Sculptor | Sekiro Shadows Die Twice Wiki

The Sculptor (仏師), or Busshi of Aredera (荒れ寺の仏師, The Buddha-Carver of the Dilapidated Temple) as he is referred to as in promotional material for the game, is an NPC in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Located in the Dilapidated Temple near the Ashina Outskirts, he is one of the first characters you meet, and an integral part of both the story and your upgrades. The Sculptor finds Sekiro left for dead in a field near the Ashina Reservoir, and nurses him back to health, before providing him with a Prosthetic Arm capable of equipping Prosthetic Tools.

Sculptor Information

The Sculptor is a mysterious, taciturn old man of advanced age who is missing his left arm. He resides within a ruined shrine deep within the mountainous region near the outskirts of Ashina, and seems to devote all of his time to carving statues of the Buddha with wrathful, rather than serene, faces. For reasons known only to himself, he chooses to aid Sekiro on his quest, saving him from certain death at the hands of Genichiro Ashina after the Wolf attempted to spirit away the Divine Heir from his imprisonment.

As Sekiro gets to know the Sculptor throughout the course of his journey, and with the help of a little tea here and there, he begins to discover more about the man's unknown past. Once, the Sculptor was a shinobi without a master who went by the name of 'Orangutan,' and spent his time training amongst the monkeys of the Sunken Valley. However, after losing a dear friend and almost succumbing to his own bloodlust, he was hunted down by his lord, Isshin Ashina, and lost his left arm in the battle that followed.

Though the loss of his arm led to the Sculptor giving up his life as a shinobi: the Prosthetic Arm he gives Sekiro was originally built for him by his close friend Dogen, a master physician who urged the Sculptor to help him perfect his Prosthetic through years of training and iterating on the device. Sometime later, after Dogen passed—or vanished; no one is quite sure—and the flames of rebellion began to stir around Ashina, it seems that the Sculptor retreated into the mountains around the castle in order to separate himself from the rest of the world. Now retired to his solitude, with Emma (the adoptive daughter of Dogen) the only soul to ever visit him at the Dilapidated Temple where he now resides, the Sculptor lives out the rest of his days seemingly seeking atonement while being constantly plagued by visions—a sea of endless flames, consuming him and all of Ashina...

• Location: The Sculptor can be found inside of his workshop within the Dilapidated Temple.
  
  
• Progression: The Sculptor does not move from his spot in the Dilapidated Temple until certain circumstances have been met. Note that the player can still install or upgrade prosthetic tools in his absence, with Sekiro performing the modifications himself using the Sculptor's discarded tools.  
  
  
• Combat: Yes; players may kill the Sculptor under specific circumstances. 
  
  
• Rewards: The Sculptor is responsible for fitting and upgrading the various shinobi prosthetic tools found throughout the game. Will provide certain Esoteric Texts as Sekiro gains skill points and acquires new shinobi prosthetics. When given alcohol, the Sculptor will offer new dialogue.

Associated Quests

• Gives Sekiro the Shinobi Esoteric Text after he has acquired at least one Skill Point and the Prosthetic Esoteric Text after he has fitted any three Prosthetic Tools. 

• Will create Prosthetic Tool Upgrades after being given the Mechanical Barrel following Gyoubu Oniwa's defeat. Requires Sen and upgrade materials. 

• If afflicted by Dragonrot and then cured of the sickness, speaking with Emma will reward the player with the Sculptor's favorite "tea"--a bottle of Ashina Sake. The physician will ask you to give the "tea" for the Sculptor, which then rewards you with additional background lore and dialogue once you've done so. (The same occurs if you give the Sculptor Unrefined Sake, Monkey Booze, or Dragonspring Sake, each coming with different opportunities to learn more lore and background info.)

• After obtaining the Divine Dragon's Tears, you will find that the Sculptor is nowhere to be found upon returning to the Dilapidated Temple. Tracking him down (Fujioka the Info Broker and the Old Priestess hint as to where he went) will soon have you encounter a creature called the Demon of Hatred. Note that you will still be able to add and upgrade prosthetic tools to your arsenal after the Sculptor vanishes by interacting with the workbench back in the Dilapidated Temple.
  
