Jujutsu Kaisen: Who Sealed Sukuna & Split Him Into Fingers?

Sukuna has suddenly become the most-talked-about character in Jujutsu Kaisen now that he has apparently killed Gojo. And while we’ll have to wait to see how this story actually evolves, the fact is that Sukuna is quite popular and that fans want to know more about him, especially his history. In this article, we are going to talk about Sukuna’s past, as you are going to find out what happened to Sukuna after his death, i.e., how he was sealed and who split him into the 20 fingers that would become the series’ most famous Cursed Objects.

Sukuna’s past is a big enigma, and we’ll probably have to wait a bit before we know all the details (if we ever do)

Sukuna is, as we know, the principal villain of the series alongside Kenjaku, who has operated initially under the guise of Pseudo-Geto. The powerful cursed spirit was introduced via Yuji Itadori and is currently in Megumi’s body while fighting Gojo’s allies (as he has seemingly killed Gojo in Chapter 236), even bringing back his full, original form. But that does not interest us here, although this story will have something to do with Sukuna’s original form.

Namely, in this article, we will go back to Sukuna’s past as we try to uncover what happened to him when he was still a human sorcerer. We have to criticize Akutami for having a very bad relationship with the history of his story, as the history of the Jujutsu Kaisen lore is a big mystery.

He has mentioned and explained something, but the crumbs we have gotten are quite insignificant, and there is not much to work with, especially when the golden era of jujutsu sorcery is concerned. And that is the period when Sukuna lived.

When Kashimo asked Sukuna whether he was born the strongest or whether he became the strongest, he replied that he did not know as he had been an unwanted child, and that is basically the only thing we know about Sukuna’s past, save for the legends of his horrible deeds.

Legend has it that Sukuna was once a formidable jujutsu sorcerer who was a human; he was regarded as the greatest jujutsu sorcerer of his day. He was a powerful sorcerer but also a cruel villain who killed other jujutsu practitioners, and no one could fight against him in any way due to his strength.

In reality, this makes sense since he was actually the cursed spirit of a sorcerer who lived during the Golden Age of Jujutsu, a time when humans regarded him as a natural calamity. Sorcerers worshiped or feared him as a deity.

After dying, he transformed into a human-like cursed spirit with four arms and two faces. The sorcerers of this period never managed to exorcise him, and a decision was made to separate his soul and split it in 20 fingers, sealing it in the form of cursed objects. This is what we know, but the details of this act are quite scarce, and there is nothing we can add.

These cursed objects, which could not be destroyed, have been gathered and hoarded by sorcerers for generations in the hopes that they will one day be destroyed. Naturally, Yuji Itadori ate most of his fingers in the present and took on the role of his “vessel,” although it turned out that he was actually a “cage.” Namely, Itadori’s resolve prevented him from fully controlling Yuji’s body, so he later took over Megumi’s body to resume his nefarious activities. In this state, he faced and apparently killed Gojo.

So, as you can see, Sukuna’s story revolves heavily around his past and his fingers, but this is the aspect we know the least about. Basically, we know almost nothing about Sukuna’s past, as we have stated. The few details we know reveal next to nothing; from that perspective, it is quite depressing to read about such a great character. This character evidently has an amazing story behind him, and not being able to read about that amazing story as well.

We know that he was a threat during the golden age, and we know that Sukuna apparently died at one point. Due to his immense power, Sukuna could not be exorcised, so to stop his return and more chaos, a group of powerful sorcerers of the time split his power into 20 fingers, which helped them stop Sukuna’s resurrection, as he not only needed a host but also the majority of his fingers to become as powerful as he originally was. This helped for a while, but it all went south when Itadori consumed one of Sukuna’s fingers to help his friends.

So, this is all we know. We don’t really know who sealed Sukuna or who created the fingers. The story tells of a group of (obviously powerful) sorcerers who were able and skilled enough to do it, but no details have been revealed. We also don’t know when it happened and how Sukuna reacted to it, i.e., whether he was dead at the time, whether he was a cursed spirit, or something completely different. This is a big issue with Jujutsu Kaisen in general, as one of the more interesting periods in the history of the narrative is a black hole of a mystery.

Whether or not Akutami plans on providing us with more details in the future remains to be seen. At this moment, we cannot really guess about any of that, as we have no clue in which direction the series will go. After Gojo’s premature death, there is really not much we can predict when Jujutsu Kaisen is concerned, so we’ll just have to wait and hope that Akutami will provide us with a long-awaited series of flashbacks to finally reveal Sukuna’s story.

This could happen once Sukuna is about to meet his end in the series. Still, as we have said, this is uncharted territory for everyone in the series, so we don’t really know what to expect. Still, we’re hopeful, as Sukuna, whether you like him or not, deserves a good and well-explored backstory. So here’s to that!

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