Komagata Yumi

Komagata Yumi, formerly known as Hanahomura in her days as the prized top courtesan in Yoshiwara, is the lover and confidante of Shishio. Calm but with a temper, and extremely averse to anything Shishio dislikes, Yumi is dependent on Shishio but strong of opinion. She agrees with whatever he says, though she may voice doubts to start, and is fully allegiant to him. She is sly, but she puts her heart fully into whatever she believes – which is whatever Shishio thinks. She revolves around him.

Komagata Yumi was formerly the most prized and top courtesan of Yoshiwara. She was so exclusive and hard to obtain that even high ranking officials couldn’t buy her presence. Nonetheless, Shishio Makoto, before his rise to attempted power, bought her presence and converted her to his ideology: the weak are food for the strong and only the strong survive. Now, Yumi is hopelessly devoted to Shishio and his cause. Her existence nearly revolves around him and she does whatever she can in service to him and out of true love for him. She even accepts that she will be in hell for her actions, as long as he is by her side there. Yumi was from an impoverished family before becoming a courtesan, and her family was all slain. Therefore she is particularly dependent on Shishio and attached to the Juppongatana, his elite army of nine. Her personality is usually somewhat calm, but she can easily become frustrated and has a short temper for anyone that isn’t Shishio. She is promiscuous. She seems to base all of her opinions on what Shishio's are. She is also shown to care more about a person's character than their appearance, given her love for Shishio despite his burned and mutilated physical appearance, as well as her care for Sojiro instead of seeing him as just a pawn. She loves Shishio deeply. She also is willing to at least hear his opponents or defectors out, such as when Sojiro left the Juppongatana. She can be a hard to get type and doesn’t much like to associate with anyone outside of Shishio and his group. Nonetheless she is both a good leader and follower. She is not quick to judge, but she is distrustful of men. She has caring tendencies and can be somewhat matronly. A very intelligent woman and former high-class courtesan, Yumi is quite knowledgeable in regards to international affairs and modern discourse. Though entirely clueless when it comes to swords and swordsmanship, she has demonstrated the ability to operate modern Western machines such as the telegraph and seems to be the chief monitor of Shishio's medical condition, changing his bandages regularly and also keeping track of his rising body temperature. In addition to this, she presumably has all the skills known to courtly women of the Tokugawa age. Before the days of the bakumatsu, Komagata Yumi enjoyed great wealth and fame among Tokugawa-era courtesans. However, after the Maria-Luz Incident when the Japanese government took the official stance that courtesans and prostitutes were considered no better than cattle, Yumi angrily left her profession and took up with Makoto Shishio.