Himura Kenshin
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Himura Kenshin (緋村剣心 Himura Kenshin?) is a fictional character of the anime and manga series Rurouni Kenshin, also known as Samurai X. He's known as Kenshin Himura in Western-order and is the chosen order for the English versions.
His Japanese seiyū is Mayo Suzukaze and his English voice actors are Richard Cansino (TV) and J. Shanon Weaver (OVA). In the early drama CD version, Kenshin's voiced by Megumi Ogata. In all Rurouni Kenshin stories, Kenshin was born on June 20, 1849.
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[edit] Background
Kenshin was a former assassin of the Ishin Shishi who fought at the beginning of the Meiji Restoration. He went by the name "Hitokiri Battōsai" (spelled with a macron in the Viz manga, and spelled as "Hitokiri Battousai" in the English anime releases). The title implies he has mastered the technique of Battōjutsu (sword drawing technique, studied in modern times as Iaijutsu) and can draw his sword with lightning speed. Hitokiri was the title given to samurai assassins ("man slayers" in the English anime).
After the Revolution, he picked up a reverse-blade sword, sakabato, given to him by a master swordsmith and assumed the life of a "rurouni" (this word was created by Watsuki as a fusion of the words "Ronin" (masterless samurai) and "wanderer"). Kenshin becomes a technical master of the Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū swordstyle after completing his previously abandoned training with his master, but declines the official mastership and title of "Seijuro Hiko" (given to each disciple who masters Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu swordsmanship along with a traditional cape that is passed down to each "Seijūrō Hiko").
Kenshin is known to switch between an easy going drifter and a serious Battōsai.
[edit] Early life
Kenshin is born into a peasant family under the name of "Shinta", but by age 8, both his parents die of cholera. By the time he was 10, he was to be sold into slavery. However, the slave-traders' caravan is attacked by thieves in the mountains. Every person, except for Shinta, is slaughtered, including three slave girls named Akane, Sakura, and Kasumi, who tried to shield Shinta and save him to no avail. As Shinta picked up a katana, in an attempt to fight back, Hiko Seijūrō XIII intervenes, killing all the thieves easily. Hiko then leaves Shinta alone in the field of bodies, instructing him to seek shelter in a nearby village.
A week later, Hiko decides to visit Shinta at the nearby village, but is surprised to hear that Shinta never arrived. Presuming that he has committed suicide, Hiko returns to the site of the slaughter, to find that Shinta has buried all the corpses by hand - even those of the thieves. Won over by the boy's strength at heart, he adopts Shinta into his Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu apprenticeship. He renamed him "Kenshin" (Ken=sword, Shin=heart), since he believed that 'Shinta' wasn't a fitting name for a swordsman. Kenshin later obtained "Himura" ("of the scarlet village") as his family name.
[edit] Rurouni Kenshin series
[edit] Tsuiokuhen (Trust and Betrayal/Reminiscence)
[edit] Ishin Shishi
Hiko Seijūrō raises and teaches Kenshin in the art of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu. At age 14, Kenshin decides to join the revolutionary movements to restore power to the emperor (which would be Emperor Kōmei, father of Prince Mutsuhito who would later ascend the throne and take the name Emperor Meiji). Kenshin's decision clashes with Hiko's neutral standpoint, claiming that whoever acquires Kenshin would be granted victory. This conflict causes young Kenshin to abandon his training and master in order to fight for what he believes - the ideal of protecting people. His sword skills soon attract the attention of Takasugi Shinsaku, commander of the Kiheitai. Takasugi later points out the boy to his longtime friend Katsura Kogoro, the leader of the Chōshū clan, Ishin Shishi, who immediately wants the boy to be imported into his ranks. However, in turn, Katsura must swear an oath to Takasugi to never draw his sword again, apparently in exchange for taking the boy's "purity".
