Chapter 274

## Obsession

**Obsession**, or **Preferences** (こだわり, *Kodawari*) is the 274th chapter of the *Golden Kamuy* manga.

## Synopsis

At the Sapporo Station under the pouring rain, Asirpa described a story she heard about a woman who made attus clothing out of fiber from tree bark, which nobody else was able to match the beauty of the clothing that she woved. She explains that attus threads are dyed using the red sap from the *kene*, or an alder tree, and that it is very difficult to get a truly beautiful pure red colour and that the thread will turn brown if it fails. However, the woman had an “obsession” with quality and was able to make a pure red thread to make an outfit for her husband.

The husband had wanted to show off his clothes so he wore them when he and the others went into the mountains to work. However, it began to ran so the men went home and found that the clothing around the man’s hip had turned brown. The man’s axe was stuck into his belt at the same location but since normal attus would not have changed colour like that, they realized that the red sap had oozed out of the clothing and upon coming into contact with the iron, turned brown. Asirpa states that looking at it from another perspective, an “obsession” can make something that’s too delicate.

Nearby, as Shiraishi takes the supplies away from the wagon, he turns his head back to Boutarou, lying in rest and says his thanks to the king. Asirpa explains that she saw that the tattooed skins that Kadokura was carrying had gotten wet and then touched the metal stove and as a result, some of them had turned black while the others had not. She comes to the conclusion that there are a number of ways to tan a skin and that Sugimoto had been using alum since they are cheap and easy to get their hands on. Nagakura admits that Hijikata's Group had also been using alum as well.

Asirpa talks about Kumagishi’s dying words as he spoke about Edogai’s fake skins which should have some evidence of his obsessions that he had when he made them. Sugimoto's Group and HIjikata's Group then begins to lay out the tattooed skins on the railroad tracks under the rain and were able to discern not only the fake skins, but the real skins that Ariko had brought to them from Tsurumi. Asirpa says that the key to solving the code is her father’s name, Horkew Oskoni, which means “to catch up to the wolves” in the Ainu language.

Sugimoto exclaims that it makes sense as when he examined the skins, the skins all had different kanji on them but some of them had shared the same sound when read. Ushiyama asks Asirpa if she had told Tsurumi the key as well and she confirms that he is already working on solving it. Upon hearing it, Ushiyama says that if they do not hurry up and solve the code, then Tsurumi will beat them to it. Sugimoto exclaims that there is only one way that they can beat Tsurumi to the gold as they should bet it all on the information that Boutarou had told them before he died.

Sugimoto’s Group and Hijikata’s group then prepares to depart for the place where the Ainu hid the gold by taking a railroad train. As the other members of Hijikata’s Group joins them, they board the train and heads to the first-class compartment so that they can spread out the skins. Upon kicking out a high-class man, they are able to lay down the skins to examine and Sugimoto and Shiraishi sits down, commenting on the nice seats. Sugimoto then begins to fall asleep and has a dream about Kikuta, who tells him that he has VIP seats on the train heading straight to hell so he should forget about him. Kikuta tells Sugimoto to also forget about Hanazawa Yuusaku as a younger Sugimoto bears an apprehensive look on his face.

## Character Appearances

* Saichi Sugimoto
* Asirpa
* Yoshitake Shiraishi
* Fusatarou Oosawa
* Toshiyuki Kadokura
* Tatsuma Ushiyama
* Toshizou Hijikata
* Shinpachi Nagakura
* Chouan Kumagishi *(Flashback)*
* Yasaku Edogai *(Flashback)*
* Wilk *(Flashback)*
* Genjirou Tanigaki *(Flashback)*
* Kiroranke *(Flashback)*
* Sofia Golden Hand
* Tokushirou Tsurumi
* Hajime Tsukishima
* Kirawus
* Anji Toni
* Kantarou Okuyama
* Mokutarou Kikuta *(Flashback)*
* Yuusaku Hanazawa *(Flashback)* *(Mentioned)*