Demon Sword Dance
Book 2 of the Dororo Novel Series
Toriumi Jinzō
Part 2 - Nihil, the Demon Sword
Chapter 2
Misaka Pass was the highest point on the Tōsandō highway connecting Ina District in Shinano Province with Ena District in Mino Province. Signs still remained of Minamoto no Yoritomo's subjugation of the eastern provinces in the 1100s. The roads were wide and well-kept.
Nuinosuke kept to the deep forests along the mountain road and paused to catch his breath. His objective was to cross into Mino Province without being seen. He asked the local monks for directions at the nearby village of Seinaiji.
Based on the monks' information, Nuinosuke decided to travel along the Sonohara River Valley toward Mino. The way was very steep and difficult going, but most of it was thick with trees and full of places to hide. He made camp under trees with roots so thick they concealed his form when he slept and caught rabbits and raccoon dogs for food. Whenever he stumbled across any of the mountain's inhabitants, he killed them and stole their food and belongings.
When Nuinosuke finally reached the border of Mino Province, he was not the same Sabame Nuinosuke that had fled from Ina Valley. He stood at the foot of Mount Ena, wasted and thin with his hair dirty and disheveled. The muscles of his face were pulled taut over the bones of his skull. The light in his eyes was fierce and sharp like a wild animal's. His emotional state veered between blank emptiness and revulsion at what he had done. Nihil alone made him feel supported and safe.
Nuinosuke stopped at a tavern in Nakatsugawa, a village along the side of the road. Two well-off samurai sat inside, drinking sake from fancy bowls. If Nuinosuke had to guess, he would say that they were probably planning to cross the mountains into Shinano Province.
A lot of people traveled the roads through the mountains in those days. Soldiers were stationed all along it. People often stopped at shrines to make offerings to the gods in exchange for a safe journey.
When the two samurai left the tavern to resume their journey through the woods, Nuinosuke followed them.
"Wait!" Nuinosuke called out.
The samurai turned and observed Nuinosuke with dubious frowns. They assumed he was some sort of mountain man and answered Nuinosuke rudely.
"What do you want?"
"Can you spare any loose change?" Nuinosuke asked as he drew nearer.
"And who are you, to speak to us on equal terms?" the samurai said contemptuously.
"Leave us be," the other said, drawing his sword to threaten Nuinosuke.
The moment Nihil left its scabbard, both samurai fell dead to the forest floor, slashed through at the gut by the sword's sharp blade. Nuinosuke dragged their corpses into a bamboo thicket, stripped off their clothes and helped himself to their money pouches.
How many people have I killed so far...?
While descending the mountain along the line of the Kiso River, Nuinosuke's appearance changed completely. Everyone who saw him assumed that he was an escaped prisoner or a madman and gave him a wide berth. He stopped at an inn in Tarui to rest.
Tarui was a city in Mino. It was located at a major crossroads, so it was a common stopping point for travelers on the Tōsandō Road. In May of 1221, the third year of the Jōkyū Era, Emperor Toba passed through Tarui with his army to unite with the forces of the Kamakura shogunate. During the Northern and Southern Courts period in the mid-1300s, Emperor Go-Kōgon fled to Tarui during a period of great political uproar in the capital. A temporary imperial lodging had been built to accommodate the Emperor-in-residence that was still in existence.
It was a cold spring night, so cold that it felt like winter. Nuinosuke awoke to the sound of the wind howling. He shivered.
Will there be a blizzard?
The moonlight was hazy. Thick mist covered the ground. There was no wind, though Nuinosuke could have sworn that he'd heard it before waking. Light from the inn room's low fire reflected off of Nihil, which was next to him.
Did the sword make that noise? The room was utterly still and silent. There was no one else moving or talking nearby. Nuinosuke arose swiftly from his futon and picked up Nihil. He fell to his knees as the urgent desire to kill overcame him in a powerful wave.
"Nuinosuke, I've been ordered to kill you."
Nuinosuke recognized the voice as Ito Kennōjō's. More than twenty years had passed since he'd last heard it, but he would never mistake it for anyone else's. Ito Kennōjō was a disciple of Akamatsu Sanshuza, who learned the Nen-ryū fighting style directly from the famed warrior monk Jion.1
Ito Kennōjō had started training with Akamatsu Sanshuza when he was seven years old. When he was ten, he went to Mount Kurama and learned other sword techniques from mysterious beings who lived there, which formed the basis of his new Hōgan-ryū style.
