Ichiryusai Madarame


 * ""You all know too much. You'll forever rue the day you dared defy me."

—Ichiryusai Madarame, Persona 5"

Ichiryusai Madarame is a villian in Persona 5.

Appearance
Madarame is an elderly man with long grey hair tied in a ponytail and he has short facial hair. He wears traditional Japanese clothes.

His Shadow Self wears traditional yellow kimono with make-up on his face (which Ryuji Sakamoto compares to a shogun). With his hair being styled in a Japanese topknot look that closely resembles a paint brush, as well as his eyebrows, which are bushier than his normal ones.

When he transforms into Azazel, he becomes a set of four paintings that show different parts of his face (two eyes, his nose, and his mouth).

Personality
In public, Madarame comes off as polite, humble, and soft-spoken with a passion for the arts and pride in his impressive collection of art over the years. In truth, Madarame is an amoral, greedy con man with an extremely self-centered view of the world and a bloated sense of self-importance. Having suffered years of artist's block, Madarame resorted to extortion of his pupils to maintain his fame and cast them away the minute they were of no use to him. Madarame's greed and vanity are best shown by his revelation that he allowed a pupil to die of a seizure by knowingly refusing to call an ambulance simply to acquire a painting.

He believes his advanced age and skill as a tutor gives him the right to treat his students as unpaid labor and a source of artwork to keep his fame and income (Shadow Madarame even refers to them as his livestock at one point). He has a very cynical view of art and beauty, seeing both primarily as an avenue to profit, and is extremely bitter about his lack of personal inspiration as an artist. He has no compunction about hiding artwork of his or his students and creating forgeries to sell as the original version.

With his change of heart, he eventually repents for his actions and openly confesses his crime at a live conference; all the while having an emotional meltdown in front of the populace, realizing that his actions have caused irrevocable pain and suffering to all his victims (many of which were his intended pupils).

Profile
Over the years, Madarame mentored many students, many of which lived with him in his humble shack near Shibuya. However, many found themselves ruined from their time there, losing passion in the arts or simply being casted aside once their artistic drives were depleted. Once these occurred, Madarame would search for a new prospect to continue his schemes. Among the many affected by his scheme was Natsuhiko Nakanohara who was similarly ruined and lost all passion for arts after being "mentored". None of Madarame's former pupils ever spoke up about him after they were casted aside, allowing him to continue his schemes for several years. One of Madarame's most famous paintings is the art piece titled "Sayuri", who inspired his most recent protégé, Yusuke Kitagawa, an orphaned boy, into entering the artistic world.

His sin is Vanity, which forms the basis of his Palace. His Palace transforms his modest, run down shack into a high scale museum with crowds waiting to see the exhibits. Inside of the Palace, dozens of pictures line the exhibits comprised of the portraits of all of the students he has extorted over the years, including Natsuhiko and Yusuke. The Phantom Thieves of Hearts plan a heist at his Palace to steal his heart after hearing numerous stories of how he has ruined the lives of his former pupils and how he is now using Yusuke for that end. Despite Yusuke's refusal to believe him, after Ann Takamaki models for Yusuke in order for Morgana to infiltrate a special door, it is revealed that Madarame had that he had made numerous replicas of Sayuri and was deceiving others into believing that they were buying the original painting from him. Due to his private room being infiltrated, Madarame planned on suing Ann and Yusuke for breaking and entering as well as the Phantom Thieves for initiating the idea. However, due to his exhibit still on display, he decides to wait until it has concluded so he can prevent attracting unwanted attention.

Despite Shadow Madarame proving to be a much more clever and perceptive opponent than Suguru Kamoshida, the Thieves were able to find their way to the Treasure and send a calling card to the real Madarame, turning it physical. As a precaution, Shadow Madarame swaps the Sayuri painting with a covered hehenonomoheji to trick the Thieves into a trap. Thinking that he has won, he shows Yusuke the true treasure. The treasure takes the appearance of the Sayuri painting, but the lower quarter is now revealed. The painting in its original condition depicted a mother holding her newborn child.

Shadow Madarame informs the group that it was Yusuke's mother who painted the original Sayuri and the baby is Yusuke. Madarame coveted the painting so much that when Yusuke's mother had a seizure, rather than call an ambulance, he simply left her alone to die, allowing him to take the painting with little opposition. To cover the picture's true intention, Madarame modified it into the Sayuri painting that he released to the public. Outraged at his former master for causing the death of his mother, Yusuke no longer feels any remorse for opposing him and with the help of the Phantom Thieves, Yusuke battles Shadow Madarame. His boss form, Azazel, takes the form of four floating paintings. Despite a difficult fight, the Phantom Thieves emerge victorious.

