HOKAN

Real Name: Hokan

Identity/Class: Human (while not a regular magic-user, he did have one magic item for a single use)
    Japanese;
    19^th Century

Occupation: Shinto Priest

Group Membership:  An unidentified order of monks

Affiliations: Hanako, Kasho, Masanobu Matsumura, Takashi, other peaceful members of his order, another unidentified member of the Iga ninja clan

Enemies: Shonin and the dissident/warrior priests who followed him

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Ho-Kan (see comments)

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
    formerly a temple in a forest in Japan

First Appearance: Epic Illustrated#15 (December, 1982)

Powers/Abilities: Hokan possessed the scale from a dragon's eyelid, which granted him limited powers of prophecy to sense the solution to a problem that threatened him.

    Hokan was a man of peace, dedicated to caring for peaceful dragons.

    He was willing to risk (and give up) his life to end the corruption

History:

(Epic Illustrated#15 (fb) - BTS) - Hokan was member of an order of Shinto priests dedicated to caring for dragons, which they saw as symbols of wisdom and peace.

(Epic Illustrated#16 (fb) - BTS) - Hokan's friend and mentor, Kasho, gave him the gift of a dragon eyelid scale, possessed of mystic powers. Before his death, Kasho foresaw trouble in Hokan's future and instructed him to burn the scale, meditate, think of his problems and breath in the vapors rising from the burning flames and to let the sky and forest dissolve into the eternal and time ebb and flow and leave the ten thousand things upon the mind of men.

(Epic Illustrated#16 (fb) - BTS) - For months, a member of his order, Shonin, led a few others to train in combat and to train the dragons to fight.

(Epic Illustrated#15) - Hokan came upon the corpse of a dragon that had been slain by a samurai as a prize to show his courage. Encountering the aged and retired Masanobu nearby, Hokan initially blamed him, but Masanobu assured him otherwise, and the two men introduced themselves. Both men acknowledged their grief for the senseless slaughter of the gentle creature before parting ways.

    On his return to his temple, Hokan saw several of his men engaged in weapons practice while others sharpened the teeth and claws of dragons. He was distressed when the leader of this group commanded the dragons to attack, demonstrating their power and fury by tearing apart trees.

(Epic Illustrated#16) - Hokan was present at a meeting of his order when another priest, Shonin, who had returned from travels, noting that foreigners would soon enter their land and take the dragons.

    Shonin announced that they must train themselves and the dragons to fight and then relocate to northwestern America, where they could lose themselves in the vastness and destroy anyone who stood in their path. When others objected, countering that they were dedicated to peace and that dragons were serene creatures, Shonin advised the other members of the order that they could join him or join his ancestors. Hokan spoke out, noting that it was Shonin whom he had seen in the forest, using the dragons for violence. Confirming this, Shonin led his allies to attack and the peaceful priests, who tried to flee into the forest, only to find more warrior-priests outside alongside dragons. While the others were slaughtered, Hokan tripped and luckily tumbled past the dragon guarding the exit.

    Forcing himself to ignore the screams of his friends, Hokan fled into the forest. As it got dark, the warrior-priests gave up on pursuit, considering that Hokan was such a weakling that he had probably already died of fright.

    After they had gone, Hokan burned the dragon scale given to him by Kasho and meditated, seeing a vision of the young Japanese-American Takashi in Nagasaki who fled his home to be raised by a clan of the Iga ninjas.

    With the dawn's first light, Hokan concluded that Takashi would be the one to end the corruption, and he now had hope and a purpose.

(Epic Illustrated#17) - Hokan traveled to meet the Iga ninjas he had seen in his vision, paying with a golden dragon amulet to purchase the services of three of their number for a fortnight.

    Seeking to enlist the aid of Masanobu, Hokan cautiously returned to the land near the temple, but he was discovered and captured by dissident priests. Under Shonin's guidance Hokan was tortured for hours until he admitted that he had hired ninja to combat them, and he further noted his connection to Masanobu who lived on a cave on the hillside.

(Epic Illustrated#17 - BTS) - Concluding that Hokan had told all he could, the dissident priests allowed him to die.

(Epic Illustrated#20 - BTS) - Ultimately Takashi and Masanobu slew Shonin's order in California as well as the combat dragon they brought with them, after which Takashi took young dragons into the countryside to live in peace.

Comments: Created by Carl Potts.

    He was called Hokan in parts 1 and three, but Ho-Kan in part 2.

    As a creator owned character from Epic, it is unlikely that this story was intended to be part of Reality-616, but there's also nothing to exclude it...the events involved a small number of people and two focal regions in Japan and California, USA. There's no reason it could not have taken place in the 19^th Century on Earth-616.

    The Last of the Dragons was later reprinted/re-released as the Last of the Dragons mini-series and as an Epic Graphic novel. The images from the latter.

    Thanks to Loki for suggesting this character to profile!

    This profile was completed 05/10/2025, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25^th anniversary's celebratory event.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Hokan should be distinguished from:

• other "Hokan" characters, groups, items, events, races or places...

First posted: 09/10/2026
Last updated: 05/10/2025

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
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