Kikyou's Flowers
Symbolism is all around us in entertainment. Whether it be music or images in a TV show. InuYasha is no exception. From the first time I saw the first ending "My Will," the images fasinated me. Especially the first shot of the flowers. Then later in the same segment we see Kikyou breaking those same flowers. It isn't just one shot, it shows them several times. As well as the ending, many promotional images I have seen of Kikyou have her with these flowers. It got me to wondering, what kind of flowers are they? I had never seen such flowers. I looked all over the web to find a refernce to Kikyou's flowers, but the only think I could find was a refernce to an amaryllis from the Artbook. Well, I looked into it. The amaryllis is shown in reference to Kikyou, in episode 14, Kikyou's Stolen Ashes, when Keade is talking about Kikyou's death. But that still didn't answer my question of what the red flowers in the "My Will" ending were. So after an exhausting seach I finally found them. And I was not disapointed. The red flowers in the "My Will" ending are called "Fujibakama." They are the flower of the Autumn equinox, which symbolises a time of death. They are also poisonious. As well as their general meaning in the language of flowers is "Remember that Day." Which explains why Kikyou is breaking them, she doesnt want to "remember that day" that she believed InuYasha betrayed her. By the time she finds out about Naraku, the "Deep Forest" ending has already begun. So there you are. Mystery solved. If you would like to share this information, please give me credit. As I said, it took a long time for me to find these flowers.
The first shot in the "My Will" ending of the fujibakamas.
Kikyou's breaking the flowers, not wanting to rememeber.
The flowers hanging broken
A shot of the real flower along a roadside in modern day Japan
Close up shot of an amaryllis
Shot of Kikyou's grave with amaryllises on it