Kennōjō had trained Nuinosuke in the Nen-ryū fighting style. Though much time had passed since those days, Ito Kennōjō was still considered the best swordsman in Shinano Province. It was said that he could take on ten men at once and kill them all before receiving so much as a scratch. When Nuinosuke was training with him, he was jealous of Ito's skill and the high esteem that he was held in.
Hearing Kennōjō's voice had a completely different effect from hearing the voices of the common carpenters and farmers that he'd killed. He couldn't ignore it; he felt compelled to listen.
Nuinosuke turned in the direction of Kennōjō's voice and saw a shadow crouched in the corner of the room.
"I have one question for you before I kill you," Kennōjō said. "Why did you kill Lord Tanaka and his family? His wife and daughter couldn't possibly have done anything wrong."
Nuinosuke smiled bitterly. "I listened to the will of the sword that Lord Arimune gave to me."
Nuinosuke moved without choosing to, leaping to his feet and cutting Kennōjō's throat in a sudden spray of blood. This, too, was the will of the sword. Nuinosuke had no special desire to kill Ito, but Nihil was the fulcrum and support for Nuinosuke's entire existence.
Nuinosuke felt a strange sense of purpose and resolve within himself as Kennōjō stared up at him from the floor. Hatred burned in his eyes. Somehow, he was still alive.
Nihil's wild and insurmountable will overwhelmed Nuinosuke. All he wanted to do was kill the man in front of him.
Kennōjō clung fiercely to his sword, but couldn't prevent Nuinosuke from cutting his stomach open with Nihil. Kennōjō's blood splashed onto the walls of the inn room as he went limp.
***
After that, Nuinosuke went to Kyōto. It was the second year since the Ōnin War had broken out, 1468, in March. His arrival in the city coincided with Hyakkimaru's meeting with Taga Takatada. Taga Takatada had given Hyakkimaru a detailed report of samurai families that included the name Daigo Kagemitsu in exchange for Hyakkimaru's military service to Honekawa Dōken, an old friend of Takatada's.
The fighting between the Eastern Army and Western Army in the capital had nothing at all to do with Nuinosuke. Lord Arimune Ogasawara didn't throw his support behind any army, either, choosing to wait and see how the situation developed.
Nuinosuke hoped to make a name for himself in the city and restore his own honor and reputation, but Nihil had completely different plans. The sword had been with him when his lord had commanded him to slaughter innocents. It wasn't done changing his life yet.
Shortly after his arrival in Kyōto, Nuinosuke traveled south of the Kamo River Dispensary, staying near the riverbank. There was an inn close by where many merchants stayed, since it was close enough to the capital to do business and far enough away from the fighting to be relatively safe. Nuinosuke chose to stay at the inn for similar reasons. He would be safer there than in the city and it was easy to procure anything that he lacked for a modest price.
Nuinosuke had come to understand Nihil's will after killing Ito. He believed that the shrill sound like the wind howling had been Nihil. The sword had used the sound to warn him of danger. All Nihil ever truly wanted was blood: it simply borrowed Nuinosuke's hands to attain it. Still, the sword seemed to have an interest in keeping him alive. He did keep it well-supplied with blood wherever they went. Whenever he picked up the sword, he felt strong and brave and ultimately powerful.
Keeping Nihil sated in Kyōto was easy. At night, when Nihil howled for blood, Nuinosuke left the inn and entered the city. The streets were always full of fighting. The battles that raged between the Eastern Army and the Western Army never ceased. Nuinosuke held no allegiance to either side, so he was free to cut down soldiers indiscriminately as he saw fit.
But Nuinosuke didn't only kill soldiers. He killed anyone in his path who would make an easy target—drifters, the unemployed, the city's poor. He justified himself by thinking that it was their fate to die, since they lived in a war zone. If he didn't kill them, someone else would eventually.
Eventually, Nuinosuke's activities caught the attention of the Eastern and Western Armies. Patrols of archers and foot soldiers appeared around Nuinosuke's favorite haunts. There was a price on his head, put there by city officials. Even the quiet inn away from the city where Nuinosuke stayed was no longer safe.
Nuinosuke had no reason to linger when it would be easier to simply move on. He headed toward Lake Biwa along the cliffs to the northeast of Kyōto at the beginning of April. After crossing the Arachi Mountain Pass, he encountered more fighting between the Eastern and Western Armies and resumed his usual activities. He met Hyakkimaru for the first time on the battlefield soon after that.
