InuYasha by Name

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To get a grip on who InuYasha is as a character, you should really know about the roots and origins of his name.  I've seen a lot of permutations, and even quite a few varying meanings for the elements of his name.  But, with a little leg work, I think I've gotten a really good handle on his "handle". :D

The name InuYasha is actually a concept in 2, possibly 3, parts.  As you will see in the data that follows, there are three kanji pictograms that comprise his name.  

The first kanji, 犬 - "inu", is a no-brainer.  Nearly every InuYasha fan on the planet knows that this one means "dog".  I don't think there is too much more explanation needed for it.

The second kanji, 夜 - "ya", nominally means "clear night" or "bright night".  The nights that InuYasha changes into a human on the night of a new moon might have something to do with this particular pictogram's use.

The third kanji, 叉 - "sya"

Now this is where it starts getting interesting.  This figure represents a division in paths or a fork.  InuYasha is all this and a bag of chips.  Between his human side and his demon side, he is indeed the juncture of different paths.

The last two kanji seem to be related to him, but they don't have a real feel of meaning.  Let's go further.

If we take the last two characters together, we get a word:  "yasya".  Now I've seen InuYasha's name written as "Inuyasya" before, but I was not sure that this was accurate.  Turns out that going by pronunciation only, yes, Inuyasya is correct.  But, if you go by transliterated spelling, it would be "Inuyashiya", which is very close to what most of us know.  Sound familiar?

As I discovered about a year ago, VIZ does its translations based on WRITTEN forms of the words, not how they are actually pronounced.  An excellent example of this is the name of his sword.  If you spell its name, it comes out Te-tsu-saiga.  But that "tsu" is not supposed to be pronounced at all.  When the small-sized "tsu" appears before a consonant, you are supposed to draw out the sound of that consonant.  Therefore, the correct pronunciation is "Tessaiga", NOT "Tetsusaiga".  

So, is it "Inuyashiya" or "Inuyasya"?  Well, I don't know for sure, but I suspect the difference in pronunciation has something to do with different dialects, as so often happens in languages.  To be certain, I replayed one of my DVDs in original Japanese mode and listened carefully to how both male and female characters pronounced his name.

For all intents and purposes, it is pronounced "Inuyasha".

So, let's get back to the kanji aspects.

The word "yasya" refers to a devil or a demon in Buddhist mythology.  Interestingly, it is a demon that can be found in both good or evil versions.  This makes me easily think of InuYasha's two sided heritage, and the evil side he both desires and yet dislikes.  Add to this the story of the yaksha who was in love and pining for his lady love (see below), and you get even closer.

This would explain why InuYasha's name is hyphenated in some editions as "Inu-Yasha", or as written as it appears on the American editions: "InuYasha".  Writing it thus delineates the two words that make up his name.

Similarly, I had seen one interview with R. Takahashi that had stated that she chose his name based on the fact that "yasha" was used by gang members to make them sound tough.  She wanted him to be presented as a "street thug" and so felt that "InuYasha" would accomplish that end.

It is here that we can conclude that the meaning of InuYasha's name has more than one meaning.

For RT, his name means that he's a  dog youkai who is like a streetwise gang thug.  

But the deeper meaning of his name is that he is a dog youkai who is possessed of more than one side to his nature, and thus more than one path his life could take.  He himself stands at that crossroads.

What follows are my references, and I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Kanji definitions obtained at the Japanese Kanji Dictionary website:  www.saiga-jp.com/cgi-bin/dic.c…


犬 4 strokes "inu"

Sample meanings: a dog, a spy

Usages
Sound ケン "ken"
盲導犬(もうどうけん "moudouken") / a seeing-eye dog, a guide dog
Sound いぬ "inu"
子犬(こいぬ "koinu") / a puppy, a pup, a whelp
犬小屋(いぬごや "inugoya") / a doghouse, a kennel

夜  8 strokes "ya"

Sample meanings: night, evening

Usages
Sound ヤ "ya"-
徹夜(てつや "tetsuya") / vigil, sit up all night
十五夜(じゅうごや "juugoya") / a night with a full moon, the fifteenth night of a lunar month
Sound よ "yo"-
夜中(よなか "yonaka") / midnight, the middle of the night
Midnight = 真夜中(まよなか "mayonaka"),Late at night = 深夜(しんや "shinya")
Sound よる "yoru"-
夜遅くまで(よるおそくまで "yoruosokumade") / till late at night,
far into the night.

叉   3 strokes "sya"

Sample meanings: a fork, a crotch, nip

Usages
Sound サ "sa"-  
三叉路(さんさろ "sansaro") / a junction of three roads
Sound シャ "shiya" pronounced "sya" -  
夜叉(やしゃ) / Yasya, Yaksa, the devil which embraced Buddhism
Sound また- "mata"-
三つ叉(みつまた "mitsumata") / a three-pronged fork, a trident

And From Wikipedia:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaksha

Yakshas

General character
MathuraYaksha, 1st-2nd century CE

In Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist mythology, the yaksha has a dual personality. On the one hand, a yaksha may be an inoffensive nature-fairy, associated with woods and mountains; but there is a much darker version of the yaksha, which is a kind of cannibalistic ogre, ghost or demon that haunts the wilderness and waylays and devours travelers, similar to the raksasas.

In Kalidasa's poem Meghaduta, for instance, the yaksha narrator is a romantic figure, pining with love for his missing beloved. By contrast, in the didactic Hindu dialogue of the Yakshaprasnah ("questions of the Yaksha"), a dangerous cannibalistic Yaksha, the tutelary spirit of a lake, threatens the life of the epic hero Yudhisthira.

The yakshas may have originally been the tutelary gods of forests and villages, and were later viewed as the steward deities of the earth and the wealth buried beneath.

In Indian art, male yakshas are portrayed either as fearsome warriors or as portly, stout and dwarf-like. Female yakshas, known as yakshinis, are portrayed as beautiful young women with happy round faces and full breasts and hips.

In the state of Kerala, in South India, Yakshis are depicted as vampire enchantresses.

Yakshas in Buddhism

In Buddhist countries yakshas are known under the following names: Chinese Pinyin: 夜叉 yè chā, Japanese: Yasha (夜叉?), Burmese: ba-lu, Tibetan: (gnod sbyin) Thai: (yak).

In Buddhist mythology, the yakshas are the attendants of Vaisravana, the Guardian of the Northern Quarter, a beneficent god who protects the righteous. The term also refers to the Twelve Heavenly Generals who guard the Buddha of Medicine (Sanskrit: Bhaisajya; Tibetan: (sangs rgyas sman bla); Chinese: 藥師如來 yàoshīrúlái, Japanese: 薬師如来 yakushi nyorai)
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Interestingly, the poem Meghaduta mentioned above is a poem that is available translated online(www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sha/s…).  In that translation, the lovelorn yaksha is imprisoned for a long time, and he worries about the welfare of his sweetheart.  He asks a passing cloud to bear a message to her of encouragement and faith for his speedy return.  The poem is one of great longing and romance.

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shinnokurayami's avatar

I know this is really old and probably won't get much attention/answer the user is probably not even on DA anymore but I'll give it a shot lol.


I was contemplating Kouga's name which means steel fang. However hagane means steel and kiba means fang. But I found other words that use similar kanji in the first half like koutetsu the "kou" is the same kanji as hagane and gajou the "ga" uses the same kanji as kiba.