The Hashira, or Pillars (in English), are the nine most powerful swordsmen in the Demon Slayer Corps. As such, they are the soldiers with the highest level of the organization, most of the elites who each play a central role in their war against Muzan Kibutsuji.
The Hashira play a crucial role in the Demon Slayer manga and they are classified as essential characters for the storyline. Each Hashira has mastered a specific Breathing Style, which makes them different from the other Hashira. In this article, we are going to rank the.
The list is going to contain a total of nine strongest Hashira in the Demon Slayer, each of them ranked based on their strengths and powers, from 9th to 1st place. We’re going to tell you a bit about them, their powers and their specific Breathing Styles so you know why we actually ranked them like we did.
Ranking the Strongest Hashira
Why did we choose nine Hashira, when the manga revealed a total of 13? Well, the kanji for Hashira – 柱 – is written using nine strokes and it is said that this is the reason why the series initially introduced nine Hashira. We decided to respect the legacy of the author’s original idea, and that is why we have only nine characters on our list.
9. Shinobu Kocho – Insect Hashira
Breathing Style: Insect Breathing
As a Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, Shinobu is a very powerful swordsman. Although Shinobu does not have the physical strength to cut off the head of a devil on a par with the average Demon Slayer, she can still defeat as strong demons as the other pillars because of the poison she has created in her sword.
Although Shinobu is not as talented in fighting as the rest of the Hashira, she instead displays immense skill and mastery in medical and pharmaceutical fields to make up for her lack of natural fighting skills and has extensive knowledge of creating various poisons and poisons using the wisteria flower.
She is able to kill opponents within seconds and even manages to create a poison that is strong enough to drastically weaken Doma, the second strongest devil of the twelve devil moons. Her Insect Breathing is a breathing technique derived from flower breathing. Although Shinobu was the only Hashira unable to behead devils, it is still as deadly as they are. She coats her weapon with poison from wisteria flowers and can adjust the mixture and composition of the poisons.
8. Muichiro Tokito – Mist Hashira
Breathing Style: Mist Breathing
As a Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, Muichiro is a very powerful swordsman. Despite his young age, he is considered incredibly talented and he became a Hashira after just two months of training. After Muichiro awakened his Demon Slayer Mark, he was able to defeat Gyokko, the fifth place of the rising devil moons, with ease.
His skills are also praised by Kokushibo, the number one rising moon, who is impressed with how strong such a young person can be. However, he still has no chance against him, but his participation in the fight against Kokushibo is crucial for him to be defeated. During the fight, he unlocked the transparent world and was able to dye his Nichirin blade purple.
Add to this his willingness to sacrifice his own life, which is why he was able to land a critical hit on Kokushibo. Muichiro has mastered the Mist Breathing technique completely and can therefore easily defeat fifth place of the rising devil moons, Gyokko. He can also use a completely new and previously unknown seventh form of Breathing Technique.
7. Obanai Iguro – Serpent Hashira
Breathing Style: Serpent Breathing
As one of the Hashira, he is one of the most powerful swordsmen in the entire organization. Obanai ponders every step he takes and tries not to panic in any situation. He starts an attack when he recognizes what his opponent is capable of. Such a lead often allows him to win.
Iguro is able to bend his sword at all possible angles, although his sword is exactly the same as that of other people. His sword can slide into small slits like a snake. Obanai, who was always partially blind in his right eye, developed a fighting technique using his Kaburamaru snake. Kaburamaru is able to read enemy attacks and transmit this information to Obanai.
This technique is shown in full when Obanai is completely blind due to Muzan, but can still fight as if nothing had happened. During the battle with Muzan, after being instructed by Gyomei, Obanai was able to gain access to the Transparent World. Obanai was able to continue the fight the longest, despite many injuries. Even after Muzan’s prolonged attacks, Obanai still had the strength to jump above a multi-story building and recover from Muzan’s piercing wall and slamming.
He survived even after Muzan’s slashes in his face, losing his eyes and his piercing bite on the shoulder in the process. During the battle with Muzan, Obanai demonstrated an amazing dexterity to deal with all the tentacles all alone and get to his neck. And also dodging Muzan’s attacks by carrying with him Tanjiro, who weighed more than him.
