The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-09-01
ART OF TATTOOINC
MOST FAMOUS ARTIST I'm ,IIKADo-s
KINGDOM COMES TO NEW
YORK
MITUHAsHI IS HIS NAME
Prominent People of Gotham Are
Among His Patrons, and the Gus
tom of Decorating the
Body Is Growing.
: DE- was very good-looking lit

~ y and blue serge trousers. and
as he sat in front of a famous
| little tattoo shop at the mouth of the
Thieves Highway few who glanced at
him knew that he was one of the most
famous tattooers in the mikados king
dom, sa '7a New York Times Mitu-
hashi is his name and he has been es-
pecially imported from Japan by his en-
terprising partner to do on Americans
the famous Boxer" head of which the
Jap" is the designer. The Boxer"
head, it is necessary to explain. is an
outcome of the Chinese war. 1t is a
CORY design. bat one that has struck to
the. gentle heart cords Of the American
sailor
The design is the decapitated head of
a Chinaman. Through the Skill from the
middle of the crown, extending out
through the CORY neck, sword sticks
gracefully. The eyes of the unlucHy
'.Chink" are half closed as if he liked
the sensation, while the end of his pig
tail is held between the teeth. The de-.
sign, while realistic enough, is artistical<
ly robbed of some of it's gruesomeness,
and in Japan. as we'll as in other coun-
tries where the seafarer roves, if a sailor
wants to be up to date, he must have
the head of the Boxer" pricked into
his hide
Mituhashi is relative of the late Hori-
chic, who five years ago won special
prize offered for the most artistic and
original tattoo work done in the japanese
kingdom, and it was from Horichio that
| Mituhashi learned his art. The story of
the contest won by Horichio as told by
Mituhashi is an interesting one.
Not since tattoong many years ago be-
came recognized art in japan was there
a. greater rivalry among the tattooers of
the kingdom than when a number of
prominent Japanese of Yokohama offered
the prize for the most artistic and most
original work that could be executed by
any tattooer throughout the length and
breadth of the land Even before this
contest, Horichio was conceded to be
the greatest Of all living Japanese tattoo
| artists, but it remained for him to earn
for himself, once and for all. the title
which opinion alone bestowed
Throughout the kingdom the tattooers
went to work, keeping their WORK secret
| and hiring men upon the backs and arms
and shoulders of whom the work was
! done. On the great day of reckoning it
was Horichio's coolie who was brought
in last for inspection before the judges
On the back of the coolie was a huge
spiders web, so delicately and finely out
lined that only upon close inspection was
1T possible to see that the work was really
that of the hand of man. Even the dust
which clings to the threads of a spiders
web long exposed was shown in the work
The. web extended from shoulder to
shoulder and from the small of the back
to the mans neck. Here a single thread
continued upward, and, avoiding the hair
tratled along the side of the head to the
middle of the forehead, where It de-
scended in waving line down alongside
the nose and to the middle Of the chin
and on the point of the chin sat the huge
! yellow spider, the lord of the castle
Mttuhashi does not speak English, but
/ through an interpreter he tells of the
wonders of tattooingl which he has
brought with him-of the new colored
pigments which only recently have been
| discovered in his own country, and with
Which he hopes to decorate Americans.
/ Next to the people Of my own coun-
| try, Americans take more interest in the
subject of artistic tattoo1ng than any
other civilized people," said the Japa-
nese through an interpreter. ST have
! travelled much all over the world, each
| time returning to my own country, but
nowhere do the people understand as
| they do here the beauties Of the art
Here, as in my own country, the better
| people have a taste for the art, for 10
matter where you go you will find the
ordinary sailor tattooed. But the differ
ence between tattooing and tattcoing is
| the same as that between chrome
which you hang On the wallsof your sta
bile and the fine oil painting which you
hang in the parlors of your homes. It is
this understanding which the Americans
| have
81 think it hurts the little fellow down.
| rightly to have to tattoo one of those
common designs on sailors broke in
prof" O'Reilly, the partner Of Mituha-
shi. "You see, there is other work to Go
here besides the expensive and artistic
work demanded by the Weather classes,
and the Jap is never more miserable
than when he works on one Of those fell
lows whose only aim is to get the marks
as good and black or as br ght and red
as possible-the rough work in other
words. 1 heard CT this Jap and his repu-
tation and his success as the designer
of the now famous Boxers head, and I
| thought if Japan could support him so
could the BoWery
He refuses to work with the electric
needles and therefore his work is all the
way from four to twenty times slower
than the machine understanding to the
kind Of work he is doing You can est-
mate for yourself, considering that the
motor needles str.k 5,0GO Zines a minute
where an expert if he is very quick, as
this man is, can make only go jabs in
the same time
Cone Of the first jobs he struck when
he came here was where man wanted
! to be tattooed out Of revenge. He came
In here prepared to spend $50 If neces-
sary to have his scheme put through He
picked out a huge snake to be worked
from his shoulder clean down to his wrist
The head of the snake was to be the
mead or certain woman whose photo
graph he brought with him, and he
wanted the tongue to protrude and to
nave 1t forked. 1 worked the snake into
him myself, but the head. he said he
wanted put on by hand, for he imagined
the likeness could be done more accurate
| ly. The job was finished and the imam
left.
1.-TWO days later I got a telegram from
Rockaway. 1t came from our snake
friend. and he wanted to know how
quickly we could remove the head from
the snake. No; I do not know the story
connected with the incident; you must
make your own yarn. But TIE Jap WAS
heart-broken at the loss of his fine
woman's head.
The craze of beng tattooed for re-
venge is common one. There was once
IN this neighborhood pair of very stanch
friends, even together, and both great
church members. One cay one of them
came here and had peculiar order. He
wanted engraved on his arm the picture
or his friend. and under it he wanted
the words C. d. William Gum 'ngham
He urged and coaxed so that finally
put the blasphemous thing on his arm I'M
der the picture. That fellow came back
that night to have it removed, which, of
course, was impossible He said he could
not sleep with the thing on his arm.
RI00n p0Ie0N