Volume 16

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The Inuyasha Narrative, Part 16: The Negative Energy of the Shikon Jewel
	Translation provided by: Robby Stine of Kanabits

The Shikon Jewel is Big News

The Shikon Jewel has the ability to increase a human or demon’s spiritual power, and as such is well known among both groups. Naturally this means that when the jewel was shattered and scattered across the land, it was big news to demons. For them, the jewel shattering was akin to someone scattering wads of cash over a city street from an overpass. Of course everyone came running. Grab what you can! Guard it from others! And it wasn’t just the demons, the humans did the same as well.

Those with Shikon Jewel Shards

The purpose of the Shikon Jewel was to give the main characters a goal in their travels. While looking for shards, they encounter something suspicious and end up in trouble. When a Shikon shard is involved, it’s impossible to live peacefully and happily, after all. If it were, that’d be a feat in itself. I never thought about it while working on the series, but if that ever was the case it would create a major dilemma for the cast. They wouldn’t be able to just snatch the shard away. Maybe I should have done a story like that…(chuckles). Anyway, it was almost always bad guys that got a hold of the shards. They’d absorb one into their body and then strut around acting all big. That’s the nature of demons, I suppose. The Thunder Brothers especially so. They were punks, plain and simple. If there was a powerful person out there, they’d seek them out, fists-a-flailing, just to assert their physical prowess.You can bet they never thought past their own noses. I always think of demons as living for the moment. That being said, they do have a reason to seek out the Shikon shards. They need to get stronger so they aren’t devoured by other demons, so they at least have a will to survive.

Holders of Shikon shards were always unhappy, which is to say the jewel probably craved negative energy. Whenever there’s an item said to grant wishes to those in its possession, there’s usually some toll that needs to be paid. It’s been that way since ancient times. Thinking of Japanese folktales, good fortune usually came to those not seeking it, and those that tried to steal it ended up miserable. That’s how it was in Shita-kiri Suzume. And Kobutori Jiisan. Those stories about shady investment schemes are all like that too. Naraku ends up receiving the jewel from Kikyo later on in the story, but that turned out to be a poor financial decision on his part, didn’t it?

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