Tamatori Tattoo Meaning: The Pearl Diver, the Dragon King and Design Ideas

Tamatori Tattoo Meaning: The Pearl Diver, the Dragon King and Design Ideas

Few Japanese legends make a better tattoo than the story of Tamatori, the pearl diver who swam into the Dragon King’s palace to win back a stolen jewel. It has everything a large Japanese piece needs: churning sea, a furious dragon, sea creatures giving chase, and a brave woman holding a glowing gem above the waves. Here is the legend behind the Tamatori tattoo, where the story comes from, and how we plan Tamatori sleeves and back pieces for clients in Perth, regional Western Australia and across Australia.

Who was Tamatori-hime?

Tamatori means roughly “taking the jewel”, and the heroine is often called Tamatori-hime (Princess Tamatori) in prints. She was an ama, one of the women divers of Japan’s coasts who dived for shellfish and seaweed. Her story is set at Shido Bay in old Sanuki Province, today Kagawa Prefecture on the island of Shikoku.

According to the Worcester Art Museum’s notes on a late-1600s print of the scene, the tale is known as Tamatori monogatari (“The Tale of the Taking of the Jewel”). A precious wishing jewel belonging to the powerful Fujiwara family was lost when the Dragon King of the sea stole it in a storm off Shido. A Fujiwara nobleman fell in love with a local diver, and she agreed to fetch the jewel back from the Dragon King’s palace on the seabed, on the promise that their son would be cared for if she did not return.

The dive into the Dragon Palace

The diver swims down to Ryūgū, the undersea palace, takes the jewel and flees with the sea’s guardians behind her. In the best-known versions she cuts open her own breast and hides the jewel inside the wound. The script summary for the Noh play Ama (The Woman Diver), published by the-noh.com, explains why: the Dragon Palace avoids the dead, so even the fierce dragons keep away from her. She tugs her safety rope, is hauled to the surface and dies, but the jewel is saved.

Her son, Fusasaki, rose to become a minister. In the Noh play he travels to Shido Bay, learns the truth about his mother, and holds a memorial for her. She appears to him transformed into a dragon maiden and dances in joy at reaching enlightenment.

Different tellings name the father differently: some versions name Fujiwara no Kamatari, while the Noh play and Shido-ji temple name his son, Fujiwara no Fuhito. The heart of the story stays the same in every version: a mother’s courage and sacrifice for her child.

Shido-ji: where the legend still lives

The story is tied to Shido-ji in Sanuki City, Kagawa, Temple 86 on the Shikoku 88-temple pilgrimage. According to the JEEPE guide to Shido-ji, the diver’s grave is on the temple grounds, six illustrated scrolls of the temple’s founding story are listed as Important Cultural Property, and the temple’s Musentei dry garden, made by garden designer Mirei Shigemori in 1962, evokes the Seto Inland Sea and the legend.

Tamatori in ukiyo-e and Japanese art

The diver’s escape was a favourite subject for Edo-period artists. Utagawa Kuniyoshi, the same artist whose tattooed warrior prints shaped Japanese tattooing, produced a large three-sheet print, Picture of Tamatori-hime at the Palace of the Dragon King, in 1853 (impressions are held by the Chazen Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, shown below). Kuniyoshi returned to the story several times, including a dramatic single-sheet print of around 1844 showing Tamatori diving with sword and jewel as a dragon and an octopus close in, and a Tamatori-ama print for his 1845–46 Genji Clouds series. Earlier artists including Sugimura Jihei and Utagawa Toyoharu also printed the scene. These prints remain the best reference for a Tamatori tattoo today.

The story even turns up on samurai sword fittings. A sword hilt in the Walters Art Museum shows Tamatori with the jewel in one hand and a dagger in the other, fighting off an attacking octopus. That octopus, along with dragons and other sea creatures, is still a natural part of a Tamatori tattoo design today.

What does a Tamatori tattoo mean?

For most clients, the meaning comes straight from the story:

• A mother’s love and sacrifice. Many people choose Tamatori to honour their mother, or as parents to mark what they would do for their children.
• Courage against the odds. A lone diver taking on the Dragon King is about as brave as Japanese legend gets.
• Loyalty and keeping a promise. She brings the jewel home, whatever it costs her.
• The sea. For surfers, divers, fishers and anyone who lives by the ocean, from Perth’s coast to Bali’s breaks, the ama is a strong ocean figure.

Designing a Tamatori tattoo

Tamatori is a scene, not a single figure, so it rewards space. The key elements are the diver, usually with long flowing hair and a short blade; the glowing jewel, often held high; and what chases her: a dragon, an octopus or other sea creatures, with big Japanese waves tying it together.

• Full back piece: the most traditional choice. The diver can burst upward out of the waves with the dragon coiling around her, the way the Edo prints show it. See our guide to Japanese full back tattoos.
• Full sleeve or leg sleeve: the vertical shape of an arm or leg suits a diver rising to the surface, with water and wind bars carrying the background. Read more about full arm sleeves and Japanese leg sleeves.
• Pairing with other motifs: Tamatori sits naturally with the Japanese dragon, koi and other water subjects, which helps if you are planning a full body suit over time.

Because the story ends in sacrifice, some clients ask for the moment of escape, jewel raised, rather than her death. We talk through which part of the story fits you at the consultation.

Getting a Tamatori tattoo in Perth, or finishing one from Bali

We tattoo clients from Perth, FIFO workers and people from regional WA, as well as travellers from Sydney, Melbourne and around Australia, using both machine work and traditional tebori hand tattooing. Large narrative pieces like Tamatori are done over several sessions, which suits FIFO rosters and clients who fly in.

Plenty of Australians start a Japanese piece on holiday in Bali, in Canggu, Seminyak or Kuta, and come home with a design that has no background or doesn’t flow. If you have a Bali tattoo you would like to grow into a Tamatori sleeve or back piece, send us clear photos and we will look at what can be built around it.

See our Japanese tattoo work in Perth, or book a Japanese tattoo consultation to start planning your Tamatori design.

Sources

• Worcester Art Museum, “Picture of Retrieving the Jewel from the Dragon King’s Palace”, attributed to Sugimura Jihei (Tamatori monogatari, the stolen jewel, the diver’s bargain)
• the-noh.com, Noh play Ama (The Woman Diver): story summary (Shido Bay, the jewel hidden in the wound, Fusasaki’s memorial)
• JEEPE (jeepe.jp), “Shidoji and Shido Bay” (Temple 86, the diver’s grave, the founding scrolls, Musentei garden)
• Chazen Museum of Art, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Picture of Tamatori Hime at the Palace of the Dragon King (1853)
• Spencer Museum of Art, Utagawa Toyoharu, Ryūgū Tamatori no zu
• Walters Art Museum, sword hilt (tsuka) with Tamatori fighting an octopus
• Images: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Open Access (CC0) and the National Museum in Warsaw via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)