#kny references

[demonslayedher]

Sanka: Mountain-dwellers not integrated into society

“What’s the shape of that cloud?” Not something that seems very important at a Hashira meeting, but perhaps something Muichiro used to know and pay close attention to. After all, not taking nature seriously enough can have dire consequences when you live and work in the mountains.

I’d like to dive a little into what it meant for the Tokito twins to have grown up in the mountains, keeping to themselves. These sorts of people, who were not integrated into society and may not have kept up with newfangled Meiji and Taisho societal regulations, were often called “sanka” by the people who lived in mountain villages and knew of them. The kanji used might vary from region to region, and their relationships to the sanka might vary depending on location and time period. After all, it was often people ostracized from society who had no choice but to live apart from it.

The "satoyama" areas

To back up a bit, many people lived in mountains. Depending on how you define it, two-thirds to three-fourths of Japan’s land is mountainous. Many of those mountains are too steep or treacherous to be hospitable to humans, but wherever they could, people made do.

Thus, you often found the rural areas split up into different zones: the villages people inhabited (hitozato), the deep mountains (okuyama), and the crossover zone between them, the satoyama. Literally, “village mountain.” These were the areas where people would venture into the mountains to collect from the bounty of the mountain.

Nowadays, “satoyama” is an important term when it comes to both retaining traditional culture and managing natural resources (and many, many organizations throughout Japan are dedicated to helping people learn about and experience satoyama practices). The Japanese Ministry of the Environment defines satoyama as areas consisting of farmlands, irrigation ponds, secondary forest, plantation forest, and grasslands around human settlements, but that does not quite capture the human element. Like in other places around the world, people who rely on mountains have developed knowledge of the natural world and used that to collect supplies like food, medicine, and timber, and they have managed the forest to maximize these benefits. There are entire habitats that other species would lose if humans were to stop managing those places now.

To place it in perspective, the Kamado family lived in, relied on, and managed the forest so that they could have a steady supply of their livelihood: charcoal. They fed themselves with fish from the river and edible mountain plants, but they also relied on the village below, whom they were economically and socially intertwined with. They lived a satoyama lifestyle.

But would we call them sanka?

Who were sanka, and how many were there?

Because sanka removed themselves from society, they did not impact a lot of Japanese history and culture. Hence, there is not much information to go on.

Way back in history, there were always people relegated to the mountains because they did not accept the rule of the Yamato clan (aka, the source of the imperial lineage). Many of these people became the sources of oni legends too, demonized by those who left a more tangible impact on Japanese culture. However, as the centuries went on, there were also rumors about, say, samurai who lost big wars, or who left their samurai lives behind and had nowhere to go but the mountains if they wanted to be left in peace.

There are even rumors that after the fall of the samurai in the Meiji Restoration, many of them became sanka. This was well over three decades before Yuichiro and Muichiro were born, so it’s possible that their grandfather was the most recent samurai of their family. If we consider generational trauma, it’s not a far stretch that this urgency to hide away from society might have led Yuichiro to be especially worried for their safety and disillusioned with the expectations of warriors.

However, it is hard to say for sure. Because they did not register themselves and their families like law-abiding citizens did, and because they were not a big topic of cultural study, it is hard to say anything for sure, but according to Professor Owada’s estimate in “Japanese History of Demon Slayers” (a book that is not officially tied to Kimetsu no Yaiba but rode on the tails of its success), there were maybe 200,000 sanka throughout Japan in the Meiji period (1968-1912), and by about the 1940s, there may have been about 10,000. They almost entirely disappeared within about ten years after that.

If we compare those numbers back to the Kimetsu no Yaiba timeline (with the majority of the plot having most likely taken place in 1915), that means there were plenty of mountain-dwelling, not-exactly-following-all-the-newfangled-law characters, and if Tanjiro only lived until the age of 25, he could theoretically have not had any reason to leave his humble mountain abode the whole time. However, at some point his descendants quit making charcoal and moved to the city.

