I really like how Kon and Ri's ofuda we got shown on Twitter are sort of glimpses into their characters.
Kon’s is more neat and meticulous, like there was care put into it. Every line is smooth. All the eyes are facing forward which makes it feel more confident in a way, but they're also not quite as open as Ri's.
Meanwhile, Ri's looks more messy and hastily made, no care about making it look good. There's edges and uneven lines. The eyes are all wide open and looking in all directions, as if making sure they won't miss anything.
Also, not to mention Kon's looks more modern than Ri's which is interesting. Idk I just noticed and thought this was cool.
Edit: Another thing I found under the cut ⤵️⤵️
I also found Ri's old ofuda from the series!! It's interesting comparing it to the new one, since this one has a lot more detail and looks more similar to Kon's. My take on it is that since it seems Ri has been doing this longer, he just adapted a "as long as it works it's good enough" mindset throughout the years lol.
More weird Mononoke thoughts (are there any other kind?) in connection with my theory that the "Umi Bozu" characters represent aspects of the Medicine Seller's psyche:
I think Kayo and the Medicine Seller fear similar things.
Umizatou makes the people it questions face their subconscious fears. Kayo's subconscious fear is that her child will be a monster. The Medicine Seller's subconscious fear is that there are no form, truth, or reason beyond this world. Since in the Buddhist philosophy the origin and true nature of the world is "emptiness," and this emptiness is the reason why forms have no innate self, I think this means that MS knows that there are no form, truth, or reason beyond this world, and that's why he fears disappearing—there's nothing innate or fixed about his existence as "himself," and changes in his experiences can change him into something else.
So, in "Nopperabou," he does disappear. The fox-mask demon, the mononoke, who resembles his alter, fights him, and he's gone for a while.
I think that his fear of disappearing in "Umi Bozu" and his actually disappearing in "Nopperabou" mean that he knew he could become a mononoke, or that his current "self" could change into something he absolutely didn't want it to be, and effectively vanish.
Since he can't become a mononoke alone (mononoke are always composites of human and ayakashi), he has to create one in union with someone else; since he (alter) and Ochou are both the mononoke in "Nopperabou," it seems he created it with her.
In other words, the nopperabou is a monster created by the union (and maybe even love) of the Medicine Seller and Ochou. In a sense, the mononoke is their child.
So, Kayo's fear of giving birth to a monster (as a result of loving someone) can be read as a metaphor for MS's fear of creating a mononoke, should his emotions draw him into "union" with a human.
Am I crazy (I ask myself, whenever I come up with one of these theories)? Maybe, but the first Mononoke monster (after ASHT) is actually a cluster of children who weren't allowed to be born.
(Again, I have way more thoughts on this. I hope to someday get them all down together...)
I'd always been curious about what the Qian Kusuriuri/Ken would look like, and now that we officially have him (which is still so cool), I wanna share all that I can about my thoughts on what we were given because looking too deep into things is my passion.
These are the main things I want to go over:
The actual Qian trigram
His design
The information we've been given so far
This is gonna be long, so all my rambling's under the cut.
1. The Trigram.
The Qian trigram represents Heaven—it's composed of three solid lines, also making it pure yang, and often used to symbolize all yang things or principles. From what I gathered it also represents creativity, strength, and authority.
Another interesting thing is that it's the patriarch of the Eight Trigrams as it symbolizes the father figure, connoting leaders and figures of authority. This leads me to believe Ken is similar and is the highest in authority, so to speak, of the Eight Trigrams in Mononoke.
These descriptions are really interesting to me and make me wonder how the character could correspond to them, such as "pure creative force" and "the quality of pure initiative." Not to mention Kenji Nakamura, the series' director, has used the word "bold" to describe Ken so I think these could give some insight as to what his personality could be like.
Another thing to point out is that in modern usage Qian can be applied to decision-making, and with how the Nakamaru also mentioned Ken's keen insight, I think that'll be an integral part of his character.
There's also all this from the article I was reading:
The thing that stuck out to me the most was the horse descriptions: "fine, old, lean, wild." Just based off what we have right now I think these could apply to Ken really well.
If you wanna check this out for yourself (which I recommend it's really interesting stuff), the website I used was masterseanchan.com!
2. The Design
Now onto the design!!! I really love it.
Someone already pointed out everything about it so I'll just pick out the stuff I find the most interesting.
He's wearing a lot of yellow, which is fitting since that and gold are considered the colors of heaven in China, and during times like the Tang dynasty only the emperor could wear yellow/gold which aligns well with Qian being the patriarch of the Eight Trigrams. Not to mention purple is also a color of nobility.
