Kaguya

Kaguya most often refers to Kaguya-hime, the Moon Princess in The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, a classic Japanese narrative from around the 9th to 10th centuries. In the story, a bamboo cutter finds a tiny, radiant girl and raises her as his daughter. Kaguya-hime grows into a beautiful and desired princess who returns the favors of suitors with near-impossible tasks. When she is summoned back to the Moon, she leaves Earth, and her departure becomes a turning point in early Japanese folklore. The tale is considered a foundational work and has influenced literature, art, and later adaptations.

In the Naruto franchise, Kaguya Otsutsuki is the primordial progenitor of chakra on Earth and a central antagonist in the series’ later arcs. She is depicted as an immensely powerful matriarch of the Otsutsuki clan whose actions sow the conflicts that shape the ninja world. She is ultimately defeated and sealed using the combined powers bestowed by Hagoromo and Hamura, and later clarified within the sequence of events by Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha. The arc provides the origin of chakra and the series’ mythological backstory.

The name also appears in modern fiction. For example, Kaguya Shinomiya is a major character in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, a manga and anime about rivalry and romance at Shuchiin Academy, where Shinomiya serves as the calculating, elite vice president and attempts to outmaneuver the student council president to compel a confession.