The Seven-Branched Sword Crosses the Sea
Wind, campfire and river sounds change with every scene, and the music follows the story.
In 342, King Gogugwon of Goguryeo saw his capital trampled by Former Yan and even lost his father King Micheon’s body before winning it back. In 371, while holding off the Baekje army at Pyongyang Fortress, he was struck down by an arrow, and his son, King Sosurim, rebuilt the kingdom with Buddhism, the Taehak and law codes. The Baekje king who attacked that Pyongyang Fortress is the hero of this episode.
Characters
A man who sees far ahead
Crown prince of Baekje
He stays at the crown prince’s side
fled to Goguryeo
He tells this story
His name is Sayu
In 346, the second son of King Biryu took the throne of Baekje. He was King Geunchogo.
The Samguk Sagi described him as “remarkable in build and looks, with far-reaching insight.”
MoruI’m Moru. I make my living hammering iron in the Baekje capital.
the harder it gets.
with seven branches?
You can’t fight with a sword like that.
for fighting.
In the 9th month of 369, Sayu, King of Goguryeo (King Gogugwon), came south with 20,000 infantry and cavalry and made camp at Chiyang.
Run!
The Goguryeo army split up its forces and raided the people’s homes.
are ravaging Chiyang!
and strike them!
When the crown prince’s troops reached Bangeolyang and were about to give battle, a man came over from the Goguryeo side.
from the Goguryeo camp!
originally!
Sagi was originally a man of Baekje.
He had accidentally injured the hoof of a royal horse and, fearing punishment, had fled to Goguryeo.
but most are just there to make up numbers.
are the red-banner unit!
and the rest will fall apart on their own.
The crown prince struck straight at the red-banner unit.
When the red banners fell, the Goguryeo army collapsed in a rout.
The crown prince pursued the fleeing enemy all the way to the land northwest of Sugok Fortress.
know when to stop and you avoid danger.”
Why seek more?
The crown prince saw the wisdom in his words and stopped. Then he had stones piled up there to mark the spot.
come this far again!
The rock there had a crevice hollowed out like a horse’s hoofprint.
For a long time afterward, people called it “the Crown Prince’s Hoofprint.”
In the 11th month of that year, the king held a grand review of his troops south of the Han River. Every banner was yellow.
MoruI was there among the onlookers too. Under the yellow banners, the spearheads I had hammered flashed.
MoruThat year, I forged that sword. I folded the iron, hammered it, and folded it again.
keeps the branches from breaking.
MoruI carved characters into the blade and hammered gold wire into every groove.
is inlaid with gold wire.
there has never been such a sword.”
It was a sword with three branches on each side of the blade, seven points in all.
every weapon…
In 371, Goguryeo raised an army again. The king laid an ambush on the banks of the Pae River, and when the enemy arrived, he struck and drove them back.
That winter, the king and the crown prince led 30,000 crack troops toward Goguryeo’s Pyongyang Fortress.
Hold this fortress!
Sayu, King of Goguryeo, came out in person and fought hard to defend the fortress.
An arrow flew in and struck the King of Goguryeo.
has breathed his last, they say.
his fortress to the very end.
We go home.
The King of Goguryeo died on the 23rd day of that month. King Geunchogo led his army back.
That year, the king moved his capital to Hansan.
In the 1st month of the next year, a Baekje envoy
set off across the sea to Eastern Jin.
In the 6th month of 372, the emperor of Eastern Jin in turn sent an envoy and named the king “General Who Guards the East and Governor of Lelang.”
a title on the King of Baekje.
While standing up to Goguryeo in the north, Baekje exchanged envoys with Eastern Jin across the sea.
MoruAround that time, a ship carrying the Seven-Branched Sword set out to sea.
my light of seven branches.
The sword crossed the sea to Wa.
The inscription on the sword is usually read as saying that “the crown prince of Baekje made it for the King of Wa,” and many date its making to 369.
Yet the Nihon Shoki, a Japanese history compiled in the 8th century, records that a Baekje envoy “offered up” the Seven-Branched Sword to Wa.
A sword bestowed, a sword offered up, or a gift exchanged?
Opinions are divided even today.
According to an old record, it was around this time that Baekje gained the scholar Go Heung and first set down the affairs of the kingdom in writing.
know what we have done.
In the 7th month of 375, Goguryeo attacked and seized Sugok Fortress on the northern frontier.
come this far again!
and pay them back for this!
But a famine struck that year, and in the end he could not send out his army.
know what we have done.
In the 11th month of 375, King Geunchogo died. Crown Prince Geungusu succeeded him.
Some 1,500 years later,
at a shrine across the sea,
a rusted sword came to light.
The 1870s: Isonokami Shrine in Nara Prefecture, Japan.
When Kan Masatomo, the head of the shrine, stripped the rust from the old sword, gold characters appeared.
The worn characters at the end of the back of the blade are usually read like this:
Hand it down and show it to generations to come.
The sword that crossed the sea from Baekje is still at Isonokami Shrine today.
