Race: Mazoku
The first Mazoku Yuuri meets in Shinma Kingdom, although Adalbert now hates and has renounced all ties with the Mazoku. He sides with the Humans, sometimes inciting them against the Mazoku and other Humans allied with the Mazoku.
Adalbert knows some Houjutsu and is a superb swordsman. He "teaches" Yuuri the language of the Mazoku by awakening his soul-memories of his past life.
An antiques dealer who has for some years owned a small shop, 'Agi Antiques,' on Gojou Avenue in Kyoto. He sold the corpse-hair mandala to Hazama Shigeharu 20 years ago and is helping him sell it in turn to bolster his failing confectionery business. After several incidents, Agi left the mandala with his acquaintance Eishou of Kurama Temple for safe-keeping.
He is friendly with Hazama and calls him 'Shige.' He is described as a short-statured old man with white hair and an idiosyncratic appearance.
Aida Kengo is an elderly sailor of a cruiser that collides with a cargo ship in Osaka Bay.
Naoe and Ayako visit Aida Kengo at his home in Akashi City to interview him about the incident. He mentions to them that on the night of the collision, he witness WWII-style battleships as well as Sengoku-era iron-armored warship in the bay.
The owner of a golf course in Ibaraki Prefecture who seeks Tachibana Yoshiaki's help with a statue which he believes to be possessed. He is described as a bespectacled man around sixty years of age, who has a slightly sun-burnt, long, thin face and looks like he would be more comfortable in farm clothing than in a suit.
Mori Ranmaru's underling, whose name means "red nue." He is described as short white-haired old man with a bent back and a long, narrow, deeply wrinkled face. His voice is harsh, raven-like. He is sent by Ranmaru to keep an eye on Sassa Narimasa, but becomes prey to the Hiragumo.
Takaya's Physics teacher for Year Two at Jouhoku High.
Title: Hyuga no Kami
Also known as: Koreta Mitsuhide
A talented general and poet who belonged to the inner circle of Oda Nobunaga's vassals. He later ambushed Nobunaga at Honnou Temple in 1582, killing both Nobunaga and his heir, Oda Nobutada. Akechi Mitsuhide then proclaimed himself the new shogun, but soon clashed against Toyotomi Hideyoshi's forces and was defeated in the Battle of Yamazaki only 13 days later. He was killed en route to his stronghold of Sakamoto Castle in the village of Ogurusu by a bandit with a bamboo spear (though an alternate theory states that he was not killed but became a monk instead).
Aki Kunitora was lord of the Aki District of Tosa, and was born in 1530 to Aki Motoyasu. He was known as one of the Seven Tosa Heroes.
He and Chousokabe Motochika fought sporadically over territory. In spring of 1569, he instigated a war with Motochika that he ultimately lost, and he committed suicide at his family temple, Joutei Temple. Many of his chief vassals followed him in death.
Possessed by: Houjou Ujimasa
Akiba Noriaki is managing director of a large hotel chain as well as a member of the board of directors of a business group involved in the hotel and transportation industries. Due to his connections, he is also an influential voice in the political and financial worlds.
He is in his mid-forties when Ujimasa possesses him. Ujimasa uses his residence in the Narusawa villa region near Kirifuri Falls in Nikkou as his base.
A former hostess who becomes Murauchi Senzou's common-law wife. She loves morning glories and is fond of Kasahara, who promised to bring her seeds for the blue variety.
An English 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 Ikeda, he was elderly and opposed the gym renovation project.
He was the first of the three to die and became deathly afraid of snakes the night before his death.
The Red Whales strategist, who was once a direct retainer to the Chousokabe clan. Kusama appears to place a great deal of trust in him, though Reijirou suspects he has ulterior motives. Unlike most of the other Red Whales, he wears traditional Japanese clothes. He is described as a man of impressive vigor and intensity, with a look of keen and penetrating intelligence.
A comedy duo formed in 1975 of the team of All-Giant and All-Hanshin. Their name is based on a pun: because of the 9 inches' height difference between them, they are the Giant and a Half ("half" is pronounced "hanshin", which is also homonym to the name of a baseball team, Hanshin, traditional rival of the Giants in the Japanese baseball Central League.)
Also known as: Amakasu Nagashige (甘粕長重)
Title: Oumi no Kami
A vassal of the Uesugi Clan whose valor was on par with that of Kakizaki Kageie. He served as rear guard in the Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima, and his daring in battle was such that even Takeda Shingen praised him, saying, "Is Kenshin in the rear guard?"
