The Asano-clan ( 浅野氏 ) is a yakuza group based in Okayama , Japan . The Asano-gumi is a designated yakuza group with an estimated 60 active members.
6-673: The Asano-gumi was formed in 1945 as a bakuto organization named the Oyama-ikka ( 大山一家 , Ōyama-ikka ) by Kunio Oyama. The group restarted as the Asano-gumi with the head of Shin'ichi Asano in April 1952 following Oyama's retirement. Yoshiaki Kushida succeeded as president in September 1983. The Asano-gumi has been based in Kasaoka, Okayama ever since its formation. The Asano-gumi caused conflicts with
12-780: The Kyosei-kai , the Kyodo-kai , the Goda-ikka , and the Shikoku -based Shinwa-kai . Bakuto Bakuto (博徒) were itinerant gamblers active in Japan from the 18th century to the mid-20th century. They were one of two forerunners (the other being tekiya , or peddlers) to modern Japanese organized crime syndicates called yakuza . Beginning around the 17th century, bakuto plied their trade in towns and highways in feudal Japan , playing traditional games such as hanafuda and dice . During
18-454: The Tokugawa shogunate , violent bakuto ikka (families) rose to power with the gambling spaces they ran, occasionally hired by local governments to gamble with laborers, winning back worker's earnings in exchange for a percentage. They had varying qualities of relationships with the villages in which they lived, often as well with the government, despite their connection. In the 18th century,
24-598: The Yamaguchi-gumi and the Kyodo-kai in the late 20th century. In one notable case, Asano member(s) shot and murdered two Yamaguchi members in Kurashiki in 1987, as a retaliation for an earlier attack by Yamaguchi member(s) involving carving knives against two Asano members. Since 1996, the Asano-gumi has been a member of an anti- Yamaguchi federation named the Gosha-kai, along with three other Chugoku -based organizations,
30-492: The mid-20th century, some yakuza organizations that dealt mostly in gambling described themselves as bakuto groups. But this was seen as outdated, and most were eventually absorbed into larger, more diverse syndicates. For example, the Honda-kai was a Kobe -based bakuto gang which formed an alliance after World War II with the Yamaguchi-gumi , but were soon overtaken by the larger gang. Fictional examples can be seen in
36-405: The tradition of elaborate tattooing was introduced into bakuto culture. Dealers of card or dice games often displayed these full-body tattoos shirtless while playing. This eventually led to the modern yakuza tradition of full-body tattooing. Bakuto were also responsible for introducing the tradition of yubitsume , or self-mutilation as a form of apology, to yakuza culture. Up until
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