Character Profile: Izayoi

Izayoi is Sesshoumaru's stepmother and InuYasha's original mother. It is unclear as to whether or not she is/was married to InuYasha's father, InuTaisho, who is a demon that looks a lot like Sesshoumaru. Unlike Sesshoumaru, and InuTaisho, Izayoi is a full human, making InuYasha when first born, a half-demon half-human. She died before the InuYasha series began. But she appeared again when Sesshoumaru made an exact replica of her when he experienced InuYasha. Sesshoumaru had used a demon named Muonna to create an illusion of InuYasha's mother. He did that to get InuYasha to tell him the location of their father's tomb.

This evil plan was Jaken's idea, and the fact that Sesshoumaru agreed to it showed that he probably didn't think much of his stepmother to begin with. In fact, Sesshoumaru's relationship with his stepmother probably wasn't much of his pleasure. Sesshoumaru despised her for her human heritage or her marriage with his own father, though he may have just not bothered with her at all back when she was still alive. We don't know if Sesshoumaru and his stepmother ever had any conversation but he might as well have met her when she was alive.

When Izayoi first had InuYasha, InuYasha's father was then killed by a man named Setsuna No Takemaru, who was originally in love with Izayoi, but was deceived by Souunga into hating her. Later he imagined her and realized she was protecting him, instead of hurting him. So let's say Izayoi was a very good woman, who cared for people and put their feelings above her own.

Izayoi is the lovely human woman who gave birth to our beloved hanyou, InuYasha. She died long before the series even started and was only briefly mentioned in a few of the episodes, simply as "Mother". Her true name was not even revealed until the third InuYasha movie.

Anyway, we were introduced to her "replica" by Sesshoumaru when he first confronted InuYasha. At that time, Sesshoumaru had told a demon, created from the souls of grieving mothers, called "the Nothing Woman" (AKA "un-mother") to act as Izayoi and trick InuYasha into revealing the location of InuTaisho's hidden tomb.

It's probably safe to say that, in the time she was alive, Izayoi was a good and loving mother who cared for her son more than anything else in the world.