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."
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.
An acquaintance of both Tachibana Yoshiaki and his elder brother, who works as a local news reporter for a major Tokyo newspaper company. Naoe met him eight years ago (when Naoe was 22) during a case involving onryou turmoil precipitated by the sinking of a mountain village caused by a large dam construction project. Sonoda made his name by reporting on corruption by the Ministry of Construction in the same project.
Naoe goes to him after Takaya's disappearance as an effort to establish an information network of his own (independent of Uesugi's information apparatus).
Titles: Lord, Excellency
Race: Mazoku
Brother of ex-Maou Cäcilie von Spitzweg, a man who looks to be in his fifties (around 200 Mazoku years) with dark blond hair and blue eyes. He is a power-hungry man who tried to wheedle his sister out of resigning her position and is intensely disliked by Conrad, Wolfram, Gwendal, and Günter.
A vassal of Date Masamune, master of Tsukanome-jou.
Originally from the province of Shinano, he went to Uesugi Kenshin for sanctuary along with Murakami Yoshikiyo after being attacked by Takeda Shingen. He became a vassal of Kenshin and fought in the Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima in 1561. But he was a better diplomat than commander, and Kenshin used him as such.
He supported Uesugi Kagekatsu in the Otate no Ran after Kenshin's death. He succeeded Kawada Nagachika as supreme commander of Ecchuu after the latter's death and became the master of Uozu Castle. When Uozu Castle fell to Sassa Narimasa in 1583, he became master of Kaidu Castle. He also served as negotiator for Kagekatsu, but eventually fell out of Kagekatsu's favor. However, Toyotomi Hideyoshi valued Mitsuchika's skills highly, eventually taking him into the Toyotomi Clan and bestowing the Toyotomi name upon him.
The shrine maiden of E Island Shrine, whose family lives on E Island and owns a souvenir shop. She is described as a surfer girl with golden tanned skin and straight chestnut hair bleached almost blonde. Her father heads the neighborhood council and is opposed to Keibu Real Estate's takeover of the island.
The Sumida River is a river that flows through Tokyo into Tokyo Bay, passing the following wards: Kita, Adachi, Arakawa, Sumida, Taito, Koutou, Chuuou
Also known as: White Julia
Title: Lady
Race: Mazoku
Julia was the original owner of the magic stone Conrad gives Yuuri. Though born blind, she was one of the three great witches of Shinma Kingdom. She died almost twenty years ago.
An employee of Shiohara Kouzou's company who refuses Chiaki and Takaya entry to the director's office and ends up getting hypnotized.
Also known as: Ichiro (イチロー)
An outfielder with the Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball team, born in Toyoyama, Nishikasugai, Aichi Prefecture, recognized as one of the best defensive outfielders in the game. He also has one of the best batting averages in the game.
Mentioned in some legends of Kihachi as a warrior or Shinto priest who helps to subjugate him / cut his body apart.
Tachibana Harue is Tachibana Yoshiaki's mother. She is married to the head priest of the Kougen Temple, a branch of Shingon-shu Buzan-ha, in Utsunomiya. She has three sons, Yoshiaki's older brothers Tachibana Teruhiro and Tachibana Yoshihiro and a daughter, Tachibana Saeko.
Tachibana Saeko, Tachibana Yoshiaki's older sister, is the only daughter of the Tachibana family. She is married and lives in Tokyo.
Tachibana Teruhiro, Tachibana Yoshiaki's eldest brother, is older than him by twelve years. He makes a living as a realtor, but also carries a monk's license. He is married and lives with his family at the temple in a separate building.
Birthday: May 3
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 165 lbs
Blood type: AB
Possessed by: Naoe Nobutsuna.
The current incarnation of Naoe, who is the third son of the Tachibana family and a monk of Shingon-shu Buzan-ha at the Kougen Temple in Utsunomiya. He is about twelve years older than Takaya.
Tachibana Yoshihiro is Tachibana Yoshiaki's older brother and second son of the Tachibana family. He is heir to the Kougenji.
The headman of Nakagaya village in Matsumoto who submitted a petition to lower taxes in Matsumoto to the same level as that of surrounding areas, thus inciting the Kasuke Uprising. He was one of the 28 ringleaders executed, along with his two sons and younger brother.
It was said that as he was being crucified, Kasuke set a curse against Matsumoto Castle, whose main tower began to tilt from that time and remained tilted until its major renovation in the 1950s.
He was enshrined in 1736, fifty years after the uprising, in a small shrine within the Kasuke home. Two hundred years after his death, the Joukyou Gimin Shrine was built in his hometown (now Sankyou Nakagaya in Azumino), and his and the remains of twelve other people executed with him were transferred there. In 1992 the Joukyou Gimin Memorial was founded.
Vassal of Uesugi Kenshin and Uesugi Kagekatsu, older brother of Tadenuma Tomoshige. He was ordered by Kagekatsu to defend Uozu Castle and died there in 1582 along with twelve other Uesugi Commanders when the castle was besieged by the Oda army.
The 123rd emperor of Japan, who reigned from 1912 upon the death of his father, Emperor Meiji, until his death in 1926. He contracted meningitis within weeks of his birth, which affected his health both physically and mentally. He would eventually be nicknamed "Baka Tennou", "the Mad/Idiot Emperor". His son, Emperor Shouwa, succeeded him upon his death of heart attack.
Also known as: Suwa Katsuyori (諏訪勝頼)
Fourth son of Takeda Shingen. His mother was not Sanjou, but Suwa Goryounin, the daughter of the head of a defeated clan, Suwa Yorishige, Shingen's concubine. He was originally kept out of the line succession to the Takeda clan by being made head of the Suwa Clan. However, when Shingen's heir, Takeda Yoshinobu was found plotting against his father and ordered to commit suicide, Shingen named Katsuyori's son, Nobutatsu, his heir and Katsuyori guardian. Katsuyori took over rule of the Takeda clan when his father died.
Katsuyori was decribed as a brave and exceptionally skilled fighter, but lacking in strategy when he took over the Takeda army. In 1578, during the Otate no Ran, he betrayed his allies the Houjou clan and took Uesugi Kagekatsu's side, thus adding the Houjou to his list of enemies. He was increasing unpopular with the people of Kai due to heavy drafts caused by defeats in battle with the Oda, Tokugawa, and Houjou clans.
In 1582 Kai and Shinano were invaded by the combined arms of Oda, Tokugawa, and Houjou. Most of Katsuyori's troops abandoned him, and he committed suicide.
