Raiden Gokaden

The Raiden Gokaden (Japanese: 雷電五箇伝 "Five Traditions of Raiden") were five bladesmithing schools in Inazuma's weaponsmithing scene, each specializing in their own unique forging art.

According to legend, the Raiden Gokaden developed from the blade-forging techniques taught by the Raiden Shogun, and the variations are "based on astrology, application, materials used, the furnace conditions, individual personalities, and elemental changes."^[1] Each art also developed their own techniques and secrets.^[2] The families in the Raiden Gokaden eventually also became key members of the Yashiro Commission due to the cultural importance swordsmithing held in Inazuma.^[3]

Presently, only the Amenoma Art still thrives while the Isshin Art has been mostly lost following the Case of the Eccentric, which saw Kaedehara Yoshinori put an end to the practice to protect his family from Scaramouche. The other three schools and their forging arts were completely destroyed as a result of Scaramouche's machinations.

The Five Schools[]

Amenoma Art[]

The Amenoma Art (Japanese: 天目伝) is the only surviving school in the Raiden Gokaden that continues training new apprentices. Its current master is Amenoma Tougo, with Hajime as his disciple.

Isshin Art[]

The Isshin Art (Japanese: 一心伝) only barely survives in the present. In the past, it was host to three master swordsmiths, also known as the Isshin Sansaku: Kaedehara Kagemitsu, Niwa Nagamitsu, and Akame Mitsunaga.^{[4][Note 1]} The Kaedehara Clan, Niwa Clan, and Akame School were the three main families who followed the Isshin Art's practice up until the Case of the Eccentric.

Futsu Art[]

The Futsu Art (Japanese: 経津伝) is a lost school. Its third-generation master, Futsu Minori, forged the Hasui Geppaku Futsu, while her foster son Futsu Masayoshi forged the Haran Geppaku Futsu. While Masayoshi was more skilled in swordsmithing than his sworn brother Futsu Hiroyoshi, Minori's son, Hiroyoshi eventually inherited the Futsu school while Masayoshi went on to mentor the swordsmiths who would later become the Isshin Sansaku.

Hyakume Art[]

The Hyakume Art (Japanese: 百目伝) is a lost school. Little is known about them, although they are slightly more involved in the revised version of history after the removal of "Scaramouche" from Irminsul. In the revised version of the Case of the Eccentric, the unnamed head of the Hyakume Art carried out an indiscriminate slaughter of the Raiden Gokaden, not sparing even the other members of his own school.

Senju Art[]

The Senju Art (Japanese: 千手伝) is a lost school. No further information is known about them at the time.

History[]

According to legend, the Raiden Gokaden were developed when a ronin taught his five disciples the art of forging. Each art then developed their own techniques and secrets.^[2] The families in the Raiden Gokaden eventually also became key members of the Yashiro Commission due to the cultural importance swordsmithing held in Inazuma.^[3]

Tatarasuna Mystery[]

During the Tatarasuna Mystery, the Armory Officer in charge of the Mikage Furnace was Niwa Hisahide, who was the head of the Niwa Clan at the time. He befriended the kabukimono Katsuragi found in Shakkei Pavilion and treated him as his friend,^[5] with the two having been shown to have forged blades with each other. The then-head of the Akame Clan introduced a mechanic from Fontaine, Escher, to Niwa, as Escher had formed a technique that would revolutionize the forging process at the Mikage Furnace.^[6]

When the furnace started making workers deathly ill due to the black gas it was emitting, Niwa decided to go into the furnace and use Escher's purification device at the cost of his own life. After confirming his decision with Escher, Niwa confronted the mechanic over his suspicions that the furnace was sabotaged by Escher's own hand. Escher played coy until Niwa's back was turned and took the opportunity to fatally stab Niwa. He revealed himself as the Fatui Harbinger Il Dottore, that his actions had all been for an experiment, and lastly, that the purification device was designed for the kabukimono. Shortly after Niwa died, Dottore placed his still-warm heart into the purification device and gave it to the kabukimono so that he would purify the furnace in Niwa's place. After the purification was completed, the kabukimono asked Dottore, who was disguised as Escher, how he survived the ordeal in the furnace. Dottore pointed to the device, which he had previously claimed was entrusted by Niwa and the kabukimono opened it only to find a withered heart. Dottore wove a story that Niwa killed an innocent subordinate, placed it in the device, and fled Tatarasuna with his family. Feeling betrayed by Niwa's alleged cowardice, yet saved by it all the same, the kabukimono departed from Tatarasuna with a heavy heart.^[7]

Dottore repeated his fabricated story to the other workers at Tatarasuna, leading people to believe his lies. When the authorities came to investigate the matter, Mikoshi Nagamasa — the Inspector at Tatarasuna and thus the next authority figure after Niwa — was going to have to take responsibility for the catastrophe with his own life. To prevent this from happening to his benefactor, Katsuragi took the blame onto himself and was executed by Nagamasa's hand.^[8]

After another incident which alienated him from humanity, the kabukimono left Inazuma entirely and wandered aimlessly. Over a hundred years later, Pierro sought him out and convinced him to join the Fatui. He joined Dottore's "grand research project," completely unaware that he had been Escher in disguise or that he was responsible for the tragedy at Tatarasuna.^[9]

Case of the Eccentric[]

In order to take revenge an unspecified "bladesmith," the kabukimono — having adopted the name "Kunikuzushi" — masterminded the fall of the Raiden Gokaden. By the time of Kaedehara Yoshinori's generation,^{[Note 2]} the Futsu, Hyakume, and Senju schools had befallen strange mishaps and disappeared.^[10]

