How Old Was Kanae When She Died - T-Tees - Your Answers Await, Life's Questions Unraveled

Come with me, Anon. You’ve unlocked an attempted timeline. Watch your step, it may get dark down here.Ultimately, I’ve done a lot of guesswork, but we’re going to weave our way through each Pillar. I’d like to open this post by declaring this spread a lie:

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A brief key: Corp ranks: From lowest to highest: Mizunoto -> Mizunoe -> Kanoto -> Kanoe -> Tsuchinoto -> Tsuchinoe -> Hinoto -> Hinoe -> Kinoto -> Kinoe Pillar criteria: 1. Be the strongest user of your Breath (this is perhaps implied) AND 2. Defeat one of the Twelve Moons OR 3. Defeat at least 50 demons and be of the Kinoe (10th of 10) rank. Commentary on the timing of both here. Abbreviations on references: Chapter and number: C# Fanbook 1(published July 2019): FB1 Fanbook 2 (published February 2021): FB2 Light novels (of which there are three so far with fan translations very kindly provided here): LNTomioka & Rengoku Gaiden manga by Ryoji Hirano (compiled December 2020): GD A note on timing: based on the Hand Demon’s comments and some seasonal indicators, my unofficial but best guess for Tanjirou’s Final Selection is early 1915, and I’ll be using that as a loose frame of reference. Please note that 1915 has never been expressly noted in canon material. Calculation of ages will also be kept somewhat loose and simple, and calculation of canon events and seasons are my best attempts at consistency.

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Also, I have found no indication of how often the Final Selection is held, but given the number of Corp members and how quickly they get killed off, I believe it happens multiple times a year. That makes the likelihood of Pillars having done it at the same time a bit lower. However, Giyuu says multiple times “that year’s Final Selection” (C130), which does make it seem limiting, so it could be that Tanjirou’s group really was a small batch. A note on sources: This post will rely heavily on GD details, but it is worth noting that the GD must be taken with cautious consideration. While Gotouge might had given general approval on a lot of it, some little details are directly incongruent with canon (for example, see my note on this translation post about the Rengoku hair color confusion). One more note: in my scribbled notes I referred to life changing traumatic events as “The Big Sad.” That is funny so I shall avail myself of the same shorthand here.

Himejima Gyoumei: The Big Sad occurs when he is 18 (by my calculations, 1906), he meets Oyakata-sama when he is age 14 and not yet showing signs of illness (C135, C139). Unclear how quickly he underwent the Final Selection, but he became a Hashira at age 19 (C138), but he rescued the Kochou sisters and sent them on their training way (LN). Shinobu had to have been 11 at the oldest (I assume). Unclear when and how he’d have learned Rock Breathing, a long established Breath technique.(Side note: Amane might had been expecting quintuplets when Kagaya trotted off to go save a gentle giant in jail.)

Uzui Tengen: For reference, he is the same age as Oyakata-sama. He left the ninja at age 15 (1907) (mentioned in C87 with somewhat unclear wording, clarified in FB1 that it was when Tengen was age 15), and seems he’d have met Oyataka-sama upon becoming a Pillar not long after passing the Final Selection, which was probably a breeze for him. They might had been age 15 or 16 at the time, making this 1907 or 1908, I find 1908 more likely because it takes place in cherry blossom season (C87). See more on my attempted Uzui timeline here.

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Tomioka Giyuu:If it wasn’t just that he met Sabito at age 13 (C130) but that he also went through the Final Selection with him (and Murata, C185) at that age, then he did it in 1907. If we assume a year of training, then 1908 at age 14. As Murata doesn’t seem to show the same kinship for Uzui, I assume the timing was not at the same time, but if the Final Selection was limited to one year, then it’s possible Uzui was there and just didn’t cross paths with anyone, because ninja. It’s unclear how long Giyuu was in the Corp before becoming a Pillar, but at least by 1911, the year Kanae died, as they are seen together at a meeting (C168).

