First Trip to Japan – March 2015
I had the chance of getting tattooed by Shige in 2013 at the Bay Area Tattoo Convention in San Francisco, CA. We only had the time to do the lines during this session. Shige told me to call him at his shop to make another appointment to continue the tattoo. Which brings me to March 2015, my first trip to Japan. The plan of this trip was to see Tokyo and Yokohama (where is Shige’s famous Yellow Blaze studio).
We arrived at Narita after a long trip and a 12-hour jet lag. Friendly recommendation when traveling to Japan: When arriving at the airport, find the counter that rents portable Wifi router. For less than 10$ per day, you get unlimited Wifi everywhere you need (which can be practical when visiting small shines with Google map). You can get these routers in other stores in Japan, but they speak better English in the airport, which can simplify the transaction.
The first part of the trip was to visit Tokyo, like real tourist: I visited to Shibuya, Harajuku, and Shinjuku. I went to a multiple of temples, shrines and museums like Meiji Jingu, Togo Jinga, the Nezu museum with it’s beautiful Zen museum and the Japanese Sword museum.
The second section of the trip was in Yokohama. Like every tattoo artist visiting Japan, a must stop is Horiyoshi III’s Tattoo museum. The Bunshin Tattoo Museum is managed by Horiyoshi III’s wife. The museum is more a personal collection of tattoo related objects that Horiyoshi III has collected for more than 60 years. There are objects for all around the world: old tattoo machines, skulls, artworks, Polynesian shrunken heads, there is even a fan letter written from Charles Manson to Horiyoshi III. I loved looking at the different tattoo related Ukiyo-e prints.
Next step: getting tattooed by Shige in his private studio: Yellow Blaze Tattoo. Like a lot of places in Japan, it wasn’t easy to find; it’s at the 6th floor of a tall building. But it’s worth the search because inside is a beautifully calm and inspiring place. There is so many artworks, masks, statues, trophies, I felt in another world with the incent and the calm zen/instumental/psychedelic music. For years I have wanted to visit this mythic tattoo parlor. I’m very blessed to have been there.
I got tattooed 2 days straight to finish my forarm. During these 2 days I was observing everything Shige was doing. We talked about machines, ink, needles, tattoo technics and Ukiyo-e. Shige was calm as always and everything he said I kept it in mind. These were very enriching conversations. People will usually say that it’s very painful to get tattooed for 14 hours, but I was so concentrated on observing Shige, the pain wasn’t important.
After the 2 days, Shige told me to go visit Kamakura to see his favorite temple: Hase-dera. It’s a beautiful temple dedicated to Kannon the Goddess of Mercy. It was very fitting to finish my trip in the beautiful region of Kamakura. I’m very lucky to have had such an amazing trip.
