A quiet place for a loud tradition.

Wabori — 和彫り, "Japanese-style tattoo" — is centuries old, and the work being made now is some of the best it has ever been. But it's also a tradition that's easy to flatten: a dragon becomes a wallpaper, a hannya becomes a logo. Meaning gets lost.

This site is a quiet encyclopedia for the parts that matter: what each symbol means and the stories sitting behind it. We add slowly. When we get something wrong, we want to hear about it.

A small shop is coming — tees, prints, one or two considered pieces. It will fund the writing and the research. Nothing here is meant as appropriation. The opposite: an attempt to point at the source.