The clash between Ryomen Sukuna and Hajime Kashimo in the Shinjuku Showdown arc offered more than just a display of catastrophic cursed techniques. It served as a definitive philosophical peak for Jujutsu Kaisen, culminating in a dialogue that left many readers questioning the King of Curses' unique worldview. When Sukuna stood over the defeated "God of Lightning" and labeled him "greedy," he wasn't referring to a desire for material wealth or power. He was critiquing Kashimo’s fundamental approach to existence and his misunderstanding of what it means to be truly elite.

The Context of the Question

To understand why Sukuna used the term "greedy," we must first look at what Hajime Kashimo was searching for across four centuries. A sorcerer from the Edo period, Kashimo lived a life of total biological and tactical dominance. To him, other people were "as feeble as the dirt beneath his feet." This power created a profound sense of isolation. He didn't hate the weak; he simply couldn't relate to them. He lived as a solitary peak, unable to find anyone who could look him in the eye without fear or fragility.

Upon being reincarnated in the modern era, his sole objective was to fight Sukuna. He didn't care about the Culling Game's rules or the fate of the world. He wanted an answer to a question that had haunted him since his first life: Is strength solitude? He sought a connection that only an equal—or a superior—could provide. He looked at Sukuna not just as an opponent, but as a potential teacher who could show him how to exist while being "too strong."

Sukuna’s Inverted Definition of Love

When Kashimo asks how Sukuna can live without needing others and how he perceives "love," Sukuna’s response is jarring. He suggests that Kashimo (and by extension, Satoru Gojo) has been loved all along, but they were too blinded by their own expectations to recognize it.

In Sukuna’s world, the act of being challenged is the highest form of love a sorcerer can receive. The warriors who threw themselves at Kashimo in the Edo period weren't cursing him; they were offering their entire beings to be acknowledged by him. They wanted to validate their existence through his overwhelming strength. Sukuna argues that by slaughtering them, Kashimo was responding to that love in the only way that matters in the world of jujutsu.

This is where the divergence begins. Kashimo saw the pile of corpses behind him as proof of his isolation. Sukuna sees it as a testament to how much he was "adored" by the world. To Sukuna, the strength itself is the connection. There is no need for a separate emotional bond because the exchange of blows is the most intimate form of recognition possible.

Why Kashimo Was Deemed "Greedy"

Sukuna calls Kashimo greedy because Kashimo wanted the perks of being the absolute strongest while also yearning for the comforts of the weak.

  1. The Dual Desire: Kashimo possessed the "love" of the strong (the endless stream of challengers) but lamented the "solitude" of the strong. Sukuna views this as a lack of resolve. If you choose to stand at the peak, you must accept the atmosphere of the peak. You cannot stand above everyone and then complain that no one is standing next to you.

  2. The Misunderstanding of Fulfillment: Kashimo believed that he needed someone else to fill the void in his soul. He looked to Sukuna to provide an answer that would make him feel "whole." To Sukuna, the idea of needing another person to feel fulfilled is the height of greediness. It is an admission that your own stature is not enough for you.

  3. Comparing Gojo and Kashimo: Sukuna explicitly groups Satoru Gojo and Hajime Kashimo together in this critique. Both reached the heights of sorcery, and both felt a "curse" of loneliness. Sukuna finds this pathetic in a way. He perceives them as children who have been given the greatest gift in the universe—absolute power—only to cry because they want "understanding" as well. From Sukuna's perspective, they were already given everything they could ever need; asking for emotional resonance on top of that is simply asking for too much.

The Absolute Self of Ryomen Sukuna

Sukuna’s own philosophy is the antithesis of greed because he has no external requirements for happiness. He explains that he lives according to his own "stature." If he wants to eat, he eats. If he sees something annoying, he destroys it. If he is entertained, he indulges. He does not ask for the world to understand him, nor does he care if he is measured by others' standards.

By calling Kashimo greedy, Sukuna is highlighting the purity of his own hedonism. Sukuna doesn't feel lonely because he doesn't recognize "others" as a necessity for his self-worth. He is entirely self-contained. Kashimo’s "greed" was his attachment to the human desire for companionship, a trait that Sukuna shed long ago (or perhaps never possessed).

The Tragedy of the "God of Lightning"

Kashimo’s death at the hands of the world-splitting dismantle was, in Sukuna’s eyes, the ultimate act of "teaching." By killing Kashimo, Sukuna gave him the recognition he craved, even if Kashimo couldn't fully comprehend the lesson in the moment. The vision of them speaking in a desolate, natural landscape reflects Kashimo's inner world—barren and empty.

Kashimo lived his second life just to hear these words. He used his one-time-only cursed technique, Mythical Beast Amber, essentially committing suicide to gain the physical capabilities necessary to even perceive Sukuna’s true form. He sacrificed his entire existence for a conversation. This desperation to find meaning outside of oneself is exactly what Sukuna identifies as the flaw.

The Historical Perspective: Heian vs. Edo

There is also a subtle historical layer to this interaction. Sukuna, hailing from the Heian Era—the Golden Age of Sorcery—represents a time when jujutsu was a brutal, uncompromising art of survival and ego. Kashimo, from the Edo period, represents a slightly more refined but still violent era.

In the Heian Era, the concept of the "individual" was different. Sukuna is a relic of a time where a sorcerer's worth was their impact on the world, not their inner peace. By the time Kashimo was born, perhaps the concept of the "soul" and "loneliness" had begun to infect the mindset of even the strongest warriors. Sukuna’s critique is a callback to an older, harsher reality where being the strongest meant being a "calamity," not a person.

Final Thoughts on the Greed of Strength

The label of "greedy" remains one of the most significant character beats for Sukuna. It reframes his villainy not just as malice, but as a total, enlightened form of selfishness. He doesn't hate the characters he kills; he simply finds their dissatisfaction with their own greatness to be a bore.

Kashimo died having received his answer, though it wasn't the comforting one he might have hoped for. He was told that his life was already full, that he had already been loved, and that his lamentation was a betrayal of the strength he had worked so hard to achieve. In the end, Sukuna didn't just defeat Kashimo physically; he dismantled the very logic Kashimo used to justify his existence.

For those analyzing the series in 2026, this interaction remains a cornerstone of understanding the "Curse of Strength." It suggests that in the world of JJK, the price of reaching the summit isn't just the blood on your hands—it's the requirement to be satisfied with your own company, and nothing else. To want more than that is to be greedy.