Takechiyo Gotou

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**Takechiyo Gotou** (後藤 竹千代, *Gotō Takechiyo*) was one of the Abashiri Convicts. He met Saichi Sugimoto in Hokkaido and told him about the Ainu gold and the escaped tattooed prisoners.

## Appearance

Gotou was a middle-aged man with thinning greying hair, as well as a small mustache, and a beard. He wore a white shirt, olive colored kimono, and moss green hanten, with a piece of white cloth hanging on his shoulders. He would also wear light pants and straw winter boots.

Gotou's Abashiri tattoo covered his entire upper body and parts of his arms.

## Personality

Outwardly, Gotou appeared to be chatty and friendly. However, he liked to drink a lot and, while drunk, he would often act irrationally. In his drunken state, he killed his family, and later blurted out secrets he had no intention of revealing. He also tried to attack Sugimoto but then ran away, demonstrating his true sheepish nature.

## Background

Gotou was born in Northern Kanto region. Long before becoming a prisoner, Gotou struggled with alcoholism. One day, he got so drunk that he stabbed his own wife and child to death. As a result, Gotou was sent to Abashiri Prison. During his stay there, he became acquainted with Noppera-Bou and some of the other prisoners. He agreed to become one of the prisoners to have a secret code tattooed on his back.

Gotou was part of a prisoner line consisting of Tetsuzou Nihei, Yoshitake Shiraishi, and Kazuo Henmi during their walk on the prison grounds.

When the Abashiri guards tried to escort the tattooed convicts to another facility to claim the gold for themselves, the prisoners killed them and escaped, and Gotou was able to flee. He came to Hokkaido, where he eventually met Saichi Sugimoto.

According to Sugimoto, Gotou would go to Otaru to get drunk every time he'd find a bit of gold.

## Plot

### Introduction Arc

Sometime after the Russo-Japanese War and breaking out of Abashiri, Gotou becomes acquainted with Saichi Sugimoto and visits him while Sugimoto was is for gold.

On one such occasion, Gotou listens to Sugimoto grumble about his luck finding gold and tells him he should become a hunter, as animal pelts are selling at the time. He then decides to tell Sugimoto an "interesting story" about a big pile of gold that once belonged to the Ainu people, but was stolen by a certain man who has hidden it somewhere. The man tattooed the location of the Ainu gold on several prisoners from Abashiri Prison, who were later able to escape by killing the guards who had planned on taking the gold for themselves. Before Gotou could finish the rest of the story, he becomes intoxicated from drinking heavily and falls asleep.

When Gotou's drunken haze passes, he realizes that he has revealed something that he didn't mean to tell anyone. He takes Sugimoto's rifle, preparing to kill him. Just then, Sugimoto wakes up and strikes him with a rock. Sugimoto takes the rifle back and cocks it, saying now it's ready to shoot. Scared, Gotou runs away into the forest.

Ultimately, Gotou runs into a brown bear sow, who mauls and kills him. Sugimoto finds his body later and sees that his guts were eaten out and his corpse is buried under a pile of snow. After Sugimoto's encounter with an Ainu girl and their battle with the bear that killed Gotou, Sugimoto takes a knife and skins Gotou's tattoo, taking it as part of the code.

### Escape King Arc

When Yoshitake Shiraishi tells Saichi Sugimoto what he knows about Abashiri Convicts, he reminisces of their escape, when he and Gotou witnessed Toshizou Hijikata pulling a sword away from one soldier and killing three of them in the blink of an eye.

## Trivia

* Gotou liked booze and dried fish but disliked offal stew.
* In 2018 Golden Kamuy All-Stars popularity poll, Gotou ranked 106th, gaining 110 votes.

## References

1. ↑ Character profiles from the Golden Kamuy fanbook
2. ↑ Character profiles from the Golden Kamuy fanbook
3. ↑ 「ゴールデンカムイ北海道オールスターズ総選挙」