Sawa

Sawa (沢) is a character that appeared in the Samurai Champloo episode Artistic Anarchy. She works as the manager of a bookshop and is married to Roukishi, who uses the bookshop as a front to traffic young women into sexual slavery. Although she is found out by the police for her crimes, she is not arrested and remains the head of the bookshop.

Appearance
Sawa is a middle-aged woman who uses a golden comb to hold together a hair bun on her brown hair.

She adorns her hands with jewelry and rings, and wears a light-purple kimono and a blue dress.

History
In the story, her job is to oversee the sale of pornographic ukiyo-e books and paintings, but the store is really a front for selling young women who are kidnapped for sexual slavery. Customers come to the shop and choose a painting that is modeled after one of the women that are to be sold to them. To facilitate this process, Hishikawa Moronbu lures young women into being an amateur model for ukiyo-e paintings, and after he finishes painting the particular girl, the young woman is kidnapped and locked up until a customer purchases said girl. Sawa has the Three Stooges do the grunt work of tying up the women and guarding them for transport.

Sawa has feelings for Hishikawa, and in return for giving him a luxurious lifestyle, she feels entitled to have sex with him, which he makes up excuses to avoid doing so. One day, Hishikawa asks Fuu is she wants to model for one of his paintings, and she agrees and is later tied up and put in a barrel to be sold. Eventually, a customer in Sawa's bookshop buys the painting of Fuu, and she is scheduled to be trafficked.

Later that night, she tries to coerce Hishikawa into having sex, but he says that he feels sick and cannot do so, which makes her suspicious. She and the Three Stooges find Hishikawa attempting to free Fuu, so she has her henchmen beat him up to warn him not to free any other young women. After Hishikawa is beaten up, he tells Mugen that Fuu is being shipped off, so Mugen fights the Three Stooges and chases one of them into Sawa's bookstore. After Mugen beats them up, Sakami Manzou confronts Sawa's slavery operation, but he arrests Roukishi instead since he is the one overseeing the sale of young girls. At the end, Sawa and the Three Stooges are left with the bookshop as Roukishi is taken into custody.

Voice Actresses

 * Yayoi Nakazawa (Japanese)
 * Philece Sampler (English)

Etymology

 * The name Sawa means "marsh" (沢).