Dragon Ball Culture Volume 6: Gods

Dragon Ball Culture

Volume 6

Gods

Derek Padula

thedaoofdragonball.com

Legal Disclaimer

Copyright © 2016, by Derek Padula

Written and published by Derek Padula in The United States of America, all rights reserved.

Cataloging In-Publication Data

Padula, Derek.

Dragon Ball Culture / Derek Padula

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ebook ISBN: 978-1-943149-07-0, paperback ISBN: 978-1-943149-18-6, hardback ISBN: 978-1-943149-47-6

1. Fantasy comic books, strips, etc. – Japan – 20th century – History and Criticism. 2. Martial arts – Comic books, strips, etc. 3. Spiritual life – Buddhism 4. Spiritual life – Daoism. 5. Good and evil. 6. Imaginary wars and battles. 7. Ethics, ancient. 8. Heroes.

PN6790.J33 – P2 2014

741.5952 – 23

LCCN: 2014922138

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

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The author has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information herein. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author nor its dealers or distributors will be held liable for any damages to be caused either directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book.

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Rather than indicate every occurrence of a trademarked name as such, this book uses the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner with no intention of infringement of the trademark.

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Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Dragon Ball Kai, Dragon Ball Online, and all other logos, character names, and distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of TOEI ANIMATION, Akira Toriyama, BIRD STUDIO, SHUEISHA, FUNIMATION, VIZ MEDIA, BANDAI NAMCO, ATARI, and all other respective license holders unmentioned. This book was not prepared, licensed, or endorsed by any entity involved in creating or producing the Dragon Ball series. It is an independent, unofficial work that has no connection to the official license and is written within fair use guidelines.

Image Information

The illustrations in this book and on the cover that are rendered in the Dragon Ball style are original works, created through work for hire contracts with independent artists unaffiliated with the official Dragon Ball license. They are not licensed images, nor official artwork owned by the Dragon Ball license holders. All rights to the images are owned by Derek Padula, and may not be reproduced without his express written consent. The Dragon Ball license holders in the United States (FUNIMATION and VIZ MEDIA) recognize these as independent and wholly owned works, and do not claim ownership of them, nor claim that they infringe upon their official licenses, nor that they are equal to an official license.

Cover Art Illustration by Abraham Alía

Index by Derek Padula

Version 1.0

Web: https://thedaoofdragonball.com

Contents

Introduction

Gods

Increasing Scope

Polarities

Upper Realm

Medical Herbs

Reviving Friends

Kami-sama’s Domain

Secret of the Nyoi-bō

Recovering the Nyoi-bō

Top of Karin-tō

Suzu and Shirushi

Vajra and Ghaṇṭā

Ascension

Platform

Kami-sama’s Shinden

Misutā Popo

Meeting Misutā Popo

Etymology of Misutā Popo

Misutā Popo’s Appearance

Misutā Popo’s Origin

Misutā Popo’s Face

Censoring Popo

Racist?

Popo’s Tests

Gokū versus Misutā Popo

Empty Mind, Lightning Body

Suzu Shugyō

Kami

Spiritual Opposites

Kami-sama’s Appearance

Etymology of Kami-sama

Shintō Kami

Origin of Kami-sama

Divided Spirit

Bunrei

Heart of Truth

Gokū’s Prayer

Reviving Shenron

Kāiguāng and Kanjō

Prayers Answered

Bunshin

Kami’s and Monkeys

Reviving Lost Friends

Timeskip 2

The 23rd Tenkaichi Budōkai

Mysteries and Reveals

Reunion During the Storm

Gokū’s New Look

Return of Friends

Gokū the Seinen Hero?

