Takiishi Chika - Blog Posts

An in-depth of the Takiishi Chika tattoo

With chapter 152, we have a glimpse into the tattoo on Takiishi and Endo's shoulders.

Let's disect it!

Furanki

Breech-loading swivel gun – or Furanki (仏郎機砲, "Frankish gun") in Japanese (Turnbull, 2006) – was one of the first cannons used in Japan. Coming from the Portuguese, these early European models were either called ishibiya (石火矢) or furankihō (フランキ砲) (Gunsen History, 2019), the latter bears similarity with the gun's Chinese name "Folangji", which comes from the Turkish name "Prangi" or Turkic "Farangi" (Chase, 2003). This explains the "Frank" on the tattoo.

I was trying to see if the wheel in the tattoo has any other meanings, but as far as I know, it is simply the wheel of the cannon. The same structure can be observed from Nii Satoru's drawing of the cannon wheel with 4 main spokes and 4 additional, underlying spokes. (Most wheel symbols in Hinduism or Buddhism are eight-spoked wheels).

The right-most part of the tattoo appears to be the rings and the button at the base of the cannon. It is pretty similar to what we'd see with a top-down view of the plan below.

Note. From Oozutsu cannon Japan 16th century [image] by Unknown author. Wikimedia Commons, 2010. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oozutsu_cannon_Japan_16th_century.jpg 

The wolf

The illustration of the wolf was cleverly combined into the cannon. Its hind legs turned into the cannon base while its fur blended into the fire surrounding the cannon.

Wolves have many symbolic meanings, but here I believe Endo was trying to highlight Takiishi's fierceness. Takiishi is an untamed, lone wolf. He doesn't obey the rules; and Takiishi's world, as per Endo's explanation, has no one other than Takiishi (of course until Umemiya makes an entrance).

Name references between Takiishi Chika and Ishibiya

Japanese Ishibiya (石火矢) hand cannons are also early firearms in Japan and have made an appearance in the movie Princess Mononoke.

If you find Endo's explanation confusing, here's a more visualised version for it.

Takiishi Chika (焚石 矢)

焚 (taki): to burn, or anger. This character is made up of two 木 (trees) and one 火 (fire)

石 (ishi): stone, or rock

矢 (chika): arrow

Ishibiya (石火矢)

石 (ishi): stone, or rock

火 (bi): fire

矢 (ya): arrow, projectile

Kunikuzushi (国崩し)

Occasionally, Furanki guns were also called Kuni-kuzushi by the Ōtomo clan, which means country destroyer (Gunsen History, 2019).

Kunikuzushi (国崩し)

国 (kuni): country, or nation

崩 (kuzu) し(shi): breakdown

References

Chase, K. W. (2003). Firearms : a global history to 1700. Cambridge University Press.

Gunsen History (2019). Taihō (大砲): Japanese Cannons and Artillery. Gunbai: Ancient Japanese Warfare. https://gunbai-militaryhistory.blogspot.com/

Turnbull, S. R. (2006). Samurai : the world of the warrior. Osprey

Unknown Author. (2010). Oozutsu cannon Japan 16th century [image]. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oozutsu_cannon_Japan_16th_century.jpg 

Endo and Takiishi really are kings of miscommunication huh,,.

Despite Endo saying that the only person in Takiishi's world other than Takiishi himself is Umemiya, I don't think that's true. He either is allowed already in, or has the potential to be, and he himself is fucking it up.

Before I attempt to put the mess that they are into words, I want to mention that @finnitesimal's post about Endo & Takiishi wrapping back around to "a fight is a conversation" was something that set a lot of these thoughts into motion!! ( and a lot of this is based on that post as well, aka you should probably look at it first., )

Thanks dude !! You don't know me but you've made me a lot more insane than I already was!!

First thing I want to point out !! When we get Takiishi's POV on how he views other people, he includes both Umemiya and Endo. Endo isn't excluded from it, Takiishi recognizes him as different from the others.

He doesn't directly say he likes or cares for Endo, but still considers Endo different from the others.

I think it's also important how quickly he calls Endo by name after Umemiya tells him the "trick to being with people".

This moment is so important to their relationship. The way Endo says he'll bring Takiishi interesting people, and Takiishi following it up with calling out his name.., it really cements the idea of Endo being allowed in "Takiishi's world" to me.

I also think that one of the main reasons Endo doesn't get recognized and looked at in the way he wishes for, is the fact that he's too focused on pleasing Takiishi, on bringing him anything and everything he wants, going along with his wants and needs, and rarely ever truly going against him.

And when I say he brings Takiishi anything and everything he wants, I mean it, he orchestrated an entire war with all of Furin just to let Takiishi have as much fun as he's ever wanted.

And what Takiishi wants, and truly enjoys, is a fight with someone who won't go down so easily. He says so in his fight with Umemiya.

And even if they're both on a whole other level from the others, I do think that Endo (and Sakura) are following close behind. And I especially believe that Endo could entertain Takiishi, that he could put up a good fight against him.

He's considered a legend for a reason. He won against Tsubaki, Nakamura and Suzuri fairly easily, and we also know that he has never fought Umemiya, so we don't know how close he truly is to catching up with the two. Sakura did beat him in the end, but Sakura is likely going to rise to Umemiya's level eventually, so that doesn't really go against the possibility of him fighting Takiishi and holding his own. Which he absolutely should do. They need to fight.

Crazy as it is to say, beating the fuck out of each other would be really beneficial for their relationship.,