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In the 11th episode ofBLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3 – The Conflict, Captain-Commander Shunsui Kyōraku finds himself in a bind as Lille Barro, whom he thought had been done in by his Bankai,Katen Kyōkotsu Karamatsu Shinjū, returns fully revivified and absolutely incensed that his opponent thought he could be killed by a “Shinigami’s mere Bankai”. The hero of the day is Kyoraku’s Lieutenant, Nanao Ise, who reveals that she knows Kyoraku’s most closely guarded secret: that he has been hiding her Zanpakutō at the request of her mother, Isuzu Ise.
Powerful enough to defeat even a god, the Shinken Hakkyōken – the Divine Eight-Mirror Sword, isa sacred artifact of the Soul Society, but also thought to be the source of a curse that has taken the life of every man who has married a member of the Ise Clan. Just what is the Shinken Hakkyōken, and how did it beat Lille Barro?
The Eight Directions Concept Comes Up, Again
The Number of Infinity
In Japanese, the word “happō”, written 八方, is a term that combines “ha” from “hachi”, the word for eight, and “hō”, the word for way or direction and generally means “in all directions”. The number eight has major significance in Asia. For instance, in Chinese numerology, eight is regarded a lucky number due to the similarity of its pronunciation, “ba”, with “fa” 发, meaning wealth, fortune or prosperity. In Buddhism, there exists a collection of “sacred treasures” known as theAshtamangala, also known as the Eight Auspicious Signs, which are symbolic attributes or representations of enlightenment and symbols of good fortune based on the offerings made by the gods toShakyamuni Buddha immediately after he gained enlightenment. There are variations of the concept based on the school of thought, so the eight treasures/symbols are different depending on whether you’re looking at Chinese or Tibetan Buddhism, Jainism or Hinduism.
The ultimate unity of everything
Purity
Dhvaja/Victory Banner
Buddha’s victory over the four Māra – the personified forces that are antagonistic to enlightenment. The name can mean “causing death”.
Dharmachakra
The Wheel of Law – the single most important Buddhist symbol that typically has eight spokes and represents the perfection of the teachings of Buddha/the universal moral law or order
Bumpa/Vase
Health, longevity, wealth, prosperity, wisdom; representing Buddha’s infinite quality of teaching the Dharma, which is not subject to the law of diminishing returns.
Pair of Golden Fish
The auspiciousness of all sentient beings/lunar and solar channels and their carrying of alternating rhythms of the primordial breath orprana.
Parasol
Protection from harmful forces, represents the sky and expansiveness of space/aether
Conch
The pervasive sound of the Dharma which awakens disciples from their ignorance
In addition to these eight treasures, the number eight in Buddhism can also be representative of the eight spokes in the Dharmachakra – the wheel of Dharma/universal order. The spokes represent the Noble Eightfold Path, an early summary of the practices that lead to nirvana, the liberation from the painful cycle of rebirth known as samsara. The practices are:
InBLEACH, we’ve seen the concept of the Happō before, in the name and exploration of 5th Squad Captain and Visored leader Shinji Hirako’s Bankai:Sakashima Yokoshima Happō Fusagari, which upends the conception of friend and foe in the minds of those unfortunate enough to see it. The name is brilliant, as it is specifically translated to “Reversed Evil Eight Treasure Blockade”, which can be understood as a hellish fate in which one is incapable of receiving the eight treasures/Ashtamangala, thus being rendered incapable of advancing in any of the eight paths to enlightenment – condemned to perpetual suffering without ever hoping to be freed fromsamsara. The Shinken Hakkyōken used by Nanao Ise in the episode titled “Shadows Gone” employs a similar concept of the “eight paths”.
Deus Ex Machina
A Refraction Of Divine Evil
The Ise Clan is a matrilineal family of Shinto priests in the Soul Society. The records state that only women have been born into the family, who would get sons from other families to marry into theirs; however, due to a “curse”, every single man who has married a member of the Ise Clan died not very long after, including Nanao Ise’s father: Shunsui Kyōraku’s older brother. Despite being Shinigami, no member of the Ise Clan has ever had their own Zanpakutō, with the head of the family handing downa special ceremonial Zanpakutōto the next generation. Even when given an Asauchi, Nanao was never able to make it into her own Zanpakutō. As priests, their responsibility was the carrying out of special rites and rituals, some of which would be performed with the family Zanpakutō – the Shinken Hakkyōken, translated to Divine Eight-Mirror Sword, a bladeless ornate sword with four diamonds running down its “blade”.
It is said that the Shinken Hakkyōken “reflects the power of the godly opponent faced by its wielder”. When Lille Barro used his “Trompete” attack inhis true Vollständig form, a devastating beam of divine light in the form of a trumpet (a reference to the Seven Trumpets of Divine Judgment in the Book of Revelations as a signal of the end times), Nanao reflected the attack back onto him, destroying him with his own power. How sinful. Interestingly, the Quincy had eight wings in his Vollständig form, which was made to look more like a representation of biblically accurate angels of the grandest variety; the Seraphim, or even a step above them, given that he had a pair of wings more than their usual depiction, not to mention the fact that Kyoraku and Nanao are introduced as Captain and Lieutenant of Squad 8. Given Kyōraku’s Bankai being based on theatre, the deus ex machina presented by Nanao’s wielding of the Shinken Hakkyōken is less plot armour, and more of a display of Tite Kubo’s brilliance when it comes to thematic writing.
