Muramasa

Muramasa is a Shugendo priest and swordsmith living in Kyoto. He is a descendant of the famous swordsmith Sengo Muramasa from the Muromachi era of AxA universe. He is also the father of Urokodaki Doumon.

Appearance

Muramasa is an elderly man despite being over 100 years old he has a very muscular body due to lifelong rigorous training from Shugendo and his ongoing hard labour as a swordsmith. He has long white hair with a long white beard and a bandana covering his head, when not working as a swordsmith he is typically dressed in Shugendo priest robes and wears a red Japanese mask with a fierce visage designed after a Nio.

Personality

Muramasa is a kind old man with immense wisdom from his many decades of experience. He has an extremely close friendship with Youkais of the West Youkai Faction particularly Ippon-Datara who had helped him in forging weapons.

Described as a craftsmanship maniac, Muramasa has fanatical obsession with crafting weapons, lacquerware and raku ware, so much it has cause a permanent strain on his love life with his late lover and his relationship with his son Urokodaki, something that he had regretted all his life.

History

Muramasa was born to a family of swordsmiths descended from Sengo Muramasa. During his youth, Muramasa have travelled all of Japan, China and India for many years, studying under a variety of artisans, craftsmen and mystics. He also travelled across countless mountains, forests and rivers, excavating, studying and collecting ancient relics and artifacts from many ruins. He also once had a romantic relationship with a Shinto priestess of the Doumon clan which resulted in the birth of his son Urokodaki Doumon. However, their relationship ended before Urokodaki was born due to Muramasa's excessive devotion to his craftsmanship which caused him to neglect his lover.

Power and Abilities

Master Craftsman:Like his ancestor, Muramasa is an outstanding master swordsmith in crafting Spirit Swords. He is an unequalled child prodigy as a craftsman, having been so talented he crafted his first masterpiece Harusame out of a broken Japanese kitchen knife at age seven. While officially a swordsmith of the Yamashiro school which he had became an official master at age 17, Muramasa also fully mastered the Bizen school, Soshu school and Mino school of Japanese swordsmithing from studying under other Japanese swordsmiths during his youth. With over a century worth of experience in swordsmithing, Muramasa has achieved an abnormal level of perfection in his craftsmanship that is on pair with even supernatural craftsman such as Dwarves, Cyclops and Ippon Dataras. Muramasa's craftsmanship is diverse as aside from Japanese swords, Muramasa can craft other kinds of exotic weapons due to having learnt the smithing techniques of Chinese and Indian craftsmen. His masterpieces include his beloved sword Harusame and Nio, Jellal's Ryuzume, Lawliet's Koga and Harsha's Gandhara.

Master Artisan: Muramasa's craftsmanship extends to creating religious artifacts, Taoist, Shinto and Buddhist ceremonial objects even mundane ceramic sculptures, lacquerware and pottery of the finest quality. Being a master potter of raku ware and a highly skilled ceramic sculptor and lacquerer.

• Raku Ware: Muramasa is a master potter in making raku chawan tea bowls.

Master Swordsman: Muramasa is a master swordsman with tremendous skills in Kenjutsu and Iaijutsu. He is strong and skilled enough to fight and kill powerful supernatural beings with minimum movements and effort. Having achieved full mastery of mind, technique and body, he could perform efficiently powerful swordsmanship with minimal effort.

Master Magician: Muramasa is a veteran master of Eastern Magic with great knowledge and skill in Shinto Magic, Taoist Magic, Buddhist Magic, Hindu Magic, Onmyoudo Magic and Shugendo Magic. He would combined his magic skills with his superior craftsmanship to create powerful spiritual weapons and mystical objects.

• Elemental Magic: Muramasa has powerful mastery of elemental spells.
• Fire Magic: Muramasa can use fire magic to create powerful fireballs, able to match a dragon's flame breath.
• Lightning Magic: Muramasa can use lightning magic to fire immense lightning bolts

Senjutsu Master: Muramasa is a veteran master of Senjutsu, he regularly used Senjutsu meditation to absorb natural ki to restore his health and vitality.

• Touki:Muramasa is capable of utilizing Touki to strengthen himself

Master Physician: Muramasa is extremely knowledgable in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Japanese Kampo and Indian Ayurveda medicine. He had invented a secret recipe for a powerful medication to heal the body. When Jellal became afflicted with the Grip of Reaper curse, Muramasa skillfully use special hihiirokane acupuncture needles to alleviate the incredibly excruciating pain in Jellal's right arm by inserting them into specific pressure points while aided by Honami's Senjutsu to improved ki flow, he also provided Jellal with large amount of special pain killers modified from Manase Dosan's long lost secret medicine formula to temporarily abate the pain from the Grip of Reaper.

