Jinenji

was a hanyō who lived in a hut with his human mother. Together they grew a variety of medicinal plants, including some known for being powerful against poisons. The field where they grow the plants is his inheritance from his yōkai father.

During the story
He is first seen when Kirara is poisoned by Naraku's shōki and Inuyasha and Kagome travel to the village to find medicine. They came across some villagers who were carrying off a dead body. They claimed that Jinenji was responsible. The villagers led them to Jinenji's home with the hopes that Inuyasha would destroy him. They claimed that Jinenji was a monster and his mother was a witch. As Inuyasha was prepared to confront Jinenji, he was surprised that he didn't smell any human blood on him. The villagers started to throw rocks at him. Jinenji cried and ran back to his hut. His mother then came out and swung a wooden pillar at Inuyasha's head (although it didn't even phase him). She was under the impression that he was trying to drive her and Jinenji from their land. The villagers then ran when they saw her. She immediately defended Jinenji by claiming that he would never harm anyone and that being a hanyō shouldn't matter when judging him.

Inuyasha and Kagome were invited inside the hut. Jinenji was preparing the medicine for them while his mother talked about how hard it has been for him since he was a hanyō. He apologized to his mother for being a hanyō, but she told he had nothing to apologize for. Jinenji soon gave Kagome the medicine for Kirara. Jinenji's mother then warned the two of them to leave before they were caught in the villagers' crusade against Jinenji.

Kagome soon returned when the she learned that the villagers were planning to attack Jinenji's home while Inuyasha went searching for the yōkai that was recently killing humans in the area. She was helping Jinenji pull herbs from the field. She sees the scars across Jinenji's arms that were left by the villagers. She asked him if he ever thought about leaving, but he said that it was nice where he lived since his father left it to him. He was very nervous when talking to Kagome because he had never spoken to a girl before. He soon heard Kagome scream. He thought it was because of him, but it was actually a worm that she saw. The two of them spent more time together by feeding the birds. Jinenji realized that he was feeling true happiness for the first time in his life.

The villagers returned to his home later that night. Jinenji's mother told her son to stay inside while she dealt with them. They started to burn down her hut. It was then that the yōkai responsible for killing the villagers appeared. It and its offspring then began eating the villagers. Kagome ran back into the burning hut. She found Jinenji sniveling in the corner. She grabbed her supplies and got Jinenji to come out, saying that his mother was in trouble. Kagome tried to defend them with her sacred arrow, but it was not enough. The yōkai was about to attack her when Jinenji stepped in to save her by punching through the yōkai's mouth. It then began to strangle Jinenji with its tail. He told Kagome to get away, saying that she was the only one who ever treated him like a real person. Kagome asked Inuyasha to help Jinenji, but his mother told him not to. She wanted Jinenji to be able to stand up for himself. Inuyasha forced the fleeing villagers to stay so they could observe what Jinenji was truly capable of. Jinenji began to radiate with a blue aura and was able to destroy the yōkai with his strength. Jinenji approached the villagers after he destroyed the yōkai. They were afraid he would attack them and begged for forgiveness. In the end, however, Jinenji decided to continue his more gentle approach by giving the injured villagers the herbs they need to heal themselves. He then went to check up on his mother.

The two of them began to rebuild their hut the next morning. Kagome thanks Jinenji for all that he has done for her. As he and his mother were about to get back to work, they are surprised when the village men come with supplies. Out of guilt for having treated him so badly before he had saved them all, the village men decided to help Jinenji and his mother rebuild their hut that they had previously burned to the ground and clean up the herb field.

Anime only
In the anime, it is shown that like Inuyasha, Jinenji becomes fully human one day a month. However, unlike Inuyasha, who becomes human at night, Jinenji becomes human during the day. He spends the day hidden away in the hut, under a blanket. It is likely that only his mother knows what his human form looks like, as he refuses to let anyone see him, but it does appear that he becomes a larger-than-average human. During one of these times, Rin visits his home searching for the cure to heal Jaken, who was poisoned by the Saimyōshō while protecting her. Jinenji explained that he didn't have any berries and for her to come back another day. Rin pleaded to know where to find some, and Jinenji told her they were in a ravine at the back of his farm, but that it was also home to many dangerous yōkai. He promised to retrieve them when he turned back to his original self, but Rin couldn't wait for that, so she decided to go alone. Jinenji drew her a picture of what the berries looked like to aid her. A while later, he and his mother were visited by Inuyasha's group. Jinenji explained that they were visited by Rin earlier that day. Jinenji's mother was worried whether Rin was able to obtain the berries, but Jinenji told her mother that he believed she did. He compared Rin's kindness to Kagome's, in which Inuyasha objected saying otherwise, earning him several sit commands as Jinenji silently watched on.

Jinenji was later shown instructing Kagome in the use of medicinal herbs during her training in adapting to the feudal era when she decided to move there to live, marry Inuyasha, and became a priestess under Kaede.

Personality
A kind-hearted and hard-working hanyō, Jinenji has a close relationship with his mother who protected him from the villagers who lived near their home. He appears to respect and appreciate his father for leaving him and his mother their herb farm, and he is unwilling to leave it despite the persecution he suffers. He develops a strong attachment to and affection for Kagome who was the first person besides his parents to treat him with any kindness despite his intimidating size and hanyō status. He also respects and understands Inuyasha who encouraged him to use his enhanced strength to defend his mother and himself for the first time. Jinenji then became more confident and happy, now having become a man in full.

