Hige
Hige was a member of the Brotherhood of Shinsei who left it to become the leader of the Perfect Land Sect. [1]
Demeanor[]
Hige was a truly good-hearted monk, generous and humble, a monk of the Brotherhood, serving in a small shrine dedicated to the Fortune of Compassion and Forgiveness. He eventually became the leader of the Perfect Land Sect, refusing the fine robes and ostentation of many established orders. He regularly labored alongside his followers to keep their community fed and clothed. Hige had a firm will, and he believed Shinsei's benevolence. Under subtle pressure from a merchant follower named Kanbei, his etachings became a more strident opposition to samurai rule and Fortunist worship. [2]
Hige's Vision[]
In 1118, on the tenth night of the Month of the Goat, Hige had a prophetic vision. Shinsei came to him in a dream and took his soul into the Perfect Land, where the Little Teacher told him that if enough people chant the mantra Shoshi ni kie with true belief, then Shinsei himself would return to Rokugan and save it from the myriad woes that beset it at that time. Therefore, it was imperative that the Brotherhood would promote the recitation of the kie among all Rokugani. But the words in question that would bring Shinsei were not the kie, they were the kōan Togashi Kazue used the same night in another place to snap the peasant Senzai out of her delusion and bring her to the realization that she was Shinsei reborn. [3]
Perfect Land Sect Leader[]
Hige did not tolerate worship of the Fortunes or even the ancestors, only Shinsei mattered. [4] To members of the Perfect Land Sect, Hige acted as Shinsei's mouthpiece, interpreting messages from the Little Teacher and sharing them with his followers. He sent envoys out to prostheletyze while Hige personally led a large group that lived within the wilderness, [1] in White Flower Village, [5] a hidden village within the Dragon lands. Among his followers were the rōnin Satto, the merchant Kanbei, or Mirumoto Ichirō, first son of the Mirumoto Daimyō Mirumoto Masashige. Any newcomer to the village was questioned, executing any who were regarded as infiltrator or spy. [4] Hige was supremely cautious and skeptical of outsiders. [6] Hige was a good-hearted and humble man, absolutely sincere in his beliefs. He regretted any acts of violence caused by followers of the Perfect Land, but he reluctantly acknowledged that if samurai could not be persuaded to see the truth, sometimes they must be forced. [7]
Conclave of the Brotherhood[]
Hige attending the conclave of the Brotherhood
In 1124 the Brotherhood of Shinsei held their annual conclave at the Mountain Song Temple under the hospitality of Mirumoto Daimyō Mirumoto Masashige, being its main agenda item a vote on whether to formally bestow the label of False Path on the Perfect Land Sect, with the risk to fall into a violent schism. Hige attended the conclave with Ichirō, Satto, the merchant Kanbei, and Yuki, a peasant. Since the Perfect Land was not a recognized order of the Brotherhood, Hige's group had no formal invitation to attend the conclave. They were admitted into the Mountain Song Temple, with the support of Anmoku, the abbot of the Stone Sages. Hige had in his possession the founding sutra of his sect, which had never been properly examined by scholars. Naigen, the abbot of the eastern branch of the Four Temples and leader of the anti-faction of the Brotherhood, demanded that he produced it, but Hige refused, fearing that a hostile monk would destroy the precious scroll, or declare it a forgery, but he was forced to surrender it. Fuchō, a scholar of the Temple of Celestial Knowledge, concluded that the sutra was false. The sutra was composed not by Yuzue, the monk whose visions and teachings formed the foundation of the sect, but by her student Gatai well after Yuzue's death. Later a group of samurai returned to the temple with a wounded peasant maiden, Senzai, who had been badly injured by Iwa, a sōhei of the anti-Perfect Land faction of the Brotherhood. This night a group of assassins attempted to kill Hige, and he was defended by Yuki and the samurai. Yuki was revealed as Shosuro Miyako, who told the attackers were sent by Kanbei. She exposed the merchant as a Kolat Master who had decided that the best way to galvanize the followers of the Perfect Land was to martyr Hige and blame his death on the sect's enemies, as part of kolat agenda against the Celestial Order. [8]
Shinsei's Reborn[]
The next morning Senzai would be revealed as the reincarnation of Shinsei. At this very moment, the Mountain Song, which had fallen silent the day before when Senzai was attacked, resumed. She told to the conclave the Perfect Land did not exist, and the words of the kie had no power to free souls from the wheel of rebirth. Bur his moral message was correct: the samurai of Rokugan had indeed lost their way, and the Empire as a whole; all of Rokugani society was out of balance. The very concept of the Celestial Order had been warped over time, becoming a too-rigid system used to justify the oppression of those below for the gratification of those above. The effects of her declaration would ripple far beyond the conclave itself over time. Some Perfect Land communities broke up, others vowed to create the Perfect Land in the Mortal Realm, by righting what had gone wrong. Hige chose to follow the reincarnation of Shinsei. [9]
External Links[]
- Hige's Sermon (Clan War)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Path of Waves, p. 28
- ↑ Imperfect Land, p. 27
- ↑ Imperfect Land, pp. 11-12
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Snow and Sun, by Marie Brennan
- ↑ Like Seeds on the Wind, by Marie Brennan
- ↑ Path of Waves, p. 186
- ↑ Imperfect Land, p. 14
- ↑ Imperfect Land, pp. 2-3, 10-11, 15-17, 20-23, 31
- ↑ Imperfect Land, pp. 23-25
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