Ageha (揚羽), also known as Yoshino (吉野), is a supporting character in Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan!. She is based on the real-life historical figure named Yoshino.
Background[]
Ageha was born in the town of Kiryu in Kozuke Province; the eldest daughter of a mildly famous samurai. She lived a normal life working on her family's farm alongside her father and her younger sister, Ukiyo, until one day during her late teens when her father was challenged to a duel by a samurai called Majima Gorohachi. Seinoshin was killed in the subsequent duel and the girls were left to bear their father's debts, eventually having to sell the farm to pay them off.
Ageha and Ukiyo left Kozuke and headed to Kyoto to try and find work in the booming city economy. Together, they managed to scrounge up a meagre living, barely getting paid enough to survive by doing menial work. Eventually, Ageha grew tired of seeing her sister suffer, so she sold herself to Tsuruya; a brothel in Kyoto's pleasure district of Gion, and gave Ukiyo the money so she could start a new life elsewhere. Despite initially being hesitant to leave her sister behind, Ageha insisted that Ukiyo leave the city and live free of worry. Ukiyo ended up buying a farm in Omi Province and kept in contact with her sister through letters. Via their letter-writing, Ageha learned that her sister eventually met Majima Gorohachi once again while he traveled through Omi and the man was so contrite over the death of their father that he decided to move to Ukiyo's village and protect her farm from bandits to make amends.
In Kyoto, Ageha took on the pseudonym of "Yoshino" and dedicated herself to her new life as a courtesan. She practiced playing the shamisen, singing, dancing and did everything she could to please her customers. She grew incredibly popular and within only a couple of years of moving into Gion, she'd become the most beloved and successful courtesan in the district.
Involvement[]
Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan!: 1605[]
In 1601, while Yoshino was still rising through the ranks of Tsuruya's courtesans, she met Miyamoto Musashi (who went by the alias of Kiryu Kazumanosuke) when he and a wandering monk hired her services. Unbeknownst to her, Miyamoto had until recently been Ukiyo's lover and hired her because of their resemblance (though Miyamoto was not aware of the relationship between Ukiyo and Yoshino). While the pair talk at the brothel, the two quickly connect but are interrupted when an angry patron causes a scene in the adjacent room. While Miyamoto deals with the rowdy customer at the manager's behest, he leaves his sword with Yoshino and she recognizes a charm which Ukiyo had previously tied around its hilt. Despite this, the pair continue seeing each other after Kiryu moves into Gion and they quickly become close.
However, months later, word reaches Yoshino that Ukiyo had been killed in her village, supposedly by a man named Miyamoto Musashi. Due to the presence of the charm around the sword's hilt, Yoshino comes to suspect that Kiryu was Miyamoto, but she did not pursue the suspicion further out of fear that the man she'd become so close with was her sister's killer.
In 1605, a 10 year-old girl called Haruka sells herself to Tsuruya so she can afford to pay Kiryu to hunt down her family's killer: a man named "Miyamoto Musashi". Kiryu takes on the job out of admiration for the girl's determination and to catch the imposter killing people while pretending to be him. As Haruka now had to become an apprentice in Yoshino's brothel, Kiryu asked the courtesan to look after the girl while she was there, since he felt responsible for her. Over the next few weeks, Yoshino would mentor Haruka in how to work as an assistant at Tsuruya and she quickly grew fond of the girl, as she reminded her or herself when she was starting out. She would also defend Haruka when older girls start to bully her, much to Kiryu's gratitude.
A few months later, a feast is to be held at Tsuruya to honor Itakura Katsushige's five years as Governor of Kyoto. The day prior to the feast, Yoshino is approached by Sasaki Kojiro and offered a deal: He wants her to sneak off during the feast and start a fire, which will serve as a distraction for his assassination of Itakura. In exchange, Sasaki offers her 500 ryo: Enough money to buy her freedom. Though at first hesitant to collaborate with a murder, Yoshino agrees. Unbeknownst to her, on top of murdering Itakura, Sasaki also intends to kill Haruka.
During the feast, Yoshino entertains Itakura for a time, until she receives a covert signal from Sasaki to begin their plan. She sneaks off to the courtesans quarters and sets the fire as instructed; causing enough chaos for Sasaki and his men to murder Itakura and get away. Fortunately, however, Sasaki's co-conspirator Marume Nagayoshi did not wish to go through with murdering a child, so he allowed Haruka to escape.
