Hitokiri battousai, a name which struck fear in
the hearts of the shogunate during the waning days of the Edo period. A samurai who lived
in the shadows cutting down threats to the imperialist regime earning himself the title of
the slashing sword, samurai man-killer. There are few anime or manga that encapsulate the heart and
soul of an era like rurouni kenshin, the story is a goldmine of history and culture. Last time we
visited the series, we talked about the meiji restoration and the bakumatsu war, but this time i
wanted to dive into something a little different. What did it mean to be a samurai, and what did
being a samurai mean to kenshin. Picking up a sword and swearing an oath to kill in the
name isn’t something to be taken lightly. Throughout his story we see the effects of this
decision take its toll on Kenshin repeatedly, but he’s not the only one whose samurai past
bleeds into a future ruled by peace and progress. One does not live without a sword if said weapon
breaks, and when kenshin himura walked away from his days of assassination his abandoned
position needed to be filled. But not all swords are created equal, and Makoto Shishio,
while equally deadly, was a double edged blade. Two samurai who held the same position for
the same master; left on extremely different terms. Having lost everything Kenshin
simply walked away. Shishio on the other hand revelled in his position, striking
fear not only in those who met his blade, but his masters who attempted to hold his leash.
During the final campaign of the boshin war, the last civil war before the imperial seat took
over Japan, Shishio was shot in the head by his own side, burned alive and left for dead.
Two legendary assassins, one scarred on the outside, the other on the inside, two
conflicting ideals, two contrasting personalities; were destined to clash in one of the greatest
climaxes in shonen history. Let’s get into it. Guys. As of this video’s launch, pre-orders
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this video, now let’s talk about kenshin. By the time we meet Kenshin, the true samurai is
a thing of the past. The class was dissolved by the meiji government and what was left... were
men that were shells of their former selves. Ironically, until the time kenshin and shishio
fought for the imperialists during the bakumatsu and the boshin war, samurai hadn’t really
been needed for their main purpose: warfare, for over 200 years. The edo period,
which preceded the meiji restoration, was a time of unprecedented peace brought on
by our old buddies: the tokugawa shogunate. However the story of the samurai which led to
the decisive battle between shishio and kenshin started long before the tokugawa came to power
in the early 1600’s. Beginning back in 1185 AD a ruling class of warriors came to power during
the feudal era of japan who would become known as the samurai. These elite soldiers would
protect their lords and Japan as a whole with their blades and their lives. These warriors
would continue to maintain the country alongside the shogun and the daimyo for 676 years. So
not only were kenshin and shishio samurai, but they were the last remaining members of a
pedigree that ran for over half a millenium. In the 1896 book, “feudal and modern
japan” Arthur may knapp wrote: “The samurai of thirty years ago had behind him
a thousand years of training in the law of honor, obedience, duty, and self-sacrifice ... It
was not needed to create or establish them. As a child he had but to be instructed,
as indeed he was from his earliest years, in the etiquette of self immolation,”
Despite their heritage when the two finally cross swords there is a missing
factor that changes everything. A samurai is nothing without a lord to serve.
While fierce warriors, samurai were also public figures, basically nobles. In feudal Japan
things were run by class, and the samurai were far up on the food chain. They had money,
status, and a strict code of honor to adhere to. Their swords weren’t just weapons, but status
symbols that protected them from their enemy, shielded their lord, and garnered respect
from those beneath them on the social chain. They were police, soldiers, body guards,
the fingers on the hand of their ruler. Ironically, like their former status of
imperialist hitokiri, shishio and kenshin’s swords also have the same origin, both made by the
master swordsmith arai shakku. Shishio’s mugenjin is the most deadly of swords, self sharpening,
bathed in flammable body fat from his countless victims, vicious and serrated it was a sword of
death. Kenshin’s sakabato shinuchi is a plain reverse blade sword of incredible strength, but
almost impossible to kill with. Two different swords made by the same hands for two different
people with two different purposes to serve. However, Kenshin left his lord behind when he
was done killing. He no longer belonged to the meiji regime, nor to anyone else. It’s a sense of
purpose that was left behind along with his honor, for there was nothing more shameful than
abandoning your lord. Shishio on the other hand was betrayed by his lord and given a shameful,
dishonorable and cowardly death. A wound that did nothing to dissipate his power hungry and
sociopathic tendencies. And while these two men hate each other, there is a certain sympathy
they must feel for one another having lost their purpose and being tasked with creating
a new one for themselves. It’s much easier to be told what to do than to think for yourself.