Among sanka, there was likely a lot of variety, both in terms of how much they interacted with human settlements and in what sort of work they specialized in. For example, many people are familiar with the term “matagi.” They are sometimes referred to as hunters, especially for bears (like Yae and her father in the Tomioka Gaiden, or Urokodaki’s friend who was mentioned in a fanbook for having found Giyuu and introduced him to Urokodaki), but matagi could be just as well-versed in plants and medicine. Other people, like “kijishi,” were skilled in making everyday ideas out of materials from the mountains, and they would exchange their wares for what they needed from people in settlements.

Then we have “somabito,” who collected and delivered wood. This is where the Tokito family found their niche.

It is probably thanks to these activities that they procured, say, the kitchen knife that Yuichiro used for cutting daikon. But as for how warmly the nearby village treated them, who knows. Yuichiro’s attitude was probably to go to the village, do only as much business as necessary, and then leave, for he may have felt that their family was distrusted because they were sanka.

Mt. Kagenobu: The Tokito family home

According to the first fanbook, Muichiro is from Mt. Kagenobu, a 727-meter mountain on the border of what would now be called Tokyo Prefecture and Kanagawa Prefecture. It is not a mountain I have been to, but as I understand, it’s not that bad of a climb for beginners (but you should still be adequately prepared). Depending on your course, it can take about 60-80 minutes to climb to the top. Even if they did live near the top, that’s not too bad of a trip for Amane-sama to take several times. However, even a satoyama area still has mountain dangers. Oni, for example. And places where you can slip and fall to your death, rain or no rain.

These are things that are probably engrained in Muichiro, whether he consciously remembers them or not. Plants, weather, animals, searching for and preparing food; somewhere inside of him, even at his foggiest, he probably still knew how to do all this.

And, maybe somewhere in how Yuichiro influenced him, he felt distanced from other people.

However, that’s not the only reason a warrior might wish to run away to the mountains, is it? After all, that is where they and their loved ones might live in peace and be happy.

Two more quick facts:

There is a tea house on Mt. Kagenobu that posts photos of the Mt. Kagenobu landscape, which might be very handy for fic writers, or just plain nice for Muichiro fans to check out! Yes, they are totally aware of Muichiro and love having that connection.

There is a kind of cherry blossom on that mountain called “kasumizakura.” Yes!!! “Mist” sakura!!!!!!!

[dark-raven-666]

DEMON SLAYER THEORY!

In the first episode of the third? Season you can see Akaza Falling down.

This place look a little familiar?

It's definitely the place where the Douma fight is gonna take place!

[demonslayedher]

Do you have any more depth information about the format about the houses in the kny universe? Like what’s the layout and the name of the stuff in Urokodaki’s house, or the Kamado family home/hut. You know stuff like that. Or just general stuff about Taisho or Meiji era home layout

Oh boy Anon, this is the book you want to find:

It's got designs for all of the settings in Season 1, including layouts for a few of the small homes (not the mansions; in those cases only the relevant spaces are included). I am not a source for scans and prefer only taking samples from my book collection, so here are a few of what I think would be most useful to you:

The Kamado house (which, canonically, got its start in the Sengoku period, though perhaps it has been rebuilt a few times or piece by piece):

Old man Saburo's place (note the tools for making umbrellas, his trade. This one also shows futon in the closet):

Urokodaki's place:

As for other settings, Western-style architecture was in use to varying degrees in cities, mansions tended to be more comfortably updated versions of mansion used in Edo, and two-story "machiya" style townhouses with electricity were very common, even in the town Tanjiro sold charcoal in. Poor/common urban people tended to live in long housing complexes with shared facilities called "nagaya," which there are many examples of in flashbacks in later seasons.

I suggest looking for basic introductory books about the architecture of Japanese houses to learn the terminology (while looking for one highly technical example I couldn't remember the name of I found a whole bunch of ones originally written in English which are probably more accessible, though I haven't read them. Hopefully your library has a few).

