{{Short description|Japanese itinerant gamblers}} {{For|the Marvel comics character|Bakuto (comics)}} {{Italic title|reason=:Category:Japanese words and phrases}} '''''Bakuto''''' (博徒) were itinerant gamblers active in Japan from the 18th century to the mid-20th century. They were one of two forerunners (the other being ''tekiya'', or peddlers) to modern Japanese organized crime syndicates called ''yakuza''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Ruffians, yakuza, nationalists: the violent politics of modern Japan, 1860-1960|last=Maruko.|first=Siniawer, Eiko|date=2009-01-01|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=9780801447204|oclc=475533274}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LJQqBgAAQBAJ&q=bakuto&pg=PA210|title=Ideology and Practice in Modern Japan|last1=Goodman|first1=Lecturer in the Social Anthropology of Japan Roger|last2=Goodman|first2=Roger|last3=Refsing|first3=Kirsten|date=2002-09-11|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781134927128|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Fisher|first=Eliza|year=2012|title=From Outcasts to Overlords: The Legitimation of the Yakuza in Japanese Society|url=http://wesscholar.wesleyan.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1023&context=ujss|journal=The Undergraduate Journal of Social Studies|volume=3|pages=12}}</ref>
==History== Beginning around the 17th century, ''bakuto'' plied their trade in towns and highways in feudal Japan, playing traditional games such as hanafuda and dice.{{Citation needed|date=April 2017}} thumb|Example of elaborate tattooing During the Tokugawa shogunate, 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.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
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.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=ASIAN ORGANISED CRIME IN AUSTRALIA: A Discussion Paper by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Crime Authority|year=1995|isbn=0-642-22448-X|location=Canberra, Australia}}</ref> ''Bakuto'' were also responsible for introducing the tradition of ''yubitsume'', or self-mutilation as a form of apology, to ''yakuza'' culture.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last1=N. Bosmia|first1=Anand|last2=J. Griessenauer|first2=Christoph|last3=Tubbs|first3=R. Shane|year=2014|title=Yubitsume: ritualistic self-amputation of proximal digits among the Yakuza|journal=Journal of Injury and Violence Research |volume=6|issue=2|pages=54–6|doi=10.5249/jivr.v6i2.489|pmid=24284812|pmc=4009169}}</ref>
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-based ''bakuto'' gang which formed an alliance after World War II with the Yamaguchi-gumi, but were soon overtaken by the larger gang.{{Citation needed|date=April 2017}}
== Notable figures == * Shimizu Jirocho * Kunisada Chūji was a notable ''bakuto ikka'' boss. His story is mainly responsible for the romanticised "chivalrous bandit" or "Robin Hood" image in Japan. He was publicly executed in 1850 for various crimes after a large man-hunt.<ref name=":0" />
==In popular culture== Fictional examples can be seen in the ''Zatoichi'' film series, about a blind masseur who would often participate in ''bakuto''-run gambling.<ref>{{Citation|last1=Kitano|first1=Takeshi|title=The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi|date=2003-09-06|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363226/|last2=Asano|last3=Ohkusu|last4=Guadalcanal|first2=Tadanobu|first3=Michiyo|first4=Taka|access-date=2017-03-07}}</ref>
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).<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R66BgDYC07IC&pg=PA238 |title = Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film|isbn = 9781845110901|last1 = Chris|first1 = D.|date = 2005-05-27| publisher=Bloomsbury Academic }}</ref>
The 1968 movie series ''Red Peony Gambler'' (''Hibotan Bakuto''), starring Junko Fuji, also references ''bakuto'' culture.<ref name=":5">{{Citation|last1=Fuji|first1=Sumiko|title=Red Peony Gambler|date=2012-01-28|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063064/|last2=Araki|last3=Arishima|last4=Awaji|first2=Masako|first3=Junpei|first4=Daisuke|access-date=2017-02-27}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}} * Kaplan, David E., and Alec Dubro. [https://books.google.com/books?id=W1vi31vifg0C ''Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld'', exp. ed.] Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. {{ISBN|0-520-21561-3}},
Category:Japanese gamblers Category:Yakuza