Kiyosato Akira was the second son of a shōgun retainer, and the childhood friend and fiancé of Yukishiro Tomoe.
Appearance[]
Akira is a young man with black hair styled in a topknot, thin eyebrow, and light colored eyes. Akira wore a black Haori over a white shirt, vertical stripped pants, white socks, sandals, and carries two swords on his left hip.
Personality[]
Akira was a kind and caring man, as he was able to have a friendly chat with Jūbei after a night of drinking. Akira also deeply loved Tomoe and he wanted to make a better life for her, and she was the person he thought about when he was about to die.
Relationships[]
- Yukishiro Tomoe: His childhood sweetheart and fianceé. Akira met her when both were children. They fell in love as teenagers and planned to get married.
- Yukishiro Enishi: Akira took care of Enishi as if he was his own brother and Enishi was devastated by Akira's murder, especially due to the devastating effect it had on his sister.
- Ishiji: Akira is Ishiji's fellow bodyguard.
- Shigekura Jūbei: Akira was Jūbei's bodyguard.
Abilities[]
As Tomoe described him, "he was no swordsman or artist, but was kind and hard-working".
History[]
Fearing that his own meager position would not be enough to impress his betrothed, Akira postponed the wedding and left Edo for Kyōto to join the Mimawarigumi, where he became a bodyguard for the high-ranking samurai Shigekura Jūbei. But in the first year of Genji (1864), after a night of drinking with Shigekura and fellow bodyguard Ishiji, Akira came face-to-face with the infamous Ishin Shishi Hitokiri Himura Battōsai.
After slaying Ishiji and Shigekura, Battōsai turned his bloodied sword on Akira, who struggled valiantly enough to leave a deep and lasting cut on Battōsai's face but was ultimately cut down himself. Bleeding out, Akira wept over his lost future with Tomoe as he tried to get to safety, but was stopped by the hitokiri's killing blow, Battōsai would go on to both commend Akira's will to live and pray that the young man would find happiness in his next life.
Jinchū Arc[]
Though Kiyosato plays a minor actual role in the series, the first scar he permanently inflicted onto Kenshin plays a psychological influence towards the latter's turmoil on his sword path. This becomes evident in the Remembrances Arc, when at the end Kenshin finally learns he was the cause of Tomoe's unhappiness.
In Live Action film[]
Akira Kiyosato is portrayed by Kubota Masataka in the live action movies Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends, Rurouni Kenshin: The Final and also Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning.
Trivia[]
- Both in the manga, and in the Trust & Betrayal OVA, it is never clarified if Kiyosato's appearance as a ghost at Tomoe (when she is held captive by Tatsumi at the top of the snowy mountain) is just her imagination or is an "actual" supernatural appearance.
Gallery[]
