Shirakawa Hana

Shirakawa Hana (later Arai Hana) is the youngest sister of Kaede and later the wife of Arai Zenko, as well as the mother of Zenko's sons Sunaomi, Chikara and Hiromasa. Though initially close to her older sister, Hana turned against her during her captivity as a hostage of Arai Daiichi in Brilliance of the Moon, resenting her for perceived abandonment. She later began to resent Kaede's husband Otori Takeo as well, for not taking her as a concubine. During her political marriage to Zenko, she came to share his ambition to overthrow Kaede and the Otori clan, and became his principal advisor, encouraging his ambitions and resentments toward Takeo as well as his interactions with the Portuguese traders and missionaries. She is one of the main antagonists of The Harsh Cry of the Heron.

Though Hana initially succeeded in turning Kaede against Takeo (which, in turn, enabled the Arai to sack Hagi and capture Yamagata), as well as clearing the path for Takeo to be assassinated by the Kikuta family, her plan backfired when her and Zenko's main ally, Saga Hideki, unexpectedly joined forces with Takeo's daughter (and Hana's niece) Shigeko, heir to the Otori clan. Trapped and besieged by the Saga and Otori armies at Yamagata, Hana committed seppuku along with her husband and youngest son, though Kaede was able to save her two older children.