Ikkyu

Ikkyu The Historical Figure
"An iconoclastic lay-practitioner of Zen, Ikkyu (1394-1481) was a simple monk whose fame comes primarily from his practice of "Bodily Buddhahood" (sokushin jobutsu) a unique precept of Shingon Buddhism which holds that one is able to attain perfection not only in one's mind, or after the death of the body, but while yet living within the physical world. Amidst the strife of the shoguns' territorial battles, and the hypocrisy of elected Zen abbots and their political agendas, Ikkyu boldly made Zen accessible to a growing population by means of his own brand of creativity, wit, criticism, and compassion. " (Taken from the Read or Die OVA DVD "Archives" )

Ikkyu The I-Jin


Cloned from the preserved DNA of the 15th-century Buddhist monk, Ikkyu is the shadowy leader of the I-Jin in the R.O.D. OVA. His main goal was to purge humanity of all its 'wasteful' individuals. He and his group planned to go into space, where at a certain altitude Beethoven would play his Suicide Symphony for the entire world to hear. However, his plans were thwarted by Yomiko Readman and he was then killed by his own lover, Nancy Makuhari.

Ikkyu's I-Jin ability was to create life-like illusions out of paintings. He also had a skull-topped staff, from which he could ignite green flames from the eye sockets.

Ikkyu originally sent Nancy to spy on the British Library for him. However, worried about her conflicting loyalties, he created a second clone of her that was completely loyal to him. In R.O.D. the TV, it is discovered that he is Junior's father, with the Nancy clone being his mother.