Kenshin is sent to Kyoto and assigned the role of an assassin, sharing the common goal of the Ishin Shishi to deliver "Tenchu" (punishment from the heavens) upon the Tokugawa Shogunate. Within the first six months of his career, he kills over 100 people, and eventually became known as the Hitokiri Battōsai. The next year, during a mission to assassinate another official of the Shogunate, he encounters a Mimawarigumi member on bodyguard duty . After disposing of the official, Kenshin attempts to do away with the bodyguard as well, since he can't allow a witness to escape. Though Kenshin easily wins, the bodyguard's determination to live, namely for his fiancée, manages to give him enough strength to scar the "Battōsai" on his left cheek, an act thought impossible by the Ishin Shishi (The manga and OVA differ somewhat on the scar's symbolism. In the manga, it simply neglects to heal, while in the OVA, it opens up again on numerous occasions, usually in correspondence with Kenshin's own feelings of guilt). Some months after this incident, Kenshin is ambushed by a Yaminobu assassin, in which he literally cuts his assailant in half, leaving the blood-soaked, mutilated corpse on the street. Afterwards, as he smells the perfume scent of white plums, he comes face to face with the woman whom he would fall in love with.
[edit] Yukishiro Tomoe
Unbeknownst to Kenshin, a woman named Yukishiro Tomoe witnesses his fight with the Yaminobu assassin. He only notices her presence after, having been splattered with the assailant's blood, she exclaims "You truly make blood rain." Kenshin ponders killing her due to his protocol to kill any person who catches him "in the act", but she faints from shock and intoxication. He instead takes her back to the inn, which served as the Chōshū clan's makeshift headquarters, where she becomes employed as a servant. During this time, Kenshin and Tomoe develop a loose friendship in which Tomoe notices that the Battōsai is more of a pure and innocent child than a brutal manslayer. However, during this time, the Ishin Shishi is virtually split in two when the decision to light Kyoto ablaze causes a famous conflict with the deadly "Wolves of Mibu", the Shinsengumi.
After the crisis suffered by the Chōshū clan in the Ikedaya Jiken, Katsura orders Kenshin and Tomoe to abandon Kyoto and flee to a remote village. He also orders them to put on the facade of a pair of pharmacists, as husband and wife (In the OVA, they go along with the facade, but in the manga, Kenshin doesn't like the idea of pretending, and he and Tomoe marry for real). During this time, Kenshin and Tomoe begin to slowly form a deeper relationship, and eventually fall in love with each other.
Later, Tomoe's younger brother, Yukishiro Enishi, manages to find what was supposed to be their hidden location. It is then revealed Tomoe's true role was to avenge the death of her fiance, the bodyguard whom Kenshin had killed. However, Tomoe didn't expect to fall in love with him and decides that, although he took her happiness, he also gave her another, in his own arms.
Some time later, Tomoe tells Kenshin about her murdered fiancee, excluding the fact that she knows he had killed him (In the manga Kenshin embraces her and allows her to cry on him, and in the OVA, they consummate their love in front of a burning fire the following night). In both versions, Kenshin then tells her that he will continue to be an assassin until the Revloution is over, but will find a way to repay those whose lives he destroyed. However, the next morning, Tomoe sneaks out of the house before Kenshin wakes up.
During Tomoe's last meeting with the leader of the Yaminobu - a pro-Shogunate covert network (similar to the Oniwabanshu ninja clan encountered by Kenshin many years later) that had formulated a plan to assassinate Kenshin - she realizes that all along they had actually used her to create Kenshin's weakness. Meanwhile, desperate to find his wife, Kenshin runs off, but is ambushed by several Yaminobu ninjas, each of whom manages to wound him severely. He became blinded and deafened by explosions set off by the dying ninja and numbed by the cold with only his sense of smell remaining. Eventually, he comes to the hut where the leader waits with Tomoe. As they battle, the leader ends up with the upper hand and prepares to finish him off. With a last desperate attempt to defeat the leader, Kenshin blindly swings his sword, killing both his assailant and Tomoe, who had jumped in at the last minute to save Kenshin from a fatal attack. During the swing Kenshin noticed the smell of white plums, Tomoe's signature perfume, but was unaware of her intervention until it was too late. In the end, Kenshin holds his dying wife in his lap. She then uses the knife to cut him across the cheek, finally forming his famous "X/cross shaped scar" (Tomoe personally slashing the scar is another deviation from the manga by the OVA. The manga instead details that the knife had flown from Tomoe's hands into the air and coincidentally landed so it slashed Kenshin's cheek in a way that created the X/cross shaped scar. The OVA, given its more realistic nature, probably shied away from depicting something so improbable). Enishi, who watches the entire event unfold, is utterly shattered. He becomes a refugee, eventually leaving the country.
