- This is the article on the elixir of immortality as told in the legends. For other uses, see Elixir of Life (disambiguation).
The Elixir of Life (
Depiction[]
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The vanguard party's reported depiction of the Elixir of Life.
In Japan, the Elixir of Life is depicted as being a fruit resembling a tangerine, which was what the criminals of the Vanguard Party had to go off of in their mission on Kotaku.
History[]
China[]
During the Qin Dynasty, the ruler, Qin Shi Huang, sent the Hōshi, Jofuku, on a mission to locate the three mythical islands known as Eishū, Hōjō, and Hōrai that have been said to hold the Elixir of Life. With a fleet at his disposal, Jofuku sailed off to the East to retrieve the legendary elixir, however, after many years passed since his voyage, Jofuku never returned back to the Qin Emperor. According to legends, Jofuku's journey ended when he had either discovered Japan itself in the midst of his pursuits to find the elixir or had proclaimed himself ruler of a place with "flat plains and wide swamps".
In reality, Jofuku made the decision to land on an island located beyond the Ryukyu Kingdom and conducted experiments that were aimed towards achieving immortality. However, after dying from an illness known as Arborification, Jofuku's research was handed down to his wife Rien and seven experimental humanoids who sought to create their own Elixir of Life, with the leader also planning to revive her late husband. As a result, the group invented a prototype Elixir of Life known as Tan that was harvested from the Tao of humans who would dare venture to the island. As the years passed, multiple explorers from the mainland traveled to the island, that would come to be believed to be the mystical land known as Shinsenkyō where the Sennin resided, and try their hand at retrieving the Tan elixir, only to end up becoming the prototype Elixir of Life.
Japan[]
The Elixir of Life created by Rien.
During Japan's Edo period, the 11th shogun of Japan, Tokugawa Nariyoshi, had become aware of the supposed Elixir of Life located on Shinsenkyō and sent out multiple expedition teams to retrieve it. After the men he sent failed in their mission, the shogun sent a group of 10 death-row criminals and 10 executioners from the Yamada clan, and later, a team of 50 Iwagakure shinobi and 4 executioners from the same clan. Upon the first group's arrival, one of the criminals managed to acquire a special kind of Tao on the island and was experimented on by Rien, resulting in the creation of an ideal Elixir of Life. The Elixir of Life would then come into possession of the humans who survived the ordeals on the island and was given to the shogun, who at some point consumed it.
Trivia[]
- There was a rumor that the shinobi of Iwagakure were all immortal due to having drank the Elixir of Life, which was also connected to the separate rumor about the village chief acquiring immortality through the same method some time ago.