Zuikou is a character in the Samurai Champloo episodes Lethal Lunacy and The Disorder Diaries. He is voiced by Shōzō Iizuka in the original Japanese version and voiced by Bob Papenbrook in the English dub.
Personality[]
He is a calm old man who lives at a Buddhist temple where he serves for penance. He has a fast reaction time, as evidenced by catching a flying log that Jin's axe propelled toward him. When he was younger, he was a swordsmanship and martial arts teacher.
History[]
Zuikou is first seen begging for money from Mugen, Jin and Fuu, but they tell him they have no money to give. He is alright with that and tells them he can give them a place to stay for the night along with food, so long as they do some chores for him at his temple. Later that day, as Jin is finishing chopping axes for the hot bath, one of the pieces of the split log flies towards the back of Zuikou's head, but he catches it, making Jin suspicious of him.
Later that night, Jin and Fuu are talking to him about a swordsman who is killing all the samurai he can find, and Jin notices that Zuikou's eyes widen when Fuu mentions the swordsman's ability to kill someone without damaging their skin. This prompts Jin to swipe his sword toward Zuikou's head, who dodges it. Fuu is mad he tried to attack Jin, but he apologizes and says that he believes Zuikou is no ordinary priest due to the speed of his movements. Zuikou says that the swordsman is likely a former student of his named Ukon, who now goes by the name of Shoryu.
Years ago in his youth, Zuikou had Ukon as a student at his dojo, but Ukon was called by the local domain on a mission overseas, and the ship crashed. Ukon was the only survivor and landed on the mainland of China, where he learned how to use ki. Ukon came back years later to the dojo and told Zuikou about what he learned and how his new name is Shoryu. During a training session, Shoryu kills a student, so Zuikou expels him from the dojo. Zuikou says he became a priest to serve penance for not being able to save Shoryu's soul from being corrupted by hate.
After Mugen learns of this story, he trains hard until the next full moon, and when that time comes, Zuikou goes to a waterfall with some prayer beads to pray for Shoryu's soul. As soon as Mugen kills Shoryu in their fight, the prayer beads break, making Zuikou realize that Shoryu is dead.
Later, Zuikou is seen giving philosophical advice to the three main characters.