Heizo Iwami

Heizo Iwami
巌見 兵三 (Iwami Heizō)
Also Known As
Aliases	Takeru Kurusu
Biographical
Age	~100
Year of Birth	c. 1916
Physical
Height	170 cm (5′ 7″)
Associations
Relationships	Tsuneo Iwami (son) Toru Hirose (subordinate) Kanji Koshimizu (subordinate) Minoru Daidoji (accomplice)
Occupation	Founder and president of Iwami Shipbuilding Chairman of Yomei Alliance
Affiliation	Iwami Shipbuilding
Other
Appears In	Yakuza 6 Ryu Ga Gotoku Online
Actors
Japanese	Masane TsukayamaWP

Heizo Iwami (巌見 兵三, Iwami Heizō), also known as Takeru Kurusu (来栖 猛, Kurusu Takeru), is a supporting antagonist in Yakuza 6. He is the founder and president of Iwami Shipbuilding, and under the Kurusu alias, the chairman of the Yomei Alliance.

Profile

Appearance

Iwami was a bespectacled, elderly man with tanned skin with prominent white hair and several wrinkles on his face.

Attire

Iwami donned a burgundy business suit, a shirt with a segmented pattern underneath and a golden tie.

Personality

Iwami is a shrewd man who built a global shipbuilding company based in Onomichi, from the ground up. Given this career history, he would seem to be quite old, but he is an elderly gentleman whose dignity does not betray his age. Despite having relinquished control of Iwami Shipbuilding to his son, Tsuneo, his presence is still felt. Heizo did not want his son to live a life of crime, so he would work to try and dissuade him from entering the underworld.

Iwami is a man of wisdom and has an eye for talent, recruiting Toru Hirose to his side after he infiltrated his docks as a teenager, appreciating the then boy's bravery and physical aptitude, whereas most Yakuza would have such an offender punished even with fatal retaliation. He cared greatly for Hirose, being a fatherly figure to him, nurturing him in the criminal ways, while also rewarding his services handsomely, all of which did nothing but earn him absolute loyalty from Hirose himself and it can be assumed this was extended by any of his henchmen, thereby securing his position in Hiroshima with the devotion of many.

Despite his insight, Iwami was self-righteous to the point of extreme delusion. Although never holding major ambitions for himself being content with his position in Hiroshima, he viewed the Yomei Alliance and Iwami Shipbuilding as the pillars that held Hiroshima's prosperity. In Iwami's vision, success and prosperity could only be achieved by providing for the populace, viewing himself as Hiroshima's protector. This warped vision of reality, would cause Iwami to develop a perpetual sense of paranoia towards anybody he perceived as a threat, particularly those who could get close to the Secret of Onomichi, which he viewed as tantamount to protecting Hiroshima itself, which he sought to keep buried for eternity through murder.

Iwami spares no one in his obsessive need to protect the secret, having murdered friends, loyal subordinates and close associates to keep the secret intact, employing Hirose as his main henchman and enforcer to defend it despite never revealing the secret to him. Eventually this long held motivation to protect the secret became a curse for Iwami himself, who in his own words "abandoned his own humanity" and was declared as a "dead man walking" by Hirose himself.

Perhaps because of his loyalty and efficiency or because he rised him like a son, Iwami views Hirose in a much more favorable light than any other person, trusting him to protect the secret and even bowing to him in his request. Iwami regularly treated Hirose to fancy meals and generous sums of money. When Koshimizu was hellbent on demanding Hirose's pinky due to Nagumo's actions, Iwami quickly interjected and brushed Koshimizu off without explanation, sparing Hirose from any retribution.

It can be assumed that over time, Iwami grew tired of protecting the Secret and expected it to be revealed at some point, as he appeared soon after the secret was exposed, while he himself explained the details in full. When Hirose could not bring himself to kill everyone present despite his orders, Iwami shot him stating compromise was unacceptable. Even then he did not resist to having his gun taken away and left quietly, implying this was a form of mercy to relieve Hirose of his long held duty.

Background

Iwami's track record dates back all the way to the post-war era. A successful businessman, he was contracted by the military for a top-secret project in Hiroshima, which would become the Yamato Mark II. The war passed and the Yamato was of no use, so he was ordered to dismantle it to hide evidence that could lead to a government scandal. Iwami refused, and used the "secret of Onomichi" to blackmail Minoru Daidoji and gain influence in the country's politics. After the end of the war, he adopted young Toru Hirose after he trespassed the shipyard as a boy.

The secret of Onomichi is also what led to the founding of the Yomei Alliance: the purpose of the alliance was to keep the ship a secret and establish a foothold for the dirty work of Iwami Shipbuilding in Hiroshima, thus why the Yomei never needed to attempt to expand. In his position as Chairman of the Yomei Alliance, Iwami kept the Hiroshima-based yakuza clan neutral in the rivalry between the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance. Despite keeping the Yomei firmly rooted in Hiroshima, over the years, he successfully grew the Yomei to the third most-powerful yakuza clan in Japan. His true, life-long mission is to protect the secret of Onomichi at all costs, going so far as to order the assassinations of any friends, employees, and associates that could possibly expose the secret to the world.

Involvement

Yakuza 6: 2016

The conflict is largely driven by the efforts of Tsuneo Iwami, Heizo's son, to supersede him and become the next Takeru Kurusu. To this end, Tsuneo involves the Saio Triad led by Big Lo (who had historical cooperation with the Yomei for a human laundering scheme), the Jingweon Mafia led by Joongi Han, and his puppet Katsumi Sugai in the Tojo Clan, to enable the Yomei to expand into Kamurocho and for Tsuneo to become a legendary yakuza.

When Iwami attempts to have Kanji Koshimizu swear an oath with Takumi Someya, he has Kazuma Kiryu act as a witness knowing he would refuse the offer.

As a result of his schemes, the Hirose Family and Kiryu end up discovering and exposing the Yamato Mark II; Japan's most classified military secret, which is the only physical proof of Iwami's collusion with war general Minoru Daidoji. Iwami commands Hirose execute his henchmen for their role in exposing the secret; when he refuses, Iwami executes Hirose himself and leaves.

Soon thereafter, Tsuneo confronts his father, revealing that he has known of his schemes for a long time. He had known since Hirose was dispatched to kill the father of Takaaki Matsunaga that he had been killing to keep the battleship a secret. As retaliation for Heizo's attempts to exclude Tsuneo from the yakuza lifestyle he strives to be in, Tsuneo has a turncoat Koshimizu execute his father, and the death is falsely reported as a suicide.

Gallery

Yakuza 6

Heizo Iwami during World War II

Heizo Iwami in the post-war era.

Ryu Ga Gotoku Online

SSR Heizo Iwami