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and conditions. Robin

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Hood heroes killer gangsters bit of

1:13

both the Japanese

1:15

government calls them Boriokidan meaning

1:17

violence groups They call

1:20

themselves Ninkio Dantai meaning chivalrous

1:22

organizations and the rest of

1:24

the world knows them as the Yakuza the

1:27

Japanese Mafia a Quick

1:29

glance when you see them in public

1:31

you could easily mistake most of them

1:33

for some successful businessmen Serious-looking dudes wearing

1:35

designer shoes tailored suits stepping out of

1:38

luxury vehicles at a closer glance You

1:40

might see some scars from innumerable fights on

1:42

their faces or knuckles Traditional Japanese

1:45

tattoos just barely poking out from beneath

1:47

their sleeves and collar and

1:49

a left pinky finger That's a knuckle or

1:51

two shorter than it's supposed to be these

1:54

men are generally successful businessmen But

1:56

also there's some of the world's

1:58

most ruthless and well-organized gangsters, the

2:01

Yakuza. These organized criminals have

2:03

been terrorizing Japan for centuries. They're

2:06

the bane of Japan's national police agency,

2:08

but also over their long and storied

2:10

history, many Japanese have

2:12

regarded them as champions of common

2:14

everyday people. People traditionally ignored by

2:17

Japan's law enforcement, people marginalized in

2:19

Japan's highly stratified social hierarchy, working

2:21

class folks whose businesses would have

2:24

been harassed, their livelihoods destroyed were

2:26

it not for the Yakuza's protection.

2:29

Influenced by the ancient honor code of

2:31

the samurai, the early Yakuza committed crimes

2:33

against rivals and government enemies, but never

2:36

the common people. For most

2:38

of their history, joining the Yakuza meant

2:40

joining an organization that requires loyalty until

2:42

death, where punishments are swift

2:45

and severe and rivalries frequently turn

2:47

deadly. Unlike the Italian Mafia,

2:49

the Yakuza operate out in the open.

2:51

They're even historically registered with the Japanese

2:54

government as members of what everyone knows

2:56

is a criminal enterprise. While

2:58

membership is not outlawed, a lot of what

3:01

the Yakuza do to make money definitely is.

3:04

The Yakuza engage in extortion,

3:06

blackmail, smuggling, sex work, drug

3:08

trafficking, gambling, loan sharking, arms

3:10

dealing and more, and often

3:12

take that money and launder

3:14

it through owning legal businesses

3:16

such as restaurants and bars,

3:18

trucking and construction companies, talent

3:20

agencies, taxis, factories, etc. Japanese

3:23

gang experts have estimated that

3:25

at its peak in the

3:27

1960s, Yakuza membership was around

3:29

184,000 people. With stricter

3:31

laws and increased police crackdowns in recent

3:34

decades, as well as a shifting perception

3:36

amongst the younger generation regarding exactly how

3:38

cool being a member really is, the

3:40

Yakuza's numbers have declined by more than

3:42

50% from their peak,

3:44

but there's still a very powerful underworld

3:46

force in Japan and elsewhere. Members

3:49

are divided up into hundreds of individual gangs,

3:51

most of which belong to a large crime

3:53

syndicator family. The largest family

3:56

is the Yamaguchi-Gumi family founded in

3:58

the city, uh, sea- port cities

4:00

of Kobe in 1915.

4:02

The organization's methods have evolved and

4:04

adapted over the times and

4:07

they will most likely continue to adapt and

4:09

exist in some capacity for the foreseeable future.

4:12

This week, we discuss the

4:14

obscure origins of the Yakuza during

4:16

Japan's feudal period, how they developed

4:18

into the gangsters that would eventually

4:20

infiltrate the highest ranks of Japanese

4:22

government, will also cover their hierarchical

4:25

structure, initiation, rituals, how they came

4:27

to be associated with a lot

4:29

of sweet, sweet tattoos and more

4:31

in another organized true crime historical

4:33

Empire of the Sun edition of

4:36

Time Suck. Happy

4:54

Monday and welcome to the Cult of

4:56

the Curious. I'm Dan Cummins, the Suck

4:58

Wizard, Devil's Lettuce Lover, Spiritual

5:01

Existentialist, and you are listening to Time

5:03

Suck. Hail Nimrod, Hail Lucifina,

5:05

praise be to Good Boy Bojangles and glory

5:07

be to Kenny Loggins, Wingman, and

5:09

the Yacht Rock Captain himself, Triple M. No

5:12

announcements today. Let us just

5:15

learn about some Japanese gangsters.

5:25

So how are we going to lay out today's information?

5:28

No idea. After

5:30

last week's Existential episode, I

5:33

just don't think it matters. Narrative structure?

5:35

Eh, so subjective

5:37

and arbitrary. Just a

5:39

social construct. I'm not even sure

5:41

what language I'll share today's info in. I

5:44

mean, what even is language, really? Just

5:46

this collection of sounds we've assigned meaning to,

5:48

meaning that changes with time, fucking words, right?

5:51

What value do they have intrinsically? None.

5:54

It's true meaning than a fart. At least

5:56

the sound of a fart is accompanied by a smell,

5:58

a smell that is not subjective. It's

6:00

gonna hit your olfactory senses whether you want to

6:02

or not, unless you've lost your sense of smell,

6:05

smell effects regardless of what culture we're a

6:07

member of, regardless of what language we speak.

6:10

But is the smell actually objectively bad? Now

6:12

that I think about it, little kids fart,

6:14

they don't start gagging. No, they're

6:16

conditioned to believe that farts are bad. If I fart

6:18

on my dog's face, but talk to it in a

6:20

sweet voice while I do so, it

6:22

doesn't seem to care, wags its tail. The

6:25

fart's positive or negative qualities are merely assigned to

6:27

it. In this crazy reality we construct ourselves. What

6:29

the fuck am I talking about right now? No,

6:31

why am I talking at all? Not

6:34

just smoking weed. Let's just all sit in silence. While

6:36

I smoke weed, each of us can tell ourselves

6:38

what we want to know about the Yakuza. Just

6:40

make it up. Nothing

6:43

matters. Kidding of course. Last

6:46

week's existential suck did not quite break

6:48

my mind. I did review some

6:50

of the footage and I thought I was talking so much

6:52

more slowly than I was. Cracks

6:54

me up that I felt so high. I

6:57

was useless the rest of the night, but I sounded

6:59

pretty normal. That's what

7:01

my friends usually say about me when I'm on something.

7:03

I had Chris from Bitelixer over at the house a

7:06

while back. He was sober. He

7:08

was a DD for his lady. Me

7:10

and some other people had quite a bit of hallucinogens in our

7:12

systems. Almost everyone else was acting so

7:15

weird. And Chris just kept saying to me, how

7:17

are you still just Dan? Like he was just disappointed.

7:20

I don't know. So sorry if the 420

7:22

suck was not as different and wild as I thought it

7:24

would come across as. Hope you loved it though. I

7:27

certainly had fun. And we're gonna have fun today. And of

7:30

course words do matter as does the narrative structure. If I

7:32

want to share what I've learned about the Yakuza with you,

7:34

which I do, the entire reason I'm

7:36

here and that you're here. So let's

7:38

not get too existential this week. Let's

7:40

fucking focus on Japan's cool looking ruthless

7:42

underworld kings. I'll

7:44

start today with an overview of Japan's feudal

7:46

period, the setting in which the Yakuza first

7:48

developed, followed by a

7:51

detailed look at the Yakuza's

7:53

hierarchical structure. Hierarchical, hierarchical. That

7:56

word always kills me. Hierarchical structure, initiation

7:58

rituals, and other seri- And

8:01

we'll talk about Pinky Fingers. Oh boy. The

8:04

Yakuza are real hard on Pinkies. This

8:06

episode has really made me appreciate still having

8:08

both my Pinky Fingers. All the knuckles on

8:10

them. It's nice. Nice not to have to worry about slicing

8:13

a part of my pinky off if I fuck up at

8:15

work. After going over

8:17

all that, we'll head down a timeline of

8:19

notable events and people in the Yakuza's long

8:21

storied history. And let's get started, shall

8:23

we? The legendary

8:25

Samurai once stood alone as

8:28

the baddest motherfuckers in all of feudal Japan.

8:31

With the coolest looking armor, I might add. I

8:34

think Samurai armor looks a lot cooler than the earlier

8:36

armor of Europe's knights. Almost makes

8:38

a part of me wish I could go back in time and be a Samurai.

8:40

But I'm not so sure I would be a great Samurai. I'm pretty sure I would

8:43

not be one. And if you weren't

8:45

one of the best Samurai, well, you ended up

8:47

as a dead Samurai. Missing your head with a

8:49

great big gash in your gut. And that part

8:51

doesn't sound cool at all. The

8:54

Samurai started off as provincial warriors rising

8:56

to power way back in the 12th

8:58

century during the beginning of the country's

9:00

first military dictatorship, which was called

9:02

a shogunate and began in 1192 CE. Some

9:04

sources say 1185 CE. And

9:09

would last all the way until 1867 or

9:11

1868 CE. Sources vary a little bit with

9:13

those years as well. Samurai

9:17

means those who served. The

9:19

Samurai supported the authority of the shogun, Japan's

9:22

military ruler, and they

9:24

enabled the shogun to hold power over even the emperor.

9:27

In this way, the Samurai dominated Japanese

9:29

government and society all the way until

9:31

the Meiji restoration of 1868, which

9:34

ended the country's feudal system. The

9:37

Samurai's honor code called bushido,

9:40

meaning he who smelt it dealt it. Still

9:43

the basic code of conduct for modern Japanese

9:45

society. I wish.

9:47

I wish Japanese society was based in

9:49

flatulence ownership, just entirely. But it's

9:51

not. No, it's based in the way of

9:53

the warrior. That is bushido.

9:56

During Japan's Heian period, which

9:58

lasted from 794 to 18 1185

10:00

CE, the samurai were armed supporters

10:03

of wealthy landowners. Many of

10:05

them left the imperial court in search

10:07

of better financial prospects after they were

10:09

prevented from obtaining positions of power by

10:11

the Fujiwara clan. The Fujiwara,

10:14

they dominated the political scene of the Heian

10:16

period, with many members of this

10:18

family acting as regents in place of

10:20

the emperor. During this

10:22

time, various wealthy landowners exchanged use of

10:25

their land for military service and loyalty.

10:27

In the mid-12th century, political power had

10:29

shifted from the emperor and nobility in

10:31

Kyoto to the heads of clans on

10:33

their country estates. The Gempei War,

10:35

a national civil war which lasted from 1180 to

10:38

1185, was fought between

10:40

the Taira and Minamoto clans, and

10:43

the war ended with

10:45

the famous samurai warrior

10:47

Minamoto No Yoshitsune,

10:50

leading his clan to victory against the Taira.

10:53

And then Minamoto, Yoritomo,

10:56

the half-brother of Minamoto No,

10:58

Mino, oh my god, Minamoto

11:01

No Yoshitsune, a

11:03

couple of these guys have some long-ass names,

11:05

drove his brother into exile, established a government

11:07

at Kamukara, a coastal city just south of

11:10

Tokyo. I feel very

11:12

confident about Tokyo. This marked the

11:14

beginning of the Kamakura Shogunate. This

11:17

transition shifted all the political power

11:19

to the samurai because Yoritomo's authority

11:21

depended entirely on their strength. Yoritomo

11:23

elevated warriors devoted to serving him and

11:26

made the samurai a privileged class in

11:28

Japan. No one in Japan could

11:30

call themselves a samurai without his permission. It

11:33

was an honor he had to bestow and it was a

11:35

very great honor. During this

11:37

new period of the Shogunate, military dictators

11:39

now distributed land to their loyal followers.

11:41

Estates were supervised by officials called stewards

11:44

and constables. According

11:46

to worldhistory.org, unlike

11:48

in European feudalism, these often

11:51

hereditary officials at least initially did

11:53

not own land themselves. However,

11:55

over time the stewards and constables operating

11:58

far from the central government gain

12:00

more and more powers, with many

12:02

of them becoming large landowners. Daimyo.

12:05

In their own right and with their

12:07

own private armies. They challenged the authority

12:10

of the shogunate governments. Feudalism as a

12:12

nationwide system thus broke down, even if

12:14

the lord vassal relationship did continue after

12:16

the medieval period in the form of

12:18

samurai offering their services to estate owners.

12:21

Samurai were influenced by Buddhism, which

12:24

had been introduced to Japan way back in the 6th

12:26

century CE. Buddhism appealed to

12:28

the warriors because of the simple rituals and

12:30

the belief that salvation comes from within. This

12:33

was the philosophical background for the Bushido. Bushido

12:36

emphasizes military skills and fearlessness,

12:39

as well as frugality, kindness,

12:42

honesty, and care for family

12:44

and elders. The samurai

12:46

also placed great significance on their swords and

12:48

believed that a man's honor was within his

12:50

sword. Japan's first shogunate was

12:53

later weakened by two Mongol invasions at the

12:55

end of the 13th century. Fucking

12:58

Mongols, disrupting the balance of power

13:00

all over Asia and much of Europe for centuries. Truly

13:03

one of history's greatest disruptive forces. Oshigaka

13:08

Takaoji, a warrior and statesman, used

13:11

the chaos these days to launch a massive rebellion.

13:14

And the Ashikaka

13:17

shogunate was thus born based in Kyoto in 1336

13:19

CE. For

13:22

the next two centuries, various feudal clans battled for

13:24

power sending the country into a state of chaos.

