#noroadswherewe'regoing

Gen is the on’yomi or Chinese reading for 幻. However, as a stand-alone word, 幻 is usually read as maboroshi, using the kun’yomi or Japanese reading. That means you’re more likely to find 幻 in a dictionary if you search for maboroshi instead of gen. Once you find it, you’ll see that it has both pronunciations.

無 is very common - I see it all the time. It’s almost always pronounced using the on’yomi reading mu. The kun’yomi or Japanese reading is -nai which is a negating suffix attached to the informal form of verbs and adjectives. You’ll see it written in hiragana almost exclusively. 

Any time you put two kanji together, you can’t mix the on’yomi and kun’yomi readings. It’s has to be one or the other for the whole word. So 幻, pronounced maboroshi by itself, becomes gen when combined with 無 to form mugen.

Given that the word mugen, spelled 無幻, is so uncommon and near impossible to find in a dictionary, I have to assume that the creators of the series made a very deliberate decision when they chose this spelling for Mugen’s name. They could have used 無限, which is much more common, but they didn’t. Because of this, I think it’s necessary that we respect their decision in choosing the spelling of 無幻 with the definition of “not an illusion,” rather than discounting it in favor of 無限 meaning “infinite.” 

But that doesn’t mean infinite is irrelevant. It just means that it wasn’t the original intent.

無幻 (not an illusion) is the only kanji spelling given by Manglobe, as shown in the image above. To the best of my knowledge, they have never used the kanji 無限 (infinite). I’ve looked at a hell of a lot of resources, and I’ve never seen it used anywhere except on websites edited by fans who obviously didn’t bother to look up the correct kanji.

What this means is that the definition of infinite did not become canon until episode 18, almost two-thirds of the way into the series. Of course, now it’s baked into the collective fan consciousness as if Mugen’s name always carried this meaning. But originally, it didn’t.

My personal head canon: The fact that Mugen chooses the meaning of infinite, when the original meaning was not an illusion, is a symbol of his character development. He was illiterate up until episode 18, and he had some insecurities about it. When Fuu quizzes him on the character me (”meh”) and he gets it wrong, he’s pretty pissed off. He even blames her for making it a trick question. But then he learns to overcome this obstacle through his own hard work, and he feels a deep sense of accomplishment for having done so. He pushed himself beyond his own limitations and expanded his potential in a way that he’d never done before. Hence the definition of limitless or infinite. 

However, I think the original definition still holds true. Mugen is who he is, and he’s very up front and straightforward about that. No frills and nothing inauthentic. He’s the real deal. When it comes to protecting Fuu, he can always be counted on to get shit done. I like to think the same thing was true when he was a pirate. In fact, my theory is that he might have acquired his name during his days of piracy. The word mugen did not originate from Ryukyu, so maybe it was given to him after he left Miyako(?). (Insert your personal head canon here.) 

I believe that both definitions of mugen - not an illusion and infinite - can be applied to his character. Not an illusion is the essence of who he is at the beginning of the series, and he grows into the definition of infinite as the series progresses.

That being said,  無幻 is still the only official kanji spelling. If you want to spell “infinite” in reference to Mugen’s name, use the infinity symbol (∞) like Mugen does. I consider that to be canon (as of episode 18) because it’s actually shown on screen and spoken by Mugen. It’s the most accurate. 

無限, on the other hand, is not canon. It is never shown on screen or spoken by the characters, and it doesn’t appear in any of the source materials.

Sorry to all those people who tattooed 無限 on themselves or bought t-shirts with it... but I guess you can choose whatever kanji spelling/definition you want. Watanabe-san is notorious for leaving certain details open to interpretation, so if you feel so inclined, go for it.

Fuu (風)

Definition:

Manner, method, style, tendency, demeanor (i.e., a person’s approach or way of doing things, or a person’s outward bearing or way of behaving)

Yeah, that’s right... the word fuu does not directly translate to wind as many fans believe.

