Gohda Motohide

Gohda Motohide is a character appearing in the Tenchu universe. He appears in Tenchu 2: Birth of the Stealth Assassins. Motohide was the treacherous uncle of Gohda Matsunoshin. When Matsunoshin's father died Motohide assumed that the would be given control of Gohda territory, and he became furious when he learned that the kingdom had instead been handed over to his nephew. Motohide then conspired with Toda Yoshisada, the lord of a rival kingdom, to launch an attack against Gohda castle and kill his nephew to form an alliance between the two territories. Motohide gathered his army and raided the castle. While his men fought with Matsunoshin's guards, Motohide infiltrated the castle and found his nephew on the upper level. Motohide revealed that he felt his nephew was not strong enough to hold the land together, and that "the peasants must learn their place". The two engaged in a sword fight that ended when Matsunoshin disarmed his uncle and knocked him to the ground. Lord Gohda hesitated, too compassionate to deliver the killing strike. Seeing this, Motohide pulled out a pistol and shot his nephew in the shoulder. He got to his feet and prepared to finish off Matsunoshin, but before he could accomplish this Rikimaru barged into the room and dueled the traitor. Once again Motohide lost to a superior opponent, but before Rikimaru could kill him Matsunohin stepped in front of the ninja's blade, saying that his uncle was misguided. Motohide took advantage of the distraction and fled the castle. Along the way he kidnapped his nephew's daughter, Princess Kiku, and killed his wife, Lady Kei. An enraged Ayame witnessed Motohide's cowardly murder of her lady, and likely would have killed him had her attention not been diverted by Genbu.

Motohide then retreated to the war camp of Lord Toda, who had established a base of operations near Gohda Castle. Motohide reported that he had failed to kill his nephew, but that Matsunoshin's forces were weakened and scattered and that Toda should have little trouble in taking control of the land of Gohda. Upon hearing this, Toda motioned to one of his men, who pulled a sword and struck Sire Motohide's bodyguard from behind, mortally wounding him. Toda then personally struck Motohide down. Just before he died, Toda told him that he had never intended to share power with him. A horrified Motohide died knowing that he had been betrayed himself.

His assassination was witnessed by Ayame, who referred to it as "a proper coward's death".