We don’t know. I think the data books mentioned early during the first shinobi Great War while the anime stated natural causes. More than likely he exhausted the limits of his regen and it shortened his life. 

I don't think he died in battle, since the man who killed Hashirama would have become widely known in all the shinobi war.

So the idea of some chakra sickness could be fitting... Perhaps his final confrontation against Madara was to taxing that after that Hashirama was left as a shell of his former self, basically living on a borrowed time.

Chakra sickness is also my headcanon, they mentioned in one of the novels sasuke goes to find a cure for Naruto due to his chakra sickness . Hashirama was just unlucky

He died waiting for Tsunade to pay off her gambling debt.

What illness. Hashirama is top tier medical ninjutsu. Itachi is no where near Hokage.

Obito: "Ravaged by illness, painfully aware of his impending death he forcefully prolonged his life with medication"

This is exactly my head cannon, tsunade has the same issue of accelerated aging due to abusing her healing factor, I believe the same thing happened to Hashirama and he just died naturally at like 40-50

He died of depression and sadness cause he lost his boi Madara 💔.

Ruling Konoha without the madara just didn't hit the same bro.

He "fell" to his death while on a reminiscing walk in the valley of the end. Didn't wanna live no mo

Yep. Pretty much. And Madara follows soon after. They were just meant for each other. The incarnations make sense. They either fight or love each other. Madara just never realized.

Kishimoto is the only one that knows the answer to this question

Tenten thrown a kunai so hard it went back in time and it hit hashirama. Than the leaf hid all the evidence of it happening, because they did not want everyone to know that the strongest shinobi of all time died from a kunai.

1st Hokage, Itachi, Kimmimaro.. Maybe I’m missing more.

Was that more like Ninja cancer?

Most likely answer. Anyone deemed too strong gets ninja aids

My head canon: Tripped into a wood chipper

Real answer: in the first ninja war

Hashirama calls are too powerful even for hashirama

We actually don't know. My guess is he was sick

If im correct it is never mentioned

Anybody can die of sickness, even someone like Hashirama

well in ep 85 of Naruto Shippuden A Person named "Kakuzu" states that he has indeed fought the 1st hokage and that he was the first leaf shinobi to ever go against him "kakuzu" posseses 4 hearts and is very powerful, but with that being said Madara most likely killed the 1st hokage and died in the battle

He just died at a young age for some reason. I don’t think it was ever explained.

Minha teoria foi que ele pediu para ser selado já que muitos queriam suas células e por isso sempre tinha guerras entre as vilas aí ele pediu pra ser selado e morreu provavelmente 

Anybody's guess, even Kishi didn't know.

If Hashirama died during the first Shinobi War I want to know the Shinobi responsible. You can't have Madara flexing on 10k Ninja and Hashi going out young to lesser ninjas

From Chapter 382, in which Jiraiya discusses the value of a shinobi's death based on their accomplishments before death, we can draw a few conclusions.

First, Jiraiya regrets being rejected by Tsunade, the woman he loved. Hashirama had Mito and a loving family. This means he succeeded here. She lived long enough after his death.

The second of Jiraiya's regrets is: He wanted to stop his friend, Orochimaru. Hashirama accomplished this by killing Madara and protecting Konoha.

Third, Jiraya's regret was that he was unable to protect his master and sensei. Hashirama never had a master that we know of, but he established the village system and left everything to the new generation. His brother became the next Hokage, meaning that while he was alive, he managed to sustain peace. All the Shinobi Wars occurred after his death.

In conclusion, I think Hashirama probably died from shortening his life. That's how Tsunade found out about it in the first place. If Hashirama died tragically, that would be another tragic death in her backstory, like Dan and Nawaki. So, he died among his loving family and in the village where he was deeply respected. It was a death worthy of a person to be called the god of shinobi. He achieved a lot and faced his death naturally, unlike others who died sacrificing themselves. (Or, you could interpret this as that Hashirama sacrificed everything for the prosperity of Konoha) Thus, there is no legend of his death.

Honestly, it’s wild that we still don’t know how Hashirama died. Dude was literally the god of shinobi, solo’d Madara with the Nine Tails, invented modern medical ninjutsu by accident, and had a kekkei genkai so broken Orochimaru spent decades trying to copy it. And we’re supposed to believe he just... died off-screen?

No way this man died in a fair fight. No one else in that era was on his level. Either he died from overusing his own absurd regen abilities (which would be poetic, sure), or something shady went down—maybe political betrayal, forbidden jutsu, even a karma-style consequence from overusing natural energy.

But yeah, a movie showing his final days, the fallout of the Madara conflict, the politics of founding Konoha, his mental state, and eventual death? That would print money and give his character real closure beyond the "humble wood ninja Buddha" image.

And let’s be real: there’s no way this man died from something mundane. If Kishimoto or the anime team ever tackle it, it needs to be mythic, tragic, and tied to the toll of being too powerful in a world not ready for peace.

