One of the most precious discoveries I made while watching Letters from Iwo Jima last night was the "thousand-stitch" belt, which is worn by Japanese men like a cummerbund to protect them from being killed. This is usually made for them by their mothers or wives, and I presume that each belt literally has a thousand stitches (obsession-compulsion as magic).

Could this be the origin of the bakus used by the Tadtad, the Pulajanes, and Haring Bakal?