Origin
Heihachi Mishima is the son of Jinpachi Mishima, the father of Kazuya Mishima, the adopted father of Lee Chaolan and the grandfather of Jin Kazama. He fights with the power of Mishima Style Karate and is the founder and the Commander of the Tekken Force Unit. He has hosted all but the second and fifth King of Iron Fist tournaments (which were hosted by Kazuya and Jinpachi, respectively). Heihachi was born as the heir to the rich, powerful, and well-respected Jinpachi Mishima, the owner of the powerful Mishima Zaibatsu and a world-famous martial arts master. During this time, Heihachi married and eventually had a son of his own, Kazuya. Heihachi raised Kazuya harshly; in his mind, he needed to forge a strong heir to eventually pass the Mishima Zaibatsu to. Much to his chagrin, Kazuya grew up kind and frail. At some point, Heihachi betrayed Jinpachi and stole the Zaibatsu from his father. After assuming control, Heihachi began to steer the Zaibatsu into the military industry while his father vanished. After some time, Jinpachi attempted to retake the Zaibatsu from his son, but he failed and was ultimately imprisoned underneath Hon-Maru, where he would remain for approximately 50 years.
Creation
Heihachi Mishima is a Namco Bandai character who appears frequently in the popular Tekken franchise. He first appears in the original Tekken video game released in 1995. Extremely important to the franchise and holding a key position in terms of plot development, Heihachi usually appears in all Tekken related stories and products. He is typically the antagonist of many Tekken related stories.
Major Story Arcs
Tournament of the Iron Fist
Finally fed up with Kazuya’s “weakness”, Heihachi tossed his son down a deep ravine, claiming that if he were truly his son, he’d be able to survive the fall and climb back up. Kazuya actually managed to do so, but only because he’d made a deal with the Devil in order to survive. To further motivate Kazuya, Heihachi adopted a Chinese orphan named Lee Chaolan and raised him as a rival to his true son. Over the years, Kazuya traveled abroad and competed in martial arts championships, becoming an undefeated champion (the only blemish on his record being a draw against Paul Phoenix). Eventually, Heihachi decided it was time to test his son’s strength, and he announced the King of Iron Fist Tournament.
Much to Heihachi’s surprise, he was defeated by his son, Kazuya. Kazuya tossed Heihachi from a cliff just as Heihachi did to him when he was younger. However, being no ordinary man, Heihachi survived and returned two years later as a competitor in Kazuya’s second King of Iron Fist Tournament. After winning the contest, he battles his adopted son Lee and has a showdown with Kazuya and defeats him. Afterwards, he tosses Kazuya, who had proven to be much too dangerous, into a volcano and kills him.
Battle with Ogre
Sometime later, he created the Tekken Force (Tekkenshu in the Japanese version), and used them as a quick-response group to appease the nations of the world. One day, 15 years after the end of the second King of Iron Fist Tournament, the Tekken Force found ruins in Central Mexico and discovered Ogre, who destroyed them all. Later, Heihachi was approached by a 15-year-old young man claiming to be his grandson, Jin Kazama. Heihachi took him in and taught him Mishima Style Karate, intent on using using him as bait for Ogre. Four years later, Heihachi announced that he would be hosting the King of Iron Fist Tournament 3 which would surely lure Ogre to the gathering of fighters. At the conclusion of the tournament, Jin succeeded and defeated True Ogre, but Heihachi betrayed him and shot him in the forehead. Surprisingly, Jin survived, transformed into Devil Jin, and struck Heihachi before escaping.
Tekken 4
Afterwards, Heihachi intended to combine his own DNA with that of Ogre, but he discovered that he would need the Devil Gene that he knew Jin possessed in order to combine the DNA. Heihachi searched desperately for Jin over the next two years, but could not locate him anywhere. Fortunately for Heihachi, Jin was not the only one with a compatible Devil Gene. Heihachi discovered evidence that his son Kazuya’s body was taken by G Corporation (a rival company) and used for research. Heihachi’s Tekken Force raided G Corporation’s facilities to discover that Kazuya had been resurrected by the corporation. Heihachi decided to hold the fourth King of Iron Fist Tournament (with his very company’s ownership as the grand prize) in an attempt to lure Kazuya so that he may extract the Devil Gene. At the same time, he expected Jin Kazama to become involved, so he set a trap. His plan was to send the Tekken Force to capture Jin, make the two Devil hosts fight one another, and then defeat the winner while he was hopelessly weakened. With Jin captured by the Tekken Force, Heihachi faced Kazuya in the finals of the tournament, and Heihachi won the fight. He then led Kazuya to his Hon-Maru compound, where Jin was being held captive. Everything went as planned, except that Jin was able to defeat both his father and Heihachi. Luckily, Heihachi was spared Jin’s wrath when a vision of Jun Kazama stopped Jin in his tracks. Heihachi is left unconscious as Jin takes flight from Hon-Maru.
