Similar to the name-change origin of the Asahina family, it appears the Oni hunted by Hiruma, Kaiu, and Kuni got the pseudonym treatment as well.

In the first chapter of Shadowlands, p. 35, it's said that the Hiruma family came about thanks to Hiruma and his followers ability in "preventing, detecting, and defeating attacks from the Shadowlands."

Well, in the original lore, it's because Hiruma, Kaiu, and Kuni were the three that said they were worthy to be Hida-no-Kami's followers, and he then tasked them with killing Hatsu Suru no Oni to prove it.

Forward to p. 53 of Shadowlands. Hiruma, along with Kaiu and Kuni, went a-huntin' as before, but... for Hajimeno Tatakai no Oni.

So, change for change's sake?

I mean, different words mean different things. My Japanese isn't really that good, but running through google translate, I get the impression that "Hatsu Suru no Oni" is like "Oni of first made", but " Hajimen  o  Tatakai    no Oni  " is more like "Oni of first fight" so it may be an intent to communicate slightly different references, or perhaps the original name doesn't work well as a translation in that context, or whatever. I doubt it's "change for change's sake", most changes have specific meanings (like say, making it Utaku instead of Otaku to start). I've heard some people even complain they didn't fix Toturi's name, since his syllables don't really exist in Japanese.

Given "tu" is an obsolete romanization of "tsu," one could easily argue that it wasn't Toturi's name that was wrong this whole time, everyone was just pronouncing it wrong. 😉

10 hours ago, narukagami said:

Given "tu" is an obsolete romanization of "tsu," one could easily argue that it wasn't Toturi's name that was wrong this whole time, everyone was just pronouncing it wrong. 😉

It's hardly the only syllable that AEG used which wasn't a Japanese syllable, even outside of the Unicorn. So I always just took "Toturi" to be an example of "It's Rokugan, not Japan."

I also just noticed an inconsistency between the name of the sword Kaiu made: Chikara (as it's always been) in the part that initially talks about the families in Chapter One, but when showing off the new items, it's Kishu.