Taoka Kazuo

Taoka Kazuo (middle, 1952)

Taoka Kazuo ( Japanese 田 岡 一 雄 ; * March 28, 1913 ; † July 23, 1981 ) was the third gang leader ( Kumichō ) of the yakuza group Yamaguchi-gumi . Under his leadership, the organization became one of the largest yakuza groups. Taoka is one of the most famous personalities from the yakuza milieu.

Life

Taoka was born in a small village on Shikoku Island . Orphaned at an early age , he was sent to Kobe to work in the docks. At the age of 14 he joined Yamaguchi-gumi and their gang leader Yamaguchi Noboru took him on. For his ferocity in fights he was nicknamed Kuma (bear) by the other gang members. In 1937 Taoka was sentenced to eight years in prison for murder. In 1943 he was released early from prison due to an imperial amnesty. In May 1944 he married Fukayama Fumiko . In 1946 he became the new head of Yamaguchi-gumi. His mentor, Yamaguchi, died in 1942 while Taoka was incarcerated. Under Taoka's leadership, the organization began to grow and strengthen its position. Other smaller gangs were absorbed into the Yamaguchi-gumi and companies were founded. Taoka also invested in show business and founded a talent agency. As early as the 1950s, Taoka was regarded in conservative circles as a force in the region that should not be neglected. In the mid-1960s, 343 different gangs were under the auspices of Yamaguchi-gumi. By the end of the decade, the number of members grew to 10,000.

In 1972 he made an alliance with Inagawa-kai , which proved to be profitable for both organizations. In July 1978, he survived an assassination attempt by a member of Matsuda-gumi , a rival yakuza group, at a club in Kyōto’s entertainment district . The assassination, an act of revenge for the death of the gang leader in Matsuda-gumi in 1975, led to violent clashes between the two organizations, with at least five deaths on the part of Matsuda-gumi alone. Taoka took several months to recover from his injuries. Although this was not the first attack he survived, it marked the beginning of his unrestricted rule over the now 12,000 members of Yamaguchi-gumi. Higher-ranking yakuza began to think about a possible successor to Taoka, who had suffered from heart disease for several years. When he died of a heart attack in 1981, his wife Fumiko, supported by an eight-member committee, took over the leadership of Yamaguchi-gumi until a new gang leader was appointed. In 1984 this became Takenaka Masahisa .

Taoka had several children. His daughter Yuki was married to the musician Kitarō from 1983 to 1990 .

literature

• David E. Kaplan, Alec Dubro: Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld ( University of California Press , 2012)
• Taoka Kazuo in the Encyclopædia Britannica

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Mark Schreiber: Shocking Crimes of Postwar Japan (1996)

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Taoka is the family name, Kazuo the first name.