Dōgi Disciples

Preliminary Staredown

See One, Miss the Other

Drawing Lots

Gokū versus Chapa-ō – Rematch

Default Fighting Stance

Gokū versus Chapa-ō – The Fight

A Killer’s Mysterious Return

Cyborg Tao Paipai

Quick Knockouts

Masked Fighter

Masked Fighter versus Mystery Man

Advancing

The 23rd Tenkaichi Budōkai Quarter-Finals

Meeting Our Mystery Fighters

Building up Tension

Tenshinhan versus Tao Paipai

Sūpā Dodonpa

Kiai Revisited

Out of Shadow and Into Light

Tenshinhan’s Scar

Tokumei Kibō

Gōngfu Princess

Gokū versus Tokumei Kibō

Yome

Marriage Proposal

Receive Without Pursuit

Tale as Old as Time

Chichi’s Martial Arts

Ma Junia

Kuririn versus Ma Junia

Extending Arm

Shen

Yamucha versus Shen

Sōkidan

Shen’s Identity Revealed

Shintō Spirit Possession

Revealing Round

The 23rd Tenkaichi Budōkai Semi-Finals

Gokū versus Tenshinhan – Rematch

Speed Advantage

Weighted Clothes

Shishin-no-Ken

Secret of the Shishin-no-Ken

Gokū versus Four Tenshinhan’s

Shen’s Spirit

Shen versus Ma Junia

Speaking in Tongues

Kami’s Mafūba!

Mafūba Gaeshi!

Shen’s True Nature

Turn of Events

The 23rd Tenkaichi Budōkai Final

Son of the Demon King

Reincarnation and Mindstream

Same But Different

Subconscious Father

Fate of the World

Gokū versus Ma Junia

Gokū versus Ma Junia – Round 2

Chō-kamehameha

Beam Battle

Big Reveal

From Ma Junia to Pikkoro

The Show Must Go On

Chō-kyoshin-jutsu

Belly of the Beast

Surprise Beams

Gokū’s Motivation

Pulling a Fast One

Regeneration

Last Resort

Chō-bakuretsumaha

Deathblow

Agony, Revenge, Endurance

Final Round

Number One Under Heaven

Aftermath

Wisdom of Friends

Materialization Magic

Selfish Compassion

Divine Offer

Onward to Adventure!

Conclusion

Gokū’s Endurance

Gokū’s Compassion

Gokū’s Truth

Culture Bridges Humanity

Over Already?

Soaring into Blue Skies!

Appendix

Cover Culture

162

163

164

165

166

167

168

Volume 15

169

170

171

172

173

174

175

176

177

178

179

180

Volume 16

181

182

183

184

185

186

187

188

189

190

191

192

193

194

The Adventure Continues

Next Steps

About the Author

Glossary

Index

Introduction

Gokū defeats the demon king and saves the world from a living hell! But with his last ounce of energy, the wicked Pikkoro Daima-ō gives birth to a demonic child and orders it to enact his vengeance upon Gokū and the world.

Afterward, our wounded adventurer returns to the top of Karin-tō with the help of the wandering swordsman, Yajirobē. He seeks a way to recover from his wounds, and a way to revive his friends.

What awaits Gokū in the years to come? How will he bring his friends back to life? And can he defeat the young demon that stands in his way?

Author Akira Toriyama and editor Torishima Kazuhiko continue to do what they do best. So let’s do the same, and get to it!

Gods

In Dragon Ball Culture Volume 5, Gokū fights external and internal demons to achieve spiritual awakening. Now in Volume 6, Gokū will ascend to heaven and face the gods in order to reach the next level of his training. In the process, he will tap further into his inner potential in an effort to conquer himself, and in turn, an outer opponent.

Demons, gods, heaven, and hell might seem like serious topics to depict in a shōnen manga (少年漫画, young boys’ comic), but Toriyama is actually borrowing these elements from traditional shénmó (神魔, pronounced ‘shun-moh,’ gods and demons) storytelling.

Shénmó is a genre of Chinese fiction that revolves around the gods, demons, monsters, immortals, and superhuman warriors of Chinese mythology. The Chinese legend of Xīyóujì (西遊記, ‘shee-yoh-jee,’ Japanese: Saiyūki, "Journey to the West," 1592 A.D.) is the prime example. Xīyóujì is the story that Dragon Ball is based on, and Toriyama uses its shénmó elements as the foundation for Dragon Ball’s cosmological framework and inspiration for Gokū’s journey.

Increasing Scope

Toriyama introduces demons in Volume 5 and gods in Volume 6 as a way to increase Dragon Ball’s scope. Gokū needs to become stronger, so the Dragon Ball story can’t just be about human martial artists fighting one another. It has to be bigger than life! Moving forward, the story will expand in scope to ever-higher levels of deities, the afterlife, and other dimensions.

