The former Hashira of Demon Slayer

The Hashira are the nine strongest fighters of the Demon Slayer Corps. When Tanjiro meets them, in the courtyard of the headquarters, they are all on active duty. But this rank has existed for centuries, and others held it before them. Some died, others retired, wounded or exhausted, and several keep serving in other ways, training the young or protecting the head of the Corps.

These former Hashira play a discreet but decisive role in Demon Slayer. They are the ones who train Tanjiro, Zenitsu and Giyu, who keep the memory of the breathing styles, and who sometimes pay for their pupils’ faults. Our page on the Demon Slayer Hashira presents the nine of the Taisho era, and our article on the tsuguko, the Hashira’s disciples explains how one succeeds them.

How does one become a former Hashira?

In Demon Slayer, the Japanese word hashira refers to the pillars that hold up a house. It is written with a nine-stroke character, and that is said to be the reason the Corps has nine Hashira at the start of the series. They wear gold buttons on their uniform, whereas the other demon slayers have silver buttons, and receive whatever pay they ask for.

There are three ways to stop being a Hashira. The most common is death in combat: the Upper Moons have killed dozens of them over the centuries, and Daki and Gyutaro alone about twenty. The second is an injury that prevents fighting, as with Jigoro or Tengen. The third is voluntary retirement, which the series suggests is possible at any time, like that of Shinjuro Rengoku.

When a Hashira disappears, another takes their place. It may be their tsuguko, the disciple they chose to succeed them, or a demon slayer who has killed fifty demons or one of the demon Moons. The title is sometimes passed down in a family, as with the Rengoku, where the Flame Hashira has passed from father to son for generations. Our page on the Demon Slayer breathing styles details the schools each Hashira represents.

Sakonji Urokodaki, the former Water Hashira

Sakonji Urokodaki lives alone on Mount Sagiri, where he trains candidates in Water Breathing. He always wears a red tengu mask and never takes it off in front of his pupils. He once captured a demon, later locked up on Mount Fujikasane, where the Final Selection takes place. This Hand Demon swore revenge, and for decades he killed Urokodaki’s pupils one by one, thirteen in all, recognisable by their fox masks.

Among his pupils are Giyu Tomioka, who will become Water Hashira in turn, Sabito and Makomo, killed by the Hand Demon, and Tanjiro, who finally kills it. Urokodaki weeps when he sees the boy come back. He is also the one who watches over Nezuko during her two years of sleep and whispers to her to protect humans. He stakes his life on her: in a letter to the head of the Corps, he promises to cut his belly open, along with Tomioka and Tanjiro, if she ever kills a human.

During the final battle, Urokodaki stays behind and guards Nezuko, who becomes human again before his eyes before running to join her brother. Our article on Sakonji Urokodaki, the master with the tengu mask tells his life, and the one on Sabito and Makomo, the lost pupils presents those he lost.

Jigoro Kuwajima, the former Thunder Hashira

Jigoro Kuwajima was Thunder Hashira until thirty-five, the age at which he lost his right leg in combat. Retired from service, he walks with a wooden leg and a cane, and trains pupils in Thunder Breathing. Zenitsu calls him grandpa. The old man took him in after paying off the debts a woman had made him run up, and trained him by force, with a stick, despite his running away and his tears.

His other pupil, Kaigaku, masters every form of Thunder Breathing except the first, while Zenitsu masters only that one. Jigoro wanted them to succeed him together. When Kaigaku becomes a demon, the old man cuts his belly open to answer for his pupil’s fault, and dies alone, with no one to cut his agony short. He is the only one of the retired former Hashira missing from the final battle.

His death transforms Zenitsu, who then trains in silence and ends up killing Kaigaku with a form he invented. Our article on Jigoro Kuwajima, the former Thunder Hashira tells the story of the shared master, and the one on demon slayers turned demons looks back at Kaigaku’s betrayal.

Shinjuro Rengoku, the former Flame Hashira

Shinjuro Rengoku was Flame Hashira, like his father and his ancestors before him. Two things broke him. The death of his wife, Ruka, left him alone with two sons. Then reading the family archives taught him that Flame Breathing was only an offshoot of Sun Breathing, and that nothing he did would ever equal the first swordsman. He sank into alcohol, and the Corps quietly sidelined him. Kyojuro took his place shortly afterwards.

When Tanjiro comes to announce Kyojuro’s death, Shinjuro receives him with contempt and hits him, and Tanjiro ends up headbutting him. The old man only weeps on hearing his son’s last words, asking him to take care of himself. He then slowly pulls himself together, while Senjuro keeps in touch with Tanjiro by letter.

During the final battle, Shinjuro takes up the sword again to protect Kiriya Ubuyashiki, the new head of the Corps, alongside Tengen. He survives the war. Our article on Shinjuro Rengoku, Kyojuro’s father tells his fall and his return, and the one on Kyojuro Rengoku, the Flame Hashira presents the son who took up his haori.

