Takezo VS Musashi - Boyhood versus Manhood & The Importance of Honour to Healthy Masculinity - The Sword Saint in Focus: Musashi by Yoshikawa Eiji: The Greatest History-Adventure Drama of All Times

Shinmen Ogin Arrested!

Let us continue the discussion of Musashi, of how Takezo’s sister has been imprisoned by the likes of the local lord in one of the most unjust decisions ever made by any character throughout this monumental novel.

"Thank heaven it's you," he said. "I was really starting to worry. You never
stay out this late. When I realized the time, I came out looking for you." He looked
down toward the ground and asked, "Why are you barefoot?"

This is the scene that greets us after Ogin has been arrested, and that Takezo has murdered a man (in brutal fashion). Osugi directed the local bushi against Takezo in the hopes that she might somehow get even with the whole of the Shinmen family.

Otsuu panicked and fled to Takuan Soho for help.

Now what it does help us to do here, is discern that in the 1930s thereabouts when this story was being written just as to-day people weren’t supposed to go barefoot. Because one might cut one’s feet on the rocks or a stray pebble or something, and there’s also the cleanliness issue. The Japanese are pretty OCD about body hygiene (its a good trait of theirs), so that to stink or otherwise be dirty attracts their disdain and ire.

I’m just grateful that as someone who is OCD in the same way I got to spend so much time in a society that felt the same way about body odours (I’ve a strong olfactory sense). When pressed though to explain the situation here, Otsuu quite naturally succumbs to tears and is quite understandably overwhelmed as its a little much for a girl of about 16 years of age.

"They tied Ogin up and took her away! Matahachi didn't come back, and now
poor Ogin, who's so sweet and gentle—they were all kicking her. Oh, Takuan, we've
got to do something!"
Sobbing and trembling, she clung desperately to the young monk, her head
resting on his chest.”

Extreme action is the only thing that can be said to describe this most unseemly of acts against what is a defenceless young woman. Ogin is harmless, and what is more a good and lovely lady.

But we must understand that the Japanese have always regarded

Speak of Takezo and he shall appear!

“It was noon on a still, humid spring day, and a faint mist rose from the young
man's sweating face. Takezō was walking alone in the mountains, whither he knew
not. He was tired almost beyond endurance, but even at the sound of a bird alighting,
his eyes would dart around. Despite the ordeal he'd been through, his mud-spattered
body came alive with pent-up violence and the sheer instinct to survive.”

This is not a pleasant image. This is not a hero. This is not a hero returning home from a triumphant series of victories at war.

This is Takezo the Brigand returning from the war of 1600 with murder in his heart, and a weary spirit and a mud-splattered body that’s possessed as Yoshikawa puts it by a ‘sheer instinct to survive’ so that one could only describe this as a man bent on disaster and tragedy.

The first murder was a tragedy, those that follow are travesties.

"Why are all the villagers against me?" he wondered. "The minute they see
me, they report me to the guards on the mountain. The way they run when they catch
sight of me, you'd think I was a madman."

This is the mindset that Takezo has and it is fairly humorous and frightening due in no small part to the fact that he has indeed become the madman. This isn’t to say that the villagers aren’t somewhat batty themselves but they’re afraid and have been press-ganged by Osugi and the local Samurai who showed up to hunt down the criminal.

This means that they have no choice, but the fact that it is Takezo they’re hunting down serves to excite some of them. So it isn’t as though the theft of choice bothers them too much, only a little.

Takezo though is immensely bothered by this and approaches it like a battering ram.