After Uesugi Kenshin's death, he supported Uesugi Kagekatsu in the Otate no Ran.
Also known as: Crimson Anissina
Title: Lady
Race: Mazoku
Anissina is one of the three great witches of Shinma Kingdom. She is called 'Crimson Anissina' because of her red hair, which looks like it's on fire.
Title: King
Race: Human
Yuuri's horse, which is from a rare jet-black line, is shorter, stouter, and has thicker legs than the typical racehorse, and has a warhorse's desposition. She has two hearts, which allows her to continue running even if one heart stops. Ao was personally trained by Conrad.
A man in his thirties, Shiohara Kouzou's private driver and an eyewitness to his death.
Kousaka Danjou's current incarnation, who is apparently a university student (ref: Takaya Baito Jigoku Meguri Hen track 5) when he's not traipsing around the country by Shingen's order.
He's described as a handsome youth (early 20s) with bewitching full red lips, glossy black hair, and a slender figure.
A vassal of Oda Nobunaga, born in what is now Ikeda City in Osaka as eldest son and heir to Araki Yoshimura (some say Araki Takamura). He served as vassal to Ikeda Katsumasa and married the daughter of Ikeda Nagamasa. He later served the Miyoshi Clan when they took over the Ikeda Clan, but was noticed by Nobunaga and allowed to become a vassal of the Oda Clan.
Nobunaga gave him Settsu Province as well as several castles, and Murashige fought in many of Nobunaga's wars, including the ten-year siege of Ishiyama Hongan Temple.
In October of 1578, Murashige suddenly revolted against Nobunaga. (Opinions differ on why he did so; Nobunaga apparently held Murashige in high esteem, and his betrayal came as a shock.) Oda's army besieged Murashige at Itami Castle, and he resisted bitterly for the space of a year. However, when his attendants Nakagawa Kiyohide and Takayama Ukon betrayed him, he was left at a severe disadvantage. Thereafter he fled alone to the Mouri Clan. His wife and children as well as soldiers and everyone else left behind at Itami Castle (some 600 people) were executed at Kyoto.
In 1582, after Oda's death and Toyotomi Hideyoshi came to power, Murashige returned to Sakai City in Osaka as a master of the tea ceremony. In the beginning he called himself Araki Douhun (荒木道糞), formed of the characters for "road" and "excrement" in remorse for abandoning his wife and children. Later, Hideyoshi forgive him his past errors and gave him the name Doukun (道薫), with "excrement" changed to "fragrance".
He died in Sakai at the age of 52.
Asada is the Managing Director of Nikkou Industries, a Fukuoka-based client of Hazama Confectionery. Hazama and Naoe are on their way to have dinner with him and his wife at the Royal Hotel in Nakanoshima when they are attacked by a kanshousha.
A vassal of the Asakura Clan of Echizen, he surrendered to Oda Nobunaga upon the destruction of the clan, but later joined the Ikkou-ikki of Echizen along with Asakura Kagetake, another former Asakura vassal. In 1575 he was killed along with Kagetake after being defeated again by Nobunaga.
A woman who, though skeptical of psychic phenomenon, seeks Naoe's help for her comatose brother, Asaoka Shinya, who appears in her dreams begging for her to save him.
Her family owns Asaoka Inn on the banks of Lake Chuuzenji
, and she is known as a local beauty.
Asaoka Maiko's younger brother, who is in a coma and comes to his sister in her dreams asking for help.
Naoe learns that Shinya's soul has been devoured by the tsutsuga and bound into one of the sacred cedar trees at Futarasan Shrine because of his ability to see people's deaths before they happen.
Also known as: 鵜ノ目姫 (Unome-hime)
According to legend, she was the daughter of Inari Ookami, or alternatively the incarnation of a dragon from the sacred pool of Mitai, forcibly taken by Kihachi as his wife.
In Mirage of Blaze: A distant ancestor of the Miike family.
Title: Koga Kubou (1535 - 1552)
Haruuji was born eldest son to Ashikaga Takamoto. He formed an alliance with Houjou Ujitsuna in 1538 and married his daughter Houjunin. However, he was hostile towards Ujitsuna's successor Houjou Ujiyasu, and formed an alliance with Ougigayatsu-Uesugi Tomosada and Yamanouchi-Uesugi Norimasa. He joined them in a attack on the Houjou in the Battle of Kawagoe Castle in 1546, the loss of which deprived him of the power of Koga Kubou. He was forced to confer that title on his second son Ashikaga Yoshiuji (whose mother was Houjunin) in 1552. Two years later, his castle at Koga was attacked by Ujiyasu, and he was confined to Hatano in Sagami. He was allowed to return to Koga Castle in 1557, but was confined to Kurihashi Castle when the coup he was planning to bring his eldest son Ashikaga Fujiuji back to power came to light.
