July 2012
71 posts
whats the samurai dressed in red with blue hair or blue scalp and large side burns named? he's relatively common
hmm, doesn’t come to mind, do you have a reference photo I can see? does he have flower tattoos?
Ryuotaro
Ryuotaro
Ryuotaro is a character whos story eluded me for years also, i researched every day for about 2-3 months at one point (I really searched hard for it, as this is one of my favourite designs), until I came across the anime called Taro the Dragon boy, which seemed like it suited the design I had seen in tattoos, so recently I asked Horimitsu, and bingo, the anime is taken from the story of Ryuotaro. I will say, there are a very large portion of anime characters based on mythical, and legendary characters through out japanese history, but in saying that, alot of them won’t portray the character in the same light, so basing research on them will 95% of the time be inaccurate, which is why I had Mitsu san confirm this for me. Anime characters definitely make researching, especially for reference images, totally shitty experience! for example - Goku from dragonball Z, is taken from Songoku, the monkey king, or also as alot of us will better know him as Monkey Magic, from the ancient Chinese tale journey to the west… might do a post about him soon… Anyways…
The overview of Taro the Dragon Boy is this -
Lazy and selfish, Taro loves to eat, sleep, and wrestle with the forest animals. He has little direction or inspiration in his life. That is, until a wizard passing through the forest one day bestows young Taro with a magical potion. Upon drinking the potion, he gains the strength of a hundred men!
However, there is a catch: he may only summon this power when he is helping others. Taro soon learns that his long lost mother was transformed into a dragon as punishment for her greediness. He sets forth with a sense of purpose to locate his mother and free her from the spell. All the while trying to help the peasants of his village, as well as other colorful creatures that inhabit the mountain. Inspired by an ancient Japanese folklore, Taro the Dragon Boy is an enchanting animated masterpiece!
Unfortunately this is about as good as I can get when it comes to the story, if anyone has access to the original, I am more than happy to post your findings.In the original imagery, which is seen in tattoos, and the ukiyo e, Ryuotaro holds a mirror with his mothers reflection.
Also, Horimitsu did mention that Taro o maru from our previous post is a robber/thief, hopefully I can get a bit more to the story soon!
I just discovered your blog last night and want to say I'm already a huge fan of what you're doing here. Its been a tremendous help to me as I begin planning my eventual sleeve. I read the interview you posted with the artist discussing which flowers and animals should be paired together according to the rules of traditional tattooing and was wondering if there are similar rules regarding the use of the lotus. Thanks a bunch!
Good question man! Lotus is only used in Buddhist imagery, such as being held by deity/Bodhisattvas, and you also often see them seated upon them. In saying that, I have rarely, and I mean once or twice, have seen them being paired with koi, but from what I know this really isn’t very traditional at all. I would say 90% of western tattoo artists can’t draw them for shit too!
