This is Demetri Spinnrad.

And this is Isaac Meyer.

And you're listening to Criminal Records Podcast, the podcast about some of the weirdest

cases in true

crime history. And I am very excited about this because you have really been hyping this up to me.

I think this is actually a case so weird that you wanted to do it as more than one episode

to really hit all those nuances, right? Yeah, I mean, ultimately I did decide that I think this would work

better as one coherent story, but it's a wild one. It covers all kinds of great stuff,

crime and punishment in one of my favorite periods of history, gang violence, popular

press, all that great stuff.

We are going to be talking about one of the most famous gang cases of late feudal Japan,

the story of the five men of Naniwa.

So let's get started.

First, let's talk about what Naniwa is.

Dmitria, it might interest you to know you've actually been there.

You just don't know it.

Oh, okay.

I, yes, we took a trip to Japan, but I'm assuming its name has changed in the modern era.

Yes, Naniwa is the old-timey name of the city of Olsaka, actually.

It's the original name of the city, supposedly given to it by the very first emperor of Japan,

who started his campaign of glorious heaven-mandated conquest when he landed at the city

and named it dangerous waves, because apparently it's a little, a little bit of rocky sailing

...