#map society

[bleachbleachbleach]

hellooo

So I'm reading cfyow right now, and well, I don't know how canon it is, but it states that Seireitei has towns inside it

As in, aside from the noble District and shopping(iirc) District, there are several towns and gotei's barracks are in each town. The only example it gave until this point I've read, is Kutsuwa town, and 11th division's barracks are there.

So I always had this question, that what exactly is inside Seireitei aside from gotei's barracks and sokyouku hill. Are there bazaars, restaurants, shops, or do you have to go to Rukongai? Where do officers live? Do you have to live in barracks or can you have houses outside it? Can someone's family live with them?

According to the hell chapter, officers do have a mansion district, but like, do all of them live in one district apart from barracks? Because it seemed most of them prefer to live in their division base.

And we still have no canon map of Seireitei. Where is each division located? Are they scattered randomly, or is it like, 2 then 3 then 4 and go on?

Since you're a pro on the matter of bleach lore, I thought yoh might have better ideas on this whole thing? I keep making headcanons because canon source isn't providing enough, then get hit with "Seireitei has towns". Although we might just say the novels aren't that canon

Disclaimer: I haven’t read CFYOW

But as far as what constitutes “towns” in the Seireitei, we have a Colorful Bleach example of how addresses work in the Seireitei, and this also supports the idea of it having designated “towns” within it! I don't recall if there are other instances of exact addresses being mentioned in Bleach.

The Seireitei Communications lists their address as:

[Colorful Bleach]

The address part is:

一一九ノO一六三 瀞霊廷一番区柳青二ノ五ノ十

Or, in English:

1 1 9 - 0 1 6 3 Seireitei, 1st District, Ryuusei 2 - 5 - 10

If we assume this functions like a Japanese address, we can break this information down to learn more about how the Seireitei organizes itself.

瀞霊廷 (Seireitei)

Address information is arranged largest to smallest, like a nesting doll of address-ness. If we start with the biggest piece of information, we learn that the SC office is located in the Seireitei. Cool, we knew that!

一番区 (First Ward)

More specifically, the SC office is located in the 1st Ward of the Seireitei. I’m saying “Ward” for now but we could say district/borough/city. The unit/designation is for this area unit is 区. Given that all of Rukongai is numbered, it's maybe unsurprising that (modern) Seireitei has numbered parts, too.

Anyway, the SC being in 1st Ward makes me wonder if the SC office uses a PO box that lives near 1st Division, or if the 9th Division buildings are seriously in the 1st Ward. (I would love this. Mayhem.) How many Wards are there in the Seireitei? idk, dealer’s choice?? Maybe these Wards go by the four cardinal gates into the dang place, and there’s four??

Since I mentioned that 区 could also be translated as "district" and we already have things in Soul Society that we call "districts" in English: The Rukongai "districts" use the kanji 地区 (chiku). 地区 seem bigger than 区 to me. Less strictly urban, maybe? (The first kanji 地, means "earth.") For example, Touhoku is 地区. Kanto is 地区, Kansai is 地区, whereas Shibuya is 区 (ku). Shinjuku is 区, though the 区 in Tokyo are a lot smaller, area-wise, then some of the 区 elsewhere, in less population-dense areas.

* 区 in Tokyo are maybe not the best example, period, because governance re: their 区 is different than other cities. But who knows! Far be it from me to tell the Seireitei it can't have autonomous municipalities. ACTUALLY, given that the Gotei divisions allegedly operate autonomously, maybe they do. But are the ward governments and division governments aligned? Or are the Gotei divisions within these 区 entirely separate autonomous zones? Oh, wild times. Does the Seireitei have a mayor (surely this function is fulfilled by the Council of 46...? Or some separate governing council with reps from the Council of 46, the Gotei, and the Nobles...?). Do each of these wards or towns have their own Mayor Guy?? I feel like all of this Seireitei municipal governance stuff is totally one of those things where it's equally plausible to say "we never see any of this; governance is simplified in this weirdo town and none of this exists, it all happens at the level of a Gotei division and ITS various subdivsions" as it is to say "we don't get to see any of this because none of our POV characters understand it and/or give a shit but it's all totally there, essential to the lives of non-shinigami living in this place."

