Memories of the Bamboo Spear that Ripped Through a Turbulent World: The Shibuya Incident and the Era of Iwataro Takahashi (1946)

Memories of the Bamboo Spear that Ripped Through a Turbulent World: The Shibuya Incident and the Era of Iwataro Takahashi (1946)

January 1946. In Shibuya, Tokyo, where the shadow of defeat still lingered strongly, a single angry voice tore through the streets. This was the beginning of the first large-scale postwar conflict in Japan: the Shibuya Incident. Six months after the end of the war, Japanese society had lost its roots of order, and an era of anarchy was spreading as demobilized soldiers, black market players, and gangsters clashed with each other. The police force was paralyzed, and people were living in the wreckage of a controlled economy under the occupation of the Allied Forces.

The Ochiai family was the sixth head of the Hon Kokuritsu Kai Ochiai family, and Iwataro Takahashi, born in Nakano in 1912, had been a member of the Gurentai since he was a boy, and had made a name for himself among the expatriate community before and during the war. The Ochiai family is a prestigious Kanto expo family with a tradition that dates back to Edo period. Inheriting their lineage, Takahashi, in the chaos of the postwar period, united chivalrous men from the Kanto region and reestablished the Hon Kokushikai.

The Shibuya Incident began with a small dispute. Clashes with the Kansai Gurentai, which had moved into Tokyo from Osaka, quickly escalated, and Takahashi mobilized more than 130 Kanto Gurentai and Hakkoku. With wooden swords, bamboo spears, and even pistols flying about, Shibuya became a battlefield overnight. The police were unable to handle the situation, and U.S. military police were dispatched to the scene. The atmosphere in front of Shibuya Station after the war was like a temporary martial law.

This war was a contest of strength between the two great exporter forces of the Kanto and Kansai regions, and at the same time, an attempt to restore order amidst chaos. Iwataro Takahashi was not just a violent man. He was a man of honor. He put his life on the line and never lost his pride as a chivalrous man. He was a role model for the postwar era expositors.

Eventually, the Shibuya Incident paved the way for the development of anti-boryokudan legislation, and state power began to move in earnest to eliminate the gangs. At the same time, however, it also meant that the culture of chivalry was quietly coming to an end. Iwataro Takahashi passed away quietly in 2002 after witnessing the muddy waters. He must have looked back many times in his mind to the night in Shibuya when the bamboo spears flew wildly.

It was not just a war. In a corner of the country that had lost order, there were those who made sense. The angry voice that echoed in the sky of Shibuya that night was a voice that questioned righteousness in a turbulent world.