Even if there wasn’t a Korean involved in this story I think I would have still linked to it. Some pieces are too weird to pass up.
Random rump ripper leaves unkindest cut of all
By Masuo Kamiyama
an English Tokyo newspaper
June 7, 2007“Sake katte shiri kirareru” (buy wine and your ass will be cut), an old Japanese saying goes. Its meaning might not be entirely clear, but there was no doubt about what happened to Norio Tsuji.
The vernacular Yomiuri Shinbun reported that while walking to work in Tokyo’s Bunkyo-ku on the morning of April 2, Tsuji, a 34-year-old member of the riot police squad, was assaulted from behind by a man wielding a cutting instrument. The slash to his left buttocks left a wound that required over a dozen stitches to close.
Tsuji described his attacker, who remains at large, as appearing of Asian or part-Asian descent, with a swarthy complexion, between 30 to 40 years old.
In the annals of crime, almost everyone knows the notorious serial killer of whores in 19th century London who became known as “Jack the Ripper.” In Japanese, this name is rendered as “Kiri-saki Jakku.” Since this criminal confines his attacks to people’s posteriors, Jitsuwa Knuckles (July) has named him “Shiri-saki Jakku,” or “Jack the Rump-ripper.”
Twelve days after officer Tsuji’s unfortunate run-in with the Ripper, a 47-year-old man from South Korea was assaulted from behind in a similar manner that left a deep cut on his right upper thigh. The spot was just 400 meters from the first attack, and police suspect the same perpetrator.
Knife assaults by crazed “tori-ma,” as random slashers are called here, have a long history in Japan. Jitsuwa Knuckles’ reporter’s research discovered that rump rippings, particularly against females, were much more frequent before and during World War II. In the Kameido district of Tokyo over a period of several months in 1938, the buttocks of 15 women were slashed. The male perpetrator was never caught. In 1940, a 16-year-old youth filleted the fundaments of seven women in Mukojima, a section of Sumida-ku known for its sleazy red-light district. Similar incidents took place in 1936, 1937 and 1942. In all cases the perpetrators were teenage boys.
“The buttocks can be linked to a variety of sexual fetishes, but for a youth to engage in assaults on that part of the body may be a harbinger of other types of sexual assaults,” an unnamed writer is quoted. “Officials at the time believed the fetish was ingrained among certain young males who were driven to commit the crime through subliminal urges.”
But the fact that the victims this time were both middle-aged males, and that the area where the two assaults occurred, close to Ueno Park — a locale popularized by gays as a pick-up spot — suggests another possible motive.
One intriguing aspect to the story is that Tsuji related his assailant whispered what sounded like “Kortabundasu” while cutting him. What does it mean? The phrase appears to be Portuguese for “corta-bundas” (butt cut), suggesting that “Jack” may be Brazilian.
A search of the Web showed that in June 2002 in the Brazilian city of Taubate, Sao Paulo state, the buttocks of five men were slashed in a similar manner by an assailant armed with a cutter knife.
Can the “Yushima Ripper” be the same man who terrorized Taubate? Jitsuwa Knuckles wonders. Until “Jack the Rump-ripper” is brought to justice, no one will know the motives of his depraved crimes. One thing for sure, warns the magazine: until the police get to the bottom of these base acts, if you hear the words “Corta-bundas” muttered in your ear, it’s probably already too late.
Links:
- Rump-ripper story at MSN-Mainichi Daily News
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