Editing Horizon:Volume 7B Preface (section)

==Installation==
[[Image:Horizon7B_000c.jpg|thumb]]
Naomasa


She is based on, or named after, the historical Ii Naomasa, one of Tokugawa’s Four Heavenly Kings.

The historical Naomasa had a pretty tough life when he was young. To be blunt, due to the Imagawa clan’s presence around the Ii clan, the conflicts over succession and land led to usurpation, assassination, NTR, and just all sorts of stuff, so someone seemed to be trying to kill him all the time.

But he was a talented person, so Ieyasu recognized his ability and he joined the fight against Takeda.

After numerous successes in battle, the Honnouji Incident in 1582, and his work in the Crossing of Iga, he was made a commander directly serving Ieyasu. 

There are some pretty wild stories about him, like when he defeated a Takeda ninja that snuck into Ieyasu’s bedroom, and he took over the tradition of Takeda’s Yamagata by wearing red armor, so people think of him as a warrior, but he was actually more focused on domestic affairs.

A negotiator who can fight is not someone you can take lightly even out on a deployment, but the commanders and daimyos who faced him rated him highly and Ieyasu often used him for diplomatic and domestic affairs.

I think that aspect of Naomasa’s history was thanks to him knowing how powerful and frightening the world and human relationships could be, but I also think Ieyasu felt something in common with Naomasa since Ieyasu was held hostage while he was young.

But that past also made Naomasa a taciturn person who put actions before words.

He was apparently the kind of person who assumed other people could do something if he could do it, so he was extremely unpopular with his subordinates when it came to battle and internal affairs. But his results were good, so he was extremely popular with his superiors and the general public.

He kind of reminds me of a really well-done one-man corporation….

It is said he died from a gunshot wound to the right arm during Sekigahara, but it was actually the tetanus that set in afterwards and his overwork played a role there.


Now, one thing about his history worth mentioning is that his mom remarried with an Imagawa retainer, so she abandoned him and he ended up with an adoptive mother. That adoptive mother was a second cousin, Ii Naotora, who was respected enough to be known as the Woman Warlord.

Her fiancé married another woman, so the engagement was called off. She took in and raised Naomasa as a single mother and that means it would have been her who taught him to be so polite and talented, so there really were a lot of incredible people back then.


For the character’s design, I was really only using the Naomasa name, so I didn’t let the historical figure restrict me too much. I took the easier route on this one.

With things like the hair decoration, I was picturing her trying to dress up with only the finishing touches.

But she’s good at reading the room, so she can be properly formal during a meeting.

I think her outfit left a strong impression on a lot of people who watched the anime.

The prosthetic arm is a reference to the gunshot wound and Jizuri Suzaku is in homage to the red armor.


(Kawakami Minoru)


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