Onigumo

was a bandit who was rescued by the priestess named Kikyō. He fed his body to yōkai and ultimately became Naraku.

Origins
Onigumo was an evil bandit who betrayed Rasetsu by telling him to go after Kikyō who he didn't reveal was protected by Inuyasha. Thinking the half-demon killed Rasetsu, he made off with the bandit army who accepted him as their new leader. However, Rasetsu survived but lost his eye and tracked down the bandits to an inn. Rasetsu confronted the surprised Onigumo and set the building that he was in a blaze. Rasetsu found that Onigumo had barely survived but gained severe injuries in a fire. To complete his revenge, Rasetsu then had his men throw Onigumo off a cliff to finish him while telling him to find the shard and greet Kikyō. However, Onigumo managed to survive but crippled by the fall.

This set the events of the series in motion, as Kikyō found him, nursed his injuries in a cave, and occasionally, Kikyō's younger sister, Kaede took care of him as well, even though she didn't like doing it. Onigumo originally had difficulties accepting Kikyō's kindness, and told her to forget about the bandit when she visited him, but Kikyō's kindness had also made Onigumo fall for her. Onigumo gave up his body to demons in order to regain his strength, mobility, and power.

Onigumo did that because he desired Kikyō and the Sacred Jewel for himself, while the demons did it because they wished to get rid of Kikyō and obtain the Sacred Jewel. That created the evil half-demon, Naraku who then immediately tricked Inuyasha and Kikyō into becoming enemies so he could have the sacred jewel for even more power than he already had. His deceit led to Kikyō's death and Inuyasha's sealing to the Tree of Ages.

Reborn
When Naraku removed his human heart, he also removed Onigumo's soul in the process, which became Musō. Much later, Musō finally remembered about his past as a bandit and of his time with Kikyō within the cave. Musō was eventually absorbed by Naraku and became part of him again.

Final death
In one of Naraku's final moments, after Inuyasha destroyed his body forever with Meidō Zangetsuha, leaving only his soul due the corrupted jewel, he recalled that Kagome had said the Jewel did not grant his real wish. Naraku's soul recalled that what he really wished for was Kikyō's love, but it seemed that it was not granted to him. Before Kagome's arrow had pierced the jewel, Naraku's soul commented that he wouldn't be able to go where Kikyō had gone. It was presumed that Onigumo's emotions had somehow surfaced within Naraku as he recalled his true wish, thus proving what Kikyō had once stated to Naraku was indeed true: "You've disguised yourself well, but you're still that fugitive human, and who you once were can never be erased".

Naraku's soul was sealed inside the Shikon Jewel after his purification from the material world. In the manga, although it is not directly explained, Naraku's soul was destroyed forever by Inuyasha when he cut the point of light in the darkness inside the Shikon Jewel with Meidō Zangetsuha, which was very clearly the key to kill Naraku and destroy the jewelry evil. In fact, with Inuyasha's attack at that very point, the purity of the Jewel called Naohi annihilated the evil corrupting presence within it, then the Jewel's shimmering and voice completely stopped.

Instead, in the anime version, when Kagome wished for the Jewel to be destroyed, Naraku's soul was purified and went on to the afterlife. The Onigumo part of his soul seemed dominant at that point, and was finally at peace, where the demon half of Naraku's soul presumably separated from Onigumo and went to Hell.

Physical description


Onigumo's most notable feature was a spider mark on his back, even before he became Naraku. The origin of this strange mark is never revealed.

When Onigumo first appears in Kaede's memories, he appears as a pitiful figure; a crippled man covered in disfiguring burn scars and wrapped head to toe in bloody bandages. His nose was burnt off, as well as his lip in the manga. Onigumo's face was masked in wrappings with openings for his mouth and one remaining eye which was bloodshot from his failing health; the veins around Onigumo's green iris almost resembling a dark spider web.

Before his burns, Onigumo was a young man, presumably somewhere from 17 to 20s, with a toned body and long dark black hair. His face is always out of view in the series and his Musō incarnation had no face due to him forgetting his face and identity. The manifestation of Onigumo's soul appears in Chapter 452 wearing the same face as Naraku, but it is unclear if this is his true face.

Personality
During his life, Onigumo was a bitter and misanthropic individual; being both nihilistic and hedonistic. He had no remorse setting up Rasetsu to die to usurp his gang of outlaws and immediately partied at an inn the next day.

Onigumo's incarnation as Muso stated the only thing that mattered in life were wealth, alcohol and sex. Muso said he enjoyed massacring villagers and that he'll kill anyone he feels like.

After becoming crippled and burned, Onigumo became depressed, he was hostile to Kikyo and tried to dissuade her from keeping him alive.

Trivia

 * Onigumo (鬼蜘蛛) can also be translated as the, a particular species of orb-weaving spider.
 * It was Naraku's actions that brought some sense of irony with Onigumo's words of how he would have liked to see Kikyō "apprehensive and frightened," a facial expression that was made as Naraku struck down Kikyō, as he was disguised as Inuyasha, though Musō, Onigumo's later reincarnated form, expressed a large amount of anger and regret as he recalled that bitter memory as Kikyō had died from such a mortal wound due to Naraku's miscalculation.
 * As Musō, while Onigumo did remember about the Shikon Jewel, he apparently did not seem to desire the jewel as much as he did with Kikyō, which implied that Onigumo saw the Shikon Jewel as merely a bonus and his main objective was Kikyō.

Media appearances
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Manga

 * Chapter 65
 * Chapter 66
 * Chapter 71
 * Chapter 72
 * Chapter 78
 * Chapter 94
 * Chapter 121
 * Chapter 171
 * Chapter 172
 * Chapter 174
 * Chapter 209
 * Chapter 210
 * Chapter 211
 * Chapter 281
 * Chapter 308
 * Chapter 377
 * Chapter 452
 * Chapter 530

Anime
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 * Episode 20
 * Episode 21
 * Episode 23
 * Episode 24
 * Episode 33
 * Episode 40
 * Episode 41
 * Episode 47
 * Episode 70
 * Episode 71
 * Episode 87
 * Episode 88
 * Episode 124
 * Episode 148
 * Episode 150
 * Episode 2 (FA)
 * Episode 21 (FA)
 * Episode 25 (FA)