If you thought my explanation of Mugen’s name was long and complicated, then buckle your seat belt. I’m going to talk about the definition of fuu, and I’m going to challenge the theory that fuu is short for fuukinchou.

Regarding kanji, I already mentioned the on’yomi or Chinese reading vs. the kun’yomi or Japanese reading. With some kanji characters, the different readings actually have different definitions. One kanji can represent multiple words. 風 is an example of this. 

Fuu is the on’yomi reading for 風. The kun’yomi reading is kaze, meaning wind or breeze.

Kaze as a stand-alone word always means wind. Fuu as a stand-alone word usually carries the definition above (when not written in the context of Chinese texts). 

However, when 風 is used in a compound to form other words, it can be read as either fuu or kaze. When read as fuu, it may or may not mean wind, depending on context. (Japanese is so context dependent that it can be maddening for a newbie who’s trying to translate straight from a dictionary.)

Here are a couple of examples where fuu means wind in a compound:

Fuusoku (風速): wind speed

Taifuu (台風): typhoon; hurricane

And here are some examples where fuu means manner or style in a compound:

Fuuzoku (風俗): manners; customs

Fuumi (風味): taste; flavor

Fuushi (風刺): satire; irony; sarcasm

Mukashifuu (昔風): old fashioned

Examples are taken from Tangorin online Japanese dictionary

So you can see, it’s not as simple as saying that 風 means wind. The real answer to the question of what does 風 mean is, it depends. Is it being used by itself, or is it part of a different word? Which word? What’s the context? Japanese is tricky like that.

What does all of this mean for Fuu’s character? 

Fuu has her own distinct style, and her own way of going about things. Just look at her physical appearance - she is not dressed like a typical young woman of Edo period Japan. Her hair is lightened (my theory, because it looks like a modern hair color for girls who’ve lightened their hair), her hair is in a modern-ish updo instead of a traditional style, he kimono is bright pink - which wasn’t common back then, her obijime is a giant pink bow tied off-center - which is relatively common now, but wasn’t back then, and her fingernails are manicured with flowers painted on them.

Regarding her manner or tendencies - she has a strong personality and she’s willing to go to any lengths to accomplish her goal. She’s a young, unmarried woman traveling with two older, unrelated men, which would have earned her a great deal of disapproval and criticism in Edo period society, but she obviously doesn’t care. She’s tough enough to boss Mugen and Jin around. In one episode, she literally grabs Mugen by the back of his collar and drags him through the street. Who else could get away with that besides Fuu? She also has a natural tendency to want to help other people, which is something that neither Jin nor Mugen, nor many of the side characters possess. She’ll help a complete stranger, even when it might derail her journey. Sara is the best example.

However, despite the fact that fuu doesn’t directly translate to wind, we can’t ignore the running allegory throughout the series of the pinwheels, which are powered by wind - although, the first pinwheel we see is moved by Mugen when he flicks his fingers at it. 

The color of the pinwheels is almost always yellow, and in the episodes with Sara, the pinwheels blur into sunflowers when they’re spinning. It might be a way of associating wind with Fuu’s travels to find her father, and maybe Mugen sets the whole thing off by flicking that first pinwheel before he enters the tea house. 

Fuu seems to be naturally pulled in the direction of her father, even though she’s unsure which direction that is. So essentially she’s drifting on the wind until she finally gets to Ikitsuki Island. In those episodes with Sara, when Fuu sees the pinwheels spinning into sunflowers, she’s actually in the process of drifting way off course by helping Sara on her journey. 

She seems uncomfortable with not knowing where she’s headed, always depending on Mugen and Jin for support and stability, but at the end of the series, she drifts off again towards an unknown future, and she finally seems to be at ease. I don’t know if that piece of her character development indicates that the wind has subsided, or if it just means that she’s content to ride it, wherever it takes her. This is all just my theory, of course. (Insert your own head canon here.)

So, just like Mugen’s name, I think it’s reasonable to say that you could apply a double meaning to Fuu’s name as well, and perhaps she grows into both definitions as the series goes on. She has her own distinct style, and she’s also drifting on the wind to reach her goal.

