YAMA-ICHI KOSO: Kansai’s bloody Yakuza war

In 1946, Kazuo Taoka - the “Godfather of Godfathers” - took control of the Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza, a small time gang based in Kobe. Taoka, an orphan who’d grown up fighting on the streets, set about completely reinventing the group. By the 1970’s the Yamaguchi were one of the largest crime syndicates in the world with over 10,000 members and domination of Japan’s entertainment industry, sumo, drug market and more.

While Taoka survived a 1978 assassination attempt during a limbo competition, he died of natural causes in 1981. His death left a power vacuum that was to be filled through a drawn out and bloody war that ravaged the streets of the Kansai region until 1989.

The chaos following Taoka's death was used by the police and rival gangs to weaken Yamaguchi power. In response, Taoka’s widow, Fumiko, stepped in as acting head and was left to choose from two candidates for the gang’s leadership – Hiroshi Yamamoto & Masahisa Takenaka. Fumiko elected Takenaka, a personal favorite of hers, and it was this decision that would kick off the bloody YAMA-ICHI KOSO.

Yamamoto, slighted by Fumiko’s choice, seceded from the Yamaguchi to form a new syndicate – the Ichikawa-kai. Despite some initial success, the Ichikawa were already losing hundreds of members back to the Yamaguchi by 1984. In a desperate attempt to turn the tides, Yamamoto sent a hit squad to murder Takenaka. The plan succeeded and in 1985, as Takenaka was waiting for an elevator, he and 2 other generals were gunned down.

Kazuo Nakanishi immediately took control of the Yamaguchi and, over the next 4 years, waged a campaign of revenge on the Ichikawa. Between 1985 and 1989, more than 220 gunfights broke out on the streets of Kansai with several civilians killed in the crossfire. Newspapers at the time reported daily scorecards of deaths on each side of the war.

a tv excerpt showing Takenaka (left) and Yamamoto (right)

The war gradually slowed to a close in 1989, with the Yamaguchi-gumi ultimately coming out on top. However, the number of members killed or arrested during the war had weakened the clan considerably and Yakuza in Japan has never fully recovered to pre YAMA-ICHI KOSO strength.

police swarm to the scene after Takenaka’s assassination