1. History

2. Notable Figures

3. Cultural references

4. References

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}} They were considered social outcasts, living outside the laws and norms of society.^[3]

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.^[1][3]

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.^[1][4] Bakuto were also responsible for introducing the tradition of yubitsume, or self-mutilation as a form of apology, to yakuza culture.^[3][4][5]

As the bakuto organized into groups and expanded into other operations such as loan sharking, half of the groundwork for the modern yakuza was born. {{Citation needed|date=April 2017}}

Bakuto were responsible for coining the term "yakuza" for themselves, a homonym for "ya-ku-sa", a losing hand in card games. "Ya-ku-sa," synonymous with "useless", was meant to symbolize society's dislike for them.^[3]

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 But this was seen as outdated, and most were eventually absorbed into larger, more diverse syndicates.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

Cultural references

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.^[6] The 1968 movie series Red Peony Gambler (Hiboten Bakuto), starring Sumiko Fuji, also references bakuto culture.^[7]

References

• 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}}, {{ISBN|0-520-21562-1}}.

• The monster in the closet
• The Monster Men
• The Monster (novella)
• The Monster of Florence
• The Monster of Florence: A True Story
• The Monster of Florence (book)
• The Monster of Lake LaMetrie
• The monster of morley manor
• The Monster of Peladon (Doctor Who)
• The Monster of Phineas-n-Ferbenstein
• The Monsters are Due on Maple Street
• The Monsters Are on Maple Street
• The Monsters Are On Maple Street
• The Monster's Christmas
• The Monster (short story)
• The Monsters Inside (Doctor Who)
• The Monsters In The Morning
• The Monsters of Morley Manor
• The monsters of morley manor
• The Monsters of Templeton
• The Monsters of Terror
• The Monster Song
• The Monstrumologist
• The Montage Reno
• The Montanas