Simply Magic. It is not every day that a book inspires you with so much courage and strength to face the difficulties of your life.
The book I am referring to is Yakuza Moon, which was written to reflect the life story of author Shoko Tendo. She was born in 1968 into a family headed by a yakuza or Japanese mobster father, she went through a difficult upbringing after falling into bad company at a tender age. Descendants of medieval gamblers and outlaws, the yakuza were long portrayed as latter-day samurai, bound by traditions of honor and duty while living extravagant lives. Dad was the leader of the gang linked to the Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest yakuza group, leading a “classic” yakuza life replete with Italian suits and fast imported cars.
To be fair, Dad never really talked about his yakuza business while he was home and raised Tendo to have impeccable manners.
But surrounded by bad influences, Tendo dropped out of school early, became a teenaged Yankee gangster, and lost her virginity to her first boyfriend when she was barely in high school. And as if her life wasn’t hard enough, she became addicted to sniffing thinner and “speed” or marijuana, and she ended up in a reform facility after getting caught up in a gang fight.
Eight months later, she was released only to learn that Dad fell seriously ill with tuberculosis. Her family was in utter chaos, cowed by daily visits from rowdy debtors amid mounting debts. In a state of numbness and denial, she continued her usual dose of drugs, mixed with bad company, suffered multiple incidents of rape, and engaged in casual sleazy sex in “love hotels.”
In short, she had become a total rebel who wandered aimlessly from one day to the next, and, get this, she was barely eighteen at the time. It was the kind of growing pains that would move any reader to tears.
Life for Tendo took on a different perspective at age twenty-one when an old acquaintance took her to a tattoo shop. Although she was exposed to irezumi or full body tattoos throughout her life, it was the first time she felt so deeply about skin art. Transfigured and true to character, she impulsively decided to tattoo herself 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. And on each of her arms was a tattoo of dragons.
Interestingly, since getting the tattoos, her attitude has completely changed and taken on a whole new meaning. Such was the emotional power and influence of tattoos that they can turn a person devastated by a harsh upbringing overnight. Literally, the empowerment came when she tattooed herself.
Then, on her twenty-second birthday, she married a yakuza member who had to cut off his left little finger to prepare for his marriage upon leaving his gang. However, her joyful occasion had a bittersweet aftertaste for her, as the day before she had been raped by her possessive and mentally unstable ex-boyfriend.
Shortly after, she was forced to abort her first child because she and her husband were too poor to raise one. The reality was extremely harsh for both of them.
But the cruelties of life did not end there. Two days after receiving her first salary as a married woman, her mother suffered a massive stroke and died shortly after, never recovering. Depressed by blow after blow in life, she broke down and attempted suicide using sleeping pills. Fortunately, the hospital staff rescued her and she received the news that her father was dying of stomach cancer. God help her!
The loss of both parents finally brought Tendo to her senses. Determined to put her sordid past behind her, she dedicated her life to work, marked by opening her first savings account at age thirty. In fact, she finally managed to save enough to buy her parents decent and proper burial plots.
Now in her mid-thirties, Tendo is completely free from her troubled past and leads a happy life with her young daughter, something Tendo had resigned herself to not having for a long time. His life story has taught us to fully appreciate and treasure our loved ones.. Compared to what she went through, most of the problems we face are simply too insignificant. Remember: No conflict is too much to resolve – quickly. Unfortunately, her tattoos on her will remain, a clear and vivid reminder of her wild days. I wish him well.