Taigokumaru

was a powerful bat daiyōkai and the leader of the demon bat clan.

During the story
In his past, Taigokumaru's son, Tsukuyomaru, fell in love with a human woman Shizu which angered Taigokumaru greatly. Taigokumaru was seen arguing with his son, but seemed to have given a temporary consent, as the local village had gained temporary peace. But in the end Taigokumaru, disgusted with his Tsukuyomaru's love for a human, chose to kill his own son. After that he realized that the human woman was carrying his grandchild and made a deal to protect the woman's village if she gave him his grandchild, Shiori since he needed an heir to continue maintaining the bat barrier. Eventually, the village gave Shiori to Taigokumaru, but he later broke the deal and attacked the village. Inuyasha intervened, saving the village, however, during the battle, Inuyasha could not hurt the bats due to Shiori's barrier. However, when Shiori found out that Taigokumaru had killed her father, she forced him out of the barrier, allowing Inuyasha to kill him. Even then, his spirit came out of Shiori's crystal and attacked her but he was stopped by the spirit of his son, and permanently defeated by Inuyasha.

Personality
Taigokumaru was a rather cruel and ruthless daiyōkai who cared very little for others, even his own son. Taigokumaru admitted to slaying his own son Tsukuyomaru when he threatened to leave the bat demon tribe and abandon his post as guardian of the barrier. Like most demons in general, Taigokumaru felt great superiority to humans. Taigokumaru forced Shizu to give Shiori to him and he promised that he and his bat demons would no longer attack the village if she did so; he later went back on his promise and ruthlessly attacked the village, calling Shizu foolish for believing that he would keep a promise to a mere human. Taigokumaru also appeared to be rather intelligent as well, when he noticed that Inuyasha was a half-demon like Shiori, he quickly deduced that Inuyasha must have felt sympathy for her and was recalling his own situation. It was unknown if he actually cared for Shiori, as he mentioned that he actually valued her as compared to the villagers that ostracized Shiori and didn't hessitate to sacrifice her, though this was likely a facade as he saw Shiori as only source to maintain the bat barrier.

Powers & Abilities

 * Expert Strategist: Taigokumaru is very cunning and crafty as he was able to easily take advantage of the humans' desperation that allowed him to take Shiori as the new guardian of the barrier while breaking his promise to leave the village alone in order to freely hunt them down while being protected by the barrier. He also took advantage of Shiori's love for her mother so that she would continue maintaining the Demon Bat's barrier when he engaged against Inuyasha and his group. Though his cruel negligence of his own son where he freely admitted it to Shizu and Inuyasha was his undoing as Shiori finally gained the resolve to reject him which left him vulnerable to Inuyasha's Backlash Wave.
 * Immense Demonic Power: As the leader of the Demon Bat Clan, Taigokumaru is a very powerful Daiyōkai. This is shown when he was able to easily kill his own son, Tsukuyomaru, another Bat Daiyōkai and the former guardian of the Demon Bat Barrier. Though it's implied that his old age diminished his overall power as Inuyasha was able to easily kill him with the Backlash Wave after Shiori rejected him from the barrier.
 * Flight: Taigokumaru and his offspring are demon bats and as such they can fly.
 * Immense Strength: Due to his size it is safe to presume that Taigokumaru has strength that far surpasses the strength of a human and many demons.
 * Demonic Sonic Blasts: Taigokumaru can fire sonic blasts from his mouth. He is able to fire one or more sonic blasts that are strong enough to create large craters in the ground or even destroy an entire village.

Weapons

 * Blood Coral Crystal : As the duty of the guardian of the demon bat barrier is passed on through heredity, it is likely that Taigokumaru was the previous guardian and thus wielded this crystal to maintain it before passing it on to his son.
 * Impenetrable Barrier: It is said that the barriers created by the Demon Bat Clan are considered to be impenetrable though the barrier can only held up by one member of the clan at the time which wanes with age and when passed to the next then the ability is lost altogether. Should the need arise, the crystal can project a small personal barrier around itself if it's threatened.
 * Demonic Aura: If the crystal is threatened it can emit large amount of demonic power that mesmerizes a hanyō or weak demon holding it and burn a human if they attempt to grab hold of it.
 * Soul Collection: It is also said that this crystal houses the spirits of the previous generations of the bat barrier guardians of the clan and thus can release the spirit of a previous guardian if its existence is threatened such as Taigokumaru's soul reappearing after Shiori suggested that Inuyasha destroy the crystal. Though there are chances when a previous guardian spirit can escape it on its own such as Tsukuyomaru in order to protect his wife and daughter.

Trivia

 * Even though she was a hanyō, Taigokumaru was genuinely impressed with Shiori's barrier; when she expelled everyone out of it, he was downright amazed.
 * He also felt that even as a half-breed, Shiori was above the villagers and that she had more of a place among the demon bats than she did with them. Whether this was out of genuine feelings for her or for the sake of his own pride is unclear.
 * Taigokumaru is one of only two yōkai to a grandfather (the other being the Wolf elder).
 * His seiyū, Ryūji Saikachi, also voiced several characters from Rumiko Takahashi's previous work. They include Grandfather Otonashi from ', and The Frog Hermit from '.

Media appearances
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Manga

 * Chapter 214
 * Chapter 215
 * Chapter 216
 * Chapter 217
 * Chapter 218

Anime
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 * Episode 73
 * Episode 74
 * Episode 157