'Mononoke Movie' Chapter 3 Ending Explained: Who Was The Second Medicine Seller?

[Spoiler Alert] The ending of Mononoke the Movie: Chapter 3 – The Curse of the Serpent (in Japanese, it’s titled Gekijoban Mononoke Dai-San-Sho: Hebigami) had the Medicine Seller pulling all the stops to exorcize the Hebigami as well as Ama-no-Tsubone. How did things come to that? The Medicine Seller returned to the Ooku one year after the events of the Ashes of Rage as the much-delayed birth celebratory ceremony of the child of Emperor Tenshi and Lady Yukiko (His Majesty’s official consort and credited in several places as Sachiko) was being held. Lady Fuki had given birth to a daughter, thereby disallowing her from becoming Tenshi’s heir. Yukiko had given birth to a daughter too, who was put in the guardianship of the Fujimaki family. But since the empire needed a male heir, Tenshi and Yukiko had tried again and, unbeknownst to everyone, it had led to a stillbirth. However, when the midwife, Kawa, came out of the birthing room, she announced that a male heir had been born. Now, the Medicine Seller had left one of his tenbins (the chiming devices that pointed in the direction a mononoke moved) in the Ooku, which meant that he knew that the place needed further exorcisms. When he returned there, the first thing that struck him as odd was the serpent motif being used for the ceremony. He was told by the maids, Tome and Kume, that that was just to pay homage to the earthly form of the Water Goddess, who just so happened to be the guardian deity of the Ooku. Right after it was announced that a male heir had been born, when the Ooku started shaking, the tenbin began ringing, and the serpent drawn on the Ooku’s walls started moving, the Medicine Seller knew that some kind of trouble was brewing. What happened next? Let’s find out.

Yukiko Second Child Was Still Born

While Lady Fuki and Lady Botan had accepted the announcement that Yukiko had successfully given birth to a male heir, the Medicine Seller kept questioning Sakashita and the guards about the Water Goddess. That’s how he learnt about a certain Lady Ama, who had apparently established the Ooku around 150 years ago. And it prompted him to bring out a talisman and use it in the premises of the Ooku. In the meantime, Yukiko woke up from her slumber (in a cage-like structure), experiencing unimaginable pain because of her miscarriage. Kawa, probably aware of the truth, informed Yukiko that people were saying that the only reason that Yukiko had managed to give birth to a male heir was because Fuki had left Tenshi “unattended.” Which meant that, while the ruse was successful, the people weren’t happy with it because Fuki was their favorite, not Yukiko. Moreover, Kawa was upset by the fact that, despite being the official consort and after going through so much pain and hardship, Yukiko had been relegated to a corner of the Ooku, unable to voice her opinions on matters of governance. However, all that Yukiko cared about was the identity of this “male heir” that had been assigned to her after she delivered a stillborn baby (it’s hinted that, even though Yukiko was in love with Tenshi, their carnal activities were tainted by the stench coming from the water in Ooku, which was apparently something only Yukiko could sense). Based on a conversation between Madam Suikouin and Tokiwai, 150 years had passed since the Third Consort (of that time) had given birth to a legitimate male heir. That was the first hint that Tenshi wasn’t a part of the royal bloodline and was actually an illegitimate heir to the throne himself.

The Medicine Seller Found Out The Form Of The Mononoke

Tokiwai assured Suikouin that she’d take care of Yukiko and her child as her own, probably in the hopes that staying close to the next emperor would allow her to live lavishly. But that plan kind of went out of the window as the serpent spirit that had wrapped itself around the Ooku began moving towards the heir. Since Kawa was in its way, she was choked to death on the spot; to be specific, Kawa turned into a ball which got encased in a triangular container. The Medicine Seller tried to save Kawa but it was too late. Hence, he focused on saving Yukiko and her child. Once the serpent spirit was banished, the Medicine Seller investigated the scene of the crime, saw the triangular scales strewn across the floor, and came to the conclusion that the Form of the “ayakashi” that had become a “mononoke” was a serpent or Hibegami. That was the easy part; the hard part was finding out the Truth and the Reason; then and only then would the ‘Kon’ Sword of Exorcism be unsheathed, allowing the Medicine Seller to kill the mononoke. As mentioned earlier, the serpent had been established as the “earthly form” of the Water Goddess. So, when the Medicine Seller said that the mononoke in question was a serpent, one of the maids casually wondered if the Water Goddess was behind this latest haunting. That offended Suikouin very much because the Water Goddess was the deity of the Ooku. I think this was an Occam’s razor situation, where the simplest answer was the correct one. However, since Suikouin couldn’t fathom the concept of a goddess, or the physical manifestation of a goddess, being the architect of all their troubles, that theory had to be put on the backburner until it was proven to be true.

