Seishiro Jigoku

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Seishirou Jigoku

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The Honorable Seishirou Jigoku V · T · F
Occupation	Judge Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs
Biological information
Reckoned birth year(s) (this is for age comparison purposes, and so may look odd; click on the question mark for details)?	1857
Documented age range (as recorded in court record profiles & case files)	43* (Twisted Karma and His Last Bow)
Last known status	Arrested (Nov. 4, 1900)
Eye color	Brown
Hair color	Black
Height (the metric (cm) values are sourced from official guidebooks and may not reflect the relative sizes of characters as depicted in-game or in other official media)	Unknown
Associates
Family	None mentioned
Friends	Genshin Asōgi (fellow exchange student, homicide victim; deceased) Yūjin Mikotoba (fellow exchange student)
Affiliates	Hart Vortex (accomplice; arrested) Tobias Gregson (attempted killer, homicide victim; deceased) Everyday Mittlemont (intended scapegoat; arrested) Barok van Zieks (accidental attempted scapegoat)
Names in other languages
Japanese (romanization written with the given name first)	裁判長 (Saibancho)* (equivalent of judge)
Miscellaneous
Debut episode	The Adventure of the Great Departure‏‎
Musical theme	"Dai Gyakuten Saiban ~ Court Begins" "Reminiscing ~ At Ambition’s End"

Seishirou Jigoku

I find the defendant, Ryūnosuke Naruhodō... guilty!

— Twisted Karma and His Last Bow

Seishirou Jigoku was a Japanese judge during the Meiji period. He presided over Ryūnosuke Naruhodō's trial for the murder of John Watson and Haori Murasame's trial for the murder of Jezail Brett. He later traveled to England with an old colleague of his, Yūjin Mikotoba, where he was a witness to the murder of Tobias Gregson.

Forced to commit murder

Main article: Professor Killings

In the year 1884, Seishirou Jigoku went to England with Genshin Asōgi and Yūjin Mikotoba, as part of a program to study abroad. Six years later, when Genshin found out that chief prosecutor Klimt van Zieks was being blackmailed by Hart Vortex to continue his serial killing as the Professor, he took matters into his own hand via duel. After this, Vortex pinned the Professor's murders on Genshin, Jigoku was a witness but he overdid it at the secret trial so much trying to lighten the punishment that he smashed the witness stand. He was arrested for bringing words of humiliation to England. Ultimately, Genshin was found guilty of all the murders and was subsequently given the death sentence. However, Vortex got the idea to secretly send him back to Japan to keep Klimt's will a secret. After Jigoku escaped his own trial and paid to have the stand repaired, Vortex got him to join in on the jailbreak plan on the promise that he would become the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vortex needed someone from Japan to send him back. So Genshin was alive when buried, but when Vortex saw that someone has already dug Genshin out of his grave, he forced Jigoku to shoot and kill Asōgi. Jigoku argues that Vortex made him a promise but eventually complies, after the witness fled Jigoku and Vortex reburied Asōgi. Jigoku went safely back to Japan with Yūjin and despite the plan being ruined, Vortex kept his promise and Jigoku became the minister. Using the position, he helped out with the Japanese-Anglo Alliance treaty.

Career

Trial of a university student

Main article: The Adventure of the Great Departure

About ten years later, Seishirou Jigoku presided over the trial of Ryūnosuke Naruhodō when he was accused of murdering university professor John Watson. Although Genshin's son, Kazuma Asōgi, was originally going to act as the defense attorney for the case, Naruhodō opted to defend himself against prosecutor Taketsuchi Auchi. Ultimately, Watson's actual killer was revealed to be an exchange student named Jezail Brett. Jigoku subsequently acquitted Naruhodō. England called for the right of consul and told Jigoku to send her to Shanghai, China so she'll never be tried in Japan. He was the one who went to the negotiation and coordination to hand her over.

Unknown to anyone else, judge Jigoku actually knew what was really going on. Jezail Brett was actually Ann Sasha, England's most notorious assassin, and she was sent by Hart Vortex to keep Dr. Watson from talking about the Professor incident. Jigoku had to send a Japanese man so the same would happen with the consular courts except with vice versa countries and assassins, or else Vortex would reveal the truth about Genshin Asōgi's death. Jigoku had initially sent Genshin's son, Kazuma, to murder detective Tobias Gregson as part of a greater plot to cut all loose ends regarding his murder a decade ago. Vortex even sent a telegram with the names of the two assassins and victims as a kind of contract to seal the deal. However, when the lawyer was seemingly killed, Jigoku felt he had no choice but to visit the country to handle Gregson himself, he couldn't send a replacement assassin when Naruhodō replaced Asōgi as the exchange student.

Main article: The Adventure of the Unspeakable Story

Jigoku was also the judge of Taizou Uzukumaru's trial. His crime was being the thief of La Quantos, one of the stolen items was the koban of Sanmon Sonohigurashi.

