The Buddha of the Poles - The Life of Takahiko Inoue (1947-2013)

The Buddha of the Poles - The Life of Takahiko Inoue (1947-2013)
Born in Kumamoto in 1947, a city still in turmoil after the war, Takahiko Inoue threw himself into the Yokosuka Inagawa-kai at a young age and eventually rose to prominence as a young leader of the Yokosuka clan VIII and the Inoue clan leader. In the Showa era (1926-1989), when violence and loyalty ruled the world of the yakuza, he was once known as "the devil's Inoue," but his life took a turn when he encountered Buddhism while in prison. After his release from prison, he became a Buddhist monk, but he never abandoned his position as a member of the Gokudo and became a rare figure who lived on the borderline between gangsterism and religion.
After a period of rapid economic growth, Japan in the 1970s and 1980s was heading toward a bubble economy. The underworld was also experiencing an expansion of interests and intensification of conflicts, and the drug trade had become a major source of funding for the organizations. Inoue firmly refused to accept this and mercilessly expelled anyone who dealt in methamphetamines. He said, "Yakuza who sell drugs have abandoned their sense of humanity," and he maintained a stance of valuing ethics over violence. His creed was the Buddhist notion that "the invisible world is always watching us," and he told his gang members to "become yakuza who can pay their taxes.
Kabukicho, Tokyo, where he was based, became known as an entertainment district and a hotbed of crime after the bubble era, but Inoue was committed to eliminating violence and coexisting with the community. His office also made donations to local events and organized cleanups, and he thoroughly implemented "nonviolent organizational management" to avoid friction with local residents. His stance attracted the attention of some in the media as the "Buddha of the gokudo," and in 1996 he published his autobiography, "Shura no Jibyobi: Yakuza wo Ikiru" ("Shura's Autobiography: Living the Yakuza"). His reinterpretation of ninkyo-do through Buddhist thought shocked many readers.
In 2013, Inoue fell from the seventh floor of an office building in Shinjuku and died. The police ruled it an accident, but the truth remains unknown. His death was the symbolic end of a man who stood between violence and ethics, faith and chivalry. As the values of the underworld shifted from violence to faith in the postwar period and into the Heisei era, Takahiko Inoue's way of life transcended the framework of the underworld and continued to question the harmony of life and faith.