Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Episode 62: Stone Hashira Gyomei Himejima

Tanjiro completes Gyomei Himejima’s brutal training by finally moving the massive boulder, but the effort leaves him completely exhausted and unable to continue. Gyomei then takes notice of Tanjiro’s sincerity, shares his own painful past, and ultimately acknowledges that he trusts him.

Tanjiro’s success comes only after he applies advice from Genya, using everything he has to push the boulder forward. Once he collapses from the strain, Gyomei catches him and keeps him from falling further.

After that, the episode shifts into Gyomei’s backstory. He explains that he once lived at a temple and cared for orphaned children, teaching them and looking after them as a monk. One night, a child went out and encountered a demon, and the temple children were killed in the resulting attack.

Gyomei fought the demon with overwhelming strength and killed it, but only one child survived. That surviving girl, terrified by the violence she saw, turned on Gyomei and accused him in confusion, which led to him being misunderstood and imprisoned.

The episode frames this memory as the reason Gyomei is so emotional and why he devotes himself to training others now. By the end, his conversation with Tanjiro makes it clear that he sees Tanjiro as honest and trustworthy, and he leaves the exchange visibly moved.