We An Intro to The Mythological Creatures of Japanese Irezumi. One of the most popular tattoo idea in the world. It’s so easy to find someone with a tattoo of a Japanese mythological creature tattoo I’m also a huge Japanese tattoo fan as well. I also got a Japanese tattoo but it’s not a mythological creature one. It is a basic japanese word tattoo that says ” one who stands that wins eternity”. Kind of deep meaning if you think about it. 

But we are not here to talk about the Japanese word tattoos we are here to talk about the mythological creature tattoos. I also wanted one of those so I did research about what is the best mythological tattoos that i can get. So in this article i’m going to share my research with you guys i’m going to give a few good ideas with the meaning of the tattoo. 

There are many mythological creature tattoos that you can get from a tattoo shop. But Japanese tattoos have good back stories, meaning they have very good meanings and they are stylish. Also another thing is Japanese mythological tattoos have a big history. These tattoos start to appear in 1650 more likely. There some sources says that these tattoos start to appear way earlier than 1650 old kings use to have tattoos of old dragon gods they say or warriors use to have those tattoos. So if we are going to look into this tattoo culture as i said these tattoos have a long history. Also we can say the meanings of these tattoos are way deeper. So lets start with best mythological creature tattoo concepts down below are the top tier tattoos that you can get.

An Intro to The Mythological Creatures of Japanese Irezumi – Koi tattoo culture 

The first one in the list is going to be the koi tattoo. You guys might think koi is a fish. It just a normal tattoo in Japanese culture. I’m going to say no its not. Nowadays koi like tattoos are not rare you can see these type of tattoo anywhere in japan. I’m not doubting that Japanese people don’t know about the idea of this tattoo they know it better than us. But this tattoo is used to be rare. I remember that i read about this tattoo when i was a kid on a documentary. Very few people used to wear this tattoo. And one recent moment that i had a chance to talk about this tattoo. I met a middle-aged Japanese man and showed me a tattoo of koi swimming upstream of a river. 

Meaning of the koi tattoo

The meaning of the Koi  tattoo is actually masculinity and bravery. It also reminds the commitment from this tattoo as well. Koi fish a known to be strong very strong. Also another thing is koi fish are the only fish that can swim upstream and also can swim up side on waterfalls. In the old japan this tattoo is used show peoples bravery the brave ones had this tattoo. The people had very strong commitment had this tattoo as well. 

Oldest koi tattoos are only the koi fish or symbol of koi. Nowadays the tattoo shows a koi fish swimming upstream in water. It give the tattoo the meaning of the bravery. So the koi tattoo is an Intro to The Mythological Creatures of Japanese Irezumi. 

Fu dog tattoo culture 

The second one is fu dog tattoo culture.  Also you can say lion dog or just lion. This tattoo not actually just a lion. This tattoo is a half lion and half dog creature tattoo. The creature has body of a lion and head of dog. This is the one of the oldest mythological tattoos in japan. Old people used lion symbol as a protector. A protector to ward off the evil spirits of deep they say. And also to attract healthy spirits and the wealthy spirits. This tattoo is also half spiritual and half symbols the warrior spirit on people. 

This fu dog symbol is used as a ward before it became a tattoo. The ward is used ti placed outside of the houses or on the roof. Also it was placed in the entrance of old Japanese town. So lets talk more about the meaning of this tattoo. 

Meaning of fu dog tattoos

As I said before, this is a kind of spiritual tattoo. That bounce between good and evil. There is another meaning to this tattoo as well. If you look closely to this tattoo has little details as well. The pointy ears of the lion shows strength and courage. The most strong and courageous ones used to had this tattoo as well. Also the pointy ears shows protection as well.

Most of fu lion tattoo lions are in a defensive positions that means they are ready to fight against evil. There are two types of fu lions as well one female one male. In these two lions you can see in the female lions paw is on a lion cub. That lion cub represent earth in the tattoo and the protector of the earth as well. Also the male lions paw is on a sphere that represents heaven. The lion is named as a protector on Japanese Buddhism culture. They treat fu lions as there protectors.

An Intro to The Mythological Creatures of Japanese Irezumi – Final aspect 

I have explained one of the best two mythological creature tattoos in Japanese culture. That’s not actually all of it there more. But main two is fu lion and the koi. There more tattoos like “The snake”. Meaning of snake is the snakes protects the wearers from misfortune and skin disease also from disasters. Another tattoo is Hannya or Hannya mask tattoo. This tattoo represents different moods of people. Or mostly the jealous and vengeful womens. This one is actually mostly used by women’s. 

There are so many mythological tattoos on Japanese culture. I explained the best ones for you after doing so many researches and from my personal experience from tattoo culture. We talked about an Intro to The Mythological Creatures of Japanese Irezumi. And at the end of the article i got to say that the Japanese culture is the one of the best tattoo cultures in the world. We will meat again with a new article see you guys again.