Ono No Takamura is one of the confirmed allied characters in Onimusha: Way of the Sword, joining Musashi Miyamoto in his fight to clear the Genma from Edo-era Kyoto. He is introduced as a venerable old master swordsman and as the third confirmed Oni Gauntlet bearer in the story, sitting alongside Musashi and the rival Sasaki Ganryu. Musashi comes to meet him through the guidance of the voice inside his own gauntlet, and the encounter marks a turning point in his early understanding of what the gauntlet actually is and what it is for.
The character is named after a real figure from Japanese history, the Heian-era nobleman, poet, and court official Ono no Takamura, and the game draws on that legacy while reshaping him as a warrior rather than a civilian scholar. The result is a figure who carries the quiet authority of an elder statesman while also being, in the game's framing, an extraordinary swordsman capable of vanquishing Genma with ease despite his advanced age.
Historical Background
The real Ono no Takamura lived from 802 to 853, in the first half of the 9th century. He was a calligrapher, poet, scholar, and official of the early Heian period, serving at the imperial court in Kyoto. He was a descendant of Ono no Imoko, the famous envoy to Sui China, and his father was Ono no Minemori. Later generations of the Ono family would include the celebrated poets Ono no Komachi and Ono no Michikaze, so Takamura sits in a line of letters as much as in a line of service.
Takamura's career included a dramatic fall and recovery. In 838, after a quarrel with the head envoy Fujiwara no Tsunetsugu over arrangements for a diplomatic mission to Tang China, he feigned illness to avoid serving as deputy envoy. The gesture enraged the retired Emperor Saga, and Takamura was stripped of his rank and exiled to Oki Province, a remote island in the Sea of Japan. He was pardoned and recalled to the capital in 840, then resumed his ascent through the court until, in 847, he was appointed to the prestigious rank of sangi, a counselor position placing him among the emperor's key advisors.
He was best known in his own time for his poetry. He contributed six poems to the Kokin Wakashu, the landmark imperial waka anthology compiled around 905, and the verse he is most often remembered for is a lament composed as he departed for his exile in Oki. He was also deeply learned in Chinese poetry, and his kanshi use layered wordplay and allusions to Chinese classics in a way that set a high bar for later Heian court literature.
Alongside the historical record, Takamura accumulated a rich body of legend. Folklore holds that he served the emperor by day and traveled down to the underworld by night to assist King Enma in judging the dead, a story that casts him as a man at home in two worlds at once. A stone shaft believed to mark the entrance to his nightly descent is still preserved in Kyoto, and his grave lies near that of the later author Murasaki Shikibu. That mixture of scholar, outlaw, and otherworldly traveler is the cultural material the game draws on to make him a fitting fit for an Oni Gauntlet.
Appearance in Way of the Sword
In Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Ono No Takamura is introduced as an individual that Musashi comes to meet through the guidance of the voice in his gauntlet. The voice is Lady Oni, the sentient female Oni housed inside Musashi's gauntlet, and her direction leads him out of his initial wandering and into the company of an older warrior who understands the nature of the relic bonded to his arm.
He is presented as a highly skilled swordsman who can vanquish Genma with ease despite his old age. That framing is a deliberate echo of historical Heian refinement, an elder figure whose mastery looks unhurried but is absolute. Where Musashi's combat reads as youthful ferocity, Takamura's is measured, precise, and informed by long experience. The contrast between their styles is one of the early visual and narrative signals the game uses to place Musashi in a larger community of gauntlet bearers rather than as a lone chosen hero.
Takamura is not introduced as a rival. He is introduced as an ally, a fellow wielder of demon power who can speak to Musashi about what that power is and what it costs. His presence opens out the story beyond Musashi and the voice in his gauntlet, and it lets the game begin to show that the fight against the Genma in Kyoto is not a single man's private war.
