Mononoke Chapter 2, also titled “The Ashes of Rage,” takes place one month after the events of the first film. Madam Utayama, the former head of the Ooku, had passed away, which led to a sudden shift in the dynamics. In the previous film, you may remember Madam Utayama asking for favors from Lady Botan’s father, Councilor Otomo, to cover up the secrets of the Ooku. Well, this certain “gentleman” happens to be the bad guy of the second film. Speaking of secrets, a birth celebratory ceremony arranged for Lady Yukiko’s newborn had been delayed for two months due to the unexpected death of the official scribe, Lady Kitagawa. Madam Utayama and her maids tried their best to conceal Kitagawa’s death, but they failed to contain the chaos that followed. Kitagawa’s wandering spirit, burdened with feelings of guilt, had turned into a Mononoke that shook the very foundation of His Majesty’s prestigious establishment and revealed its ugly secrets to the audience. The thing is, politics, power, and bureaucracy can deceive a man, but spirits won’t be mocked, for whatever a man sows, he will also reap. Thankfully, a medicine seller was able to slay the spirit, but he knew that his work at the Ooku wasn’t yet finished. He had planted an enchanted piece of paper inside the well because he felt the presence of another Mononoke lingering in the cracked walls of the Ooku, but the spirit didn’t reveal itself, which was why the Medicine Seller had been patiently waiting for the spirit to turn up.
Spoiler Alert
The second chapter of Mononoke is centered around Lady Fuki, who, as mentioned in the previous film, has captured His Majesty’s heart with her charm and beauty. But not everyone’s happy with the Emperor’s undivided attention towards Lady Fuki, especially when they find out that she got pregnant with His Majesty’s child. The reason: well, it’s the good old class politics. No one wanted the Emperor’s royal line to mix with the daughter of a lowly merchant, and therefore everyone inside the Ooku conspired to kill the baby inside Lady Fuki’s belly, but before they could carry out their evil intentions, a guardian spirit showed up, which started killing anyone who dared to harm Fuki’s baby. So, with that said, allow me to break down all the important events of Mononoke Chapter 2 and how the Medicine Seller dealt with the new spirit.
Councilor Otomo Is Pure Evil
The opening sequence of the film made it abundantly clear that Councilor Otomo had been meddling with the affairs of the Ooku for a very long time. It seems like he wanted to be the man in power and make people tremble before him because of his royal position. As soon as he found himself losing in the game of shogi with the head of the Utayama family, he brought up the topic of the Ooku, pinned the entire blame for the unfortunate events on Madam Utayama, and abolished the Utayama clan for their lack of efficiency. Well, corrupt officials like him have always been a part of the bureaucracy, and I am sure you might have come across such people even in your daily life.
But what was worse is how Councilor Otomo’s judgments and decisions were clouded by his own prejudices. He didn’t want Lady Yukiko to raise her own daughter, and instead wanted Fujimaki, the newly promoted official, to appoint the Katsunuma Family as the child’s legal guardian. The reason being, if no male successor is born, this princess, after her marriage, will assume the role of the next consort, and the princess’ guardian will become the mother of the future lord when he enters the royal family. In this way, the princess’ guardian will gain immense power without even giving birth to a male successor, and Councilor Otomo didn’t want Yukiko, a lowlife maid or concubine, to gain such a title, as it would “sow a seed of fire that would eventually grow into a blazing inferno.” In short, he wanted to keep the lowly merchants under his feet and never allow them the opportunity to become equals. But in his pride, he failed to understand that he was robbing a mother of her right to raise her own daughter. Unfortunately, those were the times, and no one could really help Yukiko’s cause. In the end, the custody of her child went to Lady Matsu, daughter of Master Katsunuma, who had been licking Councilor Otomo’s boots since the very beginning.
