Sukuna: Mythology + Kanji Meaning (Jujutsu Kaisen)

alternate title: why are all the mythos on sukuna so goddamn hard to find honestly sukuna f*ck you-

Kanji Meaning and Etymology

Note: The kanji is on the left of the vertical line, and the romanji (the westernized spelling) is on the right. Also, for each of these, I stuck them in a few different online translators/dictionaries in attempt to check my facts, but if anyone who, y’know, actually speaks Japanese would like to contribute, I’d be in your debt.

両面宿儺 | Ryōmen Sukuna: It means “two-faced spirit” according to the JJK wiki. If you stick it in an online translator, though, it gives you “two-sided inn” so- I have no idea.

I’m going to now handle the two separate words, and the individual kanji.

両面 | Ryōmen: Two-faced; the more general meaning is “two-sided” (the individual kanji literally mean “both” and “surface”/“side,” respectively.)

両 | Ryō: Both. Can also refer to the old Japanese currency, which isn’t particularly relevant to this but I still thought it was cool.

面 | Men: The most common translation seems to be side, surface, or face (typically as in the face of an object, I think.) It seems it. It can also mean mask or face of a person.)

宿儺 | Sukuna: Specter/spirit, according to the JKK wiki. However, this is likely a non-typical usage; online translators say that it means inn/lodging/hotel. The name comes from tale of Sukuna in the Nihon Shoki. (More on that below.)

宿 | Yado: The typical meaning of is inn, lodging, or hotel.

儺 | Na: According to kanji dictionaries, it means “(ceremony of) driving out evil spirits” or “exorcism”

Sukuna in Folklore and Legends

Disclaimer: I’ve been able to fact-check next to none of this info, since there are very few English sources on Sukuna. (Or Google-translatable stuff in Japanese that I’ve been able to find.) (Plus, I hate translating stuff and Imdon’t trust online translators for big blocks of text, so I probably didn’t look as hard as I could’ve. I’m doing this for fun anyway, let me live.)

The name “Sukuna” comes from the Nihon Shoki (also called the Nihongi – both names are usually translated as The Chronicles of Japan). He’s only mentioned in one short paragraph. It refers to him only as “Sukuna,” not as “Ryōmen Sukuna.” I am unsure when or why “Ryōmen” became part of his name. My guess is that it is simply a way of differentiating/describing him since There are others named Sukuna in the Nihongi, such as Sukuna-bikona. Ryōmen means two-faced or two-sided, and he’s described as physically having two faces, so it would make sense that someone added that on at some point to make things clearer.

Quite obviously, the original passage from the Nihongi is written in Japanese, so I’m working with translation. Sukuna’s description varies slightly from translation to translation. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were different versions of the Japanese text, since that tends to happen to old texts like this, but I’m not quite willing to sit down and spend my time trying to compare versions and figure out if the kanji is the same. This is a Tumblr post, not an academic paper. However, almost all the translations I’ve read share the same broad strokes: in the 65th year (of Emperor Nintoku’s rule, I believe), in Hida province, there was a man named Sukuna with one torso, two faces, two sets of legs and two sets of arms, who carried two swords and a bow and arrow, killed a lot of people, and was killed by a dude named Take-furu-kuma. Here’s one English translation of the passage:

“65th year. In the province of Hida there was a man called Sukuna, who was so formed that on one trunk he had two faces. The faces were turned away from each other. The crowns met, and there was no nape of the neck. Each had hands and feet. There were knees, but no popliteal spaces or heels. He was strong and nimble. He carried swords on his right and on his left side, and used bow and arrow with all four hands at once. On this account he was disobedient to the Imperial command, and took a pleasure in plundering the people. Hereupon the Emperor sent Naniha-neko Take-furu-kuma, ancestor of the Omi of Wani, who put him to death.”

– Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697, Volume 11 “Nintoku” (This translation is from archive.org. See this post that I made for screenshots of and links to this version, and to another version on Wikisource.)

However, Ryōmen Sukuna wasn’t/isn’t actually considered villainous in Hida (now Gifu prefecture). According to an article by the Japanese Wiki Corpus, “While ‘Nihonshoki’ described Ryomen-sukuna as a villain and an enemy of the emperor, people in Hida and Mino Provinces treated Ryomen-sukuna as a hero and benefactor and worshipped him.” The article also claims that, according to folklore, Sukuna was the founding patron of the Senko-Ji and Zenkyu-ji temples, introduced Buddhism to Hida Province, and is worshipped in many other old temples in Hida and Mino Provinces (both are in present-day Gifu prefecture). In addition, the Kurai Mountain in Gifu is worshipped as a shintaizan (a sacred dwelling of a deity/deities), but the actual deity of the mountain is unknown, and one theory suggests that Ryōmen Sukuna is its hidden deity.

