Iida Sadamu

Iida Sadamu is the main antagonist of Tales of the Otori, although he only appears in two of the five books. He is the head of the Tohan Clan and the archenemy of Otori Shigeru.

In Heaven's Net is Wide, Sadamu and Shigeru only met once, when Sadamu had illegally crossed the Otori border and become entrapped; Shigeru saved his life, but reprimanded him and held him hostage to negotiate with the Tohan, whose boldness and insults toward the Otori had angered him. Enraged and humiliated, Sadamu later declared war on the Otori when he became head of the Tohan Clan. By hiring various members of the Tribe as spies, he was able to discover Shigeru's secret alliance with the Arai and Maruyama families; he countered it by coercing two of the Otori's vassals (the Noguchi and Kitano clans) to betray them at the decisive battle of Yagaehara. Annexing more than half of the Middle Country and forcing the Seisshu families into submission through hostages, Sadamu became overlord of the Three Countries. His rule, while relatively free of conflict, was marked by administrative mismanagement, heavy taxation on the peasantry and miners, construction of various border posts and castles, and cruel persecution of the Hidden, whom he despised.

Although he had forced Shigeru out of the Otori succession in favor of his uncles Shoichi and Masahiro, Sadamu remained eaten with jealousy and hatred towards his rival and continually sought an excuse to execute him. Conspiring with Shigeru's uncles (who feared their nephew's influence within the clan) Sadamu first tried to have him assassinated, which failed. They then arranged for an alliance between the Tohan and Otori by having Shigeru marry Shirakawa Kaede, one of Iida's Seisshu hostages. The marriage was simply a means to draw Shigeru into Tohan territory where Sadamu could find some pretext to execute him for treason, leaving him allied with the Otori and Shoichi and Masahiro unchallenged.

Shigeru went along with the marriage plan, largely because he had his own plan: he had rescued his part-Tribe nephew (whom he re-named Otori Takeo) from Sadamu a year earlier, and intended to use him to assassinate Sadamu courtesy of his Tribe abilities. The Tribe ultimately abducted Takeo before he could kill Sadamu, forcing Shigeru to play along until Iida's men arrested him and strung him from the wall of Inuyama castle. He was rescued and mercy-killed by Takeo, who then attempted to kill Sadamu only to learn that he was already dead: he had been stabbed by Shirakawa Kaede while attempting to rape her. Sadamu's regime swiftly collapsed following his death; the people of Yamagata and Terayama rose in rebellion when they learned of Shigeru's death, and the Seisshu warlord Arai Daiichi had already raised an army and fought his way to the gates of Inuyama as it burned down. Sadamu's cruelty had made him a despised figure through much of the Three Countries, and the Tohan never returned to power following his death.

Personality and Appearance:
Sadamu is (supposedly) a man of great courage, as it is immediately clear to Shigeru and Takeo on meeting him "that he has no fear of anything living or dead". Unfortunately, this is his only virtue, and it is not entirely true. He is a man of immense cruelty, taking sadistic pleasure from killing or torturing for its' own sake, and constantly seeks to expand his own power. No one who humiliates him is safe, as he always seeks revenge in the most extreme way possible; the most obvious example is his archenemy, Otori Shigeru. Sadamu spends over half his life obsessing over Shigeru (who humiliated him by taking him prisoner once and sparing his life) and when he finally has him at his mercy, tries to make the most of his revenge. His hubris ultimately gets the better of him, though; he is so obsessed with Shigeru that he ignores other threats (particularly Takeo and Arai), and he attempts to rape Kaede to humiliate Shigeru, resulting in his death.

Despite his paranoia, Sadamu is not hotheaded, like Akio or Arai Daiichi; he is careful to learn his enemies' weaknesses, though he sometimes underestimates their strengths. In particular, he recognizes that it is sometimes more useful to manipulate enemies than to crush them outright, and he makes full use of the Tribe for espionage and assassination. Indeed, this makes Sadamu more cautious; recognizing how dangerous the Tribe are, he designed his elaborate fortress at Inuyama specifically to protect himself from almost any assassin. He is skilled at intimidating people into divulging information, by making them think he knows more than he does.

Whether Sadamu is truly a skilled battle commander remains to be seen. He has certainly studied the art of war and designed Inuyama castle accordingly, but he won the Battle of Yaegahara largely because he bribed/intimidated the Otori's vassal lords into betraying them. On the other hand, he was wise enough to recognize that pursuing the Otori back to Hagi might cause disaster, due to unrest in the lands he had just conquered and Hagi's ability to resist siege. While Sadamu might not be as skilled a soldier as Daiichi, he is certainly a skilled politician, if only through his ability to control through fear. His administration is poorer, and characterized by heavy taxation, harsh treatment of farmers and miners, and cruel persecution of the Hidden. Although the Hidden are mistrusted and often hated in many parts of the Three Countries, no other warlord treats them as cruelly as Sadamu.

Sadamu is a short but heavy and muscular man, about eight to ten years older than Shigeru. He has bright, beady eyes that seem to notice everything and a small, cruel mouth. When in combat or on raids he wears elaborate black armor with a stag-antlered helmet. On more formal occasions he wears fine black and gold robes.