This is an example of how Toriyama continues to dip his pen into the cultural inkwell of Xīyóujì. He has used Xīyóujì for inspiration from the start, and he has always adapted its content in his signature style. Likewise in the chapters ahead, instead of copying the existing shénmó elements of the original story, he mixes the novel’s foreign Chinese culture with his native Japanese culture. For example, rather than have a Buddhist or Dàoist deity, he has a Japanese Shintō (神道, the way of gods) deity play a similar role. In the process, he creates a fusion of characters and content that is easier for his young Japanese audience to understand.

It’s tempting to call his work ‘Chinese culture with Japanese characteristics,’ but as you’ve discovered in previous volumes, it’s not that straightforward. Chinese characters and environments with Japanese names, yet with alien appearances, and now we’re adding deities into the mix? On paper it makes little sense, but in practice it’s perfect.

How does Toriyama pull it off? He brings both sides of the Eastern Sea together through a balance of traditional East Asian elements with contemporary Japanese and Western elements. As a result, there’s no part of Dragon Ball’s culture that offends the Japanese reader, because it’s no longer a Chinese, Japanese, Hong Kong, or American story. It’s all of these at once, yet none of the above. This is also why Dragon Ball has fans across the world.

Polarities

The content in Volume 6 is the polarity of Volume 5. In Gokū’s previous adventure, he fought in the 22nd Tenkaichi Budōkai (天下一武道会, The Number One Under Heaven Martial Arts Tournament), and then battled a demon. Opposites in action: Now he’s going to visit a god, battle with himself, and then fight in the 23rd Tenkaichi Budōkai.

The dualities and parallels that Toriyama draws between both volumes becomes clear when you look at them through the lens of Dragon Ball Culture. However, they aren’t obvious at first glance because Gokū advances through the story so quickly that you don’t have time to pause and think about how the elements within the story relate to one another. This is part of why Dragon Ball seems superficial to casual viewers: You get caught up in the action and taken along for the ride. It’s also what is so appealing to new fans experiencing the story for the first time. But even though the story seems simple and easy to understand on the surface, if you have keen eyes and the knowledge of the symbols presented, then you can appreciate the deeper content and find new aspects to enjoy. That’s one of the wonders of Dragon Ball. And it’s why we are going to dive into this content to discover its inner potential—the same way that Gokū does in his training.

Upper Realm

Toriyama takes Gokū’s adventure to new heights. Literally. Gokū’s gonna’ see god!

In this chapter the author once again plays with the idea of purity, and he then mixes it with dualistic and non-dualistic principles to provide a way for Gokū to ascend higher.

Medical Herbs

Uhyooo!! Gokū cheers with joy at the instant recovery from his debilitating injuries. Karin says it’s the result of his special yakusō (薬草, medical herbs). I’m not sure why he doesn’t give Gokū a senzu (仙豆, hermit bean), but hey, they do the trick all the same.¹ We don’t get to see these yakusō, now or ever again, but given that Karin is a senbyō (仙猫, hermit cat), it’s likely a traditional Dàoist medical herb made from a special blend of plants.

Reviving Friends

Karin is impressed at the boy’s success against Pikkoro Daima-ō. But now Gokū has a new challenge. How can he revive his friends after Shenron has been killed?

Karin tells him that the worst part of all isn’t that they’re dead, but that they were killed by a member of the mazoku (魔族, demon race). Because of this, their tamashī (魂, spirit) cannot pass through the gate of the afterlife and into the a-no-yo (あの世, other world). They will instead roam the spirit realm in agony, unable to rest.

This idea is derived from the Buddhist belief of fate and reincarnation. If a person’s fated time in life has not come to an end, and they die a premature death from improper means, such as suicide, murder, or being killed by a demon, then they will continue to suffer until their fated time is met. Only then will they reincarnate. These unfortunate souls are referred to as èguǐ (餓鬼, Japanese: gaki, hungry ghosts). Buddhist and Dàoist priests perform sacred rites to release these souls from their torturous fate. What Karin is saying is that Kuririn, Chaozu, and likely Kame-sennin are suffering right now in this state of limbo because they were killed by mazoku.² Toriyama uses this Eastern concept in order to increase the tension and urgency of Gokū’s task.

Gokū gets upset, but Karin says there may be a way to save them. Gokū will have to speak to the man who created the dragon balls and Shenron. His name? "Kami-sama."

