Anci-Piri
.jpg)
Anci-Piri (also Anchi-Piri or Anci-Pini , German: Obsidian -Schnittwunde, later Nuye for "cut", hence for "tattoo" and "write" or sinuye for "cut oneself") is the name for the former traditional tattoos worn by women of the Ainu Native Japanese, mostly in Tokachi province .
history
Anci-Piri could trace back to the time around 4500 BC. BC and probably originated in the Jōmon period . Ceramic finds that can be dated back to this time have decorative furrows in the form of lines, as they were also found in the tattoos.
Anthropological research
The description of the Dutch navigator Maarten Gerritszoon de Vries from the year 1643 is considered to be the oldest script from the western cultural area in which the practice is mentioned. De Vries assumed, however, that the motifs were body painting. In the descriptions of other discoverers, for example the Japanese Mamiya Rinzō , the assumption was also expressed that it could be paintwork. The work Sangoku Tsūran Zusetsu ( 三国通 覧 図 説 , An Illustrated Description of Three Countries ) by the Japanese scholar Hayashi Shihei from 1785 is also one of the rare writings in which the tattoos of the Ainu were described.
Several descriptions were published towards the end of the 19th century. Including in the work Unbeaten Tracks in Japan by the English travel writer Isabella Bird from 1880, as well as Ethnological Studies of the Ainu on the island of Ezo from 1881 by the Austrian Japanologist Heinrich von Siebold ; in addition, several publications by the English missionary John Batchelor , who lived among the Ainu for several years. The tattoos among the Ainu on Sakhalin were probably less important than, for example, on the island of Hokkaido , due to the rare mentions from anthropological reports .
Repression and Prohibition
In the Edo period , which was marked by numerous upheavals, tattooing was banned in Japan in 1799, which affected ethnic groups in Taiwan as well as the Ainu . However, since the practice was part of the Ainu's cultural identity, they continued the tradition. In 1871 a new ban on tattoos for newborns was issued and justified with the cruelty of the ritual. As a result, the acceptance of the tattoo within Japanese society had also decreased and was associated with crime in the public perception and viewed as a mutilation that was difficult to reconcile with prevailing Confucianism . Since the tattoos were viewed by the Ainu as a prerequisite for marriage and peace with the gods, they saw themselves in their culture as criminalized and forced into illegality.
After another ban imposed by the Japanese government in the 20th century, the tattoos ultimately disappeared in the 1920s. On celebratory occasions, the women replaced the patterns and motifs with body paintings with ink.
The last woman to die with Anci-Piri according to the Ainu tradition was in 1998.
execution
The Ainu name for the verb "tattoo" is "nuye" ("cut in") or "sinuye" ("tattoo", literally "cut into").
According to various sources, the girls received their first tattoos between the ages of eight and 14 or between eleven and 21 years in several stages and over several years. The entire procedure should be completed before the birth of the first child, if possible, as it was understood as preparation for pregnancy. First, the lips were tattooed. A few years after the mouth area was tattooed, the girls were given the patterns on their hands and forearms.
The skin was washed with a boiled solution of birch bark and clear water and pricked by the grandmothers or aunts on the maternal side. They were called tattoo aunts or "tattoo women" and enjoyed great social standing. A metal splinter or a sharp piece of obsidian was used for the implementation . Depending on the desired puncture depth, its tip was wrapped with fibers at a certain point so that the gesture glass could only penetrate until then and not deeper into the skin. Later the traditional Makiri knives were used. The brew was also boiled with birch wood bark. The soot that collected on the bottom of the kettle was rubbed into the wounds as a color pigment with the fingers and gave the tattoo its black and blue color. The tattoo artist sang about the beauty of the tattoo. Afterwards, soot was applied again and conjured up with the formula “pas ci-yay, roski, roski, pas ren-ren” .
Patterns and motifs
The tattoo motifs varied regionally. Young girls usually initially had a point on their upper lip. As people got older, the entire mouth area was gradually tattooed. These so-called "Ainu beards" were tattoos on the lips and around the mouth, which tapered to a point at the corners of the mouth and over the cheeks and were similar in shape to a mustache . Other decorations at the corners of the mouth were usually worn by women of higher social classes.
Furthermore, the women of the Ainu wore wavy lines around the eyebrows or on the forehead and mostly net- and diamond-shaped geometric patterns, similar to fish skin, on the hands and forearms. The motifs, like the mouth tattoos, served to keep evil spirits away. Tattooed cable patterns corresponded to the traditional braiding technique with which the deceased of the Ainu were also bound.
Medicine and spirituality
The centuries-old tradition was of religious origin and an expression of the social hierarchy of adult and marriageable women. The tattooed lips were considered a prerequisite for a life together after death with deceased ancestors. In addition, a medicinal effect was ascribed to the tattoos. According to the Ainu belief, tattooing was due to Okikurumi Turesh Machi , the younger sister of the creator Okikurumi .
The soot used as tattoo ink has been said to have a spiritual effect. Since it was created by fire and has been tattooed around the mouth, according to the Ainu belief, it should prevent evil spirits from entering the tattooed person orally or nasally. Particular importance was attached to fire and the fire goddess Ape-huci-kamuy . To prevent penetration through the ears, the women wore amulets in the form of earrings . The blood that leaked out during the tattooing process was wiped off with a cloth soaked in bark stock.
The tattoos were also said to have healing and protective properties. The bleeding from the sting was understood as cleaning. To combat rheumatism , some women had their backs and shoulders tattooed. There was also the belief that with eye problems, eyesight could be improved by over-tattooing or renewing old and faded tattoos. The Ainu also held the assumption that the tattoos in the eyes of demons would make them godlike beings and thus be protected from harm.
See also
literature
- WR Van Gulik: Irezumi - The Pattern of Dermatography in Japan , 1982, page 181 ff.
- Neil Gordon Munro: Ainu creed and cult , New York, Columbia University Press, 1963
- Torii Ryūzō : Les Ainou des Iles Kouriles , 1919
- M. Inez Hilger: Together with the Ainu: A Vanishing People , University of Oklahoma Press, 1971, 150-154
- EF Podach : "The alleged beard of the Ainu women", Journal of Ethnology . Organ of the Berlin Society for Ethnology . Volume 75, Braunschweig 1950, p. 79 ff.
Web links
- Lars Krutak: Tattooing Among Japan's Ainu People (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c W. R. Van Gulik: Irezumi - The Pattern of Dermatography in Japan , 1982
- ↑ a b c d e Lars Krutak: Tattooing Among Japan's Ainu People (English)
- ↑ a b c d e Manfred Hainzl, Petra Pinkl: traces of life close up, a cultural history of tattooing (PDF; 230 kB), page 34
- ^ WR Van Gulik: Irezumi - The Pattern of Dermatography in Japan , 1982, page 181 ff.
- ↑ a b c Ainu people ( Memento of the original from October 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at tattooarchive.com (English)
