Why Yusuke's a little Silkworm of Love whose One True Love will always be his Divine Mulberry Kuwabara! 🥹💛🌿💙🐛❤️
As per Togashi's Storytelling DNA meta, SYMBOLISM and Names are vitally important in YYH, to the extent Togashi even told us via a manga blurb (albeit in a satirical tone in order to hide the truth from publishers) that he picked his characters' Names with as much thought, care & consideration as he would his own children's names, to reveal the Hidden Kuwameshi Soul Bond Romance that's forbidden by broadcasters!
Since Kuwabara's last name 桑原 means Mulberry Origin, let's have a little starter of Japanese Mulberry, coz Togashi leveraged Japanese cultural context to weave Hidden Meaning into the very fabric of YYH! 🗾🏯🎎
In a nutshell (or should we say cocoon 🤣), Mulberry feeds Silkworms in a symbiotic sacred relationship that's so steeped in real-world Japanese Divinity, there's even a creation myth for Mulberry Silkworms in Japan's oldest text the Kojiki (古事記, Records of Ancient Matters), a chronicle of "myths, legends, genealogies, and semi-historical accounts" about the Shinto Kami-samas (deities) that created Mulberry Silkworms, the Japanese islands and Japan's imperial line!
To this day, the Japanese Empress symbolically feed Mulberry leaves to mulberry Silkworms by hand, to carry on a tradition started in the 1800’s to mark the importance of Mulberry Silk farming in Japan's history, culture & modernization!
The Japanese imperial court even rears its own Mulberry Silkworms fed exclusively on Mulberry leaves to produce Mulberry Silk for their own usage!
Not to mention, as per the massive evidence in Kuwameshi: Audacious Soul Bond meta, Mulberry and thus Kuwabara are linked to Divine Providence and Protection, Good Luck, and the Sun God, which is why Kuwa's Reiki is Gold, like the Light of the Sun, to symbolize how Kuwa is Yusuke's personal Patron Deity & life-giving Sun that Yusuke sees & understands himself better by!
Why are all this significant to YYH you ask?
Well, if Togashi named Kuwabara after Mulberry, and repeatedly likens Yusuke to a Silkworm growing off Kuwabara's Reiki and Soul all throughout canon, even going so far as to show Yusuke trapped like a Silkworm in silk-like Yoki thread during the Rando fight, then cocooned and protected in Kuwa's Soul before Yusuke emerges powered-up from that embryonic cocoon to escape Rando's piranhas in a spectacular explosion of Blue Reiki, the color of Kuwameshi's Shared Reiki of Love...
Togashi's using Japanese cultural context to show us Yusuke and Kuwabara have a Divine, Symbiotic, Made-for-each-other Soul Bond Love that's as vital and life-giving to our lovebirds as oxygen!
Just like Mulberry and Silkworms are indispensable in Japan's history and modernization to the extent Japanese culture deified this relationship, Kuwa and Yusuke are indispensable in each other's Character Journeys, Emotional Growth, and ALL their Power-Ups! ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥🐦🔥🐦🔥🐦🔥
Just like Mulberry leaves feed Silkworms to produce silk of the highest quality that’s fit for Japanese royalty in real life, Kuwa and Yusuke nurture (feed) each other's heart-of-gold and solidify each other's mental & emotional strength to the highest caliber, until they're strong enough to fend off threats together (both physical threats, as well as threats of losing their True Selves), and that's when we find out Yusuke's literally Mazoku royalty!
Do you see how clever & deliciously subversive Togashi is? He straight out portrayed Kuwameshi as a sacred divine Soul Bond Romance at a time when heteronormative censors deemed the mere existence of same-gender love too much of a "moral threat" to society! 🤣🤣🤣
He really went: "Oh you find same-gender love a 'moral threat' to our society, and you're conflating your personal opinion with some 'universal objective moral truth', which is how you feel so justified in discriminating against others different from you? Here's my reply to that - Yusuke and Kuwa have a sacred relationship ordained by the Gods and written in the stars, their Undying Love and Devotion for each other is what's driving ALL their power-ups, and it's the beating heart of the story around which everything else revolves. Ya know, just like our country's sacred creation myths."
Like I said before, Togashi and his audacity is a National Treasure!!! ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
But as mind-blowing as that is, here's the Ultimate Kicker of a Subtext!!!
Mulberry Silkworms ONLY eat Mulberry leaves!!!
Which is why I read Yusuke as a One True Love kinda guy who'll only ever be in love with Kuwa, his one & only Mulberry! 🥹🥹🥹
Coz apart from this Mulberry-Silkworm Symbolism revealing this trait about Yusuke, we also have ALL of Japanese original canon showing us Yusuke's only romantically interested in Kuwa!
Not to mention, Yusuke's Mazoku 'father' Raizen is also a One True Love kinda guy who literally STARVED himself to death to honor his dead human lover, forsaking all other love interests like Enki's hot wife who was actively chasing Raizen before she married Enki!
As per DNA 1 in the meta (Togashi uses A LOT of mirror characters to reveal the Hidden Kuwameshi Soul Bond), it's not a coincidence that Raizen also had a human lover, it's an obvious MIRROR for Yusuke and Kuwa! It's also not a coincidence that Raizen's human One True Love is what most manga audiences would consider a bit 'plain' just like they would consider Kuwa 'plain', while Enki's hot wife is a mainstream 'beauty' just like Keiko!
Even so, we see Raizen is never romantically interested in anyone but his human lover! Because she moved Raizen with her strength of character and noble spirit to do good! All of which mirrors what Kuwa does for Yusuke and vice versus!
This tells us that while Yusuke might be pursued by 'hot' potential love interests like Keiko and perhaps even Jin, Yusuke will only be in love with his One True Love Kuwa! Coz Yusuke doesn't fall in love based on looks or fighting prowess!
Also, One True Love is a very Soul Bond type of trope, coz you literally only have one SOUL to bond to another person with! Yusuke's Soul is already taken! 🤣 Coz say it with me! When put together, Yusuke and Kazuma's Names mean Souls in True Harmony who Help each other!!!
Just like Silkworms will starve to death if they don't have Mulberry to eat, and Raizen literally starved to death to honor his human lover, Yusuke will figuratively starve to death if he doesn't have Kuwa! 😭😭😭
Kuwa, a LOT is riding on your shoulders, I'm cheering for you to overcome your inner demons post manga's end to GET TOGETHER AND STAY TOGETHER with Yusuke!!!! Don't you know your little Silkworm of Love is waiting for you?? 😭😭😭
Wanna see a Kuwa who has already overcome his Denial to be the world's best koibito for Yusuke? ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
Wanna know what else this Mulberry-Silkworm Symbolism reveals about Yusuke? Check out The Good Fight for a VERY SPECIAL REVEAL! 😁❤️💙💚💛🌈