While I’m mostly certain that Ryōmen Sukuna is more of a benefactor than a villain in Hida’s culture, I haven’t been able to find sources that confirm or even allude to any of the other statements (though a handful confirm the founding of Senko-ji Temple.)

You can also find a page on Take-furu-kuma (the guy who killed Sukuna in the Nihongi) on that website.

Anyway, yeah! That’s pretty much it. Here’s some other snippets I found:

“Senkoji is an ancient temple founded approximately 1,600 years ago by Ryomen Sukuna of Hida Province.”

– “Senkoji Temple,” Go Central Japan

“The Sukuna was a two-faced demon who, according to the ‘Chronicles of Japan’ (compiled in 720), ruled the Hida region with an iron fist until it was conquered by Emperor Nintoku (313-399). Hida folklore, however, claims that he defeated an evil dragon and is an incarnation of Kannon with the power to grant salvation.”

– “Seeing the wood for Enku’s Buddhas,” by Rhiannon Paget, the Japan Times.

“According to the Chronicles of Japan (720), Ryomen Sukuna, the head of a powerful regional clan, was against amalgamating with the Imperial Court. He was subsequently struck down by Takefurukuma and his army. Although the Chronicles of Japan describes him as a double-headed demon, he is worshipped as a hero in his homeland. Ryomen Sukuna, was not only a ruler but also a priest and a leader of agriculture, hence the many shines and temples, such as Senko Temple in Nyukawa Village, dedicated to him, and an elongated creamy-flavored pumpkin carrying his name.”

– “Ryomen Sukuna Revolt of 377 AD,” Hida Digital Archives

“Seated Ryomen Sukuna is a symbol of a faith specific to the Hida region. Ryomen Sukuna is a two-headed, four-armed monster in Hida that appears in Nihonshoki (Chronicles of Japan). It apparently refers to an ancient ruling family in Hida that didn’t submit to the Yamato dynasty. ‘Even though Sukuna is seen as an emery* of the dynasty, I feel he used his god-like power to act as the region’s guardian,’ Iura said. ‘I don’t know whether the halo [carved on Enku’s Sukuna] represents blazing fire or swirling light, but I’m drawn to its unutterable strength…’”

– “Enku: Carving Statues to Heal People’s Minds,” The Daily Yomiuri (Note: This website has been deleted since I originally made this post, and I sadly cannot find the article anywhere else. Apologies.)

Also, one Reddit user wrote the following about a video game that also used Ryōmen Sukuna (see the top reply on this thread for the original post):

“According to some (Hida province) local legends, Ryomen Sukuna was the ruler of the region before the Yamato imperial house invaded(when it was under Ainu people control edit: it was under Emishi control actually), supposedly he was a just and compassionate lord, he resisted the invasion of the Yamato led by Take Furukuma and fell in battle while protecting his land. It’s thought that the imperial side of the story was fabricated to justify their conquest, this made it seem like they were the ‘good guys’ saving the poor remote villagers.Now imagine if the game lore included that, and then comes the fictional part, Ryomen Sukuna was full of resentment after he was desecrated by the Yamato and came back as a demon carrying the visage they described to take revenge on them, alas he lose himself and became a mindless amalgamation of wrath.”

“Came back as a demon” and “became a mindless amalgamation of wrath” – admittedly I know nothing about this game but that does sound kinda familiar, no? Like, idk, maybe a jujutsu sorcerer becoming a curse? (Though I doubt Sukuna was ever, like, a decent good human. I think he was always just an asshole.) As mentioned by the Kyoto principal and Kamo towards the start of the Kyoto Goodwill Event arc, jujutsu sorcerers must be killed using cursed energy to ensure they don’t come back curses… maybe that’s what happened to Sukuna? Who knows, it’s just a thought.

*exhales heavily* okay, that’s it for today, folks! i spent three hours on this shit i am REGRET goodbye

yeah, i’m aware i might have a slight obsession with obscure legends. whoops. mistakes were made.

EDITS: Here’s the Japanese Wikipedia page on Sukuna. I had looked at this, but I couldn’t make a head or a tail of it even with Google Translate, so I gave up on it. But it does exist, which I kinda forgot about. Thanks to @empryexl for reminding me on this post I made complaining about the lack of info on Sukuna! If you can read Japanese, go ahead and check it out. There’s also a summary of his legends and a link to that wikipedia page in the trivia section of Sukuna’s page on the Jujutsu Kaisen Wiki. And thank you to the anon who told me that the Kowabana podcast has an episode that mentions Sukuna! I haven’t listened to it, but I’ll add info from it to this post when I get the chance. “Kowabana: ‘True’ Japanese scary stories from around the internet is a fortnightly Japanese horror podcast specialising in Japanese creepypastas, urban legends, and other ‘true’ scary stories.” You can find the episode here on YouTube, or here on the Kowabana website!