Yato (Noragami)
Yato is an anime and manga deity character who features Noragami.
Contents |
Biography
Yaboku (Japanese: 夜卜, Hepburn: Yaboku?) was an obscure deity that had long existed in the world of mortals and like other gods had been born out of a wish. He like others of his kind were natives of the farshore namely the afterlife who came to the nearshore and existed among mankind. At one point, a previous Regalia that served him mistakenly gave him a different name due to a mixed-up kanji leading to him being called Yato whereupon he took that name as his new identity. However, unlike other deities, Yato was not widely known and thus had to be active in order to maintain his existence. He was noted as being the god of calamity (禍津神 magatsukami?) and thus a war god with a violent past. As a child, he encountered a Shinku Nora that he took on as a regalia with him giving her the name of Hiiro (緋?) with him calling her Regalia name of Hiki (緋器?) to summon her into weapon form. His time with her meant that she was the closest person to him in these years with her saving his 'father'.
Yato met Sakura when she approached him under a cherry blossom tree, asking him to give her a name after she was dismissed by Tenjin in a fit of rage. He didn't get to immediately name her because he jumped on her and groped her breasts. He saw her again after he threw her onto a spring, saving her from her blight getting worse. She asked for his name and he wrote it down, however, she mistook his name as Yato. It was Sakura who gave him the name he was using today, instead of his given name by Father which was Yaboku. Later on, Sakura became his first shinki besides Nora. His relationship with Sakura did not start well. Surprised and bothered by the onslaught of memories he received from her, which he didn't get from Nora, he threw her once again in the spring and left her there for three days. When he did get back, he and Sakura went to the market. There, he got scolded by Sakura for stealing. He tried to calm her anger by giving her flowers. And then, he and Sakura went to see the fireflies. This is where their relationship strained once again. He called her and used her to kill a man. The despair that Sakura felt traveled to Yato and caused him pain. He wasn't able to reconcile with her until a while later on. Then, Sakura told him about shrines and he dreamed of having one, too. The time he spent with Sakura made Yato see the lines between good and evil acts, and he started doubting if what he was doing was good. Nora approached him one day, and she said that Father was punishing her. Yato was shocked about this and brought her to the spring to heal her. There, Sakura and Nora finally met each other. Sakura tended to Nora and asked her how long she served Yato, wanting to learn more about her master. This was when Nora encouraged her to ask Yato about how she died or her past. Yato refused, knowing that doing so would violate god's greatest secret. However, Nora told him that Father said it was okay. Yato then told her, and Sakura became an ayakashi. This transformation blighted Yato and Sakura attacked him. Then, he was forced to finish Sakura off with Nora.
One notable event from his past was when a dark desire for destruction was asked of Yato with him complying with the wish. This saw him slay hundreds of men in the distant past and he teamed up with another god of calamity known as Rabō. It was said that at one point he killed Shinki that belonged to the female war-god Bishamonten. However, in reality, this was because he had been requested to do so by one of her regalia named Kazuma. At the time, Bishamonten's family of Shinki had succumbed to corruption causing their negative feelings to bring about a blight on her. To save his master, Kazuma departed to find Yato and asked for his help to slay the corrupted regalia. Yato initially asked for payment but decided to ultimately aid Kazuma but told him that he owed him a favour in the future. Upon arriving at Bishamonten's home, they discovered that the corrupted regalia had merged to form a giant Phantom that nearly swallowed their former master. Despite her pleas to spare them, Yato had used his Nora Shinki to slay the Phantom thus destroying it and freeing her after which he departed. Kazuma was a result indebted to but felt ashamed at what his actions had resulted and could not tell his master. As a result, Bishamonten recovered but came to believe that her former family of Shinki had been murdered by Yato. This led to her vowing revenge which drove her recovery as she sought to find and kill Yato. As such, for centuries she hunted and battled him in order to kill him for what he did to one of her Shinki. At around this time, one of her Shinki named Kazuma had actually made a request of Yato to which he became indebted to him. Thus, whilst his master hunted Yato, Kazuma showed nothing but respect towards him for what he did for him in the past. At an unknown point, he also encountered Kofuku and became close friends with the her. By around the modern age, he acquired a new Shinki named Tomone that he used to perform various acts such as eliminating Phantoms. However, after three months in his service, Tomone complained about being in Yato's service to the point that he decided to release her from their bond.
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, Yato resembled a young teenage boy who had short black hair and blue eyes. He was typically dressed in a track suit and wore a white scarf around his neck.
Yato was shown to hold a playful and sneak nature but at the same time he tended to be childish and do silly things. This led to him purchasing good luck items when they were evidently a scam or giving Yukine a childish jacket. On a number of occasions he was known to indulge in getting others to pay for him for food such as when he ordered a large amount of food at a restaurant with Hiyori forced to pay the bill. On another occasion, he entered into Hiyori's house and began to eat food from the fridge. On another occasion, he went to Kofuku telling her a sad story about how he had no money in order to get some money for expenses from her. Despite appearing silly, there were moments where Yato appeared very serious that usually happened in situations that required his full attention such as when encountering Nora or in the battle against Rabō.
