Character Profile-Yumi Komagata
Yumi Komagata seems to be nothing more than a simple arm decoration for Shishio. As the story progresses though, it becomes very apparent that she is much more than that. Yumi has many qualities of the classic bad girl. Besides being his lover, Yumi is also Shishio’s number one confidant. No one is able to understand him or his aspirations for a new Japan the way that she does. Yumi is devoted to Shishio but she is also fond of Soujirou Seta in a platonic sense and often treats him like her brother. Yumi has a strong hatred for the Meiji Government and secretly feels jealous of the other members of the Juppon Gatana because the only way that she can really help Shishio is by trying to take care of him since she cannot actually fight. She particularly dislikes Kamatari, another member of the Juppon Gatana because she is in love with Shishio. Although she is fully aware of Shishio’s desire to defeat Kenshin, Yumi secretly worries what the effects of such a duel will have on her lover physically.
In the pastYumi was once a top- ranked oiran ( prostitute in the Red-Light District ). But after an incident known as the 'Mary Ruth Case' the Meiji Government basically declared that prostitutes were no better than animals and the title of orian lost any prestige it formerly had. Yumi grew to hate the Meiji Government for its treatment of prostitutes. Somewhere down the line she met Shishio and stopped being an orian after they fell in love.