#taiyoukai

[catarotta]

A Lord and His Lady. Lady Kagome - @blueeyesdante Photography by @myratheoncosplay Filter edits done by me #cosplay #cosplayer #inuyasha #inuyashacosplay #lordsesshomaru #lordsesshoumaru #sesshomaru #sesshoumaru #sesshomarucosplay #kagome #higurashikagome #kagomehigurashi #kagomecosplay #lordofthewest #inuyoukai #daiyoukai #taiyoukai #youkailord #demonlord #demon #sesshomaruxkagome #sesskag #sesshomarukagome #kagomexsesshomaru #forbiddenlove #otp #cosplaycouple #couplecosplay #onlytruepairing #ishipit #ship (at Katsucon)

[catarotta]

"You dare to challenge this Sesshomaru, hanyou?" Photography by @james_brock_photography #cosplay #cosplayer #crossplay #crossplayer #inuyasha #inuyashacosplay #lordsesshomaru #lordsesshoumaru #sesshomaru #sesshoumaru #lordfluffy #sesshomarucosplay #youkai #demon #demonlord #inuyoukai #daiyoukai #taiyoukai #photography #cosplayphoto #handsome #badass #bossasfuck #katsucon #katsucon2017 (at Katsucon)

[catarotta]

So happy that friends keep tagging me in pictures from Katsucon. This is me and the gf as Sesshomaru and Kagome. This is my oyp for Inuuasha and I was happy to cosplay it with my beautiful gf. Kagome - @blueeyesdante #cosplay #cosplay #inuyasha #inuyashacosplay #lordsesshomaru #lordfluffy #lordofthewest #youkai #inuyoukai #daiyoukai #taiyoukai #kagomehigurashi #sesshomaru #kagome #sesshomaruxkagome #sesshomarukagome #kagomesesshoumaru #kagomexsesshomaru #kimono #otpcosplay #couplecosplay #otp #katsucon #katsucon2017

[butterflyinthewell]

Sesshoumaru and his stupid, pretty hair. <3

[fast-moon]

I'm the author of that little Tai vs Dai rant. Thank you for the clear up. I've edited it. n_n/)

No problem.  Glad I could help!  Because of this and a couple other posts, I’ve actually started another Tumblr called Inuyasha Fanon where I’m cataloging a lot of the common mistakes and confusions surrounding the show’s terminology, as sort of a one-stop guide for stuff that shows up a lot in the fandom that didn’t originate in the series.

[inu-fanon]

Taiyoukai vs. Daiyoukai

People often ask what the difference is between "Taiyoukai" and "Daiyoukai", wondering what meaning one confers as opposed to the other.  The answer to this one is fairly straightforward:

"Daiyoukai" means "Great Youkai".  "Taiyoukai" is not a word.

Japanese kanji can have many different readings depending on how they're used.  Like how English speakers just "know" how to spell "phonetic" despite it not being spelled the way it sounds, for most common words, Japanese speakers just "know" which reading of a kanji is correct for each particular word.  However, this becomes more difficult if a word is uncommon or just made-up.

In Japanese, the word "Daiyoukai" is written like this:

大妖怪

The second two kanji are unambiguously "youkai", however the first kanji can be pronounced "dai", "tai", or "oo".  Someone unfamiliar with the word may accidentally read it as "Taiyoukai" instead of "Daiyoukai".  But how do we know for sure that "Daiyoukai" is right?

Japanese has something called furigana.  Furigana is used to tell the reader how kanji are meant to be pronounced by placing a pronunciation key beside the word, and is often found in childrens' and young-adults' comics, Inuyasha being one of them.  So the furigana in the manga on the word "Daiyoukai" tells us this:

See the small characters alongside the big characters?  Those are the furigana showing that this word has a reading of "だいようかい", or "Daiyoukai".

The "Taiyoukai" spelling is likely from someone reading the text without the furigana and making an (incorrect) guess as to how it was pronounced.  The word "Taiyoukai" does not actually appear anywhere in the series.

[asioleishion]

Sesshomaru Linework by *Newsha-Ghasemi

[asioleishion]

Sesshomaru by *AnHellica