JACKSONVILLE, FLA.- The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens  is conducting Tattoos in Japanese Prints from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, a fascinating exhibition that celebrates the iconic beauty of tattoos in Edo-period Japan and its resonating impact on 21st-century tattoo culture,debuting this fall.

Today, the global popularity of tattoos has brought renewed attention to the centuries-old Japanese tradition. Drawn from the MFA’s renowned collection of Japanese art, Tattoos in Japanese Prints explores the cultural context and inspired imagery that helped carry them from the streets of Edo-period Japan to 21st-century tattoo shops worldwide.

“This exhibition captures perfectly how art can transcend time and culture, while retaining its power to inspire," said Andrea Barnwell Brownlee, Ph.D., George W. and Kathleen I. Gibbs Director and CEO of the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens. “Museums are spaces where we can gather together and explore together the ways other cultures shape our own and spark new moments of understanding.”

Some of the world’s most popular tattoo motifs trace back to the early 19th-century Edo-period in Japan, where tattoo artists took inspiration from color woodblock prints known as ukiyo-e. Many of the early tattoo artists were trained as blockcutters, craftsmen who transformed designs drawn on paper into carved wooden blocks for mass-producing prints. The exhibition features works by the artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) who designed a series of prints in the late 1820s showing Chinese martial arts heroes with spectacular tattoos that inspired tattoo artists at the time and continue to influence tattoo artistry in the 21st century. However, despite historical precedent for tattoos in Japan and the enthusiasm for it in contemporary society, the government banned tattooing for citizens in the 1870s and the graphic designs largely vanished from woodblock prints. Tattoo patterns, though, which were based on a multitude of motifs including mythology, religion, plants and animals, continued to be used on decorative arts, including textiles, lacquer, metalwork, and books.

“Two centuries ago, color woodblock prints inspired the Japanese tradition of large-scale pictorial tattoos. In this exhibition we present the social background, iconography, and visual splendor of a fashion whose popularity has now spread around the world,” said Sarah Thompson, Curator of Japanese Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Tattoos in Japanese Prints is presented in collaboration with a community advisory committee comprising leaders from across Northeast Florida’s community. Members include: Kie Young, President of Jacksonville Japanese Association and President of Mayor's Asian American Advisory Board; Wenying Xu, Jacksonville University Professor of English; Hiromi Moneyhun, Jacksonville-based local artist; Dr. Chau Kelly, Associate Professor of History & Faculty Coordinator for Asian Studies Program at the University of North Florida; Nick Wagner, tattoo artist and owner of Black Hive Tattoo.

Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens
Tattoos in Japanese Prints from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
October 27th 2023 - January 24th, 2024
Curated by Sarah Thompson, Curator of Japanese Art.