The Seven Spears

• Daidoji Tessai (大道寺 鉄斎) - The oldest of the seven spears, Tessai wields a two-handed scythe that can be split in half to form a kusarigama. The weapon also contains a weighted chain in the butt of the handle and a retractable secondary scythe blade in the head. Tessai is easily angered and will even lash out at his allies if he feels they've insulted him. Tessai often goes to the Yoshiwara brothel district to purchase women on his lord Akinari's behalf. In fact, a flashback in the first volume reveals that Tessai was the one who requested that Hori Mondo send his daughter (Ochie) to serve as Akinari's mistress. In response, Mondo rebuked Tessai, insulted Akinari, and later lead the doomed rebellion against his cruel lord, setting off the events of the story. Tessai dies at the hands of the Hori women, ambushed at dusk in the streets of Yoshiwara. After a short fight, the women trap and immobilize both ends of his chained weapon, then rush in from all sides to stab him with their blades. He is the first of the Spears to die.
• Hiraga Magobei (平賀 孫兵衛) - Magobei stands out among the other Seven Spears due to his dark complexion. A specialist in long range combat, he wields a 20-foot (6.1 m) cavalry spear with the same speed and precision on foot as he would on horseback. In the second volume of the manga, Magobei accompanies Tessai to the Yoshiwara brothel district to purchase concubines for Lord Akinari. Disgusted by the brothel owner's smugness, he declares to Tessai that he will not return with him later to pick up the women. This decision may have saved his life—Tessai returns to Yoshiwara alone, where he is ambushed and killed by the Hori women. In the third volume of the manga Magobei pairs up with Gusoku Jyonoshin to confront Jyubei and Otoro at night in the streets outside Edo Castle. A canal divides the street between him and Jyubei, and so he strikes across the water with his spear. Jyubei swiftly traps the spearblade to the ground, disabling the weapon while Otori charges across the shaft, using it as a bridge to cross the canal and strike down Magobei. Magobei draws his wakizashi and slices through the shaft of his trapped spear, but instead of falling into the canal Otori springs into the air, catapulting herself above and inside his range of attack. Her blade slices him vertically from head to navel. He is the second of the Spears to die.
• Gusoku Jyunoshin (具足 丈之進) - The weakest of the Seven Spears, Jyunoshin specializes neither in weapons nor hand-to-hand combat. Instead, he controls a pack of vicious dogs the size of calves whom he uses to hunt down and ultimately tear his opponents to pieces. His small size and overlong arms cause him to resemble a monkey, a fact the other Seven Spears frequently use to insult him. In the manga's third volume, Jyunoshin aides Magobei in a sneak assault on both Jūbei and Otori which ended in the death of both Magobei and two of Jyunoshin's dogs at the hands of Jubei, leaving Jyunoshin deeply traumatized and convinced that the Hori women's mysterious teacher was well beyond their ability to slay. Following the Hori women's infiltration of the Katō mansion in the fourth volume, Jyonoshin and Lord Akinari were captured and cast before Edo Castle's Takebashi Gate, where they were discovered by Princess Sen. The princess recognized them and, as punishment for their wickedness, had them marched through the streets of Edo like common criminals, exposing them to public ridicule. Following the incident, Lord Akinari went into a blind rage and promised to have Jyonoshin killed unless he uncovered the whereabouts of the Hori women. Using Tenmaru, his only surviving dog, Jyonoshin tracked the Hori women to Tokaiji temple. Shaving his head and posing as a priest, Jyonoshin managed to enter the temple where he discovered Ochie picking flowers in the temple grounds. Taking her by surprise, Jyonoshin gloatingly remarked that it had been he who had finished off Ochie's father Mondo in an attempt to goad her into attacking when Osawa, who had been hiding in a nearby tree, leaped down from the branches and drove her sword into Jyonoshin, pinning him to the ground. He is the third of the Spears to die.
