The Yakuza | Secret Societies 5 | Japanese History | Extra History
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- čas přidán 3. 05. 2024
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The shadowy underworld of Japan's Edo Period sets the stage for the rise of the Yakuza, Japan's most notorious brotherhood of gangsters. From the intertwining paths of peddlers and gamblers, to the rituals and traditions that bind the Yakuza together. Their humble beginnings of wielding political influence and engaging in organized crime, have built the Yakuza's violence, power, and intrigue, creating pivotal moments in Japanese history.
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Miss an episode in our Secret Societies Series?
Part 1 - • The Cult of Mithras | ...
Part 2 - • The Illuminati | Secre...
Part 3 - • Knights of the Golden ...
Part 4 - • The Golden Dawn and Al...
Part 5 - • The Yakuza | Secret So...
Series Wrap-up & Recommended Reading / Lies Episode - Release Date: 5/18
Thanks for the high-quality conversations & for following our community guidelines here: bit.ly/ECFansRNice
Artist: Ali R Thome | Writer: Robert Rath | Researcher: A. Siso | Showrunner & Narrator: Matthew Krol | Video Editor: Devon House Creative | Audio Editor: Clean Waves | Studio Director: Geoffry Zatkin | Social Media: Kat Rider | ♪ Music by Demetori: bit.ly/1EQA5N7 | ♪ "Subatomic Fugue" by Tiffany Roman
#ExtraHistory #Yakuza #History
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Thanks for Watching!
Thanks For this Guys! You're amazing ❤❤❤❤❤
That opening gave me actual chills. I can't stress this enough, I am so ready to finish up my initiation into this secret society!😄
YALL should have made a special version of your theme for this series.
Did I miss the mafia episode or the Triad episode I hope not
I personally have another part of history of the Yakuza but it's still disturbing to hear
It's quite simple to take down a secret society. You just need an Osiris mask, a kilt, a dagger, some trinkets and imagination.
That only works if the cultists don’t have legs
I don't get it???
@@privatefellow6589Check the previous episode.
*Yakuza cast spell of "auto pistol"...
"It was super effective"
@@privatefellow6589 previous episode reference
The yakuza has to be one of the most interesting and brutal "mafia"
and if you ask someone in New Jersey they would think its a load of baloney just before get their gabagool
Yah I always thought that the Yakuza was just the Japanese version of the mafia
You should see the Chinese Triads
@@22espec already saw them and heard about them they are even more brutal
They're not really all that different to mafias and similar crime organisations.
I named my cult in Cult of the Lamb "Ordo Historia" I couldn't fit the "Extra" in due to the Character limit
You can't fit the "extra" word in
@@ryujibackyeah4189youre funny
Mine is War and Fleece
E
@@EEEEEEEE G
Met a Yakuza in an Irish bar in Tokyo back in 2016.
Spoke fluent English and was one of the most down to earth guys I've ever met. Bought me my first glass of sake in Tokyo and in return I bought him a Guinness.
He didn't like the Guinness 😅
That is substory material there
"Substory 104: The Drunk Yakuza"
youknow sometimes i remember that all this started due to a "let's ask if our viewers want us to make some history content?"
and here we are several million subs and hours of edutainment later :)
this channel is an underrated piece of evidence for the internet being a good thing.
That show became so popular, the original one moved on a new channel XD
What? No extra history started because Total War sponsored a series of episodes about the Phoenician wars in order to drum up hype about Total War: Rome 2
They didn't ask the audience about the sponsorship
@@lasse6984I think y'all are both right the punic wars were supposed to be a one off thing but then they asked their audience later and got another sponsorship I think and from there it's been a mainstay
E
an 18 inch pipe is just insane lol
I feel like there is a “that’s what she said” incoming
They were actually carried for self defense at times.
Pipes with very long stems have been at times preferred because it allows the smoke to cool before it reaches the mouth.
Those pipes were used to bend weapon laws. You had a smoke pipe that doubles as a mace.
@@christopherschneider2968 kinda funny lol
I remember hearing anecdotally that the Yakuza gangs had called truces in response to the 2011 earthquake and put resources towards helping out the most affected regions of Japan, which jibes well with your mention of them historically helping out with disaster relief.
They do it a lot, it's in part a way to keep up a facade of being the "good bad guys". The Yakuza needs support from the common people, and they get it either through fear or through benevolent actions. It's also in part due to the fact that they come from lower castes of society that historically don't expect much help from those above.
