"He was a very old animal. His carcass is too tough and foul"
Ichimonji says this about the wild boar that he kills in the first scene. With this line, he signals that they ought not to eat the wild boar, as its meat will not be very delicious. He also turns the boar into a symbol of aging more broadly, drawing a parallel between his own advanced age and that of his prey.
"When I was only 17 years old, I raised my banner over that castle, and for 50 long years I waged war."
Having gathered his subjects and his three sons after a hunt, Ichimonji tells the story of his rise to power, the fact that he took power from various lords when he was 17 years old, and has had to maintain his grip on that power for his whole life.
"What kind of world do we live in? One barren of loyalty and feeling."
When Ichimonji hands down his authority to one of his sons, Saburo speaks out against his choice, insisting that it will be impossible to maintain peace in the kingdom. He suggests that Ichimonji has created a precedent for violence and chaos through his reign, and is foolish to imagine that there will be peace once he hands down his authority to one of his sons.
"I was born and raised in this castle. It belonged to my father. But I left it in order to marry you. After the marriage, my father and brothers relaxed their vigilance. Then, they were all murdered by your father, Hidetora. And now, I am back here in this castle seized from my family. How impatiently I have longed for this day."
Kaede, Taro's ruthless and cold-hearted wife, explains why it is so important for her to be in the First Castle. She describes the fact that it once belonged to her father, but was taken by Ichimonji. She tells Taro why she is so possessive of the kingdom and her power within it.
"I don't hate you. Everything is decided in our previous lives. The heart of Buddha embraces all things."
When Ichimonji visits Sué at Jiro's castle, he tells her that she ought to hate him, since he killed all her family members. She has adopted religion to deal with her trauma, however, and says this calmly in response.
"In a mad world, only the mad are sane."
Kyoami the fool says this about Ichimonji after he has descended into madness. Kyoami's role as the fool is to make light of certain scenarios, but he often brings a special clarity to certain scenarios, here suggesting that Ichimonji's madness is actually rather sane, ironically enough, since the world itself is so chaotic already.
"I tried to be like my sister, to pray to Buddha, to rid myself of the hatred that is always within me, but for a single day I could not forget. Not one night do I ever sleep in peace."
Tsurumaru, Sué's blind brother, has become a desperate peasant in the countryside, and he just happens to be the person who takes Ichimonji in when the warlord and his two attendants have nowhere else to go. After identifying himself as the little boy whose eyes Ichimonji once gouged out, Tsurumaru says that while he has tried to heal from the event, he is unable to move on from the trauma and find peace.
"I refuse to live like a widow with my hair cropped, or a nun rotting inside a convent, with my head shaved! This castle once belonged to my father. And I have no intention of leaving!"
After Taro is killed, his widow, Kaede, holds a knife to his brother Jiro's throat and delivers this line. She angrily tells the man that had her husband killed that she has no intention of leaving the palace that she has waited so long to occupy.
"What a terrifying sky. Am I in another world? Am I in a paradise?"
When Saburo finds his father on the plains, Ichimonji is in a delusional state. He looks up at the clouds above and believes that he has died and entered the afterlife. While he is actually still alive, he believes that he is in the world of the dead.
"Are there no gods... no Buddha? If you exist, hear me. You are mischievous and cruel! Are you so bored up there you must crush us like ants? Is it such fun to see men weep?"
Kyoami shouts this at the heavens after Ichimonji and Saburo have both died. He is distressed that the Buddha would let such horrible things befall his masters, after all they have been through, and laments the fact that it feels like no one is watching over them.
