Confessions of a Yakuza

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Confessions of a Yakuza
Author	Junichi Saga
Original title	浅草博徒一代 Asakusa bakuto ichidai
Translator	John Bester
Country	Japan
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Kodansha
Publication date	1991
Media type	Print
Pages	253 pp
ISBN	ISBN 4-7700-1948-3

Confessions of a Yakuza (浅草博徒一代, Asakusa bakuto ichidai^?) is a book by Japanese doctor and author Junichi Saga (1991). It recounts a series of stories from the life of Eiji Ijichi, a former Yakuza boss, as told to his doctor in the last months of his life.

The book starts with the teenage Ijichi running away from his family home in Utsunomiya to Tokyo, to find a judge's mistress who he was having an affair with. The book follows Ijichi through his first job at a family coal merchants in the then district of Fukagawa, his various mistresses and treatment for syphilis, the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake, his initiation into the gang that controlled gambling in the Asakusa entertainment area, his various stretches in prison, his overseas service in occupied Korea in the 1920s, his rise to the boss of the gang, and his experiences during and after World War II.

The book paints a colourful picture life in Japan in the first half of the 20th century, the structure and customs of a yakuza gang, gambling sessions, prison and army life.

[edit] Characters

Eiji Ijichi: a dying Yakuza boss in his 70s, who recounts various stories from his past to his doctor.

Junichi Saga: Ijichi's doctor, who spent many hours with Ijichi over a period of months towards the end of his life, taping his reminiscences. Saga's main role in the book is to introduce some of the stories with descriptions of the older Ijichi as he recounts them.