The Medicine Seller Learnt About Ama

Away from all this chaos, Councillor Fujimaki, Hiramoto, and Ryouji engaged in a conversation about Fuki possibly becoming a wet nurse to Yukiko and Tenshi, much like Ama was a wet nurse to the emperor and the Third Consort about 150 years ago. Fujimaki didn’t mean that as an insult because, by assuming the position of the wet nurse, Ama had gained immense power, surpassing the influence of the consort, and he was of the opinion that Fuki could do something similar. Maybe that would make up for the fact that she couldn’t produce a male heir and give the Tokita family a chance to take control of the empire. In exchange for such an opportunity, Fujimaki required something (which I don’t think was revealed because of the revelation that the male heir was an illegitimate child). Since Ryouji and Fujimaki shook on it, Fuki found herself taking care of Yukiko’s child, while her own daughter was put under the care of one of the maids, Tsuyu. Meanwhile, the Medicine Seller sat down with Asa and Botan to get some more info about Ama. It was revealed that it was the Mizorogi family and Ama who came together to establish the Water Goddess as the deity of the Ooku. Even though there was no official record of a connection between the Hibegami and the Water Goddess, the Medicine Seller said that the Hibegami’s sentiments towards the Ooku were evident (and those mood swings were seemingly triggered by Yukiko’s anger over the death of her child and the fact that she had been slapped with a kid that wasn’t hers). What was the process of keeping it at bay? Lines of salt, everywhere; the Medicine Seller said that salt severed the bond between human and ayakashi and yeah, it’s a supernatural protection method that’s used across every other culture.

Tokiwai Died 

While every worker in the Ooku started drawing salt lines all over the castle, Tenshi met up with Suikouin to question her about the death of Kawa. Assuming that Tenshi was worried about the safety of his heir, she assured him that his son was under the protection of the Water Goddess. Yukiko was vehemently against this ruse and told Tokiwai that she’d tell the empire that the child wasn’t hers. Why? So that he could be returned to his birth mother. When Yukiko and Tokiwai went to Fuki’s chamber, where Tenshi was present, they eavesdropped on them having a chat. She heard Tenshi saying that he wished Fuki had given birth to the male heir; then all the fiasco could have been avoided. Yukiko interrupted that conversation and urged everyone in the room to give back the child to his birth mother. As Yukiko blurted out the truth about the male heir, the Hibegami began moving again, thereby prompting everyone in the Ooku to move to the grand chamber as that was the safest section of the castle (because of the salt lines). Hokuto ordered Futsukazuki and Mikazuki to stay in the shrine of the Water Goddess because, as per Hokuto, the altar (which was surrounded with water) was designed to protect them from the Hibegami while it satiated its hunger for souls. Meanwhile, Hokuto went off to fulfil his duty as the representative of the Mizorogi family. The Medicine Seller took on the Hibegami once again and while he was able to protect Tenshi, Yukiko, Fuki, and Tsuyu from the attack, he wasn’t able to save Tokiwai. Technically, it was a well-deserved death because she was the one who had put the “male heir” in Yukiko’s lap even though she was clearly uncomfortable with living a lie right after her own (second) child had died.

Hokuto Revealed The Ooku’s Big Lie

Tokiwai wasn’t the only guilty party there; it was Hokuto who had brought the abandoned child that was labeled the “male heir.” And Hokuto did lowkey pay for that crime. Everyone in the Ooku was moved to the grand chamber. While walking over there, intentionally or unintentionally, Yukiko broke a lot of the salt lines, thereby breaking the chamber’s protective spell. As everyone was focused on that, they failed to keep an eye on Futsukazuki and Mikazuki, who came out of the shrine and began heading toward the main chamber. Hokuto rushed to their rescue and, while the Medicine Seller was able to keep the Hibegami from outright killing the Mizorogis, he couldn’t prevent the Hibegami from hacking off Hokuto’s leg. Like I said; it was a deserved injury for (almost) forcing a lie upon Yukiko. Anyway, while all this was going on, Hokuto confessed that, 150 years ago, by the order of Ama, Saku Mizorogi brought a child from the streets and propped him as the male heir to the throne. As if it wasn’t clear already, this meant that Emperor Tenshi’s blood had no royalty in it and the original emperor’s bloodline had ended a long time ago. And the person who resented this fact the most was the Third Consort as she was the one who had to bear the burden of that colossal lie. Since that got the ‘Kon’ Sword of Exorcism to click, it meant that the Medicine Seller had found the mononoke’s Truth. Given how Yukiko was being forced to take the burden of a similar lie, the Hibegami (which was actually the Third Consort) was reacting so violently. Fujimaki saw this as an opportunity to taunt Ryouji as his daughter had taken on the role of the wet nurse for nothing. Thankfully, Fuki didn’t harbor any sort of resentment towards Yukiko or the baby; she was actually worried about their safety. Yukiko wasn’t as kind towards Fuki though as she still saw Fuki as an adversary.

