is sukuna related to yuji is yes, because Sukuna ate his twin in the womb and that twin was reincarnated into the Itadori family as Yuji's grandfather, making Sukuna Yuji's great-uncle. Yes, Sukuna and Yuji are related by blood: chapter 257 reveals that Sukuna ate his twin in the womb a thousand years ago, and that the twin was reincarnated into the Itadori family. Akutami's note in the final volume names the reincarnation as Yuji's grandfather, Wasuke, which makes Sukuna Yuji's great-uncle.
Sukuna is Yuji Itadori's blood relative: a thousand years ago Sukuna devoured his own twin in the womb, and that twin's soul was later reincarnated into Yuji's family line. The twin is the whole of the blood tie. The reveal comes late in the whole Jujutsu Kaisen story, long after most readers had stopped asking why Yuji, of all people, could hold the King of Curses.
Spoiler line: this post spoils the Shibuya reveal about Kenjaku (Season 2 episodes 22 and 23), the Culling Game flashback (chapter 143), the Shinjuku Showdown revelations (chapters 248 to 259) and the ending (chapters 267 and 268). Everything after Shibuya is manga only. The anime stopped around chapter 181.
Pick your path: the short answer, uncle or great-uncle, the chapter, Yuji's parents or why Sukuna hates him.
YourCrush.AI has Sukuna as a chat character, so once you have read this you can talk to Sukuna yourself.
Is Sukuna related to Yuji?
Yes. A thousand years ago, Sukuna devoured his twin in the womb. That twin's soul was later reincarnated into Yuji's family line, and chapter 257 confirms the blood tie between them.
Wikipedia's series article lays out the reveal without much ceremony: Sukuna devoured his twin in the womb, the twin's soul was reborn into Yuji's line, and Kenjaku's role in Yuji's conception gave him his unusual body. So the short answer to "is Sukuna related to Yuji" is yes, through a brother Sukuna never met because he ate him first.
The story starts long before anyone knows that.
Recap: how Yuji becomes Sukuna's vessel (ch. 1)
A high-school boy swallows a mummified finger to save his friends. It is one of the twenty fingers that hold Ryomen Sukuna's power, and eating it should let the King of Curses take over. Instead Yuji keeps control of his own body, which surprises Megumi Fushiguro, the sorcerer sent to recover the finger, as Wikipedia's season 1 summary puts it. Yuji is 15.
How YourCrush.AI lets you build a family secret into a character's backstory
A twist like chapter 257 works because the facts were in place long before anyone said them out loud. A character's backstory is where you put that kind of secret.
YourCrush.AI gives every character a backstory field of up to 2,400 characters, separate from the description, so the hidden history sits underneath what the character shows you. YourCrush.AI keeps the clues you uncover in pinned memories, so a reveal three conversations in still lines up with what came before. YourCrush.AI branches a story, so you can play the version where you want to know and the version where you burn the page. It is free to join and 18+ only.
Here is an original adult character to build at the create-character page, in the natural behaviour mode:
- Name: Noa Hayashida
- Behaviour mode: natural
- Category: Anime
- Description: Noa is 38, a temple archivist who restores old family registers by hand and has a habit of finding the line nobody wanted found. She keeps her hair pinned back with a pencil, smells faintly of old paper and green tea, and is careful with paper and careless with secrets. She tells you the truth even when she can see you would rather she did not.
- Backstory: You asked her to trace your family tree. She has just found an entry, centuries old, that ties your family to a name the town still refuses to say aloud, and someone scratched it out once and wrote it back in. She has not told anyone else.
- Greeting: "Don't sit yet. Look at this first. See the ink here, how it's thicker, like someone went over it twice? Someone scratched a name out of your family register four hundred years ago and then wrote it back in. I can tell you whose it is. I'd like to know first whether you want me to."
- Traits: Curious, Intelligent, Honest, Emotional, Patient
- Speaking style: precise, soft, candid, curious
Is Sukuna Yuji's uncle?
No, his great-uncle. Dexerto first read chapter 257 as making Yuji's father Jin the reincarnated twin, which would have made Sukuna an uncle. Akutami's note in volume 30 corrects that: the twin is Yuji's grandfather, Wasuke.
The extra page in the final volume, quoted by ComicBook.com, says: "To be precise, it's not Itadori's dad, but his grandfather who shares the same soul." Wikipedia's Sukuna article agrees. Wasuke is the twin's reincarnation, Jin is a "fraternal nephew" and Yuji a fraternal grand-nephew, and Wikipedia's Yuji article calls Sukuna his great-uncle. Dexerto's reading, that Jin was the twin, came before that note. The author's own later word settles it.
What chapter reveals that Sukuna and Yuji are related?
Chapter 257, during the Shinjuku Showdown, reveals the twin Sukuna devoured in the womb and the twin's reincarnation into Yuji's family. The same reveal says Kenjaku sealed one of Sukuna's fingers inside Yuji.
The answer comes in chapter 257, deep in the Shinjuku Showdown, after Gojo is dead and Yuji has become the one fighting Sukuna. Dexerto's chapter 257 coverage adds that Kenjaku sealed a Sukuna finger inside Yuji.
