In short
Giyu Tomioka is the Water Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, and the first character in Demon Slayer that Tanjiro meets. He is the one who spares Nezuko and sends the boy to his former master. Marked by the deaths of his sister Tsutako and his friend Sabito, he wears a two-tone haori that brings the two together. A master of Water Breathing, he invents the eleventh form and survives the final battle.
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He speaks little, keeps to himself and believes the other Hashira hate him. Yet Giyu Tomioka is the character through whom everything begins in Demon Slayer, or Kimetsu no Yaiba by its Japanese title: without his decision to let Nezuko live, there is no story.
This portrait traces his childhood, the debt he believes he owes two dead people, his mastery of Water Breathing, his fights and his place among the nine Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps.
Who is Giyu Tomioka?
| Profile | Detail |
|---|---|
| Japanese name | 冨岡 義勇 (Tomioka Giyû) |
| Rank | Water Hashira (Mizu Bashira) |
| Fighting style | Water Breathing |
| Age | 19 at his first appearance, 21 from chapter 28 |
| Height and weight | 176 cm, 69 kg |
| Birthday | February 8 |
| Family | Tsutako Tomioka (older sister), parents never named |
| Master | Sakonji Urokodaki, the former Water Hashira |
| First appearance | chapter 1 of the manga, episode 1 of the anime |
| Voice | Takahiro Sakurai in Japanese, Juan Llorca in French |
| Status at the end | alive |
In Demon Slayer, Tomioka is the Water Hashira in office throughout the story. Tall, pale-skinned, with badly cut black hair tied in a low ponytail and deep blue eyes: he is recognised first by his haori, whose right half is plain red and whose left half is covered in green, yellow and brown squares.
His face does not move. He answers in short sentences, often too blunt, and lets most conversations die. Shinobu Kocho tells him one day that a lot of people hate him, and the remark leaves him genuinely stunned: he only thought he was in the way.
Behind this front, the Water Hashira cares about those he protects. He disobeys the Corps’ rule to save Nezuko, he steps in between Akaza and Tanjiro, and he remains one of the few demon slayers to make an exception for a demon who does not kill.
The first face of the series
Giyu is the first demon slayer the reader meets, in chapter 1. His decision to spare Nezuko launches the whole story of Demon Slayer.
Tsutako and Sabito, the two dead he carries
Tomioka grows up with his older sister, Tsutako. A demon attacks them while he is still a child; she steps in front of him and dies in his place, the day before her wedding.
The boy tells what he saw. No one believes him. He is taken for a madman and sent to a relative who is a doctor. He escapes on the way, wanders in the mountains and almost starves to death before being taken in by Sakonji Urokodaki, the former Water Hashira, who makes him his student.
Sabito, the friend from the Final Selection
At thirteen, Giyu meets Sabito at the home of their shared master. Same age, same past as a survivor: the two boys become inseparable and take the Final Selection together on Mount Fujikasane.
Tomioka is wounded by a demon in the very first hours. Sabito saves him, then roams the mountain and slays almost every demon on it. On the seventh day, Giyu learns that his friend is the only candidate to have died. He survived without killing a single demon.
From this episode comes the feeling that eats at him throughout the story: he believes he does not deserve his rank. He even refuses to introduce himself as a Hashira to Tanjiro.
Tsutako Tomioka
His older sister, killed by a demon the day before her wedding while protecting her little brother.
Sabito
His training companion, who died during the Final Selection after saving Tomioka and defeating almost every demon.
Sakonji Urokodaki
The former Water Hashira, master of Giyu and then of Tanjiro, who takes in the child lost in the mountains.
Water Breathing and its eleven forms
In Demon Slayer, Water Breathing is one of the five original breathing styles, as our page on every breathing style in Demon Slayer points out. Urokodaki teaches it to Tomioka, then to Tanjiro, which makes the two characters students of the same master.