That said, a lot of my experience with them comes from actively visiting a lot of them, as well as visiting museums. If you ever have the opportunity to travel in Japan, visit as many restored or retained historical houses (of all kinds) if you can! There are many examples from the Edo period and later, and a few places that reconstruct dwellings from earlier time periods.

Just one thing I will point out here: the earthen floor in messy storage and cooking areas is called a "doma," but that has nothing whatsoever to do with "Douma." The pronunciation and kanji are both different.

[demonslayedher]

Determining Ages and Birth Years

Kimetsu no Yaiba’s first official fanbook gave us ages for the many of the main characters, but in a manga where calculating age can be crucial, why are these numbers not so straightforward? Because the Japanese calendar is a mess, and the Taisho period was an in-between stage in many ways. Many new changes were established in the Meiji period but not broadly enforced until the Showa period, including how to count one’s age.

This subject can be terribly complicated, but please follow me below for:

--Historical context for how methods of counting age could differ --Which method I choose to apply to Kimetsu no Yaiba and why --Based on that, a list of my calculations for dates of birth, zodiac signs (Chinese and Western), and because it’s handy, the date each of these characters would have turned 25

In the Taisho period, there are two methods of counting age in play:

Kazoedoshi (“counting years”): Counting the years one has been in alive in, with that year having started on the agricultural new year and counting a new year to one’s age each New Year’s Day after that, like how it is still practiced in South Korea.

Which is to say, you are born at age 1, counting the first calendar year you lived in, and on the following New Year’s Day, you are age 2, even if you have only been out of the womb a very short time.

Mannenrei (“full year age”): Counting only each full 12-month period since your birth as part of your age, like how it is practiced in the United States of America.

Which is to say, you are born at age 0, and after twelve full months have passed, you are age 1.

Kazoedoshi was practiced through most of the Demon Slayer Corp’s history, but the Meiji government enforced a switch to Mannenrei in 1902. However, most people still practiced Kazoedoshi throughout the Meiji, Taisho, and early Showa periods, and it wasn’t until 1950 that the government reinforced the switch to Mannenrei. This is also when, with the influx of American culture due to the post-war occupation, individual birthdays started to be marked with cake and presents. Until that time, people did not pay much attention to their date of birthday besides, perhaps, a passing notion and maybe a shrine or temple visit and a nice dinner (see more on this post). Many people continued to count their own age in Kazoedoshi until 1950, and although some people liked the “oh, actually I’m younger than I thought I was!” surprise (because Manrenrei really was outside of their usual way of thinking), it made centenarians a little sad that they hadn’t actually reached 100.

Similarly, even though the Meiji government enforced a switch to the Gregorian calendar which put New Years on January 1, many people still celebrated a sliding date according to a lunar-based agricultural calendar, like is still done in China. It was likewise later reinforced.

In modern Japan, New Years on Gregorian January 1 and counting age by the Mannenrei system are the norm and standard, however, some customs (especially but not limited to religious customs) are still celebrated according to the agricultural calendar and Kazoedoshi ages. It’s annoying to keep track of and if I had a 5-yen coin for every time I say the Japanese calendar is a mess, I’d have a lot more yen.

The canon of Kimetsu no Yaiba does not specify any of the following: 1. What year most of KnY takes place (but based on clues from the Hand Demon, we can extrapolate that most of it takes place in 1915) 2. Whether the characters’ given ages are according to Kazoedoshi or Mannenrei, and whether the characters’ given birthdates are according to the Gregorian or agricultural calendars 3. Which method the characters use to count New Years and their own age 4. If there are any differences among the cast and how they count these things (like if the city-slickers were with the times and the country bumpkins were not) 5. Whether or not Amane accounted for Mannenrei or Kazoedoshi when stating that all the marked swordsmen of the Sengoku period died by the age of 25

So what are fanfic writers who are preoccupied with canon accuracy to do? How much should the fans of characters who got the mark fret?

