is a book by

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

doctor and author

Junichi Saga is a Japanese countryside physician and writer whose work records countryside experiences of numerous individuals (typically, his patients). Biography Saga has written various books. Two, consisting of the recollections of the ordinary lives of pe ...

(1991). It recounts a series of stories from the life of his patient Eiji Ijichi, a former

Yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the ter ...

boss, as told in the last months of his life. The book starts with the teenage Ijichi running away from his family home in

Utsunomiya is the prefectural capital city of Tochigi Prefecture in the northern Kantō region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 519,223, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . Utsunomiya is famous for its '' gyoza' ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, 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 merchant's in the then district of Fukagawa, his various mistresses and treatment for syphilis, the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, his initiation into the gang that controlled gambling in the

Asakusa is a district in Taitō, Tokyo, Japan. It is known as the location of the Sensō-ji, a Buddhist temple dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon. There are several other temples in Asakusa, as well as various festivals, such as the . History The ...

entertainment area, his various stretches in

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

, 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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The book paints a colourful picture of 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. The English translation of the book initially was published under the title "THE GAMBLER'S TALE: A Life in Japan's Underworld."

Principal 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.

Bob Dylan

It was reported that some lines from

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

's 2001 album '' Love and Theft'' were "borrowed" from the book for songs. Some examples appeared in an article published in ''Journal'', which indicated a line from "Floater" ("I'm not quite as cool or forgiving as I sound") was traced to a line in the book, which said "I'm not as cool or forgiving as I might have sounded." Another line from "Floater" is "My old man, he's like some feudal lord." The beginning of the book contains the line "My old man would sit there like a feudal lord." When informed of the possibility that Dylan had lifted material from the book, author Saga's reaction was to feel honored that Dylan might have read and been inspired by ''Confessions of a Yakuza''. Dylan has admitted to quoting the lines, but claims that such quotations are done to "enrich" folk and jazz music.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Confessions Of A Yakuza japanese memoirs 1991 non-fiction books Organized crime memoirs Works about the Yakuza