Shougen Mukai

Mukai was the retainer of a clan that had been disbarred for crimes against the Tokugawa and whose lord had been ordered to commit seppuku. Ogami, then still working as the kogi kaishaku for the shogun, had participated in the execution, acting as second for the disgraced lord.

Prior to his death, the doomed noble requested a mock duel between Ogami and Makabe as his final request; while he insisted that it would simply be a demonstration his real goal was to have his retainer strike Ogami down as a final blow against the Shogunate. Makabe took his lord at his word, choosing to ignore his im