Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-4271790-20141016102132/@comment-1512913-20141024211219

Yes, he used Izanagi, remember? He wanted to obtain Hashirama's powers and to erase himself from the history so he could operate behind the scene, not to kill Hashirama. He could have instead used it without a timer and kill Hashirama. Even if Hashirama would have defended himself, Madara would have had still 1 more Izanagi to go.