User blog comment:Xilinoc/Zanpakutō & Tōjū arcs - Review/@comment-5847836-20140123021224/@comment-5847836-20140123044035

Hm… Those Asauchi looked quite Hollow to me, especially considering the real Zangetsu looked exactly like them except for the face.

And in 540, starting from page 14, Nimaiya talks about Ichigo's Hollow being his Zanpakutō, and the Hollows Aizen created having the same composition as the Asauchi.

Not sure how exact this particular translation is though, so I guess that might be reading too much into it.