”"The tattoo has an attraction comparable to that of opium: once under its control, all resistance becomes futile. For those who fall prey to it, nothing else matters."
Akimitsu TakagiExtract from his first book Shisei Satsujin Jiken (1948)
Akimitsu Takagi (1920-1995) is one of the greatest Japanese crime writers of the 20th century.
Born in Aomori in northern Japan, Akimitsu Takagi became one of Japan’s most popular authors in the period following the end of the Second World War. Born into a family of doctors, a scientist trained at Kyoto University with the country’s elite, Takagi left the aeronautical sector after the defeat and invested himself in writing in an unusual way, on the advice of a fortune-teller. His interest in tattooing was a determining factor in the plot of his first novel: Shisei Satsujin Jiken. Published in 1948, this investigation into the murders of tattooed people in devastated post-war Tokyo was an immediate success. It launched his career. When he died in 1995, he left behind more than 250 stories. In Japan, his books sold several million copies.
Repères
1948
Release of the first book by Akimitsu Takagi: Shisei Satsujin Jiken.
1953
Film adaptation of Shisei Satsujin Jiken by director Mori Kazuo.
1997
First translation into English of Shisei Satsujin Jiken by Soho Press (USA) under the name The Tattoo Murder Case.
2016
First French translation of Shisei Satsujin Jiken under the name: Irezumi, published by Denoël.
(Akimitsu Takagi at home, c. 1955 - © Takagi A. coll./DR)
Takagi comes into contact with the tattoo scene in Tokyo after 1945, while researching for his first novel, Shisei Satsujin Jiken (Irezumi, in French, The Tattoo Murder [1] in English). The tattoo is indeed at the heart of the book’s plot. It features the murders of tattooed people, victims of cursed motifs in a ruined Tokyo where snake-skinned femme fatales, tattooed skin collectors and tattoo enthusiasts’ clubs attached to the spirit of ancient Tokyo meet
Now a successful young author, Takagi extends his circle of acquaintances in the amateur world. At the same time, he deepened his passion for tattooing. He got to know not only the tattoo artists but also the tattooed people he met in the masters’ studios. This world he entered was unknown to Japanese society, due to the long prohibition that forbade tattooing for almost 80 years (from 1872 to 1948). From being a privileged observer of this shadowy society, Takagi became a key witness when he began to document it.
He thus photographed the greatest tattoo artists of the time. Their names are: Horiuno II, Horiuno III, Horigorō II and Horigorō III or Horiyoshi II, the famous tattooist of the Azabu district. Takagi also photographs the tattooed works he observes on the bodies of their clients. Singular works of undeniable beauty, as they have been done in the Japanese capital since the Edo period (1603-1868), when the culture of figurative tattooing spread among the working classes, in the wake of the success of polychrome prints.
And then there are the tattooed women. Their presence in Takagi’s images is unexpected. This world is usually represented in images by men. This is a specific feature of the writer-photographer’s testimony. Takagi lifts the veil on a little-known part of the tattooist clientele. These photographs of women defy the prejudices that would have us believe that tattooing is reserved for men, or as the observation of ancient prints would suggest.
Through photography, Takagi not only satisfies his obsession with tattooing, but also carries out a vital work of memory. Tattooing is essentially a fleeting art, so how can we appreciate the skills of the old masters? How can their technical and aesthetic achievements be passed on to new generations? Photography offered a pertinent solution to the real threat to this art form: oblivion. And without memory, what kind of art history is there? And without a history, what recognition can master tattoo artists expect? Don’t their works testify to an excellence that could enable them, like any other Japanese craftsman dedicated to bringing the soul of Japanese art to life, to rise to the rank of ‘living national treasure’?
[1] The Tattoo Murder, Pushkin Press, 2022.
