Episode 19

## Kamuy Hopunire

**Kamuy Hopunire** (カムイホプニレ, *Kamui Hopunire*) is the nineteenth episode of the *Golden Kamuy* anime series.

## Synopsis

Sugimoto's Group visits an Ainu kotan for a celebration of *Kamuy Hopunire*. In the meantime, Second Lieutenant Koito returns to Lt. Tsurumi to report on his mission in Asahikawa.

## Plot

Genjirou Tanigaki, Inkarmat, and Cikapasi finally meet up with Asirpa. They tell her they've been searching for her. Cikapasi says they met Ainu hunters on their way and they helped them find her in Kushiro. The hunters also invited them to their kotan to try bear stew, and Cikapasi offers Asirpa to join them. Yoshitake Shiraishi jokes he'd rather go to bars on Inkarmat's dime, but Cikapasi objects, calling Inkarmat his family (while referring to Tanigaki as just her gigolo). Tanigaki and Hyakunosuke Ogata exchange looks, and Tanigaki wonders to himself why Ogata is here with Asirpa's group. Asirpa makes a disgusted face at Tanigaki and calls him a gigolo.

The group arrives at the hunters' kotan where they are greeted by the two Ainu men Tanigaki, Inkarmat, and Cikapasi met before. They tell them they have arrived just in time for *Kamuy Hopunire*. Asirpa explains that *Kamuy Hopunire*, which means "The Setting-Off Of Gods" in Ainu language, is a ceremony where the Ainu send off the bear they hunted. Two Ainu men show up carrying a bear's head with its fur on the wooden tray. They perform traditional shouts, and Sugimoto joins in. Asirpa explains that it's called *okokoske* and that its purpose is to signal the god of fire that a bear has been hunted. She elaborates on the meaning of kamuy in lives of the Ainu and the relationship between humans and gods. When Asirpa mentions earthly offerings transforming to silver and gold in gods realms, Sugimoto muses that even in the afterlife gold is still valuable.

Later at night, the celebration continues to a feast with everyone drinking and eating. Asirpa notices Cikapasi sleeping on Inkarmat's lap and wonders about the woman's true goals. She is then joined by Tanigaki who tells her he has important news about Huci. Asirpa is disheartened to learn about Huci's dream. However, Ogata refuses to believe Tanigaki came all the way here just to tell Asirpa about her grandmother; he thinks Tokushirou Tsurumi sent Tanigaki to keep watch on him. Tanigaki denies it, claiming he left the army for good and just wants to pay back the old lady who helped him. Ogata still doesn't believe him and reminds Tanigaki of the three soldiers he killed back in Hokkaido mountains. Sugimoto asks if those men were travelling with Tanigaki and confirms they were actually killed by a bear. After reluctantly accepting the explanation, Ogata says that it's still just an old lady's dream and sending a letter back will do. Asirpa disagrees and explains that the Ainu believe that dreams are sent by kamuy to show them something important. Even though Asirpa doesn't believe in it herself, Huci does. She tells the group about a dream in which Huci saw Asirpa's mother surrounded by bears sending her off to the next world. Shortly after that, Asirpa's mother got sick and died. Sugimoto asks Asirpa if she wants to go back to her kotan. That way Huci will see Asirpa again and her prophecy won't come true. Asirpa refuses to return, telling Sugimoto to not treat her like a child. She says that she wants to go forward and find the truth for the sake of her own dreams. Sugimoto smiles as he hears how he determined Asirpa is.

Next morning, the Ainu man approaches Tanigaki to ask about the Murata rifle he is carrying; he wonders if it belonged to Tetsuzou Nihei. The Ainu man explains that he and Nihei used to hunt bears together over a decade ago. Tanigaki says that Nihei died in the mountains and that he took the gun from him. The Ainu man asks Tanigaki if he is having hard time shooting with that old rifle. Tanigaki states that Nihei turned him back from a soldier to Matagi, so now he carries that rifle to never forget the feeling of shooting his prey. The Ainu man points at the marks on the rifle and reminisces of the time Nihei told him about their meaning. Once when the two were hunting, Nihei told the man about his son. The gun belonged to him and he used it in the Shino-Japanese war; each mark on the barrel represented an enemy he shot on the battlefield. Nihei didn't knew if his son had shot only seven people or just stopped counting afterwards; he was convinced he was a type of person who didn't enjoy killing others. Nihei wished his son never went to war and just stayed with him and hunted bears.

