Jujutsu Kaisen: Megumi’s Ten Shadows Technique Explained!

Megumi Fushigoro is a Grade 2 Jujutsu sorcerer and is said to have the highest potential among all the students in Jujutsu High.

Satoru Gojo even claimed that Megumi could be as strong as him. He has also inherited the prized Ten Shadows technique of the Zenin Clan for which the clan was even ready to pay an exorbitant price to get it back in the Zenin clan.

So let’s dive into the Ten Shadows technique.

So How Powerful Is The Ten Shadows Technique?

The Ten Shadows Technique is passed down in the Zenin family. Using shadows as an intermediary, this technique allows the users to summon ten different shikigami.

These shikigami take the form of animals each with unique traits. He can summon the shikigami by making hand signs to cast shadows representing the shikigami.

Gojo during training tells an old tale of the battle between past Six Eyes and Limitless users and a Ten Shadow technique user where both users died in the battle pointing to the fact the Ten shadow technique is on par with the Six Eyes and Limitless.

The user of the technique can only use shikigami which they have tamed by defeating the shikigami. However, the user can still summon any shikigami as per their will.

So far, Megumi has complete control over six shikigami.

The technique allow allows the user to store weapons in their shadow and even hide in other’s shadows.

What is a Shikigami?

Shikigami are familiar curses conjured and controlled by jujutsu sorcerers and those who use these shikigami are called shikigami users (shamans in some translations).

Shikigami conjuration is considered to be a type of cursed technique. Like barrier techniques, sorcerers who do not possess enough intrinsic talent for their own innate technique can summon simple shikigami.

Shikigami themselves are familiars incarnated by their summoner’s cursed energy. Summoning shikigami normally requires an intermediary (medium), such as a common talisman.

In the case of Megumi, he does not require a common talisman as his shadow acts as the medium of the intermediary. This unique property of Megumi’s Ten shadows established the technique’s strength, as even Sukuna acknowledged Megumi’s potential in his clash.

Most of Megumi’s shikigami are inspired by the Imperial Regalia of Japan. They take the forms of different animals and possess diverse battle prowess.

Megumi can also combine the attacks from different shikigami to create more powerful combos.

How to control Shikigami in the Ten Shadows Technique

As previously mentioned to gain control over the shikigami Megumi needs to defeat them. This ritual is called shikigami exorcism.

When a shikigami user inherits the Ten Shadows technique, they get two shikigami divine dogs. The user can then acquire other shikigami using these divine dogs.

A Shikigami user can initiate the ritual and summon an uncontrolled shikigami using their curse energy. The strength of summoned shikigami depends o the curse energy on the summoner. A stronger shikigami will require higher cursed energy to summon.

The ritual can be started in front of others and outsiders can also help in defeating the shikigami but the exorcism must be done by the summoner else the ritual will be rendered void.

Usually, when a user of the Ten Shadows technique summons a shikigami and the said shikigami is killed, it cannot be summoned again. This rule does not apply to shikigami summoned for the purpose of the ritual.

This said Shikigami users can call back summoned shikigami at any point in time.

Megumi’s Tamed Shikigami

So far in the series Megumi has tamed the following shikigami:

Divine Dogs

Diving Dogs are a pair of twin hounds (white and black) capable of tearing curses apart with their fangs and devouring them. As previously mentioned they are the first shikigami which are given to the users upon inheriting the Ten Shadows technique.

They are then further used to take control of other shikigami. They also have a great sense of smell, memory and detection. When the white hound was killed its power was transferred to the black hound, creating Divine Dog: Totality.

Nue

This Shikigami is an owl-like shikigami with high-speed flight abilities. Nue can also release electric attacks from its wings at high speed and these attacks can also render enemies paralysed. We see Nue using this attack against Momo Nishiyama at Kyoto Goodwill Event.

Toad

As the name says this shikigami takes the form of a toad, it has a huge size and a powerful tongue.

Using its tongue it can grab and throw people across and due to its huge size it can also carry a person inside it.

We see it carrying Nobara in the Cursed Womb arc.

Great Serpent

This shikigami takes the form of a giant serpent. It can appear from the ground in an instant, this enables it to surprise its opponent can grab them, allowing allies to land a hit on opponents. We see Megumi use this against Sukuna to grab him and then attack him with Nue. Sukuna later destroys the Gaint Serpent in the battle.

Max Elephant

This shikigami takes the form of an Elephant and is capable of producing a large volume of water from its trunk.

This shikigami takes a lot of cursed energy to summon. We see Megumi use this against Noritoso Kamo during Kyoto Goodwill Event to flood the floor with water. The strong current sweeps Noritoshi outside, leaving him defenceless while in mid-air. Megumi then follows it up with Nue’s attack.

Rabbit Escape

Rabbit Escape is a swarm of rabbit shinigami. The rabbits are weak and harmless shikigami that mainly serve as a distraction or support using their sheer numbers.

Megumi Fushiguro first used Rabbit Escape to retreat with Yuji in the middle of their fight with Jiro Awasaka. The rabbit shikigami filled the metropolitan expressway.

This was all about the shikigami Megumi has tamed/has control over.

The untamabel Shikigami: Mahoraga

There is one more shinigami that Megumi has not tamed yet. In fact, no Ten Shadows technique user has ever tamed this shikigami.

That shinigami is called Mahoraga. Mahoraga is the strongest shinigami that a Ten shadow technique user can summon. It is armed with the sword of Extermination which is covered with positive cursed energy. It also has the ability to adapt to any and all phenomena along with regeneration ability.

Against Mahoraga Sukuna was forced to his domain expansion Malevolent Shrine.

Ten Shadow Shikigami used by Sukuna

In chapters 217 and 218, we saw Sukuna taking over Megumi’s body and he had completed the “bath”. We also saw Sukuna summoned Nue and Divine Dog: Totality which looks completely different and is way more powerful than Megumi’s version.

In latest chapter 218, we saw Sukuna summon two more Shikigami ‘Madoka Dear’ and ‘Kangyu’.

Madoka Dear is a dear-like shikigami which can heal using the reverse cursed technique it is also capable of removing someone else’s cursed energy from objects.

Kangyu is a bull-like shikigami and is an offensive type of shikigami. It attacks by ramming the target by running towards it in a straight line only. The power of the strike increases with the distance the shikigami covers during the attack.