(Elektra: The Hand#1 (fb) -
BTS) - As a boy, Kagenobu
Yoshioka believed he was the son of a samurai in the service of
Nobunaga Oda, but died in the battle for Kyoto. His mother and
relatives returned to Kyushu in shame.
KAGENOBU YOSHIOKA
Real Name: Kagenobu Yoshioka
Identity/Class: Normal human (late 16th Century)
(citizen of Japan)
Occupation: Leader of the Hand, samurai;
formerly student at Ishiyama Sword School
Group Membership: The Hand;
formerly Ishiyama Sword School
Affiliations: The Hand, Saburo
Ishiyama, Kikuchi (first name unrevealed), Eliza Martinez, Daisuke
Sasaki
Enemies: All foreigners to Japan
Known Relatives: mother
(deceased, name
unrevealed), father (deceased, name unrevealed), relatives
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Kyushu, Japan
First Appearance: Elektra: The Hand#1
(November, 2004)
Powers/Abilities: Trained since a youth in
the samurai code of Bushido, Kagenobu Yoshioka is exceptionally skilled
in martial arts and
the use of katana swords and other ninja weapons. He values honor and
Japanese tradition, but
despises foreign influence and foreigners in Japan. He has athlete
level fitness and endurance, and has ninja-level stealth. Yoshioka has
a clear vision that defined the early racially purist principles of the
clandestine Hand
organization to reclaim Japan exclusively for the Japanese people.
Height: 5'7"
(by approximation)
Weight: 155 lbs. (by
approximation)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
History:
(Elektra: The Hand#1 (fb) -
BTS) - As a boy, Kagenobu
Yoshioka believed he was the son of a samurai in the service of
Nobunaga Oda, but died in the battle for Kyoto. His mother and
relatives returned to Kyushu in shame.
(Elektra: The Hand#1 (fb)) - In 1575, other boys
teased "Kage" that his mother was a prostitute and he fought them,
refuting that she would ever consort with "gaijin" (foreigners). At
home, he found a Portuguese merchant assaulting his mother, so he
grabbed one of her sharp hairpins and stabbed his throat, killing him.
His mother
reinforced the Bushido code of honor to the boy. The police soon
arrived and his mother took the blame, but her bloody hand imprinted on
the boy's tunic. His mother was executed and to control the orphan
boy's anger, he was enrolled in the Ishiyama Sword School, where he
learned the samurai's Bushido code, martial arts and weapons mastery
(katana, archery, sai) from the sensei Ishiyama. Ten years later, he
was
one of the two top students vying for the title of samurai that year
against Daisuke Sasaki. Yoshioka drew first blood, scarring Sasaki, and
became a samurai.
(Elektra: The Hand#2 (fb)) -
Yoshioka kept the symbol
of the hand on the back of his robe and wandered the country, learning
skills and knowledge, and sought to end the corruption and injustice
that he considered had been brought in by foreign influence. He was
derided for being a samurai without a master, but stated that he served
Japan. In 1588, a former fellow student Kikuchi found Yoshioka and told
him that Ishiyama had died, leaving the school in Yoshioka's care.
His rival, Sasaki, governed in his absence and was surprised when
Yoshioka offered
joint leadership. But Yoshioka became upset that samurai schools had
enrollments regulated to smaller numbers. Yoshioka began a rebellion,
using his students to strike a galleon at a nearby port, killing every
foreigner. Yoshioka declared the Hand had been unleashed on the world.
(Elektra: The Hand#3 (fb)) -
In 1590, Yoshioka
gathered five colorful rebels to join him and Sasaki as the inner
circle of the Hand, each new rebel was to operate from one of Japan's
five main islands. Sasaki initially protested, but later apologized to
Yoshioka. They soon met the half -Japanese girl Eliza Martinez and her
father. Hearing her tragic story mirrored his own, Yoshioka allowed her
entry to the school, despite Sasaki's racist protestations. Eliza's
training began and two years later, an apparently compliant Sasaki
insisted that she be tested in her ninja skills, although Yoshioka felt
himself romantically drawn to her.
(Elektra: The Hand#4 (fb)) -
Eliza's first
assassination angered her as it was a foreigner she knew, but Yoshioka
reinforced that all foreigners had to be purged from Japan.
Nevertheless, they shared a hatred and a kiss. Several years passed and
the Hand's slaughter of foreigners continued. But Yoshioka had learned
of dissension in the Hand's ranks, then an assassination attempt on
Eliza. Suspecting Sasaki, he confronted his ally in the empty
schoolgrounds. The two battled fiercely but Yoshioka prevailed.