After the Ainu man finishes his tale, Tanigaki hears rustles in the bushes and sees Ryu coming out of them. Hearing the dog's barks, Asirpa and others come out of the cise. After realizing Ryu has been following the scent of Nihei's gun all this time and came all the way from Otaru to Kushiro, Sugimoto barely manages to hold back tears. He calls Ryu a good dog and tries to pet him, but Ryu bites his hand, which prompts Sugimoto to smack him. Shiraishi comments that Ryu is indeed a good dog that doesn't forget his master's enemies.

The group leaves the kotan, and Sugimoto asks Tanigaki what he is planning on doing now. Tanigaki replies that he will follow Asirpa until she achieves her goal. Content with it, the group decides to head to Abashiri.

In Otaru, Otonoshin Koito is nervous about Lt. Tsurumi scolding him for failing to secure Shiraishi. He asks Hajime Tsukishima whether the First. Lieutenant said anything about him. Before Tsukishima can answer, Koito interupts him and claims he already knows everything and now he is going to be sent to Abashiri Prison to watch over Warden Shirosuke Inudou. Tsukishima asks Koito to calm down while the Second Lieutenant continues rolling on the floor hysterically. In order to distract Koito, Tsukishima shows the photos that the Lieutenant asked him to bring. Koito, now appeased and content, looks at the photo of Tsukishima and Tsurumi. He concludes it must have been taken before the war and the Battle of Mukden since Tsurumi's face doesn't have his signature scar yet. Koito sighs and says he is jealous of Tsukishima, getting a confusing look out of the Sergeant. Koito muses that if he was born earlier he would be able to fight alongside Tsurumi. He then puts a cut out photo of himself over Tsukishima's face and is overjoyed to see it fits perfectly.

Koito asks Tsukishima to make glue from crushed up rice, but he is then startled by Tsurumi who suddenly opens the door to the room. The Second Lieutenant shrieks and starts talking in Satsuma dialect so fast that Tsurumi is unable to understand him. Koito turns to Tsukishima's help and makes him interpret what he is saying. Tsukishima relays that Koito managed to make copies of Shiraishi's tattoo. Tsurumi wonders why he is the only person Koito talks in Satsuma-ben but then changes the topic to Shiraishi's escape. The First Lieutenant shakes his head and expresses his disappointment in Koito, which makes the latter lose his spirit. However, the Second Lieutenant promptly stands up and unbuttons his coat, demonstrating a shirt made out of Kiyohiro Suzukawa's tattooed skin. Lt. Tsurumi is pleased with it; he examines the skin to the touch, making Koito blush. Tsurumi congratulates Koito on a job well done but then scolds him for how sloppy he fleshed the skin. This makes Koito switch to Satsuma-ben again and start rapidly apologizing. Tsurumi tells Koito he is off the Asahikawa mission, and the Second Lieutenant falls on the ground, disheartened. Tsurumi then announces that Koito will join him in the hunt for the tattooed prisoners, which makes Koito overjoyed. He scoots over to Tsukishima, who then relays to Tsurumi that the Lieutenant promises to do his best. As he says it, Tsukishima internally agonizes over how tiresome it all is.

Tsurumi asks Koito if he is sure about seeing Ogata on the airship. Koito confirms it and expresses his distaste for Ogata, saying he disgraces the suicide of his father General Koujirou Hanazawa, the former Commander of the 7th Division. Koito says that even his father distrusts the Central Government after they blamed the 7th division for the incident. Tsurumi notes that General Hanazawa was born in Satsuma and that he and Koito's father used to be good friends. He then explains that Hanazawa committed suicide after the Central placed the blame of high causalities on 203 Hill on him. Tsurumi laments that he hoped Ogata would fight on his side for the honor of his father and 7th division.

In the deem light of a kerosene lamp, Ogata is seen sitting on the floor, with his hands covered in blood. He retells a story of his father, who at the time used to be Lt. Colonel in the 1st Imperial Guard Regiment. He says that, considering his position, his father must have been irritated to have an Asakusa geisha bear his child. Ogata's grandmother told him that, when the son was born, Hanazawa stopped visiting his mother entirely. He then says that his grandmother took him and his mother back to their family home in Ibaraki. Ogata's mother used to make anko nabe (monkfish stew), which was a dish regarded as commoner's food. Still, he liked eating it. But Ogata's mother cooked it every day — she believed his father, who once said that he liked anko nabe, would come back to her to eat it. He remarks that his mother was no longer sane. One day, Ogata took his grandfather's rifle and shot a bird in the field. He hoped that if he brought it to his mother she would stop making anko nabe, but it didn't help. This led Ogata to put poison in his mother's food: he believed that if his father truly loved his mother, he would come to the funerals... But he never came.

