Hajime Tsukishima

Affiliation: Imperial Japanese Army, 7th Division, Infantry 27th Regiment.

Rank: Sergeant.

Tsukishima is a stoic, highly disciplined soldier who often serves as the grounded, reasonable presence among the eccentric members of Tsurumi’s faction.

Despite his calm demeanor, he is extremely capable in hand-to-hand combat and brawling.

He comes from Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture and carries a heavy personal history of family stigma, tragedy, and crime.

His loyalty to Tsurumi is deep but complicated, shaped by manipulation, shared trauma, and a desperate need for meaning.

Tsukishima is not tall, but his physical presence is solid and imposing.

He is distinguished by wrinkles around his eyes and a low, flat nose that give him a perpetually tired, serious expression.

He is strict with himself and dedicated to his duties, approaching missions with a stoic, almost ascetic mindset.

Compared with many members of the 7th Division, he is relatively mild-tempered and one of the few consistent voices of common sense.

While outwardly composed, he has a volatile emotional core shaped by a painful past and unresolved guilt.

His reactions to anything related to his hometown or his first love reveal a capacity for sudden, fierce passion.

Tsukishima becomes proficient in the Russian language, a skill he acquires through sheer willpower and intense study.

Originally unable to speak Russian at all, he forces himself to learn it “as if prepared to die” in order to fulfill Tsurumi’s expectations.

In combat, he excels at close-quarters fighting and brawling, proving that height is no barrier to effectiveness.

He is also experienced as a field soldier and a veteran non-commissioned officer, capable of organizing and supporting less experienced comrades.

He often plays the role of stabilizer and problem-solver within his group, handling logistics, communication, and crisis control.

This combination of combat ability, language skill, and level-headedness makes him indispensable to Tsurumi’s operations.

Childhood and Family

Tsukishima was born and raised on Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture.

His father was notorious on the island, surrounded by bad rumors and widely despised by the local community.

Because of his father’s reputation, Tsukishima grew up branded as a “murderer’s son” and a “bad kid,” leaving him with no real place on the island.

He was socially isolated and stigmatized, with the sins of his father weighing heavily on his own life.

The only person who truly understood him was his childhood friend Harumi Chiyo, a girl who also faced teasing.

Due to her curly hair, she was cruelly nicknamed “Igosou-chan,” likening her to the seaweed used to make igoneri, a local delicacy.

Enlistment in the Army

Seeking an escape from the island where he was unwelcome, Tsukishima joined the 2nd Division in Shibata.

The army offered him structure, purpose, and distance from his father’s disgrace.

Before he deployed to fight in the First Sino-Japanese War, he and Chiyo confessed their feelings to each other.

They promised that if he survived and returned, they would elope together.

This promise became the emotional anchor of his life during the war.

For Tsukishima, Chiyo represented hope, future, and the possibility of a life not defined by his father’s infamy.

Tragedy and Crime

When Tsukishima finally returned home, he discovered that Chiyo had gone missing.

On the island, a rumor had spread that Tsukishima had been killed in action.

He believed that Chiyo had trusted this false report of his death and, overcome with despair, had taken her own life.

Blinded by grief and rage, Tsukishima traced the source of the false rumor back to his own father.

Convinced that his father’s malicious gossip had driven Chiyo to suicide, Tsukishima murdered his father in a fit of uncontrollable fury.

He was arrested and sentenced to death, becoming a death-row inmate.

Accepting his death sentence, Tsukishima resigned himself to his fate and was imprisoned in an army prison.

At this point, his will to live was essentially extinguished.

Tsurumi’s Intervention and Rebirth of Purpose

While Tsukishima was in prison, Tokushirō Tsurumi, who had been his superior officer in the 2nd Division, visited him.

Tsurumi told him that Chiyo was actually alive, that his “death” rumor had been false, and that she had moved to the Kanto region with her parents after an arranged marriage.

This revelation reignited Tsukishima’s desire to live, overturning his assumption that his actions had led to Chiyo’s suicide.

Tsurumi also informed him that he was being transferred to the 7th Division in Sapporo, at Tsukisamu, in preparation for a likely conflict with Russia.

Tsurumi described Tsukishima to others as a trusted subordinate who was fluent in Russian.

In reality, Tsukishima could not speak Russian at all at that time, but he threw himself into studying the language with absolute desperation to live up to Tsurumi’s claims.

Russo-Japanese War and the Truth About Chiyo

Nine years later, during the Battle of Mukden in the Russo-Japanese War, Tsukishima encountered a fellow soldier from his hometown.

This soldier told him that Chiyo’s body had been found in Tsukishima’s family home on Sado Island.

Shocked and enraged, Tsukishima confronted Tsurumi about this horrifying contradiction.

