The Ichiwa-kai (一和会) was a

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 ter ...

gang based in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

, Japan. It was formed on June 13, 1984 when Hiroshi Yamamoto, a top lieutenant in 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 dockworkers in Kobe before World War II. It is one of the largest criminal organizations i ...

, broke from that gang to form his own organization with over 10,000 members. The split stemmed from professional jealousy: Yamamoto had been seen as a contender for the role of ''kumicho'', or Godfather, in the Yamaguchi-gumi, and was enraged when a rival,

Masahisa Takenaka was the 4th ''kumicho'' of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest yakuza gang. He took the role of kumicho (supreme Godfather) in 1984, but was assassinated at a girlfriend's home in Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Hon ...

, was chosen. In 1985, the Ichiwa-kai faction sent a team of hitmen to assassinate Takenaka at his mistress's home in

Suita is a city located in northern Osaka Prefecture, Japan. As of October 1, 2016, the city has an estimated population of 378,322 and a population density of 9,880 persons per km². The total area is 36.11 km². The city was founded on April 1, ...

, Osaka. The killing of the Yamaguchi Godfather sparked a Kansai-wide yakuza war between the two groups in which over 20 gangsters were killed. The Yamaguchi-gumi eventually won what became known as the Yama-Ichi War, but it proved to be a Pyrrhic victory as many of its members were arrested in the process. Most of the Ichiwa-kai defectors were eventually allowed to return to the Yamaguchi-gumi. Yamamoto retired, and the Ichiwa-kai dissolved in March, 1989. ''Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld'', David E. Kaplan, 2003

References

1984 establishments in Japan 1989 disestablishments in Japan Yakuza groups {{crime-stub