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Tengen Uzui (宇 (う) 髄 (ずい) 天 (てん) 元 (げん) , Uzui Tengen^?) is a major supporting character of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and a major character in the Entertainment District Arc. He is also a Demon Slayer, and the Sound Hashira (音 (おと) 柱 (ばしら) , Oto Bashira^?) of the Demon Slayer Corps.^[3]

Appearance

Tengen is a very tall, wide-set man of a bulky, muscular build with lightly-tanned skin. His hair is white and of uneven length, the longest strands reaching his shoulders, and is styled with three more notable, shorter clumps arching up to fall as bangs between his eyes and on either side of his face. He has quite thin, maroon eyes that appear to slant inwards, each with one long eyelash flowing to the far side of his face.

During his days serving Demon Slayer Corps, Tengen wears a sleeveless and dark turquoise version of the standard Demon Slayer uniform, along with a wrap of burgundy cloth around his calves where his hakama pants tuck in, and white-strapped sandals. He also wears two thick, golden rings around his upper arms and what appear to be a pair of fingerless blue gloves, secured around his middle finger with a band of white and his wrists with another set of thinner gold rings, this time with two on each side. As well as this, Tengen sports a white head-wrap that covers his hair, leaving only a thin ponytail visible to fall behind his head from between its layers, which is adorned with a large headband of pale gray that's decorated by six light pink gemstones, three large and arranged in a line, and three small and arranged in a triangle to the far left. A chain of smaller, pale blue gemstones hangs from each side of this headdress, framing his face, and he also wears what looks to be red eye make-up around his left eye, consisting of alternating large and small dots that run inwards, towards his eye.

After his retirement from the Demon Slayer Corps due to the injuries his sustained during his fight with one of the Upper Rank 6 Demons, Gyutaro, Tengen changes his appearance to coordinate the loss of his left eye and hand. He now wears a long, aqua colored yukata and a black haori, and replaces his old head-wrap with a dark eyepatch adorned with what look to be the remaining gemstones left over from his old headdress, leaving his hair to fall loosely past his shoulders.

Gallery

Tengen, after the events at the Entertainment District.

Personality

Tengen is a very eccentric person, always wanting to complete actions "flamboyantly." Although he has displayed an uncaring and forceful attitude towards some people—he gets excited imagining how "flamboyant" it would be if Tanjiro Kamado's blood vessels exploded, and tries to forcefully haul Aoi Kanzaki off to the Entertainment District with him so she can unwillingly help him with a dangerous mission—he also has a caring side that is mainly only shown towards his most treasured ones, most notably his three wives, Makio, Suma, and Hinatsuru. He also shows a somewhat nicer side towards Tanjiro after their mission and starts to accept him more as the series goes on.

Despite being a shinobi that has traditionally valued completing the mission over all else, Tengen has rejected that ideology after seeing its effect on his family.^[2] Now, he believes that his subordinates, whether they be his wives or the Demon Slayers under his command, should value their lives, and the lives of innocents, over their missions or his own.^[4][5]

Abilities and Powers

As a Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, Tengen is a very powerful swordsman.^[6] He has displayed numerous abilities that allow him to easily overpower Demons in a fight and even allow him to battle on par against the Upper Rank of the Twelve Kizuki. During his fight against Gyutaro, he was able to fight evenly with the Upper Rank 6 while protecting others at the same time, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that he also had to fight off Daki as well during one point in the fight.^[7] As the Sound Hashira, Tengen utilizes a sound-based combat style.

Natural Abilities

• Master Swordsman: Being a Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, Tengen is one of the most powerful and skilled swordsmen in the entire organization.^[6]
  • Giant Sword Proficiency: Befitting Tengen’s flamboyant personality, he carries an equally flamboyant set of weaponry. As his main weapons, he uses two larger-than-normal Nichirin Blades, which each have a notch in the sharp ends of their blades and are held together at the hilt by a metal chain.^[8] His swords are said to have large amounts of explosive power, and it is stated that, until Tengen's fight with Upper Rank 6, no one had ever survived a blow from them.

• Enhanced Hearing: Tengen has shown to possess superhuman hearing similar to that of Zenitsu Agatsuma. This ability allows him to easily hear noises deep underground, and he uses it to immediately figure out that there are underground tunnels and caves directly beneath him when he's looking for Tanjiro and Daki.
  • Echolocation: Complementing his enhanced hearing, Tengen also possesses echolocation. When trying to find the location of a battle underground, he analyzed the sounds reflected and resonated through the air by the walls of the caverns, and accurately locates and is even able to guess the number of people inside the tunnels by listening to the sound bouncing from their physical bodies.^[9]

