Analysis Of Yume No Ato

It is 2015, the “future”, but one could not tell by looking at society. Each day, new evidence arises that people are really not as tolerant as they claim to be. The public often chooses to rely on stereotypes, rather than facts, to inform their opinions and expectations of others. These archaic and often inaccurate generalizations provide excuses for society to segregate and war with itself. They propagate hate and keep society from progressing. In America, examples of the inhibitive power of stereotypes are readily available. Donald Trump and his political supporters have “call[ed] for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”. Those who agree with this plan have, no doubt, allowed the rampant stereotype of Muslims

Whereas the feminine subject of Yume no Ato is an exemplar of the demure yet alluring Japanese woman, she has transformed into something new in Ho-o no yume. With the addition of her phoenix tattoo, gracefully reborn onto her left shoulder in a palette of dark and light blue, she, too, seems reborn. Although Binnie does, admittedly, lighten this version of the woman purposefully, it only serves to emphasize the enlightenment that the woman has received about her societal position by getting her tattoo. Her hair is lightened, revealing its brown undertones and placing her farther away from the archetypal image of a geisha. The direction of her gaze now seems to have purpose other than allure – she seems almost to be gazing into a mirror, covering all of herself except the subject of her gaze – her phoenix. The phoenix, and the notion of rebirth that it represents, further solidifies the notion that this woman’s stereotypical attributes have died and a new less sexualized and more independent version of herself has been born. Also, in a broader scope, the mere act of getting a tattoo as a woman is transformative, as exemplified in the short story The Tattooer by Junichiro Tanizaki wherein a woman receives a tattoo unwillingly, but morphs into a truer version of herself – a dominating force with “all [her] old fears […] swept away.” In Kuniyoshi no neko, the male subject, too, has been transformed. He is now adorned with a traditional Japanese irezumi, but the subject of his tattoo is not aggressive or challenging. It does not match the disposition he seemed to adopt in the first print. He has chosen to cover himself with cats – playful, rounded felines dance and roll and seem to purr across his back. The tattoo is composed of bright reds, greens and yellows and the entire piece is framed by a light blue scalloped border. These fluid and soft forms, the antithesis of aggression and harshness, seem to soften his disposition as well. His gaze is no