Kawaji Toshiyoshi is the main antagonist of the 2025 Japanese action series Last Samurai Standing. He is an ex-samurai and the first chief of police of Japan during the Meiji Restoration. He is the mastermind behind the Kodoku game to eliminate the samurai and the one who were responsible for massacring Shujiro Saga's units during the Boshin War.
He is based on the real life Kawaji Toshiyoshi who is the founder of Japanese modern police force and modern art of Kendo.
He is portrayed by Gaku Hamada who portrays the Whale Monster from Kamen Rider Black Sun.
Biography[]
Kawaji Toshiyoshi used to be a high-ranking Samurai who supported the Meiji Government to modernize Japan and he himself had travelled to the US, UK and many European countries to learn Western military and technology as well as police work. After returning to Japan, he found the very first modern police force in Japan and became Japan's very first Chief of Police. During the Boshin War, he ordered the artillery bombardment to kill the Shogunate troops, leading to the massacre of Shujiro Saga's units. After the war, he persuaded the home Minister Lord Ōkubo Toshimichi to eliminate all traces of the samurais, fearing that the Samurais might planning rebellions against the central government for their disenfranchising in the modern Japan. However, Lord Okubo disagreed since the plan is too cruel and he believes that there are still places for the samurais in the modern age. Okubo then reminds Kawaji that he was used to be a samurai himself so he has no rights to purge his own people who give their life for their country.
Frustrated with Okubo's perceived naivety, Kawaji gathers a group of 4 most influential businessmen in Japan to organize a death game called Kodoku to lure all the samurais across the country to eliminate all of them in one go.
Last Samurai Standing[]
10 years after the Boshin War, Shujiro Saga is struggle to make end meets amid a cholera outbreak. After both his wife and daughter contracted cholera, resulting in the death of his daughter, he decides to participate in a tournament called Kodoku to earn a 100,000 Yen reward to pay for his wife's medical treatment and enable his family to have a better life.
He arrives at Kyoto at the temple where the game takes place and he finds out that there are 292 ex-Samurai participate in the game. A government official named Enju greets all them but a police officer from Kyoto comes and interjects as the game is illegal due to the violation of sword-bearing as samurais are no longer allowed to carry Katana. Annoyed, Enju orders an officer and ex-samurai Sakura to decapitate him. Enju then asks if anyone want to leave the game, they can do it now or stay in the game to get the rewards. After no ones want to leave due to the desperate needs of the prize money, Enju lays out the rules of the game, which turned out to be death race to Tokyo instead of a fighting tournament like everyone expected:
1) The race will start from Kyoto to Tokyo
2) All participates must carry a wooden tag at all times and if the the tag is not within their body, they have retrieve it under 10 seconds or else they will be shot dead.
3) The participants must go through 7 checkpoints with specific number of tags required in each checkpoint. The last checkpoint in Tokyo requires 30 tags to pass through in order to win the game.
4) The only way to acquire the necessary tags to pass through the checkpoint is to simply kill the other contestants to take their tags.
5) Participants can team up to gang up on other participants and share extra tags with each others to advance.
6) The participants must not tell anyone about the race and they have a deadline of one month to reach Tokyo or else they will be shot dead.
After Enji finishes speaking, all 292 samurai starts killing each others to take the wooden tags. Shujiro unable to draw his sword to fight due to the PTSD after the last battle but he manages to save a young warrior and shrine maiden named Futaba Katsuki who is a daughter of a shrine maiden as she reminds him of his late daughter and steals several wooden tags from the corpses to bypass the first checkpoint. The duo is then pursued by a crazed ex-samurai named Bukotsu Kanjiya who was presented in Shujiro's last battle and wants to kill him to settle the score. It is revealed that Shujiro used to be called "Kokushu the Manslayer" for his extraordinary swordsmanship and large body counts and Bukotsu wants to kill him to make a name for himself before he dies. Shujiro does not want to kill Bukotsu so he and Futaba escape on horseback.
At an inn, Shujiro urges Futaba to escape the death race when she has a chance but she refuses since she too needs 100,000 Yen reward for her mother's medical treatment as well as all the children under their care due to the cholera. At the same time, a contestant and Shinobi named Kyojin Tsuge comes at them and offers to join force while displaying uncanny knowledge of Shujiro's background. Kyojin then elaborates through his analysis and observations that only 9 people can make through the race till the end based on the number of the participants and the number of tags needed to pass through all checkpoints. Furthermore, he suspects that something extremely fishy is going on with the race and the reward money might not be for each 9 winners but spitted between them or the money is not even real at all.
In Tokyo, Kawaji reports to Lord Okubo about a "tournament" of outlawed samurai to divert his attentions away from his scheme.
