To You 2,000 Years from Now３
“I never imagined... that rice balls would be used in a sword fight.”
“By thinking that way, you’re already bad at escaping. You’re obsessed with winning with a sword.”
“If you’re obsessed with winning with a sword, then only swords that are stronger can win. If you’re obsessed with winning with arrows, only sides with skilled archers can win. The secret for the weak to defeat the strong is to escape from the constraints of fixed ideas.”
“Even if you can’t use a sword properly, you can hollow out a log to collect rainwater for a fortress. You can spread oil and burn a bridge. Even throwing dung is something a child can do. For battle, troops, weapons, strength, and skill... if you can exert them even for a moment, you can win against a hundred times the enemy.”
…Escape from the prison of constraints…
“Conventions. Traditions. Aesthetics. Past successes. Large forces. Those surrounded by such cages are rigid and strong, but when the gaps in the cage are exploited, they are utterly vulnerable. The weak should not be confined by cages. Even if called cowardly or timid, one should confidently escape!”
This is a conversation between Hojo Tokiyuki and Kusunoki Masashige from “Escape Artist Lord.”
Yesterday, I went to see the movie "Touken Ranbu:.”
While shows like “Haikyuu,” “My Hero Academia,” and “Blue Lock” often have a high ratio of female fans (about 8 female to 2 male), “Touken Ranbu,” which personifies swords as handsome men, created an environment where I was the only male in the audience. It was a new and refreshing experience for me.
“Hijikatasan, unlike Sakamoto Ryoma, did not have the vision to paint a grand future. He devoted himself entirely to loyalty and strongly demanded it from those around him. He was strict and inflexible. He risked his life for it. But I liked that about Hijikatasan So I’ll give my loyalty.”
This is a quote from Izumi no Kami Kanesada in “Touken Ranbu.”
I have not come across a description of Hijikata Toshizo’s mental state more profound than the quote above. As mentioned in the words of Izumi no Kami Kanesada, I appreciate and learn a lot from “Touken Ranbu,” where the swords closest to their original masters encounter them again. It is fascinating to see how the swords, having witnessed their masters’ glory as well as their struggles, loneliness, and anxieties, reflect on these experiences.
There’s a mysterious story behind his name, connected to Oda Nobunaga. One day, a tea servant named Kanai made a mistake in front of Nobunaga. Enraged, Nobunaga tried to kill the servant. However, the servant hid under a shelf. Nobunaga, unable to reach him, thrust the sword under the shelf, and the blade cut through the servant’s body with such sharpness that it was named “Heshikiri Hasebe” (the one that cuts through). Afterward, Heshikiri Hasebe was given to Kuroda Kanbei as a reward for his strategy in the campaign against the Mori clan. Though Kanbei was not a direct subordinate of Nobunaga, the sword’s personified form harbored resentment towards Nobunaga for giving it away so easily.
In “Touken Ranbu: ” this Heshikiri Hasebe encounters Kanbei again. The setting is the final stages of the Mori campaign at Bitchu Takamatsu Castle, and the day before the Honnoji Incident.
Watching “Touken Ranbu” provides a multi-dimensional view of history, not just through the events but also through the thoughts and feelings of the individuals involved.
Following the Sengoku and Bakumatsu periods, the next exciting era would be the Genpei War, featuring the genius Yoshitsune and the brotherly conflict between Yoritomo and Yoshitsune, or the era of the Southern and Northern Courts where two emperors coexisted due to the overthrow of the Kamakura Shogunate by Ashikaga Takauji and Nitta Yoshisada. “Escape Artist Lord” is set in the latter period.
In the Kamakura Shogunate, the Minamoto lineage represented by Yoritomo reigned as shoguns for only three generations. From 1203 onwards, Hojo Takatoki and his descendants maneuvered to hold real power as regents. This was the political landscape of the Kamakura period.
After the fall of the Kamakura Shogunate by Ashikaga Takauji and Nitta Yoshisada, the story of Hojo Tokiyuki, the legitimate successor of the Hojo clan, unfolds in “Escape Artist Lord.”
Understanding this period is quite challenging unless you’re a history buff, but both the anime and manga adaptations of “Escape Artist Lord” provide a multi-dimensional view of this era.
Before Ashikaga Takauji and Nitta Yoshisada overthrew the Kamakura Shogunate, there was another person who tried to do so: Emperor Go-Daigo. It’s surprising that the emperor himself was actively involved in trying to overthrow the Kamakura Shogunate. However, Go-Daigo’s plans were exposed due to informants. Although he was spared from punishment, his close aides were exiled. Despite being defeated and exiled, Go-Daigo did not give up and continued to plan for overthrowing the Shogunate.
At the same time, a man fighting alone against the Shogunate was Kusunoki Masashige. Masashige waged guerrilla warfare centered in Izumi and Kawai, continually troubling the Kamakura Shogunate. In 1332, he was cornered at Chihaya Castle. Despite a huge disparity in numbers—1,000 of Masashige’s men against 1,000,000 soldiers seeking his head—the castle did not fall.
Using straw figures as decoys to lure enemies and dropping giant stones from above
Pouring boiling water and excrement on them
Throwing torches and pouring oil
Masashige fought in ways completely opposite to conventions and traditions, and he did not lose to a hundred times the number of enemies.
Coincidentally or not, as Masashige fought on and drew the Kamakura Shogunate’s attention, Go-Daigo escaped captivity and issued orders for the overthrow of the Shogunate. As a result, powerful warriors across various regions rebelled against the Shogunate, and the situation reversed.
Kusunoki Masashige’s persistence, not confined by conventions, greatly influenced the course of history.
“Why do birds appear free and beautiful? Because the entire sky is their escape route!”
“Unbound, unconfined, always traverse a broad and high escape route! To escape is to live. This is Masashige’s belief.”
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