Kaede

is a secondary character in the series. In the story, she provides important advice and backgrounds for the story to progress. She is Kikyo's younger sister.

History
As Kikyo's younger sister, Kaede would assist her with various tasks such as gathering herbs or holding her arrows. Kaede also travels with Kikyo to a priest's shrine to learn to be a priestess. Kaede loses an eye sometime during her childhood. In the manga, her eye appears to be freshly bandaged and bleeding shortly before Kikyo's death, suggesting that the wound occurs when Inuyasha attacks the village to steal the Shikon Jewel; supplementary information states that she "lost her elder sister and her eye in an incident fifty years ago." The anime shows the incident occuring when Kikyo shot an arrow at a demon near Kaede - the attack wounded Kaede's right eye and left it blind.

Outfit
Kaede's clothing is identical to Kikyo's. She is wearing the tradional dress of a miko, which has remained essentially unchanged to this day. Kaede wears a white jacket with sode-kukuri (cords) through the sleeves and the open shoulders similar to Inuyasha's and Jaken's. Strings called muna-himo are attached to each lapel, and are tied in front to keep the garment in place. Kaede wears bright red hakama, which include the small board at the lower back. On her feet, Kaede wears common tabi (socks with a split for the big toe) and rice straw sandals. During a battle prior to Kikyo's death, Kaede lost an eye. She now wears an iron tsuba (sword guard) as an eye-patch.

Powers & Abilities
Kaede is a miko of considerable power, and she has many spiritual abilities that she uses for combat and healing.

Spritual Power: Although not as powerful as Kikyo, Kaede possesses spiritual powers, being able to sense demonic auras and other supernatural occurences.

Bow and Arrow: Kaede wields the Bow and Arrow with much skill and accuracy, being able to shoot any target with precision. Due to age, her accuracy has somewhat decreased.

Sacred Arrow: Kaede, like many preistesses, applies her spiritual powers to her bow and arrow to produce sacred arrows. Her sacred arrows, however, are not as powerful as those of Kikyo and Kagome.

Sutra Magic: Kaede is capable of using sutra spells to ward off demons. she was once shown doing this in tandem with Miroku.

Barrier: In several Inuyasha episodes (including movies) Kaede is shown capable of conjuring a large barrier around her village to prevent anything from attacking the village. Creating the barrier, however, seemed to have weakened her considerably.

Eyesight: Just like Kikyo and Kagome, Kaede can see things that are normally invisible to normal people. Examples include spirits, or Yura's Hair.

In the Story
After Kikyo's death, Kaede becomes a priestess in her own right and defends the village against demons. When Kagome arrives, Kaede recognizes her as the reincarnation of her sister. When Kagome frees Inuyasha, Kaede places the "Beads of Subjugation" onto him to give Kagome the power to control him with a spoken word. Kaede is well-respected and held in high regards by the villagers and the members of Inuyasha's group, whom she often advises about demons and other spiritual anomalies. Though Inuyasha is easily annoyed with her, he listens to her when necessary and doesn't hesitate to protect her from a threat. Later on in the series, Kaede took on a running gag where people would usually mistaken her as a demon and not a priestess, due to her old age.

Anime vs. Manga
In the manga, her eye appears to be freshly bandaged and bleeding shortly before Kikyo's death. In the anime, however, her eye seems to have been lost for quite some time. Also, the anime shows that her right eye is damaged instead of her left.

Quotes

 * "Inuyasha, ye must be strong...and ye better not forget where ye buried me!"
 * "Inuyasha, that imitation was pathetic."
 * "Inuyasha, only by working together will ye triumph."
 * "I am a priestess!!"

Trivia

 * In Kagome's dream (when Tsubaki placed a curse on her), Kaede appeared in the modern world buying a gift from Kagome's grandpa for her Grandson Shippo. In the dream sequence, Kaede is shown as having both of her eyes.
 * During the early episodes of the English Dub, Kaede would speak with a Medieval dialect. This was subsequently dropped as the series continued.
 * She is renamed as "Geumsamae" in the Korean Dub