Matsuzaki

History

The Matsuzaki clan was not always with crime. They were once a loyal family of assassins that served the shogunate before the Meiji Restoration. However, after they lost their primary employer when the shogunate was overthrown they expanded their repertoire to include loaning out their services to other groups. As they found profit and success in this en devour hey began to branch out into other illicit activities, transforming into a yakuza group that also happened to specialize in assassinations. The modern Matsuzaki is a powerful and diversified crime syndicate, that specializes in the bloodier and dirtier side of crime as opposed to their more clean cut contemporaries the Moritomo-Gumi. And similar to them, they find themselves being undercut by Crane's Crown, and are becoming increasingly stale and outdated in their methods.

Structure

Matsuzaki has roughly 160,000 members. There are two branches of Matsuzaki, the assassins, and the traditional criminal side. Only a small number of these members are part of the infamous assassins though.
The upper echelons of the group are members of Matsuzaki, which is just descendants of the assassins of old.. Any members who rise high enough in the ranks must renounce their previous family ties and titles and become members of the clan. Those born into the family are raised to inherit the duties and tasks of the upper levels of the organization. This upper level consist of the boss, his inner circle of family, personal guard, lawyers, accountants, and first head lieutenants who assist in the running of the group and management of mid tier leaders. The current head of the clan is Zenshin Matsuzaki.
Middle level members who operate the institutions, and lead the men on the ground, and get their hands dirty too sometimes. They can come from any walk of life, though are almost always former foot soldiers from lower rungs. though are made to go through initiations. These people tend to be disaffected members of society, looking for an alternate route to get ahead rather than integrate into society, which is often a closed door for them. There are two mid level ranks: Older brother and younger brother. An older brother commands a group of younger brothers who in turn command uninitiated/foot soldiers.
Most members of the group are uninitiated, and are often common criminals who operate the lowest levels of the organization, but have no insight on to how or to what extent it actually runs. These members are not given a lot of trust power, or responsibility, and are seen as expendable if they screw up. That being said, getting results and showing loyalty can open the door to initiation.
The assassins report directly the the boss, and are trained and dedicated to excelling in assassinations physical spying infiltration, and high stakes theft. The assassins are renown far and wide for their skill and their services fetch top dollar as they rarely fail. This means the assassins are one of the major money makers for the group.

Culture

Initiation

When joining, the new member takes the role of "child" and sits opposite to his superior or "father". Sake is served to both, with the child receiving the smaller portion. Each takes a drink and swaps cups and each take another drink. This represents both a symbolic family bond, as well as a sacred religious bond as well, as sake is seen as a bridge between the physical world and the kami. In fact this initiation is often performed at the local shrine.
Initiation for assassins is more extreme. In fact it involves cutting down a living person of unknown guilt or innocence in order to solidify your willingness to kill for the clan regardless of reason or context. Furthermore it makes the new assassin complicit in an unforgivable act, meaning the door to return to society is closed for them, and they can only move forward as an assassin.

Symbology

Crest - A hexagonal floral crest
Back Tattoos - Standard members of Matsuzaki will have back tattoos. These tattoos are typically of warriors, kami, geisha, and other similar themes. The subject matter for the tattoos will typically be nature and animals determined by the clan for each member on initiation based on arcane and cryptic in family secret symbology.
Full body Tattoos - Full body tattoos are reserved for the assassins. These tattoos feature grim imagery of skulls, oni, blades, and other frightening things.

Punishment

Matsuzaki opts for a physical punishment for failures and disobedience. More specifically they will cut off a portion of the pinkie finger, which is a necessary part of gripping a katana handle, thus symbolizing their increased need to rely on the rest of the "family". For more serious infractions the clan will not hesitate to kill the member.

Dress

Normal members are free to dress how they will as long as they aren't attracting undue attention to themselves. However assassins have special ninja garb they apply when on missions. The other equipment they use to carry out their missions is unknown to all but the assassins themselves.

Government Affiliation

Matsuzaki still has a preferential role as the assassins of the imperial government. While the government could use its own soldiers to accomplish its will, using a 3rd party places a wall of deniability and separation for more questionable hits. The government often overlooks the other activities of Matsuzaki because of their value as assassins.

Activities

• Arms Trafficking - Illegally obtaining and reselling firearms
• Assassination - contract killing on behalf of any willing to pay the hefty fee for the deed
• Blackmail and Intimidation - Using humiliation or threat of violence in exchange for favors, money, power, or influence
• Theft - High level theft of expensive art, artifacts, and other expensive items.
• Smuggling - Movement of illicit goods throughout the empire for distribution
• Drug Trafficking - Creating and selling narcotics.
• Prostitution - Running illegal brothels
• Death Sports - Illegal matches of combat to the death either martial arts or with swords.
• Animal Fighting - Illegal underground animal fighting rings
• Infiltration - Members of the group involving themselves in government, business, and other organizations as spies or saboteurs
• Poison Making - Making, selling, and using illegal poisons
• Kidnapping and Ransoming - Kidnapping high profile people to ransom them back for money
• Slavery - Kidnapping, buying, and selling of people for purposes of slavery

Opium Trade

Matsuzaki is the largest grower of poppy plants in the nation. The plants are not native to Japan but were rather smuggled in from overseas. While growing poppies is illegal, these farms are intentionally grown in areas out of sight of normal people, and more importantly the law. The poppies are harvested and turned into opium, which is distributed to all of the Matsuzaki dealers throughout Japan. Because of this large distribution network, opium addictions in cities have become an increasing problem, especially among the young and poor.