Everyone In Tekken’s Mishima Family

The story of Tekken is the story of the Mishima Family. Like them or loathe them, they’re inextricably linked to practically everything that goes on in the series’ lore. Who killed Eddy Gordo’s father? Kazuya. Who made Dr. Boskonovitch create the Jack robots? Heihachi. Whose military bombing killed Miguel’s sister? Jin.

But the family tree goes beyond the big three. There are foster relatives, illegitimate children, and in-laws to consider, which can make keeping track of them tricky. So, for anyone curious, this is everyone in the Mishima family thus far, along with their backstories and how they’re connected.

Updated on February 29, 2024, by David Heath: With Tekken 8 out and about, fans will finally get to see how the Mishima Family saga ends. Or so the trailers suggested. Tekken 5 also said “Heihachi Mishima…is dead!” before revealing he was alive and playable. It’s why there are still some fans who expect Heihachi to return in some form or another, even after he died in a more obvious way in Tekken 7. Still, it looks like Bandai-Namco is sticking to its guns on Heihachi’s death, with both his pet bear Kuma and his illegitimate daughter Reina gaining much of his old move set. But only time will tell. Until then, this list has been updated with a few more Mishima family members, including the Mishima patriarch’s beloved pets. This seemingly completes the family tree, but with DLC characters on the horizon, there’s always a chance more Mishimas, Kazamas, Hachijōs, etc., could come out of the woodwork.

13 Jinpachi Mishima

Strongest Fist

• Debut
  :
  Tekken 1
  (lore),
  Tekken 5
  (boss),
  Tekken Tag Tournament 2
  (playable).
• Father of Heihachi. Grandfather of Kazuya.
• Great-grandfather of Jin.

The patriarch of the Mishima Clan, Jinpachi Mishima, was a rather nice guy in life. He was originally considered the founder of the Mishima Zaibatsu. But this would later be retconned to him briefly running an arms company before resigning to focus on the family’s signature karate style. It was through his dojo that his son, Heihachi, would meet his future wife, Kazumi. Jinpachi would also train his grandson Kazuya as a young boy.

Still, he’d eventually succumb to Heihachi’s plot, who’d imprison him in their Hon-Maru temple until he starved to death. However, he was revived by a demonic entity, which threatened to take over his mind completely. He took control of the Zaibatsu in his son’s absence and held the Tekken 5 tournament in the hopes of finding someone strong enough to kill him before he was completely possessed. His great-grandson Jin was able to do the honors.

12 Heihachi Mishima

The King Of Iron Fist

• Debut
  :
  Tekken 1
  .
• Son of Jinpachi. Father of Kazuya, Lars, and Reina. Foster father of Lee.
• Grandfather of Jin.

Heihachi Mishima needs no introduction. He was practically the figurehead for the whole series with his horn-shaped hair, nifty outfits, and absolute villainy. Taking control of his father’s arms business, he would expand it into the Mishima Zaibatsu, a vast conglomerate that ran multiple businesses in different industries. When his father objected, he locked him up in the family temple in a bid to starve him to death.

His brutal upbringing of his son Kazuya turned him into a literal monster, and his betrayal of his grandson Jin didn’t do him any favors either. His pursuit of power ranged from using his private army to carry out some very hostile takeovers, to investigating mystical entities like the Devil Gene and Ogre. His only regret was having to kill his wife, Kazumi, in self-defense. Age finally got the better of him when his heart gave out long enough for Kazuya to finish him off in their last battle.

11 Kazumi Hachijō-Mishima

Host Of The Devil Gene

• Debut
  :
  Tekken 2
  (lore),
  Tekken 7
  (playable).
• Wife of Heihachi, daughter-in-law to Jinpachi, mother of Kazuya.
• Grandmother of Jin. Died before knowing him, Lee, Lars, or Reina.

People thought Kazuya and Jin’s Devil Gene came from Jinpachi. But Tekken 7 would reveal it all came from Kazumi Hachijō-Mishima. She was a childhood friend and rival of Heihachi’s, and the two would bond over their shared interest in martial arts. All seemed well as they fell in love, got married, and started a family, but she’d later suffer fevers and violent fits against her husband.

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It would turn out that her family, the Hachijō clan, had suffered from demonic blood since ancient times, and mitigated it by using their power to finish off corrupt people in power. With Heihachi’s takeover of the Zaibatsu, she foresaw he’d cause more pain and suffering to come. Despite her feelings, she succumbed to her Devil form and tried to kill him. She failed but would set up a backup plan by asking Akuma to kill him, then her son if he inherited her Devil gene.

10 Kazuya Mishima

Cold-Blooded Oppressor

• Debut
  :
  Tekken 1
  .
• Son of Heihachi. Grandson of Jinpachi. Foster brother of Lee Chaolan, and half-brother to Lars and Reina.
• Father of Jin.