After tying my brain in knots (for years, since I attempted tackling this issue years ago and this is my better post addressing the issue(s)), here are the ways that I approach it.

First: I firmly treat most of the events of canon as firmly taking place in Gregorian 1915, with the Final Selection taking place that winter and Muzan’s defeat coming sometime around the very end of 1915 or start of 1916. (See here for how I calculated all the time frames indicated in canon. You’re welcome.)

Second, we have to treat the official fanbook material in the context of how it was published. I think the ages in the fanbook are given in Mannenrei for the benefit of Heisei/Reiwa period readers, but if you really want to dig into it, the characters might interpret their own age differently based on Kazoedoshi, since it was such a prevalent way to count one’s age even for people born in the Taisho period. For example, Tanjirou’s given canon age is 15 (Mannenrei), but if you ask him in-universe, he might say he is 17 (Kazoedoshi).

Even if we assume many of the characters use the agricultural calendar and Kazoedoshi, there is a chance that characters who actively used western technology—for example, Shinobu, who uses textbooks in English microscopes and thermometers that likely came from Germany—had switched to Mannenrei for the sake of more accuracy on an individual basis. It is also possible that the Corp enacted their own standardization to Mannenrei around the time they standardized uniforms and updated the payment structure. If this is the case, it might have required country bumpkins to rethink the systems they had always been used to. Tanjirou, if asked in-universe once he is a Corp member, would therefore say he is 15 (Mannenrei).

The places the Kazoedoshi/Mannenrei difference has more implications is where characters have stated their own age. For example, Himejima seems to use a Mannenrei system (he states that he became a Hashira at age 19, and now is clearly over the age of 25, with his canonical age being recorded as 27. The numbers check out). This makes me more curious about Muichirou, who has a canonical given age of 14, but says in his own recollection that he was 10 when he was orphaned, and 11 when Yuichirou died.

If Mannenrei: It was four years or more ago that his parents died, and then sometime after he and Yuichirou turned 11 on Gregorian August 8, the demon attacked on a hot summer night. If Kazoedoshi: It was four years or more ago that his parents died. New Years passed that winter and he and Yuichirou turned 11. Many more months passed before the demon attacked on a hot summer night. However, if the Corp enforces his Mannenrei age of 14, but being a country bumpkin with a fuzzy memory, Muichirou still thinks of himself in Kazoedoshi, thereby making him think of himself as 16: It was six years or more ago that his parents died. New Years passed that winter and he and Yuichirou turned 11. Many more months passed before the demon attacked on a hot summer night. He nonetheless became a Hashira relatively recently (according to aligning Kyojuro-related flashback material and the second fanbook making passing mention that he hasn’t been a Hashira that long so his impression of the others isn’t that deep). This implies he spent a very, very, very, very long time incapacitated before he could so much as hold a sword, let alone join the Final Selection.

So what if we consider the opposite, that every given age is in Kazoedoshi? That would mean that when the fanbook and Tanjirou say he is 15, we would translate that back to a Mannenrei age of 13. And, dear readers, do you really want to imagine the entire cast being one or two years younger than their given age? I didn’t think so.

It is already very, very difficult to determine the order of Kimetsu no Yaiba canon both due to incomplete histories and canonical errors introduced by outside material (Ufotable animating Kanao’s May 19 encounter with the Kochou sisters with a winter setting, or Hirano-sensei drawing a spread of all nine Hashira in a 1913 setting) or timeline errors introduced in the original manga likely due to oversight (Gotouge drawing Aoi in uniform shortly after Kanae’s death when Aoi is later stated to have attended the same Final Selection as Muichirou, who at the time Kanae died is likely still living with his parents). That is why I assume the following rule of thumb:

When ages are given in-universe or in supplementary material, assume it is Mannenrei, because this is a shounen manga and not a math textbook. (As another case in point, the heights of the characters would have made most of the characters giants in Taisho society, though they get away with just being a bit on the tall side in Reiwa society. Some things are simplified for the benefit of modern readers.)

