Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster's Daughter by Shoko Tendo

Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster's Daughter by Shoko Tendo

Born to a wealthy and powerful yakuza boss, Shoko Tendo lived the early years of her life in luxury. However, when she was six, everything changed: her father was jailed, and the family fell into debt. Bullied by her classmates because of her father's activities, and terrorized at home by her father, who became a drunken, violent monster after his release from prison, Tendo rebelled. As a teenager she became a drug addict and a member of a girl gang. At the age of 15 she spent eight months in a juvenile detention center after getting into a fight with another gang.

During Japan's bubble economy of the eighties, Tendo worked as a bar hostess, attracting many rich and loyal customers, and earning money to help her family out of debt. But there were also abusive clients, one of whom beat her so badly that her face was left permanently scarred. Her mother died, plunging Tendo into a depression so deep that she tried to commit suicide.

Somehow, Tendo overcame these tough times. A turning point was getting a full-body tattoo with a design centered on a geisha with a dagger in her mouth, an act that empowered her to change her life. She quit her job as a hostess. On her last day at work, she looked up at the full moon, which 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.

The paperback edition of Yakuza Moon features 16-pages of never-before-seen photos of Tendo's youth, family, and tattoos, as well as a new foreword by the author, describing her life since the book was first published four years ago.

Yakuza Moon is SHOKO TENDO's first book and has been translated into more than a dozen languages. Tendo lives in Tokyo with her baby daughter and works as a freelance writer.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9784770030863
ISBN 10	477003086X
Title	Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster's Daughter
Author	Shoko Tendo
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Kodansha America, Inc
Year published	2009-02-15
Number of pages	216
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.