Izayoi

Izayoi is the mother of the title character InuYasha. Very little is known about Izayoi as she died before the events of the series takes place and because InuYasha rarely speaks about her, most likely because he is still saddened by her death. At some point she met and fell in love with the Inu no Taishou, who returned her affection. Although the two form a relationship it is never specifically stated if the two were married or officially mated. When the Inu no Taishou died she was forced to raise their son InuYasha alone. She was sad that InuYasha would be discriminated by both humans and demons for his hanoyu heritage. It is unknown when she dies or what causes her death, but she died when InuYasha was fairly young.

Inuyasha the Movie 3- Swords of an Honorable Ruler goes into more detail about Izayoi. She is daughter of a feudal lord. She is held captive by the samurai Takemaru. Takemaru plans to use her to lure the Inu no Taishou into trap to kill the demon lord. While Izayoi tells Takemaru to leave in order to spare him from the dog demon's wrath. Takemaru says he loved her and kills her but not before she gives birth to InuYasha. The dog demon gets through Takemaru's men only to discover his beloved dead, fortunately he uses the Tenseiga to revive her. The Inu no Taishou gives Izayoi the Robe of the Fire Rat and then orders to escape with their son, whom he names InuYasha. She follows the dog demon's instructions and leaves, unfortunately her lover was already injured badly in a earlier battle with the dragon demon Ryukotsusei. The injuries weakened the Inu no Taishou enough to when palace collapses on him and Takemaru, that he dies along with Takemaru. This sets up Izayoi to raise InuYasha on her own.

InYasha's mother's name is never given in the manga which opens up the debate of rather her true name is Izayoi. Sesshomaru InuYasha's elder brother apparently knew Izayoi as he was able to uses a yokai to make a perfect duplicate of her in order to trick InuYasha into revealing the whereabouts of their father's sword the Tessaiga. Sesshomaru blames Izayoi for his father's death, claiming that she made the Inu no Taishou weak which lead to his death. The manga never elaborates on Sesshomaru's claim, however the third InuYasha movie attempts fill the gap. The Inu no Taishou went to rescue Izayoi right after his battle with Ryukotsusei despite having life threatening injuries. The wounds ultimately weaken him enough to where he is killed by a collapsing palace something he most likely would have survived had he not been injured. Since the events of the third film are never mentioned in the manga they are not exactly canon. Sesshomaru could have just meant had the Inu no Taishou never loved Izayoi he would have been strong enough to kill Ryukotsusei.