Himejima Gyomei

Himejima Gyomei

He is a demon slayer.

He is Buddhist. And he is also 27 years old.

APPEARANCE:

Gyomei is a hulking figure among the Demon Slayers, standing as one of the tallest characters 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 grayish black. His uniform consists of a button-up jacket with a stand-up collar and long sleeves, featuring gold buttons, a shirt pocket on the left breast, and the kanji for Destroy (滅めつ, Metsu?) engraved on the back of the uniform. However, Gyomei’s jacket is heavily customized—it is worn unbuttoned at the top to expose his chest, with only the last button fastened, and the sleeves are rolled up. His uniform is secured at the waist with the standard white belt and paired of tattsuke-hakama pants. Beneath the uniform, he wears a purple undershirt resembling a kimono, complete with a prominent white yuban collar. Around his lower legs, he wears 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 (南な無む阿あ弥み陀だ仏ぶつ, 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.

***PERSONALITY

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.

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. In particular, his reassurance of Tanjiro Kamado, whom he had initially wanted to have killed for his harboring of a demon against the Corps' rules, and his later resolution to keep him on the right path after proclaiming he was a genuine soul, demonstrated a true willingness to protect and see the people around him succeed.