[edit] Imperial Restoration
Following the death of his wife, Kenshin tells Katsura that he will never kill again once the Revolution is over. Katsura then replaces Kenshin's role as an assassin and instead has Kenshin fight as a guerrilla swordsman to protect the Imperialists. Kenshin then burns Tomoe's body, along with their house, and returns to Kyoto. During the Bakumatsu, or "The Last Days of the Shogunate," Kenshin clashes multiple times with the Shinsengumi and assists in freeing Japan from the Shogunate's ruling power. Finally, in late 1867, Kenshin and the Imperialists restore power to the Meiji Emperor (who has ascended the throne in early 1867). The Boshin War to overthrow the Shogunate started in January, 1868. Following the first battle of the Boshin War, the Battle of Toba-Fushimi, Kenshin thrusts his sword into the ground and disappears.
[edit] Rurouni Kenshin
After receiving his reverse-bladed sword (sakabato), Kenshin assumes the life of a rurouni (wanderer) and travels freely, helping strangers here and there. At the age of 27, ten years after the Revolution, he arrives in Tokyo and meets Kamiya Kaoru, the feisty young instructor of the Kamiya-Kasshin-ryu dojo. She was seeking a man parading around as the "Battōsai" and attempting to tarnish the name of the Kamiya-Kasshin style. In the end, Kenshin rescues the girl and defeats the fake Battōsai, revealing his true identity as the real Battōsai. However, instead of allowing Kenshin to continue his wandering, she offers him a "home," while telling him that she disregards his past. He takes advantage of her hospitality and, charmed by her personality, decides to stay.
Numerous events transpire from that point. He establishes lifelong relationships with numerous individuals, including Myojin Yahiko, orphaned child of a samurai family and former Yakuza pickpocket; former Sekihotai member and street fighter-for-hire Sagara Sanosuke; foxy doctor Takani Megumi; hyperactive young ninja Makimachi Misao and brooding warrior Shinomori Aoshi (both members of the Oniwabanshu ninja clan, Aoshi with the Edo portion, Misao with the Kyoto branch); along with uneasy ally, ex-Shinsengumi member, and longtime rival of Battosai, Saito Hajime. Likewise, Kenshin makes his share of enemies like Kurogasa, also called Udoh Jinei, formerly a traitorous member of the Shinsengumi; Shishio Makoto, the brutal once-successor to Kenshin's position as Chōshū's hitokiri and mastermind behind a movement seeking to overthrow the Meiji government; and one more haunting ghost from his past, Yukishiro Enishi, Tomoe's revenge-obsessed brother.
To defeat such foes, Kenshin was forced to resume his training and mend his relationship with Hiko Seijūrō, while forging the strongest bonds with his allies and enemies. Throughout the battles and trials, Kenshin's friends stay by his side, and they form the nicknamed 'Kenshin-gumi'.
When Yukishiro Enishi found out about Kenshin's feelings towards Kaoru, he set out to kidnap her, doing so and leaving a professionally made decoy of Kaoru with a sword in her heart, making everyone believe that she'd been murdered. This was a self proclaimed Jinchu (lit. punishment from man), making reference to the Tenchu that Kenshin brought about during the war. Enishi's goal was to make Kenshin's life a living hell. Instead of wandering again, as he had after Tomoe's death, Kenshin falls into severe depression and runs off to a desolate place known as the "Fallen Village" to mourn. When Kenshin's friends discover Kaoru is alive, Kenshin gets back on track. He goes to rescue her on Enishi's island, where she is safe and sound, and waiting for him. A battle between Kenshin and Enishi follows, and when Kenshin wins and Enishi recognizes his wrongs, Kenshin and Kaoru return home.