ANYway--

柳青 (Ryuusei)

Within the 1st Ward (区), the SC office is located in the Ryuusei area (maybe this is what CFYOW calls a “town”). Regardless, it is some smaller area within the 1st Ward.

This post is already way too long without me going down another illuminati rabbit hole, but: You can translate the name of this area as "willow-blue." Interestingly, the pronunciation "ryuu" for this kanji points toward a Chinese constellation system that the 4 Gates of the Seireitei are based on. "Willow" is the 24th of the 28 mansions in this constellation system, and is located in the South quadrant. This lends credence to the idea that perhaps the Wards of the Seireitei are cardinal (though if that's the case, why not name them by direction rather than number? but whatever). Maybe there are 28 "towns" or areas of the Seireitei!

Though--if the SC post box is in the South quadrant, this contradicts where they seem to appear in the TYBW map of the districts, though that's me assuming that North is "up" on that map. (I will fully admit that whenever I imagine where North Rukongai is, it is "to the left," because that's where Hisagi's Dumb Bowl Map put it. Maybe that's what the big horizontal line is meant to denote, and that's how Soul Society does compass roses. Even if left is North, though, the 9th on this map still isn't South.

But we also don't have to assume that the 28 mansions are in the same places in the Seireitei version of this! Maybe the "blue" part of the Ryuusei name suggests it is not in the South (Vermillion) Ward, as it would be in the Chinese constellations, but the East (Azure) Ward, as they both use the same kanji for "blue." In which case the 9th is exactly where it should be on the TYBW map, assuming "left" is North.) This in turn suggests that if the Seireitei's organization is also constellation-based, their stars may be in different places than ours (or even if Soul Society did steal our stars, they appear in the sky differently, because the Seireitei is not looking at them from the same geographic vantage point as China. Which makes a ton of sense, really.)

^ Given that it is canonically stated that the Seireitei is difficult to navigate, even though it's ostensibly a circular grid with quadrants and addresses and the whole nine, I think that's definitely what we're seeing in action here, LOL.

*NB: I checked with the Viz and they translated 柳青 as "Ryuusei," so I did, too, but you could conceivably pronounce it differently, as there are no furigana to explain further. And lots of proper noun kanji in Bleach are pronounced in ways exclusive to Bleach.

二ノ五ノ十 (2-5-10)

The office is located in the Ryuusei 2, in fact, which is a subsection of Ryuusei. We can tell this from the trailing 2-5-10 numbers, which don’t include their respective kanji designations; instead, those are implied by the format. 2-chome (丁目), 5-banchi (番地), 10-gou (号).

The first number designates the area 2-chome in Ryuusei, the second number tells us it’s in block 5 (of 2-chome), and the third means it’s in building 10 (of block 5)!

As a visual example of how all this works, let’s look at a random part of Tokyo:

In the sprawling thing that is Tokyo (which in the SC example would equate to the Seireitei), where’s an area called Nakano City (in the SC example, this is 1st Ward). Within Nakano City, there’s an area called Arai (in the SC example, Ryuusei). Here we can see Arai 2-chome, which is an area in Arai, and then on the right side of the image we see Arai 1-chome, another area in Arai.

Our nesting doll looks like this: Tokyo > Nakano City > Arai > 2-chome.

町 (town)

In places that are smaller than Tokyo (because you can’t convince me that the Seireitei is the size of Tokyo. It’s surely smaller), “town” or machi/chou (町) can be used to designate an area within a larger... erm... area. Karakura-chou, for instance. I dunno the word CFYOW used, but again, the important idea here is the nesting doll quality of these designations.

Bonus: 一一九ノO 一六三 (1 1 9 - 0 1 6 3)

The numbers at the top of our original address at the postal code—if the SC office’s address were in Japan, the 1 1 would designate the prefecture. The 9 is a group of cities within that prefecture, the 0163 designates the neighborhood/smaller increment within that set of cities. How this tracks within Soul Society is anyone’s guess, but poses some fascinating possibilities, and suggests a bit about how areas beyond the Seireitei factor into their postal codes.

