Gion Toji

Gion Toji (, Gion Tōji) is a minor antagonist in Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan!. He is a member of the Yoshioka Dojo, the most prestigious sword-fighting school in Kyoto.
== Background ==
In 1600, Toji was a samurai from a minor clan who was recruited to serve in a special combat unit of the Tokugawa Clan by General Marume Nagayoshi. In the lead up to the Battle of Sekigahara, Toji took part in a special mission commanded by Marume, in which Toji and several other soldiers would attack the front gate of Yuki Hideyasu's home, so that Miyamoto Musashi and Majima Gorohachi could assassinate Yuki.
In the midst of the attack, Toji was injured and, fearful of dying, fled the scene before the battle was over. After his escape he wound up traveling to Kyoto, where he joined the Yoshioka Dojo and trained under its second master, Yoshioka Denshichiro.
==Involvement==
=== Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan! ===
By 1605, Denshichiro and his older brother, Seijuro, had been having constant disagreements over how to run their family's business. Seijuro wanted to focus on Clan Yoshioka's incredibly profitable textile business, while Denshichiro insisted that their family's ancestral dojo should be the priority. Since Denshichiro was a far less skilled swordsman than Seijuro, several members of the dojo saw Denshichiro taking charge without Seijuro as something that would ruin the dojo's reputation. This included Toji and the dojo's top apprentice, Ueda Ryohei.
Eventually, Toji and Ueda decided to eliminate the Yoshioka brothers and take over the dojo for themselves. In order to do this, they sent a fake challenge to the dojo from "Miyamoto Musashi", who had supposedly become a wandering ronin that challenged several famous swordsmen across Japan to duels. Their intention was to kill both Yoshioka brothers in the duel and then blame it on Miyamoto.
In reality, the true Miyamoto Musashi had been living in Kyoto's pleasure district of Gion under the alias of Kiryu Kazumanosuke, while the "Miyamoto Musashi" who'd been taking part in duels throughout Japan was an imposter using his name. Kiryu was eventually approached by a ten year-old girl called Haruka, whose family had been killed by this "Miyamoto Musashi", and who wanted to hire him to take revenge for her. 
After accepting her request, Kiryu decided to join the Yoshioka Dojo in the hopes of being present when "Miyamoto Musashi" attended the place for the duel. In order to join, he approached Toji and bribed him to recommend him for entry. Upon seeing Kiryu, Toji immediately recognized him as the real Miyamoto and decided to help him get into the dojo, since having the actual Miyamoto present would make framing him for the murder of the Yoshioka's much easier.
On the day of the duel, Toji sent Kiryu to Rendai Field; where the fight would take place. He then sent Seijuro there as well, telling him that Miyamoto had infiltrated their dojo as Kiryu to study the Yoshioka brothers' techniques and then kill them both. Kiryu and Seijuro dueled, resulting in Seijuro's death. Ueda and several of his co-conspirators then attacked Kiryu, intending to kill him so that he couldn't thwart their plans. However, Kiryu was saved by his friend Ito Ittosai, who fought off his attackers and killed Ueda so that Kiryu could save Denshichiro, who was going to be attacked by Toji.
Kiryu traveled to Sanjusangendo, where Toji was set to carry out the assassination of the younger Yoshioka. Upon arriving, Toji tried to blackmail Kiryu into letting him go through with the plan, since stopping him would mean that the other Yoshioka traitors would reveal his true identity to the authorities. However, Kiryu refused to let Toji succeed and proceeded to duel him. Despite the usurper's dirty tactics, Kiryu wound up winning the battle and killing Toji, thus saving Denshichiro's life.
== Fighting Style ==
Gion is a practitioner of Yoshioka-ryū, but he has no qualms about using underhanded tactics to gain the upper hand, whether it be using smoke bombs, throwing shuriken stars, or calling for his goons to come back him up. His moveset includes the following:
* his Rush Combo, consisting of an underarm sword thrust, a low horizontal right-left slash, and a downward slash;
* a spinning horizontal rightward slash-upward slash combo,
* a smoke bomb to the face, followed by a downward slash,
* a small, forward dash and a sword thrust,
* throwing shuriken, and
* throwing a smoke bomb while getting up.
Gion can also whistle to call for reinforcements, and to command one of his goons to grab Kiryu from behind, initiating a QTE.
His aura is cerulean blue.
==Trivia==
*Whether or not Gion Toji is a real person is questionable. He appears in Yoshikawa Eiji's book Miyamoto Musashi (simply Musashi in the U.S.), but not too much in actual historical accounts. It has been said that he was a great student of the Yoshioka school who used the famous "tsubamegaeshi" attack.
== Gallery ==
RGGK! - Character Render - Gion Toji.png|Full-body Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan! render of Gion Toji
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Gion Touji.png
Category:Yoshioka Clan
Category:Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan! Characters
Category:Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan! Antagonists
Category:Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan! Bosses
Category:Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan! Playable Characters