Part of being a samurai was spiritual in nature. It takes a lot to dedicate your entire being to
a cause. Dedication to the point of willingly committing seppuku or personal disembowelment
in the name of your own honor or the honor of your master. This was something that had to
be done, guilty or not of any crime if it was commanded of you, and something done willingly if
a samurai felt his honor was in question. To live and to die by the sword takes an almost inhuman
level of devotion. This devotion was eventually summed up in the term Bushido; a word meant
to describe the many and varied facets of the samurai code and way of life, the way of warriors.
While kenshin and shishio had no masters to pledge their swords to, they none-the-less had the same
kind of single mindedness attributed to samurai nature, though for extremely different
ends. Kenshin, after years of bloodshed, watching the life burn out in people’s eyes
as he removed his blade from their bodies, only wished for peace and to atone for what he
saw as his wrong doing. Hence the symbolism of his sakabato or reversed blade sword. A blade
turned inward at himself, a constant threat against the hitokiri that lived in his soul.
Shishio on the other hand saw his killing as less of an obligation and more of a divine
right. As someone with power he could use that power as he pleased to control those weaker
than him, or eliminate them entirely. As such he used the philosophy of social darwinism
and the chaos of anarchism as an excuse to wage war on the new meiji government,
seeing it as weak and inferior to himself; a structure not fit for the proud nation of Japan
which, for so long, maintained its independence with ingenuity and pure willpower. While kenshin
saw this peaceful government as a way forward, a way for the disenfranchised to rise up
and have an opportunity for a better life, shishio saw it as an insult to those who had
the strength to do it on their own. A disgrace to the proud nation of Japan. While in extreme
contrast, both views are absolutely sincere. Bushido, while esoteric is wholly defined by the
action of sincerity. There are many facets to the code, but sincerity is by far of the utmost
importance. The structure of eastern thought is vastly different from western thought, and
by that I mean the way these two cultures view every little thing in the world has differing
significances. Bushido practice is governed by four ruling philosophies, shintoism, zen
buddhism, confucianism, and taoism. Ironically the core fundamentals of zen, taoism and
shinto are in stark contrast with those of confucianism. Namely that Confucianism deals
with extremely material facets of heavenly being, whereas the rest require far more spiritual
practice. However, all of them have an explicit emphasis on sincerity, honesty, and right action.
Right action is the most difficult to explain, but simply put it’s the act of acting without
premeditation. It is doing the right thing without considering it first, being true to yourself in
the basest of nature while remaining sincere, honest, and morally virtuose is a sign of an
enlightened person. Sincerity is the difference between doing something and being something.
These practices coupled with the rigid social honor and respect of confucianism
brought wisdom and serenity to men who lived an otherwise violent life.
What we see in Kenshin and shishio is this practice in two lights. Kenshin is a reformed
assassin, a pacifist who wishes to never commit violence again. Yet when faced with being the
only man in Japan who stands a chance of stopping Shishio, he confronts him head on. It could be
said that his new master is peace. While viewed as a ronin, a disgraceful ex-samurai who wanders
aimlessly, in truth kenshin has maintained his bushido practice for a higher purpose, pledging
himself to an idea or concept in line with those teachings. On the other hand the same could be
said for shishio. However his new master is only himself and his desires. In this way the fight
between shishio and kenshin can be seen as an allegory to christ and satan. Both men have the
same father figure of the imperial military, the god figure in this example. One left to protect
the rules and wishes of that reigning power while the other wishes to violently upheave it. And as
we see, like lucifer, shishio is cast into hell. “As a child he had but to be instructed,
as indeed he was from his earliest years, in the etiquette of self immolation,”
It is much easier to fight for a goal than it is to maintain the status quo. Ambition
and desire fuels passion and power, and in the conflict between kenshin and shishio, shishio is
clearly superior, driven by aggression. However, his past punishment of being lit on fire left him
with a severe handicap, his pores had been fused together leaving him without the ability to sweat.
Not being able to regulate his body temperature, excessive action could lead to severe
consequences. Normally this would be something like a stroke or brain damage, normal consequences
of having, essentially a fever. However, with his hatred and ambitions brimming he meets
kenshin’s hiten mitsurugi ryu head on again and again only to inevitably spontaneously combust.
They say that passions, ambitions, or hatred can consume you. Kenshin was a samurai to the end,
his defensive blade was all he needed to defeat the monstrous shishio. However, the same thing
could be argued for shishio. While his master was his own greed he gave it the dedication and
sincerity befitting of the way of the warrior. He fought his predecessor and philosophical
enemy head on as a warrior with duty and self sacrifice. But in the end he failed to uphold the
wisdom and serenity required of a true samurai following the path of bushido, and thusly
practiced the etiquette, of self immolation.