Assume the characters do not pay much attention to their age, or their birthday, because this is a shounen manga with a lot of dedication to historical settings and folk traditions (and those folks didn’t pay much attention to their birthdays).

Ergo: If the Corp tells its members “this is your Mannenrei age, use it. When we say 25, we have already done the math from our Sengoku period records and we mean 25 in Mannenrei,” the Corp members probably accept that. However, the Corp members might think of it as having two ages for two different purposes. Given the prevalence of Kazoedoshi, in their heart, they might still think of New Years as the time when you collectively celebrate everyone’s birthday.

Since I’m assuming Mannenrei, I’m also assuming Gregorian birthdates, and assuming everyone’s given canon age to be the age they were during the Infinity Fortress battle that took place roughly around New Year’s Day 1916.

Why am I picking this date? Because this is when the first fanbook was published, and it treated canon as it was occurring at that time in publication, so Akaza, Douma, and Kokushibou were not yet given the “eliminated” status (also, Rengoku was given already called “former” Flame Hashira. Shinobu’s demise had not yet been published in the serialization).

I also say “roughly New Year” because of the agricultural/Gregorian calendar issues. The agricultural New Year’s Day in 1916 would have fallen on Gregorian February 4, but because I’m treating this as the Corp having adopted Mannenrei, I’m also having them treat Gregorian January 1 as New Years. Because Ubuyashiki Nichika and Hinaki were singing a New Years song when Muzan strolled in to visit, that leans credence toward it happening around then. More crucially, cherry blossoms are in full bloom “three months later,” which aligns it best with Gregorian January 1, since late March/early April is when you are most likely to get the full bloom of the most common somei-yoshino cherry trees.

It’s also a convenient date and time in the plot to measure by because all their birthdays would have passed for that year, barely including Nezuko’s. (But if Mugen Ressha took place prior to May, like I have calculated before… does this mean Rengoku would have been part of Team 21? My gosh, I’m crying. For this list, I’m treating it as the age he would have been relative to the others on that date.)

Tl;dr: I’m assuming you can treat every canon age as Mannenrei, and totally ignore Kazoedoshi in the first place (unless if it will help you be crafty in your fic, because there’s still a good case to be made for the characters using it).

Now here is the fanfic reference list I promised, including: 1. Their date of birth according to the Gregorian calendar, calculated based their canon age being their Mannenrei age as of December 31, 1915. 2. Their birth year according to the Japanese period 3. The year they would have turned 25 4. Their Chinese zodiac sign (yes, I know there is argument about whether or not you can say “zodiac” here, but this isn’t the place to start a new topic. Anyway, I’ve also included the elements for each year for the deep nerds who anticipate it) (also I’m really sorry, Inosuke is not born in the Year of the Boar, nor is Iguro born in the Year of the Snake) 5. Their Western zodiac sign (yes, I know there was a recalculation of sun signs some years back, but no, I’m not bothering to take that into account, this post is complicated enough as it is) Important caveat: I'm bad at math.