Kami (神, god, or spirit) is a term associated with Shintō (神道, the way of gods); the native religion of Japan. Kami-sama (神様 lord god) refers to the highest god within a Shintō pantheon or to any kami that is worthy of respect.

Toriyama is asked in the Dragon Ball: Bōken Special (1987), Who actually made the dragon balls? He replies, "Oh! Now that you mention it, I thought up something really cool. Who made them, you ask? It would have to have been Kami-sama, I guess." So it seems like Toriyama hadn’t thought about the origin of the dragon balls much (or at all) until he’s asked. Then he comes up with an answer on the spot, and includes that answer into his manga only a few months later.³ He keeps making it up as he goes, and it keeps working.

Kami-sama’s Domain

Yajirobē laughs, saying there’s no such thing as god, and Karin is just playing a prank on them. But Karin says no, there is a Kami-sama, and to enter his domain you must be kokoro-no-sei (心の清, pure of heart). He says that Gokū meets the standard, but Yajirobē does not.⁴

Where does Kami-sama live? In his shinden (神殿, shrine, or sacred place)⁵ above Karin-tō, in the jōkū (上空, upper sky, or higher emptiness).

Karin refers to the space above Karin-tō as jōkū while others refer to it as jōkai (上界, upper realm, or upper world) moving forward. The jokai is the realm where the Buddhās, Dàos and gods live in the Buddho-Dàoist pantheon. Its counterpart is the kakai (下界, Chinese: xiàjiè, lower realm): the realm of earth, where human beings, animals, and other creatures live. That is why I use the translation of jōkai for the title of this chapter.⁶ Both are synonymous with heaven.

Yajirobē laughs again, saying there is nothing above them. They’re already at the top of the world and there couldn’t possibly be anything higher. Gokū looks up and says, "Yosh (よし, Alright, Okay, or Let’s do this)!! My kintōun (筋斗雲, somersault cloud) can take me up there!!" But Karin says that no, kintōun cannot fly higher than the top of the clouds surrounding Karin-tō, and therefore cannot reach the jōkū. Yajirobē says, "Yoossh, I’ll just steal a roketto (ロケット, rocket) and fly up there! But Karin laughs, Hehehe, no good, no good. You can’t reach the shinden with that because it’ll get rejected. Then Gokū wonders, So then… what? I’m not sure, but I guess I can try to janpu (ジャンプ, jump) up there…" Karin chuckles.

The idea of a rocket being rejected by the shinden implies there is a power at work that prevents the shinden from being reached by external technology. Either the shinden is invisible to the naked eye of the person flying the craft, or the craft is physically rejected by a type of force. This brings to mind the ancient Dàoists who would cultivate in caves and use their supernormal powers to prevent others from finding their caves or from being able to remove the boulder in front of the entrance. They used their powers to ensure that they would remain undisturbed. Only the pure of heart would be able to find them. Thus only the pure of heart can ascend to Kami-sama’s shinden through traditional means, and artificial means will be rejected.

Fortunately there is another way, and Gokū has it with him already.

Secret of the Nyoi-bō

Karin says that the nyoi-bō (如意棒, as-you-wish staff) originally served as a bridge between Karin-tō and Kami’s shinden in the jōkū. Long ago, Karin lent it to Muten Rōshi ‘because it was just lying around’; then Rōshi gave it to Son Gohan; then Son Gohan to Gokū. As a result, Gokū thought it was a weapon, and this is how he’s been using it throughout the story, to great effect. But the truth is that it’s a bridge between heaven and earth.

We thus find a parallel with Sūn Wùkōng’s rúyì jīngū bàng (如意金箍棒, as-you-wish, golden-hooped staff), which the Dragon King Ào Guǎng refers to as, a piece of miraculous iron that anchors the Milky Way in place. This means that Sūn Wùkōng’s magical staff is capable of becoming so long and thick that it upholds the firmament of our galaxy and keeps it from falling down. But like Son Gokū, Sūn Wùkōng uses it as a weapon.

However, when Gokū reaches for the nyoi-bō on his back, he only grasps the air. He accidentally left it behind during his fight with Pikkoro! He’s missing the one thing that has been with him since the beginning of the Dragon Ball story and the one thing he needs now more than ever!

