Kudou family

The **Kudou family** (久堂家, *Kudō-ka*?) is one of the important noble families in the *My Happy Marriage* series.

## Known Members

* Tadakiyo Kudou: former head
* Fuyu Kudou: Tadakiyo's wife
* Hazuki Kudou: Tadakiyo and Fuyu's daughter
* Kiyoka Kudou: Tadakiyo and Fuyu's son, current head
* Miyo Saimori: Kiyoka's fiancée
* Asahi Ookaito: Hazuki's son
* Yurie: Kiyoka's nursemaid and maidservant
* Sasaki: Kudou villa caretaker
* Nae: Kudou villa housemaid

## Description

The Kudou family has its origins as officials who worked for the imperial court in the old capital, and they were also the family mainly responsible for the Shinto rituals of worshiping gods. The Kudous are one of the noble clans with the Gift. Like other Gifted families they made a name for themselves many generations ago by serving as the emperor’s retainers and ridding the land of Grotesqueries, becoming firmly established in the nobility. In social circles, when the topic of noteworthy families with the Gift surfaced, few names come up and Kudou is always among them. They are especially distinguished and outrank the majority of the Gifted families. Many of their lineage are blessed with exceptional supernatural powers, and the clan distinguishes itself through countless feats of valor, some of legendary proportions. In addition to a court rank, they’d also been granted vast tracts of land. With so much land in so many different parts of the country, they can make as much money as they liked simply by leasing it out. Their social standing, fame, and wealth are leagues ahead of their peers’.

Unlike other noble families that would arrange marriages between the Gifted in order to improve the bloodline, the Kudou family isn't particular about finding someone who possessed the Gift. They don't care whether the prospective partner has supernatural abilities or is as normal as they came. Some potential partners had been Giftless children of well-to-do merchants or politicians. They are so powerful that even the highly sought-after Usubas’ Gift wouldn’t be especially desirable for them.

## History

During Tadakiyo Kudou's tenure as the head of the Kudou family, he was loyal to the current Emperor. Kiyoka and Hazuki would often go in and out of the Imperial Palace, and they would also meet with Prince Takaihito, allowing them to become good friends since childhood.

Due to his frail constitution, Tadakiyo stepped down from his position as the family head around the time that his son Kiyoka Kudou graduated from university. Since then, he and his wife chose to spend most of their time in a countryside villa. In contrast, their daughter Hazuki Kudou lives independently in the grand Kudou main estate, located in the central part of the Imperial Capital. This opulent Western-style manor was constructed by Tadakiyo himself and formerly served as the family's primary residence. His son resides in a modest house on the city's outskirts. Thus, the Kudou family is now dispersed across different locations.

Kiyoka, the current head of the family, is hailed as the best Gift-user of his generation, owing to his ability to activate multiple powers at once without any difficulty. He works as a commanding officer of the Special Anti-Grotesquerie Unit, an elite squad within the Imperial Army that specifically deals with Grotesqueries. He also has a reputation for being unusually picky about his wife-to-be and of being heartless. Of all the girls from well-heeled families who’d been offered to him as brides, none had managed to bear him for more than three days before running back home.

## Trivia

* The surname **Kudou** means "long time" (久, *ku*?) and "hall" (堂, *dou*?).
	+ The family name is romanized as either "**Kudo**" or "**Kudou**" depending on the medium.

## References

1. ↑  Novel, Volume 5 Chapter 1
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6  Novel, Volume 1 Chapter 1
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2  Novel, Volume 1 Chapter 2
4. ↑  Novel, Volume 1 Chapter 4
5. ↑  Novel, Volume 5 Chapter 2
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1  Novel, Volume 3 Chapter 1
7. ↑  Novel, Volume 1 Chapter 3