13:27

After the Onan War of 1467 to 1477, the

13:31

Ashikaka shogunate was no longer effective and

13:33

there was no strong central authority in

13:35

Japan. And that allowed feudal lords and

13:38

their various samurai warriors to gain more

13:40

and more power for a long, long

13:42

time. This period was

13:44

called the Muromachi period, as the

13:46

shogunate was based in Kyoto's Muromachi

13:48

district. Although there was a lot of

13:50

political chaos, also a golden age for

13:52

Japanese art. The period of

13:54

the country at war ended in 1615 then

13:57

with the unification of Japan under Takagawa.

14:00

Iasu. This marked the beginning of the Takogawa

14:03

shogunate, a 250-year period of relative

14:05

peace and

14:08

prosperity. The samurai now

14:10

governed primarily through civil means rather

14:12

than military force. Takogawa

14:14

passed the ordinances for the military houses

14:17

that required the samurai to train now

14:19

in both the art of war and

14:21

Confucian learning. Confucianism was the

14:23

state's dominant religion during this period, and

14:25

the principles of Bushido now became

14:28

the code of conduct not just for

14:30

the samurai, but for all of Japanese

14:32

society. During this time,

14:34

many samurai laid down their swords, at

14:36

least more often than they had before,

14:38

and became bureaucrats or tradesmen instead of

14:40

paid warriors, but they didn't get

14:42

rid of their swords entirely. These weapons were

14:44

still an important symbol of power and honor.

14:47

Love traditions like that, by the way. A very cool way

14:49

to fill your life with a lot of meaning. In

14:52

fact, in 1588, the Japanese government passed

14:54

laws restricting sword carrying to only the

14:56

samurai. The samurai had adapted

14:59

with the times, but were still seen primarily

15:01

as Japan's finest warriors, and

15:03

they were now, in a way, honored more than ever before.

15:06

Their swords and what those swords represented

15:08

given even more cultural value. But

15:10

then after a few more centuries, the time

15:12

of the shogunates collapsed entirely in the mid-19th

15:15

century for several reasons. One

15:17

of the main factors in the fall of

15:19

the shogunate was widespread civil unrest in the

15:21

peasant class due to famine and poverty. Yep,

15:24

history has shown us time and time again

15:26

that when large numbers of the poorest members

15:28

of society could no longer even afford to

15:31

eat, the chance for a

15:33

massive society-shifting revolution is very high, because

15:35

too many people now have too little

15:37

to lose. Also

15:39

in the 19th century, the West is starting

15:41

to truly and powerfully exert its influence on

15:43

the once-isolated island nation of Japan for the

15:45

first time. The United States

15:48

in particular wanted Japan to open up to

15:50

international trade. And thus Japan signed

15:52

a treaty with the US in 1858 and

15:54

soon signed additional treaties with Russia, Britain,

15:56

France, and Holland as well. And

15:59

this did not set- well with many in

16:01

the traditionally reclusive and isolated nation.

16:04

It increased ascension towards the Shogunate, and

16:06

now even more, even many, excuse

16:08

me, loyal samurai, called for power to

16:10

be restored to the emperor. In

16:13

1868, the Shoshu and

16:15

Satsuma clans allied together to

16:18

overthrow the Shogunate, and

16:20

they announced the restoration of Emperor Meiji,

16:24

marking the start of the Meiji Restoration.

16:26

The feudal system was abolished entirely in 1871,

16:30

and the new army quashed samurai rebellions

16:32

in the 1870s. And the

16:34

age of the samurai is now over. During the

16:36

Meiji Restoration, Shintoism is

16:38

established as the state religion, and

16:40

Bushido adopted as the ruling moral code.

16:43

Shinto is the indigenous religion of

16:46

Japan, or Shintoism. The

16:48

name means the way of Kami. Kami

16:50

meaning sacred or divine power. He was

16:52

born in Japan at least as long as

16:54

a thousand BCE ago. That's a long time

16:56

ago, my god. Still practiced today by at

16:59

least five million people, the followers

17:01

of Shintoism believe that spiritual powers exist

17:03

all throughout the natural world. Shinto

17:05

is a polytheistic, animistic religion

17:09

that revolves around supernatural entities called

17:11

Kami. Followers believe that

17:13

the Kami inhabit all things, including

17:15

forces of nature, prominent landscapes, each

17:18

river, each tree, each rock, has

17:20

a spirit. Kami are

17:22

worshipped in household shrines and public shrines. Another

17:25

belief of Shinto is the veneration of

17:27

ancestors. While there are

17:29

two holy books written in the

17:31

eighth century CE, books containing myths

17:33

previously passed down orally, there is

17:35

no founder, no Bible or Koran,

17:38

or to knock equivalent no strict

17:40

dogmas. So all of

17:42

that is the cultural backdrop of

17:44

Japan. The rise, the fall, the

17:47

samurai, the establishment of Bushido is the

17:49

nation's moral code. And out of

17:51

all that turmoil, out of the turmoil of the age of

17:53

the samurai ending, but there's still many

17:55

still wanting to live somewhat like a samurai, well

17:57

now the Yakuza will be born from that. So

18:00

let's take a look at the structure and activities of

18:02

the Yakuza now. And

18:04

a lot of time it's pronounced Yakuza. I

18:07

like to say Yakuza. Sounds cooler to me. So

18:09

let's start off, it's not quite correct. But as

18:12

I mentioned up top, the official name for the

18:14

Yakuza used by the police and media is Boriokudan,

18:16

meaning violence groups. And they're

18:18

not wrong. They're certainly violent. And

18:21

as I also mentioned up top, the

18:23

Yakuza called themselves Ninkyodontai, meaning

18:26

chivalrous organizations. The

18:28

actual term Yakuza translates to more or

18:30

less good for nothing.

18:33

Yakuza can refer to individual people or to

18:35

an entire group of gangsters. And

18:38

traditionally, the Yakuza engage in operations

18:40

like gambling, extortion, blackmail. Modern

18:43

Yakuza also involved in human

18:45

trafficking, arm smuggling, drug trafficking,

18:47

loan sharking, sex work.

18:49

They additionally run a variety of legitimate

18:51

businesses, again, like restaurants, trucking companies, factories,

18:53

etc. Generally, these days, the

18:55

Yakuza have shifted towards white collar crime and

18:58

utilize bribes over violence whenever possible.

19:01

But fuck them over and you'll very likely see some old

19:03

school violence up close and personal. I watched a ton of

19:05

videos of the Yakuza members, where

19:08

the interviewers will ask them straight up if they've ever

19:10

killed someone. And when they say they

19:12

have like the way they say it, I 100% believe them. One

19:14

even said that

19:17

killing someone that you've been ordered to kill is

19:19

how you move from being an associate of the

19:21

Yakuza to being a, you know, get an invite

19:23

to become a full member. Can

19:25

you kill for them? That's the test of loyalty. The

19:29

Yakuza consider themselves chivalrous because they have performed

19:31

innumerable charitable acts throughout their history, like donating

19:33

and delivering supplies to victims of the 1995

19:36

Kobe earthquake. Also the

19:38

Great East Japan earthquake and subsequent

19:40

tsunami of 2011. But

19:43

to many, this is like if the mafia after shaking

19:45

down small business owners and selling coke to their sons

19:47

and pimping out their daughters for years and years, then

19:50

handed out some free bottles of water following

19:52

a natural disaster. You know,

19:54

very much a thank you for the help, but

19:56

also still go fuck yourself. It's

19:59

commonly thought that Not that the Yakuza are descended from

20:01

gangs of Ronin, masterless samurai who

20:03

became bandits or rogue swords for hire.

20:06

This is at least partially true. They're

20:09

also descended from lower-level criminals from

20:11

grifters and gamblers from the feudal

20:13

period. As I mentioned earlier, experts

20:16

have estimated that at its peak in the 1960s,

20:18

Yakuza membership was around 184,000. That's

20:20

so many. By the

20:22

early 21st century, the numbers decreased to

20:24

around 80,000, split evenly between full members

20:26

and associates. Yakuza

20:28

members are divided up into hundreds of gangs, most of which

20:31

belong to one of 22 conglomerate

20:33

groups also called families. I

20:35

might refer to these families as clans sometimes as well

20:37

from time to time. The

20:39

largest family in the Yakuza is the

20:42

Yamaguchi Gumi, which was founded in 1915.

20:46

Other large prominent families include the Inaga

20:49

Wakai, the Matsubakai,

20:52

and the Sumi Yoshikai.

20:56

These families, widely known to Japanese law enforcement,

20:59

is technically not illegal to be a member

21:01

of the Yakuza. Members

21:03

do not often try and hide the fact

21:05

that they are members from authorities. Yakuza is

21:07

very open about membership. Until recent years, it

21:09

was actually normal for their businesses and gang

21:12

headquarters to have distinct markings or signage

21:14

letting everyone know, including the police, yeah,

21:17

this is a Yakuza enterprise. Also,

21:19

of course, I would let random citizens know.

21:21

Many citizens would not mind at all. They

21:23

view the Yakuza, still view them oftentimes, as

21:26

a necessary evil, a better alternative

21:28

than what would rise up, what could rise up

21:30

in their absence. Violent

21:32

criminals, yes, but at least for the most part, criminals with a

21:34

sense of honor. As hypocritical as that might

21:36

sound. So how are these

21:38

gangs structured? Well, according to Britannica,

21:41

similar to that of the Italian Mafia, the

21:44

Yakuza hierarchy is reminiscent of a family.

21:47

The leader of any gang or conglomerate

21:49

of Yakuza is known as the Oyuban,

21:51

boss, literally parent status or father,

21:54

and the followers are known as Koban, proteges

21:57

or apprentices, literally child. status.

21:59

So there's the dad, there's

22:02

the kids. The

22:04

rigid hierarchy and discipline are usually

22:06

matched by a right-wing, ultra-nationalistic ideology.

22:09

The OYU Bon is the godfather of the

22:11

gang. Again, the leader. The OYU Bon gives

22:14

advice, protection, and help. And

22:16

in return receives loyalty in service of the Koban.

22:19

And of course the Koban do whatever he asked him to do

22:21

to make all of them money. And

22:23

if you fuck up, he also of course can dish out a lot

22:25

of punishment or even have you killed. This

22:27

relationship minus the murder part, based

22:30

on Japanese tradition. Back

22:32

in fetal Japan, this OYU Bon-Koban

22:34

system was the basis for relationships

22:37

between teachers and apprentices or

22:39

lords and vassals. The

22:41

OYU Bon-Koban relationship, also similar

22:44

to relationships amongst family members

22:46

in Japan's oozer patriarchal traditional

22:48

culture, where the father holds

22:50

nearly all the authority and has the power

22:53

to choose both spouses and jobs for his

22:55

kids. This type of

22:57

authoritarian father-son dynamic created strong cohesion and

22:59

devotion in the early days to the

23:02

Yakuza. A sociologist

23:04

named Hiroaki Iwai,

23:06

an expert on criminal groups in Japan,

23:08

wrote, New Koban will be

23:10

expected to act as bullets in fights with

23:12

other gangs. Standing in the

23:14

front line, facing the guns and swords of

23:17

the other side, risking his life. On

23:19

occasion he will take the blame and go to prison

23:21

for a crime committed by his OYU Bon. Also,

23:24

just before you even say anything else, how fucking crazy

23:26

if you were still in like a sword fight today?

23:29

Because still occasionally will happen over in Japan. These

23:31

guys will fucking take a sword out.

23:33

Like not often, but like swords will

23:35

sometimes be used in fights. That's fucking

23:37

wild to me. And

23:40

so yeah, very much you know like how things

23:42

go down in the mafia or really in any

23:44

other violent organized criminal syndicate with these these relationships.

23:47

The following, some of the rankings within the Yakuza, President,

23:51

Supreme Counselor, Chief Secretary,

23:54

Rodeo Clown, Chairman of

23:56

Executive Committee, Chairman of Public Morals

23:58

Committee, head of the Liaison section,

24:00

lead vocalist of an ACDC cover band, head

24:03

of public relations section, magicians

24:05

assistant, and chairman of discipline

24:08

committee. These titles mimic of course

24:10

the Japanese government, but there's also the

24:12

lead vocalist of an ACDC cover band, a magicians

24:14

assistant, and a rodeo clown I wish. Obviously

24:17

I added those three titles, but the rest, legit.

24:21

Yakuza members typically call each other younger brother or

24:23

elder brother, equal brother,

24:25

elder sister, that kind of

24:27

thing. Elder and younger refers to the order of

24:30

entering the gang. You know the members rank, each

24:32

equal brothers have the same rank. An

24:34

elder sister is a title given to the OYU bond's

24:36

wife. Under

24:38

bosses are called Wakagoshira. One

24:41

way to move up in rank is the practice of

24:43

Chigiri, which means killing an individual on

24:46

the orders of a superior. The

24:48

killer will then go to prison, usually for 15 to 20

24:50

years, sometimes as high as 30 years, and

24:52

is then granted a high rank when

24:54

they're released. And that is a

24:57

hell of a way to get a promotion. According

25:00

to Kyoto Journal in structure

25:02

ideology ranking, OYU bond-koban

25:04

relationship, and other aspects, the

25:07

Yakuza society resembles conventional Japanese

25:09

society. Indeed it seems

25:12

to be a crystallized form of a

25:14

system practiced in a milder way in

25:16

numerous Japanese organizations and schools of art.

25:18

The paternalistic structure, the

25:20

surrogate family, the badges bearing the gang

25:22

logo, the system of ranking, the business

25:24

cards, and numerous other signs of belonging

25:26

are shared by both straight and Yakuza

25:29

societies. So very much, you know,

25:31

typical Japanese organization structure.

