This is a list of fictional characters from the Katanagatari light novel/anime series.
Main characters
Shichika is the seventh head of the Kyotōryū school of Japanese martial arts. He was raised on the isolated island of Fushō in Tanba Province. He was twenty-four years old when sought out by Togame to aid in her mission of finding all twelve of the legendary "Deviant Blades". The Yasuri family has historically been unable to wield actual swords, instead relying solely on their limbs in a fight. Shichika was raised as a weapon and thus is rather poor at expressing emotion, regarding himself as a sword with Togame as his wielder. At the start of the journey, he is confused by the simplest customs and even has trouble telling people apart. Shichika also states that he's in love with Togame, following her orders even though he considers them to be a hassle. As he encounters more people, he becomes more human and feels remorse for those he killed earlier on in their quest. After Togame's death, Shichika does not obey her final orders to live on and forget her, but resolves to die at the hands of Emonzaemon. Shichika's grief leads him to storm the shogun's castle alone in an attempt at suicide, but destroys all twelve original Deviant Blades and their wielders, fulfilling his role as the final completed Deviant Blade. At the conclusion of the series, Shichika is seen travelling, following Togame's wish to create a complete map of Japan. Height: (6尺8寸) ~2.06m, Weight: (20貫) ~75kg.
Togame is a self-titled strategist working for the shogunate. She travels alone to the island where the Yasuri family was exiled and asks for Shichika's help in collecting the twelve "Deviant Blades". Togame does not trust others due to being betrayed in the past, so she asks Shichika to fall in love with her, believing that only love will surpass all other temptations of the quest. Togame is a cheery girl that carries herself as royalty and has a habit of wearing extravagant clothing. She has a strong will and great intelligence, but is not immune to clumsiness or bad judgment. Togame often proclaims that she is physically fragile. Her real name is , the only child of Takahito Hida, the feudal lord who led the previous rebellion and was murdered by Shichika's father, Mutsue Yasuri. After she witnessed the murder of her father, her hair turned white. The eye that saw the event through a gap in the doorframe takes on a snake-like appearance whenever she is scheming. One of the Maniwa Ninja note that it "shines with ambition". At the conclusion of their journey, Togame is fatally wounded by Emonzaemon. As she lays dying, Togame tells Shichika that everything was for the sake of revenge, including the part of her that fell in love with him. She says she intended to kill him once the sword collection was complete and is relieved to die because she will not have to do it. The last order she gives is for Shichika to forget about her. With her final breath, she says she is happy and asks if it is okay for her to love him. Height: (4尺8寸) ~145.4cm, Weight: (8貫3斤) ~31.8kg.
Deviant Blade Wielders
A member of the Beast Squad, he is one of the heads of the Maniwa Corps, a group of ninja seeking out the Deviant Blades. He is the first opponent in the series Shichika fights for said swords. He wields Kanna, a straight blade designed to never bend nor break that he stores inside his body. He is able to shoot kunai from his mouth and transform into an exact physical copy of any being. He is killed by Shichika while copying Togame's appearance and wearing her outfit. His name Kōmori means bat. Nickname: Ninpō: Kotsuniku Zaiku - This technique allows Kōmori to shape-shift into any person he wants. Ultimate technique: - Kōmori either lunges forward or jumps high to come swinging down hard.
