Yoshimura

Yoshimura (芳村, Yoshimura) is an SSS-rated ghoul and was the manager of the Anteiku cafe.

He tries to help ghouls who can not hunt or kill human beings for themselves. Yoshimura takes in Ken Kaneki, a half-human and half-ghoul, and shows him the way of living as one.

Under the moniker of the One-Eyed Owl (隻眼の梟, Sekigan no Fukurō), he repeatedly tried to cover up for the real Owl's behavior. When they had realized that there are two Owls, the investigators began to call him the Non-Killing Owl (不殺の梟, Fusatsu no Fukurō).

The One-Eyed Owl is the offspring of Yoshimura and a human called Ukina.

In the past, he went by the name Kuzen (功善, Kuzen).

Appearance
Yoshimura has white hair that is swept back. His eyes are usually closed. A tall, powerful man who is commonly in a formal waiter uniform. When traveling he dons a black cloak and hat. He frequently smiles with his head held high and arms behind the back. With a tranquilizing composure and a discreet nature, Yoshimura is both an enigma and a gentleman. While he was younger, he had black hair.

Yoshimura's ghoul mask covers half of his face with a hooked beak that resembles an owl. In his kakuja form, Yoshimura's kagune creates a mask that resembles the One-Eyed Owl's mask, with minor differences in the mouth lines' length and eye holes' curve.

Personality
A kind and generous old man, the manager shows that he is both wise and reasonable even among the ghouls. People like Nishiki often question his motives on how and why it is that he has come to be a solemn peacemaker in the 20th ward, but he is nonetheless reliable and great for those who serve him. As head of his organization Anteiku, he's not afraid to assert his authority, but his demands are mostly agreeable to Anteiku's members. Although rare among the ghouls, Yoshimura holds equal regard to both ghouls and humans.

His kind and fair nature is a stark contrast to what Yoshimura was in the past. During his early years as Kuzen, Yoshimura had a loner's mentality. He was too strong and his strength isolated him from others. He avoided others and closed his heart to anyone he came across. He resented his existence as a ghoul, seeing himself as a curse that killed others in order to stay alive.

After meeting Ukina, his personality took a change for the better. He began to slowly open up to her and eventually came to love her immensely. It is through his relationship with Ukina that Yoshimura decided to create Anteiku and develop his goal to help those like his past self and other ghouls or humans in need. This is best represented with the birth of his child, a bridge between ghouls and humans.

Yoshimura feels strong paternal love for his child and will do anything in his might to protect it: He seeked to hide his child in the 24th ward from V's eyes and became a substitute for the One Eyed Owl in the 2nd ward attack on the CCG HQ to divert V's attention from his child.

Yoshimura values life and shuns people and ghouls alike if they kill. Because of his ideology, in the third attack by "Owl" on the 2nd Ward branch office, and even in the CCG raid on Aogiri's hideout, he did not kill anyone, only injuring those he attacked.

Although he has forsaken killing since leaving V, Yoshimura is clearly aware of how his past actions have caused irreversible damage to others. As a result, Yoshimura sees himself as "evil" and is willing to accept death at the hands of his enemies if it should ever happen. Despite this sense of self-loathing, he is still willing to kill in extremely desperate situations to protect those that are precious to him such as his subordinates.

Past
The man who eventually became Yoshimura was known as Kuzen. Kuzen was a ghoul who lived a bleak and resentful existence. As a ghoul, he ate humans to survive but took it further by eating other ghouls as well. Although Kuzen cursed his existence as a ghoul, he continued down upon it nonetheless. As his strength and abilities increased, Kuzen's name and reputation spread far and wide and came to the knowledge of a organization known as V. V offered Kuzen a position as a "cleaner" within their organization. Kuzen decided to accept their proposition. As one of V's "cleaners", he satisfied his hunger and expenses by wiping out rival human and ghoul organizations. Although Kuzen did not need to worry about basic needs such as hunger, he did not see the organization as his home but rather an employer. As a result, Kuzen continued to live a lonely solitary life. However one day while ordering a coffee in a cafe he usually frequented, he met a human woman named Ukina. Despite being a solitary person, Kuzen gradually grew closer to Ukina as he frequented the café, opening himself to her that he otherwise would not with other people. At some point, Ukina was able to find out Kuzen's true identity. Kuzen contemplated killing her but Ukina embraced him and saw how lonely his life had been. This event deepened Kuzen's love for Ukina and the two became lovers. Ukina was eventually pregnant with Kuzen's child. Kuzen wanted to have the child, but he knew that the odds of a human-ghoul hybrid surviving pregnancy was extremely low because the child would starve to death within the womb. Kuzen frankly informed Ukina about this and that a "miracle" was needed in order for their child to survive. Throughout Ukina's pregnancy, Kuzen observed her eating human meat. This helped increase the child's survival rate and eventually lived to survive birth.

