Himura Kenshin

Himura Kenshin (real name Himura Shinta), also known as the legendary hitokiri of the Meiji Revolution, Himura Battosai (緋村抜刀斎),

is the main character and titular character of the Rurouni Kenshin series. Kenshin has spent ten years traveling Japan as a rurouni in search of redemption, carrying a sakabatō with the vow to never kill again. In 1878, he arrives in Tokyo and takes up residence at the Kamiya Dōjō, where his vow is tested as he fights to keep the country's peace.

Background

He was born on the day of June 20, 1849. Kenshin was born into a peasant family under the given name of "Shinta". After losing both of his parents to cholera by the age of six, he was sold into slavery. With his life turning for the worse, he was taken under the custody of three young women who were also fellow slaves; Akane, Kasumi and Sakura, and grouped together to take care of him in the face of being a child slave. Later on, the slave-traders' caravan was attacked by bandits who killed all of the peasants except for Shinta, who was saved by a skilled swordsmaster named Hiko Seijūrō. Killing the bandits, Hiko suggested to Shinta that he travel to a nearby village and start rebuilding his life. Hiko traveled to the same village, but after spending an evening there and hearing no news of Shinta's arrival, he assumed that the boy committed suicide. He returned to the site of the massacre with the intention of burying the bodies of everyone who died there. When he arrived however, he was shocked to find that, not only had Shinta not committed suicide, but he had spent the previous night burying all the bodies of everyone at the site, including the slavers and the bandits. Impressed by the boy's gentility and kindness, Hiko honored the gravestones of the young women who gave their lives to save him, and renamed the boy "Kenshin", as he felt that the name 'Ken' (sword) and 'Shin' (heart) were more fitting for a swordsman rather then the name Shinta. He then informed his new ward that he would teach him everything he knew about swordsmanship.

After a few years under Seijūrō's guidance, Kenshin learned of a revolution that was occurring all over Japan, one whose members professed to the ideals of removing the oppressive shogunate from power and ushering in a new era of peace for the common people. Inflamed by this news, Kenshin desired to join these revolutionaries in order to put his swordsmanship to use in ushering in this new era. Hiko however, was unmoved by both the news of the revolution and his student's passionate desire to play a role in it. He attempted to explain to Kenshin that war was not so simple as his student believed it to be, and that Kenshin, for his own sake, should not get involved. Furthermore, he informed Kenshin that the tenants of Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū were at odds with becoming involved in a political war, as the killing involved in such an undertaking would often be of people who did not necessarily deserve to die, and the decision to kill them would not be Kenshin's to make. However, Kenshin was adamant in his desire to aid what he saw as an honorable and noble cause, and he abandoned both his training and his master, leaving his knowledge of Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū incomplete (though still highly skilled for his age). His sword skills soon attracted the attention of Katsura Kogorō, a leader of the Chōshū Ishin Shishi. Seeing the phenomenal power of Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū, he recruited Kenshin and brought him to Kyoto, where he was assigned the role of an assassin. Within the first six months of his career, he killed over 100 people, and eventually became known as the Hitokiri Battōsai.

As time passed however, Kenshin began to grow disillusioned with his role in the revolution. Instead of ushering in a new era of peace, he eventually came to realize that he had simply become an extremely skilled murderer, and that the killing that he was engaged in didn't seem to be doing the good, or any significant difference, that he had hoped it would. Nevertheless, he continued his role as an assassin. One night in 1864 (a year into his career), he was ordered to kill Shigekura Jūbei, a high ranking samurai and bakufu official. He engaged Jūbei and quickly killed both him and his first bodyguard, Ishiji. Having to killed both men with virtually no fuss, he turned to eliminate the remaining bodyguard, Kiyosato Akira. Kenshin and Akira engaged in a brief, one-sided duel until Kenshin mortally wounded his completely outmatched foe. However, much to Kenshin's astonishment, his opponent managed to cut the left side of his face as he received his mortal injury. Kenshin quickly recovered from his shock and dispatched his dying opponent, before honoring the man's incredible will to live.