• Enhanced Physical Prowess: As a member of the Hashiras, his physique has been increased to superhuman levels through years of harsh training combined with the use of the Total Concentration: Constant (全 (ぜん) 集 (しゅう) 中 (ちゅう) ・常 (じょう) 中 (ちゅう) , Zen Shūchū Jochū^?). The members of the Hashira in general have incredible movement speed, all of them have displayed the capability to use blinding bursts of speed that make it seem like they teleported to even talented swordsman like Tanjiro Kamado. The Hashira also possess incredible physical strength, shown when a severely weakened Kyojuro Rengoku could hold down a an Upper Rank Demon with his bare hands, Giyu Tomioka and Shinobu Kocho who can leap great distances effortlessly and Gyomei Himejima who can move gigantic boulders with his bare hands. They also possess superhuman stamina and durability, being able to fight for nearly hours with severe injuries.
  • Immense Pain Resistance: Due to his upbringing being raised to become a ninja and his own father's increased attempts to revive their clan by forcing Tengen and his siblings to train even more harshly and painfully then necessary, Tengen developed powerful resistance to pain, as seen where he bared little to no reaction at having being caught up in a hail of Kunai knives and being pierced by them without even flinching or showing any form of discomfort or pain, continuing his battle against Gyutaro with full concentration. Later Tengen was also noted to have suffered other severe/painful injuries during this battle and managed to acclimate/ignore the pain of such injuries as well.
  • Immense Strength: Tengen possesses great physical strength, as shown during his fight with Gyutaro and Daki. One example of this is his ability to use his blades with great proficiency while only holding them at the tip and with only two fingers,^[10] as well as being able to fight Gyutaro with only one hand after his left hand was cut off.^[11] In an arm-wrestling contest between Hashira, Tengen is ranked second, with only Gyomei surpassing him. He was also able to knock out Inosuke and Zenitsu with a single strike each, though it was in a comical manner.
  • Enhanced Speed: Tengen possesses great speed, as stated by Inosuke Hashibira.^[12] He is able to cut off Daki's head before she can even register his movements.^[13]
  • Poison Resistance: As a shinobi, Tengen has been shown to possess high resistance to poison to the point where he could continue fighting while under the effects of a poison from Gyutaro ^[14] that should have killed him instantly.

• Enhanced Mental Prowess: As a seasoned swordsman who underwent incredibly harsh and intense training, Tengen possesses above average mental capabilities. He could process information and think clearly at supernatural speeds, proven by fighting Upper Rank Demons, who can think at equally or slightly faster speeds. As another testament to his mental capabilities, he has incredible concentration abilities and wits. With an arsenal of techniques and explosives at his disposal, Tengen has to be really decisive and sagacious when using them, proven when he could hold his own against Gyutaro and Daki.

Swordsmanship

Sound Breathing (音 (おと) の呼 (こ) 吸 (きゅう) , Oto no kokyū^?): A Breathing Style that is branched out from the Thunder Breathing. This combat style involves using a battle strategy called a "Score", which involves Tengen reading his opponents movements and deconstructing them into sound by analyzing the rhythm of their movements. Through this, he is able to take advantage of their openings to much greater effect by striking in a way similar to making the beat to a song. His combat style focuses on generating huge amounts of sound to overwhelm his opponents. In conjunction with this, he uses small but powerful anti-demon bombs made with a special gunpowder that are capable of overpowering an Upper Rank Demon briefly, and uses his sound abilities to make sure there is no collateral damage on humans when throwing them out of his line of sight.

1. First Form: Roar (壱 (いち) ノ型 (かた) 轟 (とどろき) , Ichi no kata: Todoroki^?)^[15] - Tengen lifts his twin swords above his head and slams them down with great force whilst simultaneously creating an explosion with his bombs, causing a loud sound resembling thunder.

• Fourth Form: Constant Resounding Slashes (肆 (し) ノ型 (かた) 響 (きょう) 斬 (ざん) 無 (む) 間 (けん) , Shi no kata: Kyōzan Muken^?)^[16] - Tengen holds his swords apart and spins them rapidly in conjunction with releasing his bombs, making this technique a combination of offense and defense.
• Fifth Form: String Performance (伍 (ご) ノ型 (かた) 鳴 (めい) 弦 (げん) 奏 (そう) 々 (そう) , Go no kata: Meigen Sōsō^?)^[17] - Tengen holds one of his swords with a reverse grip and spins the other using the chain that connects them. He couples this by also releasing numerous bombs to detonate. This technique was able to overpower an Upper Rank Demon.

Battles

Trivia

• Before Tengen became a Demon Slayer and then a Hashira, he was originally a Shinobi, as stated by Gyutaro.

• In his initial design, Tengen:
  • Was less muscular with a far thinner build.
  • Had of his face covered in bandages, making it hard for others to see what he looks like.
  • Wore sleeves due to him "not wanting his arms sunburned," according to the author.
• Tengen is the only known Demon Slayer and Hashira to retire due to being permanently disabled instead of death or age.
• He and Inosuke Hashibira are the only known Demon Slayers who use two Nichirin Blades instead of one.
• His blades are engraved with the phrase "Destroyer of Demons"^[18]

Quotes

References