Now, as for the theory that Fuu is short for Fuukinchou: I call bullshit.

Fuukinchou (フウキンチョウ or 風琴鳥) is a modern word meaning “tanager,” a family of birds. Notice that it has a katakana spelling rather than a hiragana spelling. When katakana is used, it usually indicates that a word represents something foreign. And indeed, the natural habitat of the tanager family of birds is restricted to the Americas, with about 60% of the species native to South America. They do not exist as a native species in Japan, or anywhere else outside the western hemisphere. 

So... You know that pretty bird in the series with the red face and breast? The one in Mugen’s memories when he’s dying? The same one that flies away during the end credits of the final episode? Not a tanager. Sorry, guys.

From that fact alone, the idea that Fuu is short for fuukinchou doesn’t make any sense at all.

Need more proof? Let’s look at the kanji.

風琴鳥 is actually made up of two words, not three: fuukin (風琴) and chou (鳥). Fuukin is a musical instrument - an organ or harmonium. Look up 風琴 on Google using the kanji, and look at the images. All organs. 

Chou (鳥) is the word for bird. So fuukinchou literally means organ bird, although I think the definition is more figurative than literal. I think organ probably refers to the bird’s song, equating it with a music instrument, but that’s just a guess.

You can break fuukin down further into fuu (風), which in this context means wind (remember, I talked about using the on’yomi or Chinese reading when multiple kanji are put together), and kin (琴), meaning harp or koto. The koto is a Japanese string instrument. The harp is a European string instrument, probably introduced to Japan in the late 19th or 20th century, during or after the Meiji Restoration when western classical music started making its way to Japan. 

The Japanese probably assigned a kanji character to the harp by associating it with the closest Japanese instrument. A harp functions a lot like a koto, so let’s give it the same kanji. That’s a common method of assigning kanji characters to ideas or objects for which there is no existing Japanese equivalent.

Thus, when both kanji are taken literally, the translation of fuukin is wind harp or wind koto. Figuratively, it represents the organ. It makes some sense, given that the sounds coming out of pipe organ are controlled by air or wind. Applying this word to describe a family of birds makes some sense too, if you’re talking about the sounds they produce.

So to recap, here’s the breakdown:

風 + 琴 = 風琴 (fuu + kin = fuukin)

風琴 + 鳥 =  風琴鳥 (fuukin + chou = fuukinchou)

What does this mean?

If Fuu was going to be short for anything, it would be fuukin, not fuukinchou. But I’m saying that purely hypothetically, just to play devil’s advocate, because even this is fundamentally wrong - fuu is not short for fuukin.

Just for the sake of argument, if we were to assume that fuukinchou is made up of three words, where the first word is fuu - which it’s not, like I described above, but again, I’m playing devil’s advocate - you simply cannot take a word like 風琴鳥 and decide that the first kanji is an abbreviation. Why? Because 風 is already a word on its own. You’re committing two sins here - you’re dividing fuukinchou incorrectly by breaking it into three words instead of two, and you’re trying to create an abbreviation using an independent word. Fuu is fuu is fuu. It’s not short for another word. 

Not only that, but 風 is the first kanji in many other compound words, and it’s not an abbreviation for any of them. Can you imagine it if was? Fuuki, fuudobyou, fuukei, fuudo, fuuchou, fuusoku, fuuja, fuukin ... all of these are words spelled with 風. If 風 was an abbreviation, which one of these words would you be talking about?

Plus there’s the obvious fact that Fuu’s name is spelled 風, not 風琴鳥. Fuukinchou does not appear anywhere in the source materials. Not in the series, not in The Roman Album, not in Battle Cry: The Art of Samurai Champloo, and not in any interview that I’ve read. 

Nope. I hate to burst your bubble, but Fuu’s name is not short for fuukinchou.

That’s the end of my spiel. Let me know what you think, and feel free to ask questions if you need clarification or more details. I’m happy to talk about it. I’d also love to hear other theories and ideas.