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Isurugi Raijūta (石動 (いするぎ) (らい) (じゅう) () ?) is the leader and founder of the Shinko-ryū "school" of kenjutsu - an organization whose purpose is to revitalize Japanese kenjutsu through force. Having conned his way into the good graces of the wealthy Tsukayama family, Raijūta seeks to fund his organization and crush anyone who stands in his way.

Appearance[]

Raijūta is a tall and muscular man with defined facial features. He has short spiky brown hair, black eyes, and thick brown eyebrows. He wears a purple shirt under a dark green haori with reddish fur on the shoulder area, brown pants tucked into blue-green shin guards which are connected to sandals, and blue-green vambraces.

Personality[]

Raijūta is cocky and self-glorifying. He desires to impose fear on others to make himself feel more powerful. While he is not a bad swordsman by any means, his greatest weakness is his fear of killing others, deciding instead to knock them out or give them near-irreversible injuries.

In the first anime adaptation, Raijūta possessed no such timidity and inhibitions against violence or a fear of killing. He personally killed his own hired underlings rather than expose his plans; his sadism extends greater as he is willing to kill his subordinates, his would-be apprentice - Yutaro, and took significant amusement in slaughtering government soldiers. He stood his ground against gun-wielding soldiers and slayed dozens of men.

Relationships[]

  • Shinko-ryū: His personal army, which fronts as a kenjutsu school. It was established as a means of destroying all other schools of swordsmanship.
  • Tsukayama Yuzaemon: His former employer, whom he tricked and eventually betrayed so he could gain access to his vast wealth and large property.
  • Tsukayama Yutarō: His former student, whom he betrayed and crippled to never wield a sword again.

Abilities[]

Being a leader of his own group of followers, Raijūta has a fair amount of skill, but his immensely bloated ego and overconfidence in his abilities only make a mockery of himself. In the anime, he is cocky but none the less quite powerful.

Raijūta's fighting style is the "Izuna" technique. He can snap other shinai and leave a slash-like indentation on the floor at the same time, which Kenshin speculates is powerful enough to snap even diamond if used with a real sword. However, because he is so much slower than Kenshin, dodging this attack proves to be nothing to him, and he is forced to unveil his ace, the "Tobi Izuna" - which swings in mid-air with a greater arc and produces a wind-blade capable of causing immediate amputation if not dodged.

Even with both these attacks however, Kenshin still makes a laughingstock of him using only his left arm for a "Hiryūsen" attack, defeating him with but a single blow. All in all, he is all talk and boasts no notable strength in comparison to Kenshin's previous enemies, such as Udō Jin-e and Shinomori Aoshi. Later on, Saitō Hajime states that for Kenshin to receive even a single cut from a "fool" like Raijūta, proved how weak he had gotten as a Rurouni.

Techniques[]

  • Matoi Izuna - A regular swing within the Izuna technique. Raijūta swings his sword so fast that it creates a vacuum around the sword and causes that vanishing of the blade like a summer mirage.
  • Tobi Izuna - A flying slash within the Izuna technique. Raijūta swings his sword and launches a vacuum slash that can't be blocked. Raijuta has mastered this technique enough to launch multiple slash at once.

History[]

At some point in his life Raijūta came across written records of ancient swordsmanship secrets. Upon reading and training based on them, he was able to develop his Shinko-ryū, which he honed through 10 years of training. Confident on the superiority of his ability, he arrogantly believed he could use his newfound power to promote a murderous sword style in the increasingly more western-firearm dominated era.

To establish his supremacist plans, Raijūta believed he had to find powerful warriors to aid in his cause. He would do this by attacking Dojos in order to purge those he deemed weak, and recruit the strong. Raijūta, realized, he needed financial backing in order to enact his plan, so he targeted the wealthy Tsukayama family and staged an armed robbery while portraying himself as a savior, earning the family's favor to begin his operations.

