Katsumoto

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Biographical Information	Biographical Information
Birth Name 	Moritsugu Katsumoto (though people call him simply Katsumoto and very few actually use his first name when addressing him.)
Nicknames 	Katsumoto-san, Kujira (meaning Lord)
Homeland 	Yoshino, Japan
Born 	1198
Died 	n/a
Occupation 	Samurai Lord
Physical Description 	Physical Description
Race 	Human
Gender 	Male
Height 	6ft (1.84m)
Hair color 	None, he keeps it shaven by personal choice (though would be black)
Eye color 	Dark Brown
Distinguishing Features 	His honour and tradition as a Samurai Warrior, but also his open-mindedness and intruige of Western Culture. 
Languages Spoken 	Japanese, Limited English and a little Elvish thanks to his wife's teachings.
Family 	Family
Birth Parents 	
*Takagashi Katsumoto † - Mother
*Higen Katsumoto I † - Father
Siblings 	
*Naoko Katsumoto † - Younger Brother (by 4 years)
*Kawasaki Katsumoto † - Younger Brother (by 7 years)
*Toshiko Katsumoto † - Younger Sister (by 11 years)
*Yorimoto Katsumoto - Younger Brother (by 15 years)
Spouse(s) 	
*Reinnete Storm
Children 	
*Higen Katsumoto II - Son
*Magojiro Katsumoto - Son
Other Family Members 	
*The people of his village. Though not related by blood, he views each and every one of them as family, particularly Ujio Kawasaka who is like a brother to him,
Moritsugu Katsumoto, known more commonly as simply Katsumoto, or Katsumoto-san, is a Samurai Lord and leader of the House of Katsumoto, having taken on the role following the death of his father when he was twenty five.
His mother had died the previous winter, and Katsumoto lost not only his father during a ninja attack in late autumn of 1221, but also three of his four younger siblings. He was subsequently named as the Lord of Yoshino afterwards, and his first act as the new Lord was to punish those who had taken most of his family from him.
The ninja who had not been killed outright in the attack were executed at dawn, all save for one woman - Reinnete Storm. Despite the fact she was a Kunoichi (female ninja), Katsumoto refused to execute a woman as it went against his code of honour. He also recognised that she was not a very high ranking ninja and had probably been sent along as one of the pawns of the group, to cause a distraction but subsequently die early on in the attack, in order to distract the Samurai from the more experienced ninja, allowing them the opportunity they needed to get the job done.
Reinnete was lucky to have survived as long as she did, and Katsumoto suspected there was more to her than there appeared. 
Winter rapidly closed in and the only entrance into and out of their mountain village was cut off by snowfall, as it was every winter. So he decided to spare Reinnete and keep her as a captive instead, so that he might learn more about his 'enemies', from her.
None of the other villagers would allow a Gaijin (foreigner) into their homes, least of all one who had tried to kill them, so Katsumoto had one of the rooms of his home turned into a place for Reinnete to stay instead. He and his young brother Yorimoto took it in turns to care for her and nurse her wounds - the wound to her palm had become infected and she was gravely ill for a time - but eventually she recovered and he attempted to have what he considered to be 'civilised conversations' with her.
His English was very limited and her Japanese was non-existent, however, so these conversations were often short, but he was keen to learn about her and the Western culture. He had never met a female warrior before and was also intruiged by this. 
Reinnete's hand healed eventually and after giving up on escaping, she finally resigned herself to living village life in the mountains, at least until the snows melted and the passage back to civilisation re-opened again.
Katsumoto let her wander freely and interact with the other villagers, though very few seemed willing to actually entertain or even acknowledge her, treating her instead like a stray dog or an unwelcome guest.
This didn't seem to stop Reinnete from trying, though, and as time went on, Katsumoto observed the tenseness leave her shoulders as though a huge burden was slowly being lifted. As she discovered more and more about the peaceful tranquility of this way of life, Katsumoto watched her subtly change into a different woman. Though the biggest change of all would be at dinner one evening. 
Reinnete was dining with him and his brother, as had been the custom since her arrival, when completely out of the blue she took the rice bowl as Yorimoto offered it to her, then said "Arigatō. Motto gohan?" (Thank you. More rice?)
It was then that Katsumoto realised with great surprise and admiration that she had not only been finding the peace within herself during her stay with him, but she had also been quietly and studiously watching and learning as much as she could about his people, so that she could try to fit in. He had been so focussed on learning as much as he could about her, that it had never occurred to him that she might be doing the same with him. Except where he asked questions and frustrated himself by trying to learn English, she had quietly watched and observed, learning that way instead.
Yorimoto was so excited at hearing her attempting to speak their language and join in with them, that he took it upon himself to become her personal tutor, despite the fact he was only nine years old. By mid winter, Reinnete was fluent in their language and no longer had any trouble fitting in or conversing with anyone in the village. Because she had made the effort to learn their ways and speak their language, as well as dress more like them as well, the other villagers also started to accept her as more of a welcome guest. They would include her in things instead of leave her to watch from a distance and Katsumoto was pleased to see her joining in. She seemed a lot happier than when she had first joined them, and he no longer viewed her as a captive, but rather a guest.
