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It's like a...fluffy... _thingy_. It floats around their head and past their
shoulders and down to their waist. I see it a lot. The two characters with it
who come to mind are Guren from Shounen Onmyouji and Elsie from The World God
Only Knows, but there are others with the same accessory. I'm just curious as
to what it is. Attached is Guren with the...thingy.[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/6e0XT.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/6e0XT.jpg)


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tropes
What is that accessory featured around Japanese gods' necks?


This is actually a culture/belief thing, so it is a real thing. It occurs in
many Asian countries, like China and Japan. Here is a picture of it in real
life:

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/AYkPC.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/AYkPC.jpg)

Basically, it is a silk scarf, a really long one. It is not only used by gods;
in the ancient times, dancers and women performing in front of people with
some sort of power (such as money or governing) would usually wear this. When
people in real life wear it, it obviously won't be like that; it would be like
a normal scarf, as you can see from this picture:

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/gHzlj.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/gHzlj.jpg)

In there the scarf is floating around the woman: this is to bring out her aura
and beauty.

That's the basic idea, though I might have missed certain details. If anyone
is reading this and think I didn't put down the correct answer, please add on.
Hope this helps.


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They're called Tenne somewhere around the bronze age where Japan had an influx
of Buddhist culture. <http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/drapery-robes-
japan-buddha-statues.html>


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As the previous answers noted, they are a Buddhist accessory, and the style
originated in India.

In ancient India before colonisation, there was a type of fabric from Bengal
called muslin, which was fabled to be lighter than air, and coveted by
emperors of Persia, China, and south-east Asia, and monarchies of Europe. The
thread counts on Bengal muslin reached over 1,000 (for comparison, modern
clothing is around 50ish), and fabric research is currently only able to make
fabrics with thread counts of around 400.

Bengal's muslin and cotton industry made that area of India alone hold around
20% of the world economy of the time, so when the British wanted to start its
own cotton industry, they banned Bengal muslin, cut off the thumbs of the
weavers, and the cultivar of cotton needed to make this special Muslin has
gone extinct and the practice has been lost to history. It was also see-
through like what is usually shown in anime (like Aqua's raiment in _KonoSuba_
), and I'm sure in some cases it was made stiffer to be able to stand like
they show in anime.


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They're a type of shawl or scarf called "hagoromo" (yes, like the Naruto
character). They supposedly stay upright and flowing with divine energy. In
reality, they're just normal, thin silk ribbons.


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Sometimes translated as 'feather mantle', celestial scarves etc theyre not an
anime invention but comes from the cultural/ belief system of Buddhism/
Hinduism. You see it in the Deva's or demigod/ divine beings representations
of those cultures in India, China, Japan and much of South Eastern Asia. Its
so symbolic of those divine beings attire that the emperors, nobilities and
court dancers tries to emulate but of course the mortals' scarves dont float
in an arc around their heads like the divines. They just wear it draped around
the waist, hanging on the forearms. The court dancers use really light, airy
ribbons to emulate the floating qualities when they perform their dances.
Thats why you see the Chinese traditional dancers use brisk movements and
throw their scarves/ ribbons around.

Apart from the floating, ethereal quality of the cloth, it is also believed by
some the celestial beings depends on it to gain the ability of flight. There
are folk tales of a celestial maiden that lost her ability to fly back to
heaven after her hagoromo (those mantle/ scarves thingy) got stolen. The hero
(peeping tom) happened upon a group of the maidens as they ascended to frolick
in a pond/ waterfall (yes ikr dont they have more beautiful waterfalls and
pools in heaven) and stole the hagoromo of the most beautiful one. After
searching for quite some time fruitlessly, they had to abandon her and
returned to heaven. Different versions of the story either had the hero asking
her to marry him in exchange for the scarves itself or his help in searching
for it. Either way, they were married happily for quite some time but one day
the celestial maiden found the hagoromo, put it on and ascended back to
heaven, leaving her tearful husband and children behind.


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