why i love masamichi yaga and you should too
i've been doing a reread of jjk recently and picked up on some interesting nuances of yaga's character, particularly in the context of centrism. he occupies such a unique space in the broader conflict of jujutsu society, and the way it's written is some of jjk's best "show, don't tell" work that's done in the series.
jjk as a whole is very focused on the conflict between progress and tradition. there exists a deadlock in jujutsu society, held between progressives like gojo, who want to welcome in the new generation of sorcerers and prioritize individuality, and the traditionalists, the higher ups and major clans who want to maintain the status quo. this broader theme of conformity versus rebellion exists everywhere in the story: nobara's past in the countryside, geto's nihilism before defecting, nanami's connections to corporate culture, etc. even itadori's execution to an extent reflects this idea, wherein jujutsu society's strict rules and fear of change sentence a 15 year old boy to death. it's a bleak world, one in which children are treated as mere cogs in a machine to be used and discarded. this is what itadori means when he says "i'm you" to mahito in shibuya; the entire system of cursed energy, and the violence jujutsu exposes people to, render sorcerers nothing more than tools to be wielded without question.
as an aside, i also find itadori's acceptance of his passivity in this moment very interesting. after everything he has endured in shibuya he defaults to his "nature" as a sorcerer as an almost coping mechanism. exposing children to the horrors of curses is a way of maintaining control.
in yaga's introduction he is painted as an obstacle, one preventing itadori from entering the college and saving lives as his grandfather instructed. but i think this scene is more telling about him than our main character. what yaga is doing here is preemptively making itadori question his motives for sorcery, much in the same way that mahito does later. when everyone is a cog in the machine, the question "why?" becomes the most dangerous thing a person can ask, and as such the leadership of the jujutsu world would prefer no one does. by forcing his students to confront that question early on, yaga is already offering a unique sense of agency to them. he is trying to steel their resolve before it can be taken away. and the best part about it? it isn't enough. no matter how solid itadori thinks his motivation is, it's all destroyed when he sees the destruction curses can cause, and the only thing that can get him back up again is nanami's curse to not run away— that continuing on is how he can atone.
but anyway, yaga's interrogation of these motives and their subsequent failure encapsulates a critical part of his character: he is a centrist. as the principal of the tokyo branch, yaga occupies an important position of power in jujutsu society. but while his counterpart, gakuganji, strongly adheres to the reigns of tradition, he is far more lenient. he allows itadori (presumed dead at the time) to enter the school despite the agenda of the higher ups; he doesn't punish a young gojo for allowing geto to slip away; and of course, he carries the secret to autonomous cursed corpses. despite all this, he is framed as less explicitly radical than the younger generation of sorcerers. while he bends the rules, he doesn't envision what it would be like to change them. you can see this best in the hidden inventory arc, in which he supports the mission to erase amanai riko. there's a pretty interesting contrast here between riko and itadori— both are children sentenced to death for a higher cause, but yaga thinks one should live while the other shouldn't. it could be argued that geto's betrayal made him realize the flaws in the system, causing him to be more progressive in his treatment of itadori, but i digress. while yaga hopes for change, he still embodies the inertia of the older generation in allowing the youth to spearhead that effort (gojo was once his student, after all).
but! i could not talk about yaga without talking about his cursed technique. his ability is honestly one of my favorites in the series, and not just in the powerscaling sense. the pinnacle of yaga's sorcery is panda, a cursed corpse capable of autonomous thought and emotion. this is rebellion to its highest degree against jujutsu society. when systems seek to pacify dissent, controlling the ability to think and feel is a prerequisite to domination. but instead of using his cursed dolls as tools, yaga treats them as family. he calls panda his son, says goodbye to his accumulated dolls before going to his own execution, and constructs takeru to reunite a grieving mother with her son. they are not cogs in the machine, but individuals, reflecting his attitudes towards sorcerers and their value as people. granted, he does this somewhat reluctantly: he tells kusakabe that he "hate[s] to do this" when his sister first sees the cursed doll. but he does it anyway, allowing him to occupy a unique gray space between outward defiance and complete subservience.
finally, let's talk about yaga's last words. this line in particular was what made me put this together in the first place. when i first read this, i was somewhat confused. what curse does yaga putting on gakuganji? after reading some more, i think its symbolic of a loss of control. gojo's sealing is what breaks the deadlock of jujutsu, forcing the conflict between progress and tradition into its finale. yaga's centrism can no longer exist. in this dichotomy, he chooses to die supporting progress. right before gakuganji attacks, yaga is given an explicit choice: give up the secrets to autonomous cursed dolls and he gets to live. by denying the options set up by jujutsu leadership (giving the instructions and dying), he denies their control over his life, choosing to curse them by showing his agency over his death. he chooses to die not on someone else's battlefield but his own— a warning for the storm yet to come over the jujutsu world. say what you will about gege's writing, but boy did he strike gold on masamichi yaga.
