Hiko Seijuro

Hiko Seijūrō XIII (比古 清十郎 十三代, Hiko Seijūrō Jūsandai) is Himura Kenshin's master in the anime/manga series Rurouni Kenshin. As a potter, he uses the assumed name of Ni'itsu Kakunoshin (新津 覚之進).

Personality
Hiko is shown to be very sarcastic, egotistical and a punishing taskmaster, often referring to Kenshin as "my stupid/idiot apprentice," and bringing up embarrasing incidents in Kenshin's past to provoke him into training harder. Kenshin describes his personality as "crude, cruel, and hateful." He dislikes socialization, and in order to avoid having to work with people, he makes his living as a pottery artist alone on a mountain (a profession that he is reported to excel at). He also comes off as somewhat lazy, professing to have retrained Kenshin to save himself the bother of dealing with Shishio, and complaining about protecting Kenshin's friends. Despite this rough exterior, he has a deep sense of responsibility to Kenshin and those he protects in the rare cases when he does get involved. He loves sake, himself, and teasing Kenshin, and while he is frequently seen drinking copious amounts of sake alone, he never becomes drunk. He and Kenshin frequently have bouts of slapstick conflict between them. His philosophy as a swordsman is that the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryū should be used to protect people from suffering, but only if it is used independently from any political power. Also, unlike Kenshin, he appears to have absolutely no compunctions about killing his enemies, as seen during his first meeting with Kenshin when he slaughters a group of murderous bandits in cold blood. Additionally, during his fight with Fuji, he seems to spare him somewhat incidentally, commenting that Fuji survived his attack simply because he was so large. He also seems to possess considerable insight, wisdom, and foresight. He was correctly able to predict exactly what would happen to Kenshin if he participated in the revolution, was able to correctly identify Kenshin's psychological problems during their second training, and was able to both explain to Kenshin what was wrong and help him overcome it. Also, during his confrontation with Fuji, he correctly identified Fuji's despair at being so freakishly large that people saw him as a monster and not a warrior, and helped him overcome it by giving him a respectful opponent that he need not hold back against.

AbilitiesEdit
Hiko is the most powerful swordsman in the series, vastly superior to Kenshin, Saito, Shishio, Enishi, and Aoshi. In fact, during Kenshin's second training, Kenshin strikes at Hiko with his "entire body and soul" at one point (devoting so much attention that he fails to land properly and passes out), and only manages to graze one of Hiko's bracers (possibly because he was using a sakabatō). Although the two are comparable in speed when Hiko suppresses his true strength beneath his 90-kilogram cloak, Hiko possesses a superior sense of judgement in combat and the superhuman strength (hidden, and even suppressed, underneath his heavy cloak) to wield Hiten Mitsurugi Ryū to its maximum. Even though Hiko is 43 years old, he looks as if he were in his late twenties, looking the same as he did in a flashback to when he was only in his 20's. When Hiko told Yahiko and Misao his real age (43), the two were shocked and pondered if Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu is some sort of fountain of youth (as Kenshin, despite being about twenty-eight, looks as if he were in his late teens). Additionally, it is revealed late in the series that an abnormally muscular physique is in fact necessary to use the Hiten-Mitsurugi-Ryu safely. As it turns out, the Hiten-Mitsurugi-Ryu puts so much strain on a body that, if one does not possess a powerful musculature, the massive strain caused by moving so quickly eventually build up to the point that even a master eventually becomes unable to use the style at its full power, and perhaps even become unable to wield a sword ever again. Thus, Hiko is able to use the style without suffering its debilitating side effects.

Hiko does not hold back when he fights, is supremely analytical in combat, understands the nature of his opponents, and is at peak physical condition. Kamiya Kaoru stated that a master swordsman of Hiko's caliber makes his sword a barrier of sorts, stating that if one were to enter this barrier, Hiko would defeat them instantly. Nobuhiro Watsuki has mentioned in character notes that he is comparable to the Joker in a deck of cards because he is so powerful. As such, he ended up being difficult to include in the story because he could simply solve Kenshin's problems with little effort, and because finding opponents for him would be difficult without overshadowing Kenshin's own opponents. Due to this, his only fight in the series is with the giant Fuji, another "Joker" card that defeated Kyoto's entire police force single handedly, but was not involved in the story in a narrivite sense. Thus Hiko does not appear except in flashbacks once the Kyoto arc finishes, though he is featured in the OVA series and Watsuki has stated that he wished he could have used Hiko more often.

Hiko's weapon is a shirasaya nihonto(a katana with a wooden sheath and hilt).