- Reika, the Last Priestess
The final Rite of Commandment was carried out roughly a century ago, the point at which records of the Kuzes and the Kuze Shrine cease, and it seems as though the Tattooed Priestess known as Reika Kuze was the last one.
Here, I will summarise the many tragedies that befell Reika Kuze in chronological order, based upon evidence revealed by Dr. Asou's records and the investigation of Kei Amakura. I believe it will provide clues as to the cause of the "Unleashing" that likely took place at the time, as well as the circumstances in which it occurred.
- The Birth of Reika Kuze
No documentation remains describing precisely how Reika ended up being brought into the Kuze fold. However, as the priestess was required to be a young woman with no relatives to speak of, this likely came about following the loss of her family in some manner. Records speak of large-scale avalanches having occurred across northern Tohoku in the late Edo period, and I suspect that it was an unfortunate accident brought about by some such natural disaster that claimed her family's lives.
Now, Reika was completely alone. This caught the attention of those at the Kuze Shrine, and that winter she was brought into the shrine as a priestess, becoming Reika Kuze. It would have been very tough indeed for a young woman with no one to depend on to subsist in a poor, remote village. Barring the unexpected, owing to her situation at that time, she likely had little if any hope of leading a happy life as others did. In that sense, becoming a Kuze priestess was probably an ultimatum with regards to her life, but she also seems to have felt little more than resigned acceptance towards closing out her existence as a priestess.
It appears as though, just like the "Sleeping Priestess" song says, she was carried to the shrine aboard a kago in accordance with ancient tradition. According to the records of Akito Kashiwagi, the Kuzes stored the kago used to ferry the priestess by hanging it from the ceiling above the entrance to the manor. As this matches with the hanging of bodies to collect the blood of the dead from them during the Rite of Purple Ink and the aforementioned suspended prison, it appears as though the act of hanging possessed some sort of significance within the Kuzes' customs.
Like each of the priestesses throughout history, she would gradually be tattooed as part of the Piercing of the Soul each time a worshipper visited the shrine, spending the time until the Rite of Commandment inside a hanging cell. The Handmaidens from this time have been identified as Hisame, Shigure, Amane and Minamo.
- The Homecoming and Death of Kaname Ototsuki
After Reika Yukishiro entered into the Kuze household as a priestess, some mysterious act of fate brought about something that would have been impossible for any other priestess: Amane, one of the Handmaidens, turned out to be the younger half-sister of Kaname Ototsuki.
Kaname apparently retained few tangible memories of his birthplace. Considering that he was sent away to be adopted when he was a small child, this is only natural. Consequently, during the research into the Manor of Sleep he took part in, it seems as though he merely recognised that it bore similarities to a story from his hometown, and was talking about his former home - that is to say the Kuze Shrine - that was appearing in his dreams. It appears as though he had vaguely come to realise that the Tattooed Priestess spoken of in village legend was Reika, as can be heard described in a tape recording his testimony. Concerned by his repeated dreams of the Manor of Sleep (and, by extension, the woman he cared about), Kaname visited the Kuze Shrine where he suspected she was. Following this, he must somehow have learned that one of the Handmaidens was his sister. It seems likely that he had something in his possession proving that they were related, or that she was aware of his existence.
- Ototsuki's Movements
Runs away from hometown
Wants to solve mystery of his birth
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(Reika leaves for Kuze Shrine)
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Makes contact with Dr. Asou
Investigates mysterious dreams
Testifies about birthplace customs
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Returns to birthplace, sneaks into Kuze manor
Confirms Reika is alive
Finds out about sister?
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Makes contact with Reika, murdered by Yashuu
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(Unleashing?)
Portions of the diaries of the final Kuze family head, Yashuu, corroborate his actions. Upon returning to his birthplace, with Amane's assistance, Kaname set foot in the forbidden Engraving Shrine. As well as being the location where the Piercing of the Soul was performed, the Engraving Shrine also served as the nucleus of the Kuze Shrine, where the path leading to the Chamber of Thorns - the place where the priestess would go to sleep - was concealed. It is not hard to imagine how upset the people of the shrine would have been were a direct male descendent of the Kuzes - known as a "forbidden child", whose existence was considered taboo - to enter such a place in violation of their laws. According to Yashuu's writings, Kaname and Amane were both "banished". This probably explains why his trail goes completely cold after returning to his childhood home.
The matter is also recorded in a diary appearing to have belonged to Amane. It says that she led someone she calls her brother to the priestess, but became concerned and decided to go after him. After following Reika to where she had been submerged within the Rift, Kaname probably found her within the deepest part of the Kuze Shrine just as she was about to fall asleep. This, however, resulted in the irrevocable tragedy of Kaname being murdered before his sweetheart's very eyes.
- The Unleashing, and Downfall of the Kuzes
Note: ✕ child
✓ horizon?
What fate befell the Kuze Shrine in the Unleashing brought about by Reika?
The Kuze manor had been maintained and repaired by a select group of shrine carpenters throughout the ages. These men, Narumi carpenters who had guarded the Kuze manor for generations, were mobilised once more, and came up with a plan to stop the Unleashing from spreading any further. Namely, this involved constructing what was known as the "Rift Shrine", a building that covered the Kuze Shrine in its entirety, in order to prevent the miasma seeping out of the Abyss from escaping into the world. These enclosing walls were doubled and redoubled, until the entire shrine was completely cut off from the outside world, and the Kuze manor morphed into a gigantic mansion with an extremely complex layout.