With those words, Ogata turns around and looks at Hanazawa, who is lying on the floor, bleeding out. Hanazawa mocks Ogata, asking if he really came here because of his hatred for abandoning him. He then accuses Ogata of taking pity on his insane mother, who he must have despised. Ogata states that children don't get to pick their parents. "Love", he continues, is as vague concept as "God". But if his father had any love for his mother, he would still come back to her. Ogata concludes that a child born to parents who don't love each other comes out missing something important, no matter how noble his bloodline might be. He then brings up Yuusaku Hanazawa, his younger brother, who was born to Koujirou Hanazawa and his legal wife. Ogata reminisces of meeting him after joining the army. Yuusaku would call him "big brother", even though Ogata would tell him he outranked him. Yuusaku was eager to befriend Ogata, as he grew up an only child and always wanted to have a brother. But Ogata didn't return his brother's sentiment. Looking at Yuusaku only made him realize that he, unlike Ogata, was indeed a person who grew up loved by his parents.
Ogata then notes that their father would've had no way to know of how Yuusaku died on the 203 Hill. He reveals that he shot Yuusaku in the back of his head, not out of jealousy or desire for revenge, but to prove something: would the news of his youngest son's death make Hanazawa think of his other son? As Ogata crouches before his father, he asks if there's ever been a chance for him to be happy, too. Hanazawa tells him he is right: he is missing something important and he is a failure of a son. With his final breath he curses Ogata, which makes Ogata's face turn into a smirk.
After making his father's death scene look like a suicide, Ogata leaves Hanazawa's home. He walks to a carriage which is waiting for him. When he opens the carriage door, he sees Lt. Tsurumi sitting inside. Tsurumi explains that Hanazawa's death will be blamed on the 7th division and that it will be a difficult time, but they must endure it. He says it will make the 7th stronger and that the soldiers will see Ogata as a hero. Tsurumi then squeezes Ogata's knee as he praises him for a job well done. Ogata looks at him with a half-smile and calls him a *"goddamn seducer"*.
In the present, Sugimoto's Group arrives at the beach. Ogata is standing aside, looking in the binoculars.

## Adapted Chapters

* Chapter 108 (p.11-12)
* Chapter 113 (p.11-19)
* Chapter 114 (p.4-6)
* Chapter 101 (p.10-18)
* Chapter 103 (p.5-15)

## Character Appearances

* Cikapasi
* Genjirou Tanigaki
* Inkarmat
* Asirpa
* Hyakunosuke Ogata
* Saichi Sugimoto
* Yoshitake Shiraishi
* Ainu Man *(Debut)*
* Huci *(Flashback)* *(Mentioned)*
* Houzou Tamai *(Flashback)* *(Mentioned)*
* Naoaki Noma *(Flashback)* *(Mentioned)*
* Fumio Okada *(Flashback)* *(Mentioned)*
* Asirpa's Mother *(Flashback)* *(Mentioned)*
* Tetsuzou Nihei *(Flashback)* *(Mentioned)*
* Ryu
* Otonoshin Koito
* Hajime Tsukishima
* Tokushirou Tsurumi
* Kiyohiro Suzukawa *(Mentioned)*
* Shirosuke Inudou *(Mentioned)*
* Koujirou Hanazawa *(Flashback)* *(Mentioned)*
* Heiji Koito *(Mentioned)*
* Ogata's Mother *(Flashback)* *(Mentioned)*
* Yuusaku Hanazawa *(Flashback)* *(Mentioned)*
* Kazuo Maeyama *(Flashback)*

## Trivia

* Director Nanba Hitoshi inserted a scene showing Ogata's mother holding baby Hyakunosuke. The scene was added because director thought the mother didn’t dislike her son and he wanted to express it in the anime.
	+ Nanba Hitoshi also explained that he thought it was Ogata's mother who originally liked anko nabe, and Hanazawa Koujirou came to like it when he was in a relationship with her. Eventually, it ended up becoming Hyakunosuke’s favourite food as well.
	+ The director said that the imagery of a full moon was used to symbolize a mother, which can be seen in the scene where Ogata monologues about a "person missing something important".
* In the original version broadcasted on TV, the anko nabe has a shiitake mushroom (Ogata's most disliked food) in it. This was a mistake which was fixed in the DVD and Blu-Ray version.

## References

1. ↑ REPORT: Golden Kamuy staff talk event 19 April 2019
2. ↑ REPORT: Golden Kamuy staff talk event 19 April 2019
3. ↑ REPORT: Golden Kamuy staff talk event 19 April 2019
4. ↑ REPORT: Golden Kamuy staff talk event 19 April 2019