(げんぶ) is named differently than the other shijin; rather than directly describing a color and animal, i.e. Black Tortoise, his name is written as “gen” , meaning dark, occult, or mysterious, and “bu” , meaning warrior.
His name comes from Chinese mythology, after the Taoist god Xuan Wu (玄武). Xuan Wu was a prince who lived in prehistoric northern China. He lived in the mountains, far from civilization, where he studied Taoism as an ascetic.
He learned that to achieve full divinity, he would have to purge both his mind and body of all impurities. While his mind had become enlightened, he still had to eat earthly food, and so sin remained in his stomach and his intestines.
So he cut them out and washed them in a river to purify them. $GENBU is the dark mystical warrrior in all of us, cutting out our losses and dusted bags from within in search of the purest moon 🌙