Titles: Shogun, Major Counselor, Minister of War
Sakanoue no Tamuramaro was a celebrated general who served Emperor Kammu as his shogun and subjugated the Emishi tribes who lived in northern Honshuu. After Emperor Kammu's death, he was appointed Major Counselor and Minister of War to Emperor Heizei and Emperor Saga.
A friend of Tachibana Yoshiaki's eldest brother Teruhiro who asks for help with supernatural phenomenon at the Tokyo Racecourse. He is an employee of the horse racing association, described as a simple and good-natured man. He has no psychic abilities himself.
Described as an middle-aged man of medium height; possessed by Isshiki Yoshimichi. He goes to a hotel in Kobe to finalize a kickback deal made with the Hyougo Prefecture parliament member Kaneko.
Takaya's neighbors in their apartment complex, who take Miya in when their father becomes violent. They have three children of their own, but seem genuinely concerned about Takaya and Miya, refusing to return Miya when their father demand his children back in his drunken rages.
Also known as: 宮千代丸、松三、孝長
Son (or possibly younger brother) of Sanbonji Sadanaga, he became head of the Sanbonji Clan and master of Fudousan Castle after Uesugi Kagekatsu become head of the Uesugi Clan. He committed suicide in the Battle of Uozu Castle along with twelve other Uesugi commanders. He was apparently still a young man at the time.
Title: Iyo no Kami
Head of the Sanbonji-Uesugi Clan (illegitimate offshoot of the Uesugi Clan), master of Fudouzan Castle. He fought as one of Uesugi Kenshin's vassals in the Battle of Kawanakajima and was rewarded for his service.
He was appointed as Uesugi Kagetora's guardian upon Kagetora's adoption as Kenshin's son. He entered the Otate no Ran on Kagetora's side after Kenshin's death. When Kagetora was defeated, he abandoned his castle and disappeared. He was succeeded by his younger brother Sanbonji Kagenaga.
Race: Mazoku
Historically: Second daughter of Sanjou Kinyori, Minister of the Left and second legal wife of Takeda Shingen, a woman of courtly blood who was mother of his original heir, Takeda Yoshinobu as well as two other sons and two daughters (the older of whom married Houjou Ujimasa). Her name is literally written as "person of Sanjou (Clan)".
She was described as a great beauty and fervent in her devotion to Buddhism. Since Shingen eventually named the grandson of a concubine heir to the clan, it is thought that Sanjou and Shingen did not get along.
In Mirage of Blaze: She and Kousaka Masanobu break the barrier over Takeda Shingen's tomb, the Maenduka, and attempt to resurrect Shingen by using Narita Yuzuru as a vessel for his spirit. She herself takes over the body of Takeda Yuiko but is exorcised by Takaya and Naoe with kouhou-choubuku.
Saruwatari Nobumitsu was son of Saruwatari Nobusuke and a retainer of the Shimazu Clan. He held Kaseda and Hazuki as his fiefdoms and was extolled as a brave warrior. He fought in the invasion of Higo and led 1,000 soldiers (out of 6,000 - 8,000) in the Battle of Okitanawate of May 3, 1584 against the Ryuuzouji army. His heir Yajirou was killed in the battle.
He was killed in 1587 during the Battle of Nejirozaka during Toyotomi Hideyoshi's pacification of Kyuushuu.
Possessed by: Irobe Katsunaga
A doctor who works at a university hospital, he is around twenty-five years older than Tachibana Yoshiaki. He has no relatives and never marries. He dies a short time before Naoe finds Ougi Takaya.
Also known as: Kuranosuke—nickname (内蔵助)
Titles: Mutsu no Kami, Ecchuu no Kami, Chamberlain
A daimyo of the Sengoku, born in Owari. His father was Sassa Morimasa. His two older brothers, Sassa Masatsugu and Sassa Magosuke, died in battle, so Narimasa became head of the clan and master of Hira Castle in 1560. He distinguished himself in the loyal service of Oda Nobunaga and fought in many of Nobunaga's battles. His name was first on a list for the Kurohoro-gumi, an elite group of Nobunaga's bodyguards.