• Washinosu Rensuke (鷲ノ巣 廉助) - The most physically powerful of the Seven Spears, Rensuke is easily distinguished by his massive chin and sideburns. He disdains the use of weapons in favor of kenpō (Japanese martial arts inspired by Chinese martial arts) and his own inhuman strength. During the Seven Spears assault on Tōkei-ji, Rensuke was able to break open the temple's gate using his bare hands and feet. In the fourth volume of the series, while the Seven Spears are terrorizing Edo in Hannya masks, Jyubei tries (unsuccessfully) to pose as Rensuke in order to enter the Katō mansion. Koshichiro sees through his ruse and strikes at him, splitting the hannya mask to reveal not Rensuke, but Yagyū Jyubei (though through the darkness and rain he cannot recognize Jyubei's features.) Aside from Jyonoshin, Rensuke appears to have the most self-control of the Seven Spears, though his stems from his own intelligence, whereas Jyonoshi's is typically the result of cowardice. He is often called upon to hold Ginshiro back when the boy's tantrums threaten to become dangerous. In the sixth volume of the manga, Rensuke attempts to hunt down the Hori women and captures Otori and Oshina on the Aizu Echigo Road. He strips them of clothing and ties them to his body as a shield. As a result, Jūbei is prepared to offer his life for theirs when their monk companions from Tōkei-ji Temple take up their own swords and confront Rensuke. They drop the swords for the captive women as Rensuke kills them, allowing Otori and Oshina to seize the blades and sever Rensuke's legs. As he bleeds to death, Jūbei arrives on the scene, pinning Rensuke to the ground with his foot so the big man cannot struggle toward the women. Rensuke realizes Jūbei Yagyū was his true enemy, and he smiles as he dies, contented by the fact that ultimately he had been defeated not by women, but by the greatest and most famous swordsman in the world. He is the fourth of the Spears to die.
• Shiba Ichiganbo (司馬 一眼坊) - A one-eyed pig of a man, Ichiganbo's bulk belies both his incredible martial ability and his cunning. Highly observant, he's usually the first to figure out crucial aspects that his comrades overlook and was the one who proposed framing Princess Sen in order to draw out Jubei. According to his plan, the Seven Spears would dress up in hannya masks and terrorize Edo, kidnapping betrothed couples on their wedding nights. The women would be brought to Akinari, and the men would be tortured and cast off in front of Edo Castle's Takebashi gate. In battle, he wields a whip that responds as though it were an extension of his own being. He can even use it to amputate parts of an opponent's body by wrapping it around their limbs or necks and pulling the whip taut. In the seventh volume of the manga, Ichiganbo leads a patrol of one dozen men into the wilderness of Northern Aizu to seek out the Hori women, who have infiltrated Lord Katō's territory. He is ambushed and killed by the Hori women, who had been concealing themselves in the fallen autumn leaves, stabbing him on all sides. Ochie finishes him off, splitting his head like a log with her blade. After his death, Ichiganbo's body is hidden inside a snowman outside Lord Katō's castle, where it is discovered on New Year's Day (Ashina Dohaku's birthday, incidentally) by Koshichiro and Ginshiro. He is the fifth of the Spears to die.
• Koro Ginshiro (香炉 銀四郎) - The youngest of the Seven Spears, Ginshiro is cocky and impulsive. He is very feminine in appearance, but his otherwise beautiful features are marred by a thin, dark, scar that runs vertically down the middle of his face. He wields a net that when folded can easily be concealed within the palm of his hand yet when deployed can expand to envelop multiple people. The net possesses surprising strength despite its delicate appearance and its mesh is fine enough that not even air can pass through. Following Jubei's surprise raid on Katō's mansion, Ginshiro was the one who discovered that the Hori women had departed the convent. He also lusts after Sakura as during the murder of the Hori clan's female members he requests that the others allow him to slay her personally. Of all the Seven Spears, Ginshiro has the quickest temper and the least self-control. He is prone to sudden, violent rages, and often resorts to hissing, screaming, and insults when faced with a conflict. When Oyuri, under the influence of a powerful aphrodisiac, almost distracts Jūbei, he tries to use his net, but is wounded by Jubei before the net can land; when the net envelops the Hori women, Jūbei slices off the arm controlling the net. He is the sixth to die.
• Urushido Koshichiro (漆戸 虹七郎) - The central member of the Seven Spears, Koshichiro is a master swordsman despite missing his left arm. In the first volume, he leads the massacre at the convent in Kamakura. Throughout the series, but more noticeably in later volumes, Koshichiro is portrayed as Jyubei's opposite among the enemy. He is bent on crossing blades with Jyubei, eager to determine once and for all which of them is the better swordsman. In the fourth volume, after being defeated in a brief encounter with the Seven Spears, Jyubei expresses doubt as to whether or not he would be able to defeat Koshichiro if they ever dueled. Koshichiro shows a peculiar mannerism when he kills, as shown in volumes 1, 9, and 11. Before engaging an opponent, he slips a flowering twig of cherry blossoms into his mouth (if one is available), and grips it in his teeth as he attacks. Though the manga does not specify a reason for this, there seems to be a poetic significance behind this quirk; falling cherry blossoms have traditionally been seen by samurai as a metaphor for death and the fragility of life. He is the last of the Seven Spears to die, finished off by Ochie and Ofue after having been granted his greatest wish by Jūbei to face him one-on-one.