Character: Miroku 23524x

Miroku is a Buddhist monk who travels the countryside performing services such as exorcisms and demon exterminations, although sometimes he deliberately falsifies these to earn comfortable rewards. Miroku can attack enemies with his holy staff and sutra scrolls, but his greatest weapon, the Wind Tunnel embedded in the palm of his hand, is also a hereditary curse originally inflicted by Naraku upon Miroku's grandfather Miyatsu. The Wind Tunnel sucks in almost anything in its path and is a powerful weapon against demons; however, it grows larger with increasing use, so that Miroku's grandfather and father were eventually consumed by their own Wind Tunnels. Miroku hopes to break the curse by killing Naraku.

Miroku first meets InuYasha by stealing the Shikon Jewel, causing them to fight one another until Kagome leaps between them. After Miroku explains his situation, InuYasha allows him to their group as a valuable ally. Miroku's lechery is a recurrent habit, usually manifesting as shameless flattery, semi-surreptitious groping, and asking random women to bear him a child; he learned these bad habits from the monk Mushin who raised him, but he also has the more serious motive of wanting an heir to follow him if he dies without defeating Naraku.