Who is Zenin in ‘Jujutsu Kaisen?’

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the Jujutsu Kaisen series until the Shibuya Incident Arc

In Jujutsu Kaisen, there are three main sorcerer families: the Gojo, the Kamo, and the Zenin.

Of the three, the last two are the most problematic – the present Gojo clan essentially only has Satoru Gojo, and virtually everyone knows he’s nothing but a cutie patootie who also happens to be able to obliterate you in a millisecond flat – with the Zenin perhaps taking the cake as the most messed up. In season 1, we learn that the Zenin family is unwelcoming to all those they view as talentless, people like Maki, who does not possess cursed energy. They value jujutsu techniques above all else, and thus their elitism, with a sprinkle of misogyny, makes for a cut-throat environment to say the least.

Unlike the Gojo clan, whose head is the only one we get to know, the Zenin have quite a few secondary characters that partake in the action. You might be confused about who is and isn’t a Zenin, as some of them use a different surname, don’t want anything to do with the clan, or both. This article will list all known descendants from the Zenin bloodline prior to the Culling Game Arc, in other words, discounting any that are introduced after the Shibuya Incident Arc.

Megumi Fushiguro

Going in order of appearance, we have Megumi Fushiguro, a first-year student at Tokyo Jujutsu High. Although not being named a Zenin, due to never having actually been sold to the clan thanks to Gojo’s intervention, the blood of the ancient clan runs in his veins. So much so that, he’s the only sorcerer alive to possess the clan’s Ten Shadows inherited technique, the most powerful one in the family. He’s the cousin of Maki and Mai Zenin, the first of whom, his upperclassman, is much closer to him than the latter.

Megumi is typically a girl’s name, and the teenager thinks this is yet another proof that his father never cared for him. Having been really young when Toji disappeared from his life, Megumi does not recall his father’s face, and wouldn’t recognize him even if he happened to see him again, which due to extraordinary circumstances, he does in season 2.

Maki and Mai Zenin

Maki and Mai Zenin are twin sisters whose paths in relation to their family diverged. Neither ever received good treatment by the clan but of the two, Maki got the shorter end of the stick for being born without cursed energy (but a Heavenly Restriction, on the upside). Mai, on the other hand, was born with the ability to see curses but her limited talent for jujutsu sorcery, and the simple fact that she’s female, also earned her poor treatment from the family.

While Mai stayed, Maki left, determined to become an amazing sorcerer if, for nothing else, to spite the clan. Mai was hurt by Maki’s decision to leave, as they had promised in childhood to stay together, and began resenting her for it. They started studying jujutsu at different schools, Kyoto and Tokyo High.

Naobito Zenin

The head of the clan, 71-year-old Naobito is the one we can see Maki, his niece, talking to through a season 1 flashback scene as she announces her departure from the clan. As the head, he’s naturally to be blamed for jeopardizing Maki’s chances of getting promoted. He’s also the one who made a deal with Toji Fushiguro about buying Megumi into the clan once his cursed technique became clear.

A special grade 1 sorcerer, Naobito possesses one of the Zenin family’s inherited techniques, Projection Sorcery, which allowed him to become the fastest modern sorcerer besides Gojo. He’s an avid drinker and is shown to be quite lazy when the situation does not absolutely require his intervention, however, when it comes down to it, Naobito is more than capable of pulling his own weight.

Toji Fushiguro

We’re calling Toji a Fushiguro because that’s what he would’ve wished, as there is a reason he dropped his original surname in favor of his first wife’s. Similarly to Maki, Toji was born without cursed energy and a Heavenly Pact, which, like Maki, earned him the contempt of the clan from the get-go. However, if “be careful who you bully growing up” were a person, it would be Toji. There aren’t many sorcerers who could say they came close to besting Satoru Gojo in a fight, and Toji not only almost killed him, but he did so without even being a sorcerer in the first place. This goes to show that he didn’t earn the infamous title of “sorcerer killer” for nothing.

When his wife, Megumi’s mother, died for unknown reasons, Toji, who was being steered towards a different path, reverted back to what he used to be. At one point, he met up with his uncle Naobito to discuss Megumi’s sale into the Zenin clan. However, we can assume he wound up regretting this decision from his last words both times he died. The first time, in Hidden Inventory, his final words were a veiled plea for Gojo to do something about Megumi being sold into the clan. The second time, during the Shibuya Incident, in which he’s resurrected, is an expression of gladness at his son still being a Fushiguro and not a Zenin, which likely came along with the relieved realization that Gojo actually did something about his first last words.