  

Dialogue

• When you first encounter him:
  • "So you're awake. Looks like death is not your fate just yet. Some time has passed since I found you: your master still lives but they'll soon make use of his bloodline. The limb you have lost will give way to something more... useful. You'll learn to appreciate its worth. Your death won't come easily."
    
    
• After giving him the Unrefined Sake:
  • "Don't mind if I do. Hmm... ......... ... No, it's damn good. Ahhh!  But it does make my old wounds ache. Yes. And this sake was a favorite... of the man who cut it off. Lord Isshin. ......... He... did it for my sake. Ahhh. I was on the verge of being consumed... ...Shura. Well, whether you believe me or not, that's for you to decide. But you'd do well to beware... Shura's shadow." 
    
    
• After giving him the Ashina Sake:
  • "(Sniffs) This "tea" smells pretty good. Suppose I'll have some. Oh, I needed that... This tea reminds me of Emma's father. Dogen... He was an extraordinary doctor. He was also very well-versed in mechanisms and devices. ...Better put, he was obsessed with mechanisms to the point that it affected his health... He didn't take much else seriously, but I owed him my life... Ah, and we could say that you owe him your life as well. When I lost my left arm, Dogen created that thing... which has now become your left arm. The first version was a complete failure, didn't work at all. So he remade it. Then he remade it again, and again, countless times. (chuckles) He told me I needed to practice with the prosthetic in order to use it properly... So Emma would pester me into carving her spinning tops and other toys. After much...training... of that sort, it came to be called a Shinobi Fang. In other words, that prosthetic arm... is Dogen's legacy. His legacy... Ahh... so much time has passed. ......... While I have abandoned my shinobi ways... That alone, I could not bear to abandon." 
    
    
• After giving him the Monkey Booze:
  • "... Monkey Booze, is it? Haaa! It burns the throat, same as ever. This really brings back memories. I trained in the techniques of the shinobi in the valley where the monkeys dwelled... ... No. There were two of us. We were rogue Shinobi... There was no proper master for the likes of us. That's why we went to the valley. To run, to jump, to clash swords... where one slip would mean your doom. That was how we trained. ... We came to move exactly as monkeys did after a time. I'd drink this Monkey Booze whenever I tired of training. And I'd listen to the howl of my partner's whistling finger while I drank. It was from his unique ring... Whistling through that ring... Would fill the valley with a somber melody. Strangely enough, I enjoyed that sound. I listened to it so often." 
    
    
• After giving him the Dragonspring Sake:
  • "('I brought sake.') Hooh...Dragonspring...? That's fine quality sake. I'll take it then. Now that really hits the spot...There's nothing quite like this. I often drank this with Dogen...Emma would keep our cups filled. ('Have you known Lady Emma for long?') That was a long time ago...I found her on a battlefield. ('...a battlefield.') She crept up slowly towards me, her eyes fixed, unwavering on the rice I held in my hand. It became too much to bear, so I gave it to her. Then she just started following me. After that...........Well a while later...Ashina became a dangerous place for the both of us. Around then Dogen adopted her as his daughter. I suppose it didn't really matter where she ended up. One thing's for sure, she's happier for the fact she wasn't raised by a shinobi." 
    
    
• After presenting the Slender Finger:
  
  • "What's that you have there...Where did you get that finger? ('The Guardian Ape of the Sunkey Valley...I found it in his belly') ... I see... To think it was in the belly of an Ape... Let me see it. I'll fix it to your prosthetic arm."

• Sculptor offers additional dialogue after upgrading the Finger Whistle to the Malcontent:
  "Listen...that finger whistle I've attached to your arm. I'm sure it will play a somber but enjoyable tune. Make sure to use it well."

