Taigen

Ito Shogunate
Shindo Dojo (formerly)
Tokunobu Clan (formerly)

Kohama, Japan

Brown eyes, black long hair, strong body, asiatic eyes, white skin

Taigen is tall and strong, muscular build with lean muscles. His skin color is fair and he has gray eyes and his black hair is tied up in a chonmage style. His face has strong bone structure with a straight thin nose. He always stands with his chin up high and his head back. His facial expressions are always serious and never changes, though inside he is always thinking about something.

Taigen was born the son of a fisherman in the village of Kohama, on the central eastern coast of Japan between Kyoto and Edo. His childhood was not easy, as his father was a drunk and would beat him if the day's fishing was unproductive. Disgusted with his father's 'failed' lifestyle, he resolved to one day move beyond it and leave Kohama, seeing the romanticized life of a samurai as the only way to do so. He remarks at one point that the only good thing about Kohama was its' fish dumplings.

Taigen grew strong and assertive even as a boy, and soon established himself as the leader of the local children. He heard rumors about the hut at the edge of the woods, which was rumored to contain a "demon child." One day, as he and his friends were playing on the edge of the woods, they encountered Mizu (who they mistook for a boy, due to her 'mother' having shaved her head) and were frightened by her unusual appearance, due to her half-Caucasian heritage. After Mizu's hut was burned down and her mother disappeared, she scavenged around Kohama, with Taigen remarking that he'd caught her digging through his trash at least once; he and the other children bullied her whenever they saw her. During a rainstorm one evening, they chased her through the village, finally cornerning Mizu on a nearby cliff and suggesting she jump. Taigen ripped off her makeshift mask to reveal her unusual blue eyes, saying their round shape made him think of a dog, and that her "whore mother killed herself, because your father is a white devil." Enraged, Mizu attacked him and knocked him down, landing several blows on the other children before being knocked down herself. His pride moving him to rage, Taigen lifted a heavy stone, intending to bash her head, but he and the others were suddenly frightened off when a meteorite crashed into the cliff nearby. Mizu disappeared from Kohama after that, though Taigen was unaware that she was living nearby as the apprentice of Master Eiji, a blind swordsmith whom

whome he respected. After his father's death, Taigen eventually left Kohama and made his way to Kyoto to fulfill his dream of becoming a samurai. He became a student at the Shindo Dojo, perfecting his skills there until he was the Dojo's reigning champion, winning twenty-four officially sanctioned duels, all with his opponents dead rather than simply to first blood. While there, he won the favor of a local daimyo, Lord Tokunobu Daiichi (who was also common-born) and developed a mutual attraction to Daiichi's daughter, Akemi. By the start of the series, though somewhat arrogant, Taigen was well-versed in and took seriously the traditional values of bushido (the samurai's strict code of conduct, which they are supposed to follow though in practice many did not) and had officially obtained the social rank of samurai, though he was not a landowner.