Unfortunately for his mother, Kazuya Mishima did inherit the gene, and Heihachi’s abuse only ensured he’d become a literal devil. He’d either use others to get what he wanted or beat them to a pulp if they were in his way. Having gotten his revenge on his father, he now aims to take control of the world both economically and through sheer strength. But to do that, he needs to beat his son and take his power for his own.

However, like Heihachi, he has some soft spots. He did love his mother and held Kazumi’s death against Heihachi right until their final fight. Then his reactions to Jun Kazama, from both Tekken 2’s lore and her return in Tekken 8, suggest he has more conflicted emotions about her. He may find it harder to shed his humanity completely after all.

9 Jun Kazama

Light Of Hope

• Debut
  :
  Tekken 2
  .
• Lover of Kazuya. Mother of Jin.
• Distant(?) aunt to Asuka.

By law, Jun Kazama isn’t directly part of the Mishima family. Yet she would tie the Kazama clan to the Mishimas as their light counterparts. The Kazama clan has divine blood which purifies evil spirits and gives its members latent psychic powers. It was through this power that she saw Kazuya’s devil side. She originally entered the second Tekken tournament to investigate the Zaibatsu, but she stuck around to try and save him from his other persona.

Sadly, she failed, and Kazuya’s fate was seemingly sealed by Heihachi. But she did end up carrying his child. Jun would raise her son at her family home in Yakushima until Ogre came to her door. She fought it off to protect her son, only to go missing, presumed dead for years. She’d return in equally mysterious circumstances in T8, still hoping to bring peace to the Mishima clan.

8 Lee Chaolan

Silver-Haired Demon

• Debut
  :
  Tekken 1
  .
• Foster son of Heihachi. Foster brother of Kazuya and Lars, and foster uncle of Jin.
• Disowned following
  Tekken 2
  according to
  Tekken 7
  .

With no blood ties, Lee Chaolan may be the one person who got to be adopted and disowned by the Mishima Clan and survived to tell the tale. He was originally a homeless orphan who fought to survive on the streets. Heihachi came across him on a business trip and was impressed with his strength. He adopted Lee and raised him to compete against Kazuya in both martial arts and business. In other words, Heihachi fostered a child just to play mind games against his blood child.

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Getting one-up on Kazuya became Lee’s defining goal, either upfront in T1 or behind the scenes in T2 as his secretary. Once Heihachi reclaimed the Zaibatsu and (seemingly) killed Kazuya, he had no more use for Lee. He was cast out of the company and out of the family. But Lee didn’t mind. He set up his own robotics company and would aid any anti-Mishima effort either indirectly by helping Lars, or directly by competing in the Tekken tournaments.

7 Jin Kazama

Lightning Of Fate

• Debut
  :
  Tekken 3
  .
• Grandson of Heihachi. Son of Kazuya and Jun.
• Half-nephew to Lars and Reina. Named after his great-grandfather Jinpachi.

Following Jun’s disappearance after her battle with Ogre, her son Jin Kazama followed her request to seek out his grandfather in case anything happened to her. After managing to get an audience with Heihachi, he agreed to take him in and train him in the family style. In aiding Jin’s quest for revenge against Ogre, he hoped he’d subdue the creature for his company’s research. But he did it too well, as Jin would destroy it in combat.

Heihachi tried to kill Jin afterward, which only unleashed his Devil form for the first time. Knowing he inherited the Devil Gene from his father, Jin would seek to end the Mishima Clan’s cursed legacy. But as a result, he’d succumb to their worst impulses, taking over the Zaibatsu from Jinpachi and starting a world war just to eliminate what he thought was the gene’s source in Azazel. Proven wrong, T8 sees him trying to make things right by fighting his father directly.

6 Kuma I

Mad Bear

• Debut
  :
  Tekken 1
  .
• Heihachi Mishima’s pet.

Tekken is famous/infamous for its different animal characters, and the first of the bunch was Kuma I. Yes, the series somehow went through two grizzly bears. There isn’t that much difference between the two either. The original Kuma was an abandoned bear cub that Heihachi found in the woods. He took it in and, as it grew up, noticed it was smarter than the average bear. Testing its intellectual limits, he ended up teaching it how to communicate through sign language, alongside how to fight. It could even speak a little Japanese!

The bear not only became Heihachi’s pet, but his most trusted bodyguard, and developed a fierce rivalry with Paul Phoenix through the first two Tekken tournaments. He likely would’ve stuck around if there wasn’t a 19-year time gap between T2 and T3. At best, bears live up to 47 years in captivity, and Kuma I had already grown up in T2. So, the original bear has since passed away. But that wasn’t before he got to form his own grizzly family and have a son.

5 Kuma II

Master of the Salmon

• Debut
  :
  Tekken 3
  .
• Heihachi Mishima’s pet, son of Kuma I.

