If I had a nickel for every piece of media I enjoyed where a medicine specialist solved mysteries in an emperor’s harem I would have two nickels which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it’s happened twice
On that note I have a silly crossover idea in my head where kon kusuriuri goes to the apothecary diaries rear palace
With, of course, cross dressing to get into the place and slay the mononoke
Some alternate makeup looks, first his canon look to make sure it looks like him and second a more heavy tang dynasty inspired version with a larger huadian and more blush/eyebrow
Wanted to add some more insight to this! So, the maids' kimono seems to have two variants!
One has the obi's front "tassel" centered, which you can see in the faceless maids, Mugitani, Tsuyu, and Sayo:
And the another where the obi's front tassel (lack of a better term) is aligned to screen right and tucked in with scalloped layers, which seem exclusive to Kame and Asa:
My guess is that the misaligned obi tassels represent Asa and Kame's unconventional behaviors, whereas the centered obi tassels represent conformity. Interesting to also note that Mugitani's obi is also slightly asymmetrical, which may have foreshadowed her "instability" caused by her undercurrent of jealousy?
What do you think the flower designs that the concubines have on their clothes means about them or their role in the Ooku ?
I do have many thoughts about it, many of which I go over in this post analyzing the symbolism of not only imagery but names of the Ooku women.
To summarize:
The ochuro (concubines) have floral motifs on their kimono and the narratively relevant ones are named after plants – Fuki = butterbur, Matsu = pine, Botan = peony. Their role in the ooku is to bear heirs for Tenshi. Flowering plants bear fruit.
Women in leadership roles such as Utayama, Mugitani, and Awashima have earth-based names. They are the foundation on which the ooku continues to run smoothly, and the fertile soil on which the flowers - the ochuro are nourished.
Women with water-based names such as Kitagawa are most attuned to Omizu-sama faith. Their form and direction are directed by earth - their leaders. Their fate is to be absorbed by either the earth which they are trapped by or the flowers which they are tasked to nourish.
Observations about Mononoke Karakasa characters & relationships based on costuming & color palettes
Let's guess who these girls' parents are and see where this rabbit hole takes us!
Analysis below the cut! This isn't spoilers as much as it is just going over publicly available information with a fine tooth comb but proceed with caution. Buckle in, this is gonna be a long one!
Based on the color palette of their outfits, these two girls featured in the second trailer at the 0:17 timestamp are the twin daughters of Hokuto Mizorogi (溝呂木北斗) as indicated on his bio on the official website.
Given Mizorogi's status as priest of the "Omizu-sama" faith, it's entirely possibly he's given special privileges within the ooku to father a child.
According to Japanese geisha culture, their half-painted lips indicate that they are children. They partially shaved their heads is reminiscent of a nun's makes sense given their religious parentage. Two context clues combined, I believe they are priestesses-in-training - a position which is higher than even that of the most favored concubines.
Supporting this theory, these twins have a very high position of power in the Ooku despite their youth, as seen by them being at the front of the procession featured in the teaser trailer at the 0:07 timestamp. They also have uniquely colored umbrellas:
As an aside – given how most of the spiral-masked women are visually identical, uniquely colored outfits are a visual shorthand for status (or narrative significance) in the ooku.
And I believe they are the gatekeepers for the, uhhhh, how do I put this delicately? The shogun's baby-making room? Take this with a grain of salt though; I could only see a sliver of the room they were opening in the first screenshot. The colors seem fairly similar though!
But also consider: this babymaking room has a lot of eye motifs, which is reflected in the pit seen in the ceremonial area where I presume Mizorogi presumably performs his religious services:
The third trailer introduces the theme of discarding essential parts of yourself. There is a shot of the comb falling into a pool of water in an unknown location:
Paired with the visual of the comb lying amongst discarded valuables in the water in the second trailer, I'm going to hazard a guess this is a common "ritual" of sorts:
I'm willing to bet Mizorogi enforces this "identity discarding" ceremony on behalf of the shogun. It says in his character bio he's a strong believer of "Omizu-sama". Did he discard his role as a father to step into the role as a the priest?
Their mother may be Kitagawa (北川), a high ranking maid within the Ooku.
