魯西亜

Etymology
Borrowing from. Cited since at least 1839.

The spelling is, current in 1855 when this spelling was used in the title of the.

The spelling was officially discontinued in 1877 after diplomatic pressure from Russia to change the spelling, out of concern that the initial character expressed a sense of. However, the newer kanji spelling uses  as the first character, and this was chosen for its sense of, from the political metaphor that the morning dew will disappear as the sun rises, wherein "sun" refers to Japan.

The use of to spell the latter portion is likely influenced by 🇨🇬 phonetics, and historical use of these characters to spell out the -siya portion of Rossiya in sources such as a bible translated into Chinese in 1864.

Usage notes
Due to the sense of the initial  character, this spelling is often viewed as pejorative.