During the battle with Muzan after receiving the Mark of the Demon Slayer and remembering how Muichiro dyed his blade red, Obanai puts all his strength into the grip of his blade, turning it crimson red. The Red Blades are extremely powerful, as they negate the demon’s powers and regeneration. Snake Breathing is the breathing technique that Obanai Iguro uses.
6. Tengen Uzui – Sound Hashira
Breathing Style: Sound Breathing
As a Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, Tengen is a very powerful swordsman. He has demonstrated numerous skills that enable him to easily overpower devils in a battle, or even fight on an equal footing against the growing members of the Twelve Fel Moons. During his fight against Gyutaro, he was able to fight with him on an equal footing and protect others at the same time. This got even more impressive when he also had to fight Daki.
Sound Breathing is a fighting style used only by Tengen. Sound Breathing is based on Thunder Breathing. Tengen has developed a unique fighting formula called “Score” in which he reads the movements of his opponents and breaks them down into sound. He can then analyze the rhythm of your movements and thus make much better use of opportunities to attack.
In connection with this, he uses small but powerful anti-devil bombs, which were made with special gunpowder and could even briefly overwhelm a devil of the upper twelve devil moons.
In keeping with Tengen’s extravagant personality, he also carries extravagant weapons with him. As his main weapon, he uses two larger than average Nichirin blades, each with a notch in the sharp ends of their blades and held together at the handle by a metal chain. His swords are said to have great amounts of explosive power and it is said that until Tengen’s battle with waxing moon number six, none of them had survived a blow.
He also carries bombs and uses his skills to make sure people don’t suffer collateral damage while using them. He is one of five pillars that fight with a unique weapon.
5. Kyojuro Rengoku – Fire Hashira
Breathing Style: Fire Breathing
As the Fire Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, Kyojuro is a very powerful swordsman. Even devils as strong as Akaza, the waxing moon three and the fourth strongest of the known devils, recognized Kyojuro’s strength. He even went so far as to offer Kyojuro to turn him into a devil so that he could exceed his human limits and become stronger what he only offers swordsmen whose skills he thought were extremely good.
Akaza also praised his fighting spirit, stating that he was approaching the “highest territory,” which meant that he was on the verge of reaching the see-through world that only the strongest Demon Slayers can access. His sword skills are best shown during his fight against Akaza, in which he can assert himself against the rising moon despite severe injuries. Kyojuro was incredibly strong, which Akaza described as incredible despite being seriously injured at the time.
Kyojuro is extremely fast, so that even a demon slayer like Tanjiro cannot keep up. Akaza is also impressed with his speed. Fire Breathing is one of the basic breathing techniques and has been used in the Rengoku family for many generations and was taught to Kyojuro by his father.
4. Sakonji Urokodaki – Water Hashira
Breathing Style: Water Breathing
Sakonji has a very good sense of smell which enables him to grasp the “interval line” – the slight pause in an enemy’s movement that allows an opening to attack. This is revealed when Giyu Tomioka writes to Sakonji asking him to train Tanjiro, citing that he also has the same skills as himself.
This was also evident during his first meeting with Tanjiro during his fight against the temple devil, during which Urokodaki could smell Tanjiro’s feelings and smell the “scent of innate goodness” from him.
Sakonji is the main teacher of the Water Breathing technique. He taught Tanjiro Kamado and the successor to his previous position as a water column, Giyu Tomioka, the ten forms of water breathing. He can increase the amount of oxygen in the blood by controlling his breathing pattern, increasing his strength and agility to that of a devil.
3. Sanmei Shinazugawa – Wind Hashira
Breathing Style: Wind Breathing
As a member of the Hashira, Sanemi is a very powerful swordsman. According to Kokushibo, Sanemi’s physical skills and techniques have reached their peak. Sanemi’s blood is one of the rarest blood types, making it extremely toxic to demons. He is also unique thanks to his intense power, the slightest cut of which makes the demons immediately “salivate” and thus makes them lose concentration, since his blood was able to affect the strongest Moon.
For now, the only demon immune to Sanemi’s blood is Nezuko, due to his strong will and conviction to no longer eat humans which was further implanted in his mind by Sakonji Urokodaki. During his battle with Kokushibo, Sanemi struck Gyomei’s Spiked Scourge with his saber, making them both red for a moment.
