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Yakuza games kanji info 19

Yumi Sawamura (澤村 由美, Sawamura Yumi)

The lovely flower made of steel.

...also known as:

Mizuki Sawamura (澤村 美月, Sawamura Mizuki)

澤 sawa = swamp

村 mura = village, town

由 yu = wherefore, a reason

美 mi = beauty, beautiful

- About her given name: Yumi is the one who kickstarts more than one significant series of events, whether willingly or unwillingly.

Nishiki kills Dojima to save her. Kiryu takes the fall to protect Nishiki. The lonely and underestimated Nishikiyama becomes a ruthless man while Kiryu is in jail for 10 years.

She works with Kazama and Sera to steal Jingu’s money. Nishiki found out and revealed it to the Tojo Clan, prompting a massive hunt for the money and the girl who is the key to get to it.

Her disappearance brings Kiryu and Haruka together to look for her, eventually forming a deep bond of mutual love and trust between them.

She dies taking a bullet to protect both her beloved daughter and the man she had always loved, ensuring their survival and giving Kiryu a powerful reason to retire from the criminal underworld.

Of course the protagonist’s love interest has a kanji in her name that means ‘beauty.‘ In fact, if you find a woman in the series who has the syllable ‘mi‘ in her name, then her name is most likely written with this same kanji.

美 mi = beauty, beautiful

月 zuki = month, moon

She kept the kanji 美 for her other name/her sister’s name. It’s not uncommon to see siblings with similar names that have the same kanji. Now the ‘moon’ part is interesting: the japanese name of her symbolic tattoo, the Queen of the Night, is 月下美人, read as ‘gekkabijin’ - literally “moonlight beauty.” As you can see, the plant’s name has the same kanji as Mizuki.

What about the meaning of the moon itself? From greenshinto.com: “For Buddhism, the full moon is a symbol of enlightenment, and the phases of the moon indicative of the ever-changing nature of life. Nothing is constant except change itself. For Shinto the moon is a symbol of the wonder, beauty and awe of natural phenomenon, compelling realisation of mankind’s place within Daishizen (Greater Nature), a true creature of the environment.“ We can see Yumi changing ‘phases‘ like the moon as the story develops: the innocent childhood friend and first love, the amnesiac new mother fighting for survival and the determined, courageous woman who works against her enemies and makes sacrifices for the sake of the ones she loves.

Extra - Here are some characters with the same kanji in their names:

(澤 sawa) 澤田 有希, Sawada Yūki

(村 mura) 谷村 正義, Tanimura Masayoshi

(美 mi) 宇佐美 勇太, Usami Yūta

Extra 2 - Here are other ladies who also have the kanji 美 (mi) in their names, as mentioned above:

笠原 清美, Kasahara Kiyomi

鳥山 美恵子, Toriyama Mieko

朴 美麗, Paku Mirei