Tetsuzō Nihei

Name: Tetsuzō Nihei

Gender: Male

Birthday: March 3

Place of Birth: Ishikari, Hokkaido

Favorite Food: Bear meat

Disliked Things: None

Occupation: Hunter, former prisoner of Abashiri Prison

Affiliation: Tattooed escapees from Abashiri Prison

Companion Animal: Ainu dog named Ryu

Weapon of Choice: Single‑shot Type 18 Murata rifle (old model), with seven notches in the stock

Nihei is known throughout Hokkaido as the “nightmare bear hunter whose very name makes even hibernating bears toss and turn in their sleep.”

He is one of the tattooed convicts who escape from Abashiri Prison and becomes a major early antagonist and spiritual mentor figure in Golden Kamuy.

Boisterous, crude, and larger‑than‑life, he refers to himself as a beast of the mountain and believes in pure kill‑or‑be‑killed combat.

He is especially infamous for his catchphrase, a shouted “Erection!” which he uses to describe the rush of hunting and battle.

Nihei is outspoken, rough, and carefree, living exactly as he pleases and caring little for human laws.

He prides himself on a wild, beastlike way of life and consciously rejects ordinary morality in favor of the “rules of the mountain.”

He is obsessed with the thrill of the hunt, whether the prey is animal or human, and sees both as equally valid targets.

For him, the excitement of pitting his wits and body against dangerous prey is the highest form of existence.

He considers himself no different from the predators he hunts.

His ideal is a one‑shot, all‑or‑nothing showdown where both sides are fully prepared to kill or be killed.

Nihei deliberately handicaps himself by using a single‑shot Murata rifle and refuses to carry spare rounds between his fingers for fast reloading.

He believes that because he cannot rely on follow‑up shots, his “resolve is sharpened” and he is forced to end the fight with the very first bullet.

Despite his fearless behavior in the mountains, he repeatedly confesses that “women are terrifying.”

He is deeply wary of women and speaks of them with a kind of humorous, half‑serious dread.

Nihei has a twisted but consistent sense of honor.

He despises those who kill hunters merely to steal game, while he himself kills as a hunter in what he sees as fair contests.

He dreams of dying in the mountains after a decisive hunt, his body torn apart and eaten by beasts and then returned to nature as animal droppings.

This is his chosen “final way of living,” and he actively pursues it.

Nihei originally lived as a professional hunter in Hokkaido, where his skills with tracking and killing brown bears made him a legend.

Over the years he killed more than 200 bears, enough that fellow hunters joked that he could wipe out all the bears in any mountain range he entered.

He has a wife and an astonishing fifteen children, but he is estranged from them and currently has no contact.

Of the fifteen, fourteen are daughters; the only son died in the First Sino‑Japanese War.

Nihei’s beloved rifle once belonged to that son and was used by him in battle.

The seven notches carved into the gunstock mark the number of enemies the son killed.

Nihei insists that his son “was not the kind of man who would enjoy killing.”

Based on this, he believes the notches were carved as a form of memorial or small offering to the slain enemies, rather than as trophies.

His family background adds a quiet emotional depth beneath his coarse exterior.

Though he rarely shows overt grief, his attachment to the rifle and his son’s memory reveals a more human side to him.

Nihei is a master hunter whose skills border on the superhuman.

He is expert at tracking, reading animal behavior, using terrain, and closing distance on dangerous prey.

He favors the obsolete single‑shot Type 18 Murata rifle despite its slow rate of fire.

He refuses to carry extra cartridges between his fingers or otherwise prepare for quick reloads, pushing himself to end the hunt with a single shot.

His motto is that if he cannot kill with the first bullet, he deserves to be killed in return.

This extreme creed crystallizes his idea of what it means to be a true hunter.

Nihei’s senses are sharp, and he can predict an animal’s movement patterns and reactions with unsettling accuracy.

He is comfortable going up against large predators like brown bears and even wolves at close range.

Over ten years before the main story, he hunted together with Kirawus, an Ainu hunter from eastern Hokkaido.

Kirawus later said that he feared “all the bears in those mountains might disappear” because of Nihei’s overwhelming talent.

Nihei’s capabilities are not limited to animals.

He is also adept at fighting and killing humans, particularly those he considers prey or rivals in the mountains.

Nihei was imprisoned in Abashiri Prison for a crime that reveals his animal‑like tenacity toward prey.

A group of three thugs had been murdering hunters and stealing their game to make money.

They ambushed Nihei from hiding and tried to shoot him, but his fury flared at being targeted as prey.

He turned the tables, hunted the group down, and killed them.

