Secret Societies: Inside the World's Most Notorious Organizations (30 page)

This evolution of samurai from warrior-heroes to organized thugs generated a response from the victims of their plundering, common folk, who shrugged off their veneration of samurai and responded by forming a citizen militia known as the
machiyokko
. Within a few years, the tables had turned against the samurai; the machi-yokko were now viewed as protectors of the ordinary Japanese, and they acquired a mantle of respect and reverence while operating beyond the reach of the law, a direct parallel with the rise of the Sicilian Mafia. When the samurai were subdued, the machi-yokko remained as defenders of the common folk, even after modern-day Japanese culture arrived with centralized authority and law enforcement, leaving the machi-yokko outside the law.

By this time the various machi-yokko branches began referring to themselves as
yakuza
, a name derived from the organizations’ fondness for gambling. One of their favored games,
hana-fuda
(flower cards), was played with three cards in which the worst possible hand totaled 20 points. “Ya” in spoken Japanese means 8, “ku” means 9, and “sa” means 3, yielding the dreaded 20-point hand and implying that Yakuza members are the “bad hands” of society.

As the Freemasons did with the Templar legend, the Yakuza fostered an association with the more noble aspects of the samurai, and their practice of severing a pinkie finger as punishment relates directly back to the ancient warrior class. When wielding a
katana
, the swordsman's pinkie finger exerted greater control over the weapon than any other part of his hand. A samurai with an injured or missing pinkie was at a distinct disadvantage in battle and relied heavily on his master for protection. Thus the punishment exerted by Yakuza bosses on errant members.

Removal of a pinkie, known as
yubizeum
, represents punishment for displeasing or disappointing a Yakuza master and symbolizes both the member's error and courage. The offending
Yakuza is alerted to the need for the amputation when his superior hands him two items: a knife, and a length of string to staunch the bleeding. No words are spoken. None is necessary. The offender must have no connection with the group until he carries out his own punishment, confirms its completion, and receives forgiveness from the master.

In addition to incomplete pinkies, Yakuza members may be identified by their extensive tattoos, often applied not as individual symbols like those favored in the West, but as extensive murals depicting dragons, flowers, landscapes and abstract designs applied to parts of their bodies normally covered with everyday clothing. With his face, neck, lower arms, ankles and feet left free of tattoos, a naked Yakuza appears to be wearing long underwear. The meticulous application of the designs takes hundreds of hours and costs thousands of dollars, yet remains hidden from view to all but his most intimate partners. Its purpose is to demonstrate, to those who witness the body art, that its owner has both the wealth and the courage to absorb the cost and pain.

Westerners who encounter a group of Yakuza without knowing their identity may see them as unintentionally comic. The members favor tight-fitting silk suits, pointed-toe shoes, slicked long hair in a pompadour style, and a swagger more reminiscent of the sitcom tv character The Fonz than of butchers like Vito Genovese and Lepke Buchalter. The gangster cliché is strengthened by the preference, among Yakuza members, for American Cadillac and Lincoln automobiles, oversized and ostentatious in the land of Toyotas and Hondas.

Naked Yakuza are obviously a chilling sight. The overall-body tattoos signify wealth and resistance to pain.

Reflecting the classic pyramid structure of the Mafia/Cosa Nostra, the Yakuza organization is somewhat more complex and multi-layered, based on an
oyabun-kobun
relationship.
Oyabun
means “father role,” and
kobun
means “child role.” Unquestioned loyalty to the boss is demanded of every Yakuza member. A Yakuza doctrine dictates “When your boss says the passing crow is white, you must agree that it is white,” and underlings filling the child role must never differ from the “father's” opinion. The
oyabun
, in turn, is obligated to offer protection and wise counsel to all of his children.

At the summit of each Yakuza organization is the
kumicho
, or Supreme Boss. Immediately beneath him are the
saiko koman
, his senior adviser, and the
so-honbucho
, or headquarters chief. The
wakagashira
are regional bosses who manage several gangs, each assisted by a
fuku-honbucho
, who may have several gangs of his own. Lesser regional bosses are
shateigashira
, with a
shateigashira-hosa
assisting them. Within each gang family are several
shatei
, or younger brothers, and
wakashu
, junior leaders.

Initiation into a Yakuza gang is filled with symbolism but surprisingly passive in nature. The candidate and his
oyabun
sit facing each other while cups of sake are prepared for the ceremony by adding salt and fish scales to the heated liquor, which is poured into each man's cup. The cups are identical in size but the oyabun's cup is always filled to the brim while the candidate receives much less. When the oyabun raises his cup to drink from it, the candidate does the same. Then the two men exchange cups, drinking from each other's. This sharing of the drink seals the entry of the young man into the group.

