Date of Birth: June 20, 1849
Height: 158 cm
Weight: 48 kg
Blood Type: AB
Zodiac Sign: Gemini
Special Skill: Silver tongue

A short, slender, and gentle-looking man with red hair. He is characterized by the large cross-shaped scar on his left cheek. At first glance, he appears cheerful and harmless, but he was once a pro-imperialist revolutionary from the Choshu clan and the legendary hitokiri Battosai, hailed as the strongest swordsman of the Bakumatsu period. He wielded a murderous blade like a demon, killing many pro-shogunate retainers. However, due to a tragic incident, he began to hesitate to kill. After the Meiji Restoration, he took a vow not to kill, and as a wanderer, he travels across the country swinging his sword for the weak. Though born with a disposition that dislikes conflict, he is a master of the Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu, a sword style originating in the Sengoku period. Once in battle, he displays superhuman swordsmanship with a reversed-blade sword, and possesses military might far surpassing a single battalion. Despite being a swordsman, he continued to wear a sword even after the 1876 Sword Abolishment Edict, leading to frequent questioning by police in urban areas for violating the edict. Even in the town where the Kamiya dojo is located, he was chased by police until his face and name became known.

Kenshin's personality is gentle and soft-spoken, but in the early part of the story, when his emotions run high, the hitokiri Battosai personality resurfaces, making him unnaturally combative and cold. His handwriting is catastrophically poor.

Due to his vow not to kill, Kenshin's personality holds that he will not cut down an opponent nor allow anyone, friend or foe, to be killed. Since taking this vow to heart, he has never bent his belief, no matter how cruel the villain he faces or how dire the situation. However, when the hitokiri Battosai personality resurfaces, the restraint of the vow not to kill breaks, unleashing combat ability and aggression on a completely different level from usual.
He is 28 years old, but his youthful appearance makes him look much younger, and he is often mistaken for a woman.
Though well-versed in the dark side of the Meiji Restoration as an assassin, he is still deeply trusted by many Choshu clan revolutionaries, including Aritomo Yamagata, as a hero who worked behind the scenes. As stated by Aoshi and Jusaburo Tani, if Kenshin wished, he could become a general in the army or even wield the influence of the Choshu faction in financial and political circles. He was once invited by Yamagata to become a top leader in the Imperial Army, but politely refused. However, many revolutionaries despise him as a "hitokiri," and some, fearing he might leak secrets about the darker side of the Restoration, have targeted his life through assassination organizations.
He shows a lack of understanding of romantic feelings toward the opposite sex, and sometimes reveals a somewhat naturally airheaded and tactless side. He is also skilled in Kuroda-bushi singing and umbrella tricks.
His speech patterns include "de gozaru," "de gozaru ka?," "suru de gozaru," "de gozarou?," "shite shimatte," "shite shimatta." Due to his atonement and guilt for the past, he unconsciously harbors a negative side that drives himself into a corner and tends to devalue his own sacrifices. In battle, especially when confronting his past intensely, he easily becomes emotionally unstable, a point his master has painfully pointed out. He uses "Sessha" as a first-person pronoun. When enraged and reverting to Battosai, he uses "Ore." He addresses women with the suffix "-dono" and men by their bare names.