A town in Ibaraki Prefecture with many surrounding golf courses.

A student at Fukashi Junior High School one year older than Takaya, who fawns over Mitsui and resents the fact that Takaya was allowed to join his gang while he was not. Friends with Yokomori.

A small mountain-ringed province located on the main island of Honshuu, famous for its ninja clans and considered one of the birthplaces of the ninja arts. Its distance from major trade routes, relative inaccessibility, and defensibility made it unattractive to invasion from outside forces. By the mid-1600s the local warrior clans had banded together to keep the province independent, forming a league known as the "League of all Commons of Iga" (伊賀惣国一揆 Iga Soukoku Ikki).

However, Oda Nobunaga invaded the province with an overwhelming force of 40,000 - 60,000 troops in 1581, two years after a failed invasion by his son Oda Nobukatsu, ruthlessly slaughtering many of its inhabitants, thus putting an end to the independence of the Iga League.

Also known as: 長沢義風, 三条道如斎, 五十公野道如斎信宗

Master of Ijimino Castle, he married the younger sister of Shibata Nagaatsu and Shibata Shigeie. He was originally the page of Nagasawa Mitsukuni but came to the attention of Uesugi Kenshin in the capture of Noto and served the Uesugi Clan thereafter as the town magistrate for Sanjou in Echigo.

Nobumune supported Uesugi Kagekatsu in the Otate no Ran after Kenshin's death. Along with his brothers-in-law of the Shibata Clan, he assaulted Kaji Hidetsuna's Kaji Castle and Kanamari Chikatsuna's Sanjou Castle. At Shibata Nagaatsu's sudden death, Shibata Shigeie became the head of the Shibata Clan, and Nobumune became the head of the Ijimino Clan.

He supported his brother-in-law in the Shibata Shigeie Rebellion and turned against Kagekatsu. In October of 1587, during the siege of Ijimino Castle by Naoe Kanetsugu and Fujita Nobuyoshi, etc., he was betrayed by his vassals. The castle fell, and Nobumune was killed.

An Earth Sciences teacher at Old Castle High School who died in the six months after Mikuriya Juri takes over the student council and before Takaya and Chiaki infiltrate the school. Like Nakajima and Akiyama, he was elderly and opposed the gym renovation project.

Also known as: Ikeda Katsushige, Ikeda Shigenari, Araki Kyuuzaemon

Ikeda Tomomasa was the eldest son of Ikeda Nagamasa of Settsu Province, but his father chose another son, Ikeda Katsumasa, to succeed as clan head upon his death due to his superior accomplishments in literary and military arts. Other accounts claim that Tomomasa was an illegitimate son.

Tomomasa plotted with a retainer of the clan, Araki Murashige, to overthrow Katsumasa and send him into exile. He then assumed the position of clan head. Araki later abandoned the Ikeda Clan to serve Oda Nobunaga. Tomomasa allied himself with an enemy of the Oda and was driven into exile. Araki took the opportunity to seize control of the Ikeda Clan. Tomomasa eventually surrendered to Oda, who made him a retainer of Araki Murashige.

When Araki rebelled against Oda and escaped to Amagasaki Castle he entrusted Arioka Castle to Tomomasa and the other retainers, who surrendered the castle to Oda upon his pledge that no harm would befall their wives and children "if Amagasaki Castle and Hanakuma Castle were surrendered to me." Tomomasa and others rode for Amagasaki in order to persuade Araki to surrender, but he refused to receive them. Tomomasa et. al. took flight instead of returning to Arioka Castle, abandoning their families. Oda ordered all hostages to be executed to make an example of them.

Lit.: "One-minded School/Sect", a small, militant, antinomian offshoot of True Pure Land Buddhism founded by 13th-century monk Ikkou Shunjou. Its ideologies provided the basis for a wave of uprisings against feudal rule in the late 15th and 16th centuries, such as the Ikkou-ikki revolts. Oda Nobunaga eventually destroyed the sect's two large temple-fortresses, Nagashima and Ishiyama Hongan Temple and slaughtered most of its sectarians in those areas. Tokugawa Ieyasu defeated the followers of the sect in Mikawa in 1564 in the Battle of Azukizaka. The last of the Ikkou sect fought alongside Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the 1580s.

One of Takaya's classmates at Old Castle High School in junior class B who is known as a celebrity-chaser. She's a superfan of Shiba Eiji and was very excited to see him live on tour. She's described as having shoulder-length hair. She has a sister who lives in Fukuoka.

She's known Miike Tetsuya, whom she calls Te-chan, since she was in primary school and seems to take being shoved to the ground and dismissiveness from him as a matter of course.

She is also friends with Koganezawa Kyouko and Satou Emi (a fellow SEEVA fan) in junior class C and a girl in her own class she calls Ma-chan.

Also known as: Inaba Masashige

A vassal of Tokugawa Ieyasu who also served Toyotomi Hideyoshi like his father, Inaba Ittetsu.

Historically: In the Sengoku era, he served three generations of the Nagao Clan: Nagao Tamekage, Nagao Harukage, and Uesugi Kenshin and was master of Hirabayashi Castle. He was one of Kenshin's most respected generals and Kenshin's military chief of staff. He was killed at the siege of the rebellious Honjou Shigenaga's castle.

In Mirage of Blaze: One of the Yasha-shuu under Uesugi Kagetora's command. He is the only one out of the five Yasha-shuu who survives the battle with Oda Nobunaga thirty years before the start of Volume 1, and carries on the mission alone while the others are reborn. He is a baby when Naoe finds Kagetora again thirty years later, having only performed kanshou two years previously.

