#sasarindo

[tanuki-kimono]

Regal antique kimono with gracefully long sleeves, showing colorful tachibana (a type of citrus) and sasarindô (gentian).

I love how the vibrant magenta ground echoes with the light blue piercing through clouds.

[seraph-noodle]

Ose Koichi’s face is too amiable looking so sometimes it’s hard to take him seriously

[den-ichinomiya]

Kawara Komainu with Sasarindo crest and Chintamani

[minamotosousuke]

would actually kill for some of that fabric printed with the sasarindo

[maiji]

I Heard A Cicada Cry (part 3 of 4) A YYH North Bound story 

The dragonfly is associated with warriors as it is said to never retreat/fly backwards. Also I decided to change the nickname Semimaru gives Hokushin to the more ancient, Heian-era word (akitsu vs tonbo). By the time-travelling powers vested in me, I went back and updated Part 1. Apologies for the inconsistent floating reblogs on Tumblr, ah well.

More commentary below the cut.

I kept drawing and then erasing people on the last page. Part of me is constantly conflicted about how many people are in the background because all the depictions I can find of barrier gates never look that packed… but maybe ancient artists just hated drawing crowds of people as much as modern artists do.

I’m gonna miss Semimaru when Cicada Cry is done. His face and bushy beard are so much fun to draw (not to mention they cover up all the difficult angles in challenging perspectives), and his interactions with a very young and earnest Hokushin let me whip out all my favourite sad expressions. Also this is one of the reasons why Hokushin becomes much more careful about how he words things in the future. Speaking of wording, nothing like some good ol’ vaguely-phrased prophecies that only make sense with 20/20 hindsight. Fortunately, for the purposes of North Bound being a viable story, Hokushin figures both of them out. He makes reference to Semimaru’s words in the second part of “Familiar” when he makes his pledge of loyalty (this time successfully) to Raizen.

Semimaru’s warning/second prophecy is a reference to the Genpei War. The story of this war has been handed down for centuries through the epic Heike Monogatari (Tales of the Heike), which I mentioned in this post on developing Hokushin’s North Bound backstory relative to historical references. The main players of the Genpei War were the Taira (Heike) and Minamoto (Genji), both warrior clans with imperial bloodlines. The mon (crest) of the Taira is the agehanocho (swallowtail butterfly) while the Minamoto is represented by sasarindo (gentian flowers and bamboo). The Minamoto were the out-of-favour underdogs and the Taira basically ruled everything, but by the end of the war, the Taira clan had effectively been wiped out. The Heike Monogatari's countless tales of tragedy came to characterize the war-torn Kamakura period - a stark contrast from the luxurious peace captured by the records of the Heian era. At least for nobles, anyways.

As you probably already know if you’ve been following North Bound for a while, per Raizen’s deathbed conversation with Yusuke, Kamakura is canonically the era during which Raizen meets the kudakusushi. And not-so canonically, in North Bound, it’s also the era in which Raizen meets Hokushin. OK, one more part left for Cicada Cry! An existing Yu Yu Hakusho character will appear in it and it’s NOT one of the monks! Ooh so exciting.

[new-programming]

[seraph-noodle]

They’re actually using logic for Jaguar’s Eye

[seraph-noodle]

In Senkosha shows covering your eyes or face automatically makes your voice unrecognizable to other people even though you’re making no effort to actually do a different voice

[seraph-noodle]

Sasarindo killing a bunch of people or being implied to kill a bunch of people is kinda shocking cause he comes right on the heels of Gekko Kamen and he’s been trying so hard not to kill this whole show that I really forgot he’s only tangentially related to Gekko Kamen and not actually subscribed to the same philosophy

Side note Mori saying they shouldn’t do things out of anger or hate immediately afterwards is so funny cause my man you literally just killed

[seraph-noodle]

The one who inherited the most of Gekko Kamen’s philosophy would actually be little old Sasarindo here, a hero from a show that according to Senkosha is definitely NOT a hero show

[seraph-noodle]

Ninja: I have a bunch of secret ninja skills

Sasarindo: *pulls out gun*

[seraph-noodle]

The whole “Sasarindo gets framed and goes to jail” side plot was wild cause Mori just does a whole jailbreak and they never talk about that side quest ever again or prove Sasarindo didn’t kill a guy so I guess Sasarindo can never show his face around civilized company ever again

[seraph-noodle]

They’re trying to make Sasarindo look bad by pretending to be him and attacking people lmao

[seraph-noodle]

Wait a minute they hit him from the back so how would he know the guy’s wearing a Sasarindo pin

[seraph-noodle]

Sasarindo has the same problem as Gekko Kamen where him being dressed all in white looks good in monochrome TV but then you remember that to the characters he stands out like a patch of snow in this otherwise extremely green and brown forest

[seraph-noodle]

Sasarindo who tucks the point of his spear against himself so he doesn’t accidentally stab someone versus Arashi who slices through those ninjas like it’s nothing