25:34

Some Yakuza groups even publish a quarterly

25:36

magazine that includes a foreword from the OYU

25:38

bond. Funny. This could

25:40

be something about the organization's philosophy or an

25:43

essay about a particular topic like honor or

25:45

perseverance. The magazine can also

25:47

include photographs of rituals and parties, symposium

25:50

about the group's legitimate businesses, reports

25:53

on relations with other organizations, nomination

25:56

certificates, and other articles. the

26:00

first time, I immediately imagined some

26:02

new magazine editor not understanding that

26:04

this magazine should make the Yakuza look

26:06

legitimate instead of an honest

26:08

portrayal and then he publishes a magazine full

26:11

of pictures of like dead bodies, gang rivals,

26:13

and various enemies, nude photos of women recently

26:15

kidnapped, forced into prostitution, stacks of

26:17

cash, cocaine on a table from recently taking

26:20

over a rival's drug turf, etc. And

26:22

then, oh shit, whoops, sorry about that guys, I

26:25

forgot that our magazine's actually not supposed to portray

26:27

things accurately. It's funny to me that they would

26:29

just publish any kind of magazine. Very

26:32

different from most organized criminal operations.

26:35

The Yakuza's openness is part of what makes them distinct

26:37

from say like the Italian mafia. I

26:39

mean can you imagine an Italian

26:41

mafia family putting out a

26:43

quarterly magazine about just what

26:45

they've been up to just on any

26:48

level? Hey everybody, it's Polly Brekvisacic, Spinole

26:50

here bringing you another edition of Forget

26:52

About It, the quarterly, quality

26:54

publication of the Vincenzo crime family. This

26:57

summer, Tito Berthclaus Albino just got

26:59

his master's degree in fine arts while

27:01

waiting to make parole in the Allewyn

27:04

Correctional Facility in Pennsylvania. Where'd he go?

27:06

Tito! Attaboy! Another

27:08

good news, four members of the

27:10

piece of shit rival Esposito crime

27:12

family just completely fucking disappeared. Weird.

27:15

From the Union Dry Dockyard in Hoboken,

27:17

New Jersey. Ha! I

27:19

wonder what happened to those fucking scumbags.

27:22

I don't know. What I do know,

27:24

when you start moving in on Lou

27:26

Vincenzo's business opportunities, funny things happen. The

27:28

odds of disappearing increased dramatically. Also

27:31

heard those guys real scared about whatever happened to

27:33

them. Maybe ended up in, I don't know, multiple

27:35

pieces. All chopped up and shit. Stuffed into fucking

27:37

barrels, dropped into the upper base and was, how

27:40

did I hear that? Forget about it! Don't even worry about it.

27:43

Now I really want that publication to exist. Back

27:46

to the Yakuza. The groups

27:48

would have sign boards called Kanban that

27:51

would bear their name, location, affiliation. The practice

27:53

of putting up sign boards on Yakuza owned

27:55

businesses was widely accepted until the late 20th

27:57

century when the police began crackdown.

27:59

on Yakuza activity when the cops there finally got tired

28:01

of the gangs blatantly flaunting business assets it often bought

28:04

with money made from bikes and that also is just

28:06

ridiculous to me. Like if you just

28:08

walk, just walking downtown in just any American city

28:11

and then there was just a big sign that

28:13

basically said like this is the Vincenzo's you know

28:15

fucking accounting you know like forget about it accounting

28:17

services yeah it's a fucking mob business what the

28:19

fuck you gonna do? Just

28:21

like blatantly advertising this is a this is

28:23

a criminal enterprise. Individual

28:26

Yakuza members also would carry a business cards

28:28

may still do until at least ten years

28:30

ago they were doing this they would announce

28:33

their umbrella organization direct branch rank and office

28:35

address and phone number. Love

28:37

that they have offices. Very

28:40

funny for me to picture some dude who's just uh I

28:42

don't know beat the fuck out of some bar owner for

28:44

not paying their protection money the day before taking

28:46

a sword to some dude who just killed

28:48

some guy for roughing up a sex worker

28:50

who works at an underground Yakuza brothel and

28:53

then he's just going in on like Monday morning to

28:55

some stereotypical office standing under drop

28:57

down fucking ceiling panels with fluorescent lights

29:00

filling up his hydro flask at the water cooler reminding

29:03

his administrative assistant would you please stop heating

29:05

up fish in the microwave for fuck's sake

29:08

stinks up the entire office. Just

29:10

dealing with the regular monday and shit most of the rest of us deal

29:12

with. Now let's get some

29:15

inside direct info on the

29:17

Yakuza. Last year

29:19

in 2023 insider.com interviewed uh Yuyama

29:22

Shina a former Yakuza gang

29:24

boss. This dude looked like a

29:27

badass. I watched his old

29:29

video he just a very

29:31

very all the all actually all of the Yakuza

29:33

guys I saw interview just so poised very

29:36

disciplined very calm energy which I found

29:38

odd. Uh

29:41

Shina but I guess you know maybe shouldn't be odd

29:43

they just they've seen so much shit why

29:45

would they even be slightly nervous about a

29:48

fucking interview. They've literally killed people. Shina

29:51

was arrested 11 times all his arrest seemed to

29:54

be a gang related he served eight years in

29:56

prison before leaving his Yakuza family. He

29:58

joined the Yakuza when he was just eight. 18 years old, left

30:01

in 2012, current age, not given in

30:03

the interview. He shed

30:06

some light on Yakuza ceremonies and practices in

30:08

a video viewed almost 7 million times on

30:10

YouTube in less than a year and a half. He

30:13

said at some point in time, the Yakuza

30:15

virtues have changed from violence, duty, and status.

30:18

And today, the condition for getting promoted is only defined

30:20

by how much money you're making. He

30:23

definitely seemed to feel throughout his interview that the

30:26

sense of honor is declining in the Yakuza. He

30:28

said the Yakuza organization is already in a state

30:30

of decline, the number of criminals never decreases, but

30:32

the people who were in the Yakuza up until

30:34

now quit the organization to then

30:36

commit other crimes. Thus, having rules

30:39

is futile. I think it

30:41

is inevitable that the current young generation has no interest

30:43

in the Yakuza. In the past, there

30:45

was a time when the Yakuza was at its peak, had a

30:47

very cool image. I believe there are

30:49

people who are doing their best to keep living

30:51

as a Yakuza, but there are more people who

30:54

aren't living like a Yakuza. It's

30:56

interesting, the same amount of people per capita committing crime

30:58

as ever, but not as many wanted to

31:00

join up with a gang full of a lot of rigid

31:02

tradition and rules. Shinya

31:04

said he joined the Yakuza because he

31:06

was working as a carpenter, developed heart

31:08

and back problems, and he wanted to

31:11

start a career in finance. And

31:13

so he became a loan shark. I

31:15

mean, I guess technically that is a career in finance.

31:18

Robbing banks could also, I guess,

31:20

qualify as a financial career. I

31:23

work in finance, so could money laundering, printing

31:25

counterfeit money, a lot of ways to

31:27

work in finance. After starting his finance

31:29

career, Shinya met his boss, was initiated into

31:31

a Yakuza gang. In

31:34

order to be initiated, you must

31:36

participate in a ceremony, very special

31:38

old ceremony called Sakazuki. You

31:40

do this with the boss where you're given a cup filled

31:42

with saki. The boss is given a cup filled with a

31:45

lot more saki. Each drink

31:47

three ceremonial sips, which signifies

31:49

that you are an official subordinate of that

31:51

particular boss, you will be loyal to him

31:53

and only him for life. Or

31:56

until you are allowed to leave the ways of

31:58

the Yakuza behind forever. you're allowed to leave. After

32:01

your initiation, you must register your name with the

32:03

organization. This means that the police will know your

32:05

name and you are marked as an affiliate in

32:07

their files. So

32:10

funny to me that at least as recently as you know a

32:12

decade ago when this guy was still in the group, they didn't

32:14

hide the fact at all that they were in a gang. Literally

32:17

would register with the authorities. Yep,

32:19

I'm a gangster. Not gonna tell

32:21

you exactly what type of criminal shit I'm gonna get

32:24

into other than I work in finance. Wink wink. Best

32:26

of luck to you in regards to catching me. Probably

32:28

not gonna happen. Have a nice day. Authors

32:32

David Kaplan, Alec Dubrow

32:35

elaborate on this ritual further in

32:37

their book Yakuza Japan's Criminal

32:39

Underworld, one of the sources for this week's

32:41

research. David Kaplan

32:43

is an investigative journalist from Washington

32:45

DC, the former director of the

32:47

International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. He's

32:50

a big deal. He's also the chief

32:52

investigative correspondent for US News and World Report.

32:55

Alec Dubrow on the other hand is a fucking

32:57

idiot who can't spell his own name, but

32:59

he's pretty good at drawing stick figures with crayons and

33:02

he is most importantly David's wife's little

33:04

brother and he was unemployed and needed

33:06

something to do. No I don't know. No Alec wrote

33:09

for Rolling Stone, another music publication to the 60s he's

33:11

also established. He's written hundreds

33:13

of newspaper magazine articles, since also

33:15

scripts speeches reports campaign materials even

33:17

comic books. These

33:19

guys said that this ceremonial exchange of

33:21

Saki cups symbolizes a blood connection between

33:23

gang members. Ceremonies often performed

33:26

in front of a Shinto shrine. The

33:28

amount of Saki poured into the cup

33:30

has significance. If participants are brother

33:32

and brother, if they're equals, equal

33:35

amounts are poured into each cup. You know maybe there's

33:37

a ceremony where multiple people are being inducted at the

33:39

same time. If the participants are younger

33:41

brothers and older brothers, the older brother's cup is

33:43

filled six tenths full, younger brother's cup four tenths

33:45

full. If you're the fucking boss you get

33:48

a completely full cup to the brim. According

33:50

to sociologist, Hiroaki I

33:54

brought him up earlier. All members of

33:56

the organization attend the initiation. Rice,

33:59

whole fish, piles of salt are placed

34:01

into the Shinto shrine and the Oyuban and Coban

34:03

sit in front of the shrine facing each other.

34:06

Other gang members arrange the fish and fill

34:08

the drinking cups adding fish scales and salt

34:11

to the sake. Oh, yum! Oh,

34:13

you can't enjoy some sake without some tasty-ass fish scales. That's

34:16

what I'm always complaining about at home, like with Lindsay's

34:18

cooking. I'm like, why can't you just fucking throw some

34:20

more fish scales in this? Yeah, no, it's a fine

34:22

steak. You could use some fish scales though.

34:25

The Coban is told, "...haven't drunk from the

34:28

Oyuban's cup and heat from yours, you now

34:30

owe loyalty to the ika, the family, and

34:33

devotion to your Oyuban. Even should

34:35

your wife and children starve, even at the

34:37

cost of your life, your duty is now

34:39

to the ika and Oyuban." Right,

34:42

like first and foremost. Another

34:44

variation of the pledge is, from now on you

34:46

have no other occupation until the day you die.

34:49

The Oyuban is your only parent. Follow

34:51

him through fire and flood. That's

34:54

intense. Yeah, traditionally devotion,

34:57

most important within the Yakuza. Former

35:00

member, Yu Yamashinya made the observation of

35:02

how funny it is that an organization

35:04

made up of a bunch of criminals,

35:07

people who, you know, traditionally struggle with

35:09

structure, obedience, and following rules, end

35:12

up joining this massive organization built on

35:14

structure, obedience, and following rules. Jacob

35:17

Ross wrote in a piece for the Kyoto Journal about

35:19

joining the Yakuza. Sakazuki,

35:21

the cup exchange, is the most

35:23

important ritual in the Yakuza world.

35:26

Although declining in frequency in recent years, it

35:29

still most fully expresses the spirit of the

35:31

Yakuza, the will and determination of the members

35:34

to strengthen the bonds of the organization, and

35:36

the complexity of the rank and function of

35:38

relationship. The ritual is highly

35:41

theatrical, elaborate, and in a symbolic

35:43

event, somewhat resembling a Shinto

35:45

wedding ceremony. A great

35:47

deal of meticulous preparation goes into

35:49

Sakazuki, it is performed

35:51

most solemnly emphasizing religious elements such

35:54

as purification. All participants

35:56

use highly stylized language, otherwise unheard

35:58

in these circles. The

36:00

ritual was followed with a

36:02

boisterous, licentious feast. In

36:04

between, there was a visit to the

36:07

local hot spring where elaborate full-body tattoos

36:09

were exposed to both fellow members and

36:11

the occasional straight customers to

36:13

the great anxiety of the latter. Because

36:16

there are now police restrictions on this ritual, the

36:19

time and location are often kept secret until the very last

36:22

moment. All right, before

36:24

moving forward, let's talk about tattoos and the

36:26

Yakuza, since the image of the Yakuza gangster

36:28

is so closely associated with someone being tattooed

36:30

everywhere, essentially except for their hands and face.

36:33

And not just tattooed, but tattooed

36:35

in the traditional Japanese style. And

36:38

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42:00

Yirazumi is a Japanese word for tattoo,

42:02

meaning inserting ink, and in

42:04

the West it's used to refer to the traditional

42:07

Japanese style of tattooing. Yirazumi has

42:09

been around for a long time. Tattooing

42:12

for spiritual and decorative purposes in Japan is

42:14

thought by some historians, by many actually, to

42:16

extend back to at least around 10,000 BCE

42:19

on the Japanese archipelago. I

42:22

don't know what I was trying to say there for a second. The

42:25

Japanese archipelago! In

42:28

the Yayoi period, between 300 BCE

42:30

and 300 CE, tattoo designs

42:32

were observed and remarked upon by Chinese visitors

42:34

to the Japanese island of Kyoshu.

