Arai Shakkū (
Appearance[]
Shakkū's facial features are never fully shown, but it can be seen that he has short hair.
Personality[]
Shakkū was an eccentric yet creative genius when it came to sword crafting. In truth, Shakkū hated that he had to create tools to murder, and did so in the hope that future generations could enjoy an era of peace.
Relationships[]
- Arai Seikū: Seikū is Shakkū's son. He despised Shakkū because of his infamous reputation as a craftsman of death. After learning of his father's regrets, he released the animosity that he held for him and forgave his father.
- Arai Iori: Shakkū is Iori's grandfather. When Iori was born, Shakkū decided to create a sword that can't kill.
- Himura Kenshin: Shakkū and Kenshin were friends. When Kenshin decided to become a wanderer, Shakkū gave Kenshin one of the last Sakabatōs he created.
Abilities[]
Throughout the series, it's been said that Arai was both notorious and famous for being an eccentric, yet prodigious and creative genius, having fashioned many unique swords of different function and design. However, many of his swords, no matter how aesthetically pleasing and inspiring they were at the naked eye, were in fact tools of death more gruesome and destructive than any normal weapon made. Out of many, some of these were:
- Renbatō - This weapon was a set of twin katana, able to be connected at the hilt and form a parallel double bladed sword. Theoretically, the blade's dynamics would see it leave behind such damage, that the wounds inflicted would be near impossible to heal and mend properly.
- Hakujin no Tachi- A katana whose process was set around the idea of thinning the blade for the edge to become extremely thin and extensive to see how long the edge can get; as a result, the sword is whip-like and can be controlled to move even while swung.
- Mugenjin- A katana specially designed to counter the inevitable wear and tear all blades come to see in usage. With a special finishing polish and its edge fashioned to chip away in a serrated fashion when it sees usage, these features also come to use the fat and fluids of those slain by the edge of this blade to ensure its durability, and as a side result, friction allows these seeped fats to ignite into flame.
- Hakujin no Kodachi - A black glove with a thick wrist band. Within the wrist band is a long thin blade that is similar to Hakujin no Tachi. With a simple twist of the wrist, the user can extend the blade from the wrist band and have it circle around his target.
- San Jintou - A katana, but instead of a regular blade, it has a simple metal thin stick that has dozens of tiny metal blades attached to it. By swinging the katana, the tiny blades are sent flying in the direction that the sword was swung at.
- Gouka no Taiken - A gigantic blade which is flat on the tip and the sharp edges on both sides are curved inwards, a hilt that has a hollow end with a hole that contains rope that the wielder holds with their left hand while holding the blade in the right hand with a special gauntlet. The sword is actually two separate weapons, one being a gun blade while the main body of the blade acts as a mine battery that discharges multiple, miniature bombs.
However, as the violent years of the Bakumatsu were to come to a close, Arai soon came to design and forge a blade that would mark the end of his career. Many of his peers were astonished as if he had gone mad, and Arai would come to create the Sakabatō, a reversed bladed katana, and the ultimate testament for the true reason why he forged deadly weapons. Made as a katana whose edge could not kill with ease, Arai made it in mind as a holy sword to be offered to honor the kami of Japan and the peace the new era of the Meiji would represent. This would be one of his final, and notable works, to be made before his late passing.
History[]
Arai was a swordsmith of notable fame during the Bakumatsu. In order to help create the new era, where people could live in peace and freedom, Arai used his talents to create many weapons of creativity and design, along with them bearing his school's praised quality and worksmanship.
However, even as he was an artist, the weapons he made were still as what they were made to be, being weapons designed to slay and kill, and some of his unique masterpieces were weapons whose construction ensured a gruesome and horrific death, all in a time of war and where the world was in a turbulence that could see no end. But even as this dark truth was still fresh within his mind, and even with all of its consequences, to even where making a new weapon pained his heart in knowledge of this truth, Arai still believed in how it would be those who wielded his masterpieces, not his weapons, that would build the new era, and so, still persevered and lived each day working his talents.
In league with the Isshin Shishi, one acquaintance of his was the skilled Himura Kenshin, a hitokiri of the legendary Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū school who used his pieces in his work. But during the early stages of the Toba-Fushimi battle of the Boshin Wars, Arai saw his friend changed and to leave its ranks on a journey to help the unfortunate throughout Japan without bloodshed. Although still faithful in his ideals, Arai was still skeptical of how a world could exist without the need for necessary violence. Seeing Kenshin was to go about his journey without exercising self defense and the need to pacify those that would not share his friend's ideals, Arai reminded Kenshin, that despite the pain of being a swordsman suffered, he could not give up the path which he walked. Tossing him the kageuchi of the Sakabatō, Shakkū told him to uphold his ideals with that "piece of scrap metal", and of how hard of a journey it would be with such ideals in the time to come; should it have broke on his wandering, Shakkū wanted him to return and see him again.
Kyōto Arc[]
Over the new era of the Meiji, Arai would possibly see that Kenshin was right, and that the times have changed, in that tools of killing would not be needed in the years to come. Unfortunately, Shakkū and Kenshin would not come to meet again, as he would pass on during the second year of the Meiji, in 1870.
Shakkū would be succeeded by his son, Arai Seikū. Although skilled and trained rigorously, he hated his father and the dark reputation that loomed over his family, and chose to abandon the trade of sword making, instead manufacturing kitchen ware and knives.
As the great threat of Shishio Makoto loomed over Japan, and how one of his thugs of the elite Juppongatana, Sawagejō Chō, came to threaten his grandson Arai Iori in demand for his final masterpiece, Seikū would come to learn the truth, that Shakkū hated having to manufacture weapons of murder and only did so, so that future generations could enjoy an era of peace, under the arms of those that would guide and see the future to it. It was revealed that Shakkū's final sword created was the principal forge of the Sakabatō, and the offering of a holy sword to the Hakusan Shrine, in honor to the Meiji and the gods of Japan to ensure that the peace would last for the generations to come.
Although he passed on, Himura Kenshin fulfilled his promise to return to Kyōto, and was personally given Arai Shakkū's final work by his son (Arai Seikū) and his family to fulfill his mission of saving the nation from Shishio's tyrannical grasp; even if Arai Shakkū would still be alive then, there would be no doubt that he would fulfill his end of the bargain, and give him the principle forge.
The Sakabatō would then be passed down to Myōjin Yahiko, five years later.
Quotes[]
- "I've heard you're leaving the Imperialists, Himura. The true revolution is about to start at Toba Fushimi, and you've decided to quit. Where do you think you're going?"
- "Heh, if such a path exists, I would very well like for you to show it to me. Listen to me, Himura.... You cannot leave as the man you are now, after having slain so many men! You must live by the sword, and die by the sword!! Take this!! It is but a piece of scrap, but it might become useful to you as you are now! Try being a swordsman with that thing on your belt! You shall realize such romantic notions are nothing but worthless dreams! If that piece of scrap metal ever breaks, and if you still believe in such idealistic nonsense at that time, return to Kyōto, and come to see me...."
Etymology[]
- Arai means "fresh, new" (新) (ara) and "well, mine shaft, pit" (井) (i).
- Shakkū means "red sky" (赤空).
Gallery[]
