A City in Shadow: Nakagawa Inosaburo and Juso's Showa Backstory (1945-1984)

A City in Shadow: Nakagawa Inosaburo and Juso's Showa Backstory (1945-1984)

Nakagawa Inosaburo was an exporter who built up his power in Juso, Osaka in the late Showa period and is known as the leader of the "Nakagawa-gumi," a direct member of the third Yamaguchigumi clan. Juso was a disorderly town with a mixture of entertainment areas and black markets as it recovered from the war. Nakagawa built a base to support the Yamaguchigumi's advance into northern Osaka while organizing the local gangs. In particular, he formed a close relationship with Yukio Jido, a young martial arts leader, and played an important role in absorbing the Yanagawa clan, which later became the key to Yamaguchigumi's nationwide expansion.

In the "Meiyukai Incident" in 1960, Nakagawa was assaulted by Meiyukai executives at a club in Minami, which triggered a full-scale Yamaguchigumi war. Nakagawa was part of the retaliatory force and stood at the front line of the war throughout Osaka. As a result, Meiyukai was destroyed and Yamaguchigumi established its control over Osaka, but Nakagawa himself was arrested and indicted along with other executives.

He was also involved in the "Toa Doyukai," a plan by fixer Eijio Kodama to unify all exposures in Japan. As a "bulwark of anti-communism" during the Cold War, Nakagawa was a representative of the Kansai region as it joined forces with political and right-wing forces in the expo community. His life tells the story of the depths of the Showa period, when the underworld and the state intersected.