How Did Hashirama Die: All Theories About Hashirama Senju’s Death

Out of all the questions that exist in the Naruto World, one that seems to always pop up is how did Hashirama Senju – the first Hokage, die? Out of all the Hokages that have given their lives to save the village, only the death of the first Hokage remains a mystery.

The answer to this question was not readily available for a long time. But a while back Kishimoto – Creator of Naruto, explained how it happened. So, let’s take a look and find out how did Hashirama Senju exactly die.

Who is Hashirama Senju?

The First Hokage – Hashirama Senju

Before talking about his death, we should first know who Hashirama Senju was. He was the first Hokage of the Leaf Village and a member of the famed Senju clan. He was extremely powerful and was hailed as the “God of Shinobi” due to his unmatched power. His mission was to achieve peace, but unfortunately, he couldn’t do it in his lifetime.

How Did Hashirama Die? All Theories

Fanart of Hashirama Senju

Over the years, there have been many fan theories about how Hashirama met his end. Some of them were absolutely ridiculous, but some were pretty logical and well thought out. Let’s take a look at some of the best theories that fans came up with.

Someone Killed Him in Battle

Fanart depicting he may have fallen in battle

This puts us in a tough spot because this theory is somewhat true. Hashirama did indeed die during a battle that led to the First Great Ninja War. But it wasn’t because someone else was stronger than him or he got outnumbered. No matter how many people were against Hashirama, he could easily defeat them using his wood-style Jutsu. Also, remember, at that time, no one could come close to Hashirama’s power.

The only legitimate threat was Madara Uchiha – who was defeated by Hashirama and went into hiding. There was no way someone was equal to, let alone stronger than the first Hokage at the time.

Hashirama Died of Old Age

While this theory was plausible when fans first started speculating it, but in hindsight, the question how did hashirama die doesn’t make sense. The First Hokage was between the age of 55-65 when he died. That age is not considered old for a shinobi, especially for someone like Hashirama – whose vital energy was off the charts.

Since in the series it was revealed that the first Hokage fell during battle, this theory is automatically debunked. This is further clarified when Hashirama was revived, he looked younger than most people since he was revived with the appearance he had during his death.

Hashirama using his Jutsu against Madara

A couple of years ago, Kishimoto released the Naruto data books in which he explained every character. It was in these data books that we finally got our answer to this burning hot question. The first data book gave us a clear answer to how did hashirama die in his section on page 116.

His Self-Healing Jutsu Had Risks

Using his healing technique

The self-healing Jutsu of Hashirama was one of its kind. He did not need to weave any hand signs to activate it. His cells would divide and heal up all of the injuries that he had. No matter what type of injury or sickness he sustained, he could always use his healing Jutsu to heal himself.

But there is a catch. Cells can only divide a certain number of times. Unbeknownst to Hashirama, his healing Jutsu was ironically damaging him in the long run. Every time he used it, his life span was shortened and his cells could not divide anymore. Hashirama lived in a time where battle was an everyday occurrence. So, he had no choice but to keep on using his Jutsu to keep up and maintain the peace.

Hashirama died in battle

Hashirama Senju against his long term rival, Madara Uchiha

Most People Suspect to how did hashirama die through the theory about someone killing him during battle wasn’t far off because that is exactly what happened. Since Hashirama was extremely sick and could barely move, he fell during one of the battles that led to the First Great Ninja War.

Due to the overuse of his healing Jutsu, he was starting to run out of stamina and could only take so much damage. Just before dying, he named his brother, Tobirama, to be the second Hokage. He also told him to be tolerable towards the Uchiha clan, but we all know how that turned out.

Takeaways from Hashirama’s Death

Even the strongest shinobi in all of existence had his weaknesses. Despite performing some of the best feats in the entirety of Naruto, Hashirama finally met his end due to an illness that was eating him up from the inside. But still, he achieved a lot of great things in his lifetime and ensured that the shinobi world was on the right track.

Are you a fan of anime? We have more articles regarding anime. Check out how many times has Goku died to find out the answer to that.

With that being said, we hope that we could finally answer the question about how did Hashirama die. If you have any theories of your own or would like to tell us about your favourite character, leave a comment below.

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Jordan Frode

I’m Jordan Frode from Stockholm, an avid columnist, who has been in the business for 5 years. My expertise are straightforwardly identified with reporting various topics across Sweden and Europe.