Demon Slayer: Why Does Tanjirō Look Like Yoriichi?

Fans of the Demon Slayer franchise will know that the series’s protagonist, Tanjirō Kamado, strongly connects to a former Demon Slayer, Yoriichi Tsugikuni, who lived roughly 300 hundred years before Tanjirō’s time. And while they are not directly related, as we have already written, we know they look a bit alike. They have the same earrings and enemies and ultimately use the same Breathing Technique. We also know that Yoriichi, as we have said, lived long before Tanjirō, which makes this fact all the more curious. So, how is it that the two of them are so alike, although they are separated by several centuries and are not related by blood? We shall analyze that in this article as we answer why Tanjirō looks like Yoriichi.

From what could be gathered from the information we have on Tanjirō and Yoriichi, the physical similarities between them are a coincidence. Yoriichi’s earrings and the Hinokami Kagura are Tanjirō’s family heirloom, given and taught to him thanks to Yoriichi being close friends with Tanjirō’s distant relative, Sumiyoshi, but do not signify any direct relationship between them, as Sumiyoshi was not related to Yoriichi.

The rest of this article will explain the exact relation between Yoriichi and the Kamado family, i.e., Tanjirō Kamado. You’re going to find out some historical details about the characters, the history of Tanjirō’s family and how Sumiyoshi is related to Yoriichi, and why they both profoundly influenced all future events related to the Demon Slayer narrative, but also why Tanjirō looks like Yoriichi. The article might contain some mild spoilers, so we just wanted to give you a heads-up.

The physical similarities between Tanjirō Kamado and Yoriichi Tsugikuni are a coincidence

As we have said in our introduction, it cannot be denied that Tanjirō and Yoriichi look alike. Now, in such cases, this would usually mean that the two of them are somehow related, even if only distantly, and indeed, the question of whether there is a blood relation between Tanjirō Kamado and Yoriichi Tsugikuni is one of the most often-asked questions related to the Demon Slayer franchise. Due to a surprising number of similarities between the characters, fans have, of course, been wondering whether the two of them could be related. But they are not.

The answer to this question lies in the story of a character named Sumiyoshi. The Demon Slayer franchise fans will be aware that Yoriichi Tsugikuni thought of Sumiyoshi as his sole genuine friend. Yoriichi visited Sumiyoshi after being exiled to enjoy his and his family’s company and because he needed someone to talk to. Yoriichi became upset as he considered the calamities that had befallen him and voiced regret for leaving Muzan alive when they first met and the many deaths that would occur. He was also concerned with the fate of his brother, Michikatsu, who was – by his own free will – turned into the ruthless Demon Kokushibo by none other than Muzan Kibutsuji himself.

While they were talking, Sumiyoshi’s daughter, Sumire, entered. When Sumire, Sumiyoshi’s daughter, approaches and asks for a hug, he is encouraged by Sumiyoshi to take her up, which causes her to laugh and scream with delight and causes him to start crying. He then kisses her. Suyako, Sumiyoshi’s wife, comforts him shortly after while serving dinner.

Suyako would have Yoriichi demonstrate the Hinokami Kagura dance for the Kamado family when visiting them. He did it delicately, moving with such delicacy that he was more often compared to a Shinto than a person. Sumiyoshi carefully observed these performances and memorized them. Yoriichi handed Sumiyoshi his own Hanafuda earrings on his final visit, although indicating he could come to visit them whenever he wanted to. Sumiyoshi and Suyako immediately knew that was their final encounter.

Sumiyoshi screamed out to Yoriichi as he walked away, asking him to stop calling himself a useless man, overcome with anguish at the knowledge. He recalled having safeguarded them and committed to passing down the Hinokami Kagura dance’s forms to his offspring (which he ultimately did). You can probably understand how all of this is, at the moment, connected to Tanjurō and Tanjirō Kamado.

As we have established that Sumiyoshi is an ancestor of the Kamado family, it only makes sense that he played an important role in Tanjirō’s history. This is best observed in relation to the Hinokami Kagura, the dance that embodies the Sun Breathing Style, the only Breathing Style able to defeat Muzan and the first Breathing Style ever. Yoriichi saved Sumiyoshi, presumably from a Demon, and the two became very close friends, so close, in fact, that Yoriichi considered Sumiyoshi to be his only true friend.

And that is basically the gist of it. Yoriichi Tsugikuni was a friend of Tanjirō’s distant relative, Sumiyoshi, and that’s it. Tanjirō actually looks like Sumiyoshi more than he looks like Yoriichi, but there are some similarities between Tanjirō and Yoriichi as well. They have very similar hair, and if you add to that the fact that Tanjirō wore Yoriichi’s earrings, received his blade at one point, and even used his special Breathing Style, it makes sense that the two of them are perceived to be similar in many ways. But no, they are not related, and from what we could actually gather, story-wise, the similarities are purely coincidental.

Of course, the author wanted to emphasize the symbolic relation between Yoriichi and Tanjirō, which is why he designed the two of them as he did, but this is purely an out-of-universe issue that has nothing to do with the actual interpersonal relationships between the two characters. So, in that aspect, Tanjirō doesn’t fit the usual anime trope in this aspect, but it does have some similarities with it, which is what confused fans but also what inspired us to clarify it in this article for everyone.