Bleach: Here’s How Ichigo Is Related to Kukaku & Ganju Shiba!

Ichigo’s family history is one of the most interesting plot twists in Bleach. It initially seemed that everything was more than normal when his family was concerned, but as the story progressed, it turned out that both his mother and father had very interesting stories. In this article, we will focus on his father’s side of the family, as that story will explain how Ichigo Kurosaki is related to Kukaku and Ganju Shiba in Bleach.

Ichigo’s father’s real name is Isshin Shiba, and he was once the Captain of the 10th Division before coming to the World of the Living, sacrificing his powers to save the life of Masaki Kurosaki and eventually marrying her and taking her last name. Isshin Kurosaki was actually Kukaku’s, Ganju’s, and Kaien’s uncle, which means that Ichigo is actually very close to the three of them (okay, two, as Kaien is dead) and is actually their first cousin if the brief comment from the anime that confirmed the relationship is to be believed, and there is no reason that it should not be.

The rest of this article will bring you the story of the Shiba family, focusing on the relationship between this family and Ichigo Kurosaki, which might have escaped a lot of fans because Ichigo has a completely different last name. We will tell you about his story, the Shiba Clan in Bleach, and his relation to Kūkaku, Ganju, and Kaien Shiba, first introduced during the original Soul Society Arc. This article is going to contain a lot of spoilers, so be careful how you approach it.

Ichigo is, by all means, the first cousin of the three Shiba siblings (Kukaku, Ganju, and Kaien) we’ve seen in the Soul Society Arc, all because of his father

Now, we all know that Ichigo and his adventures were the focus of Bleach, but the world that Kubo created has so much more to offer, and the family trees of the characters involved in the series are one of the more intriguing things one can examine here.

Now, luckily for us, this article will combine both Ichigo’s story and the families of Bleach, as we are going to tell you about his father’s side of the family – the Shiba Clan.

The Shiba Clan was once one of the five major noble clans of Soul Society but has since fallen from grace and is not considered to be among the great noble families. Isshin Shiba was the family’s previous head before retiring to the human realm to create his own family. The family was originally regarded highly in Soul Society, but with Kaien Shiba’s passing, they lost that respect for an unidentified cause and are no longer regarded as noble, despite being one of the five great noble families. The family makes fireworks for a living. The known members are:

As you can see, Ichigo’s father, Isshin Kurosaki is actually Isshin Shiba, and he is the former head of the Shiba Clan, or – at least – of one of the clan’s branch families. Still, he was considered nobility in Soul Society and was respected by the other characters.

But, the thing with Isshin was that he was a maverick and that he did not care too much for the courtesies of the Soul Society’s nobility, which was seen in several flashback scenes from his time as Captain of the 10th Division. This was, of course, more evident in the present timeline when he was “just” Ichigo’s father, but he could’ve simply adapted – theoretically – to the World of the Living, so the flashback scenes function as a great reminder that he had always been like that.

Now, this was a fact that was not known initially, although the Shiba Clan members were introduced early on. Kaien Shiba was Ukitake’s Lieutenant when Rukia joined the 13th Division, and he was a very kind and likable guy; he was also the target of a vicious Hollow that infected him, which ultimately forced Rukia to murder him (the same Hollow had, earlier, killed his wife, Miyako).

Kaien was, at the time, the head of the main branch of the Shiba Clan, i.e., the Clan’s head, but when he died, the title was passed down to his sister, Kukaku Shiba. Still, not long after that, the clan lost all influence and its status, probably because Kukau was not as influential as Kaien and because the “sin” of Isshin’s betrayal still haunted the conservative nobility of Soul Society.

But what was Isshin’s “sin”? As Captain of the 10th Division, he went to Karakura to investigate the strange deaths associated with a powerful Hollow named White, who was actually a creation of Aizen. Isshin would have killed White had Aizen not attacked him, but a young Quincy, Masaki Kurosaki, ultimately saved his life. It was love at first sight for the two of them, but it took some time before they actually reunited.

Namely, Masaki was infected by Hollow Reiatsu at the time, and as a Quincy, she would have died had Isshin not sacrificed his Shinigami powers to save her life. Doing that, he effectively banished himself from Soul Society and decided to live in the World of the Living; he opened his clinic, married Masaki later, and the rest is history.

Isshin probably took Masaki’s last name to remain incognito, so he became Isshin Kurosaki as well; the Soul Society would have probably hunted him down and brought him back to trial had he continued to use the Shiba name.

So, we now know that Isshin is related to the Shiba siblings from the main branch, which automatically means that Ichigo, as Isshin’s son, is also related to them. And while it was initially unclear what the very nature of that relation was, the Quincy Blood War confirmed that Isshin was actually their uncle, which means that he was a direct relative of their parents, i.e., a very close relative of the Shiba siblings from the Soul Society Arc. So, what does this mean in relation to Ichigo? Let us see.

Seeing how Isshin was the uncle of the Shiba siblings, that would make Ichigo, as his son, the first cousin of the Shiba siblings, which is a very close family relation. We know it did not seem like that initially, but Kubo seemingly planned it to be like that from the very start and ultimately crafted a story that presented us with a shocking revelation later on, which made absolute sense.