Irezumi

Akane agrees to have her body tattooed because of her lover’s interest in tattooed women. The work is done by Kyogoro, an old craftsman. Kyogoro has a method of his own: while he works, his assistant Harutsune keeps her mind away from the pain. The tattooing takes a long time, and as it goes on the relation between the three of them changes. When the work is finished, Harutsune learns how the master came by that method. What he learns shakes him. The film takes up what a craft costs and who pays that cost. The hundred and two minutes turn around a single piece of work, in a story adapted from a novel. Tomisaburō Wakayama and Yūsuke Takita appear in Yoichi Takabayashi’s Japanese film, completed in 1982.