ミュージカル『刀剣乱舞』 千子村正 蜻蛉切 双騎出陣 ～万の華うつす鏡～ と 仏教 ー BUDDHISM AND MUSICAL TOUKEN RANBU: MURAMASA SOUKI
(この文章は英語ですが、機械翻訳で明確にチェックしたので、日本語に自動翻訳しても大丈夫そうです。 ごめんなさい；；；)
Insights into Muramasa Souki from the perspective of someone who was raised Buddhist and makes a hobby of studying various religions and also being a rabid Touken Ranbu fan. Not an expert, sorry, but I don’t think an expert would have watched every Musical Touken Ranbu show at least three times each, so.
Caveat #2: I am not a native Japanese speaker, kanji is hard even if my listening skills are solid, and I will need subtitles to get the full breadth of understanding and historical references. So I wont be doing a line-by-line analysis. These will be a lot of surface things and basic Buddhist insight.
Also, spoilers ahead. Actually, this won’t even make sense if you haven’t already seen the show. So, don’t say I didn’t warn you!
Anyway, let’s begin.
Buddhism in Souki
Basic premise of Buddhism:
Like every religion, it is an answer to the question of “why do we suffer?”
Buddhism’s answer is that life is suffering in a giant circle. We perpetuate suffering upon others after receiving it in our lives, and it doesn’t disappear after you die because souls are reborn affected by the suffering from their past lives (ie karma). The main goal of Buddhism is to transcend this wheel of suffering by learning how to live in a way that leads you to neither perpetuate nor experience suffering, thereby unburdening your soul and allowing it to leave the cycle of rebirth for good, which is called enlightenment.
To do this, there are various systems called Paths or Precepts, which are the guidelines to not fucking up your soul. Varies by school. Generally it’s “don’t do shit that would cause you or others to suffer” but made very specific for people no matter where on the path they are.
Muramasa Souki is predicated on Zen Buddhism, specifically the Sotō school.
Zen Buddhism, specifically
Caveat: I did not grow up on this branch of Buddhism. This portion is study.
Zen Buddhism focuses on the concept of emptiness. To know yourself is to know all your physicalities contrasted with everything else’s physicalities, and to transcend them means becoming nothing at all.
A lot of focus on nature and human spirit and death, bc by contemplating these things you can understand the world and then eventually become one with it and then become nothing.
Soto Buddhism was very well received in samurai culture because it allowed warriors to hone themselves beyond the fear of death. The transience of life in this period became less terrifying and something worth appreciating and acknowledging.
Two Entrances and Four Practices: two paths to enlightenment
Entrance of Principle: Finding your true state/the true nature of everything including you by seeing through the shroud of the world/your mind, and to understand via instruction without needing to physically experience anything. (Pure/mental path; Tonbokiri. Also other Touken Danshi like Juzumaru Tsunetsuga
Entrance of Practice, containing the Four Practices: Acquiring the true nature of everything by experiencing and altering your view of every experience. The practices with which to view them are 1) understand your suffering, 2) accept, 3) seek nothing, and then 4) live it. This is Sengo’s route. Likewise the route for several Touken Danshi, including Yamabushi Kunihiro and Jizou Yukihira.
Show Symbolism
Circle and Square motif in the show
Circle - Tonbokiri, Square - Sengo Muramasa
Circle represents the [heavenly] concepts and wheel of suffering but also implies transcending it. Square represents earth and physical [sin].
They overlap. I dont know the symbolism of that shape specifically.
In english, a “square” is someone too upright, who plays by the rules too strictly and ruins people’s fun. This is tonbokiri to some people. However, in Japanese, a circle means “correct”, and putting Tonbokiri in this place marks him as such compared to the sharpness that is Sengo.
The windows to the changing seasons in the opening
You can see the seasons changing the same through both windows, but the impression is different. It cycles from spring all the way into winter, and the stage opens in darkness. All the lives are the same, but we’re dealing with this one specifically.
Assorted symbolism
Common symbolism in Buddhism that was used in Souki. I could have sources for these. I do not. I read a bunch of books from libraries and these are the accumulations of them. Sorry
Mirrors re: Buddhism
Mirrors reflect the self. The self refracts into pieces that affect each other. You cannot achieve enlightenment without first reflecting on yourself. Mirrors can be corrupted or dirtied, but the goal is to achieve a clear mind and therefore a clear mirror.