In 1580, he backed Jinbou Nagazumi against both the Uesugi Clan and the Ikkou-ikki in Ecchuu, and was given half the province. The following year, he was named governor (Kami) of the entire province when Jinbou Nagazumi lost his standing. He made Toyama Castle his main castle and performed extensive repairs and renovations on it.
After Nobunaga's death in 1582, Narimasa continued to engage in fierce battles with Uesugi Kagekatsu. He took the side of Tokugawa Ieyasu and Oda Nobukatsu against Toyotomi Hideyoshi, but later surrendered to him in 1585 when Hideyoshi laid siege to Toyama Castle with 10,000 troops. He lost Ecchuu, but was given a fief in Higo in 1587 for merits in the suppression of Kyuushuu, along with instructions on refraining from hasty reforms. Ignoring those instructions because of illness or perhaps misunderstanding, Narimasa immediately set out on Hideyoshi's nationwide land survey, resulting in rebellion of the province. He was charged with misgovernment and committed ritual suicide.
He wrote the following as his death-poem: "The shell of my begging bowl in which I have placed the evil delusions of these recent days now breaks" (この頃の 厄妄想を 入れ置きし 鉄鉢袋 今破るなり).
Narimasa is said to have brutally killed his concubine, Sayuri, along with her family for a rumor of infidelity. The legend goes that Sayuri cursed him before she died, and the curse was responsible for his death at the hand of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
In Mirage of Blaze: He is kanshousha who has entered the «Yami-Sengoku» as one of the Oda's commanders, described as a tanned, fearless-looking young man, a "mountain cat in human skin." He and Mori Ranmaru don't appear to be on the best of terms. He later seeks his death at Sayuri's hands in remorse for the way he brutally tortured and killed her in their previous lives.
Yoshishige became head of the Satake Clan in Hitachi due to his father's failing health in 1562 and became known as Oni (Demon) Yoshishige due to his aggression and relentless campaigning. He fought many of his neighboring clans, but his main rivals were the Houjou and Date Clans.
The Satake eventually submitted to Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1590 and later, after some hesitation which cost them more than half of their land, Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Satomi Yoshitaka was the son of Satomi Sanetaka and became head of the Satomi Clan by killing the then-head, his cousin Satomi Yoshitoyo (son of his father's older brother Satomi Yoshimichi) in 1534. The traditional version of the story goes that Yoshitoyo killed Yoshitaka's father, who was in communication with the Houjou, and Yoshitaka killed him in revenge. In recent years, however, historians have theorized that Yoshitaka and Sanetaka, father and son, allied themselves with the Satomi Clan's bitter enemy, the Houjou Clan, in order to take over the clan. They then changed the records to hide the fact that they betrayed the Houjou Clan after their plan succeeded.
As clan head, Yoshitaka fought numerous battles with Houjou Ujitsuna and Houjou Ujiyasu. He pushed into Shimousa and Kazusa, making his stronghold Kuruji Castle in Kazusa, and brought about the golden age of the clan. He battled the Houjou to the last and died at Kuruji Castle at the age of 68.
7th head of the Satomi Clan; various accounts say he is either son of the 6th head Satomi Yoshihiro or son of 5th head Satomi Yoshitaka. He and Yoshihiro's son Satomi Yoshishige were joint heirs to Yoshihiro.
He achieved peace with the Houjou Clan in 1577 and married Houjou Ujimasa's daughter Lady Tsuru. When Lady Tsuru died two years later, he married Ujimasa's younger sister Lady Kiku. When Yoshihiro died in 1578, he forced Yoshishige out of the clan and took over his territories with Houjou's support.
A student at Old Castle High School in junior class C who is friends with Inaba Akemi and is apparently a fellow fan of SEEVA.
The SEEVA fan club exclusive ticket that she intended to give to Akemi at school was confiscated by the student council's patrol committee, leaving her in tears.
