How did the Yakuza form?

Question: How did the Yakuza form!?

How did the infamous Japanese gang form!? I've heard many stories!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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In Japan, organized crime and criminals come under the general heading of Yakuza!. According to tradition, the name is derived from the worst possible score in a Japanese card game!. It comes from Japan's counterpart to Black Jack, Oicho- Kabu!. The general difference between the cardgames is that in Oicho- Kabu is that a winning total of the cards is 19 instead of 21!. As you see, the sum of 8, 9 and 3, is 20, which is over in Oicho-Kabu!. In a hand resulting in a score of 20, the worst possible score, a player's final score would be zero!. Among the losing combinations, the phonetic sound of an 8-9-3 sequence is ya - ku - sa!. It's from there the name, yakuza is derived!.!.!. without worth to society!. This doesn't mean that they have no use for the society, it means that the members are people that somehow do not fit in the society, in other words societies misfits!.

The Yakuza were itinerant gamblers, peddlers, renegade warriors and roving bandits!. They served shoguns and municipalities and their legend includes a distinct Robin Hood quality that recently emerged during the recent Kobe Earthquake!. The Yamaguchi-gumi Yakuza clan quickly mobilized providing on the scene assistance to Kobe's earthquake victims long before the national government resolved to act!. Yakuza form a central theme in Japan's popular culture and trace their origins to at least the 17th century!. Therefore, among the world's criminal organizations the Yakuza are older than the Sicilian Mafia!.

Yakuza strength rises and falls according to the tides of Japanese society, with estimates of core membership ranging from 80,000 to more than 110,000 in the years from 1945 to 1996!. Some authorities believe Japan's National Police routinely undercount the Yakuza, numbering only those names found in confiscated membership rolls, or recorded from routine police intelligence reports!. Like the Sicilian Mafia and other underworld organizations, the Yakuza are formed into families, but in Japan other distinctions emerge including that of the oyabun - kobun (father role - child role) relationship, between Yakuza chiefs and their underlings!.

The Yakuza evolved into their current form late in the 19th-century under figures like Toyama Mitsuru!. This son of a Samurai founded the Genyosha (Dark Ocean) Society, and later Toyama's top aide Ryohei Uchida founded the Amur River Society (Black Dragons)!. Like organized crime in other cultures, the Yakuza began to control construction labor and dockside labor, adding to traditional areas of enterprise in the vices, prostitution, gambling, liquor distribution, and entertainment!. In the late 1960s or early 1970s the Yakuza moved into the lucrative narcotics trade and in recent years have stepped up their trade in firearms and other contraband!. According to various sources, Yakuza have formed alliances and working relationships with Chinese Triads, Sicilian and American Mafia, Columbian drug cartels, Jamaican Posses, and assorted other criminal organizations throughout the world!.

from "Okinawa Japan Virtual Ginza Your Door to Okinawa Japan"!. Available on-line at http://www!.virtualginza!.com/yakuza!.htm!. Virtual Ginza is an excellent source of all things OkinawanWww@QuestionHome@Com

A bunch of Japanese warlords and criminals started robbing samurai, acquiring their treachured swords!. With these swords, they believed that they held power!. And they did!. They eventually got organized around 1455!. That was when the Yakuza, or the Japanese mafia, formed!.Www@QuestionHome@Com