Kitamakura

## Manga

**Kitamakura** is one of the four emperors guarding the prison Riki-Oh starts the series in, being in charge of the east block. He is first seen when the prisoners attempt to attack Sugiyama after the death of Narumi. This prompts the other three emperors to show up, with Kitamakura bursting through the wall behind Sugiyama to grab one of the prisoners rebelling against him and crushing his head with a single hand. He and the other emperors are easily able to scare off the prisoners and silence the riot.

Kitamakura rules over one quadrant of the prison given to him by Sugiyama, but is still seeking more power. He wants to kill the other three emperors in order to be the only one left and have total control, though he never considers attacking Sugiyama or The Warden. When Yomi and Shiragami are fighting Riki-Oh, Kitamakura appears. They assume he is going to help them, but he instead takes a pitchfork and throws it at Shiragami, impaling him in the head. Shiragami manages to survive this, but keeps the pitchfork impaled in his head for the rest of the series, lacking the tools necessary to surgically remove it within the prison's walls.

Before the fight can go on further, Sugiyama unleashes a tidal wave of cement into the area where they are fighting. Kitamakura quickly gets covered in the cement and would die, but is saved by Riki-Oh. Riki-Oh assumes Kitamakura is on his side due to the fact that he betrayed Shiragami, and carries him out of the dangerous area despite his massive size. The cement on Riki-Oh quickly dries up as well, and he is knocked unconscious before he is able to see Kitamakura again.

Riki-Oh wakes up imprisoned in a cell, ready to be questioned by the Warden. When the Warden approaches the bars, Riki-Oh forcibly grabs the Warden. Kitamakura comes to the rescue of his superiors once again, though, and bursts through the wall behind Riki-Oh. It is at this time that Kitamakura actually explains why he helped Riki-Oh - he simply wanted Shiragami dead, and had no desire to help Riki-Oh. Given that he wants to be the only enforcer for the Warden and Sugiyama, he attempts to kill Riki-Oh in front of the Warden to try to impress them.

Kitamakura starts the fight strong, managing to beat Riki-Oh up significantly. He is able to bend the bars of the cage to restrain Riki-Oh's arms and trap him as he continues to beat him up. Eventually, though, Riki-Oh is able to break free of the restraints and destroys a considerable amount of Kitamakura's body, splattering his organs across the floor and cutting off one of his massive arms. He falls down onto the floor in pain, bleeding badly, and everyone assumes he is dead.

The Warden presses a button to make the ceiling at the top of the prison cell start to go down and crush Riki-Oh. Riki-Oh has to do his best to hold the ceiling up to avoid being crushed. At this point, Kitamakura gets up and begs for the Warden to stop since he will be crushed too, saying he's been nothing but a loyal enforcer to them. The Warden replies by telling Kitamakura he is nothing but garbage, while Sugiyama says that he doesn't care because he's not useful anymore when he had his arm torn off and lost to Riki-Oh anyway.

Riki-Oh manages to break down the bars, but doesn't leave the cage yet. He again forgives Kitamakura and tries to help him get out, but with only one arm Kitamakura cannot hold up the ceiling and is crushed under it, dying. As he dies, he drops a photo of himself in the distant past before he came to the prison as a sumo wrestler. The picture has him next to his mother, at which point Riki-Oh says that the Warden is a monster for killing all of these prisoners who have families to go back to. The Warden, of course, considers the prisoners lower than bugs, and sends Riki-Oh through a trap door.

Kitamakura (key-tah-mah-koo-ra), or 北枕 in Japanese kanji; Kita means north, makura means pillow, which means that Japanese traditionally lay the bodies of the dead with his/her head facing the north. It is a japanese common belief that we, as living, healthy humans, should not lay this way; so the reason Kitamakura choose this name could be because he´s "the one who put you down like the dead".

## Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky

Kitamakura is known as Tarzan in the english dub of the live action film, and the four emperors are instead known as the gang of four. Kitamakura does not betray the other emperors in the movie, only wanting to kill Riki-Oh himself. While he still throws the pitchfork, it does not impale Shiragami (Brandon in the dub) and was probably being aimed at Riki-Oh. Despite this, Riki-Oh still saves him from the cement anyway, carrying him on his back, which doesn't make any sense without the context of the events from the manga. This would presumably be due to Riki-Oh being good natured, but the movie version is significantly less heroic than his counterpart, killing anyone who stands in his way.

When Kitamakura first appears after the death of Narumi (Oscar in the dub), he squashes a prisoner's head between his bare hands in one of the more memorable showcases of gore in the film. When he attempts to crush Riki-Oh's head, the administrator says that "Tarzan used to open coconuts this way!", bizarrely implying that he is tribal in the dub. Aside from these differences, his role is identical to the manga Kitamakura.

Kitamakura crushes the head of a rebelling prisonerKitamakura saved from the cement by Riki-OhKitamakura bends the prison bars to restrain Riki-OhKitamakura punches Riki-OhKitamakura gets punched through the jaw by Riki-OhKitamakura loses his arm to Riki-OhKitamakura can't make itKitamkakura cries for his mommy as being crushed to deathPhoto of a young Kitamakura and his motherKitamakura crushes a rebellious prisoner's headShot of the dummy Kitamakura is about to crush beforehandKitamakura showcases Narumi's corpse mounted on the wall"Tarzan" attempts to open Riki-Oh's head like a coconutKitamakura bends the bars to restrain Riki-OhRiki-Oh punches Kitamakura through his jawMovie photograph of a young Kitamakura and his mother