Tale.04: Kazumasa Sakai - The Father Known as the 'Vulture of Tsushima', His Strictness and the Truth Behind His Death

Introduction: The Bloodstained Lineage of Clan Sakai and the Curse of the “Father”

On the surface, Ghost of Tsushima is a period action game depicting a fierce defensive war against the Mongol Empire set in Tsushima. However, deep within lies a highly universal and philosophical theme: the conflict between ideology (Samurai Honor) and personal emotion. The focus of the fourth installment of this project, Kazumasa Sakai, is the father of the protagonist, Jin Sakai, and the former head of Clan Sakai. Although he is already deceased at the beginning of the main story, his existence casts a dense shadow of death and trauma over Tsushima and the entire island of Iki.

Kazumasa Sakai is a man with a gruesome past; while publicly a highly honorable Samurai leader, he was despised by the people of Iki as the “Vulture of Tsushima” and “The Butcher of Iki.” His life serves as the most cruel example of how the public identity of Bushido can mask personal feelings of loss and guilt, ultimately mutating into reckless violence.

This article will dissect the psychological structure of Kazumasa Sakai as a single Samurai by integrating his heroic aspects spoken of on the main island of Tsushima, the fragments of gruesome memories revealed in the DLC Iki Island, and the historical background of the documents and gear he left behind. Why did he transform into a ruthless butcher? What philosophy did he hold that differed from his brother-in-law, Lord Shimura? And what kind of cause and effect did his tragic death bring to the birth of Jin Sakai as “The Ghost”? We will unravel the full picture by intertwining the tranquil context of period dramas with Shinto and Buddhist views on life and death.

1. Loss and Repression: Kazumasa Sakai Before the “Vulture” and His Hidden Humanity

To understand the roots of the violence Kazumasa Sakai unleashed on the island of Iki, we must first shed light on his aspect as an individual human being before he became the “Butcher.” He was not a cold-blooded madman by birth. Rather, ironically, what drove him to madness was the deep love he harbored and the unbearable sense of loss that accompanied it.

1.1 Marriage to Chiyoko and the Definitive Loss

In his youth, Kazumasa Sakai was an exceptional Samurai whose future was highly anticipated by Clan Shimura. He married Lord Shimura’s younger sister, Chiyoko, and became the head of Clan Sakai. In the Samurai society of that era, marriages between major clans strongly possessed the nature of purely political alliances, but it is said that a genuine love and bond existed between Kazumasa and Chiyoko.

However, this tranquility did not last long. Just seven years after the birth of their only son, Jin, Chiyoko passed away from illness. The death of his wife was the very event that pierced a definitive void in Kazumasa Sakai’s heart, becoming the starting point that gradually eroded his humanity. The loss of his beloved partner stripped him of the ability to feel “everyday peace,” prompting an escape into grueling military duties and dogmatic Samurai discipline.

1.2 Yuriko’s Recollection: Lord Shimura’s “Mountain” and Kazumasa’s “Imagination”

The fact that Kazumasa was not merely a sterile Samurai emerges vividly from the recollections of Yuriko, an elderly woman who served Clan Sakai for many years. In the Tale “The Proud Do Not Endure,” as Yuriko’s memories blur and she mistakes Jin for Kazumasa, she speaks of Kazumasa’s hidden philosophy and humanity.

According to Yuriko’s testimony, Kazumasa secretly criticized the governing philosophy of his brother-in-law, Lord Shimura. Lord Shimura clung to physical strongholds like castles and believed that strength meant being “immovable, like a mountain.” However, Kazumasa reportedly described such a stance by Lord Shimura as rigid and “willfully blind to possibilities.”

Kazumasa was a man rich in “imagination,” possessing flexible thinking unbound by existing frameworks. Yuriko suggests that had Kazumasa lived, he might have even understood, through that imagination, Jin straying from the Samurai path to become “The Ghost.” Furthermore, Yuriko herself holds memories of secretly sharing affection with Kazumasa at the hot springs after he lost his wife (which was, at least for Yuriko, the best day of her life), indicating that Kazumasa had a deeply human side that sought companionship and warmth in his loneliness.