Meanwhile, Bukotsu goes on a killing spread to flush out intel about Shujiro until he encounters and kills a participant named Ukyo Kikuomi who was abandoned by his master with zero compensation for his decades of servitude. Shujiro and Futaba encounter a group of participant who fed up with senseless killing and angrily rips out their tags in protest to commit suicide by firing squads. The head of the firing squad heartlessly tells Shujiro and Futaba that they are lucky to get many tags from the dead contestants and this triggers Shujiro so much that he ruthlessly kills all the soldiers for their callousness of those that serves and die for the country. Sakura watches from afar and is amused that Shujiro has reverted back to his Manslayer persona.
Futaba questions Shujiro about his past and he reveals that he was one of the 8 orphans who were adopted by the headmaster of the legendary Kyohachi-ryu School of Swordsmanship. After decades of training, the master orders all his students to kill each other until one is remain since the tradition dictates that only one student can be the successor of the school and the style. Horrified, Shujiro escaped into the night while the rest of his adopted siblings had to fend for themselves from their cruel master, leading to one of them got killed. Among them is Iroha Kinugasa who participated in the Koduku to find Shujiro. After a brief but tense reunion, the trio are ambushed by a group of archers but they are dispatched by an Ainu participant, saving them.
After passing the second checkpoint, the trio encounter Kyojin again and Shujiro finally gives in and forms an alliance with him to increase their chance of survival. At the same time, an old warrior named Gentosai Okabe comes and kills a group of participant. Gentosai is an enforcer of Kyohachi-ryu school who was tasked by the headmaster of the school to hunt down the surviving 7 children for not participate in the deadly succession contest as well as to prevent the secret technique of the school from leaking out to outsiders. After the second sibling was killed, one of the remaining six siblings, Sansuke Gion tracked down Iroha who worked as a knife thrower at a local circuit after escaping from the school and revealed Gentosai's hunt against all of them. Sansuke then suggests using the Kudoku to lure Gentosai out in the open for all six of them to gang up and kill him, which is one of the primary reasons why Iroha tracks down Shujiro in the first place.
Okubo discovers the existence of Kodoku after news of a large group of Samurais are seen killing each others and shot dead by Imperial Troops as well as the fact that a large shipment of rifles imported by the 4 Zaibatsu from the UK. Okubo suspects that the only one who can organize the game is a high-ranking official of the central government, particularly the Central Police Department.
Back to Shujiro's group, Kyojin points out the corpses of the samurais are neatly cleaned up for some strange reasons so he wants one of them to be a scapegoat to be caught by the local police to be put in jail so they can locate where all the bodies are being dumped. After dispatching a group of contestants, they call the local police to get the contestant to be apprehended for public disruption. At the same time, Futaba and Iroha trick the group of polices who supervise the game to collect Shujiro who plays dead. Eventually, they discover that all the bodies of the dead contestants are dumped inside a bank. Shujiro wakes up inside the bank vault where the bodies are dumped and discovers document of bank transactions related to the game only to be spotted by Sakura. It is turned out that Sakura and Shujiro used to be brother-in-arms back in the Boshin War and now Sakura is trying to dispose the samurais as well as his past, leading to the fight between two of them. Meanwhile, Kyojin disguises himself as a police officer and discovers that the local police have no ideas about the Kodoku and the ones that supervise the game is polices from the central bureau since the local police interrogate the jailed contestant only for the contestant to be killed by the other group of cops instead.
Kawaji meets up with his 4 conspirators and reveals that the true purpose of Koduku is to paint to look like the Samurais are rebelling against the Imperial Government to rattle Okubo and the government enough to justify his upcoming purge toward the Samurais. However, unknown to Kawaji, Okubo is no fool and he manages to intercept the telegrams of the 4 Zaibatsus and finds out about Kawaji's scheme, which disgusts him due to Kawaji's actions against his own kinds.
Kyojin discusses his finding to Shujiro's group and Shujiro uses his connection with the Minister of Communication to send a message to Okubo about the details of the game in exchange for protection. After passing a next checkpoint, Kyojin tells the group that he will have part way to not draw any attentions from the central cops due to his infiltration.
At a festival, Shujiro group encounters both Gentosai and Bukotsu, leading to a huge fight. Iroha with the help of Sansuke and other sibling named Shikura fight Gentosai but he is too powerful for even the three of them to fight so they retreat. Iroha then states that in order to take down Gentosai, they need to get Shujiro on board with their plan. At the same time, after an intense fight, Shujiro manages to finish off Bukotsu and he thanks Shujiro for giving a warrior death before passing away.
Okubo summons Kawaji to explain his actions but he is ambushed by Sakura and killed under Kawaji's order. Despite this, the Home Minister manages to send a message to Shujiro to meet at Tokyo. As Shujiro and Futaba try to reach Tokyo, a carriage carries Kawaji drives past him, causing Shujiro to glare at Kawaji with intense rage, indicating that Shujiro now knows who is behind Koduko. At the same time, it is revealed that Kyojin is in league with Gentosai to hunt down the runaways for some reasons.
Trivia[]
- He is extremely hypocritical as he despises the samurai class while he himself was once a samurai. Furthermore, his purge is absolutely wasteful since Samurais can still be trained to be modern soldiers in the future wars.