Assassin's Creed Shadows: Kuji-kiri Locations & Interactive Tracking Guide

It's the most quietly elegant activity in Assassin's Creed Shadows — and if you'd rather not engage with it at all, one settings toggle completes every one of the 22 without costing you a single reward. All Kuji-kiri locations are available for live tracking on Map Master's Assassin's Creed Shadows Japan map.

Kuji-kiri Is Naoe-Only

These are meditation spots, and Yasuke has no relationship with them. Naoe kneels, breathes, and works through the nine-syllable ritual her father taught her. Approach one as Yasuke and nothing happens.

They appear as orange meditation icons on the map. If you're playing as Yasuke when you find one, switch characters on the spot from the inventory rather than fast travelling away — Knowledge Points are shared between both protagonists regardless of who earns them.

Each completed Kuji-kiri gives 500 XP and 1 Knowledge Point.

How the Kuji-kiri Minigame Works

Four button prompts appear on screen with a white circle sweeping toward a grey zone. Press each input when the circle sits inside the grey and the sequence advances.

The difficulty curve is internal to each session. Early passes show you everything. Later passes strip the visual cues away, leaving the chime as your only timing reference. Get one wrong and the sequence restarts.

The First Four Kuji-kiri Trigger Before the Fall

This is the part worth understanding before you start. Whichever four you complete first trigger the flashback quests in Naoe's personal questline, "Before the Fall." The locations are not fixed — the game doesn't care which four, only that you've done four.

Those flashbacks are: Shinobi Warfare (the ambush of Nobunaga's samurai at Nagano Pass), Mind and Body (Nagato teaching Naoe, and Matsu's heirloom scroll), A True Igan (Momochi Sandayu's reconnaissance mission to a silent watchtower), and Traditions.

Completing all four closes Before the Fall for 1,000 XP and a Hideout decoration — and, more importantly, those four quests are required to progress the main story later. Skip Kuji-kiri entirely, and you'll hit a wall further in.

The remaining 18 are pure minigames with no story attached.

Auto QTE Completes Kuji-kiri Without Blocking Zen Master

From the world map: Options → Gameplay → Quick Time Events → Auto.

With this enabled, Naoe completes the entire sequence unassisted, and you still receive the full XP and Knowledge Point. Confirmed: it does not prevent the Zen Master trophy. Meditate at all 22 with Auto on, and the trophy still unlocks.

The same setting handles Yasuke's Kata sequences, which use identical inputs.

Finding Kuji-kiri Spots Across Japan

They're placed in natural settings — temple gardens, cliff edges over water, ponds, quiet glens — which means they're often far from roads and rarely visible from the path.

The reliable method: sync the nearest Viewpoint, then hold Observe from the top. Meditation spots resolve as marked points across the surrounding terrain far faster than riding around looking for them.

Distribution favours the opening provinces. Izumi Settsu and Yamashiro carry the largest share — almost certainly deliberate, so Before the Fall resolves early — while the remaining regions hold two apiece.

Wakasa's pair closes things out at Kajii Monzeki Temple on the southern edge of Onyu Pass and the Pond of the Heron.

The Kuji-kiri Worth Going Out of Your Way For

The spot in Mibuno Vale, Iga sits at the ruins of Naoe's family home. It's a normal Kuji-kiri mechanically — same minigame, same reward — but Naoe comments on it every single time you return to that part of the map, unprompted, for the rest of the game.

If you're doing these in any deliberate order, save that one.

Kuji-kiri and the Six Knowledge Ranks

At 22 locations, Kuji-kiri is the single largest source of Knowledge Points in the game. Ranks 2, 3, and 4 cost 10 points each; Rank 5 costs 15 and opens the strongest skills; Rank 6 is the ceiling for both characters.

Pair Kuji-kiri with Hidden Trails for a Naoe-only sweep, then switch to Yasuke for Kata and Horse Archery. Kofun and Shrines are open to both.