The Hachijo Clan (八条家 Hachijō-ke?, Hachijo Family) is seemingly a clan of assassins that is referenced in Tekken 7. The Hachijo's most notable member is Kazumi Mishima, Heihachi Mishima's deceased wife. The clan has a lineage that has possessed the Devil Gene since ancient times, as revealed in a nursery rhyme that a journalist hears during his investigation of the Hachijo clan in Kyoto.
History[]
The Hachijo residence as it appears in Tekken 7.
For millennia, the Hachijo clan, inheritors of demonic blood, have operated in the shadows from Kyoto, eliminating those who were deemed a threat to the world. During the mid 20th Century, Kazumi Hachijo was sent to Jinpachi Mishima's dojo, where she met Heihachi.
The Hachijo Clan foresaw that Heihachi's ambition would lead to great tragedy across the globe, which proved to be prophetic. And so, after five years of marriage, despite her feelings of love, Kazumi would act on the clan's orders to destroy Heihachi. However, she failed in her mission and was defeated by him, despite transforming into a Devil to do so.
In a last-ditch effort to kill Heihachi, Kazumi attempted to attack him from behind. Heihachi sensed her in time and stopped her, seizing her by the throat. Devil Kazumi attempted to use Heihachi's love for Kazumi to escape his grasp, using the fact that, if he went ahead with the deed, he would cause a never ending cycle of hatred. Her efforts, however, backfired and only enraged Heihachi, leading him to snap her neck, killing her.
Kazumi's devil gene lives on through her son, Kazuya, and, by extension, her grandson, Jin Kazama.
The Hachijo clan appear to have also prophesied that, if Kazumi failed to kill Heihachi, their son would also grow to be a threat to the world, as dangerous as Heihachi. Aware of this, Kazumi seems to have entrusted her mission to Akuma, whom she once saved, in the event that she failed to kill Heihachi. Despite Kazumi's love for her son, Kazuya also thus also appears to be one of the targets of the Hachijo Clan.
It is unknown what happened to the rest of the Hachijo Clan, as the Journalist struggled to locate them in Tekken 7 and could only find an old man who was once a servant to them. Given that Heihachi threw his five-year-old son off a cliff when he suspected he carried the same Hachijo curse, it is possible Heihachi may have hunted down the remaining Hachijo and eliminated them.
Devil Gene[]
An archived acount of the Hachijo.
See main page: Devil Gene
The Hachijo clan possess the Devil Gene, a genetic mutation that allows an unspecified connection to be fostered between a human and a 'devil'. The clan have a long history of exploiting this connection and using devil forms to target and eliminate percieved threats to the peace of the world. They seem both to have some form of prophetic knowledge, as well as knowledge of how to control the gene or may have a specific pact with a single demon that possesses them. When Kazumi tried to resist her mission to kill Heihachi, she fell ill and seems to have gradually lost control to her devil self, possibly indicating that she was breaking a pre-arranged agreement between her clan and the entity within her.
It is unknown what, if any, relation the Hachijos have with Azazel, who is supposedly the origin of the Devil Gene. It is also unknown if the Hachijos had many devils that manifested with each blood member, or if a single devil entity was controlled and passed down through their clan. Tekken 8 explains that Azazel besetroed the devil gene to many of his servants with the Haihchijos being one of them.
The Hachijo Nursery Rhyme[]
The following is a traditional nursery rhyme in the Hachijo family. The Journalist believed that the "demon" represents a mysterious power, "crimson" referred to blood, and the "river" symbolized a bloodline.[1]
| Demon begone! Demon begone! | そこの鬼さん、そこのけそこのけ、 |
| Playing in the crimson river, in the mouth of which he lies. | 赤い川では水遊び、川が流れを先にも鬼さん、 |
| How long will his playing go on? | どこまで続くや、この鬼遊び。 |
Hachijo-ryu Karate[]
The Hachijo have their own family karate style. Kazumi is its only known practioner. She either learned the style very young or learned it alongside her studies at the Mishima Dojo as she is also jointly a practioner of Mishima Style Fighting Karate.
Hachijo Family Members[]
Trivia[]
- In the old Hachijo rhyme, 'devils' are referred to as 'Oni-san' (鬼さん) in the Japanese (literally: 'Mr. Demon'), rather than the more usual "Debiru" (デビル) found elsewhere in the Tekken games.
See Also[]
References[]
- ^ Chapter 8, Tekken 7 Story Mode.