Kanji tattoos

Long years ago, tatoos were used for amulets, to describe their ranks, and for the symbol of their religious. These reasons varies in different culture and countries, however it had they had their own meanings to it.




photo from (http://in-japanese-tattoos.blogspot.com/2008/06/tattoo-designs-in-japanese-tattoos.html)


Nowaday, there are increasing numbers of artists, which indicate to many defferent designs for tattoos.

Whenever you walk into the tattoo shop, there are tons of designins for you to pick, and it may take the entire day. There are pretty flowers and butterflies. How about huge tiger on your chest and awesome dragon on your back?
People also get names of their love ones to remember them.

As we all see, tattoos are like paints and your boby is the canvas.

However, you need to remember that it is permanent.

There are some people, who are (hopefully) interested in Japan, get Japanese character, as known as "kanji" on their body.


......And there are the problems.

Sure, it may look awesome to foreigners; but to us, japanese, some look ridiculously odd.
We just don't have confidence to ask them "where did you get that tattoo?" or "why?"


So here are some example of "strange" Japanese character tattoos:



















The first example, this guy has three characters on his right arm 愛憎悔.
The first letter "愛" means "love" and you might have already seen this letter before. It is a pretty popular word, since it means "love". It is pronounced "ai" just like "I" in English.
The second letter "憎" means "hateful." It is very opposite from the first letter.
Then the third letter "悔" means "regret."

.....I am hoping he is not symbolizing his love life, because i will feel bad for him.














Here is the next example.

This man has the tatto saying "raymond 万が一 r.i.p. my friend 1984-2005"
We understand that he is remembering his friend, named Raymond. However the word "万が一" means "Just in case."
Therefore if we translate the whole sentence in English it is read "Raymond, just in case, rest in peace my friend 1984-2005"

Now do you know what we mean by "strange"?

Remember, and I am going to say this again, that tattoo is permanent.
Make sure you know what the character means if you are going to get one, because you are going to have to carry it for your entire life.
If you do not want to get laughed at by Japanese, ask the native speakers or someone who really knows the meanings of the word before you "paint" yourself.


photos used for examples from
http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/kanji.html

Matsu Japan
http://www.matsu-japan.jp

Charity Event 1

There will be a charity event for the great Sichuan Earthquake of China in club axxcis Tokyo next week on Monday.



The name of the event is THE EARTH. (The site should be in Japanese.)

Matsu Japan is one of the sponsor companies for the event, so we donate some our T-shirts.



We are planning to join the event, so we will introduce it with some pictures!!! Just check it out!!!!









The name of the event: THE EARTH



The day of the event: 2008, 25th August



The place: Club Axxciz (3-26-25 Shibuya Shibuya-Ward Tokyo- Metropolitan Japan) MAP




Matsu Japan

http://www.matsu-japan.jp/

Stickers

Now it is time to buy Matsu Japan T-shirts!!! If you buy our T-shirts, our original sticker will be included.

Samurai sticker (upper left) is for Men's T-shirts, and Maiko sticker (upper right) is for Women's T-shrits.

If you get more than two T-shrits, both stickers will be included!!!!!

Just put them on your laptop, your car, and your motorcycle!! It is so cooooooooool!!!!!

Matsu Japan

http://www.matsu-japan.jp/

Only One

唯一無二 means "only one". We pronounce it "Yuiitsumuni" in Japanese.

We use this word 唯一無二 as our company slogan that we create the only commodities in the world.

Now our merchandeise is not many, but we are plannning to add T-shirts, Pictures, and Sandals etc... Those are also the only commodities in the world. Please look forward to seeing them.

We really welcome our customers to ask us what you want us to create something. Please feel free to contact us.

Thank you.

Matsu Japan

http://www.matsu-japan.jp/

E-mail : info@matsu-japan.jp

Bon Festival

In Japan, the bon festival takes place every summer in mid-August. It is a Buddhist festival held to welcome back the spirits of the dead, and it is believed the spirits returen to their families during the festival; therefore, Japanese people visit their relatives' graves to pray and make offerings of flowers and incense.


Our families went to our relatives' graves today, too.


We pasted some pictures in blog.








Japanese Grave
A family name is carvesd on the center of the grave in kanji.

Temple

Generally, there are many graves in temples, and monks in the temples manage them to maintain cleaning.

Many trees and flowers are planted in temples. The trees of the pictures are Pine trees(In Japanese, we say Matsu.) We were looking for Cherry trees....but we could not find them. Usually there should be cherry trees in temples.


Matsu Japan
www.matsu-japan.jp