The Village of Koma (高麗の里)
The village of Koma is where Akizuki Youjirou was brought up and trained to become the Eternal Assassin, ever since he first arrived there at the age of three. There he trained under his teacher Shinza, who in turn serves the high priest of the village, known to everybody as Koma no Shouten-sama.
It is a small village in the countryside and there are some mountains nearby; at the foot of these mountains there is a community of potters who bake their works in ovens carved into the mountains themselves. They are the only people left who know how to reproduce the earthen vessel that Xu Fu carried the Conqueror's Head in when he went to bury it in Japan around 219-210 BC.
The village also houses a collection of old scriptures and books in its temple; some of them are documents to do with the Head.
Is the village based off a real, existing Koma?
Perhaps not the village per se, but as for the name and probably the location - surprisingly, yes! The anime production staff actually visited the real Koma Shrine in Hidaka (Saitama prefecture) and while it hasn't been officially mentioned yet, the anime Koma may very well be intended to be similar to the real Koma.
This would be interesting because Koma was originally made up of Korean immigrants from 600-700 AD. The Head has Chinese origins... but yet the village that raises the Eternal Assassin and has all these Head-related things has Korean origins? Curious. Hm.
Want to learn more? Well, you can read up about the real Koma here! (I took quite some time to put it together...)
The village of Koma is where Akizuki Youjirou was brought up and trained to become the Eternal Assassin, ever since he first arrived there at the age of three. There he trained under his teacher Shinza, who in turn serves the high priest of the village, known to everybody as Koma no Shouten-sama.
It is a small village in the countryside and there are some mountains nearby; at the foot of these mountains there is a community of potters who bake their works in ovens carved into the mountains themselves. They are the only people left who know how to reproduce the earthen vessel that Xu Fu carried the Conqueror's Head in when he went to bury it in Japan around 219-210 BC.
The village also houses a collection of old scriptures and books in its temple; some of them are documents to do with the Head.
Is the village based off a real, existing Koma?
Perhaps not the village per se, but as for the name and probably the location - surprisingly, yes! The anime production staff actually visited the real Koma Shrine in Hidaka (Saitama prefecture) and while it hasn't been officially mentioned yet, the anime Koma may very well be intended to be similar to the real Koma.
This would be interesting because Koma was originally made up of Korean immigrants from 600-700 AD. The Head has Chinese origins... but yet the village that raises the Eternal Assassin and has all these Head-related things has Korean origins? Curious. Hm.
Want to learn more? Well, you can read up about the real Koma here! (I took quite some time to put it together...)
