

**Note: this question contains spoilers for the manga.**

* * *

We know that Isshin Kurosaki left the Soul Society because he wanted to
protect Masaki and help her with the matter of her hollowification. Then they
had children, etc., etc.

But before that, Isshin was the captain of the 10th Squad. Rangiku was his
lieutenant and Toshirou was the third officer of Squad 10. We also have Rukia,
who was in those days already in Squad 13 (if I remember the timeline
correctly), so she _must_ have known and been able to recognise the captains.

And then we are back to the main story - Rukia met Isshin and didn't recognize
him. And after that, Rangiku, Toshirou, Ikkaku, Yumichika... **all of them**
should immediately have recognized the ex-captain of Sqad 10, am I right?
**Why didn't any of them recognize Isshin?**

Is there an explanation for this, or was this a plot hole created by Tite
Kubo? Maybe he hadn't created Isshin's story when he released the Saving Rukia
arc and the first Arrancar invasion on Karakura Town arc? Or is there
something I missed?


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bleach
Why didn't Rukia, Rangiku and Toshirou recognize Isshin?


As you mentioned, they didn't recognize him at the time being if Isshin is
over 200+ years old, that's a lot of years to remember.

Also, in the Aizen arc, before Dangai Ichigo came about, he was around 18
(Human years). Soul reapers age slow, that's why Isshin looks about 40 years
or 50 even though he's about 200+ soul reaper years, stating that he wasn't
that friendly towards other captains and stuck to himself. Regarding maybe
Rukia and the others, they never met him.


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I feel that Toshiro and Rangiku didn't know about Ichigo's father Isshin as
they didn't meet face to face at Karakura Town. Also, at that time Isshin was
just a normal human being without any powers, so Toshiro, Rangiku or any other
members of Soul Society didn't sense him or meet him by face. So, it's obvious
they didn't know about Isshin.

Only Rukia meet Ichigo's father face to face. But, she didn't recognise him.
Maybe its a plot hole, or she didn't know about Isshin at that time by face,
that's why she didn't recognise him.


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In the Karakura Town arc, they actually never came face to face, and there was
at least the difference of 15 years during the past and the start of the
series, and when we see Rukia's past, we see that she was with Kaien Shiba who
was head of Shiba clan.

But as we know, a captain is generally the head of a clan in his duty period,
so that means Kaien inherited his role as head of the Shiba clan from Isshin
in absence of him, which means that even Rukia didn't know about Isshin from
start, only Urahara and Yoruichi knew about him, but I think they acknowledged
the presence of Isshin during the Fullbringer arc because he was there when
Rukia stabbed Ichigo with Reishi blade.

And as to why he didn't return during the Blood War arc, he was outcasted by
Soul Society because he gave his power to humans, which is a crime as we know
from the prelude of Soul Society. And as for punishment, he was banished from
Soul Society and never contacted for anything because there was no way for
Gotei 13 to find him because of his weakened reaitus and probably because of
Uraghar.


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