Reverberating Ninkyo: Betting Rooms and the Yakuza Code in the Showa Era: The 1950s

Reverberating Ninkyo: Betting Rooms and the Yakuza Code in the Showa Era: The 1950s

After the chaotic period immediately following the defeat in World War II, Japan was on its way to economic recovery. However, at a time when the system and police control were inadequate, "another order" was taking root behind the scenes in the cities. This order was embodied by the yakuza, known as "hakuza" or "tekiya.

The yakuza of the 1950s were an extension of the prewar "ninkyo-do" (chivalry). In addition to domination through violence and the acquisition of interests, ninkyō was also associated with the Confucian and bushido ethics of "helping the weak and discouraging the strong. They were often bound together by rituals such as "benevolence," "righteousness," and "sakazukigoto," and operated under a "code" that was separate from the law.

The gambling den (toba) was the starting point of the yakuza. The toba is not merely a place where money is exchanged; it is also a place where participants are tested on their courage, courtesy, silence, and the aesthetics of losing. Even winners were expected to be courteous to the losers, and there was a certain etiquette in the way they released the bills. In the society of the exponents, these manners were associated with "chic" and "manly dignity.

A description from the time says, "The gambling halls were filled with the lingering scent of bushido. In other words, while the surface society was being dominated by money and efficiency, the men of the underworld were conversely trying to respect the "way. In fact, the relationship between brothers and siblings was clearly defined by the exchange of sake cups, and those who broke such agreements were severely punished with "excommunication" or "finger-pounding.

Their code also had an aspect of being a receptacle for war orphans and the needy. The yakuza world was the only place where those on the margins of society could build relationships based on "duty and code. The structure of the yakuza organization included a "boss" who taught young people who could not read or write how to live and behave.

However, this "aesthetics" gradually collapsed in the 1960s. As the high economic growth of Japan expanded the financial scale of the underworld, the gangs became more pragmatic and corporate in nature. Interest disputes, methamphetamine trafficking, land grabbing, political intervention--they transformed into organizations in which "profit" came to the fore rather than "the way.

Nevertheless, the memory of the 1950s is still marked by the behavior of the men who were called "expositors. Even though they were outside the system, they lived by their own manners and to the fullest. Their appearance is an echo of another ethics that the city has forgotten.