Did I Use My Gifts Wisely?

The Purpose of Power and Strength

The following is a discussion and analysis of one of my favorite scenes in the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba manga. This contains spoilers from the Mugen Train arc in the manga and anime.

“Do you know why you were born stronger than other people?”

This line is the centerpiece of one of my favorite scenes in the Demon Slayer manga. Leading up to this, the demon warrior Akaza and the Flame Hashira Rengoku Kyojuro have been fighting with awesome speed and power, such that Kyojuro’s friends aren’t able to help without being a hindrance. All the while Akaza has been trying to persuade Kyojuro to become a demon, so that his powers will never fade, and the world will not lose such a great fighter. Now, as Akaza has plunged his arm through Kyojuro, the latter flashbacks to his mother’s words to him shortly before she died.

Kyojuro’s mother, Ruka: Do you know why you were born stronger than other people?

Kyojuro: . . . Um. . . I don’t know!

Ruka: So that you can help people weaker than you. Those blessed with more natural talent than others must use their strength for the good of the world, for other people. It is unforgivable to use strength granted by heaven to hurt others and empower yourself. Helping the weak is the duty of those born with strength. You must take your responsibility seriously and do your duty. . . and never, ever forget that.

Kyojuro: Got it!

(Ruka pulls him into her embrace)

Ruka: I won’t live much longer, but I am happy to have been the mother of such a strong and kind child. I’m counting on you.

While many would agree those are good words to live by, there are three ideas present that many would disagree with.

The Purpose of Power

First, inequality is a fact of life. Some are born stronger than others, or have certain proclivities or strengths that others do not. But this is not a problem to be fixed—and that is the second idea: Inequality of power or talent is not a bad thing. Power is not good or bad—it is, as the video essayist Pilgrims Pass put it, nothing more than the opportunity to serve others.¹ Or as St. Thomas Aquinas wrote: “The purpose of power is to realize justice.”² It demands responsibility. In fact, it is responsibility. This is the third idea. The fact of having power means one has a duty to use it, and use it well. To use it to hurt others would be wrong, but the implication here is that to not use it at all would also be irresponsible, unjust, a neglect of one’s duty. In the dubbed anime, the above conversation ends with her saying she believes in him. In the manga (at least, my translation—I looked online and found differing English translations), she says she is counting on him. The latter seems more in line with Japanese culture to me. But to explain why this aspect of responsibility is so important, let’s look at my absolute favourite part, when she appears to Kyojuro as he is dying, having saved 200 passengers of the Mugen train and protected Tanjiro from the demon Akaza. I think this will be better understood if it’s juxtaposed to the anime version (English dub).

I love the manga version of this, and while I don’t hate the anime dubbed version (I can’t tell what the Japanese actor is saying, and the subtitles don’t change when I switch audio), I think the anime serves to show part of what I love about the manga. The image of seeing his mother at his death is beautiful, and as a Catholic I have a similar hope of seeing my Mother, our Lady of Light, at my death. And I hope that I and She can have the same conversation as Rengoku and his mother: “Did I do well? Did I use my gifts wisely?” “Well done, good and faithful servant. Come, share your Master’s joy.” Our dignity is a gift given by God. Part of this dignity is common to all men, made in His image with a rational soul and a will free to choose the good. But the King of Heaven does not give all of His gifts equally:

“I distribute the virtues quite diversely; I do not give all of them to each person, but some to one, some to others…. I shall give principally charity to one; justice to another; humility to this one, a living faith to that one…. and so I have given many gifts and graces, both spiritual and temporal, with such diversity that I have not given everything to one single person, so that you may be constrained to practice charity towards one another…. I have willed that one should need another and that all should be my ministers in distributing the graces and gifts they have received from me.”

~ St. Catherine of Siena, Dial. I, 7.

This is why I love this whole scene. Heaven bestows gifts upon us, and we have a duty to use the talents well, in service of others. It is wrong to use power of any kind in order to mistreat others (Lk. 12:41-48), yet it is also wrong to not use power at all and “bury our talents.” (Mt. 24-25). “Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required; and of him to whom men commit much they will demand the more.” (Lk. 12:48) There is the responsibility, therefore, to use our gifts wisely. In the anime, Rengoku says he has taken this responsibility upon himself. But in the manga, he asks if he used his gifts wisely. In both the anime and the manga, his flashback conversation with his mother implies there is no choice in the matter. His gifts are granted by Heaven. While there may have been multiple routes he could have gone, he had an obligation to use not only his strength but his natural talents (in the anime she says “bountiful gifts” instead) to help others. Now if I’m not mistaken, Kyojuro’s little brother, Senjuro, has neither the talent nor the desire to become a hashira. Rengoku had both. So prudence, which deals with what is, indicated the path he should choose.

But the path is the virtue of justice. Justice is not merely meting out punishment to criminals, or recompensing people who have been wronged. Justice is giving others what we owe them. We owe God everything, including moral rectitude in each and every act. But we also have an obligation to others in our communities, large and small. I cannot merely leave others alone and ask to be left alone myself, without forsaking the responsibility of justice. What I do privately does actually affect others. Without going too far into an essay on the classical notion of justice,³ it is clear that this is the case since a society indolent, selfish individuals who “don’t hurt anyone” will collapse. The idea of acting in such a way that I live in a vacuum and have no effect on society is ludicrous. Inaction has an effect. If I do not vote, do not help the economy, do not assist others, my absence, though perhaps not consciously noticed, will be real and will be felt. We are accountable for out actions and our omissions. Moreover, I have a special duty to my society, which can never be repaid (since I have received innumerable benefits from it, such as language, culture, heritage, law, and order). This is at the heart of Ruka’s words when she says, “Those blessed with more natural talent than others must use their strength for the good of the world, for other people.”

