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Kashitarō Itō (伊東甲子太郎, Itou Kashitarou) is an antagonist in Hakuouki: Shinsengumi Kitan, who first appears as a temporary ally of the Shinsengumi. He is a distinguished, yet very effeminate scholar, poet and skilled swordsman who once tutored Heisuke Toudou.
His character is based on the historical Itō Kashitarō.
Appearance
Itou has a rather fox-like, feminine appearance with long black hair tied in a half ponytail leaving the rest loose with strangely shaped bangs, slanted indigo eyes, and very pale skin. He wears traditional clothing of violet-purple color.
Story
This article contains major SPOILERS. Be careful if you do not know the full story yet.
Itou's story is short as he is killed off soon after his appearance. He is introduced when he allies temporarily with the Shinsengumi, but the captains do not find this alliance pleasant as Itou is an imperial nationalist while the Shinsengumi serve the Bakufu. Itou also creates a lot of conflicts, attempting to come closer to Chizuru, pointing out Sannan's injury and causing him to sink further into depression, and angering most of the Shinsengumi captains. He often tries to get involved into something that is not his business, and he sometimes even tries to mock the Shinsengumi (when he makes sarcastic remarks about them protecting a notice board).
One night, he sees a Rasetsu, who was killed after losing his mind, and finds out that Sannan is still alive, while he was told that Sannan had died. The Shinsengumi pretended that Sannan was dead so that Sannan could work on the Ochimizu privately without any interference from Itou and his nosy samurai. As a result of not being informed of the Shinsengumi's inner workings, Itou assumes that the Shinsengumi do not trust him and pretends to be offended, but, as the Shinsengumi actually do not trust him, as Itou correctly assumed, he realizes that he will not gain any information on the Shinsengumi's darker secrets, so he attempts to get several of the Shinsngumi's members to join him and invites them to leave. Itou gets Heisuke and Saitou to come to his side, and then he leaves the Shinsengumi with them and all of his own samurai whom he had brought with him when he first joined the Shinsengumi. Saitou pretends to be loyal to Itou from that moment on, but when he discovers what Itou was planning, he reports it to the Shinsengumi, which he had been loyal to all along. He also warns Heisuke of the same, telling him of how Itou was making plans to assassinate the Shinsengumi's commander, Isami Kondou.
Meanwhile, Itou and Kondou make a business deal detailing that Itou will gather specific intelligence for Kondou in return for monetary funds, and then both of them and Hijikata decide to have a drink and chat. Both pretend to laugh and enjoy their time together, but Kondou at this point knows of Itou's plan to assassinate him. Hijikata has meanwhile instructed his men to wait at a crossroad in town and strike when Itou will be returning to his headquarters after the meal. As Itou walks along the road humming to himself in the moonlight, he comes to the intersection of two dirty roads where the Shinsengumi are waiting in the shadows. The Shinsengumi then charge with drawn swords from all directions around Itou and run him through, killing him before Itou can even draw his own sword.