Immense Strength: Muramasa is extremely fit with enormous strength despite his elderly age. His strength is augmented by the Dog Zodiac Amulet restoring and preserving the consitution of his prime. Muramasa could fully concentrate his strength into his swordsmanship enhanced by Touki to unleashed powerful shockwaves.

Master Chef: Having decades of cooking experience, Muramasa is a veteran master chef in preparing sushi and sashimi out of seafood he caught. He is also a master in making seafood nabemono and Japanese vegetarian soup using kyoyasai, shiitake mushroom and tofu as well as onigiri which are his favourite food.

• Onigiri: Muramasa's hand made onigiri, very delicious, noted by Jellal to taste even better than his own hand made onigiri.

Master Brewer: Muramasa is also a master of Japanese tea ceremony.

Genius Intellect: Muramasa is a cunning, wise and brilliant man. Having frequently travelled along with years of research, he has accumulated immense knowledge on mythical objects, relics, artifacts and weapons.

Master Scholar: Muramasa is a wise and brilliant veteran scholar of great learning, specializing in Japanology, Sinology and Indology.

• Theology: Muramasa is a theologian of Shintoism, Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Onmyoudo and Shugendo
• Master Archaeologist: Muramasa is also self-taught in archaeology.

• Master Linguist: Muramasa is also multilingual in addition to his native Japanese, he is well-versed in reading and understanding English, Chinese, Hindi and Sanskrit.

Master Artist: Muramasa is a master of Maki-e lacquer painting, ink wash painting and Japanese calligraphy.

• Master Painter: Muramasa is a highly skilled lacquer painter, specializing in Maki-e technique. He is also a master of ink wash painting strongly influenced by Sesshu Toyo, Kano Motonobu, Xu Wei, Dong Qichang and Wu Changshuo
• Master Calligrapher: Muramasa is a master calligrapher in both Japanese calligraphy and Chinese calligraphy. Having studied the calligraphy of Kukai, Kusakabe Meikaku, Iwaya Ichiroku, Onisaburo Deguchi and Nomura Motosuke In his youth, and further improved his calligraphy by studying calligraphic inscriptions of Chinese masters in the Xi'an Stele Forest when he was in China. He also studied the Stele school of Chinese calligraphy by referring to Yang Shoujing and Deng Shiru.

Master Fisherman: Muramasa is extremely skilled and experienced in fishing as both a hobby and livelihood. He would catch most of his seafood supply himself in the ocean.

Equipment

Nio (仁王, Two Deva Kings): A powerful Spirit Sword Muramasa crafted when he was 40 years old using all his craftsmanship skills and experience accumulated in his travels, enchanted with powerful Shugendo magic. It is Muramasa's favourite sword which he most commonly used.

Harusame (春雨,Spring Rain) : A powerful Spirit Sword Muramasa created by reforging a broken kitchen knife during his childhood, enchanted by his father with Shinto Magic. It has the power of purification.

Taoist Zodiac Amulets:A set of twelve uniquely powerful octogan shaped magic amulets designed after the Chinese Zodiacs created by ancient Taoist masters using Taoist magic. It was sealed in a long forgotten Taoist Temple until Muramasa excavated it while exploring China during his youth.

• Rat Zodiac Amulet:The Rat Zodiac Amulet can used Life Magic to animate inanimate objects.
• Ox Zodiac Amulet:The Ox Zodiac Amulet used Strengthening Magic that grants the user superhuman strength to lift the heaviest objects demolish the largest structures and physically overpower supernatural beings.
• Tiger Zodiac Amulet:The Tiger Zodiac Amulet can use Yin Yang Magic to control the forces of Yin and Yang, mainly Light and Darkness, by extension its Yin Yang Magic can also cast magic that which involve the sun and moon.

Faxian's Khakkhara: An ancient intricate khakkhara staff created by Faxian, the Jin Dynasty Chinese Buddhist monk who travelled to India for Buddhist texts, using all the secret Buddhist spells and rituals he had learned in his journey. It is an extremely powerful ritual implement in Buddhism, it was originally buried in an ancient Buddhist monastery in Nanjing until Muramasa excavate it and kept it as his own. Muramasa would used this staff to enhanced Buddhist and Shugendo spells and rituals, it is normally stored in another dimension when not in use.

