Meidō Zangetsuha

Meidō Zangetsuha
Meidō Zangetsuha
Nihongo	冥（めい）道（どう）残（ざん）月（げつ）破（は）
Viz Manga	Meido Zangetsuha
English TV	Meido Zangetsuha
Skill information
Inventor	Shishinki
User(s)	Shishinki Tōga (formerly) Sesshōmaru (formerly) Inuyasha
Weapon(s)	Tessaiga (initally and currently) Tenseiga (formerly)
Debut
Manga Debut	Chapter 410
Final Act Anime Debut	Episode 3

The Meidō Zangetsuha (冥（めい）道（どう）残（ざん）月（げつ）破（は）, "Dark Path of the Dawn Moon's Wave") is an immensely powerful offensive technique that creates a path directly to the Netherworld, pulling in targets like a black hole. Anyone hit by it is instantly sent to the Netherworld, effectively killed without physical harm. The technique was originally wielded by the oni daiyōkai Shishinki. Tōga battled Shishinki, defeating him with the Tessaiga and stealing the technique. Due to its dark nature, it was removed from Tessaiga and sealed within Tenseiga. The 'Meidō Stone', another form of Meidō, was given by Tōga to Sesshōmaru's mother. Tenseiga, capable of containing this formidable power, was entrusted to Sesshōmaru. He was uniquely qualified to refine and control the technique, withstanding its intense jaki, until Inuyasha was prepared to wield it.

The Meidō as it was originally with Shishinki resembled a black sphere, but Sesshōmaru's version started out with a crescent shape, eventually gaining an elliptical form as Sesshōmaru gained strength and experience. However, he was incapable of recreating the Meidō in its original form because of Tenseiga's nature as an incomplete sword, until the sword resonated with Tessaiga during his encounter with Shishinki, enabling Sesshōmaru to perfect the technique while manifesting a Meidō bigger and stronger than Shishinki's version.

Later, Inuyasha would prove himself worthy as the true wielder of Tessaiga and Meidō Zangetsuha in Sesshōmaru's eyes during their final battle, and Sesshōmaru willingly relinquished the perfected technique to Inuyasha by breaking Tenseiga over Tessaiga, allowing the technique to be absorbed back into Tessaiga and giving the sword a new alternate form in the guise of a black blade resembling a Meidō.

The technique would undergo one final transformation to better reflect Inuyasha's ownership of it as well as Tessaiga's nature as "a sword that cuts". The gigantic sphere was replaced by a barrage of blades that ripped apart whatever they hit and sucked up the remains, making it more effective against larger and more powerful opponents. In this new form, but only with the help of Sesshōmaru's Bakusaiga, the Meidō physically killed Naraku, who proved to be resistant to the attack's original form, but of course not his soul. In fact, only the Shikon Jewel itself was able to survive this technique's full power and strength, and its evil maintain Naraku's soul in the material world.

In the original manga, although it is not directly explained, it's obvious that the souls of Naraku and the Demon of the Shikon no Tama were destroyed forever by Inuyasha when he cut the point of light in the darkness inside the Shikon Jewel with Meidō Zangetsuha, which is the key to kill Naraku and destroy the jewel's evil. In the anime version, instead, he only opens the Meidō that leads to Kagome.

In the anime version of Inuyasha: Since Then, Inuyasha uses the Meidō Zangetsuha on the Root Head.

In episode 15 of Yashahime, Sesshōmaru did use the Bakusaiga as Inuyasha used the Meidō Zangetsuha to stop the Grim Comet.

Trivia

• The kanji 冥 (mei) as in meidō means "dark, gloomy". It is frequently used in Buddhism and fiction to refer to something related the underworld or the world of the dead, for example meikai ("underworld, netherworld"), meiō ("netherlord", i.e. Hades or Pluto), Meiōsei (the dwarf planet Pluto), etc. Meidō is an alternative reading of myōdō, which refers to the path to the aforementioned meikai (alternatively, myōkai), the domain of King Yama in Buddhism.
• Meidō Zangetsuha is the only technique that wasn't given a new name in the English dub of the anime.
• Tōga was erroneously shown using the technique with Tessaiga rather than Tenseiga which was created to contain it, to stop the Grim Comet with Kirinmaru.