The Great Dissolution was a pivotal event in the history of the Japanese criminal underworld that occurred in the summer of 2019 when the two largest yakuza federations in the country, the Kansai-based Omi Alliance and the Kanto-based Tojo-kai, jointly announced their dissolution at a ceremony honoring Omi captain Masaru Watase's release from prison.
History[]
The Great Dissolution occurred within the context of a police crackdown against the yakuza in the 2010s; in 2017, Tokyo Governor and ex-yakuza Ryo Aoki enacted the Kabukicho 3K Plan to destroy the Tojo-kai and enable the Omi to expand into Kabukicho. By then, however, both acting Omi chairman Masaru Watase and Tojo Chairman Daigo Dojima had decided that it was better to put an end to the yakuza rather than have them be used as pawns by politicians and the law, and they knowingly played along with Aoki's plan so that the Tojo-kai was all but destroyed and the Omi moved into the city, thus overstretching their manpower. Tojo Clan patriarch Masumi Arakawa feigned a defection to the Omi to help them establish control over Kabukicho, only for him to engineer Ichiban Kasuga's takeover of Yokohama and fightback against Aoki and his Bleach Japan movement. After Aoki displaced Yutaka Ogikubo as LDP chair, Daigo awaited Watase's release from prison, upon which they would shatter Aoki's dream of Omi domination by dissolving the Omi and Tojo.
The plan was nearly foiled by internal resistance within the Omi. From prison, Watase had instructed his captain Yuki Tsuruno to lure Kazuma Kiryu out of the shadows by attempting to kidnap his Daidoji Faction handler Kihei Hanawa, after which the Watase-gumi bribed the Daidoji with 50 billion yen and persuaded them to loan Kiryu to their efforts to ensure that the dissolution went through. Watase ordered the death of Kijin-kai patriarch Homare Nishitani III, who was likely to resist any dissolution, but Watase-gumi captain Kosei Shishido secretly resisted the dissolution plan and, after faking Nishitani's death, he persuaded Nishitani to join forces with him in murdering Watase, Kiryu, and Tsuruno before they could carry out their plan.
On Watase's release from prison, he met with several Watase-gumi members at a construction site in order to change into a suit and carry on to the Omi headquarters for his announcement. There, Shishido filmed Watase and Kiryu while accusing Watase of treason and Kiryu of complicity, and he revealed his intention to turn the Omi against Watase. Nishitani and Kijin-kai reinforcements arrived to encircle Kiryu, Watase, and Tsuruno, but Hanawa and Kiryu's ally Akame arrived in a limousine and helped turn the tide in spite of numerical inferiority. Nishitani was abducted by the Daidoji and Shishido left for dead, while Watase destroyed the cell phone containing the incriminating video, thus preventing the leak of his plans.
The brawl at the Omi headquarters
Watase, who concealed a dagger wound to the gut with makeup and his new suit, then traveled to Omi headquarters, with Kiryu and Tsuruno keeping guard from a back room. Watase then gave a very brief speech in which he apologized for the Omi's terrorizing of the people of Kansai for 100 years and announced the dissolution of the Omi, followed by Daigo's arrival and his announcement that the Tojo would also be disbanding. Ichiban Kasuga, Taiga Saejima, Goro Majima, Arakawa, and a few of Kasuga's friends gathered to protect the stage as the Omi patriarchs rebelled, and Kiryu rushed in to prevent one of the men from charging at Watase with a dagger. In the ensuing brawl, the Omi patriarchs were beaten down and subdued, and Kiryu, while recognized by his friends, feigned ignorance and claimed to be "Joryu," while "Kiryu" was dead.
Shishido, who had survived his earlier fight with Kiryu, arrived at Omi headquarters just as the fight wound up, and, wielding a katana, he planned to offer one last fight to ensure the Omi's survival. He ambushed Watase, Daigo, and their friends as they left the headquarters in a celebratory mood, and he rallied the beaten-down Omi officers to muster the last of their strength and join him in a final battle. In the ensuing fight, Kiryu's friends held off the officers as Kiryu defeated Shishido, putting an end to the last gasp of Omi resistance. Watase commended Shishido for his brave last stand, and Shishido was then abducted by the Daidoji to be forced into servitude alongside Nishitani.
Dojima and Watase delivering their declarations to the police
The joint dissolution of the Omi and the Tojo created a power vacuum in the Japanese underworld. Tojo officer Kazuki Soma founded the RK gang from hangure (ex-yakuza), taking control of Kabukicho by late 2021. Many Tojo and Omi veterans went on to join a security company run by Watase and Dojima, but the Tatara Channel later revealed the company's yakuza origins to the public at the behest of a revived Bleach Japan, leading to its closure and the return of its members to the shadows. By 2023, Bleach Japan leader Masataka Ebina was determined to carry out a "Second Great Dissolution" targeting the Yomei Alliance and other remaining yakuza clans, while attempting to massacre the ex-yakuza of the Tojo and Omi by sending them to work on the Palekana cult's Nele Island, where they would die of radiation poisoning while serving as slave labor to Palekana sage Bryce Fairchild.
Gallery[]
