Dōjutsu

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Kakashi using his Sharingan, a Dōjutsu

Dōjutsu (瞳術, literally meaning: Eye Technique) are genetic ninja abilities that utilize the eyes, enabling them to perceive chakra in some form or another. Being a byproduct of specific kekkei genkai, dōjutsu are not classified as one of the major jutsu types. They do not require hand seals to use and sometimes facilitate in the use or defense against genjutsu, taijutsu and ninjutsu and then defeat his or her opponent. All known dōjutsu also provide the user with some otherwise incapable ability, such as an extended field of vision or predictive capabilities. The use of Dōjutsu consumes chakra.

Known dōjutsu

• Byakugan
• Isshiki's Dōjutsu
• Jōgan
• Ketsuryūgan
• Mangekyō Sharingan
• Ranmaru's Kekkei Genkai
• Rinnegan
• Senrigan
• Sharingan
• Tenseigan

Possible Dōjutsu

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Shion's eyes while predicting a death.

In Naruto Shippūden the Movie, a high priestess from the Land of Demons named Shion has the ability to predict a person's death. When she sees a prediction of someone's death, her eyes take on a flourish design, which makes it a possible dōjutsu.

In Naruto Shippūden 3: Inheritors of the Will of Fire, the major antagonist Hiruko uses a jutsu that controls a person's mind, seemingly through eye contact to create the original connection. However, it is not confirmed that the user's eyes or even eye contact is needed to set this technique, so it is unlikely to be a dojutsu.

Inspiration

The concept of dōjutsu may have been inspired by Futaro Yamada's 1959 novel, The Kōga Ninja Scrolls (甲賀忍法帖, Kōga Ninpōchō), which featured two warring clans of ninja that had developed mutations and abilities through selective breeding, with the young heirs to each clan possessing mysterious dōjutsu.

Another possible inspiration for dōjutsu in the series may also be found in the Journey to the West classic's titular character, the Monkey God-King, Sun Wukong: After having eaten all of the 'peaches of immortality', the 'pills of longevity' and drunk all of the 'wine of immortality', and then was captured after a long rebellion against Heaven, the Monkey God-King, Sun Wukong, was then sealed into Lao Tzu's eight-way trigram cauldron to be burned to ash in order for Lao Tzu to reclaim his pills of longevity. But after 49 days, Sun Wukong broke out--stronger than ever--his body having been refined by the flames instead of being reduced to ash, His eyes had also become a fiery red and golden color, becoming known as his "Fiery-eyes golden-gaze" (火眼金睛, Huǒyǎn-Jīnjīng); an eye condition that allowed Sun Wukong to now see what's really there just by looking and the ability to see and recognize an evil's real form despite whatever form that it took on--but, likewise, it also gave him a weakness to smoke, fogging his vision.