Historical depiction
The wife of a Japanese farmer from the 19th century. Having learned several sutras in her youth, she desired to become a nun but finally married after her parents were pressured by her aunt.
At the age of 39, her eldest son experienced a sharp pain in the leg. A doctor was called, but there wasn’t any improvement. The family brought an ascetic monk to heal him with his incantations, but after nine visits over the course of a year there weren’t any results. The following year, both her and her husband started feeling many physical pains. The same monk that treated her son visited the family, but since his medium wasn’t present, Miki assisted him during the ritual. At that moment, it is said that she had a divine revelation. For three days, she stayed in a trance without even budging. Her family asked whatever was possessing her to leave, but that only made the trance intenser and the responses more aggressive. Only when the “divine presence” was accepted, she awoke.
After this supposed connection with a god, she secluded herself inside a storage, gradually discarded all the family’s possessions, and ordered that the main house was dismantled. She gave sewing lessons until the dismantling was finished, and later sent her daughter to chant the name of the god that possessed her, Tsukihi. Later, she would grant safe childbirth to women through faith healing.
Revered as Oya-sama, Nakayama Miki founded the new religion known as Tenrikyo. In 1864, the first house of worship was built. During the following years, she did all sorts of preparations for a prayer ritual known as Service. She wrote songs and scriptures about her revelations, and identified the spot in which, according to her, humanity was created. She ordered the construction of the Kanrodai as a vessel to collect the sacred liquid that would deprive men of all harms, but found herself unable to see her dream fulfilled as it was confiscated before its completion.
During the following years, her family was persecuted by yamabushis, forcing the Tenrikyo rituals, in which she was worshiped as a living shrine of Tsukihi, to be upheld in secret. When she passed away, she was thought to have “withdrawn from physical life” rather than actually dying, leading her believers to consider her immortal. Nowadays, the Tenrikyo is officially recognized as one of the thirteen branches of Sect Shinto and counts with 2 million followers.
Becoming the Holy Grail of Mankind
Nakayama Miki was originally summoned as a weak Caster that could barely do anything besides providing some support. In a scenario like the Holy Grail War of the Moon, in which all battles are fought 1 versus 1, she didn’t have any chance to win. At least, if she fought other Servants directly. Her Master, a coward that couldn’t care less about fair play, didn’t allow her to enter battle. Instead, he used dirty tricks to kill the enemy Masters to win every battle. Unexpectedly for everyone, the weakest Servant in the war managed to attain victory.
Both Servant and Master started with a merely contractual relationship, but over time, they somehow started opening up to each other. By the time they reached the final battle, they were like sworn friends without them really noticing it. Once in front of the core of the Moon Cell, the Angelica Cage, the Master finally asked for Miki’s wish. He was a mage that had battled only to demonstrate that power didn’t matter to achieve victory, someone without any wish in particular, but he felt that it would be a waste to reach the Holy Grail to wish nothing. As a way of thanking her for having been at his side all the time, he wanted her to have her wish granted.
“My only wish is to free humanity from pain. I’ll wish for the completion of the Kanrodai, and perform the rite that will bring eternal health to all”, was her reply.
That wish was announced to the automaton of the Moon Cell, but couldn’t be granted. To begin with, if the Kanrodai could be completed with the power of the Holy Grail, she who had it listed as a Noble Phantasm could make use of it in its finished state. Furthermore, even if she managed to perform the Service ceremony, it wouldn’t be enough to save the 7 billion of lives on the Earth. Something different had to be wished. Realizing her lifelong dream couldn’t be achieved even by the power of a wish-granting device, she felt shattered. She had consecrated herself to the Tenrikyo, to be the shrine of a god, but in the end she wasn’t suited to become a messiah.
“Wait. Don’t start crying yet. There’s a way to have your wish granted. It may be a bit different from what you had in mind, but it can work”.