It appears as though the Narumis upheld a tradition in which carpenters who participated in construction work would be made into human pillars, in part to silence them, and a large number of human sacrifices (known as "taboo pillars") were made. Two generations prior to that of the Yashuu, the final family head, major repairs were carried out on the shrine, at which time a considerable number of Narumi carpenters appear to have been sacrificed.
I can't help but point out the irony of the fact that these carpenters considered their work to be something sacred carried out in service to the gods, and as such always dressed in white. According to the records of Yashuu, even the chief carpenter - who, as successor to the clan's techniques, would ordinarily have been spared from being made into a pillar - took his own life. This likely refers to Tengai Narumi, the final head of the Narumis, who was said to have been extraordinarily skilled at his craft even when compared to the many previous masters. The fact that even such a person was forced to pay with his own life in an attempt to stop it affords us a glimpse of just how terrible of an event the Unleashing truly was.
Furthermore, according to conversations with Kaname Ototsuki and other people who had visited the Manor of Sleep in their dreams, there were a great many straw dolls skewered in a courtyard surrounded by a corridor. While this is only the recollection of a dream, it is true that such customs were part of many old folk religions. Straw dolls have often been erected at the boundary between the realm of mankind and the realm of the gods, in the form of human-shaped offerings that serve as guardian deities in place of flesh and blood humans. Consequently, it would not surprise me if this scene from the dream were something that was actually practised at the Kuze manor in real life. Perhaps they were used to protect the mansion from the curse of Reika, the cause of the Unleashing, alongside those who were made into sacrificial pillars.
Photo: Skewered dolls that were worshipped as guardian deities. People in certain regions can still be observed erecting skewered dolls as part of rituals even now.
- The Trigger of the Unleashing
The Unleashing was caused by Reika's despair and grief at the loss of Kaname. Conversely, one could say that if Reika had not been aware of Kaname's death, the tragedy of her unleashing her hatred in the form of the holly might have been averted.
The main influencing factor here was Reika likely bearing witness to Kaname's death. If we compare this to the tale of the Tattoo Ascetic, who reflected people's pain back to them after tattooing even her eyes, it would appear that the priestess' eyes are extremely important, and that they were supposed to be empty when she was submerged in the Rift. This resembles the way in which the eyes of the dead are closed when a body is cremated.
Despite the fact that she should not have carried her own pain - since, having lost her family and given up on her own life, she should no longer have anything to grieve - the death of Kaname caused her to feel a pain belonging solely to her. Her emotions were engraved upon her body (specifically her eyes, the soul of the priestess) in the form of tattoos. Would it be too much of a stretch to consider that, as in the legend of the Tattoo Ascetic, the tattoos upon her eyes rampaged out of control and caused the Unleashing?
- The Cycle of Fate Surrounding Kaname Ototsuki
Each and every Kuze family member, without exception, was a fatherless woman. This is because, like many primitive groups, the Kuze family was based entirely on a system of matrilineal succession. Accordingly, all male children born to the family were killed during infancy, meaning that the Kuze household was devoid of males (by intention). Another barbaric old custom was that any man who conceived a child with a Kuze woman would also vanish without anyone noticing.
I have spoken of Kaname and the priestess Reika several times already, but allow me to retell their story once more. His mother was Kyouka Kuze, a woman from the Kuze family, through whom he was the grandson of the last family head, Yashuu Kuze. Furthermore, according to Kyouka's writings in her diaries, his father would appear to be Akito Kashiwagi, a folklorist who visited the Kuze manor for the sake of his research.
As there were no males at the Kuze manor, it seems as though they would periodically accept visitors to conceive children with the women of the family and continue the bloodline. Akito Kashiwagi himself appears to have consented to the union with full understanding of his position. However, even if they were blood relatives, there was no way in which a male might go on living within the Kuze household. As the last known traces of Akito Kashiwagi are the journals written during his stay at the Kuze manor, it seems natural to conclude that he must have fallen victim to their cruel and barbaric customs.
Kaname Ototsuki would have been a very rare man indeed, to have been born to such a unique line and yet reach adulthood without his birth family finding out. And not only that, but his father was murdered by his wife's family before ever getting to see the face of his child, his mother barely managing to save her son by entrusting him to the care of a complete stranger in defiance of ancient traditions. Considering his childhood, it is easy to understand why Kaname's adoptive family would have kept the truth hidden from him.
However, despite fortunately having grown into a man, Kaname ultimately returned to his birthplace in order to make sure that his sweetheart was alive and well, where, in all likelihood, he was killed by his own grandmother just as his father once had been.
If any of the Kuze women - Kaname's mother Kyouka, perhaps - had been enlightened enough to object to these terrible practises, this tragedy may have been averted. Or suppose that Kaname had never left the village, and instead stayed by Reika's side - even if she had lost her entire family, it is possible that she might never have become a priestess in the first place.
Though the loss of her childhood friend and sweetheart Kaname was undoubtedly a factor in Reika's grief that triggered the Unleashing, I believe it may also even have been accompanied by despair towards the women who were unable to break the Kuzes' cycle of tragedy.