The fire Yoshino started ended up getting out of control and burning down most of the brothel. Fortunately for her and the rest of the place's girls, the Tsuruya's Landlady managed to extort the Shogunate for the funds to rebuild the brothel in exchange for her silence about the events leading to Itakura's murder. In the interim, the borhtel's girls continued to work out of some nearby houses the Landlady also owned. Tsuruya ended up getting rebuilt within a few weeks.
Soon after, Kiryu went onto stop a plot by Gion Toji and Ueda Ryohei to assassinate the Yoshioka brothers, but he ended up getting critically wounded in the process. He managed to stumble back to Tsuruya, where he was found by Yoshino and Haruka, who took him back to his home to take care of him. After asking her and Kiryu's friend, Ito Ittosai, about what happened, Yoshino and Haruka learned that Kiryu's true name was Miyamoto Musashi. This devastated Yoshino, as she now knew for sure that Kiryu was the man who supposedly murdered hers sister. Despite this, she kept her rage to herself and simply refused to see Kiryu after this.
A few days later, Kiryu found himself working as bodyguard for a strange old man who hired him to escort him around town before a meeting with the Landlady of Tsuruya to negotiate buying Haruka's freedom, as he was a relative of hers. While traveling to the brothel, the pair ran into Majima Gorohachi (now amnesiac and going by the alias of "Shishido Baiken"), and they decided to invite him to come with them to Tsuruya. During the old man's dinner with the Landlady, Yoshino saw Majima and, recongizing him as her father's killer, she fled the brothel. Majima also caught a glimpse of Yoshino and, though he didn't consciously recognize her, seeing her did awaken old memories in him. While thinking about these old memories on Tsuruya's rooftop, Majima fell off the building and landed on his head, restoring his old memories. Now remembering everything, Majima mistook Yoshino for Ukiyo and came to believe that Miyamoto had betrayed him by selling her to the brothel, instead of protecting her as he'd promised. Enraged, Majima kidnapped Haruka to lure Kiryu into a confrontation at Kiyomizu Temple.
Kiryu travels to the Temple to meet Majima, where the two end up duelling, as Majima refuses to hear the other man's explanations. However, their duel is stopped when Yoshino arrives, having heard about what happened from the Landlady. Yoshino reveals that she's not Ukiyo, but rather her older sister Ageha, and that Ukiyo had been killed four years prior. Kiryu also comes clean, admitting to Ageha that he is Miyamoto Musashi, but swearing that he did not kill Ukiyo, but merely failed to protect her from bounty hunters who'd come looking for him. Though Kiryu still holds himself responsible for Ukiyo's death, Ageha and Majima forgive him.
The reconciliation is interrupted when Sasaki Kojiro shows up, intent on killing Haruka. Majima attacks the rogue samurai, but ends up getting thrown over the cliffside edge which the temple is built on. Sasaki's attack is only stopped when the old man Kiryu was escorting intervenes. As Kiryu, Ageha and Haruka would soon learn, this old man is none other than Tokugawa Ieyasu, Japan's Shogun and Sasaki's former mentor.
Soon after, Ageha and Kiryu pooled together their money so that they could buy her freedom from the brothel. The same day that they paid the Landlady of Tsuruya to release her from her contract, Ageha and Kiryu got engaged to be married, much to the joy of all of their friends. Unfortunately, their joy was hampered when Haruka went missing soon after. The couple would search the entire city to find her but to no avail. Most of the pair's friends came to believe that the girl had simply gone with the Shogun, to live in luxury at Edo, but Kiryu and Ageha were not convinced.
During the feast held at Tsuruya to celebrate Ageha's retirement and her engagement to Kiryu, the groom was approached by Sasaki, who revealed that he'd actually kidnapped Haruka and would return her if Kiryu faced him in a duel to the death one week later at Ganryu Island. With no other choice, Kiryu agrees to the duel.
The next morning, Kiryu would tell Ageha about Sasaki's bargain and, though Ageha feared for Kiryu's life, she agreed that he had no choice if he wished to rescue Haruka. Kiryu would spend the following day bidding goodbye to his friends before his journey to Ganryu and would then spend one final night with Ageha before setting out in the morning before she awoke.
Kiryu would ultimately defeat Sasaki and rescue Haruka from his co-conspirator, Imperial Emissary Nankobo Tenkai. However, he would remain behind to hold off the corrupt emissary's armed thugs while Haruka fled with Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada and it is unclear if he survived the battle. As such, whether he reunited with Ageha in Gion after his duel at Ganryu Island is unclear.
Gallery[]
.png "RGGK! - Character Render - Ageha (Tenjin Courtesan).png (85 KB)")
