The images Ichigo witnesses while walking on the Irazusando path are very important as they shall be explained later on, in the remaining seasons. We would be very grateful if you could rewatch the Irazusando memories and what happens to Ichigo's eyes. Rather than being 'sacred' as it seems, the pathway of Irazusando is actually 'cursed', but we did not tell the rest of the animation team this, because we felt they would consider it too dark. The training ground is supposed to give an impression of a very old, abandoned, decrepit and terrifying shrine. As the story would become very 'scary', we somehow managed to balance the terrifying aspect with 'beauty'.
Kubo-Sensei made sure that we could depict the Irazusando road as an 'Inka hall'. 'Inka' means a philosophical 'seal' in which obtaining the seal is considered to be the highest form of understanding of one's innermost soul. 'Inka' translates to 'transmission' in which a student receives his teacher's philosophies. Here, Ichigo's zen buddhist teacher is the monk, and Ichigo obtains the seal from Ichibe Hyosube. The status of Ichigo's soul has been uplifted. In the same context as the training area under Urahara's shop, the path of Irazusando is underneath the monk's sitting ground. As one walks through the Irazusando road, they are not supposed to look at the stone path, but focus on the torii-gate instead. Ichigo suffered because his gaze was on the stone. The heavier his steps became, the torii-gate turned whiter and whiter. Originally, the torii-gate was black, the essence of Ichibe Hyosube. The rain that falls outside makes the body decay, so if Ichigo had strayed off the road, his body would have rotted away.
