| Please note: This article is about the Captain of the Imperial Guard. For other uses of the term, please see Ishikawa (disambiguation). |
| Seppun Ishikawa | |
|---|---|
| |
| Born: | Unknown |
| Died: | 1128 |
| Siblings: | Seppun Kiaku |
| Titles: | Captain of the Imperial Guard |
| People | |
Seppun Ishikawa was Captain of the Imperial Guard under Emperor Hantei XXXVIII and Hantei XXXIX. [1] He left the Guard as the ronin Ishikawa, and he died in the Second Day of Thunder helping the Seven Thunders to confront Fu Leng.
Birth[]
Ishikawa was born during a Festival of New Year's Day in Otosan Uchi, the first son of an influential Imperial retainer. [2]
Training[]
He was accepted in the Kakita Academy due to favors owed to his father, where he demonstrated his skill with a sword and a keen tactical intellect. [2]
Station[]
Seppun Ishikawa
Ishikawa was appointed as Imperial Guardsman, followed by a post as Emerald Magistrate when he caught the eye of the Emerald Champion Doji Satsume. He returned to the Imperial City as the Captain of the Imperial Guard. [2]
Scorpion Coup[]
During the Scorpion Coup, he and Isawa Kaede, whom he secretly loved, spirited away the young Hantei Sotorii to Phoenix Clan lands so that he could receive a hasty gempukku and claim the Emerald Throne, as ordered by the Master of Void and Kaede's father Isawa Ujina. [1]
Clan War[]
Kisada's Ambition[]
In 1126 Ishikawa was present in the Imperial Court when a tainted Seppun messenger told Hantei XXXIX that Hida Kisada had raised an army against the Emperor and was marching north. The army was composed of not just Crab warriors but also included oni, and other minions of the Shadowlands. His energy spent and his duty in delivering the message finished, the tainted Seppun requested, and was granted permission to commit seppuku. The Seppun died before he could properly commit seppuku so Ishikawa cut the head from the samurai's shoulders with a clean stroke, to avoid his corpse being raised as a zombie. This message marked the beginning of the Clan War. [3]
Empress Kachiko[]
Ishikawa began to suspect that the Emperor's wife Bayushi Kachiko was behind the constant illness of the Emperor. He shared this suspicion with Ide Makujin, who had been Doji Satsume's second in command in the Emerald Magistrates before the Grinning Crane died. Makujin said he would look into the matter but actually reported it to the Empress. Kachiko then sent Ishikawa defend the Crane lands against the Lion, hoping he would die in the conflict there, and asked Aramoro to take care of Makujin. [1]
Protecting the Crane Clan[]
During the Fall of Kyuden Kakita in 1127 [4] Ishikawa and his loyal Imperial Guards were sent to aid the Crane against the Lion. Kachiko hoped that they would be destroyed during the battle, but instead not only did they survive but they had served with distinction and received only minor losses. Doji Hoturi ordered them them from the field and to return back to Otosan Uchi with honor. [5]
Beiden Pass[]
Just as they were within sight of Otosan Uchi, Kachiko ordered Ishikawa to head towards the Beiden Pass, where she expected the advancing Crab army that held the pass would destroy the Seppun Guards. When he arrived at the pass he was stopped by Hida Amoro and Kuni Yori but managed to talk them into allowing him and his men to cross the pass in peace, in the name of the Emperor. On the other side of the pass he arrived at the Unicorn Clan Champion's camp, which were guarding the crossroads of the Empire. In the presence of the Otaku Daimyo Otaku Kamoko, Ishikawa delivered an Imperial message to Shinjo Yokatsu, while the Dragon forces were engaging the Crab army to the south, in the Battle of Beiden Pass. Kachiko had ordered Yokatsu to refuse the Dragon army access to Beiden Pass upon their return. [5]
Leaving the Guard[]
Ishikawa believed that Kachiko was sending him on missions which would result in his death and that of his men. To avoid this fate, and so that he could continue his investigation, he resigned from the imperial guard along with all of the men under his command. [5] He then entered the service of Kakita Yoshi, the Kakita Daimyo, as his personal guard. Yoshi planed to use Ishikawa as a pawn in his own schemes. He allowed the information about Ishikawa's suspicions and planned investigation into the Emperor's wife, Bayushi Kachiko to be passed to the Scorpion Clan and thus Kachiko herself. Yoshi expected that Kachiko and the rest of the Scorpions would be so focused on trying to kill or some how remove Ishikawa that Yoshi would be free to devise his own plots against her. [6]
I have slept beneath the very nose of our enemy every day since this began. The Scorpion are as pervasive as they are cunning, and we cannot afford the luxury of solitude when facing them. ‘Fortune favors the bold.’ So will the Fortunes favor us.
