This new division, which will inevitably weaken the Yamaguchi-gumi organisation and potentially pit members and former members against each other in a civil war for the choicest criminal endeavours, is not how the organisation would have chosen to celebrate 100 years of operations. But the trade of gangsterism is not one that Kenichi Shinoda - Tsukasa's original name - first aspired to.
"In his early years, he wanted to be a singer and, by all accounts, he has a great baritone voice," said Jake Adelstein, author of and an expert on Japan's underworld groups.
"He went to vocational school in Oita Prefecture and was training to work in the fisheries industry but found that he hated the work after he graduated and went into a fish processing plant.
"He soon drifted to Osaka and in his 20s was trying to make a career in singing. And if he gives off a Frank Sinatra vibe even today, in his clothes and his mannerisms, that's because Sinatra was who he wanted to emulate."
READ MORE: Japanese police raid yakuza offices as split raises fears of gang violence
It is possible that Tsukasa would have made a name for himself crooning in the bars and lounges of Osaka in the 1960s, but a chance meeting with a gang member changed all that.
Impressed by the mobster's machismo, he asked for an introduction to his boss and, in 1962, he was inducted into the Hirota-gumi, a Nagoya-based affiliate of the Yamaguchi-gumi.
"His first boss was extremely strict on discipline, loyalty, decorum, manners and the code of chivalry that yakuza members were meant to live by," Adelstein said. "That all rubbed off on Tsukasa and you can see those same values in the organisation after he rose to power."
In the early 1970s, Tsukasa was sentenced to prison, although it was not for the oft-repeated claim that he murdered a rival yakuza boss with a samurai sword. He served 13 years after an underling was convicted of murder and he, as the mobster's superior, was held accountable.
By 1984, he had built enough support to create the Kodo-kai gang as a unit under the Yamaguchi-gumi and as the successor to the disbanded Hirota-gumi, although the split in the factions led to the infighting that caused so much bloodshed.
Emerging victorious and working with Kiyoshi Takayama - Adelstein says the two men are even now "closer than blood brothers" despite the fact Takayama is in prison serving a sentence for extortion - Tsukasa expanded the new group's operations across 18 prefectures. Tellingly, he pushed it further east and into the Kanto region surrounding Tokyo, bringing it additional wealth from its underground activities.
In July 2005, after the retirement of the fifth don of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Yoshinori Watanabe, Tsukasa was anointed head of the organisation.
Less than five months later, he began a six-year prison term for conspiracy in the possession of a firearm. It had taken the Supreme Court eight years to uphold a lower court ruling after one of Tsukasa's bodyguards was found with a pistol.
Emerging from prison in April 2011 with a brown fedora pulled low over his eyes, Tsukasa was met by an immaculately attired delegation of senior gang members and taken immediately to the Kobe headquarters. And he went back to work.
"All of Japan's gangs have realised that traditional shakedowns of bars and clubs are not the future of organised crime," said Brett Bull, editor of the online , which covers crime and culture in Japan.
"The Yamaguchi-gumi wanted to come into Tokyo because it wanted a bigger share of the pie and it wanted to get into more legitimate businesses, such as the real estate sector, through front companies."
But it was this shift away from the organisation's heartland, combined with claims that Tsukasa was being heavy-handed in the running of the syndicate and favouring the Kodo-kai faction, that triggered the split.
"This is a seismic shift in the underworld landscape here and, although it is not unprecedented, it is enough to have the police concerned," Bull said.
As if to underline the message that they are keeping a close eye on the activities of the group that has split and called itself the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, around 50 officers of the Hyogo Prefectural Police raided the offices of an affiliated gang on September 15. Ostensibly, the police were investigating allegations that bank accounts had been fraudulently set up. A week previously, the offices of another faction in Kobe were searched on suspicion of fraud and weapons violations.
Adelstein believes the message will not have been lost on Tsukasa and factional leaders.
"The police have the ability to close down gangs' offices, and they have made it clear that will happen as soon as there is any violence," he said. "For the gangs, that's obviously terrible for business and for their cash flows."
An added concern among the dons will be that legal changes mean that they can be held criminally and financially liable for any bloodshed - particularly any that accidentally involves members of the public - caused by their underlings.
But at 73, is Tsukasa not considering handing over the reins of power to a younger hood?
"He is not in bad health, and certainly he's better than when he last came out of prison, and it is very possible that he was planning to step down later this year, although these recent developments may have altered that plan," Adelstein said.
"But I still believe that he will soon hand over to his protege, Teruo Takeuchi, and take up the equivalent of an honorary position within the organisation."
Stepping back from the hands-on running of the Yamaguchi-gumi will inevitably give Tsukasa more time to indulge in his hobbies. He may even pick up the microphone again and return to singing the songs of Frank Sinatra in the karaoke clubs of Osaka.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Yakuza kingpin triggers seismic factional split
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