Later, in combat with Muzan, Sanemi, having learned from his previous encounter, forcefully strikes his sword with Giyu’s, turning both blades red. Making a blade red will hinder the advanced regeneration of Demons. As the Wind Hashira, Sanmei uses the Wind Breathing technique.
He increases the amount of oxygen in his blood by controlling his breathing rate, increasing his strength and agility to match that of a demon. He learned to do the Blast of Full Concentration at all times like all Hashira, further increasing his base strength, speed, and stamina. In his position as a Pillar, he is particularly familiar with the nine movements of the Wind Breathing.
2. Giyu Tomoika – Water Hashira
Breathing Style: Water Breathing
As the Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, Giyu is a very powerful swordsman. He was able to easily defeat the transformed Demon Spider Father and Rui, the Lower Fifth Moon. During his battle with Akaza, the Upper Third Moon, he was able to hold on for a while. As with Kyojuro, Akaza is amazed by Giyu’s skills to the point that he proposes to the Pillar to transform him into a demon, which Akaza only submits to the most worthy of his opponents.
The latter asserts that he has not fought a Water Hashira as skillful as Giyu for fifty years and that the latter has a highly developed sword art. Giyu is very quick, having been able to tie Inosuke Hashibira even before he realizes what just happened. He was also able to cut off Rui’s head in the blink of an eye. Giyu has great endurance.
He was able to continue fighting Akaza with some scratches, knowing that the latter has great attacking power. After being hit by Muzan’s attack and given an injection of blood, he was able to continue fighting alongside Obanai Iguro, unlike his other Hashira companion, Mitsuri Kanroji, who was greatly affected by the same. attack.
During the fight against Muzan, Sanemi Shinazugawa fiercely collides his saber with Giyu’s, temporarily transforming their two blades into a crimson-red colored Sun Saber, which allows them to hinder the increased regeneration of the demons. During his battle with Akaza, Giyu awakens his Demon Slayer Mark, which appears as a liquid-like design on his left cheek.
When activated, it gains tremendous speed, accuracy, and stamina, to the point where it could engage in a long battle against the Upper Third Moon on level ground. However, he couldn’t get close to Akaza’s head, which ultimately led to his blade shattering, and an almost fatal injury if Tanjiro hadn’t intervened. It was taught to him by Sakonji Urokodaki, the ancient Water Hashira before him.
The user can increase the amount of oxygen in their blood by controlling their breathing rate, which increases their strength and agility to match that of a demon. He learned to do the Blast of Full Concentration at all times like all Hashira, further increasing his base strength, speed, and stamina. He knows all the techniques of the Water Breathing and has developed a form additional to him.
1. Gyomei Himejima – Stone Hashira
Breathing Style: Stone Breathing
As a Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, Gyomei is a very powerful swordsman. Tanjiro and Inosuke claim to be the most powerful Slyer in the entire organization. This was also confirmed by the first highest moon, Kokushibo, who noted that Gyomei’s physical abilities had been pushed to an absolute peak.
He also said that he had not encountered a warrior like Gyomei in the past three hundred years. He was able to fight the strongest highest moon for a short time without the Demon Slayer mark, further showing the extent of his skill. Despite being blind, he was able to see the ideal image of his enemies in his mind and feel them in a natural way.
Gyomei wields a hand axle with spikes attached to the hilt through a long chain. To wield his unique weapon, he uses the sound of the chain to judge the position of the strike, covering up and even taking advantage of his blindness. He, along with Shinobu, Uzui, Obanai, and Mitsuri, are the only ones who use unique weapons.
The chain, spikelet, and ax are crafted using the same metals used to craft knives. However, the craftsmanship of weapons is of an incredibly high class and even surpasses swords forged in the Sengoku era, that even the Highest Moon, Kokushibo could not break through and was forced to resort to close combat instead. Stone Breathing is the Breathing technique that Himejima Gyomei uses.
Is Tanjiro Stronger Than the Hashira?
Initially, Tanjiro was nowhere near the level of the Hashira, but by the end of the story, he was stronger than most of them and probably somewhere around the level of Giyu and Gyomei, the two strongest Hashira. We don’t think he’d be able to beat them, but he would put up a good fight against the two; as for the others, we think he would be able to defeat them.
