The Sleeping Mountain (Episode 11)

The Sleeping Mountain is the eleventh episode of the anime series.

Synopsis
While traveling, Ginko passes through a town settled near a mountain. He learns that a mushishi is living on the mountain, but hasn't visited the village for quite some time, and every person who had been sent to find him has fallen ill and died.

Plot
Ginko sees a hole in a mountain and decides to check the nearby village if they have mushi troubles. Hearing he is a mushi-shi, they asks him to look for another mushi-shi in the mountains, Mujika, as there is a guardian in the mountain and only Mujika can understand it. Its been a while since Mujika went into the mountain and haven't reeturned and even though they were told to not enter the mountain during a harvest, some men went looking for Mujika, but got sick.

Heading into the mountain, Ginko realizes a light vein passes through it. He finds a boy, Kodama, who states he is Mujika's apprentice. Ginko performs Mugura-nori, allowing mushi Mugura to enter his body. As they are like nerves to a mountain, he is able to search the mountain for Mujika, but as he finds Mujika, he rips the Mugura from him and breaks his connection. They continue and find Mujika fallen from a cliff and had injured his leg. Going into Mujika's shed, Ginko reveals that only the true guardian of the mountain or one using his power can rip the Mugura from him. Mujika confirms, stating that he was a traveling mushi-shi and had often coming to this village, but as a villager killed the guardian by incident, he took its place to control the mountain power. He reveals that the village has lots of children and some are left in the mountain to die, but he had found and saved Kodama and intends to make him the next guardian. But as his other siblings had died, upon learning that Kodama is alive, his family took him back. Ginko explains he can't stay in one place, as he tends to attract Mushi.

Going back to the village, in the night, Ginko hears again bells and Kodama tells him there is no such bell nearby. Ginko questions Kodama what he had learned from Mujina and upon realizing he haven't though him things about being the guardian, he realizes Mujika doesn't intend Kodama to become the guardian.

He finds Mujika in the mountain summit, where he reveals that Mujika's leg isn't hurt and the bell sound he hears is from Kuchinawa he is been summoning, a mushi that eats guardians and takes their places as guardians. Mujika comments its also a mushi that brings stability to those places where becomes a guardian. As he can't continue anymore and blame himself for the death of the previous boar guardian, he wants Ginko to leave him to Kuchinawa. Ginko attempts to stop him and save him, but Mujika tells him that Kuchinawa had already found him and its too late. Kuchinawa then appears and devours Mujika. Ginko has a strange dream of Mujika's past and how one day when he came to the village, the villagers asked him to stay as he had always helped them and marry to Saku. Mujika explained that he attracts mushi and the only way for him to stay is to kill the guardian and eat its meat. Later he finds some of his tool missing and Saku enters covered in blood, telling him she will cook him some delicious boar.

When Ginko wakes up, Kodama explains that he found Ginko at the summit and no one remembers who Mujika is. Ginko explains that happens when Kuchinawa eats a guardian and take its place and only those in the mountain remain with their memory intact. Kodama is then called by the villagers to help them and he heads out. Later Ginko leaves and comments that Mujika was right that he could no longer stop Kuchinawa. He then takes a look at the mountain seeing a giant white snake lying on it and commenting that its majestic being.

Trivia

 * The mountain featured in this story bears a strong resemblance to Torghatten (in Norway), known for its characteristic hole, or natural tunnel, through its center. The Norwegian folklore attributes the hole to a mystical creature (a troll, named Hestmannen). Interestingly, not only the troll is a representation of a non-human entity, which strikes a parallel to both mushi and Mountain Lords, the story of Hestmannen is one of a mad love between the troll and a girl. The latter is interesting as it strikes a thematic similarity with the episode's background story with regards to Mujika's wife and the assassination of the old mountain lord for the sake of their love.
 * This story may have taken inspiration from The Legend of Anchin and Kiyohime (安珍・清姫伝説). The tale is about Kiyohime, a young widow who had fallen for Anchin, a buddhist monk on pilgrimage. However, with Anchin being a Buddhist monk, he decides to choose a different route to avoid meeting her again. Upon learning of this fact, she dies of grief, and a great serpent exits her bedroom to hunt down Anchin. It finds him hiding under a temple bell, and kills him by breathing fire onto it. A number of parallels can be made to the story, such as Saku's desire for Mujika to stay leading to his eventual death at the mercy of a great serpent, and the connection between Kiyohime's great serpent and the bell Anchin hid under with the bell sounds Kuchinawa made as it hunted down Mujika.