This contrasting structure of the “immovable mountain (Lord Shimura)” and “fluid imagination (Kazumasa)” is the prototype of the conflict between the “honorable Samurai” and “The Ghost who chooses no means,” which would later engulf all of Tsushima. The flexibility and Rationalism possessed by Kazumasa were essentially rooted in the same origin as Jin’s “Ghost tactics.” However, while Jin used that power for the “protection of the people,” Kazumasa, trapped in the despair of loss, directed his Rationalism toward the “cold-blooded annihilation of the enemy.”

1.3 “Memory of Sorrow”: The Sense of Impermanence and Self-Defense Embedded in the Timbre of the Shakuhachi

How Kazumasa’s mind was torn between his “public Samurai face” and “private despair” is symbolically depicted in the “Memory of Sorrow,” which Jin recalls at the Thunderhead Cliffs of Iki.

After a victorious battle, Kazumasa drinks alone without celebrating with his soldiers. Young Jin asks him why he does not celebrate with them. Kazumasa’s reply was a cold-hearted boundary drawn as a Samurai leader.

“A lord must set boundaries between himself and his followers… familiarity breeds a lack of discipline.”

When Jin presses on, saying that they are laying down their lives for his father, Kazumasa thrusts an even colder reality upon him.

“And it is their duty to do so without question… as it is mine to obey my bushido.”

Behind this dialogue lies a fundamental fear of deeply connecting with others. For Kazumasa, who had lost his wife, harboring affection or endearment toward his subordinates or others was nothing but a risk of experiencing the “agony of loss” once again. By processing the lives of his followers as “part of a system (duty)” and reducing himself to a “cog in the mechanism of Bushido,” he was dissociating his mind from the tragedy of death on the battlefield.

However, immediately after, Kazumasa hands Jin the Shakuhachi (flute) left behind by his wife and pours out his suppressed true feelings.

“Losing her was like losing the best part of me. This flute was hers… let’s hear it then. Please, play.”

The timbre of the Shakuhachi symbolizes “Mujo” (impermanence) in Japanese aesthetics—the Buddhist truth that everything in this world is transient and nothing lasts forever. Kazumasa had defined himself as having forever lost “the best part of himself—his human kindness and affection” along with his wife’s death. By binding his remaining hollow shell of a body with the sturdy armor of “Samurai Honor” and “the duty of a lord,” he was barely holding back his collapse into madness.

2. The Boundary Between Rationalism and Madness: The Rampage of Bushido in the Invasion of Iki

After Chiyoko’s death, Kazumasa’s mind, immersed in grueling military duties, finally reached a critical point during the mission to pacify Iki. Under the orders of Lord Shimura, Kazumasa led an army across the sea to suppress Iki, which was overrun by pirates and outlaws, by force. The justification was “maintaining security and restoring order,” but this campaign quickly transformed into a hellscape. To the islanders of Iki, Kazumasa Sakai was not a leader bringing order, but “The Butcher of Iki” who indiscriminately took lives.

2.1 Justification of Slaughter Through Righteous Causes: “Memory of Anguish”

Kazumasa’s actions on Iki serve as a living specimen of how the extreme conditions of war destroy personal ethics and rationalize madness as “legitimate duty.” In the “Memory of Anguish,” recalled near the Kidafure Battleground, that gruesome reality is narrated through the young eyes of Jin.

Immediately after massacring the men of a village simply for harboring Raiders, Kazumasa declares the following to Jin, who is frightened by the bloodstained carnage and throws an accusatory question at him.

“The samurai ran hot. Yes, these fools attacked us.” “The man you killed was a criminal. You did well today. Better than I expected, Jin.”

This exchange vividly demonstrates that Kazumasa’s mind is fatally distorted. The phrase “The samurai ran hot” is an unconscious confession of his inability to control the violent impulses and thirst for slaughter swirling within him. For a man with the “rich imagination” that Yuriko pointed out, it should have been obvious that laying hands on unresisting villagers was not justice.

However, he wraps his actions in the public justification of “punishing criminals” and “We fulfilled our orders from Lord Shimura,” and even affirms it to his young son by saying, “Raise your head high. Today, you were a warrior.” This is a defense mechanism to escape from his own guilt. Precisely because he understands at the bottom of his heart that his actions are essentially a massacre, he had to forcibly fit them into the rigid ideological framework of “duty” and “Samurai Honor” to paralyze his own mind.