***
The sun sank behind the mountain. Nuinosuke turned off on a little-used side road and searched for an inn or a place to make camp. He heard the sound of clanging metal from somewhere nearby. When he investigated the sound, he found a blacksmith's forge.
Impromptu forges such as this one were a common sight these days. Everyone seemed to need weapons all the time. This particular forge had been established during the time of the Kamakura shogunate and had something of a local reputation in Ezichen Province. Three sword makers from Kyōto's prestigious Awataguchi Clan had established it in 1314. Their aim was to make swords well and cheaply. The forge was located close enough to the capital to make a tidy profit in these turbulent times.
Japan's earliest forges were shrines dedicated to Amatsumara, the god of blacksmiths.2 Many smithing techniques were traded between Japan and Korea during Japan's failed invasion attempts in the third and fourth centuries. These wars also created a need for more blacksmiths, so they soon sprung up everywhere. Forges were especially prevalent in the provinces of Yamashiro, Yamato, Bizen, Sagami, and Mino.
Manufacture of specifically Japanese swords using homegrown techniques reached full development during the time of the Kamakura shogunate. Many famous warriors during that time were also blacksmiths.
Nuinosuke stood at the entrance to the forge and peeked in.
It looked like a shrine. The floor was packed earth and an altar to the gods stood right in the entrance, decorated with prayer ropes. Two apprentices stood along the wall where the forge stood, watched over by their aged master as they struck sparks from tempered steel. The apprentices' faces were bright red. They were naked to the waist and sweating.
One of the swords they were making was close to completion. The old master commanded his apprentice to quench the blade in cold water. Nuinosuke entered into the forging room as if in a trance and watched the men work. Nihil was a sword like any other, so it must have been made in just this way.
Who made Nihil? Nuinosuke wondered.
Lord Arimune had claimed that Nihil was a famous sword, but Nuinosuke knew nothing of its history. He was consumed by the sudden urge to know.
"Can I help you with something?" the old blacksmith asked.
Nuinosuke said nothing in reply. After a moment, he unsheathed Nihil and showed it to the blacksmith.
"I want to know how this sword was forged," Nuinosuke said.
The old blacksmith glanced at Nihil dismissively, but then he stood up straight and took a closer look. He called over his apprentices.
"May we examine the sword more closely?" the old blacksmith asked Nuinosuke.
When Nuinosuke nodded, the blacksmith removed Nihil from its scabbard.
"Is it one of the swords you made here?" Nuinosuke asked.
The old blacksmith shook his head. "It was made in the Ōuei Era, in Bizen. Seems to be the work of Chiyotsuru Kuniyasu,3 or one of his disciples."
"Is its history really so grand as all that?" Nuinosuke asked.
The old blacksmith didn't answer. He was looking at the scabbard. "This red scabbard is very strange," he said. He looked the sword up and down, examining it from every angle, then looked at the scabbard again. "If I had to guess, I would say that this is one of Muramasa's."
"Muramasa? Is that who made it?" Nuinosuke asked.
This was the moment when he learned some of Nihil's history. It was why he recognized Hyakkimaru's sword as another Muramasa sword when they met. Nuinosuke didn't know Hyakkimaru's name, of course, but he couldn't be mistaken about his sword.
"It seems like it's gotten around," the old blacksmith said. "Might have even gone overseas and back."
Muramasa's swords were highly prized; he had an excellent reputation as a swordsmith. The maker's mark was on the back of the blade, plain for all to see.
"I see the mark there," Nuinosuke said. "Is it Muramasa's?"
"It could be," the old blacksmith said, squinting. "It's from one of his forges in Ise, but I can't tell if it's one of his or Masamune's."4
Masamune was the most prominent swordsmith of the Kamakura Period. Some people said that he’d worked for the shogunate itself, although those these claims were hard to verify. He rarely signed his work. Only three famous swords had been signed by him for certain: Fudo Masamune, Kyōgoku Masamune, and Daikoku Masamune. Muramasa was Masamune's contemporary and shared many of his habits when it came to making and signing his swords.
"So who made it?" Nuinosuke asked. "Muramasa or Masamune?"
"Like I said, I'm not sure. You might test the steel to find out."
"Test the steel?"
