Over the weekend I took my son up to the mountains for some quality onsen (volcanic hot springs) bathing, one of my favorite activities in Japan. As I’ve written before, virtually all public baths and hot springs here have signs saying that customers with tattoos are not allowed in, which is done to promote a “family friendly” atmosphere and keep scary yakuza gangsters away. Of course people with casual tattoos on their bodies regularly ignore these signs, which was the case with a man I happened to see who had a really awesome tattoo on his arm: the face of Ryoma Sakamoto. One of the “founding fathers” of modern Japan, Ryoma was a samurai from the small Japanese island of Shikoku who embraced the slogan sonno joi (Respect the Emperor and Expel the Foreign Barbarians), rallying around the Emperor, who had been a figurehead of Japanese rule for most of the past 2000 years, and against the Tokugawa military government. Fearing that any battle that resulted in a large loss of life among Japanese soldiers would see Japan colonized by foreign powers, he made a master plan to force the Shogun to surrender power by bringing the the rival clans of Satsuma and Choshu (modern day Kagoshima and Yamaguchi) together in a military alliance. Although he was fighting against the influence of the U.S. and Britain on his country, he readily adopted Western technology, carrying a Smith and Wesson revolver and wearing boots as opposed to normal samurai footwear, popularizing both. Sadly, Ryoma was assassinated by members of the Shinsengumi, a group of pro-Tokugawa samurai, a month after achieving his victory. Today Ryoma is a very popular figure in modern Japan, a combination of Che Guevara and George Washington rolled into one. And certainly worthy of a tattoo.
