Hida Akemi

Please note: This article is about the Crab Clan Champion. For other uses of the term, please see Akemi (disambiguation).
Hida Akemi was the fifth Crab Clan Champion and she was venerated at Kaiu Shiro as the protector of Crab women. The historians relegated Akemi because her colorful and somewhat eccentric character. She born in 120 and died around 168. Bearers of Jade, p. 136 She was the first samurai to learn Kaze-Do. Bearers of Jade, p. 140
== Kaze-Do ==
Akemi was the shy, asthmatic granddaughter of the Crab Clan Champion Hida Tekien. When she was fifteen years old, Akemi was taught in seclusion about the peasant unarmed fighting style developed by Togashi Kaze: Kaze-Do. Her sensei, Kaiu Dokushojin, Hida Kakki, Kuni Jisso, and Hiruma Jotaro, had all been wandering for sixteen years, all over the Empire, to learn the style's secrets. Bearers of Jade, pp. 139-140
== Crab's Heir ==
After two years she emerged, and bare-handedly defeated and killed a troll, alongside three bushi of each Great Clan. An aged Tekien could claim the Kaze-Do had been learned by a samurai, and passed Chikara, the Ancestral Sword of the Crab, to Akemi, marking her as the Crab's heir. 
== Marriage ==
Akemi was arranged into a loveless marriage with Hida Kugen, who ruled as the Crab Champion. She had several children and grandchildren. Bearers of Jade, pp. 136-137
=== Demeanor ===
Akemi was a paranoid samurai, always alert against any attempt in her life, real or imagined. She used to sleep blindfolded beneath a sword hanging by a silk thread, and refused to drink water, preferring ginseng, green tea, and Kuni concoctions. She survived twenty-one assassination attempts by Tainted and possessed bushi, giving no small amount of credibilty to her paranoia. Bearers of Jade, p. 137
=== Appearance ===
Akemi was a small samurai-ko, and she only could wear the breastplate, skirt and helmet of Fukutsu, the Ancestral Armor of the Crab Clan. During her pregnancies she left it open in the back to tempt assassins. 
== Clan Champion Akemi ==
Akemi was a far better fighter than a general, and lost ground to the Shadowlands despite that they rarely attacked during her reign. She put down an "oni-inspired" coup with the deaths of thirty-one samurai in a two-week period. 
=== Rumors ===
Akemi was suspected of improper conduct with Kuni Jisso, for he was alone with her frequently, supposedly to stave off her asthma attacks with prayers to Jurojin. 
== Death ==
After the death of Jisso, her own soon followed: she was playing in a pile of leaves with her grandchildren when an asthma episode led to heart failure. She stabbed a nearby tree with her tanto, and hissed "Execute the traitor," before she died. The tree was executed. 
Category:Crab Clan Leaders