Summary
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Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaibafeatures quite a few characters with painful pasts who have overcome tragedies to make something of themselves. The Hashira, in particular, have experienced the most terrible twists of fate imaginable and are shaped by those encounters into demon-hunting warriors driven by purpose and conviction.
Among them, the story ofStone Hashira Gyomei Himejimais perhaps the most painful. Throughout his life, he has experienced some of the most terrible heartbreaks and losses that would break the spirits of even the strongest people. In order to understand what makes Himejima’s backstory perhaps the darkest among the Hashira, let’s have a look at his life before he became a demon slayer.
Gyomei Himejima’s Painful Early Life
The Strongest Demon Slayer of the Current Generation Has a Painful Past
Gyomei Himejima was born in the Himejima clanon Mount Hinode on August 23rd, sometime during the Meiji or Taisho period. Unfortunately, his mother passed away in childbirth, leaving him in the care of his grandmother and father. Himejima might have been able to overcome the loss of his mother eventually, but fate had other plans for him. Sometime during his childhood, he lost his father to a disease during an epidemic.
We are proud to live and die as human beings. Don’t act like your worthless ideas are supreme and force them on others.
While Gyomei also had a grandmother, it’s unclear how long she was alive to take care of him. As if he was not suffering enough,Himejima lost his vision at a young agedue to a fever. But luckily, he had a remarkable sense of events transpiring around him even though he was blind. This allowed him to avoid people with malicious intentions and protect himself. But instead of empathizing with Gyomei’s struggles, people around him labelled him as a liar and ostracized him, arguing that a blind person would not be capable of doing the things that he does.
As kind and compassionate asHimejima is, it is only natural that he must have been hurt by the cruel treatment he received from the community that should have looked out for him. At some point, Gyomei ended up becoming a monk and embraced a life of frugality, denouncing worldly pleasures and comfort. He looked after a temple and adopted nine orphaned children.
Despite struggling with poverty, Himejima never thought twice about himself and dedicated himself to raising the kids under his care. This gave him a new purpose, and in spite of all the challenges, it appeared that Gyomei had finally found a reason to live for. But fate once again took away everything from him, leaving him completely overcome with sorrow and regret.
The Tragedy That Changed Gyomei
A Betrayal and Subsequent Misunderstanding Made Himejima a Demon Slayer
Gyomei’s life with the nine orphaned kidsin his care was far from perfect, but he found fulfillment in looking after others. Himejima would often skip meals just to make sure that the kids were well-fed. During this time, he lost a lot of weight and was visibly frail, but he never once complained. His love for the children in his care exceeded any concern he had for himself. Such was Gyomei’s dedication to the people he loved, but he barely got any recognition for it.
Himejima might have lived a peaceful life raising the children far from the accusatory eye of the community that had turned its back on him, but destiny had other plans. The temple in which Gyomei lived with the children was in aregion notorious for demon attacks. That’s why he would light Wisteria Incense every night and strictly forbade anyone from going outside the confines of the temple.
One evening, a child was careless enough to neglect Himejima’s warning and venture outside. Unfortunately, he ended up running into a demon who offered to spare his life, provided he got rid of the Wisteria Incense and let him into the temple where the other children were staying. While everyone inside the temple cluelessly went about their evening, the frightened kid put out the Wisteria Incense, allowing the demon to target everyone.
Moments after the demon managed to enter the temple, he killed four children. Himejima tried to reassure others and begged them to stay behind him. Three more kids ended up falling prey to the demon as they panicked and tried to escape, not trusting Gyomei to protect them. Eventually, only a girl named Sayo was left, and Himejima was determined to put his life on the line to protect her. He was overcome by rage and fought relentlessly against the demon.
For the first time in his life, Gyomei realized he was incredibly strong. Despite having barely fought anyone before, he dominated the demon and kept beating him until the morning. As the sun came up, the body of the demon was reduced to ash, and soon afterward, the villagers arrived, noticing something was wrong. They were shocked to see the dead bodies of the orphaned children, and when they asked Sayo what had happened, she hysterically responded, “That man is a monster! He… killed everyone!”
The Demon Slayer Corps will never disappear until we eradicate all demons from this world
In a panic, she failed to clarify that she meant the demon and not Himejima. Since the demon’s body had been reduced to ashes, the villagers concluded that Sayo was talking about Gyomei. He was imprisoned immediately and charged with murder. The pain of losing the children in his care was already too much to bear for him, but being accused of such a heinous act broke him.
Gyomei Himejima might have ended up getting executedhad Kagaya Ubuyashiki not intervenedat the right time and protected him. While he eventually ended up joining the Demon Slayer Corps and became the Stone Hashira, Gyomei’s life was filled with tragedy. He not only lost everyone in his family and his vision, but ended up losing children he had adopted. Sayo went on to regret her inaction and inability to stand up for Gyomei later in her life. Although she wanted to apologize to him, the two never met again, and Himejima never truly got the closure he deserved.
