Jujutsu Kaisen is an anime that offers fans a world where sorcerers exorcize spirits that manifest from people’s fears. The story follows Yuji Itadori as he is enrolled into Jujutsu High Tokyo to avoid being killed by the higher-ups of the Jujutsu world who deem him a threat because he has become a vessel of the strongest cursed spirit that ever lived — Sukuna.
What is an innate technique?
An Innate technique (cursed technique) is a unique ability that is often passed down and inherited by family members, giving the current user a stronger form of the previous technique and allowing them to exorcize powerful cursed spirits. Some examples of these are the Gojo family’s Limitless and Six Eyes, the Zen in family Ten Shadows and Heavenly Restriction, the Kamo family’s Blood Manipulation, and the Inumaki family’s Cursed Speech, among others.
Yuji Itadori is a human boy born from a mother that was possessed by the powerful Kenjaku, and so even though he is physically stronger than most around him and hosts a lot more cursed energy, Yuji does not have a cursed technique of his own. He does host Sukuna, the strongest cursed spirit that ever lived, going so far as to claim he has even transcended humanity and cursed spirits to become what he is, so he possibly could develop his cursed technique from what Sukuna has.
Sukuna is a master of Jujutsu and is shown to have no stress mimicking elemental attacks, so long as it takes cursed energy to dish out attacks. This is why he was able to shoot Jogo with flames that were hotter than his in their battle in Shibuya. Sukuna also possesses the ability to dismantle, which allows him to take apart anything within his attack radius — 200m wide. He also harbors the ability to cleave, which allows him to adjust to the toughness and cursed technique of the target, allowing him to easily sever them in one swoop.
Kenjaku’s input and his many cursed techniques
Kenjaku is the “father” of Yuji Itadori. He is an ancient sorcerer whose goal is to evolve humanity using cursed energy and usher in a new golden era of Jujutsu sorcery that parallels the Heian Era. This era was a time where Jujutsu sorcerers were powerful enough to defeat Sukuna, although no one was able to destroy his physical body.
Kenjaku possesses the innate technique of body manipulation. This allows him to leave his original body and dive into a recently dead body or an alive host and take their cursed technique for himself. Kenjaku has been in a lot of bodies since the Heian Era, once inhabiting Kamo Noritoshi – an evil man who uses blood manipulation of the Kamo clan. It is theorized that this is where Yuji’s brothers (Choso, Kechizo, and Eso) get their blood-based attacks, especially Choso – who has a much more advanced and powerful version of the blood manipulation that is used by the Kamo clan. Kenjaku has also been in the body of Kaori Itadori, Yuji Itadori’s mother, when she was pregnant with him, and it is possible Yuji could have picked up any of Kenjaku’s abilities or any from the previous sorcerers Kenjaku has inhabited at various points of his long life.
As a sorcerer that has been alive for over 1000 years, Kenjaku also boasts a hoard of other abilities. He has “cursed spirit manipulation,” the ability to obtain and subdue cursed spirits that were previously used by Suguru Geto, he possesses “idle transfiguration,” the ability that the cursed spirit Mahito uses to change the shape of the soul of a target, and then there’s also anti-gravity – a technique that allows him to decrease or negate the gravity in a given area. A very powerful technique in his arsenal is “cursed womb: death painting” – an ability he used to breathe life into his children Choso, Kechizo, and, Eso, and many others that have not been shown yet in the series.
Hope for the future
Regardless, it is possible that Yuji Itadori could become the strongest Jujutsu sorcerer of the modern era without a cursed technique or a domain expansion. A domain expansion is the encompassing of one’s surrounding area with their innate soul, giving their attacks a massive buff in speed and power, as well as a surefire hit. All special-grade sorcerers are shown to have this technique as well as special-grade spirits. It is a hurdle Itadori might eventually overcome, but we have seen powerful cursed spirits get taken down by just brute force and cursed energy throughout the series.
Yuji has already shown mastery of the Black Flash and is also able to use Divergent Fist intentionally – a move that all sorcerers can use but choose not to due to their lack of physical strength. Divergent Fist allows Yuji to physically harm the target with a punch and with cursed energy but not at the same time — he would throw a punch that has a physical attack connected first and then a delayed cursed energy attack a little bit later. Yuji’s lack of control of his cursed energy at first allowed this technique to blossom without his knowledge, until Todo gave him a lesson on sensing the flow of cursed energy.
There’s a chance Gege Akutami, the manga artist, could keep this as Yuji’s primary move until the end of the series because it is very effective, but it still won’t count as an innate technique. After all, Nanami and Todo explain to Yuji that while it is useful, it is not as useful as imbuing his physical attacks immediately with cursed energy. If there is an ability likely for him to inherit, then it just might be his mother’s innate technique, anti-gravity, and it may be a while before the ability manifests itself. Gojo’s six-eyes have not seen any innate technique in Yuji — so it is quite possible that he may end up permanently without one — but fans are never saying never, because his innate technique could just be lying dormant, waiting for the perfect moment to reveal itself. We’ll just have to wait and see.