Jinenji's kind heart shows he is not one to hold a grudge even if it's justifiable as was seen when he offered medicinal herbs to the injured men who had persecuted him and his mother. His forgiving nature, along with saving their lives, earned him their silent gratitude and even their compassion to make things right by helping Jinenji and his mother repair the damages to their home.

Physical description
Jinenji is a humanoid of hulking size and well-muscled stature (standing over ten feet tall). He has tanned skin that looks orange and is covered with scars from the harassment and persecution he's suffered, wears a sleeveless graphite and blue robe stitched together to fit him, and has a face vaguely horse-like with large blue eyes as well as black hair pulled back in a small ponytail.

Powers & Abilities

 * Expert Healer: Jinenji has considerable skills as a healer since he's spent all of his life tending to an herbal farm that he inherited from his father. He was able to easily and quickly make a medicine for Kirara's poisoning in just a few minutes after being told by Inuyasha and Kagome. He recognizes what herbs are used for healing humans and demons as he hands a score of herbs used to treat superficial wounds to a group of human men after a battle with an insect demon. Later on, after Kagome moved to the feudal era and trained to become a priestess, Jinenji is seen instructing her on herbal healing and remedies.
 * Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Due to Jinenji's benevolent and docile nature, he never honed any skills in combat in spite of the treatment and death threats he received from the human villagers on a daily basis. However, it's proven that when the situation calls for it, he can more than hold his own as he was able to fight and kill a large insect demon using wrestling maneuvers like a direct punch or a choke lock. He was also able to defend himself inside a yōkai-infested mountain ravine to retrieve Sennensō berries, which he states would not be survivable for regular humans.
 * High Demonic Power: Jinenji has a high amount of demonic power despite being a hanyō as when he gets emotional, his eyes glow and his body radiates with blue energy. He was able to kill a large insect demon once he focuses his powers into its body, causing it to explode, while receiving little damage to himself.
 * Superhuman Strength: Despite his docile nature, Jinenji has shown himself to be quite strong for a hanyō as he was able to punch through the body of a large fleshing eating demon and caused its body to explode when he squeezed it while holding it in a choke lock.
 * Enhanced Durability: Jinenji was able to endure the flesh-eating saliva of the insect demon he was fighting against on his arm while it was through the demon's body, despite not having the healing rate Inuyasha has, with little reaction afterward besides exhaustion as he had never fought before then. However, his body is covered with long-healed scars he received from the men who persecuted him and his mother.

Weakness

 * New sun: The sun turns Jinenji into a human once a month, like Inuyasha's weakness the new moon.

Trivia

 * In the anime when Rin needed to get Sennensō berries for Jaken, Jinenji describes the mountainous ravine they grow in to be full of dangerous yōkai which a regular human would not survive, then offered to get them once he returned to normal. This shows that he was more than confident in his ability to defend himself in the ravine, and he had done so more than once.
 * He apparently likes feeding wild birds after working the fields.
 * Unlike Inuyasha, who can recover from wounds and scars within minutes or a day, Jinenji still has visible scars all over his body, showing that he probably doesn't have regenerative abilities like Inuyasha.
 * It's possible Jinenji got his scars when he was younger when his half-demon powers had yet to surface, and thus any regenerative abilities he has didn't kick in until he was older.
 * Despite his superhuman strength, it is never shown if Jinenji has any special abilities from his mixed demon heritage.
 * Jinenji is one of the few hanyōs shown in the series to still have one parent that is still alive.
 * Jinenji appears to be the polar opposite to Inuyasha in several ways:
 * Unlike Inuyasha who is tough and aggressive, Jinenji is rather docile and polite.
 * His mother states that half-breeds like Inuyasha are born pretty, whereas others like him are born the opposite.
 * While Inuyasha takes a more direct approach, he prefers to take a more subtle approach.
 * Jinenji is rather quiet, while Inuyasha is opinionated.
 * During the time when both turn human, Inuyasha learns to trust others (albeit reluctantly), Jinenji keeps himself obscured (covered in a large blanket). Interestingly, both are the only hanyō to turn human in the series, apart from Izumo.
 * Inuyasha's inheritance from his father was Tessaiga, a yōkai sword that can slay a hundred yōkai in one sweep, while Jinenji's was an herbal farm that grew medicinal herbs for healing.
 * Despite being opposite in personalities, Inuyasha and Jinenji have some similarities.
 * Both lived a life ostracized by humans because of their heritage.
 * Both their fathers were demons and their mothers human.
 * Both saw the good of humanity through a human woman (Inuyasha through Kikyō and Jinenji through Kagome).
 * Both became fully human at some point and hid themselves.
 * Jinenji's name may refer to "", which is used in traditional Chinese medicine.
 * Many fans believe that Jinenji is a horse-hanyō because his face is long and equine in appearance. However, no canon material explicitly confirms or rejects this assumption.

Media appearances
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Manga

 * Chapter 112
 * Chapter 113
 * Chapter 114
 * Chapter 115

Anime
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 * Episode 31
 * Episode 96
 * Episode 107
 * Episode 24 (FA)
 * Episode 26 (FA)