Hinokami Kagura

Hinokami Kagura (ヒノカミ) is a Breathing Style only known and taught by the Kamado Family, later revealed to be the first Breathing Style, Sun Breathing (の).

Overview
The Hinokami Kagura is a Breathing Style that is passed on from father to son in every generation of Kamado Family alongside the Hanafuda earrings. They use it within a ritual ceremony practiced every new year, where the Breathing Style user offers the Fire God a dance from sunset to sunrise to ward off threats and diseases.

The dance is composed of twelve segments repeated throughout the night until dawn. Tanjuro Kamado noted that the breathing technique utilized in this dance allows the user to never exhaust themselves no matter how long they move, making it such that they can seemingly dance forever. The last user of Hinokami Kagura is Tanjiro Kamado, who learned the Breathing Style from his father Tanjuro Kamado. Other people can learn this technique if taught by a Kamado descendant.

The Hinokami Kagura is later revealed by Shinjuro Rengoku to be a legendary Breathing Style known as Sun Breathing (の), a long forgotten Breathing Style and the first one to ever be created. All other Breathing Styles are derived from it as the result of Yoriichi Tsugikuni, its creator, modifying it to suit the individuals he taught who were unable to use it.

Both the Hinokami Kagura and Sun Breathing are Breathing Styles that mimic the sun and replicate it with the user's movements, techniques, and abilities. All techniques and forms are extremely varied and have no set pattern, making it the most versatile and effective against demons. Users of Sun Breathing visualize themselves seemingly manipulating solar flames when unleashing its techniques.

Tanjiro noted that using this style increases his overall power and speed, which is due to the fact that his body is more suited to Sun Breathing as opposed to Water Breathing.

Upon seeing Yoriichi perform the twelve forms through his ancestor's memories, Tanjiro realized that, despite being replicated with a surprising degree of accuracy for hundreds of years and his own mastery of Hinokami Kagura, Hinokami Kagura had unnecessary movements, such as different wrist angles, footwork and breathing rhythm, compared to the Sun Breathing directly performed by Yoriichi. Removing them enabled him to use the Breathing Style in its nigh-purest form.

Known Techniques
Sun Breathing was initially created with 12 techniques all connected to one another by Yoriichi Tsugikuni. Later upon meeting Muzan Kibutsuji, Yoriichi perfected his swordsmanship form, creating a new unnamed thirteenth form.


 * Dance - The user performs a singular downwards vertical slash in an arcing motion.
 * Dancing Flash - A modified version of Dance developed and utilized only by Tanjiro Kamado. The user combines the Thunderclap and Flash technique of Thunder Breathing with the high-powered slash of Dance by inhaling huge amounts of oxygen, increasing the pumping of blood through the entire body, focusing it on the legs, and releasing it all to assault the target with a slash. This technique was capable of out-speeding Genya Shinazugawa, Nezuko Kamado, as well as the fleeing Hantengu.


 * Clear Blue Sky (の) - The user spins and twists their upper body in a circular motion, releasing a 360° slash.


 * Raging Sun - The user unleashes two consecutive arcing slashes around themself in order to strike incoming attacks.


 * Burning Bones, Summer Sun - The user performs a singular slash utilizing a spiraling motion which extends in front of themself to defend from imminent frontal attacks.


 * Setting Sun Transformation - The user backflips into the air before performing a singular horizontal slash which aims to decapitate the target.


 * Solar Heat Haze - The user rushes forth, now attempting to deliver a strike seemingly enveloped in a heat-haze, masking the true length and location of the blade to deliver an unexpected strike.


 * Beneficent Radiance - The user spirals into the air whilst performing a swirling slash upwards to strike the target.


 * Sunflower Thrust - The user performs a singular thrust utilizing the tip of their blade to strike the target.


 * Sun Halo Dragon Head Dance (の・い) - The user unleashes a continuous fast and powerful sword attack that takes the form of a Japanese dragon made of solar flames. This technique is capable of decapitating multiple targets at once.


