Tecchin Tecchikawahara

Tecchin is an elderly man, bald at the crown but with white hair to his shoulders, his face hidden behind a hyottoko mask through which his wrinkles still show. Extremely short, he concedes that no one living in the village stands shorter than he does. He dresses in a kimono of diamond motifs paired with a black haori bearing the character for chief on the back, and on the rare occasion he is unmasked he is drawn with squinting eyes and prominent teeth.

Forthright to a fault, he openly calls himself the village's most esteemed figure and demands that Tanjiro bow low before him, yet he is courteous too, offering the visitor snacks and calling him a fine young man. His authority is such that he alone can keep the volatile smith Hotaru Haganezuka in line, having raised the boy after his temper proved too much for his parents.

When Hotaru refuses to forge him a new sword, Tanjiro comes to the village and meets the chief, who rejects the slayer's apology for breaking his blade and blames Hotaru for crafting a weak one instead. Tecchin invites him to recover in the hot springs and promises a replacement smith if Hotaru cannot be found.

The village is then assailed by Gyokko, Upper Rank Five, who looses fish-shaped demons to slaughter the smiths. His largest creature seizes Tecchin and nearly crushes him, until Mitsuri Kanroji, the Love Hashira, reaches him just in time, cuts the monster down, and catches the falling chief. To her amusement, the lecherous old man declares that being held by a pretty young lady has him feeling wonderful, and he snaps at another injured smith for spoiling the moment.

As an ordinary human Tecchin has no special powers, but his importance to the Corps is immense. As chief he assigns a smith to every slayer, and because his skill is irreplaceable, protecting him is the top priority whenever the village comes under attack.

He survived being squeezed by Gyokko's largest spawn with little lasting harm, a sign of surprising endurance. Above all he is a master craftsman, one of the few capable of producing the intricate, unconventional Nichirin blades carried by Mitsuri Kanroji and by Shinobu Kocho. The characters in his name carry the senses of iron, ground, river, and field, and it may instead be romanized as Tetchin.