Moniker
Although the series began in 1996, the character known only as "InuYasha's Mother" remained nameless until the release of InuYasha the Movie III: Tenka Hadou no Ken, which happened 10 years later in 2006. She is referred to on printed material and in the credits of this particular movie as "Izayoi", although a few fans may argue that since this name only appears in the anime, she still remains nameless in the manga. I, however, take this name to be canon for both as I see no reason for Takahashi to giver her a different name should it ever come up in the manga.Although at first I thought the name was a bit strange, I have come to like it quite a bit for being so different. Far from the unoriginal and common Japanese names like "Sakura" or "Ai", Izayoi seems to be rarely used in Japan today.
Izayoi is spelled only one way in Japanese (shown above) and only one way in English. However, the pronunciation is slightly different depending on the language you hear it in, which is to be expected. The Japanese voice actors pronounce it ee-za-yo-eh. The first "i" in the word is hard, sounding like an "e", while the last "i" is soft, making an "eh" sound. The English dub pronounces it slightly different, saying ee-zai-yoy.
Translated literally, Izayoi means "the sixteenth night", which refers to the lunar phase known most commonly
as the Full Moon. (3) There seems to be some sort of significance to the meaning of
Izayoi in regards to the storyline. There are quite a few references to moons in the series, take for example
that Izayoi's character first appears in front of a large full moon or the fact that InuYasha was born on the night of a lunar eclipse. (4)
The word Izayoi is composed of three individual kanji : juu, roku, and ya, respectivly. The first two kanji, juu (6) and roku (10), are numbers that when added together give us 16 (juuroku). The last kanji, ya (night or evening), completes the name and gives us the final meaning : the sixteenth night.
Because Izayoi remains unnamed during the series, she is most often known by variations of the word mother. The North America release simply uses "InuYasha's Mother" through out the series. However, each character seems to use a different variation of the word in the original Japanese release, which corresponds to his or her speaking style.
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