The flowers of Demon Slayer and what they mean

In Japan, every flower has a meaning. The cherry blossom speaks of passing beauty, the chrysanthemum of long life, the red spider lily of death and ancestors. This language of flowers, hanakotoba, is known to everyone, and Japanese artists have used it for centuries to say what a character feels without writing it. Demon Slayer belongs to this tradition, from the first episode to the last.

In the series, flowers are not just decoration. They protect, they poison, they name the techniques and they carry the greatest quest in the story, Muzan’s. Even Tanjiro’s earrings take their name from a game of flower cards, hanafuda. Our page on the Demon Slayer universe presents the world of the series, and our article on Tanjiro’s hanafuda earrings tells the story of this jewel.

Wisteria, the flower that repels demons

Wisteria, fuji in Japanese, blooms in long purple clusters at the end of spring. In Demon Slayer, demons cannot stand it: its scent keeps them at bay and its poison weakens them. The Demon Slayer Corps uses it in three ways, as a prison, as a refuge and as a weapon.

The prison is Mount Fujikasane, whose name roughly means “the mountain covered in wisteria”. The flowers grow there from the foot to halfway up and bloom all year round. The summit, however, has none: the Corps releases captured demons there, and they can no longer come down. That is where the Final Selection takes place, seven days and seven nights among demons. The Ubuyashiki children who welcome the candidates wear a cluster of wisteria in their hair.

The refuge is the wisteria houses, families who display the flower as their crest and take in wounded demon slayers free of charge, in gratitude for an ancestor saved by the Corps. The wisteria crest is also one of the most widespread in Japan: the great Fujiwara clan, whose name contains the flower’s character, bore it for centuries. The weapon, lastly, is the poison Shinobu Kocho draws from the flower and injects with the tip of her sword, since she cannot cut off demons’ heads. Our article on the wisteria houses tells about these refuges, and the one on the Final Selection on Mount Fujikasane tells the trial.

The blue spider lily, Muzan’s flower

The blue spider lily is the most important flower in Demon Slayer, and we almost never see it. A thousand years ago, a doctor treated the young Muzan, doomed by illness, with a remedy of which it was one of the ingredients. Muzan killed him before the end of the treatment. He became immortal, but unable to bear the sun, and spent the following centuries searching for the flower that would have completed his cure.

He never found it, and for good reason: the blue spider lily only opens by day, two or three days a year, and some years not at all. A demon, who only goes out at night, could not see it. As irony would have it, Kie Kamado, Tanjiro’s mother, knew where this flower grew and had shown it to him when he was little. Muzan slaughtered, without knowing it, a family that could have guided him.

Our article on the blue spider lily tells this thousand-year quest, and our page on the Demon Slayer demons presents the one who was looking for it.

The red spider lily, the flower of the other shore

The blue spider lily is an imaginary variant of a very real flower: the red spider lily, higanbana in Japanese. Its fine, curled, bright red petals open at the end of summer, without leaves, along the edges of rice fields and in cemeteries. It blooms during the week of the autumn equinox, higan, when Japanese families honour their dead.

The word higan means “the other shore”, the one reached after death in Buddhist tradition. The red spider lily is therefore the flower of the dead, and it was planted around graves and fields because its toxic bulb keeps animals away. The series turns this flower of the dead into a flower of immortality, simply by changing its colour.

The word comes back at the very end of the manga. The final move of Flower Breathing is called Higan shugan, “the vermilion eye of the other shore”. Kanao uses it against Doma, at the cost of the sight in one eye, then one last time against Tanjiro turned demon. Our article on Flower Breathing details this move.

The flowers of Flower Breathing

In Flower Breathing, derived from Water Breathing, each move bears the name of a flower or a flowering tree. The second move evokes the plum tree, the fourth the safflower, a red flower once used to make lip rouge, the fifth the peony, the sixth the peach tree. When Kanao uses it, the fight is covered in white and pink petals.

This breathing style passes from Kanae Kocho, the Flower Hashira killed by Doma, to Kanao, the little girl she had taken in. The fifth form, the “futile” peony, captures the spirit of the school: a beauty that does not last. Kanae died at seventeen, and in the series the flower remains the sign of a delicate, almost fragile strength, which nonetheless ends up defeating Upper Moon Two.

