanese officials they dealt with. Neither belief system looked favorably on women. Despite the court’s attempt to de-nativize their secretly colonized kingdom, local religion and customs continued to exist away from the capital in Naha. Most commoners had no interest in Confucianism or Buddhism, and the Onarigami religion continued to thrive in localities across the far-flung island chains. Hajichi still flourished, even as the samurai viewed it as a sign of Ryukyuan backwardsness.

"In 1859, towards the end of the age of Satsuma colonization on Ryukyu, the man who would become the domain’s most famous samurai – Saigo Takamori – found himself exiled to Amami Oshima. Although officially part of the Satsuma Domain, and not Ryukyu, Amami was still peopled by those who maintained Ryukyuan culture, beliefs, and language. Saigo took pity on the people he met on Amami – he considered their plight to be even worse than that of the Ainu on Hokkaido. As for the tattoos he saw on women’s hands, however, he held them in a sort of haughty disdain.

"Mark Ravina writes on the subject that… “Saigo found the tattoos repulsive, and he derided island customs in a letter to Okubo and Saisho Atsushi. ‘The young women on the island are great beauties,’ he wrote sarcastically, but unlike the women of Kyoto and Osaka they used a thick layer of filthy ash as makeup and painted the backs of their hands.”

"Saigo would eventually marry an Amami woman and have half-Amami children; however, upon return from his two exiles, he quickly attempted to forget about his experiences there. Instead, he helped lead the rebellion that brought about the end of samurai rule in Japan. The Meiji government that resulted – organized on Western lines – had as its main goal the centralizing of all Japan. Included in this was removing Ryukyu from the control of a single samurai dynasty. Instead, the once-separate kingdom became just another among the 47 (briefly 48) prefectures of Japan. The indigenous Ryukyuans of the new Okinawa Prefecture were now to be made Japanese – and Japanese of repute did not wear tattoos."

"The Meiji government had numerous reasons to want to get rid of hajichi tradition. While the samurai colonizers may have found them “repulsive,” the new Japan was more worried about their impressions on others; namely, Westerners. They didn’t want Okinawans going out into the world and giving the impression that Japanese women wore such backwards tribal markings. They also hoped that by ridding Okinawa of the old religious symbols, they could break the Ryukyuan connection to the past and to “otherness.” Okinawa was the future, and it was part of Japan – Ryukyu needed to be forgotten.

"In 1899, the official order came down: tattoos were now prohibited in Okinawa. There was resistance to this order, and for decades many women (especially from out-of-the-way islands) still continued to practice the art of hajichi. Some local polities, however, were more active in ridding themselves of tradition; as has been the case throughout Okinawan history, the pull to modernize and find ways to improve material life has often been strong. Some Okinawans did begin to see their own culture as outmoded, insular, and archaic.

"This perception was only enhanced by the sad experiences of those who went overseas. During the early-to-mid 19th century, impoverished Okinawans comprised an outsized percentage of Japanese who migrated abroad to destinations like Brazil, Peru, and Hawaii. They often found themselves face-to-face with mainland Japanese for the first time; mainlanders, worried about how the majority in receiving countries would think of them, were often embarrassed and disgusted to find Okinawan women with tattoos. Okinawan women were sometimes forced to wait in storage holds during voyages or even sent home upon arrival to their hoped-for destination of immigration. Okinawan immigrants could face double alienation – both from their adoptive homes, and from other “Japanese.”

"Between cultural cringe, concerted efforts from the prefectural government, and the major cultural breakage that came with WWII (in which 100,000 Okinawans died), hajichi disappeared. The subsequent American occupation, lasting all the way to 1972 [U.S. military bases are still there, and protested against for the rapes resulting from their presence] was likely the final nail in the traditional coffin. By the time Okinawa returned to Japan, only the very elderly still had the tattoos, which they would often hide when photographed. By 1990, the majority of those who had been tattooed in their youths had passed on. Now, none remain of the centuries of unbroken lineages of Ryukyuan women with hajichi tattoos. Even knowledge of the tradition has faded like so much ink.

"But this all brings us back to the beginning of our story; to a young Okinawan woman discovering an aspect of her own cultural heritage. Mim is just one among many Uchinanchu, either on the islands or in diaspora, who have begun to reengage with their cultural pasts. Among so many aspects of Ryukyuan culture these revivalists are exploring is the hajichi; Yoshiyama Morika, an Okinawa City-based artist, was among the first to permanently affix hajichi to her own hands. Of her tattoos, the artist told the Asahi Shimbun that… “Hajichi symbolized the pride of women in the old days. I feel proud when I imagine the feelings of my ancestors, and it is my joy to have been born as an Okinawan.” And she’s not the only one working to bring hajichi back into modern Okinawan consciousness."

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