Kamado Tanjirou: July 14, 1900/Meiji 33 (1925/Taisho 14), Metal Rat, Cancer Kamado Nezuko: December 28, 1901/Meiji 34 (1926/Taisho 15), Metal Ox, Capricorn Agatsuma Zenitsu: September 3, 1899/Meiji 32 (1924/Taisho 13), Earth Boar, Virgo Hashibira Inosuke: April 22 (as was written on his fundoshi along with his name), 1900/Meiji 33 (1925/Taisho 14), Metal Rat, Taurus Tsuyuri Kanao: May 19 (chosen for the day she encountered the Kochou sisters), 1899/Meiji 32 (sometime in 1924??/Taisho 13??), Earth Boar(?), Taurus (???) Shinazugawa Genya: January 7, 1899/Meiji 32  (1924/Taisho 13) – by Gregorian/modern Japanese system he is an Earth Boar, but the agricultural New Year wasn’t until February 10 that year, so he might instead be considered an Earth Dog, Capricorn Tomioka Giyuu: February 8, 1894/Meiji 27 (1919/Taisho 8), Wood Horse, Aquarius Kochou Shinobu: February 24, 1897/Meiji 30 (1822/Taisho 11), Fire Rooster, Pisces Rengoku Kyoujurou: May 10, 1895/Meiji 28 (1920/Taisho 9), Wood Sheep, Taurus Uzui Tengen: October 31, 1892/Meiji 25 (1917/Taisho 6), Water Dragon, Scorpio Kanroji Mitsuri: June 1, 1896/Meiji 29 (1921/Taisho 10), Fire Monkey, Gemini Tokitou Muichirou: August 8, 1901/Meiji 34 (1926/Taisho 15), Metal Ox, Leo Himejima Gyoumei: August 23, 1888/Meiji 21 (1913/Taisho 2), Earth Rat, Virgo Shinazugawa Sanemi: November 29, 1894/Meiji 27 (1919/Taisho 8), Wood Horse, Sagittarius Iguro Obanai: September 15,1894/Meiji 27 (1919/Taisho 8), Wood Horse, Virgo

Afterword:

Suppose Amane didn’t do the math to state the Sengoku swordsmans’ ages in Mannenrei terms? What if their records were spotty, or she took Kazoedoshi and applied it to swordsmen who now use Mannenrei?

Well, in that case, Tanjirou would probably die sometime in 1923, and Giyuu & Sanemi sometime in 1917. Ergo, I think I will stick with Amane having done the math and converted Sengoku ages to Mannennei if she was going to tell them all something so important.

Also, using Kazoedoshi would totally mess with the Kimetsu Gakuen AU.

[demonslayedher]

Demons probably hate this time of year.

As the last of the mountain cherry blossoms fade, the wild wisteria open with one fragrant bud after another after another. While cultivated trellises are cut and maintained to sway like a maiden's kimono sleeves, wild wisteria vines are fierce and grip the tallest of trees, spreading their tendrils across the highest branches to selfishly soak up the sunlight.

By daylight, the hills are dusted with purple among the bamboo, pines, and cedar. By night, demons might safely prowl far below the treetops, but the sickening sweet scent may waft down to make them feel as choked as the dominated treetops.

[demonslayedher]

References for KnY Writers: Taisho Period

Below are links to my entries about the Taisho Period and how it might affect the KnY characters (at least according to canon resources, my research, and my interpretations). Please see here for the full masterlist of References for KnY Fic Writers.

Background info: The Taisho Period (1912-1926) a bit of an in-between period in a lot of ways, with Westernization already several decades underway, but with many new policies not yet uniformly enforced in the countryside. In some ways, rural life went on like it did in the late Edo period. The majority of Kimetsu no Yaiba most likely would have taken place in 1915. This means that it's still a little early for the full-on "Taisho Roman" fashions, but the groundwork was there.

-Notes on Corp salary, simple conversions into Taisho currency, as well as other monetary details -Taisho Period overview of the Yoshiwara Pleasure District -Photos and details of preserved Taisho Period brothel -How a Taisho Period birthday may be celebrated -How a Taisho Period New Years may be celebrated (in the case of the Kamados) -How keeping track of one's age was different in the Taisho Period -Photography and education in the Taisho Period -More on Taisho education and literacy rates -Marriage and being a girl in the Taisho Period -Polygamy and the Meiji Civil Code -Dating and wedding night protocol -Being queer in the Taisho Period (and beyond) -A few real life folk songs featured in KnY -Taisho Period undergarments -Taisho Period beverages and drinking age (separate masterlist of KnY-related food here)

-Flush toilets were a thing (and there are toilets in the Infinity Fortress)

[demonslayedher]

晴雲秋月

"Sei'un Shuugetsu" is the calligraphy in Tokitou Muichirou's dojo. In literal reference to the bright fluffy clouds on a sunny day and the bright autumn moon, this phrase is in reference to a heart weighed down with no impurities, so it floats bright in the sky like the images it references.

