Synopsis
Kiichirou Kimiyoshi is the elderly chief of Hinamizawa and head of the Kimiyoshi House, one of the village's three great families, as well as the grandfather of Kimiyoshi Kazuho. His title is largely ceremonial: real authority in the village lies with the Sonozaki family, particularly its matriarch Oryou Sonozaki, and while he formally chairs the Onigafuchi Defense Alliance, it is she who truly drives the anti-dam movement. He first appears in Himatsubushi-hen, welcoming the undercover officer Mamoru Akasaka into the Alliance's headquarters at Furude Shrine.
In Watanagashi-hen, and again in its retelling as Meakashi-hen from the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai season, Kimiyoshi is kidnapped by Shion Sonozaki, who disguises herself as her twin Mion Sonozaki to interrogate him about the whereabouts of Satoshi Houjou. Left without care for two days after the torture, he dies, and his body is disposed of in a well. In other timelines he instead perishes in the Great Hinamizawa Disaster, and in Gou and Sotsu he is counted among the many who end up killing Rika Furude.
Kimiyoshi is outwardly gentle toward villagers and outsiders alike and deeply devoted to the worship of Oyashiro-sama. Like the village's other elders, he privately suspects that someone tied to the Sonozaki family is behind Hinamizawa's mysterious deaths, which for a time fuels an unspoken resentment toward the Houjou family — though he later insists the elders have let that bitterness go.
Away from village politics, he is known to teach kendo and calligraphy to fellow villagers, and after the death of Rika Furude's parents in 1981 he becomes her legal guardian. He is voiced by Masaaki Tsukada in Japanese and Kyle Hebert in English.