The Return of his Father
Right after Jin’s departure, an army of Jack-4 units, sent by G Corporation, invaded Hon-Maru. Heihachi and Kazuya fought together, managing to destroy several Jack-4s, but Kazuya threw Heihachi to the Jack-4s, and he used the opportunity to escape by transforming into Devil, and then he flew away. One of the Jack-4s activated a self-destruct sequence, detonating and completely destroying Hon-Maru, leading everyone to believe that Heihachi was dead. In reality, Heihachi was thrown miles from the site, landing in a graveyard and remaining unconscious for weeks. But Heihachi, no ordinary man, survived the near-impossible odds. In his ending, Heihachi was able to defeat Jinpachi. The end clips shows Jinpachi, Kazuya and jin chained to a missle which is about to lauch with a smug look on his face Heihachi lauches the missile and laughs.
Revenge
Heihachi has been confirmed to appear in the upcoming game, Tekken 6. Heihachi awakens after being blown away by the Hon-Maru explosion to find that the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5 has already ended. When Heihachi returns to the Mishima Zaibatsu headquarters, guards block his way and refuse to let him in. He becomes enraged to find Jin to be the new leader of the Zaibatsu, and after the announcement of the King of Iron Fist Tournament 6, he enters to get everything back.
Final confrontation
Heihachi is one of the main protagonists of Tekken 7 story mode. He appears in a flashback, where a child Kazuya fights him because of the murder of Kazuya’s mother. Unfortunately, Kazuya was easily defeated. Heihachi then throws his own son off a cliff, and the rest is history.
Back to present events: after Jin is missing, the Mishima Zaibatsu is leaderless; so he decides to head over to the HQ and fight his way back to the chairman’s seat. Taking advantage of the Zaibatsu’s lack of focus, he defeats every Tekken Force thug that gets on his way, and after that he reaches Jin’s former righthand: Nina Williams and defeats her as well. Claiming the leadership back, he recruits Nina and decides to announce the 7th King of Iron Fist Tournament.
Later on, Heihachi and Nina travel to Italy, as they seek to hire the services of the leader of the Sirius’ Marksmen, Claudio Serafino. They reach the Marksmen’s HQ only to be ambushed by lackeys. Once they were dealt with, Claudio himself appears, reminding Heihachi that he has declined every request Heihachi sent. After a fight between them, Heihachi shows some images of his devilish descendants. This convinces Claudio to work along Heihachi. Back in the Zaibatsu HQ, Heihachi orders his Tekken Force to capture Jin, who has been located at the Middle East. However, Lars interferes and takes Jin with him.
Heihachi goes back to his dojo in order to meditate. But this doesn’t last long, as a stranger forces his way in, and challenges Heihachi to a fight. They both measure their might for a while, but they get interrupted by an army of JACK-6 units, so they decide to get rid of these for the time being. After the JACK’s were dealt with, Heihachi is impressed by the stranger’s skill and asks his name. He then introduces himself as being Akuma, and reveals he is there in behalf of Kazumi, who asked him to kill both her husband and her son. Akuma also says that he waited this long for Heihachi to get stronger, and then they resume their fight. At some point, Akuma is forced to use his ultimate technique, the Shun Goku Satsu. The fight ends with both Akuma and Heihachi trading a last blow, and Akuma stands out as the winner. Heihachi, however, survives the ordeal.
