Katsuichi

**Katsuichi** is an anthropomorphic lion and a master swordsman. He has a somewhat infamous reputation as a renegade martial artist whose style and beliefs defy the traditional styles of kenjutsu, which some swordsmen take as an insult. In his youth, Katsuichi wandered the land on the Warrior's Pilgrimage to better understand the meaning of Bushido, but years ago settled in the mountains of the Northern Province to live as a hermit after disbanding his own dojo. Some years later, he encountered Usagi and after seeing his diligence, trained the young rabbit in the ways of the warrior.

## History

Many years ago, Katsuichi was the top student of a prominent kenjutsu dojo, and it was widely believed by his fellow students that he would be the one to succeed their sensei, Fujiyama. However, Katsuichi didn't believe he was fit to succeed their sensei because he felt restricted the philosophies of their sensei, whereas his best friend and fellow student, Isao, reflected their sensei's teachings. At the same time, Katsuichi had a relationship with a young lady named Kinuko, the daughter of Tabata-sensei, the master of the Striking Snake School, a rival to the Fujiyama dojo.

Despite being from rival schools, Katsuichi and Kinuko were very much in love. However, there was another who coveted Kinuko for her status as the daughter of a dojo headmaster. A young samurai named Toji, the top student at the Striking Snake school, and he was deeply offended that the daughter of his sensei would dare dally with a student from their rival school. Toji was arrogant and hotheaded, and continuously tried to provoke Katsuichi into fighting him. However, Katsuichi had promised Kinuko not to fight him because she knew that if Katsuichi beat Toji, it would stoke the intense rivalry between their school and put further strain on their relationship. So, for her sake, Katsuichi always maintained courtesy with Toji, which he took as cowardice.

The day came when Katsuichi decided that he would take the Warrior's Pilgrimage and asked Kinuko to meet him that night at a temple so that he could ask her to join him. At the same time, Toji spoke with Kinuko's father, Tabata-sensei, and convinced him that Katsuichi was a coward who intended to marry Kinuko, and he would dilute the school's standing and prestige with his weakness. Toji then persuaded his sensei to have Kinuko marry him instead.

That night, Toji caught Kinuko as she was sneaking off to meet with Katsuichi at the temple. He chastised her as a disgrace for daring to secretly meet with their school's rival. When Kinuko argued that who she decided to meet was not Toji's concern, he maliciously informed her that her father had already consented to allow him to marry her. Kinuko refused to accept this and tried to run off to Katsuichi, but Toji refused to let her leave. When she fought back, she scratched his face bloody, and in a fit of anger, Toji drew his sword and killed Kinuko. Realizing what he had done, Toji blamed Katsuichi for his shattered ambitions.

Katsuichi was patiently waiting at the temple when Toji arrived and tossed the bells Katsuichi had earlier gifted to Kinuko, now covered in her blood. Toji angrily blamed Katsuichi for Kinuko's death because she refused to leave him, then arrogantly explained how he was now going to frame Katsuichi for her death so that he could still succeed the Striking Snake School with its many rich patrons. Katsuichi scoffed at Toji's plan, pointing out the bloody scratches on his face, and how the authorities would find Toji's blood under Kinuko's fingernails. Enraged, Toji drew his sword to kill Katsuichi, and this time Katsuichi would not back down. Katsuichi killed Toji in a single move, avenging his beloved Kinuko. With nothing to keep him anymore, Katsuichi went off on the Warrior's Pilgrimage, and his friend Isao succeeded their sensei.

On his journey to perfect himself as a martial artist, Katsuichi developed a most unorthodox style that defied the conventional methods of the mainstream dojos. And throughout his travels, Katsuichi dueled and defeated many great swordsmen, exploiting the rigidity of their styles with his unknown techniques. One such swordsman was the fencing instructor to Lord Hikiji himself, Nakamura Koji, a man widely renowned for his great skill, and he accepted Katsuichi's challenge to duel before the Lord of the Black Sun. Katsuichi defeated Koji not once, not twice, but three times, and each victory was absolute. The humiliation of this defeat would inspire Koji to also take up the Warrior's Pilgrimage to refine himself as a swordsman.

Eventually, Katsuichi moved to a city in Northern Province ruled by Lord Mifune and opened his own dojo. However, he was extremely disappointed in the poor quality of the students who came for instruction, and soon disbanded his own school. His unorthodox methods and defiance of the traditional teachings also earned him the ire of the Dogora Fencing Academy, the largest dojo in the province. Katsuichi then settled in the nearby mountains to live as a hermit and encountered a one-handed, but powerful Daitengu called Sojobo. The tengu and the swordsman reached an agreement to not trespass on the other's territory.

