Kikyō

Kikyou (桔梗, Kikyō Kanji Meaning "Bellflower") was a Miko (巫女, lit. "Shrine Maiden") from a small Japanese village during the Sengoku Jidai period. During her life, she was a calm and reserved priestess who rigorously defended the village from yōkai who would otherwise wreak havoc on the tiny community.

Summary


During their youth, Kikyo and her younger sister Kaede attended Yōkai Taijiya (lit. 'demon exterminators'), a school for priestesses. There, she met Tsubaki, who would later become a dark priestess. Kikyo's great spiritual power and purity became well known, and thus the Jewel of Four Souls (四魂の玉, Shikon no Tama) was entrusted to her, much to Tsubaki's dismay. It became Kikyo's duty to spend her life guarding the Shikon no Tama, protecting it from the wicked humans and demons who sought it for their own selfish means. However, her duty as the Jewel's protector also meant that she could not show any signs of weakness, lest demons or evil men took advantage of her.

Kikyo spent most of her time killing off demons who tried to steal the Jewel. However, the one demon that she refused to kill was Inuyasha, because she sensed that he was only half demon, with an abnormal life of solitude much like herself. She also tended to Onigumo, a paralyzed thief with terrible burn scars all over his body.

Later on, Kikyo confronted Inuyasha and told him about how she had to hide her real self in order to protect the Jewel, and Inuyasha sympathized with her. Eventually, Inuyasha and Kikyo fell in love. Sometime during this period, Tsubaki attempted to attack Kikyo, assuming that she was weaker after falling in love. However, Kikyo reflected the curse back to Tsubaki, and then ordered her to leave.

Kikyo and Inuyasha sailed to an island that only appears every fifty years. Kikyo suggested using the Shikon Jewel to turn Inuyasha into a human, which Inuyasha agreed to.

Had that plan succeeded, the Jewel would have been purified and ceased to exist, Kikyo would be relieved of her duty as the Guardian of the Jewel, and she would be free to live as a normal human being with Inuyasha. She promised to deliver the Jewel to Inuyasha on a certain day. However, the thief Onigumo, who desired both Kikyo and a corrupted Jewel, decided to use that day to gain control of both. He offered his body to a horde of demons, and the demon shape-shifter Naraku was born.

Naraku (disguised as Inuyasha) struck down Kikyo, and then attacked Inuyasha while disguised as Kikyo.



Thinking that Inuyasha had betrayed her, Kikyo used the last of her strength and spiritual powers and abilities to shoot a sealing arrow at Inuyasha and pinned him to a tree, which effectively sealed him to the Sacred Tree (or Tree of Ages) for fifty years, as he was left in an eternal sleep. She then ordered her younger sister Kaede to burn her body along with the sacred Shikon Jewel, so that its immeasurable power would never be used for evil again. Unfortunately, because Kikyo was full of bitter hatred at the time of her death, the sacred Shikon Jewel that was entrusted to her also became corrupted.

Resurrection
Fifty years later, an Oni Witch named Urasue stole Kikyo's ashes and graveyard soil to create a new body out of clay and bones. However, Urasue was disturbed to find out that the body she created would not entirely animate without its spirit and soul. She quickly realized that it was because her spirit and soul had already been reincarnated into another body, and that Kagome's soul, being the reincarnation of Kikyo, was needed in order to completely animate Kikyo's clay body. When the lifeless body was infused with Kagome's soul, Kikyo was revived. Having yet to discover what truly happened fifty years before, her immediate priority was to kill Inuyasha. She nearly succeeded in this task until Kagome's body began recalling the soul back to her own body, which effectively stopped Kikyo from completing this task. Kikyo managed to retain a part of her soul, and thus was able to escape into the mist, where she was pursued by Inuyasha. Quickly thereafter, Kikyo fell off a nearby cliff, presumed dead by the group.

