A Thousand Years of Innocence 千年の無心 Chitose no mushin
Like many of her short stories, Takahashi uses this to work out the ideas she has for an upcoming long-running serial. In the case of "A Thousand Years of Innocence" it would soon have its ideas expanded upon when she creates MAO the two years later.
Mushin and his master venture into a cursed temple to confront an evil entity that has taken up residence inside a wooden statue only for the spirit to get the better of the young man. A battle ensues and the creature flees. A thousand years later a school girl named Ai is confronted by bullies when Mushin appears and exorcises them using the blood of an oni that has possessed him. He explains that the students were being controlled by small wooden shikigami sent by the immortal creature he has been chasing for ten centuries.
Ai realizes the more Mushin uses his blood to battle the shikigami possessed students that his hair grows whiter and he seems to weaken. When the pair finally face off against the wooden statue it reveals that it is Mushin's master who had willingly given himself over to dark powers in order to gain immortality as he was dying. Ai is nearly killed and Mushin's oni blood takes over, turning him into an oni and giving him the strength to kill his former master.
Published In:
Shonen Sunday 2017 Vol. 17 & 18
Publication Date: March 22, 2017 & March 29, 2017
Pages: X (full color) XX (black and white)
Anime Adaptation: None
Notes:
Published in Shonen Sunday, A Thousand Years of Innocence falls between Kyokai no RINNE chapters 364 and 365. It was created to celebrate Rumiko Takahashi's milestone of 200 million volumes of her works sold worldwide.
To celebrate selling 200 million total collected volumes of her works, the artists of Shonen Sunday pay tribute to Takahashi by drawing their favorite characters of hers. You can find the complete gallery here.
This issue also promotes the debut on the Sunday Webry site of the rough sketches (name, ネーム) of the final chapter of Inuyasha and the first chapter of Kyokai no RINNE.
Part 2 of the story, published in Shonen Sunday 2017 Volume 18 contains more on the cast from the Inuyasha stage play.
Many ideas and plot-devices in this story prefigure those that would later be featured in MAO.
The wooden doll that is unearthed is a Juso no Hitogata (呪詛の人形) literally a "curse doll". This is a technique that originated during the Heian period and likely made its way from China originally. It was said that the curse-caster could enhance the grudge that they were tranfering to their victim via the doll by harming themselves as well. There is an old Japanese saying that is attached to this logic, "人を呪わば穴ふたつ", "If you curse someone, dig two graves". The implication is one will be for your victim, the other will be for you.
Shikigami are strongly associated with onmyodo. These are objects (historically the most common example are folded paper cranes) that can have spiritual energy placed into them to animate them and bring them to life. They typically function as some sort of servant to their creator and can be tasked to aid or harm others.
Ai mentions the act of summoning Kokkuri-san. Kokkuri (こっくり, 狐狗狸) or Kokkuri-san (こっくりさん) is a Japanese game popular during the Meiji era that is also a form of divination, based partially on Western table-turning and is very similar to the Ouija board. The name kokkuri is an onomatopoeia meaning "to nod up and down", and refers to the movement of the actual kokkuri mechanism. The kanji used to write the word is an ateji, although its characters reflect the popular belief that the movement of the mechanism is caused by supernatural agents (ko 狐, kitsune; ku 狗, dog; ri 狸, tanuki).
The word kokkuri refers to the game, the actual physical apparatus, and kokkuri-san refers to the being that is summoned that is considered by the Japanese to be some sort of animal spirit that is a mix between a fox, dog, and raccoon. These three animals are meant to reflect the dual nature of the being that is believed to be summoned as it is considered to have different personalities at times. Such as the fox being a trickster or teacher, and the raccoon being a bearer of mischief and also a bearer of fortune. Kokkuri-san is believed to possess the apparatus in order to communicate with humans.
Table of Contents Shonen Sunday Vol. 17
Q: Who are the athetes you are currently cheering and paying attention to?
A: It's been a long time since I've done a short story for Sunday. I drew this with the intention of drawing a piece for submission. It's a long story, though.
Table of Contents Shonen Sunday Vol. 18
Q: What is the first thing you want to eat to Japan from travelling overseas?
A: I enjoyed drawing this. Please look forward to reading RINNE again next week.
