Kagura's Clothes: What Is She Wearing?
I’ve seen InuYasha fans assert Kagura of the Wind dresses like a prostitute, or if they’re being kind, a concubine. The reasoning for such a claim? Kagura ties her obi in front, like a prostitute, while married and virginal women tie their obi in the back. It’s one of iron-clad rules of wearing kimono, after all.
This would be worthwhile evidence for Kagura dressing as a prostitute, except for one thing: Kagura isn’t wearing a kimono.
At least, not the kind of kimono Westerners imagine when they hear the word. Kimono is a broad term that literally means “a thing to wear,” and refers to all Japanese clothing. When Westerners read kimono, they picture either tomesode (留袖, meaning “to fasten” and “sleeve”), or furisode (振袖, meaning “swinging sleeves”).
This is a tomesode, specifically a kurotomesode, meant for older women to wear on special occasions.
This is a furisode, meant for unmarried young women around Kagome’s age.
Tomesode and furisode date to the late Edo to early Meiji period, around the 1800s. InuYasha takes place in the mid-1500s, quite a few centuries earlier. Japan, like every other country, has had its national dress evolve over time. So, while Kagura is wearing kimono in the broader sense, she isn’t wearing the tomesode or furisode, and isn’t bound by the rules regarding those kimono.
If not tomesode or furisode, what kind of kimono is Kagura wearing?
The kosode (小袖, “small sleeve”).
As you can see, the sleeves are shorter and rounder than those of the tomesode or furisode. Kosode also have a looser fit, and generally a higher hemline. They were the basic garment for women of all social classes, including, yes, prostitutes.
Now, a fan could claim Kagura wears her kosode like a prostitute. So, let’s take a look at how Kagura wears her kosode. She has an incredible four different outfits, which makes her a fashion maven in InuYasha.
Her fourth, and final outfit:
As we can clearly see, no matter the outfit, Kagura does indeed tie her obi in front. Does that mean she dresses like a prostitute? Let’s see what an actual prostitute in the mid-1500s would wear.
There we have it. Not only does the prostitute wear a much more narrow obi than Kagura, she also ties her obi in the back. Kagura, without a doubt, does not dress like a prostitute.
Keep in mind that wearing an obi knotted in the back is not an undeniable sign of a woman being a prostitute. Rin wears her obi tied in back, because she is a young child. Her obi is also more like a ribbon than the tasseled cord worn by a prostitute. However, for most women of the mid-1500s, the proper way to tie your obi was in front.
So, what kind of outfit does Kagura wear? Take a look at this woman of the samurai class, circa mid-1500s.
It’s clear that she’s wearing three layers of kosode with a ribbon-like obi tied in front, like Kagura. When Naraku created Kagura, he was still hiding under the identity of Hitomi Kagewaki, a daimyo, and living in the Hitomi castle. Ordering Kagura to dress like a woman of the samurai class would make her less suspicious to his human underlings.
All the way back at the beginning of this article, I mentioned that some fans claim Kagura dresses like a concubine. Wearing upper-class clothing and posing as a concubine isn’t contradictory, and it’s entirely possible Kagura briefly had a cover identity as Hitomi Kagewaki’s wife or concubine. However, her dress reflects not on her, but Naraku. He literally held her heart in the palm of his hand, and if he wanted Kagura to dress a certain way, she’d have to comply under pain of death.
One final note on Kagura’s style of dress: in both her first and second outfits, she lowers the sleeve of her outer kosode, exposing the intricate embroidered cranes on her second kosode. This is common fashion for Japanese dancers, still occasionally worn today. As Kagura is named after a form of traditional Japanese dance, and her attacks are based off of dance moves, it’s quite an appropriate look for her.
EDIT: I replaced all wikipedia links with more credible sources.
Sources (Click for Links!):
Images of Kagura’s Outfits: One, Two, Three, Four
Image of Prostitute and Samurai Class Woman
ellievsbear
titsay
pixelskylines
izzy806
blakekathryn
gummygunk
discoholicmusic
germansingergirl
annaxmalina
