‘Jujutsu Kaisen’: Sukuna’s Domain Expansion Hand Sign Explained

What is this? Naruto? What’s up will all these hand signs? Jujutsu Kaisen was inspired by the Big Three’s ninja entry, after all, and Yuji Itadori and Sukuna are basically Naruto and the Nine-Tailed Fox. If only Nine Tails had a Domain Expansion. It would have been over for Madara Uchiha before it even began.

What is Sukuna’s Domain Expansion anyway?

In case you forgot, a Domain Expansion is essentially a jujutsu sorcerer’s inner world made manifest. A nice person might have an inner world full of kittens flouncing around on green grass underneath a rainbow colored sky. In Sukuna’s case, his inner world is a creepy perversion of a Buddhist shrine replete with demonic figures, human skulls, and creepy mouths everywhere. A Domain Expansion is an incredibly powerful technique, allowing the sorcerer to draw an enemy into their inner world, where all attacks made against that enemy are guaranteed to hit. Sukuna’s Domain Expansion, Malevolent Shrine, is arguably the most powerful in the entire series so far.

So what’s up with the hand sign?

The symbols present in Malevolent Shrine are steeped in mythological meaning, as is Sukuna’s whole character. His whole steez is Japanese mythology and Buddhist theology, and his hand gesture is of Buddhist origin. The sign is associated with Yama (called Enma-ten in Japanese), who is the King of Hell in Buddhist myth. Like Sukuna, Yama was originally human before becoming a deva. What’s a deva? A deva is a heavenly or divine being that originated in Hindu myth. According to the various mythologies, Yama was the first mortal being who died, and as a result, he became the ruler of all who departed after him. First come, first served.

By referencing the Lord of the Dead, Jujutsu Kaisen series author Gege Akutami has equated Sukuna with the Great Equalizer, The Destroyer of All Things, the Grim Reaper—death incarnate, baby. He’s the baddest of the bad, and it’s not all for show. After all, Sukuna is responsible for killing off one of the most powerful characters in the entire series. (If you know, you know.) Sukuna is the ultimate malevolence, the period at the end of the book, the guy riding the Pale Horse. If you wanna keep getting biblical with it, he’s the Last Enemy To Be Destroyed (i.e. Death). Poor Yuji Itadori has to spar with death itself; I don’t envy the kid.

(featured image: MAPPA)