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Are the eye techniques in Naruto (Byakugan, Sharingan, Rinnegan) based on true events? Or are they just myth or a fiction created by Masashi-Sensei? Anyone has any references or a story behind it?

JNat
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Abie Giordano
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1 Answers1

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According to the Naruto wiki page on dōjutsu, there are two potential points of inspiration for the dōjutsu techniques (rinnegan/sharigan/byuakugan).

The first:

The concept of dōjutsu may have been inspired by Futaro Yamada's 1959 novel, The Kōga Ninja Scrolls (甲賀忍法帖, Kōga Ninpōchō), which featured two warring clans of ninja that had developed mutations and abilities through selective breeding, with the young heirs to each clan possessing mysterious dōjutsu.

Or alternately,

Another possible inspiration for dōjutsu in the series may also be found in the Journey to the West classic's titular character, the Monkey God-King, Sun Wukong: After having eaten all of the 'peaches of immortality', the 'pills of longevity' and drunk all of the 'wine of immortality', and then was captured after a long rebellion against Heaven, the Monkey God-King, Sun Wukong, was then sealed into Lao Tzu's Eight Trigram furnace to be burned to ash in order for Lao Tzu to reclaim his pills of longevity. But after 49 days, Sun Wukong broke out--stronger than ever--his body having been refined by the flames instead of being reduced to ash, His eyes had also become a fiery red and golden colour, becoming known as his "Fiery-eyes golden-gaze" (火眼金睛, Huǒyǎn-Jīnjīng); an eye condition that allowed Sun Wukong to now see what's really there just by looking and the ability to see and recognise the real form of evil despite whatever form that it took on — but, likewise, it also gave him a weakness to smoke, fogging his vision.

AlisonB
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    As for Rinnegan appearing in *Fullmetal Alchemist*, the point of inspiration was probably the same, combined with the fact that "Rinne (輪廻) is the Japanese term for Samsara, the cycle of reincarnation or rebirth in several Indian religions" (taken from the Naruto wiki page on Rinnegan). If there was going to alchemy-based eye technique, the one based around reincarnation would make the most sense. – AlisonB May 15 '13 at 12:09