Jujutsu Kaisen: How Did Utahime Get Her Scar?

With the second season of Jujutsu Kaisen finally underway, we’ve had the chance to see the beginning of Gojo’s Past Arc, which took us back to 2006, when Gojo and Geto were still students. The story will be thrilling, but aside from that, it will also provide us with some great characters, including younger versions of characters we know from the present timeline. One of them is Utahime Iori, a character with a well-known connection to Gojo and who had a very big role in the second season’s first episode, where she was – while still a student – on a mission with Mei Mei. But, at that time, she was shown to not sport the scar we’ve seen in the present timeline, so in this article, we will tell you how Utahime actually received her scar in the series.

It has actually not been revealed how and when Utahime Iori received her scar. Based on the data we have from the series, she must have received her scar after 2006 and before 2018, when she was first seen with it in the present timeline. According to Akutami himself, Utahime’s scar doesn’t seem to have any significant backstory as it is normal for jujutsu sorcerers to get a scar here and there; this probably implies that she got it in a battle at one point during her career as a jujutsu sorceress.

The rest of this article will focus on Utahime Iori and her story in the Jujutsu Kaisen series. Utahime Iori is quite a popular character, especially because of her relationship with Gojo, so it only makes sense that fans want to know more about her as a character and her story. Her scar is one of the bigger mysteries related to her as a character, so we will tell you her story here. This article will contain some spoilers from the Jujutsu Kaisen manga, so be careful how you approach it.

There doesn’t seem to be a big story related to Iori’s scar in Jujutsu Kaisen

Utahime Iori is a Grade 1 sorcerer and one of the teachers at the Kyoto Metropolitan Curse Technical College. While she is usually very polite and reserved, the mere sight of Gojo is enough to make her blood boil, as he often teases her due to her perceived weakness, which, if you remember what happened in the first episode of the second season, is a dynamic that the two of them had since they were students.

Secretly, though, she works together with Gojo to find out who the mole in the school is. Her technique temporarily increases her curse energy and those close to her. Also, through dance, song, signs, and ritual music, she can expand the effects of her technique up to 120% of her potential.

Now, Utahime Iori has often been shipped with Gojo, and while a lot of fans are simping over that ship, we actually won’t be discussing that aspect of her story here, as it is not that relevant. Today, we want to know where and how Utahime Iori got her scar, the one we’ve seen her have in the present timeline of the Jujutsu Kaisen series.

The chronology tells us that she got her scar sometime during her career as a jujutsu sorceress. This we know thanks to Gojo’s Past Arc, which was set in 2006 and in which Utahime was also present. At the time, Utahime Iori was a student, just like Gojo, Geto, and Ieiri, and she was sent on a mission in a haunted mansion together with Mei Mei. Since she was younger at the time and still a student, we got to see a younger version of her, and she was – believe it or not – without her trademark scar at the time!

She wore the same clothes, had a different hairstyle, and had the same personality (and the same relationship with Gojo!), but the scar was not there. Since we did not see her in Jujutsu Kaisen 0, we cannot say if she had it in 2016 or 2017, but in 2018, when she was first shown in the present timeline, she had her scar, and from what we could see, the scar was not a fresh one, which means that she’d had it for some time.

So, this would mean that she got her scar sometime after 2006 and before 2018, but since it’s a 12-year period we’re talking about, we cannot pinpoint the exact moment she might have gotten it. But, regardless of that, how did she even get it?

Utahime Iori is a skilled sorceress, despite Gojo’s teases, and we assume that whichever curse gave her that scar did not survive the encounter. Most fans have assumed that she got her scar in a battle, which would make the most sense, and we can honestly state that this is probably the correct theory. Some have suggested that it has to do something with a traumatic experience or personal issues, but this doesn’t seem too likely based on what we know.

In an interview, Gege Akutami said there is no big story to Utahime Iori’s scar. He added that jujutsu sorcerers often get scars here and there and that Utahime’s scar actually fits that template, as there doesn’t seem to be any relevant story behind the scar.

And there you have it – the story of Utahime Iori’s scar. Based on what Akutami said, we can deduce that she received her scar while doing her job and that there is absolutely no relevant story behind it, which is why we probably won’t get a deeper insight into that aspect of Utahime’s story, but even this – especially Akutami’s comments – is enough for you to know what you needed and wanted to about it.