Jouichirou Yukihira

Jōichirō Yukihira, born Jōichirō Saiba, is the widowed father of Sōma Yukihira and a legendary 69th-generation Tōtsuki alumnus who rose to the 2nd seat of the Elite Ten Council before leaving the academy without graduating. His skill was so overwhelming during his student days that classmates nicknamed him Asura for the despair he left in every opponent he faced, including a single-handed duel against fifty challengers at once.

Despite his dominance, Jōichirō lost himself amid the pressure of constantly having to prove he was Tōtsuki's best, and at the suggestion of Senzaemon Nakiri he left the academy to travel and cook around the world. He eventually settled in Tokyo, fell in love with Tamako, the cheerfully terrible cook running a small diner, and took her surname when they married and had Sōma.

As a father, Jōichirō never pushed Sōma toward cooking but supported him quietly, deliberately working abroad so his son would have to attend Tōtsuki alone. His decades-long friendship with fellow Polar Star alumnus Gin Dōjima, and his habit of testing disgusting experimental dishes on Jun Shiomi, both trace back to his own student years at the dormitory.