A swordsman who lives in a vast desert in the country of Inaba, he is the second opponent Shichika fights for the Deviant Blades. He wields Namakura, which has been handed down his family for generations, and is unwilling to surrender it to anyone. He has lived in the desert guarding the palace; as he says, "A warrior must live to protect something". His fighting style is solely based on a sword-drawing technique called: Zerosen, which can kill his opponent with one strike, and his katana allows him to do it perfectly. His sword-draw speed is so great that Shichika is never able to see the blade, and he can further increase it by using his own blood. His preferred fighting ground is the very room he stays inside, located within the palace he lives in. He's a depressing figure who wishes to see the land he resides in return to its former beauty when it had once flourished with life, an impossibility according to Togame. He is killed by Shichika after the latter exploits the one weakness in the former's technique, the blind spot directly above his head. Ultimate technique:
The head of the Sanzu shrine located in Izumo, she is the third opponent Shichika fights for the Deviant Blades. She wields Tsurugi, a thousand exact copies of one sword of Shikizaki's doing. She claims that her real name had been long forgotten. Her current name had been taken from a priest she had killed. She was the daughter of a powerful kendo master who was also a commander of Izumo's defense corps and had died alongside all of his followers. She had later become a bandit leader, inheriting Tsurugi from them. Her killing spree had come to an end after meeting and killing the original Meisai Tsuruga, and she now takes care of a group of mikos that have been abused by men to the point of killing almost any man. The thousand Tsurugi copies are used by her mikos and two bodyguards, and she hopes that the blades' supposed magical properties could cure the abused girls of their dangerous nature, which had worked to a small degree. Despite her willingness to surrender Tsurugi to Togame, she duels Shichika for the sake of the girls. Her fighting style is called Sentouryū, which revolves around using many blades at her disposal, and Tsurugi provides those means. She is killed by Shichika in one last stand after he tells her that she is wielding the real Tsurugi out of the thousand, and that it was fate that had brought her and her sword together. Before dying, she asks Togame a favor: protection from the shogunate over the shrine and the girls, to which Togame agrees. Ultimate technique:
Renowned as one of Japan's strongest swordsmen, he is the fourth opponent Shichika fights for the Deviant Blades. He wields Hakutou Hari, one of the Twelve Blades he was sent to retrieve, but ended up keeping for himself. He proves to be a much more powerful opponent than the others Shichika had fought although their battle is never shown. His catchphrase is "I'll have you fall for me". Ultimate technique:
A rather tall pirate who rules a small port town in Satsuma, he is the fifth opponent Shichika fights for the Deviant Blades. He wields Yoroi, a suit of armor that he covers his appearance with most of the time and challenges fairly well known individuals with often. He had a younger sister that, when he was younger, was killed along with the other crewmen on the ship they were on by pirates, and was taken in by her killers as a slave. During his stay with them, he was ordered to clean Yoroi, which they had happened to possess at the time. Five years later, he was urged to try on the armor, and used it to turn on his sister's killers. When Shichika and Togame arrived at Kyushu, Kanara saw that Togame resembled his younger sister and strikes a bargain with her: if he dueled Shichika and won, she would be his woman. During his fight against Shichika, the latter has difficulty finding a weak point in Yoroi as it blocks all his attacks. However, he is defeated after Shichika throws him up into the air, and he consequently crashes into the ground, which makes him the first survivor of Shichika's battles over one of the Twelve Blades. Out of spite for his defeat, he secretly has the ship Shichika and Togame board change its course to Ezo. Ultimate technique:
A small eleven-year-old girl who's the last of the Itezora clan located on Mount Odori in the Ezo region, she is the sixth opponent Shichika fights for the Deviant Blades. After meeting a lost and freezing Shichika and Togame and taking them to her makeshift home, Konayuki helps them find, and later wields, Kanazuchi, a sword that is too heavy for Shichika to lift and that she recalls was owned by the village mayor's son. Her appearance is that of a cute young girl with long white hair, a tooth missing, and, despite being the weakest of her entire village even amongst the children, enough strength to effortlessly wield Kanazuchi. She claims that an avalanche had wiped out her clan, but they are revealed to have been killed off by Nanami in the latter's search for the Twelve Blades. She also claims that, as per her clan's instructions, she has to be dueled for Kanazuchi. Unwilling to kill her, Shichika goes easy on Konayuki, but she, with Kanazuchi and her amateur status, manages to break his left arm during the fight, ending the duel and thus being the first to hand Shichika defeat in the search for the Twelve Blades. While Shichika was recovering, Konayuki attacks Kyōken Maniwa, who later possesses her and uses her body to fight Shichika and Togame, but Shichika manages to kill the spirit rather than Konayuki, which knocks Konayuki out. She apologizes to Shichika and Togame for lying to them about dueling her for Kanazuchi, agrees to take it to the mainland and afterward live in the Sanzu shrine, and tells them that she had fun with them and won't feel lonely anymore. Ultimate technique:
Shichika's older sister, she is the seventh opponent Shichika fights for the Deviant Blades. She's depicted as gentle and weak; however, she can be frightening and intimidating to face during a fight. Despite not learning her family's fighting style, she has keen senses, fast reflexes, and the ability to think ahead, as she had observed her brother during his training and is shown to have used Kyotō when attacked by three Maniwa ninjas. Her primary fighting ability is to, by simply observing any fighting technique, learn it, then master it on second observation. She also has an unnatural ability to recover from serious injuries and poisons. Although her brother leaves the island with Togame, Nanami eventually follows them. She had fought Shichika only once, which ended in a draw because of her body's condition, and is stated by Shichika to be even stronger than Hakuhei. During her travels, she killed off the Itezora clan in search of Kanazuchi, but she did not take it because the sword was not useful to her. She comes into possession of Bita after killing off the people in Shireizan. The katana is later seen stabbed into her chest, which overcomes her physical weakness. She later confronts her brother and asks him to kill her so she could die normally, which is impossible due to her unnatural superhuman strength. In the end, she's killed by her brother, granting her the death she always wanted. Ultimate technique: