Masumi Arakawa (1956-2019) was a Japanese yakuza who served as patriarch of the Arakawa-gumi and captain of the Omi Alliance. Formerly a Tojo-kai patriarch, Arakawa defected to the Omi in 2017 as part of Tojo Chairman Daigo Dojima and acting Omi Chairman Masaru Watase's plan to bring about the joint dissolution of their clans in response to Arakawa's adoptive son and Tokyo Governor Ryo Aoki's crackdown on organized crime. In this position, Arakawa became Omi captain and helped Watase bring about the "Great Dissolution" in 2019, while manipulating his estranged son Ichiban Kasuga into joining forces with Yokohama's Ijin Three to prevent the Omi from taking over that city. Before final victory, however, Arakawa was assassinated by Yosuke Tendo, who had decided to defect from Arakawa's faction with the hopes of earning a higher place in the new Tokyo Omi Alliance.
Biography[]
Masumi Arakawa was born in Tokyo, Japan, the son of Toshio Arakawa and Yoko Arakawa. He was abused by his mother, elaving him with a prominent scar, and he was raised in the Araboshi-za theater troupe and surpassed his father's fame as a top-billing actor by the age of 14, often starring in female roles as an onnagata. his acting career as "Taro Arayoshi" came to an end after his father was murdered by the Seiryu-kai in Isezakicho, Yokohama in 1970, after which the theater troupe disbanded and Arakawa drifted to Kabukicho, Tokyo. There, he joined the Tojo-kai's Hikawa-gumi at the age of 17 and was nicknamed "Arakawa the Assassin" for the many murders he committed on the clan's behalf. His patriarch later encouraged him to have a relationship with his daughter, but neither showed any interest, and Arakawa instead saw Akane Kishida in secret, impregnating her in 1976 and fathering an illegitimate son, Ichiban Kasuga. Arakawa informed his patriarch of Akane's pregnancy on the day the baby was due, leading to the patriarch ordering his men to beat Arakawa and murder both Akane and the baby. Ichiban was abandoned in a coin locker at Shinjuku Station due to the Hikawa-gumi's manhunt, and, when Arakawa headed to the station to recover his child, he accidentally picked up Jo Sawashiro's illegitimate son, who had been born and abandoned on the same day. Arakawa raised this child to be "Masato Arakawa", and his son suffered from chronic lung illnesses due to his hypothermic condition on birth and was confined to a wheelchair.
In 1978, Arakawa confronted his father's killer Ryuhei Hoshino, who revealed that Toshio Arakawa had ben killed for allegedly embezzling smuggled bills; however, Yoko had stolen the money while having an affair with the actor Tora. Arakawa decided to spare Hoshino's life after learning of his mother's treachery, and, over the next few years, he founded the Arakawa-gumi subsidiary of the Tojo-kai. The family gained notoriety for its militant nature, and Masato came to be a feared assassin once again, sending the bodies of his victims to a Yokohama homeless camp where they were discarded or, if they were still alive, they would be helped to start new lives. In 1982, Arakawa made Sawashiro his captain, treasurer, and right-hand man, and Sawashiro helped care for Masato without revealing that Masato was really his son.
In 1993, he took in the 16-year-old Ichiban Kasuga after Kasuga falsely claimed to be an Arakawa-gumi yakuza during a fight with the Shinomiya-gumi, and he readily committed yubitsume to atone for Kasuga's crimes. Arakawa invited Kasuga into the family after Kasuga waited outside of his fofice for 100 consecutive days, and Arakawa was forced to meditate Sawashiro's constant abuse of Kasuga. Masumi soon earned the resentment of the Sakaki-gumi after realizing that they were selling Tojo information to the Omi, and, after Masato murdered Sakaki officer Chikao Suzumori in 2000, Kasuga took the fall at Arakawa's behest, as Arakawa lied and said that Sawashiro had committed the murder. In 2004, Arakawa helped Aoki fake his own death and restart his identity as "Ryo Aoki," who went on to attend Harvard and become a powerful politician in the 2010s.
In 2017, Aoki was elected Governor of Tokyo, and he pressured his father into leaking Tojo-kai intel in order to dismantle it using his Kabukicho 3K Plan. Sawashiro suggested leaking the information in exchange for the Arakawa-gumi's survival, while Arakawa, not wishing to see the yakuza reduced to politicians' pawns, conspired with Tojo chairman Daigo Dojima and Omi acting chairman Masaru Watase to dissolve both the Tojo and Omi. Masumi then feigned defection to the Omi, helping the Omi take over Kabukicho from the Tokyo; Aoki intended to use the Omi as pawns for his own political goals. This move split the Omi's forces in half, ensuring that the whole alliance could not rebel once Watase made their dissolution known.
Masumi was thus attacked by Tojho remnants every once in a while, but he survived and climbed the ranks, becoming acting captain of the Omi Alliance in 2019. Kasuga, who was released from prison at around the same time, attempted to contact Masumi at the former Omi chairman's grave, but Arakawa feigned ignorance to avoid blowing his cover. Later that day, he shot Kasuga non-lethally after Kasuga demanded to know why Arakawa was ignoring him, and Arakawa had Kasuga taken to Isezakicho, far from the Omi's reach, where he was left with one of Ryuhei Hoshino's counterfeit bills so that Kasuga would be set on a trajectory to join forces with the Ijin Three and battle the Omi.
Arakawa and Kasuga at the dissolution
As the "Great Dissolution" neared, Arakawa interrupted Goro Majima and Taiga Saejima's fight with Kasuga and his friends and introduced Kasuga to Dojima, after which they explained their plan to dissolve the Omi. At the dissolution announcement, Yosuke Tendo went over to Arakawa's side and helped him, Kasuga and his party, the Tojo, and Watase's mysterious bodyguard (the disguised Kazuma Kiryu) fight off the opposition and win, allowing the dissolution to succeed.
Some time later, Arakawa reunited with Kasuga at the Yokohama docks, where he planned for post-yakuza life as Kasuga expressed his desire to be a family again. Arakawa then shared that he had a strange dream where Kasuga and Masato swapped places in their births, which, unbeknownst to Arakawa, turned out to be prophetic. On his way back home, Arakawa was alerted by Tendo of Reiji Ishioda's attempt to assassinate him. With Ishioda's pplan thwarted, Tendo now had a chance at the top and killed Masumi to get back in the Omi remnants' good graces after betraying them. Masumi was shot in the chest and died a painful death, and his body was thrown in the river and recovered the next morning. His remains were cremated, and Kasuga stored some of the ashes in a capsule he wore as a necklace and later gifted to Akane in Hawaii in 2023.