Whether the Uchiha clan is a race or not is debated among fans. There is no official classification system for the people groups of the Naruto-verse, so fans are left to their own conclusions on the topic of which people groups are races in Naruto and which are not. I personally do consider the Uchiha clan to be a race, and I want to clarify why I believe that they are, so readers can see where I am coming from and draw their own conclusions about whether or not they think the Uchiha clan should be considered a race.

​

The Uchiha name has three different meanings:

​

1. A family name

2. A race

3. An ethnicity

 

Uchiha: A Family Name

​

The title “Uchiha” is a surname that designates a certain family. For example, if we refer to the family unit of Sasuke, Fugaku, Mikoto, & Itachi, one would reference them as “the Uchihas” or the Uchiha family.

​

Tajima, Madara, and Izuna comprise another family unit that one would refer to as “the Uchihas”, or the Uchiha family.

​

Hazuki, Hazuki’s husband, and Izumi are also the “Uchihas”, as they form another family unit.

​

Anyone born or married into a family bearing the surname of Uchiha will take on the surname “Uchiha”. So on that level, the term “Uchiha” is a surname that distinguishes a particular family unit.

​

Uchiha: A Race

​

Race is defined as “a group that is socially distinguished by others or by itself on the basis of its unique physical characteristics such as skin color, eye color, hair color, facial structure, etc.”, a description the Uchiha clan fits. They have physical and genetic characteristics that are distinctive and identifiable: black hair (or dark brown), pale skin, narrow black eyes, and genetic potential that allows them to awaken the Sharingan, a genetic power exclusive to their people group. The Uchiha race are all descendants of Indra Otsutsuki and they are part of a people group that has stuck together since the days of Indra, and the clan has its own history and culture.

​

In real life we have no equivalent for those with kekkei genkai, but we can’t overlook the unique genetic trait that the Uchiha have, the Sharingan, which is certainly a “unique physical characteristic”. Even if the Uchiha didn't have their own unique outward physical characteristics (like eye color, hair color, facial appearance, etc) that made them distinctive, the genetic trait of the Sharingan alone is enough for me to feel the Uchiha warrant the classification of race.

​

For a real-life example comparison: suppose in Egypt there are a certain number of people dwelling there who possess the power to fly. They look like any other Egyptian, but they are descended from an alien way back in their ancestry. Because of that, they possess the power to fly, a genetic ability they alone possess. No one else on earth can fly unless they marry into that bloodline and have children with one of those Egyptians, and those children can then inherit the genetic ability to fly. Would you consider the normal Egyptians and the flying Egyptians as the same race? Maybe, but I think that the genetic ability could be enough to distinguish that people as their own race, even if nothing else is observably different. If there is a group of flying Egyptians, it seems reasonable to categorize them as a different race from the non-flying ones. At least there must be some kind of distinction that people will make between the flying Egyptians and the non-flying Egyptians, whether that term by a race or some other kind of classification.

​

For this reason, I would consider most (or maybe all) clans kekkei genkai in Naruto each their own race, such as the Chinoike, Hyuga, Kaguya, and Yuki clans.

​

Of course fans can disagree with that conclusion. This is just my interpretation. Ultimately, categorization of races doesn’t matter a lot, and it doesn’t change anything whether you view the Uchiha as their own race or as a unique people group categorized together by culture and their specific genetic capabilities.

​

Uchiha: An ethnicity

​

The Uchiha also means the culture of the Uchiha. Being Uchiha is not the same thing as possessing the Uchiha bloodline. Over the years, the Uchiha developed their own culture, their unique ethnicity distinguishable and identifiable from every other clan’s culture. If you compare the Uchiha and the Senju in personalities and values, they are quite different. That’s because of their difference in cultural influences that shaped them. The Uchiha are an ethnicity because they have their own unique style of fighting, their own traditional jutsu, clothing, clan emblem, architecture, values, behavioral patterns, ideologies, religion, etc. The clan’s attitude distinguishes their clan’s culture from others: they admire power and their power of the Sharingan, they are a proud and passionate people who are commonly reserved and composed. They are protective of their clan and prefer to remain loyal to those of their race/ethnicity than to those outside it. They are distrustful of outsiders but deeply committed to those they pledge loyalty to. They have stuck together as a people group, are descended form a common ancestor, and share common physical traits. And so, the Uchiha have their own unique ethnicity.

​

Examples

​

For representations of these three different mediums, one only has to look to the Uchiha family in Boruto.

​

Sakura Uchiha is a member of the Uchiha family because she married Sasuke Uchiha and adopted his surname, and they started their family together: the Uchiha family. Sakura is an Uchiha in that she is a part of the Uchiha family, but she isn’t a part of the Uchiha race or ethnicity.

​

As the daughter of Sasuke and Sakura Uchiha, Sarada is a member of the Uchiha family and part of the race because she has the genetic bloodline and the physical identifying characteristics of an Uchiha. She is a member of the Uchiha race and a member of an Uchiha family. However, Sarada is not part of the Uchiha ethnicity because she did not grow up around the Uchiha clan, and she didn’t know her father (the only one left of the Uchiha ethnicity) growing up. She knows hardly anything about her clan culture or history and was not influenced by her clan’s culture. Thus Sarada is not part of the Uchiha ethnicity, because her ethnicity is that of Konoha.

 

Sasuke is a part of the Uchiha family, race, and ethnicity, as would be the rest of the Uchiha characters we know of (apart from Izumi’s father, who married into the clan and is only an Uchiha in terms of Uchiha family). Sasuke was born to Fugaku and Mikoto, both full-blood members of the Uchiha clan, thus giving him the Uchiha family surname and making him a part of the Uchiha race. He grew up in the clan, so he was influenced by the culture of the Uchiha, so he is part of the Uchiha ethnicity.

​

It comes down to what one defines a race as, but the term “Uchiha” is used so often throughout the series that I think it’s important to understand the different usages and what makes one an Uchiha member.