I believe Councilor Otomo also had a hand in making her daughter, Lady Botan, the next administrator of the Ooku, because he wanted someone on the inside who could carry out his orders without questioning his intentions. I know Fujimaki told everyone that it was His Majesty’s wish, as Lady Botan had been helping Madam Utayama with the administration for a long time, but you see, His Majesty didn’t pay much heed to such trivial affairs, so you know who had been pulling the strings and controlling the chain of succession to his desires.
And I understand that Otomo is doing what he’s doing to protect the realm from scheming lords and backstabbing subordinates. He believed these greedy conspirators would brainwash the lowly concubines, that is, the potential mothers of the successor, to destroy the administrative structure that has stood for the past 150 years. In simple words, he didn’t want anyone to bridge the gap between the classes or let equality seep into His Majesty’s harem as it would diminish his own importance in the feudal society. But, truth be told, Otomo went too far to stop “the seeds of conflict” from being sown. He orchestrated the deaths of those unborn children, who may not even be real threats to the Emperor’s domain. And taking an innocent life is a crime, no matter how hard you try to justify it.
Sayo Burns to Death
Lady Sayo, a maid who had been dragging pitchers of water with Lady Fuki a year ago, started feeling envious of her as soon as she caught the Emperor’s eye. This piece of information in itself could give you a clear idea of how the Ooku, and institutions like it, corrupts the very minds of individuals and turns friends against each other. The Ooku is not just an establishment for producing imperial successors, but it’s also a ladder of success, where a woman who can give His Majesty an heir will win the game and become the mother of the next ruler. You do understand the weight of such a title, right? And it’s not just them who enjoy the perks of their accomplishment, but also their family or clan that rises to the top with them. In short, every concubine shoulders the weight of their families’ future every time they’re summoned for the night service.
For girls like Sayo, Fuki, or Yukiko, who come from the low merchant class, reaching the top ultimately becomes their only objective in life, and they are willing to go to great lengths to please His Majesty. But mind you, the Emperor isn’t looking for anything highbrow. He’s not interested in anyone’s talent or intellect. He’s more common than a commoner, only drawn to physical appearance like a moth to a flame. He doesn’t even have time to interact with the concubines. For him, they are just women who are there for his night service, and as bad as it may sound, His Majesty and his administrative structure have turned these women into mere cows.
Coming back to Lady Sayo, she felt a pang of jealousy the moment she saw Lady Fuki sitting with women of noble families in the grand chamber. Fujimaki had arrived at the Ooku to discuss the fate of Yukiko’s newborn, when suddenly Lady Fuki raised her voice in support of Yukiko, though her words fell on deaf ears. This was the moment Sayo murmured to herself that Fuki was so full of herself that she dared rebel against His Majesty’s commands. Her hatred and envy against Fuki became more apparent, but things got out of hand when the court found out that Fuki was pregnant. She had vomited in the grand chamber, and Lady Sayo was called in to clean it up. As she scrubbed the floor, she started cursing Fuki, as she believed she was going to become the mother of the Emperor’s successor. Her intense emotions attracted the fiery spirit, which burned her to ashes in a matter of seconds. This was the first time the Mononoke appeared, and the Medicine Seller, who was standing outside the gates of the Ooku, immediately felt its presence. I think it goes without saying that it wasn’t the first time Lady Sayo felt such strong jealousy against Lady Fuki. She felt envious of her every time His Majesty called her for the night service, but the reason the flames of the guardian deity, Hinezumi, attacked Sayo was because this time she meant harm to Fuki’s baby. The Mononoke appeared as “flaming” mice who came out of hiding whenever anyone tried to hurt Lady Fuki’s baby, be it Fujimaki and Katsunuma’s puppet, Choju, or the court physician, Gentaku. And as soon as these mice had turned these ill-intended evil people to ashes, they quickly went back to their holes, because of which the Medicine Seller couldn’t trace the spirit and find its truth.