42:38

Such designs were thought to have spiritual significance as

42:40

well as functioning as a status symbol. In

42:42

the 3rd century CE, one Chinese observer

42:45

wrote about Japanese tattoos, "...men

42:47

both great and small tattoo their faces and

42:49

work designs upon their bodies." Sometime

42:52

between 300 CE and 600 CE,

42:54

outside of the indigenous Ainu peoples'

42:56

culture, an aboriginal population of northernmost

42:59

Japan, tattoos began to

43:01

take on a largely negative connotation. Instead

43:03

of being used for ritual or status purposes,

43:06

tattoos began to be placed on criminals as

43:08

a punishment to mark them, like

43:10

a scarlet letter. So you'd know

43:12

that if you saw some with tattoos, oh

43:15

buddy, they were a naughty boy or girl who

43:17

refuses to go pee-pee on a potty. Mostly

43:22

you'd know they were naughty. Next time you see somebody

43:24

with a lot of tattoos, if you're worried about them, you're

43:26

not sure where they stand morally, I think you should ask

43:28

them. Hey, are you a good boy or girl?

43:31

Who goes pee-pee on a potty? Are

43:34

you naughty? They'll love it. Oh,

43:36

they'll love it. You definitely won't have just made things

43:38

unnecessarily super weird and awkward. Until

43:41

the Edo period, from 1603 to 1867 CE,

43:45

the role of tattoos in Japanese society

43:47

did fluctuate quite a bit, while tattooed

43:49

marks were still frequently used as punishments,

43:51

minor fads for decorative tattoos, some featuring

43:53

designs that would be completed only when

43:55

lovers' hands were joined. That's pretty badass.

43:58

Also came and went out of style. During

44:01

this period, there was something

44:03

literally called the Irazumi-K, the

44:06

tattoo punishment as well. It was

44:08

a criminal penalty with the location of the tattoo you would

44:10

be forced to get was determined by your crime. For

44:12

example, thieves were tattooed on the arm, murderers

44:15

on the head, the shape of the tattoo

44:17

based on where the crime occurred. But

44:20

it was also during the Edu period when Japanese

44:22

decorative tattooing began to develop into the advanced and

44:24

gorgeous art form it is known as today. The

44:27

impetus for the development of Irazumi into a

44:29

true art form in Japan was

44:31

the development of the art of wood block

44:33

printing alongside the release of the popular Chinese

44:36

novel Suikoden in

44:38

1757 in Japan. Though

44:40

the novel dates back several centuries before

44:43

this 1757 marked the release of the

44:45

first Japanese edition. Suikoden,

44:48

a tale of rebel courage and

44:50

manly bravery, was illustrated with lavish

44:52

wood block prints showing men in

44:54

heroic scenes, their bodies decorated with

44:56

dragons and other mythical beasts and

44:58

flowers, ferocious tigers, religious images.

45:02

The novel was an immediate and massive success,

45:04

creating a huge demand for the type of

45:06

tattoo seen in the wood block illustrations. Thanks

45:08

largely initially to this novel, there was a rise

45:10

in the number of wood block artists in Japan.

45:13

These artists began to also practice tattooing

45:15

since tattooing used many of the same

45:17

tools used for wood block printing,

45:19

such as chisels, gouges, most importantly, a

45:21

unique type of ink known as Nara

45:23

ink or Nara black, which turns

45:26

blue-green under the skin. There

45:28

was some academic debate over who wore

45:30

these new elaborate tattoos initially. Some

45:32

scholars say it was just the lower classes who

45:34

wore who flaunted these tattoos. Others

45:37

claim that wealthy merchants, barred by law actually

45:39

from flaunting their wealth, would

45:41

wear expensive irizumi under their clothes. It

45:44

is known for certain that irizumi became associated with

45:46

firemen, who would wear them as a form of

45:48

spiritual protection. That's pretty cool. Then

45:51

during the early years of the Meiji period, which began in 1868,

45:54

when Japan had now opened its borders to the

45:56

west, the Japanese government maybe a little overly worried

45:58

about its image and desperate make a good

46:00

first impression in the face of its new international

46:02

status outlawed tattooing in 1872, with

46:06

irizumi now becoming more associated with criminality than

46:08

ever. Nevertheless, many foreigners,

46:11

fascinated with unique skills of Japanese tattoo

46:13

artists, traveled to Japan with

46:15

the express intention of being tattooed there, and

46:18

traditional tattooing continued. Just went

46:20

underground, which honestly made it a lot

46:22

cooler. Gave the artists dishing these

46:24

out and the clients getting them more street cred. I'm

46:26

sure people had to pay more for them now. Artists

46:29

who could get away with it made more.

46:31

Tattooing wouldn't again become legal in Japan until 1948, when

46:35

the practice was legalized by Japan's occupational

46:37

government. By this time,

46:39

in Japan's mainstream culture, tattoos firmly are

46:41

associated with not just criminals, but

46:43

with the yakuza primarily. And

46:46

a variety of businesses, such as a lot of

46:48

bathhouses, would not let customers with tattoos in. Did

46:50

not want to deal with gangsters. Backing

46:53

up now to firmly connect all this with the

46:55

yakuza, the yakuza again, known for tattooing their entire

46:57

bodies, excluding their hands and faces. By

47:00

the late 17th century, it was common

47:02

for various gangsters and gamblers and other

47:04

criminals to tattoo their entire bodies. As

47:06

tradition begins. Oregon,

47:08

he no have tattoos forced on them as a punishment,

47:10

as I mentioned. Laborers who

47:12

worked with most of their bodies exposed

47:14

would also often voluntarily tattoo themselves. Sex

47:16

workers would often get tattoos to look

47:19

a little more exotic, a little, little

47:21

sexier, a little bit naughty. Hey, Lucifina,

47:24

sexy woman plus tattoos. Yes, please.

47:27

My wife, Lindsay has several tattoos, but

47:29

she worries about getting too many. Whereas, you

47:31

know, might make her look trashy or something. I would tell

47:34

her I am not going to be upset about it.

47:36

I wouldn't care if she had literally 90% of her whole

47:38

body tattooed. It's all about the kinds

47:40

of tattoos for me mixed in with the person. Some

47:42

people can pull off being covered. Some can't. Some

47:45

people can pull off face tattoos. Some can't. And

47:47

I'm not sure why, but there's something especially sexy

47:49

about a woman getting irizumi tattoos. Right?

47:52

Tattoos of dragons, koi fish, samurai with

47:54

swords drawn, geisha girls, that kind

47:56

of shit. Love it. And why

47:58

are big back and thigh pieces? is so fucking hot. Now

48:01

I'm getting distracted. Get out of here, Lucifina! In

48:04

the early days of the Yakuza, tattooing

48:06

was considered a test of strength because traditional

48:08

tattooing involves a tool tipped with small needles

48:11

that is punched into the skin over and

48:13

over. Full back tattoo

48:15

using this process could take up to

48:17

100 hours. That

48:19

is fucking torture. I've been

48:21

having a full back piece worked on for the past

48:23

two years or so, very detailed. I'm also covering up

48:25

several other old back tattoos, so I need a lot

48:27

of ink. I'm about 20 to

48:29

25 hours in with probably 10 to 15

48:32

hours to go and it fucking sucks. Every

48:34

time I get a five to six hour session, it takes a

48:37

good two weeks to fully heal. It's a bit harder to sleep.

48:39

I get little flakes of dried ink all over the sheets. I

48:41

feel like I have a cold. I have to

48:43

wear black shirts for a few days in case it

48:45

bleeds. Can't wear second skin for more than a day

48:47

or two because my back moves too much and won't

48:50

stay on. While I'm getting it done, the last hour

48:52

or so of the session, holy shit does my back

48:54

feel tender. Being hammered

48:56

with old school traditional needles from what I understand

48:58

hurts a lot more than a modern tattoo gun.

49:01

Those gangsters often time would have long sessions, eight to 10

49:03

hours at a time. They

49:05

didn't get light okay numbing cream and

49:08

sprays, no second skin to help with

49:10

healing. All that

49:12

actually made tattoos more appealing to these gangsters.

49:15

It was a sign of fucking strength, toughness.

49:17

Japanese gamblers, gangsters had massive tattoos, show their courage,

49:19

masculinity to distinguish themselves from the rest of the

49:21

world. Not only would they get a lot of

49:23

ink, right? They would make a point to act

49:25

like it didn't hurt a bit while they're getting

49:28

it. Real machismo, testosterone,

49:30

samurai, warrior culture shit.

49:33

Also, while they do get a lot of ink, they

49:35

typically would not get their face and hands done. Most

49:37

Yakuza members keep their tattoos private so

49:39

they can't be seen above the collars or cuffs of

49:41

their nice suits. They still want to

49:44

be able to blend in to respectable society when they

49:46

wear a nice suit. Which reminds

49:48

me of Batman randomly, but

49:50

kind of in reverse. Like if

49:52

you saw Bruce Wayne during the day, you'd never think he was

49:54

one of the baddest motherfuckers in Gotham City. Like

49:57

a real ass kicker. You'd just think he was a wealthy businessman,

49:59

you know, which he he also was. But

50:01

then he puts on the bat suit, starts

50:03

laying down the paint on some fools. He's

50:05

a whole new dude, you know, living with

50:08

these dual personas. Similarly, if

50:10

you saw a member of the Yakuza out

50:12

and about, especially a high ranking member, you

50:14

would just think they were a successful

50:17

and wealthy businessman. Pulling up at a

50:19

Bentley or whatever wearing a tailored Armani

50:21

suit. But they take off that suit.

50:23

They got a different kind of suit on underneath. It's

50:25

all gangster. When it reminds you they're

50:27

not only good with money, they're good with violence. These

50:31

gangsters do occasionally show their ink off at a

50:33

public baths or beaches, which signifies

50:35

their membership to everyone around them. That makes a

50:37

lot of fucking people nervous. 2017 Vice spoke with

50:40

Yoshido Nakano, aka

50:43

Horiyoshi the third, a Yokohama

50:45

based full body tattoo artist and legend

50:47

in the Japanese tattoo world. And

50:50

a dude who's done a lot of work on a lot of

50:52

high ranking members of the Yakuza. And

50:55

Horiyoshi said, well, actually a lot

50:57

of shit that someone contradicts what most articles will

50:59

say on the history of and meaning of traditional

51:01

Japanese tattoos and their association with

51:03

the underworld. He said in

51:05

Japan, these symbols hold deep connotations.

51:08

Criminality doesn't interest us. Neither

51:10

does plastic imitation or excuse

51:13

me, neither does plastic intimidation. Not

51:15

sure what he means by that. We don't get

51:17

tattoos to show off masculinity. A lot

51:19

of our designs contain a scene from a story. If

51:21

you wear the symbol of punishment as a tattoo, it's

51:23

not cool because it means you got arrested for something

51:26

small. In the Edo period, if

51:28

you committed a serious crime, you would have your head cut

51:30

off. It's weird talking about what's

51:32

cool when we talk about crime. He

51:35

also touched on why some people conceal their

51:37

tattoos, saying tattoo culture in Japan is still

51:39

taboo. But that's why the culture is beautiful.

51:41

Fireflies can only be seen at night.

51:44

Their beauty is only visible at night.

51:46

It isn't appreciated in daylight. When

51:48

something becomes a fashion, it isn't fascinating

51:51

anymore. In Western culture, it

51:53

might just be fashion or trendy. But in

51:55

Japan, we appreciate tattoos you can't see. And

51:57

that's why we think they're beautiful because it's

51:59

hidden. Japanese culture is about being in the

52:02

shadows. That's some

52:04

dope ass quotes. I love the line,

52:06

fireflies can only be seen at night. Maybe

52:09

that's why I think certain tattoos on certain women are so

52:11

sexy, right? Not everybody gets to see them. At

52:13

least not all of them. There's some fun mystery

52:15

there. Something special while being shown something like

52:18

a hidden beautiful design. Maybe that's

52:20

part of why I think Yakuza dudes with their tattoos look so bad

52:22

ass. All right, there's some fun

52:24

mystery there with what they're

52:27

covering up. All

52:29

right, I think that kind of covers the associated between tattoos

52:31

and the Yakuza well enough. So let's

52:33

move on. But I do highly

52:36

suggest just Google like these traditional

52:38

Japanese tattoos. Oh my

52:40

gosh, I can't remember now. I've said it a bunch

52:42

of times. I have to scroll back through my notes to remember the actual

52:45

word you got to put in there. Oh

52:48

my God, why is it so far up

52:50

there? My notes that

52:53

I said, I

52:55

started scrolling. I didn't think this would take so long.

52:58

There we go. Irazumi, it's I-R-E-Z-U-M-I.

