Previously, I talked about the first and second form of Water Breathing in Demon Slayer. So, today, I am going to talk about the third form of Water Breathing and I will explore the kanji and its meanings in the name of this form.
Water Breathing Third Form
Firstly, let’s look at the Japanese name of this form!
流流舞い : Ryūryū mai
In the English dubbed version, this form is ‘Flowing Dance’. This form was first performed when Tanjiro was fighting Tahaba and Susamaru in Asakusa.
Kanji in this phrase
As you can see, three kanji characters in this phrase but two of them are the same. These are 「流」 and 「舞」.
The first kanji 「流」is either pronounced as ‘ryū’ or ‘naga’ in the verb ‘nagareru’. The meaning of this kanji is ‘stream’ or ‘flow’. This kanji can mean ‘style’ when used as a suffix. On the other hand, the pronunciation for「舞」is either ‘bu’ or ‘ma’ for the verb ‘mai’. This kanji refers to ‘(traditional) dance’. Some examples of words using these kanji are shown below.
川の流れ : kawa no nagare / the stream of the river
剛柔流 空手：gōjūryū karate / hard-soft style karate (one of the original styles of karate)
歌舞伎：kabuki / Japanese classical drama
舞子：maiko / an apprentice geisha in Kyoto
When you want to talk about modern dancing, it would be better to say ダンス as 舞い refers to more traditional Japanese dance.
まとめ
In summary, this article discussed the meanings of kanji characters in Water Breathing: Third Form, 流流舞い (Flowing Dance) (^_^). Finally, a question from Sakura Neko Sensei to you:
どの呼吸（こきゅう）が一番好きですか。dono kokyū ga ichiban sukidesu ka
I am looking forward to hearing your answer (^｡^). じゃ、さようなら〜。
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