When the Isshin Art was tasked with recreating a goshintou with a diagram from the Raiden Shogun, their swordsmiths kept producing defective blades. Afraid of the punishment they would receive for failing to produce a successful blade by the due date, the swordsmiths fled, taking refuge with the Fatui and going on a self-imposed exile to Snezhnaya.^[11] Suspecting that the diagram had been tampered with to sabotage them, Yoshinori and the Kamisato Clan head at the time attempted to pursue them. They were intercepted and singlehandedly defeated by Kunikuzushi, who was the one responsible for tampering with the diagram. After realizing Yoshinori was from the Niwa family and raised by the Kaedehara family after his father disappeared, Kunikuzushi left Yoshinori and the Kamisato head alive with a vague message: "Tell her this. My name is Kunikuzushi."^[12] He then left, having lost interest in his project.^[10] This incident came to be known as the Case of the Eccentric.^[11]

Afraid of retaliation should they reveal the truth, Yoshinori and the Kamisato head agreed to cover up the events that had transpired. On account of his old age and the wounds he had sustained, the Kamisato head died shortly afterwards, leaving a vacancy in the clan and the commission. Furthermore, the failure to produce a successful blade or apprehend the fleeing swordsmiths was seen as a failing of the Yashiro Commission, which lost the Kamisato Clan its prestige and led to harassment by the Fatui.^[1][13] The matter was taken before the Raiden Shogun, but before she could pronounce her judgement on the issue, Yae Miko intervened on the Kamisato Clan's behalf. The Shogun spared the clan from punishment, and the Kamisatos thereafter swore to serve the Shogun eternally out of gratitude.^[14]

Legacy[]

The Amenoma Art is the only school among the Raiden Gokaden to continue its practice to this day, led by Amenoma Tougo. Kunikuzushi's attack on Yoshinori and the Kamisato head had lasting impacts on the Kaedehara and Kamisato Clans: Yoshinori ended the practice of the Isshin Art and his son, Kaedehara Kazuha's grandfather, never discovered the truth and was unable to revive the family business. By the time Kazuha came of age, the Kaedehara Clan lost its fortunes and properties.^[3][15] The Kamisato Clan failed to rebound from the repercussions of the event until Kamisato Ayato became the clan head; the hard work that Ayato and Ayaka's father contributed towards that end put him, and by extension, their mother Kayo in an early grave.

Yoshinori wrote down the truth of what had occurred, but concealed it using ink that would only appear after coming into contact with water. The truth remained undiscovered up until Ayato, while investigating a Fatui spy who had searched through the confiscated Kaedehara Clan's possessions, came across the document and figured out the secret it held. Ayato then masterminded a plan to relay the truth he had uncovered to Kazuha over the course of the Irodori Festival, using a fabricated legend of The Five Kasen as a metaphor.^[16]

Revision[]

After Scaramouche learned the truth from the memories stored in Irminsul, feeling guilt that he had been deceived to, he decided to remove all traces of himself in Irminsul to restore the Raiden Gokaden and the lives that had been ruined. However, the changes made were very minor, as his removal simply prevented Dottore from using him and preventing his recruitment into the Fatui. Dottore still infiltrated the furnace and did not kill Niwa, although he and an unnamed blacksmith went inside and fixed the furnace at the cost of their own lives.

The unnamed blacksmith had a son who was left orphaned as a result of his father's death and was left embittered with the Shogun for her refusal to help. He passed on his hatred to his future generations, who all lived in misery. Roughly 300 years after the Tatarigami incident, the then-head of the clan snapped and decided to destroy the Raiden Gokaden, killing all blacksmiths in his path in an attempt to end the Raiden Gokaden. The then-head was successful in eliminating the Futsu, Hyakume, and Senju Arts, but was unsuccessful in eliminating the Amenoma and Isshin Arts, as he was stopped by the Kaedehara and Kamisato Clans, who killed him and put an end to the havoc.

Trivia[]

• The sword art schools are referred to as 伝 "Tradition/School," while the practices are referred to as 流 "Art."
• According to Amenoma Tougo's regular dialogue, the Raiden Gokaden formed after a ronin taught his five disciples the art of forging. However, this explanation is at odds with the Voice-Over More About Kamisato Ayaka: III, which was released in the same Version but named the Raiden Shogun as the origin of the sword arts.
  • The original Chinese version of Tougo's dialogue still attributes the Gokaden to "a certain ronin" (Chinese: 某位浪人), but the ronin's pronouns are not specified.
  • After Scaramouche removes himself from Irminsul and the Traveler goes to verify the resulting changes in history, Tougo's explanation on the Raiden Gokaden attributes their origins to the Raiden Shogun.^[17]

Etymology[]

• The term gokaden (Japanese: 五箇伝 "The Five Traditions") is ascribed to five major swordsmithing schools in Japan, each named after the province where the school originated from. The Japanese gokaden are: the Yamashiro tradition (山��伝), the Yamato tradition (大和伝), the Bizen tradition (備前伝), the Sōshū tradition (相州伝), and the Mino tradition (美濃伝).
  • The Isshin Art appears to be somewhat analogous to the Bizen tradition: The Isshin Art's three masters (sansaku), Kagemitsu, Nagamitsu, and Sanenaga (Mitsunaga in the English localization) are directly named after the sansaku of the Bizen Osafune School.

Notes[]

Other Languages[]

Change History[]

References[]

Navigation[]