Later in his downtime, while drinking at a pub, he recalled a lesson from his master, noticing that the sake that he was drinking tasted like blood, to which it shouldn't. As a pair of men loudly boasted upon barging into in the pub for free favors, claiming themselves of the Ishin Shishi (and ignorantly, of the opposing Aizu), before harassing a young woman, Kenshin angrily confronted them and told the two to get lost even though they weren't talking to him. Afterwards, Kenshin departed the pub, inwardly concerned about the fact that the two men had managed to bother him to the point of anger. He came to the conclusion that all the killing that he had been doing had started him down the road to madness, and reflected upon Hiko's warning not to get involved. However, he was unable to discern the reason for Hiko's warning. As he walked, the two men from the pub who Kenshin had humiliated attempted to ambush him, but before they had an opportunity to attack, they were slain by a bakufu assassin. The assassin, introducing himself by killing off the last of the escaping men who begged for help, was there to eliminate Kenshin, and engaged the Battōsai, but was quickly cut down. In the midst of this grisly scene, the woman who Kenshin had seen earlier at the pub appeared just as Kenshin cut the bakufu assassin apart. Shocked to see her, Kenshin momentarily toyed with the idea of killing her; having to seen him, the woman was now in a possession to potentially compromise his identity. Before Kenshin could make a decision, the woman fainted, and Kenshin found that he was unable to bring himself to kill her. Instead, he took her back to the inn that he and his fellow members of the Chōshū clan were operating out of. Once she awakened the next day, Kenshin learned that her name was Yukishiro Tomoe. Having seen Kenshin, the revolutionaries informed her that, in order for her to continue living, she would need to stay where they could keep an eye on her. Despite Kenshin's desire to have her leave, she agreed to stay on as domestic help around the Chōshū clan's headquarters. While there, she eventually began to form a relationship with Kenshin, befriending him and helping him maintain a grip on his sanity. Much to his own surprise, Kenshin would soon fall in love with Tomoe. After the crisis suffered by the Chōshū clan in the Ikedaya Jiken, Kenshin married Tomoe and fled with her to a remote village in order for them to lie low together until the revolution was renewed.

Several months later, Tomoe met with the leader of the Yaminobu, a pro-Shogunate covert network of ninjas that had formulated a plan to assassinate Kenshin. She realized that all along they had actually used her to create Kenshin's weakness. Meanwhile, Kenshin ran off to find his wife, but was ambushed by Yaminobu ninjas and severely wounded. He managed to defeat them and eventually found Tomoe with the leader of the Yaminobu. In a desperate attempt to defeat the leader, Kenshin blindly swung his sword, striking down both his assailant and Tomoe, who jumped in at the last minute to save Kenshin from a fatal attack. Tomoe's dagger slashed Kenshin's already-scarred face as she fell into his arms; creating the famous cross-shaped scar across his left cheek. As Kenshin helplessly held his dying wife, she affirmed her love for him with her last words. Devastated by his wife's death at his own hands, Kenshin would later learn even more tragic news when he discovered through Tomoe's private diary that she was previously engaged to the bodyguard he killed who had given him the first half of his scar.

Following the death of Tomoe, Katsura, feeling heavily responsible for Kenshin's loss and his manipulation under the miserly traitor Iizuka, recruited Shishio Makoto to replace the Battōsai as an assassin, and reassigned Kenshin as a guerrilla swordsman protecting the Imperialists. After the end of the Bakumatsu in the late 1860s, Kenshin abandoned his sword and left the Ishin Shishi's ranks; his experiences resolving him to protect others without the need for death and bloodshed, in honor of his late wife's memory. Arai Shakkū, a famed swordsmith of the Ishin Shishi and acquaintance of the Battōsai, realizing the change that the turbulent era brought on to his friend, the virgin perspective that he now resolved to keep, and concerned how his friend would carry his journey without the need for self-defense and necessary force to carry out his ideals against the wayward, issued Kenshin the challenge to uphold his new-found path and tossed him the first of his signature weapon into the future; the kageuchi of the Sakabatō, which fully marked the end of Kenshin's career as a hitokiri.