Iroha Hill Road is a Japanese national highway (no. 120) which connects Nikkou's Umagae district to the banks of Lake Chuuzenji. The road, actually consisting of two one-way paths, is famous for its hairpin curves. Iroha Hill One, which goes from Lake Chuuzenji to Umagae, contains 28 curves, while Iroha Hill Two, going in the opposite direction, contains 20 curves. Iroha Hill One was established in 1954, Iroha Hill Two in 1965.

The name "Iroha" comes from the poem of the same name which uses each character of the Japanese hiragana exactly once; each of the 48 curves in the road is named after the character which it resembles.

In Mirage of Blaze: Lady Isari was the younger daughter of Kumagai Nobunao and a great beauty. When Kikkawa Motoharu decided that he would take a daughter of Nobunao to be his wife, everyone thought he would choose Isari instead of her ugly older sister Lady Tomo. In a jealous rage, Lady Tomo burned her younger sister's face. Isari was later sent to live in a secret village deep in the mountains to cover up the scandal; it was later revealed that Motoharu was going to choose Lady Tomo all along in order to win Nobunao's loyalty.

Upon her resurrection, Isari chose a beautiful young woman as her vessel and was described by Satsuki as a glamorous slender Julianna with long hair, dressed in a bodycon mini-dress and wearing bold red lipstick.

Isari worked with Yamanaka Shikanosuke of the Amago Clan and was thus a de facto ally of Oda. However, she pursued her own agenda of revenge upon her sister and was exceedingly mistrustful of Oda.

Mount Ishigaki is a mountain located in Odawara City, Kanagawa Prefecture 241.6 meters (792 feet) in height. It is located 2.8 kilometers (1.7 miles) to the south-west of Odawara Castle and is famous for being the place where Toyotomi Hideyoshi built his stronghold, the One-Night Castle, in 1590 during the Siege of Odawara. It was designated a historical landmark in 1959.

The mountain was originally known as Mt. Kasagake, but was renamed Ishigaki, or "stone wall" for the castle ramparts after the siege. Hideyoshi's troops started the castle on April 5th and completed it on June 26th, and it was the first all-stone castle built in the Kantou. The summit of Mt. Ishigaki offered an unbroken view of the entire Odawara Castle area.

Also known as: 采女

Original a vassal of Kitajou Takahiro, he besieged Kitajou Castle during the Otate no Ran and later served Uesugi Kagekatsu directly. He committed suicide along with twelve other Uesugi commanders in the Battle of Uozu Castle.

The Ishiyama Hongan-ji War refers to the ten-year campaign held by Oda Nobunaga against the Ikkou Sect's network of fortifications, temples, and communities and his siege and eventual capture of the Ikkou Sect's two greatest strongholds, Ishiyama Hongan-ji and Nagashima.

Traditional blind female shamans from Northern Japan who are renowned for their ability to speak with the dead.

Ito Tsutomu played as a pitcher for the Japanese professional baseball team Seibu Lions from 1982 until 2003, during which time he led the team to 12 Pacific League championships and 10 Japan Series wins. He retired in 2003 and became the manager of the team in 2004, when he led the team to a Japan Series championship.

He debuted as a sports commentator in 2007, and now works as both a commentator and sports critic.

In Kyou Kara Maou, it's implied that Ito Tsutomu is the coach Yuuri looks up to.

Catcher for the Saitama Seibu Lions from 1982 to 2003, widely considered one of the best defensive backstops in Japan. He is now a manager for the team.

A town in Koufu City, Yamanashi Prefecture which contains Takeda Shingen's tomb, known as the Maenduka.

Also known as: Misty Castle (霧ヶ城)

Iwamura Castle was built in 1221 by Tooyama Kagetomo, first daimyo of the Tooyama Clan and firstborn son of Katou Kagekado, senior vassal to Minamoto no Yoritomo of the Kamakura Shogunate. Located in south-eastern Mino Province (modern-day Iwamura Town, Ena District, Gifu Prefecture), it was considered one of Japan's three most famous mountaintop castles until it was ordered to be demolished during the Meiji Period.

Tooyama Kagetou, who became a retainer of Oda Nobunaga, was the last of the clan to hold the castle. Tooyama died of illness on Sept. 21, 1572 without an heir. Soon after, Takeda Shingen laid siege to the castle as part of his program of expansion. Tooyama's widow Lady Otsuya, aunt of Oda Nobunaga, negotiated for surrender of the castle.

Shingen entrusted it to Akiyama Nobutomo, one of his Twenty-four Generals. Lady Otsuya married Akiyama Nobutomo and sent her adopted son Gobomaru (Oda Katsunaga), fifth son of Oda Nobunaga, to Takeda as hostage.

In 1575, after Nobunaga defeated Takeda Katsuyori in the Battle of Nagashino, he laid siege to Iwamura Castle. Akiyama Nobutomo and Lady Otsuya defended the castle for six months, only emerging on Nobunaga's plea for peace and promise of safety. Nobunaga reneged on his word and had both of them executed as traitors by hanging upside-down.

Eikichi, one of the leaders of the Red Whales, is described as being short and monkey-like. He was a member of the Ichiryou Gusoku. He loves humor, parties, and alcohol.

Nevertheless, he is sharp and a merciless taskmaster.

Also known as: Yoshuu (予州)

An ancient province of Japan located in present-day Aichi Prefecture .

Izu was a ancient province of Japan that consisted of the Izu Peninsula, today a part of Shizuoka Prefecture, and the Izu Archipelago, today a part of Tokyo. During the Sengoku Period, Houjou Souun took Izu as his first province.