Demon Slayer · Hidden Details No. 01
Anime Analysis| 7 min read
Tanjiro Kamado’s Hanafuda earrings are one of the most recognisable accessories in modern anime. But behind that iconic design lies a real-world controversy that forced the producers of Demon Slayer to alter the earrings for entire countries — quietly, and without ever making a formal announcement.
What Are Hanafuda Earrings, Exactly?
Before we get into the controversy, it helps to understand what hanafuda actually means. The word translates to “flower cards” in Japanese — a reference to a traditional Japanese card game that has existed for centuries. The cards themselves are beautifully designed, typically featuring floral patterns representing the twelve months of the year.
Here’s a fun historical footnote: Nintendo — yes, the same company behind Mario and Zelda — was originally founded in 1889 specifically to manufacture and sell hanafuda cards. Long before video games, Nintendo was in the card business.
Tanjiro’s earrings are inspired by this tradition. They feature a red circle at the top with lines extending outward and downward — loosely resembling one of the hanafuda card designs. Within the world of Demon Slayer, they are a family heirloom passed down through generations of Kamado men, alongside a sacred breathing technique. But it is that very design — the red circle with radiating lines — that caused the trouble.
Within the Story
The earrings originally belonged to Yoriichi Tsugikuni, the greatest demon slayer who ever lived and the inventor of all Breathing Styles. Since Yoriichi had no children, he passed them to his close friend Sumiyoshi — an ancestor of Tanjiro — along with the lost art of Sun Breathing. The earrings essentially mark whoever wears them as a user of the original, most powerful breathing style in existence.
The Symbol That Divides Asia
To many viewers outside Asia, Tanjiro’s earrings are simply a cool anime design. But to audiences in South Korea and mainland China, the red circle with lines radiating outward looked immediately familiar — and not in a good way.
The design closely resembles the Rising Sun flag — the military banner used by Imperial Japan during the Second World War and its colonisation of large parts of Asia. The flag features a red circle at its centre with sixteen red rays extending outward. For countries that experienced Japanese occupation — including Korea, which was under Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945 — the Rising Sun remains a deeply painful symbol, associated with war crimes, forced labour, and cultural suppression.
The symbol is not merely a historical artifact. It is a living wound in diplomatic relationships that continue to this day.— On the Rising Sun controversy in East Asia
It is worth noting that the design controversy is not unique to Demon Slayer. The Rising Sun motif appears in various forms across Japanese culture, and its use — even unintentionally — has repeatedly caused diplomatic friction between Japan and its neighbours. When Demon Slayer became a global phenomenon and began streaming across Asia, the earrings did not go unnoticed.
How the Producers Responded
Rather than ignoring the backlash or defending the original design, the producers of Demon Slayer made a quiet but significant decision: they altered the earring design for specific regional releases.
Original Design
Red circle with radiating lines — as seen in Japan, Taiwan, and international releases
Modified Design
Red circle replaced with blue, with four horizontal lines below — used in mainland China and South Korea
In the modified version, the radiating lines were replaced by four horizontal lines positioned beneath the circle — a subtle but effective change that removed any resemblance to the Rising Sun pattern. The alteration first appeared on the Chinese streaming platform Bilibili when the show began airing in mainland China, and was subsequently applied to the South Korean release as well.
Notably, the change was not applied to Taiwan’s release — only mainland China — reflecting the different historical and political context between the two regions.
A Timeline of the Earrings
Sengoku Era (In-Universe)
Yoriichi Creates Sun Breathing
The greatest demon slayer in history forges the original Breathing Style. He passes the earrings — along with his techniques — to his friend Sumiyoshi, Tanjiro’s ancestor.
Taisho Era (In-Universe)
Tanjuro Passes Them to Tanjiro
Tanjiro’s father wears the earrings as he performs the Hinokami Kagura dance. He makes Tanjiro promise to pass them on, uninterrupted, to the next generation.
April 2019
Demon Slayer Begins Airing
The anime premieres in Japan. Tanjiro’s earrings are visible from the very first episode, but the controversy takes time to build as the show gains international attention.
2019–2020
The Controversy Erupts
As the show’s popularity explodes across Asia, Korean and Chinese audiences flag the earring design’s resemblance to the Rising Sun flag. The backlash spreads on social media.
2020 Onward
Producers Quietly Alter the Design
The modified earring design — with horizontal lines replacing the radiating pattern — begins appearing on Bilibili and other regional platforms. No formal announcement is made.
Why It Matters Within the Story
Here is what makes this controversy genuinely fascinating from a storytelling perspective: the earring design is not decorative filler. It is one of the most narratively important symbols in the entire series.
When Muzan Kibutsuji — the original demon and the show’s chief villain — first encounters Tanjiro on a busy street in episode seven, his immediate reaction is not irritation. It is fear. In the very next episode, he orders his followers to bring him the head of the demon slayer who wears hanafuda earrings. A flashback reveals why: the last person to wear those earrings nearly killed him.
Similarly, Rengoku’s father Shinjuro — a former Flame Hashira — instantly recognises the earrings and identifies Tanjiro as a Sun Breathing practitioner upon seeing them. The earrings function almost like a bloodline marker: a visual signal to anyone who knows the history of the Demon Slayer Corps that the wearer carries a connection to the most powerful technique ever developed.
The Detail Most Viewers Miss
Because Tanjiro himself does not initially understand the significance of the earrings — he sees them simply as a family keepsake — viewers who watch carefully will notice that other characters react to them long before the earrings’ importance is explained. Muzan’s fear, Shinjuro’s hostility, and several other characters’ subtle recognition are all there from early in the series if you know what to look for.
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Final Thought
A Small Accessory With a Very Large Shadow
Tanjiro’s earrings are a perfect example of how something as small as a costume detail can carry an enormous amount of weight — both inside a story and outside of it. Within Demon Slayer, they are a 500-year-old legacy connecting a boy to the greatest warrior who ever lived. Outside of it, they became the centre of a real cultural and diplomatic debate that crossed national borders.
The producers’ decision to quietly alter the design rather than fight the backlash was, by most accounts, the right call. It preserved the story’s integrity in the regions that mattered while acknowledging that some wounds from history do not simply disappear because a show is popular.
The next time you see Tanjiro adjust those earrings before a fight, you are looking at a piece of storytelling that is doing far more work than it appears.