Moon re: buddhism
Moon also reflects the self. It is light, it has phases, it can be clouded. It can guide, it can be confusing. Etc. the full clear moon is what someone seeking enlightenment aspires to.
Water re: buddhism
Same thing. Reflects you, affects others and everything, energy flows.
Flowers re:buddhism
Transient lives in the cycle of life. Humans are also thus. Each flower is unique, even within a crowd of them. Even if they only bloom for a moment, the time that they do bloom is precious, because they may bring a moment of peace to someone who is willing to experience it. A reminder of every season and that time passes and our lives pass with it.
Sengo’s kaleidoscope mindscape
It is granted color when he steps into it. It’s round and encompasses him entirely; not unlike the buddhist motifs of lotuses.
Lotuses are symbols in buddhism of transiency but also eternity. They are round, perfectly symmetrical in every direction, and bloom only in clear water but above it. When you trace a lotus, no matter where you start you will arrive at the center and vice versa, which mirrors the Buddhist concept of any path in life can eventually lead to enlightenment if the setup is right. So it is a big part of Buddhist symbolism.
The sound the kaleidoscope makes is staticy, not unlike the sound motif for HRA interference or an abandoned timeline. I feel like this is a out-of-the-realm-of-time sort of thing.
Touch taste sound feel body parts before Tonbo steps in. He does not quite make it all the way in but he’s there anyway.
Something something physicalities of existence. Theres a ref for this i forgot.
In contrast to the vibrancy of the evershifting kaleidoscope, these body parts are grey but repetitively moving, conveying lifeless movement. The brilliance of the soul vs the constraining banal disparities that make up a human body.
Tonbo on the “outside”
Sengo assumes Tonbo’s side of the window is the outside, because he is trapped in himself.
Tonbo, ahead of him in the journey, looks terribly far away. Tonbo’s staunchness in his own self puts him outside of Sengo’s tumultuous heart.
When he rotates outside of the scenery. When he slices the threads. When he’s buffeted by the shadows and wind.
Tonbo does not enter the kaleidoscope, but he arrives at the forest heartscape anyway. He walks, and it brings him to the same place that Sengo is, despite the route being different.
Candle forest dark swamp thats hard to walk in
Life is muddy and unclear and you get lost easily. The trees were like melted wax of towering lives snuffed out, but these lives build other lives.
I've seen the interpretation that it's bamboo or trees. But that translucency and the fabric that drapes lines down it and the sloughed tops, plus the light that blows… candles to me
I’m guessing this is Sengo’s heart scenery. There’s life there but it's hiding or hard to come by, and it takes Sengo reflecting then acknowledging and accepting himself for life to bloom fully in it.
Sengo turned to stone by the flowers that go out
He turns into a spider lily. Spider lilies in Japan are portents of doom or eternal death. Spider lilies in Buddhism don’t have any particular symbolism as far as I’m aware.. They’re indigenous to China. While Chinese buddhism inspired Soto Buddhism quite a bit, I’m not familiar with this specific flower motif there. Anyway,
It’s easy for him to close himself when suffering comes, even if the closing is painful too. There was a life he cherished (Mihotose), and it can end in an instant for unfair reasons. Shutting yourself from the world is a common response to suffering in the Buddhist pov.
Tonbo acknowledges him, and he is not stone. He’s a flower who is alive the same way the others are. This is painful, and he is powerful in his pain (Tonbo is pushed around by the manifestations of it). Lashing out is also a common response to the approach of a guiding hand, in the Buddhist pov.
Flower lights of lives gone by that go out with the wind
Lives are transient. Even if they’re beautiful.
This is a central theme of Musical Touken Ranbu. Mikazuki’s lotus, Kousui’s cherry blossoms, Tokyo Kokoro Oboe’s nameless flower and nameless people.
Shares quite a bit in common with the Buddhist concept as stated above, but that’s most likely due to the influence of Soto Buddhism in samurai culture throughout history. This show just makes it extra big, without making extra obvious somehow.
Segment with the threads
Threads that make up the weave of your life. I don’t know that there’s a buddhist context here.
Tonbo says they’re tangled, which would tie in to the self-reflection/clouded mirror concept mentioned earlier.
