Higashikata Family

"The Higashikata Family would like to pay back this country and this land through public service."

- Norisuke Higashikata IV

The Higashikata Family (東方家) is one of the main families of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, with its members appearing in the fourth part Diamond is Unbreakable, the seventh part, Steel Ball Run, and the eighth part JoJolion.

Usually intertwined with the Joestar Family, its members are often involved with the protagonist of the part they feature in. Unlike the Joestars, the Higashikata family exclusively resides in the town of Morioh.

Higashikata Family
The Higashikata family is first seen in Diamond is Unbreakable and consists of three family members. They reside in the suburb of Morioh in a detached house and seem to be middle-class. Josuke, being the illegitimate son of Joseph Joestar, is the only member to have a Stand. Tomoko and Ryohei meanwhile have no supernatural abilities. At some point in time the Higashikata family buys a reef on the coast of Morioh, where the town's abalones reside.

Higashikata Family (Second Continuity)
In the new continuity of Steel Ball Run and JoJolion, a much larger and more prominent Higashikata family comes to the forefront. Unlike the first iteration, they are more deeply connected to the supernatural.

The first Higashikata featured is Norisuke Higashikata, a mature Japanese man who competes in the Steel Ball Run race. After the race, he started a successful fruit selling business in the Higashikata Fruit Company, eventually making the family a respected wealthy part of Morioh's community. They also all reside within the Higashikata House in the middle of a large estate of garden and orchards, the soil of which presents the supernatural property of being able to mix buried bodies' characteristics.

However, one of the strangest things about them is that the family is cursed with the Rock Disease, which changes each generation's eldest son into rock. This curse has afflicted the family for an undisclosed amount of time. Due to this the Higashikata follow several traditions to counter this curse. The eldest son most notably has to cross-dress in an attempt to ward off the curse, and they previously had to make the second son or anyone marrying the eldest daughter the new head of the family. However, since Norisuke IV's time, the family has had an unofficial trend of having a parent sacrifice themselves for the child by performing a transfer of the curse, a tradition which Kaato Higashikata broke.

This Higashikata family follows a tradition wherein the eldest son of each generation changes his birth name to "Norisuke", likely when the previous Norisuke passes away, as seen in the case where Jobin Higashikata has not yet taken up the name "Norisuke V".

The family tree as revealed in JoJolion lists its members from right to left from eldest child to youngest child. Interestingly, the names of the siblings of each "Norisuke" in each generation are not revealed in the family tree. The tree also demonstrates a bloodline connection to the Joestar Family through Rina Higashikata's marriage to Johnny Joestar, intertwining the two families.

As of JoJolion, all of the currently living members of the Higashikata Family are Stand users, including those by marriage. All Stand users use a Stand whose name contains the word "King".


 * Norisuke Higashikata IV: King Nothing
 * Kaato Higashikata: Space Trucking
 * Jobin Higashikata: Speed King
 * Mitsuba Higashikata: Awaking III Leaves
 * Hato Higashikata: Walking Heart
 * Joshu Higashikata: Nut King Call
 * Daiya Higashikata: California King Bed
 * Tsurugi Higashikata: Paper Moon King

Lastly, all men in the family have a birth name that starts with "Jo" (常) (excluding those whose birth names are unknown and Tsurugi). The female members as of the current generation in JoJolion (including Mitsuba, who was married into the family, and Tsurugi) are also named after card suits.

Trivia

 * JoJolion's Higashikata Family's tradition of dressing their firstborn sons as girls during their childhood to protect them from diseases is reminiscent of a plot point from the Japanese 12th century novel, in which the character Shino Inuzuka (犬塚信乃) spent his youth dressed and raised as a girl so that he would grow into a strong man.