Archive Note
Born in Sapporo, Hokkaido, he first came to Tokyo at fifteen and began studying irezumi seriously at about twenty-one, learning largely on his own with informal help from a friend and practicing on his own body; by his account it took roughly ten years before he could support himself as a tattooer. He built his practice into a large apprenticeship house, the Horitoshi family, with around seventeen deshi reported at the time of interview and a structured progression from etiquette through supervised tattooing to independent work, and his son practices as Horitoshi II. He is described in the tattoo press as one of the most sought-after tebori masters of his generation and has appeared in documentary coverage of Japanese tattooing and at overseas conventions. His legal name and birth year are not established in English-language sources.
Lineage
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