Tokyo Arc[]

Raijūta first appears alongside Yutaro when Kenshin, Kaoru and Yaihko visit Maekawa's dojo. Raijūta challenges Maekawa to a fight with the intention of purging his dojo. Maekawa accepts under the condition that they fight with bamboo swords in a best of three fight, which Raijūta begrudgingly accepts. Raijūta easily defeats Maekawa, and Kenshin is forced to fight Raijūta to stop his excessive violence. Raijūta briefly clashes with Kenshin before retreating while Yutaro leaves with him. Raijūta is elated at finding someone strong.

Kenshin later meets Raijūta again on the Tsukayama manor where Raijūta explains his philosophy and his goals. Kenshin rejects Raijūta's ideas believing that an era dominated by killing swords is a failed one. This angers Raijūta who declares Kenshin his enemy and promises to kill him if he does not join him.

After challenging and gaining an interest over the Kamiya Kasshin-ryu, Yutaro asks Raijūta to let him practice temporarily and Raijūta allows it. Later Raijūta sends his disciples to attack the dojo in order to threathen Kenshin into joining but Kenshin easily defeats his men.

During a night while Yutaro walks with Kenshin's group, Raijūta ambushes them, forcing Kenshin to fight. As Kenshin avoids his Matoi Izuna, he unleashes Tobi Izuna which grazes Kenshin's arm, but severely injures Yutaro's right arm. Showing little concern for Yutaro, Raijūta explains his deception and how he only used Yutaro and never cared for him. Enraged Kenshin roars him to let him take Yutaro to a doctor before fighting him in full. Raijūta allows it.

Kenshin subsequently returns and the two men fight with Kenshin avoiding Raijūta's Tobi Izuna, realizing the technique's secret. Raijūta then unleashes a flurry of Tobi Izuna's scratching Kenshin which makes him gloat in superiority. This makes Kenshin realize that Raijūta has never, in fact, killed a man, as a no real murderer would gloat over superficial wounds. Feeling provoked, Raijūta now combines Matoi and Tobi Izuna, allowing him to injure Kenshin's leg. However, Kenshin uses Hiryūzen, shooting his sword from an unseathing position and hitting Raijūta's forehead, defeating him. Raijūta recovers and grabs Yahiko by the leg threatening to kill him if Kenshin doesn't drop his weapon. Yahiko taunts him into doing it, ready to not yield to Raijūta. Sanosuke further provokes him into doing it, before finally Kenshin explains the true depth of what it means to kill. Unable to do it, he releases Yahiko while kneeling with his confidence shattered.

In the 2023 anime, the outcome is slightly different as he simply stands still in silence as everyone leaves, with Yutaro bidding him a permanent farewell. Eventually and full of bitterness over his humiliation, Raijūta lays hidden before a pair of visitors praying on the Jizo statue. Trying to convince himself that he can commit murder he attempts to swing his sword at the unsuspecting duo, only to merely behead the statue. The visitors notice the fallen head and put it back in place before leaving. Raijūta is subsequently left in knees weeping at his inability to kill.

Develoment and Reception[]

Watsuki mentioned that he intended for Raijūta to be the opposite of Kenshin, "intelligently macho and a believer of satsujin-ken." But somehow, he became "a total fake" who became "a smaller and smaller man" as the story progressed, until he was "defeated by a single blow—ending almost as a villain."

Raijūta's appearance was originally based on an American superhero comic book character, but as the story progressed, his appearance and personality "deteriorated." Because he had difficulty with "the complicated details" in the Oniwabanshū story arc, Watsuki gave Raijūta a relatively simple outfit with only one design flourish, the black feathers, which turned out to be difficult to draw. Watsuki concluded that the development of Raijūta taught him a lot about character design.

Trivia[]

  • Raijūta's story plot has the most differences of all the Tokyo Arc comparing the 1996 anime and the original manga, mostly to expand it and make it last more episodes in the anime.

Gallery[]

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