#horimono

I won't reproduced the illustrations here, but the Tokuringenbiroku book also presents other Edo period "punishments" and death penalties, like different types of goumon (torture), gokumon (decapitation and exposure of the head to public view), kakei (stake), haritsuke (crucifixion), or tameshigiri (sword cut testing, here on executed convict corpse). Please proceed to the full book according to your sensibilities!

Back to irezumi kei : the markings of character Akaza (from Kimetsu no Yaiba/Demon's Slayer) are directly inspired by those, same for Mugen in Samurai Champloo for example:

After Tokugawa Yoshimune's reforms abolished bloodier punishments (nose or ear cutting) for lesser crimes (like theft, gambling or fraud), irezumikei spread, inspired by Chinese bokkei practices.

Yet, zainin (lawbreakers) were also often beaten or whipped (tataki), which could be a "light" sentence or more far extreme one. Women tended to be imprisoned instead.

Punishment tattoos also often went alongside tokorobarai (banishment), which had several levels depending on the crime. You could be banished to a remote island, just away from your city, or forbidden to enter a certain perimeter.

Exile is why different areas had different marks, placed on the arms or faces, easily identifying the person as a criminal convicted in another region.

Number of lines or dots were often used to symbolize repeated offences (pic below source). Most of the times, getting 3+ irezumikei could grant you death penalty.

Irezumikei maybe be why criminals came to use extravagant tattoos, as to cover their infamous marks, leading to the yakuza association with body ink.

Yet, other strata of population also favored figurative tattoos, so the link between criminals and tattoing in Edo period is not self-evident.