As Kuzen and Ukina lived together raising their child, Kuzen noticed Ukina's diary and discovered that Ukina was not a waitress but a journalist who was chasing V and discovered many of their secrets. Both Kuzen and Ukina were not aware of each other affiliations and met by chance. V eventually discovered their relationship and ordered Kuzen to kill Ukina in order to protect themselves. Since the organization was too strong to oppose, Kuzen sadly killed Ukina. After her death, Kuzen left V and left his child to an acquaintance in the 24th ward knowing the area was far enough to escape from V's grasp.

As time passed, Kuzen, now going by the name of Yoshimura, heard of the appearance of the One-Eyed Owl, a ghoul that hated the world. He became convinced this ghoul was his child. Yoshimura had heard his child had been heavily wounded in a battle against CCG. Fearing that the organization V might find out about his child and target it, Yoshimura attacked the 2nd ward for a third time alone in his child's place. The CCG's team was unable to exterminate Yoshimura. However, the genius Rank 2 Investigator Kishou Arima used the Special Class Investigators' quinques as he went up against Owl. Finally, he defeated Owl, leading to the CCG's victory. Owl, fatally wounded, vanished after this day ten years before.

Differences in the anime
In the anime, Ukina was killed by the organization while she and Kuzen were running away from them.

Prologue
At the time Kaneki went to Anteiku asking help from Touka Kirishima, he offered him human meat to satisfy his hunger after Touka's refusal.

After treating Hideyoshi Nagachika and the incident between Nishiki Nishio and Kaneki, he listened to Kaneki's regret of almost hurting his friend, and his inability to live as a human nor a ghoul. Yoshimura assured him that he was wrong in that thinking, and he in fact was the only one who has two worlds in which to belong. He then offered Kaneki to join Anteiku as a part-time waiter in order to learn how a ghoul lived in the human world.

Doves' Emergence
Yoshimura used a lie about a car accident to cover up what had really happened to Kaneki and Hide in the incident with Nishiki. Shortly after Kaneki started working at his place, Yoshimura showed Kaneki how to eat sandwiches like a human.

As the news spread in the 20th ward about the ghoul investigators, Yoshimura asked Touka to guide Kaneki to the mask shop HySy ArtMask Studio in the 4th Ward.

On another day, the manager asked Kaneki to obtain "food supplies" with Renji Yomo, i.e., they looked for humans who committed suicide.

During the time Touka willed to avenge Ryouko Fueguchi, he refused to get involved with the doves. However, Yoshimura was present at the place where Kaneki, Touka and Hinami Fueguchi clashed with Koutarou Amon and Kureo Mado. And after the incident, he was glad the "human self" of Kaneki sided with the ghouls.

Gourmet Arc
Yoshimura made a speech about the ghouls who killed their emotions and forgot the value of life, after Kaneki escaped from the Ghoul Restaurant. Later he and Yomo were shown discussing Shuu Tsukiyama's danger that was approaching Kaneki, it ended with Yoshimura's decision to leave Kaneki dealing with the danger by himself so he can "grow up".

Aogiri Arc
Kaneki is abducted while Yoshimura is away on business, possibly gathering information as to the condition of the 11th Ward. After learning about his abduction, Yoshimura returns to Anteiku and tells the ghouls gathered there that they will probably no longer have any contact with Kaneki, due to the situation.

Touka, Hinami and Nishiki tell Yoshimura that they will go to save Kaneki even if he wouldn't, at which point he states that he wanted to confirm that they were willing to throw away their lives.

During the invasion of CCG into Aogiri Tree's base consisting of several buildings, Yoshimura tells Irimi and Hinami that he will "buy time" after the two girls pinpoint the Special Class Ghoul Investigators carrying the cases containing the Quinque.