Sayuri was a favored concubine of Sassa Narimasa, said to be a peerless beauty, whom he brutally tortured and killed on suspicion of infidelity.
The story goes that Narimasa fell in love with Sayuri at first sight and made her his concubine. He lavished affection on her, and was overjoyed when she became pregnant in 1584. His other three concubines were jealous of Sayuri, and when Narimasa left Ecchuu on a trip to meet with Tokugawa Ieyasu in December of that year, spread the rumor that she was in secret communication with one of Narimasa's vassals, a man who had stayed behind at Toyama Castle because of illness, Takezawa Kumashirou (sp?) (竹沢熊四郎). They claimed that the child belonged to Kumashirou, not Narimasa.
Narimasa dismissed the rumors at first, but found a small brocade sachet at the door of Sayuri's bedroom which belonged to Kumashirou (said to have been placed there by the other concubines). He flew into rage and put Kumashirou to the sword on the spot. He then hanged Sayuri by her feet to a tree in the Jintsuu River Basin and slowly cut her to pieces. He also beheaded the 18 members of her family and crucified their bodies at the prison gates.
The scene is described in the Taikouki: at the moment of her death, Sayuri, her lips bitten through, bloody tears flowing down a once-beautiful face now twisted into a malevolent mask, cursed Narimasa: "As Narimasa beheads me here, my enmity shall a demon become, to grow year by year until I have killed all thine issue even unto the extinction of thy family name." Those watching covered their eyes, and those who heard felt their hair rise at those words.
Stories say that a drifting fire would appear on stormy nights at the spot where Sayuri died, and sometimes a freshly-severed head with wild hair waving in the air saying "Sayuri, Sayuri." The fire was called "Sayuri Fire". The story goes that Sayuri became a vengeful ghost whose curse later killed Sassa Narimasa (though not his children). Sightings of the fire occurred as late as the Meiji Era.
The hackberry tree from which Sayuri was said to have been hanged was burned during the air-raid of Toyama City in World War II. Two second-generation hackberry trees now stand on the spot.
Seienin was the daughter of Nagao Masakage and niece of Uesugi Kenshin, who arranged her marriage to Houjou Saburou (Uesugi Kagetora) when he was adopted into the clan in 1570. She was also older sister to Nagao Akikage (later Uesugi Kagekatsu).
Seienin gave birth to Doumanmaru the year after her marriage.
In the Otate no Ran that arose after Kenshin's death, she followed Kagetora to the Otate. Some records indicate that she may have committed suicide at the Otate when Kagekatsu refused Kagetora surrender; it's more likely, however, that she died at Samegao Castle with Kagetora.
Sentouin was the daughter of Nagao Tamekage and older sister of Uesugi Kenshin. She married Nagao Masakage in 1537, and they had two sons and two daughters between them. Their oldest son died at the age of 10, but their second son, Uesugi Kagekatsu, became Kenshin's adopted son and later head of the Uesugi Clan.
It is said that Sentouin was the one who recommended that Naoe Kanetsugu become Kagekatsu's attendant.
Shakujii River is a river 25.2 km in length which flows through the northwest quadrant of central Tokyo and into the Sumida River.
Shakujii castle was built during the Kamakura period (1185-1333) along the Shakujii River in a position which allowed it strategic control of the river valley. It belonged to the Toshima Clan, but fell in 1477 to Oota Doukan.
Also known as: Gautama Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, Sakyamuni
The founder of Buddhism, who was born as a prince in ancient India and became an ascetic and spiritual teacher after encountering a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. He reached enlightenment after rejecting self-indulgence and self-mortification. He traveled and taught for 45 years and died at the age of 80.
Vocalist of popular rock band SEEVA, he is described as a tall man with red hair and golden-brown skin.
A fierce commander and brilliant of the Oda Clan, renowned as "Demon Shibata", Shibata Katsuie was born in Owari and served as a vassal of Oda Nobuyuki, Nobunaga's younger brother. He became Oda Nobunaga's vassal after the Battle of Ino, in which Nobunaga executed his younger brother for treason but spared Katsuie.
