Short Fiction

By Tanizaki Jun’ichirō.

Translated by Iwadō Z. Tamotsu.

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Foreword

This edition of Tanizaki Jun’ichirō’s Short Fiction was produced from various translations. “Tattooing” was translated by Ijichi Sumimasa and originally published in 1923. “A Springtime Case” was translated by Iwadō Z. Tamotsu and originally published in 1927.

Robin Whittleton

Billeberga, Sweden, November 2024

Short Fiction

Tattooing

It was in those days when people had the virtue of stupidity and life was not yet busy as is today. It was in those happy days when life was so unrestrained that the gentle faces of nobles and young lords were not clouded; that the subjects for laughter for ladies-in-waiting and courtesans were abundant; and that the profession of clowns and buffoons who were paid for their talent of talkativeness, could exist. As the favourite heroines of the dramas and stories, such as Woman-Sadakuro, Woman-Jiraiya and Woman-Narukami, showed, all the beautiful were strong and all the ugly were weak in those days. Everybody, man and woman, contrived to look beautiful till pigments of bright colours were punctured into the naked body. Daring lines and gorgeous colours ran riot on the bodies of people of the day.

Visitors to the gay quarter beyond Umamichi (in Edo) tried to pick up such carriers of kago as had beautiful tattoos. The girls of the Yoshiwara and Tatsumi also loved men who were beautifully tattooed. Not only gamblers and firemen, but merchants and sometimes samurai were tattooed.

Exhibitions of tattooing were often held at Ryogoku, at which the participants, slapping their well-tattooed bodies, bragged of their striking patterns or commented on the works of others.

There was then a young tattooer of talent, called Seikichi. He was reputed to be not inferior to such famous tattooers as Charimon, of Asakusa, Yakkohei, of Matsushima Cho, and Konkon Jiro. Dozens of people already had had their bodies stripped before his brush—like so many pieces of canvass. Most of the works which won universal praise at the exhibitions of tattooing came from his brush. Daruma Kin was said to be specially skilled in vignette style; Karakusa Gonta was known as a genius of rouge style; while Seikichi was noted for his striking patterns and gaudy style.

Seikichi, who had once earned his living by the profession of an ukiyo-e painter following the style of Toyokuni and Kunisada, retained something of the conscience and sentiment of an artist even after he had degenerated into being a tattooer. Persons who did not possess such skin and constitution as appealed to his artistic sense could not obtain the favour of his tattooing. Even when one obtained the favour, it was always understood that one must be prepared to accept the patterns and fee exactly as he desired, to say nothing of the pain of his needle which lasted for one month or two.

In the mind of this young tattooer were hidden a pleasure and a desire both of which were secret to other people. When his needle pricked the skin of people, the flesh become swollen and gathered blood, which caused them great pain. Most of them could not endure the pain without uttering groans. But the tattooer felt a strange pleasure in hearing these groans; and the louder the groans, the more pleasure he felt. Of the styles of tattooing, rouge and vignette styles were believed to be most painful—and he was particularly pleased to use these methods. After having received five or six hundred pricks of the needle, an average number for a day, they took a bath for the purpose of obtaining a better effect; but when they came out of the bathroom, they were in a state of being half dead from pain. They threw themselves down at the feet of Seikichi, unable to move. On looking with a calm air at this wretched condition of his patron Seikichi would say:

“I am sure you must feel great pain,” and then he would laugh in a manner of self-complacency.

When it happened that a man of small power of resistance showed an ugly countenance by distorting his mouth and clenching his teeth, as if he were going to die, and cried like a child, the tattooer would say:

“You are a Yeddokko, aren’t you? Have patience, man. For this my needle is extraordinarily painful.”

So saying, he went on with his work unconcerned, giving only a side glance at the tear-stained man.

But when a man of strong nerve moved not a muscle of his face, remaining self-composed, the tattooer would say:

“I see, you have more courage than you would seem to have. But wait a bit, for you will soon begin to feel an awful pain and one which you cannot endure any longer,” and he would laugh, showing his white teeth.

His long-cherished desire was to get hold of a pretty girl and puncture his soul into her flesh. He had many requirements as to the physique and looks of the girl. He was not to be satisfied merely with a pretty face and smooth skin. But a girl whose quality and manner exactly met his demands could not be found even among the noted beauties of the demimonde of all Edo. He used to picture in his mind the possible appearance and features of the one he sought; but three or four years had passed away without bringing him the object of his desire. Nevertheless, he did not give up his wish.

It was one summer evening just in the fourth year. He was passing in front of the restaurant, Hirasei, of Fukagawa, when he caught sight of the white feet of a girl escaping from under the curtains of a kago. To his keen eyes, human feet presented different expressions just as their faces. And the feet of this girl were a precious gem of flesh for the tattooer. The perfect shape which was seen in all the five delicate toes from the great to the little toe; the colour of the nails which well matched the light pink colour of those shells which people gathered on the shore of Enoshima; the tournure of the ankles which reminded one of the rounded shape of a precious stone; and the dewiness of the skin, which appeared as if fresh water from a mountain brook had constantly washed the feet—the feet of such qualities were, indeed, those which, having fed on the blood of men, would soon conquer their hearts. The owner of these feet must, thought he, be the girl he had long been looking for. Trying hard to quiet his dancing heart, Seikichi stole behind the kago in the hope to see the face of the unknown girl. He followed some distance; but soon lost the sight of the kago.

The vague desire of Seikichi had now turned into a strong love; and the fourth year went by. It was one morning towards the decline of spring in the fifth year. At his residence in Saga Cho, Fukagawa, he was looking at a pot of omoto (Rohdea japonica) on the verandah of bamboos, with a tooth pick in his mouth, when he heard a visitor’s voice at the back gate of this garden; and a girl who was not familiar to him, came in by the side gate of the bamboo-fence.

The girl was a messenger from a singing girl of Tatsumi who was Seikichi’s favourite.

“Mistress told me to hand you this coat and ask you to draw something on the lining,” said the girl, and untied her furoshiki of orange colour, producing a woman’s coat wrapped in a piece of cloth on which an actor’s stage face had been painted and a letter.

In the letter the writer made her request as to the lining of her coat in a sincere manner; and added that the girl who was sent as her messenger was soon about to make her début in public and that she hoped he would be good enough to show his favour towards the girl, although she did not like him to forget her for the sake of the girl.

“I thought your face was not familiar to me. You must then have come to this quarter lately.”

So saying, Seikichi looked at the girl with deep interest. She was about sixteen or seventeen years of age; but her face appeared strange in such an extremely well-defined shape as that of a middle-aged woman who had flirted with dozens of men, having spent a long time in the circles of the demimonde. Her looks were an incarnation of the dreams dreamed by many a gallant man and pretty woman who had lived and died in the capital where the crimes and fortunes of the whole empire poured in.