Asakusa / signed

“Asakusa” by Dutch photographer Ronin de Goede is a photographic diary of the days he spent photographing the work of Japanese tattoo master Horikazu and the clients who hire him. As Japan has always been and continues to be a country where tattoos remain closely associated with the criminal underworld, following Horikazu’s work – his speciality being full body tattoos – slowly allowed de Goede to enter the yakuza world.

“The Yakuza thrive on their image as honourable outlaws, perpetuated in Japanese novels, magazines, plays, films and manga. But nothing could be further from the truth – while they may make very public displays of their rare acts of public generosity, their power is ultimately based on fear. Like criminal syndicates around the world, in Japan the yakuza run protection rackets and drugs, they trade in human flesh, they extort, often intimidate, maim and kill, and because of their nationalist, generally right-wing ethos, they have become entangled with the government because of their long and complicated history as government enforcers, especially after the Second World War (…)”(from Mark Poysden’s Afterword) Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)