Hotaru Haganezuka

Hotaru dresses in a dark yukata layered with a sunflower-print haori, and like the other smiths he hides his features behind a wooden Hyottoko festival mask. A spotted scarf wraps his head, and when traveling he adds a wide woven hat strung with floral wind chimes.

When his anger boils over he sheds the haori, opens his yukata, and twists the scarf into a headband that holds a pair of knives, exposing his long black hair. Later, after a stint of mountain training during the Swordsmith Village events, he reappears with a far more muscular frame. Once unmasked, he is shown to have sharp eyes and thick eyebrows, though Gyokko's assault leaves him scarred across the body, including an X-shaped mark on his face and the loss of sight in one eye.

Hotaru is intensely hot-blooded and cares about little beyond the weapons he creates. His passion lets him discuss blades endlessly, but it also makes him erupt at any swordsman who damages his work, Tanjiro most of all. He soothes his temper by eating mitarashi dango, and bystanders can subdue him by pinning him down or tickling his sides, after which he goes limp.

Socially awkward and unmarried, his abrasive manner has cost him clients and earned the dislike of other smiths, yet he is quietly grateful that Tanjiro keeps trusting him. His focus while forging is so absolute that he ignores even a demon wounding him. Beneath the volatility lies real respect for the Corps, and he has firmly defended the dignity of demon slaying when pressed.

Born into the Haganezuka line of swordsmiths, Hotaru was such a difficult toddler that his parents broke down, and the village chief Tecchin Tecchikawahara raised him instead. The chief gave him the first name he resents for sounding too cute, and recalls a boy prone to constant tantrums and disappearing.

Trained by the other smiths, Hotaru took up forging and polishing Nichirin Swords for the Corps. After Tanjiro cleared the Final Selection, Hotaru was assigned to make his blade, beginning a long and combative partnership. During the Swordsmith Village attack he restores an ancient blade hidden inside Yoriichi Type Zero while enduring Gyokko's repeated attacks without breaking concentration, and that weapon proves decisive in felling Hantengu.