Back on the HQ, Heihachi plans to use the eventual fight between Kazuya and Akuma to his advantage, so he focuses the Zaibatsu’s satellite on their fight. So, they both fight atop the G Corp’s building, and as Akuma proves to be a challenge for Kazuya, he uses the Devil form to fight Akuma. Expecting this outcome, Heihachi uses the satellite to stream to the world the proof that Kazuya can turn into a Devil, and then to destroy the G Corp’s HQ. Already thinking he won the battle and the trust of the world population, Heihachi decides to call off Claudio’s services; little did he expect that Kazuya decided to retaliate and so, he used a Devil Beam to destroy the Zaibatsu’s satellite, which collides with a city and turned the population against the Zaibatsu. Realizing that the Zaibatsu can’t recover from this, Heihachi can only curse Kazuya.
Heihachi later learns that a journalist (narrator of the Story Mode) has tried to enter the HQ for answers. So, he asks for said journalist to be brought to his dojo, as he wants to give his insight about how it all began. He starts by telling the journalist that he grew up training at his family’s dojo alongside a girl called Kazumi Hachijo, and they grew close and eventually married. Soon they became parents of Kazuya. However, their life took a bad turn when Kazumi started having odd behaviors, even trying to kill Heihachi, who could only disregard this as mental issues that hopefully could go away. However, one fateful night, Kazumi interrupted Heihachi’s training and said to him that he’s fated to become a threat to the world and that her family only wed her with Heihachi, so she could get close and kill him. She then turns into her Devil form, and Heihachi is forced to fight her. After a fierce fight, Heihachi becomes the victor and, saddened, leaves the dojo. However, she wakes up again and tries to kill him, but Heihachi catches Kazumi by the neck. She pleads to him, but Heihachi sees through her ruse, realizing she’s not the Kazumi he knew, and as such, he snaps her neck. Shedding a single tear, Heihachi looks at the only woman he ever loved for the last time.
Heihachi then continues his story telling that he threw Kazuya down the ravine, because he couldn’t take the chance of having a killing demon with him; Kazuya surviving the fall confirmed the worst fears, making Heihachi lament he didn’t kill him at once when he had the chance. Lastly, Heihachi taunts the journalist by telling him he knew he was an intermediate of Lars. When the journalist asks him what this war means to him, Heihachi stays silent for a while, only for him to order his soldiers to knock the journalist down and drop him at a wharf, so that Lars could pick him up. Later, at his destroyed dojo, Heihachi realizes that it’s time for the final showdown with Kazuya.
Finally, Heihachi meets with Kazuya face-to-face at a volcano, and so they engage on their final fight. During their confrontation, they remember the various moments of hatred between them. At some point, Kazuya is forced to bring out his full Devil form; Heihachi expected this and fully charged his ki in order to stand a chance. Later on, Kazuya uses his final attack on him, but Heihachi stands back up again, and they trade punches for a while longer; Heihachi then uses all his might on his ultimate technique, which actually makes Kazuya’s Devil back off. As they are both exhausted, Kazuya and Heihachi desperately struggle by punching each other, but Kazuya uses a single Devil Gene-enhanced punch on Heihachi’s chest, making him fall to the ground. Kazuya then throws his deceased father’s corpse on the molten lava.
Powers and Abilities
Heihachi Mishima is a elite world class fighter, powerful, arrogant and deadly, his main fighting style and discipline that of Mishima style Karate. He has been a world ranked fighter for most of his life. Although no longer in his physical prime, his cunning and skill and experience more than make up for this.
Physical Characteristics
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 176 lbs
Hair: Grey
Eyes: Brown
Non Cannon Storylines
Soulcalibur 2
Heihachi was relaxing in a mountain spring after training with Kuma when he noticed a peculiar metallic fragment. Since the fragment was resonating power Heihachi delved into ancient scrolls only to learn that the fragment was a piece of Soul Edge, a sword in medevil times that entire wars were fought over. In his excitement Heihachi cut his finger on the shard and after a moment of dizziness Heihachi came to in medevil Japan. Heihachi wanted to return to his own time, but the thought of challenging the powerful warriors that sought the sword was to tempting a challenge. To offset the use of weapons Heihachi used Japanese armor to fashion Arm Guards which added protection, but did not hinder his movements. Heihachi’s destined battle is Raphael Sorel and after defeating him is transported to Inferno’s dimension where he fights for the chance to wield Soul Edge. Once Inferno is defeated Heihachi is transported back to his own time, satisfied with his journey.
