the three symbols on the Inuyasha title?

[Hokai92]

i need to know what the three japanese figures that always appear near the Inuyasha title. does it just say Dog Demon or something?

please answer me admins or whoever answers this

[Shiron]

I'm pretty sure that's just the kanji for Inuyasha, although I could be wrong.

[Vodrake]

First Kanji is "inu", translates as dog.

Last two kanji together make up "yasha", which seems to mean female demon...

[Shiron]

First Kanji is "inu", translates as dog.

Last two kanji together make up "yasha", which seems to mean female demon...
So Inuyasha's name means female dog demon? Interesting...

[NarutardKK]

Yeah, I've always wondered about it saying "female" ever since I started watching the series. But yeah, the symbols are Inu-Ya-Sha.

[YamazakiSusumu]

犬夜叉

犬　means dog
夜 means night
叉 means fork in the road

夜叉 together means demon and is the first part of Gaara's Uncle Yashamaru's name （夜叉丸）.

[Tousenz]

together means demon and is the first part of Gaara's Uncle Yashamaru's

Which coincedentally ties in with the mistranslation of female dog demon

[Meizu]

O_o i see.. i was told it ment fairytail, gald its cleared up (lol for me)

[minamisakura]

The kanji's literally translated are 1 dog, then 2 night and 3 intersection but 2 and 3 combined it means female demon like some people said.

[Sasume]

it's dog demon .dog demon in japanese is Inuyasha

[Splyte]

i always figured that it'd say inuyasha. and that i recognized the first kanji with the first one in kiba's surname inuzuka. so i just assumed it said inuyasha

[Hokai92]

thanks for clearin' that up


female dog demon, huh... interesting

[Nihongaeri]

I was able to find a listing of 夜叉 "yasha" in Edict that translated it as "female demon", but I am completely unable to corroborate that sex of any kind whatsoever is actually associated with the word. Every single other reference source that I look in makes absolutely no reference to sex.

The word 夜叉 "yasha" actually originates in Hindu mythology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaksha) ("yaksha" is the English transcription of the original Sanskrit word). It is used in Japanese occasionally, in a more metaphorical sense, in phrases such as 夜叉のごとく or "like a 'yasha' ('demon')".

It's also worth noting that the actual characters used in 夜叉 "yasha" do not have any particular relevance to the word itself, as they merely being used as a phonetic transcription of the original Sanskrit word.

At any rate, for all intents and purposes, the "yasha" in "inuyasha" would be best considered to mean just "demon".

[missq]

Yasha, can also be a type of punk name. That's why Kagome's friends seem so shocked about his name in one issue of the manga.

[minamisakura]

didn't we have a talk like this before.....

[ichinii30]

It's inuyasha in kanji, and yasha is only for females when you put another kanji in front.

[Nihongaeri]

yasha is only for females when you put another kanji in front.Please do explain. I've searched high and low, but have yet to find any source, other than Edict, that says that sex is in anyway associated with "yasha".

[Ezekielx]

Only females should watch it

[ShounenSuki]

Please do explain. I've searched high and low, but have yet to find any source, other than Edict, that says that sex is in anyway associated with "yasha".
I a bit of research and found no indication that Yasha are, per definition, female. On the contrary even, the Sanskrit word Yaksha, from which Yasha is derived, is male. The female form being Yakshini.

[RyuShi_Lloyd]

Please do explain. I've searched high and low, but have yet to find any source, other than Edict, that says that sex is in anyway associated with "yasha".
If you translate the Kanji directly as writen, you get 'Dog' 'Night' 'Decision'*
The dog part is obvious. The night part associates him being a demon. The decision represents his heart between Kikyo and Kagome.
The whole Yasha being female demon thing is just bad translation.(Is reminded of the 1st fansubbed ep: With this Shikon no Tama I can become a real GHOST!)

*Decision can also be meant as Fork in the road, etc.

[Nihongaeri]

If you translate the Kanji directly as writen, you get 'Dog' 'Night' 'Decision'*
The dog part is obvious. The night part associates him being a demon. The decision represents his heart between Kikyo and Kagome.
The whole Yasha being female demon thing is just bad translation.Yeah, I actually already knew that it was a mistranslation, but what I was trying to do was confirm exactly what its root was... As far as I can tell, the root of the mistranslation seems to be Edict.

On a side note, while I have it explained somewhat above, the actual characters that are used in "yasha" actually have absolutely nothing to do with its technical meaning. The word "yasha" originally comes from Sanskrit and thus the characters used for it fall into the category of "ateji", that is, characters used purely for their pronunciation and nothing else.I a bit of research and found no indication that Yasha are, per definition, female. On the contrary even, the Sanskrit word Yaksha, from which Yasha is derived, is male. The female form being Yakshini.Yup, just looked at the Wiki article on "Yakshini" myself. Thanks for pointing me in that direction... I wouldn't be surprised if the root of the "female demon" translation of "yasha" on Edict is actually due to the person who made the entry confusing the etymology of "yasha" as being rooted in "yakshini", as opposed to "yaksha".