ISHIKOZUME By Kondoru

Part Four-Appendices

Standard disclaimers

Thanks to JP for Betaing.

Yay. I have managed to keep the footnotes to a minimum.

Ishikozume rite.

A form of ritual execution used by the yamabushi. Involves the victim being buried alive. (Yes, it has been attested archaeologically.) What crimes was it for? It seems to vary from account to account (even in some cases, being the fate of those who failed in the face of extremely high level austerities.) All were crimes against the order, rather than ordinary offences, and all take place on sacred ground.

We don't know what was done to the Onikui tengu! (There are no western style accounts of demonic binding in Japan as far as I know, and though names are important, there is no `find a spirits true name and compel it to work for you` in Japan either.) Tengu are extremely powerful creatures, and Kantarou's constant bossing around of Haruka is on the level of lighting-a-fire-by-rubbing-two-lumps-of-plutonium-together stupidity.

Or come to think of it, deliberately-getting-on-the-Tengudo stupidity. (I like to think Sugino ended up in that state by accident.)

Haruka, of course, is `not` the Onikui. (The Onikui does not habitually wear western dress, nor does he live in a neat suburb of Taisho era Tokyo...) as we know, there is an element of compliance in his binding. Probably he is sick of The Rock.

I'm afraid I have misplaced the academic paper which describes all this. I'll tell you more (and if needful adjust the story) when I find it.

Ichinomiya Kiri's rite.

Made up but based mostly on real esoteric ritual.

The famous `nine` syllable chant is real, of course. It's from esoteric Buddhism but is derived from Taoism.

Each word is accompanied by a gesture. These ritual gestures are generally known in the west by their Sanskrit name, mudra. In Japanese they are in, so we have the term Kuji-in. (We we can safely assume Kantarou has unbelievably agile fingers to do the complex gestures so fast and so accurately...)

There are many different versions of it, so Ichinomiya Kantarou would have one for each situation. He certainly is not using the same spell every time.

Since this is esoteric Buddhism, mostly used by the yamabushi, and Shugendo is the religion of tengu, we can assume that the Onikui knows all of this and presumably can counter it. Hence Ichinomiya Kiris concern.

Ichinomiya Akai Kiris Mandala

Shitenno (Four heavenly kings) on the outside and Godai myo-o on the inside...With Fudo myo-o in his rightful place in the centre.

Rin/Bishamon-ten To/Jikoku-ten

Pyo/Gonzanze myo Sha/Kongo yaksha myo

Kai/Fudo myo

Jin/Gundari myo Sai/Dai-itokou myo

Retsu/Komoku-ten Zen/Zocho-ten

(Mostly thanks to Wikipedia, that fount of hardcore esotericism...)