NOTE: This section of the archive was prepared by my fellow researcher, YOSHI77.

Hiroshi Furukawa, later known as  Sparrow, was born in Eastern Tokyo on August 6, 1938 Hiroshi was youngest child of three (two older sisters). His father was an aircraft designer who was instrumental in the developer of the Japanese "Zero" airplane. His mother ran a neighborhood beauty salon with operations on the lower level of their three-story home. Neither of Hiroshi's parents had any connections to Japanese Harlequins. The family remained in Tokyo during World War II and Hiroshi witnessed the fire-bombing attacks on the city.

After the war, Hiroshi's father began working a small factory manufacturing bicycles. In 1947, Mr. Furukawa was falsely accused of stealing sheet metal (valuable in post-war Japan) and was arrested by the city police. Humiliated by the accusation, Furukawa committed suicide – by hanging – when in police custody. It can not be established how the death influenced Hiroshi. Two years later school reports indicate that the boy was a repeated target of bullies. Apparently, Hiroshi began to study martial arts – initially enrolling in a neighborhood karate center. The attacks by the bullies stopped.

There are no police reports on Hiroshi during his teenage years. School reports indicate an intelligent, hard-working student with few friends. Hiroshi spent all of his free time studying various forms of martial arts including karate, judo, kendō and western-style boxing. In 1956, at the age of eighteen, Hiroshi took the entrance exam for Tokyo University. Halfway through the exam, Hiroshi stood up and walked out of the testing room. It is not known if this was a planned response or a spontaneous action. After this decision, Hiroshi never took another exam and never attempted to enter a university.

            After rejecting the exam, Hiroshi left his mother’s house (by this time, both of his older sisters were married). For a five-year period, he worked as a part-time kendō instructor and a nightclub bouncer. He lived on the fringes of Tokyo's criminal world and became friends with a wide variety of people including a Yakuza gangster, Koichi Shiota, the sumo wrestler, Ota, and the brothel manager, Yuki Tanimura. Police reports indicate that Hiroshi was suspected of involvement in various black market schemes. He was detained by the police on several occasions, but never formally arrested (Note: Hiroshis police file disappeared when he became a Harlequin).

Hiroshi could have continued living and working in the Tokyo underworld, but in the summer of 1961 he met the leading Japanese Harlequin, Gajutsu, at a kendo demonstration. Gajutsu (English translation: ginger root) immediately decided that the young fighter had the potential of becoming a Harlequin. Sparrow accepted Gajutsu as both a spiritual and marital arts teacher – although he continued to keep in touch with his criminal friends.

Protected by their association with the Yakuza, the Japanese Harlequins had become complacent and careless with their personal security. When the Yakuza decided  to betray them, everyone was unprepared (see Harlequins in Japan ). Only Gajutsu defended himself during the assassination attempt – killing three Yakuza with a four- inch kitchen knife before he was destroyed. Sparrow had argued with Gajutsu a few days earlier and was attending a sumo tournament to support his friend, Ota. Some sources state that Sparrow always felt guilty that he was unable to defend his teacher.

Sparrow immediately disappeared after the "Black Sunday" assassinations. It seems clear that he spent two years away from Japan. Reports indicate that Sparrow was in Australia with the Harlequin, Libra . He obtained false identification and travel money. Sparrow then appeared in Europe where he met Harlequins Linden , Thorn and Mother Blessing . 

When Sparrow returned to Japan in 1967, no one anticipated his arrival. Sparrow was now well-financed and better trained: a true Harlequin. During one 24-hour period, he killed the five Yakuza that were involved with the assassination of his teacher, Gajutsu. 

For eight years, Sparrow was hunted continually by Yakuza gangsters, the Tokyo police and Western mercenaries sent to Japan by the Brethren. He defended himself with great skill during this period while protecting the three Travelers still alive in Japan. It is estimated that Sparrow killed approximately 37 people  (the bodies of several mercenaries were never found).

Sparrow was involved with several violent confrontations in Tokyo, as well as at a seaside restaurant on the southern island of Miyako-jimaHachinohe. During this time he was able to retain his friends with Ota, Yuki Tanimura, and even the Yakuza gangster, Koichi Shiota. Sparrow wrote a "meditation" on his life called The Way of the Sword : a short book famous for the statement "cultivate randomness." He did attempt to recruit anyone else to become a Harlequin.

In 1973, Sparrow met the 20-year old student, Kimiko Takawa, at a bus stop in Tokyo. Kimiko came from an upper middle class family (her father was a successful heart surgeon). The couple fell in love and Kimiko began pregnant. Brethren leadership in Japan put intense pressure on the Yakuza to kill Sparrow. There are indications  that Sparrow's friend, Shiota, betrayed him to his bosses. The Yakuza learned about Kimiko and she was kidnapped from her apartment. When the young woman proved to be worthless as "bait" for an elaborate trap, she was taken to a hotel in Osaka to be exhibited at a Yakuza banquet.

Sparrow appeared and killed 18 of the Yakuza at the banquet. Survivor reports indicate that Koichi Shiota committed suicide in front of his former friend. Sparrow was shot in the back and died in the hotel hallway. Kimiko escaped to America and died of cancer in Cincinnati, Ohio. (date unknown) Sparrow son, Lawrence, got a job with the Evergreen Foundation in 2001 and began to pass information on to the Harlequins . Lawrence was killed by Tabula mercenaries in 2005.

Sparrow's book – The Way of the Sword was published in Paris in 1981 in French translations titled Philosophie de l'épée. Some data suggests that the book's Left Bank publisher was partially financed by the French Harlequin, Linden.