53:04

Just take a little look online on

53:06

your phone or whatever. They

53:08

are just beautiful tattoos. Really,

53:12

really cool designs. Like their traditional

53:14

style, the artists over in Japan

53:16

who do them the best. I mean, yeah, they

53:18

just look fucking incredible. Okay,

53:21

I think I'm about caught up now with where I

53:23

was when I tried to jump back there

53:25

quickly and didn't do that. Referring

53:27

back to the interview with former member, Yoiyama

53:30

Shina, let's learn more about daily interactions

53:32

between lower level gangsters and their crime

53:34

bosses. Shina said, basically when

53:36

meeting the boss, the door at his house is always

53:38

open. Sometimes you would just walk into the door when

53:40

you wish, while in other cases you can

53:42

be summoned to come. Members usually meet

53:44

with their boss either once a week or once a

53:47

month to report on different matters. Members

53:49

are also expected to speak to their supervisors on the

53:51

phone once in the morning and once in the evening

53:53

to confirm they haven't been arrested and

53:55

that they accomplished whatever task they were assigned that day. The

53:58

head chief then passes his info. on to

54:00

the Gang Chief. It is

54:03

unforgivable to disobey the Gang Chief,

54:05

but it does happen and there are punishments that serve as

54:07

a form of forgiveness and allow a member to maintain their

54:10

position in the gang. According to

54:12

Shinya, the boss will

54:14

occasionally discipline subordinates in a manner of their

54:17

choosing. His particular boss had

54:19

a short temper, and he said if he

54:21

used drugs or he did something else that was forbidden, he

54:23

would get the shit kicked out of him. The

54:26

punishment most associated with the Yakuza is

54:29

a practice called Yōbit Sume. Yeah,

54:31

Yōbit Sume. A way to

54:34

redeem oneself by cutting off part of the

54:36

pinky finger on your left hand. Very

54:39

specific punishment. If

54:41

you watch a video of a bunch of Yakuza or

54:43

look at photos online of Yakuza, pay attention to

54:46

their hands, their left hand specifically. See how many

54:48

of them are missing a part of their pinky

54:50

finger. It's fucking crazy. This

54:52

tradition comes from the time when samurai regularly

54:55

carried katana swords, the pinky, very important

54:57

for maintaining control of the sword, so

54:59

removing the pinky represents a loss of

55:01

control. Shinya carried out

55:04

Yōbit Sume on himself after

55:06

he lied to his gang boss. He felt so

55:08

guilty that he cut off part of his pinky

55:10

finger. He didn't even get caught. He

55:13

just did it before he got caught, or in case he

55:15

got caught. Cut off part of

55:17

his pinky finger down to the first knuckle, brought

55:19

in that little bit of his finger to

55:21

his boss all wrapped up in cloth as an apology.

55:25

Only 20 years old at the time. Shinya

55:27

said there are two types of pain. It

55:29

hurts when you're told by your superiors to cut it off, but

55:32

it doesn't hurt when you feel bad about something and

55:34

cut it off yourself because there's a lot of adrenaline

55:36

kicking in from the remorse you feel by having to

55:38

bring them your finger. I

55:40

think it would hurt both ways personally. I'm

55:43

guessing if I did it myself because I felt that it

55:45

would still hurt, but okay. Shinya

55:47

said that some bosses keep the severed fingers

55:49

of the men working for them beneath them

55:51

in their offices. Or

55:53

like the men working beneath them in their offices. We'll

55:55

keep them in freezers, keep them in altars, bury

55:58

them sometimes under trees near a Shinto shrine. Keepin'

56:01

fuckin' severed fingertips in the office is wild. Imagine

56:03

going in for a meeting with your boss, and

56:06

they have a jar of rotting fingertips on their desk. That

56:08

would add a lot of extra stress to performance reviews. Hey

56:12

dude! Just nods over towards the

56:14

pinky jar. I really need you

56:16

to step it up on the Remington project. It

56:19

finishes on time, right? Comprende? Or,

56:22

you know, just makes a little slicey motion on his

56:24

pinky with what looks like a very sharp knife. If

56:28

a member commits another serious infraction, the second joint of the

56:30

pinky will now need to be amputated. After

56:32

that, the top of another finger gets cut off. And

56:35

if you have no fingers left to slice, well, that'll

56:37

never happen. Because if you have to

56:39

keep loping off fingers, you clearly fucking suck. Being

56:42

a gang member. You see

56:44

a Yakuza dude missing several fingers. You know,

56:46

that guy has a hard time not fucking

56:48

up. That guy's forgetful. He's

56:50

about to be out of the gang. You'll

56:52

beat Sume is the last step before a member is kicked out of

56:54

the gang. One 1993 survey

56:56

by the Japanese government found that 45%

56:59

of Yakuza members at that time had

57:01

severed finger joints. And

57:04

that 15% performed the act at least

57:06

twice. Essentially

57:08

half of these dudes had chopped off a part of

57:10

a finger. Also a big

57:12

drop from guys who cut off one finger tip

57:14

to guys who cut off more than that. That

57:17

goes to show how effective this is, right?

57:19

You have to cut off a part of your finger as opposed

57:22

to just saying like, oh, sorry about that. Probably

57:24

going to be a more effective deterrent towards

57:27

fucking up again. Right? Like,

57:29

like you lose your keys and as punishment,

57:32

you have to cut off part of your fucking finger. You're

57:34

probably not going to lose your keys again. Every

57:37

time you look at your hand, go to grab something, you're like, God,

57:39

God damn it. I can't ever lose my keys again. Holy

57:42

shit. Uh, Sheena also went over, uh,

57:44

some of the rules and members have to follow. There's

57:46

not that many, uh, they sound kind of vague,

57:49

but I guess they encompass so much. Loyalty

57:52

is like the most important rule. Yakuza members loyal

57:54

to their boss and group forbidden from hiding money

57:56

from the group or forbidden from going to police

57:58

testifying against a fellow. like you don't ever be

58:01

a rat. That's a good way to end up

58:03

dead. You should also not

58:05

commit petty crimes, such as shoplifting,

58:07

stealing from regular everyday people. That's not a big

58:09

rule. Don't commit stupid crimes. Don't commit crimes against

58:11

this common working man. No

58:14

drugs is another rule. Not

58:16

allowed to use drugs until recent decades. When the Yakuza

58:18

moved into the drug trade, you were

58:20

also not allowed to sell drugs. Some still adhere

58:23

to this. Respect another

58:25

big rule, Yakuza members, to be respectful to

58:27

all those who do not work against them,

58:30

and those who do not disrespect them. And

58:32

finally, no infighting. Yakuza members forbidden from disrupting

58:34

the harmony of the gang. Again,

58:37

not that many rules, but they're broad rules that I'm

58:39

sure can be interpreted in a lot of ways to

58:41

cover, you know, so much of what you're not allowed

58:43

to do. According to

58:45

authors Kaplan and Dubrow, Yakuza ethics and rules

58:48

have always been influenced by the Bushido, the

58:50

way of the warrior. They

58:52

prove their manliness by enduring pain, hunger,

58:54

and imprisonment, by living with honor, a

58:56

violent death, a life lost while helping

58:59

defend one's gang family viewed as

59:02

highly honorable. The Yakuza

59:04

also follow the concepts of giri and ninjō,

59:07

which have a strong impact on Japanese society. More broad, vague

59:10

terms here, but with a lot of

59:12

unwritten rules underneath them, I'm sure. Giri

59:14

means obligation or a strong sense of

59:17

duty. Ninjō means human

59:19

feeling or emotion, interpreted

59:22

as generosity towards the weak and

59:24

disadvantaged. So how is

59:26

it possible to live by these ethical moral codes, but

59:29

also make your money through crime? Well,

59:31

I'm not sure it is always possible to do both, but it

59:33

seems like a lot of these guys do try in certain ways.

59:36

Yu Yamashina explains some of the ways Yakuza make

59:38

money. Sheena said that if

59:40

you ask the Yakuza for help, they will assist you.

59:43

Then he says, quote, but after that, things become difficult. They

59:46

start saying that since they helped you at the time, you

59:49

must pay back for the aid you got. So

59:51

like with most gifts in life, there are strings

59:53

attached, heavy strings in this case. Some

59:56

people will try to disappear without paying the Yakuza

59:58

back. Doesn't sound like it works. out real well

1:00:00

for them most of the time. Xinyu claimed that

1:00:02

in his gang, this one dude who ran away

1:00:04

without paying his debts was later found. And

1:00:07

then for his punishment, he was sold as

1:00:09

a slave for 3 million yen, about 20,000

1:00:12

US dollars, sent to a different country

1:00:14

where his master was able to do whatever the fuck he

1:00:16

wanted to him. Yikes!

1:00:18

Jesus. Yakuza make

1:00:21

a lot of their money through security arrangements

1:00:23

with clubs and bars. So, you know, protection

1:00:25

packets, just like the Italian Mafia in America.

1:00:28

Pay us as much money a month, we will

1:00:30

protect you from people exactly like us. Fun

1:00:33

little shakedown. Club owners who are

1:00:35

protected can call the Yakuza when drunk or rowdy customers are

1:00:37

causing trouble and they'll swing by and fix shit. Which

1:00:39

is great, but what if the Yakuza themselves

1:00:42

are causing the trouble? Then who

1:00:44

do you call? This income stream

1:00:46

avenue has dried up more in recent

1:00:48

years as the police have become more active in protecting

1:00:50

small businesses and fighting back against the Yakuza. This is

1:00:52

just very recent. The most profitable

1:00:54

industry now is trafficking drugs, but some Yakuza gangs

1:00:56

still won't do this due to tradition of staying

1:00:58

away from drugs. Another profitable venture

1:01:00

is arm smuggling. Guns are

1:01:03

illegal for any private citizens to own in Japan, but the

1:01:05

Yakuza are able to smuggle them into the country, obviously

1:01:07

use them themselves, but also sell them. Shinya

1:01:10

explained that most members have multiple streams of income.

1:01:12

For example, he said he had some sort of

1:01:14

business that involved sex work, so he

1:01:16

was some type of pimp and he

1:01:19

made money through blackmail, possibly related

1:01:21

to his pimp game. Then he

1:01:23

used money from that to fund a legitimate construction

1:01:25

business or at least quasi legitimate, strongly

1:01:27

assuming he laundered a lot of sex work

1:01:29

and blackmail money through the construction company. He said

1:01:33

he made at least 4 million yen per month, which

1:01:35

actually sounds like more than it is. It's the equivalent

1:01:37

currently of a little over 14,000 US

1:01:39

dollars a month. Not a crazy

1:01:41

amount, but he was just one gangster and many in his

1:01:43

Yakuza family. And they're all funneling

1:01:45

a lot of this money up at the top.

1:01:47

In order to keep law enforcement off their backs,

1:01:49

the Yakuza bribed public officials, the police also get

1:01:51

their own members hired by the police or elected

1:01:53

or appointed into political positions when possible. All

1:01:56

right, now that we know a bit more about how the

1:01:58

Yakuza work, Let's enter our

1:02:00

timeline of their mysterious origins, infamous

1:02:03

leaders, and most notable

1:02:05

events. Right

1:02:07

after today's second of two mid-show sponsor breaks.

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how about I hit that old timeline

1:05:25

button? Trap

1:05:28

on those boots, soldier. We're

1:05:30

marching down a time suck

1:05:33

timeline. It

1:05:39

is commonly accepted that the Yakuza originated during

1:05:42

the early years of the Edo period, Edo

1:05:45

period, a period which began in 1603. The

1:05:49

Yakuza evolved from a few groups, small time

1:05:51

outlaws, gamblers and gankers in feudal Japan. According

1:05:54

to Kaplan and Dubrow's book, Yakuza, Japan's

1:05:56

criminal underworld, to the commoners of

1:05:58

feudal Japan, they were known as Kabuko

1:06:01

Mono, the crazy ones, and

1:06:04

as early as 1612 they began attracting the attention

1:06:06

of local officials. Like

1:06:08

rebels of a more recent era, they

1:06:10

wore outlandish costumes and strange haircuts. Their

1:06:13

behavior was often equally bizarre. At

1:06:17

their sides hung remarkably long swords that nearly

1:06:19

trailed along the ground as the outlaw swaggered

1:06:21

to the streets of old Japan. Terrorizing

1:06:23

the defenseless town's people almost at

1:06:25

will, these outlaws were not

1:06:28

above using them to practice Tuji

1:06:31

Giri, a hideous rite in

1:06:33

which a samurai would waylay a passerby

1:06:36

just to test out a new blade. Just

1:06:38

fucking slicing some unarmed stranger down just to make sure

1:06:40

your new sword is sharp enough for battle. That

1:06:43

is cold-blooded and ridiculous, and I think we talked about that in the samurai

1:06:45

episode I did a while back. Imagine losing your dad

1:06:47

that way. Uh, wait, what? How

1:06:50

did your dad die? Huh,

1:06:52

some guy just testing a new sword out,

1:06:54

walking by carrying a basket of apples, and

1:06:57

his dad's head chopped off. At

1:06:59

least he didn't die in vain, I guess. I heard the guy

1:07:01

was super happy about how sharp his new sword was. The

1:07:05

Kabuko Mono were the crime

1:07:07

gangs of medieval Japan. They were also called

1:07:09

Hatamoto Yako, meaning the servants of the shogun.

1:07:12

They called themselves things like the All Gods

1:07:14

Gang. They swore loyalty to their group over

1:07:17

their own families. Very typical

1:07:19

gang mentality. In the

1:07:21

17th century, you're in the peaceful Takugawa

1:07:23

shogunuts. Up to 500,000 samurai

1:07:25

were unemployed. And restless, not a

1:07:27

good combo for samurai. Many

1:07:29

of them joined the merchant class, settled in

1:07:32

large villages in Osaka, Tokyo, and Nagoya. Many

1:07:35

of the Kabuki, Kabuko, Mono, the

1:07:37

crazy ones, were once

1:07:40

samurai. They were caught within

1:07:42

a rigid medieval society about to enter

1:07:44

a 200-year period of self-imposed isolation, with

1:07:47

few opportunities beyond those offered by street

1:07:49

fighting, robbery, and terror. battle.

