Shuzenji
Cultural & Cast Explanations
Shuzenji
One of the oldest structures in eastern Japan, the Temple dates from some 1200 years back. For nearly four and a half centuries, the Temple was used for the Shingon, then Zen, and then Rinzai Sects. The Temple features prominently in the history of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
NOTE: Shuzenji is a current, and real, temple in the Izu Pennisula in Japan. I have used it here as a name of a Shinto shrine. No implications are involved. None of the story or its characters represent any history of Shuzenji Temple.
Sakura
The Cherry blossom is very important in Japanese culture because it exemplifies spring, feminine beauty, and the ephemeral nature of life. The transience of the blossoms, the extreme beauty and quick death, has often been associated with mortality.
Tokai
There is a part of Central Japan's Chobu region called, Tokai, but no reference to that region is intended.
Oiran
Oiran were high-class courtesans in Japan. The word "oiran" consists of two kanji, meaning "flower" and "leader" or "first." The oiran arose in the Edo period, 1600 - 1868. At this time, laws were passed restricting brothels to walled districts set some distance from the city center. In the major cities these were the Shimabara in Kyoto, the Shimmachi in Osaka, and in Edo (present-day Tokyo), the Yoshiwara. These rapidly grew into large, self-contained "Pleasure Quarters" offering all manner of entertainments.
Youkai
Youkai are "apparitions", "spirits", or "demons", a class of, or equivalent to, obake. These are creatures in Japanese folklore ranging from the evil oni to the mischievous kitsune or snow woman Yuki-onna. Youkai generally have a sort of spiritual or supernatural power, and so encounters with human beings tend to be dangerous. Youkai also have different motives and agendas from human beings, which are often completely incomprehensible.
Yurei
Yurei are Japanese ghosts. The name consists of two kanji, (yuu), meaning "faint" or "dim", and and (rei), meaning "soul" or "spirit." Alternative names include (Borei) meaning ruined or departed spirit, (Shiryo) meaning dead spirit, or the more encompassing (Yokai) or (Obake). They are thought to be spirits kept from a peaceful afterlife. They remain near the place of their sudden, shocking, violent, or emotional powerful death.
Miko
Miko, literally "Shrine Maiden", is a Japanese term that anciently meant "female shaman, shamaness; medium; prophet" who conveyed divine oracles, and currently means "shrine maiden; virgin consecrated to a deity" who serves at Shinto shrines. Miko continue to exist and dance in Japanese shrines today.
Obake
A class of monster or spirit in Japanese folklore. Literally the term means a thing that changes, referring to a state of transformation or shapeshifting. These words are often translated as ghost, but primarily they refer to living things or supernatural beings who have taken on a temporary transformation, and these bakemono are distinct from the spirits of the dead.
Okame
This white Japanese mask has two names, Otafuku and Okame. Otafuku literally means "Much Good Fortune", and Okame means "Tortoise", also a lucky symbol for long life. Otafuku represents a lovely, always smiling Japanese woman who brings happiness and good fortune to any man she marries.