Kanae Kocho, the Flower Hashira

In Demon Slayer, Kanae Kocho is Shinobu’s older sister. As children, the two sisters saw their parents killed by a demon and were saved by Gyomei Himejima, who guided them towards the Corps. Kanae becomes the Flower Hashira, a style derived from Water Breathing, and with Shinobu buys the freedom of a little girl sold by her family, Kanao, whom they adopt. She dreams of a world where humans and demons could live together, and pities the demons she kills.

She dies at seventeen, the first of the Taisho-era Hashira to fall, killed by Doma, Upper Moon Two. In her last moments, she asks Shinobu to leave the Corps and live an ordinary life. Shinobu refuses, takes her butterfly-wing haori and becomes the Insect Hashira to avenge her. Kanao, for her part, keeps her older sister’s butterfly clip and the Flower Breathing she passed on to her.

Among the former Hashira of the Taisho era, Kanae is the only one who appears only in memories, but her shadow hangs over the whole Infinity Castle arc, where her two sisters face her murderer. Our article on Kanae Kocho, the Flower Hashira tells her life, and our Shinobu Kocho Demon Slayer collection gathers the two sisters’ butterfly items.

Tengen Uzui, retired after the Entertainment District

Tengen Uzui is the last to leave the rank before the eyes of the Demon Slayer reader. A former shinobi and the Sound Hashira, he takes Tanjiro, Zenitsu and Inosuke into the Entertainment District to find his three wives. There he faces Daki and Gyutaro, Upper Moon Six, and loses his left eye and his left hand. His career ends there, but the death of an Upper Moon, the first in over a century, makes up for the loss.

Retired, Tengen does not leave the Corps. During the Hashira Training, he is the one who opens the programme, with endurance and running exercises, a wooden sword on his shoulder. During the final battle, he protects Kiriya Ubuyashiki with Shinjuro Rengoku. He survives the war with his three wives, and the epilogue shows one of his descendants in the present day.

Tengen shows what a former Hashira can be when he keeps a taste for combat: a flamboyant instructor, more useful behind the lines than expected. Our article on Tengen Uzui, the Sound Hashira tells his fight against Gyutaro, and our Tengen Uzui Demon Slayer collection gathers his items.

The Hashira of the Sengoku era

The oldest Hashira mentioned in Demon Slayer lived four centuries before Tanjiro, in the Sengoku era. At the time, the Corps was already fighting demons, but without breathing styles. A Flame Hashira with fire-coloured hair, the Rengoku ancestor, one day meets Yoriichi Tsugikuni, who is mourning his wife Uta and the child she was carrying, killed by a demon. He brings him into the Corps, and Yoriichi teaches the Hashira his way of breathing.

None of them manages to reproduce Sun Breathing. From it they create five derived styles, Water, Flame, Stone, Wind and Thunder, while Michikatsu, Yoriichi’s brother, creates Moon Breathing. Several Hashira awaken the Demon Slayer Mark, and all those who bear it die before twenty-five. To escape this, Michikatsu becomes the demon Kokushibo and kills the head of the Corps of the time.

The Hashira then drive Yoriichi out, blaming him for letting Muzan escape and for sparing a female demon, Tamayo. Some even demand that he take his own life, before the new head, a child, silences them. The Flame Hashira records Yoriichi’s account in his family’s archives, the ones Shinjuro will read centuries later. Our article on Kokushibo and Yoriichi, the Tsugikuni twins tells this era, and our Yoriichi Tsugikuni Demon Slayer collection gathers the items of the first swordsman.

The former Hashira during the final battle

In the final battle of Demon Slayer, when Muzan attacks the Ubuyashiki estate, Kagaya, the head of the Corps, blows himself up with his wife and two of his daughters to wound him. His son Kiriya, eight years old, takes command of the Corps and directs the battle from a hidden house. The former Hashira then each take up their post: Shinjuro and Tengen guard Kiriya, Urokodaki watches over Nezuko.

Their role is less spectacular than that of the active Hashira, but it is decisive. Had Muzan or his demons reached Kiriya, the Corps would have lost its head for the second time in one night. Had Nezuko been taken, Muzan would have got what he had been seeking for a thousand years. The elders hold the rear while the young fight in the Castle.

The epilogue gives them a nod. In the present day, Urokodaki and Jigoro reappear as two old friends playing shogi together, and the descendants of Tengen and Giyu live in Tokyo. Our article on the Hashira who die in Demon Slayer counts those who do not come back.

Cosplaying a former Hashira

The former Hashira of Demon Slayer make rarer cosplays, and so more noticed ones at conventions. Urokodaki’s tengu mask, Jigoro’s kimono with his cane, Tengen’s jewelled headband or Yoriichi’s red haori can be recognised from afar. For a former Hashira who still carries a weapon, like Tengen or Yoriichi, add the sword: without a katana, the outfit stays incomplete. Measure yourself and rely on the sizes on the product page, as the cuts often run small.

Outfits are delivered in 5 to 12 days depending on where you live. Our demon slayer cosplay collection gathers the outfits of former and current Hashira, and our page on all the Demon Slayer characters helps you choose who to play.