Summary:
- The Season 3 premiere just dropped and completely rewrote Yuji Itadori’s entire origin story.
- Kenjaku’s long game turns Yuji’s birth into a terrifying, centuries-old experiment finally exposed.
- Here’s everything you need to know about Yuji’s parents and his lineage in Jujutsu Kaisen.
The Season 3 premiere of Jujutsu Kaisen has finally dropped, and it’s sent shockwaves through the fandom. Not just because it broke the internet, but because it shattered every last shred of what we thought we knew about our beloved Yuji Itadori.
Fans have been asking one question for years now. Where does Yuji’s superhuman strength come from? Is it some form of Heavenly Restriction at work, or is he just blessed with a great physique?
To be honest, the answer is both more and less than you might have guessed. The series’ lineage revelations significantly complicate Yuji’s origins. And if the sudden lore drops about Yuji’s parents have you spinning, we are here to break it down for you with the latest lore.
Note: The following explanations contain heavy spoilers from the Jujutsu Kaisen manga.
Table of Contents
Who Is Yuji Itadori’s Grandfather? (The Real Twist)
To understand the chaos of Yuji’s birth, you have to look at the man who raised him: Wasuke Itadori. You remember him from the very first episode, the stubborn old man on his deathbed who cursed Yuji with the instruction to “live a life by saving others.” For the longest time, we thought Wasuke was just a regular human with good instincts. But we were wrong.
The recent revelations in the manga’s Volume 30 extras brought clarity to a massive misconception. Wasuke Itadori is actually the reincarnation of Ryomen Sukuna’s twin brother.
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According to the lore of Jujutsu Kaisen, twins are a bad omen because they show what happens when one soul is divided into two bodies. For one to gain immense power, it often has to starve the other.
Over a thousand years ago, Sukuna, while starving in the womb, ate his twin brother just to survive. That twin’s soul wandered through cycles of reincarnation until it was reborn in the present era as Wasuke.
This explains why Wasuke was so desperate to warn his son, Jin. His soul instinctively recognized the cursed energy and evil surroundings around Jin’s “wife.” He wasn’t just a grumpy father-in-law; his spirit remembered the evil that destroyed him a millennium ago.
Who Is Yuji’s Father?
Yuji’s father is Jin Itadori. When you look at him in the flashbacks, the resemblance is uncanny. Jin looks almost exactly like an adult version of Yuji. However, Jin is much more than just a civilian dad.
If Wasuke is the reincarnated twin of Sukuna, that makes Jin Ryomen Sukuna’s nephew by blood.
Jin was blinded by love and a desperate desire for a family. Even when Wasuke explicitly warned him that “Kaori” was dead and being with her would only bring him to death too, Jin refused to listen.
He ignored the warning that surrounded his wife’s miraculous recovery because he wanted a child more than anything else. Unknowingly, Jin became a crucial piece in Kenjaku’s plan, giving the most evil sorcerer in history the perfect bloodline.
Who Is Yuji Itadori’s Mother?
This is where things start to get really interesting. Yuji’s biological mother was a woman named Kaori Itadori. She was a sorcerer in possession of the powerful Anti-Gravity System cursed technique. But the woman who gave birth to Yuji wasn’t actually Kaori.
The actual Kaori Itadori had died before Yuji was even conceived. Her body was taken over by Kenjaku, the ancient body-hopping sorcerer who possessed Suguru Geto. That explains why “Kaori” in Yuji’s infant memories had those stitches on her forehead. Kenjaku used his cursed technique to transplant his brain into the corpse of Kaori to have access to her body and genetic information.
Kenjaku orchestrated Yuji’s birth for a specific purpose. He needed a body that could contain Ryomen Sukuna. By possessing Kaori’s body and manipulating Jin, Kenjaku engineered Yuji’s birth, which he considers his “masterpiece.”
How is Sukuna Related to Yuji?
This revelation recontextualizes many of Yuji’s confrontations that we have seen so far. If you follow the lineage correctly:
- Sukuna is the brother of Wasuke (spiritually/reincarnated).
- Jin is Wasuke’s son (Sukuna’s Nephew).
- Yuji is Jin’s son.
This makes Ryomen Sukuna Yuji Itadori’s Great-Uncle.
This blood relation explains why Yuji is uniquely suited as Sukuna’s vessel. He shares the genetic potential of Sukuna himself, since he comes directly from Sukuna’s twin. It’s shown that Kenjaku didn’t leave Yuji’s fate as a vessel to chance.
A finger of Sukuna was actually sealed inside Yuji at birth. This dormant finger explains why Yuji came with superhuman physical strength even before swallowing the finger at the school in Episode 1. He was constructed to be a player in the Culling Game from the very beginning.
Is Yuji Related to Choso and the Death Paintings?
Yes, Yuji technically is a younger brother to Choso, Eso, and Kechizu.
More than 150 years ago, Kenjaku took over the body of Noritoshi Kamo, an ancestor of the Kyoto student. In that body, he cruelly experimented on a woman who possessed rare genes, ultimately yielding the nine Cursed Womb: Death Paintings.
Because Kenjaku is the “parent” who created the Death Paintings, and he is also the “mother” who gave birth to Yuji, they share a blood connection. This is why Choso had a mental breakdown during the Shibuya Incident. Choso’s cursed technique allows him to sense the transformation (or death) of his brothers, no matter the distance.
Why Was Yuji Created?
Yuji was never born out of love; he was engineered. Kenjaku wanted to force the evolution of humanity and cursed energy. By using the bloodline of the strongest sorcerer in history (through Wasuke and Jin) with his own manipulation, he created a boy with a body capable of suppressing the King of Curses.
His grandfather Wasuke tried to save him from this twisted fate, wanting Yuji to die surrounded by people who loved him, not like Sukuna, who lives only for himself. But, as we see in Season 3, the wheels of Kenjaku’s plan were already turning, and Yuji is forced to confront the fact that his existence was planned for centuries.
