Japanese art and meaning.

In modern times, octopus imagery has strong sexual connotations thanks to the ridiculously suggestive use of tentacles in manga, anime, and video games.  The motif is not new, however; one of Japan's most famous and respected artists, Hokusai, pioneered it back in 1814 with the woodblock print The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife , which featured a woman getting hot and heavy with an enormous cephalopod. While such erotically charged associations  have become infamous in the West, this underwater invertebrate means more than tentacle porn in Japan.  Often shown as either cute or comical, the octopus was also the personal physician for Ryujin, the underwater sea dragon, which might explain why, in the past, Japanese doctors were fond of carrying octopus amulets.  And in tattoos, the octopus's ink can make for a clever visual pun.

          The Carp (Koi), the king of the river fish, is much esteemed in Japan for many of its qualities. It is commonly known as an emblem of perseverance, strength, courage and success. These symbolic characteristics are mainly based on the fact that carp are known to be able to swim up a waterfall and up a river over a great distance, even when the flow is very strong. The strength attributed to carp originated in China, where the fish was said to have braved the Wu-Men rapids and to have swum up the Lung-Men falls on the Yellow River.  On May 5, carp banners are flown in Japan by parents and sons to express the hope that their boys will grow strong and healthy. On the banners, the black carp, called magi, represents the father, the red carp, or chigoe, is the mother, and the blue carp, called kogoe, is the child. These colors can be used in tattooing to identify the koi or show the relationship between them.     According ...