Demon Slayer: How Did Gyokko Find the Village?

The entire Swordsmith Village arc of Demon Slayer centers around how Gyokko and Hantengu could infiltrate the Swordsmith Village and give Tanjiro and the Demon Slayers some trouble. Of course, Gyokko received intel regarding the village’s location. But the thing about the Swordsmith Village is that it is a very secretive place that not even the Demon Slayers can locate. So, how did Gyokko find the Swordsmith Village?

The manga author, Koyoharu Gotouge, never explained how Gyokko could locate the Swordsmith Village. As such, it is possible that he was able to capture or interrogate a swordsmith during the time that he was roaming the country to find anything related to the Swordsmith Village.

The truth about Demon Slayer is that there are many plot holes that fans don’t care too much about as long as the overall product is great and visually appealing. In that regard, the manga never truly addressed that Gyokko knew where the village was. As such, let’s look at all of the possibilities related to how Gyokko was able to locate the Swordsmith Village.

The Swordsmith Village’s Secretive Nature

One thing we know about Demon Slayer’s storyline is that the Demon Slayer Corps rely on their Nichirin swords to defeat the demons because they are the only weapons that can kill a demon. Of course, the swordsmen themselves focus on training their swordsmanship and honing their skills to defeat demons. Meanwhile, the swordsmiths are the ones responsible for forging the Nichirin swords that are used to kill the demons.

The swordsmiths are partnered with the Demon Slayer Corps but aren’t exactly based in the same headquarters as the Demon Slayers. Instead, they stay in a village that is secluded from the rest of the world and quite secretive in its nature. In fact, during the first episode of the Swordsmith Village Arc, Tanjiro needed to wear a blindfold. At the same time, unnamed Kakushi carried him on their backs and gave him to other Kakushi whenever they reached a certain area. This ensured that only a few people would know how to find the Swordsmith Village, as not even the Demon Slayers knew its location.

It is the very fact that the swordsmiths are so important to the Demon Slayers that the village needs to stay a secret. The villagers even wear masks that hide their identities so no one can track them. After all, the swordsmiths aren’t as skilled as the Demon Slayers in terms of swordsmanship, and that means that they are quite vulnerable to an attack from a powerful demon if the location of the village were to become known to Muzan and the other demons. And if the swordsmiths were to die, there would be no one else to forge the weapons that the Demon Slayers need to defeat the demons.

The relationship between the Demon Slayers and the swordsmiths is symbiotic, as they both need one another. Swordsmen rely on swordsmiths for their swords. Meanwhile, the swordsmiths rely on the Demon Slayers to ensure they are safe and that the location of their village stays a secret. And the fact that some Demon Slayers are prone to the temptation of becoming demons is one of the reasons why not even the Hashira and the other members of the Demon Slayer Corps know where this village is.

How Did Gyokko Find the Village?

Of course, while we know that the Swordsmith Village is a secret place hidden from almost everyone in Japan, as only a few members of the Demon Slayer Corps know where it is, we know that the demons were set to infiltrate the village.

During the opening part of the Swordsmith Village Arc, Muzan confronted the Upper Moon demons about their recent failures and that they had just lost one of them during the events of the previous arc. In that regard, Muzan was deeply disappointed in his demons and quickly demanded results from them.

Gyokko, however, wanted to please his master and told him that he had information that he needed to know. Muzan told him never to give him unsourced information but was also quick to assign him and Hantengu to infiltrate the Swordsmith Village based on the information that Gyokko had about it. After Muzan left, Gyokko ranted about how he didn’t like the fact that Muzan ordered him to go on a joint mission even though he was the one who obtained the information about the Swordsmith Village.

That was when Doma confronted him and demanded to tell him what he knew, only for Gyokko to refuse. It seems that Doma was also curious regarding the location of the Swordsmith Village and must have wanted to beat the Gyokko and Hantengu to the spot. Nevertheless, after an intense moment between Akaza and Doma, Gyokko told the Biwa Demon to teleport him and Hantengu to the village’s location.

In that regard, it was never explained how or why Gyokko could obtain information regarding the location of the Swordsmith Village. The author never explained it in the manga and didn’t even care to comment on how Gyokko found the village. In fact, fans didn’t even wonder how Gyokko obtained the intel regarding the whereabouts of a village that was supposed to be a secret.

As such, we can only speculate what Gyokko had to do to discover the whereabouts of this village, as it is more than possible that he did some recon. And the nature of Gyokko’s Blood Demon Art makes the perfect Upper Moon demon to obtain sensitive information regarding the location of the Swordsmith Village.

It is possible that he could obtain the information through his vase Blood Demon Art, which allows him to hide inside a vase that he can create and place anywhere within a certain vicinity. Since he is less likely to get detected by the Demon Slayers, he must have hidden in vases all over the country to spy on the Demon Slayers and the swordsmiths to acquire information regarding the village’s location.

Of course, there’s also a chance that he was able to acquire the information from a villager from the Swordsmith Village or from one of the few Demon Slayers that know where it is. But that might not be possible because the swordsmiths would have been alerted if someone from their village was captured by a demon and was forced to spill the beans regarding the village’s location. And Gyokko would have been very lucky if he encountered a Demon Slayer that knew where the village was.

As such, the methods that Gyokko used to obtain information regarding the location of the Swordsmith Village are up to the person’s imagination because the very fact that this was never explained in the manga. The important part is that he knows where the swordsmiths live and are set to try to cut off the source of the Demon Slayers’ weapons.