Odajima Sakai

Odajima Sakai is one of three protagonists who appears in the Bake Neko arc of Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales. He is one of a trio of samurai hired as bodyguards and retainers by a feudal aristocratic family.

Appearance
Odajima is the youngest of the three samurai, appearing somewhere at least in his thirties. He has round black eyes (with no discernible pupils), black hair, thick eyebrows, slightly pale skin, a prominent cleft chin, and gray stubble on the chin and the head. His hair is styled into a traditional chonmage, a type of hairstyle most commonly worn by feudal samurai to distinguish age and status. He appears to be at least slightly taller than Kusuriuri standing up.

Odajima's outfit consists of a blue hitatare, worn loosely and untucked, with a picture of four black squares in a light gray circle on both shoulders. A pair of white strings is tied together into a knot to keep the hitatare from slipping, called a munahimo. Underneath it is a black kimono with light gray borders and black hakami pants, with two swords hanging inside his belt. Like everyone else, he wears white socks as he spends much of the Bakeneko arc indoors.

Personality
Gruff and hot-tempered, Odajima is the most direct of the three Sakai samurai. While loyal to the Sakai family, he is brash and impatient, usually jumping to conclusions rather than thinking things through. He is shown to be quite stubborn in his beliefs and very realistic in his views. He bears a rather short-sighted and distrustful view towards anything he cannot perceive, which is why he rejects the concept of the existence of demons and other spirits. That combined with disliking of people who appear strange or suspicious are why Odajima acts antagonistic towards Kusuriuri.

By contrast, Odajima is on amiable terms with Kayo, a young female servant. This initially stemmed from sympathetic feelings towards her, but later as time passes, he began to develop a genuine desire to protect Kayo, even at the risk of his own life. His friendship with Kayo makes Odajima finally acknowledge Kusuriuri's efforts to stop the bakeneko when he begs him to save Kayo. In the manga adaptation, he and Kayo are implied to be already friends, but at one point Kayo describes him as "pig-headed".

Ironically, Odajima is the only one besides Kayo to retain innocence of the bakeneko's creation, despite being connected to the Sakai family, his employers. This is most likely because they were both hired after the death of Tamaki Sakai. After he was shown the story of the bakeneko and Tamaki, Odajima is left extremely shaken and disgusted, and the knowledge of his family's crimes drove him to leave and start a new life elsewhere. In the manga, he grieves the fact that everything he knew has changed, and that everything and everyone he had sworn to protect is gone.

He was implied to have made the decision to erect a burial shrine for the bakeneko next to the family well where Tamaki's body was discarded, so they can reunite in Heaven. When Kayo asks him if the bakeneko would hate being buried in the place where Tamaki died, Odajima responds that it would be happier being next to his friend.

Trivia

 * Odajima's seiyuu in the Japanese dub is Tetsu Inada, while his English VA is Trevor Devall. Trevor Devall also voiced Yahei, the old servant, in the English dub.
 * Odajima's name is a combination of two Japanese terms: "Oda" (small rice paddy) and "Jima" (island). So the combined translation means "Rice paddy island".
 * According to the official website for Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, he is described as the Wakato ("young one") of the Sakai house.
 * In the Bakeneko arc in the TV spinoff Mononoke, there is a young boy named "Masao" who could possibly be Odajima's reincarnation, as Masao has his shaved head and some of his facial features, and his clothes are blue just like Odajima's. However, his face greatly resembles that of Katsumaya, Mizue Sakai's samurai retainer.
 * In the Bakeneko arc in the TV spinoff Mononoke, on its last episode. When Moria-san woke up and thought that he was dreaming, there was actually a part of the scene where it shows a man standing from afar, wearing a suit, resembling Odajima from the Ayakashi Bakeneko arc.