soshin.

1891 B. H. Chamberlain Things Japanese (ed. 2) 128 Since 1888, there has sprung up a class of rowdy youths, called soshi in Japanese—juvenile agitators who have taken all politics to be their province.

1894 G. N. Curzon Probl. Far East ii. 33 The soshi or professional rowdies, who are ready, for a consideration, to let out their services to either party in Japan.

1896 L. Hearn Kokoro vi. 95 Soshi form one of the modern curses of Japan. They are mostly ex-students who earn a living by hiring themselves out as rowdy terrorists.

1910 Lady Lawson Highways & Homes of Japan xxv. 284 At one time this extraordinary man was a soshi or political bully, one of the turbulent class who suffer from too much education and too little to eat.

1930 M. D. Kennedy Changing Fabric of Japan vii. 121 In 1923, meetings in favour of Manhood Suffrage were broken up by gangs of soshi.

1977 G. M. Berger Parties out of Power in Japan 1931–1941 iv. 147 Nakamizo Tamakichi, a former seiyūkai bodyguard (sōshi), organized a group of several hundred toughs.