After his shadow is defeated, Shadow Madarame clings onto the Sayuri painting and pleas to Yusuke to spare him. Though Yusuke does, he tells the Shadow to return to the real Madarame and repent for all the damage he caused. Yusuke then takes the Sayuri painting with him out of the Palace. As the Palace collapses, Shadow Madarame lets the Phantom Thieves know about a black masked person who had also infiltrated his Palace.

On June 5th, the real Madarame admits at a press conference that he plagiarized his own pupil's work. As he weeps heavily from the guilt of all the suffering he caused, Madarame turns himself into the police to atone for his abuse of his former pupils and his plagiarism. Many are shocked by this revelation and Madarame loses credibility and respect, especially by the art community. The revelation of his crimes also draws attention to the Phantom Thieves by the public and inspires Yusuke to continue his work with the Phantom Thieves.

After defeating the TV manager in Shido's Palace, the Phantom Thieves learn Madarame was also involved in the conspiracy. The manager explains that the funds generated from the conterfeiting scam were used to fund Shido's campaign.

Near the end of the game, the Phantom Thieves encounter Madarame's Shadow in the depths of Mementos, locked in a cell alongside their other previous targets. He, alongside the other Palace owners who's hearts have been stolen, praises the cell from which he originally escaped, declaring that he mistakingly believed himself to be talented and now views himself as a fool for wanting too much.

Over the course of Yusuke's confidant, he and the Protagonist meet Akiko Kawanabe, who in the final portion reveals to be an old friend and classmate of Madarame. Kawanabe reveals to the two, that Madarame didn't always act the way he did, but also hated the concept of vanity and evil. He also told the two that Madarame once rushed all over trying to find a doctor in the later hours of the night when a young Yusuke developed a bad fever. But over time, Madarame began to use his students in the way he was originally against. According to Kawanabe, Madarame also got in the way of him getting locations to set up Kawanabe's art studios. Akiko was also happy to know Yusuke was freed from Madarame's chains.

Trivia

 * Madarame's forging the theft of the painting "Sayuri" is an allusion to the actual painting, which is believed by some critic that its worldwide recognition was largely contributed by its theft instead of its technical aspects. Furthermore, Madarame's scam of selling forgeries of the supposedly missing "Sayuri" by making each buyer think they're buying the stolen original is a reference to a theory proposed by journalist Karl Decker in 1932, positing that the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911 was part of a larger scheme masterminded by Argentine con man . According to Decker, Valfierno commisioned six copies of the painting before paying several men to steal the original, including Louvre employee who would eventually commit the robbery. Once news of the crime went public, Valfierno sold each copy to pre-selected collectors who believed the original was stolen for them.
 * Madarame's public apology is believed to be a parody to the hysterical defense by politician Ryutaro Nonomura which went viral in Japan. Incidentally the reason led to Nonomura's tearful press conference, spending tax money on numerous private hot spring trips, is also the court case followed by Sae Niijima during the main plot.
 * While Azazel is not associated with any sin in Judeo-Christianity, he being Shadow Madarame's battle form and association with paintings fits his role in mythology. He is generally taken to be one of the Watchers, angels who fell separately from Lucifer's rebellion when they taught humanity forbidden knowledge out of lust for human women-Azazel is credited with teaching the techniques for blacksmithing weapons and the art of cosmetics, especially makeup and mascara. This fits with Madarame being a formerly skilled painter who now parasitizes his own students for the sake of his vanity.
 * Madarame's motif shares similar origins from Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the loyal retainer to Oda Nobunaga. Like Hideyoshi, both were notorious for living off the talents of other people. Yusuke's persona Goemon was known for his failed assassination attempt on Hideyoshi and like Goemon, Yusuke's clumsy offer of having Ann as a model forces him to uncover the truth about Madarame.
 * In the Japanese version, Shadow Madarame's unique skill "Madara-Megido" is still pronounced "Megido" but the skill name is rendered in kanji "目偽怒" instead of katakana "メギド" with each syllable given a random kanji. It loosely means "Eye-Fake-Anger."
 * Most of Azazel's "unique attacks" are renamed versions of basic spells-Maelstorm is Garula, Thunderclap is Zionga, Flame Dance is Agilao, and Silent Snowscape is Bufula. This ties into Madarame's plagiarism, with him rechristening spells that are not his property as "uniquely" his own. Further driving the point home is the incredibly weak Madara-Megido, used by his true form, implying that Madarame's original work is terrible.
 * Out of the seven deadly sins, Madarame's sin of vanity (an excessive love of one's apperance) can be related to pride (excessively high self-esteem); however, pride is already taken by Shido. Prior to Pope Gregory the Great's offical listing of the seven deadly sins, or capital vices, eight vices were traditionally listed by theologian monk Evagrius of Ponticus. Included in this original list was vainglory, which can be defined as the excessive desire for praise and fame, or the desire for praise without merit. This sin would apply to Madarame for seeking fame in exchange for plagarized and stolen pieces of art.