Genzan Taira (
Quick Answers
What is the significance of Genzan Taira's alias, The Spiral?
What is the Koei Style that Genzan Taira rediscovered?
How did Genzan Taira's appearance contribute to his character in the series?
What is the relationship between Genzan Taira and Kiryu Setsuna?
How did Genzan Taira's actions impact Ohma Tokita's quest for revenge?
Appearance[]
Genzan was a gruff-looking older man with a wrinkled face, thick messy fair hair atop his head, a lack of eyebrows with thick eyebrow ridges, deadened eyes and a well-defined muscular build. He tended to wear traditional keikogi.
Personality[]
Genzan appeared to be a man who greatly enjoyed the thrill of battle and the self-achievement of killing powerful foes.
History[]
Genzan is a descendant of the main line of the Koei Style founders.[2] At some point in the past, he collated all the archives he could find on the Koei Style and attempted to reconstruct its techniques. However, he found that only two techniques were still applicable at that point in time. With this in mind, Genzan planned to revive the Koei Style and make it stronger than ever.[2]
Some time afterwards, Genzan adopted Kiryu Setsuna as his martial arts student.[1] He relayed all this information to Gensai Kuroki one evening in a bar.[2] An unspecified time afterwards, Genzan fought and killed Niko, telling the shellshocked Ohma that if he wanted revenge, he'd be waiting for him on the "battlefield" once Ohma had attained "power".[3]
During the following ten year span, Kiryu and Genzan fought in the "Death Fights", matches that allowed weaponry and were sponsored by the Yakuza. In this time, Setsuna managed to kill his master, who had a pleased expression on his face as he died.[3]
Power & Abilities[]
Taira Genzan was a supposedly powerful fighter, able to best and kill someone of Niko's calibre in combat. However, in reality, Genzan was not at the level of Niko Tokita; he was only able to kill Niko after the man had completely exhausted himself after fighting Ohma and The Other Niko.
Koei Style[]
Genzan revived and utilised the long-lost martial art. However, he was only able to salvage two techniques, Blink and Rakshasa's Palm, before his death at Kiryu's hands.
Etymology[]
- Genzan means "rigor, stern, strictness, severity, rigidity" (厳) (gen) and "mountain, hill" (山) (san/zan).
- Taira means "flat, broad, level, even, peaceful" (平) (tai) and "good, virtuous, respectable" (良) (ra).
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 156
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Chapter 153
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chapter 24