@ggwp638BC some of the "best" criminals do this. Pablo Escobar was very charitable. He built a football stadium. His philanthropic ways could never offset how ruthless he was though.
You might have read one of my reddit or youtube post over the years.
Shortly after the Hanshin EQ that devastated the city of Kobe in the mid-90s, I was visiting Osaka and took up a part-time job during the summer at a labor dispatch office. It was ran by the Yakuza. The boss was a typical 80s-90s yakuza with the shades, suit, Clan pin-badge, shiny shoes, and a Mercedes Benz lol.
The Yakuza used fronts like this to support the EQ relief efforts. We moved construction materials, moved rubble from train stations, and delivered A/C units to temporary housings for EQ victims.
Kansai region still to this day feel gratitude to local Yakuza that helped out the region, especially Kobe, during the worst times - when the Federal government was failing to step up.
@@KnightMan16 a lot of crinimal organizations do it. Mexican cartels are well know for providing resources after earthquakes and to marginalized communities. That doesn't make them less terrible.
I'm playing Yakuza 0 right now, the brief explanation of Oichu Kabu was very helpful to me. 😂
Same
I’m now at Yakuza 5 (playing as Shinada). These games are LONG. There is so much to do in them.
Who says you can’t use this stuff in the real world?
E
on yakuza kiwami, beat amon, doing 2 eventually, maybe do a legend mode playthrough
You missed one *very* important point. The tattoos didn't start off as gang signs. They started as part of the Edo period criminal justice system. The punishment for a number of crimes included tattooing with the design permanently signalling the offense
To be honest after all the references throughout this series it's kinda a shame that the last episode wasn't about the Freemasons themselves.
Perhaps they’d face legal trouble considering the Freemasons are still quite prominent?
I’m sure they’ll make an episode eventually! You can’t mention secret societies withOUT mentioning the Freemasons!
I think they are probably cooking a Freemasonry series. Freemasons are so big they can't be talked about in just one short episode. They are the only secret non-secret society to stand the test of time to this extent, with both religious and practical motivations, and actually influence world governments and fight hand to hand against the Catholic Church (and beating it, to an extent).
Problem is that freemasonry isn't 'one' secret society, it's a bunch of ss's that share a common origin. Several grand lodges are similar enmough that members from one can visit another, but some are dissimilar enough that visitations aren't allowed.
Most short-form documentaries don't really have time to go into details, so usually focus on one historical lodge and imply by omission that the freemasons of today are basically the same monolithic entity, which does everyone a disservice.
Note: I'm not a member, but I know enough people who are to have absorbed a bunch of stuff by osmosis.
It would be interesting to see EH's take on it though.
Or maybe that was the plan all along...
2:48 as far as I'm aware, there was an even lower caste (composed by those forced to take on the jobs no one liked, like corpse collecting or latrine cleaning), but it tends to be forgotten because they were discriminated against hard and even had to change their class name during the Meiji period so that society could at least accept the rights they'd newly gained (basic citizenship rights); also, farmers were technically above all other classes that were lower than samurai, even the merchants with set shops and commercial empires.
Actually the untouchables (the Burakumin) are STILL discriminated against in parts of Japan. For instance, inter-marriage was looked down upon as late as the 1970's and 80's. Google caused an uproar by posting a historical map in the early 2010's showing the location of their neighborhoods, outing many people in the process. Also the jobs nobody liked included leather tanning.
Yep, Samurai were soldiers and also bureaucratic body of the government. Farmers were those who worked the land. These two casts were very closely tied, as they believe that historically farmer had became Samurai to fight off criminals and organized bandits, so Samurai could retire as farmers, and farmers could pick up the sword and become samurai (though it wasn't exactly an easy transition). This is even more solidified due to how many samurai being given land to overseer, and essentially becoming small feudal lords, which if you squint is basically being a rich farmer that occasionally deals with legal issues in the land or send soldiers to fight criminals.
Burakumin is the biggest source of Yakuza membership historically. There is a very denigrating "origin story" that the Japanese have in the past invented to explain away the origins of the burakumin, but it's now effectively illegal to tell the story in public. This has infuriated many authors who have pro-burakumin leanings because they feel they need to tell this story to convey just how vile Japanese society has been to them.
