Tsukiyomi

was a human woman who also was a samurai who once hunted and fought yōkai to exterminate them. At her side was a daiyōkai, her love, who changed his name to Hoshiyomi because of her and the love he bore for her.

Together the two fought a variety of monstrous beasts and in the course of these battles the priestess Tsukiyomi was forced to use immense amounts of her spiritual powers to defeat them. This use of her power slowly drained Tsukiyomi's very own life force weakening her greatly bringing her closer to death each time. Hoshiyomi, in an effort to protect Tsukiyomi from draining herself by using her powers too often, had a demonic weapon created, the Naginata of Kenkon. A weapon forged using the essence of a great number of demons. But the Naginata of Kenkon is too strong, and begins to possess Hoshiyomi. In an effort to save him, Tsukiyomi attempted to seal Hoshiyomi away until she could purify the evil weapon. Tsukiyomi successfully separated the Naginata into two swords, the Ken blade and the Kon blade, and the blades far away from one another, but at the cost of a tremendous amount of her spiritual powers and ultimately her life before she could free Hoshiyomi.

Hoshiyomi is released when a sacred barrier around Mount Hakurei is dispersed, allowing him to find the Kon blade. He seeks the Ken blade, which was held by the Hōjō family. Akitoki Hōjō bears the Ken blade to the Furai shrine at Shoun Falls where the blade can be purified.

After recombining the two blades back into the Naginata of Kenkon, Hoshiyomi is confronted by the spirit of Tsukiyomi whom he blames for betraying him. She tries to explain what had happened, but Hoshiyomi is too consumed with rage. In the end, Tsukiyomi replenishes Kagome's spiritual power so that she and Inuyasha are able to overcome Hoshiyomi and the Naginata of Kenkon.

Powers & Abilities

 * Spiritual Powers: Tsukiyomi has a wide range of spiritual powers. However, Tsukiyomi herself was not a miko, she served as a samurai (She can be seen as the opposite to Midoriko who was a miko with a samurai-like fighting style). Nevertheless, she has extensive knowledge of spiritual techniques, and is also quite powerful. However, unlike real miko, such as Kikyō or Tsubaki, Tsukiyomi does not appear to have a vast reserve of spiritual power. Much like Kaede, exerting her spiritual powers beyond a certain point causes her extreme physical exhaustion. It is this vulnerability that motivates her demon partner and lover, Hoshiyomi, to seek more power to protect her, which ironically proves to be the undoing of both. Eventually, casting a powerful spell to stop Hoshiyomi costs her her life.
 * Purification: Tsukiyomi had the ability to purify demonic auras, which she used to combat demons. Her chosen weapon was a katana. It is suggested that Tsukiyomi at one time indeed had the power to purify the Naginata of Kenkon, but after years of extensive demon fighting, she had been weakened to the point where she was unable to destroy the blade's evil power completely.
 * Purification Wave: Tsukiyomi is able to release waves of spiritual energy by crossing her arms across her chest and reciting and incantation, then thrusting her arms outstretched towards her opponent. It is powerful enough to obliterate a multitude of ordinary demons. Utilizing this ability drains her vitality and thus is used as an apparent last resort.
 * Sealing: Tsukiyomi was able to seal demons and evil with her spiritual immense powers along with a pentacle talisman. She would recite the incantation, and then the demon would be sealed into her talisman. After her death, the seal would be broken.
 * Separation Spell: After realizing that the Naginata of Kenkon's demonic aura was too great for her to touch it, Tsukiyomi elects to separate the two blades of the Naginata. Lifting both pieces off the ground, they morph into spheres of light and are sent to two sacred peaks, Mount Fuji and Mount Hakurei. The immense strain of separating the blades and transporting them such a great distance completely wiped out Tsukiyomi's remaining vitality, and she disintegrated into dust moments after this spell's use.
 * Lending Spiritual Power: Tsukiyomi's soul is able to lend spiritual power to Kagome, long after Tsukiyomi has died. Kagome is then able to undo rituals preformed by Hoshiyomi around the temple. This is something Midoriko is also able to do to assist Kikyō in the latter's goal of using the Shikon no Tama to defeat Naraku.

Trivia

 * Tsukiyomi's name is similar to that of the moon god,.
 * Her seiyū, Yuri Amano, also provided voiceover work for Mermaid Forest, which was based on Rumiko Takahashi's series.