Majima Gorohachi (真島 五六八, Majima Gorohachi), also known as Shishido Baiken (宍戸 梅軒, Shishido Baiken), is a major supporting character in Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan!. He is a notorious swordsman who joins the army of the Tokugawa Bakufu prior to the Battle of Sekigahara and befriends Kiryu Kazumanosuke during their service together.
Profile[]
Appearance[]
Gorohachi resembles his modern-day counterpart Goro Majima, but he appears more aged and has many wrinkles on his face.
Attire[]
He wears a snakeskin kimono. While in army service, he wears red armor over the same kimono, and while living as Shishido Baiken, he wore a blue cloth on his head. His eyepatch is fashioned out of a katana's tsuba.
Personality[]
ワシぁ大勢の人間を斬ってきた・・・・・・。こうなりゃ後は、地獄か天国かしか待っとりゃせん。どうせやったら、大手柄立てて天国行こうやないか。
— Majima to Kiryu, Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan!I've already cut down a whole lotta people... Now, only heaven or hell's waitin' up ahead. Makin' a name for myself here's my shot at heaven.
When he was young, Majima was dedicated to improving his skill as a swordsman, seeking battle with other warriors not out of a love for violence, but rather as a means to challenge and improve himself. However, in time he lost sight of his mission for self-perfecting and instead became consumed by a desire to be renowned as a fearsome warrior. As a result, he started thoughtlessly killing all the opponents he came up against, hoping it would spread word of his prowess and increase his reputation as a fighter.
Eventually, Majima would have another change of heart once he was confronted with the consequences of his violence and would change his life mission to atoning for his past sins by protecting and providing for the daughter of one of his victims, whom he came to see as a little sister.
When he becomes amnesiac and adopts the persona of "Shishido Baiken", Majima's personality becomes more or less identical to that of his modern counterpart: He becomes a carefree, mentally volatile criminal who delights in fighting and stealing, but nonetheless treats everything with a kooky, carefree affectation.
Background[]
In his youth, Majima was a wandering swordsman, traveling around Japan to test his skill against as many opponents as possible in hopes of perfecting his technique. However, he eventually lost sight of this quest for perfecting his skill and instead became primarily concerned with increasing his reputation as a fearsome fighter, believing that the more people he cut down in duels, the greater his fame would be, regardless of how many lives he ruined in the process. This eventually eroded any hesitation he once had about taking the lives of others and earned him the name "Killer Gorohachi" (人切り五六八, Hitokiri Gorohachi) in his home province of Omi.
One of the many people he fought in his ronin days was a once-famous samurai named Shirai Seinoshin. Majima tracked him down to his farm in Kozuke Province and challenged him to a duel. He ultimately won, killing the man right in front of his two daughters. Years later, however, he ran into one of those two daughters, Ukiyo, and came to learn of how miserable her life had been after the death of her father: Her and her older sister had to work meagre jobs in Kyoto for years in order to barely afford food and beds. Eventually, the older sister, Ageha, sold herself to a brothel so that Ukiyo could start anew by buying a farm in Omi Province. Horrified by the consequences of his thoughtless violence, Majima gave up his life as a warrior and moved into Ukiyo's village, adopting her as his younger sister and swearing that he would dedicate his life to protecting her town from bandits.
Some time later, in the year 1600, Marume Nagayoshi approached Majima to recruit him into the Army of the Tokugawa Bakufu for a special mission to be carried out prior to the upcoming Battle against the Toyotomi loyalist army, promising large sums of money if he did well - an offer he accepted in order to provide for Ukiyo.
Involvement[]
Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan!: 1600-1605[]
The night of prior to the battle, when the special mission is to take place, Majima picks a fight with Miyamoto Musashi. Miyamoto had refused an offer of sake from a senior officer, prompting Majima to offer Musashi some of his sake in a threatening fashion. When Musashi acquiesces and accepts the offer, Majima mocks him for caving, prompting Musashi to throw the sake in his face and challenge him to a fight. The two soldiers battle each other with wooden swords, but their fight is interrupted by General Marume and Nankobo Tenkai, the imperial emissary to the Tokugawa. Marume and Tenkai explain the special mission to the troops: The battalion must assassinate a traitor within the Tokugawa ranks, but he is staying in a heavily guarded house, so the majority of the troops must cause a distraction by attacking the front gate while two volunteers sneak in around the back and kill the target. Musashi volunteers to be one of the two assassins, followed by Majima, who was so impressed by Musashi's skill that he wants to fight alongside him.