Kikyo was seen alive, residing in a small village while tending to the wounded and curing the sick. She was faced with an internal struggle with what she had become, not a living woman, nor a dead person, but the walking dead. She was loved by the children and the villagers respected her. However, a curious monk sensed something abnormal about the resurrected priestess and intended to find out her true nature. As a means to sustain her clay body, she had to absorb the souls of deceased women. In order to achieve this, Kikyo made use of her soul collectors (Shini-dama-chuu). She was confronted by this monk when absorbing souls into her body. The monk tried to lay her soul to rest by attacking her with one of his spiritual demons, however, Kikyo used her spiritual power to blast the demon to pieces. The monk was killed by a flying piece of the demons flesh that struck him in the neck. Before he died, the monk asked Kikyo why she continued to wander this earth as the walking dead. He told her that time continues for the living, but it does not continue for the dead, thus the dead do not belong in such a place, and such an existence is tragic. On many occasions, Kikyo had tried to bring Inuyasha with her to the Netherworld. On one occasion, she paralyzed Kagome with her touch and bound her to a tree with her soul collectors. Inuyasha arrived, but could not hear nor could he see Kagome due to the fact that she was invisible. Kikyo told Inuyasha that he must despise her for what she had become, referring to herself as the walking dead. Inuyasha told her that it was her spirit that he cared for, not what appearence she had taken on, and Kikyo manipulated Inuyasha into coming with her to the Netherworld. Kikyo almost succeeded in her task to die with Inuyasha, however, Kagome was able to reach Inuyasha with her voice. Kikyo left the scene with her soul collectors, telling Inuyasha to remember the feel of her lips against his, for it was real.

Kikyo resided in a temple, healing the wounds of soldiers. When men from the palace asked Kikyo to heal their master's disease, Kikyo unwillingly accompanied them to the palace, only to discover a dark aura around the castle. Kikyo was disturbed to find that the master of the castle was already dead from the neck and down. As it turned out, the master of the castle was the man who once called himself Onigumo before he was born as Naraku. Kikyo tried to leave the palace, but couldn't and thus, Naraku erected a barrier that prevented her Shikigami from accessing it, which rendered her powerless. Naraku set her up to battle Kagome, however, when Naraku gave her a soul attached with a tainted Shikon Jewel shard, she instantly purified the Jewel and struck Naraku's puppet. When Kagome arrived, she was attacked by Kikyo, and lost custody of her Shikon Jewel shards. Once Inuyasha arrived to save Kagome, she left while laughing at InuYasha, as he could not fight a woman he once and still loved. Kikyo went back to the palace, and broke the barrier around it. She willingly gave Naraku the shards and revealed to him that she knew that he was a half demon before she departed. Kikyo, now finally felt free from what she was not able to be before, stated that once Naraku gained all of the shards of the sacred Shikon Jewel, she would purify him along with the Jewel and send his evil and corrupt spirit to the Netherworld.

When Naraku confronted Kikyo again and threatened to kill her, she announced that he could not kill her, as Naraku still had the heart of Onigumo and Onigumo loved her with all his wicked heart. Due to this fact, Naraku sent a giant soul collector to steal the souls that Kikyo used in order to survive, however, Kikyo managed to escape and Inuyasha managed to save her.

Throughout the story, Kikyo would always use Onigumo's lingering affections towards her as an excuse for Naraku not willing to kill her face to face, however, when Naraku got rid of his human heart, he confronted Kikyo and tried to kill her, but stopped after he found that he was much weaker without his human heart.

Later, after a failed attempt by Naraku to kill her at Mt. Hakurei, she was seen with two Shikigami that had human form. They were named Kochou and Asuka and aided her in tasks that she could not perform due to the spread of miasma within her body. Kochou and Asuka assisted Kikyo by bringing Kagome to a waterfall, where Kikyo's severely injured and weakened body lay submerged under the water. They told Kagome that she was the only one able to save Kikyo, being her reincarnation, and stated that by rubbing some of the soil from Kikyo's grave site into her wounds, she would successfully save Kikyo's life. Kagome agreed to perform this task (mostly doing it for Inuyasha's sake), and in doing so, witnessed in a dream the events that occurred between Inuyasha and Kikyo fifty years previously. She passed out during the process of purifying the wounds Naraku had inflicted upon Kikyo, but seemingly saved Kikyo by temporarily purifying the wounds in Kikyo's chest.