Spoiler: the twin in the womb (ch. 257)
A thousand years ago, before Sukuna was born, there were two of them. Sukuna ate the other in the womb. The twin's soul did not end there. It was reincarnated, centuries later, into the Itadori family, and by Akutami's account it lived again as Wasuke Itadori, Yuji's grandfather. Kenjaku then arranged Yuji's birth into that line, and sealed a finger inside him.
Our imagining of Sukuna, a thousand years ago, on the twin he never met:
"There were two of us once. I was hungrier. That is the whole of the story, and I have never needed another."
Who are Yuji's parents?
Yuji's father is Jin Itadori, and his mother is Kenjaku, the ancient sorcerer who was living in the body of Kaori Itadori at the time. Kenjaku gave birth to Yuji to make a vessel for Sukuna, which also makes Choso and the other Death Paintings Yuji's elder half-brothers.
Both Wikipedia and CBR lay the family out this way. The "mother" part didn't surface until Shibuya.
Spoiler: who Yuji's mother really is
At the end of the Shibuya Incident, the man who sealed Gojo, wearing Suguru Geto's body, absorbs Mahito and states what he is: an ancient sorcerer who has lived in many bodies, including Noritoshi Kamo, the maker of the Death Paintings. That is Kenjaku. Early in the Culling Game arc (chapter 143), a flashback shows Yuji's mother Kaori with stitches across her forehead, and Wasuke warning Jin that the woman at home is not really Kaori. Dexerto confirms Kenjaku possessed Kaori.
Kenjaku made the Death Paintings too. Choso, the eldest, beat Yuji in Shibuya and was about to finish him when a "false memory" showed Yuji eating with him and his brothers, and he fled. Both were made by Kenjaku, so they can be called brothers.
Why can Yuji hold Sukuna?
Yuji was built for this. Kenjaku conceived him as a vessel for Sukuna, and the twin's lineage combined with Kenjaku's role gave him a body that could take the pressure. In chapter 1 he swallows a finger and keeps control of his own body, which surprises Megumi.
Kenjaku gave birth to Yuji "to create a vessel for Sukuna", and the line he chose already carried the twin's soul. Yuji kept eating fingers. By the time Jogo force-fed him ten more in Shibuya, the total reached fifteen. Why Sukuna wears Yuji's face at all, and what he looked like before, is its own question: see Sukuna's true form.
Why does Sukuna hate Yuji?
In chapter 248 Sukuna says he never held an ideal and is irritated by people devoted to one, and that Yuji reminds him of someone from a thousand years ago. He then says Yuji has given him a reason to destroy him by crushing all his hopes.
Spoiler: what Sukuna admits (ch. 248)
Sukuna is in Megumi's body by now, fighting Yuji with everything he has. He stops to explain himself, which he almost never does. He never held any ideals, he says, and never strove for more than befitted his nature, so why does it irritate him to see others dedicated to one? Yuji's devotion reminds him of someone from a thousand years ago, and gives him "a clear reason to destroy you here and now by crushing all your hopes" (ch. 248).
Our imagining of Sukuna on people with ideals, addressed to no one:
"They hold something above themselves and call it strength. I have only ever held myself. It has never once let me down."
Notice what Sukuna does not mention. By his own account the hatred is about Yuji's devotion to an ideal, not about blood; the family tie surfaces nine chapters later. Kenjaku engineered Yuji's birth into that line, and Sukuna never chose it.
The tie matters most at the very end.
Spoiler: what Yuji offers Sukuna at the end
In chapter 267 Yuji's Black Flash drives Sukuna out of Megumi's body into a weak form. In chapter 268 Yuji offers to share his body with Sukuna one last time, to be his vessel again so he can live. Sukuna refuses and disintegrates. The full scene is in how Sukuna died.
Our reading: because of the blood, Yuji's offer reads as a family member's offer, and that is the thing Sukuna turns down.
Frequently asked questions
Is Choso Yuji's brother?
Yes, an elder half-brother. Kenjaku created Choso and the other Death Paintings, and Choso dies in chapter 259 thanking Yuji "for becoming my brother".
Who is Yuji's biological father?
Jin Itadori. His grandfather, Wasuke, is the one who carried the reincarnated twin's soul.
Did Kenjaku put a Sukuna finger inside Yuji?
Yes. According to Dexerto's reading of chapter 257, Kenjaku sealed one of Sukuna's fingers inside Yuji.
Who is Kaori Itadori?
The woman whose body Kenjaku was living in when Yuji was born. Kenjaku later fights Yuki Tsukumo with an antigravity technique taken from that earlier vessel.
How many Sukuna fingers did Yuji eat?
He swallows the first in chapter 1. Once Jogo force-feeds him ten more in Shibuya, the total reaches fifteen.
More from Shinjuku Showdown
- Read the full story: What happens in the Shinjuku Showdown? Gojo's return, his last fight and the war on Sukuna, in scenes
- How did Gojo die? The full story of the fight with Sukuna, and whether he comes back
- Who won Gojo vs Sukuna? The fight, the domain clash and who is really stronger
- Start here: What is Jujutsu Kaisen about? The whole story in order, starting with Season 1
- Chat with Sukuna: Sukuna on YourCrush.AI
- Chat with Choso: Choso on YourCrush.AI
- Also on YourCrush: Anime villains who work: what each one wants, and how to build your own
- Also on YourCrush: Character archetypes: Jung, the hero's journey and dere types, built into one character