The real historical origin of the burakumin is a lot less interesting or vivid as the myth. They're basically the descendants of Korean and Chinese immigrants and the discriminated-against indigenous tribes of Japan. Modern burakumin have also added Southeast Asian immigrants to their ranks.
One yakuza boss made headlines a few years back when he rebranded his group into a nonprofit social organization and claimed that he himself was burakumin with a Korean ancestry. It's considered a very significant event in yakuza (and Japanese) history as his group was one of the major survivors of the great yakuza civil war that split apart Japan's biggest yakuza organization.
@@andrewsuryali8540 What is the myth? Where can I read about it? (My google-fu is failing me)
@@voland6846 As I already explained, it's basically illegal in modern Japan to tell the burakumin origin myth. This is why it's extremely difficult to find it, especially in English, but in short, the myth is that the ancestor of the eta or hinin (the traditional terms used for these people) were rebels against imperial rule who were defeated but committed heinous crimes in the process, including stuff like child sacrifice and cannibalism. As a result they were cast out of Japanese society, confined to "penitent villages" (buraku), and punished to pay for their crimes by having to do the dirtiest jobs in Japanese society, such as handling the dead (originally those who were executed) and taking excrement out of towns and cities.
That's the basic myth. The reality is that buraku were just villages made up of people who were disenfranchised by the Japanese caste system or were simply too poor to afford a decent life and were forced to take on the dirtiest jobs in society and got discriminated against BECAUSE of it. The myth is an ass-backwards origin story to explain how the burakus formed.
I should probably add that life wasn't actually all that horrible for the eta/hinin/burakumin during most of their existence because, while they were excluded from "proper" society, they were not excluded from the economy. Many buraku in the sengoku (warring states) and Edo eras were fairly well-off because enterprising eta were able to leverage their work into profitable businesses. In the sengoku era, they would scavenge battlefields for weapons, armor, and valuables, to sell back to the samurai. In the Edo era, many eta clans made money by becoming excrement collectors and selling the stuff to farmers as fertilizers. Many of them had access to cash as a result, with the average buraku actually having more of a cash economy than regular peasant villages. This was also why they were perfect recruits for the yakuza (or would start up yakuza groups themselves).
Oicho-kabu. Ah... Yakuza games taught me this, among a few others.
Like the dreaded Mahjong
@@honokakazuno I've come to terms with this. I have a few wins under my belt now!
@@honokakazunodear god, dont remind me, i still have the Mahjong achievements waiting for me at the end of 100%-ing Yakuza 0
The business, politics crime cycle is pretty universal today.
Well... not quite. Politics will always provide oportunities for shadowy dealings, but the actual control of politics by crime organisations is a particular problem of places with weak rule of law and strong crime organisations. Like, sure, there must be some corrupt oficials where I live, but it can't be compared to living under Colombian cartels or the Sicilian mafia.
0:26 my man got so nervous his hand became lighter, dont get angry at the animator, I love it
I guess you could say...that he paled-
Y'all guided me through the ranks of the order just to bring me to the level I was already at when I started this series. I hate it here lol.
But seriously, thanks for making this series. I had a lot of fun learning about secret societies these past few weeks.
E
The slide whistle is my favorite EH joke in a long time
Great series!
the *solemn* slide whistle!
That opening was sweet!
Side note-
All loans are enforced with violence, it is normally just state sanctioned;
If you don’t pay your loan, you house/car/etc will be forcibly repossessed.
Pretty much everything in society is enforced with state sanctioned violence.
The government is just a legal mafia
I don't think the bank usually wants their money being soaked in blood.
@@Toonrick12 Money is money. Cold water will wash the blood out👺👹☠☠
@@Toonrick12If you don’t pay your loans, men with guns show up to take you against your will. If you fight back, they will use violence to take you and imprison you.
I’ve never thought a form of organized crime was a cult.
Note to self: I'm a dumbass
The series is called "secret societies." Cults are part of that, but the topic was broader than that.
Also, organized crime does show some cultic behavior, like reverence towards a great leader who acts like a "father" to the members, separation from outside relationships, and punitive responses to perceived rule-breaking.
But it is a fun game.
It’s not a series on cults, it’s a series on secret societies
How secret can it be with Majima running around
@@abdieljove2011 Not that secret but full of eyepatches
Don't forget that Nintendo operated love hotels and taxis for Yakuza
So cool that you created this 'Secret Societies' series. I enjoyed all of them! I hope you research for more secret societies as there's bound to be more out there to discover!