During the mission, Majima and Musashi do as instructed and sneak into the target's manor after Marume's main force attacks the main gate. The duo still have to fight their way past several guards, but they eventually make it to the target's bedroom, where Musashi kills him after a brief duel. Only after killing the target do both men recongize that he was Yuki Hideyasu, the heir to the Tokugawa Bakufu. As more guards arrive, both men flee the mansion.
Majima and Musashi take refuge in a nearby temple and await Marume, just as they'd been instructed. While waiting, both men talk about their lives. Musashi speaks of his desire to travel the world and become a famous swordsman, which prompts Majima to talk about his violent past as a wandering ronin. The elder swordsman warns the younger Musashi to not let his desire for notoriety lead him down the same violent path he used to follow.
Eventually, Marume shows up as promised but, instead of congratulating the two samurai, the General and his men draw their swords and attack them. Majima and Musashi hold them off and try to flee the temple, only to be ambushed outside by a platoon of reinforcements led by a mysterious samurai called Sasaki Kojiro. Musashi bests Kojiro's men with his two-sword style combat, but he is then defeated by Sasaki's superior swordsmanship. Sasaki prepares to kill Musashi but Majima jumps in to defend him, only to also be defeated; losing an eye in the process. Unable to win against their aggressors, the betrayed soldiers escape by jumping into a ravine and fleeing under the cover of the thick brush.
After a few days of traveling, Musashi and Majima arrive at Omi Province, but Majima's injuries have gotten so bad that he can barely walk. Fearing he will soon die, Majima asks his companion to deliver his sword to Ukiyo in her home village, which a sorrowful Musashi agrees to do, despite insisting that Majima will make it there with him. Soon after, the pair are attacked by Tokugawa soldiers while crossing a bridge. Though Musashi manages to get across, Majima deliberately collapses the structure while he's still on it to kill the pursuing soldiers so that Musashi can get away.
Against the odds, Majima survives his fall, but the head trauma he sustains makes him lose his memories. He is soon found by Shishido Baiken, the leader of a gang of thieves that prowls the area. Shishido takes in the amnesiac soldier and treats his wounds. Afterwards, Majima is forced to join the gang to repay Shishido for saving his life. Though he doesn't like stealing from people, Majima loves the fighting involved, so he eventually comes to enjoy his life of crime, not for the material gain but for the danger incurred. Shishido teaches Majima how to fight using a kusarigama and, impressed by his toughness, makes him the gang's second-in-command.
Within a few years, Shishido dies and Majima ends up succeeding him as gang-leader, even taking on his name out of respect. Though Majima continues to dislike the criminal aspect of his new life, he enjoys the fighting too much and also feels responsible for maintaining his henchmen, so he continues to lead the gang. Eventually the gang relocates from Omi to a network of caves outside Kyoto, since they're able to rob richer targets closer to the city.
In 1605, Majima and some of his underlings carry out a burglary in the home of wealthy painter Hon'ami Koetsu, where they steal several valuable items, including a small gold statuette. Unbeknownst to the burglars, Koetsu is also well-connected information broker, so he quickly learns they were the ones responsible for the theft. He then tasks Musashi (who is now living under the alias of "Kiryu Kazumanosuke" to avoid the authorities) with recovering the statue, in exchange for information he seeks.
Kiryu locates Majima's gang's cave hideout and fights his way past dozens of the group's thugs, eventually coming to the cave section that serves as Majima's personal quarters. As the amnesiac Majima doesn't recognize his old friend, he attacks him with his kusarigama and Kiryu is forced to fight back. Majima ultimately loses the fight and, impressed with Kiryu's skills, he gives him the statue so he can return it to Koetsu. When Kiryu asks about what Majima is doing leading a gang of thieves, Majima tells him about how the original Shishido found him and saved him. Majima tells Kiryu that even though he doesn't remember him, he still feels like "a friend from an old life", so he invites Kiryu to have a rematch with him at some point. A smiling Kiryu in turn invites Majima to visit him at his home in Gion, prompting an excited Majima to say that he'll "rob some more rich guys" so he can save up enough to go for drinks with Kiryu.
