The secret life of the Japanese Mafia

Belgian photographer Anton Kusters specializes in long-term projects. In 2011, his first photo album about the Yakuza — Japanese organized crime groups, which he photographed for two years, was released.

There are about 50 thousand Yakuza in Japan, which makes them one of the largest criminal syndicates in the world.

Only after 10 months of incessant attempts, the Belgian photographer managed to meet the "godfather" of the Yakuza family. And Anton Custers spent the next two years in the gloomy and atmospheric environment of Japanese criminal gangs, documenting life "according to concepts."

Photographer Anton Custers on whether it was easy to persuade the Yakuza to shoot:

Anton Custers on how he understands the Yakuza subculture:

The Yakuza have their own training camps in fishing villages, where they teach recruits basic techniques of attack and defense — for example, how to dodge a knife. At the same time, these same guys get up at four in the morning to meditate. They help fishermen with their catch and learn the art of wielding a samurai sword. There is something unusual about this."

Photographer about famous Yakuza tattoos: "Initially, tattoos were used to recognize gang members in a bathhouse, a traditional place for Yakuza meetings. But these tattoos are of great importance to the Yakuza themselves, and now they are paying a lot of attention to them.

A tattoo is a symbol of belonging to something, a sign of courage and strength. Every yakuza is proud of who they are, and the tattoo reminds them of that.

The mafia, as a rule, has its own artist who does tattoos to gang members, but there is nothing wrong if some other artist does the tattoo. An artist working for the Yakuza is a true master of his craft. Kaichou himself (the "godfather" of the group in which the photographer spent 2 years) calls him "sensei". The tattoo artist's skill has reached the point that he can do about 120 strokes with a needle per minute.

I was with Kaichou when he got his second tattoo. He made it in honor of reuniting with another gang. His old tattoo was completely renewed and more drawings were applied to him, so the tattoo took up the whole body. The procedure lasted about 100 hours, after which Kaichou was nicknamed the "Master of Pain".

When I first started my job, I thought I was dealing with thugs without a soul and conscience. I was shielded from violence, and to me they looked more like a group of professional economists than bandits. Yakuza life is not a plot from the movie "Kill Bill", they work more subtly."