The purple nagatekkou he's got on his arm was typically worn by archers—and archery as a whole often symbolizes focus, which also aligns well with what the director was saying about Ken's keen insight.
He's wearing more battle-ready clothes too, the kimono is shorter and he's wearing hakama pants, likely to make it easier to move around. I'll come back to this later.
Edit: Forgot to mention that a person on Twitter pointed out how he's showing one shoulder like how Shingi does, which I think could be interesting, the heaven trigram imitating a divine being.
The head of his sword reminds me of both a bird and horse to be honest, which aligns with the horse being a symbol of Qian and the director mentioning a vulture motif, so I'm guessing it's a mix of both. There's also a lot of eyes on it which I think could be a symbol of Ken's experience, or perhaps another heaven motif considering angels are often depicted with lots of eyes.
On the other hand, though, I saw a lot of Japanese fans on Twitter point out how the head of the sword resembled the Egyptian god Anubis, which I can definitely see, and how Ken could be inspired by Egypt. It's also interesting to me how in Egypt yellow is often linked to the afterlife and the gods, not to mention Anubis being the god of the afterlife.
Another thing is his eyes, his pupils are a different color than Ri and Kon's. Again, maybe it's a symbol of his experience/how long he's been a Medicine Seller?
What I find the most interesting is his kumadori makeup. Unlike Ri and Kon, his features black and green. Black in kabuki represents evil/malevolence, and green represents the supernatural. Again, I'm gonna come back to this in a second.
As a whole his outfit seems like a motif to his character: very bold and eccentric, but underneath is a symbol of his focus. Not to mention the pose, compared to Ri and Kon, screams confidence lol.
3. The Kusuriuri.
Now onto what information we were given, and here is where I get a lot more speculative.
The "habit of boldly bearing one shoulder" part is a little funny to me, I'm guessing this guy knows his worth lmao, but anyway.
The two things that are most interesting to me is: "he undergoes a sharp transformation the instant a Mononoke appears, revealing a dual nature" and "his exorcism blade features a vulture motif and possesses the power of keen insight."
First I wanna go over the vulture motif, because vultures are often symbols of death, the afterlife, protection, and transformation. They're also well-known as opportunists. The death and afterlife stuff remind me again of the green and black in his kumadori, and the possible Anubis motif for his sword. Plus heaven and spirits kind of go hand in hand.
Then there's the "sharp transformation the instant a Mononoke appears, revealing a dual nature." So, he can be both breezy and focused, and just based off that sentence he seems to pay extra attention to Mononoke considering his sword has the power of keen insight. I actually rambled about this in a comment but I wanted to add it in a proper post with better wording.
The kumadori makeup, vulture motif, Egyptian symbolism, and heaven symbolism all make me wonder if Ken has more of a connection/interest in Mononoke than Ri and Kon do. Considering being the 'patriarch' of the Eight Trigrams means he's had to be around for awhile, and the apparent focus he puts on Mononoke.
Not to mention the more battle-ready clothes, so maybe he's more hands-on with his approach and goes toe-to-toe with Mononoke more often? I think it'd be a cool distinction from Ri and Kon.
But yeah TLDR: My theory on Ken is that he's gonna be of higher authority, but more confident and eccentric, yet he locks in the second he has his eyes on a Mononoke due to a possible fascination with them.
Please let me know if I got anything wrong :'), and I'd love to hear anyone else's thoughts!
Decoding the "Umi Bozu" passengers as aspects of the Medicine Seller's "self":
Genyousai: the dramatic, showboating exorcist/the sense of humor/the part that doesn't take himself all that seriously (ego?)
Genkei: the flawless (or not so much) follower of the Buddha (or, if you don't believe the Medicine Seller is a Buddhist [I think he is], just the part of him working really hard to deny a part he doesn't want to accept (the mononoke/rage) (superego?)
Kayo: the positive passions (empathy, love), maybe also the anger associated with them (id?) (I find it interesting that she's wearing yellow and orange this arc, not the same outfit she wore in ASHT; I wonder if it's a deliberate reference to MS's "hyper" form, which also wears yellow and orange, suggesting Kayo represents a major aspect of MS's "inner self")
(MS's behavior toward Kayo in this arc is... interesting.)
Sasaki: the maniacal killer who's a little too into his sword (id?) (As with Sasaki who just seems kind of nuts, there seems to be a part of MS that simply is driven to kill mononoke, regardless of rage or lack thereof)
Sougen and Mikuniya: not sure, maybe the physical feminine and masculine? Innocence and corruption?
(I don't think Goroumaru counts; he's more or less a prop.)
(I have so many more thoughts on this, getting deeper into analysis now that I've finally started a proper rewatch)
