Water Breathing

Water Breathing imitates water, above all its flow, suppleness, and knack for adapting, and channels that into the user's motion and cuts. Its techniques have the wielder curve body, arm, and weapon in a flowing line to echo rushing or drifting water, while they picture liquid forming and moving as each technique fires.

The style branched from Sun Breathing through one of Yoriichi Tsugikuni's pupils who, lacking Yoriichi's raw talent, was instead trained in a personalized method shaped around his own abilities, which in time became Water Breathing. It is regarded as the most widespread style across the Demon Slayer Corps because beginners find it the easiest to pick up. Sakonji Urokodaki is a known cultivator who teaches it, though others train it as well.

Water Breathing carries ten established techniques, plus an eleventh devised and used solely by Giyu Tomioka, the present Water Hashira, alongside several altered versions of existing forms. The First Form, Water Surface Slash (Episode 4), is a lone horizontal cut aimed at the neck. The Third Form, Flowing Dance, winds the blade and body in a dancing pattern that slices everything in reach. The Tenth Form, Constant Flux (Episode 19), charges in with a continuous flowing attack that gathers strength and speed before a heavy downward blow, taking the shape of a green-eyed water dragon. Tanjiro Kamado devised his own variants, such as the Lateral Water Wheel. The Eleventh Form, Dead Calm (Episode 20), is Giyu's personal creation: the user goes utterly still and parries, blocks, and cuts every incoming strike with imperceptible speed, though overwhelming force can break through it.

The style's known wielders include Sakonji Urokodaki as a cultivator, current Water Hashira Giyu Tomioka, the late trainees Sabito and Makomo, the corps member Murata, Tanjiro Kamado, and Aoi Kanzaki, who formerly practiced it. Because it suits newcomers, more swordsmen take it up than any other style. The Striking Tide, performed by Tanjiro, was the very first named breathing technique to appear in the series. Per the second databook, slain demons described the style as gentle and quick, with one noting there was no malice in it and that it ended fast.