Lady Suzu’s Kindness Manifests Into Mononoke
The thing you need to understand about Mononoke is that they are not evil spirits that attack without reason. They are created by intense human emotions, like guilt, kindness, revenge, etc. In the previous film, it was Lady Kitagawa’s guilt that took the form of Karakasa, and in the second film, it was Lady Suzu’s kindness that had transformed into Hinezumi, a guardian deity that reside in the feelings of those who wish for children or a safe childbirth. And in this case, Hinezumi was triggered whenever someone tried to harm Lady Fuki’s unborn. But what exactly was Lady Suzu’s secret?
It turned out, some 20 years ago, Councilor Otomo, the real villain of our story, had conspired to terminate another child to avoid sowing the seeds of conflict. Just like Lady Fuki, Lady Suzu too came from a humble background. Her beauty caught the Emperor’s attention, and she became the chosen one. However, as soon as Lady Suzu got pregnant with His Majesty’s child, Councilor Otomo decided to intervene in the affair because he didn’t want a woman from the merchant class to give birth to the next ruler and therefore asked her father, Master Saijo, to pay back the favor he owed. You have to understand how this treacherous man conned every family who sent their daughter to the Ooku. It was always him who used his influence to give these families an opportunity to enter the Ooku, making false promises that their daughter could one day become the mother of the successor and take their clan to the top. But whenever a woman from the lower class got pregnant, Otomo shamelessly asked them to pay their debt.
Otomo slyly asked Lady Suzu’s father, Master Saijo, to convince his daughter to abort her child, and Lady Suzu had no other choice but to execute Councilor Otomo’s indirect order, or else he would turn her family’s lives into a living nightmare. You already know how he threatened Tokita and Utayama. Lady Suzu terminated her pregnancy, but she couldn’t live with the guilt of killing her own child and therefore burned herself alive for her “unforgivable” act. Now, in the present day, Lady Suzu’s spirit, who had been roaming the very corridors of the Ooku where she killed herself, turned into a Mononoke so that Lady Fuki and her child wouldn’t suffer the same fate as hers. In short, she became their guardian spirit, protecting them from the evil men and their politics.
There Will Always Be Light in the Darkest Corner
There’s something about kindness that leaves an everlasting impact on the lives we have touched. And these people we leave behind keep us alive in their memories even after we are long gone. Maybe, for many people, Lady Suzu was a mere ghost who wandered the grand halls, or a fabled maid who was now long forgotten. But for the guard, Sakashita, she was the kindest concubine he had ever come across. Even after 20 years, he still remembered the way Lady Suzu cleaned his wounds with her handkerchief and asked him to take care of himself. I mean, I really felt the pain Sakashita experienced the moment he found out the truth about Lady Suzu and her death.
The second person closest to Lady Suzu was her caretaker, Tsuyu, who was completely crushed when Lady Suzu was burned to death. She always knew it had something to do with her baby, and therefore she tried her best to protect Lady Fuki so no such tragedy would befall her baby. I think, after multiple attempts were made to kill Fuki’s baby, Tsuyu figured out that whoever wanted to assassinate the next successor would issue an order to force Fuki’s father to convince her to abort her baby. She knew that history was going to repeat itself, which was why she requested Fuki to not terminate her pregnancy, no matter what happens. Tsuyu knew that Lady Suzu had gone through a similar predicament, and how it all ended up for her. Tsuyu didn’t want Fuki to go through the same ordeal, not at any cost. Coincidentally, when Sakashita saw Tokita standing at the gates, he figured out that Master Tokita was going to make an impossible demand from his daughter. Sakashita always felt he could have stopped Lady Suzu from taking her own life, which was why, when Tokita arrived at the Ooku, he eavesdropped on him so he could stop Fuki from committing the same mistake, but thankfully, she told her father that she will bring her child into the world, even if it’s not wanted.
