BLEACH: Twin Zanpakuto, Explained

Key Takeaways

• Twins Zanpakutou are rare due to unique souls or Zanpakutou spirits within the wielder.
• Ukitake’s twin Zanpakutou reflects his dual nature as vessel to a divine entity.
• The abnormal development of a Shinigami’s soul is revealed through their twin Zanpakutou.

The Shinigami’s most important tool in their duty to maintain the balance of the life and death cycle in the BLEACH universe is by far the Zanpakutō. Crafted by the genius blacksmith, Ōetsu Nimaiya, the Zanpakutō begin their life cycle as tabulae rasae known as Asauchi, developing their unique characteristics through repeated use and connection with the souls of their wielders.

We are introduced to the concept of dual-wielders during the latter stages of the Soul Society arc when the then-8th Squad Captain Shunsui Kyōraku teamed up with his best friend, 13th Squad Captain Jūshirō Ukitake in the effort to delay Rukia’s execution on Sōkyoku Hill. They are presented as the wielders of the only twin Zanpakutō in all of Soul Society, but why are dual/twin Zanpakutō so rare, and what do they tell us about their wielders?

About Ukitake and Kyoraku’s Zanpakutō

The First Twin Zanpakutō Introduced

Ukitake’s Sōgyo no Kotowari (Law of the Twin Fish) and Kyoraku’s Katen Kyokotsu are just like any other Zanpakutō in their unreleased state, but unlike most other Zanpakutō, their Shikai reveals not one, but two blades. For Ukitake, Sogyo no Kotowari takes on the same two-tone scheme of most Shikai, but a secondary blade juts out from the guard and connects back to the main blade, creating a rectangle-shaped “fin” on the back end of both blades. The two swords are connected to each other by a red cord adorned with silver charms. Ukitake’s Shikai release is “All ye waves, become my shield. All ye thunder, become my blade”. Katen Kyōkotsu is released with the incantation “The flowery winds become disturbed, the God Of Flowers sings, the heavenly winds become disturbed, the Devil of Heaven sneers,” revealing a pair of Chinese-style cleaver falchions or scimitars.

Both blades have a crescent-shaped hole carved out right after the curve of the blade on the back end, a short distance from the tip. They both also have red cloth tied to their hilts. Interestingly, Kyōraku’s twin Zanpakutō do not manifest from a single normal blade in the way Ukitake’s do; he uses his tachi (the larger more ubiquitous katana) and wakizashi (a shorter blade usually worn at the side best used for close-quarters combat) to form a cross shape as he chants the incantation. As a result, despite the fact that the blades look similar, they are still a tachi and a wakizashi in the way that they are used. The aspect that gives rise to a Shinigami bearing a pair of Zanpakutō is the composition of either their own soul, or that of the Zanpakutō itself.

Why Are Twin Zanpakuto So Rare?

Composite Souls Are Rare

Essentially, one of these two aspects must bear some form of uniqueness or multiplicity in their makeup in a manner similar to the existences of Fullbringers, Arrancar or by some other circumstance. Ukitake was only a toddler when he became the vessel of the local deity of Rukongai District 76, Sakahone, Mimihagi; an entity that turned out to be the Right Arm of the Soul King. This meant that Ukitake’s soul was also partly made up of this entity’s reishi, and because there were literally two beings present in the entity known as “Jūshirō Ukitake”, his eventual Zanpakutō reflected that. What further confirms this idea is the fact that during his divine possession by Mimihagi, Ukitake saw a vision of himself and the deity, in which it entered his body and turned him into a shadowy double of itself – a detail that made it possible for Ukitake to give up his life and allow Mimihagi to claim his entire body as its own during the events of BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3.

In the case of Katen Kyōkotsu, the spirit of the Zanpakutō is made up of two halves. Katen manifests as a beautiful woman with an eyepatch and violet hair. At some point in history, Nanao Ise’s mother gave Kyōraku the Ise Family Zanpakutō for safekeeping, which led Katen to create Kyōkotsu, the younger, shorter and quieter half of Kyōraku’s Zanpakutō. Kyōkotsu was created specifically to hide the Shinken Hakkyōken, so while they are still two halves of the same Zanpakutō, the idea that twin Zanpakutō arise from the presence of separate entities within either the soul of the wielder or the weapon itself is given more weight, but the situation that effectively confirms it is that of series protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki.

The Proof

Twin Zanpakuto Speak to the Abnormal Development of a Shinigami’s Soul

During the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, Ichigo trains with Ōetsu and forges a new Zanpakuto from a unique Asauchi that was transformed by the fact that Ichigo is a Shinigami and a Quincy, bringing together the opposing poles of his power and creating his true Zanpakuto: a shorter knife with an enclosed grip, and a larger blade resembling a khyber knife with a small blade-shaped section cut out of it as if to illustrate that his true power will arise from his bringing together the blades which are each representative of one half of his heritage. Ichigo’s Shinigami powers had manifested in Hollow Ichigo, while his Quincy powers had been masquerading as his Shinigami powers, giving rise to “Old Man Zangetsu” – Yhwach.