Kyoko Yamada (山田 京子 Yamada Kyōko) is the wife of Nishia Yamada and the mother of Seina Yamada and Yoshiko Yamada. She mainly appears in the Tenchi Muyo! GXP anime and novels.
Background
Together with her husband and children, Kyoko owned and operated a small grocery store. As soon as Seina was born it was evident that he was a constant victim of troublesome bad luck that would not only affect him, but those around him. Kyoko always made a point of smiling in front of her son, but she was constantly anxious and worrying about him. In Paradise War Volume 3, Seina recounts that she fell in with fringe religions and tried to seek occult solutions to cure Seina of what she believed must be a curse.
After Seina told her that he had become friends with Kai Masaki she went to greet his mother, Tsukiko Masaki, and ended up breaking down crying as she expressed her relief that Seina had finally made his first friend.
She was the one most enthusiastic about the possibility of a prize when Amane Kaunaq gave Seina a Galaxy Police application and helped fill it out. It may have seemed uncaring, but the novels reveal that she was happy at the slim possibility that someone would want and welcome her son because it was becoming clear that, because of his bad luck, no local high schools would accept him once he graduated from Middle School. She also kept a photo album of Seina growing up, mostly pictures of Seina's various injuries from his bad luck.
It is revealed that, as soon as Seina left Earth, the Yamada grocery store's business increased massively, since his bad luck was no longer permeating the premises. With Seina's financial aid (managed by Kiriko), this allowed them to expand within a year to the point that they had to hire workers to help. It also allowed them to buy a bigger house.
By the end of Seina's two year training at the Academy, Kyoko mentions plans to build a large shopping center, with how much business has grown. The culmination of these plans is shown in Tenchi Muyo! GXP Paradise Starting. By this time, Kai has become engaged to Yoshiko and he has joined the planning of the Yamada Store expansion. Kai has even taken the Yamada surname to signify his place in the family.
As shown in that anime and explained in the Paradise War novels, Kyoko also has a hand in that story. After Kai comes home with a pilfered copy of a Tabletop Island pamphlet he found at his mother's home, Kyoko passes it on to Shou Kukoma's mother, an acquaintance of hers, which leads the family to decide to move there (with Shou going first).
In the 5th season of Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki, Kyoko and Yoshiko are shown briefly helping to prepare food at the Tenchi house before the wedding announcement.
It is only in the light novels that her name is given as Kyoko.
Etymology
- The name Kyoko means "Child of Today" - "today"(今日) (kyo) and "child" (子) (ko).
- Kyoko's surname Yamada means "mountain, hill" (山) (yama) and "field, rice paddy" (田) (ta/da).