In his younger days, Akisame traveled the world to further the development of his unique Jijitsu style, taking in aspects and inspiration from other styles he studied. He later met and became friends of Miu's father, Saiga. During one of his journeys, he met the child and not-yet-named Shigure who was raised deep in the mountains along with her father who was a great master at both crafting and wielding weapons. Because her father was suffering from a terminal illness, he requested Akisame to take his life away in a duel so that he could die a warrior's death. Akisame initially refused, but eventually had to throw him off a cliff after a forced confrontation. Before dying, Shigure's father admitted he did not really want to die in battle, but was trying to be a bad example so his daughter