With his first appearance being in the series’ most iconic game, and having appeared in every single entry since then, Kuma II has since overtaken his dad as the series’ big bear. Mainly because T1 and T2 didn’t really give their characters many opportunities to show off their personalities. They had their poses, moves, and PS1 endings, but that was about it. T3 and its subsequent sequels made bigger strides here with in-game dialogue, story mode cutscenes, special intros, Rage Arts, etc.

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For example, like his dad, Kuma II is the only de facto family member Heihachi actually liked (but still tried to screw over in Kuma’s non-canon Tekken 4 ending). After his death, the bear practiced Mishima-Style Karate to help defend the Mishima Zaibatsu against Kazuya’s G-Corporation. This newfound cause still hasn’t distracted him from his long, fruitless quest to try and woo Xiaoyu’s pet Panda, nor from trying to make his late father proud by doing what he wasn’t able to do: beat Paul Phoenix.

4 Asuka Kazama

Spirited Peacemaker

• Debut
  :
  Tekken 5
  .
• Distant cousin(?) to Jin Kazama, distant niece(?) to Jun Kazama.

Asuka Kazama was originally presented as Jin’s cousin, but series producer Katsuhiro Harada went back on that, saying their familial ties were more complicated. Nonetheless, she is part of the Kazama Clan and has some of their latent power to neutralize evil spirits. Not that she needed it, as she could neutralize situations just as effectively with her fists.

Born and raised in Osaka, she’d talk down/beat down street gangs until they agreed to play nice. Her aggressive approach to mediation would play into her reasons for competing in the Tekken tournaments too, by either seeking retribution from Feng Wei for attacking her father or aiming to put Jin in his place in T6 for starting a war. If only she didn’t keep getting interrupted by Lili’s over-the-top teases and pranks.

3 Mr Kazama

Asuka’s Long-Suffering Dad

• Debut
  :
  Tekken 5
  (in lore).
• Father of Asuka, distant relative to Jun Kazama (brother?) and Jin Kazama (uncle).

When Asuka made her debut in T5, people thought she’d be more important than she ended up being. She was presented as Jin’s cousin and had the Kazama Clan’s latent spiritual power. This also would’ve meant her father, Mr Kazama, would’ve been Jun Kazama’s brother. It gave fans food for thought until Bandai-Namco decided to put more distance between the Kazama and stick Asuka with her best frenemy Lili.

The Kazama Clancomese from Yakushima. But Mr Kazama was from a branch that upped sticks over to the mainland to make a living in Osaka. He thought he could do it by opening a dojo and instructing others in Kazama-style Jiu-Jitsu. But after Feng Wei ransacked the place, he lost his students, and his business, and is barely scraping by for his family. Perhaps one day he’ll get more fleshed out, maybe even get a name, and possibly become playable. But it’s about as likely as Asuka getting main-story status.

2 Lars Alexandersson

Lion Of The Rebellion

• Debut
  :
  Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion.
• Son of Heihachi. Half-brother of Kazuya and Reina by blood, Lee by law.
• Half-uncle to Jin.

Heihachi was devoted to Kazumi, but without her, his selfishness extended to his love life too. After finishing Kazuya off and reclaiming the Zaibatsu in T2, he celebrated by going on a series of dalliances. One of which was with an unknown Swedish woman, who would later give birth to his illegitimate son, Lars Alexandersson.

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Lars was originally part of the Tekken Force under Jin, but he grew disillusioned with his boss’ cause, rebelled, and formed his own opposing force in Yggdrasil. He has the strength of a Mishima but with a style of his own. Kazuya warned him that their family’s fate was to fight and betray each other. But as of T8, Lars is trying to break that cycle by helping Jin atone for his crimes and shut down the Zaibatsu and Kazuya’s G Corporation for good.

1 Reina Mishima

Purple Lightning

• Debut
  :
  Tekken 8.
• Daughter of Heihachi. Half-sister to Lars and Kazuya by blood, Lee by law.
• Half-aunt to Jin Kazama.

Lastly, Reina Mishima is the latest addition to the family and one still shrouded in secrecy as of this writing. Even with T8‘s “The Dark Awakens” Story Mode, she leaves some unanswered questions. One that fans are hoping gets answered in potential story DLC as Tekken 9 isn’t going to be made for years. What’s certain is that she’s another illegitimate child of Heihachi, and significantly younger than her other relatives too. She’s still a student at Mishima Polytechnical High School, Jin and Xiaoyu’s alma mater, but she has big ambitions.

She wants to follow directly in her father’s footsteps and is especially keen on testing her Mishima Karate-Taido mixed style against her relatives. Particularly her “brother” Kazuya and her kind-of nephew “Jin-senpai”. More curiously, Harada revealed Heihachi has up to 23 more illegitimate children waiting in the wings. Heaven forbid they make it into T8 as DLC.

Tekken 8

Released

January 26, 2024

Genre(s)

Fighting