Inequality & True Greatness

“. . . justice, in which is the crowning glory of the virtues and on the basis of which men are called ‘good men.'”

~ Cicero, De officiis 1, 7.

While he did choose how he fulfilled his duty, I prefer the manga version instead of the anime version—to use the gifts wisely instead of his taking the responsibility upon himself—because I think it highlights two important truths. First, in our American individualism we think we get to choose everything in our lives. In reality we choose very little. Who you are, who your parents are, your upbringing, education, and the natural health of your body were not things anyone asked your opinion on. I did not even get to choose to be an American. What is more important is what we do with what we were given. We can bury it, squander it, abuse it, or cultivate it. Secondly, nowadays many seem to consider freedom or equality (or both) as the highest good. But I find neither to be the case. Equality is boring. Inequality is not bad. Oppression is evil, but don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. There’s no way to eliminate all inequality, and attempting to do so often involves using oppression or has unintended side effects. And again, inequality can be a good thing! Eliminating all inequality results in such injustices as the reeducation camps of Maoist China, where outstanding citizens were sent for being more excellent than others. The family, the core unit of society, is a clear manifestation of unevenly distributed abilities and gifts which work together for the good of the whole (the whole being not the individual, for whom “it is not good to be alone,” but the family unit, and th larger communities after that). Power is a means to an end. To what end? Virtue, justice, and peace. In fact, the word “virtue” comes from the Latin for “strength.” This is true strength. And Kyojuro exemplifies this. He does not ask if he was successful in his accomplishments, but if he used his gifts wisely. It is more about wisdom in action, about virtue and strength of the soul, than physical strength or accomplishments. While he did save over 200 people, he also failed to beat Akaza and died. All those people will die too, eventually. Accomplishments will always diminish and fade. Kyojuro, heart ablaze with virtue, justice, and mercy, did splendidly. He used his gifts wisely. He examined what was given him, and cultivated it for the purpose of serving others. In so doing, he achieved true greatness.

There is more to inequality than that of power or strength. There is inequality of virtue, physical attributes, talents, desires, emotions, personalities, and experiences. This is why friendship is so wonderful—to walk a path with an Other, seeking the same Truth or Beauty. And even better is three or four or five friends, Sam bringing out something unique in Will that only Sam can bring out. Equality in itself is not good. Neither is difference. We must ask what the equality or difference is, and whether it ought to be there. There is the beauty of friends, each one of a kind, united in some interest or goal. There is the ugliness of those forced to conform by oppression, or of those gathered together with ill intentions. All this begs the question of wisdom. It is not enough to have strength, or knowledge, or talent. We must use our gifts wisely. That is, with humility, accurate self-knowledge, understanding of right and wrong, knowledge of the situation at hand, and integrity in pursuing the good.

Keep Your Heart Burning

Kyojuro’s father has given up hope in himself and his sons, and lives in a state of lethargic despair. Kyojuro’s mother died when he was a boy. His younger brother looks up to him. And some of his mother’s last words to him were of the weight of responsibility on his shoulders, and that she is counting on him. Rather than run from responsibility, or let his trials weigh him down so that he eventually despairs like his father has, Kyojuro sets his heart ablaze with love for others, for his mother and father and brother, for people he has just met. He is quick to take Tanjiro and the others under his wing, to sacrifice himself for others. He shows the remarkable virtue of patience properly understood: he “does not allow himself to be made inordinately sorrowful [by evil].”⁴ This is the virtue whereby one can endure what one cannot change, without confusion of heart or despondency, and without becoming evil.⁵ “Patience keeps man from the danger that his spirit may be broken by grief and lose its greatness.”⁶ But he can do this because he already possesses humility. He received the love of his mother when he was a boy, and learned of his own gifts and strengths without pride. Because of this, he can think of others first, without timidity, obsessive self-concern, or self-deprecation.

“Stand tall and be proud. No matter how weak or unworthy you feel, keep your heart burning, grit your teeth and move forward. If you just curl up in a ball and hide, time will pass you by. It won’t stop for you while you wallow in grief.”

In Demon Slayer we see the idea that the strong ought to protect, that is serve, the weak. So that the weak may become strong, to be sure. But elsewhere in Demon Slayer we see that people have dignity simply because they are, regardless of what they have done or can do or will do. We see this in Tanjiro’s compassion for the demons, not because of some chance that they may repent or be able to be reverted to humans, but because they are pitiable. It is an unselfish compassion, a tender mercy, a lovingkindness, which seeks nothing from the other, which does not spoil the other or refuse to mete out just punishment. For “mercy without justice is the mother of dissolution,” but also, “justice without mercy is cruelty.”⁷ In Kyojuro’s cheerfulness and kindness, and in Tanjiro’s tender compassion, we see true masculinity. Power and strength in the warrior, properly manifest not as hatred of what is front of him, but as love of what is behind him. In a wise and truly just warrior, he can pity his enemy even if there is no choice but to fight him. This is the heroic masculinity of Kyojuro. He is humble in knowing his own strengths, disciplined in cultivating them, courageous and patient in the face of discouragement, just and kind to all, and merciful even to those who have hurt him. In a short life, he did splendidly.

1. Pilgrims Pass, “The Best Thing About Korra,” published October 24, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1jIWgX1j60
2. Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians, 6, 3.
3. For more on the concept of justice and the common good, see Josef Pieper’s essay on Justice, chapter 2, ” Duty in Relation to ‘The other,'” found in the book The Four Cardinal Virtues (p. 59).
4. Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II, II, 136, 4 ad 2.
5. Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I, II, 66, 4 ad 2; II, II, 128, 1.
6. Pieper, The Four Cardinal Virtues, p. 129. See also Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II, II, 128, 1.
7. Aquinas, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, 5, 2.