Kochou Kanae, Kochou Shinobu: The biggest clues we have to work with are that Kanae was 17 when she died, and Shinobu was 14 at that time (Taisho Secret, C162). They started training at the same time (LN) (1806 at the very earliest, based on Himejima’s career path, which would put them at ages 9 and 12, or possibly 1807, at ages 10 and 13). If we assume a year of training each, then they very well may have done the Final Selection together either 1907 (ages 10 and 13) or 1908 (ages 11 and 14). This does double them up a bit with Giyuu and Sanemi (perhaps), but even if we assume only one Final Selection per year, they didn’t make much of an impression of each other.It’s also possible Kanae finished her training earlier than Shinobu did (under a separate cultivator Himejima introduced, LN), for she was very quick to rise to the rank of a Pillar, seeing as she’d have died by 1911. As we don’t have specific timing on Sanemi (see below) and don’t know that she was a Pillar by the time of her appearance in Sanemi’s chapter of the LN, it’s hard to pin down the timing any more than that. Shinobu would had become a Pillar by 1913, age 16 (GD). We can also use all this to surmise more timing about the other Butterfly Mansion girls. Aoi, Kanao, Kiyo, Sumi, and Naho were all present before Kanae’s death (C163). Kanao would had been brought in sometime between 1908 and 1911 (age 9~13, likely on the earlier end given the more stark height difference from short Shinobu, extra chapter Volume 7), and Aoi was already there (Taisho Secrets C162, FB2). Aoi, despite having lived with the Kochou sisters so long, was a Water Breath user (FB2), and this is far before she’d have gone to the Final Selection, so I assume she was living there and commuting to her cultivator, which is why it may had taken her extra time to complete her training. With this being an arrangement instead of an adoption, that’s perhaps part of why Kanao was considered a sister while Aoi was not. More interpretation of all of this on an attempted timeline of Shinobu’s life.

Shinazugawa Sanemi: Unclear when The Big Sad occurred and how long he was on his own before Masachika found him and set him up with a cultivator. Unless I missed something, neither Sanemi nor Genya’s flashbacks provided an estimate on timing. Since a lot of Big Sad Stuff occurs when the characters are 13, I used that as a frame of reference, putting it around 1907 (Genya would be age 8). That gives Sanemi time to wonder around and build a reputation for himself as that kid stringing up demons without Nichirin weapons, to learn Breath under a cultivator, enter the Final Selection (maybe around 1908?), and do things on his own a while before his first encounter with the more experienced Kanae and reunion with Masachika (LN), who we don’t have ages for, but I’ll assume he’s 2~3 years older than Sanemi. They got a rocky start and Sanemi would have required time to build a friendship and then reach Kinoe rank at the same time before taking on Upper Moon 1 (LN, C168). Since Kanae, who is the same age as Sanemi, is a Pillar by this time, I’m going to guess he’s around age 16 or 17 (1910~1911, in which case, Kanae is soon to die after he joins the Pillar ranks. Himejima would have needed a little time to observe them together (FB2), but this didn’t necessarily have to be when they were both Pillars) (C168). Plus, Sanemi has already gotten to know a whole lot of dead Corp members by this time and has grown a touch cynical about the Corp (C168).By this time, Oyakata-sama’s is about 18~19 years old, and his illness has progressed somewhat dramatically between this and Uzui’s flashback. He can still see out of one eye, and Kiriya is with him, age 3~5ish. I’d place him closer to 5, because he looks too tall to be a 3-year-old (C168).

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Rengoku Kyoujurou: We can only guess how old he was when Ruka died, but for reference, if assume Senjurou is around 13 in 1915 (based on him being a 1st year junior high school student in the Kimetsu Academy AU as stated in Volume 9), he needs to have been both old enough to have waved a wooden sword around in the yard with daddy as well as fall asleep at mommy’s futon and not have many memories of her. Shall we say, age 4 or so? Putting Kyoujurou at age 11-ish? 1906-ish?Actually, based on the Rengoku Vol. 0 chapter about Kyoujurou’s Final Selection and First Mission, I might put it slightly earlier than that, because the kid needed to hit his growth spurt. But, I do believe that the happy flashback of Shinjurou takes place while Ruka is still alive, as Kyoujurou states that Shinjurou started to change after Ruka’s death (GD). In Rengoku Vol. 0, Shinjurou is still attempting his Pillar duties, but with a lot of cynicism, and he’s already telling Kyoujurou that neither he nor Senjurou will ever be any good. 13 seems like a pretty average age for joining the Final Selection, if we assume this is the case, then it would had been around 1908, making Senjurou around age 6. We could even give it an extra year and still be safe, I think (putting it at 1909, though I supposed I put Sanemi around 1908 for a Final Selection too, though it doesn’t seem they’d have encountered or had much recollection of each other. This is kind of making me lean 1909.)Kyoujurou trained Mitsuri for six months before he became a Pillar (GD), and she didn’t take up the sword until she was 17 in 1913 (C123). Seasonal indicators in Mitsuri’s kimono (C123) suggest that her matchmaking fiasco took place in spring, suggesting that Kyoujurou became a Pillar around autumn/early winter 1913 at age 18. That means he took a more average amount of time to become a Pillar, and Shinjurou dwindled a long time before before just plain giving up.