Street Fighter X Tekken
Heihachi hears about the mysterious box know as Pandora that has landed in the Antarctic and sets off to find it with Kuma as his tag team partner. Realizing that Shadoloo, G Corporation, and the Mishima Zaibatsu are after it as well Heihachi hopes to deny Kazuya and Jin their prize. Heihachi’s rival battle is with Abel and Guile and he has to fight M. Bison and Juri along the way. Pandora’s final guardian is the single warrior Akuma. Once Heihachi has obtained Pandora his ending depicts the box opening and giving the gift Heihachi most desired, his youth restored though Kuma steps in the way and is reduced to a cub while only one of Heihachi’s sideburns turns back to black.
Other Media
Video Games
Tekken (1995)
Heihachi is the main antagonist and founder of the King of the Iron Fist Tournament. He puts the Tournament together to lure out his son as well as test his battle prowess. Heihachi is also defeated at the climax of the tournament and in a twist or irony, thrown off a cliff into the same ravine by his son Kazuya as the one he cast his son down many years prior.
Tekken 2 (1996)
Heihachi must now enter the very tournament he established to overthrow his son Kazuya who is now the head of the Mishima Zaibatsu.
Tekken 3 (1997)
Set 20 years after the second King of the Iron Fist Tournament Heihachi seeks the secrets of alien fight god Ogre.
Tekken Tag Tournament (2000)
Features in the first tag team Iron Fist Tournament.
Tekken 4 (2002)
Failing to capture Ogre, but holding tissue samples of the alien fighting god, Heihachi needs to lure out both his son and grand son in order to acquire devil gene samples.
Tekken 5 (2005) and Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection
Heihachi must confront his past and the reappearance of his own father Jinpachi Mishima.
Tekken 6 (2009) and Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion
Heihachi research continues on trying to merge superior genetics and limitless power.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (2012)
Sequel to the original Tekken Tag Tournament.
Street Fighter X Tekken (2012)
Fighting game featuring both Namco Tekken characters and Capcom Street Fighter characters. Hehachi’s partner is Kuma.
Soul Calibur II (2002)
Heihachi features as a special guest cameo character.
Death by Degrees (2005)
Heihachi appears in the Tekken spin off game starring Irish assassin Nina Williams.
Anna Kournikova’s Smash Court Tennis (1999)
Heihachi and a few other Tekken characters appear in the Namco produced tennis video game starring popular international woman’s tennis player Anna Kournikova.
Movies
Tekken (2010)
Heihachi Mishima features and has a starring antagonist role in the 2010 live action movie Tekken. Heihachi Mishima is portrayed by popular and famous Japanese-American actor, martial artist and producer Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. The film is set in a dystopian future, the year 2039, and World Wars have devastated many countries governments and political structures to the extent that large corporations now run society. Exploiting such power vacuums, Heihachi Mishima is the CEO of Tekken Corporation, the largest and most powerful corporation in the world, controlling and dictating much of North America. Heihachi uses the Tekken Tournament, the King of the Iron Fist Tournament as a tool to help placate and entertain many of the populace that fall under his control and dictatorship. His son Kazuya, played by Ian Anthony Dale is ambitious and power hungry, and the death of his grandson Jin Kazama’s mother by Tekken soldiers motivates the youngster to enter the Tekken tournament to get revenge.
Tekken The Motion Picture (1996)
Heihachi Mishima appears and plays an important role in the 1996, animated film Tekken The Motion Picture. He is the stories main antagonist and integral to most of the film’s plot development and is the base of motivation for a majority of the other characters plots. He is voiced by Daisuke G?ri in the Japanese version o the movie, and voiced by John Paul Shepard in the English version of the film. The film tells of the relationship and rivalry between Heihachi Mishima and Kazuya Mishima, starting off with Heihachi’s cruel action of throwing Kazuya off of a cliff and Kazuya’s rise to adult hood and path of revenge. Heihachi must also deal with Michelle Chang’s desire for vengeance as well as adopted son Lee Chaolan’s dissatisfaction with some of the Tournament’s competitors.
Tekken: Blood Vengeance (2011)
Heihachi appears in the 2011 computer animated movie Tekken: Blood Vengeance. He is voiced by Unsh? Ishizuka and Jamieson Price. His role in the movie is small but important, as it is revealed that he is the mastermind behind much of the films plots and machinations. The climax of the film involves an intense three way brawl between three generations of Mishima family bloodlines. Jin, Kazuya and Mishima.