Demon Slayer: Tanjiro’s Father Was Never a Demon; Here’s What Happened to Him!

Tanjuro Kamado is best known as the father of Tanjiro Kamado, the protagonist of the Demon Slayer manga and anime series. This character never really got the chance to shine in the series, but he plays an important part in Tanjiro’s life, despite the fact that he died when Tanjiro was still very young. In this article, we are goinng to talk about Tanjuro Kamado, as we bring you his story from the Demon Slayer manga and anime, all in order to explain whether he was ever a Demon and what happened to him!

Tanjuro Kamado was never a Demon, but he was not a Demon Slayer either

Tanjiro Kamado, the protagonist of Demon Slayer, is the firstborn of the Kamado Family, whose components were his father, Tanjuru, his mother Kie, and his younger siblings: Nezuko, Takeo, Shigeru, Rokuta, and Hanako. Nezuko was the oldest daughter in the family, and she was born a year after Tanjiru. His family made a living selling charcoal in neighboring villages.

Now, while we know about the tragedy that struck the Kamado family – a tragedy that Tanjiro avoided by pure chance and which saw his whole family killed, save for Nezuko, who was turned into a demon – we won’t be talking about it here, as our focus here is on Tanjuro Kamado, Tanjiro’s father.

Now, Tanjuro was only seen during flashback scenes, as he was dead for some time when the story actually began in the present. We know that he was an exceptionally caring father and husband, and that all of his children, as well as his wife, loved and respected him very much. In that aspect, we can say that Tanjuro Kamado was one of the nicest characters in the whole series and that his overal story, as such, is one worth praising more than anything else.

But, if you remember what Tanjuro Kamado looked like, you’ll probably remember that he was also a very weak-looking man, a man who seemed fragile and ill, and the latter part is actually true. The nature of his illness was never revealed in detail, but we do know that Tanjuro Kamado was gravely ill and that ultimately led to his death not long after the birth of his youngest children. He died a loved man and while we do not know the details surrounding his death, we know that the illness caused it.

We also know that Tanjuro’s death left Tanjiro, who was now the oldest male in the family, as well as the oldest child, to take care of his mother and his siblings, which he did by traveling down the mountain to the town to sell coal. It was when, one night, he returned late, that Muzan came to the home of his family and slaughtered his mother and all of his siblings save for Nezuko, who was turned into a demon.

Now that we have told you about Tanjuro’s death, as well as about the tragedy of the Kamado family in Demon Slayer, we can actually answer the main question of this article. Was Tanjuro a Demon? We can directly state that he was not.

As far as it is known, Muzan Kibutsuji was the only Demon crreated via the method his physican used to cure him, but which turned him into a Demon in the end. All the other Demons were created either by Muzan himself, as he would infuse them with his own blood, or by other Demons who were powerful enough to distribute Muzan’s blood themselves and, thus, create Demons using Muzan’s blood by proxy.

Knowing that, we can confirm that Tanjuro Kamado was never attacked or infused with Muzan’s blood, which means that he was definitely not a Demon in the series, whatever some Internet theory might stipulate. The process is quite clear in Demon Slayer, which means that Tanjuro had no way of becoming a Demon in the first place. Plus, it simply wouldn’t fit his story and there is no in-universe hint that suggests this either.

We also know that Tanjuro Kamado was not a Demon Slayer, although it has been implied that he had some connections to the Demon Slayer Corps, but the manga never really explored this properly. And with this, Tanjuro’s story is concluded and we can actually close this section of the article, before ultimately moving on to the next, in which we are going to tell you whether Tanjuro Kamado knew how to use the Sun Breathing Style, as Tanjiro seemingly “inherited” the knowledge from him.

Does Tanjiro’s dad know Sun Breathing?

The Sun Breathing Style is, as fans of the series will know, the first Breathing Style in the Demon Slayer lore, developed by Yoriichi Tsugikuni. All other Breathing Styles were derived from Sun Breathing, or are derivations of these derivations. Due to the fact that it is extremely dangerous for Demons, including Muzan, the latter has persecuted Sun Breathing users and has made it his primary goal to eliminate this Breathing Style. And he almost did, but he Sun Breathing Style was present somewhere else in the form of a dance.

Namely, Yoriichi’s old friend, Sumiyoshi, observed when Yoriichi practiced his Sun Breathing Style and he took memorized it in the form of a dance which became known as the Hinokami Kagura. Since Sumiyoshi was not a Demon Slayer, he could not use it properly and he did not really know how to manipulate it, but he did teach it to his descendants and so the Hinokami Kagura was passed down to each new member of the Kamado family.

This is how it reached Tanjuro Kamado as well, who was able to dance it with extreme proficiency. And although Tanjuro never had the time to teach it to Tanjiro, as he died while Tanjiro was still young, he had performed it in front of Tanjiro, and the moves etched themselves in the young boy’s memory, which is how he was able to recall them later and, being a Demon Slayer, use them to activate Sun Breathing.

So, technically, Tanjuro Kamado did not know the Sun Breathing Style, as he was not a Demon Slayer, but he knew the Hinokami Kagura dance, whose moves actually constituted what we know as Sun Breathing; he simply did not know how to use it in a fight.