Iguro Obanai: He was rescued by Shinjuro in 1906, when he was 12 (C188). This would had been right before Ruka was dying or shortly after it, when Shinjuro was still making himself go to far away locations (Obanai was on Hachijo Island, a pretty fair distance away, FB1). Frankly, Obanai probably wasn’t the strongest it, and it likely took him a while to gain enough strength to survive the Final Selection, but he’d likely have been very motivated to do so. Since it five years is the average amount of time it takes to become a Pillar (Taisho Secret, C91), I feel comfortable assuming he became a Pillar by no later than spring 1914 (later than Kyoujurou, comfortably earlier than Mitsuri (C124), long enough to develop a good rapport with Sanemi and even Uzui (FB2)), and may have passed the Final Selection around 1909 or 1910, around age 15~16.

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Tokitou Muichirou: The Big Sad was in summer 1912, when he was 11 (C118). The big question on my mind is how long he was in recovery before picking up the sword, because he became a Pillar within 2 months of that time (C87)—not from the Final Selection, from picking up the sword, because he is that much of a genius. That must had been a super, super busy two months.However, we also know it couldn’t have been that soon because he’s not pictured among the Pillars in late 1913, when Kyoujurou attends a Pillar meeting in Shinjurou’s stead (GD). It’s also implied that Kyoujurou is his senior, not his junior (C122). We also know it couldn’t have been that recent either, because of Muichirou’s established relationship with Tetsuido, his former swordsmith (C119). It’s implied that Muichirou asked for a lot of new swords, and Tetsuido would have had time to observe his wear and tear (that had to have been a lot for how many demons he must had gone through in only a two-month period). It’s not clear how often Muichirou has gone to the Swordsmith Village personally, but passed on the falling maple leaves in the flashback, by guess is that he last saw Tetsuido in late 1914 (other seasonal indicators put the Swordsmith Village arc at around early~mid autumn, 1915, when Kanamori is taking over for Tetsuido on Muichirou’s newest sword request). So, this places Muichirou becoming a Pillar anytime between late 1913 and mid-1914. There’s no indication whether he or Iguro became a Pillar first, but since Iguro sees him a child and therefore somewhat sympathetically hopes he doesn’t die (FB2), I’d like to think Iguro was prior. We know for certain that Muichirou and Aoi were at the Final Selection at the same time (FB2). If we assume Aoi is the same age as Kanao, making her around 14~15 when she entered the Final Selection, and also meaning she spent 3~6 years as a Butterfly Mansion resident before taking part in the Final Selection. There is, again, the matter of what Muichirou was doing for at least 1.5~2 years before picking up the sword. Were his injuries really that severe? Was he comatose (or close enough to that state)? What I think is that, since his body “remembered the anger” and he worked hard enough at strengthening himself to cough up blood, he focused on physical conditioning before taking up a sword, and the new bandages (and muscles) were due to intense physical training (C121).

Kanroji Mitsuri: As previously mentioned, failed matchmaking and starvation seems to have occurred in spring 1913 (C123), I’m assuming she passed the Final Selection by autumn-ish that year. Since the Pillar meeting in early 1915 (where she meets Tanjirou) doesn’t seem to be her first Pillar Meeting (C45~46), I’m assuming it was only her second one, meaning she’s been at this at least half a year (putting her first Pillar Meeting around autumn 1914). No particular seasonal indicators stick out about her flashback to meeting Oyakata-sama, but his illness seems to have progressed to roughly the same as Muichirou remembers (C118, C124). Muichirou, however, probably met Oyakata-sama on multiple occasions before becoming a Pillar, but he might not have as clear a recollection of his face from when he was in recovery. There’s slightly more progression of the illness at the Pillar Meeting when Tanjirou meets Oyakata-sama (C46), but not a dramatic amount.

So. That spread I said is a lie? Because it made a nice wrap-up and that chapter was released well before the KnY manga even ended, I don’t blame Hirano-sensei or the editors for not catching it. Still, it’s a lie because Giyuu is saying those lines to Shinobu in early 1913, when four of those “nine” Pillars he mentions aren’t yet Pillars. *drops mic*

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