Jūshirō Ukitake

Long white hair, worn nearly to the waist and split on the left so that a single strand drapes across his right eye, frames Ukitake's calm green gaze. His frame looks thin and drawn, the mark of a chronic illness that leaves him coughing blood and often sends him to rest at Ugendō, his family's estate. The white came suddenly: a severe attack in boyhood bleached his hair over three days, which is why his eyebrows still carry its former black. Above the standard dark shihakushō he wears a long-sleeved captain's haori lined in crimson, with a narrow white sash holding his blade.

Courtesy defines him. Ukitake extends the same regard to the weak and low-ranked as to his equals, which makes him one of the most approachable figures in Soul Society and a frequent source of counsel. His moral compass is firm enough that he will break a rule outright when he judges it the right thing, and he shields his subordinates from harm without hesitation. Sharp-eyed and a shrewd reader of people, he senses loneliness in others, as he did in Rukia Kuchiki before her friendships softened her. He flatly refuses to raise his sword against a child, sparing even the young Arrancar Lilynette and coaching her instead. Off duty he favors ohagi, tends the carp and bonsai at Ugendō despite no gift for the latter, and pens a running adventure serial for the Seireitei Communication. His closest bond is with Shunsui Kyōraku, whose sense of honor he shares.

As one of the eldest captains, Ukitake wields spiritual pressure that he and Shunsui are said to hold beyond any peer, along with the exacting control that let him prop up his ailing body through Reiatsu alone across a lifetime. He is a practiced swordsman whose form runs unconventional because of his blade, a master of both Shunpo and Kidō, capable of healing arts, and unusually durable. His Zanpakutō, Sōgyo no Kotowari, parts from a single katana into twin blades joined by a red cord strung with five metal charms, released with the command for all waves to become his shield and all thunder his blade. Its power drinks an enemy's incoming energy attack in through the left sword, drives it along the linking cord where the charms sharpen its speed and force, then hurls it back from the right sword so swiftly it seems to originate there. His Bankai was never shown. In his final act he invokes Kamikake, giving up his own life to Mimihagi so the arm can hold the failing Soul King in place.