Raikōji Chizuru

Raikōji Chizuru
Characteristics
Kanji	来迎寺 千鶴
Gender	Female
Blood Type	B
Background
Occupation	Heiress
Affiliation	Raikōji Family Raikōji Muneiwa (grandfather)
Media Portrayal
Manga Debut	Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story

Raikōji Chizuru (来迎寺 千鶴) is a character who appeared in Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story who met Himura Kenshin.

Appearance

Chizuru is a young girl with long black hair that is tied with a red ribbon, and thin eyebrows.

Chizuru wears a pick shirt over a red one, a dark pink shirt, and black shoes.

Personality

Chizuru is quick to get angry for multiple reasons, but will calm down when she gets her point across. Chizuru will show her gratitude for those that help her, like making Kenshin a meal to eat and give her ribbon to him, after he had saved her.

Relationships

• Raikoji Muneiwa: Muneiwa is Chizuru's grandfather.

Abilities

Chizuru is a young girl with no combat experience.

History

In the first issue of Rurouni: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story, Kenshin (not named in the actual story) meets Raikōji Chizuru, the granddaughter of Raikōji Muneiwa. During the 10th year of Meiji, he sees two armed thugs with knives chasing Chizuru. Chizuru invites Kenshin to her home as gratitude for helping her, despite Muneiwa's rejection. She later him that Muneiwa's son and daughter-in-law, Chizuru's parents, died when caught between government and revolutionary warriors. After Kenshin leaves, thugs kidnap Chizuru and leave a ransom note in Muneiwa's mansion, demanding 1,000 yen to be brought to the Temple on Yūkyū Mountain in exchange for Chizuru's life. Kenshin rescues Chizuru while managing to spare the thugs' lives.

In the Samurai X: Reflection OVA, she is the sweetheart of Himura Kenji. She appears to be strong willed and energetic, bearing a striking physical and characteristic resemblance and similar personality and attitude to Kenji's mother, Kaoru.

Development & Reception

Watsuki based Chizuru on Chizuru of Tsuneo Tomita's Sugata Sanshirō novel. He described Chizuru and Kaoru as "long-lost sisters" due to the similarities shared by the characters. He said that he used no particular motif with Chizuru's design; he wanted to draw a girl wearing a hakama.

Etymology

• Raikōji means "coming/come, due, next, since, cause, become" (来) (rai), "welcome, meet, greet" (迎) (kō) and "temple" (寺) (ji).
• Chizuru means "thousand" (千) (chi) and "crane, stork" (鶴) (tsuru/zuru).
  • An ancient Japanese legend stated that a person who could fold one thousand origami cranes by himself within one year would be granted eternal good luck or one wish.