-Seppun Ishikawa
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A Prophecy Uncovered[]
Ishikawa's investigations had lead him to Heavens Crossroads, an abandoned keep near the Lion-Scorpion border, where he believed he would find the evidence he was looking for to uncover the Scorpion plot to poison the Emperor and take control of Rokugan. They approached the supposedly abandoned keep just before dawn, but when they were only two hundred feet a way from the keep an arrow was fired from the tower, killing their scout Chui Ryuki. They then engaged a group of Scorpion troops that were holding the keep and killed them all. Inside the keep they discovered the body of Asako Kensei and a scroll foretelling a prophecy that said that the Emperor would be corrupted from within and fall to the Deceivers. Ishikawa believed it was a warning that Hantei XXXIX would be consumed by the return of Fu Leng. So after two years since his departure from Otosan Uchi, Seppun Ishikawa returned home to the Imperial Palace to offer his service to the person he now believed could save them from this fate, and the one person he never believed he could trust, Bayushi Kachiko. [7]
Tricked by the Kolat[]
Ishikawa's investigation into the Scorpion had accidently started to come close to exposing the secrecy of the Kolat, so they devised a plan to redirect his quest. The Kolat Master and Unicorn Clan Champion Shinjo Yokatsu went to Heavens Crossroad, killed Asako Kensei and told Bayushi Mokuyei that him and his guard were to fight Ishikawa's men and make it look convincing so that when Ishikawa found the scroll containing the prophecy he would believe it to be real and turn his attention to it and away from the Kolat, he then fired the arrow from the tower killing Ryuki before leaving. Ishikawa's second in command Matsu Reiko was also a member of the Kolat as she carried with her a crystal tear clutched tightly in her palm as they entered into Otosan Uchi. [7]
Death[]
Ishikawa
In 1128 the former head of the Imperial Guard drove forward with a contingent of samurai from all clans. They continued pushing, clearing a path toward the Imperial Palace. [8] On the Second Day of Thunder Ishikawa found it almost comical that, after two years of trying to uncover Kachiko's plotting within the halls of the Imperial Palace, he was back at the capital commanding his elite Imperial troops, about to aid an attack upon the Emperor himself. As the Thunders made their way to face Fu Leng they were cut off at the gates to the Imperial Palace by a large group of Shadowlands creatures, just then the gates opened and Ishikawa and his men charged against the Shadownland beasts from behind cutting a path to them so that they would be able to make it to the Imperial Throne Room. Being outnumbered at least four to one Ishikawa's troops could not fully clear a way to the waiting Thunders, till a group of Naga joined their efforts and the Thunders rushed it into the palace. The creatures then broke through and the combat turned into a massacre of Imperial and Naga troops, [9] and Ishikawa died. [10]
See also[]
External Links[]
- Seppun Ishikawa (Scorpion Clan Coup, Scroll 1)
| Preceded by: Unknown |
Captain of the Imperial Guard ? - 1127 |
Succeeded by: Vacant |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 In the Emperor's Name
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Winter Court: Kyuden Seppun, p. 108
- ↑ Three Days, by Ree Soesbee
- ↑ Time of the Void, p. 10
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 The Emperor's Seal
- ↑ Ishikawa’s Allegiance, by Ken Carpenter
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Pawns of Prophecy, by Patrick Kapera
- ↑ Time of the Void, p. 110
- ↑ Thunder's Challenge
- ↑ Time of the Void, p. 143
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