''Bakuto'' (博徒) were itinerant gamblers active in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

from the 18th century to the mid-20th century. They were one of two forerunners (the other being ''

tekiya ''Tekiya'' ( or ; "peddlers") are itinerant Japanese merchants who, along with the ''bakuto'' ("gamblers"), historically were predecessors to the modern ''yakuza''. A loose American equivalent of the ''tekiya'' could be seen in carnies. History ...

'', or peddlers) to modern Japanese organized crime syndicates called ''

yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media (by request of the police) call them , while the yakuza call themselves . The English equivalent for the term ''yak ...

''.

History

Beginning around the 17th century, ''bakuto'' plied their trade in towns and highways in

feudal Japan The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to the Paleolithic, around 38–39,000 years ago. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC whe ...

, playing traditional games such as

hanafuda () are a type of Japanese playing cards. They are typically smaller than Western playing cards, only , but thicker and stiffer. On the face of each card is a depiction of plants, , animals, birds, or man-made objects. One single card depicts a ...

and

dice A die (: dice, sometimes also used as ) is a small, throwable object with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. Dice are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, ro ...

Raimund von Stillfried-Rathenitz - A Tattooed Man

During the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

, violent ''bakuto'' ''ikka'' (families) rose to power with the gambling spaces they ran, occasionally hired by local governments to gamble with laborers, winning back worker's earnings in exchange for a percentage. They had varying qualities of relationships with the villages in which they lived, often as well with the government, despite their connection. In the 18th century, the tradition of elaborate tattooing was introduced into ''bakuto'' culture. Dealers of card or dice games often displayed these full-body tattoos shirtless while playing. This eventually led to the modern ''yakuza'' tradition of full-body tattooing. ''Bakuto'' were also responsible for introducing the tradition of ''

yubitsume or ''otoshimae'' is a Japanese ritual to atone for offenses to another, a way to be punished or to show sincere apology and remorse to another, by means of amputating portions of one's own little finger. In modern times, it is primarily perfor ...

'', or self-mutilation as a form of apology, to ''yakuza'' culture. Up until the mid-20th century, some ''yakuza'' organizations that dealt mostly in gambling described themselves as ''bakuto'' groups. But this was seen as outdated, and most were eventually absorbed into larger, more diverse syndicates. For example, the Honda-kai was a

Kobe Kobe ( ; , ), officially , is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population of around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's List of Japanese cities by population, seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Port of Toky ...

-based ''bakuto'' gang which formed an alliance after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

with the

Yamaguchi-gumi is Japan's largest ''yakuza'' organization. It is named after its founder Harukichi Yamaguchi. Its origins can be traced back to a loose labor union for longshoreman, dockworkers in Kobe before World War II. It is one of the largest organized cr ...

, but were soon overtaken by the larger gang.

Notable figures

Shimizu Jirocho was a famous yakuza and entrepreneur. He is considered a folk hero in Japan. Born , he was adopted by his uncle Jirohachi Yamamoto who was a rice wholesaler. Due to the fall of his adoptive family he became a bakuto (gambler) and thereafter the ...

* Kunisada Chūji was a notable ''bakuto ikka'' boss. His story is mainly responsible for the romanticised "chivalrous bandit" or "

Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary noble outlaw, heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature, theatre, and cinema. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions o ...

" image in Japan. He was publicly executed in 1850 for various crimes after a large man-hunt.

In popular culture

Fictional examples can be seen in the Zatoichi and iron fist film series, about a blind masseur who would often participate in ''bakuto''-run gambling. From 1964 to 1971, Toei Studios produced the ten-part ''Gambler'' (''Bakuto'') series of films starring Kōji Tsuruta (except for the film ''Gambler Clan'', which starred Ken Takakura in his place). The 1968 movie series '' Red Peony Gambler'' (''Hibotan Bakuto''), starring Junko Fuji, also references ''bakuto'' culture.

References

* Kaplan, David E., and Alec Dubro
''Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld'', exp. ed.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. {{ISBN, 0-520-21561-3, Japanese gamblers Yakuza