After Nobunaga's death, Katsuie supported Oda Nobutaka as Nobunaga's successor, but was defeated by Hideyoshi Toyotomi and forced to commit seppuku.
Japanese singer and actor who debuted on the stage in 1975.
In Mirage of Blaze: Saori calls Chiaki Shibata Kyouhei when she sees him driving a Nissan Leopard.
Eldest son and heir of Shibata Tsunasada, brother of Shibata Shigeie, vassal of Uesugi Kenshin, and master of Shibata Castle.
Nagaatsu excelled in diplomacy and was one of Kenshin's Seven Generals. He supported Uesugi Kagekatsu in the Otate no Ran after Kenshin's death and demonstrated his diplomatic finesse in the peace negotiations with Takeda Katsuyori. He died of illness after the war.
Also known as: Ijimino Harunaga (五十公野治長)
Title: Inaba no Kami
Brother of Shibata Nagaatsu, a vassal of Uesugi Kenshin, who served Kenshin during the Battle of Kawanakajima. He was persuaded by Yasuda Akimoto to join Uesugi Kagekatsu in the Otate no Ran after Kenshin's death and took down Kaji Hidetsuna of the same clan (his clan is an illegitimate offshoot of the Kaji Clan) who had joined Kagetora.
Dissatisfied with his reward after the war, Shigeie turned to Oda Nobunaga. About six years later, Kagekatsu's army destroyed his troops, and he committed seppuku.
Also know as: Yuuri (ゆーり), Yuu-chan (ゆーちゃん), Shibuya Yuuri Harajuku Furi (渋谷有利原宿不利)
Titles: His Majesty the Maou
Race: half Mazoku (father), half Human (mother)
At the beginning of the story Yuuri is a 15-year-old senior-high first-year student. He is constantly teased about his name because it means "advantageous" or "profitable". His family name is also a place name, so his longer nickname means "Shibuya advantageous, Harajuku (the name of a nearby location) disadvantageous."
In actuality, "Yuuri" means "July" (the month in which Yuuri was born) in the language of Shinma Kingdom, and was given to him by Lord Conrart Weller, who shared a taxi with Yuuri's mother to the hospital just before she gave birth to him.
Yuuri learns that he was chosen by the Shinou to be the 27th Maou of Shinma Kingdom when he's flushed down a park toilet to another world.
Shichiri Yorichika started out as a minor samurai at Hongan Temple, but caught Kennyo's eye and became a temple official and the commander of the Ikkou-ikki forces in Kaga Province.
During Oda Nobunaga's siege of Ishiyama Hongan Temple, he attacked the Oda army repeatedly, earning him the nickname "the Kaga General". As his power and influence increased, so did his arrogance, leading to violent outbursts of anger that sometimes resulted in the executions of his underlings over disputes. Shimozuma Rairen interceded, and in the end Yorichika was driven out of the temple. This resulted in internal strife between the Ikkou sectarians of Echizen and Kaga, providing Nobunaga an opening which he took in August of 1575. Yorichiki fled without putting up a fight.
In the following year he accused the master of the Ikkou castle of Mattou of rebellion and attacked, but was defeated and killed.
One of the ninjas under Fuuma Kotarou's command. He appears to be somewhat outspoken, given that he ventures to express concern for Kotarou.
As chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, he directly oversees the Special Inquiry Division and is Sakaki Shuuichi's boss. Although reluctant to believe in the supernatural, he assigns psychic Nikaidou Reiko to the department and asks Sakaki and Nikaidou to investigate the strange death of Councilor Gotou, member of the Fujisawa City legislature.
The class monitor of Old Castle High School in junior class B to whom the homeroom teacher, Kurokawa gives the responsibility of helping Takaya, the new transfer student. Also possibly a member of the student council executive office.
Vassal of Uesugi Kenshin, master of Jouhukuji Castle. He fought Ueno Ienari in 1556 for the territory of Kouzuke, and the conflict expanded to include Ookuma Tomohide and Honjou Saneyori.