“He'd been hiding in the Sanumo mountains for four days. Now, through the
veil of the midday mist, he could make out the house of his father, the house where his
sister lived alone. Nestled in the foothills just below him was the Shippōji, the
temple's roof jutting out from the trees. He knew he could approach neither place.
When he'd dared go near the temple on the Buddha's birthday, crowded though it was,
he'd risked his life. When he heard his name called, he had no choice but to flee. Aside
from wanting to save his own neck, he knew that being discovered there would mean
trouble for Otsū.
That night, when he'd gone stealthily to his sister's house, Matahachi's mother
—as luck would have it—had been there. For a while he'd just stood outside, trying to
come up with an explanation of Matahachi's whereabouts, but as he was watching his
sister through a crack in the door, the soldiers had spotted him. Again he had to flee
without having the chance to speak to anyone. Since then, it appeared from his refuge
in the mountains that the Tokugawa samurai were keeping a very sharp eye out for
him. They patrolled every road he might take, while at the same time the villagers had
banded together to form search parties and were scouring the mountains.
He wondered what Otsū must think of him and began to suspect that even she
had turned against him. Since it appeared that everyone in his own village regarded
him as an enemy, he was stymied.”

You see? While he’s certainly able to out-think his enemies on some levels he’s devolved mentally into the sort of state of mind that a beast might well have. It is only natural under the circumstances, as a man who is treated as one to become like on in many ways.

This is a very old tradition in Oriental thought and literature that to elevate a man and expect more from him will cause him to become inspired and wish to be better. This sort of thought pervades the Journey to the West where Sun Wukong starts out barbaric and rather more like the Greek god Pan, and slowly transfigures himself into a gentleman-warrior-saint.

The same sort of character arc follows Lu Meng in most stories about him from the Three Kingdoms stories.

Musashi is in many ways a latter day Lu Meng if greater. This is a very fascinating arc for a character to follow, with Takezo right now in the midst of the ‘brutish animal’ point in the story-line that he’ll follow or the Beast if you will. He is not yet the ‘Scholar-Warrior’ that many will come to know him as.

“He thought: "It'd be too hard to tell Otsū the real reason her fiancé didn't
come back. Maybe I should tell the old woman instead. . . . That's it! If I explain
everything to her, she can break it gently to Otsū. Then there won't be any reason for
me to hang around here."

The thing here is that this is truly an insane idea. The thought’s the sort that would NEVER have ordinarily entered into his head.

The trouble here is that we have to discuss something about human nature; while Takezo is suspicious of Otsuu right now, and is ready to cast caution to the winds and trust his fate to Osugi he’s not thinking rationally as he’s sleep-deprived and been deprived of food for too long.

He’s also hungry for human affection, and wishes to do what most people might under the circumstances; trust in a higher authority. This is how young people typically think though they do not fully realize it. It is something that can be good and can be bad. In Takezo’s case it won’t yield good fruits as he is about to entrust himself to others who have no good will towards him.

If anything they’ve naught but ill-will for him, and are the most ravenous of beasts where goodness is concerned. Vile and ruthless and underhanded those whom he wishes to take shelter with are already convinced that he is their enemy in spite of how it wasn’t Takezo’s wish to cause trouble for them, or to lure Matahachi away from them.

In a lot of ways they are hating the victim and causing him pain simply because they cannot handle the sorrows that they have wrought upon themselves.

But this is ever the way of the world; the question one must ask oneself is this what came first the chicken or the egg? The reason we must ask ourselves this question is if we truly wish to understand the character, why he hates the village and why he cannot understand them. The reason is simple; they’ve always hated him. It’s hard for a child to understand why the world despises him. But the thing is some children are born into hatred, and struggle with it and must conquer it if they are to become even half the men that Takezo later becomes.

“His mind made up, Takezō resumed walking, but he knew that it would not do to go near the village before dark. With a large rock he broke another into small pieces and hurled one of them at a bird in flight. After it fell to earth, he barely paused to pluck its feathers before sinking his half-starved teeth into the warm, raw flesh. As he was devouring the bird, he started walking again but suddenly heard a stifled cry.
Whoever had caught sight of him was scrambling away frantically through the woods.
Angered at the idea of being hated and feared—persecuted—for no reason, he shouted, "Wait!" and began running like a panther after the fleeing form.
The man was no match for Takezō and was easily overtaken. It turned out to be one of the villagers who came to the mountains to make charcoal, and Takezō knew him by sight. Grabbing his collar, he dragged him back to a small clearing.”

