He is only in the two part episode, "Lullabies of the Lost" or 酔生夢死 ひと夢。His featured song plays during the second part, while the cinematic reveals his mysterious past. He is from what came under the control of the Matsumae (松前氏), which was a small domain in Hokkaido, the northern-most island of Japan. He stands in contrast to Mugen, who is from the Ryukyus, as mentioned in the last post. Anyways, this is his song:
The song is "Pekambe Uku" (ぺかｍべうく？) or Wheat Harvesting Song, by artist, Umeko Ando. Unfortunately, I cannot understand exactly what she says, but the song is beautiful nonetheless, ね？
And now you're thinking, what is the point of me bringing all this up? Not much, aside from that IT'S AWESOME. What's awesome? The writers of Samurai Champloo payed enough attention to detail in it's characters to give them historically based backgrounds. Mugen is from the Ryukyus, which are islands far to south of Japan. It is one of last areas to be brought under Japanese Imperial control. This helps explain why Mugen and those he grew up with detest the central government. On the other hand, Okuru is from Hokkaido, the northern most island. This is another region that was brought under shogunate control very late in history. Many of the peoples that populated this area are of Ainu decent, which explains the simple differences in their cultures. Something perhaps more subtle is that the clothing that both Mugen and Okuru wear reflect the areas from which they came. Even the songs that their respective episodes feature are traditional folksongs from their respective areas. Obokuri Eeumi is a tradition Ryukyu song, sung by Ikue Asazaki, who typically sing Ryukyus folksongs. Pekambe Uku is a tradition Ainu folksong, sung by Umeko Ando, who sings a lot of Ainu folksongs, and even won awards for this song in particular.
It's awesome that the writers of Samurai Champloo would put so much detail and depth into their stories. WHY ISN'T MORE ANIME THIS AWESOME??? (I don't know~) But now you know at least a little bit of why Samurai Champloo is one of my absolute favorite anime.
つづく？？？
（eh, prob not)
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