Role as a Past Oni Gauntlet Bearer
Capcom has confirmed that Ono No Takamura's in-game counterpart is also an Oni Gauntlet bearer. That makes him the third confirmed gauntlet-wielder in the story, standing alongside Musashi and the rival Sasaki Ganryu. Within the framing of the series, the Oni are said to bestow their gauntlets on chosen human champions when the balance of the world is threatened, and Takamura's gauntlet places him firmly within that tradition.
His role expands the meaning of the gauntlet as a symbol. Musashi receives his own gauntlet under duress, as an emergency intervention that keeps him from dying in a Genma ambush. Takamura, by contrast, has clearly worn his for a long time. His calm control of its power suggests what it can look like when a bearer has made peace with the relic bonded to them, and that picture of an experienced wielder gives the story a benchmark for what Musashi might one day become, or refuse to become.
Because gauntlet bearers in the series are typically counted in very small numbers, the confirmation of a third puts a specific weight on Takamura's introduction. He is not only a mentor figure. He is one of the few people in Kyoto who can actually meet Musashi as an equal in this particular kind of fight.
Connection to Musashi's Journey
Takamura's place in the narrative runs through two other allied characters. Lady Oni, the voice in Musashi's gauntlet, guides him to Takamura as one of his earliest directed destinations, which gives the gauntlet itself a stake in the meeting. The suggestion is that Takamura is someone the Oni trust, and that trust in turn steadies Musashi's uneasy relationship with the voice he is still learning to understand.
The second thread runs through Izumo no Okuni, the Kabuki dancer who has been marked by early trailers as an ally of Musashi. She is shown to have sought out Takamura earlier in her own search for the means to destroy the Genma, which places Takamura at the center of more than one character arc. He is already known to Okuni when Musashi encounters him, and the three of them form a small network of characters who have all arrived at the Genma problem by different roads.
For Musashi, the encounter with Takamura is one of the first moments where the story lets him see himself from the outside. He is a young man carrying a power he did not ask for, meeting an old man who has carried the same kind of power for a long time and found a way to wield it cleanly. That contrast, more than any single scene of instruction, is the shape of what Takamura offers him.
Visual Design
Takamura is presented with the visual language of a classical swordsman of rank, aged and composed. His character art shows him in robes and armor appropriate to a senior figure, and the overall design reads closer to a refined elder warrior than to the battle-scarred roughness of Musashi's own look. The contrast is intentional. Musashi is a rough-edged young swordsman, and Takamura is the measured master who stands in counterpoint to him.
The gauntlet on his arm echoes the series' demon-forged ironwork while fitting the silhouette of an older bearer. Where Musashi's gauntlet looks like a cursed piece of armor he is still getting used to, Takamura's reads as an instrument he has long since integrated into his bearing. That quiet visual difference does a lot of the character's work before any line of dialogue is delivered.
Cast Credits
Role | Actor |
|---|---|
Japanese voice | Akihiko Ishizumi |
English voice | Shogo Miyakita |
The casting leans on veteran voices for both languages, which fits the character's framing as an elder statesman among the allied cast. His vocal performance is one of the first markers players have of the measured, authoritative tone Takamura brings to his scenes.
Notes and Caveats
Confirmed information. Takamura's existence as an ally, his status as a third Oni Gauntlet bearer, his framing as an old master swordsman, his connection to Musashi through Lady Oni's guidance, and his prior meeting with Izumo no Okuni are all confirmed by official promotional material for the game.
Historical grounding. The historical Ono no Takamura lived from 802 to 853 and is well documented as a Heian-era poet, scholar, and court official. The game uses his name and cultural resonance while reimagining him as a swordsman rather than a civilian scholar.
Era difference. The historical Takamura lived centuries before the early Edo period in which the game is set. Readers should treat the game's character as a reimagining that leans on his cultural legacy rather than as a literal depiction of the 9th-century figure.
Story specifics. Because the game's narrative beyond its reveal trailers has not been disclosed in full, the exact arc of Takamura's role, his fate in the story, and the details of his gauntlet's origin are not yet confirmed. This article will be updated as verified information becomes available.