#Sadanobu loves her a lot lot

[kaptainkoalaoshiz]

17 year old Sadanobu presenting his fiancee to his parents. Tomiko is barely a Kanoto at 16 but that doesn't mean she wants to miss the opportunity to marry the boy she likes.

The Tsugunaga were ecstatic at the news, their baby daughter becoming such a pretty a bride. Sadanobu's parents were less thrilled but didn't stop him.

[tsushimanoonryo]

Here is the official org chart for the Syndicate Jin belongs to.

[Note: Lord Shimura’s first name and both Tomoe and Ryuzo’s family names do not appear in the game, so I made them up (or in Tomoe’s case... Her family name is an Easter Egg). Also the Adachi boys and Lord Nagao’s faces don’t appear in the game, so I just grabbed some Japanese FCs for them to balance out the fact that a lot of the face models/VAs in Ghost of Tsushima were not actually Japanese actors].

Hiroto Shimura- (FC: Eric Steinberg) Jin’s maternal uncle and leader of the syndicate (kumicho). It’s small (because Tsushima is small), but very powerful. He’s very wealthy and very traditional. He took over raising Jin when he was 17 after his father died. Made sure Jin got a college education before making him Third Lieutenant.

Harunobu Adachi- (FC: Feodor Chin) Shimura’s best friend and blood brother (kyodai). He died when a rival gang from the mainland tried to move in on Shimura turf.

Masako Adachi- (FC: Lauren Tom) Adachi’s wife and current acting head of the Adachi family. Shimura made her the acting First Lieutenant until they can decide which of her sons is most worthy of the title. She looks sweet, but she’s ruthless and very good at running the family. She’s a badass bisexual grandma who has since taken a female lover since her husband died.

Yasunari and Shigesato Adachi- (FCs: Ryo Nishikido and Shun Oguri) The hot-headed sons of Harunobu and Masako Adachi. Yasunari is older than Shigesato by 3 years. They both grew up with Jin, although Jin is a little older than both of them so he wasn’t super close with them. They’re not quite leadership material yet (at least in Shimura’s eyes), and they are still a little resentful that they have to answer to their mother. They are mostly good, friendly men except when they’re angry.

Hirotsune Nagao- (FC: Hiroyuki Sanada) Died under mysterious circumstances (in the MCU crossover he was killed on-screen by Ronin during Avengers: Endgame). After his death it came to light that he was dealing in Human Trafficking, so not many people were sad to find out he was gone.

Sadanobu Ishikawa- (FC: Francois Chau) He’s a little old to be just now assuming the role of second lieutenant. However, he suffered a disgrace when he was younger, thus resulting in both the loss of his right pinky finger and his status within the syndicate. After Nagao’s death, he took over the Nagao family while waiting for Nagao’s son Hironori to come of age. [Note: have not decided what his fall from grace entails yet]. Side note: he keeps it on the downlow, but he’s never married because he’s gay.

Tomoe Matsu- (FC: Judy Alice Lee) Ishikawa’s adopted daughter (unofficially). It is rare for women to become involved in the yakuza the way she is unless they are the wife of a high-ranking leader (See: Masako). However, she’s proved herself scarily good at the job and, if she stays on the same track, is on her way to becoming the first woman lieutenant to have earned the position on her own right within the Shimura Family Syndicate. She and Jin had a fling when they were younger. She also had a fling with Ryuzo (see below) when that ended.

Jin Sakai- (FC: Daisuke Tsuji) You know him, you love him, it’s our boy Jin! Nephew to the Kumicho and current leader of the Sakai family. He took over after the death of his father, Kazumasa Sakai (after he finished his schooling of course). You can read more about him on the verse page.

Ryuzo Tanaka- (FC: Leonard Wu) Jin’s childhood best friend and blood brother (kyodai). Shimura isn’t really happy that Jin made him junior leader within the Sakai family, but didn’t stop it. He has aspirations to move up higher, but Shimura won’t grant him the rank of fourth lieutenant. He’s good at his job, but also a hot-head and somewhat of a party boy. He’s starting to gain some major resentment for not being able to move up in the organization as fast as he’d hoped. He’s waiting for Shimura to die so Jin can take over (hopefully) and make him lieutenant. He and Tomoe had a fling when they were younger. He and Jin also have a weird, nebulous relationship that is sometimes romantic/sexual, sometimes not. They don’t talk about it much.

[maiji]

Wisteria Court, 2018 Fude de mannen, fountain pen ink, watercolour

Fujitsubo (“Wisteria Court”), also called the Shining or Radiant Princess, is Genji’s first love. She happens to bear an uncanny resemblance to Lady Kiritsubo (see Paulownia Court) - but as daughter of a former emperor, the Kokiden Consort can’t mess with her as easily because she outranks the other woman. She’s made Empress after giving birth to Reizei, and also terminates her romantic relationship with Genji, who is super sad (even though it’s for his own good or he would’ve been exiled or worse a lot earlier, yeesh).

Scholarly discussions make a lot of fuss over her affair, but honestly, I find Fujitsubo post-Genji affair way more interesting. Of all the partners Genji has in the story, she’s probably the closest to his equal in all respects, and actually surpasses him in several (status/rank, naturally, but also IMO savviness and will). After the Kiritsubo Emperor’s death, she teams up with Genji to control the political playing field of the imperial court, the main goal making sure Reizei becomes Emperor after Suzaku.

There’s actually a lot of political intrigue in Tale of Genji, but it can be easily missed. The Edo daimyo Matsudaira Sadanobu (who, random aside, also appears as a character in Yoshinaga Fumi’s amazing genderbent historical AU manga Ooku, which is SO good and the only reason I’m not reading it right now is because Vol 14 still isn’t out in English sob), wrote some thoughts on Tale of Genji focused on its political aspects, and he clearly thought very highly of it. I was really amused because the structure of the excerpts I read was basically a paragraph describing a specific part of the story with political implications, followed by some variation of "That was so awesome!” repeated over and over.

Genjimonogatari series