 * Fire Wheel - The user flips into the air behind the opponent before unleashing a singular vertical slash in a circular motion to swiftly cut the target in half.


 * Fake Rainbow - The user performs high-speed twists and rotations, thus creating afterimages used mostly to evade attacks. The afterimages work most effectively on enemies with good vision.


 * Flame Dance - A two-combo strike which starts with a vertical slash leading into a horizontal slash right after.


 * Thirteenth Form (ノ) - The user continuously performs all twelve forms of Sun Breathing in repetitive succession to increase the accuracy and agility of its movements, and attacks. This form was created solely for the purpose of killing Muzan Kibutsuji, since the repetition of all twelve forms aims to destroy Muzan's twelve vital organs (seven hearts and five brains) that move freely inside his body.

Game Exclusive Techniques

 * Cross Slash (り) - The user ignites their sword with solar flames and releases two arching flame slashes to their opponent, each individually making an "X" shaped slice.


 * Scorching Rush (けり) - The user rushes forward with a flaming sword and performs a 5-move combo as follows: a low-ended strike from the left, a low-ended strike from the right that lifts the user off the ground briefly, a spinning wave attack, a powerful forwards upward slash and finally an overhead downward slash.


 * Phoenix Flash (り) - The user disappears in a flash of fire, before reappearing from fire in mid-air either upright, where they perform a massive overhead circular slash, or upside-down where they perform an angled 360° sword slash.

Demonstrations

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Trivia

 * The passing of Sun Breathing as a Kagura draws heavily from Shintō mythology. In Japanese folklore, famous tales in volumes of the "Nihon Shoki" and "Kojiki/Furukotofumi" explain that the Kagura ritual originates when Amaterasu, the goddess of the sun, retreated into a cave, plunging the world into darkness. In response, Ame-no-Uzume, the goddess of revelry and dawn, danced outside the cave to entice the sun goddess out. From these events, the Kagura was born, a ritualistic dance that honors Kami (Gods and ancestral spirits). Likewise, Sun Breathing was disguised as a Kagura and passed down as the Hinokami Kagura.
 * The term and technique Fire Wheel is in fact an inspiration from the classic yōkai Kasha, literally meaning "Burning Chariot". Kasha are demonic beings with the head of a cat or tiger while having the body of a man, and have fiery tails. They ride on burning chariots around the world, snatching up the bodies of the recently deceased of those who have made heinous sins and take them to hell.
 * It is implied that the reason Flame Breathing (の) should never be referred to as Fire Breathing (の) is because its pronunciation is exactly the same  as Sun Breathing (の).
 * After Tanjiro had witnessed Yoriichi perform all thirteen Sun Breathing forms through Sumiyoshi's memories, he noted his own current Hinokami Kagura forms contained wasted movements, then proceeding to try and fix those once he resumed battle, as such Tanjiro only starts naming his attacks as Sun Breathing thereafter, which showed that the Kagura moves were not as strong as they should be before Tanjiro actually saw Sun Breathing in its purest form.
 * Another god of fire in Japanese mythology is the "Sambō-Kōjin", sometimes referred to as the "Kamado-gami". Sanbō-Kōjin is sometimes identified as an incarnation of the demon-slaying "Āryācalanātha", who was the servant to Mahāvairocana (Known in Japanese history as "Dainichi Nyorai" or "Birushana Butsu" whose worship is related to the sun.
 * According to the Kimetsu no Yaiba Official Fanbook 2, the Kamado Family has preserved the Hinokami Kagura as a ceremonial practice all the way to present times. Tanjiro's great-great-grandchildren, Sumihiko and Kanata, are practitioners of it.
 * In Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles, the Entertainment District variant of Tanjiro Kamado uses Fake Rainbow as his parry.
 * As said by Shinjuro Rengoku, all breathing styles are mere derivatives of Hinokami Kagura, therefore it would make sense for Tanjiro (or any Hinokami Kagura practitioner) to modify any of its techniques/segments by combining other breathing styles with it.

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