1:08:01

They looted as they traveled the countryside, were normally

1:08:03

taken in by another feudal lord's army. Now

1:08:06

outlaw gangs developed during these generally peaceful times

1:08:08

for samurai who could not adapt to a

1:08:10

regular civilian life. According

1:08:12

again to authors Kaplan and Dubrow, the

1:08:14

Yakuza are more closely related to the

1:08:17

Machiyako and who were

1:08:19

once enemies, excuse me, of the Hatamoto

1:08:21

Yako. Kaplan and Dubrow

1:08:23

wrote, these were bands of young townsmen

1:08:25

who as fear and resentment grew, formed

1:08:27

to fend off the increasing attacks of

1:08:29

the Hatamoto Yako. At

1:08:32

times they sported the same odd habits

1:08:34

as their opponents, but their leaders were

1:08:36

often of a different stock. They were

1:08:38

clerks, shopkeepers, innkeepers, artisans. Others

1:08:40

were laborers rounded up by local construction

1:08:42

bosses, including a good many homeless wanderers

1:08:44

and stray samurai. Like the

1:08:46

gangs of today, the Machiyako were adept at

1:08:49

gambling and developed a close relationship with their

1:08:51

leaders that may have well been a precedent

1:08:53

for the tightly organized Yakuza. The

1:08:56

townspeople supported the Machiyako and were pleased

1:08:58

to see them standing up to these

1:09:00

roaming fucking random sword cutting down people

1:09:02

rebel samurai. Both Yako

1:09:04

groups then later disappeared after numerous

1:09:07

crackdowns by the shogunate government. For

1:09:09

example, a branch of the All Gods gang in Tokyo came

1:09:11

to an end in 1868 when

1:09:13

officials rounded up 300 members and had

1:09:15

them all quickly executed. Shit,

1:09:18

that is a very efficient way to get rid

1:09:20

of a big gang quick. Kill

1:09:22

them all. The Machiyako became folk heroes

1:09:25

in Japanese history. Robin Hood

1:09:27

associations are mostly due to portrayals from

1:09:29

the 18th century where they were viewed

1:09:31

as chivalrous commoners. The

1:09:33

Yakuza are also closely associated with

1:09:35

two groups of people from this

1:09:37

era, the tekea, street peddlers, and

1:09:40

the bakuto gamblers. Some

1:09:42

members of the Japanese police force still use

1:09:44

these terms to classify the Yakuza. The

1:09:47

tekea and bakuto were often poor, landless people

1:09:49

who did not quite fit in with the

1:09:51

rest of Japanese society. Each

1:09:53

group had an area of control stuck to it, which

1:09:56

meant there wasn't much conflict between the two. The

1:09:59

bakuto... operated gambling establishments along

1:10:01

Japan's highways and in towns, and the

1:10:03

tekaua worked in town markets and fairs.

1:10:06

Origins of the tekia are pretty obscure.

1:10:09

They were first called yashi, which connotes

1:10:12

banditry, meaning it's possible they evolved

1:10:14

from the Ronan outlaws of the countryside. The

1:10:16

most widely accepted theory is connected to the patron

1:10:19

god Shinō, a Chinese god of agriculture

1:10:21

that discovered medicine to help the sick and the

1:10:23

poor. According to this legend,

1:10:25

the yashi were groups of medicine peddlers, but

1:10:27

the name was applied to different kinds of peddlers then.

1:10:31

By the mid-1700s, the tekaua formed gangs

1:10:33

for mutual interest and protection. They

1:10:36

established control over their booths in the

1:10:38

markets outside temples and shrines. For

1:10:40

some reason, this all makes me picture gangs forming at

1:10:42

a farmer's market, which makes

1:10:44

me picture a lot of rampant crime at

1:10:46

the farmer's market and as someone who regularly goes to the

1:10:49

farmer's market, that is hilarious to me. Oh

1:10:52

god, those fuckers just ran off

1:10:54

with all of Becky's organic, locally harvested lion's

1:10:56

mane mushrooms, and they took most

1:10:58

of Clint's hand-carved wooden Middle Earth figurines. Oh

1:11:01

no, they literally just set fire to

1:11:03

the booth at Jim and Wanda's die-in

1:11:05

fragrance-free handmade soap share with Rocky's free-range

1:11:08

bison sausage. This has to stop. We

1:11:11

need guns and swords, and

1:11:13

a former gang is going to kill these motherfuckers

1:11:15

that think they can keep terrorizing the Wednesday afternoon

1:11:18

3rd Street farmer's market. Kaplan

1:11:20

and Dubrow also wrote about the

1:11:22

tekaua scam saying they were men

1:11:24

with a well-deserved ... Sorry, I can't stop fucking

1:11:26

thinking about the local Hayden farmer

1:11:28

market around Coeur d'Alene. Just fucking

1:11:31

chaos, just samurais, lop people's heads off,

1:11:34

defending the sourdough bread that somebody

1:11:37

makes down the street, whatever. Kaplan

1:11:39

and Dubrow also wrote about the tekaua scam

1:11:42

saying that they were men with a well-deserved

1:11:44

reputation for shoddy goods and deceptive salesmanship, a

1:11:46

tradition that survives today amongst

1:11:48

the nation's thousands of tekaua members. The early peddlers

1:11:51

developed a proven repertoire of cheating techniques. They

1:11:54

would lie about the quality and origin of a product, act

1:11:56

drunk, and make a show of selling items cheaply so customers

1:11:58

would believe they didn't know what to do. they were doing

1:12:01

or excuse me or delude

1:12:03

the customer with

1:12:05

such enterprising tricks as selling miniature

1:12:07

trees bonsai trees without

1:12:09

roots what

1:12:13

a scam involving bonsai trees without roots that

1:12:15

is also hilarious to me that

1:12:18

sounds like a scam you would run in a

1:12:20

farmer's market like instead of just

1:12:22

taking so much time to carefully craft a tiny

1:12:24

tree these assholes were just i don't know

1:12:26

just getting a bunch of fucking little twigs you

1:12:28

know gluing them together gluing some leaves

1:12:30

to the twigs add maybe a bit of gravel

1:12:32

underneath to look like scaled down big rocks under

1:12:35

the normal size tree and just selling

1:12:37

that shit to suckers they

1:12:39

got me thinking about these bonsai trees i wasted way too

1:12:41

much time on getting this show ready to record on bonsai

1:12:44

tree articles and videos after

1:12:46

this little thing coming up did

1:12:48

you know that you can make any tree

1:12:51

a bonsai tree that's what the internet

1:12:53

said i did not know that i

1:12:55

thought there were special kinds of trees that were just

1:12:57

miniature like

1:13:00

there's just little trees out there like if you planted

1:13:02

them in your yard you wouldn't have to do a

1:13:04

lot they would just grow to be tiny

1:13:06

you just get like bonsai tree seeds and

1:13:08

you just grow your little tiny tree it would just

1:13:10

look like a miniature version of a bigger tree no

1:13:12

i guess that's not how it works it's a lot harder than that

1:13:15

but but there's more variety you can just

1:13:17

make a tree tiny even i

1:13:19

was like get the fuck out even an orange tree

1:13:22

i found videos of this and then you can eat tiny

1:13:24

orange the oranges themselves get tinier the shit blew

1:13:26

my mind i watched a whole video of this

1:13:28

woman picking and eating tiny

1:13:30

oranges of her miniature bonsai orange

1:13:33

tree no idea what she was fucking

1:13:35

saying because her accent was super thick but she

1:13:37

seemed very happy she seemed to enjoy them they look tasty

1:13:40

and now i kind of wish i had a greenhouse full lots of

1:13:42

tiny fruit trees and then when i

1:13:44

want a snack you know i just head out uh it's my

1:13:46

greenhouse and i just eat a fucking shit ton of little oranges

1:13:48

or a bunch of tiny apples or

1:13:50

pears whatever and i get to feel like a god

1:13:52

like a fucking powerful giant god they

1:13:55

look down on my full-sized trees look tiny to

1:13:57

my powerful self uh growing these trees a lot work

1:13:59

though so I'm not gonna do that but it's

1:14:01

fun to think about sorry anyway

1:14:04

the tequil organized themselves against uh

1:14:06

excuse me the organized themselves in

1:14:09

feudal rankings the oyuban the

1:14:12

underboss the officers enlisted men apprentices the

1:14:15

oyuban's home served as a gang headquarters and the training

1:14:17

center for new members who lived in his home to

1:14:19

learn the business the enlisted men

1:14:21

were required to sell the bosses goods little

1:14:23

fucking shitty ass tricky bonsai treat and

1:14:25

posture stuff they were not admitted as

1:14:27

full members until they got the desired results and

1:14:30

the peddlers had to follow the so-called three

1:14:32

commandments of tequil do

1:14:35

not touch the wife of another member this is the first a

1:14:38

rule established because wives were left alone for long periods

1:14:40

while their husbands went peddling second

1:14:43

do not reveal the secret to the organization of the police and

1:14:46

the third keep strict loyalty to

1:14:48

the oyuban-koban relationship rules

1:14:50

two and three seem super obvious to me for

1:14:53

a criminal organization you know don't rat us

1:14:55

out to the police yeah yeah sure you know stay true to

1:14:57

the group yeah first rule cracks me up

1:14:59

though clearly a lot of

1:15:01

fucking other dudes wives was a problem was going

1:15:03

on for that rule to need to be included

1:15:05

just goddamn it's kashi seriously now you

1:15:08

fuck suki's wife and the tatsuyo's wife god

1:15:10

damn it well sir I

1:15:12

mean technically there's no rule against it

1:15:14

well they're not now there's a rule now

1:15:17

I have three rules you fucking idiot no

1:15:19

wife fuck that's rule number one now god

1:15:22

you're lucky you're very good at growing lots of tiny plum

1:15:24

trees full of delicious grape-sized plums right I'd fucking kill

1:15:26

you right now the oyuban

1:15:28

controlled the allocation of stalls of the markets

1:15:31

the availability of certain goods they

1:15:33

collected rents protection money paid the fee the Templar

1:15:36

shrine kept the difference the tekia

1:15:38

also demanded payments from other peddlers to open up

1:15:40

stalls you're not gonna sell that sourdough here unless

1:15:42

you give me fucking a hundred yen whatever

1:15:46

they stole from a from or assaulted those who refused

1:15:48

to pay the tekia did fight

1:15:50

they would fight over territory but in general the different

1:15:53

bosses cooperated with one another the

1:15:55

tekia's work mostly legal and from 1735

1:15:58

to 1740 feudal authorities granted

1:16:00

them official recognition. In an

1:16:02

effort to reduce fraud, the government appointed several Ouban

1:16:05

as supervisors, even gave them a surname and two

1:16:07

sorts, which gave them equivalent

1:16:09

status to a samurai. Pretty

1:16:12

badass. This recognition and the rapid growth of

1:16:14

towns in the 18th century allowed Tequilla to

1:16:16

expand. Some of the

1:16:18

Tequilla began organizing their own fairs

1:16:20

slash festivals with circus side shows,

1:16:23

stands that sell fruit, gifts, other

1:16:25

household items, stuff like a beefed

1:16:28

up farmer's market. Fucking love this is all happening at

1:16:30

farmer's markets. They also developed new

1:16:32

criminal underworld at the farmer's

1:16:34

markets. The merchants took in wanted criminals

1:16:36

and fugitives, established protection rackets. Joining

1:16:39

the Tequilla provided a way out

1:16:42

of poverty for many recently released criminals and

1:16:44

some upward mobility for a whole class of

1:16:46

people called the barakamen, which

1:16:48

translates to village people who

1:16:50

were considered polluted or even non-human because

1:16:53

they did dirty jobs like undertaking or

1:16:55

working with leather as a random example

1:16:57

of a filthy job. Oh, you work with

1:16:59

leather? Okay, subhuman. Fucking get out of here,

1:17:01

you monster. Legal discrimination

1:17:04

against barakamen ended in 1871,

1:17:07

but Japanese society's derogatory view of them

1:17:09

continues actually to this day. So

1:17:11

weird. Let's now shift

1:17:13

focus to the bakuto. The

1:17:15

first gambling gangs were recruited by government

1:17:18

officials and local bosses under the Takagawa

1:17:20

administration who were responsible for irrigation and

1:17:22

construction. They're required to pay the workers, but

1:17:24

in an effort to get some of their money back, they

1:17:27

hired outlaws, laborers, and farmers to

1:17:29

gamble with those workers. So

1:17:31

they would pay the workers and then,

1:17:33

you know, have some gamblers hustle their workers

1:17:35

to get the money they just paid the

1:17:37

workers back. According to Kaplan

1:17:39

and Dubrow, they hired gamblers gradually began, the

1:17:42

hired gamblers gradually began attracting misfit

1:17:44

merchant and artisans, as well

1:17:47

as Japanese of higher status, such as samurai

1:17:49

and sumo wrestlers. Oh, hell yeah. Good fucking

1:17:51

samurai. Got sumo wrestlers, got the farmer's market

1:17:53

people. You got these fucking con artist gamblers

1:17:56

all hanging out in the same space as

1:17:59

the organized into discipline. These early gamblers

1:18:01

found their niche among the nation's great trunk

1:18:03

roads where their colorful lives formed the basis

1:18:05

for countless tales of old Japan Criminologist

1:18:09

Kanahiro Yoshino called the

1:18:12

Bakuto the kernel of organized crime

1:18:14

groups in Japan The

1:18:16

bakuto set up gambling houses along the highways Which

1:18:19

were often frequented by wealthy noblemen

1:18:21

who got their asses hustled It

1:18:24

was inside these gambling houses at the word Yakuza

1:18:26

was created Kaplan and Dubrow discussed

1:18:28

the origin of the word Yakuza in their book

1:18:30

writing According to the

1:18:32

most widely held belief the term derived

1:18:35

from the worst possible score in the

1:18:37

card game Hanafuda The

1:18:39

flower cards three cards are dealt per

1:18:41

player in the game and the last digit of

1:18:43

their total counts as a number of Their hand

1:18:45

therefore with a hand of 20 the worst score

1:18:47

one's total is zero Among

1:18:49

the losing combinations a sequence of 8 9 3

1:18:52

or in Japanese. Yeah, Koo saw The

1:18:56

losing combination of Yakuza came to be used

1:18:58

widely amongst the early gambling gangs to denote

1:19:00

something useless It was later

1:19:02

applied to the gamblers themselves to mean

1:19:05

they were useless to society. They were born

1:19:07

to lose I'm a fucking rebel

1:19:09

daddy For years the

1:19:11

word was limited to the bakuto gangs There

1:19:14

are still purists today amongst the

1:19:16

Japanese underworld who insisted only true

1:19:18

Yakuza are traditional gamblers As

1:19:21

the 20th century progressed however The word gradually

1:19:23

received wide use by the general public as

1:19:25

a name for bakuto tekia and

1:19:27

a host of other organized crime groups in Japan

1:19:31

and before moving forward I should add that

1:19:33

Kaplan and Dubrow fucked up a little bit,

1:19:35

but at least one thing The

1:19:37

Hanafuda is a type of playing card, but a

1:19:39

bit smaller than Western playing cards with a flowery

1:19:41

design on the back But

1:19:44

that's not the game. They're very pretty the name

1:19:46

of the actual Japanese card game from which the

1:19:48

word Yakuza comes from is Ochi Kabu

1:19:52

Oi, wait you wait you Kabu.

