Asura (Knife)

WARNING! This article may contain major spoilers from the Dandadan manga series. Please read at your own risk.

This is the article on the kozuka knives. For the cursed sword, head to Asura.

An Asura (阿修螺, Ashura^?) is a kozuka knife crafted from a blade fragment of the cursed sword Asura.

Appearance

Asuras are kozuka knives with a flower design running along its handle. The handle comes in a black color and a white color, signifying their different functionality. The black handle Asura is the one most commonly used.

Capabilities

Black Asura

Power Absorption [v · e]

Forged from the same blade as the cursed sword Asura, an Asura possesses the weapon's ability to extract powers from living things and spirits. This is specifically exclusive to Asuras with black handles. The extraction process can only work if the wielder's target admits defeat (or "yield" to them), and once they do, they can proceed to cut them with the blade. For Count Saint-Germain, he can use a power from a black Asura knife by inserting one through the tsuba holes of his sword and by calling out the name of the yokai he stole the power from.

White Asura

Power Bestowal [v · e]
In addition to extracting powers, an Asura that has absorbed a particular power can bestow it to an individual through a cut somewhere on their body. This is specifically exclusive to Asuras with white handles.

History

Past

Five years before the start of the series, the cursed sword Asura that was sealed away was stolen by an unknown robber and was used to craft various kozuka knives from its blade to better utilize Asura's ability to steal yokai powers.

Kintama Hunt Saga

Danmara Arc

Following the Fairy-Tale Card's defeat, Count Saint-Germain used a kozuka on the yokai to seize the yokai's spiritual power, fulfilling the agreement the two previously made with each other.

Current Saga

Kozuka Knives Arc

Aiming to steal Momo Ayase's psychic powers, Murakami approached and threatened female student Kouki Yukishiro with blackmail if she did not do as he says in siphoning the Momo's power with an Asura for him.

Kouki attempted to acquire Momo's psychic power while she was alone in the school's library. However, she ran out of time to complete her task as the school's bell rang.^[1] Around the same time, Count Saint-Germain, disguised as Sanjome, approached Okarun in the halls and tried to use a kozuka to seize Okarun's Turbo Granny power. Although Okarun unintentionally agreed to "yield," Count Saint-Germain ultimately chose not to proceed after being startled by something unexpected at that moment.^[2]

Later, an unknown individual approached a working man and Adachi to persuade them into collecting yokai powers for them using the Asura knives, starting with Seiko Ayase located at Juicy Gyoza Manufactory Dandadan. The two ultimately failed in their mission after the working man was defeated by their target fighting alongside Payase and Kashimoto.^[3][4][5][6]

After failing to best Okarun during gym, Hase heard a voice communicating with him and two Asuras in front of him. The voice instructed Hase to cut himself with the white-handled kozuka to gain powers and then to cut Okarun with the black-handled one to steal his power. However, they reminded him that he needed to make Okarun yield in order to successfully do so. Later, after discovering that two girls had a crush on his rival, he decided to cut himself with the white Asura. At first, nothing happened, reassuring Hase that it was merely a sick joke, until he froze upon sensing the presence of an old woman standing behind him, signifying the knife's effects.

Trivia

• Asura's name comes from entities beings presents in Dharmic religions. In Hinduism, Asuras are a class of lowest rank deities who are associated with violence, rage, anger, ego and jealousy, opposed to the more peace-inclined Devas. They are portrayed as demonic with various faces and arms, also being constantly angry and wantonly violent, seeking fights wherever they can. In Buddhism, they are view as some kind of demigods, titans, or antigods race.

References