'Rurouni Kenshin' Draws Plenty From Real Japanese History What About the Legend of the Battousai?

June 2024 ยท 3 minute read

Is the Battousai, Kenshin Himura, actually real? 'Rurouni Kenshin' derives its lore from plenty of real events in Japanese history.

The summer 2023 anime marks the return of some of our favourite anime both new and previous. That contains the continuation of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, Mushoku Tensei II, and even the likes of Rurouni Kenshin.

The authentic anime adaptation was first released in 1996 in Japan and would ultimately make its way to Western television with an English dub in 2003 as section of Cartoon Network's old Toonami block.

A new anime adaptation began broadcasting on July 7, 2023 and is streaming on Crunchyroll.

The sequence has noticed several other variations, together with prologue motion pictures and even live-action movie diversifications in Japan. It remains one of the most well liked and liked anime round the global, specifically for its depiction of Japanese history. But how a lot of the tale is in accordance with precise real phrase occasions? Perhaps the maximum distinguished question one might have is whether or not or no longer the legend of the battousai has any basis in truth. Is Kenshin Himura, the battousai, a real particular person?

Source: Aniplex

Was Kenshin Himura, the battousai, a real particular person?

Rurouni Kenshin takes position in the early years of the Meiji Era, a duration of past due 19th and early Twentieth-century Japanese history in which the nation would embrace Western technological advancements and start outlawing swords to bring in an end to the age of the samurai.

It follows the titular Kenshin Himura, a peace-loving wandering samurai with a violent previous. Having earned a reputation as an infamous murderer, he has since renounced this trail and has vowed by no means to take a human life once more.

He used to be up to now known as Hitokiri Battousai and garnered a considerable kill depend underneath this moniker. He even participated in a Japanese civil conflict known as the Boshin War. He now roams Japan looking to stay peacefully as the technology of the samurai is phased out, but he runs into a number of criminals and warriors who continually try to push him back towards his previous techniques.

Already, Rurouni Kenshin draws from the transitional duration of the Meiji Era as an epic true-to-life environment. But what about the battousai himself?

On the one hand, Kenshin Himura is only a fictional personality and simplest exists inside the realm of the sequence. However, he does have a real-world an identical.

Several reports claim that Kenshin's personality was impressed through Kawakami Gensai, a samurai who was once known as one of the four maximum notorious assassins of Japan's Bakumatsu length. He reportedly even used a equivalent nickname as hitokiri (manslayer) and was once supposedly so fast with a katana that he could assassinate his marks in wide sunlight.

Source: Aniplex

Kenshin is not the handiest persona impressed via real Japanese historic figures. His frenemy Sagara Sanosuke was once in accordance with Harada Sanosuke, a captain of the Shinsengumi organization of elite samurai. One of his main competitors, Saitou Hajime was once in response to another Shinsengumi captain of the identical who ultimately discovered work as an undercover police officer all the way through the Meiji Restoration.

For all of the formidable and terrifying assassins in the anime, it is virtually awe-striking to know the way much of their stories came from real lifestyles.

New episodes of Rurouni Kenshin move each Friday on Crunchyroll.

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