Kaede
CHILDHOOD
As a child, Kaede appeared to have accompanied Kikyo nearly everywhere, helping her sister with various tasks such as gathering herbs or holding her arrows. Fifty years after Kikyo's death, InuYasha, when freed by Kagome, recalls Kaede as "the brat" who followed Kikyo around.
In a special episode of the anime, it is shown that Kaede suffered a major injury which cost her right eye while fighting alongside Kikyo and InuYasha. A youkai behind Kaede was killed by Kikyo but Kaede's eye was injured when she looked back. On the other hand, the manga never mentions explicitly how Kaede lost her eye, though it is heavily implied it actually occurred during InuYasha's attack on the village to steal the Shikon Jewel. She wears a tsuba (sword guard) over her missing eye, using it as an eye-patch.
The younger Kaede appears occasionally in flashbacks. She is seen with both of her eyes intact when apprehensively treating a badly burned Onigumo when asked to by Kikyo; however, after Onigumo's change into Naraku and Kikyou's death, she's seen checking Onigumo's cave and she has already lost her eye. She is also seen with her eyes pre-injury in episodes 1, 147, and 148.
ADULTHOOD
After her sister's demise, Kaede becomes a miko in her own right and defends the village against yōkai until Kagome, her sister's reincarnation appears 50 years later. She is the first to identify Kagome as the reincarnation of Kikyo and placed Kikyo's kotodama no nenju (a holy rosary that gives power to the spoken word of whomever creates it) on InuYasha when Kagome first let him go, so Kagome could control him.
She later helps them defeat the mountain witch Urasue, who stole the bones of her sister Kikyo and created a clay body for her (attempting to use her as a slave to recover the Shikon no Tama (Jewel of Four Souls)).
She also provides moral support (such when InuYasha was jealous over Kagome's helping Koga) and sometimes uses her miko powers to help, for example when InuYasha was injured, she and Miroku kept a barrier that hid them from Royoukan, who was being controlled by Naraku with a Shikon shard. Additionally, she is a source of helpful knowledge regarding Kikyo's past, most notably her brief time with Onigumo, and the era (this knowledge is of most help to Kagome and the viewers).
As the series progresses the story focuses less and less on her until she rarely appears. She seems to have loved Kikyo very much when she was alive, but loathes to see her as a zombie made of clay and wishes for her to return to death. This is not out of spite or hatred, as she explains to Miroku and later to InuYasha, but because Kaede believes Kikyo has been through too much pain after her forced revival, and it'd be better for her beloved sister to be able to finally rest in peace.
In Viz's English dubbed version, Kaede speaks in a very archaic tone (using "ye" even extra-grammatically as an accusative and dative).