2.2 Identification with Natural Phenomena: The Shinto Nihilism Shown in “Memory of Kinship”

Furthermore, in the “Memory of Kinship” recalled at Senjo Gorge, Kazumasa redefines the nature of his clan by comparing it to the fury of the natural world.

When Jin asks if he intends to govern this island after pacifying Iki, Kazumasa rejects the idea, saying, “It’s not for me. Give me the battlefield or my home,” and continues:

“We are the lightning in the storm, the avalanche that topples a mountain. That is Clan Sakai.”

This declaration indicates that his mental state had already deviated from the human realm and reached a kind of “Shinto nihilism.” In ancient Japanese Shinto, raging natural phenomena (storms, lightning, avalanches) are perceived as manifestations of “Aramitama” (rough spirits), which possess no concept of good or evil. Natural phenomena have no moral intent, nor do they have mercy. They merely destroy everything in their path ruthlessly and with overwhelming force.

By identifying himself and Clan Sakai with “the very violence of Mother Nature,” Kazumasa was attempting to completely escape personal guilt and ethical responsibility. Rejecting “life” as a ruler and seeking only the role of an “executioner of death” on the battlefield, he was no longer a Samurai protecting the order of human society, but the “Vulture” itself, instinctively scattering destruction and bloodshed.

2.3 The Sprouting of a Death Wish: “Memory of Foreboding” and the Loose Shoulder Guard

At the end of his madness and slaughter, a self-destructive desire to “be punished” and “end this madness” might have sprouted in Kazumasa’s subconscious. This speculation is supported by the “Memory of Foreboding.”

Just before departing for battle, Jin notices that the shoulder guard of his father’s armor is loose and points it out. Kazumasa acknowledges it but does not try to fix it, stating:

“The shoulder is loose. One good strike, that’s all it takes.” “A warrior learns from his mistakes or is buried by them.”

For a Samurai, a flaw in armor is a negligence that leads directly to death. Nevertheless, the fact that Kazumasa left this unattended and went to the battlefield is a metaphor for his mental fragility and an omen of his ruin. It can be interpreted that he was unconsciously aware of his mistakes (the massacre on Iki) and secretly wished to be “buried” by those mistakes—that is, to die on the battlefield. While playing the perfect Samurai, his armor had already begun to collapse from within.

3. The Tragedy of Senjo Gorge: Deciphering the End of the “Butcher” Through Buddhist Views on Life and Death

Although Kazumasa Sakai proclaimed himself the fury of nature and continued to swing his blood-soaked sword, no matter how much he mythologized himself, he was nothing more than a human being of flesh and blood. His ruin was brought about by a trap set by bandits in the enclosed valley of Senjo Gorge on Iki.

3.1 Tenzo’s Strike and “Karmic retribution”

Kazumasa had cut down dozens of Raiders single-handedly, but in the face of overwhelming numbers and violence, he was thrown from his horse, his leg broken, and forced to the ground. At this time, the one who delivered the fatal blow to him was a nameless citizen of Iki, a man who would later be tied to Jin by a strange twist of fate: Tenzo.

Tenzo is neither a Samurai nor a person of noble blood; he is just an islander. However, the single phrase he uttered just before beheading Kazumasa pierces the philosophical foundation of this work and embodies the greatest irony in Kazumasa’s life.

“May your death benefit all beings”

3.2 “May your death benefit all beings”: The Irony Brought by Mahayana Buddhist Mercy

The phrase “May your death benefit all beings” originally derives from the spirit of mercy and merit-transference (Eko) in Mahayana Buddhism. It is a prayer chanted when striking down someone who accumulates evil deeds, “to prevent this person from accumulating any more sin (karma),” or “to dedicate the merit gained by their death to all life (sentient beings) in the world.”

The fact that Kazumasa Sakai, the head of a Samurai clan who was supposed to embody social order (Honor), was executed by a Raider, Tenzo, along with this “Buddhist prayer” is a profound irony. To the people of Iki, Kazumasa was not a human but a “demon (Oni)” destroying the island. Killing him went beyond mere personal revenge; it was a “purification ritual” to bring peace to the world (Iki).

Kazumasa committed massacres by placing himself under the righteous causes of “Lord Shimura’s orders” and “Bushido.” In response, the people of Iki also slaughtered him under the righteous cause of “saving sentient beings.” Violence infinitely chains together within the mirror image of each other’s justice. Kazumasa’s death was the inevitable conclusion where the seeds of violence he himself had scattered reaped his own head in accordance with the principle of Karmic retribution.