Yakuza existed in Japan for 300 years without making a major impact on society, although its members were major participants in the widespread corruption that marked Japanese society in the 1920s and 1930s. In the years following World War ii, however, greater freedom and prosperity saw Yakuza
numbers grow spectacularly. One recent estimate, suggesting that 5200 Yakuza gangs were operating throughout the country, placed the total number of Yakuza members at 184,000, making them larger in numbers than the Japanese army at the time.

Japanese police pressure in recent years has shrunk Yakuza, but they remain a potent force in Japan and, through intermediaries and political connections, in Korea, China and the Philippines as well. They tend to favor sex-related activities, running prostitution rings often consisting of young girls purchased from poor Chinese and Philippine families. Other young women may be attracted to Japan with promises of high-paying jobs as waitresses, receptionists and models. Once in Japan, they are put to work first as strippers and later as prostitutes.

In recent years, the Yakuza have branched into smuggling banned automatic weapons and drugs into the country, although traditional narcotics like heroin and cocaine are less popular these days than methamphetamine. They are also reputed to be deeply involved in casino operations throughout the world, preying on Japanese gamblers who are offered large cash loans in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Monte Carlo and elsewhere. The wealthy gamblers, assuming the loans will be uncollectible back in Japan, are enticed to borrow substantially. If they lose—and most do, of course—they return to Japan to discover that Yakuza partners of the loan sharks are determined to collect the debt along with a murderous rate of interest.

Perhaps the group's most lucrative and profitable diversification has been in the corporate field, where its leaders have grown adept at a uniquely Japanese form of extortion. After acquiring a few shares in a large publicly traded company, the Yakuza gathers scandalous information about the firm's top executives. Some of the executives’ activities, such as dalliances with prostitutes or drug habits, the Yakuza themselves may have fostered. Evidence of other practices such as tax evasion, maintaining unsafe factory conditions, and ignoring environmental laws are obtained through bribery.

Like the Mafia, the Yakuza has been glamorized in films.

When enough dirt has been accumulated, Yakuza members approach the top members of the corporation's executive committee shortly before the annual shareholders’ meeting and deliver an ultimatum: either the Yakuza are well compensated for destroying the evidence or the group's
sokaiya
(meeting men) will disclose the information at the annual shareholders’ meeting. The
sokaiya
are chosen for their vehement style, capable of shouting down anyone who tries to silence them and describing the executives’ misbehavior in colorful, provocative language.

Japanese society is sensitive to revelations causing shame and embarrassment, and corporate ceos and others quickly pay whatever the Yakuza demand. According to Japanese sources, the Yakuza have made millions of dollars from this technique.

Still, the glory days of the Yakuza may be fading. Many Japanese citizens refuse to be cowed by the gangsters, and have driven the organizations from some neighborhoods in spite of threats, beatings and killings. The organizations may also be breaking up from the inside because, unlike the Mafia/Cosa Nostra, Yakuza members do not dedicate their lives to the group. Many Yakuza thugs, having joined while impressionable young men, choose to leave in their mid-30s, having perhaps salted away their earnings or being attracted to the less strenuous corporate life. In some instances, these Yakuza drop-outs have discovered that the managerial skills acquired during their years as Yakuza members are highly valued in the corporate world, and many apparently occupy
executive suites in corporations they may have targeted at one time for attack by
sokaiya
.

How they manage to explain a missing pinkie or their elaborate body tattoo art remains a mystery.

TEN

WICCA

THE GREAT GODDESS AND THE HORNED GOD

AMONG THE WORLD'S MANY SECRET SOCIETIES
, most chose their covert nature as a means of avoiding harassment from groups and individuals who felt threatened by the society's existence. Perhaps no faction in history was more severely persecuted, in Europe and elsewhere, than witches. From the early medieval period through the Renaissance, untold thousands died, often under horrific circumstances, on the basis of nothing more than mere suspicion or empty accusation. With few exceptions, the victims were women; and in many instances, their persecutors were male members of the Christian Church.

While we think of the medieval and Reformation periods in Europe as the era of persecution against witches, the practice of witchcraft predates Christianity. Originally, the term referred to anyone who practiced magic, and both the pre-Christian Greeks and Romans made a distinction between “white” and “black” witchcraft. White magic was positive, and included the ability to bring good fortune or cure illnesses, while black witchcraft was any mystical action that caused harm against others. The Romans declared that any witch or magician who caused the death of another through spells or potions was subject to the same capital punishment as someone who committed murder with a sword or poison, a reasonable rule at the time.