List of minor Usagi Yojimbo characters

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This List of minor Usagi Yojimbo characters features characters from the Usagi Yojimbo comic book who have appeared less frequently in the series than others warranting their own entries or have a less important presence or have relatively little information about them.

• Lord Hebi - A ruthless daimyo who is loyal to Lord Hikiji, and often directs Hikiji's plots. He is a large snake, several times the size of any other character in the series, and despite not having any arms or legs, he is an awesome fighter, using his size and large teeth to his advantage. Lord Hebi appeared in the 2003 TMNT cartoon, in the episode The Real World, Part 1.
• Lord Hikiji - A cunning and ruthless daimyo with ambitions of becoming shogun. He is the main villainous presence in the series, directing his minions in various plots; though he rarely gets involved directly to avoid alerting the Shogun of his treachery. His evil deeds have included causing the death of Miyamoto Usagi's father personally and his lord and his family through his minions. In addition, he is the only known human in the series, an anomaly that creator Stan Sakai later regretted revealing. He is also responsible for Usagi's scar above his left eye.
• The Informer - A small hooded man with an unquenchable thirst for money. He is never named, but is often seen skulking about in the shadows, looking for a quick gold coin; most often, this involves finding someone with a bounty on their head, and alerting a bounty hunter to their location, for a fee.

• Inukai (Stray Dog) - A bounty hunter who is notorious for his ruthlessness and his surly mistrust of others, especially samurai. However, he secretly is a beloved benefactor of an orphanage and his apparent greediness is partially based on his desire to raise funds for that cause.
• Kenichi - A childhood rival of Usagi and now magistrate of their village. He has had a spiteful mutual enmity against Usagi since childhood which led to blows more than once. However in the face of common enemies, the pair has gotten along well on a professional basis.
• Kurokaze - kashira (leader) of the komori ninja (bat ninja) clan; his name means "black wind". He is occasionally mentioned, but so far Kurokaze is only seen in the Grasscutter II saga; he considers the neko ninja as adversaries of the komori ninja for Lord Hikiji's favor, although he respects Chizu for her skills.

• Mariko - A childhood friend of Usagi and his great love. However, she married Kenichi after Usagi left to become a samurai with Lord Mifune, but not before Usagi and she had an impulsive tryst that produced a son, Jotaro. Kenichi married her with full knowledge of her illegitimate pregnancy while Usagi was not informed of the situation as to avoid him abandoning his post for her. Eventually, Mariko told Usagi about Jotaro and insisted he leave the village when he returned to stay, although brief future visits were permitted. Later on, she told Jotaro about his biological father, but for some reason did not mention that Usagi knew the truth himself.
• Motokazu - Son of General Ikeda. He was born during his father's exile in hiding as a peasant and had no knowledge of his father's previous life. That changed when Tomoe Ame and Lord Noriyuki were fleeing an ambush and inadvertently sought shelter at the rebel's home. Long past his need for revenge for his defeat, the general agreed to help the fugitives and took his son along in a perilous adventure. At its conclusion where the Lord desired to reward Ikeda, they agreed for Motokazu to join Noriyuki's court when he came of age after training by his father. In "Grasscutter II", Motokazu's father fell in battle, but Lord Noriyuki kept to his word making the young boy his page with Tomoe his mentor. Motokazu has since grown into his new responsibilities well, displaying extraordinary courage in his adventures. As a result, Noriyuki has promoted him to samurai status, despite his youth, with the approval of Motokazu's teacher as well as Tomoe and Usagi.
• Nakamura Koji - A samurai and teacher of one of the eight traditional schools of fencing, who was to become Lord Hikiji's personal trainer. Lord Hikiji wanted Koji to fight a duel against an upstart swordsman who shunned the traditional schools, named Katsuichi; Koji figured he should have won easily, but was beaten three times. Humiliated, Koji realized that he was a victim of hubris, so he left his school and went on a training pilgrimage until he was good enough to challenge Katsuichi again. At Kitanoji Temple, he got his rematch, but fell again, for the last time. A true samurai to the end, he is well respected, and earned the admiration of young Jotaro. In turn, the samurai bequeathed his daisho to the kitten to wield when he comes of age.
• Noodles - a giant soba dealer with the mind of a child. He befriended Kitsune, who took care of him, and used his soba stand to hide from the authorities. A corrupt police officer framed him for robbery, and had him executed. Kitsune blamed herself for his death, but later avenged him, by framing the corrupt officer instead.
• Noriko - The disguised sister of Ame Tomoe who considers herself a superior fighter to her sibling. She grew away from her family to become a warrior notorious for her murderously sadistic viciousness. She eventually led a plot of mining a secret gold mine with slave labor in Geishu territory to provide a pretext for another clan to invade. She enslaved Tomoe and Usagi in her plot, but they later escaped with the slaves to foil her plans. She apparently died when she deliberately fled into the mine with a gunpowder cache which exploded. However, Tomoe later had a disturbing dream where she witnessed Noriko escaping the cave with considered effort and vowing revenge. The question of whether that vision actually depicted an actual event is unanswered for now.
• General Oyaneko - A samurai who served Lord Hirone, and friend of Yagi, the Lone Goat, but is now the magistrate of a small town. He is dying from an illness when Usagi comes through town, and Oyaneko challenges him to a duel, hoping to die in battle, instead of wasting away; Usagi convinces him to live on and serve his people until his death. He died one week after finishing an irrigation canal.
• Shi - A quartet of assassins; the name is fitting because it means "4" or "death", depending on how it is written. Each member specialized in a weapon: the sword, the bow and arrow, the spear, and the kusarigama (sickle and chain). Together they are virtually invincible, but Usagi manages to defeat them by separating them and taking them out one at a time. One of them survived the fight and sought revenge, only to be killed by Usagi on their next encounter.
• Shunji - One of Katsuichi's students; Shunji and his brother found Katsuichi after he fell off a cliff after an ambush, and nursed him back to health. As payback, Katsuichi agreed to take Shunji on as a student, but found his talents to be incompatible with his teaching style; eventually, Katsuichi sent Shunji to train with an old friend of his.
• Husband and Wife Woodcutters - A pair of woodcutters who occasionally appear as background characters, or as generic commoners that some of the main cast interact with; very rarely do their jobs as woodcutters come into play, but on one occasion, Usagi planted a Muramasa sword on them and took a piece of wood as a decoy. They also witnessed Gen take down his first criminals and mentioned that he could claim a reward for them, starting his career as a bounty hunter. They were originally intended to be human, but Sakai reconsidered and made them monkeys instead.
• Toady - A cowardly sycophant who concerns himself only with personal monetory benefits. Like the husband and wife woodcutters, he appears mainly as a generic commer that interacts with several of the characters, both major or minor. It is unclear of what species he is, as he wears a hood that shadows the top half of his face (he is portrayed as a toad in the series of Space Usagi). On several occasions he has bumped into Usagi, but he once tried to assassinate Usagi for a reward, which turned out unsuccessful and sent him fleeing for his life (although Usagi never actually saw him). At one point he worked for Inukai to find the bandit leader General Fuji's hideout.
• Keiko