Throughout the Rurouni Kenshin period, Kamiya Kaoru develops strong romantic feelings for him, which he comes to realize. Despite his feelings, he is constantly haunted by the wrongs committed in his past, and believes he doesn't deserve happiness. Eventually, they marry and have a son by the name of Himura Kenji.
Five years later, Kenshin gives his sakabato to Yahiko as a gift for his coming-of-age.
[edit] Seisōhen (Reflection)
However, as time went by, Kenshin becomes tortured anew by the guilt of leading a happy life after such a destructive past. He makes the decision to wander again, and Kaoru strongly supports him, promising to welcome him home with a smile and their child. For fifteen years, he wanders, returning every once in a while.
Kenshin eventually becomes ravaged by an unknown disease that is much like leprosy (the writers have admitted there is no medical explanation for his condition). To share his pain, Kaoru convinces Kenshin to infect her with the disease through sexual intercourse. Kenshin then leaves to go assist in the First Sino-Japanese War (primarily over control of Korea) as he had promised the Meiji Government, not fighting and killing, but instead helping people.
After the war's end, Sanosuke discovers a very ill Kenshin sometime after he'd fallen overboard on a ship. Sanosuke arranges Kenshin's return to Tokyo by boat. Upon arriving, a bed ridden Kaoru, almost on instinct, gets up to walk outside the dojo on the cherry blossom path, seeing her husband struggling with each step to meet her.
The two finally meet, and Kenshin collapses into her arms as he clutches her to him. They end up beneath a cherry blossom tree, where Kaoru tells him that they will invite the others for a cherry blossom viewing, and continue to gather in the years to come. With the silence growing stronger, Kaoru realizes that Kenshin has died quietly in her arms. Upon brushing his hair off his left cheek, Kaoru notices Kenshin's scar has faded away, signifying an end to his life of pain and bloodshed and commencement to a life of peace. In the final scene before the credits, she holds his head in her arms and weeps.
After the credits, an older Himura Kenji, along with his sweetheart Raikōji Chizuru (a homage to Watsuki Nobuhiro's original manga "Rurouni", which inspired Rurouni Kenshin), are seen walking down a cherry-blossom path.
[edit] Techniques
[edit] About Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū
Hiten Mitsurugi Ryū (飛天御剣流? "Flying Heaven Honorable Sword Style"), known as "Supersonic Sword Style", is a fictional ancient sword style that is said to pit one against many. It is a sword art that is passed from master to apprentice, its masters inheriting the name of Seijuro Hiko. Kenshin states that the sword style was created in the Sengoku Period of Japan's history.
There are quite a few techniques within this sword style, all of them utilizing godlike speed and precision.
Himura Kenshin mastered the Battōjutsu style, (note the name Battōsai) perfecting all parts of it, including all of its weaknesses. However, Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū is suited for muscular men, like Seijuro Hiko. After Kenshin learns the "Amakakeru Ryū no Hirameki", he feels his body starting to stagnate. By the time of the last chapter, five years after the main story, he has become unable to perform Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū.
[edit] List of Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū techniques
Both Kenshin's and his master's:
- Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū: Doryūsen (Earth Dragon Strike)
- "Doryūsen" is a range technique that sends debris flying at the enemy from a powerful sword strike to the ground. Kenshin only uses this technique once in the manga.
- Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū: Ryūtsuisen (Dragon Hammer Strike)
- The "Dragon Hammer" is a sword-drop technique delivered from above, targeting the crown of the head or the shoulder of the adversary. The key to the technique lays in the height gained from the user’s jump and the free-fall, which is applied to the sword to multiply the force of the sword-stroke. This is a favored technique of Kenshin.
- Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū: Ryūtsuisen ~ Zan (Dragon Hammer Strike ~ Tragedy)
- The "Zan" is a brutal variant of the “Dragon Hammer”, which instead plunges the sword into the adversary with a sword-plant rather than simply striking them. This was only seen once in the series.
- Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū: Ryūshōsen (Dragon Flight Strike)
- An upward, double-handed slash, often delivered with a jump. The main target is the opponent's neck.
- Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū: Ryūtsuishōsen (Dragon Hammer Flight Strike)
- This is a combination technique which executes Ryūshōsen immediately after Ryūtsuisen.
- Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū: Ryūkansen (Dragon Spiral Strike)
- The "Dragon Spiral" is a move which takes advantage of centrifugal force to accelerate the force of blade while simultaneously avoiding the adversary's assault, shifting directly into a counterattack.
- Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū: Ryūkansen Tsumuji (Dragon Flash Spiral)
- Differs from the normal Ryūkansen, in that the swordsman is in motion (and in one particular case in midair) while spinning.
- Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū: Ryūkansen ~ Kogarashi (Dragon Spiral Strike ~ Wintry Wind)
- Differs from the normal Ryūkansen, in that the target is the opponent's head.
- Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū: Ryūkansen ~ Arashi (Dragon Spiral Strike ~ Storm)
- Differs from the normal Ryūkansen, in that the swordsman is in a full somersault while attacking.
- Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū: Ryūsōsen (Dragon's Den)
- The "Dragon's Nest" is a rapid-strike technique which deals a flurry of successive blows at god-like speed.
- Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū: Ryūsōsen ~ Garami (Dragon's Den ~ Strangle)
- The "Garami" is Ryūsōsen targeting a specific area of the adversary’s body, usually the head.
- Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū: Kuzu-ryūsen (Nine-headed Dragon)
- The “Nine-headed Dragon” is a formidable technique which utilizes Shinsoku (lit. God-speed) to the fullest extent; dealing nine strikes to the most fundamental targets of swordsmanship (Karatake, Kesagiri, Sakagesa, Hidari-Nagi, Migi-Nagi, Hidari-Kirige, Migi-Kiriage, Sakakaze, and Tsuki), all at the same time. These points are the key to the technique as they make up the basis of one’s guarding stance, regardless of style or weapon. So with the Kuzu-ryūsen, attacking all nine all at once, guarding and dodging becomes virtually pointless. Unlike the multiple strike attack, Ryūsōsen, all nine strikes of the Kuzu-ryūsen carry lethal force. Only something beyond Shinsoku can counter it.
[edit] Battōjutsu Techniques
- Art of Drawing the Blade
- Stance with right foot placed in front of left, pressing the blade of the sheathed sword against the curve of the sheath, which increases draw speed. The drawing of the blade is the same motion used for the attack. It is an all-or-nothing attack where missing the target results in the user being completely vulnerable. All battōjutsu in Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū are comprised of two steps to avoid failure.
- Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū: Battōjutsu Soryūsen (Double Dragon Strike)
- As above, but with a follow-up attack utilizing the sheath as its secondary strike. This second swing covers the period of vulnerability left after a normal battōjutsu.
- Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū: Battōjutsu Soryūsen~Ikazuchi (Double Dragon Thunder)
- “Ikazuchi” is the reverse variant of Soryūsen, wherein the blade strike follows that of the sheath. The swordsman feints battōjutsu to distract from the sheath strike and follows-up with the second blade strike. It is a highly-advanced maneuver, as the sheath strike locks the adversary and their weapon, leaving them completely vulnerable to the sword of the swordsman.
- Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū: Battōjutsu Hiryūsen (Flying Dragon Strike)
- This projectile sword-technique uses centrifugal force and the user's hand (more precisely, the thumb) to shoot the sword from inside the sheath, allowing them to strike at adversaries outside the sword's reach. The culmination of centrifugal force and hand strength makes the accuracy of the strike all the more efficient, enabling the user strike regions on the adversary such as the middle of the forehead.
- Hiten Mitsurugi Ryū: Ryūmeisen (Dragon Howl Strike)
- This is a sword-technique opposite to the god-speed battōjutsu of Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū, shinsoku nōtō-jutsu (lit. god-speed sheathing). The effects of this god-speed sheathing produces a sonic boom when the sword hilt hits the sheath, temporarily stuns the auditory nerve and causing momentary deafness and loss in equilibrium. He uses this technique only once, against Yukishiro Enishi, to counter Shikku-Tosei (lit. Sky-Striding Strike).