Personality

Soft-spoken, serene and humble, Himura Kenshin's usual demeanor suits his effeminate appearance perfectly. Always willing to put others before himself, both in terms of well-being and social standing, Kenshin usually refers to others with the noble honorific of "-dono" while nearly always speaking of himself with the particularly humble pronoun "sessha" (translated by Viz Media as "this one") and ending his phrases with the formal verb "de gozaru" (translated by Media Blasters as phrases like "that it is" or "that I am"). He carries himself with an air of amicable temperance, politely conversing with the people he encounters and freely giving his meager services to those who need a hand. Kenshin doesn't hesitate to put himself in the path of harm to shield those around him and often attempts to diffuse contentious situations with soft, calming words and a somewhat clownish personality involving feigned clumsiness and his trademark interjection "oro" (a unique pronunciation of "ara"). These traits lead those unfamiliar with Kenshin to view him as ineffectual or easily exploitable, but more perceptive people become aware in short order that his gift for placatory eloquence and veiled redirection of disagreeable situations suggest a deep wisdom belied by his youthful, unassuming visage.

Despite his demeanor in Meji era, Kenshin was a very complex man during the Bakumatsu. As a teenager, Kenshin was impertinent, idealistic, and often easily embarrassed or flustered. He often tried to maintain a certain image among his colleagues in the Ishin Shishi, being quick to anger when dealing with taunts about his relationship with Tomoe during their time before going into hiding, such as when he silently threatened Izuka with his sword for making remarks about him and Tomoe. This tendency to be caught off guard or embarrassed in romantic or sexual matters of women remained with him well into his twenties. One such example was during the Jinchū Arc when Sano lied to Kaoru about what they were planning on doing, telling her that they would be checking out the Red Light district, embarrassing both Kenshin and Kaoru, and earning a blushing look of anger from the rurouni.

Tormented by his past as a hitokiri, Kenshin has developed an acute appreciation for life and has taken a vow in his heart to never again kill another person and to do everything within his power to protect people from being killed. This vow is the defining characteristic of Kenshin's personality and the primary motivation for his transition into a rurouni. Despite this, however, he holds his own existence cheap and carries in his heart a grievous guilt that prevents him from becoming emotionally close to the people around him and compels him to a life of humble service and selfless personal sacrifice. Even with his prodigious skill as a prolific swordsman, Kenshin refrains from wielding his great combat strength for his own sake, drawing his sword only for the well-being of others when words fail to appease. Though unwilling to simply be killed by unrelated attackers, Kenshin freely accepts that any grudges against his past self are well-deserved; he remembers the face of every person he has wronged as the Hitokiri Battōsai and will face their hatred or judgment without complaint, believing that he does not deserve the same happiness as others. Spending much of his alone time in quiet contemplation of his past misdeeds and future retribution, Kenshin often ponders what the right path toward redemption is and laments each life lost due to his weakness. As such, he has a tendency toward trying to solve problems all by himself and alienating his would-be allies with secrecy so as to keep them from becoming involved in his risky endeavors. Having to lived his own life carrying heavy regrets, Kenshin is reluctant to judge others for their personal actions, beliefs or mistakes and always offers hopeful encouragement so that those who have stumbled onto the wrong path might redeem themselves in the future. However, when forced to draw his sword against those who abuse their power and undervalue the lives of others, Kenshin's calm temperament gives way to a marked intensity capable of intimidating even other skilled swordsmen and can go so far as to become a powerful fury, despite his compulsion toward diplomacy.

But when his strength as a rurouni is insufficient to defend against a particularly threatening foe, or when the most depraved and horrendous acts of evil push him to his patience and limits of his moral indignation, Kenshin's restraint falters and his personality reverts to that of his days as the Hitokiri Battōsai. Born from countless acts of manslaughter and to steel himself from the weight and guilt of felling other human beings like him, such a personality was born in the face of becoming the tool of death without say in the matter and the ignorant folly of denying the truth of reality of the act of murder, embellishing such awful acts as an exceptional and undeniably justified need despite its ultimately grim and miserably cruel nature. In turn, while this allows him the ease to take life without hesitation, so does throwing himself into this darker half of himself, this selfishly justified wickedness and holding the lives of his foes as worthless leads into the tainted and corruptible ground of thought that nears the idea that life too is nihilistic and meaningless, and for Kenshin, the idea that his own life is worthless as well.

