Part 10: Mythology Dissection 1
The Satomi Canine Warriors
In today's dissection, I'm going to talk about Princess Fuse and the Satomi Canine Warriors. Their story is based on the novel Nanso Satomi Hakkenden, which recounts the tale of eight samurai brothers and their adventures.
Emblem of the Canine Warriors, and Satomi House
When the story begins, the fortress of the proud and ancient Satomi family is under siege by their ancient enemy, the Anzai. Unluckily, the Satomi lands had been suffering from famine for some time, so food was already scarce. The defenders knew that they would only be able to hold for seven days, at the most, for their food stores were about to run out. On the evening of the seventh day, the siege showed no sign of being broken. Lord Satomi gathered his family to discuss the situation, including the loyal family dog, Yatsufusa (analog of the Gale Shrine Priest, Yatsu). Lord Satomi turned to the dog, and half jokingly, half in desperation told it, “If you kill Anzai Kagetsura, I will offer you my daughter’s hand in marriage.”
In response, the dog barked and ran outside. Much to everyone’s astonishment, he managed to kill the Anzai leader! Demoralized without their leader, the besiegers fled. Lord Satomi, being a man of his word, married his daughter, the beautiful Princess Fuse-hime (Princess Fuse, obviously) to the dog Yatsufusa the very next day.
Some time later, Princes Fuse finds she is with child. Still being ashamed of being wed to a dog and bearing its children, she kills herself. Her children (eight of them, it turns out) are then born as spirits. The spirit-children inhabit eight large beads that were part of a necklace that Princess Fuse received from a Buddhist monk. The beads were engraved with eight virtues of Confucianism: Rei (honor), Ko (wisdom), Shin (faith), Chi (knowledge), Tei (brotherhood), Gi (duty), Jin (justice), Chu (loyalty).
Years later, the eight brothers were reincarnated, born as men from human mothers. Each of them bore a bead engraved with one of the eight virtues. The brothers banded together, calling themselves the Hakkenshi, and roamed the countryside, righting wrongs and helping the weak. Each of them upheld the virtue he held most dear, being the one engraved on his bead.
Like the eight samurai brothers, each of the Canine Warriors represents a different virtue. They are also each a different breed of dog.
Rei- honor, English pointer
Shin- faith, boxer
Chi- knowledge, Japanese spitz
Ko- wisdom, collie
Tei- brotherhood, Tosa Ken
Gi/Take- duty, husky I have no idea what Take’s name is supposed to mean. Unless it’s supposed to be a play on give and take, I got nothing.
Jin/Ume- justice, Shiba Inu. An Ume is a pickled plum.
Chu/Hayabusa- loyalty, Kai Ken. Hayabusa is Japanese for peregrine falcon.
Rei, Chi, Shin, Ko, and Tei
According to the Okami artbook, the Canine Warriors were originally designed as humans, but later in development they were changed to dogs. Their attack animations are the same as Amaterasu’s when she’s out of ink. As an aside, Take, Hayabusa, and Ume are alternate “costumes” for Amaterasu in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.