#sukuna lore

There are moments that always stuck with me since we know that Sukuna said he was a „cursed and unwanted little wretch“. I think we can definitely assume what he was born with a deformed face and the four arms, causing him to be treated like shit in his youth.

Thanks for reaching out with your question(s), anon! In my last post, I kind of touched on Gege Akutami's subtle exposition. If you've noticed, Gojo tends to make a lot of references to political figures, poets, athletes, etc. and Akutami doesn't provide a lot in the way of context clues for their importance in Gojo's blatherings, at least for, perhaps, Western audiences. Even Kugisaki and Itadori going on about baseball players is out of my purview of understanding so it's no surprise to realize that Ryomen Sukuna potentially has a cultural significance that we're unaware of.

The video below touches not only on his lore as Ryomen Sukuna but also the "calamity" surrounding the treatment of conjoined twins who were effectively tortured inhumanely by a circus owning zealot that may inform his appearance. 👇🏾

Regarding your hypothesis, the video above kind of makes an interesting supposition about the possibility of twins to your point about a brother. Especially since Ryomen may translate to "two-faced" which I feel like does not bode well for Yuji when we consider his death sentence and that Sukuna can mean "exorcism". Sounds like mutually assured destruction.

Universe wise, demonstratively, it doesn't look as though anyone who is isolatingly strong like Sukuna in his time was bound by love unless we're looking at Rika and Yuta (not quite the same circumstances) or Gojo and Geto and, in both instances, love was their undoing. It's likely why "love" is interpreted as the ability to penetrate that loneliness with a larger show of strength which we've seen in later chapters.

I also think that we're missing something significant with the regular reference to the Heian period as the "Golden Age of Jujutsu". It doesn't make the story inaccessible as not knowing hasn't negatively impacted our interpretation of the story at large but I think that we're losing some subtle nuance from being out of the know. Similarly, considering the potential that the character is based off of some combination of the above, I feel as though on a grander scale Gege Akutami won't go into too much of his background.

We'll probably get another 1-2 Heian period throwbacks specific to Sukuna to close some gaps between he and Kenjaku or Uruame and perhaps...

⚠️ Spoiler warning for JJK chapter 212.

also I think I mentioned buddhism and eastern mythology in my messages because jjk honestly references so so much of it. especially sukuna. there is actually a temple in gifu prefecture, the senkoji temple, said to have been founded by ryomen sukuna who introduced japanese buddhism to the area. there is a statue of a certain deity with two faces as well. in general there is much alignment with eastern mythology. as someone who comes from that background myself, I love how it was represented in jujutsu kaisen. the number eight is also very significant here because of the Noble Eightfold Path which is the guiding principle in Buddhism and the eight spoke wheel represents cosmic law and order.

There are many aspects of Sukuna’s character design and personality that can be likened to the Hindu God Shiv; the god of death, destruction, and reincarnation. The cursed tools that Sukuna wielded over a thousand years ago seem to draw inspiration from the Hindu Gods as well. The ‘hiten’ or the trident he holds is strikingly similar to the trishula wielded by Lord Shiv. The ‘kamutoke’ is another, it is similar to the vajra which symbolises indestructible force and the power of the thunderbolt, or electricity which is shown in the manga.

❤️ thank you so much for your words! I think I have seen your messages (on tiktok?). You are very kind to take the time to write how my art makes you feel!