Here’s What Rurouni Kenshin’s Saito Hajime Really Looked Like

We really didn’t know that Saito Hajime had most of his life shrouded in mystery; heck I didn’t even know until just recently that he was a real life Japanese historical figure. Today though, we get to see more photos of the famed swordsman in real life.

So yeah, today the Hajime’s descendants from his second son Tsuyoshi has released a very vivid photo of their patriarch. And the man definitely looks bad-ass although nowhere near his anime and manga counterpart.

The photo  was released with the intention of clearing up affiliation with another photo being passed around as Hajime’s. The Fujima family, the descendants of Hajime’s son Tsuyoshi were responsible for the new photo’s circulation.

Both photos were taken in 1897 when Saito Hajime was 53 years of age. The photo seen below also features the Hajime family where Saito is in the middle surrounded by his sons Tsyoshi and Tsutomu and his wife Tokiwo.

There have been several anime series that feature a stylized character with the name Saito Hajime. We have one from the series Hakuoki…

and of course there’s one that was hugely popular in the late 90s and early 2000s from Samurai X/ Rurouni Kenshin.

which also made the leap to the big screen via a live-action movie trilogy played by actor Yosuke Eguchi.

Credits: Huffington Post Japan