Acceptance and Redemption Through the Eyes of One Particular Ronin
Disclaimer, there will be spoilers.
The past is a part of one’s life that cannot be erased or dabbled with. It is everlasting and unchanging since we have no control over time, even with the helping hand of science thus far. Contemplating about the past seems like a popular hobby for us humans, especially the ones we regret. We love to explore the different kinds of outcomes and whether or not it affects on how we perceive those moments today. Will the regret still persist if i had done something different? What could possibly happen if i did this or that? Everyday questions that we may view as mediocre, actually presents a much deeper topic regarding one’s dependency of their past. This article will attempt to delve in to the suffering of the past and to be free from it through the eyes of Miyamoto Musashi (Vagabond), a ronin whose life story could teach us a few lesson regarding acceptance and redemption.
Miyamoto Musashi is the main protagonist of Vagabond, a Japanese manga created by Takehiko Inoue who gained legendary status because of it’s beautiful artwork and captivating plot. The story follows Shinmen Takezo who was the only child of a famous sword master named Shinmen Munisai. Munisai was an abusive father and this made Takezo despise him. Takezo’s coping mechanism was to retreat to the calmness of the forest, thus creating an inseparable bond between him and nature. One day, when Takezo was strolling around the forest, he came across a corpse of a swordsman. This discovery marveled him, and from that day onwards he would aspire to become the best swordsman in Japan.
Growing up, Takezo was notoriously a vicious individual, capable of killing anyone who crosses him. Because of this, the people of his village named him “demon child”. After an incident in his village, Takezo was forced to cut off all connection he had with other people besides the assassins sent out to kill him. After some time running without food and water, Takezo collapsed in front of a monk named Takuan and Takezo’s childhood friend, Otsu. Long story short, Takuan changed Takezo as he partly succeed in calming the beast inside of him. Because of this exoneration, Takuan changed Takezo’s name to the infamous Miyamoto Musashi.
Musashi’s journey to become the best was steep, since there were many household names that are already being hailed as kensei (sword saint). Despite this, Musashi conquered every foe he met through sheer skill and strength. Musashi was close to become the apex predator of Japan’s swordsmanship when the nightmares started to appear. Musashi lived by the sword and it is what binds him to his restless nights, haunted by the spirits of all the people he killed. He is possessed by the thrills of battle and his ego to be the one “unrivaled under the sun”. In one particular tragedy, the slaughter of the Yoshioka students, Musashi killed 70 men in one single night. This massacre with many supporting variables was what eventually pushed Musashi to the depths of realization and regret for all the blood he had spilled. His satisfaction from dueling, winning, and killing was turned to a feeling of hurt and guilt.
Musashi’s soul was now filled with deep sorrow and regret because of the sinful deeds he committed. His motivation to walk the path of the sword is slowly diminishing as he had to face encroaching nightmares and past traumas that routinely breaks his mental fortitude. This hell on earth could be identified as Musashi’s own process of catharsis, an ancient greek word commonly defined as purification or cleansing, which was first brought to the philosophical world by none other than Aristotle. For Aristotle, catharsis was about the power of tragedy and how it position us in the deepest corners of hell, yet from that corner we gain the cleansing of emotions. Musashi’s journey was filled with tragedies, both from his own doing or from others. At his lowest state, he began to have a clearer view on life, how precious it is and how awfully wrong it is to take it. From his darkness, a beacon of light shines.
Of course his road of redemption was long and tumultuous as he stumbles upon flashes of his old self here and there. But his sturdiness of going through hell has been rewarded by his brief life as a farmer. In this arc, Musashi finally held something else besides his sword, a farming hoe. Through the calmness of farming life, through the fulfillment he received after successfully growing wheats, through the bonds he shared with other people, and the father — son relationship he had with Iori (a child he met along his journey of self discovery)Musashi was experiencing joy like the first time he held a sword. He experienced what is called ekstasis, which is the antithesis of catharsis. This experience along with his previous endeavors, also completely changed Musashi’s outlook on strength. As he finally realized that strength comes in the tenderness and kindness of the heart, not from winning duels or killing rivals. Strength is being patient and caring for one another, not in acts of vengeance. Strength is ultimately the love you have for others and yourself.
Despite how tragic it was, Musashi embraces his past as he look to the future with hope to be better. This philosophy of joy and sorrow of the past, ties in quite nicely with Nietzschean philosophy. He noted that :
“What if pleasure and displeasure were so tied together that whoever wanted to have as much as possible of one must also have as much as possible of the other — that whoever wanted to learn to jubilate in to the heavens, would also be prepared to for desperation unto death?”
Nietzsche believed in embracing, even loving one’s dark past as it is a part of the dynamics of human life. This adoration of fate is what he remarked as amor fati, the loving of human life despite all the success and failures, the joys and sorrows, to not linger in regret but viewing it as a part of life. This passage was echoed even in the manga, where we see the monk Takuan having an existentialist conversation with Musashi regarding fate and how decided it was. Musashi’s journey of redemption could be viewed as a manifestation of Aristotle’s catharsis and Nietzsche’s own philosophy. He conquered the dark chapters of his life and was reborn, a refined man completely aware of his dark past yet still look to the future with hope. Musashi fell down the deep levels of hell to be transcended onto the heavens. From that journey, he perfected his outlook on life and the strength of kindness. Not many could endure such journey, hence the title “unrivaled under the sun” was truly Musashi’s. Unrivaled not in shallow terms such as swordmanship, but his fortitude along his journey of self destruction, self discovery, and self renewment.
*Do mind that I am not in any form an expert of Nietzschean thoughts*
Sources:
Aristotle. (1961). Aristotle’s poetics. New York :Hill and Wang,
Inoue, Takehiko. (1998). Vagabond. Tokyo : Kodansha
Nietzsche, F. W., In Kaufmann, W., & Hollingdale, R. J. (1968). The will to power. New York: Vintage Books
https://youtu.be/fL7onbMkfMc
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