Weeks later, Kiryu gives a tour of Gion to a strange old man who's hired to entertain him while he waits for a meeting with the Landlady of Tsuruya. In the evening, when Kiryu and the old man travel towards Tsuruya for the meeting, they run into Majima, who is looking for Kiryu to go out for drinks. Charmed by Majima's eccentricity, the old man invites him to come with them to Tsuruya, which the crime boss gladly agrees to do.
At Tsuruya, Majima and Kiryu watch some courtesans perform and have drinks while the old man negotiates with the Landlady for the release of Haruka from her service as brothel apprenrtice, since she is a relative of his. However, eventually Yoshino comes in to perform for the three men. Unbeknownst to Kiryu and Majima, Yoshino was Ageha, Ukiyo's older sister who'd sold herself to a brothel to provide for her sister to start a new life. Yoshino immediately recognizes Majima as her father's killer and leaves in a hurry, not wanting to see him. Majima does not recognize Yoshino, but seeing her does give him a strange feeling of shame, so he decides to go outside for some fresh air to clear his head.
Majima goes to the brothel's rooftop and looks at the stars, trying to figure out why seeing Yoshino made him feel strange. He eventually gives up and decides to go back indoors, but accidentally slips on a loose roof tile and falls off the building, hitting his head on the way down. When he regains consciousness, his memories have returned to him and he comes to believe that Yoshino is actually Ukiyo and that Kiryu sold her to the brothel instead of looking after her as he'd promised. At that moment, Haruka happens to bump into him and, recognizing her as the girl Kiryu, the old man and the Landlady had been talking about, he kidnaps her and decides to take her to Kiyomizu Temple to lure Kiryu into a confrontation.
Kiryu travels to Kiyomizu Temple and confronts Majima in the temple sanctuary, where he's chained Haruka to a column. A furious Majima refuses to let Kiryu "give phony excuses" for why he allegedly sold Ukiyo to a brothel and proceeds to attack him, leading to a new duel between the two friends. However, Yoshino arrives soon after and puts a stop to the fight by telling Majima that she's actually Ukiyo's older sister Ageha. When Majima asks what became of Ukiyo, Kiryu remorsefully admits that she'd been killed by bandits who'd come looking for the bounty on his head. Kiryu says that he'd suspected Yoshino was Ukiyo's sister since they first met, but had not told her the truth about her sister's death out of shame for his failure to protect her.
The group's conversation is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Sasaki Kojiro. The samurai assassin mocks the three for their personal drama and then tries to kill Haruka, in compliance with the orders of his master, Nankobo Tenkai. Majima stops him by attacking him with his kusarigama, saying he wants payback for Sasaki taking his eye five years prior. However, Sasaki draws his wakizashi and throws it at Majima's chest, wounding him and knocking him backwards off the cliff which the temple is built on. Kiryu lunges to grab Majima's hand, but he isn't quick enough and his friend ends up plummeting to the forest below.
Kiryu initially fears Majima is dead, but soon after he learns that Majima's body was not found at the foot of the cliff he'd fallen from, so he believes that Majima has once again survived a seemingly fatal fall.
Ten years later, in 1615, a very much alive Majima joins the Tokugawa Bakufu's forces during the Siege of Osaka, once again under the command of a now reformed General Marume and Sasaki. By this point, Kiryu had seemingly perished while defending Haruka, Sasaki and Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada from Tenkai's forces. While he looks out at the night sky before battle, Majima wonders if Kiryu perhaps survived his supposed final battle and reunited with Yoshino or if he truly died and now looks over his friends and loved ones from the heavens.
Fighting Style[]
Gorohachi is an unpredictable, aggressive fighter.
Katana[]
In the first encounter against him, he uses a katana. He has a very small health bar, and his attacks are mostly acrobatic rolling slashes.
Kusarigama[]
In all subsequent encounters as Baiken, he wields a kusarigama. He mostly attacks using the blunt end of the weapon, though he also uses the blade in his main 3-hit combo. In the final encounter against him, he frequently climbs the jars on either side of the arena, lodges the blade of his kusarigama in the ceiling, and swings down using the chain to kick Kiryu.
Trivia[]
- Gorohachi's theme song is the only Majima theme song that is not "Receive You" or a remix of it. His theme song is "Sneakin' Drive".
Gallery[]
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