사진으로 본 베일에 쌓인 공포의 야쿠자 세계 Guns, girls... and amputated fingers: Extraordinarily intimate photos from inside the world of Japan's Yakuza crime gangs (VIDEO)
Guns, girls... and amputated fingers: Extraordinarily intimate photos from inside the world of Japan's Yakuza crime gangs
베일에 쌓였던 공포의 일본 야쿠자의 세계, 사진으로 공개하다
벨기에 사진작가 안톤 커스터는 일본의 야쿠자 세계 내부의 사진을 찍기 위해
무려 그들과 2년이아는 세월을 동거동락한 커스터는 초기에 수개월간 설득을
통해 얻은 촬영허락으로 그동안 베일에 쌓여있었던 공포의 야쿠자의 세계를 파헤쳤다.
by Ki Chul Hwang
Conpaper Editor Distributor
황기철 콘페이퍼 에디터
By ANTON KUSTERS IN TOKYO, JAPAN, FOR MAILONLINE
These astonishing photographs give an unprecedented glimpse inside the world of the Yakuza, the Japanese organised crime syndicates, known for their brutality, tattoos and strict code of honour - they make billions of pounds a year from arms trafficking, prostitution, illegal gambling and blackmail.
Belgian photographer Anton Kusters spent two years with a feared Yakuza crime family in Tokyo and was given intimate access to their secretive, and often violent, inner circle.
The yakuza began as con artists and illegal bookmakers from the lowest social classes in the 1600s and developed into one of the most deadly and wealthy organised crime syndicates in the world.
Known for their brutality, members traditionally cover their bodies with intricate tattoos. They are known to cut off their own fingers as an 'apology' for offending their leaders and kumichos themselves have done the same to spare the life of one of their kobun.
There are thought to be nearly 100,000 Yakuza members in Japan. When they enlist in individual gangs they are taken to a secret location where they are trained in hand-to-hand combat and meditation.
More than 3,000 members of Japan's largest Yakuza gang recently split off from the group - sparking fears of a bloody turf war in the western city of Kobe. In the 1980s, at least 500 people were arrested and 20 people killed when a similar yakuza feud spiralled out of control.
In his own words, from his book 'Odo Yakuza Tokyo', Anton tells of the two years he spent embedded with a Yakuza crime family in Tokyo.
It quickly became a subtle story. The first time I saw a Yakuza member in the streets of Kabukicho, Tokyo, I was sitting in a bar having a beer with my brother.
Up until then, we had the same idea as everyone else: crazy tattooed gangsters running around with swords and guns killing each other every chance they got.
But this guy was dressed up in a suit and behaving politely, straight and confident.
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Feared: Belgian photographer Anton Kusters spent months negotiating to be granted unprecedented access into the world of the Yakuza (pictured), Japan's criminal underworld syndicate
Insight: After winning their trust, Kusters spent two years embedded with a Yakuza crime family in Tokyo. He tells of the incredible things he saw first hand with one of the world's most fearsome mafia crime organisations
Ritual: Yakuza members are known to cut off their fingers in a ritual 'apology' when they have offended family leaders. They also offer to chop off their 'pinkies' as a sacrifice to save the lives of younger members who would otherwise be murdered for offending senior members
Death: Over the years bloody wars have broken out among the Yakuza crime syndicate since it was formed in the 1600s. Crime family leaders are laid to rest in luxurious coffins as a mark of respect
Female: The Yakuza syndicate is made up almost entirely of men, the few women in their ranks are known as 'ane-san' - or 'older sister'
He walked the street literally as if he owned it, and people bowed and greeted him along his way. We talked to him and found out his name was Souichirou.
A little later, he smiles when we ask him the question straight up. He's an upper-level street boss of the borough his family controls, and he has an office smack in the middle of it: 'We seldom do that anymore nowadays, killing' – note the word 'seldom'.
We ask about me photographing him and his family, long term. He agrees to start negotiations.
Eventually, it will take us a full year of intense and difficult meetings to finally get permission.
That year, spring 2009, is the first time I go out the photograph them.
It happens to be a five hour early morning ride to the prison at Niigata, where two members are due to be released that day.
The family drives out to welcome them back. At 4 a.m., as dawn breaks, I ride along in the car that drives Nitto-san, a senior boss of the family. It is cold.
He walked the street literally as if he owned it, and people bowed and greeted him along his way. We talked to him and found out his name was Souichirou.
