Enshiro Mariya

Enshiro Mariya was a character that appeared in Evanescent Encounter (Part 2) Samurai Champloo/Anime. He is the master of Jin who also worked with Kariya Kagetoki. He is voiced by Makio Inoue in the Japanese version and voiced by Peter Spellos in the English dub.

History
Enshiro Mariya was a samurai master who trained many pupils. It is unknown if he and Jin were related, however the two of them grew very close, with Jin being Enshiro's star pupil. Enshiro was skilled to the point where Kariya Kagetoki and the Shogunate even knew him by name. It is implied that Enshiro Mariya is well known throughout samurai due to his tremendous skill.

One day, Mariya asked Jin on his thoughts of turning the samurai school into an assassin school (due to the Samurai age coming to an end due to the Mongol Invasion and the popularity of Christianity). Jin stubbornly refused due to his fear of the samurai school being corrupt in the future, as well as his purist perspective on the way of the samurai.

When Mariya reported this to Kariya, he commanded him to slay his own pupil in the middle of the night for fear of Jin creating a rebellion in the future. This did not go as expected, as Jin quickly but unexpectedly disposed of his master when attacked, forced to carry the burden of his deeds ever since. This would cause many samurai to go after Jin, including Yukimaru, Jin's samurai classmate whom Jin saw as a brother.

However, Enshiro Mariya's death will be avenged when Jin uses the same technique that Enshiro taught him (a suicide move) to kill Kariya Kagetoki.

Appearance
Enshiro Mariya wears a blue kimono similar to Jin, and has a mostly bald with hair on the side of his head.

Personality
Enshiro Mariya was a kind man who treated everyone with respect, however he was forced to kill his star pupil under orders from the Shogunate and Kariya Kagetoki. Even though Enshiro didn't want to kill his favorite student, he was forced to for fear of being punished or hunted down by Kariya or the Shogunate.