Years went by, and one day, two young boys, Miyamoto Usagi and Kenichi, on their way to the city to join the Dogora School happened upon an encounter between Katsuichi and students from the Dogora School. The students stated that Katsuichi had insulted their school, and only his blood would repay the offense. Katsuichi warned them to go away, but the students refused to back down before a renegade who disbanded his own school. They all attacked the lone hermit at the same time, but Katsuichi deftly slew his attackers. Katsuichi then noticed the two young boys and bade them to go home; they were too young to witness such violence. Usagi then replied that they wanted to become great swordsmen like him, but Katsuichi turned away, quietly calling them fools.

The young Usagi was so impressed by Katsuichi's skill that he discarded all notions of going to the Dogora School and wanted the hermit to be his sensei, much to the mockery of Kenichi. At first Katsuichi told Usagi go home and live happily, but after seeing the youth's determination after waiting outside his hut, even when it was raining, Katsuichi decided to take the boy as his student.

The first six months of Usagi's training, Katsuichi had him do nothing but chores and had yet to teach him anything involving swordsmanship, not even in discussion. Then, one day, out of the blue, he walked up to Usagi and struck him with his staff before telling him to fetch more water. Usagi was caught completely off guard, and thought, perhaps, his sensei was indeed crazy, but he still did as he was told and refused to leave because it would shame him. This continued on for months; Katsuichi would appear out of nowhere and strike Usagi at any time, even when he was sleeping. Around this time, Katsuichi also began teaching Usagi the expectations of what it means to be samurai. It soon became second nature to Usagi to be on guard at all times and anticipate all the ways his sensei could sneak up and attack him.

After six months of this, while Usagi was chopping wood, Katsuichi once again attacked him from behind, but Usagi was able to sense the attack coming and deftly defended himself on pure reflex. Satisfied with his student's progress, Katsuichi declared that Usagi was now ready to begin training with a bokken (wooden sword).

Katsuichi began teaching Usagi not just in the martial arts of swordsmanship, archery and horsemanship, but also in poetry, music, the tea ceremony and calligraphy, as a samurai must also be well learned in all aspects of their culture. Katsuichi also taught Usagi was how a true samurai must always put the principles of Bushido above all else, even his own life, and the most important lesson Katsuichi taught his student was when NOT to draw his sword.

At one point during Usagi's training, the sensei and student came upon a battlefield where a conflict between the Mifune and Hikiji clans had ended. The landscape was riddled with the corpses of slain men and the ravens that had come to feast on them. Then they came upon a survivor from the Hikiji army, deeply traumatized and almost crazed from the horror of the battle, who broke down crying as he begged them for help. Katsuichi brought the man back to their hut and gave him some food, and when Usagi asked about the man had been through the soldier told them how he thought that by joining Lord Hikiji's army he would attain glory in battle, but he was just an ashigaru, a foot soldier, and he and comrades were worked like slaves with minimal rations. When the battle finally commenced, instead of finding glory, they were led straight into a massacre, for Lord Mifune was a genius military tactician, and the soldier barely survived while his comrades were all slaughtered. The soldier then thanked the two of them and left, and Katsuichi told Usagi that this was an example of what the "glory" of battle really looks like. This event would have a deep effect on Usagi.

After two years of intense training Usagi in his unorthodox style, Katsuichi brought his student down from the mountains to enter a fencing tournament that was being hosted by the Dogora School. Despite the enmity between Katsuichi and the instructors of the Dogora Dojo, he knew that they would not dare deny his student's entry into their tournament because it was being overseen by Lord Mifune, the Daimyo of the Northern Province and head patron to the Dogora Dojo, and to deny Katsuichi's student would be seen as cowardice before their lord and result in a loss of face. To repay this insult, the headmaster of the Dogora School ordered that his students cripple Katsuichi's pupil in their matches with him, including his childhood friend Kenichi. Thanks to Katsuichi's training in his unusual fencing style, Usagi emerged victorious in the tournament and was presented his daisho by Lord Mifune. Not long after that, Usagi left Katsuichi's tutelage to become a samurai in Lord Mifune's service.

But the Dogora School was not finished with its grudge against Katsuichi. Not only did all of their students lose in a tournament they had sponsored, but to have all lost to a single student of their most hated rival was just too shameful to bear. The dojo's chief instructor, Higashimori, took all the dojo's best students and tracked Katsuichi down to his hut where they attacked the lone hermit. Katsuichi killed scores of the Dogora students before their fight took them to a nearby cliffside. At that time, Usagi had happened upon the skirmish as he was coming to visit his sensei before departing to serve Lord Mifune and joined in the fight. Despite his warnings for them to depart, the Dogora students continued to attack Katsuichi and he continued to cut them down, until Higshimori threw one of his own students into Katsuichi's blade and cut his eye while he was distracted. Blinded by his injury, Katsuichi lost his footing and fell from the cliffside and into the river below. Overcome by grief at the apparent death of his sensei, Usagi flew into a berserking rage and killed Higashimori and frightened what was left of the Dogora students away. Usagi then knelt and wept for his beloved teacher.

