Gyomei Himejima

Gyomei is a Demon Slayer of the Demon Slayer Corps and the Stone Hashira of the Taisho era. Gyomei also serves as the mentor of Genya Shinazugawa. Gyomei is a hulking figure in the Demon Slayer Corps, standing as one of the tallest at 7'2 and easily towering over his fellow Hashira. He is a powerfully built, extremely muscular man, with a slightly tanned skin tone. He has a medium, spiky, black hair that is shaved along the sides of his head and a prominent scar running horizontally across his forehead. Having been blind since childhood, he has white eyes with no visible irises or pupils. His eyes frequently tear-up when he gets emotional. Gyomei wears a standard black Demon Slayer Corps uniform, tinted dark gray in the anime. His uniform consists of a button-up jacket with a stand-up collar and long sleeves, featuring gold buttons, a left breast pocket, and the kanji for Destroyengraved on the back of the uniform. However, Gyomei’s jacket is heavily customized; it is worn with only the last button fastened, and the sleeves of his jacket and undershirt rolled up. His uniform is secured at the waist with the standard white belt and paired of matching tattsuke-hakama pants. Beneath the uniform, he wears a purple kimono, complete with a prominent white yuban collar. Around his lower legs, he wears a white bandages wrapped around his shins in place of traditional kyahan. For footwear, Gyomei wears white zōri sandals with gray straps, notably without tabi socks. Draped over his shoulders is a distinct olive-green happi, which features religious iconography. The collared frame of the happi bears the kanji for the Japanese Nianfo/Shin Buddha chant ( Namu Amida Butsu) from the top-down, along with the separate kanji all over at the back. Around his neck, he sports a large red-beaded necklace and carries a set of red ojuzu beads when not in battle. Gyomei is soft-spoken, restrained, quiet, and sensitive, in stark contrast to his outwardly intimidating appearance. Stoic and proud, yet alert and perceptive, he speaks with an air of both imposing authority and strength, and of genuine care and gentleness. He is also shown to be quite pious, carrying his prayer beads at all times and offering prayers in poignant situations. Most notably, Gyomei easily cries over the most insignificant things, accentuating his soft nature. This could be due to his love for all living creatures brought about by his religious upbringing, and insinuated when he felt so disgusted by beating up a demon that he would never forget that feeling for the rest of his life. Like the rest of the Hashira, Gyomei has a great deal of respect for Kagaya Ubuyashiki, of which no small part was due to the Oyakata saving his life. He is also one of the most respected individuals among the Demon Slayer Corps, not only due to being a member of the Hashira but because he serves as a symbol of hope due to his immense strength: Shinobu Kocho had once stated that when Gyomei fights, it puts everyone around him at ease. Furthermore, Gyomei serves as a leader for them, as seen when he sat at the front during Hashira meetings and was often looked to for his word and opinion. He was entrusted by Kagaya to give out orders to them, due to both Gyomei being the oldest and because Kagaya had known him for the longest out of anyone outside his own family. Though he maintains a fairly reserved disposition, Gyomei harbors a very objective and somewhat suspicious view of the people around him, owing to his experiences before becoming a Demon Slayer. He is ever cognizant of what others, particularly children or those younger than him, are capable of if given the opportunity. By reason of his doubtful nature, it can take a while for Gyomei to completely accept and trust others. When he does open up and let others in, he is unwavering in his commitment to them. Gyomei greatly values the principles that allowed him to achieve his status as a Hashira, rejecting Kokushibo's notion that he must become a demon in order to preserve the physical abilities and skills he had devoted himself to, and retorts his statement by saying that being a Demon Slayer means accepting the fact that seeing tomorrow is not guaranteed and that no one can become a Hashira with Kokushibo's half-hearted resolution. The Stone Hashira also believes that living and dying as humans preserve one's dignity. Gyomei deeply cares for his comrades in the Demon Slayer Corps. When he heard about Kyojuro's death in battle, he began to tear up and chanted the Nianfo in response. During his stage of Hashira Training, despite the immense difficulty of his tasks, Gyomei emphasized perseverance and succeeding for the sake of their comrades who had fallen in battle, encouraging the trainees to push on. Gyomei possesses the greatest level of physical strength in the entire Demon Slayer Corps, most notably showcased when he is able to easily lift and swing his massive spiked flail and axe constructed from pure iron. He was also able to push a large boulder bigger than him through a town with his bare hands. Gyomei also nonchalantly endured the weight of two massive logs on his back further weighed down with four large rocks. According to Gyomei, he was naturally born with the gift of his incredulous physical strength, as shown when he subdued a demon that attacked him when he was a skinny teenager by beating it to a bloody pulp with nothing but his bare hands prior to him joining the Demon Slayer Corps and undergoing training, but he did not know he had it in himself until he was forced to fight for his life. Due to being blind, Gyomei has compensated and alternated his senses to adapt to his condition, effectively developing an extremely heightened sense of hearing. His sense of hearing was so acute that Gyomei can accurately discern and interact with his surroundings normally, even engaging in high-speed combat with demons without trouble. Unlike ordinary Demon Slayers who use swords in combat, Gyomei uses a spiked flail and axe reminiscent of a Kusarigama, a weapon consisting of a scythe and heavy iron weight connected with a metal chain, and thus would use a similar fighting style known as Kusarigamajutsu. Gyomei is blind, thus explaining the reason for the lack of pupils in his eyes. He was blinded due to a fever he had when he was a child. Gyomei is the few Hashira besides Muichiro and Shinobu to have a personal connection to an Upper Rank, that being Upper Rank Six, Kaigaku. Kaigaku was one of the orphaned children under Gyomei's care at the temple and would later be directly responsible for the demon attack that resulted in the death of all the children, except Sayo, and his wrongful imprisonment. Gyomei is often depicted with tears streaming down his face. It is later revealed that he cries extremely easily at almost anything, even crying for something as minor as when there is litter on the ground. One of Gyomei's hobbies is playing the flute, he is not good at it. Once, when he played for too long, his grandmother hit him with a broom. Gyomei loves cats immensely. Gyomei's father died in an epidemic, while his mother died in childbirth. Some time later he was blinded due to a fever.