Character Profile- Himura Kenshin
Kenshin was born on
the June 20, 1849. His blood type is AB and
has a height of 158 cm and weighs 48kg.His fighting style is Hiten Mitsurugi ryu
and uses a sakabatou ,a reverse blade sword as a weapon. During the Meiji
Restoration, Kenshin was known as the legendary "Hitokiri Battousai". But after
the end of the restoration he made a vow to never kill again and became a
wandering Rurouni and traveled all around Japan for ten years helping people to
atone for his sins. Despite the fact that he is legend, Kenshin remains
exceedingly humble. He is very kind and polite, and extremely wise. Kenshin
first comes to stay in Tokyo. When he saves the life of Kaoru Kamiya, and she
invites him to stay with her in return.He was 28 years old when he first met
her. Kenshin holds Kaoru in the utmost esteem, despite her very sometimes very
child-like behavior. One of the reasons is because of the fact that she does not
care about his past as the revolution's strongest swordsman. Since Kenshin
doesn't have to pay to stay at Kaoru's dojo, he helps out around the house by
cooking and doing the laundry. He also serves as a mentor of sorts to Yahiko
Myojin, the other border at the Kamiya dojo. Kenshin doesn't like using violence
or fighting as a way to solve matters unless it's absolutely necessary. While
staying at the Kamiya Dojo Kenshin continues to help others. He is a good friend
with Sanosuke Sagara, whom he helps by making him realize that he should stop
being a fighter for hire and turn his life around. Another person he helps is
Megumi Takani, who he saved from a greedy businessman. Kenshin in fact tries to
help so much that for a while he doesn't value his own life, and at times tries
to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders.However, Kenshin's personality
does have a dark side. Whenever someone tries to harm the people close to him
Kenshin becomes so enraged that his dark "Battousai" mode will take over. He
loses all self-control and, on several occasions comes very close to breaking
his vow to never kill again. When he gets to this point, only Kaoru can make him
go back to his normal peaceful self, though sometimes even she isn't enough. It
is not until he fully masters the succession technique of The Hiten Mitsurugi
style of swordsmanship and realizes the value of his own life, that he can
finally overcome this part of his personality.
In the past ( may
contain spoilers )
Kenshin was originally named Shinta, his parents died when he was just a child
and he was then sold into the slave trade. However, one night a group of bandits
slaughtered everyone in Shinta's traveling group. Kenshin was rescued at the
last moment by Seijuro Hiko who renamed him Kenshin and took him in as his
apprentice and taught him the Hiten Mitsurugi style of swordsmanship. After a
few years they parted ways because of their disagreement on how the Hiten
Mitsurugi Ryu should be used. While still a teenager Kenshin choose to become
the shadow killer for the Choshu Inshin Shishi and carried out may
assassinations including one man named Akira Kiyosato who managed to cut Kenshin
on his left cheek. When his employer, Katsura saw how having to kill people was
affecting him, he asked Tomoe Yukishiro, a girl that Kenshin brought into the
Choshu clan after she witnessed him killing another assassin and also the late
Alikra Kiyosato's fiancée, to be his sheath and save him from becoming an
unrepentant killer. When things took a turn for the worse for the Choshu clan,
Kenshin and Tomoe were forced to go into hiding posing as husband and wife. They
eventually grew to truly love each other even though Tomoe knew that Kenshin had
assassinated her fiancée. But things became complicated when Kenshin found out
that Tomoe was working as a spy for the Tokugawa shogunate and a series of
events were set into place, ending with tragic death of Tomoe when she tried to
save Kenshin and he receives the other half of his cross shaped scar. After
Tomoe's death Kenshin agreed to still work the Choshu clan but only until the
restoration was completed because he could not honor Tomoe's memory if he died
as a swordsman. And so Kenshin came out into the open as the "Hitokiri Battousai"
while Makoto Shishio took his place as the Choshu clan's shadow killer.