Genshin Impact Cosplayer's Knot Guide

Mid-2022, a cosplayer that I follow posted a beautiful Genshin Impact costume that they had recreated. Featured prominently on the costume were pretty rope designs that were definitely not knots in the recreation, but should they have been? Yes... but no. In fairness to those cosplay makers, the knots as depicted in the game for that character don't exist. I have a full Billy shelf of knot books and in none of them does this knot appear. Could it though? Could I recreate that knot? The answer to that question lies below.

In the course of researching that knot, I discovered that many Genshin Impact characters are decorated with knots (more than half!), so I thought "the Genshin Impact cosplay community needs a knot guide." Note that I have never played GI nor do I cosplay, although I am a fan of the activity and the art of the game. What I hope to usefully contribute is 40+ years of decorative knot tying experience.

My primary sources were the Genshin Impact Fan Wiki and the Games Fashion Archive with occasional clarification from the Genshin Impact Youtube Channel. All screen caps from the Games Fashion Archive are available under the  Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence.

This is up to the budget and skill level of the cosplay maker. Anything could be used from kitchen twine to silk thread that you braid into ropes yourself. Some of the larger ropes will likely have to be custom made and I'll have some suggestions when that time comes.

This is the standard bow we all learned as children. Tie a half knot as base, then pull up 2 loops (rabbit ears), tie another half knot with the loops. In my illustration here, I've only pulled up one loop since the belt I'm using for demonstration is so stiff the extra manipulation that's invisible with a shoelace would have just caused confusion. In any case, notice the relative position of the centre of the bow to the right tail, how they overlap.

Here we are starting with the ends of your sash parallel (you can also start with a half knot base if so desired). Fold up a loop with one end, then wrap the other end around the base of that loop to form the centre of your bow. With the same end, pull a loop through the centre for the other half of your bow. Now your centre is much more vertical and neither bow loops nor loose ends overlap the centre. This bow appears in many, many places on many characters. The examples here are from Ayato's left hip, Kazuha's leggings, and Hu Tao's mid-back jacket ornament.

With a half-knot base (yellow) or parallel ends (grey), the double centre bow starts as the symmetric bow did with one end folded into a loop. In this case we are starting with the rightward pointing loop (RPL). The other end wraps around the base of the RPL towards the right, three times. The leftward pointing loop then passes through all the wraps. Tighten carefully by following the slack around the wraps rather than just pulling on the bow parts. This bow also appears on many characters. The examples here are from Ayato's jacket sleeves (top and bottom), Gorou's collar, Yanfei's hat, Thoma's emblem, Chongyun's fortune knot, and Yoimiya's shimenawa.

To make a double loop bow, choose your base (parallel ends or half-knot). Here we are using a half-knot. Pick a side and wind it such that you have 2 complete loops. Note that in this case, the free end points to the right. Take the other side and wrap it up and around the middle of your loops, be sure to come down on the left of the middle, because the next step is to take your free end through the loop you have just created and you want this free end to point to the left. Tighten everything up and nudge things such that all the crossing action happens on the back side of your bow.

The most obvious example of this is Shikanoin's arm armour lacing, but various other bows could be interpreted to be this.

Yun Jin's many knots could be interpreted as bow knots descending from a top loop. They could also be interpreted as cross knots with ears. Her hair ties (as well as Ayaka's verified by official animated art), in particular are definitely cross knots with ears. Ayaka's hair ties as well as Ayato's shoulder armour (pauldron?) knots are cross knots with the vertical line most prominent. Additionally Kujou Sara's right sleeve garter (?) is the same with the top loop pulled to the back and used to encircle the arm.

Just for Yun Jin's cross knot with horizontal line most prominent (since I could not find it elsewhere) here's an instruction set. The side ears are just the loose ends pulled through the sides of the knot.

Xiangling's armlet and garter belt are a 3 strand braid, as is Tighnari's belt and Arataki Itto's greave garter (?). The 3 strand braid is super common in hair braiding, but here's an Instructable where they braid it in leather.

Xinyan's sleeves and garter belt as well as Arataki Itto's shimenawa harness are a herringbone braid. Considering the flatness, I believe they are 4 strand. If you think the braids should be more bulky, try an 8 strand herringbone braid common in whip making.

To align your strands for the 2 tone braids the characters use, set up your colours A and B: AB BA. Keep the strands separated into a left hand and right hand set. Cross the outer strands into the middle as shown. It very much helps to anchor the top of your braid to something to keep it under slight tension for more even braiding.

If you want to expose yourself to a fairly deep rabbit hole, you can start braiding the cords you use. In particular, the stitched armour like Thoma's or Gorou's are based on traditional samurai armour which used particular braids. Just do a search on "kumihimo".