Unknown to Usagi at the time, Katsuichi managed to survive the fall into the raging river and was carried miles downstream. Barely alive, he clung to a rock for survival. He was discovered by two young brothers, Shunji and Shunichi, who took him to their hut and nursed him back to health. Their mother was dead and their father, who was a country samurai, had become a monk, so Katsuichi decided to take the two of them under his wing and train them as samurai. Shunichi was older and later left Katsuichi and his brother to make his own way but was sadly killed in a duel with another swordsman, who in turn was reluctantly slain by Usagi.

In the "Circles" volume, when Usagi had returned to his home province to give up the life of a wanderer, he was surprised to see his sensei alive, though now missing an eye, and training a new student. The two of them caught up, and Katsuichi was proud to see how far his student had come from that child that first begged him to be his sensei.

Sometime later, Katsuichi received a message from Usagi arranging a duel between him and an old adversary, the swordsman Nakamura Koji, who wanted a rematch with Katsuichi at Kitanoji Temple by Autumn. Katsuichi left for the appointed time and place, and brought his two students with him, Shunji and Jotaro, who he had taken as his apprentice at the urging of Mariko. While on their way to Kitanoji Temple, Katsuichi and his students stopped at Fencing Academy where he originally trained as a student, with his former classmate and friend Isao now acting as headmaster of the dojo. The two old friends had tea and reminisced together before having a sparring match with each other for old times' sake. Isao also stated that Shunji would be welcomed at his dojo, an offer Katsuichi strongly considered because it would help Shunji develop more as a samurai, and he was more suited to a classical style of fencing instead of the one Katsuichi created.

As they continued their way to Kitanoji Temple, Katsuichi and his students happened upon a village that was being plagued by bandits, which Usagi and Koji also happened to be at. Katsuichi and Koji placed their appointed duel on hold until after they assisted the village in getting rid of the bandits. Koji came up with a strategy to strike at the bandits while they were encamped and take out the bandit chieftain in order to take down the entire group. It was a difficult battle, but thanks to the combined efforts of the assembled warriors, and Jotaro's stalwart courage, the villagers were able to drive off the bandits with Koji killing the bandit leader. The villagers were extremely grateful to the samurai for saving them, but there was still one more matter to be resolved: their appointment at Kitanoji Temple.

Usagi was well aware of Koji's intense skill, having observed his techniques firsthand, and fearful for his sensei's life, was willing to tell Katsuichi of a flaw he had seen in Koji's style. Katsuichi refused to hear of it. In all of his years, Katsuichi had never met anyone so devoted to Bushido and to mastering the way of the sword as Koji was, and he would not face such a man with an unfair advantage because it would shame them both as samurai. Win or lose, it would be by Katsuichi's own merit, such is Bushido.

The hour of the duel finally came, after a lifetime since their first encounter, Katsuichi and Nakamura Koji would once again cross blades. The air was filled with tension, with both swordsman waiting for the exact moment to strike. In those final moments, Usagi envisioned his sensei's death. The two warriors finally made their move and struck at each other with everything they had in single stroke with flawless technique, and the long-awaited duel was over in a heartbeat. After several tense moments, Koji fell to the ground dead. Katsuichi showed reverent respect to his fallen adversary and stated that there would never be another warrior like Nakamura Koji again, and he and his students gave Koji a warrior's funeral.

Later, Katsuichi and Usagi discussed Koji's death with Usagi revealing the flaw in Koji's style: how he would unconsciously dip the end of his sword ever so slightly just before he attacked. Katsuichi stated that such knowledge before their duel would have given him a clear advantage, and that his victory was by luck. On any other day, Koji could have won. Katsuichi told Usagi that he and Shunji would make a brief pilgrimage south to a temple to pray for Koji and that they should reunite back at Kitanoji after a month. He also suggested to Usagi that he take that time to travel with Jotaro so that he might get to know his son. Usagi was shocked to realize that Katsuichi of his relation to the boy, but Katsuichi said it was obvious because the two share the same spirit. He then jokingly warned Usagi to be careful because Jotaro was just like Usagi when he was younger.

Katsuichi and Shunji departed from Usagi and Jotaro, with the two rabbits having many adventures together in such a brief time before the four of them reunited. When they came back to Kitanoji, Shunji stated that they also had many adventures, such as Katsuichi slaying a water demon, saving a village from ogres, and rescuing a lord's daughter who instantly wanted to marry Katsuichi. The mountain hermit scolded Shunji for saying so much, and when Usagi curiously asked about it, Katsuichi sheepishly insisted that the princess wasn't that attractive.