The only thing that did concern him was her eagerness to learn martial arts, partly because women were not expected to fight but also because Ujio had noticed as well and was being particularly tough on her, trying to beat the eagerness out of her so that she'd give up. But Reinnete was stubborn, and no matter how many times Ujio beat her down, she would continually rise back to her feet again, battered and bruised, but determined. Katsumoto found this a very endearing trait, and decided that if she would not give up, then the least he could do was prevent her from suffering any more humiliation at Ujio's hands. He therefore took it upon himself to train her instead, and the two grew steadily closer, their frienship expanding into perhaps something more. Neither of them knew this at the time, however.
When he asked her why she was so eager to fight, Reinnete explained to him that the land where she came from allowed women to fight as equals alongside men. Women were allowed to defend their homes and their families, and although there were very few actual female warriors, it was not as uncommon as he had thought.
He was so full of questions after hearing this that it took her a whole evening to try and explain. She also explained to him that she was an elf, although the Japanese had no word for elf, so it took her a long time to get through to him what she was trying to say. She would not age - at least not within his lifetime. She would remain forever young looking, and the only way she could demostrate was to tell him how old she was. First, she got him to try and guess, so he placed her in her early to mid twenties, possibly early thirties at a stretch. He was stunned to learn that she was in actual fact fifty five, coming up for fifty six, and expressed a keen desire to visit the home of the 'ageless people' as a result. Reinnete had laughed at that and promised to one day take him to Elysium.
And then the snows melted, Spring came and the passage into and out of the village re-opened. Katsumoto led Reinnete to the entrance of the village and offered her freedom finally, stating that she was no longer his captive. She could return to the land of the ageless people. Reinnete once again surprised him by asking if she could instead stay and live in his village. One day she would return home, but for now she was happy and content - more than she'd been for many years - and wanted to stay. He was delighted and agreed readily, even pitching in to help build her a hut of her own to live in. 
Reinnete turned it into a hospital of sorts, noting that there was no real place and no trained healers to help the sick or the wounded. She used her past experiences as a healer to teach some of the others in the village how to deal with various situations and again Katsumoto was impressed and had many questions about how the things worked and how the various medicines could heal the sick or wounded. Reinnete didn't have answers to all his questions, but she tried her hardest to answer as many as she could and whilst she would go to bed each night exhausted by the millions of questions, Katsumoto would go to bed with an imagination that was working overtime as he processed all this new information and thought up even more questions that he could ask of her the next day.
It was as he was lying awake one night, contemplating this newest information that he had gained from her, that he saw a shadow pass the paper-thin walls of his hut. It moved with agility and grace, soundless and deadly. He knew instantly that it was a ninja, and feared another wave of ninjas had come, now that the passage to the village had reopened. 
His worst fears were realised when the alarm was raised moments later, and as he and the other Samurai warriors hurried out into the night to face their attackers, he was joined by a figure in blood red. Reinnete had fashioned herself a new outfit, brilliant red to show she was not afraid, and with her ninja sais in hand, she moved back to back with Katsumoto, determined to help him defend their home. Yorimoto was still too young to be allowed to fight in real battles, so he watched from a hidden spot beneath one of the huts, and when Reinnete fell to a poisoned dart, he bravely darted out and grabbed her. Then he and Katsumoto dragged her into her own hut and Katsumoto defended the building well into the early hours of the morning, when finally the last of the ninja fell.
The following morning, he oversaw the clean up of the village and the burials of the dead, then he went back and kept a personal vigil by Reinnete's side, nursing her back to health.The thought of losing her had made him realise that he had come to love her, and when she awoke he was delighted when she returned the gesture in kind. They were married in the summer, after she was fully recovered, and Reinnete was finally and fully viewed as a member of the village.
Higen II was born a few years later, named for Katsumoto's father, and a few years after that Magojiro was also born. 
If just a few years previously, anyone had told Katsumoto that he would marry not only an outsider, but a Western woman from far across the lands, he would have laughed at them. Now he could not imagine a life without Reinnete.
1118full-the-last-samurai-screenshot2.jpg|Katsumoto's Mountain Village, Yoshino
1118full-the-last-samurai-screenshot (17).jpg|Another part of the village
1118full-the-last-samurai-screenshot (4.1).jpg|Morning Meditation
1118full-the-last-samurai-screenshot (15).jpg
still-of-ken-watanabe-in-the-last-samurai-(2003)-large-picture.jpg|In his Samurai armour
The Last Samurai 2003 sc-3.png|With younger brother Yorimoto
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Sosuke ikematsu.jpg|Eager to become a Samurai himself, eldest son Higen is named after Katsumoto's late father
Toshiie.jpg|And cheeky Magojiro loves getting up to mischief. But it is impossible to stay mad at him for very long.
Jenfans285.jpg|Reinnete Storm, the woman who stole Katsumoto's heart and opened his eyes to the world beyond his village borders.
Category:Nobility
Category:Misc. Families
Category:Human
Category:Warrior
Category:First Generation
Category:Male