Kimura Yukari

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Kimura Yukari (died 1585) was a member of the Japanese Rite of the Templar Order during the late Sengoku period. The daughter of daimyō Kimura Kei, she followed him into the Order and was tasked with training the Saisesha, an army created by Kei with the secret goal of usurping their Portuguese counterparts.

However, Yukari's relationship with her father became strained after he sacrificed her sister during one of his battles. Following Kei's own death in 1582, Yukari made the island of Awaji her new home while seeking to further her own goals of power and dominance. She courted Awaji's daimyō, becoming his concubine, and began to solidify her control over the island.

When the daimyō and his men were later called away from Awaji, Yukari became the de facto ruler of the island and captured the Master Assassin Fujibayashi Tsuyu, who had hidden the sword Kusanagi no Tsurugi, one of the Imperial Regalia of Japan. Realizing that the regalia's recovery would enable her to rise in the Templar ranks, Yukari held Tsuyu prisoner for years while interrogating her for the Sword's location, to no avail.

In the meantime, Yukari and her three taishō (大将, lit. "general"), Imagawa Tomeji, Yasuhira, and Nowaki, ruled over Awaji with an iron fist and violently oppressed its citizens. While Yukari was able to build a large army of loyal followers, the common people began to fear and despise her group, which they derisively called the Sanzoku Ippa (山賊一派, lit. "bandit group").

In 1585, Yukari devised a plan to extract the Sword's location from Tsuyu by luring her daughter Naoe to Awaji and imprisoning her. However, the plan backfired when Naoe's fellow Kakushiba ikki member Yasuke rescued her and Tsuyu. The trio, assisted by Hattori Hanzō and Konatsu, then began dismantling the Sanzoku Ippa, assassinating Yukari's taishō and followers, and leading the people of Awaji in a rebellion against her regime. Making her last stand at Iwaya Castle, Yukari ultimately fell to Yasuke's blade.

Biography

Early life

By 1582, Yukari had joined the Japanese Rite of the Templar Order under her father Kimura Kei. However, their relationship was strained due to Kei having sacrificed his other daughter as a means to achieve victory in a challenging battle. Despite Kei's regrets, his relationship with Yukari never fully healed. Nevertheless, Yukari continued to train under her father, with some saying she was his best student.

During her service under Kei, Yukari began to train her father's secret army, the Saisesha, in order to overthrow their Portuguese masters. Worried for his daughter's safety, Kei assigned his right-hand man and fellow Templar Imagawa Tomeji to become her personal bodyguard. Yukari and Tomeji instantly developed an antagonistic relationship due to their conflicting ideologies, yet Tomeji continued to faithfully serve Yukari out of loyalty to her father.

While she was outwardly loyal to her family and the Templars, Yukari only desired to be in charge and worked towards her own goal of domination. At some point, she traveled to Awaji, made it her base, and secured an alliance with the island's daimyō by becoming his concubine. After Kei's murder at the hands of Oda Nobunaga's retainer Yasuke, Tomeji, still loyal to his lord even in death, entered Yukari's service and became her enforcer despite their mutual animosity.

Ruling Awaji

By 1585, after the departure of Awaji's daimyō and his men, Yukari became the ruler of the island, where she formed her own army of loyal followers, led by her three taishō: Tomeji, the spymaster Yasuhira, and Nowaki, an orphan Yukari had found and taken into her care, turning her into her personal weapon. In time, this army became known as the Sanzoku Ippa among the locals and enforced Yukari's will by spying on, oppressing, and even killing anyone questioning her authority.

At some point during her tenure on Awaji, Yukari and her army found and captured the Master Assassin Fujibayashi Tsuyu, who held information about the location of the sword Kusanagi no Tsurugi, one of the Imperial Regalia. Despite years of interrogation and torture under Yukari's care, Tsuyu never gave up the information. Thus, Yukari came up with another plan and sent out a puppet show to Izumi Settsu in order to entice Tsuyu's daughter Naoe, who had formed her own Kakushiba ikki. The plan worked, as Naoe soon traveled to Awaji to find her mother.

When Naoe arrived to rescue Tsuyu, Yukari and Tomeji waited for her at Sumoto Castle. After Tomeji incapacitated Naoe, Yukari's guards disarmed Naoe, and Yukari taunted the young Assassin before leaving mother and daughter alone to discuss their options. However, Naoe's capture was brief as her fellow Kakushiba ikki member Yasuke soon arrived and freed both Naoe and Tsuyu, before all three escaped from the castle.