The style has ten forms passed down by the tradition of Demon Slayer. Giyu adds an eleventh of his own invention, something no other active Hashira does.
| Form | English name | What the technique does |
|---|---|---|
| First | Water Surface Slash | a single clean, focused strike |
| Second | Water Wheel | a full rotation of the body, blade extended |
| Third | Flowing Dance | a fluid sequence that follows the opponent |
| Fourth | Striking Tide | a wide strike, delivered from the side |
| Fifth | Blessed Rain After the Drought | a gentle cut, used to end suffering |
| Sixth | Whirlpool | a spiralling attack that swallows whatever comes close |
| Seventh | Drop Ripple Thrust | the fastest cut of the style, almost invisible |
| Eighth | Waterfall Basin | a vertical strike, from top to bottom |
| Ninth | Splashing Water Flow, Turbulent | a defence that slows a fall and deflects blows |
| Tenth | Constant Flux | a rotation that gains strength with each turn |
| Eleventh | Dead Calm | the form invented by Tomioka, an apparent absence of movement that cuts through everything entering its radius |
Dead Calm remains his signature. Against Rui, Lower Moon Five of Mount Natagumo, he cuts all of the demon’s threads in one stroke without anyone seeing the blade move. The form astonishes even the higher-ranking demons, and it comes up again in our article on the weapons and styles of the nine Hashira.
Giyu awakens his demon slayer mark during the fight against Akaza. It appears as a liquid streak on his left cheek and gives him the speed he needs to hold out against an Upper Moon. The price of this mark is detailed in our article on the Hashira marks.
The eleventh form
Dead Calm is Tomioka’s own creation, absent from Urokodaki’s teaching. No other active Hashira adds a form to their own style.
This breathing style in motion is what his 17 cm figure captures, set on a wave. The other eight swordsmen await in the collection of demon slayer and Hashira figures, and the full range in the figures of the universe.
Tomioka 17 cm figure
Sword held low, on a translucent blue wave with white crests.
View the product · €79.90His sword and his two-tone haori
Giyu fights with a classic-shaped Nichirin sword, whose blade turns blue in his hand. How these blades change colour according to their wielder is explained on our page about Nichirin swords and their colours. Against Muzan, his steel turns crimson red on contact with that of Sanemi Shinazugawa, the Wind Hashira, which blocks the demon’s regeneration.
The haori, for its part, tells his story without a word. The plain red half comes from his sister Tsutako’s kimono, the geometric-patterned half from Sabito’s garment. Tomioka has worn them sewn together since the Final Selection and never parts with it.
The pattern appears on a good share of our products bearing his name, from the sweatshirt with the haori pattern to the Hashira cosplay section, and his blue blade in the blue-blade LEGO katana as well as in the katana section.
Two fabrics, two deaths
Plain red for Tsutako, a geometric pattern for Sabito. Giyu’s haori is a garment of mourning as much as a uniform.
This haori sewn from two fabrics is also the most requested piece of his outfits, the one you will wear at a convention or a photo shoot. You will find everything the catalogue offers in his name in the collection devoted to Giyu Tomioka.
Two-tone Tomioka cosplay
Two-tone haori, plain burgundy and green and yellow cubes, over the black uniform, with wig, from 110 to L.
View the product · €99.90Meeting Tanjiro and Nezuko
The first scene of Demon Slayer puts Tomioka face to face with Tanjiro in the snow, leaning over his sister who has become a demon. He attacks Nezuko, the boy throws himself in front of her, and the demon slayer bluntly explains how a human is transformed: demon blood in an open wound, and it is over.
Tanjiro prostrates himself to beg for mercy. This posture makes Giyu angry: no one should hand someone else the power of life and death over their own family. He tells him his family would still be alive with a little common sense, then, through this harshness, pushes him to fight for real.
Nezuko ends up stepping in front of her brother rather than attacking him. Tomioka sheathes his blade. He sends Tanjiro to Urokodaki with a simple instruction, which also applies to himself: become strong enough to protect what is left. The rest of the boy’s journey is told on our page about Tanjiro Kamado, the hero of Demon Slayer, and his sister’s on the page about Nezuko Kamado, his sister turned demon.
The parting instruction
Giyu does not train Tanjiro. He sends him to his own master, on Mount Sagiri, and disappears for two years of the story.
Mount Natagumo and Tanjiro’s trial
Tomioka reappears on Mount Natagumo, where the spider demon family of Demon Slayer is decimating a team of demon slayers. He cuts off the head of Rui, Lower Moon Five, in a single form, then stops Shinobu Kocho from executing Nezuko. The two Hashira face off without fighting, and the episode seals their strange relationship, made of jabs and esteem.
