re tattoo assignment

Kawaita Hana (Pale Flower) 1963:
Kaga Mariko is attracted to his promise, cleave to lamp as a fragment

Konchu Dai Senso (Great Insect War) 1968:
skin assaulted by insects, scrimmage with female ninjas

Nagai Kafu, unshaven, travel sketches in pencil
carpenter’s back tattooed with demon mask

such as streetcar clanks around zoo
rented room for skin

“April 30, 1959, his body was found, fully clothed”

illness conceals salmon from plate
insects, persistent skin

clients speaking tea
obscure dialect

Tokyo Monogatari (Tokyo Story) 1953:
Hara Setsuko duplicates daughter, permitting herself to film

Kuroneko (Black Cat) 1968:
Nobuko Otowa returns, determined to cleave, skin disguised as blotched ducks

re tattoo assignment: salmon emerge from skin

**

monogatari suffused with cinema, adaptations

Nyobo Funshitsu (Wife Lost) 1928:
husband infected with dancer, tentative hinges: crushed ginkgo abrupts skin

“prostitute stabbed by a deranged guest”

Gendai Ryoki Sei Hanzai (Grostesque Perverted Slaughter) 1976
wife convinces body parts to husband, students arrested for speaking Japanese

Kasuga-cho, Bunkyo-ku: Nagai Kafu explores address

re tattoo assignment: after his death, weekly magazines exaggerated his skin

“tattoo mark was found on his arm
commemorating an early love, Shimbashi geisha Tomimatsu”

**

a pocket then rub pencil
rain disrupts rehearsal

insert coin, remain accurate
tongue dispenses ticket

moisture indulges passenger
students anxious to speak

Shibuya station isn’t news anymore
clutches luggage, an actress playing Japanese

**

Hyokai Hyaku Monogatari (One Hundred Ghost Stories) 1968
defiant weave, woman fucks Umbrella Man

table subdues actress
Nikkatsu realizes vaginal alternative prompts skin

passengers insist accuracy
cheap pencils, library skin in 20 minutes

Haiku

clients speaking tea
Tomi dances with penis
obscure dialect

Hikidoshi Fufu (A Couple on the Move) 1928:
Shochiku Kamata Studio: wife flirts with landlord

mid-1920s through Shimazu, aftertaste of burnt salmon skin

passenger clips train
an actress playing Japanese tumbles to subway


Ray Craig