Fujimaki Died

Tenshi had become quite disillusioned by the whole affair and felt that the concept of the Ooku was pointless because the royal bloodline had ended a long time and what Suikouin and her minions were preserving was a farce. Suikouin refused to accept this truth and kept saying that Hokuto was lying. That didn’t shake Tenshi’s resolve because he knew that Hokuto was telling the truth. When Hokuto and Tenshi were kids, they used to hang around the altar; that’s when Hokuto, probably unaware that Tenshi was the ruler’s heir, told Tenshi that the emperor didn’t belong to the royal bloodline. So, what Hokuto had said in the present day was him repeating what he had said in his childhood. Speaking of present-day issues, during the fight with the Hibegami, the Medicine Seller had noticed that it was allergic to water; Hokuto said that that might be the case because the Ooku was under the protection of the Water Goddess. Hence, Hokuto wanted everyone to move from the grand chamber to the underground altar because that was the actual safest location in the Ooku. The inhabitants of the grand chamber could have made the move at their own time, but Fujimaki kind of forced them to hurry up. While approaching the grand chamber, he erased some of the salt lines (some of which had been erased by Yukiko, by the way, so it’s not entirely his fault). And for what? To state something that had become public knowledge–the male heir wasn’t Tenshi and Yukiko’s child–and to accuse Yukiko and Tenshi’s first child (who was in Fujimaki’s care) of being illegitimate as well so that he could supposedly propose Fuki’s child as the consort to the next emperor. As everyone was arguing over this matter, the Hibegami attacked once again, killing Fujimaki (whose crime was falsely accusing Yukiko of being the mother to two illegitimate children) and massacring a bunch of maids (I don’t know crime they had committed; maybe they were collateral damage).

The Hibegami Consumed The Altar

The survivors reached the underground altar, which was when the Hibegami began taking its final form. As the Hibegami tried to consume the people inside the altar, the Water Goddess protected them, which led everyone to the assumption that the Water Goddess was the “good guy” and the Hibegami was the “bad guy”; but I’ll come back to that in a bit. The Hibegami consumed the altar, sending everyone (including the altar) into a sort of pocket dimension that was untethered from the mortal realm. That brought the Medicine Seller to the realization that every time a mononoke appeared (over the course of the last two movies), a rope attached to the altar snapped, which meant that each of these mononoke were trying to destabilize the core of Ooku. Yes, the Hibegami was the first one to directly attack the altar, but it had been weakened by its predecessors, the Karakasa and the Hinezumi (who made cameos in this movie and triggered Asa and Fuki’s PTSD), and that’s what allowed the Hibegami to take down the sacred barrier around the altar. As that sacred barrier was breaking, the Hibegami created further pocket dimensions with its triangular scales; these pocket dimensions served as portals to specific moments in the past–150 years ago, to be exact–when the foundations of the Ooku were formed. Through these portals we learnt that the Third Consort was truly in love with the emperor. But when the Third Consort failed to produce an heir, Ama brought in every consort at their disposal so that a male heir was born and the empire was protected from anarchy.

The Third Consort’s Tragic Backstory

The Third Consort apparently hoped that the emperor would reject this proposal and she was absolutely heartbroken when he welcomed the other consorts (who were brought to the Ooku by Saku). Before the time portals got to the part about the fake heir though, Suikouin tried to stab the male heir so that she could claim that that kid was the anomaly and everything before that was pure and correct. Tenshi came to his rescue and knocked the knife out of his mother’s hand. Going back to the 150 years ago section of the narrative, the Third Consort learnt that Ama and Saku’s plan of producing a male heir by making the emperor sleep with multiple consorts had gone to waste because, firstly, none of the consorts had produced a male heir, and secondly, the emperor had passed away (it’s implied that he contracted some kind of STD). Hence, Ama and Saku brought in an “abandoned” child and announced him as the heir to the throne. Ama gave the Third Consort the option of mothering that fake heir, but she was so heartbroken by the emperor’s death, as well as the fact that her relationship with the emperor was tainted for an objective that wasn’t even fulfilled, that she chose to die by suicide (with a knife that had a serpent on it; hence the mononoke was a Hibegami) while sitting atop the emperor’s body. While doing so, the Third Consort stated that the Ooku was pointless and didn’t deserve to exist. Seeing all of this made Tenshi accuse Suikouin of propagating a nasty lie, going so far as to claim that he wasn’t her son, and Tenshi also apologized to Yukoki for forcing her to bear a male heir. And the Reason for the Hibegami’s existence became apparent: it wanted the destruction of the Ooku as the establishment had ruined the Third Consort’s relationship with the emperor for a lost cause and then continued to exist with the aid of abandoned children labeled as male heirs to the throne.

