武者絵や仏画または龍や鯉などの主題があり、桜や紅葉に代表されるような化粧彫りが余白を彩る。そして背景を雲や波といった額で埋めるのが和彫りの基本的なスタイルだが、あえて主題を省き、化粧彫りと額のみとする構成も通好みで趣き深い。
町田 彫剣氏のように額に一家言を持つ彫り師であればなおのことだ。ここに見る七分袖の桜吹雪も、主題をあしらった腕に勝るとも劣らない見応えを呈している。指一本半ほどの太さで複雑に描き込まれた見切りは繊細でありながらも極めて力強い。
In the basic style of Japanese traditional tattooing, there are subjects such as musha-e (warrior painting), Buddhist painting, dragon or carp, and kesho-bori (ornament tattooing) such as cherry blossoms and autumn leaves decorate the margin, then background is filled with gaku like clouds and waves. However the composition which purposely omits the main theme and only uses kesho-bori and gaku is also very tasteful and is preferred by connoisseurs.
This is especially true if the tattooer is like Machida Horiken who has an expert opinion on gaku. Shichibu-sode (three-quarter sleeve) of sakura-fubuki seen here is no less spectacular than the sleeves with a subject. The intricately drawn one-and-a-half fingar wide mikiri (band of gaku) is delicate, yet extremely powerful.
桜は春の訪れを告げるように蕾を膨らませ、ほんのわずかな間だけ壮麗に咲き誇ると一斉に散ってしまう。そこに我々は“無常”や“もののあはれ”を感じ、古来より幾多の和歌にも詠まれているように、花と言えば桜と言うほどに愛してきた。風に散る桜は日本人に宿る美意識そのものであるとしても過言ではないだろう。
The buds of the cherry blossoms swell up as if to announce the arrival of spring, and after blooming magnificently for only a short time, they fall all together. We feel “impermanence” and “mono-no-aware” (appreciaiton of the fleeting nature of beauty), and have loved cherry blossoms since ancient times as described in many waka poems. It would not be an exaggeration to say that cherry blossoms scattered by the wind are the very essence of the Japanese sense of beauty.
