Sequoia



Sequoia (ひいらぎ) is one of Lexaeus's weapons in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. It can be upgraded to Sequoia+.

Design
The Sequoia’s handle is blue-grey with a bronze spike in its pommel and a red and yellow spike on its tip. The blade and counterweight are one in the same on this Axe Sword, a result of the weapon’s peculiar shape. The Sequoia is shaped like a backward “S” that goes through the spike on the tip of the handle, curls over it—creating the counterweight—and then abruptly widens and curves in the opposite direction, creating the blade. The weapon is equally colored in red and black, and the edges are mostly red. The outer edge of both the counterweight and the blade is lined by silver spikes of varying sizes.

Etymology
Holly Osmanthus is mentioned twice in the Kojiki, the oldest surviving historical record of Japan. The first mention, under the name hihiragi, is in connection with the name of a kami, Hihiragi-no-sono-hana-madzumi-no-kami (translated by Chamberlain as "Deity Waiting-to-see-the-Flowers-of-the-Holly"), with the word madzumi (rarely seen) being used to describe the plant's characteristic of its flowers rarely blossoming, as interpreted by the scholar Tominobu. Its second mention occurs during a passage referring to how a holly wood spear, made of material from the tree and spanning "eight fathoms long", was presented to the Prince Yamato-take by the Emperor prior to him being sent to subdue the East.