In the middle of this confrontation, the two were hit by Russian artillery fire.

Tsukishima instinctively shielded Tsurumi from the blast, and both men were severely wounded.

As they were being moved from the battlefield, an engineer unit gave up their sled to transport them, allowing them to reach a field hospital and survive.

Afterward, Tsurumi explained that the “discovery of Chiyo’s body” in Tsukishima’s family home had been staged.

According to Tsurumi, this fake discovery was meant to reduce Tsukishima’s sentence by creating mitigating circumstances, while his earlier claim that Chiyo was alive remained true.

Later in the series, Chiyo is shown alive, apparently married into a wealthy Tokyo financial family, confirming that she did indeed survive.

This experience convinced Tsurumi that Tsukishima’s loyalty was unshakable, as Tsukishima had protected him even while doubting him.

With time, however, Tsukishima realized that much of this sequence of events had been orchestrated as “Tsurumi’s theater,” a deliberate manipulation to test and bind his loyalty.

This realization adds a layer of tragedy and complexity to his devotion to Tsurumi.

Early Story: Mutiny and False Tattoo Skins

Early in the story, Tsukishima is ordered by his superior, Captain Wada, to assassinate Tsurumi.

Instead of obeying, Tsukishima chooses Tsurumi and shoots Wada dead.

He is then assigned, together with Private Maeyama, to oversee a taxidermy workshop tasked with producing counterfeit tattooed skins.

During a moment when Tsukishima is away from the scene, Hyakunosuke Ogata attacks, killing Maeyama.

To escape the attack, Edogai, the taxidermist creating the fake tattoo skins, flees into a coal mine carrying the counterfeit skins.

Tsukishima pursues him, and both are caught up in the chaos of a mine explosion.

Amid the explosion and confusion, Edogai entrusts Tsukishima with the fake tattooed skins.

Tsukishima barely manages to escape and later delivers both the skins and Edogai’s secret message directly to Tsurumi.

Supporting Otonoshin Koito

As an experienced sergeant, Tsukishima is assigned to support Lieutenant Otonoshin Koito, a new and eccentric officer under Tsurumi.

Koito, however, becomes nearly incapable of coherent conversation whenever he is in front of Tsurumi, overwhelmed by admiration and nerves.

Because of this, Tsukishima is constantly forced to “translate” and mediate conversations between Tsurumi and Koito.

This exasperates him, and he grows mentally tired of having to babysit Koito in every interaction.

At one point, when the advance party reaches Odomari (modern-day Korsakov) in Karafuto, Tsukishima discovers that the boy Chikapasi and the dog Ryu have been smuggled in Koito’s luggage.

He bluntly says he has no intention of doing “any more babysitting,” making it clear that he already feels like Koito’s caretaker rather than just his subordinate.

Karafuto Expedition

After the assault on Abashiri Prison, Tsukishima is sent by Tsurumi as part of an advance party to Karafuto to search for Asirpa.

He travels together with Saichi Sugimoto, Genjirō Tanigaki, and Otonoshin Koito.

Tsurumi entrusts Tsukishima with the authority to make decisions on the ground during this mission.

This shows the extent of Tsurumi’s trust in his judgment and reliability.

On the journey, Tsukishima struggles to manage his highly unconventional companions, who each have their own quirks and agendas.

Despite this, his skills, level-headedness, and experience keep the group functioning and moving toward their goals.

He handles practical tasks, keeps the group focused, and often acts as the mediator when personalities clash.

His presence is a crucial stabilizing force in the chaotic and often dangerous situations the party faces.

Later Activities

Tsukishima also participates in the staged kidnapping of Otonoshin Koito in Hakodate.

This “Koito fake abduction” is part of Tsurumi’s larger schemes, and Tsukishima’s involvement once again highlights his role as a trusted operative in Tsurumi’s plans.

Throughout these operations, Tsukishima’s inner conflict between his personal conscience and his loyalty to Tsurumi remains a key part of his character.

He navigates moral gray areas while trying to maintain his own sense of right and wrong within the brutal world of Golden Kamuy.

Tsukishima’s favorite food is igoneri, a local dish made from processed seaweed.

This preference ties back to his memories of home and to Chiyo, who was teased with a nickname referencing the same seaweed.

His sense of responsibility is strong, and he tends to shoulder burdens for others without complaint.

At the same time, he is not afraid to speak up bluntly when pushed too far, especially when dealing with Koito’s immaturity or convoluted schemes around him.

While he serves as a soldier and enforcer for Tsurumi, he also retains a deeply human side: grief, love, guilt, and longing all shape his choices.

This blend of hardened veteran and quietly wounded man makes him one of the more grounded and emotionally complex figures in Golden Kamuy.