Recovering the Nyoi-bō

Gokū returns to the battleground on his kintōun. But when he arrives, the nyoi-bō is not there. That’s when he remembers the best way to find a missing item: Uranai Baba… That’s right!!!!

Gokū soars to the fortune teller’s palace: the desert symbolizing a place between life and death. He tells Baba he’s happy to duel her 5 fighters again in order to get her service, but she says ‘lord no, the man who can defeat Pikkoro would decimate my fighters.’ She’ll find this lost item for free. Besides, it’s her own brother that Gokū is trying to revive. She then uses her seer’s ball to find the staff, and when an image comes into view, it’s the Kame House!

"Sankyūūūū (サンキュー, Thank youuuu)!! As Gokū flies away from Uranai Baba, she says to her ghost assistant, Obake, That guy really saved the world, and now he’s going to the shinden. He’s the first ningen (人間, human being) to ever meet Kami."

Gokū is the first person to ever meet god, and this is because of the further purification of his spirit. Consider that Karin tells Gokū about Kami-sama after Gokū drinks the chō-shinsui (超神水, super god water), almost dies, and is then ‘reborn’ with heightened powers. He is the first man to ever drink the water and survive. Through this painful purification process he gains the ability to sense ki (気, Chinese: qì, 氣, energy), and his consciousness ascends to the point where the knowledge of Kami-sama’s location is revealed to him by Karin. That is why Karin makes a point of saying that Gokū is pure enough to reach this realm, while Yajirobē is not, despite Yajirobē having enough strength to climb Karin-tō.

Gokū flies to Kame House on his and busts open the door. "Hey, hey!! Where’s my nyoi-bō?! His friends say with a big smile, GOKŪ!!!! Gokū finds the staff, picks it up, and tells them, Kame-sennin Jī-chan, Kuririn, and Chaozu are gonna’ be brought back to life. See ya’ later! I’m gonna’ meet with Kami-sama now!!⁷ Don’t burn their bodieeess!!"⁸ No time for chit-chat; Gokū is back on the cloud and on his way to Karin-tō all over again.

Gokū is always moving forward and striving to achieve his goals, but his friends don’t share the same mindset. They are sentimental about seeing him, but not the other way around. Gokū would rather rise to heaven and meet a god, than sit around and recall his near-death battle with a demon king and how he saved the world from a living hell. That’s old news, even though it happened less than 24 hours ago. Nor does he relax in the comfort of his achievement or take the time to explain the current situation to his friends in detail. He has a supernormal mindset that prioritizes his shugyō (修業, austere training).

Top of Karin-tō

Karin, Yajirobē, and Gokū climb onto the top of Karin-tō. There is an onion-shaped stone fixture with a hole on the center of it, ascending into a point. Gokū stands on the fixture and Karin tells him to put the nyoi-bō in the hole.

This fixture on the top of Karin-tō does not have a specific name. However, similar shapes can be seen on the top of mosques in the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia, and in Russian churches and stately palaces. These onion-shaped objects are placed on the top of the central dome, are the shape of the central dome itself, or are put on the top of minarets. They have a sacred significance, pointing upward to heaven. Thus I believe that Toriyama is once again borrowing from Persian and Ottoman architecture for his sacred tower that reaches into heaven.

Suzu and Shirushi

Gokū needs one more thing in order to gain access to the shinden. Karin gives Gokū a small brass two-leaved jingle bell. He says, "Have this suzu (鈴, bell). It is possible to meet Kami from this tower with the jingle of this sound and the showing of this shirushi (印, mark, or seal)."

Suzu are bells used at Shintō shrines to notify the kami that you have arrived and are offering prayer. Suzu are most often basketball-sized brass bells that hang from the Shintō shrines eaves and are rung by pulling on the attached rope, which is long and thick. The bell is rung twice to ensure the kami will hear your prayer and bless you. Smaller variants can be carried by a believer, but all sizes of suzu have a slit at the bottom and a bell that jingles in the middle. The one Karin gives Gokū looks like a bell that cats wear on their collars that jingle when they move. So it’s both cultural and playful that Toriyama has Karin, the cat sage, give Gokū a small suzu that looks like a kitty cat bell to meet Kami, a Shintō-derived deity.

