Across Cultural Boundaries - Expanding Knowledge

This weekend I picked up Akimitsu Takagi's detective novel The Tattoo Murder Case. It was fascinating to read on many levels. The book was published in 1948 and won the Mystery Writers Club Award of Japan, 1949 (translated to English 1998) and takes place in Edo aka Tokyo. To read a Japanese author describing the city and its populace in the aftermath of the Great War with its effects was eye opening. Some of the characters has served in the war; so their views were made known in such a way that I am going to assume they reflect those of the author, ie it was a bad idea which affected the common man in a negative way.

I was also ignorant as to how much Western Culture had influenced the Japanese. One of the characters is a piano tutor who plays Chopin, Beethoven, and other classical music throughout various scenes.

The clothing worn by the characters vary from traditional kimono to high end suits made of the finest materials. The books read or referred to include Sherlock Holmes, the author John Dickson Carr, master of the locked room mystery genre.

One character speaks Japanese, French, Russian, German and English.

At the time of the story, tattooing was illegal to be worn or given to Japanese. It was considered a symbol of criminal involvement. The yakuza (kinda the mafia) are best known for their tattoos. Tattoos, however, were allowed to be given to foreigners. In this case the occupying army, the Americans.

Then there is the whole culture surrounding tattoos and their meanings. Talk about going down the rabbit hole afterwards looking further into the history of the tattoo. I find that I have subconsciously ascribed to the Japanese aesthetic of a tattoo on the body is meant to be a singular piece of art which is integrated. Unlike the style referred to in the book for American tattoos as "sushi art", ie a smorgasbord of unrelated tattoos with no cohesive flow.

I learned that the tattoo is based on a theme taken from history or folklore, typically warriors or famous scenes. It is not something random. It is has an association to something. Symbols of various sorts are integrated into the artwork such as flowers, reptiles or fish which have significant meanings.

Then, there are taboos which a tattoo artist will not break.

In the story a tattoo artist has broken one taboo and uses the character representations of three sorcerers in tattoos worn by three of the main characters: Kinue Nomura (Orochimaru, the snake), her brother Tsunetaro (Jiraiya, the frog) and sister Tamae (Tsunade, the slug; translated as Tsunade-hime). The sorcerers in legend were enemies. The result is a curse which follows these characters to their deaths.

The story is really well written. Until the final denouement, I had only figured out half of the mystery.

In 2013 I had listened to an interview with a person who had spent a year solely reading books written by authors from countries other than her own. Her goal was to read one a week. She talked about how it opened her mind and expanded her knowledge of the world around her. Essentially, no matter your country we all have similar aspirations; to live, love and laugh. This was certainly true in post-War Japan.