🔥🕊️ Reading "Phoenix" from Phoenix left me heartbroken 🕊️🔥

Among all the "Phoenix" stories,
the one that left me speechless
for a while after reading
was the Phoenix chapter.

If I had read it in junior high,
I'm sure
I would have just been left with the impression that it was
"scary," "cruel," and "hopeless."
But reading it now in my 40s,

this story

quietly asks
how a person can live their life over again.

It was a very profound volume.😢

🌑 Gao—A man who could only live by taking

The story
begins with the
harsh life of a man named Gao.

Shortly after he was born,
he was in a fall accident with his father
and lost an arm.

After that,
he was persecuted,
looked down upon,
and grew up without ever being loved.

He became
a man who could only prove his existence
by taking things from others.
This distortion

is so painful.
I can't help but think that if someone

had just held him properly,
his life
might have been different.😔

🌱 Akanemaru—A man who chose gratitude even after losing

Another key character
is Akanemaru.

He is a skilled sculptor,
and while traveling,
he is attacked by Gao while sleeping outdoors,
losing an arm and an eye.

In a situation where
normally only despair would remain.

But Akanemaru
is grateful that he "still has one arm left,"
and picks up his chisel again.
Seeing this,

now that I'm in my 40s,
really strikes a chord.
Looking at what remains rather than what was lost.

It sounds simple,
but it's the most difficult way to live.🍃

🕊️ The Kannon statue and the sculpture that carves the heart

The Kannon statue Akanemaru carved
bore the likeness of a woman
he met on his journey.

A sculpture filled with
both sorrow
and prayer.

That figure
touches people's hearts,
is recognized by
Kibi no Makibi,
and he is welcomed into the imperial court.

What is depicted here
is a world where not just technique,
but the state of one's heart
is what is valued.

Reading it as an adult,
this contrast
feels very profound.

🐦 The Phoenix—The birth of a masterpiece

In the imperial court,
Akanemaru
sees the Phoenix statue at the Shosoin,
and carves it.

This is
his greatest masterpiece.

Not through force,
not by taking,
but carving as if in prayer.

This attitude
seemed to give life
to the work itself.✨

🌑 Gao's change and his awakening that came too late

Meanwhile, Gao,
after meeting a monk,
gradually begins to change his heart.

And for the first time,
he learns to carve
not to "take,"
but to "express."

This is
a very important scene.

But life
is cruel.

By the time Gao
finally awakened as a human being,
an irreversible
fate was already waiting for him.

⚔️ The Onigawara competition—It wasn't "intensity" that won

Over the production of
the imperial Onigawara (demon roof tiles),
Gao and Akanemaru
end up in a direct confrontation.

Everyone
holds their breath at Gao's overwhelming intensity.
But—

The one who won
was Akanemaru.

The reason was clear.

While Gao's sculptures had
"anger" and "obsession,"
they lacked prayer.

As a result of this,

Gao
loses his other arm.

Reading it,
I felt suffocated.

🕯️ The monk's death and the resolve of the unclaimed dead

The monk who guided Gao chose the path of
becoming an unclaimed soul himself,
and quietly departed this world.
Unmourned by anyone,

leaving no name behind.
Yet,

his heart was pure.
The weight of this choice


resonated deeply within me.

🔥 The Great Fire and the Reunion with the Phoenix

Eventually, the palace was
engulfed in a great fire,
and Akanemaru
met the Phoenix
amidst the flames.

In the afterlife,
the Phoenix tells him:

"You will
never return to being human,
and are destined to be reincarnated forever."

Meanwhile, to Gao,

"Your descendants will
continue to live
in solitude."

A sentence

without salvation.

📚 Summary: Even so, how should one live?

Phoenix: Karma Chapter

✔ A life of taking by force
✔ A life of creating with gratitude

Through that contrast,
it forces us to confront
the very way we live.

It conveyed painfully
how much more important it isto consider "how you lived"rather than "what you lost."

Life is
full of things that cannot be undone.

Even so,
even if it is late,

people can change.
And precisely because they have changed,
they will end up

bearing that weight.
It is a painful story
with little salvation.

But that is exactly why
the Karma Chapter

will remain in my heart forever 🕊️✨
Reading it now,
this pain

has made me think about "how to live my own life."