Taiki is the Kirin of Tai, though is not fully mature and is actually a heina (an immature Kirin), and Koki (a rare black Kirin). Like Youko, Shouryuu, and Enki, he is a taika from Hourai; as a result, he is known by the name Kaname Takasato. His nickname, Kouri, derived from an alternate pronunciation of "Takasato" and was given to him by Gyousou after Taiki chose him as the new King of Tai. After many years in Hourai, Taiki is eventually taken back to the Twelve Kingdoms in order to fulfill his role as the kirin of Tai. However, when the kingdom of Tai falls, both the King of Tai and Taiki go missing.
Fifteen years before Youko Nakajima's arrival in the Twelve Kingdoms, Taiki's ranka had been blown over to Hourai by a shoku. He is returned to Mount Hou ten years after his disappearance, after being found by Enki. Taiki is cared for and educated in his role as the kirin of Tai by his nyokai, Haku Sanshi, but is initially unable to transform into his beast form because he had been in human form for so long. He eventually chooses Gyousou to become king; while Taiki is uncertain of his choice and initially terrified of Gyousou, he eventually realizes that his fear was recognition of the "aura of the ruler" required of the one chosen by the kirin to become a true king. In addition to Haku Sanshi, Taiki also has a powerful toutetsu youma, Gouran, as his shirei. Before his disappearance, Taiki was close to Keiki and was called "half-pint" by Enki. After his disappearance, Taiki is eventually revealed to be alive in Japan and attends high school. In the anime, he is a student at Youko, Yuka, and Asano's school and appears repeatedly in volumes four and five of the anime and referred to at times. Due to the sudden stop of the anime, Taiki's story was never finished and leaves the unresolved situation in which Rokuta is still looking for him in Japan.
His story is continued in the novels. In A Shore in Twilight, one of Gyousou's men named Asen stages a coup d'état when he becomes dissatisfied with the king's aggressive reforms. Gyousou is lured away and Asen attacks Taiki, cutting of his horn just before Taiki flees to Hourai via a meishoku. The trauma causes Taiki to lose his memory of the year he spent in the Twelve Kingdoms and he remains in Japan for six years. During this time he begins to lose his kirin nature and is slowly poisoned by the meat he is fed by his family. Eventually Sanshi and Gouran start to go wild and begin killing everyone who gets close to Taiki, mistaking them for enemies: this causes his human family, which already distrusted him, to abhor him and pretty much wish for Takazato's death, believing him to be a living curse. The final breakdown comes when Sanshi and Gouran murder the abusive Takazatos when Taiki is away, showing that they have completely lost their nature as shirei and have become wild youma. (As shown in Demon Child.) Taiki eventually remembers everything and is rescued by the combined efforts of Risai and the kings and kirins of the Twelve Kingdoms. Upon his return, he and his shirei are so full of impurity that the other kirin are unable to get close to him, so a goddess agrees to cleanse them of the impurity. Afterward, Taiki (now without his kirin powers or shirei due to the loss of his horn) reunites with Risai and they leave for Tai in an attempt to save the kingdom. In the novels, Taiki's story stops here and the fate of Tai is not known.