1:19:55

Okay. Now that we know the etymology of the word

1:19:57

back to the bakuto Like the

1:19:59

tekia the bakuto had their own code of

1:20:01

conduct, followed the Oyuban

1:20:04

Koban system. Promotions

1:20:07

within the ranks were based on performances

1:20:09

during fights, gambling skills, loyalty to the

1:20:11

Oyuban. Those who showed cowardice, disobeyed the

1:20:13

rules, or revealed gang secrets, were killed

1:20:16

or kicked out. Some

1:20:18

of the worst offenses a member could commit were rape

1:20:20

or petty theft. Weird

1:20:22

that those were looked on equally, at least

1:20:24

they seem to be. This one source. Bob,

1:20:26

you stole Mrs. Anderson's garden gnomes. And

1:20:29

for that serious crime, you are banished,

1:20:31

never to return to our gang. And

1:20:34

Johnny, you held down Mrs. Anderson and violently

1:20:36

raped her, which is just as bad as

1:20:38

what Bob did. You too are banished. Once

1:20:42

a member was banished, the Oyuban informed other

1:20:44

groups that the individual was no longer welcome,

1:20:47

which meant he couldn't even join other bands. That

1:20:49

tradition is still practiced today. When

1:20:52

you kicked out of the Yakuza, you're generally done with that

1:20:54

life forever. No other gang is likely to take you. At

1:20:56

least no other gang affiliated with the Yakuza. You

1:20:59

have a stain of dishonor upon you. The

1:21:02

bakuto were the ones to introduce. Yobitsume, that fucking

1:21:04

crazy severing of the top joint of the

1:21:06

pinky on the left hand, is a penance. As

1:21:09

mentioned, Yobitsume made it difficult to grasp

1:21:12

a sword for self-defense, which

1:21:14

made the member more dependent on their Oyuban for

1:21:16

protection. The finger-cutting practice eventually

1:21:18

spread over to the tekia and other criminal

1:21:20

groups. Also, the bakuto took

1:21:23

this pinky chopping ritual from the brothels

1:21:25

of Edo, where women would

1:21:27

voluntarily snip off their pinkies to prove

1:21:29

devotion to their true loves. How

1:21:32

about with that suck to do that?

1:21:35

And then the guy's like, oh shit,

1:21:37

this is whoa. This is, this is

1:21:39

Aki Waki. Oh man, I don't, I

1:21:41

don't feel that way about you. Maybe

1:21:44

you can glue back on. Don't cry. You can glue back

1:21:46

on. I have a cousin who's really good at making fake

1:21:48

bonsai treats. They can probably help you. The

1:21:51

bakuto also were the ones to first adopt

1:21:53

the tradition of tattooing their bodies, which the

1:21:55

tekia then followed. Now let's

1:21:58

get personal. Let's meet one of the most famous Yakuza

1:22:00

fans. who's a member of all time, a folk hero

1:22:02

in Japan. Arguably Japan's

1:22:04

most famous gangster ever, a man named

1:22:07

Shimicho no Hirocho, was

1:22:10

born in the early 19th century. Hirocho

1:22:12

was the son of a sailor. He was born

1:22:15

on a very special day, Japanese first, Japanese

1:22:17

first, 1820 to be exact, in

1:22:19

the seaport of Shimicho, which lies

1:22:22

along the Tokaido Highway between Tokyo

1:22:24

and Yokohama. His birth

1:22:26

date is interesting because in traditional Japanese culture,

1:22:29

it was commonly believed for a long time that baby boys, born

1:22:32

on New Year's Day, would grow

1:22:34

up to have one of two fates and only

1:22:36

one of two fates. They

1:22:38

would either be wildly successful heroic men

1:22:41

or despicable villains of the worst

1:22:43

kind, nothing in between. Hirocho

1:22:47

would kind of grow up to be both though. Hirocho's

1:22:50

father bought into this weird, superstitious belief so fully

1:22:52

he decided he didn't want to take the risk

1:22:54

of having a shameful outlaw for his son, and

1:22:56

he gave a son up for adoption to a

1:22:59

wealthy, clearly less superstitious relative. Hirocho

1:23:01

was reportedly a terror as a boy, but then as a

1:23:03

young teen, he calmed down, started learning the

1:23:05

family rice business. Then Hirocho's adoptive

1:23:07

father died when he was 16 and

1:23:10

he inherited the family business. And he worked

1:23:12

as a rice merchant until the age of 20. According

1:23:14

to legend, one day he discovered a monk standing in

1:23:17

his doorway. The monk warned him he was gonna

1:23:19

die before he turned 26. That

1:23:21

is, that's weird. That's a weird thing to happen. There's

1:23:24

a lot of weird shit going on in Japan. I

1:23:26

wish we had a little more info about this part of the story.

1:23:28

Who the fuck is this crazy ass monk? Why

1:23:31

would anyone listen to his weird ass? Did

1:23:33

he knock on every door he passed, tell everyone he

1:23:35

spoke with when they were gonna die? That

1:23:37

was just his thing. Would he just say that

1:23:39

out the gate? No, hello, how are you doing? No,

1:23:42

can I use your bathroom? No, he just opened up the

1:23:44

door and some motherfucker went in a row and was like,

1:23:46

32, you're dying at 32? Ah,

1:23:48

fuck, get out here, death monk, go on, get. Yeah.

1:23:52

Was anyone keeping track of his predictions, doing any fact

1:23:54

checking? Was he really a monk or

1:23:56

just a lunatic with a monk costume on? Right,

1:23:59

do you know? He's out there wandering around eventually he's

1:24:01

gonna come and tell your fate. Can you bargain with

1:24:03

him? Can you ask him to extend your life expectancy

1:24:05

in exchange for you not killing him on the spot

1:24:08

for whatever reason? He wrote Joe believed this

1:24:10

weirdo According to legends and

1:24:12

and decided that if his life is gonna be short

1:24:15

He wanted to make the most of it. He was bored

1:24:17

with his career selling rice. He wanted to change I

1:24:19

wish I get you know selling rice feels

1:24:22

boring sounds boring. It's like a boring

1:24:24

job Maybe it's lucrative, but probably a little

1:24:26

boring So he joined joins

1:24:28

up with some gamblers in shimmy show He

1:24:31

wrote show eventually leaves his wife and family business behind

1:24:33

for good with his new way a new life here

1:24:35

He spends next three years just traveling just fucking wandering

1:24:37

around the country earning a reputation

1:24:39

as a fighter mediator leader When

1:24:42

he returns to shimmy show Organizes his own gang

1:24:44

now made up a so-called street tufts construction workers

1:24:46

in Ronin at his peak as Yang will have

1:24:49

600 members He

1:24:51

wrote show will have influence over eight coastal

1:24:53

stations from the Fuji River near Tokyo to

1:24:55

the OI River no Kyoto and During

1:24:58

a time of a lot of police corruption his men act as

1:25:00

law enforcement He wrote showed his

1:25:02

gang are regarded as honorable men who protect the

1:25:04

common people from the samurai and their feudal lords

1:25:08

the height of Hirocho's power occurs at the end of the

1:25:11

Takugawa Shogunate Nobles

1:25:13

and merchants wanted to change their displeasure was heightened

1:25:15

by the shoguns decision to open up the country

1:25:17

to Western trading on Top of

1:25:19

this peasants were rebelling against the oppressive regime

1:25:22

There was a movement on both sides to install

1:25:24

the Emperor as a head of state once again

1:25:26

Hirocho sided with the nobles and peasants which was

1:25:28

the right decision He became

1:25:30

a powerful leader during the early Meiji restoration

1:25:33

and promoted national improvements in farming fishing and

1:25:35

city development also continued running

1:25:37

his gambling operations and Established a

1:25:39

prison and had his gangsters keep law

1:25:41

and order even started one of the

1:25:44

first English schools in the country He

1:25:46

wrote rather than died in 1893 at the age of 73 Mad

1:25:49

monk was way off Thousands

1:25:52

of people still visit his grave every year and he

1:25:54

reportedly has a Shinto shrine at the base of Mount

1:25:56

Fuji Walking nobly on both sides

1:25:58

of the law Orocho embodies

1:26:00

the old values of the

1:26:02

Yakuza. The

1:26:05

Yakuza then experienced a major shift in the late

1:26:07

19th century along with the rest of Japan during

1:26:09

the start of the Meiji

1:26:12

Restoration. During the Meiji Restoration,

1:26:15

all the pent-up commercial and intellectual power of

1:26:17

Japan would be released and the Japanese would

1:26:19

perform their first economic miracle, breaking

1:26:21

away the last bonds of feudalism and

1:26:23

swiftly transforming their country into an industrial

1:26:26

power. By the turn of

1:26:28

the 20th century, Japan was a fully modern society with a

1:26:30

population of 45 million people. From

1:26:32

1890 to 1914, industrial production

1:26:35

doubled, the number of factories

1:26:37

tripled. Japan also established its

1:26:39

first parliament and political parties and greatly strengthened its

1:26:41

military, a military that would damn near help take

1:26:43

over the fucking world in World War II. The

1:26:47

Yakuza grew and adopted and evolved

1:26:49

along with the rest of the country. Gambling

1:26:52

was still one of their main sources of income,

1:26:54

but the Meiji Restoration brought more police crackdowns on

1:26:56

gambling, and many bosses started

1:26:58

now to go into legitimate businesses, often

1:27:01

as fronts for gambling, and

1:27:03

the Yakuza started paying off the police. Gangs

1:27:07

also began organizing laborers for construction jobs in

1:27:09

large cities, recruiting dock workers in the nation's

1:27:11

ports, just like the mafia in America. The

1:27:14

Yakuza would use labor unions for everything

1:27:16

from extortion, bribery, and embezzlement to price-fixing

1:27:19

and kickbacks. You can skim a lot

1:27:21

of money off the top of a big

1:27:23

construction project. Even if you control

1:27:25

the ports, it's a hell of a lot easier to

1:27:27

import illicit materials like

1:27:30

various drugs and guns. In

1:27:32

the later 19th and early 20th centuries, bakuto

1:27:35

gamblers retreated into underground gambling rings,

1:27:37

while the tekiya thrived because their

1:27:39

profession was legal. They're still

1:27:41

one of those farmer's markets, baby. Growing

1:27:43

number of Yakuza families developed close ties with government

1:27:46

officials as they knew that working with rather than

1:27:48

against the government was the key to success. A

1:27:51

spirit of ultra-nationalism among the Yakuza began to show

1:27:53

itself in the 1880s. The

1:27:56

movement originated in Kyoshu, the

1:27:58

southernmost of Japan's four major countries. islands.

1:28:01

At this time Kyoshu was a poor fishing

1:28:03

and coal mining region and also home to

1:28:05

a large community of former samurai. Politicians

1:28:08

who didn't support the Meiji restoration appealed

1:28:10

to the ex-warriors discussed with the new

1:28:12

regime. The city of Fukuoka,

1:28:15

yeah Fuku-Oku, Fuku-oh my god

1:28:18

Fukuoka, there we go, was

1:28:21

a hotspot for anti-government sentiments at the time

1:28:23

and became the center of militarism and patriotism.

1:28:25

One legendary Yakuza, an ultra-nationalistic

1:28:28

gangster, got his start

1:28:30

in Fukuoka, a man

1:28:32

named Toyamo Mitsuru. He was

1:28:34

one of the first in Japan to combine

1:28:37

organized crime and politics. Toyamo

1:28:39

was born in 1855, third

1:28:41

son of an obscure poor samurai family, grew

1:28:44

up in poverty, sold sweet potatoes on the

1:28:46

streets, described as a street smart

1:28:49

teen who idolized the samurai. He

1:28:51

became interested in politics in his early 20s, he

1:28:53

participated in one of the last samurai uprisings and

1:28:55

was sentenced to three years in jail. When

1:28:58

he was released he joined a nationalist group

1:29:00

called the Pride and Patriotism Society where he

1:29:02

developed a small following. Kaplan

1:29:05

and Dubrow wrote about him saying, Toyama

1:29:07

took to the streets and set about

1:29:09

organizing the listless tufts of

1:29:12

Fukuoka. His men became

1:29:14

both a disciplined workforce and a tough fighting

1:29:16

force used to keep labor unrest at a

1:29:18

minimum in the region's coal mines. Toyama

1:29:21

was another Robin Hood figure amongst the Yakuza.

