Overview

Irie Kyōsuke is a character in the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni series. He is the head doctor at the Irie Clinic. In his spare time, he coaches Hinamizawa's little league team called the "Hinamizawa Fighters". Although he is cheerful on the outside, he has a not-as-delightful past to go along. Due to his part in the baseball team, many of the children just refer to him as "Kantoku" (which means manager, director, coach, etc).

Character Summary

Childhood and Family

Irie grew up in poverty but aspired to become a doctor. His neighborhood touted him as "Doctor Kyōsuke-kun," he played the role of doctor with his childhood friends, he was always elected the class health monitor, and his teachers consulted him on what courses to take to become a doctor. After graduating, Irie applied for a public prestigious college in Tokyo (supposedly the University of Tokyo's medical school), and was accepted despite not being near the top of the list. His parents threw a huge and expensive party even given the high tuition.

Irie's parents were known by the neighbors to be a "lovely couple". His construction worker father was stern and silent, while his mother was sensitive. Neither of his parents attended college. According to Irie, his mother was able to figure out subtle things about his father that he could not. If Irie upset his mother, his father would give him a light hit with his knuckles on his head. Irie had never seen his dad as an emotional kind of person, yet when his parents threw the party for his acceptance into college, he saw his dad break down in heartfelt tears. Overall, his relationship with his parents appears remarkably good.

College and Medical School

When Irie moved into college, he felt the academic stress of becoming a doctor. He began to want to let the city life take him over, but he prevented himself from succumbing by reading letters from home. One day, Irie received a letter that described in the postscript his father's sudden violent outbursts. While He had thought this odd, he brushed it off. One winter day, Irie returned to his apartment and saw his mother there with her luggage. She had fled there due to the escalating abuse and could not return to her own family. Irie planned on going back home to talk to his father during the New Year break, but his father passed away before the break.

As Irie progressed further in his studies, his mother became senile and increasingly criticized her husband. Irie discussed his father's condition with a professor suspected that it was a result of an organic brain syndrome. Irie came to believe that his father developed symptoms secondary to trauma to this frontal lobe from a blow by a 2x4 during construction. This started Irie's interest in psychosurgery. Irie attempted in vain to convince his relatives that his father became violent due to this trauma. On her deathbed, her mother's last words were, "Please do not bury my body next to dad." Irie concluded that the reason he was unable to convince anyone was because he did not study neurology, and he soon developed a complex centered at himself for being helpless. He began to study neurolosurgery, with a concentration on psychosurgery, in order to help others like his father.

Psychosurgery

Irie began to study neurosurgery under a well-known psychosurgery expert. After rapidly gaining experience and carrying out successful lobotomies, he became known as "the young genius" in the psychosurgery community. Despite the successes, there were also a high number of failures, which caused the medical community to distrust the practice. Over a conflict of morals, Irie was kicked out of the psychosurgery expert's group. He and many of his former colleagues were banished from the medical academic society. Irie's medical articles appeared aggressively and uncharacteristically liberal. For this and his experience in the field of psychosurgery, "Tokyo" sought him out to join Takano Miyo's research group.

The Irie Clinic

Although the clinic is in Irie's name, the real chief is Takano Miyo. The clinic was set up as a cover for the research of the Hinamizawa Syndrome by "Tokyo." "Tokyo" wanted to have a civilian physician head the faculty. While Irie understands that he is essentially a figurehead, he takes the opportunity to research the rare local disease very seriously. Most people in Hinamizawa save the Furudes do not know the clinic's true purpose.

Physical Appearance

Irie is a tall and a bit muscular young man much like Akasaka Mamoru. He has long light brown hair parted in the middle and green eyes. He always seen wearing oval/circle shaped glasses, but in the anime the glasses frame is rectangle shaped.

During his worktime at the clinic, he wears a black suit vest over a dark gray collared-shirt with yellow tie, black suit pants and black shoes and a white doctor's coat over all these clothes. On his free days, Irie wears a yellow shirt with sunglasses hanging from its pocket, white pants and blue shoes. His coach uniform is a red-white-yellow colored baseball shirt with a yellow "H" on its left sleeve and the number "1" on its left side, white pants with a black belt and red wristbands.

Trivia

His hairstyle differs in the different types of media. In the manga, only his fringe is long while in the anime his whole hair has the same length. In Higurashi Daybreak his hair color is changed to blonde from light brown.

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