Rurouni Kenshin: What Does Hitokiri Battosai Mean & Who Is the Real Hitokiri Battosai?

The new adaptation of the Rurouni Kenshin series has just begun airing, and while the animation is much better and more fluent, the series still retains its classic vibe, which is great. But, with the new anime charting a new path for the series in general, there are still some concepts and questions that we’ve seen in the series that interest us and the fans, which is why we will analyze them here. In this article, we are going to talk about the title of the Hitokiri Battosai, which proved to be exceptionally important in the first episode of the series; you are going to find out the meaning of the phrase, as well as the identity of the Hitokiri Battosai.

The phrase “Hitokiri Battosai” is written in Japanese as 人ひと斬きり抜刀ばっとう斎さい, which can be translated as Battosai the Manslayer or Battosai: The Slasher. The term “hitokiri” actually means “manslayer,” which makes a lot of sense, while “Batttosai” signifies someone who is using battōjutsu, so the phrase in itself makes sense, as it designates his “occupation” and the style he is using while fighting (this was a common practice in the series). It is revealed that the true identity of the “Hitokiri Battosai” is that of Kenshin Himura.

In the remainder of this article, we will explain the meaning of the title of Hitokiri Battosai in more detail. We will explain the title’s etymology, its translation, what it means in the story’s context, and who the actual Hitokiri Battosai was in Rurouni Kenshin story. We’ve gathered all the known and relevant information about this phrase and how it ties into the narrative. Be careful, though, as there will be spoilers in this article.

The meaning of Hitokiri Battosai is quite grim

As we usually do when we have to explain the meaning of some Japanese words, names, or phrases in our articles here on Fiction Horizon, we are going to strip the phrase down to its bare essentials so that you know exactly what you’re dealing with. The full name of the title, Hitokiri Battosai, in Japanese, written as follows: 人ひと斬きり抜刀ばっとう斎さい. (You can see the furigana readings above). As you can see, the name itself consists of five different kanji combined in one phrase that reads “Hitokiri Battosai.” We are now going to analyze these kanji:

1. 人 (hito) – this kanji actually means “human”; there are several readings of this kanji, but hito is one of the basic ones;
2. 斬り (kiri) – a conjugated version of the verb “kiru”, which actually means “to kill,” “to slice” or “to behead”;
3. 抜 (bachi) – this kanji actually means “slip out, extract, pull out,” but it is not a standalone kanji here, but is rather part of a phrase;
4. 刀 (katana) – this kanji actually means “sword” or “katana,” but is here, as the previous one, part of a phrase rather than a standalone kanji;
5. 斎 (sai) – this term is present in Buddhism and is actually used to signify the practitioner of certain martial art.

So, as you can see, the phrase itself is not complex, and it consists of two distinct phrases: 人ひと斬きり and 抜刀ばっとう斎さい. The phrase’s literal meaning would thus be “human killing sword extraction practitioner,” but it actually means “Manslaying Battōjutsu Practitioner.” Namely, the phrase “Battosai” actually signifies a person who practices the Battōjutsu technique, whose literal translation is “the craft of drawing out the sword.”

It is a real-life martial art that is also part of the Rurouni Kenshin lore. In that aspect, we can only confirm that the phrase means and can be translated as either Battosai the Manslayer or Manslaying Battōjutsu Practitioner, as we’ve said above, and this actually corresponds well with the meaning of the phrase.

This was a common practice during the Bakumatsu period, as real-life assassins adopted such professional names. They would usually retain the phrase “hitokiri”, which signified their occupation, and add to it their own last name; for example, the real-life samurai Kawakami Gensai was known as Hitokiri Gensai during his lifetime. There is also a variation of this phrase used in the series, Himura Battosai (緋ひ村むら抜刀ばっとう斎さい), which can be translated as “Himura, the Battōjutsu Practitioner.” This was also common in the manga, as characters would use their personal names and combine them with the art they were practicing.

Unexpectedly, the real Hitokiri Battosai was actually Kenshin Himura

Now that we have explained the meaning of the phrase, we can actually proceed to explain the importance of the phrase for the story of Rurouni Kenshin. Namely, if you’ve seen the first episode, you’ll probably have heard the phrase Hitokiri Battosai being used on several occasions and with a lot of notoriety.

Namely, the Hitokiri Battosai was described as a legendary and dangerous assassin who killed many people and was still attacking people by the road, so he was sought after by the police and people alike. More so because the Meiji government banned swords, but the Hitokiri Battosai still carried a sword with him.

The identity of this assassin was not revealed initially, and when Kaoru encountered Himura in town, she assumed it was him. Namely, he was alone, not afraid to walk around alone during the night, and carrying a sword with him, openly defying the interdiction.

She attacked him with a wooden katana, and he then explained that he was not the Hitokiri Battosai but rather a simple rurouni (wandering samurai) and that while he did have a blade of his own, it was a blade that could not be used for cutting, because it did not have a proper cutting edge. If you want to know more about Himura’s blade, the Sakabato, you can also check out our article on the topic.

Kaoru was convinced, and she let Himura leave. But, soon after, her friend Hiruma Kihei betrayed her and called in his brother, the vile Hiruma Gohei, who was pretending to be the Hitokiri Battosai and whom Kaoru had encountered earlier, not long after meeting Himura. Gohei revealed himself to be the fake Hitokiri Battosai, as he simply killed people so that he and his brother could get their hands on Kaoru’s dojo.

But luckily for everyone, Himura suspected foul play and came to stop them, revealing himself to be the actual Hitokiri Battosai but also confirming that it is a thing of the past and that he is not that same person anymore.

Now, Kenshin Himura was true a powerful and notorious assassin in the past, but since his story is going to be revealed in the upcoming episodes of the new anime, we won’t be revealing too many details here; what was important here was to explain the meaning and the importance of the phrase for the series as a whole.