RK crackpot theory, once again
Apr. 23rd, 2009 02:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wombat1138Note: the reason I consider this a crackpot theory is that however delightful it is to see all of these historical details falling into place around it, I doubt very much that Watsuki or the animators deliberately researched them or even consciously had them in mind. IMHO it's just my own attempt to fill in Kenshin's early background with a personal fanon that makes sense to me. (I don't have a personal religious stake in this; although I was raised vaguely Catholic, I bailed before Confirmation and ended up with the firm conviction that if there is a God, he apparently decided that I would be a better person if I didn't believe in him.)
Over the weekend, I spotted and snapped up an actual physical copy of the Whelan book I'd found through Google a while back, and had mentioned in this earlier entry. It's a translated and annotated compilation of the Bible via Kakure Kirishitan communities on Kyushu, the southernmost major island of Japan.
It's... a very odd document. It was originally seeded near the beginning of the Tokugawa regime by Catholic missionaries from Portugal, sometimes struggling to convey certain words, names, and concepts to their Japanese converts; these converts and their families then passed down the stories by oral tradition over the next few centuries. Whelan spliced about ten different versions together into a single continuous narrative, which is still surprisingly brief and covers only the most major events in the Bible.
The book provided several new Google keywords for me to pursue, leading to this site of independent research about the Kakure Kirishitan traditions. There's a lengthy page of interview transcripts; this section is particularly intriguing. It's about a church that was built by one of those traditional communities after Christianity was decriminalized.
1.) The previous generations of family graves were moved down from the mountains to the churchyard; with all of the graves facing east-- apparently significant as representing a specifically Christian concept of the directionality of Paradise, as opposed to the Western Paradise of Buddhism. In some cases, new grave markers were set up; in others, the old ones were brought down.
2.) From earlier in the interview:
Pictures of these locations can be found here; one caption adds, "This stylized depiction of a camellia as a cross is unique to this region of Japan."
(As yet another crackpot element, factor in the common "death" taboo associated with the number four wrt the petals of the stylized camellia-cross, as well as the more standard symbolism of red camellias = death in battle, generally explained wrt the blossom falling all in one piece like a severed head.)
Over the weekend, I spotted and snapped up an actual physical copy of the Whelan book I'd found through Google a while back, and had mentioned in this earlier entry. It's a translated and annotated compilation of the Bible via Kakure Kirishitan communities on Kyushu, the southernmost major island of Japan.
It's... a very odd document. It was originally seeded near the beginning of the Tokugawa regime by Catholic missionaries from Portugal, sometimes struggling to convey certain words, names, and concepts to their Japanese converts; these converts and their families then passed down the stories by oral tradition over the next few centuries. Whelan spliced about ten different versions together into a single continuous narrative, which is still surprisingly brief and covers only the most major events in the Bible.
The book provided several new Google keywords for me to pursue, leading to this site of independent research about the Kakure Kirishitan traditions. There's a lengthy page of interview transcripts; this section is particularly intriguing. It's about a church that was built by one of those traditional communities after Christianity was decriminalized.
1.) The previous generations of family graves were moved down from the mountains to the churchyard; with all of the graves facing east-- apparently significant as representing a specifically Christian concept of the directionality of Paradise, as opposed to the Western Paradise of Buddhism. In some cases, new grave markers were set up; in others, the old ones were brought down.
Even though not all of the graves have Crosses, from and look as if there is no connection with Christianity, it is still possible to tell they have a certain feeling.[...]... this is only something that a person who understands Christianity can comprehend. Before they had a cross, at their ancestor's grave in the mountains. When they brought all of those graves over here, they changed it into this way.Note that when Hiko finds Shinta again, the setting sun is on the far side of the field. I'd have to watch that scene again to triangulate Shinta with the girls' gravestone, assuming that he's in "front" of their grave, but certainly at the end when Hiko sees Tomoe's scarf there, it's tied as if facing east. Also, I'm still not sure whether there's a historical basis for Shinta constructing all of those crosses out of sticks as grave markers; the interview is referring to stone markers with small crosses carved into them. Although it's possible that wooden markers were constructed and simply decayed away, leaving only the more durable stones, big obvious crosses would've been a dead giveaway to any enforcers who passed by.
2.) From earlier in the interview:
"Also take a look at the stained glass. It has the shape of a cross, but what exactly is it? A pattern of a flower. but what flower?"
"Isn't it a Camellia (tsubaki)?"
"The camellia has five petals [in botanical fact] but that it is portrayed in an abstract style to match the shape of a cross."
Pictures of these locations can be found here; one caption adds, "This stylized depiction of a camellia as a cross is unique to this region of Japan."
(As yet another crackpot element, factor in the common "death" taboo associated with the number four wrt the petals of the stylized camellia-cross, as well as the more standard symbolism of red camellias = death in battle, generally explained wrt the blossom falling all in one piece like a severed head.)