9:10 You say "less than 12k", but the accompanying image shows ">12k" (at the time of typing, at least).
That will be in the Lies episode
Between recording and editing, the Yakuza managed to acquire enough new members to pass the 12k mark and promptly informed the Extra Credits team, with an invitation for their 12k members celebration party.
"Blow breath into the solemn slide whistle of wisdom" Ha! Exactly the amount of respect modern cults deserve aside from federal raids.
You are messed up dude, "yeah, just Wacko and Ruby Ridge them all"
You have some growing to do as a person
This has been one of the best Extra History series yet! Story telling was strong as always and the leaning in to the content through your own secret society was a clever touch! Keep making content that gets us excited about learning. It’s powerful and appreciated!
Love your content guys! You're the Best ❤❤❤❤😊😊
This was an amazing series! Can't wait for the next one! ❤❤❤
PS. The art was stunning!
This spring I Completed my Master's of Global Studies with an undergrad in History and focus on East Asian Culture. So this episode really speaks to me. Thank you all for making a wonderful series for history lovers out there.
I would like to study east asian culture but I'm not in uni or collage. Can you please tell me any sources for me to read?
Thank you Extra History for this wonderfully intriguing series I will wear the title of Master of History with honor. Viva La Extra Orda Historia!
Excellent series and video :3
Thank you for this great series! It was very interesting!
I stg if Kiryu doesn’t show up it is over for you son
John Yakuza deserves the recognition.
This was a great episode series. Well done!
Fun series guys! Not the type of historical content that I usually expect from this channel, but a welcome diversion! I learned a lot in this one 😊
Awesome series, hopefully there will be more of this, about Freemasons in particular a lot of videos mentioned them but we dont have a video about them
Extra history let’s go!
been a fan of this channel for a long time, and i just gotta say, that was the coolest intro you guys have ever made.
I’ve been waiting for this. I only know a few facts about the Yakuza but I’ve been excited to know more about it.
Loved this video series
Brilliant series, man. I feel like the previous episode would've been a more apropos wrap up, though. Doesn't matter - thanks for the great work.
thank u for knowledge and learning time!! so fun and epic... i like you a lot!!!!
love this whole series
If you play the Yakuza video games you can learn all about their activities in Japan.
I really hope you guys cover the skulls and bones society. That secret society was insane with how many connections they had
Been watching for a decade and never been more tempted to become a patron
DAME DA NEEEE
DAME YO
DAME NA NO YO
ANTAGA, SUGITE
SUKI-SUGITEEEEE
🗣️ DORE 🗣️🗣️🗣️DAKEEEEEE DORE TSUYOI OSAKE DEMO….
Yugamanai omoide ga….baka mitai🍺
So many tattoos dedicated the the yazuka in lads from the UK
That was one hell of an intro, well done Extra History 👏
i read a book on secret societies a few years ago and the Yakuza had their own chapter, along with ones you would expect like the Templars and Freemasons but also other crime syndicates, specifically the Mafia, Tongs, and Triads. one thing i noticed for all the syndicates in particular was that, at least as described there, all of them started out as protectors of the lower classes because the higher, wealthier ones just didn't care or were responsible for their woes to begin with only for those syndicates to eventually turn into oppressors themselves
either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain, i guess
I LOVED this video! I have a few requests: make videos on the Russian Mafia and the Triad.
You forgot the Karaoke sessions and the lapel pins! Also where's the training in the secret martial art where you stomp a bicycle wheel into someone's chest?
shhh.. dont spill the secrets!
good vid!!
I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR A YAKUZA EPISODE FOR YEARS NOW
Opening is metal af, Matt 😎
Less than aminute ago? Early and already enjoying it.
Great episode as always! Althooooough I was half-expecting Majima or Kiryu to pop up as a surprise in the episode.
*KIRYU-CHAN!!*
This is beautiful
They deserve their own series tbh. Also that intro reveal was awesome
The intro is great man
Thanks!