3.3 The Collapse of the Samurai Myth: The Plea “Jin! Help me!”

What made Kazumasa’s end decisively tragic, and at the same time engraved a lifelong curse into his son Jin, were his final words uttered on the brink of death.

“Jin! Help me!”

The man who was supposed to be the lightning in the storm and the avalanche that topples a mountain, in the moment of his death, showed the figure of a single, powerless father, his face contorted in fear, clinging to his young son who was hiding. This heartbreaking cry completely shattered the illusion of the “cold-blooded Samurai” and the “invincible Vulture” that he had built up until then.

If he had “accepted death calmly without uttering a single word as a highly honorable Samurai,” as Lord Shimura idealized, Jin’s trauma might have taken a different form. However, Kazumasa clung to life and begged for it miserably. This was proof that he was unmistakably human, and at the same time, it was the moment that exposed how the doctrine of Bushido was nothing more than a flimsy veneer covering human fear and true nature.

In this moment, Jin not only saw his father’s life taken but also witnessed the simultaneous collapse of “the father as an absolute existence” and “the myth of the perfect Samurai.” This cognitive dissonance was the true nature of the “guilt” that weighed heavily on Jin’s soul.

4. Cursed Relics and the Collective Trauma of the People of Iki

Although Kazumasa Sakai’s physical body perished, the memories of fear and violence he engraved into the island of Iki remained without fading. His existence was mythologized in the collective unconscious of the islanders, becoming a physical and mental curse that bound future generations.

4.1 Records of Resentment: The Hell Narrated by the “Records of Iki”

The collectible items “Records of Iki” scattered throughout the island in the DLC Iki Island silently narrate how indiscriminate and destructive Kazumasa’s invasion was.

Particularly noteworthy are the documents such as “To the Son of Kazumasa Sakai” found at Kazumasa’s End in Senjo Gorge, and “For Father” found at Thieves Rest Village. The fact that these documents are left in various parts of the island indicates that Kazumasa’s violence was not merely directed at armed forces (pirates), but thoroughly destroyed the peaceful lives of nameless farmers and families.

Even when the Mongol army led by The Eagle invaded the island and exerted mind control using poison, the people of Iki still remarked that “it is still better compared to the terror of the Samurai (Kazumasa Sakai).” Behind this lies the immeasurable PTSD implanted at that time. “Honor” in Tsushima had easily inverted into “absolute evil” just by crossing a single sea.

4.2 Sakai Horse Armor: Zasho Bay and the Birth of a “Vengeful Spirit”

The trauma Kazumasa inflicted on the islanders of Iki is most prominently manifested in the legend of the “Sakai Horse Armor” told in the Mythic Tale “The Legacy of Kazumasa Sakai.”

After Kazumasa was slain, the terrifying armor he had clad his horse in was believed by the islanders of Iki to be “cursed and inhabited by Kazumasa’s vengeful spirit.” This cursed item was sold to a merchant family in Iiba and was about to be taken off the island by a merchant fleet, but they were struck by a fierce storm and became sea debris along with the ships at Zasho Bay.

This legend is extremely interesting from a historical and folkloric perspective. The islanders associated even the fury of nature—the storm that sank the merchant fleet—with “Kazumasa’s curse.” In Japanese Shinto, those who die an unnatural death or hold a powerful grudge become “Onryo” (vengeful spirits) and are said to cause plagues and natural disasters. Kazumasa, who called himself the “lightning in the storm,” was passed down in the minds of the people of Iki as a true calamity (a mythical monster) even after his death. To psychologically process the extreme violence Kazumasa had created, they had no choice but to rely on the supernatural concept of a “curse.”

5. A Multifaceted Dissection of Kazumasa Sakai Through the Separation of Fact and Insight

Here, we will logically distinguish between the explicit “facts” shown in the game and the philosophical and historical “insights” as a lore scholar, systematizing the structure of the character Kazumasa Sakai.

6. Beyond the Father’s Armor: Jin Sakai’s Decision and the Severing of Karma

The negative legacy left by Kazumasa Sakai continued to curse his son Jin for many years. The trauma of “I am a coward for not being able to save my father” remained at the root of Jin’s behavioral principles, but through the series of events in Iki Island, Jin finally manages to break that curse.

