User blog comment:TheBody84/Ichigos father being the former Kenpachi/@comment-1454424-20091025113206

He wears a captain's haori over his shoulder like a half shoulder cape and frankly that is one of the reasons I thought he probably is a royal guards. If all/majority of the royal guards are ex-captains of the Gotei 13, it makes sense for them to retain the haori as part of their "Royal Guard" uniform. Slung over one shoulder makes sense, you know signifying that it's in the "past" or something.

Anyway, the real sticking point is really Yama-jii BUT Yama-jii might well have realised who Ichigo is and has said nothing because Ichigo is clearly unaware of his family history. Yama-jii might have put 2 and 2 together and decided to hold his tongue as it is not really important and if you think about it, given the things on Yama-jii's plate, the true identify of Ichigo would be near the bottom of the list for him to tackle. At least that's what I think

I don't think there is anything to the Shiba connection. Ichigo doesn't look THAT much like Kaien Shiba and Kaien's brother's and sister don't seem to feel that resemblance is such that it is worthy of comment. Although, Ichigo being the reincarnation of the Kaien and Orihime being the reincarnation of the Kaien's wife would make a good romance fanfiction ^.^

Then again, the demotion of the Shiba family might have something to do with Ichigo's father leaving Soul Society. Who knows. But I personally think that of all the theories floating around about Isshin the "Shiba Isshin" business the really scraping the bottom of the barrel because it has nothing to do with Isshin but a resemblance between Ichigo and Kaien which I think is more about attitude + looks rather then looks alone. If that makes sense.