--

I would be absolutely happy to share my headcanons about all of your other delightful Seireitei zoning and housing questions (oh my HEART), so please do let me know if you want to hear those, too.

We also have a number of posts and reblogs that collect various pieces of information and headcanons regarding the Seireitei’s cartography, which we've tagged "map society"—both headcanon and canon (for example, TYBW gives a decent look at a map of the Seireitei), and the 10th is either in or near the “warehouse district,” also according to anime canon).

[bleachbleachbleach]

Aw, thank you for answering! It made me a bit confused though, had to read it twice lol

Actually, I have tons of questions on Seireitei worldbuilding. Like how big is it? Why is it so hard to navigate for those who have lived there for decades? I actually thought the divisions aren't in order and addresses don't exist like that so it's why it's confusing for shinigami living there but well.

I used to headcanon that Seireitei has a outer cycle, where gotei divisions and kido corpse are stationed, and they're kinda in order, but not so neat. And each division has it's own district, somehow a territory thing? And they have normal shops too. For example, 11th division's district has its own grocery, barber shop, small restaurants or bars, etc.

Ajd we know from tybw that Seireitei has numbered districts, but they didn't list any names(although when you're reporting which districts are getting destroyed , you'd naturally skip the names)

And then we have the inner cycle, which is 1st division, noble parts and shino academy(I think they'd put the young students in a safer area)

I also used to think Seireitei doesn't have a shopping area or bazaar, and the top rukongai districts play that rule. But maybe it has. Who knows

Another matter that I wanted to ask you about before but decided not to is, well, in tybw Ikkaku and Yumichika go to investigate the disappearance of rukongai citizens, and Ikkaku mentions something like "whoever did this, messed with wrong divison's jurisdiction" . Which made me think, so Gotei 13 is in charge of rukongai? Actually makes sense, but how does it work? Which divisions are in charge of which parts?(I think 1st,2nd,4th and 12th are out. 8th might be as well. So 8 divisions, each get 40 rukongai Districts?)

Reading things more than once is a good practice!

According to Yoruichi, it takes 10 days to walk 25% of the outer circumference of the Seireitei, which is… pretty dang big. (We have discussed this previously on this blog. A map of Spain was involved.) Even if we throw out some random numbers and say, okay, walk 15miles in a day, times ten days, times four—you end up with an area that’s like 6 times the size of the Greater Tokyo Area, which as mentioned in the previous post I simply refuse to believe. So… that’s one size I do NOT think the Seireitei is. Maybe Yoruichi doesn't think Team Karakura can walk very fast. Maybe 10 days as an exaggeration. All possible variables!

Matsumoto also talks about how long it would take to assemble all the Captains/VCs for a meeting, based on wherever they might be when the meeting is announced, which suggests the Seireitei is, again, pretty big. But it’s also possible Matsumoto is prone to exaggeration, too. (I mean, we know she is!)

As alluded to in the previous post, I imagine that the Seireitei is difficult to navigate because even if you know how to read a Seireitei address, and it all seems to follow logically, that logic is going to point you to the wrong Ward or the wrong block just as often as it points you to the right one, and there are so many counter-logics at play knowledge of the system can be just as bad as complete ignorance of it—or worse. I mean, Ichigo found this way to stuff, and all he had was *instructions from Ikkaku* and *Ganju’s terrible map.* I have definitely worked in places where there are certain places you can only get to by instinct, and trying to think about it at all or logic it out will guarantee you getting lost!

Even if the Seireitei is not 6x Greater Tokyo Area huge, I think it makes lots of sense that different areas would each have their own shops, like you say. Even if there’s a designated shopping district (there is anime filler that implies that there is) that doesn’t mean that every single shop is there, and nowhere else, in the same way that like, every Chinese business in a city is not in Chinatown. And of course we do know that Rukongai also has some shops (there is at least one confectionary shop, and it’s in Junrinan lol). But I don’t think they’re the only shops. Like, sure, we know nothing about the guy, but I do not believe in my heart that Shirogane would lease some random building in Rukongai to set up the Silver Dragonfly.