Nah. I don't think there is a good explanation of how someone as powerful as Hirashima could have been killed at the age he died at.

Keeping it a mystery is better than some story that just doesn't make sense.

Considering he remembers spoiling a 5yo Tsunade, I like to assume he wasn't younger than 45 actually, though I take into possibility teenage pregancies at the time.

Anyway, back to the point of the post? YES, I'd very much like to know more about Hashirama's story. The more the better, since the only thing we were given is his relationship with Madara.

So the only running theory is that he died as a result of his insane regeneration. Madara compared Tsunade's 100 Healings to Hashirama's base healing factor.

The implication we've come to is that over his years of combat and multiple wars he sustained sp much damage that his natural life span was severally cut, similar to how 100 healings works.

The only guy during their time that could've killed him was Madara, even if every other Kage came at him it wouldn't have worked.

Why would someone need to kill him ? He could’ve died of old age just like any other kage .

At madaras supposed death nobody was strong enough to challenge hashirama , due to him posing the highest level of wood style and being a perfect sage .

Well he might’ve been old ? If it didn’t specify his age . One could assume from the logical side that . He simply wasn’t in his prime anymore .

Nobody could stand against Hashirama apart from madara . So it doesn’t make sense for him to die in battle without some serious reason .

Bankruptcy killed him. Baby Tsunade was a big spender.

In other words, the only thing that can kill Hashirama is Hashirama cells.

Kakuzu managed to asasinate him with his Raw Durability.

People just refuse to face the facts.

Died due to overuse of his regeneration ability.

Ninja aids.

Joking aside, he was introduced as an already dead character. Kishimoto did not have the idea that this character could make wood golems, dragons, regenerate and summon a gargantuan Buddha statues that god-smacks the Earth 10,000 times per second when he wrote that he died during the beginning of the first world war.

Kishimoto isn't going to bother to explain how a guy so powerful died relatively young. Just headcanons left. It could be a disease that got him. Some people think he suffered from shortening telomeres with his regen ability (I doubt he was getting hurt so frequently given his immense skill level). Could be of a broken heart when Madara left the village for all we know.

There isn't any information on how he died. We don't know.

Too much wood.

I wood'nt know :'')

I think overuse of the wood style jutsu and the over use of his ability to regenerate, which is related to his wood style.

We know Tsunades mitonic regeneration is a double edge jutsu. It takes life away from the use because the cells are being forced to split and regenerate. She cut her life span each time she used it.

Now imagine the level and effect hashiramas jutsu has on him.

I believe he ran out his natural life span and died peacefully.

It was mentioned one time in the series that he passed during a war. The only explanation is the first great ninja war when he was affiliated with the uzumaki clan

I'm thinking he was too injured after the last Madara fight or natural causes.

Ninja aids.

The only theory that makes sense would be his own overuse of his healing jutsu that was similar go Tsunades 100 healings jutsu. The constant battling from years of clan war and harsh battles of Madara would shorten his life span leading to his death early from natural causes.

Any one killing Hashirama is insane as he was capable of battling multiple Tailed beasts at once. Even if all the other kage tried to kill him he would be to take them on.

A natural death would explain why his death wasn't talked about or mentioned as anyone who killed Hashirama would no doubt be mentioned. And his death from the overuse of 100 healings would explain Tsunades knowledge of the techniques drawback.

With Hashirama, we have nothing outside of 1 databook statement saying that he died during war. It’s really hard to imagine a scenario where hashirama actually died in battle so he may have sacrificed himself and chose to die for whatever reason. You kind of have to use your imagination.

Madaras MS ability is never mentioned in canon. We only have a non canon scene in one of the storm games where he is capable of rewinding time with his MS. If that was actually his ability then it kind of makes sense that kishimoto never bothered having madara use it. Madara already had every single ability you could imagine and was getting one power up after another and adding time manipulation on top of it would be ridiculous, it would also make the whole zetsu betrayal plot way worse than it already is since kishimoto would also have to come up with a random ass explanation as to why Madara couldn’t have turned back time

My theory on hashi's death is that he killed himself out of depression due to the untimely death of his lover Madara.

Not knowing how Hashirama died is whatever. We don't know how lots of characters in the series actually died. But Madara's MS not being revealed is inexcusable and one my biggest hangups w/ the series. Obito, Itachi, and Shisui have insanely OP abilities. And even Sasuke's abilities, while not as potent as the ones I mentioned, are still really good. Like flames that don't burn out and can be manipulated into different shapes? And that's the weakest ability we've seen from the MS. I would rather Susanoo not get that complete body and Madara just use some OP MS abilities than what we got. It would make more sense. Susanoo is just a poor man's tailed beast after all.

Not even Kishi knows how Hashirama died lol.

I was always curious about Uchiha Fugaku's MS ability.