Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto
From IrohaWiki
| This article is a stub. You can help by expanding it |
Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto is a Japanese anime series, created by Ryousuke Takahashi and Sunrise. It premiered October 6 2006 on the Japanese internet streaming channel, GyaO.
Contents |
The Story
Bakumatsu. The final period of time when men fought like men... and cast their lives and ideals on a single blade.
It was the time when long peaceful Tokugawa Dynasty began to be overshadowed, triggered by the arrival of Westerners. During the upheaval, when youths were seeking for new age, there was an existence that brought turmoil and chaos. It was a supernatural Head called the Hasha no Kubi and it was said that the person who could obtain the Head, which would wake during revolution time, could rule over the whole country. On the other hand, there was another shadow existence called the Eternal Assassin. They have been destined to fight the Hasha no Kubi in order to seal. These two beings have been in eternal conflict, affecting the course of history from the shadows, influencing those who craved power.
Someone wanted it for themselves, someone wanted it for avengeance, and someone wanted it for their ideals...
The wills of men intersect over the Hasha no Kubi. They combine and move together like complicated gear wheels of an engine pushing events towards the future...
The Title
Bakumatsu
Bakumatsu (幕末): Latest part of the Tokugawa era, comprised between the opening of Japan to foreign trade in 1853 and the Meiji Restoration in 1867.
The bakumatsu period is one of the most agitated and romanticized part of Japanese history. It is the age of the last samurai, of intense fighting between the pro-emperor ishin shishi from Satsuma and Choshu and the pro-shogunate Shinsengumi troops.
Kikansetsu
Irohanihoheto
Irohanihoheto (いろはにほへと) is the first line of a Japanese poem. It is famous because it is a perfect pangram, containing each character of the Japanese syllabary exactly once. Because of this, it is also used as an ordering for the syllabary.
The text of the poem in hiragana (with archaic ゐ and ゑ but without voiced consonant marks) is:
いろはにほへと
ちりぬるを
わかよたれそ
つねならむ
うゐのおくやま
けふこえて
あさきゆめみし
ゑひもせす
i ro ha ni ho he to
chi ri nu ru wo
wa ka yo ta re so
tsu ne na ra mu
u wi no o ku ya ma
ke fu ko e te
a sa ki yu me mi shi
we hi mo se su
An English translation by Fr. Francis Drohan:
The flowers that bloom today so sweetly wither and fall. Our human life, too, is fleeting. Today, again, I will cross the mountain pass of this uncertain world, and will not entertain shallow dreams or give way to drunkenness.
More info can be found at the Iroha Wikipedia article.
