Yayoi Dojima (born 1957) was a Japanese female yakuza boss who served as Acting Chairman of the Tojo-kai from December 2006 to 2007, succeeding Yukio Terada and preceding her son Daigo Dojima. She was the widow of Dojima-gumi patriarch Sohei Dojima, and she came to serve as acting chairman after the supposed assassination of Terada. Her tenure as acting chairman was marked by the 2006 Tojo-Omi war, during which she led the clan during its war with the Omi Alliance and the Jingweon Mafia, and fought off Koji Shindo's attempted coup.
Biography[]
Yayoi was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1957, and she was raised by a traditionalist family; she donned a kimono and haneri, and wore a traditional geisha hairstyle. She married yakuza boss Sohei Dojima at a young age, giving birth to Daigo Dojima at the age of 19. Sohei frequently cheated on her, but Yayoi remained loyal to her husband and refused to have affairs of her own, in spite of her youthful appearance and beauty. In October 1995, her husband was murdered by Akira Nishikiyama after Sohei attempted to rape Yumi Sawamura, but Kazuma Kiryu took the blame for the murder to allow for Nishikiyama to be there for his sister, who was dying of cancer. Kiryu was released from prison in 2005, and Yayoi - believing that Kiryu had killed her husband - attempted to have him murdered at the Dojima-gumi offices. Kiryu defeated the ambush and stood face-to-face with Yayoi, who realized that Kiryu had taken the blame for another person, and she let him go. By the next year, it became common knowledge that Kiryu had taken the fall for his sworn brother, Nishikiyama.
In December 2006, the supposed assassination of Tojo-kai chairman Yukio Terada by the Omi Alliance led to Yayoi assuming the title of Acting Chairman. She reluctantly gave Kiryu permission to fulfill Terada's last wishes by delivering a written offer of alliance to Omi Chairman Jin Goda in Osaka, the Tojo-kai's last hopes of avoiding a disastrous war with the Omi. She was also opposed to Kiryu's decision to groom her troubled son Daigo to rejoin the clan as Chairman, as her son had become disillusioned with the yakuza life after Ryuji Goda set him up for arrest, resulting in a prison sentence for Daigo. However, Kiryu was able to confront Daigo and beat some sense into him, and Daigo agreed to serve as Chairman if Kiryu would help him settle his score with Ryuji, who went on to seize control of the Omi from his father and declare war on the Tojo-kai.
Yayoi remained at the helm of the Tojo-kai during the war with Omi and the Jingweon Mafia's conspiracy to bring down her clan, and, as Kiryu fought against the clan's enemies, Yayoi gifted him with the key to a warehouse containing the personal effects of the slain Tojo-kai captains of the 2005 Tojo-kai civil war. Seeing Goro Majima's dagger in the warehouse led to Kiryu proposing to Yayoi that he seek Majima's help, and Yayoi reluctantly agreed, informing Kiryu that Majima was now based from Sai no Kawara ("Purgatory").
Shortly after, the Nishikiyama-gumi patriarch Koji Shindo led an attempted coup against Yayoi, having previously refused to provide Kiryu security as Kiryu set out to rescue a kidnapped Daigo from the Jingweon. Shindo took Yayoi prisoner and attempted to make her his lover, but Yayoi declared her loyalty to her late husband and defied him, even after he reminded her of Sohei's many infidelities. Kiryu, Daigo, and Osamu Kashiwagi eventually came to Yayoi's aid and killed Shindo, ending the uprising. By 2007, Daigo assumed the position of Sixth Chairman of the Tojo-kai, and his mother retired.