Kenichi Yamamoto

Kenichi Yamamoto — Senior Yamaguchi-gumi figure and founder of Yamaken-gumi.

Role and period

Senior Yamaguchi-gumi figure and founder of Yamaken-gumi.

Primary organization/context: Yamaken-gumi. Period: 1960s–1982.

Why this person matters

Heir-apparent in the Taoka era and founder of one of the syndicate's most important affiliates.

This profile is designed as a canonical node rather than a stand-alone celebrity biography. The priority is to show where this person sits in the hierarchy, who they succeeded or challenged, which organization they belonged to at different points in time, and which events changed their position.

Network position

The strongest existing the archive connections are Yamaken Gumi. Those links should be treated as dated relationships where affiliation or leadership changed over time.

Expansion path

A later deep audit should add: – verified birth/death dates where available; – exact leadership titles and dates; – convictions, sentences or major court outcomes where applicable; – major rivals, allies and succession relationships; – documented events that justify the person’s place in the Japan graph.

This profile should enrich the existing canonical profile rather than create parallel pages for the same individual.

Sources / audit anchors

– [Japan National Police Agency — Police of Japan / Organized Crime](https://www.npa.go.jp/english/) — Primary official background source for designated boryokudan, enforcement and organized-crime policy. – [Japan National Police Agency — White Papers](https://www.npa.go.jp/publications/whitepaper/) — Primary archive for historical and modern boryokudan data.

Why this profile matters

Yamamoto’s value to the Japan graph is structural. His name is tied to one of the most important factions inside Yamaguchi-gumi, which makes his profile useful for explaining how a very large syndicate contained powerful internal groups with their own leadership traditions. That factional layer is essential to understanding later succession disputes.

Connections across the archive

The main path runs through Yamaguchi-gumi and the factional organization associated with Yamamoto. From there, the reader can follow later leaders and splinter organizations rather than seeing each yakuza profile as an isolated biography. This is exactly the kind of connection the Japan archive needs: person → faction → parent syndicate → succession conflict.

Documented network

Yamaguchi gumi (organization): Kenichi Yamamoto is historically documented as affiliated with or leading Yamaguchi-gumi.

Yamaken gumi (organization): Kenichi Yamamoto is historically documented as affiliated with or leading Yamaken-gumi.

yamaken gumi (organization) is recorded in the canonical graph as related to, documented status, 90% confidence. This label is preserved without inferring a broader association.

Status and record

The structured life-status field is unknown. This administrative value should change only when a reliable current source supports an update.

Source record

The Master package currently attaches these sources to the profile: – Hard-Up Yakuza Struggle to Earn a Living — Nippon.com, Tier 2. – Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld — University of California Press, Tier 2. – Kenichi Yamamoto (Yamaguchi-gumi) — Wikipedia-derived reference, Tier 3. – Japan National Police Agency — Police of Japan / Organized Crime — Tier 2. – Japan National Police Agency — White Papers — Tier 2.

The presence of a source does not mean it supports every sentence. Claim-level source references remain in the structured data for later audits.

Evidence and editorial boundaries

For living subjects in particular, legal status and allegations require dated evidence. Future expansion should therefore come from stronger records, court material, archival documents or newly processed canonical entities rather than generalized crime lore.

How this profile fits the archive

The source package currently includes Hard-Up Yakuza Struggle to Earn a Living; Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld; Kenichi Yamamoto (Yamaguchi-gumi); Japan National Police Agency — Police of Japan / Organized Crime; Japan National Police Agency — White Papers. Those records define the safe editorial boundary for this version of the page. Unknown dates and unresolved associations remain explicit because a missing fact is a research task, not permission to speculate.

Research state

This depth pass expands the page from structured evidence already present in the Master. The next meaningful improvement should be a stronger primary source, a dated event, a verified legal-status change, a prison record, or a newly processed Book, Screen or Organization entity that creates a legitimate reverse link.

Media remains a separate completion gate. A portrait should be attached only after source page, provenance and reuse status are checked. Until then, text can be complete while media remains pending.

Archive discipline

A stable canonical Person page remains useful even when some biography is unresolved. It prevents duplicate identities and gives future cases, organizations, events, books and screen works one consistent target. Depth should come from verified edges and source-backed chronology, not filler.

Evidence notes already stored

– Kenichi Yamamoto is historically documented as affiliated with or leading Yamaguchi-gumi. – Kenichi Yamamoto is historically documented as affiliated with or leading Yamaken-gumi.

These notes are retained as source or graph metadata and provide leads for the next research pass. They are not expanded beyond their current wording without stronger evidence.

Future audit trigger

Return this profile to research when a new source materially changes chronology, status or network position. Add the structured fact first and update prose second so the article and knowledge graph stay synchronized.