#zen ungaikyo

[callmemerry00]

Takamagahara gods + Six Realms shikis

The last row needs to chill

[calling-me-merry]

I think it's a cool detail, so I just wanted to point it out, but this line Yang's mother says in Zen Ungaikyo's memory scrolls is a reference to the famous opening passage of Heike Monogatari ("The Tale of the Taira Clan").

It's a classic japanese epic compiling the conflict between the Taira and the Minamoto clans during the Genpei War at the end of the Heian period.

The beginning of the tale announces the inevitable fall of the Taira through the Buddhist law of transience and impermanence.

"The prosperous must decline" is a phrase from the Humane King Sutra which says that "The prosperous inevitably decline, the full inevitably empty."

In buddhism, sala flowers are a symbol for impermanence and fleeting glory due to how quickly they bloom and fall.

Being a buddhist monk himself, Yang references this idea on multiple occasions. Even his and Yin's theme song says that 美しいものほど儚くて散りやすい ("The more beautiful something is, the more fleeting and easier to scatter it is").

The way I see it, the reference emphasizes both the inevitable fall of the persisting evil in the story (the wars, the evil god), but also the inevitable breaking and separation Yin and Yang experienced. It applies to both good and evil in this case and it's pretty bittersweet :')

[callmemerry00]

I love Yin and Yang's dynamic

[callmemerry00]

Omg I've just realized that Yang changes into Yin when I tap his knees!!