He lost his territory after supporting Uesugi Kagetora in the Otate no Ran after Kenshin's death.
A monk who served as an official under Kennyo at Ishiyama Hongan Temple, he along with Suzuki Shigehide commanded the Hongan Temple army against Oda Nobunaga. For this reason they were called the "Left and Right Generals of Osaka".
When Hongan Temple surrendered to the Oda army in 1580 by order of the Emperor, Rairen's signature was among those on the official letter. Afterwards, he left with Kennyo to persuade the Ikkou-ikki of various parts of the country to rise up against Nobunaga.
After Takeda Shingen's death, when both Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu requested help from the Ikki forces, Rairen opposed and remained neutral throughout. In 1589, Hideyoshi bestowed land on him and made him a magistrate.
In Mirage of Blaze: he continues to clash against Nobunaga and eventually performs kanshou on a man of some means named Watanabe, who appears to be a man of amiable disposition and wears silver-rimmed glasses.
Son of Shimotsuma Shinrai, Shimotsuma Rairyuu was a monk of Hongan Temple but said to be more devoted to politics and culture than military affairs. He had many merchant friends and joined them for tea ceremonies.
During the Ishiyama Hongan-ji War, he fought alongside his relatives Shimotsuma Yorisuke and Shimotsuma Raijun against Oda Nobunaga general Hosokawa Akimoto. In 1580 at the Ikkou Sect's surrender, he signed the peace treaty with his relatives Shimotsuma Rairen and Shimotsuma Nakataka.
A confidant of Kennyo's eldest son Kyounyo, he joined Kyounyo in a plot to retake Ishiyama Hongan Temple the following year and was rebuked by Kennyo. After Kennyo's death, Ishiyama Hongan Temple split into the Eastern Temple and Western Temple. Rairyuu followed Kyounyo to the Eastern Temple, where he became a monk magistrate. He married the daughter of Oda Nobutoki and had several children.
Also known as: 頼昭, Jutsurai (述頼)
Titles: Chikugo-no-Kami
As a member of the Shimotsuma Clan which served Hongan Temple, Shimotsuma Raishou was dispatched by Kennyo to Echizen Province and took a large portion of it from the Oda forces, which was split by internal discord.
Raishou, dissatisfied with being treated like a vassal, plotted rebellion, but was suppressed by forces from Hongan Temple in 1574.
In the summer of 1575, Oda's forces attacked him at Kannonmaru Castle in Echizen. Raishou was unable to gather enough of the Ikkou-ikki's followers, and the castle fell under fierce attack from 15,000 Oda soldiers. Raishou tried to escape by sea, but was discovered and beheaded.
A professional Japanese outfielder who played for the Hanshin Tigers, then for the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants and was the first baseball player born in Japan to play in the World Series.
Shinjou-no-tsubone was the daughter of Kumagai Nobunao. Mirage of Blaze gives her name as Lady Tomo, but her real name is unknown. She married Kikkawa Motoharu in 1547 and gave birth to Motoharu's eldest son Kikkawa Motonaga the following year, followed by Mouri Motouji and Kikkawa Hiroie. Although their marriage was a marriage of convenience, it was said Shinjou-no-tsubone and Motoharu grew to love each other deeply, and Motoharu never took a concubine.
In the Intoku Taihei Chronicles by Sen'a, a warrior and poet of the mid-Edo Era, Shinjou-no-tsubone is described as having a 'white, pockmarked head' who 'walked bowlegged with a hunched back.' He called her 'a woman of once-in-a-generation ugliness.'
Race: Mazoku
Lit.: "True King"; the founder and first king of Shinma Kingdom who defeated the Soushu. The Mazoku do not speak his name without necessity. Yuuri thinks that he looks just like Wolfram, except that he has bright blue eyes and the bearing of a "self-important big-shot born to be the Maou."
A member of the Red Whales' intelligence unit who works with Iwata Eikichi to identify Naoe.