He immediately abandons his serene humility, reverting from sessha to the more abrasive pronoun "ore" while dropping de gozaru and oro from his speech. Kenshin's normally warm nature becomes cold and distant, allowing him to contemplate taking the life of his opponent and even make vicious, bloodthirsty threats. Into battle, Kenshin's combat prowess and capabilities are greatly increased as his inhibitions are loosened from his moral considerations, but this in turn also spurs him to access more pragmatic, ruthless, and even vicious tactics, including unrestrained and maiming blows at his greatest might without discrimination, and the possibility he will use the reversed bladed end of his sword at any moment, the very things that dare to risk to break his vow to preserve the lives of all, good or bad, and to never take the life of other men ever again. This side of his personality is one that Kenshin struggles to suppress despite the fact that it keeps emerging when he is under great stress and in need of extra strength. His greatest fear is that, one day, he will return to his former self and become a hitokiri once more.

As time passes, however, Kenshin learns to trust the people around him with the truth about himself as well as with some of the burden he bears, understanding that his life, too, is a human one and that his friends and allies would suffer greatly if he were to die.

Appearance

Kenshin is a fair-skinned man of below-average height, slim built, with an androgynous face. Despite being twenty-eight-years old, he is deceptively younger looking, appearing to be in his mid-teen years. Because of this, Kenshin cuts quite a different figure than would be expected of the legendary Hitokiri Battōsai, but he is easily recognized by his infamous distinguishing features: mid-back length red hair tied in a thick ponytail and a cross-shaped sword scar on his left cheek.

Kenshin's hair is thick and abundant, with all of the shorter frontal hairs falling across his face as bangs rather than being in the ponytail at the nape of his neck. During the Bakumatsu, Kenshin wore his ponytail at the top-back of his head. At the end of the manga, he has cut off the ponytail entirely (presumably to prevent his son from pulling on it) and wears his hair evenly at about chin length. Kenshin's eyes, too, are unusual, being a deep violet. In the anime, when Kenshin's eyes change to reflect his psychological reversion to Hitokiri Battōsai, their color shifts from violet to gold.

Kenshin's cross-shaped scar actually consists of two separate scars--a long one running diagonally down his face from just below the outer corner of his left eye to just above his chin and a slightly shorter scar running diagonally across it in the other direction from just to the left of the bridge of his nose to his left jawbone. According to his allies during his days in the Ishin Shishi, this scar was said to have constantly bled and never healed as the mark of a curse for having slain an innocent person. In a redesign for the kanzenban, Kenshin's scar has been altered so that the lateral scar is longer, stretching across his nose to just below the inner corner of his right eye.

Kenshin dresses simply, wearing a plain men's kimono of cheap, worn cloth with a white umanori hakama, zori and white tabi. In the anime series, Kenshin's kimono is almost always a soft red-like burgundy, but also often appears to be pink or light purple (most likely to contrast better with his red hair). In colored illustrations of the manga, his kimono alternates between red, purple and blue. His sakabatō is worn tucked under his obi at his left hip in a black, steel saya. In the anime's flashback scenes of the Bakumatsu, Kenshin wears a light blue kimono with a dark blue jacket and a brown hakama, as well as his sheathed katana and wakizashi at the side of his obi. In the OVA adaptation of Kenshin's past, he wears a navy blue kimono with a light gray hakama and brown hand guards, as well as the same two sheathed weapons at the side of his obi. In the manga, this outfit is more ragged-looking. In the live-action films, Kenshin wears a brown kimono in addition to his signature red one.

Video Games

Himura Kenshin is a playable character in the following video games:

Knownable Relatives

• Yukishiro Tomoe (Wife/dead)
• Kamiya Kaoru (Second Wife)
• Himura Kenji (Son)

Trivia

• His name in Japanese means "truth and modesty" (Kenshin), "tree village" (Himura).
• His birthday is June 20, 1849 and his blood type is AB.
• His star sign is a Gemini.

Voice Actresses & Actors

• Japanese : Mayo Suzukaze (1990s anime, films and ovas up until Jump Force video game), Masami Suzuki (child for 90s anime & ova), Mutsumi Tamura (child for 2023 anime)
• Japanese voice actor : Soma Saito (2023 anime series)
• English : Richard Cansino (most media), J. Shannon Weaver (ovas and films), Micah Solusod (Live Action Films), Howard Wang (2023 anime)
• English voice actress : Mona Marshall (child/anime), Katherine Catmull (child/ova), ??? (child for 2023 anime)

Played by in (Live Action) : Takeru Satoh (all 5 films), Nayuta Fukuzaki (child/films)

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