Before returning to Kitanoji, the group decided to catch a show of street performers, who later turned out to be members of Koroshi, the Assassins Guild. When they crossed paths again, the assassins jumped to the conclusion that the group was coming after them because of Usagi's earlier interference with the guild's activities. Katsuichi and his students were able to kill most of the troupe with the last one getting away.

At last, they returned to the temple and gave full respects to Koji, with Usagi presenting Koji's swords to Jotaro. From there Katsuichi witnessed the bitter farewell between Usagi and Jotaro, and when Usagi was already gone, he watched as Jotaro vainly called out and admitted that Usagi was his father, but by then the older rabbit was out of distance. After that, Katsuichi and his students returned back to the mountains.

Katsuichi was not seen again until the "Homecoming" Arc, when Usagi's home village was taken hostage by extreme loyalists to the late Lord Mifune. Usagi and Kenichi once again had to work together to try and save their home, but they knew they couldn't do it alone, so Mariko went up the mountain to get from Katsuichi and Jotaro. With their arrival, and with the aid of the villagers, Usagi and Kenichi were able to change the tide of battle in their favor. Katsuichi faced the loyalists with his sword while Jotaro fired arrows on them, and Katsuichi also pointed out that the boy was a much better archer than Usagi was at his age. When the battle was over and the village was safe, Katsuichi and Jotaro had a brief reunion with Usagi before he had to leave the province once again and they had to return to the mountains.

## Personality

Katsuichi is a stoic man and a stern sensei who religiously follows the code of Bushido. As expected of a samurai of his caliber, he maintains awareness and discipline of self at all times and doesn't give into emotion and greatly disdains arrogance and thoughtless actions. Even though most of his past prior to becoming a hermit is unknown, his travels as a wandering swordsman clearly made him the man he is now. As a devoted student of the martial arts, Katsuichi is very well aware of the grim realities of what it means to be a samurai and the horrors of war and death, which was why he first tried to tell Usagi to go home and live a happy life when they first met. Even though Katsuichi is a master swordsman, he disdains violence and believes that using the sword for unnecessary or wanton bloodshed dirties is a dishonor to the samurai class. Victory without conflict is the highest form of martial arts mastery.

As a sensei, Katsuichi is very strict and places the quality of his pupils above everything else. This firmly held principal is what led Katsuichi to disband his own dojo years prior to meeting Usagi, and he also taught Usagi to value the quality of a person's character, no matter their class or status. Katsuichi also taught Usagi to value honor and the tenants of bushido above everything else because the true mark of value in a samurai is not in how well he fights, but in how he well conducts himself in life. And at the core of all of Katsuichi's teachings in the martial arts was the respect of life, and that violence must never be the first resort.

Katsuichi is a man who finds enjoyment in the simple pleasures in life, most especially in savoring well-brewed tea. He is also keenly observant in all things around him, which is how he was able to quickly deduce that Jotaro is actually Usagi's son without ever being told. And while he disdains bloodshed, he's not afraid to give a firm smack to his students with his staff whenever they act foolishly and get their lessons wrong.

## Fighting Style

Katsuichi is a master swordsman who taught Usagi everything he knows about combat. As a young man, he felt restricted and confined by his sensei's instructions, despite the fact that he was considered the best student in the dojo. When he set off on the Musha Shugyo (Warrior's Pilgrimage) to improve himself as a samurai, he developed a new style with unconventional techniques based on practical application instead of just strict form which only relies on certain techniques. Because of Katsuichi's unorthodox methods, his style in unpredictable to most swordsmen and he exploits the rigidity of other styles. However, Katsuichi's style was developed only for himself, and is not suited for everyone. While Usagi has greatly mastered his sensei's style, Shunji was more suited to a classic school of kenjutsu.

Two key skills in Katsuichi's style are the powers of observation and awareness, components that he strictly pressed on Usagi before ever letting him even touch a bokken. Katsuichi's keen observation and awareness allow him to see beyond the surface of things and sense the situation he's in and the people around him. These skills are what allow him to gauge an opponent's abilities as well as sense what kind of people they are, like a troupe of assassins posing as entertainers.

What further shows Katsuichi's advanced skill is his adaptability, both to his age and the loss of his eye; neither of which has hampered his abilities as a martial artist. His reflexes are so fast that he can effortlessly catch a knife in midflight then throw it back at its owner. And even though he's now an old man, years of intense training and living in the mountains has given him the stamina to not only fight much younger opponents, but he's also still quite capable of fighting off and defeating many enemies when he's outnumbered. Katsuichi is also skilled in other weapons, such as archery and the staff, and taught Usagi in the various samurai arts.