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縁

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Talk about planning a character. Even his name says something about who he is. "Enishi", defined.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/all_about_yukishiro_enishi/message/421

By Kamorgana

Maybe this can be an insight on the character. Forgive my lack of knowledge on the cultural traditional aspects, which might play in the nuances. The definition of a Japanese dictionary:

Actual name:

*Enishi: "en" (link) changed into "eni" and stressed with "shi" (relation/thread). [note: this refers to the kanji's structure]. Link. Especially, the way to bond between a man a woman

[note: "way to bond": (musubarekata), can have a sexual meaning, "musubu" being used indifferently to express a "meant to be" relation, or to qualify the physical relation between a man and a woman...though I think that's more about destiny here.]

Synonyms:

1. Kushiki: Seeming exterior to the human's knowledge [note: really, take this with a grain of salt, there was a word that I didn't understand perfectly]. Examples: "A fateful destiny" "a fateful link".

2. Fushigi: wonder. [EK: "Fushigi" as used in Fushigi Yuugi is usually translated as 'mysterious' or 'curious'.]

3. Reimyou na: (rei is the kanji of ghost). Something that is so superior to human knowledge that it can't be measured. Something that is psychologically beyond human capacities and unusual (fushigi, with the weird meaning included). [The meaning would be "extraordinary", according to the example] "An extraordinary miracle happened"

[EK: In summary, 'Enishi' means 'beyond human understanding'. That he definitely is!]

Kanji:

On yomi (Chinese reading): en (yuan)
Kun yomi: (Japanese reading) fuchi

Use in names: masa, mune, yasu, yuka, yukari, yo, yoshi, yori [note: Yuka and Yukari only can be used as feminine names, the others have to be added to a suffix to become feminine]

Meanings of the kanji:

There are 5, from the practical to completely abstract ones, though the meaning is clearly including fate, or link, in each and every one of them. The practical ones being the most foreign to me, blame my academic, conceptual research; and take number two and three with a grain of salt.

1. (heri) hem, edge, border. (fuchi): edge, brink, brim, rim

2. depending on. Follow from the edge to the center. Search something by relying on the leads, advancing according to the connection. [These last I am sure about (^-^)].

3. Depending from. Coming to be [note: big grain of salt again, "cause from an impulse" seems to be the literary translation]. Resulting from.

4. hand in hand, link between two people. Link between two married people. [EK: Well, Enishi IS a link between two married people, his sister and Kenshin.]

5. (Buddhist concept): Exterior condition born from the effect of a certain cause or condition. KARMA (innen) [note: isn't this one ESPECIALLY interesting?]

There might be few imprecisions here and there, but I think that these definitions can help to understand many faces of Enishi, and of his role in RK...and above all, that he is a product, a result, and not evil from the root.

EK: As for "Yukishiro", there is no problem there. "Yuki" means snow, and "shiro(i)" means white. Taken therefore as a whole, his name means 'snow-white fate', more or less.