The middle-aged man who guides Ujiteru up to Hachiou Castle. He looks about 60, with peppered white hair and a sun-tanned face.
Step-father, 58, of Shiohara Nagi who is burned to death by fireballs. He was the representative director and president of Shiohara Construction based in Nara, a leading construction company in the area. He was the second husband of Nagi's mother Shiohara Yukiko and married into her family, adopting her family name. The marriage was arranged by Yukiko's father, who approved of Kouzou's abilities and willed his company to Kouzou upon his death. His mistress is Kizaki Mieko.
His residence is in Sangou Town near Mt. Shigi.
Step-daughter of Shiohara Kouzou, a girl around junior high age who lost her father Tooru to a car accident when she was six and her mother Shiohara Yukiko to neurosis-induced suicide six months before the beginning of Volume 5. She makes a hundred pilgrimages to the shrine of Kuuhachi-san's Dragon God and becomes the physical host of the 'Hiragumo'. She is looked after by Aoki and Yamamoto.
Shiohara Nagi's mother. She elopes with Nagi's father, Tooru, because their marriage is opposed by everyone around them. Upon Tooru's sudden death in a car accident when Nagi is six, Yukiko has no choice but to take Nagi with her back to her family. She is forced into marriage with Shiohara Kouzou, whom her father (Nagi's grandfather) wants to succeed his company. Disdained by her family, Yukiko retreats ever further into herself and her memories of 'the house where she could see the ocean'. She finally commits suicide six months before the beginning of Volume 5.
Also known as: Tenya Wanya
A comedy duo formed of the team of Shishi Tenya and Seto Wanya who were popular for a long time in Japan after World War II.
Shoudou, born in southern Shimotsuke Province was a Buddhist monk who founded the first temples in Nikkou, including Rinnou Temple (originally known as Yonhon Ryuu-ji, or Temple of the Four Dragons), Futarasan Shrine, and Chuuzen Temple.
Also known as: Shouji Jinnai (庄司甚内)
According to his sixth-generation descendant Shouji Katsutomi, Jin'emon was the son of a retainer of the Houjou clan in Odawara. His older sister was a favorite concubine of Houjou Ujimasa. His father died with Ujimasa at Odawara in 1590 when the castle fell to Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Just fifteen at the time, Jin'emon was taken under the wing of another Houjou retainer and came to Edo, where he later operated a brothel called Nishida-ya. Ashamed of his profession, he never divulged his true name. "Jin'emon" was given him by a magistrate court in 1606 when his assumed name, Jinnai, was used by a criminal of the same name to involve him in a lawsuit.
He later became the first ward leader appointed by the bakufu to oversee the Yoshiwara pleasure disctrict in Edo, and his descendants inherited the position after him.
A great intellectual of his era, Prince Regent Shoutoku was an admirer of Chinese culture and Confucianism and established a centralized Japanese government during his reign. He was also a patron of Buddhism, and commissioned several temples, such as the Shitennou Temple and the Chougosonshi Temple.
Emperor Showa was the 124 Emperor of Japan and reigned from 1926 until 1989, the longest of any Japanese Emperor. His reign saw the transformation of Japan from a largely rural country to an industrial and technological world power. It also encompassed two World Wars and the creation of a democratic government in Japan.
A member of the Red Whales who once belonged to the Tosa Imperialism Party.
Haruie's lover two hundred years ago when she was a wandering samisen player by the name of Otsuta. Originally from a poor village in rural Mutsu Province, he was sponsored by his parish priest and province chief vassals to study Western medicine in Nagasaki so that he could serve as a provincial government doctor.
They first meet at the Kamo River-bank in Kyoto, where she hid herself after being wounded in a battle with onryou. He treats her and nurses her back to health, and she repays his kindness by assisting with patients. He asks her to return with him to his home province as his assistant.
After Shintarou loses his right arm protecting her in a battle against onryou, Haruie asks for permission to leave the Yasha-shuu, which Kagetora grants. But Shintarou dies of an epidemic before they can leave the capital, leaving Haruie awaiting his rebirth until the present day.