At headquarters, the nine Hashira demand the death of the young demon. Giyu stands in front of the brother and sister and declares that he will face anyone who tries anything. The scene, told in detail in our article on the Hashira meeting and Tanjiro’s trial, costs him a punishment and the respect of some of his peers.
The leader of the Corps rules in Nezuko’s favour. Tomioka takes his sanction without arguing and goes back on a mission as if nothing had happened. The spin-off Tomioka Giyu Gaiden tells in two chapters what he does just after this encounter.
Survivor’s guilt and the Hashira Training
Before the final battle of Demon Slayer, the Corps organises intensive training in which each Hashira takes a post. Giyu refuses to hold his. He withdraws, talks of giving up his rank and repeats that he is not made of the same stuff as the others.
Tanjiro follows him, challenges him to a duel and drags the truth out of him: Sabito was stronger, Sabito should have lived, and Tomioka judges himself unworthy of having taken his place. The boy replies that the dead do not ask anyone to punish themselves, and that a survivor must carry what was entrusted to him.
Giyu takes up his post again. With Shinobu, he is one of the only two Hashira not to run a station at first, and he joins the others’ sessions once convinced: the details of each station can be found in our article on the Hashira Training.
What he tells Akaza
Asked his name during the fight, Tomioka replies that he does not like talking and that a name is not something you give away. It is one of his rare long lines.
The final battle, from Akaza to Muzan
This section reveals events from the end of the manga.
In the Infinity Castle, the last setting of Demon Slayer, Giyu faces Akaza alongside Tanjiro. Upper Moon Three recognises him as the best Water Hashira he has met in fifty years and offers him, as he did Rengoku, to become a demon. Tomioka refuses without another word.
His mark awakens during the exchange. It allows him to hold out a long time against the demon, until his blade breaks and an almost fatal wound immobilises him. Tanjiro takes over the fight and finishes Akaza, whose full story is told on our page about the demons and the demon Moons.
Giyu then fights Muzan himself, with Sanemi, Obanai and Mitsuri. Hit by an attack and poisoned by the demon’s blood, he keeps fighting where others collapse. He is among the survivors, and the epilogue shows one of his descendants, Giichi Tomioka, in modern times. The order of events at this ending is detailed on our page about every arc of Demon Slayer, and the full list in the article on the Hashira who die.
Wounded, then poisoned
Hit by Muzan and reached by his blood, Tomioka keeps fighting where Mitsuri collapses. He is one of the Hashira who survive.
Giyu and the other Hashira
His isolation is not hostility, and readers of Demon Slayer often get it wrong. Over time, the relationships take shape.
The ranking of the nine by level, often debated by readers, places Tomioka near the top of the table: our ranking of the Hashira by power details the arguments, and the conditions for becoming a Hashira explain what his rank implies.
The only one to shake him
Tanjiro is the only character who gets an explanation about Sabito out of Giyu, and the only one who makes him go back on his resignation.
Trivia about Giyu Tomioka
The kanji 勇 in his first name carries the ideas of heroism, loyalty and courage, a reading confirmed by the Demon Slayer profiles.
His favourite dish is salmon simmered with daikon. The only time he smiles in front of a plate, Shinobu is left speechless.
He came fourth in the first popularity poll of the Kimetsu no Yaiba manga, with 2,190 votes.
With Rengoku, he is one of only two characters to get their own spin-off.
His Kasugai crow, the oldest in Demon Slayer, often gets his messages wrong, which makes him nervous.
His first design showed him in fingerless sleeves, with a fuller hakama and the haori tied at the waist.
In the school version Kimetsu Academy, he teaches PE and advises students, with a strictness that earns him complaints.
For your bedroom, the woodblock-print waves poster plays on the water motif, the sitting Giyu plush softens the whole, and you will find the rest among the shop’s posters, the wall tapestries of the universe, the Demon Slayer plushies and the shop’s bedding. His haori even comes in a version to slip on on the sofa.
Tomioka wearable blanket
Hooded fleece flannel cape, cut in two like the haori, one adult size.
View the product · €39.90
