What is so important about this sacred jewel you ask? It is the treasure that both humans and youkai's look for. This jewel is what brought Inuyasha and Kagome together, and Kikyou from before. Shikon no Tama means "Jewel of Four Souls". Shikon also stands for Arami tama, nikimi tama, fushigi tama, and sakimi tama.

 

These four are parts of the spirit or the heart. Arami tama represents courage. Nikimi tama represents friendship. Fushigi represents wisdom. Sakimi tama represents love. This whole story starts out with a priestess named Midoriko. This priestess was said to be the most powerful in the world because of her ability to purify the souls of demons (youkai). Midoriko attempted to pull the demon's souls into her own heart to purify them, but in doing that released her own soul and the souls of the demons that she was fighting, from her body, which made the Shikon no Tama.

 

Kagome had the shikon no Tama inside her body, until it had fallen out due to a wound she took from the centipede monster earlier in the first episode. Later on, the jewel was stolen by a black crow youkai. With the mishap of Kagome's arrow striking the demon crow with the sacred jewel,it had exploded into many small pieces.Spreading through out the land, becoming many beams of light across the sky.This is how the adventure of the two begins,the journey of collectiong the shikon shards.