Shortly after Yoshimura leaves to "buy time", he was shown taking his kagune out and fought with the ghoul investigators including the two Special Classes, Yukinori Shinohara and Iwao Kuroiwa, as the One-Eyed Owl.

Owl Suppression Operation
After the assault on Anteiku began, he appeared in the area and turned his focus on the CCG troops that flocked around. After transforming into his Kakuja form he began monologuing about how evil the world was before slaughtering the nearby CCG forces, glaring at Yoshitoki. Soon after killing numerous investigators he begins to intimidate them greatly, he is then confronted by Shinohara and Kuroiwa with a combination attack before being shot at by Houji's quinque. Continuously parrying the relentless attack they dealt towards him, Yoshimura began to feel annoyed with the way they were fighting even stating it. Later joining this battle came Suzuya and Ui who joined in on the consecutive attacks towards Yoshimura. As the battle Went on, Ui was able to land a strike on his torso. Fleeing from their consecutive attacks, Suzuya confronts Yoshimura alone and manages to slash off his left arm, but ends up losing his right leg in the process. Wounded, he makes his last stand on a rooftop confronted by his previous pursuers and is finally taken down with Houji's last attack. Shortly after his body falls to the floor, the real One-Eyed Owl appears in its full kakuja form attacking the investigators. Shortly after, it handles all of the investigators present with ease until Arima arrives to deal with it. Suffering blows from him alone, the One-Eyed Owl swallows the wounded Yoshimura and escaped with him to another building. After regurgitating him, the relationship between the two is revealed as the real One-Eyed Owl is his daughter.

Post-Owl Suppression Operation
Yoshimura is being kept inside a liquid tank, much like Rize in Dr. Kanou's old lab. His kakuhou is being farmed to be transplanted to human subjects, similar to Kaneki's transplant. It is unknown how many subjects died during the experiments using Yoshimura, though only one "Owl" and a "Floppy" had been produced using sixty three kidnapped Ghoul Investigators during nearly three years of experiments.

Rose Extermination
Yoshimura is not seen but he is mentioned by Dr. Kanou. He continues to be used as a donor for the surgeon's ghoulification experiments.

Ukina
Yoshimura first met Ukina in a coffee cafe. Despite initially not caring for her, he was moved when she accepted his true nature. He loved her dearly and was shattered when he was forced to kill her under V's orders. Ukina was the catalyst for Yoshimura's change in personality as well as his inspiration to create Anteiku.

Eto
Although never seeing each other, Yoshimura loved Eto greatly and would do anything to protect her. Yoshimura stated that after Ukina's death, his child was the only thing that gave him hope. Even after knowing of the child's role as the leader of Aogiri, he still wants her happiness. However, Eto does not seem to hold the same feelings towards her father, since she captured her father to use him as the kakuhou donor for the creation of one-eyed ghouls.

Noro
Yoshimura knew Noro, back then known as Noroi, from when he was still Kuzen. While not much is known about their past, he trusted Noroi enough to leave Eto in his care.

Renji Yomo
Yoshimura first met Yomo when he saved him after he was almost killed by Kishou Arima. Sometime after their meeting, Yomo's personality tranquilized and his hot-blooded vengefulness subsided. Yoshimura trusts Yomo deeply, asking him to deal with meat collection and monitoring both Kaneki and Touka when they were fighting Koutarou Amon and Mado Kureo.

Ken Kaneki
Yoshimura cares for Kaneki. He is understanding to Kaneki's circumstances, and is the first person to offer assistance to him. He helps Kaneki accept his new nature, stating that he belongs to two different worlds (human and ghoul) instead of not belonging to either. Yoshimura guided Kaneki in adapting to the world of ghouls, and played a critical part in his development. When Kaneki returns to Anteiku, Yoshimura convinces him to return. He trusts Kaneki enough to tell him the truth about his daughter and entrusts him to save her.

Touka Kirishima
He wishes Touka to live a life of a regular human girl, and pays for her tuition after enrolling her in a school, she sees him as a father like figure to her.

Enji Koma
Enji's very loyal to him after he offered him a new life in Anteiku.

Kaya Irimi
Like Enji she possesses a deep-set loyalty towards him.

Nishiki Nishio
He offers Nishiki a second chance to live without killing, but requires him to work at Anteiku as payment. Later on, Nishiki complains that Yoshimura is always the type to clean up others messes if allowed to--his way of showing affection for the shop's manager.