When granting wishes to humans, he asked to be paid for his service which was the standard fair of 5 Yen. Yato regularly dreamed of building his fame to the point that he would hold a massive shrine in his honor and with numerous worshippers. Thus, he regularly offered his services to others even calling himself 'Delivery God Yato'. To achieve that end, he was known to regularly promote himself with cards and put his name along with number on graffiti on the walls. In an effort to gain worshippers, he sought to perform any wish or task that was asked of him such as finding lost pets or helping a boy deal with bullies.
He once stated that unlike humans he was not bound by concepts such as morality and thus he truly could do anything he desired. In fact, in the distant past, he was a god of calamity that slaughtered countless people as part of a dark wish. During that era, he was noted for being cold and his eyes showed no trace of mercy. It was through the link with a Shinki that he learnt of human emotions and speculated that this kept his kind humble.
Despite appearing uncaring, he was shown to actually care for others and risked his existence for them. When Yukine slowly grew corrupted, Yato bore the pain of the blight as it impacted on his body. When he was dying from the blight he had the option of killing Yukine but refused to do so. Instead, he worked hard to draw Yukine back to his true self before he could transform into a Phantom. According to Hiyori, Yato treated Yukine as a son with himself as his father. Similarly, to allow Hiyori to return to the life of a mortal, he became willing to sever his ties with her as he came to fear for her life due to the repeated encounters with the spirit world.
One of his fondest wishes was to get a shrine of his own so that people would not forget him. This was his desire since childhood but his 'father' had told him that he did not need one. Despite those words haunting him, Yato had always desired one and had been looking to get enough money to buy one. As such, he was ever grateful to Hiyori when she had crafted a small shrine to him.
As a war-god, he had killed many people in the past and even in the modern era. This was to the point that he believed killing was the only skill that he excelled in his life. By the modern day, he sought to change that but felt that he had nothing to offer to the world leading to him being drawn back into a life of killing. This changed when he encountered the god of fortune Ebisu and saw the purity of his actions in doing good in the world and his own view of Yato as having the potential for such a feat. Thus, he ultimately decided to dedicate his life towards doing good in the world by channelling his skills of a war-god into slaying disasters before they could harm people.
Yato's greatest fear was being forgotten by everyone and in the process vanishing from existence.
Powers and abilities
He was noted for being very good in drawing. In order to maintain contact with potential worshippers, he typically had a mobile phone with him allowing him to answer calls. Yato was shown to be knowledgeable on matters of the spirit world such as about Phantoms and how to clean blight wounds such as through purified water. Similar to other gods, Yato's existence stemmed largely from being remembered by mortals and sought after for wishes. Among his abilities was the power to teleport to any location in an instant.
As with his kind and spirits, Yato was almost invisible to the senses of normal human beings. In reality, this was not the case with Yato stated that it was more like that he along with spirits were just harder to notice. He compared it to being in a crowd with a person not recognizing the stranger that they encountered in such a situation. It was only through focus or when the entity drew attention to themselves did others notice them. As such, he was able to walk into the homes of human beings or within a crowd and not be noticed. Furthermore, he was much more resistant to injury or damage compared to an ordinary human. Despite this being the case, he was capable of being wounded and killed. Typically, for a god, death meant being reborn into a new incarnation starting from childhood but this was different for Yato as he had no worshippers. Thus, it meant that if killed or even forgotten by those that knew him then he could disappear from the world. Such an event would be as if Yato had never existed as he became forgotten by the world.
Similar to all gods, Yato could equip himself with a spirit tool known as a Shinki (神器) that allowed him to accomplish anything. He stated to be deprived of one made him helpless and unable to combat Phantoms. As with all Shinki, he was able to maintain a mental link with his Regalia where he could sense their thoughts. This connection only worked one way from Shinki to their master and not the other way around. As a result, he was aware of the mind state of his Shinki and also experienced pain from impure, perverted or sinful thoughts. Yato commented though that this was one of the ways for him to experience emotion. However, a Shinki he was bonded to that did not control their negative emotions impacted Yato greatly with this manifesting as blight around his neck. Unless the Shinki controlled themselves, this blight would gradually grow and coukd not be treated leading to Yato growing weaker as well as slower. In time, Yato could die from the blight infection unless the Shinki was killed or purified of it corruption.
Among the techniques known to him included:
- Rend (斬ざん, Zan?) :
- Sunder (絶ぜつ, Zetsu?) :
- Cloudburst (驟しゅう雨う, Shūu?) :
- Crimson Bloom (赤せっ華か, Sekka?) :
Upon gaining a shrine, he was allowed entry into Takama-ga-hara (高天原, literally "the Plain of High Heavens") that was the abode of the gods with him having his own land there to converse with his fellow deities. It also allowed him to participate in the colloguy among the gods and could be summoned by them during times of emergency.
Notes
- Yato was created by Adachitoka where he featured in the setting of the Noragami universe.
In other media
Television
- In Noragami, Yato appeared in the setting of the anime television series where he was was voiced by Japanese actor Hiroshi Kamiya and by English actor Jason Liebrecht in the dubbed series.
Appearances
- Noragami:
- Noragami Aragoto:
External Links
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