Genjou Sanzou

To clear up the first source of confusion-- his name is Genjou and his title is Sanzou, but he's always called Sanzou, which is confusing, because there's more than one Sanzou in the series. 'Sanzou' is the title of the highest rank of monks, reserved for those who have reached semi-divine status by virtue of their great enlightenment. This is indicated by the small red chakra in the middle of their foreheads. The Sanzous in this series all wear the same outfit- a gold diadem like a crown above a white head veil; a white robe with a wicker or bamboo breastplate; a highnecked bodysuit covering the torso, made of either black leather or rubber (PYK- pick yer kink); long gloves of the same material stretching from just below the bicep to the wrist and then narrowing to a single anchor around the middle finger. Very hot, in all senses of the word. Sandals and tabi, by the look of it, rather than shoes. Our Sanzou wears jeans under his robe, but there's no saying that goes for all the Sanzous. Most importantly, the Sanzous bear one of the five scriptures used in the creation of the world (that's what makes them a Sanzou), which they wear like a shawl around their necks and recite at need.

Our Sanzou (hereinafter known merely as 'Sanzou') was abandoned as a baby and set adrift down the river, whence he was rescued by Koumyou Sanzou and raised by him as his disciple. The only clue to his origin was a set of beads found with him that he later gave to a monk at the monastery. Sanzou's childhood name was Kouryuu- set afloat + river- which besides being highly appropriate also contains a reference to the great Yangtze River of China. He was the object of some dissatisfaction among the other monks, who grumbled at Koumyou making this outcast his favourite disciple. The young Sanzou wasn't terribly accommodating either, having more attitude than anyone needs and a disrespectful mouth on him as well. But his innate power was manifest from an early age. The other monks thought he looked like one of the guardian gods of hell and steered clear of him.

Koumyou Sanzou seems to have been the essence of nonattachment, and his example is perhaps the reason our Sanzou is so very unattached to certain things he ought to be, like Buddhist precepts. 'I don't believe in Buddha or god, only in myself.' (FWIW the evidence seems to be that Sanzou wasn't properly a monk when he was Koumyou's disciple. The other monks complain that he's not a follower of the Buddhist way.) Sanzou says Koumyou taught him this form of 'nonattachment'- do your thing and if anyone tries to stop you, shoot them. One may wonder if Koumyou intended his disciple to take the classic Zen precept 'if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him' quite as literally as Sanzou does. But then again, Sanzou strikes this reader as an untrustworthy narrator, so take anything he says with a grain of salt. Sanzou isn't as unattached as he'd like to think he is.

One rainy night when Sanzou was 13, Koumyou gave him his monkly name of Genjou and his status as a Sanzou, after which the chakra appeared in the middle of his forehead. Koumyou was the guardian of two sutras, the Maten sutra which disperses darkness and the Seiten sutra which creates light. He gave the Maten sutra to Sanzou. Koumyou's last words to Sanzou were 'Be strong.' At that moment a youkai broke into Koumyou's rooms to steal the sutras. Koumyou shielded Genjou from the youkai's attack and was killed. (This is the reason Sanzou hates rainy nights.) The thief fled, taking the Seiten sutra, but because Koumyou was protecting him Sanzou was able to hold on to the Maten sutra. Next day Sanzou was acknowledged as the heir of Koumyou Sanzou by the abbot of the monastery and given Koumyou's diadem. Sanzou asked permission to leave the monastery and find the stolen sutra. The abbot agreed, but said he would need something to protect him from the wild mountain goblins that surrounded the monastery. He showed Sanzou the monastery's collection of weapons, and Sanzou chose the shoureijuu ('rise + spirits + gun'), made by Smith and Wesson, which disperses youkai into atoms when fired.

As a monk, Sanzou is a total failure. The only vow he seems to regard is that of chastity, and that's more likely because he hates being touched than from any austerity of nature. Otherwise he drinks, smokes, swears, gambles, curses, threatens, and kills with abandon. Nonetheless he is a Sanzou, and the reader may well echo Gojou's question- 'How'd someone like *him* get to be one of *them*?' Well- Minekura may be making some kind of religious point here, something Calvinist about divine grace having nothing to do with good deeds. (gr) Or it may be related to Sanzou's past life. Once upon a time, 500 years ago up in heaven, Sanzou was a heaven dweller called Konzen Douji. For reasons yet to be revealed, Konzen and two of his heavenly cronies were either condemned or chose to come to earth and suffer a series of reincarnations. The events of Konzen's present life are being watched closely and with interest by the Bodhisattva Kanzeon up in heaven. Kanzeon, let us say now, is a hermaphrodite who quite happily reveals hir female secondary sex characteristics to all and sundry. Se's *stacked*, and you see it all. It's Kanzeon who sends Sanzou and the others on their journey to the west, though the actual marching orders come through the three Buddhist deities- three disembodied heads that dwell in a temple in the capital. Konzen/Sanzou, for the record, detests Kanzeon. "I hate perverts," he tells someone at one point, and the smart money is that that's a vestigial memory of his life as Konzen.

Sanzou is clearly a problematic character- preaching non-attachment to the past even while his own past haunts him, preaching self-sufficiency even while blaming himself for having failed to protect Koumyou. His friendship with Gokuu, Gojou and Hakkai is based to a very large extent on the fact that they can look after themselves and he'll never be called on to protect them. He rejects any overt suggestion that he has any connection to the others at all, while regularly getting his nose rubbed in the profound inter-connectedness among them. Selfish and bad-tempered and an emotional mess, he's still unarguably a clear-sighted leader and a charismatic figure who draws others to him. Doesn't hurt that he's hot as the hinges of hell. There's also the paradox that though the imagery associated with Sanzou is all dark- his very name means 'great darkness/ magic power'- others experience him as an embodiment of pure light. Gokuu imprisoned on his mountain top and longing for a glimpse of the sun finds it when Sanzou stretches out a hand to him. And when Sanzou chants the sutra for Hakkai's dead lover, the other three hear it as 'a pure cloudless voice that banishes all doubts and brings us together under its golden light.' (shrug) Grace, not good works.

Sanzou's virtual nickname with Gojou is namagusa bouzu- raw-smelling monk, the stock term for a monk who breaks his vows and eats flesh of whatever description. Gojou perennially tries to get Sanzou's goat and Sanzou regularly curses him out. There's a certain tension between Sanzou and Gojou, given that the two are opposites in ways that tend to jar rather than attract: Gojou the emotional womanizer, Sanzou the chilly loner. Sanzou obviously finds the easy-going smiling Hakkai much more to his tastes. It's Hakkai he regularly rooms with when they stay at an inn.

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