Benkei: The Warrior Monk Who Died Standing

Musashibo Benkei, the archetypal warrior monk and ultimate example of loyalty to the bitter end, is many things. In legends, he is a principal player in the Genpei War that reshaped Japan, fighting alongside the great samurai general Minamoto no Yoshitsune. Conversely, he's also something akin to a god of chaos. Now, more than 800 years after his famous "standing death" is supposed to have occurred, Benkei exists in all manner of stories and allusions - from Tezuka to Kurosawa, from One Piece to Fate/Stay to Yokai Watch, Final Fantasy, and more. A millennia of legends and myth separate us from a Benkei that maybe never was; his impact today, however, seems stronger than ever.

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Original article: https://unseenjapan.com/benkei-warrio...

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