Horiyoshi III

Horiyoshi III is the modern Japanese representative of tattooing to the west, and of great international fame. His work is featured in books like The art of the Japanese Tattoo. Among Horiyoshi III's published works are the sketchbooks 36 Ghosts, 108 Heroes of the Suikoden, 100 Demons, and The Namakubi (a collection of drawings of severed heads). Born Yoshihito Nakano in 1946, at the age of twenty one, he met the man who would become his master, Yoshitsugu Muramatsu, Horiyoshi of Yokohama. Like many apprenticeships all over the world, the apprentice often begins as a client. In this case, the client would prove his devotion by obtaining and enduring a full long sleeve body suit, tattooed entirely by hand. In 1971, Horiyoshi retired and named two apprentices to continue his lineage. He passed the title "Horiyoshi II" to his own son and the title "Horiyoshi III" to Yoshihito Nakano, his star pupil.

Interview with Horiyoshi III