However, the other Hand rebels and their ninjas soon appeared, ready to
kill.
(Elektra: The Hand#5 (fb)) - Yoshioka and Eliza
fought back to back against overwhelming odds. Three of the Hand
leaders fell
plus many ninjas until Yoshioka received a lethal wound. He asked that
Eliza deliver the killing stroke using his mother's hairpin, and so
Yoshioka died.
Comments: Created by C.B. Cebulski [as Akira Yoshida] (writer), Christian Gossett (pencils), Jonathan Glapion (inks).
The entire story is taught as a history lesson of the Hand by a Hand member to Elektra.
Interestingly, it is Martinez and Sasaki who were resurrected by the Hand, but not their founder, Yoshioka.
Unfortunately, the five rebels who became the inner
circle of the Hand were not named.
Bushido
is the ancient code of the samurai warrior that may have origins from
the 8th
Century and flourished in the 17th Century.
Thanks to comics.org for identifying that the credited author Akira Yoshida was actually C.B. Cebulski.
Apparently Cebulski initially intended Elektra: The Hand to a trilogy of stories, but low sales confined it to only the first arc, so who knows if there were any further flashbacks intended for Yoshioka?
Issue 2's front cover by Bill Sienkiewicz, shown here
as the headshot, is one of my favorite comic covers of the modern era.
Profile by Grendel Prime.
CLARIFICATIONS
:
Kagenobu Yoshioka has no known connections to:
Saburo Ishiyama was the sensei of the Ishiyama Sword
School, a school that taught the samurai Bushido code of honor, as well
as martial arts and skills in various weaponry. Each year, the top
student would graduate, after a trial by combat, to become a wandering
samurai. In 1575, he became aware of Kagenobu Yoshioka's plight, but
also knew that Yoshioka was not guiltless, yet saw much promise in the
boy. Eventually, Yoshioka graduated as samurai in 1585. Three years
later, Ishiyama died, allegedly of pneumonia (although this was
questioned) and willed leadership of the school to Yoshioka.
--Elektra: The Hand#1 (Elektra: The Hand#2 (fb) - BTS
Kagenobu Yoshioka's mother (name unrevealed) was
married to a samurai, but he was killed in battle and she returned to
Kyushu in shame, and had to raise the boy alone. She resorted to
prostitution for income, seemingly unaware of the negative impact this
had on her son in instilling a hatred for foreigners. One night,
Kagenobu found her being assaulted by a Portuguese merchant and he
quickly
stabbed him with a sharp hairpin. Expecting the police, she reinforced
to Kagenobu that he follow the samurai's Bushido code of honor. She
took the blame for the murder and left a bloody hand mark on the boy's
tunic that he later took as his personal emblem. She was soon executed
for the merchant's murder.
--Elektra: The Hand#1
images:
(without ads)
Elektra: The Hand#5, p8, pan3 (main image)
Elektra: The Hand#2, cover (headshot)
Elektra: The Hand#1, p15, pan1 (as boy)
Elektra: The Hand#2, p2, pan1 (back turned with hand emblem)
Elektra: The Hand#2, p22, pan3 (Hand unleashed!)
Elektra: The Hand#4, p12 (black stealth armor)
Elektra: The Hand#1, p20, pan1 (Ishiyama)
Elektra: The Hand#1, p11, pan1 (mother)
Appearances:
Elektra: The Hand#1 (November, 2004)
- C.B. Cebulski [as Akira Yoshida] (writer), Christian Gossett
(pencils), Jonathan Glapion (inks), Mackenzie Cadenhead (editor)
Elektra:
The Hand#2 (November, 2004) - C.B. Cebulski [as Akira Yoshida]
(writer), Christian Gossett (pencils), Jonathan Glapion (inks),
Mackenzie Cadenhead (editor)
Elektra: The Hand#3 (December, 2004) - C.B. Cebulski [as Akira Yoshida]
(writer), Christian Gossett (pencils), Jonathan Glapion (inks),
Mackenzie Cadenhead (editor)
Elektra: The Hand#4 (January, 2005) - C.B. Cebulski [as Akira Yoshida]
(writer), Christian Gossett (pencils), Jonathan Glapion (inks),
Mackenzie Cadenhead (editor)
Elektra: The Hand#5 (February, 2005) - C.B. Cebulski [as Akira Yoshida]
(writer), Christian Gossett (pencils), Jonathan Glapion (inks),
Mackenzie Cadenhead (editor)
First posted: 10/11/2019
Last updated: 10/11/2019
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
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and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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