Itsuki Masaki (柾木 五木) is a minor character in the Tenchi Universe continuity, appearing only briefly in the episode "No Need for Knights" and Tenchi Forever!. Itsuki was Tenchi Masaki's grandmother, having married Yosho after he arrived on Earth and gave birth to their daughter, Achika, Tenchi's mother, but passed away some time before he was born.
Appearances
Itsuki first appears in a flashback in the twenty-second episode of Tenchi Universe, "No Need for Knights", when Yosho tells Tenchi and the girls he arrived on Earth and decided to stay for the rest of his days after encountering its devout people, including Itsuki. Yosho married her and inherited the Masaki shrine from her father, its keeper, and it was then he was given the name "Katsuhito Masaki".
Itsuki is only mentioned in passing in Tenchi Muyo! in Love, where in the year 1970, Katsuhito briefly mentions how Achika's mother died previously.
Itsuki appears again in Tenchi Forever!, where Yosho describes his time on Earth to Washu. He tells that he wandered the land and planted seeds of Haruna's tree wherever he went, but it was when he planted the seeds of her tree behind the Masaki shrine that he met Itsuki, as a child. He described Itsuki as being different from Haruna and "sparkling with energy and excitement". When Itsuki grew up, she and Katsuhito married, and they bore a daughter named Achika, who would then marry Nobuyuki and have a son named Tenchi. However, Yosho believes that marrying Itsuki caused Haruna's spirit to become disturbed, and she likely felt betrayed that he had so much joy with Itsuki that she never experienced herself. Thus, Haruna took Tenchi to experience the joy she never had with Yosho.
At the end of the film, just as Yosho says his final farewell to Haruna, Itsuki, in her child form, appears as a spirit and tugs on Yosho's sleeve with a disapproving look on her face. As she disappears again, Yosho calmly tells Itsuki not to be jealous.
Trivia
- Curiously, Yosho's accounts of Itsuki differ from between Tenchi Universe and Tenchi Forever!. Yosho's explanation in Universe implies that he arrived on Earth and met Itsuki when she was already an adult, but in Tenchi Forever!, Yosho instead says he met Itsuki as a child and married her when she became an adult.
- Tenchi Forever also puts the timing of things into question. Yosho's account in Universe does not imply any significant lapse in time between when he arrived on Earth and when he married Itsuki. However, the flashback in Tenchi Forever! shows a short sequence where Yosho is slowly aging, where he is initially seen walking among traditional, rural villages, but is then seen walking among western-style buildings before he met Itsuki. It can be assumed, then, that the span of time was at least a few hundred years, as he had been traveling and planting Haruna's seeds since before Japan became a modern, industrialized country.
- If Yosho's accounts from both Universe and Tenchi Forever! are to be considered true, then it would make sense that the Universe flashback actually took place relatively recently instead of the distant past, at some point after Yosho met Itsuki when she was now an adult.
- Tenchi Forever also puts the timing of things into question. Yosho's account in Universe does not imply any significant lapse in time between when he arrived on Earth and when he married Itsuki. However, the flashback in Tenchi Forever! shows a short sequence where Yosho is slowly aging, where he is initially seen walking among traditional, rural villages, but is then seen walking among western-style buildings before he met Itsuki. It can be assumed, then, that the span of time was at least a few hundred years, as he had been traveling and planting Haruna's seeds since before Japan became a modern, industrialized country.