Yoimiya and Arataki Itto are 2 characters with what the GFA describes as "shimenawa", a rope usually made of straw used in Shinto rituals. More practically speaking, though, these knots are made from very big ropes and if one where to somehow find appropriately sized rope in the right colours, they would be very heavy. Especially since real shimenawa are made from straw, an appropriate material to make rope for these knots would be raffia or paper yarn (which is often marketed as raffia in any case, search for "viscose raffia yarn") which would be much lighter than real cordage, probably hold the shapes better, and relatively easy to dye.

Yoimiya's shimenawa is a large red double centre bow around a smaller white bow.

Arataki Itto's shimenawa is a double overhand slip knot or poacher's knot with a very short top loop and added wings, plus the 2 tone herringbone braid harness.

The behind the scenes view of some "knots" as found on the Games Fashion Archive show blobs with cord coming out. I'm therefore interpreting some of these string-y blobs as known existing knots.

Shikanoin Heizou's fortune knot is modelled as sort of a squiggle. I'm choosing to interpret it as a double coin knot or josephine knot.

Yun Jin is covered in knots (which we've addressed above), but the middle of her big feature "fortune knot" is mostly obscured by a metal ornament. The back view of the 3d model shows modellers who weren't modelling what doesn't show. I choose to interpret this feature knot as a one pass carrick bend mat. Of course, because the middle is obscured by a metal ornament, we can pull the end through the middle willy-nilly to complete the mat and serve as vehicle for the tassels.

If you are looking at a small bead of a knot that interrupts 2 parallel cords, you are probably looking at a double connection knot (DCK) as on Yanfei's hat just below the coins. The knot below it that looks like a DCK with 2 side loops is actually the back side of the double centre bow, although the incoming and outgoing strands will not sit so parallel without coaxing and sculpting via sewing.

Instructions for the sideways version of the double connection knot is shown here as you'll need it for Sayu's scarf. Sayu's sandals also appear to have a sideways double connection knot, but if you bring a cord around to split it as it is on the sandals it just won't look right. The DCK is a small and fragile knot, so extra editing is highly problematic. Although, maybe if you tied it loosely and then reinforced the structure with thread before attempting to split....?

That said, adding extra loops to either side from the middle as on Kujou Sara's mask will work as long as you are extra careful with the tightening.

This is the knot that started my Genshin Impact journey. As mentioned above, the double connection knot is fragile, so introducing extra side loops from within the structure versus added on after as for Kujou Sara's mask is tricky. By pure happenstance, the string closest to hand when I was experimenting was paracord which is squishy sort of stuff as cord goes and actually worked pretty well. With firmer, more slippery cord the knot does not really want to hold. This will be especially evident as you refine the knot, adjust loop sizes and tension. You will need to use thread to reinforce the structure. This knot features on Beidou's caplet and boots, Kujou Sara's top, and Xingqiu's fortune knot. Xingqiu's knot is 2-toned in a way that I am not certain will work without custom dyeing of your cord. Xiangling's vision crystal knot could also be interpreted as this knot, but I'd suggest the cloverleaf instead.

Shikanoin Heizou's vision crystal is strung on a cord that features the sauvastika knot. Also, Kamisato Ayaka's belt is described as a peace knot.

Shenhe is covered in 3 eared cloverleaf knots. Xingqiu's garter must also be one. Yoimiya's vision crystal knot could be one as well.

The 4 eared cloverleaf knot is everywhere. Prominently on Kequin's fortune knot and choker. Ayato's neck (?) tie . Ganyu's vision crystal knot and shoe ties. I choose to interpret Kuki's shoulder decorations as such. Similarly Yae Miko's back bow ornament, bottom front on her dress, various sleeve ornaments, and shoes. Shenhe's top button and mid-back ornaments could be interpreted as knots vs solid metal objects.

Speaking of buttons, the Chinese button knot is a functional part of many real world garments. How they are rendered in the game makes it hard to tell in many cases if they should be or if you should sew a decorative thing to your garment but use snaps or hooks as the actual closures. For Xiangling's neck button, do some research on button frogs otherwise known as pankou (盘扣／盤扣). Shenhe's tunic/bib buttons could be interpreted as the classic pipa frog knot.

Xiangling's bear bell/fortune knots are oddly rendered, but I think the green one is the pan chang knot and the red one would be a double loop bow.

Yun Jin's hat combines loops of cord that could be a knot or just couched loops with what looks to be a soutache ornament. Search for "soutache jewelry" if you're interested. Yomiya's hairpin is not knotted. Search for "tsumami kanzashi" if you want to make that.