Speak of Cao Cao as the Chinese put it and he shall ride forth, and just as we speak of the hatred that the villagers have for Takezo, it thus follows that one of their number should appear before us in the text.

The man whom Takezo captures here is one whom has happened upon him by a fluke and was indeed searching for him, and soon takes fright even as Takezo cannot quite understand what is going on.

The man however for his part begins to beg for his life, with Takezo trying to wrestle information from the man, but the way he does it is…. wicked for lack of a better term for it.

"Y-y-y-y-yes, sir!"
"Sit down!"
Takezō released his grip on the man's arm, but the pitiful creature started to
flee, forcing Takezō to kick his behind and make as if to strike him with his wooden
sword. The man cringed on the ground like a simpering dog, his hands over his head.
"Don't kill me!" he screamed pathetically.
"Just answer my questions, all right?"
"I'll tell you anything—just don't kill me! I have a wife and family."
"Nobody's going to kill you. I suppose the hills are crawling with soldiers, aren't
they?"
"Yes."
"Are they keeping close watch on the Shippōji?"
"Yes."
"Are the men from the village hunting for me again today?"
Silence.
"Are you one of them?"
The man jumped to his feet, shaking his head like a deaf-mute. "No, no, no!"
"That's enough," shouted Takezō. Taking a firm grip on the man's neck, he
asked, "What about my sister?"
"What sister?"
"My sister, Ogin, of the House of Shimmen. Don't play dumb. You promised
to answer my questions. I don't really blame the villagers for trying to capture me,
because the samurai are forcing them to do it, but I'm sure they'd never do anything to
hurt her. Or would they?"
The man replied, too innocently, "I don't know anything about that. Nothing
at all."
Takezō swiftly raised his sword above his head in position to strike. "Watch
it! That sounded very suspicious to me. Something has happened, hasn't it? Out with
it, or I'll smash your skull!"

This is the sort of behaviour one might expect from a villain of a story, as he gives the man no quarter, and shows neither mercy nor pity for the man before him. There’s something very much inhuman about Takezo, something very ‘Un-Samurai’ like in the context that this isn’t the act of a man bound by honour but one who is bound within dishonour.

Honour is a choice. Dishonour a path to wickedness.

“Hands folded in supplication, the trembling charcoal-maker told how Ogin
had been taken away a prisoner, and how an order had been circulated in the village to
the effect that anyone providing Takezō with food or shelter would automatically be
regarded as an accomplice. Each day, he reported, the soldiers were leading villagers
into the mountains, and each family was required to furnish one young man every
other day for this purpose.
The information caused Takezō to break out in goose pimples. Not fear.
Rage. To make sure he'd heard right, he asked, "What crime has my sister been
charged with?" His eyes were glistening with moisture.
"None of us knows anything about it. We're afraid of the district lord. We're
just doing what we're told, that's all."
"Where have they taken my sister?"
"Rumor has it that they've got her in Hinagura stockade, but I don't know if
that's true."

He has the information, but it has given no peace. It has only served to stoke his rage all the more so that the warrior will now seek to clash with the village still more. He of course will stick to his strange plan to consult with Osugi, and he intends to rescue his sister all the while he is filled with loathing for the cowardice and weakness of the village (on that point he has no right to judge them too harshly).

But Takezo is bound at the moment down the path of folly and madness as he gives himself over to the indignation of a man unjustly dishonoured, and like a child takes it out upon the world around him rather than making use of it for the betterment of all those around him.

We see here the behaviour of a boy, rather than the actions of a man. Musashi is the man, and Takezo the boy.

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Also Crown of Blood has a new edition, with maps, character bios and more!