Utaku Zhe-Dong
Utaku Zhe-Dong is a very young (22), short (5'6"), man, with black hair and brown eyes. He is named after a famous Oni Chieftan that enslaved a portion of the Utaku people in their history before Shinjo, the Demon-King (Mao) Zhe-Dong. Tradition in the line of his mother is for males to take the names of famous defeated foes, to remind the bushi of their victories. He is the son of Shiotome Miroko and Stablemaster Ginsin. He is married to Utaku Tetsuko (PC), Gunso of the 6th Shiotome Cavalry. They have two children, fraternal twins born two years ago, Ichiro and Ichiko. He is bushi in the Utaku Mounted Infantry, 27th Khol Pikeman's Legion, specializing in the Bisento.
He is keeper of his wife's household stables, the Stables of Kotoko in Isei. There the family nurtures the line of Two-eyed Jaku, a legendary Utaku Battle-steed whose foals and descendants are famous for how trainable, intelligent, versatile, and gentle they are. Kuri, Tetsuko's Utaku Steed, is a direct descendant of Two-eyed Jaku. Kuri is the finest young stallion of this generation, and has taken his ancestor's place serving with the Battle-Maidens. He is the pride and joy of Tetsuko and Zhe-Dong.
His administration of the stables, and he and his wife's service to the family, has seen him promoted several times. First to assistant to the Unicorn ambassador to the Crab, and now to official Unicorn representative to the Courts. He serves with poise and grace, although he has a certain naivete and sincerity that is characteristic of Unicorn and Utaku in specific. He quietly accepts his role, knowing that few Utaku men, bushi or no, are ever taken seriously as warriors by their Lady.
He has recently developed an affinity for poetry, both reading and writing. He specializes in Unicorn Travel Poetry, though he has begun to experiment with Waka and Haiku.
He is very close to his wife Tetsuko, and good friends with his traveling companions, Hida Ogo, Shinjo Ryder, Shinjo Miku, Shosuro Ryuunosuke, Agasha Tanaka, and Ide Asano. He has a relationship with Bayushi Nori, Scorpion Courtier, although the nature of it is not clear, and he does not like to speak of it.
He has a karmic debt to Fukurokujin, probably earned because the males of his line are taught that learning is a practical matter, that knowledge brings trouble in the form of contention and debate. Men of his line are taught the things they must know for their duty and discouraged from spending time on frivolities like education, geography, mathematics, calligraphy. Horsemanship, Weapon use, Etiquette, even Dance, Song, or Poetry are worthy, but no man of Zhe-Dong's line in three hundred years has studied the lore of their own history, the heraldry of the Empire, or the Kami, Ancestors, and Fortunes. There is a phrase in a gaijin tongue that sums up the family attitude, passed down from father to son. "No se y no quiero saber
