I was rewatching Yakuza Kiwami cutscenes and I just noticed something.
This asshole, Matsushige…
He looks like a discount version of Sohei Dojima himself
Man, it wasn’t enough to have disrespectful underlings or a doctor who scammed him out of money and left his sister to die, but Nishiki also had to be antagonized by a discount Sohei Dojima?
Thanks to @nishikiyamayuko for requesting and helping with coming up with tattoo ideas for these characters!
Shindo Koji is the katakana-weilding boss in 2 who is looking to take over the Tojo and take Dojima Yayoi as a lover against her will. Matsushige is the man in Kiwami 1 who back-sasses Nishikiyama on the wrong day and gets turned into hair gel.
For Shindo I went with the Garuda. The Garuda (or Karura in Japan) is a fearsome bird-like humanoid from Buddhist mythology. It is a precursor to early depictions of tengu, though the tengu developed less bird-like facial features in art over time, now more commonly depicted with a long, humanoid nose. The Karura is the mortal enemy of serpents and dragons. This reflects his antagonism toward Kiryu. (In my opinion the katana battle with him is one of the most memorable fights in the series, it's just a really badass fight.) According to legend, only a dragon who follows Buddhist doctrine can escape being crushed by the might of the Karura. Kiryu, as the Dragon of Dojima, works in service of Daigo, whose tattoo is one of the manifestations of the Buddha: Fudo Myo-o.
I also wanted to connect him directly to Daigo, and the flames behind Daigo's Fudo Myo-o are said to be from the breath of a Karura. This sort of makes Shindo the “fire lit under his ass” that motivates Daigo to step in as the 6th Chairman of the Tojo. Fudo Myo-o's cleansing flames burn away physical desire, and 2 has Daigo transform from a hedonist who is only interested in drinking at clubs and getting into fights, into a dedicated leader who puts the needs of the Tojo first thoughout the remainder of the series. Seeing Shindo's greed, selfish desire for power, and targeting of Daigo's own mother is the push Daigo needed to take the reins.
Matsushige gets the Nue, a fearsome chimeric creature with the head of a monkey, the body of a tanuki, the legs of a tiger, a snake for a tail, and the ability to fly through the night sky like a bird. In one myth a nue haunted the nightmares of Emperor Konoe, causing him to fall ill until the beast could be slain. Killing a nue can also potentially bring a retaliatory curse to entire cities. Matsushige's involvement in the death of Nishiki's sister gives him a clean connection to the nue as a bringer of disease, as well as making Nishiki's life a living nightmare. One could also see Matsushige's death as bringing a curse, as his murder a key part of Nishiki's descent into villainy and eventual downfall.
