Basic Information
The Black Ocean Society was a Japanese ultra-nationalist secret society, initially formed to resist the Meiji Restoration and the concurrent Westernisation of Japan following the re-opening of relations with Europe and the US1. Following the defeat of the traditionalist cause in the Satsuma Rebellion, the society refounded itself as the Gen'yōsha2 and moved to promoting the idea of a National Parliament and driving Japanese territorial expansion on the Asian mainland.
With these aims in mind, the Black Ocean set itself to building up its power base in Japan and building networks on the continent - in both cases they were far from shy about recruiting and collaborating with organised crime … typically the yakuza in Japan and the Triads in China … and all manner of other malcontents, including Korean nationalists chafing under Chinese rule. Their tools included a network of brothels and drug dens which provided income, covert networks and, of course, blackmail material - they were also quite happy to engage in acts of assassination and terrorism if they deemed such appropriate. Some of their "high points" included the assassination of the Queen of Korea and the instigation of the 1894 Sino-Japanese war.
As the subjugation of Korea and China increasingly moved from edge concept to mainstream policy, the Black Ocean became almost respectable and would serve as the ancestor for the more radical Black Dragon Society. Like the Dragons, the Black Ocean was officially suppressed by the occupation government in 1946 but is rumoured to have survived into the present.
The Gen'yōsha, like most secret societies, has a reputation for meddling in the occult.