| “ | I think no one will call you pretty ever again. | „ |
| ~ Ryogan disfiguring Mayumi's face, Fairest #11 — "The Hidden Kingdom Chapter Four: The Bad Sleep Well" |
Ryogan is a human Fable from the Homelands, who debuts in flashbacks in Fairest #9 — "The Hidden Kingdom Chapter Two: Hard-Boiled Wonderland." He was the seii taishōgun of the local Emperor's court in the Hidden Kingdom, the Homelands version of Japan, and secretly plotted to usurp his own ruler by paving the way for the Adversary's invasion.
History[]
Exiling the yokai[]
Ryogan makes a pass on Mayumi
Nine hundred years ago, Rapunzel had planned to die at sea, but instead was found by the citizens of the Hidden Kingdom. She was welcomed into the celestial palace by the Emperor, even though his seii taishōgun, Ryogan was suspicious. At some point later, Ryogan begun to bend the Emperor's ear to his puritanical beliefs, and he was soon convinced of Ryogan's plan to exile all the non-human residents, the so-called yokai, from the palace. First, he exiled the tanuki, then the kappa. Eventually, they came for Tomoko, a kitsune who was Rapunzel's lover. They confiscated her foxfire, her soul, and her true nature as a fox woman was revealed, and she too was exiled. As Tomoko was escorted out, Rapunzel promised to get the foxfire back.[3]
Ryogan hunting Yokai
Mutilating Mayumi[]
After Tomoko was taken away, Ryogan began using her foxfire to enforce his will and influence the Emperor to suit his interests. Secretly planning to become the new ruler of the Hidden Kingdom, he took an interest in Mayumi, a beautiful young courtesan at the Emperor's court. He offered to make her his Empress, but she rejected him and called him "a parasite on the court." Ryogan responded by slitting Mayumi's cheeks with his sword, so that no one would call her pretty again. He also started hunting yokai for sport.[2]
The exiled Tomoko got sick without her foxfire and tasked Rapunzel with finding it in Ryogan's safe, which was protected by a puzzle lock. The plan had hinged on using Mayumi to get close to Ryogan and get the foxfire herself, but overcome by depression at her disfigurement at his hands, she committed seppuku, a ritualistic suicide. Her ghost was said to haunt people, and that those who saw it would die horribly. Rapunzel suspected that those deaths were really poisonings by Ryogan.[2]
Okiku's rage[]
Ryogan is drugged by Okiku
As an alteration to the plan, Rapunzel took on the name Okiku to please Ryogan, and wrote a new poem to commemorate it. The poem acted as bait, prompting Ryogan to speak with her in private about it. Over tea, she suggested that she was ready to seek another lover — perhaps in him. The tea, however, was drugged, and Ryogan collapsed, allowing Rapunzel to sneak into his chambers and attempt to open the safe. Unfortunately, she could not solve its puzzle. However, she did discover that a set of china bowls in his chambers were decorated with detailed plans for Ryogan's military strategy which would constitute a coup against the Emperor, with the help of the Adversary.[2]
Unfortunately, Ryogan awoke and found her, beating her into submission and then throwing her battered body into a nearby well. Rapunzel began eating her own hair, and vomited it up in the form of several bezoars, which began speaking to her cracked mind. She refused to listen to them, until one day, she heard Ryogan's voice nearby. Affixing the bezoars to her own hair, she used them as hand-holds to climb out of the well.[2] When she found Ryogan, she choked him to death with her hair before letting the living bezoars tear him apart.[1]
Appearances[]
Fairest[]
- Fairest #9 (first appearance) (flashback)
- Fairest #11 (flashback)
- Fairest #12 (flashback)
Trivia[]
Ryogan is based on the jealous samurai who mutilated the Kuchisake-onna (口裂け女, "Slit-Mouthed Woman") from Japanese urban legends and folklore, and Aoyama, the samurai who killed Okiku in the Japanese ghost story of Banchō Sarayashiki (番町皿屋敷, "The Dish Mansion at Banchō").