Roma Hoito
Their relationship was cordial, with Yoshimura often gently teasing her with wordplay or jokes. He had endless patience for her mistakes, but it does not seem he was fully aware of her true nature.

Seidou Takizawa
Though never having interacted, Yoshimura is the one indirectly responsible for saving Takizawa's life. His kakuhou was transplanted into the young human, transforming him into a one-eyed ghoul.

Koutarou Amon
Though never having interacted, Yoshimura is the one indirectly responsible for saving Amon's life. His kakuhou was transplanted into the young human, transforming him into a one-eyed ghoul.

Powers and Abilities
Ghoul Physiology: Yoshimura is an Ukaku ghoul, possessing Ukaku Kagune, and a Kakuja obtained from continuous cannibalization. His unique trait is shooting Ukaku shards through his entire body.


 * Ukaku Kagune: He has 2-4 Kakuhous that form spikes and fires fast projectiles very rapidly. The other two kakuhou forms concentrated RC that fans out as heavy shotgun pellets and pours down through cover. With two types of ammunition in his arsenal, Yoshimura has the firepower to take down many unprepared foes. Despite being tall and bulky, he is quick to overpower many opponents in a matter of seconds. Unique to Yoshimura, he has shown the ability to shoot RC projectiles out of his entire body, not just his kagune.
 * Ukaku Kakuja: Ukaku ghouls are known to specialize in long range attacks and can be overwhelmed at a close range. Having cannibalized ghouls, Yoshimura has sharpened and developed his kagune to form two large scimitar blades from his shoulders to counteract this weakness. With two large blades, he can cover the distance between his opponents, parry incoming attacks and strike back synchronously. While his ukaku kagune extends from middle to far distances, his Kakuja cuts down those in front; it's almost impossible to escape Yoshimura's reach. Yoshimura's kakuja kagune also forms a mask similar to the One-Eyed Owls with minor differences in the eye hole size and line curves. His Kakuja form is potent enough to endure and counter multiple Special Class investigators' attacks and enhances his physical capabilities to where a lot effort from the aformentioned required in order to subdue him, as Yoshimura is also skilled enough to fight an army of investigators simultaneously without much trouble.

Trivia

 * Interestingly, like his daughter Eto, while his Kagune is classified as an ukaku, its overall shape and function resemble that of a koukaku.
 * In the manga, Yoshimura killed Ukina, as ordered by V. However, in the Root A anime, Yoshimura is seen fleeing with Ukina from members of the organization, and Ukina is killed by them, instead. Also rather than fearing the organization like he did in the manga and leaving his child in the 24th ward, in the anime Yoshimura destroyed the organization in order to protect his child and to avenge his lover.
 * Yoshimura has a great fondness for and skill at wordplay, a fact focused on in one of the Oma-bien audio dramas.
 * In Tokyo Ghoul Trump, he is referenced as the "King of Clubs".

Quotes

 * To Ken (regarding Ken being a human/ghoul hybrid): "You are a single person who has two worlds in which to belong."
 * To Touka (when she sought revenge for Ryouka Fueguchi's death): "It's not because we can't take vengeance that we should feel sorry. The real reason to feel sorry... is when one is hung up on revenge and can't live their own life."
 * To Touka: "I'm sure there's a person out there who feels better just by knowing you're there."
 * To Ken (on how to brew coffee): “My own private philosophy… is that the most important thing, even more than where beans are from, is how you approach each of them. […] Your approach must vary, depending on the bean. Just because some beans are expensive, if you brew them without care, they will not turn out well. The opposite is also true. Even cheap beans can become flavorful, if you carefully brew them to bring out their special qualities.”
 * To the CCG (during the 20th ward battle): "We're always trying to justify our actions with ideals. But ideals cannot give grounds for killing another person. The act of taking a life will always be considered... evil."
 * To the CCG (during the 20th ward battle): "Acts of taking are equally evil. We, from the moment of birth, continue to take. Food, people that got involved with us, even our own flesh and blood. For as long as we live, we will continue to slaughter, kill, take. Life is to constantly sin. Life is evil itself. I am aware, I am evil... And so are you all. Now, come kill me. And I shall do the same!"
 * To Ken: "I want you to save lonely people... and eventually... my child as well."

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