6.1 “Memory of an Unfinished Song”: Love Repelled by Armor

At the end of his exploration of Iki, having traced all the “memories of his father,” Jin reaches a conclusion in the final memory, “Memory of an Unfinished Song,” directed at the phantom of his father who will no longer appear.

“I tried to connect with you, but in the end, nothing got through your armor.” “You would always be a legendary warrior, chasing duty and burdened by the people who loved you.” “I hope I don’t repeat your mistakes.”

This monologue brilliantly strikes at the tragic essence of the character Kazumasa Sakai. The “armor” Kazumasa wore was not merely physical protective gear, but a mental barrier to shut off his own emotions, namely “Samurai Honor” and being a “cold-blooded leader.” Unable to bear the pain of losing his wife, he withdrew inside that thick armor. As a result, he repelled even the pure love of his son Jin, sinking into a sea of blood in solitude.

Jin here, for the first time, pulled his father down from the mythical illusion of a “flawless, perfect Samurai” to “a weak human being who made mistakes and was crushed by sorrow and duty,” and evaluated him justly. Acknowledging the mistakes was the very first step toward being liberated from the curse.

6.2 The Abandonment of Revenge: The Philosophical Victory Signified by Fighting Alongside Tenzo

Then, at the climax of the story, Jin faces his greatest trial: confronting Tenzo, his father’s true killer. During a battle with Mongol soldiers, when Tenzo mutters the same phrase he used when he killed his father, “May your death benefit all beings,” Jin connects all the dots and turns his blade toward him.

In light of the Samurai code, or “Honor,” avenging his lord and father Kazumasa is an absolute duty. If Jin had cut down Tenzo here, he would have fallen into the exact same karma of a “bloodthirsty Samurai” as Kazumasa. However, Jin controls his overflowing anger with his own will.

When Tenzo points out, “Kazumasa Sakai was my enemy, but he shouldn’t be yours (Jin’s),” Jin sheathes his sword and declares, “I’m not my father.”

In this moment, Jin completely broke away from both “the dogmatism named Bushido (the duty of revenge)” and “his father’s negative legacy (the chain of violence).” The chain of resentment and slaughter that Kazumasa implanted in the people of Iki was finally severed by “forgiveness and fighting together,” as his son Jin stood against the Mongol army (The Eagle) to save the island alongside his father’s killer, Tenzo.

Conclusion: What is Honor? The Truth of the Vulture That Vanished in the Wind of Iki

Kazumasa Sakai is neither a mere background setting in the world of Ghost of Tsushima nor a clear-cut villain to be defeated. He is the most vivid and sorrowful mirror image showing “how the ideology of Samurai Honor rigidifies the human mind and consequently causes tragedies without malice.”

Because he possessed a deep love for his wife, he could not bear the pain of her loss and covered his heart with the iron armor of “code” and “duty.” Inside that armor, his warm blood ran cold and hardened, eventually mutating into the inhuman violent impulses of “the lightning in the storm” and “the avalanche that topples a mountain.” His figure, indiscriminately massacring the people of Iki while substituting it with “Lord Shimura’s orders” and “the hot blood of a Samurai,” highlights the universal human weakness of easily abandoning personal ethics in the extreme conditions of war.

If his brother-in-law, Lord Shimura, is the embodiment of “the beautiful image of a Samurai martyred for honor (the facade),” then Kazumasa Sakai was the embodiment of “the reality of a Samurai smeared in blood and mud behind honor, trapped in madness (the true nature).”

Jin was able to save Tsushima and Iki as “The Ghost” because, while inheriting both Lord Shimura’s moral pride and Kazumasa’s imagination and Rationalism, he did not blindly follow either ideology. Jin never lost sight of the fundamental heart of mercy to “save the people” (the true meaning of Mahayana Buddhist love for sentient beings that Tenzo prayed for).

The Vulture of Tsushima died ungracefully as a single frightened father amidst the storm of revenge he himself had caused. However, that mud-smeared death and the memories of the cursed armor he left behind paradoxically became the cruel yet indispensable foundation to raise his son into the true hero, “The Ghost.” The life of Kazumasa Sakai, filled with tragic sorrow, still stands quietly at the bottom of Senjo Gorge as a massive gravestone named Bushido.