The last surviving member of the gang was captured by the police before Nihei could finish him.

However, Nihei refused to relinquish his “prey,” ignored police orders to stop, and beat the man to death right in front of the officers.

This brazen killing led to his arrest and incarceration in Abashiri Prison.

To him, it was simply the natural outcome of a hunt and his refusal to let his prey be taken away.

After the famous mass prison break from Abashiri, Nihei becomes one of the tattooed escapees.

He has a coded tattoo on his body that relates to the hidden gold, but he personally cares nothing for the treasure.

He joins the escape and allows the tattoo to be carved into his skin purely as a means to regain his freedom.

His actual aim is to return to the mountains and die there in the ultimate hunt.

He does not align himself with any gold‑seeking faction for greed.

Instead, he follows his own path, guided entirely by his hunter’s instincts and personal ideals.

Eventually, after Nihei’s death, his tattooed skin is removed and becomes one of the human leather “maps” to the gold.

During the assault on Abashiri Prison later in the story, Nihei’s skin ends up in the hands of the Seventh Division, who are loosely allied with Saichi Sugimoto.

Nihei hunts with an Ainu dog named Ryu, who is both faithful companion and trusted partner.

Ryu is intelligent, courageous, and capable of tracking and cornering wild animals alongside Nihei.

When Nihei dies, Ryu is taken in by Asirpa and joins Saichi Sugimoto’s group.

Ryu’s keen senses and bravery turn him into a valuable member of their traveling party.

The dog’s loyalty to Nihei and later to his new companions underlines the bond between hunter and hound in the story.

Ryu’s presence also serves as a living reminder of Nihei’s legacy among the characters.

Nihei first encounters Genjirō Tanigaki when Tanigaki is severely injured and collapsed in the mountains.

Finding him half‑dead, Nihei saves his life and learns of Tanigaki’s background as a Matagi (traditional mountain hunter) from northern Japan.

Sensing Tanigaki’s lingering attachment to his former hunter life, Nihei provokes and guides him.

He challenges Tanigaki’s hesitation and confusion, forcing him to confront what it really means to live and die as a hunter.

Through this harsh mentorship, Nihei becomes a spiritual guide for Tanigaki, even though their values are not identical.

Nihei’s words and death later serve as a compass for Tanigaki’s choices and behavior.

When Nihei is killed, Tanigaki inherits his Murata rifle and, symbolically, his “erect hunter spirit.”

Tanigaki begins to carry forward parts of Nihei’s creed, though in his own more compassionate way.

Nihei’s influence extends even further to Chikapasi, a young Ainu boy who looks up to Tanigaki.

Chikapasi repeats Nihei’s signature phrase and notion of “erection” in a comical yet sincere attempt to understand the hunter’s burning resolve.

Nihei comes into direct conflict with Saichi Sugimoto and Asirpa over the last remaining Hokkaido wolf, Retar.

Sugimoto’s group wants to protect Retar, while Nihei is determined to kill the wolf as the ultimate trophy and proof of his skill.

He sees Retar as the final and greatest prey of his life.

To him, killing the last wolf and ending its bloodline would be a hunter’s crowning achievement.

During their clash, Nihei temporarily gains the upper hand and even takes Asirpa hostage.

He uses her as bait to lure out Retar for the decisive hunt he has been craving.

The confrontation escalates into a chaotic battle involving humans, wolf, and dog.

It becomes a literal embodiment of Nihei’s philosophy: beasts fighting beasts in the mountains.

Although he and Sugimoto are enemies in this arc, their shared toughness and willingness to risk everything create a sense of mutual recognition.

Nihei’s death and the fate of his belongings later tie him indirectly to Sugimoto’s group long after he is gone.

A turning point in Nihei’s story comes when he learns that a supposedly extinct Hokkaido wolf is still alive.

He hears that Tanigaki encountered Retar, a white wolf believed to be the last of its kind.

Upon realizing that the final surviving member of an entire species is roaming his mountains, Nihei’s hunter’s soul “erects” in intense excitement.

He decides that ending this bloodline himself will be his greatest and ultimate triumph.

Nihei stakes everything on this hunt, seeing it as the perfect climax to his life.

He believes that if he can kill Retar in a direct contest, his career as a hunter will be complete.

He tracks Retar with meticulous patience and cunning, using Asirpa as bait when the opportunity arises.

The showdown eventually devolves into close‑quarters combat between Nihei, the wolf, and those who want to protect it.

Nihei sacrifices one of his arms during the fight but still manages to trap and overpower Retar.

At that moment, he is convinced he has won his ultimate duel.

