Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3 Reveals the True Cause of Ukitake's Frailty

Key things

• Ukitake's serious lung disease was saved by the divine intervention of Mimihagi, the Right Arm of the Soul King.
• Ukitake sacrificed his borrowed life to stabilize the realms and fulfill his destiny from the beginning of the arc.
• Despite his illness, Ukitake's immense talent as a shinigami and his knowledge of Mimihagi's true nature reveal his selflessness.

In the third episode BLEACH: The Thousand Year War of Blood, Part 3titled “The Dark Arm”, 13th Division Captain Jūshirō Ukitake reveals exactly why he has been so ill his entire life and how his life-threatening lung condition was partially alleviated by the divine intervention of Mimihagi, a local deity worshiped in Sakahone, Rukongai's 76th District.

When Yhwach threatens the very fabric of the realms by wanting to kill the Soul King, Ukitake sets in motion a ritual that will return the life he borrowed from Mimihagi, whose true identity is the right hand of the Soul King himself. Here is a summary of Ukitake's story and the selflessness of his sacrifice.

A young life claimed by illness

Ukitake almost died as a toddler

“Lord Mimihagi, Lord Mimihagi. Kill the disease that is eating our child and eat his organs.”

Lord Mimihagi, Lord Mimihagi. Divine hand from heaven… please bless us with your power…”

Despite being part of a lower class aristocratic house in Soul Society, Ukitake lived in poverty with his parents and his quality of life was terribly limited by an unnamed condition that was taking away his lungs. By the time he was three years old, young Ukitake was already on the verge of death and his parents were at their wits end. No doctors could cure what ailed their son, so in desperation they brought him before the Mimihagi statue and prayed to the deity to take his lungs, allowing him to grow up a relatively healthy boy and become a Shinigami. However, Mimihagi's intervention did not mean that he was cured, as he still coughed up blood from time to time, a sign of time that he had borrowed from the deity. During the possession, young Ukitake sees visions of a mysterious humanoid being with a fist-shaped head draped in a tunic that resembles the spiritual clothing worn by Shinto and Buddhist priests, otherwise known as joe. A dark shadow emanates from the entity, enters Ukitake's body and takes over him from the inside, turning him into a shadow mirror of himself.

Despite the fact that Mimihagi saved his life, there were several times when Ukitake's physical condition was questioned, and shortly after Kaien Shiba's death, Central 46 expressed their concern over Ukitake's refusal to replace his lieutenant. Despite his unfortunate health situation, Ukitake has occasionally shown himself to be an extremely talented Shinigami who could be on par with his best friend Shunsui Kyoraku. Mimihagi's intervention in Ukitake's illness is an expression of her authority over the concept of Silence; or stasis, meaning it has the ability to inhibit all change or development, such as disease progression in Ukitake's case. He bestows gifts on whoever gives him something other than an eye, since he already has one, and consumes the offered part by uniting with it, hence Ukitake's vision of Mimihagi in the primordial waters. In episode 3 BLEACH: The Thousand Year War of Blood, Part 3Invoking divine ownership, Ukitake offers his body to become the Soul King's new Right Arm, which would then stabilize the sway of the realms towards himself.

Did Ukitake always know his destiny?

He set the ritual in motion at the beginning of the arc

During the events of the third episode BLEACH: The Thousand Year Blood War Part 3, we also see a brief, anime-only interaction between Ukitake and Unohana shortly after Yamamoto's death, in which he tells her that he will see her again soon, which can be read as a nod to both losing their lives during the final arc and it is revealed, that they were cast into hell during it No Breaths From Hell disposable due to the fact that souls with an immense level of reishi cannot be safely returned to the cycle of reincarnation and must therefore be sent to hell through a special soul burial.

We barely see Ukitake during this arc, and when we do, he's holed up in a mysterious-looking hut, which we now understand is a statue of Mimihagi. Since Ukitake and Kyōraku had a conversation about the Mimihagi in their youth, and the rumor that it was actually the Soul King's severed hand. Ukitake was always aware of his condition, and since he was Mimihagi's host, he also knew intuitively of his true nature. Based on his actions, it's clear that he knew he would one day have to give up the life he was given for the sake of Soul Society, and the truth behind his situation is one of the most heartbreaking yet inspiring developments of the final arc BLEACH.