1:29:23

Known for handing out money in the streets

1:29:26

literally, earned him the nickname Emperor

1:29:28

of the Slums, also earned him

1:29:30

the respect of local politicians who wanted to capitalize on

1:29:32

his popularity with the poor. Toyama

1:29:34

used his newfound power to found the Dark

1:29:36

Ocean Society aka Genyosha in 1881. The Genyosha

1:29:39

was a federation

1:29:42

of nationalist societies that would be

1:29:44

the forerunner of Japan's modern secret

1:29:46

societies and patriotic groups. The

1:29:49

articles of the group's charter required members to

1:29:51

revere the Emperor, love and respect

1:29:53

the nation and defend the people's rights. Toyama

1:29:55

created a patriotic social order that

1:29:58

attracted former samurai, his family, and

1:30:00

his family. became a paramilitary force

1:30:02

for nationalistic politicians, utilizing terror, blackmail,

1:30:04

and assassinations to get their way.

1:30:07

Tuyama's followers worked as bodyguards for

1:30:09

government officials and used violent persuasion

1:30:11

to influence politicians. At the

1:30:13

same time, some members of the Dark Ocean

1:30:15

Society worked as skilled laborers and were members

1:30:17

of unions affiliated with the society. They

1:30:20

believed they were high-class gangsters different

1:30:22

from Tekiya and Bakuto. Genyosha

1:30:25

agents were sent to China, Korea,

1:30:27

Manchuria as spies. They operated schools

1:30:29

to train children in their ultra-nationalistic

1:30:31

beliefs. Genyosha agents studied

1:30:33

martial arts, language, spying techniques.

1:30:36

They later formed the basis of Japan's

1:30:38

intelligence network before World War II. Tuyama's

1:30:41

men were used to subdue political

1:30:43

unrest, intimidate political candidates and voters,

1:30:46

suppress laborers, and punish citizens.

1:30:49

Tuyama used the money he earned to start

1:30:51

his campaign of terror and assassination aimed at

1:30:53

achieving a new social order in Japan. Fuckers

1:30:56

were powerful. Genyosha once threw a

1:30:58

bomb into the carriage of a foreign minister,

1:31:00

stabbed a liberal politician, and murdered

1:31:02

one of the Meiji's best statesmen. When

1:31:04

Japan held a national election in 1892, Genyosha

1:31:07

made sure to insert themselves into it heavily.

1:31:10

This was the first large-scale cooperation between

1:31:12

the right wing and the underworld. Tuyama

1:31:14

called on a gang leader in Kumamoto,

1:31:16

who sent him 300 men as reinforcements.

1:31:19

The gangsters joined with the local police, who

1:31:21

were mobilized by the Minister of Home Affairs

1:31:23

to harass political opponents and dissident

1:31:26

voters. As written by Kaplan and

1:31:28

Dubrow, the result was the bloodiest election in Japanese

1:31:30

history, with scores dead and hundreds

1:31:32

wounded. Genyosha, for its part,

1:31:34

stated openly in its official account that

1:31:36

the purpose of the Fukuoka campaign

1:31:39

was to uproot all democratic and liberal

1:31:41

organizations in the region. By

1:31:44

uproot, they mean beat and kill enough of these folks for the

1:31:46

rest of the people to fall in line. Voter

1:31:48

and political intimidation in its finest. The

1:31:51

Genyosha even participated in the Japanese invasion

1:31:53

of Korea. In 1895, Japan's

1:31:56

Minister of War asked the society to create a

1:31:58

pretext for soldiers to move into the country. And

1:32:01

so a squad of assassins infiltrated

1:32:03

the palace, murdered the Korean queen.

1:32:05

Following her death, Korea's government was

1:32:07

filled now with Japanese loyalists. Ultra

1:32:10

nationalism became a part of Japan's political

1:32:12

landscape, and hundreds of secret societies were

1:32:14

now modeled after the Dark Ocean Society.

1:32:17

Some societies were supported by wealthy elite, but

1:32:19

others used gambling, sex work, protection racket, street

1:32:22

peddling, blackmail, and control of labor recruiting to

1:32:24

earn money. The societies

1:32:26

adopted the Oyuban, Koban tradition,

1:32:28

just like the Tekia and

1:32:31

Oh my gosh, Bakutou. The

1:32:34

Tekia and Bakutou bosses were also attracted to

1:32:36

the secret societies, and this blurred the lines

1:32:38

between gangsters and ultra nationalist

1:32:41

conservative politicians, or

1:32:43

just business people. The Yihuzu were

1:32:45

similar to nationalist groups in several

1:32:47

ways. They valued power, resented foreigners,

1:32:49

liberalism and socialism, romanticized the past,

1:32:51

followed the beliefs of Shinto, and

1:32:53

deified the emperor. Toyama's

1:32:55

big achievement was the creation of the first

1:32:57

national federation of gangsters in 1919, the Great

1:33:00

Japan National Essence Society. Over

1:33:03

60,000 gangsters, laborers,

1:33:05

and ultra-nationalists joined. The

1:33:08

federation was led by Japan's Minister of Home

1:33:10

Affairs, Takihiro Tokinami,

1:33:13

with Toyama as his chief advisor. They

1:33:16

had the support of the home ministry, the

1:33:18

police, the military. They became the paramilitary arm

1:33:20

of Seyukai, one of two dominant political parties

1:33:22

at the time. Second

1:33:24

major party, the Minseito party, organized

1:33:27

its own gangster military force called

1:33:29

the Yamoto Minurokai, which

1:33:32

also had Yakuza members amongst its ranks. Right-wing

1:33:35

groups were prolific by the 1930s. Japan

1:33:37

experienced a period of instability where moderate

1:33:39

politicians withdrew from the public or they

1:33:41

were assassinated. From 1930 to

1:33:44

the end of World War II, there

1:33:46

were 29 assassination-related incidents involving

1:33:48

the right, including coups

1:33:50

by military officers and attacks on politicians

1:33:52

and industrialists. Toyama's power grew

1:33:54

more in the 1930s. He

1:33:57

was regularly invited to dinners that the

1:33:59

imperial palace gave address. at patriotic gatherings.

1:34:02

He also introduced the Japanese people to their new prime

1:34:04

minister in 1937. Toyama's

1:34:06

reign of terror only finally ended when he died in

1:34:08

1944 at the age of 89. The period of repression

1:34:12

in the 1930s, when his power was at

1:34:14

its height, where there was

1:34:16

no true democracy in Japan, was a militaristic

1:34:18

society is now called the Dark

1:34:20

Valley. Because of all the

1:34:22

military expansion during the time, more money was flown

1:34:24

into Japan than ever before, which greatly benefited the

1:34:26

Yakuza. The Yakuza organized laborers

1:34:28

on the waterfront. In the city of Kobe,

1:34:31

gangs gathered groups of unemployable men, sold their

1:34:33

labor to firms who needed unskilled workers. So

1:34:35

basically they were sold into slavery. This

1:34:38

was a lucrative business and bosses fought

1:34:40

over contracts and territories. The

1:34:42

Yakuza group that was the most successful

1:34:44

was the Yamaguchi Gumi. And they would

1:34:46

become the most powerful Yakuza clan ever

1:34:49

by far, one of the most powerful

1:34:51

organized crime syndicates in the world. Despite

1:34:54

declining membership in recent years, according to

1:34:56

Japanese law enforcement, they still bring in

1:34:58

billions of dollars a year, billions of

1:35:00

US dollars a year from extortion, gambling,

1:35:03

prostitution, arms trafficking, drug trafficking, real estate,

1:35:05

and construction kickbacks games and more. They've

1:35:08

also been involved in stock market

1:35:10

manipulation, damn, and internet porn, and

1:35:13

bullshit bonsai trees. They're just fucking

1:35:15

twigs, glued together with a couple

1:35:17

of grapes. Somebody painted orange and

1:35:19

called fucking oranges. No,

1:35:23

they don't fuck with fake bonsai trees. The

1:35:25

Yamaguchi Gumi family was founded in Kobe in 1915, starting

1:35:28

off as a labor brokerage led by a group

1:35:31

of dock workers. They quickly

1:35:33

turned to criminal enterprises. The

1:35:35

Yamaguchi Gumi family is named after

1:35:38

its founder, Harukichi Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi

1:35:40

was born in 1881, died in 1938. He

1:35:42

would actually only serve as a leader of

1:35:44

the family for its first decade, 1915 to

1:35:47

1925. The Yamaguchi Gumi started off

1:35:50

as a small Yakuza organization, but

1:35:52

at one point they had over

1:35:54

10,000 members divided into around 500

1:35:56

different bands, no Yorubo

1:36:00

Yamaguchi, born in 1902, was the

1:36:02

second godfather. Actually, they will have more than that.

1:36:04

Early in their, they grew to 10,000 according

1:36:08

to this Britannica thing, but finding

1:36:10

more recent articles later, sorry,

1:36:13

I didn't correct this portion of the notes to update

1:36:15

it with later information, but they will actually

1:36:17

get bigger than 10,000 members. Noburo

1:36:20

Yamaguchi, born in 1902, was

1:36:22

the second godfather of the Yamaguchi-Gumi

1:36:24

family. The son of Harukichi

1:36:27

Yamaguchi succeeded his father upon his retirement in

1:36:29

1925. He

1:36:31

remained in leadership until his death, October 4th, 1942, and

1:36:35

then was succeeded by his protege, this

1:36:37

is a very famous Japanese gangster, Kazua

1:36:40

Tauka, who transformed the Yamaguchi-Gumi

1:36:42

from a small group of

1:36:44

local gangsters into a national

1:36:46

crime syndicate. Kazua

1:36:49

Tauka, comparable to

1:36:51

the US mafia's Al Capone, took

1:36:54

over the gang after World War II, and it

1:36:56

would eventually become known as the godfather of all

1:36:58

godfathers in Japan. Kazua

1:37:00

Tauka, born in a small village on

1:37:02

the island of Shikaku, March 28th, 1913.

1:37:06

His parents were farmers, but Tauka was

1:37:08

orphaned at an early age and then sent to work

1:37:10

in a shipyard in Kobe. At the

1:37:12

age of 14, he began associated with members of

1:37:14

Noburo Yamaguchi's gang. He left school, served

1:37:17

as an apprentice for nine years, running errands,

1:37:19

waiting on Yamaguchi, beating the shit out of

1:37:21

people. Slowly but surely, he rose through

1:37:23

the ranks, managed to keep his fingers intact, he

1:37:27

earned a fearsome reputation as a fighter. He was

1:37:29

called Kuma, which means bear, because his signature

1:37:31

move, I guess, was to claw your fucking

1:37:33

eyes out. So scary ass dude,

1:37:36

that was a terrifying signature move. Tauka

1:37:40

became a full member in 1936. Leading

1:37:42

the Yakuza was not the vision Tauka

1:37:45

had for his life. He was once quoted as

1:37:47

saying, I never wanted to be a Yakuza. I

1:37:49

used to work at Kawasaki Shipyard, but

1:37:51

I got into a fight with my boss and quit the

1:37:53

company, so I couldn't go home. 1937,

1:37:57

just a year after becoming a full member, Tauka

1:37:59

is imprisoned for murder. murder, spent

1:38:01

most of the war years in prison, then got released in 1943,

1:38:03

didn't stay too long

1:38:05

for murder, was welcomed back

1:38:07

into the gang with open arms, Yamaguchi-Gumi's membership

1:38:09

had been taken out by an increased number

1:38:11

of police crackdowns, and of course, just the

1:38:14

war. October of 1946,

1:38:17

33-year-old Taka assumed control of the family.

1:38:20

He only had 25 Kobun at this

1:38:22

time, but Taka used his leadership skills and ruthlessness

1:38:24

to turn the family into a force to be

1:38:26

reckoned with amongst the Yakuza. A

1:38:29

friend suggested that underground criminal organizations might be

1:38:31

coming to an end. Taka

1:38:33

took his words to heart, decided to start legitimate

1:38:36

businesses to protect his family. He

1:38:38

founded the Yamaguchi-Gumi Construction Company, which

1:38:40

became enormous, started taking on local

1:38:43

projects, further developed the family's

1:38:45

gambling and extortion rackets. In

1:38:47

the late 40s, Taka formed an alliance with

1:38:49

the largest bakuto gang in the area, the

1:38:52

Honda Kai, and then they soon

1:38:54

got into a gang war because of his ambition to control this

1:38:56

group and he would do just that. Taka

1:38:58

took over their gambling rackets, incorporated the

1:39:01

Honda Kai into the Yamaguchi-Gumi, also

1:39:03

took control of a Korean mob's territory, and nearby

1:39:05

Osaka as well. Taka then founded,

1:39:08

so random, a talent agency to

1:39:11

promote performers from Osaka. Okay,

1:39:14

good money laundering scheme, I guess, or

1:39:16

maybe just real-life singers and actors and

1:39:18

such from Osaka. At the

1:39:20

same time, he continued to operate in the family's original

1:39:23

labor business on the Kobe docks. He also took

1:39:25

financial interest in cargo firms, told

1:39:27

all his followers they needed to maintain legitimate jobs,

1:39:30

allowed members to recruit and

1:39:32

maintain their own smaller families,

1:39:34

which became quasi-subsidiary families of

1:39:36

Yamaguchi-Gumi clan. Taka

1:39:39

was suspicious of other Yakuza gangs, refused

1:39:42

to join the Kontol Kai, a confederation

1:39:44

of gangs within the Yakuza. He

1:39:47

became more powerful than this confederation. Taka

1:39:49

restored the Yakuza during the post-war

1:39:51

period, helped turn the organization into

1:39:54

a business that dealt in extortion,

1:39:56

racketeering, gambling, sex work, loan sharking,

1:39:58

smuggling, Chomping people's heads off,

1:40:01

other legal and illegal enterprises. Japan's