Jubei Kirigaya in the manga
Jubei Kirigaya is Satoko and Miwako’s father and Rie’s husband. He presents himself as concerned for Satoko’s health while treating her marriage as a means to secure wealth and influence.
He exploits Rie’s abduction scheme to cast Nitobe as Satoko’s rescuer and prospective husband, then pursues a marriage with Mitsuharu. Mitsueda works under his pressure, and Shinpei becomes another person he tries to bargain with. His plot against Ryunosuke backfires when Ryunosuke has him arrested.
His love becomes dangerous when he treats a daughter’s future as an asset.
Jubei’s concern for Satoko’s health is part of his character. So is his willingness to arrange suffering, rescue and marriage around an outcome that benefits his idea of the family.
Chapter references identify the scenes behind each argument. “Our reading” is an interpretation, rather than a statement of the author’s confirmed intent.
He directs the crisis and the rescue
Chapters 44–48 & 71
Jubei shoots Shinpei when the couple return; Satoko is hit while shielding him. The later reveal identifies Jubei as the island’s owner and shows that he knew where she was. He intended to use Nitobe’s rescue to secure a marriage. In Chapter 71, he is arrested over the attempted assassination of Ryunosuke. Satoko still expresses love for her father.
A father who can pay for treatment may still make his daughter’s body and marriage serve a family strategy. The planned rescue lets him present control as care: the desired husband becomes the answer to a crisis he has allowed to develop.
His emotional attachment need not be fake for his conduct to be abusive. That is what makes Satoko’s continuing love difficult. Her feeling records the bond she has lived with; it cannot serve as evidence that his choices were justified.
The arrest also has a narrow cause. It addresses an attack on another powerful man. Reading it as justice for every island victim would give the ending an institutional resolution it does not show.