He tries to cut them, but they only straighten out, and he follows them to the center where Sengo is again.
Sengo’s many armed buddha
Reference to his crest, and the sutra he references, that represent the thousand hands of the buddha who reaches out in every aspect. Funny because Sengo himself is not the type to reach out, instead withdrawing or remaining out of reach when stressed (see: Mihotose).
Narrative discussion
Tonbo’s question about “itsu en ga owari” which im pretty sure is like, when does suffering/hatred end, which ties to “why do we fight”, and his questions about the seasons and the night
There’s a ton of options for “en”’s kanji. 円 circle, 縁 relationship, 延 continuance, 厭 dislike. Enen 炎炎 Flame is also repeated. “Enen ga ____ wo meguru”, Enen(?) brings ______. Meguru implies a cyclical cause and effect. If you think about them all together in the context of Buddhism, they all imply the cycle of physicality/suffering.
Tonbo puts several things in the blank of that sentence: life, pain, seasons. Phrase-and-response, common in most philosophical thought, where an observation is stated and then interpreted (i forgot what this is actually called it has a name)
In his dialogue in that sequence, he asks about why do we fight, when will the circle end, because hatred begets hatred. That core concept is what’s affecting Sengo, and also the root cause of the HRA that they’ve been born to fight, and the reason that weapons exist. This is visually represented by the HRA sequence as they encroach when he doubts.
But he resolves this by saying that the stars are always there. Even if you can’t see them or you’re closing your eyes, they’re there. Knowing that the light is there is enough. If it’s winter, someday spring will come (wow throwbacks to Sapporo section in SRS18 and Mihotose’s Kazeguruma concept of the wind making the seasons change) and the morning will always come after the night.
This is the benefit of the wheel! You always know where it’s going to go! And so your two choices are to be satisfied within it, or transcend it. And the point of the stars is that you know there’s something above all this. And it’s enough to make you not settle for just the earthly wheel after all.
In this metaphor for buddhism the stars are the original Buddha himself, but also Honda Tadakatsu, whom he was lucky enough to be able to aspire to.
His final resolution is to fight for the sake of the end. Because an end is a new beginning.
This is a central buddhist theme because even if you’re in the wheel of suffering, you can make a choice. You can choose to reduce the suffering in the world, for your own sake and for others. The choice you make changes your path.
This also echoes tkrb’s main concept, as well as Tonbokiri’s 3rd kiwame letter, which is fighting for the sake of the end of the battle against the HRA. Who knows what will become of them then? Even so it’s worth choosing to fight because he is not afraid of a new beginning.
This is also a Honda Tadakatsu influence, because his master was a magnificent warrior who was renowned in war and eventually died peacefully of old age after the war he helped win was over. Tonbo’s own body was shortened as Tadakatsu aged. He’s no stranger to losing a part of your pride as a result of working hard. But he still understands that it’s worth it bc of his master’s incredible example.
This whole sequence illustrates that Tonbo does not need to suffer to reach an enlightened state. He is able to see clearly just by thinking of the lessons hes learned and the world that he is and the world around him. So he is the circle path.
Sengo does not have anyone in his life who is a star for him. This is the start of Tonbo resolving to be one for him. Sengo showing his entire psychosis and how his existence manifests itself as insanity. Tonbo watching, not participating, but allowing him to express it how he needs. And then stepping in to be a part of Sengo’s story too. That is a big hallmark of the Buddhist journey towards enlightenment: that style of guiding and receiving guidance
A cornerstone of buddhist teaching is that you can’t learn something for someone else. That’s why all the teachers seem cryptic and incomprehensible in stories. It doesn’t mean anything unless the person reaches an understanding in themselves
Everyone’s path is theirs alone to walk. By Buddhist principle you cannot carry someone’s suffering for them because in the end everyone is the same and the suffering just kind of remains. Only the bearer/originator can negate it by accepting it in themselves.
So, Tonbo doesn’t help him fight. Instead he stays to be a part of Sengo’s “story”.
The Touken Danshi being made of stories is mostly a Stage concept, but I think it applies to all of Touken Ranbu too.
The darkness trapped in the shapes
This time they’re not looking out at nature, they are trapped in the darkness separately.
On the way here: the audience rotates through all of the scenery we’ve seen so far. Like a reminder of how far they’ve come.