However, just as victory seems certain, Retar’s mate suddenly appears from behind.

She bites through Nihei’s neck, dealing a fatal wound.

Nihei’s grand plan to personally end the wolf lineage fails, and his final hunt becomes a glorious defeat instead.

Yet in his eyes, dying this way in a brutal, honest clash between beasts is exactly the end he desired.

As Nihei lies dying from the wolf’s bite, he is not bitter or afraid.

Instead, he feels deep satisfaction that he has lived and died as a true hunter in a life‑or‑death struggle.

He dies with a smile, content that his dream of a decisive final battle in the mountains has been fulfilled.

His body is deliberately not buried, in accordance with his own wish.

Sugimoto honors this request by leaving Nihei’s corpse exposed to nature.

Wild animals eventually eat and scatter his remains, returning him to the mountains he loved.

Nihei’s skin, bearing the coded tattoo, is flayed and collected by Sugimoto to contribute to the search for the hidden gold.

Later, after the attack on Abashiri Prison, his tattooed hide passes into the hands of the Seventh Division, who have entered into a loose partnership with Sugimoto.

His rifle and dog, Ryu, do not die with him.

Asirpa retrieves both, and they become new companions and tools for Sugimoto’s group.

Tanigaki later uses Nihei’s Murata rifle during an ambush by Hyakunosuke Ogata and Kōhei Nikaidō.

From then on, Tanigaki carries Nihei’s firearm, along with his own interpretation of Nihei’s “rising” hunter spirit.

Nihei’s fierce philosophy, combined with his dramatic death, becomes a guiding principle for Tanigaki’s life.

It also influences Chikapasi, who eagerly tries to understand and inherit this intense, almost comical idea of “erection” as a metaphor for resolve.

Even though Nihei appears only in a relatively short portion of the series, his impact is long‑lasting.

His presence continues to echo through the actions, beliefs, and even catchphrases of the characters he left behind.

Author Satoru Noda’s earlier hockey manga Spinamurada! and its reboot Dog Sled include a character named Nihei Toshimitsu.

Nihei Toshimitsu closely resembles Tetsuzō Nihei in appearance, wild personality, and his role as a mentor figure.

Because of these many shared traits, fans often speculate that Nihei Toshimitsu is a descendant of Tetsuzō Nihei.

Noda has commented that he believes there is indeed a blood relationship between them, lending weight to the fan theory.

There was even a “Double Nihei Festival” campaign in 2015 on the digital platform BOOK☆WALKER.

To celebrate the simultaneous release of Spinamurada! and the then‑latest volumes of Golden Kamuy, buyers received special pin‑ups featuring either Nihei Toshimitsu or Tetsuzō Nihei and could earn digital coins by purchasing the entire run of Spinamurada!.

Tetsuzō Nihei was inspired in part by a real historical hunter, Yamamoto Heikichi.

Heikichi was the marksman who brought an end to the infamous Sankebetsu brown bear incident, one of the worst bear attacks in Japanese history, and is said to have killed around 300 brown bears in his lifetime.

Another major influence is the old hunter protagonist named Nihei from Tatsuya Kumagai’s novel Silver Wolf King.

The combination of these models helped shape Nihei’s image as an aging yet unstoppable master hunter.

Noda has mentioned in interviews that Nihei is one of the characters he feels most strongly about.

At one point, he even considered making Nihei the main protagonist of Golden Kamuy.

He ultimately decided that an unkempt older hunter as a lead would probably get the series cancelled very quickly.

Nevertheless, the strength of Nihei’s concept remains obvious, and many fans can easily imagine an entire story centered solely on him.

Nihei’s philosophy that “the match must always be decided with the first shot” comes from the mindset of a real‑life coach of a powerful ice hockey team.

This idea was repurposed into Nihei’s extreme one‑shot hunting creed, giving it a realistic yet exaggerated feel.

In the Golden Kamuy television anime adaptation, Tetsuzō Nihei is voiced by veteran actor Akio Ōtsuka.

Ōtsuka himself was already a fan of the original manga before being cast.

He initially thought he had missed his chance when the main character auditions had already concluded by the time he heard about the anime.

However, the production staff personally offered him the role of Nihei, which greatly pleased him.

Ōtsuka approached the recording sessions with strong enthusiasm and respect for the character.

He reportedly requested and received permission to change some lines in the script to better match his interpretation of Nihei.

In live‑action form, Nihei has been portrayed by actor Takahiro Fujimoto.

His casting continues the trend of choosing strong, imposing performers to embody Nihei’s overwhelming presence.