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Kaminari O-Shin (1849-1890)
Dec. 16th, 2023 09:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nnozomi(Sorry for the delay!) Kaminari O-Shin was born in 1849, the daughter of a minor samurai from Tosa in Shikoku. It is not clear whether either Kaminari (“thunder”) or O-Shin (“new”) was her original name. A pretty girl, she was married in her teens, but like so many early marriages of the time it was unsuccessful, and she was divorced at eighteen. Unwilling to remain at home and wait for a second marriage, she ran away to Osaka (the nearest major city), where life amid the upheaval of the Meiji Restoration was difficult; she resorted to shoplifting, menacing, and stealing from travelers as they slept.
Possessed of a forceful personality, she became “big sister” to numerous younger delinquents. To make herself a more threatening figure, she acquired full-body tattoos: Benzaiten and Hojo Tokimasa as painted by Keisai Eisen on her back, a she-kraken on her behind, Iwami Jutaro defeating the orochi serpent on her thighs, Kumon-ryu Shishin (a hero from the Suikoden novel) on her stomach, Kintaro on her right arm, four more figures and bellflower cherries on her left arm. (At the time, tattoos were popular among sailors and carpenters, but highly unusual for women. The same applies today, although associated more with yakuza than with manual laborers.) Saigo Takamori’s brother Tsugumichi is said to have acquired tattoos in order to do undercover work for the Imperialist activists; the story goes that O-Shin tried her trick of threatening him out of his money by showing him her tattoos, and had to back off when he showed her his instead.
O-Shin was imprisoned at least twice in Osaka and once in Tokyo, escaping at least once (climbing the prison wall in a driving rainstorm). She died in Tokyo, unrepentant to all accounts, at the age of forty in 1890. Her last words were “Tan my skin after I’m dead and save the tattoos I’m so proud of,” and this was in fact done; for some time, her skin was held by Osaka Medical University, and was occasionally put on display in the Taisho period, in keeping with the ero-guro-nonsense mood of the times. Images of it are available online, if you’re braver than me.
Sources
Nakae
https://kusanomido.com/study/history/japan/bakumatu/67869/ (Japanese; includes a drawing of O-Shin escaping prison)
https://intojapanwaraku.com/rock/culture-rock/124611/ (Japanese: the basic story and some paintings)
Possessed of a forceful personality, she became “big sister” to numerous younger delinquents. To make herself a more threatening figure, she acquired full-body tattoos: Benzaiten and Hojo Tokimasa as painted by Keisai Eisen on her back, a she-kraken on her behind, Iwami Jutaro defeating the orochi serpent on her thighs, Kumon-ryu Shishin (a hero from the Suikoden novel) on her stomach, Kintaro on her right arm, four more figures and bellflower cherries on her left arm. (At the time, tattoos were popular among sailors and carpenters, but highly unusual for women. The same applies today, although associated more with yakuza than with manual laborers.) Saigo Takamori’s brother Tsugumichi is said to have acquired tattoos in order to do undercover work for the Imperialist activists; the story goes that O-Shin tried her trick of threatening him out of his money by showing him her tattoos, and had to back off when he showed her his instead.
O-Shin was imprisoned at least twice in Osaka and once in Tokyo, escaping at least once (climbing the prison wall in a driving rainstorm). She died in Tokyo, unrepentant to all accounts, at the age of forty in 1890. Her last words were “Tan my skin after I’m dead and save the tattoos I’m so proud of,” and this was in fact done; for some time, her skin was held by Osaka Medical University, and was occasionally put on display in the Taisho period, in keeping with the ero-guro-nonsense mood of the times. Images of it are available online, if you’re braver than me.
Sources
Nakae
https://kusanomido.com/study/history/japan/bakumatu/67869/ (Japanese; includes a drawing of O-Shin escaping prison)
https://intojapanwaraku.com/rock/culture-rock/124611/ (Japanese: the basic story and some paintings)