Shapes: The angles make up a sphere. In the same way that the experiences of worldly suffering can build to enlightenment if joined correctly. Something something cocoon something
Having identified themselves and their suffering, this is step 3 of the 4 practices: seek nothing.
Sengo acknowledges the void, but can’t quite bring himself to accept it. Tonbo stands firm, knowing who he is inside and out of it. He is not afraid.
This dialogue is very question-and-answer in the style of most Buddhist philosophical debate between a teacher and a student or a senior and a junior.
When Sengo’s ready to break out, Tonbo is right there ready with him.
The final flowerfield
In the same boggy candle forest that the Muramasas previously got stuck in, are thousands of blooming flowers. Its full of light dangling from the sky, unlike the gloomy place with wisps of transience from the beginning. The original heartscape has gone from dank and dark and full of dangers, to someplace bright and blooming. The bones are the same, but there’s life and peace in it now.
After they first take it in, Sengo says “Yakkai desu ne,” which is like, “It’s troublesome, isn’t it?”. And Tonbo responds, with a touch of joyousness, “That’s life.” And Sengo agrees, and then says he’s going forward. Tonbo says he’ll go too.
In the 4 practices, the 4th practice is to live according to the precepts after gaining the understanding of what that actually means in the context of your life. That’s troublesome for sure. It’s hard to live remembering what really matters, despite all the suffering. But that’s what it means to live, really.
There is peace in that path, and beauty, and a million different lives that are all unique and yet all the same along with you. No matter what the path, everyone is the same life struggling and flourishing anyway. That’s what the flowers are too. That’s what Sengo and Tonbo both arrived at, even if took Sengo a while and Tonbo kind of already knew it.
They too, are a flower among many (Kousui callback, and another central theme of Touken Ranbu) whose life may be transient but is unique and matters because they’re here, right now, and that’s a truth that cannot be changed. Also a central Buddhist idea.
Sengo now has the [confidence, constitution, ability] to walk through it unfettered. To enjoy it, instead of being afraid and haunted or turning to stone.
Also unlike the beginning, instead of Tonbokiri walking off alone separately, they go together. In the end even though they are different and walk different paths, they walk at the same time together. They choose each other despite the circumstances they've found themselves in. They choose to continue fighting as themselves.
Closing
I’m terrible at these.
This is extremely Buddhist. I don’t think it takes place at any specific point in a timeline, although given the Mihotose and Kishou references you can assume it’s post-those. It’s more of a spiritual journey akin to kiwame, without being the traditional sort of kiwame that we associate with Touken Ranbu. It’s also a deeply personal story, that we wouldn’t experience unless it was these two people in conjunction with each other. It uses symbolism to draw on the outside world as their inside world. This story traces this internal conflict of themselves in a deeply contemporary way. Heavy use of symbolism, pretty much no explanation to the audience, and tons of interpretative dance.
It takes serious guts to express a story like this in this way, and for it to resonate so deeply with so many even if they don’t understand at first. In that way, the kaleidoscope concept is conveyed beautifully to the visitors who will want to to come back to see a new aspect every show. And that too, is Buddhism - seeing new aspects of your experiences, to gain a better understanding of you and your world. With this show, by weaving the magic of live theater, the audience is drawn in to the journey of Buddhism too. We all are truly on the path together, no matter our differences. Whether its the path of loving Touken Ranbu or whatever, we’re here by choice and we’re a part of this history we’re weaving together, changing our stories bit by bit. That’s living, if you ask me. If you asked the Buddha he’d probably say the same thing.
Personal opinions:
(Sorry for the abrupt tone change)
All in all its kind of nice to get another deeply Buddhist narrative in the world, and it’s a first for Myu! Nice complement to the Christian themes from Paraiso, even if that one was outside-looking-in.
Can you tell my ultimate fave is Tonbokiri? Boy I hope not because I worked hard to be objective lol. Wasn’t his dancing singing body expression intensity everything amazing? And Sengo! Wow. To everyone who saw this show, welcome to the cult of Muramasa.
Anyway I saw it three times in person, and I’ll be watching once more on stream for closing night, so I might find more things after this. I may update, but I have no idea. I hope you enjoyed? If this is your first time examining Buddhism, welcome! If not, I hope you found something new through the medium of anime theater. God bless the arts.
Thanks for reading!