Japan has some really great card games. In high school some friends and I learned a game called "Dai Fugo", which I believe means something like "Very Rich Man". Each round the deck is dealt between the players, and there is a sort of patronage system between the losers and winners from the last round, in which the losers give their best cards to the winners and get the bad cards in return. Then the game is about getting rid of all the cards on your hand - first one to achieve this becomes "Dai Fugo". So being the winner gives you an advantage in the next round, but doesn't guarantee that you'll win - you might get bad cards or just have bad luck, in which you'll go down a grade or two on the totem pole. And even though giving away your best card is a huge disadvantage, the game is set up so that with a little skill you can get a better starting position in the next round (I remember a few rare instances where someone went from the very bottom straight to "Dai Fugo" in one round. Man, what a rush that was!)
Thinking about it, this game might tie in to the whole feudalism- and tribute-thing that they're talking about in this video.
you know, you mentioned the Masons a lot in previous episodes and I was kinda wondering if you were gonna cover that eventually in this series lol
Ok that intro was dope af
5 episodes long ad for Patreon. I guess I should have seen it coming 😀
You must be new here, buddy
@@nicolasvidal92 I am not 😀 That is why I should have seen it coming 🙂
Shortly after the Hanshin EQ that devastated the city of Kobe in the mid-90s, I was visiting Osaka and took up a part-time job during the summer at a labor dispatch office. It was ran by the Yakuza. The boss was a typical 80s-90s yakuza with the shades, suit, Clan pin-badge, shiny shoes, and a Mercedes Benz lol.
The Yakuza used fronts like this to support the EQ relief efforts. We moved construction materials, moved rubble from train stations, and delivered A/C units to temporary housings for EQ victims.
Kansai region still to this day feel gratitude to local Yakuza that helped out the region, especially Kobe, during the worst times - when the Federal government was failing to step up.
Very cool.
Nice video
yay its out
😀
0:08 Isn't it Oicho-Kabu? The hiragana is おいちょかぶ
Sweet can’t wait for the Garduña
Sad to see this series end
You guys always make My day! Thanks For this 🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡
Great video! I'd love to see videos on Japan's part in the first and second World Wars and the reconstruction afterward. I feel like in US public education, we kinda treat Japan as an afterthought in these periods, with the exception of Pearl Harbor and the Atomic Bombings.
Absolute banger
I’ve read so many stories of people who live in areas with Yakuza members in them and it’s actually pretty pleasant. It’s kinda crazy how mafias and mafia-like organizations are actually pretty pleasant when they’re not, you know, doing mafia-esque things.
Kiryu incoming
*Goro Majima’s music plays*
“Got ya now, KIRYU-CHAN!”
The influence of the Yakuza is still felt in Japan in most public bath houses. Despite their status as a social institution in Japan, you are not allowed to enter if you have any tattoos. Much to the consternation of some tourists.
There is something fascinating about the Yakuza
In America, you play mafia
In Japan, it’s called yakuza
You know it would be interesting to see a history video on criminal organizations throughout history
I can't believe it's over :(
It all started with factor. Now it ends with factor. Perfect
I know that at some point this channel will talk about Loggia P2 or 'Ndragheta. These stories are truly mind blowing for a non italian people
That was the smoothest patron drop
What an opener
Bushino dignified it’s the last stand of the samurai!
One image note: at 9:07, the audio/narration says "less than 12,000," but the graphic/image shows members > 12,000.
Kinda wish you also made one for the Freemasons!
Missed the episode about the Ogboni, the secret society of Nigeria. Maybe a subject for an one-off?
Have you done videos for how other organized crime syndicates were started? If so, that might be interesting.
So, so many secrets and levels...
As someone who has almost finished an MA in History, that intro caught me off guard XD
Marvelous quality portrayal of the glamor of evil: gangsters coming across as upstanding men! Simply perfect in the contradiction of terms- if anything, I doubt *you yourself* did anything to advertise for their lifestyle of crime ("Yakuza" in Japanese basically means "Loser", go figure.), yet you did convey the insanity therein very well indeed, and should be at least somewhat saluted for the accuracy of the portrayal of the insanity when your shame is your glory.
Holy sh*t! What an awesome intro!!!!
0:45 proceeds to give him dishonorable backshots
Thanks tankies
Okay I got to ask that beginning opening sting you have is that based off civilization2 or ActRaiser I know I've heard that sting before
At 3:36. Fascinating. So these Edo-era gambling houses and their criminality remind me so much of pre-1980s Las Vegas and the criminal syndicates that ran the casinos there. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
intro went hard asf
Could you guys make a short video about the swedish death march across the norwegian mountains during the great northern war?