TOKYO (TR) – For three decades, a South Korean photographer has documented the raw and often violent underworld of the red-light district of Kabukicho.
Surviving mob confinement and assaults by aggressive street touts, Kwon Chul has captured the dark heart of Tokyo’s most notorious red-light district, reports weekly tabloid Friday (Nov 6).
Kwon, 59, who recently celebrated his 30-year career with a photo exhibition at the South Korean Embassy in Tokyo, describes Shinjuku’s neon-lit nightlife hub as a “human theater” where raw desire is fully exposed.
Among the photos are scenes featuring a yakuza delivering a flying kick to a street tout in the middle of a street, hosts engage in a massive brawl, a building on fire, and another tout stomping on a drunken salaryman.
Risks
Kwon’s descent into the underworld began in the spring of 1996, two years after he arrived in Japan. While working on a photography school assignment, he stumbled across a massive brawl involving 20 to 30 yakuza armed with iron pipes right in front of a Kabukicho police box.
“I was so surprised. The sheer force and terror made my knees shake, and I couldn’t even take my camera out of my bag,” Kwon recalled. Despite the fear, the unprecedented excitement left a lasting impact, turning Kabukicho into his primary battleground.
However, pointing a lens at the Japanese mafia comes with severe risks. Kwon was once dragged into a basement and confined for four hours by mobsters who mistook him for a police spy.
His life was spared only through the intervention of a higher-ranking yakuza boss who happened to share his heritage. Discovering Kwon was a South Korean student, the boss ordered his release, telling him: “My mother is Korean. We are compatriots. Be careful when you shoot from now on.”
Despite his brush with the mob, Kwon says it is the district’s foreign touts who have provided his most terrifying encounters.
He recalled capturing a massive street fight in June 2009, where foreign touts wielding chairs clashed with yakuza using bicycles as weapons. In another incident, a foreign tout noticed Kwon’s camera and attacked him in the street.
“You took a picture, didn’t you?!” the man yelled before body-slamming the photographer, sending his camera flying and shattering the lens. Overwhelmed by the man’s physical intimidation, Kwon was unable to fight back.
Underworld muscle
Violence in the district is not limited to turf wars. Kwon noted that the women working in Kabukicho’s sex and nightlife industries are heavily guarded by underworld muscle. He claims to have repeatedly witnessed drunken customers who refused to pay their bills being beaten to a pulp by groups of bouncers.
Today, the landscape of Kabukicho is shifting again, driven by a massive influx of foreign tourists. According to Kwon, these visitors are increasingly getting tangled up in local trouble, whether clashing with street touts or seeking out tachinbo (streetwalkers) in the district’s love hotel alleys.
Yet, despite the changing times, the danger and allure of the area remain the same.
“Even as eras change, Kabukicho remains a completely unique city,” Kwon said. “I will continue to photograph the charm of the Orient’s number one entertainment district.”