Spiritual Life Pills: A powerful mystical medication that heals the body. These small pill shaped medicine contain a potent formula invented by Muramasa further imbued with Onmyoudo healing spells to enhanced its healing effects.

Shugendo Lingzhi: Lingzhi mushrooms imbued with Shugendo spells to magically enhanced its nutrition, these mushrooms despite being extremely bitter when consumed can replenished great amount of Ki, boosting health and stamina. Muramasa frequently consumed these mushrooms alongside the the spiritual life pills to boost his health and longevity.

Muramasa's Secret Analgesic: Muramasa's secret analgesic pills, modified from a long lost formula of Manase Dosan.

Asuramaru: A 17th century Karakuri puppet constructed by a genius Ippon Datara blacksmith and engineer named Goutetsu who combined mechanical science learned from Rangaku with Youjutsu and given to Muramasa's ancestors as a gift. Named and designed after the mythical Asuras, it has six arms capable of multi-wield six katanas. Inside the puppets body is a masterfully crafted ancient hihiirokane Katana with an intricate flame pattern, possessing exceptional sharpness and durability which the blade remained untarnished to rust despite being a few hundred years old, the Katana is given to Jellal as he had been the one to discovered it who named it Tougenkyo no Kishin (闘幻狂の鬼神, Fighting Phantom Madness Demon God).

Trivia

• Muramasa's favourite food are;
  • Onigiri
  • Umeboshi
  • Nigirizushi
  • Sashimi
  • His homemade vegetarian soup made of tofu, shiitake mushroom and kyoyasai
  • Seafood nabemono.
• Muramasa's favourite drink is matcha.
• Muramasa is a pescetarian, aside from seafood consumed when eating seafood nabemono, sushi and sashimi, he never ate meat. Strictly sticking to a pescetarian diet of onigiri, sushi, sashimi and tofu, shiitake mushroom and vegetable soup. He also doesn't drink alcohol.
• Muramasa's hobbies are crafting weapons, raku chawan tea bowls and Japanese lacquerware, Maki-e lacquer painting, ink wash painting, Japanese calligraphy, fishing, Senjutsu meditation and Japanese Tea Ceremony.
• Muramasa's lineage who were descended from Sengo Muramasa have been skilled and dedicated swordsmiths for generations, they also have close association to the Five Principal clans due to their family having frequently crafted Japanese swords to be dedicated as offerings to Shinto Shrines under the Five Principal Clan for centuries.
• Aside from Sengo Muramasa, Muramasa also descended from two of the Five Principal Clans of AxA universe. His mother is a member of the Nakiri Clan while his paternal grandmother Kikyo is a member of the Shinra Clan.
• In his life, Muramasa has only two apprentice who were also descended from famous swordsmiths, Masamune and Sadamune though Nagumo can also be considered a temporary apprentice
• As part of their apprenticeship, Muramasa force Masamune and Sadamune to routinely go through intense physical training as well as spiritual training in Shugendo and Senjutsu meditation, as he believed only swordsmiths that are strong in both mind and body can forged good blades and swordsmiths weak in mind and body can produced only mediocre blades regardless of skills as Japanese swordsmithing are very labour intensive for normal people. Even Nagumo had to go through the same training despite being a temporary apprentice.
• In addition to Tamahagane and Hihiirokane, Muramasa also used Damascus steel and High Carbon Steel to create his Japanese swords.
• Due to his craftsmanship obsession, Muramasa have illegally produced hundreds of swords every year more than the set limit of 24 Japanese swords a year by Japanese laws in modern Japan. Thus, Muramasa chose to live as a hermit away from Japanese human society to continued produced more swords in secret as he would be arrested for violating the law
• Like his father and grandfather, Muramasa have an extremely close friendship and affinity with Ippon-Dataras, with the ones he is closest to are the seven Ippon-Dataras consist of six Tosogu craftsmen and one sword polisher who assisted Muramasa in finished constructing his Japanese swords, whereas Muramasa himself solely focused on crafting the blade as the Tosho bladesmith, the six Ippon-Datara Tosogu craftsmen crafted the most artistically beautiful Japanese sword mountings for Muramasa's hand-made Japanese swords while one who polished Muramasa's swords. Their craftsmanship skills are superlative even among Ippon Dataras, thus, all of Muramasa's swords whom they had a hand in its construction in addition to possessing deadly sharpness and strength as weapons, also possessed an otherworldly beauty. Muramasa also frequently invited Ippon-Dataras to tea gatherings whom he served his personally brewed matcha and his home made sushi and sashimi.