Black Dragon Society

The Black Dragon Society (Kyūjitai; 黑龍會; Shinjitai: 黒竜会, kokuryūkai^?), or Amur River Society, was a prominent paramilitary, ultranationalist right-wing group in Japan.

The Kokuryūkai was founded in 1901 by Uchida Ryohei, and was descended from the Gen'yōsha (Uchida was a follower of Genyōsha founder Mitsuru Tōyama). Its name is derived from the translation of the Amur River, which is called Heilongjiang or "Black Dragon River" in Chinese (黑龍江^?), read as Kokuryū-kō in Japanese. Its public goal was to support efforts to keep the Russian Empire north of the Amur River and out of east Asia.

The Kokuryūkai initially made strenuous efforts to distance itself from the criminal elements of its predecessor, the Gen'yōsha. As a result, its membership included Cabinet Ministers and high-ranking military officers as well as professional secret agents. However, as time passed, it found the use of criminal activities to be a convenient "means to an end" for many of its operations.

The Society published a journal, and operated an espionage training school, from which it dispatched agents to gather intelligence on Russian activities in Russia, Manchuria, Korea and China. It also pressured Japanese politicians to adopt a strong foreign policy. The Kokuryūkai also supported Pan-Asianism, and lent financial support to revolutionaries such as Sun Yat-sen, and Emilio Aguinaldo.

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