Trial for Brett's murder

Main article: The Adventure of the Blossoming Attorney

About nine months later, Seishirou Jigoku presided over a similar case, where Brett was murdered a week after her extradition arrangements were finalized and university student Haori Murasame was accused of the crime. Auchi acted as the prosecutor for this case, and Murasame's defense attorney was her friend Susato Mikotoba; a judicial assistant disguised as "Ryūtarō Naruhodō". Jigoku actually knew that she pretended to be a male attorney but he let her do it anyway. The actual killer of this case was eventually revealed to be journalist Heita Mamemomi, and Murasame was subsequently acquitted. Jigoku later appears to throw Mamemomi to the bailiff before the journalist could say anything about Asōgi's true mission. After formally introducing himself to Susato, he leaves to discuss something with Yūjin.

Murdering a legendary detective

Main article: Twisted Karma and His Last Bow

Seishirou Jigoku contacted Hart Vortex to give Tobias Gregson was a fake mission to kill him on the last day of October aboard the S.S. Balabrock as it headed for France for escaping his trial ten years ago, then he'd go to the international scientific investigation symposium and represent Japan. The assassin sent with Gregson was Kazuma Asōgi but he quit and left for Dunkirk after hearing what really happened to his father. When Jigoku returned to his room at 9 PM, he found Gregson there with his gun. He performed an ippon seoi nage on Gregson, which choked and knocked him unconscious. As first class cabins are surrounded by guards, he decided to wait until the emergency drill later that evening to do the final deed via strangling. Unfortunately, just as that time arrived, Gregson woke up and started attacking Jigoku in a frenzy. In a moment of panic, Jigoku used the gun the English government had given him in the exchange program sixteen years ago and shot detective Tobias Gregson killing him.

In group photograph with fellow Japanese people in England.

He took Gregson’s coat off, which dropped his fish and chips, and hid his body in the large refrigeration room trying to buy some time and fake Gregson’s time of death. He then put Gregson’s body in his own suitcase and waited to take him off the boat, as there was no chance to throw the body overboard due to all the guards. In the Bandol Hotel, Jigoku and Yūjin met up with Susato and Naruhodō. They discussed the Professor Killings and how Genshin was convicted, this was when he found out that Kazuma is actually alive. Then Susato had a bellboy take a group photo of the four of them.

Jigoku had heard about Gregson’s secret apartment on Fresno Street with "Hugh Boone" from Vortex, and went to drop the body off there. He put on Gregson's red colored wig (that was used during his investigation the red-headed league) as a disguise and bought some firecrackers from "Venus", he used that with the candles as a makeshift timer that would go off sounding like a gunshot. He placed he body nearby that and moved Gregson's bulletin board to cover him. That way, when "Boone" came to visit, he would be framed. Unfortunately, Klimt's younger brother, prosecutor Barok van Zieks, who prosecuted Jigoku's trial, showed up when he was investigating detective Gregson regarding his Death Bringer curse and he took the fall instead. Maria Goulloyne noticed during Gregson's autopsy that the fish and chips were moldy in his coat pocket meaning someone tampered with him, this was Jigoku's mistake, they had already spoiled due to the heat in the cabin.

Main article: The Resolve of Naruhodō Ryūnosuke

It was only in the subsequent trial that Seishirou Jigoku was finally brought to justice for his crimes and arrested. He tried to escape on the Balabrook by bribing Mapotov Stroganov and hiding in his large trunk but he was found by Yūjin Mikotoba and his old partner, Sherlock Holmes. During the trial, he kept calling Naruhodō a murderer despite the fact that he's the one acquitted him for the murder of John Watson. After failing to blame Kazuma Asōgi as Tobias Gregson's killer, Jigoku smashed the entire witness stand just like he did a decade ago and said this was the end of him. He signed a confession but didn't say anything about Hart Vortex. Vortex, being the current judge, declared him guilty for Gregson's murder and said he'd probably be executed at a later trial.

Personality

Mugshot

Seishirou Jigoku has a neutral personality, befitting of a judge. He went easy on Ryūnosuke Naruhodō during his first trial and allowed Susato Mikotoba to act as defense despite women not being allowed to practice the law. He desperately wanted Genshin Asōgi free, despite overdoing it in the process, and regretted killing him. However, he is willing to go along with Hart Vortex's plan in exchange for being the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yūjin said that was foolish of him. But regarding the assassination exchange program, most of the time Jigoku had to be blackmailed.

Seishirou Jigoku has a sense of humor and is constantly taking out his gavel and announcing non defendants guilty. He is also strong enough to be able to smash the entire witness stand and knock Tobias Gregson unconscious with a choke hold. He also likes to have many large items.

Name

• Jigoku, when written as 地獄, means “hell”. 

Trivia

• When talking to Jigoku in the lobby inThe Adventure of the Blossoming Attorney and during the events of Twisted Karma and His Last Bow the Court Begins theme for Dai Gyakuten Saiban: Naruhodō Ryūnosuke no Bōken and Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2: Naruhodō Ryūnosuke no Kakugo plays, making it the second time a Court Begins theme plays outside of the Courtroom. The first time is during Turnabout Revolution, when Apollo Justice is telling Dhurke Sahdmadhi about his legal career.