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Question about a Japanese symbol/icon


hogg
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I've seen tattoos of various Japanese lucky charms, like Uchide-no Kozuchi (the lucky mallet or Uchide's hammer, seen here in a tattoo by Benjamin Sacks):

IMG_2987.jpg

You often see Daikokuten holding that hammer. I've also seen a wish-granting jewel called a houju or houshu, like these:

c0067690_0543480.jpg

My question is: does anyone here know of a similar charm of a drum? I have no idea what it's called, so I can't search for it. Maybe @taaaro san can help. Thanks!

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I'm stumped. I tried to look up and see if the drums that Raijin beats on had any sort of significance. At a high level search, it seems they are not significant except for the tomoe symbol. I haven't seen drums anywhere else other than those little charm dangle ones, and I doubt that's what you're looking for. See image below.

od186.jpg

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  • 1 month later...
@hogg I don't know if this is what you're looking for because it seems to be Tibetan/Indian in origin and not Japanese, and I don't know the symbolic connotations of it, but maybe a damaru?

Is it invisible? ;) Because I don't see anything.

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Haha, I thought you meant to attach an image. Now that I see it, it's super cool. Honestly, this whole search came about because I talked to a Japanese tattooer on the phone about maybe getting a money mallet, and he said, "I think the drum is cooler." I thought I knew what he meant, but I obviously didn't. I still think the hammer's cool, though.

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Haha, I thought you meant to attach an image. Now that I see it, it's super cool. Honestly, this whole search came about because I talked to a Japanese tattooer on the phone about maybe getting a money mallet, and he said, "I think the drum is cooler." I thought I knew what he meant, but I obviously didn't. I still think the hammer's cool, though.

Haha, no. I was looking through a book of Buddhist iconography and that was the only thing they had for drum. The book unfortunately doesn't have any pictures of the drums, thus Google. Still pretty cool though.

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  • 5 months later...

If I may resurrect this thread I was wondering if anybody had information about this tattoo:

post-3821-146168874738_thumb.jpg

These are taken from the Perseverance catalog, the back is by Shige and the front is from Horitomo, and they depict skeletons dancing with fans. I love the imagery, but I was wondering if anybody had an idea of what story it is referring to? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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@Graeme

They almost look like something out of Tibetan Mythology rather than Japanese.

"In the sacred Tibetan Skeleton dance two Dharmapalas (Protectors of Truth) appear, played by Monks, deities whose role is to protect the cemetery grounds. Their presence also reminds the audience of the ephemeral nature of this world and of their own mortality."

Tibetan-Skeleton-Dance.jpg?62075d

I know in Japanese mythology there is Gashadokuro, who are giant skeleton who bite the heads off of people and drink the blood.

skeleton.jpg

Maybe it's an amalgamation of the two ideas? Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about! Either way, they are great tattoos!

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@Graeme, I suspect the tattoo Horitomo did is a depiction of the priest, Ikkyu. Not exclusive to only Kyosai, but he has an image or 2 depicting dancing skeletons with Priest Ikkyu and the Hell Courtesan, Jigoku Daiyu. I'm not positive it's the same client as I've only seen the pieces seperately, but I think it's a bodysuit with Ikkyu on the front and Jigoku Daiyu on his back. It makes cohesive sense and both are black/grey so I'm rationalizing it is the same Client.

Couldn't figure out how to attach the image directly from my phone, but here's a link that shows an image. Third image down.

http://kiritz.jp/2012/08/kawanabe-kyosai/

That said, I'm not sure if Shige's back piece is tied to any story or idea in particular.

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  • 9 months later...

I have been obsessing over Citipati skulls lately. Somehow they seem impossible to find when using that search word. I came to think of them when I saw the last two episodes of "On the shoulders of giants" and noticed that Dante Di Massa has a rad couple on his neck. That Rubendall is killer and I know Koeplinger has done some of them.

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