The Sculptor Story & Lore

• The Sculptor is referred to as "Sekijo," by Hanbei The Undying—a name that was likely given to him in much the same way Isshin of Ashina gave Sekiro his name. The Sculptor is also known as Orangutan (猩々, Shoujou), just as Sekiro is known as Wolf (狼, Ookami); Isshin gives Sekiro his name by condensing One-armed Wolf (隻腕の狼, Sekiwan no Ookami) into Sekiro (隻狼, Sekirou), while Hanbei does the same for the Sculptor, who is also one-armed, by condensing One-armed Orangutan (隻腕の猩々, Sekiwan no Shoujou) into Sekijo (隻猩, Sekijou).
  
  
• Promotional material for the game regarding the Shinobi Prosthetic listed his title as Busshi of Aredera (荒れ寺の仏師, Aredera no Busshi) which means Sculptor of the Dilapidated Temple. Busshi refers specifically to a sculptor of Buddha statues.
  
  
• According the description of the Shinobi Axe of the Monkey, his favored weapon was the black iron axe which would later become the Loaded Axe  prosthetic tool. "Bounding Monkey of the Sunken Valley" being apparently another nickname for Sculptor back when he was the Shinobi Orangutan. 
  
  
• Reading the descriptions of the following items: Slender Finger, Malcontent's Ring, and Malcontent reveal that the Sculptor's partner during the time he trained in the Sunken Valley was a woman who (most likely) went by the codename "Kingfisher,". Though her ultimate fate is known (the Slender Finger is "found in the belly of the Guardian Ape," as per its description), both how this occurred and why the two shinobi went their separate ways (as the Sculptor expresses surprise upon you returning the finger to him), as well as the full extent of their relationship, is still unknown.
  
  • There is a slight quibble with whether or not "Kingfisher," was male or female, as the dialogue spoken by the Sculptor when you give him Monkey Booze refers to his partner as male ("His ring,") while all other mention of Kingfisher refers to him/her as female. In the Japanese dialogue, the Sculptor refers to his partner by ayatsu, (あやつ), which is gender neutral. The slender finger is expressly referred to as the finger of a young woman in both the English and Japanese examine texts. The ring found later on is then referred to as fitting a slender finger, further indicating that his partner was the woman to whom the finger belonged. This seems to simply be an error in translation, and the Monkey Booze dialogue should read 'her ring'. (The dialogue was corrected in Version 1.03)
    
    
• According to dialogue with both Emma and from the Sculptor, we can deduce that it was explicitly the Sculptor who saved a young, orphaned Emma from starvation when the two met during the aftermath of a battle.
  
  
• When afflicted by Dragonrot, Sculptor is adamant about being unable to die from it, hinting that he is aware of his humanity slipping away from him.
  
  
• The Sculptor's byname "Bounding Monkey" (飛猿,  Tobi-zaru or Tobi-saru) may come from "Monkey-like Bounding Man" (猿飛, Saru-tobi), the epithet of Sasuke, a legendary shinobi in the Japanese folklore.

• The Sculptor's missing left arm along with the Shinobi Prosthetic of Sekiro seems to stem from multiple factors.
  
  • The zen buddhism is plentiful of the stories of one-hand monks.
    • Dazu Huike, the second grand-patriarch of zen, is said to cut his own arm in order to show his sincerity to the first patriarch of zen, Bodhidharma
  • It is a clear tribute to Gao from the Phoenix chapter of the manga Phoenix, the master-piece of Osamu Tezuka. He was once a brutal bandit but after his left-hand being cut, he regretted his own sins and became a famed sculptor. In another chapter of the same manga, he reappears as Kurama-tengu, a legendary shinobi-ascetic, who taught martial arts and battle tactics to Minamoto-no "Kuro" Yoshitsune.

Sculptor Notes & Trivia

• Voiced by: Brian Cummings (English), Jin Urayama (Japanese). Jin Urayama is also known for voicing the character Cervantes de Leon in many titles of the Soulcalibur fighting game series.
• Oddly enough, even though the Sculptor has left when the option becomes available: it still costs you money to upgrade your gear using the workbench in the Dilapidated Temple even though you're the only one working on said gear.
  
  

Concept Art

 In-game:

	The Sculptor's necklace.
	The Sculptor's Shine. What was contained within it is no longer there and there is a blood-trail leading away from it.