"Muramasa swords are made of Takamoto steel, which are sensitive to spiritual and demonic energies. Take the sword to holy ground and place the tip of the blade facing northeast. If the blade twists to the southwest, that's a sign of an evil spirit inhabiting the blade."
Nuinosuke's eyes widened. "An evil spirit? Is this a cursed blade?"
The old swordsmith nodded. "I believe so."
"What?"
The swordsmith handed Nihil back to Nuinosuke with a severe frown. "That is a bloodthirsty sword. It cries out to drink the blood of men. The fault lies in the steel, and in where its owners carried it—"
The old swordsmith was dead before he finished speaking.
I didn't kill him. Nihil made me kill him.
When Nuionosuke met the young man on the battlefield just beyond the Arachi Mountain Pass, he recognized the young man's sword for exactly what it was.
That young man's sword has something in it that is powerful and evil, just like Nihil. But why?
***
Nuinosuke was traveling along the Hino River at dusk when he heard the voice of a man singing, carried on the wind. "The wind blows to the east, and it rains in the west. If the fickle wind carries my scent..."
The road that Nuinosuke used was not much traveled. It was more than half-overgrown by trees and underbrush. Several days had passed since Nuinosuke had killed the old blacksmith, but he'd seen no sign of pursuit from the authorities or the man's disciples and apprentices. The authorities likely had no leeway to hunt him down. This was a war zone and there were no men or resources to spare.
The man who was singing must be somewhere nearby, but his voice was faint. His voice became louder as he came into view: it was a blind monk carrying a lute. He appeared to be entirely alone. Nuinosuke selected his routes to minimize the number of people he would encounter. He knew that there were no towns or villages nearby. What was this monk doing here?
Nuinosuke and the monk passed each other by like two leaves blowing in opposite directions. Nuinosuke felt overwhelmed by the desire to kill.
Nuinosuke drew Nihil and attacked as fast as thought, but his blade bit only air. He looked around in astonishment and discovered that the monk had completely disappeared.
"Hehehe." The monk chuckled in amusement. He stood above Nuinosuke on a rocky outcropping.
Nuinosuke maintained his solid overhand grip on Nihil and glared up at the monk. "Impressive. Aren't you blind?"
"I could see your insides from miles off."
"See?" Nuinosuke was confused.
"The wind tells me everything I need to know," the monk said. "I can see into the heart of that cursed blade as easily as I can see into your own."
"Huh?"
The monk leaped lightly off the rocky outcropping and landed directly in front of Nuinosuke. Nuinosuke faced him squarely, sword still raised. "Are you saying that you can see the sword's true nature?"
The monk chuckled again. "You'd be surprised at the things that a blind man can see. This particular blind man is called Hōichi. You appear to be a noble samurai, but that sword has made you do terrible things. You should throw it away and atone for your crimes before it's too late."
"Too late?"
"That sword can kill you as easily as it kills everyone else."
Nuinosuke gripped the sword harder. "What do you know about Nihil?"
Hōichi looked up at Nuinosuke and narrowed his white eyes in scorn. "You reek of blood, and yet the sword desires more—it will always desire more."
"Keep talking, old man." Nuinosuke's face was red with rage. "This sword can kill you as easily as it kills everyone else." He brought the sword down over the monk's bald pate, but this time, his sword contacted steel. He heard a sharp clang and stumbled back a step.
Hōichi lifted his cane above his head with a flourish. There was a thin blade hidden inside it, which he had just revealed.
A chill went up Nuinosuke's spine. He stood frozen in shock. No one had ever stopped a strike from Nihil before—and until today, no one had dodged one, either. Hōichi's sword was long and thin; it shouldn't be strong enough to deflect Nihil.
Hōichi's laugh was almost a giggle. "A Kuniyasu blade won't dent so easily to the likes of Nihil," he said. He remembered the young man he'd met who had carried a similar sword to Nihil.
"Using a sword is entirely dependent on state of mind," Hōichi said. "That is what will decide a battle between cursed and demonically possessed swords of this kind. If you live, we may meet again. Goodbye."
Hōichi sheathed his thin blade, then kept walking past Nuinosuke as if he didn't have a care in the world. He sang the same song that he had sung before.
"The wind blows to the east, and it rains in the west. If the fickle wind carries my scent..."
Nuinosuke watched Hōichi go. He snorted. "Impudent wretch." He pretended nonchalance, but what he truly felt was shame. He had allowed that old blind monk to shame him. He was so disgusted at himself that it took him a few moments to regain his composure.
