Sakonji Urokodaki

Sakonji is a fairly tall elderly man with fair skin and silver hair. His face is never revealed across the entire manga, as he always wears a tengu mask covering his whole head, though Tanjiro notes the features beneath are gentle and calm.

For clothing he favors a jinbei kimono in blue with a cloud motif, worn over navy trousers that are fastened below the knee by white leg guards, along with black tabi socks and blue-strapped sandals. When traveling, he drapes a white cloth over his head and neck. In his youth his hair was black and tied in a topknot.

As an instructor and former slayer, Sakonji is practical, strict, and watchful while also sympathetic and understanding. On first meeting Tanjiro he bluntly criticizes the boy's soft resolve, yet he runs a demanding regimen, even setting bladed traps along the mountain as the boy improves, and grows immensely proud of the slayer Tanjiro becomes.

Years of losing students to the Hand Demon have left him haunted, and he tells Tanjiro he never intended to send him to Final Selection. Astonished when the boy splits the enormous boulder he set, Sakonji embraces him and weeps in relief upon his safe return. He also shows fierce devotion to Nezuko, conditioning her to defend humans and even pledging his own life on her restraint.

As the former Water Hashira, Sakonji was once among the corps' strongest fighters. He single-handedly captured and confined the Hand Demon on Mount Fujikasane, a notable feat given the difficulty of subduing such a demon without killing it. Even in old age he overpowers a fit young Tanjiro with ease, flipping him and deflecting his charges without strain, and he moves with a remarkably silent, swift step.

He possesses a heightened sense of smell, able to read emotions and gauge how many victims a demon has consumed. As the cultivator of Water Breathing, he passed the style's ten forms down to his finest students, Giyu, Sabito, and Tanjiro, ranging from Water Surface Slash to the dragon-like Constant Flux.