“The Sixth Night,” on the other hand, is about the dreamer not being able to find beauty like that of the sculptures by the real-life artist Unkei (1150 – 1223) in wood from the Meiji Era. Most of the passengers are foreigners and the dreamer feels lost and alone among them as the ship heads westward. In “The Seventh Night,” a dreaming character finds themselves on a huge steamship billowing black smoke into the sky. ![]() The stories featured in Ten Nights of Dreams are all mostly unconnected besides the fact that they take place in dreams but collectively they seem to revolve around a central, dual theme: a fear of an unknown, modernized future, and a longing for the tranquil but also all-powerful world of tradition and nature. Every school in the country covers at least one work by Sōseki, and while the 1908 anthology rarely makes that list, there isn’t a Japanese adult alive who doesn’t know the name of its author. Published in 1908, just a few years before the start of the Taisho Era, Ten Nights of Dreams is the work of Natsume Sōseki, one of the most popular writers in Japanese history. You can find similar themes in one of the first works of modern Japanese fantasy/horror, the same genre that Demon Slayer happens to find itself in. Demon Slayer isn’t the first work of fiction to link Western-style clothing to something terrifying and sinister. During this time, foreign fashion became very popular in Tokyo and beyond, which Muzan is fully embracing. It’s yet another example of Japanese horror’s tradition of fearing modern things and their corrupting influence.ĭemon Slayer takes place during the Taisho Era (1912-1926), a period of steady modernization after the turbulent years of the Meiji Restoration when the shogunate was abolished, the emperor returned to power, and Japan opened its borders to the world. ![]() ![]() But that attire represents more than just a bold fashion choice. For the legendary Demon King who’s been alive for more than a millennium and set Tanjiro on the path to becoming a Demon Slayer by mercilessly slaughtering most of his family, Muzan looked … well, a bit like Michael Jackson from the “Smooth Criminal” video: White pants, white tie, and slightly curled hair falling out from underneath his white hat and all. When Tanjiro Kamado first met Muzan Kibutsuji on Demon Slayer, the series’ Big Bad probably wasn’t exactly what most viewers were expecting.
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