internalized swords, religious imagery
So I'm writing a longer X fanfic, and I wanted to have some idea of how Arashi's power works, so I've been poking around online.
This has also been an excellent excuse to refresh myself on Japanese religion in general--that class was a long time ago. Arashi (Shinto) is a miko from the Ise Shrine, and Sorata is from the temple at Mt. Kouya, which means he's from the Shingon sect of Buddhism; both are real places. His power is to channel lightning, which is interesting in view of the legend of how that temple was founded--its founder cast a lightning bolt from China and built where it landed. (The other monks note that Sorata's power equals or surpasses that of the founder.)
Arashi's power, for anyone not familiar with X, is that she draws a sword from her left hand. The sword represents all of Ise's power, and works well as a symbol--Ise is devoted to Amaterasu (yay! Jason's car has a shrine!), and the three treasures of Amaterasu are the Sword, the Mirror (her body is represented by a mirror in the inner shrine--apparently it's very uncommon to make an actual representation of a kami, as opposed to the Buddhist traditions), and the Jewel/Orb. (These also appear in Sailormoon--the three Talismans required to summon the Grail. Nihonjin do seem to love mixing traditions . . . )
Anyway, in the tv series, she just kind of extends her arm and the sword slides out into her grip. But the manga scans I've seen show that her hand looks *extremely* strange, as if the sword is actually growing out of her body; however, it comes out of her left hand, and most of the time when she wields it one-handed it's in her right hand, and then both hands look normal.
(X is a pretty old series; I keep wondering if Anthy's sword trick in Utena was at all inspired by it. I have heard it referred to as "Clamp-esque" . . . )
So I found what seems to be a production sketch of Arashi's hand from the movie, and it's a little disturbing. And hard to interpret. I *think* that in the picture the blade has come out entirely, and the hilt is about to finish emerging. (Image from subliminal messages, an Arashi shrine.) Anyway, it looks like it *hurts*, but she never shows any particular sign of discomfort. Can't decide if that's because it doesn't, or because she's such a stoic person.
In summary: Japanese religions are cool. I really like their sects of Buddhism (mostly Mahayana, AFAIK, which is the type I have the most respect for--the Buddhist community here mostly practices Vajriyana [sp?], which is . . . odd). And Shinto is just cool. If I were in a position to practice it and weren't, y'know, rather devoutly Christian, I'd be tempted.
Oh--and sex scenes are tricky. Esp. when the characters in question have only had sex *once* in canon, and it's kind of been done.
This has also been an excellent excuse to refresh myself on Japanese religion in general--that class was a long time ago. Arashi (Shinto) is a miko from the Ise Shrine, and Sorata is from the temple at Mt. Kouya, which means he's from the Shingon sect of Buddhism; both are real places. His power is to channel lightning, which is interesting in view of the legend of how that temple was founded--its founder cast a lightning bolt from China and built where it landed. (The other monks note that Sorata's power equals or surpasses that of the founder.)
Arashi's power, for anyone not familiar with X, is that she draws a sword from her left hand. The sword represents all of Ise's power, and works well as a symbol--Ise is devoted to Amaterasu (yay! Jason's car has a shrine!), and the three treasures of Amaterasu are the Sword, the Mirror (her body is represented by a mirror in the inner shrine--apparently it's very uncommon to make an actual representation of a kami, as opposed to the Buddhist traditions), and the Jewel/Orb. (These also appear in Sailormoon--the three Talismans required to summon the Grail. Nihonjin do seem to love mixing traditions . . . )
Anyway, in the tv series, she just kind of extends her arm and the sword slides out into her grip. But the manga scans I've seen show that her hand looks *extremely* strange, as if the sword is actually growing out of her body; however, it comes out of her left hand, and most of the time when she wields it one-handed it's in her right hand, and then both hands look normal.
(X is a pretty old series; I keep wondering if Anthy's sword trick in Utena was at all inspired by it. I have heard it referred to as "Clamp-esque" . . . )
So I found what seems to be a production sketch of Arashi's hand from the movie, and it's a little disturbing. And hard to interpret. I *think* that in the picture the blade has come out entirely, and the hilt is about to finish emerging. (Image from subliminal messages, an Arashi shrine.) Anyway, it looks like it *hurts*, but she never shows any particular sign of discomfort. Can't decide if that's because it doesn't, or because she's such a stoic person.
In summary: Japanese religions are cool. I really like their sects of Buddhism (mostly Mahayana, AFAIK, which is the type I have the most respect for--the Buddhist community here mostly practices Vajriyana [sp?], which is . . . odd). And Shinto is just cool. If I were in a position to practice it and weren't, y'know, rather devoutly Christian, I'd be tempted.
Oh--and sex scenes are tricky. Esp. when the characters in question have only had sex *once* in canon, and it's kind of been done.