I think the Gotei has decided it’s in charge of Rukongai, yes. Whether that paternalism is universally acknowledged is a different story... (See: short-lived Bount Arc Rukongai Insurrection.) Similar to how the Gotei has divvied up the Living World jurisdictions, so goes Rukongai. Whether these are set in stone or get re-negotiated every time there’s a spending bill on the floor of the Central 46 or a new 50-year strategic plan is probably up to interpretation.

[bleachbleachbleach]

Bleach Fanfic: Stories for the Sea

Summary: The Shiba Clan have always acted as peacebrokers between Soul Society and the sea in West Rukongai. After the Blood War, the Gotei must prove that they are still worthy of peace. But since Shiba Kaien is dead, Rukia’s the next best thing—allegedly. The problem is, now Ukitake is gone, too, and Rukia doesn’t think she’s ready to carry Kaien’s memory alone.

No one’s ready. Not the Vizard, as the reality of re-joining the Gotei begins to clamp down; not the 10th, which has its own debts to West Rukongai; and not Renji, who’s pretty sure he is. The most deadly threats may not be the monsters lurking in the woods and water, but the damage they’ve all brought with them. One thing that’s certain: Six months after the end of a war, you have not reached the end of the war.

ft. Rukia, Renji, Matsumoto, Hitsugaya, Kensei, Rose, Hisagi; Hinamori, Kira, (Kaien)

⟢ Chapter 2: Abarai Renji

There’s nothing brisk exercise, some Pocky, and a few weird bugs can’t solve. Renji tallies the damage and devises a game plan, sort of.

This mission, Renji decides boldly, is just the Gotei United Futsal League redux. That’s all. There, as here, no one had liked each other and only half of them had actually wanted to be there. They’d still found enough team spirit to field six games a season and suffer zero casualties, and that’s including the year Ikkaku got involved. Ikkaku, who firmly believes that sportsmanship belongs in battle, but not sports. All Renji needs to do is figure out how to make that happen with this crowd. Easy! Well, doable. Or at least, probably not a complete wash. —If he’s very lucky.

[Read on AO3]

[bleachbleachbleach]

[Bleach 093]

Who do these guys think they are, putting North at the top of their map?!

Also like, where did this map come from? Ikkaku gave Ichigo the directions orally... But Ganju's face is on it. Have they been hiding out in this storage shed with Hanatarou with Ichigo telephoning to Ganju what Ikkaku said, so Ganju can draw it out?! Did Ichigo draw the map while Ganju drew... himself???

I'm so obsessed with this map, too, because Seireitei is written at the top, but the 'sei' is in hiragana, so whoever wrote it didn't know the kanji for the first part of the word? And 'tsumesho' is also written in hiragana, which feels less weird and more of a personal preference for the writer, because it's not just the *one* character in a proper noun, but is still very endearing to me.

I'd also like to point out that Ikkkaku specifically says the tower is at the WEST end of the tsumesho, and whoever drew this map still originally drew the arrow to the east end, before crossing it out. Is that why they had to draw the compass rose out? To double-check east and west? Or for one party to prove to the other which was which.

I love that they took the time to draw this all out, particularly given that in the next few panels Ichigo is literally like, this is the worst map, it doesn't even have roads, why did we do this?? Absolutely stellar.

[bleachbleachbleach]

Another Map Society Post

I headcanon Junrinan as having characteristics similar to Nagano prefecture:

This headcanon is based on 1) having been to Nagano exactly one time and really enjoying it; 2) simply it being "west of the big city" lol; 3) Subaru country <3; and 4) it having characteristics that seem to coincide with Hitsugaya and Hinamori's names. (One day I'll write about the shinshu ghost apples of Junrinan, but alas, not today.)

For the purposes of my current fic, I've expanded my Junrinan headcanon to include information about how I think the districts in Rukongai are arranged. I don't think the districts tend to be that evenly sized or populated, and I feel like the closer ones might be bigger just because there's less going on as far as Gotei business goes--then they get smaller as the conditions get dicier, but then probably start getting bigger again as you get further out, because the Gotei stops giving a shit at a certain point and it's just like "yeah okay that's all... the Northwest Territories... sure, whatever."