Later, the wounds that Kagome had purified with the use of her exceptionally strong and powerful purification powers and abilities reopened, causing Kikyo's body to slowly decay. Kikyo fused soul of Midoriko, the all-powerful priestess who created the sacred Shikon Jewel, into her own body to completely heal the wounds Naraku inflicted upon her back at Mount Hakurei. In doing so, she fully restored her full strength and spiritual powers so that she could defeat Naraku before she died. Inuyasha arrived to witness the wounds in Kikyo's chest healing. Kikyo informed Inuyasha that Naraku could not be killed with the Tetsusaiga. She also informed him that the only way to completely destroy Naraku was by purifying both his soul and the Shikon Jewel from the world forever. Kohaku, arriving at the scene by Midoriko's will, overheard what Kikyo told Inuyasha and decided to follow Kikyo in order to aid Kikyo's plan to defeat Naraku.

Kikyo continued to travel in search of Naraku with the intent of purifying him along with the Jewel. In order to complete this task, the Jewel would have to become fully restored, and she intended to use the Jewel Shard in Kohaku's neck as a tactic to defeat Naraku. She allowed Kohaku to travel by her side while keeping the Jewel in Kohaku's neck pure and untouchable to Naraku. They encountered Koga, and Kikyo attempted to fire her arrow at Koga's legs. However Koga was able to escape completely unscathed. Kikyo told Koga that her plan was to use the entire Shikon Jewel to defeat Naraku, however Koga seemed unaffected by her words. They later encountered Sango and Kagome, while Miroku and Inuyasha battled Naraku. Miroku opened his Wind tunnel and in doing so, sucks in an enormous amount of miasma. Miroku was near death, however Kikyo was able to save him by absorbing the miasma into her body which became purified.

They encountered Naraku's spiderwebs during their travels together. He used these spiderwebs as a way to contaminate Kikyo, greatly weakening her. However, Kikyo had already realized Naraku's plan and remained under her own incredibly strong and powerful spiritual barrier. She attempted to save a child from the contaminated webs and in doing so, she contaminated herself. She placed a barrier over Kohaku in order to protect him from Naraku's reach, however, due to the fact that she was entangled in Naraku's spiderwebs, she became defiled and the barrier over Kohaku was broken by one of Naraku's incarnations. She told Kagome, who had also been defiled by Naraku's webs, that the only way to save her life was by acquiring the longbow from the sacred Mount Azusa, but only if it is truly what she wished. Kagome travelled to Mount Azusa, where she was tested by an illusion cast upon her by the Spirit Guardian of the sacred mountain. After passing the test, Kagome and Inuyasha returned to find that Naraku had already captured Kikyo. The strong connection between Kagome and Kikyo was shown when Kagome was successfully able to tell what Kikyo is thinking, and followed her commands by shooting her with the longbow and arrow she had obtained from Mount Azusa. Kikyo, shot by the sacred longbow from Mount Azusa, fired the sacred arrow from her own body at Naraku. The Jewel was purified before it entered Naraku's body, but Naraku successfully contaminated the Shikon Jewel before he left the scene, rendering Kikyo completely powerless and on the verge of death. The wounds Kikyo sustained from saving Miroku from Naraku's miasma spread, and she lay motionless in the arms of Inuyasha for one final kiss before she died and bade Inuyasha and his friends a final farewell with her spirit which flew off into the twinkling stars.