Our article on Kanao Tsuyuri and her coin tells the story of the heir, the one on Kanae Kocho, the Flower Hashira presents the woman who trained her, and our page on the Demon Slayer breathing styles places Flower among the other schools.

Cherry blossoms and Mitsuri

The cherry blossom, sakura, is Japan’s national flower. It blooms in spring for one to two weeks, then its petals all fall together. For centuries it has symbolised fleeting beauty, and the samurai saw in it the image of a short and brilliant life. In Demon Slayer, where so many fighters die young, this meaning is never far away. Every spring, Japanese families picnic under the blossoming trees, hanami, a tradition dating back more than a thousand years, to the very time Muzan became a demon.

The character most linked to the cherry blossom is Mitsuri Kanroji. As a teenager, she ate so many sakura mochi, those pink sticky rice cakes wrapped in a salted cherry leaf, that her hair turned pink with green tips, the colours of the cake and its leaf. Her Love Breathing is tinged with pink, and her sword guard is shaped like a four-leaf clover. Our article on Mitsuri Kanroji, the Love Hashira tells her story.

Lastly, the cherry blossom appears on many items in the colours of Nezuko and Mitsuri, where its pink flowers recall the kimono of one and the hair of the other. Our Mitsuri Kanroji Demon Slayer collection gathers the Love Hashira’s cherry blossom items.

Tamayo’s camellias

Tamayo wears a dark kimono scattered with large red camellias. The camellia, tsubaki, blooms in the depths of winter, when almost nothing else is in flower. Its particularity is that it does not lose its petals one by one: the whole flower falls at once, still intact. It is said that samurai were wary of it, because this fall recalled a severed head.

The symbol suits Tamayo. A demon who broke with Muzan, a doctor who treats humans instead of devouring them, she blooms out of season in a world of demons. And she disappears all at once, at the end, absorbed by Muzan just as her poison begins to work. Our article on Tamayo, the demon doctor tells her life and her fight.

Doma’s ice lotuses

The lotus is the flower of Buddhism: it grows in the mud and opens, spotless, on the surface of the water, an image of awakening born from suffering. Doma, Upper Moon Two, leads a cult that promises paradise to its followers. His Blood Demon Art, ice, creates frozen lotuses, frosted vines, petals sharp as blades and an icy mist that burns the lungs of those who breathe it.

The contrast is cruel. The flower of purity becomes the weapon of a demon who feels nothing and devours his followers while claiming to save them. He also killed Kotoha, Inosuke’s mother, who had taken refuge in his cult with her baby, the day she discovered he was devouring the followers. It is against him that Kanae then Shinobu, the two sisters of Flower and Insect, are broken, and it is Kanao, the heir of Flower, who finishes him off with Inosuke. Our article on Doma, Upper Moon Two tells the story of this smiling demon.

The flowers hidden in names

Flowers also slip into the characters’ names, written in Chinese characters each with its own meaning. Kanao’s family name, Tsuyuri, is written with three characters meaning “the falling of chestnut blossoms”. In Japan, chestnut trees lose their flowers at the start of the rainy season, tsuyu, and the name evokes that time of year.

In the Kamado family, the youngest sister is called Hanako, with the character for flower, hana: “flower child”. She dies with her brothers the night Muzan strikes the house. The Kocho name, lastly, does not refer to a flower but to a butterfly, the insect that feeds on their nectar.

These details do not change the story, but they show the care taken over the smallest name. Our article on the meaning of Demon Slayer names explains the other characters’ names, one by one.

The flowers on your items

The flowers of the series appear on many items, often more discreet than a character portrait. Wisteria adorns throws, pencil cases and bedding sets, cherry blossom the lunch bags and suitcase covers in the colours of Nezuko or Mitsuri. If you are looking for a gift for someone who loves the series without wanting a face everywhere, floral designs are a good lead. A wisteria wearable blanket or a flowery bedding set fits into an adult’s bedroom without feeling too much like fan merchandise, while a child will often prefer the character in large. For a cosplay, Tamayo’s camellia kimono or Makomo’s flowery mask make a striking entrance.

Items are delivered in 5 to 12 days depending on where you live. Our Demon Slayer throw range gathers the throws and wearable blankets, our bed linen range the flowery bedding sets, and our Shinobu Kocho Demon Slayer collection the Kocho sisters’ wisteria and butterfly items.