Since there's a lot of forest and mountain in my Junrinan, I felt like it would make sense if the rest of West Rukongai was not BEYOND all that forest and mountain--rather, in that direction lies ether (and the sea, naturally). And the other districts of West Rukongai actually sit below Junrinan (West 3, Hokutan, also needs to have some of this mountain range, as it houses Mt. Koifushi. So I suppose in the below image it'd be Wisconsin or something).

In my mind, Junrinan is kind of like Ontario:

--Except instead of Manitoba, there's ocean.

When shinigami think about "Junrinan", they're thinking about like, the Toronto metro area. But in actuality, there's a fuckton of Other Junrinan that extends way out. Meanwhile, the rest of West Rukongai is like the United States below it, making some districts of West a lot closer to districts in South than they are to other districts in West.

The map above wouldn't be to scale; I think Junrinan is a lot smaller than Ontario, and that the other districts are also all smaller than most U.S. states. Were this to scale the Seireitei would probably be in like Charleston, SC--but my point is it's not to scale. My point is, Junrinan has Ontario energy!!!

[bleachbleachbleach]

Bleach Fanfic: Stories for the Sea 

Start from Chapter 1 || Tumblr Masterlist (with chapter summaries)

Summary: The Shiba Clan have always acted as peacebrokers between Soul Society and the sea in West Rukongai. After the Blood War, the Gotei must prove that they are still worthy of peace. But since Shiba Kaien is dead, Rukia’s the next best thing. The problem is, now Ukitake is gone, too, and Rukia doesn’t think she’s ready to carry Kaien’s memory alone. 

No one’s ready. Not the Vizard, as the reality of re-joining the Gotei begins to clamp down; not the 10th, which has its own debts to West Rukongai; and not Renji, who’s pretty sure he is. The most deadly threats may not be the monsters lurking in the woods and water, but the damage they’ve all brought with them. One thing that’s certain: Six months after the end of a war, you have not reached the end of the war. 

ft. Rukia, Renji, Matsumoto, Hitsugaya, Kensei, Rose, Hisagi; Hinamori, Kira, (Kaien)

⟢ Chapter 3: Muguruma Kensei

Summary: Kensei’s been trying to learn how to have bygones, but it’s not like that’s the Gotei’s style. Just saying.

A Kuchiki is a Kuchiki. That’s the long and short of it. Kuchikia Rukia has the same dark, serious features as all the rest of them. Kensei remembers Kuchiki Byakuya a very only child, so she has to be an adoption from some lesser branch. Abarai is an enigma. The 6th Division Kensei knew was many things, but never surprising. It’s unsurprising that a hundred years hasn’t changed that. As the 6th's vice-captain Abarai should be an easy read, too. But Abarai is too many things to too many people, a wildfire of personalities. Kensei can’t clock him, which means he can’t trust him. Matsumoto is the only one who seems to care that Mashiro is homesick for the Living World. Bafflingly homesick, so Kensei’s not sure if this is indicative of Matsumoto’s capacity for empathy or evidence of her own delusion. But she’d had an animated conversation about Tokyu Hands with Mashiro, which meant Kensei hadn’t had to. Hitsugaya, on the other hand.

[Read on AO3]

[bleachbleachbleach]

[Bleach 093]

Okay, based on what Ichigo's saying here, per my question in the previous post, it kind of seems like Ganju drew the map, ahaha. Ganju's talking nonsense about wishing the captains were marked on the map and Ichig's just like... Hey! This map doesn't have roads written on it, does it... (Asking this makes me look like an idiot.)

THEY'RE SO CUTE. ALL THREE OF THEM ARE SO CUTE. HOW DID NONE OF THEM DIE DURING THIS ESCAPADE.

[bleachbleachbleach]

do yall have like. a map or base layout of the seireitei? this seems like the blog to ask about that the way yall put together stuff i wouldntve even thought of

I don't know that there's a full, official map--and, I imagine, this is intentional. Because if there's a map, then 1) you'd have to hold yourself to it... and 2) others might feel obligated to heed it, too. And I think for sprawling series like these, the ambiguities are intended as invitations for the reader.

