Taizo Kitakata was a Japanese yakuza and the patriarch of the Kitakata-gumi of Sapporo, Hokkaido.
Biography[]
Taizo Kitakata was born in Sapporo, Hokkaido, and he became involved in the city's criminal underworld as a yakuza. Kitakata rose to be the patriarch of the Kitakata-gumi, and he became a well-known figure among the local populace, frequently attending public events and ceremonies, even sitting with Mayor Kōtarō Michida at the Sapporo Snow Festival in December 2012. Kitakata believed in people's duty to help those in need while also believing in self-sufficiency. In 1999, he offered a homeless Ryuji Goda a job as a restaurant attendant in exchange for food.
Saejima kidnapping Kitakata
In 2012, as the Tojo-kai prepared for an impending war with the Omi Alliance, Tojo chairman Daigo Dojima sent his lieutenant Goro Majima to Sapporo to forge an alliance with Kitakata. While Kitakata proved amenable after the first meeting, Majima suggested that Kitakata turn down the alliance offer at a second meeting, shortly after which Majima was reported to have been murdered. Kitakata was the prime suspect in Majima's murder, resulting in Majima's sworn brother Taiga Saejima breaking out of Abashiri Prison and tracking Kitakata down to the Snow Festival. There, he and Shigeki Baba kidnapped Kitakata and dragged him into the sewers, where Saejima demanded answers.
Kitakata laying wounded
Kitakata persuaded Saejima to meet with him in an abandoned office building, where he revealed his family's innocence in Majima's death and told him that Majima had suspected a foul play behind the alliance's negotiation. Before he could reveal the suspected traitor, Kitakata was shot by Baba, whom Saejima later confronted and discovered was an Omi agent. Kitakata later recovered in time for him and his family to answer Daigo's call for help in Tokyo and confront Kamon Kanai's Omi Alliance army in Kabukicho, helping put an end to Tsubasa Kurosawa's conspiracy.