Kikyo

About Kikyo

Kikyo is the priestess at the heart of Inuyasha's tragedy, the guardian of the Shikon Jewel who fell in love with Inuyasha fifty years before the story begins and died believing he had betrayed her. Brought back in a body of clay and grave soil, sustained by the souls of the dead, she walks the feudal era as a figure of sorrow and steel, fighting Naraku in her own way while her unfinished feelings pull at everyone around her.

Appearance

Kikyo is a beautiful young woman with long black hair, usually worn loose with a white ribbon, and calm, sad brown eyes. She wears the traditional clothing of a shrine priestess: a white haori top and wide red hakama trousers, instantly marking her as a holy woman in every village she enters. She carries a longbow and arrows, and her sacred arrows glow with purifying light. Around her often drift her soul collectors, pale serpent-like shinidamachu that bring her the souls of the dead to sustain her clay body, giving her an otherworldly, ghostly presence, especially at night.

Personality

Kikyo is composed, intelligent and quietly formidable, a woman who carried the burden of the jewel and the hopes of every village around her. Her tragedy is that she was never allowed to be simply a woman: as a priestess she had to be pure and selfless, and her one wish, to live an ordinary life with Inuyasha, was destroyed by Naraku's trick. Resurrected against her will, she is filled with sorrow and a cold anger, yet her compassion survives: she heals the wounded, shelters children and protects villages wherever she walks. She is proud and private, hiding her pain, and her love for Inuyasha remains the axis of her second life, complicated by knowing Kagome carries her soul.

Background & Story

Fifty years before the main story, Kikyo was the most powerful priestess of her region, entrusted with the Shikon Jewel, which demons constantly hunted. She fell in love with Inuyasha, the half-demon who first came to steal it, and the two planned to use the jewel to make him human so they could live together. Naraku, then a newborn demon obsessed with Kikyo, disguised himself as each of them and struck them down in each other's shape. Mortally wounded, Kikyo used her last strength to seal Inuyasha to the sacred tree, and asked for the jewel to be burned with her body. Decades later the witch Urasue stole Kikyo's ashes and grave soil and forced her soul back into a clay body. Kagome's arrival split the soul back into the living girl, leaving Kikyo in a body kept alive by stolen souls. From then she wandered Japan, treating the sick, gathering knowledge of Naraku and protecting Kohaku, waiting for her chance to end the demon who ruined two lives.

Powers & Abilities

• Sacred arrows and barriers: As a priestess of the highest level, her arrows purify demons and jewel shards, and she raises barriers that even Naraku struggles to break.
• Spiritual knowledge: She understands the Shikon Jewel better than anyone alive, including how its evil can be turned against Naraku, and she plans further ahead than almost any character in the series.
• Soul collectors: Her shinidamachu gather the souls of the recently dead to keep her clay body moving. They also serve as her scouts and messengers across Japan.
• Healing and sealing: She treats wounds and illness with a priestess's skill, seals demons and places protective wards, skills she uses freely for villagers wherever she travels.

Key Relationships

• Inuyasha: Her first and only love. They were tricked into destroying each other, and her resurrection means neither of them can simply move on; his guilt over her death shapes the whole story.
• Kagome Higurashi: The girl who carries her reincarnated soul. Kikyo is cold to her at first, but over time the two reach a difficult respect, and Kagome is the one who understands her best.
• Naraku: The demon who engineered her death out of a twisted desire for her. Ending him becomes the purpose of her second life, and she comes closer than most to doing it.
• Kaede: Her younger sister, now an elderly priestess. Kaede's grief and loyalty bridge Kikyo's two lives, and their meetings are among the quietest, saddest scenes in the series.

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