Night fell like a curtain on the mountain. Nuinosuke was close to Takefu. He found a narrow trail leading up from the riverbank onto much higher ground. After traveling along the trail for a few minutes, he heard many voices raised in song. A temple or a village must be near.
Nuinosuke saw torchlight filtering through the trees in front of him. There were so many torches and the voices were so loud that Nuinosuke assumed some sort of festival was going on. He stood in the shadow of a sawtooth oak tree and observed.
The villagers and elders were gathered on the outskirts of a settlement along the riverbank. They were shouting and dancing as if they were trying to repel evil spirits. The scattered torchlight looked like fireflies in the darkness at this distance.
Suddenly, Nuinosuke smelled something intoxicating. It wasn't musky like body odor or oily like ambergris, but it wasn't a sweet or perfumed scent, either. It was the kind of smell that acted as a lure to draw men in.
Nuinosuke, too, was drawn in. He walked toward the wafting scent unthinkingly for a few moments before he realized what he was doing and stopped. In the sawtooth oak tree next to him, there was a pure white gypsy moth chrysalis connected to the tree by many delicate silken threads.
"That's a maimai moth," a young woman said. She was standing only a little distance away from Nuinosuke in the shadow of a plum tree.
Nuinosuke turned toward her. With the festival going on, it was unbecoming for a woman to be standing off in the woods alone. She had the distant air of a court lady or a shrine maiden.
The woman approached Nuinosuke, showing no fear. "If you touch it, it will sting you. The moths are poisonous." She smiled calmly.
As she drew closer, Nuinosuke noticed that she was the source of the alluring smell. The cocoon of the maimai moth shook on its tree branch, though there was no wind.
The woman wore court clothing embroidered all over with swallowtail butterflies done in gold thread. Her hair was as black and shiny as a crow's wing. The hairpins she wore were metal and formed into the shape of flowers. Her face was thin and pale. Her dark eyes were large and perfectly shaped. Her lips were a deep red and slightly puckered. In the dim light of the torches, she looked otherworldly, like a creature from the spirit world.
Nuinosuke felt cold through, though it was hard to say why. The woman was chillingly beautiful, and maimai moths were usually a sign of ill omen.
Something about the woman reminded him of his betrothed, Tanaka Sayo. They would have been married less than three months from now, if she had lived. In the spring of the year before his flight from Shinano Province, Nuinosuke met Sayo at the Achi River and traveled to Yama-dera5 with her on horseback. Since they were to be married soon, their parents didn't object to them going together.
Yama-dera was a temple complex cut into the mountains from the east to the west. The buildings were at different elevations along the path. There were statues and temple halls devoted to Kannon, goddess of mercy, Tamon-ten, god of warriors and guardian of the north, Kōmoku-ten, guardian of the west,6 and Zoujō-ten, guardian of the south.7 There were also statues of Amida Buddha. Sayo wanted to visit the temple complex to see all of the beautiful art.
Sayo and Nuinosuke had a lovely visit. During their journey home, they sat near the edge of a gorge near the Tenryū River for a rest. They lay back in the tall spring grass and joined together for the first time.
The woman standing before Nuinosuke now reminded him of that day. He could almost feel Sayo in his arms, like a half-remembered dream.
But the woman was clearly not Sayo—not like her at all. But her scent and her eyes and her strange beauty attracted him all the same.
"It's a pine torch dance ritual," the woman said, nodding toward the village. "They intend to burn all the moths before they emerge from their cocoons." An expression like hatred flitted across her face, but she composed herself quickly. Nuinosuke didn't notice any change in her demeanor at all. He stared at her like he was witnessing some kind of vision or hallucination.
The woman wasn't looking at Nuinosuke. Her attention was given entirely to the villagers and their torches. Most of the villagers had fled Kyōto or their homes after losing them to the fires of war elsewhere. The burning of Shōkoku Temple in particular displaced many people, including the famous monk and scholar Zuikei Shuho. The recreant monk Ikkyū Sōjun was also forced to flee the Katsuroan Temple. Temple ruins were picked clean and the ruined building materials that remained behind were used as firewood. The monk poets Osen Keisan, Tōgen Zuisen, and Banri Shūku barely escaped from Kyōto with their lives.
