What's new

"Yakuza Moon"

Davey

先輩
Contributor
5 Feb 2005
7,556
617
193
I saw an article yesterday about this book and want to share it with you guys, I think it looks really interesting and actually hope that anyone have already read it.

It's a new book written by the daughter of a yakuza boss and it's translated in English.


Book Description
Yakuza Moon is the shocking, yet intensely moving memoir of 37-year-old Shoko Tendo, who grew up the daughter of a yakuza boss. Tendo lived her life in luxury until the age of six, when her father was sent to prison and her family fell into terrible debt. Bullied by classmates and terrorized
at home by a father who became a drunken, violent monster after his release from prison, Tendo rebelled. A regular visitor to nightclubs at the age of 12, she soon became a drug addict and a member of a girl gang. At 15 she was sentenced to eight months in a juvenile detention center.
Adulthood brought big bucks and glamour when Tendo started working as a bar hostess during Japan's booming bubble economy of the nineteen-eighties. But among her many rich and loyal patrons there were also abusive clients, one of whom beat her so badly that her face was left permanently scarred.
When her mother died, Tendo plunged into such a deep depression that she tried to commit suicide twice.
Tendo takes us through the bad times with warmth and candor, and gives a moving and inspiring account of how she overcame a lifetime of discrimination and hardship. Getting tattooed, from the base of her neck to the tips of her toes, with a design centered on a geisha with a dagger in her mouth, was
an act that empowered her to start making changes in her life. She quit her job as a hostess. On her last day at the bar she looked up at the full moon, a sight she never forgot. The moon became a symbol of her struggle to become whole, and the title of the book she wrote as an epitaph for herself
and her family.

Here is the article that I have read yesterday:

Yakuza gang boss's daughter tells tale of gritty triumph


...Tendo has a gut-wrenching tale that drags the reader with her down into the depths of misery brought on by abuse and addiction and then back up again as self-confidence raises her to the heights of her chosen profession as a bar hostess and onward to further challenges...

...More vicious beatings, exploitation by infidel men, rape, miscarriage and heartbreak follow. Reconciliation with her parents is tempered by grief at their deaths. Mental illness and a suicide attempt add to the already bleak picture. But as "Yakuza Moon" is written with such candor and huge investment of emotion, it's impossible to desert Tendo and put her book down...

Read all



Let me know what you guys think of it.



http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070330p2a00m0na003000c.html
 
Thanks Dutch, yeah I heard about it. Was pretty controversial right?
Looks really interesting. Let me know what you think once you read it. I have to get un-broke before i buy it:D
 
Found this article a couple of days ago, a very interesting one!

Gangster daughter sheds light on Japan underworld

TOKYO (Reuters) - With her dyed-brown long hair and tight designer jeans, Shoko Tendo looks like any other stylish young Japanese woman -- until she removes her shirt to reveal the vivid tattoos covering her back and most of her body.

The elaborate dragons, phoenixes and a medieval courtesan with one breast bared and a knife between her teeth are a symbol of Tendo's childhood as the daughter of a "yakuza" gangster and her youth as a drug-using gang member.

The author of "Yakuza Moon," a best-selling memoir just out in English, the 39-year-old Tendo says that police efforts to eradicate the gangsters have merely made them harder to track........

Tendo's father, the leader of a gang linked to the Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest yakuza group, led a "classic" yakuza life replete with Italian suits, imported cars and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.........

Being a gang member is not illegal in Japan, and until recently the gangs were known for openness. Their offices even posted signs with their names and membership lists inside...........

Read the whole article here
 
woooooooow.....it sure is interesting!!
i really want to read it... hmmm,,where can i get that book,,,,at library??hmmmm...no wayyy.....

well2,,,,i'm curious what will happen next to tendo??yaaahhh....can't wait to read...
 
yeah it;s a nice book. i already read that book actually.
in fact i want to use this book for my thesis..
wish me luck..he
 
I've read it too, but I didn't like it. It was quite dull to read, it was just endless whining about how bad her youth and her choice in man was, and that she got high by sniffing thinner...big deal. Not really the interesting yakuza-inside story I was hoping for.
 
Back
Top Bottom