The “Hajichi” photo exhibit in Tokyo memorializes forgotten traditional custom of tattooing among women in Okinawa

The “Hajichi” photo exhibit in Tokyo memorializes forgotten traditional custom of tattooing among women in Okinawa

Former Ryukyu Shimpo photographer Hiroaki Yamashiro’s hajichi tattoo photo exhibit “Ryukyu Memory – Hajichi” on display at the Nobunkyo – Nobunsho Center in Kanda Jinbocho, Tokyo


September 7, 2020 Ryukyu Shimpo Digital Edition

Tokyo – Former Ryukyu Shimpo photographer Hiroaki Yamashiro’s photography collection “Ryukyu Memory – Hajichi” which captures images of the hand tattoos, is on exhibit in Tokyo at Nobunkyo – Nobunsho Center (an agriculture specialty bookshop) in Kanda Jinbocho, and on the fourth floor of Junkudo Ikebukuro, celebrating the photographs’ publishing by Koubunken Co. Ltd. The exhibit will run through September 25 at the farming cultural association, and through the end of October at Junkudo.

At Nobunkyo, 28 of the published color and black-and-white pictures are on display on the walls of the staircase at the entrance. Shoppers at the bookstore stop to take in the pictures one by one, and some could even be seen snapping pictures with their smartphones.

In Okinawa, it was customary to tattoo the hands and arms of women during the Ryukyu Kingdom era, however after it was outlawed in 1899, and women with hajichi tattoos all but ceased to exist. Yamashiro has been taking photographs of women in Okinawa with hajichi tattoos since he was a student in college.

According to Nobunkyo staff, people are visiting the store in order to see the photographs. Seeing such a rare and almost extinct practice unique to Okinawa still draws a lot of eyes.

(English translation by T&CT and Sam Grieb)

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