Tohno

Tohno is a Japanese surname and toponym. The name is commonly romanized as Tohno or Tōno, depending on transliteration. In real-world geography, Tōno refers to a city in Iwate Prefecture in the Tōhoku region of northern Honshu. The city is known for its rural landscapes and for Tōno Monogatari, Kunio Yanagita’s famous collection of traditional Japanese folklore, which helped shape modern folklore studies.

In popular culture, Tohno is the surname of Shiki Tohno, the protagonist of Tsukihime, a visual novel by Type-Moon first released in 2000; the work has since been adapted into manga and anime. Shiki Tohno is depicted as a high school student who wields the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, a supernatural ability that allows him to perceive and sever lines of mortality. The use of the name in fiction is generally independent of the real city; the two uses share only the romanized form. Variants in spelling arise from transliteration and do not reflect a different meaning.