The twins' hair and eye colors look similar enough, but there's more meat to this theory. Kitagawa seems to be a narratively important character based on how heavily she's featured in the trailers in increasingly angsty/mysterious ways:
Perhaps Kitagawa "gave away" her motherhood to the waters, which has religious baptism connotations. This hypothetical scenario feels rife with mononoke-formation potential.
Furthermore, from costume design standpoint, she also shares the blue and teal colors featured in Mizorogi's outfit.
As for her purple accents, I believe it is a color reserved for the higher-ranking women of the ooku.
I have a theory that the darker a color is, the higher the status is. Consider:
Asa (Left), who is a new maid but has a lot of potential for upwards mobility.
Tokita Fuki (時田フキ) (Center)), a lowly commoner who caught the attention of the shogun. Because she's a commoner, the purple is faded despite her high status, perhaps representing that it will disappear once she loses the shogun's favor. But because the rose pattern is almost a one-to-one match to that of Mizorogi's, perhaps she is strongly favored by this man as well.
Awashima (Right), the subordinate of Utayama, who is falling out of favor as Asa rises in prominence. There are still pops of dark purple, but a washed out lavendar permeates her palette.
Both Tokita and Awashima also have highly saturated yellow/yellow-greens, which could represent potential danger of their power disappearing due to outside influences.
As for the deeper purple...
Otomo Botan (大友ボタン) (Right) - a lady in waiting and daughter of a high-ranking senior councilor. Note that she also has pale purple in her palette because her high status was not earned. Because she borrows power from influences outside of the ooku, the black accents are represent that she has more power than even Utayama, the most powerful woman within the ooku.
Utayama (歌山) (Left) - the woman with the highest position of the Ooku, "Odoshiyoroshi". She is also prominently garbed in red and white, which is a color seen in the shogun and a little bit of Mizorogi's outfit:
Lighter shades of red (i.e. pink) also seem to indicate men of lower status that still have some position of power, like these guards:
Note that Kame (カメ) (Left) and Mugiya (麦谷) (Right) also possess these "masculine" colors which may indicate that they have more forceful personalities compared to other women within the ooku:
Their respective outfits also have analogous shades close to the blues prominent in Mizorogi's outfit. Assuming blue has religious connotations (akin to Virgin Mary), perhaps they are also strongly faithful to whoever this "Omizu-sama" entity is.
Meanwhile, Asa also wears pink, but does not feature any blue in her outfit. I think may represent her lack of faith. She does seem like a more levelheaded individual not easily swept away by more dazzling aspects of mysticism.
This is the look of a woman who not only has a braincell or two, but has it on her person at all times.
Now let's look at our main protagonists!
Kusu features red and purple color accents in his outfit, which makese sense for his gender ambiguous presentation. You could say that the other colors featured in his outfit represent how the influences he collects by interacting with humans. Black is also featured heavily as the canvas for these colors. As mentioned earlier, this represents influences outside of the ooku.
In contrast, Shingi while sports both the masculine red/white and feminine purple colors of power, the latter definitely eclipses the former which matches his masculine presentation. His outfit also has black, but because his influence in the world comes in bursts during exorcisms, it is featured less prominently than Kusu. His disheveled look may represent his discarding of these superficial societal norms. His power - symbolized by red - need not be worn. It is already tattooed onto his skin - literally.
The only other characters that have red tattooed onto their skin are the twins from the beginning of this post. Come to think of it, their partially shaved look may also be a nod to the shogun's power - indicating that their very existence is divinely approved by him. So we come full circle!
So, yeah! Although these twins don't have an official bio, there's a lot to learn about them and others from extrapolation and inference alone!
In summary:
Red/White = Masculine/Divine power
Blue = Religious power
Purple = feminine power
Yellow = danger of power loss
Light colors = weak influence
Dark colors = stronger influence
Thank you for coming with me on this long diatribe!
the choice of making the hinezumi children look and move like sperm cells is interesting considering every time they went inside something or somebody, that person/thing would burn to a crisp (with the exeption of Fuki, the only pregnant character) all the while the storys main conflict and the catalyst for the mononoke's manifestation is fuki's pregnancy and the danger it put her in.
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