Shunzan Kyōraku

Shunzan stands tall, with sharp cheekbones, a strong nose, full lips, and wide eyes set under sparse brows. Wavy black hair falls to his neck. Through his years of service he wore the ordinary black Shinigami garb, and on his deathbed he was dressed in a plain white yukata.

Shunzan and his younger brother were never especially close, though he still opened his home to Shunsui once he had married, taking a firm hand by sending the boy back to his studies. Marriage to Isuzu Ise softened him over time, to the point that he flushed with embarrassment when Shunsui teased him over a hairpin she had given him. That same hairpin he passed to his brother in his final moments.

As the eldest son of the aristocratic Kyōraku family, Shunzan grew up a high-ranking noble and went on to serve as a Shinigami. At some point he wed Isuzu Ise, who led the Ise Clan, and the couple had a daughter, Nanao. His bond with Shunsui warmed after the marriage, and his brother came to visit often. Before departing on a mission his wife presented him with a hairpin as a keepsake, and his watching brother laughed at the blush it brought on. Shunzan later died under circumstances left unexplained, though the tragedy is hinted to stem from a curse said to fall on those who marry into the Ise line, and he left his hairpins in Shunsui's keeping. As a noble-born officer he carried at least a measure of spiritual power, but the abilities of his Zanpakutō were never revealed.