Foreshadowing Within The Characters Given Names In Tokyo Ghoul :re Sasaki Haise Ihei Hairu Washuu Kichimura

Foreshadowing within the character’s given names in Tokyo Ghoul :re Sasaki Haise – Ihei Hairu – Washuu Kichimura

Hello everyone,

this is my first analysis about some things I noticed while I thought about Tokyo Ghoul :re.

Note that I’m not a native speaker of the Japanese language, I only took two years of classes so far and I still have so, so much to learn. English isn’t my native language either. I hope I express myself in an understandable way.

Nethertheless I noticed some small details about the names of some characters (namely Haise, Hairu and Kichimura) and I wanted to share them in case somebody finds them interesting or useful in any way.

I hope this hasn’t be done yet. If there are any mistakes, please feel free to correct me.

Sasaki Haise

Sasaki’s first name Haise (琲世) is composed of the Kanji for “string of many pearls” (琲) and “world” or “genereation” (世). Interestingly, the last Kanji is the same one that is used to construct Rize’s name showing the connection between both of them. I don’t want to ramble about the whole dimensions of meaning behind his name. Rather I would like to focus myself on the first Kanji of the name Haise. As the wiki states, the choice of the Kanji 琲 is based on the fact that it is also used to construct the word coffee. This could be interpreted as a sign that his still holds the Anteiku very dear. Also “hai” is homophone to the Japanese word for ash, giving Haise’s name the implied meaning of “ash world”.

But there may be yet another dimension of that Kanji. Looking closely, it can be seen that the Kanji is constructed of two different characters: 王 and 非. Kanji are constructed of radicals (components) put together to gain a new character with a new meaning. Even though the “official” radical for 琲 is 玉 (tama – jewel), in this case, it more resemble the Kanji 王 (ou). Interestingly 王 means King. This may foreshadow Kaneki’s later role of the One Eyed King. The second character 非 may mean “wrong”, “incorrect” or “mistake”. This could be a hint how Kaneki performed the role of the One-Eyed-King, which eventually lead to disaster and death of thousands of people.

All in all Kaneki’s position as the OEK and the miserable outcome was yet foreshadowed by the first Kanji of the given name of his Persona of Sasaki Haise.

Ihei Hairu

There’s more foreshadowing when it comes to the Kanji of a character’s name. One example is Hairu’s first name. The name “Hairu” is constructed by a single character, which looks the following: 入. It takes diverse meaning, for example “to enter”, “to go into”, “to admit” but also “to invade”. Especially the latter is quite fitting since she was an outstanding investigator and also one of the CCG’s driving forces during the Tsukiyama Operation.

The Kanji for “Hairu”( 入) looks very similar to the Kanji for “human”(人). Actually, when seen written on paper, the two Kanji seem to be mirrored versions of each other and are not easy to be told apart at the first glance. This may be a hint towards the fact that at first glance, Hairu seemed to be a human, but was in fact a half-human. Like the Kanji of her first name, Hairu was extremely similar to a human, but there’s still a slight difference.

Interestingly, an alternative reading of the Kanji serving as Hairu’s given name is “shio”. This lets her relative Ihei Shio come to mind. Even though Shio’s Name is written with different characters, the connection may be still there (or it may be just a coincidence).

Washuu Kichimura

I always wondered why the name “Kichimura” was so different from the usual namesake of high-ranked Washuu, who are using “Yoshi” as part of their names (Yoshitoki, Tsuneyoshi etc.). But then I noticed that the name may be not so different: Kichimura is written as 吉福, while Yoshitoki is written as 吉時 and Tsuneyoshi is written as 常吉. The character for yoshi 吉 (meaning “good luck) is present in all the names, even in Furuta’s. The reason it is read different is, that there are serval readings for the same Kanji-character. The readings are divided into “onyomi” (sino-japanese reading) and “kunyomi”(japanese reading) (there are some more classifications of reading, but that’s not important here). In short, there is more than one way to read a Kanji and the way a Kanji is read depends on the context and the Kanji it is combined with. The Kanji looks the same, regardless how it is read. Especially in names may the way of reading not always be distinct. But this is important when it comes to the name of Kichimura.

Let’s take a look at Kanji 吉. One possible reading is “yoshi” as in Tsuneyoshi and Yoshitoki. Another possible reading for the same Kanji is “kichi” – as in Kichimura. Furuta’s name still uses the same Kanji as his father and half-brother did – but with a different way of reading. This tells us a lot about Furuta.

It seems to be a tradition among the Washuu-family that the name is changed the moment a member enters a major position. For example, Yoshitoki was formerly named Chika (時) before he became Bureau Director. Presumably after that, he added the Washuu-Clan’s signature Kanji 吉 in front of his given name, creating the name Yoshitoki (吉時). The new name seems to be created the following: The Kanji 吉 read “yoshi” is added in front the given name, while the Kanji of given name is modified to have a different reading than before. “Chika” and “toki”, as in Yoshitoki, are alternative readings of the same Kanji. The Kanji stayed the same – the reading altered.

At the surface, Furuta added in line of the Washuu’s traditions. Furuta as well put the Kanji 吉 in front of his given name Nimura( 二福, meaning “two happiness/good fortune”, which is a very ironic and bitter name to have considering his fade. Maybe it can be interpretet as “to be twice as happy/lucky” or simply “very happy/lucky”. Maybe the “two” could also represent him and Rize? In the end none of them found happiness. Either way, the name has a tragic irony in it. But I digress.), which led to the Kanji combination 吉福. So far, so traditional.

But Furuta wouldn’t be Furuta if there wasn’t a twist.

Instead of altering the reading of his given name-Kanji, Furuta changed the reading of the Clansman-Kanji. He changes the traditional “Yoshi” into the alternative reading “kichi” while he keeps “mura” of his given name “Nimura”. This may be a subtle sign of his rebellion against the Washuu-Clan. It may be a traditional Washuu-name by the look of it, but it is read differently. This shows Furuta is not giving in to the clan. It is expected to change the “mura” of his name to another reading “in favor” of the clan’s Kanji. This may be a symbol of the clan undermining the identity of its members. But Furuta doesn’t change the Kanji’s reading of his given name. Instead he modifies the “yoshi” into “kichi”. Doing this stays true to himself. At the same time he breaks with the tradition of the Washuu-Clan, showing everyone in the CCG that he is the key of a new era. It may also be his way of exercise power over the Washuu-Clan once again. While the Washuu-clan had the power to altering the names of its members, Furuta has now the power to alter the character that symbols the Washuu-Clan. Also it may be a sign of alienation towards the Washuu-Clan he hated so much. That he simply didn’t want to carry a similar name as Tsuneyoshi and Yoshitoki did.

Intriguingly, if you read the name Kichimura differently (using the reading “yoshi” instead of “kichi”, as usual for the Washuu-Clan), it can be read as “Yoshimura”. Even though Eto’s surname is spelled differently (芳村 Yoshimura, meaning something similar to “fragrant village”), it is still very ironic because of their hatred for each other and the way they contrast each other. But despite their differences both of them are connected on serval levels (for example: both of them being one-eyed ghouls, were rejected by their parents, both share relationships to V, both of them plot to destroy the current world order etc.). So it fits them to have a similar name, even if the similarity shows in such a subtle way.

I will just leave this here. Thank you very much for reading!. :D