After her death, a speck of purity from her spiritual power remained in the defiled Shikon Jewel. It prevented Naraku from taking the last shard out of Kohaku's neck, until it was sucessfully defiled by Magatsuhi, who sealed Kagome's spiritual powers to prevent her from fully purifying the shard in his neck. He was possessed by this demon and leaft in order to give Naraku the last shard, which was forcing him to relive what happened in his past through an illusion in his sleep. While in this illusion, one of Kikyo's soul-collectors lead Kohaku to a cabin where his sister and Miroku were safe. He was sucessfully brought out of this illusion and released from Magatsuhi's possesion by the speck of purity within the shard in his neck. He attempted to remove the demon from his shard by diving into an abyss below, but in the end his Jewel shard was taken by Naraku. Essentially it was believed that he was dead, until the speck of purity within the fully restored Jewel withdrew from the crystal marble sphere to enter Kohaku's body. Kohaku was saved by Kikyo's light at the expense of a fully restored corrupted sacred Shikon Jewel.

Kikyo's Name Also Means:

Unchanging love due to evidence of its other meaning of Chinese Bellflower.

Reincarnation as Kagome
Fifteen-year-old Kagome Higurashi, the main protagonist of "InuYasha" and a priestess just like Kikyo, is the modern reincarnation of Kikyo's spirit. The Tree of Ages is in her backyard, as is the Bone-eater's Well, which becomes the gateway between her time and the Sengoku-Jidai (Feudal Era of Japan, literally Warring States Era) approximately five hundred years ago. She is able to free Inuyasha from the Sacred Tree of Ages to which he had been bound by Kikyo, has the spiritual power and ability to purify the Sacred Jewel of Four Souls and fires sacred arrows from her longbow.

She unwillingly helps revive Kikyo into human form when an ogress named Urasue forcibly pulls out a small portion of her spirit, filled with the memories and emotions of Kikyo that still lingered inside Kagome.

Aliases

 * Witch (by Naraku)
 * Lady Kikyo
 * Sister Kikyo (by Kaede)
 * Priestess/Miko
 * Lovely Kikyo (by Onigumo)
 * Woman (by demons)
 * Big Sister (by Kaede)
 * The Woman Who "Killed" Me (by Inuyasha once)
 * Wench (by Tsubaki)
 * Kikyo-sama

Appearance


Kikyo always wears the traditional dress of a Miko, which has remained essentially unchanged to this day, except for the lack of the archaic slit-shoulder seam. She has pale white skin. Her hair is long, black, straight, and reaches pass her waist when let down. She also appears very tall (in her past life, young Kaede is about half her height). Her hair is often loose of in a loose hair ribbon, and she has brown eyes (blue in the manga).

Kikyo wears a white jacket with sode-kukuri (cords) through the sleeves and the open shoulders similar to Inuyasha's and Jaken's. Strings called muna-himo are attached to each lapel, and are tied in front to keep the garment closed.
 * Jacket

Kosode (literally: "little sleeve") were originally worn as underwear but by the Kamakura era, became accepted outer layer garments; more dressy with less sculpted sleeves. Kosode of the Heian and Kamakura Periods were always white. Kikyo's kosode would be very much like a modern Kendo or Naginata Keikogi, with the sleeve fitting somewhat closely like a modern loose shirt, and extending to slightly past the wrist.
 * Kosode

The slits in the side of the hakama show the white kosode, and the openings at the sleeves and shoulders of the hitoe (jacket) show it as well. This is a deliberate fashion effect.

Kikyo wears bright red nagabakama (very long hakama), which include the small board at the lower back.
 * Nagabakama

On her feet, Kikyo wears common tabi (socks) and rice straw sandals.
 * Tabi

Kikyo wears a red Obi, or belt, over the other garments.
 * Obi

Powers, Abilities and Techniques
Kikyo carries a traditional red Saigu-Yumi (literally Priestess Bow) and a quiver of Hamaya ("evil-destroying arrow" or "demon-breaking arrow"). She has the power and ability to imbue each arrow with great spiritual power that has destroyed, disabled or sealed any Yokai or other evil to date.


