ok kazuha analysis lets go babey

ok his name !! it’s sadi to be either 楓原(kaedehara) or 桐生(kiryu) 万葉.

kaedehara: literally 楓maple 原field. lastnames in toyama shizuoa & aichi
kiryu: last name rooted in areas eith princess trees(桐). lastnames in niigata gunma & tokyo. root from kiryu city in gunma

万葉 kazuha, more common kanji for girls than boys.
万 - ten thousand
葉 - leaves

people use this kanji together in hope for their kids to become “one with many skills/talent” (maybe reference to his kit?)

name reference to “万葉”集 manyoushu, the oldest collection of waka (basically japanese poetry) from nara period (imperial period)

there are 3 genres in the book
zoka- on banquets and trips
somonka- on love
banka- on mourning the dead

also leakers mentioned that kazuha is a ronin (浪人) which really points to him having a sad lore.
浪人 literally means wanderer/drifter. they are warriors with no master. this either means they r no longer under a master or the master died. tbh it doesnt have good connotation

modern usage of the word points to pol with no job or hs graduates on a gap year (they have no affiliation=they are wanderer)

omg ppl leaked his skill? HOLD ON

ok so his E 千早振る chihayafuru is a reference to a classic rakugo (a form of verbal entertainment, usually comedic storytelling) and is a excerpt from “waraibanashishu” 笑話集 a collection of comedic jokes and stories

but it may also be a reference to a makurakotoba? in that sense it would mean 荒々しい, 勢いのある which roughly translates to wild, with a lot of energy, etc etc

流風秋野(ruka akino) means “flows of autumn field wind” and his plunge attack, 乱嵐斬り(ranrankiri) “chaos storm’s slice” and his burst 万葉の一刀 (manyou no ittou) means “the slice/blade of ten thousand leaves” WTF he is so poetic dies

also there are so many maple 楓 motif surrounding him. maple is used to mean “beautiful change” as well as “hesitance” in japanese flower language 花言葉. there is also a popular song abt heartbreak called “楓” in japan which lead to misconception that the plant also implies that

maple in japan came from china so i think its neat that the motif is used on a character that will presumably connect inazuma and liyue for the traveller.

ANYWAYS THIS THREAD IS A MESS BUT NOW I WANT SAD KAZUHA LORE he is a ronin and he is named after one of the oldest and most significant poetry collection in japanese history that writes on mourning the loss AND the main motif is maple, signifying change? PLS SAD LORE SAD LORE

im disappointed to say that i couldnt connect him to hanae natsuki aside from the fact that they have plants in their names and that maples often represent either fall or summer (夏!!!) the end