Highlights
- The Hōko of Shinsenkyo were once immortal but turned into trees due to Jofuku’s experiments and the effects of Tao, a concept known as Arborification.
- Jofuku, an explorer from the Qin Dynasty, stumbled upon the island of Kotaku where he conducted countless experiments on his fleet of people, turning them into the Hōko villagers.
- The villagers, known as Tensen, were eventually absorbed by Rien for their Tao to create the Elixir of Life. Over time, they all underwent Arborification, evolving into trees and freezing in a zazen pose.
Shinsenkyo, or Kotaku as it’s sometimes called, is an island full of mysteries, as fans of Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku know all too well. Perhaps one of the biggest mysteries of the series surrounds the Hōko, a group of immortals who used to live on the island.
From the Elixir of Life that supposedly grants immortality, massive animal-like monsters, and the seemingly all-powerful Tensen, the world of Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku is a rich melting pot of unique characters and storylines. To say the creativity of the show’s landscape leads to many threads of the story being enigmatic would be an understatement. The story of the immortal Hōko of Shinsenkyo and how they turned into trees is one of those many mystifying stories that makes the show so intriguing.
Jofuku and His Fleet
Jofuku was an explorer who lived 1,000 years before the current timeline of the show, during the Qin Dynasty. The Qin ruler sought immortality, and Jofuku claimed that the Elixir of Life that would grant him his wish was in three islands that were in the east of the empire. After he told the ruler of this key to immortality, Jofuku was tasked by the ruler to find the Elixir of Life. Jofuku took his wife Rien and more than 3,000 people (a lot of whom were children) and set sail.
As far as the Qin ruler was concerned, Jofuku had sailed off and disappeared after becoming a ruler himself on one of the islands he went to explore. What the ruler didn’t know was that Jofuku had stumbled upon a curious island known as Kotaku. When he made it to the island, he quickly began experimenting on the people in his fleet to learn more about Tao and immortality. The people of his fleet would end up becoming those very villagers who are known as the Hōko.
Jofuku would create the odd creatures that plague the island throughout the show, but he also changed the people of his fleet forever as well. Through his countless experiments on the people of the village, he found a way to make them immortal through Tao.
The Horrifying Process of Arborification
As a result of the experiments he ran and his deep dive into the world of Tao, Jufuku would end up a victim of Arborification. Anyone who has seen the show or read the manga is familiar with this concept, but perhaps not the name for it. Arborification is the term used to describe the effects of Tao that cause a body to sprout flowers or transform, entering a state of bliss upon death. Rien would encase her husband’s body in gold and go on to create the Tensen and the Elixir of Life to revive her beloved.
Meanwhile, the villagers themselves would become victims of the same fate. During their lives as human-like immortals, the Tensen would summon them and absorb their Tao for the sake of Rien’s Elixir of Life. However, after some time, they all submitted to Arborification. Their Arborification would be vastly different from the flower sprouting normal humans experience. Thanks to Jufuku’s experiments, the villagers would end up slowly evolving into trees. Once they reached a certain point in their tree evolution, they would go to the walls of Hōrai and freeze in a zazen pose.
The final survivor is seen in the show and is also named Hōko. He would take care of Mei after finding her collapsed by the tree corpses of his wife and daughter. After sacrificing his Tao to heal Mei, Hōko finishes the process of Arborification, signaling the end of the Hōko people.
Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku is available to stream on Crunchyroll.