And last but not least, there’s Lady Botan, the righteous daughter of a corrupt councilor, who till the very end didn’t lose sight of her responsibilities towards the maids and the Ooku, unlike her father, who had mixed his duties with personal agendas (and vendettas), and eventually fell victim to his prejudices. Botan and Fuki had their differences, but Botan never let those disputes cloud her judgment, which makes her the most reasonable administrator of the Ooku so far. Furthermore, the bond between Botan and Fuki at the end of Chapter 2 reminded me of the friendship between Lady Asa and Lady Kame.
Lady Matsu Tries To Frame Fuki
As soon as Councilor Otomo learned about Lady Fuki’s pregnancy, he asked the court physician, Gentaku, to create an elixir to terminate her baby. I know Gentaku didn’t name any names before his death, but you might have noticed that he kept the potion in a bottle similar to the one that Lady Suzu’s father had given to her on Councilor Otomo’s orders to terminate her baby. So, you know who has been giving these orders to get rid of the “unwanted children.” This further suggests that it wasn’t the first time Councilor Otomo and the court physicians had pulled off such an immoral act and had been killing unborn babies for a very long time.
But when Gentaku failed to extinguish the seeds of conflict, Councilor Otomo ordered Lady Matsu and her father to conspire a plot against Lady Fuki so he would have definite reasons to get rid of her. Shortly after Lady Botan became the new head of the Ooku, she enforced a set of rules for every maid to follow. She forbade the concubines from speaking with His Majesty during the night services, and Lady Matsu decided to use these regulations against Lady Fuki. Lady Matsu forged a fake letter addressed to the Emperor where Lady Fuki requested him to let her take the reins of the Ooku. Later, Lady Matsu showed the forged letter to Lady Botan, believing she would punish Fuki for breaking the rules, but Lady Botan already knew that Fuki couldn’t seek such favors from the Emperor. She had no aspirations to become an administrator of the Ooku. Furthermore, Fuki had been down with a severe fever and couldn’t write any such letter to His Majesty, which made it clear that someone was trying to frame her. The act itself reeked of corruption, where the handful of people in power would do anything to further their agenda, but Lady Botan refused to submit to their evil desires. She refused to take any action against Fuki, leaving Councilor Otomo with no other option but to get directly involved in the matter.
Councilor Otomo Is Dead
When none of his tricks and treachery worked, Councilor Otomo called Tokita and Fuki for a private meeting in the presence of Lady Matsu and her father, Master Katsunuma. He then summoned Lady Botan and ordered her to take strict actions against Fuki for the letter, but once again Lady Botan made it loud and clear that she would do no such thing, as it was nothing but a ploy to assassinate the next successor. The word “successor” irked Councilor Otomo, because he couldn’t imagine a girl from a humble background becoming the mother of the next emperor. His hatred towards Fuki compelled him to show his true colors to the world, as he revealed to everyone present in the room that the next successor would only come from a family of councilors, not from a family that has no social standing, as such a successor would be easily corruptible. So you see, Councilor Otomo already made his assumptions that people who do not come from royal backgrounds are fools. The thing is, the Ooku wasn’t built to cater to the ideologies of such biased councilors. It was established to give each maid and their families an equal chance to rise up the ladder, but a corrupt Otomo had been robbing them of this opportunity by terminating these “seeds of conflict.” He told his daughter that he was doing all of it to protect the Ooku, but even a fool could see that he was nothing but a bigot. When Botan refused to pass any judgment against Fuki, he forced her to issue an order for the protection of the Ooku and chain of succession, but Fuki, who had been listening to their bickering for a long time, had had enough and erupted like a fiery volcano, summoning the ultimate form of Hinezumi, the mother. And as soon as the flames of the guardian spirit enveloped the entire chamber, the floor disappeared, swallowing Otomo and Master Katsunuma into a pit of fire, where their bodies turned into ash, making them pay for the crimes they had committed. They all died a painful death, and to be honest, they all deserved it.
