Gouken

Gouken (剛拳) is a playable character in the Street Fighter series. He is Ryu, Ken and Dan's martial arts master, as well as Akuma's older brother. Gouken is most often depicted as an elderly man with a white beard and prayer beads around his neck. In his most recent Street Fighter IV appearance, Gouken wears a single sleeved, blue-green colored karate gi and sports a long, white braid of hair adorned with a single prayer bead. Gouken plays an integral role in the series' backstory, and was first depicted as a picture in Akuma's ending in Street Fighter Alpha. Gouken's first actual appearance as a character was in Street Fighter IV, as a boss character. He is an unlockable character in the home console version of the game. He bears a strong resemblance to the rival series, Tekken's Jinpachi Mishima.

History
While earlier Street Fighter games made references to Ryu and Ken's master, Gouken made his first illustrated appearance in Street Fighter II RYU, Masaomi Kanzaki's manga adaptation of Street Fighter II. Since then, Gouken has appeared in several Street Fighter movies and comics, including UDON's Street Fighter line of comics, and the Street Fighter Alpha: Generations movie. Before having a canonical illustration in Street Fighter Alpha, Gouken's appearance would differ vastly between media.

According to Capcom's official account of Akuma's backstory, the two brothers were once students of Goutetsu, a practitioner of Ansatsuken, which origins are rooted back to Japan's feudal age. Goutetsu taught his skills to Gouken and Akuma. Eventually, the two brothers began to differ in the methods and usage of their fighting style. Akuma became bent on completely mastering the style, and embraced the killing aspect of the art to the point of succumbing to the Satsui no Hadou, or "killing intent". Gouken, on the other hand developed his own style: turning fatal techniques such as the Hadouken and Shoryuken into tools for self-defense, removing their killing potential. After succumbing to the Dark Hadou, Akuma would fight and murder Goutetsu, before leaving behind both his master's dojo and his brother in order to train by himself.

During this time period, Gouken would found his own dojo, and took Dan as his first pupil. However, Gouken learned that the reason Dan wanted to learn martial arts was for revenge, and rejected him for his motives. Later, Gouken would find an abandoned orphan, Ryu, and take him under his wing. Ryu was joined by a second student, Ken, who was sent from America by his father, a good friend of Gouken's, in order to learn humility and respect. After Gouken began to train the two boys, Akuma would make a sudden appearance at Gouken's dojo. There, Akuma would challenge Gouken to a fight. Akuma was soundly defeated by his brother, but Gouken spared his life even after Akuma's insistence that Gouken should kill him. After Akuma's arrival and departure, Gouken would continue to train the two boys. Eventually, Gouken would find his two students adept enough to leave the dojo and travel the world to continue their studies.

Afterwards, Akuma would reappear at Gouken's dojo, and challenge his brother to a rematch. This time with Akuma ending up as the victor and supposedly killing him with the Raging Demon. However, because Gouken used a technique similar to Gen's and emptied his soul of emotions, he was merely left in a deep coma. Because he was unconscious for an extended period of time, Ryu and Ken believed their master to be dead, and left him as such. After awakening, Gouken would leave his dojo and tail his students, with the objective of sealing the Satsui no Hadou harboring itself within Ryu. Gouken successfully finds Ryu after Seth's defeat, and manages to seal the Satsui no Hadou. Akuma appears afterwards and is furious at Gouken for completing his task.

The two brothers, Akuma and Gouken then face off in a second rematch to the death, with Ryu's fate put into the hands of the victor. The outcome of this fight is not known, however it may be implied that Gouken won, due to the fact Ryu has learned and mastered the Denjin Hadouken and Shin Shoryuken by Street Fighter III, Gouken's signature moves in SFIV, as well as the fact that Ryu is not possessed by Satsui no Hadou in that game, as proven by Evil Ryu not making an appearance. Akuma is known to have survived the fight and reappears years later in Street Fighter III, which could still mean that Gouken won the fight, as Gouken does not believe in using his ablilities to kill others, even in this case. It is unknown what happens to Gouken after Street Fighter IV.

Video
Gouken character intro for Street Fighter IV

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