#seigetsu

Ichimatsu Boy, Seigetsu, early 20th century, Minneapolis Institute of Art: Japanese and Korean Art

little boy doll with painted hair, inlaid eyes; painted pink skin; dressed in blue and white kimono with brown striped hakama; head swivels at neck Size: 13 × 8 × 3 in. (33.02 × 20.32 × 7.62 cm) Medium: Paulownia powder, gofun, textiles

Or, my weeb brain pestered me with the question, “But what kanji would these names be spelled with and what would they mean?” And so I went to find out, armed with a Japanese keyboard, Google Translate, and almost two years of Japanese experience on Duolingo.

Disclaimer: While I know a solid chunk of Japanese, I’m obviously not an expert, especially not on kanji. I’m only working with the kanji suggestions my phone gave me when I typed the names in hiragana.

Yumeko: This one’s easy because canon gave us a meaning of her name. 夢 “dream” and 子 “child” to make 夢子 “child of dreams.”

Kage Tatsumi: The clan name is easy enough—影 “shadow.” With the first name, it gets less obvious. There’s a lot of variations with the multitude of kanji for dragon (here: tatsu), for example 辰巳 “dragon snake” or 龍美 “dragon beauty.” My favorite, however, isn’t written with a kanji for dragon; it’s 達実 “achievement,” which fits Tatsumi’s earnest, dutiful attitude.

Hino Okame: Hino can be spelled with a variety of kanji, but only one of my suggestions had the one for fire in it—火野 “fire field.” Okame is a bit more difficult. I got a whole bunch of suggestions containing the kanji for turtle (kame, apparently?) but I doubt samurai parents would’ve named their kid any of them. 丘目 “hill-eye” seems nearer the mark, especially for an archer (heh, pun) though I’m not sure it’s an actual name. Fun fact: Spelled 岡目, Okame can also mean “onlooker,” though I also don’t think it would’ve been used as a name.

Taiyo Daisuke: Again, the clan name is easy—太陽 “sun.” All options for his given name (that I found) start with 大 “great, big”; a common spelling is 大輔, but 輔 “-suke” doesn’t seem to have any meaning beyond being a commonish name ending. I prefer 大助 with 助 “assistance” to make his name mean “great assistance,” matching his helpful and supportive nature.

Reika: This one I struggled with because there are countless ways to spell the name and so many of them fit. 霊化 “spiritualization” seems especially fitting for a miko, but since her mother didn’t want her to become one, it’s unlikely that she’s actually written that way. 麗華 “beautiful flower” (also comes with a different kanji for flower) is another valid choice, as would be 麗香 “beautiful incense” or 冷夏 “cool summer.” Reika can also be written as 隷下 to mean “subordinate,” which nobody in their right mind should name their kid—I hope even her mother wasn’t abusive enough for that.

Hakaimono: Another easy one. 破壊者 “destroyer.” “Hakaimono the Destroyer” literally translates to “Destroyer the Destroyer,” which sounds rather less badass and a lot more repetitive.

Mura Suki: Easy again. Mura is almost certainly written as 村 “village”; Suki is probably spelled 好き “like.” There’s also a kanji for “gap” that reads as suki, but I believe the “like” meaning to be more likely, tying in with how much of her storyline is centered on her crush on Daisuke.

But all the friends we made helping them out gave me happy tears too. The sky pirates finally get some spotlight, tsundere Seiryu pitches in, equally tsundere Hraesvelgr helps, and not for the common good. For us, specifically.