He died in 1560 at the age of 53.
Ashikaga Yoshiaki was installed by Oda Nobunaga as the 15th shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate after the death of his brother Ashikaga Yoshiteru, the 13th shogun in 1565 followed by the death of their cousin, Ashikaga Yoshihide, in 1568.
At first Yoshiaki was grateful towards Nobunaga, but began to chafe at remaining a puppet to him. He secretly communicated with Kennyo of Hongan Temple and Takeda Shingen about the formation of an anti-Nobunaga coalition. The coalition was later joined by such generals as Azai Nagamasa, Matsunaga Hisahide, and Miyoshi Yoshitsugu.
However, Yoshiaki was driven out of Kyoto in 1573 by Nobunaga after the death of Shingen, effectively ending the Ashikaga Shogunate.
The 13th shogun of the Ashikaga Shogunate, Ashikaga Yoshiteru became shogun at the age of 11 and reigned from 1546 to 1565. During a period when the shogun was a puppet to the powerful daimyo around him, Yoshiteru was nevertheless respected for his displomacy, and many famous daimyo such as Oda Nobunaga and Uesugi Kenshin traveled to the capital to pay their respects.
Yoshiteru committed suicide in Kyoto when Matsunaga Hisahide invaded with Miyoshi Yoshitsugu and overran his few personal troops.
17th head of the Ashina Clan, Ashina Moriuji's son and heir. His wife was the daughter of Date Harumune.
Morioki became the head of the clan in 1561 upon his father's retirement, but he died early (possible causes were illness, alcohol poisoning, and defeat in battle) and left the clan without an heir.
Also known as: Heitarou (平太郎), Nikaidou Moritaka (二階堂盛隆)
18th generation lord of the Ashina Clan who was adopted by Ashina Moriuji to continue the family line. He was originally the son of Nikaidou Moriyoshi and a hostage of the Ashina Clan, but was adopted into the clan when Ashina Morioki's early death left the clan without an heir.
However, he was very unpopular with the Ashina retainers after his succession, and was assassinated at the age of 24.
Afterwards, his widow took the clan in hand. He had two daughters, one of whom became the wife of the next clan head, Ashina Yoshihiro
Also known as: Shishisai (止々斎)
Son of Ashina Morikiyo and 16th generation lord of the Ashina Clan who probably became head of the clan around 1537, which is around the time that he married a daughter of the Date Clan and formed an alliance with Tamura Takaaki.
He expanded the domain of the Ashina and did much to improve the clan's economic condition, thereby bringing about the golden age of the Ashina.
Moriuji turned over the rule of the clan to his heir Ashina Morioki in 1561 and retired to Iwasaki Castle, shaving off his hair and taking the name of Shishisai. However, he retained power over political and military affairs.
In 1575 when Ashina Morioki died without an heir, and because Moriuji had no other heirs, he adopted a hostage of the clan: Nikaidou Moritaka, the son of Nikaidou Moriyoshi, and married him to Morioki's widow. Moritaka then became Ashina Moritaka and the next clan head.
Moriuji died in 1580 at the age of 60. With him ended the golden age of the Ashina; a mere 9 years later, the clan would be destroyed by Date Masamune.
Also known as: 盛重, 義勝
Second son of the daimyo Satake Yoshishige, he became the 20th head of the Ashina Clan when he married Ashina Moritaka's daughter. However, he lost the Ashina lands to Date Masamune after the betrayal of one of the Ashina's key vassals at the Battle of Suriagehara in 1589. He then fled to Hitachi and was later given land there by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
A daimyo of Higo Province and chief priest of Aso Shrine, Aso Koremasa was the son of Aso Koretoyo and became head of the clan upon his father's death in 1559. Koremasa relied on Kai Souun in the midst of aggression from the Shimazu and Ryouzouji clans. He also formed an alliance with the Ootomo Clan. His younger brother Aso Koretane became clan head after his death in 1583.
A little girl who died after being hit by a car near Yuzuru's house. He continues to see her ghost at the road crossing until he and Takaya take her home, and she goes on to the next world after seeing her mother.
A warrior of Uesugi who answered Kenshin's call to be resurrected two years ago (after the events at Hagi), he was Naoe's friend 400 years ago and fought on the Kagekatsu side during the Otate no Ran.