Perhaps it was out of pride and wanting to fulfill his promise. Perhaps it was out of pity to his friend. Perhaps it was just because. Whatever the reason, the Master birthed an idea to answer his partner’s plight. Yet he didn’t wish for mankind’s salvation. What his Servant wanted wasn’t just “to have others saved”, but “to save them with my own hands”. Therefore, the wish had to be something that made her become a fitting medium for salvation. That wish was the integration of Spirit Origins from other Servants devoted to freeing men from pain into the Spirit Origin of the Servant that was a failed savior.
Thus, the Servant Caster Nakayama Miki achieved the form of a true throne-shrine that could realize her wish, becoming the Saver-class Servant, Oya-sama, through fusion with the Holy Virgin Maria and the merciful Bodhisattva Guānyīn. But it wasn’t still enough. This was only the first step. Now that she had finally become a device of salvation, she needed a sort of fuel to work. Again, her Master brought up an idea…
“Even if you have finally obtained this kind of power, one person alone can’t probably save the 100% of mankind. Like it or not, small sacrifices have to be taken”.
The ideal fuel for this kind of artifact could only be human souls. What better to save humanity, than human themselves? Thus, the amount of 1,000 souls was suggested as an ideal number to be “sacrificed” in order to finally bring redemption. In order to ensure that the quality of the souls was good enough, the winners of the future Holy Grail Wars would be ideal candidates for the “sacrifices”. 1,000 losses in exchange of 6,999,999,000 lives was statistically an outstandingly good balance, but it couldn’t be tolerated by someone who insisted in saving the totality of humans. After a long discussion, a conclusion was achieved:
Sacrifice is a wrong concept, for those souls won’t be unable to be saved. Their salvation would come in a different way. By being poured into the vessel of salvation, they will continue existing as part of it, unable to suffer or to die.
Thus, the next winners of the Holy Grail War of the Moon encountered this Saver, who didn’t oppose them to seize the Holy Grail for herself. They simply were asked to give up their wish in favor of contributing to the salvation of mankind by wishing for the manifestation of their souls. It was fine if they accepted, and it was fine as well if they refused, although only a few cases were the latter, because any desire looked insignificant and selfish in comparison with what humanity has wished since the beginning of its existence.
Components · Depiction and connection
Maria
The Holy Virgin. A chaste woman to whom the archangel Gabriel appeared to announce that she had been chosen by the Holy Spirit to carry the child of God, Jesus Christ. She’s worshiped as the throne of the Messiah by the name of Madonna.
Guānyīn
The most known name of the Bodhisattva of compassion Avalokiteśvara. In Japan, she’s revered as Kannon. In order to hear the cries of all who suffer, as well as to reach out to them, she was given 11 heads and 1,000 arms by the Buddha Amitābha. Because of this, she’s been given the title of ‘Senju’ (千手, Thousand Hands).
♦
Though from completely different origins, both components share a strong connection with each other. The usual depiction of Guānyīn holding a baby was originally intended to represent her as a patron saint of mothers, but it started becoming synonymous to the image of the Holy Virgin when the Spanish brought images of her to Asia. During the Edo period, Japanese Christians disguised images of Maria as Guānyīn to fool the authorities, as Christianity was punishable by death at that period. Such statues are known as Maria Kannon.
Miki’s role in Tenrikyo as a living shrine of Tsukihi is a position not unlike Maria’s function as a throne for Jesus, and given the relation between Maria and Guānyīn, she has good synergy with them both.
Related characters
Shakyamuni
Kunitokotachi-no-Mikoto. The masculinity of Tsukihi. He ought to approve of this going.
Sesshōin Kiara
The intent is somehow similar, but… She is too filthy to become a savior of mankind. Even if she were to qualify for the Kanrodai, her soul would only pollute it.
Amakusa Shirō Tokisada
Salvation of mankind cannot be wrong, but to discard the vessel granted to humans that is the body is neglecting Tsukihi’s creation.
Originally Posted by Reaper of Remnant
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