Instead of "musha" I should have said "onna musha", as "musha" is gender-neutral.
It seems "onna bugeisha" (女武芸者), "onna musha" (女武者) or "onna bushi" (女武士) are all acceptable. As a word, "musha" seems more popular (e.g. "Onimusha", Capcom's game series; "kagemusha", a body double).
Melody Muse wrote:Either way, if the female MC or a bachelorette could wield a naginata, that would be awesome!
RF already has a naginata-wielding noblewoman character in Uzuki. As is said, I'm getting this feeling that Mikoto's concept is more based on the ideal of a chivalric ronin. This is traditionally a male figure, and I can only think of one female example in video games: Asuka of the Shiren the Wanderer series.
Seriously, the world needs more good female samurai characters!
Regarding the possible Mei-Mikoto link...
(WARNING: language geekery)
To stretch the link further, 冥 also has connotations of "fate".
(cuc opens another window, and searches for online Chinese dictionaries.)
Etymologically speaking, in Chinese, the most basic meaning of 命 is "command", while the most basic meaning of 冥 is "dim" and "dark". The development of their meaning is probably:
命: command -> fate -> life
冥: dim / dark -> deep
And from "deep", 冥 develops several subtly related meanings, "the underworld" or "death" being but one of them, although it's the meaning Japanese people are most familiar with.
As an example, in the English version of
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the name of the sword 青冥劍 is translated as Green Destiny, but the actual meaning of 青冥 is more like "green and deep", which can be a poetic reference to many things, from high heaven to deep water, and has no direct connection to destiny at all.