Kagehisa Anotsu (Jpn. - 天津影久 - "Anotsu Kagehisa") is the current leader of the Itto-ryu in Samura's Blade of the Immortal. He is based on the actual Kagehisa, the legendary swordsman who helped found Itto-ryu and was rumored to have never lost a single battle. He is the equal of Manji. While painted as the "villain" of the series at the start, he has had many scenes devoted to making the reader sympathetic to his views and goals. An emotionally cold young man has prodigious skill with the sword and leads the Ittō-ryū in order to form a dōjō dedicated not to form and rules, but to the simple test of superior lethality. Brought up by an abusive grandfather (a swordsman disgraced by the Asano dōjō), Anotsu is as pragmatic and shrewd as he is deadly. He isn't as inhuman as originally believed, as he even allows Rin to live after she attacks him; even letting her follow him everywhere. He is currently at "war" with Habaki Kagimura, the leader of the Banshu. At the end of volume 28, he started on a fight, alongside Manji and Makie Otono-Tachibana, against Habaki Kagimura and his Rokki-Dan. He has two weapons. The first, his main weapon, is a Nepalese-based axe named Kabutsuchi (Head Hammer). The other is his rarely used sword of the same name. First appears in Conquest part 1.