Twelve tattoos - Bodhisattva of Benevolence

This print, also from the Twelve tattoos series, depicts a Buddhist bodhisattva in tattoo-design form. The Bodhisattva of Benevolence likely refers to Kannon (Avalokiteshvara), the bodhisattva of compassion, who appears frequently in Japanese religious imagery and is a recurring subject in irezumi. Kannon takes numerous iconographic forms — Senju (thousand-armed), Bato (horse-headed), Juichimen (eleven-headed) — and tattoo designs typically draw on the standing or seated standard form, with flowing drapery, willow branch, or vase of nectar. The convention of rendering Buddhist figures as tattoo designs has roots in nineteenth-century pictorial fiction, particularly Bakin's Suikoden adaptations and the [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) illustrations of Kuniyoshi. The compositional approach isolates the deity against a simplified ground, mimicking the visual conditions of skin: a single figure rendered in confident outline with limited color modulation. Producing a tattoo-themed series places Shusui within a specialized niche of twentieth-century woodblock practice, distinct from the landscape-driven [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) mainstream and offering a form of design-reference imagery for both collectors and tattoo practitioners.