All the Eyes in Naruto: Every Dojutsu, Explained
The word for these is dojutsu, meaning eye techniques, and it’s the term that unlocks basically every related search once you know it. Here’s every one that exists in the series.
The three great dojutsu
Sharingan is the Uchiha clan’s signature ability. It copies techniques, lets the user see chakra, and gives real insight into an opponent’s movement. It has distinct stages, and the stages are really the whole point. Base Sharingan awakens under emotional stress, while Mangekyo Sharingan awakens specifically through profound loss and grief, which is exactly why the Uchiha clan’s history is so consistently bleak. Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan is obtained by transplanting a sibling’s Mangekyo, and it stops the progressive blindness that normal Mangekyo use eventually causes.
Individual Mangekyo abilities are each separately worth knowing: Itachi’s Tsukuyomi, Amaterasu, and Susanoo; Sasuke’s own Amaterasu, Blaze Release, and Susanoo; Kakashi’s and Obito‘s shared Kamui; Shisui’s Kotoamatsukami; and Madara’s Susanoo and Limbo.
Byakugan is the Hyuga clan’s ability. It gives a near-total field of vision around the user, the ability to see through solid objects, and crucially, the ability to see the body’s own chakra pathway system, including the tenketsu points, which is exactly what makes the Gentle Fist fighting style work. It does have one real, stated weakness: a small blind spot directly behind the neck, near the base of the skull, discovered and exploited by an opponent during a fight in the series.
Rinnegan is the rarest of the three, and the one with the most tangled history of who’s held it. It originates with Hagoromo. Centuries later, Madara Uchiha implants it into Nagato, then an infant, and Nagato carries it through most of his life. After Nagato dies, Obito takes the eyes for himself, implanting one and keeping the other in reserve, knowing he couldn’t handle the strain of both at once. Separately, the elder Madara later awakens his own Rinnegan again, this time through merging his cells with Hashirama Senju’s. And Sasuke develops his own version independently, in one eye, after receiving a share of Hagoromo’s own power. Kaguya holds a related but distinct variant of her own.
The rarer eyes
- Rinne Sharingan is Kaguya’s own third eye, and it belongs to her alone.
- Tenseigan comes from Hamura’s bloodline and appears in The Last: Naruto the Movie, which is film material rather than main manga canon.
- Jogan is Boruto’s eye, unique to the Otsutsuki and distinct from both the Byakugan and Tenseigan despite looking similar. It lets him perceive chakra pathways down to the tenketsu level, sense chakra signatures, and interact with space-time ninjutsu and other dimensions. Early on it activates involuntarily, and he only learns to trigger it deliberately later.
- Ketsuryugan is a blood-related dojutsu belonging to the Chinoike clan.
Things people think are dojutsu, and aren’t
This is the section that clears up real, common confusion.
- Sage Mode’s orange eye markings and horizontal pupils aren’t an eye technique at all. That’s senjutsu changing the user’s body more broadly, not a dojutsu specifically.
- Kurama Chakra Mode’s glowing eyes are simply the tailed beast‘s chakra showing through, not a bloodline eye ability.
- The cursed seal changes a user’s appearance, including their eyes, and has nothing to do with dojutsu whatsoever.
- Visual effects generally come with the Rasengan and plenty of other techniques. A glowing eye in this series doesn’t automatically signal a bloodline dojutsu at work, which is worth keeping in mind before assuming.
Why the Uchiha’s own eyes ended up killing so many of them
The series treats this as an open secret rather than a hidden twist, so spell it out: continued use of Mangekyo Sharingan gradually blinds its user, which is precisely why the Uchiha developed the practice of transplanting a sibling’s eyes to gain the Eternal version and halt the deterioration. That single fact quietly explains a huge amount of Uchiha clan history and internal tension, since it means the clan’s own signature power actively incentivized violence between its own members long before Itachi’s massacre ever happened. The dojutsu that defines the clan is, in a very literal sense, also one of the clan’s own greatest internal threats.
Which of these can be transplanted, and which cannot
One thing that separates the dojutsu from most bloodline abilities in the series is that several of them keep working in someone else’s head, and that fact drives a surprising amount of the plot.
- The Sharingan transplants readily. Kakashi carries one for most of the series without being an Uchiha at all, and Danzo accumulates a great many of them. The trade-off is that a non-Uchiha cannot deactivate it, which is why Kakashi keeps his covered and burns through chakra whenever it is exposed.
- The Rinnegan transplants too. Madara implants one into Nagato as an infant, and Obito later takes them from Nagato’s body after his death, keeping one in reserve rather than using both at once.
- The Byakugan is the awkward case. It can be taken, which is exactly why Hyuga branch members carry a cursed seal designed to destroy the eye on death and keep it out of enemy hands. That single security measure explains most of the clan’s internal cruelty.
How to keep the three great dojutsu straight at a glance
A simple way to hold onto the distinction between the three is to think of them as read, see, and control, rather than trying to memorize every individual technique under each one.
| Dojutsu | Clan | Core idea | Main limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sharingan | Uchiha | Reading and copying an opponent | Mangekyo use causes progressive blindness |
| Byakugan | Hyuga | Seeing everything around and through a target | Blind spot behind the neck |
| Rinnegan | Otsutsuki line | Controlling space, life, and death directly | Extremely rare, and enormously demanding to use |
That framing is usually enough to keep straight which eye is being discussed in any given scene.
Common questions
What are the three great dojutsu?
The Sharingan, the Byakugan, and the Rinnegan. Sharingan copies techniques and reads movement, Byakugan grants near-total vision and sees the chakra pathway system, and the Rinnegan is the rarest, granting control over space, life, and death.
What is the strongest eye in Naruto?
The Rinnegan among the three great dojutsu, though Kaguya’s Rinne Sharingan sits above it as the eye that casts the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Why does using the Mangekyo Sharingan cause blindness?
Continued use degrades the user’s sight progressively. The Uchiha answer was transplanting a sibling’s Mangekyo to gain the Eternal version, which halts the deterioration and also explains a great deal of the clan’s internal violence.
Is Sage Mode a dojutsu?
No. The orange eye markings and horizontal pupils come from senjutsu changing the body more broadly, not from an eye technique. Kurama Chakra Mode’s glowing eyes and the cursed seal are likewise not dojutsu.