Form, Truth, and Reason
As you may have seen in the previous film, the Medicine Seller needed three elements, Form, Truth, and Reason, to unsheathe his mythical sword. The form of the Mononoke was Hinezumi, while the truth was that Lady Suzu committed suicide in the regret of aborting her baby. Everyone in the Ooku believed that she burned to death in an accidental fire, but that wasn’t the case. And lastly, the reason: Lady Suzu’s lingering emotions had turned into a Mononoke that sought to burn anyone and everything that intended to bring harm to Fuki’s baby. Back in the day, Otomo had forced Suzu to abort her child, and she wanted to protect Fuki from suffering the same fate. And as soon as the Medicine Seller found the three elements, he pulled out his sword to purify the restless Mononoke so it could finally find some peace. Also, as I had mentioned earlier, Mononoke are not haunting ghosts or demons. They are spirits that bind themselves to the intense emotion of a wandering soul and eventually take the form of a yokai to serve the spirit’s purpose. This was the reason why the Medicine Seller asked for forgiveness from the Mononoke after putting the spirit to rest. He knew that they had done nothing wrong.
Madam Suikoin May Be The Next Antagonist
Earlier, Fujimaki, with the approval of His Majesty’s mother, Madam Suikoin, had appointed Lady Matsu and her father, Master Katsunuma, as the legal guardians of Yukiko’s newborn. But with the Katsunuma Family turned to ashes, there was no one to look after Yukiko’s child, and therefore Botan allowed the Fujimaki Family to mentor Yukiko’s daughter. Furthermore, with the sudden passing of Otomo, Master Fujimaki became the new chief, who I believe would try to do better than his predecessor. Fujimaki even told Botan that he would take the Tokita family under his wing and help them to flourish, unlike Otomo, who only exploited the clans for his benefit. However, before leaving, Fujimaki did point out that Otomo’s death wasn’t the end of their worries. Madam Suikoin still had power inside the Ooku, and she wouldn’t shy away from using her influence to further her personal agenda. In simple words, she didn’t like the merchant class; Lady Fuki in particular. This suggests that she could be the antagonist of the third Mononoke film, titled “The Curse of the Serpent.” It’s possible she wouldn’t let Botan run the Ooku and keep meddling with its affairs like Otomo. However, if Fuki gave birth to a successor, then Fuki would replace Suikoin as the mother of the next successor, leaving Suikoin powerless. Speaking of Fuki, she put in a request with Councilor Fujimaki to be allowed to raise her own baby, which I guess he would approve as soon as she brings the child into the world. However, you may ask why Yukiko wasn’t allowed to do the same. I think it’s because, in her case, an order had already been passed, and only the Emperor could make amendments to it, but Suikoin wouldn’t let Fujimaki or Botan concern His Majesty with such matters.
the Medicine Seller Will Return
In Mononoke Chapter 2’s ending, Botan, as the new head of the Ooku, gave a new pass to the Medicine Seller so he could enter the Ooku whenever he wanted, though she hoped that he wouldn’t need to use it. Before leaving the Ooku, the Medicine Seller removed the enchanted sticker he had put inside the well, and surprisingly it burned a little, suggesting that the guardian spirit was still around, looking after Fuki’s child. But it was no longer a threat, so the Medicine Seller left. In the closing shot, we saw the snake drawn on the inner walls of the Ooku shifting a little, thereby hinting at the presence of another spirit, which will further be explored in “The Curse of the Serpent.” If I have to make a wild guess here, then I think the third film will bring forth the clash between Yukiko and Madam Suikoin, as the concubine will likely hold Suikoin responsible for taking away her baby.
Additionally, I think the next film will shed light on the mystery built around the Priest, a member of the Mizorogi family, who had been serving the Water Goddess inside the Ooku. We still don’t know much about him or his two twin daughters and why his family is allowed to enter the Ooku without anyone’s permission or an official pass. So you see, there’s some hidden secret there. Well, with that said, I cannot wait to find out what this curse of the serpent is all about, and before leaving, just a reminder, I would love to hear your opinions on the film in the comments, so do drop a text below.