Sure is crafty to pick a phrase with both those images.

[demonslayedher]

Nerdy cultural details about the word "Hashira"

Some details can be hard to pick up without context or in translation. I recently went over a few details about the Hashira's names, Breaths, or symbols, but today I want to focus on the word "Hashira."

To get this out of the way, I use "Pillar" all over this blog because I thought that's what they were called. I was astounded that phrase was not translated, as it is a (somewhat rare) case of a one-to-one translation equivalent. They are the pillars that support the Demon Slayer Corp, after all. The kanji for it (柱) very literally means "pillar" in any modern day Japanese to English dictionary. But since you all know the word "Hashira," let's climb up and see where it takes us! First, the kanji itself (brought over from China and given the Japanese pronunciation "hashira," based on the existing spoken Japanese language), is composed of 木 for "tree" and 主 for "master" or "main/principal," among other semi-literal or more widely applicable possible meanings in modern kanji dictionaries. However, Prof. Owada Tetsuo, a retired university professor who published an unofficial book of his own Kimetsu no Yaiba interpretations based on Japanese demon slaying folklore, points out that 主 can also be interpreted as a still flame atop a candlestick, and that 柱 (hashira) is a tree that cannot be moved. (I'll continue to use a lot of Prof. Owada's details in this explanation, as well as details I have picked up in other research.) That makes 柱 closely associated with holy trees found in, or treated as, Shinto shrines throughout Japan. As Shinto is a nature-based belief system, trees are often something that a kami (deity) will inhabit. Keep Shinto in mind, because we're going to focus on that a lot.

Before that, let's finish up with the kanji 柱. According to the first official fanbook, there is an upper limit of nine Hashira because there are nine strokes in the 柱 kanji. (See this dictionary entry for a breakdown of those nine strokes.)

Now that the easy official tidbit is out of the way, back to the Shinto fun stuff and conjecture! We need to dive a bit more into the spoken Japanese language, from which a lot of Shinto terms derive. For starters, the Japanese language uses counter words for when you say a certain number of beings or objects. You could think of this as "a sheet of paper" or "three rolls of tape." It is an annoying part of starting out your study of the language because there are a lot to memorize based on sizes, shapes, types of animals, etc. Deities also have their own counter word: 柱 (hashira). This goes to show how the Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corp are something more than human, what with how much power they possess.

Now if we think about the pronunciation of the spoken Japanese word from long before a Chinese written character was assigned to it, the "hashi" of "hashira" is a "bridge." Clever ones among you might know that "hashi" also means "chopsticks." But even chopsticks have the same effect as a bridge! They serve as a connection, bridging the gap between you and what was another living thing, that which will become a part of you as your sustenance. "Hashira," as pillars, are likewise something that serve as a connection, in this case, a vertical one. They are that which connect us with the heavens, or in the case of the Demon Slayer Corp, they bridge the gap between the limits of human strength and the inhuman strength of demons.

As another Shinto tie, one of the connections that Prof. Owada and I both made was that there are nine pillars that support the main sanctuary in shrine architecture like that of Izumo Taisha Grand Shrine. Or rather, in the case of at least one of the historical iterations of Izumo Taisha, there were nine groups of three massive tree trunks each, resulting in a shrine over 48 meters in height (see here for photos of how big the remains of those pillars are and how exciting the archaeology is). These pillars give you a sense of awe for just how powerful pillars can be, especially when you have a spread of nine to distribute the weight. Now, there's more that Prof. Owada and I would both say about how Izumo Taisha also ties in with the "Ubuyashiki" surname or the "yakata" title by which the Hashira address him, but that's a dose of nerdery for some other time.