Toriyama uses the kanji of shirushi (印), which is the same kanji used for mudrā (印), a mark or seal made by the hands of cultivation practitioners, martial artists, and enlightened beings to express a message. Therefore, the suzu is what allows Gokū to show the proper mudrā—the ringing of the bell in his hand—in order to see god. This is necessary because he’s going into the upper realm to see a Shintō-derived deity, but this also has parallels to Buddhist images. The jimotsu (持物, held object) are the hand-held attributes of a Buddhist image, such as a lotus flower, vase, palace, arrow, vajra, or bell. Each jimotsu has a special significance associated with the Buddhā or Bodhisattva that holds it. Along with the mudrā of that enlightened being, hand-held attributes help identify a particular image, its character, and role. So jimotsu and mudrā serve the same role of expressing a message. Gokū is given a suzu jimotsu and told that it is the shirushi he must carry along with him in order to see god, and he will achieve this by showing the proper mudrā.

Daizenshū 4 states that the bell Karin gives Gokū is a special bell made for identification, and is unobtainable elsewhere. The suzu is the shirushi of the one who has been approved to meet god. Only one person can have it at a time, and Gokū is the first to ever receive it, indicating that he is the chosen one.

Vajra and Ghaṇṭā

Gokū’s nyoi-bō is the key to rising up to Kami-sama’s shinden. But every key has its hole, and you need more than the masculine to meet god. To ascend to the upper realm, you have to unite the male with the female.

Gokū’s nyoi-bō is inspired by Sūn’s rúyì jīngū bàng, which is inspired by the Buddhist vajra weapon. The vajra (Sanskrit: वज्र, thunderbolt, lightning, or diamond, Chinese: jīngāng, 金剛, Japanese: kongō, golden hard) is the ultimate representation of masculinity, cutting through defilements like lightning and destroying whatever it hits.

In contrast, Tibetan Buddhists use a brass bell called the ghaṇṭā (Sanskrit: घण्टा, Tibetan: drilbu, bell) in their spiritual rituals, which accompanies the vajra (Tibetan: dorje). The ghaṇṭā represents the female aspect of duality while the vajra represents the male. The emptiness of the bell’s interior represents wisdom and formlessness, while the vajra’s hard exterior represents form and skillful means. Practitioners who use the ghaṇṭā believe that the sound of the ringing bell can summon the deva’s (Sanskrit: देव, Chinese: tiān, 天, Japanese: ten, gods). It’s through the combination of ringing the ghaṇṭā and performing sacred mudrā with the vajra that the monks attain a state of trance and inner bliss while meditating, attaining enlightenment and experiencing the divine in higher realms.⁹

Gokū has the equivalent of the vajra in the form of the nyoi-bō, and has just been given the equivalent of the ghaṇṭā in the form of the bell. Thus, Gokū places his pole into the hole on top of Karin-tō. This symbolizes the male vajra’s penetration into the female and the formation of a union. With the suzu placed inside his tattered shirt, he grabs his pole, commands it to grow, and rises into the sky. By combining his male nyoi-bō (vajra) with the female suzu (ghaṇṭā), Gokū ascends to heaven to meet god.¹⁰

Ascension

Gokū rises as he holds onto the nyoi-bō. Higher—ever higher—he ascends until a circular building comes into view. Floating in the sky and unsupported by earth-laden structures, it stays suspended through unknown means.

Toriyama loves playing with opposites and dualities, and he does it to great effect here with the architecture of the two buildings that Gokū travels between: as below, so above.¹¹ This floating building is shaped as a large hemispherical platform that is an inverted equivalent of the top of Karin-tō’s roof, with a matching female receptor. There is a pattern circumnavigating the platform’s top made of interlocking triangle patterns, one up and one down, in a continual duality. Each triangle is colored in either a light or dark shade, and within each triangle is a smaller triangle of the opposite shade, suggesting greater yīn in lesser yáng, and greater yáng in lesser yīn.¹² We saw this same pattern on the bottom of Karin-tō’s roof. The interlocking triangles of opposites, the relationship between Gokū’s carrying of the masculine nyoi-bō and feminine suzu, and the union of male and female to connect the buildings together, all indicate that a balance of yīn and yáng are necessary in order to ascend to heaven and meet god. It’s Shintō, Buddhist, and Dàoist beliefs fused together.

Regarding the creation of this floating structure, Toriyama seems inspired by the Bespin Cloud City in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980), just as he was with Karin-tō. He says in Daizenshū