A little later, he smiles when we ask him the question straight up. He's an upper-level street boss of the borough his family controls, and he has an office smack in the middle of it: 'We seldom do that anymore nowadays, killing' – note the word 'seldom'.
We ask about me photographing him and his family, long term. He agrees to start negotiations.
Eventually, it will take us a full year of intense and difficult meetings to finally get permission.
That year, spring 2009, is the first time I go out the photograph them.
It happens to be a five hour early morning ride to the prison at Niigata, where two members are due to be released that day.
The family drives out to welcome them back. At 4 a.m., as dawn breaks, I ride along in the car that drives Nitto-san, a senior boss of the family. It is cold.
Needle: Yakuza members are known for their trademark, artistic tattoos, known in Japanese as irezumi, covering their entire bodies
Profiteering: The Yakuza said to earn billions of pounds every year from arms trafficking, prostitution, gambling, narcotics and blackmail
'Morality': The Yakuza, known by Japanese police as 'boryokudan' or 'violent groups', are famed for their strict moral code and respect
Evolution: Today's Japanese gangsters are moving away from the image of tattoo-covered killers who are missing the odd finger and into white-collar crime. One expert said the tradition of the gun-toting tattooed Yakuza is dying out with members more likely to carry an iPad
Corporate criminals: While the culture and social attitudes towards Yakuzas is changing in Japan, they crime families are still as dangerous and influential as ever
Small in posture, his gaze penetrates right through me as Souichirou instructs me to greet him first. Say 'yoroshiku onegai shimasu'. Bow.
His handshake is firm. It seems like he immediately knows what I'm made of, and as he turns away to attend to other business, I get further instructed the basics of behaving, what to say, where to stand.
They don't interfere with my images in any way. Everything is so subtle.
The details I all see in the corner of my eye, cufflinks, groomed hands, perfect haircuts, scars, cars, tailored suits, leather shoes, missing digits, bodyguards, glimpses of tattoos… everything screams 'control', and yes, if there ever were a scale for air thick with tension, this surely would be the epitome of it.
And for those who don't, there is always that place in the mountains, several hours away, from which one does not return.
Slowly I'm starting to realize that - beside the obvious criminal element - Yakuza might be more about a way of life.
It appears to me like the young ones are seeking a sense of belonging, while the senior bosses see it as their task to instill traditional values upon their followers.
Many times individuals are opportunistic to gain 'positive press' in the outside world, but largely it seems like they seldom care what happens around them.
Covert: Would-be Yakuza crime family members, potential recruits, are taken to a remote location (pictured) where they receive training in hand-to-hand combat and meditation
Influence: There are almost 100,000 Yakuza members in Japan, the majority of which are men who pledge allegiance to individual gangs
Business: Yakuza operate in cities across Japan, including Tokyo (pictured) and Kobe, with some taking their illegal businesses abroad
Secretive: Yakuza traditionally met in public baths where they could reveal their intricate tattoos and know no one was carrying a weapon
Kinship: There are almost 100,000 Yakuza members in Japan and the majority belong to individual gangs with bloodshed over the years when members defect between families and fight for control over the lucrative trades in narcotics, money laundering and vice
Hierarchy: Gangs are headed by an 'oyabun' or 'kumicho', which translates as 'foster parent' and 'family head', who give orders to their fiercely loyal 'kobun' - or 'foster children'
Nightlife: On his final evening with the Yakuzas, photographer Anton Kusters was taken to a Tokyo stripclub where he a pole dancer removing fake dollar bills from a Yakuza's trousers with her teeth
As they have mastered to walk the fine line of doing both good and bad, they have carved a path for themselves that is so intertwined with Japan as a country, that projections sometimes describe a society without Yakuza to be worse than with.
In February of 2010, one of the most important bosses of the family suffered a fatal stroke. His death was imminent. Home at the time, I pretty much dropped everything, and jumped on a plane to Tokyo.
Even though he had always kept very much to himself, I had observed, gotten to know, and photographed the man for over 12 months.
To see him lying there in that hospital bed, helpless in a coma with no chance of recovery, felt very… human.
I went to visit him three days in a row. The third night, at 2.30am, he died.
His girlfriend and older brother allowed me to attend the traditional Buddhist funeral that was about to take place. At that point, most images I
made seemed too intimate to publish. Perhaps time would tell. Perhaps, in the greater context of the story, they'd find their place. It was cold those days in February, and I was under-dressed.
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