The Emperor's leading court noble Ichijō Kanera fled to Nara with his family and his retinue. The chief court advisor, Ichijō Masafusa, followed his cousin to Nara shortly after. Inner Minister Kujō Masatada called his family together and relocated to Yamato Province. Nobles, scholars, priests and peasants all had been scattered to the wind like leaves blowing down the road before the onset of winter.
The woman standing in front of Nuinosuke appeared to be from a noble house. She had likely fled from the capital after the start of the Ōnin War, just like so many others. She tore her gaze from the villagers and offered Nuinosuke a kind smile.
"Excuse me," he said, "but I'm a traveling samurai looking for a place to stay. Do you know of any inns nearby?"
"You seem to have lost your way," the woman said. "This is a poor farming community. I doubt anyone is rich enough to allow you to stay, and there are no inns."
"I understand. I'll try to make it to Takefu, then, though my legs might give out from exhaustion before I reach it."
Nuinosuke said this, but he made no move to leave. He found it difficult to believe that a woman like this, who was clearly wealthy and of high standing, would live among poor farmers instead of on her own estate. He was intrigued by her and he wanted to know more. He would go to Takefu if he had to, but he would prefer to indulge his curiosity a bit more.
"Forgive me for asking, but do you live around here, miss?"
Her smile was bewitching. "I do. Is it really half a year already since I came here? I've been imposing on the villagers for most of that time."
"You appear to be from the capital," Nuinosuke said. "Did you lose your home there and come to this village?"
The woman laughed. "You guess well. You are right that there is no inn for you between here and Takefu. Are you thinking to pass the night at my estate, then?"
Nuinosuke was aware of how strange an offer this was. She had only just met him. She had no reason to offer him a place to stay. "I feel that if I did that, I would be inexcusably rude."
She laughed again. "Not when I have offered," she said. "I find the quality of the conversation around here somewhat dull. My days pass in lonely solitude with no one interesting to talk to. I would hear tales of your travels. That is how you can pay for your lodging at my estate."
The woman started walking a little ahead of Nuinosuke. He followed her without even thinking about it.
"A thousand thanks, miss. I will not stay longer than tonight, I assure you."
Nuinosuke was not usually so easily tempted by the sight of a beautiful woman. He didn't know what attracted him so powerfully to her. He gripped Nihil's hilt for reassurance and followed the woman back to her estate.
Translator's Notes
1 Jion was a monk during the Northern and Southern Courts Period (14th century) of Japan. His full name was Nenami Okuyama Jion (he was born Sōma Shiro Yoshimoto, but adopted the Buddhist name Jion later in life). Jion was the founder of the Nen-ryū fighting style, famous for the simple saying "Strike with the left arm extended." Jion's fourteen disciples shared his teachings to fourteen different regions. Even the famous swordsman Miyamoto Musashi is said to have followed some of Jion's fighting principles. ↩
2 Amatsumara is the god of ironworking and blacksmiths. The name Amatsumara means ma-ura ("eye divination"), which some believe means "one-eyed," in reference to the hazard of blacksmiths.↩
3 Chiyotsuru Kuniyasu was a famous swordsmith who was active from the end of the Kamakura Period to the Northern and Southern Court Period in the 1390s.↩
4 Masamune (c. 1264–1343), also known as Gorō Nyūdō Masamune, was a medieval Japanese blacksmith who is widely recognized as Japan's greatest swordsmith. He created swords and daggers. However, many of his forged swords were made into katana by cutting the tang in later times. No exact dates are known for Masamune's life. It is generally agreed that he made most of his swords between 1288 and 1328. While he and Muramasa, a contemporary, are often compared, the two men never actually met.↩
5 Yama-dera is the popular name for the Buddhist temple of Risshaku-ji (立石寺) located northeast of modern-day Yamagata City in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. The temple has been a place for pilgrimage for centuries, and is designated as both a Place of Scenic Beauty and as a National Historic Site. The temple buildings clinging to the steep, forested, rocky hillsides are picturesque and unusual. ↩
6 Kōmoku-ten is the guardian of the western direction and one of the four Deva Kings. He possesses the divine eye, which allows him to see great distances as well as the karma of sentient beings. ↩
7 Zoujō-ten is a major deity in Buddhism. He is one of the Four Deva Kings. The name Zoujō-ten comes from the Sanskrit term, which refers to sprouting grain. As such, his name means "increase" or "growth."Zoujō-ten is the guardian of the southern direction.↩
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