He is described as having an angular, sunburned face and is shorter than Naoe (which he resents).
Son of Ayukawa Kiyonaga, master of Oobasawa Castle, vassal of Uesugi Kenshin. Though descended from the same family as the Honjou Clan, the Ayukawa Clan took the side of the Uesugi family and fought the Honjou Clan when it repeatedly rose against Uesugi, though the Ayukawa Clan usually lost its battles.
In the Otate no Ran, when the Honjou Clan supported Uesugi Kagekatsu, Morinaga turned to Uesugi Kagetora, though the Ayukawa Clan lost again to the Honjou Clan. Morinaga was immediately allowed to return to serve Kagekatsu.
Bandou Eiji was a pitcher with the Chunichi Dragons from 1959 to 1969 before becoming a television entertainer, hosting several variety and game shows throughout his career.
A dolphin Yuuri meets at Sea World, one of whom was shaking his hand when Yuuri is tugged into the pool on his third trip to Shinma Kingdom. The other is Eiji-kun. Together, the dolphins' names become Bandou Eiji, a Japanese TV entertainer.
Race: Human
Beatrice is the daughter of Hiscruyff, an adorable six-year-old girl with light brown hair typically tied in two ponytails and pale blue eyes the color of ramune marbles. Yuuri dances her first dance with her and saves her from being knocked over the side of their luxury liner by a pirate. He later learns that she is a princess of Cavalcade and is in line to inherit the throne.
Race: Human
Race: Human
One of the five children in the first village (composed of human refugees) Yuuri passes through in Shinma Kingdom, a boy whose voice is just starting to change.
Uesugi's "Ladies in White," members of the [Meikai Uesugi Army]], are guardian deities placed at various localities to watch over and pacify the land.
One is the guardian deity of the land around Uozu Castle. With her "Bell of Spiritual Repose" (Chinkon no Kane), she keeps the three thousand Uesugi soldiers of Uozu Castle pacified. She is described as an ephemeral woman with long hair, dressed in a white kimono.
Another was placed by Uesugi Kagetora in Saga to watch over northern Kyuushuu after unrest created by the spirits of the Nabeshima clan. She was killed by Kikkawa Motoharu.
Also called: Cäli, Golden Cäli
Titles: Maou (former), Lady
Race: Mazoku
The 26th Maou of Shinma Kingdom and one of the three great witches of Shinma Kingdom. Yuuri was summoned to become the next Maou of Shinma Kingdom when she decided to step down. Cäcilie looks around 30 (approx. 150 Mazoku years) and is the mother of Gwendal, Conrad, and Wolfram, each with a different father. Her brother, Stuffel von Spitzweg, held much of the power of the kingdom when Cäcilie was the Maou.
Yuuri describes Cäcilie as a beautiful woman with emerald eyes and golden ringlets reaching down to her waist. He calls her, variously, a "bombshell", an "absolute pheromone system", Miss Sexy, Miss Pheromone, Sexy Queen, etc.
Lady Cäcilie's attendant who takes charge of Rick on board the Captive of Love luxury cruiser. Yuuri's only description of him is that he is blond.
Chiaki Natsumi is biological sister to Yasuda Nagahide's host body, Chiaki Shuuhei. She is five years older, and works as an office lady in Tokyo. She has shoulder-length brown hair and a round, almost childish face. She and Shuuhei were close growing up.
Unlike Shuuhei, she was supportive of their mother's decision to re-marry two years after their father's death — though she admits that it was in part because she was attracted to their step-brother Yoshiki.
Birthday: Apr. 1
Height: 6'
Weight: 150 lbs
Blood type: B
Possessed by: Yasuda Nagahide.
The current incarnation of Yasuda Nagahide who shows up in Takaya's class one day after hypnotizing everyone into believing that he's been one of Takaya's best friends for ages. He is described as being a prodigy at Jouhoku High who is popular both with the teachers and the girls. He wears glasses, has a well-proportioned body, and gives the impression of cool maturity. He is around two years older than Takaya and lives alone. He appears to have cut off all ties with his family.
Notes: He appears as 'Chiaki' in narration. Naoe and Haruie call him 'Nagahide', and Takaya calls him Chiaki. Most of the students at Jouhoku High call him Chiaki-kun.
A middle-aged Shugen Houin priest from Mount Haguro who performs the Gouzanze Myouou-hou, one of the dual ceremonies used to neutralize the 'kinrin no hou' curse in Sendai along with his fellow priest Keishun.
