The "Medicine Seller" (
The Medicine Seller always proceeds in the same manner, using his knowledge of the supernatural to fend off the Mononoke until he can learn the spirit's shape (
Appearance[]
TV Show
The Medicine Seller is slightly taller in height compared to other people, with pale white skin, pointy ears, razor sharp canine teeth and dark blue eyes. He has dirty blonde hair which he keeps mostly tucked inside a purple bandanna. His fringe is shoulder-length, the left-side long enough to be tied up with a bright blue band. The outsides of his eyes are outlined by red markings with the ones underneath forming the appearances of teardrops. It appears that he is always smirking, but that is actually because of the purple mark on Kusuriuri's upper lip.
His outfit consists of a light teal-colored kimono with psychedelic pictures on the ends of his sleeves and a dark red obi wrap with swirling gold marks on his waist. On his neck are several necklaces with intricate, small jewelry, including a golden amulet. He wears black, billowing pants underneath that drop just below his knees and his lower legs are wrapped with leg bandages. Kusuriuri also wears a pair of black socks, with his main footwear being a pair of wooden geta sandals with two teeth.
Kusuriuri is usually seen carrying around a large wooden box filled with medicine and holy tools, including paper ofuda charms, scales that detect a supernatural presence, and a secret collection of feudal pornography (called shunga in Japan). The large box also holds a smaller, personal box containing a strange, powerful sword that is used to slay mononoke (demons in the English dub); the sword is enchanted so that in order to use it, the Medicine Seller must find the Katachi (physical shape), Makoto (truth or origin of something), and Kotowari (reasoning behind an action) of a particular mononoke he wishes to exorcise.
Once the sword has been unsheathed, he transforms into a mystical and powerful being that is more or less an inverted version of himself. This being wears a golden kimono with a bright red obi wrap and dark purple pants. His hair is long, unrestrained, and white, and his skin turns into a dark tan. The being's eyes are red with black sclera, and the simplistic red markings on Kusuriuri's face become more detailed and wrap around the being's entire body with a golden color. He also wears large circle earrings with bangles hanging on it.
Movie
In the movie, Medicine Seller has unnaturaly pale skin, long dark fingernails and yellow eyes. His hair is a light-blue color with pink streaks, kept in a similar fashion as before, with the exception of the blue bands on it's left side and his bandana being a darker shade. His makeup is also much more colorful. The upper eyelids are colored blue, while lower eyelids are colored red and yellow, with red dots and two teardrop-looking markings under each eye, one being red and the other blue. His actual eyebrows are removed, instead he has two painted ones, which shape is similar to matagama, colored blue on the outside and red on the inside. He still keeps his iconic red nose streak and purple lipstick on the upper lip. Additionally, he has a horisontal red streak on his neck.
This time he wears a dark-purple kimono with a cyan collar and vibrant moth-like patterns on the sleeves and hips, with red nagajuban underneath. His obi has a black-white checker pattern, wrapped in purple cloth on the outside. Instead of the usual hakama pants, he wears black leggins paired with white tabi socks and red geta. He has a red-white rope anklet on his right ankle and a white rope wrapping around him from his left shoulder to his right side and sticking out from the left again, where it is tied similarily to a braid with a differend, red-colored rope sticking from under the ohashori (a fold at the waist of the kimono, below the obi).
The Medicine Seller's "Otherself" design has not been revealed yet.
Personality[]
Kusuriuri is, in a literal sense, a walking contradiction. He claims to be "uninteresting" to other people, yet his strange appearance makes him stick out when in a crowd, making for easy identification (strangely enough, he had been mistaken for a delivery man or merely a merchant of some sorts). He doesn't reveal nor is it shown much of his own history, but his profession involves revealing the history of others in order to identify the mononoke he hunts.
He stays calm and cool-headed even in dire situations. Kusuriuri is observant and analytic, careful to scrutinize every detail of a larger scenario. His moods range from the usual deadpan manner he is often seen with, to slight amusement and irritation if he's pushed. In extreme cases, he can exert a moment of intense emotion, but that is rare and far in-between. He is also revealed to be a pervert as he has several "marriage charms" and pornography books in his possession, and gets embarrassed when it is brought up. Kusuriuri is quick-witted and somewhat snarky in response, and to those who generally get on his nerves, or don't believe in the mononoke, he resorts to subtly insulting them. However, those who accept the unknown and him overall are treated more kindly, like Kayo.
In Mononoke, the spinoff/sequel to Bake Neko focusing more on Kusuriuri, it is revealed in the three-episode Umibozu arc that his worst fear is discovering a place in the world that does not have form, truth, or reasoning at all, thus causing him to lose his reason to exist.
Trivia[]
- Throughout the anime it is implied that Kusuriur possibly might be a kitsune due to his supernatural abilities, his razor sharp canine teeth, pointy ears, red markings on his face and the appearance of Hyper, his alter self. What's more in Mononoke a white fox mask appears the Noppera-boh episode arc, one that has similar facial markings to Kusuriuri.
- It is possible that Kusuriuri is left-handed as both of his forms *normal and Hyper* wield the sword of exorcism with their left hand.
- It's most likely, that a part of Medicine Seller's makeup was inspired by Japanese practice "Hikimayu", which consists of removing natural eyebrows and painting smudge-like versions on the forehead instead.
- The style of exorcism the Medicine Seller employs is derived from mikkyō's "Three Mysteries" (
三 密 Sanmi?): mudra (which corresponds to the body), mantra (which corresponds to speech), and mandala (which corresponds to the mind). Through these, mikkyō practioners seek to "awaken beings to the true nature of reality," but for some practitioners, they were also used to also used to awaken special powers, such as spiritual healing or exorcism. Each of these "Three Mysteries" corresponds to each of the criteria the Medicine Seller must find in order to exorcise the Mononoke:- The first of the "Three Mysteries," mudra, corresponds to the Mononoke's shape.
- The second of the "Three Mysteries, mantra, corresponds to the Mononoke's truth.
- The last of the "Three Mysteries," mandala, corresponds to the Mononoke's reason.