Tanjiro Kamado always sensed there was something special about his family heritage in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba. And he was right – as revealed in a recent Plot Armor video, Tanjiro‘s lineage has secretly possessed an astounding power for over 500 years.
The Legendary Power of Sun Breathing
This power is the legendary Sun Breathing (Hinokami Kagura) technique, passed down through generations of Kamado family dance rituals. Sun Breathing channels heat through the user‘s sword, creating incredibly strong sword strikes to burn demons.
What makes Sun Breathing so exceptional? Its creator – Yoriichi Tsugikuni, the first Demon Slayer. After his family was slaughtered by Muzan Kibutsuji, the progenitor demon, Yoriichi developed a one-of-a-kind breath style designed specifically to battle demons‘ regenerative abilities.
The Origins of Sun Breathing
Historical records show Yoriichi intending Sun Breathing as his ultimate vengeance against Muzan for the genocide of his family and fellow villagers. Through grueling self-training, he unlocked 12 distinct Sun Breathing forms, each named after a sign of the Chinese zodiac.
Yoriichi managed to incorporate self-healing by absorbing heat from his environs mid-battle. This counteracted injuries from opponents while scorching them simultaneously.
But even the inventor of Sun Breathing struggled to manage its sheer power. Yoriichi constantly viewed his body as too frail to contain its capacity, pushing himself to uncompromising limits.
Derivative Styles
Upon founding the Demon Slayer Corps, Yoriichi judged Sun Breathing too dangerous and demanding for widespread use. So he developed derivative styles including Wind, Mist, Flame, Sound, and Water Breathing – all inferior mimics of Sun Breathing preserving a few aspects.
For instance, Flame Breathing retains potent arsonic damage but loses the self-healing factor. Meanwhile, Mist Breathing focuses entirely on evasive footwork inspired by Sun Breathing‘s agility. Yet none fully capture the original style‘s comprehensive qualities.
Secret Inheritance
Yoriichi did vow to pass down Sun Breathing properly to one heir though – Sumiyoshi of the Kamado kin. Together they performed an elaborate ritual binding Sumiyoshi to secrecy before teaching him the techniques directly.
Thus began the Kamado clan‘s 500-year Sun Breathing legacy. In each generation, they secretly appointed one guardian to learn the special Hinokami Kagura dances. These danced cues embedded themselves into Kamado muscle memory, manifesting Sun Breathing forms during combat instinctually. fewer than 12 people are confirmed to have performed Sun Breathing in 500 years – all Kamado descendants.
So Tanjiro‘s family history gives him a unique advantage no other current Demon Slayer shares in raw combat potential. But it also made their whole lineage targets throughout history, necessitating secrecy.
Kamado Family Lineage
Image: An original illustrated Kamado family tree spanning 500 years of descendants inheriting Sun Breathing abilities
Why the Kamado Family Was in Hiding
As the sole living practitioners of Sun Breathing, the Kamado family made prime targets for Muzan to eliminate this threat over 500 years. He savagely attacked them multiple times, trying to either eliminate their knowledge or turn a Kamado into a demon who could withstand sunlight.
One particularly brutal ambush came in 1558, when Mist Hashira Ubuyashiki Amane tracked a lead on Sun Breathing to a remote Kamado household. Muzan dispatched 4 of his personal Twelve Demon Moons to investigate, suspecting the legend‘s truth. They slaughtered all but one secret Hinokami Kagura practitioner – a missing page in Kamado history.
This forced the family into deeper seclusion to avoid detection. In addition to Muzan, the Demon Slayer Corps wanted limited knowledge about Sun Breathing as well. If its capabilities became well-known, mass demon hunting could destabilize human-demon relations. So Tanjiro‘s ancestors awaited someone with the potential to fully unlock Sun Breathing again while hiding.
Special Dance Rituals
To conceal their practices, they performed elaborated dance rituals known as Hinokami Kagura to subtly pass down Sun Breathing forms. Practitioners had to demonstrate extreme flexibility and balance while making each dance motion precisely. Over decades, muscle memory cemented the connection between dances and sword fighting forms.
Advanced Kamado inheritors could modification dances spontaneous to manifest certain Sun Breathing forms mid-battle instinctively. So Sun Breathing lived on through the family‘s bodies without any written record.
Unlocking Sun Breathing: Tanjiro‘s Journey
As Tanjiro begins Demon Slayer, he performs Hinokami Kagura solely as a respectful family ritual without understanding the meaning. But when he sees his family murdered by Muzan and his sister turned demonic, Tanjiro picks up the sword as the Kamado heir.
Initially, Tanjiro utilizes Water Breathing under Sakonji Urokodaki‘s guidance, bearing no conscious Sun Breathing awareness. But through foundational dance rituals, Tanjiro taps into explosive Sun Breathing attacks unconsciously from ancestral muscle memory during battles pushing him to the brink. He remains unable to fully perform it deliberately though, instead spontaneously manifesting aspects when desperate.
Biological Awakenings
Unlike the uniform Water Breathing forms all Demon Slayers utilize, academic theories argue Sun Breathing manifests for biological Kamados specifically. Its reactions seem tied to elevated emotional states triggering genetic memories that unlock explosive power exceeding the human limits Water Breathing operates within.
So biologically, only the Kamado bloodline can wield Sun Breathing in this manner currently. Their 500 years of passing Sun Breathing secretly through dances primed the family‘s bodies instinctively.
Still, Tanjiro clearly carries the potential to consciously master Sun Breathing someday too with proper directed training. This could make him the first Kamado in over 300 years capable of controlling the first Breath Style properly beyond random activations.
The Future of Sun Breathing
Many mysteries remain about Sun Breathing‘s past and future role in Demon Slayer. How did Yoriichi originally develop such an advanced anti-demon technique biologically? Were any Kamado descendants throughout history able to fully control Sun Breathing before death? Can Tanjiro become the next Sun Breathing master?
One thing is clear: this legendary ability flowing through Tanjiro‘s veins makes his family history integral to Demon Slayer‘s broader narrative with many secrets left to unravel. Revealing these answers could bring Tanjiro one step closer to turning Nezuko human once more and eradicating Muzan for good. The long-awaited Sun Breathing successor capable of surpassing Yoriichi himself may finally emerge after 500 years of hidden truth within the Kamado lineage.