The Water Goddess Wasn’t The Hero

The revelation of the Form, the Truth, and the Reason allowed the Medicine Seller to unsheath the ‘Kon’ Sword of Exorcism and vanquish the Hibegami. Amidst all that chaos, it was actually revealed that the child that was presented as the emperor’s male heir 150 years ago was actually Saku’s. So, on Ama’s order, while one half of the Mizorogi bloodline ascended to the throne (and was probably eventually severed by Tenshi), the other half of the Mizorogi bloodline built the underground altar in Ama’s name, making Ama the primary religion of the Ooku. From what I gathered, Ama did all that to immortalize herself as a goddess. She knew that the empire would always be in a state of chaos because men would rule over it. That chaos would compel people to look for direction. And those people would come to her help, thereby elevating her to the status of goddess (I think that’s what she meant when she said that she wanted to “become water”). In case it’s not clear already, there was no actual “Water Goddess.” It was just Ama, and she wasn’t protecting the shrine to save the people in it from harm; she was saving the shrine to protect herself from the wrath of the Hibegami. Ama’s whole deal was to preserve the lies of the Ooku because it made her powerful, while the Hibegami (and the other mononoke) wanted to destroy the Ooku because it existed to propagate lies and exploit women. Hence, Ama (or the Water Goddess) wasn’t exactly the hero and the Hibegami wasn’t exactly the villain. That said, both of them had to go. The Medicine Seller managed to exorcize the Hibegami all by himself. However, when it came to Ama (whose current Form was that of the Hyakume, which directly translates to one hundred eyes), the Medicine Seller had to summon another Medicine Seller to help him out because, over the last century, Ama had grown way too powerful as she corrupted not just the Ooku but the rest of the realm as well.

There Were Two Medicine Sellers?

So, those of you who have watched the Mononoke TV series or the Goblin Cat segment from Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, might have been wondering why the Medicine Seller looked so different in the Mononoke movie trilogy. The Curse of the Serpent made it clear that the one in the movies is the ‘Kon’ Medicine Seller and the one from the TV shows is the ‘Ri’ Medicine Seller (there are a total of 64 Medicine Sellers, by the way). Going back to Ama or the Hyakume, she was powered by the sorrows of all the people she had corrupted with her lust for godhood and by maintaining the status quo of the Ooku. Hence, the Truth of the Hyakume was making sure that the Ooku remained intact no matter how many lies had to be used to strengthen its foundation. As for the Reason, the Hyakume established a sort of homogeneity amongst the people in the Ooku. That created an air of subservience, but the lack of individuality exacerbated the pain that everyone felt, which in turn served as fuel for Ama or the Hyakume. On that note, the two Medicine Sellers destroyed the Hyakume. During that process, Yukiko came to the realization that it was wrong of her to push away the abandoned child, and she vowed to look after him because it was no fault of his that he was thrust into a situation like that. The water in the underground shrine evaporated, which represented the end of Ama’s reign. These odd seeds dropped where the pond once existed, which birthed these red creatures with multiple eyes; they have been dubbed Hyakume-chan by the internet. Also, the ‘Ri’ Medicine Seller went back to his home realm.

The Ooku’s New Status Quo Was Established 

In Mononoke  Chapter 3’s ending, there was a one month time jump and it was revealed that the Ooku hadn’t been entirely dismantled but its main purposed–which was to make heirs for the emperor–was brought to a close. Asa and Kame were in contact with one another. Hiramoto, Ryouji, and Saburoumaru were able to play board games without thinking about politics. Hokuto had a new wooden leg and he seemed to be on good terms with Tenshi, who appeared relatively relaxed. The red Hyakume-chans were spotted all around the Ooku. Futsukazuki and Mikazuki were seen giving water to Suikouin, probably because they understood that she wasn’t evil; she had merely strayed from the path of righteousness because of the circumstances. They were seemingly only visible to the ‘Kon’ Medicine Seller and maybe their adorable presence was only felt by the regular folk. As for whether or not there were any more mononoke to exorcise, the Medicine Seller said that as long as there were people, there’d be mononoke to exorcise. Mononoke are formed from the negative feelings of a human being. To avoid mononoke from coming into existence, people had to stay positive. And in order to stay positive, people would have to strive to make the world a better place. As long as people lie to each other, deceive one another, and exploit those who want to live simply, mononoke will emerge, and in that instance, the Medicine Seller (one of the 64) will appear to exorcise them. Well, that’s my takeaway from the film. What are your thoughts on it? Let me know in the comments section below.

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