Mariko Tatsumoto
TSUNAMI! YAKUZA! TOKYO! SUMO!
Crushing guilt weighs down fourteen-year-old Kenji. He believes he could have saved his family from the devastating tsunami that swept away his isolated seaside village in Japan if he hadn’t been such a coward. Orphaned and ashamed, he moves to Tokyo to live with his estranged uncle. Amidst the glitter and glamor of the mysterious metropolis, Kenji clings to the hope that his missing sister is still alive.With bleached-blond hair, full-body tattoos, and tight Western jeans, his uncle is far from a traditional Japanese. Kenji soon discovers the shocking truth: his uncle is a mobster, a member of the legendary Yakuza criminal organization. When a deadly gang war breaks out, his uncle hides Kenji in a sumo training center. As the lowest ranking wrestler, he suffers agonizing beatings in a harsh, regimented life. Through brutal training, Kenji grows tougher, but can he heal his broken spirit in time to save his uncle from deadly Yakuza gangsters, determine what happened to his sister, and forgive himself for his parents’ death?