Embodying Japanese Empire: Tattooing and Judo in Colonial Taiwan, 1895–1945

As Japan built its colonial empire in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, it enforced assimilationist (dōka) policies that forever changed the daily lives of the people in its colonies. The ways in which the dōka policies mandated the learning of Japanese language and customs have been well documented, but Japan also employed mechanisms of power over the physical bodies of the people it colonized. This poster suggests that rather than just a psychological rupture brought on by the enforcement of new cultural practices, colonial subjects felt the rule of Japanese imperialism at the immediate level of lived, corporeal experiences. The banning of tattooing and the introduction of judo provide particularly compelling windows onto the history of the body under colonialism. The proposed poster combines historical narrative with postcards and photographs to illustrate how imperial rule was visibly manifest in the bodies of Taiwanese people over generations.

Tattooing, a long-standing cultural tradition among the aboriginal peoples of Taiwan, became a contested practice during the colonial period. When Japan outlawed tattooing from 1916, people made a choice to voice their historical identity via the inked surfaces of their bodies, or to abandon tradition and signal their “Japanese-ness.” In an instance of the latter, some men erased tattoos with chemicals in 1942 in order to enlist in the Japanese Imperial Army. From the 1930s, Japan also built training centers for local youth to cultivate Japanese values through activities including martial arts. In effect, some youths traded inked skin for black belts. Japanese dōka policies were a natural part of the lived experienced of the people of Taiwan, especially for the generations born after 1895. The fate of tattoos in particular exemplifies the effect of imperialism over several generations. Tattoos did not disappear overnight, but over decades of no cultural maintenance, the practice faded from the aboriginal cultures forever. Judo, however, has maintained a steady presence in Taiwanese culture to this day.

The topic of this research is particularly fitting for a visual presentation. The proposed poster’s text will present a concise historical analysis of the subject of no more than 800 words. Specifically, the text will include: 1) a brief statement describing the topic and outlining the argument as it pertains to the history of imperial Japan’s assimilationist policies; 2) description of Japan’s administration over Taiwan, particularly how it administered the Han-Taiwanese and aboriginal Taiwanese peoples as separate groups; 3) discussion of “public health” policies in Taiwan that led to the outlawing of tattooing and the promotion of “modern” activities like judo; and 4) brief analysis of the accompanying images that illustrate the history discussed. Three types of images will be included: Japanese postcards depicting tattooing among the aboriginal peoples, even after the practice was banned in the 1910s; photographs taken decades apart of one aboriginal family of the Sysiyat tribe to illustrate the fading of tattooing over the decades of Japanese imperial rule; and, lastly, photographs of the youth of Taiwan training in judo and other Japanese martial arts in the 1930s.