Forum:What is the significance of tossing unsheathed katanas?

In both Ichigo and Rukia's inner worlds, unsheathed katanas are tossed to them by spiritual guides right before new techniques and/or greater abilities are realized.

For Ichigo, this occurs when Old Man Zangetsu tosses him a katana in "Dark Side of the Universe," chapter 110; right before Ichigo meets his hollow counterpart. This scene ultimately leads to Ichigo's full understanding of the nature of the relationship between zanpukto and shinigami, giving him the power to defeat Zaraki Kenpachi.

For Rukia, this only happens in the anime during her remembrance of training with Kaien Shiba. This memory provides Rukia with an epiphany about the nature of what "Heart" is, and frees her from the guilt of killing Kaien. This new understanding ultimately leads to her discovery of her zanpukto's third technique: shirafune. With this new power she defeats the 9 espada.

What does this motif imply, if anything, about the nature of power and internal epiphany in the series? Is it coincidence that these actions occur in these similar scenes? or is Tite/Noriyuki trying to tell us something?

Well the significance in my peronsal opinion (and as mentioned by Zangetsu) is that in their defeat they are not worthy holding their own sword (Zangetsu/Sode No Shiaruki) and unitl they are all they may wield is a broke weak basic one. it is whilst using an inferior katana that both characters have their epiphany on why their respective zanpaktou is so special.

When both swords are introduced they are obvioously both very powerful and in order to give the power of each a curve the story put it down to the users in experience wielding said power. I think the significance of the other swords being unsheathed when thrown to them is that the sword they are given is so dull that it doesn't even need a guard.thereby going back to the whole "walk before you run" idea that until you can wield such a dull useless blade then you are not worthy to have such a power. Wolfwood (Shoot)  10:20, June 25, 2010 (UTC)

Very good point. That makes sense that to the zanpukto the other swords are dull by comparison. In Ichigo's case, this certainly makes a lot of sense, since he describes the katana he is given as a wooden stick in comparison to Zangetsu. For Rukia though, I believe that the katana she is holding is her zanpukto. Also, the similarity in reactions of both Ichigo and Rukia to having katanas tossed to them, leads me to believe that the sudden attention, fear, anger, and concern they exhibit may have some metaphorical meaning with the wisdom passed on from Kaien/Zangetsu. Maybe the danger that both of them where experiencing in the real world was the result of their ignorance to certain truths, and in order for them to attain those truths, they had to have their ignorance pushed to dangerous levels to allow them to see it more clearly?

For Ichigo, this ignorance could be his insistence on doing things on his own and thinking only of himself (a character flaw present in the beginning of the series that began with his guilt about letting his mother die, that seems to evaporate around this point.) For Rukia, it could be her guilt caused by her misunderstanding of the effect her killing Kaien had on him. It was pretty cool how both these character flaws where faced in an ironic fashion. More so for Rukia, who actually encounters a false Kaien.

This is my most recent thought on this subject: The Greeks say wisdom has two forms: sophia and amathea. Sophia is the grace that comes from attaining and understanding a piece of wisdom or truth. Amathea is the suffering and pain that comes from the ignorance of that same wisdom or truth. Maybe the unsheathed katana is both the sophia and amathea of wisdom? When Zangetsu or Kaien toss the katanas to Ichigo/Rukia, it is unclear whether they will grasp the hilt or the blade. By grasping the blade, they will be cut themselves and suffer (amathea, or the ignorance of truth they attained from past incidents.) By grasping the hilt, they will gain new power over their external and internal worlds (sophia, or the attainment of a new understanding/power by overcoming a former cause of suffering and turning it into a new source of truth.) I may be waaaaay off, but I see other traces of this kind of depth in the story, and I hope that Tite knowingly includes this. Bleacher22 08:10, June 26, 2010 (UTC)