- Hiten Mitsurugi Ryū Ōgi: Amakakeru Ryū no Hirameki (Heavens Bridging Dragon Spark)
(translated as "Dragon Flight of Heaven" in Viz manga)
- Amakakeru Ryū No Hirameki is battōjutsu that surpasses shinsoku. The secret behind the technique lays in an additional step with the left foot. This single step alone adds an instantaneous acceleration and weight to the sword changing the godlike speed of Hiten Mitsurugi Battōjutsu to "Beyond Godlike Speed". However, this very foot is difficult to take as one of the fundamental teaching of battōjutsu states that one should step forward with the right foot as to avoid cutting their own foot with their own attack. Although, with Amakakeru Ryū No Hirameki, the additional step forward with the left foot can spell certain death for the swordsman, as it takes precise timing to coordinate, as to not lose any momentum while drawing; it requires the utmost concentration, that can only be obtained by one's desire to live.
- There is another secret to this technique. If the initial strike is avoided, the unusually fast slashing motion generates a vacuum in its wake from the clashing of the two blades. This vacuum actually sucks in the user's opponent, leaving them completely open for the second strike of the Amakakeru Ryū no Hirameki that follows the first, which is the true secret technique of Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū. This second slash concentrates the power of the Amakakeru Ryū no Hirameki and makes it far more powerful than the first strike.
- "Amakakeru Ryū no Hirameki" is so fast that its implementation can be successful even when the enemy's strike has actually reached the user's body, as in Rurouni Kenshin manga volume 14. As depicted, Shinomori Aoshi's signature Kaiten-kenbu Rokuren attack has actually begun to cut into Kenshin's neck when Kenshin released the attack, and blows Aoshi back before he can even finish. "Amakakeru Ryū no Hirameki" is the pinnacle of Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū style.
[edit] Miscellaneous Techniques
- Ka Ryu Sen
A gust of wind caused by Kenshin's sakabato, he uses this to stun or impede opponents at a distance.
- Kenshin Ryu Spinning Circular Attack
In Samurai X: The Motion Picture (Requiem for the Ishin Patriots), Kenshin faces against an old enemy who witnessed his best friend's death at Kenshin's hands. He therefore learned all of Kenshin's moves and countered them with his sword and sheath attack style. As his last resort, Kenshin jumped up and fooled his opponent into believing that he was going to use the Ryu Tsui Zen. Kenshin then spun around and delivered an airborne, spinning attack that was very similar to the Amakakeru Ryu No Hirameki. Sagara Sanosuke named this attack.
- Zantetsu
The most skilled swordsmen were purportedly able to use their swords to cut through steel. Kenshin states he can use it anywhere except underwater.
- Shiraha Dori
A defensive technique where the enemy's sword is stopped by using the bare hands. This was the move used to defeat Shinomori Aoshi in the Tokyo Arc. And used by Yahiko near the end of the manga.
- Modoshi Giri (Reversing Cut)
The most skilled swordsmen using the best of blades were supposedly able to slice an object in two and rejoin the halves together, as if it were never cut at all. Kenshin demonstrates this when he cuts a vegetable and then reforms it back together. He doesn't cut it with his sword, but rather a kitchen knife, since his sakabato was broken at that time.
[edit] Trivia
- Kenshin's hitokiri name, "battōsai", means "one who has mastered the battōjutsu". In full, Himura Kenshin was referred to as being the Legendary Hitokiri Battōsai - The manslayer who has mastered the battōjutsu. In the English version of the anime, they use the name Battōsai, the manslayer for short.
- Rurouni Kenshin: Seisouhen wasn't written by Watsuki.
| Rurouni Kenshin (Samurai X) |
|---|
| Characters |
| Himura Kenshin | Kamiya Kaoru | Sagara Sanosuke | Myōjin Yahiko | Takani Megumi | Shinomori Aoshi| Makimachi Misao| Minor characters |
| Terms and Historical references |
| Samurai | Shinsengumi | Battousai | Meiji period | Saitō Hajime | Four Hitokiri of the Bakumatsu | Ishin Shishi | Three great nobles |