We do have Hisagi's map, which he published in the SC [aka Colorful Bleach], in a column that apparently wasn't that popular (but that Matsumoto gave a favorable review for!):

As far as invitations, go, I love that understanding the Seireitei as a cup in a saucer is consistent with the dish imagery that both Kajoumaru (in TYBW) and Rukia (in the Substitute Shinigami arc) use to describe the balance of souls across Soul Society and the Living World. Dishware culture seems BIG in Soul Society (or at least the Seireitei), and I am so here for it!! (I have written fanfic about it, which is how you can tell if I'm S-tier interested in something or not. Soul Society dishware culture passes muster ALWAYS.)

We also periodically get panoramic views of the Seireitei (I will note here that the label on Hisagi's diagram calls THAT a panoramic view, lol), like this one. ... Ignore the giant holes in the landscape. This screencap is from the Zanpakutou Rebellion arc, haha:

Which, as in invitation offers, a general sense of the layout.

In constructing all of our maps, some additional details we might choose to make use of:

10 Things We Canonically Know About Mapping the Seireitei

Running around the outside of the Seireitei's walls takes a billion years for some reason, per Yoruichi as she's explaining to Ichigo et al how they will infiltrate it.

Matsumoto also suggests that all the VCs gathering for a meeting could take half a day (Chapter 80). This could be a measure of distance, but there's likely also factors like having to disentangle oneself from work and your division's pressing needs, too.

We know from the Soul Society/Ryoka Invasion Arc that navigating the Seireitei is pretty difficult, and that this is an intenentional tactical move. (It makes me wonder what kind of invasion they were anticipating, though, since everything that has ever attacked the Seireitei in canon 1) was a resident of the dang place, or 2) just blew it up and didn't use the streets at all. With the exception of the Ryoka Invasion, and even they just barely used the streets lol.

There's an officer's housing district, per the Hell Chapter, which looks like it accounts for at least Captain and VC-level residences.

I *think* this is Colorful Bleach trivia, but I'm not sure. In any case, Rukia lives at the 6th while working in the 13th, which means that's not an impossible commute.

There's a route where, if you started from the 9th, you'd pass through the 10th and 11th on the way to the 13th, because when Hisagi hand-delivers Ukitake his copy of the SC while Rukia and Orihime are training, he comments on the 10th and 11th officers' absences (Advance Team/Arrancar Arc). This suggests that the divisions may exist vaguely in number order.

the 1st is basically attached to Soukyoku Hill and the Central 46 complex (this was always true, but the first TYBW invasion has some nice shots of this when the Sternritter invade Yamamoto's office).

There appears to be a sort of commerce district, which Hitsugaya walks through when he's trying to find Matsumoto in the karuta new year's episode.

I can't remember whether this is from the Reigai Arc or TYBW, because we watched them in close succession (lol), but someone mentions the "warehouse district" near 10th. There may be more than one warehouse district, given the Seireitei's sprawl, but at least one of them is near 10th. Given that the 10th also gets to have a big courtyard for parties (Beast Swords Arc), it makes you wonder where it is. It seems not-central, given you don't put your warehouse district downtown.

Same for the 13th, which has vast, rolling hills near it (or within its grounds), for Orihime and Rukia's training. And possibly also Ugendou, though I can't recall whether Ugendou canonically exists IN 13th, or if I just put it there, and this list is for canon map info. (Ugendou's existence is noted in Colorful Bleach).

Despite not having a map, we actually have quite a bit of info from which a map could be created!

I haven't actually sat down to make a map that I use, but I definitely have a pretty consistent unconscious mental one I work off of. Some of it is based in fact and some of it is just vibes. One of my ambitions for the future is to solicit fan maps of Soul Society as part of a fandom event. I think it would be so cool to see everyone's!

Anyway, these are just the things I could think of off the top of my head. If anyone has additional canon mentions of the Seireitei's layout, or other panels/screencaps with additional angles, please feel free to share~