Yakuza Moon

I just love Gaz's book selections for me. Each time I go to the library, I find myself at a loss as to which books I should borrow. There are far too many choices. Gaz has taken it upon himself to choose my books, which is a convenient arrangement since I am undecisive and he usually frequents the library more often.


The latest book he's chosen for me is Yakuza Moon. The book is the autobiography of a Yakuza boss's daughter, Shoko Tendo. In book, she gives a moving account of her wild younger days, strained relationship with her family, destructive relationships with men and eventually her breakthrough in her life which sees her leaving her bar hostess days to become a writer. She is one brave lady. The amount of beatings and rapes which happened to her chilled me, and I do not know how one can handle so many of those traumatic experiences.


One of the most interesting bit in the book for me is in the middle of the book where there are several pictures of Tendo showing off her tattoos. Coming from a Yakuza family, she saw tattoos as very normal (though not usually on women) and saw it as a way to acknowledge her background which she had tried hard to deny and flee. She had most of her body tattooed in beautiful coloured inks of dragons, and Jigoku Daiyu (a courtesan). Although I'm not a big fan of tattoos, I'm impressed by the quality of the design and execution (the cover of the book above shows the tattoo mentioned). It was such an interesting book with an insight into the infamous Japanese mafia society that I couldn't put the book down till I finished reading it two days later.