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Many yakuza have full-body tattoos (including their genitalia). These tattoos, known as irezumi in Japan, are still often "hand-poked", that is, the ink is inserted beneath the skin using non-electrical, hand-made, and handheld tools with needles of sharpened bamboo or steel. The procedure is expensive and painful, and can take years to complete.
The art of tattooing dates back to 8000 BC when it was used as a means of identification amongst different cultures. [5] Ancient Greek and Roman histories, as well as ancient Japanese and Chinese histories possess a record of criminality being associated with tattoos, but it was not until the 16th to 18th century that this notion became more prevalent in other parts of the world.
Criminals so punished received tattoos. [citation needed] Imprisonment. [citation needed] The government of Edo maintained a jail at Kodenma-chō. Exclusion from the location of the crime was a penalty for both commoners and samurai. Tokoro-barai, banishment to a certain distance, was common for non-samurai. [citation needed]
The yakuza of Japan are similar to the Italian mafias in that they originated centuries ago and follow a rigid set of traditions, but have several aspects that make them unique, such as their full-body tattoos and their fairly open place in Japanese society. Many yakuza groups are umbrella organizations, smaller gangs reporting to a larger ...
Irezumi (入れ墨, lit. ' inserting ink ') (also spelled 入墨 or sometimes 刺青) is the Japanese word for tattoo, and is used in English to refer to a distinctive style of Japanese tattooing, though it is also used as a blanket term to describe a number of tattoo styles originating in Japan, including tattooing traditions from both the Ainu people and the Ryukyuan Kingdom.
The main antagonist of the 1991 martial arts film The Godfather's Daughter Mafia Blues, Kuyama (played by Ken Lo), is the current kumichō (or boss) of the Yamaguchi-gumi after the death of his father Tetsuya, who was the previous head of the syndicate. Unlike his father (who was known as a pacifist), Kuyama is an arrogant, greedy and reckless ...
Kenichi Shinoda (篠田 建市, Shinoda Ken'ichi, born January 25, 1942), also known as Shinobu Tsukasa (司 忍, Tsukasa Shinobu), is a Japanese yakuza and the sixth and current kumicho (supreme kingpin, or chairman) of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest yakuza organization.
The Inagawa-kai is the third-largest yakuza family in Japan, with roughly 3,300 members. It is based in the Tokyo-Yokohama area and was one of the first yakuza families to expand its operations outside of Japan. Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi (神戸山口組, Kōbe-Yamaguchi-gumi) The Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi is the fourth-largest yakuza family, with 3,000 ...