 * Sacred Arrow: The sacred arrow is an arrow used by high-level priestesses like Kikyo and Arrow.jpge. It can easily break through barriers, destroy spells, and obliterate demons when struck.
 * Purification Abilities: These powers and abilities come in a variety of different forms when used by Kikyo. When she was ressurected, she used her purification powers to strike Urasue as well as Inuyasha with light purple-colored glowing bolts of purification. These powers killed Urasue and injured Inuyasha during this occasion. On another occasion, when Kikyo and Kagome were trapped alone in a cave together, Kikyo used these abilities to create a large glowing orb of light purple-colored light from her hands in order to destroy insects that were attacking Kagome.
 * Archery: Coming from an era of endless wars, Kikyo has fully mastered the power and ability of archery. She can easily shoot enemies from long or short distances and has an uncanny power and ability to strike demons from much longer and greater distances.
 * Arrow of Sealing:"The Arrow of Sealing" is a sacred arrow that places a demon under a spell of eternal sleep. It is said that these arrows are meant to seal demons that are utterly invincible. If a demon is sealed onto the Sacred Tree (or Tree of Ages) the demon's body with remain perfectly intact. They will only awaken when the one who shot the arrow desperately wishes for the demon to revive.


 * Spiritual Powers/Abilities: Kikyo is able to erect unusually strong and powerful barriers and perform several mystic spells or enchantments that can be used for both offensive and defensive purposes. Likewise, Kikyo has the power and ability to break seals, barriers, spells, and detect fragments of the Shikon Jewel wherever they may be. Kikyo can also combine Shikon Jewel shards into one shard.
 * Note: Her spiritual powers are a light lavender glow of light in color though it is light blue on a few occasions.
 * Mayose: The Mayose is a high-level mystical spell cast on a twig that can only be performed by a Level 20 or 30 priestess with exceedingly strong and powerful spiritual power and knowledge.The twig grows into a huge tree that reaches the clouds once it is enchanted with a special spiritual spell. It is used to lure and purify demons of a specified type when the demons climb to the top.


 * Reflection Powers & Abilities: This power and ability was once used on Tsubaki the dark priestess when Kikyo was still alive. She infuses her spiritual power into her longbow, which will relfect any oncoming demonic energy back at the demon or person. It is very similar to Inuyasha's Backlash Wave.


 * Shikigami: She is able to create human-like Shikigami that she uses to perform various tasks for her, which she used most when she hid herself. Another Shikigami Kikyo had created was St. Hijiri, who much like herself, contained imense spiritual power. She used St. Hijiri as a distraction so that she could take time to fully recover from the miasma-filled wounds Naraku had inflicted upon her at Mount Hakurai. She also created two other Shikigami: Kocho and Asuka who originally stayed by St. Hijiri's side, but after St. Hijiri was destroyed by Kagura, they went on to help Kikyo.


 * Healing Powers/Abilities: Kikyo is an extremely skilled and experienced healer and is able to treat and save even those on the brink of death. She is able to see the beings from the Netherworld and can dispose of them with a single touch.
 * Soul Collectors:These serpent-like creatures collect the souls of the recently departed to sustain Kikyo's body.They can also steal the souls of the living making them her mindless slave.


 * Spiritual Immobilization: Kikyo is able to stun someone and make them invisible to everyone else but her ,she does this by touching someone with two of her index fingers . She used this skill on Kagome.
 * Eyesight: Kikyo, Kaede, and Kagome are all able to see things that are or may seem invisible to the human eye.

Triva

 * Noriko Hidaka who voiced Kikyou also voiced Akane Tendo in Ranma 1/2
 * She was renamed as Geumgang which means River by the Korean Dub
 * She is named after the Chinese Bellflower
 * Willow Johnson who voiced Kikyo in the English dub also voiced Kasumi Tendo in Ranma 1/2