Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-24439089-20140119020839/@comment-37873147-20181229170621

I think the members of the shiba clan, except Ichigo (unless you count the wind released when he uses bankai or when he swung his shikai at Ginjo), do tend to have a certain affinity to an element, but they're not limited to it. Let's say Ganju's power for example is some sort of unfocused kido or kido-like ability that comes naturally to him and if he became a soul ripper his zanpakuto could easily have a related power depending on his state of mind when he tains his asauchi. A shinigami's elemental affinity is a concept explored in the shunko, which depending on the person can create different elements but doesn't necesarily affect the zanpakuto. Sui-feng for example has wind type affinity but her zanpakuto is based on penetration. I do think she could improve her zanpakuto's power by adding her element or other elements to it, like how urahara creates bombs or how kyoraku creates wind by spinning or even how ukitake uses water and electricity on a game. Maybe this comes off more easily to the Shiba clan.