Search for the Sword

Despite the Assassins' escape, the Templars managed to track Naoe and Yasuke's movements to Myōshō-ji. There, Yukari and her forces found and subdued Yasuke, taking him hostage, before searching for Naoe. Outside one of the temples, Yukari, her taishō, and her soldiers saw Naoe come out with the Sword in her hands. When Yasuke begged Naoe not to surrender the Sword, Tomeji immediately knocked him out. Yukari promised to spare Naoe and Yasuke's lives in exchange for the Sword, an offer Naoe reluctantly accepted.

Upon receiving the Sword, Yukari reneged on the deal and ordered her followers to kill the Kakushiba ikki members. However, as Tomeji was about to strike Yasuke with his kanabō, multiple arrows were loosed at the Templars, killing several guards. Ambushed, Yukari commanded her men to eliminate their attackers as they all saw Naoe running towards them. Acting swiftly, Tomeji guarded Yukari while Nowaki used a smoke bomb for all three of them to flee. The remaining guards stayed behind to fight Naoe and her allies, including Hattori Hanzō and Konatsu, but were ultimately killed.

Failed planning and death

With the Sword in the Templars' possession, Yukari moved forward with her plans and secured herself at Iwaya Castle. However, Naoe and Yasuke managed to assassinate her taishō, weakened her army through sedating their food supply, and destroyed their teppō crates.

Frustrated, Yukari spoke with an attendant at Iwaya Castle while she continued her preparations. Learning about the lack of supplies, she immediately killed the attendant who had delivered the bad news, before ordering a guard to verify the situation. Just then, however, the castle's barricades were set aflame from Naoe's interference while Yasuke and Hanzō led the local ashigaru in an assault on the castle. During the attack, Yukari armed herself and waited atop the tenshu, where she was met by Yasuke.

Turning towards the samurai, Yukari was offered a chance to fight with honor but she laughed at the notion, stating that she had no plans for vengeance. She then told him that her plan was to be atop the Templar hierarchy, before she unsheathed her naginata and engaged Yasuke in a duel. During their fight, Yukari dropped her weapon and asked Yasuke why he fought for the Assassins. After he explained how the Brotherhood had offered him a purpose, just like Oda Nobunaga, Yukari unsheathed two katanas and told him to fight for his own cause. However, she ultimately fell to her opponet's blade and succumbed to her wounds after remarking that Yasuke and his work would be forgotten.

Personality and traits

"You want a cause to serve? Serve yourself!"

―Yukari to Yasuke, 1585.

Ambitious, cunning, and ruthless, Yukari followed her father Kimura Kei into the Templar Order, but unlike Kei and Imagawa Tomeji, she was not a true believer in the Templars' cause. Instead, she viewed the Order as an opportunity to fulfill her own ambitions of power and control.

After her father's death, Yukari worked even more tirelessly to expand her influence across Awaji through the Sanzoku Ippa. With the island tightly in her grasp, she ruled without any contest and exploited the population for her own ends. Fiercely independent, Yukari believed in self-made success and cared little for the well-being of her allies. After learning about the deaths of her taishō, she showed no remorse, instead thanking Yasuke for eliminating her "competition" and facilitating her ascension in the Templar ranks.

Most of Yukari's actions stemmed from her personal ideology that one should forge their own destiny instead of following the path imposed by others. By rising to the top of the Templar Order, she hoped to secure her own future, one where she was free of foreign masters and able to impose her will onto others. During her final moments, she also displayed a more vulnerable side, as she mocked Yasuke by claiming his deeds would be lost to time; indicating that Yukari's greatest fear was being forgotten.

Skills and equipment

As one of Kei's students, Yukari exhibited exemplary skills as a warrior, being proficient with multiple weapons, including a naginata and a tantō. She was also able to dual-wield katanas like her father.

Behind the scenes

Kimura Yukari is a fictional character introduced as the primary antagonist and final assassination target in Claws of Awaji, the downloadable expansion for the 2025 video game Assassin's Creed: Shadows.

Gallery

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  Kimura Yukari

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Shadows – Claws of Awaji