Fun Sengoku Fact: Kimono

...Did not exist in the Sengoku period other than as a word for wearable things (and as such would cover other things than robes), and to specifically mean what modern people mean when saying kimono (as in, the kind of kimono worn today), it would have to be, at the earliest, in the Meiji Restoration Period (latter half of the 1800s). Naturally, furisode, tomesode, hankimono and the rest, by being derivatives of the kimono, did not exist either.

What Sango is wearing when not hunting youkai under the mobakama (skirt) that is patterned pink is a kosode. What Rin is wearing is an orange-yellow kosode. What Kagura is wearing is layers of kosode (or perhaps hitoe). The white under Inuyasha’s red hinezumi-hide is a kosode. The white under the miko’s shiraginu (white kosode that conforms to the Heian clothing laws regulating a miko’s kosode) is a kosode... Everyone wore kosode in the Sengoku period! Even on their heads!

Incidentally, there were two main types of robes; kosode, which had a small (ko) opening in the sleeve by having that end of the sleeve sewn shut except for the opening, and oosode (”oo”=large) which were completely open. There were also hitoe (layer) from previous eras which were basically unlined kosode meant for layering (the famous twelve-layers outfit of the Heian era, for example, and in Inuyasha you have Izayoi wearing a Kamakura era version with fewer layers).

Sesshomaru’s white robes patterned with plum blossoms in tortoiseshells, and Inuyasha’s robes made of hinezumi-hide, however, is a bit of a head-scratcher as they remind me of hitatare paired with a type of hakama called sashinuki, but the reason they are head-scratchers is that like the oosode, the wrists of the sleeves (and often armpits) were left unsewn and open. I’m guessing that it’s either a stylistic choice by Takahashi or it’s meant to show off yokai fashion sensibilities.

BTW, hitatare and sashinuki were Kamakura (1185-1333) and Heian (794-1185) period clothing. Which tracks well with Sesshomaru and Inuyasha’s alleged ages (900+ and 200 years respectively, with Inuyasha being physically 150 years old after 50 year seal on the tree, and depending whether or not Sesshomaru is born in his true form, he might not have needed human clothing until he was 100+ years old like how many yokai in folklore only learn to transform into humans after they are 100 years old). His “sash” also looks more like a kuntai that Nara period (710-794) ladies wore than anything else I’ve been able to find. Haven’t found anything matching for men, though, and Sesshomaru seems have been designed as feminine at first (especially in his early appearances in the manga).

So yeah, Hanyo no Yashahime is literally bending the known biology of yokai and hanyo in order for the next generation to be out of toddlerhood before Miroku, Sango and Kohaku have died of old age (Sesshomaru’s hanyo children would mature by 1 year every 10 years, Kagome and Inuyasha’s child likely even faster, which means that by the time the twins are the equivalent of 15 years old, 150 years would have passed and Miroku, Sango and Kohaku would have been at the very least 180+ years old, which is ridiculous, never mind Kaede).