Your line about Unohana's smallpox scars made me wonder: are there any soul reapers that can remember when they were alive? (If they were alive? I'm not sure if all souls originate in the world of the living)
All souls are "born" in the Living World and eventually move to Spirit World (if they don't go directly to Hell). The majority of souls in the afterlife do not remember their previous lives, but a significant portion do.
Souls Born in Soul Society:
Children and babies that die in utero or before they can reliably recognize their names, very old people that have lost most of their memory and people who suffered catastrophic memory loss while alive move to to Spirit World and become the souls of babies gestating in mothers there. Souls that are Born in spirit world do not remember their previous lives because there isn't much, if anything to remember.
Sometimes very young children and babies will appear in the queue to the afterlife, and in AEIWAM, the 7th Division manages incoming souls and takes care to place any children that come through the queue in SOME kind of care in the area their soul was assigned to. This is a recent development under Captain Komamura, but something the 7th has been wanting to do since it's inception. It's only recently that technology and staffing has been able to allow it.
The majority of souls in Soul Society, and by extension, in the Gotei-13, were born in soul society.
Even though they have no memories, sometimes things will come through- people born in soul society are much more likely to have birthmarks. While the superstition is that if you're born with one, it relates to how you died, there's no evidence that so-called "marks of the previous life" are from death specifically.
There's also no evidence that they're not :)
Characters that were Born in Spirit World with Marks Of The Previous Life:
Izuru: Born with two red dots about an inch apart on his ankle
Byakuya: One absolutely perfect beauty mark smack in the middle of his left asscheek
Shuuhei: Smattering of thick, raised skin patches across his upper back.
Ukitake: hard to see because he's so careful to avoid the sun but there's a couple patches on his abdomen and thigh that are totally devoid of pigment and never tan
Shunsui: Partially developed third nipple in his right armpit
Soi Fon: weird tooth growing out of the roof of her mouth.
Komamura: the paw-pads on his left foot are pink.
Aizen: Born with partially webbed toes.
Yumichika: The Beauty mark on his cheek is painted on. The one on his dick is not, much to his chagrin.
Yachiru: changed her origin story to HURT :), no birthmark but when her teeth came in, her adult right canine came in and the baby canine is just. Missing.
Urahara: patch of something that looks like freckles, but bright red, on his throat. Only shows up if he's been doing cardio.
Yoruichi: small, diamond-shaped white patch of skin over the lower part of her sternum.
Souls That Forget:
Souls over the age of about 3 will (barring something bizarre happening) reincarnate in the afterlife at the developmental age they dies at, and stand a 50/50 chance of forgetting their previous lives entirely. *Why* is unclear to the shinigami (it's a side-effect of the wheel being jammed), but the effect seems to be slightly more likely if the soul died a particularly violent death.
The loss occurs when the soul steps through the door out of the Queue and into spirit world. This sudden loss and confusion is part of the reason it's so important for Shingami to escort incoming souls to their destination in spirit world, any why Ryoka (AKA, souls that somehow got out of the queue and into Soul Society without checking in with the Shinigami) tend to be chaotic little bastards.
Souls that forget their previous lives upon stepping through the gate usually retain muscle memory, learned skills and a handful of details- the name they answer to, how old they were when they died, and sometimes they remember what they died of. Souls who do forget often tend to be emotionally ambivalent about it- on the one hand, not knowing who you are or where you came from kind of sucks, but after seeing their friends who remember wracked by grief or traumatized by a violent end, it can also feel like a strange blessing or a fresh start.
Characters who were reincarnated at the age they died, but do not remember their previous lives:
Unohana: Does not remember her name, did remember a lot of slikks relating to ritual purification and swordsmanship
Hitsugaya: Sole memory of standing in a blizzard/thunderstorm as a small child
Tousen: Only his given name, and the feeling he was killed by a lightning strike.
Matsumoto: Given Name, no-context memories of a pet cat
Shinji: Does not remember his name, remembers a weird number of folk songs and a really good fish recipe though
Ikkaku: Remembers fuck-all. His sister DOES remember him and that's a fun chapter in the drafts
Souls That Remember:
Souls that do reincarnate and remember their previous lives remember varying amounts- Some people can recall previous lives with incredible detail, some people have only a very vague or uncertain recollection, others have very clear but context-less memories that they know came from a previous life but little more than that.
Just like people who forget, people who remember have mixed opinions- Some find it a burden to have memories of a family lost, some are really glad they still remember their loved ones, but the majority are a combination of nostalgic and wistful about their previous lives.
Characters who reincarnated and remember at least some of their previous lives:
Yamamoto: Died at about age 10, but remembers every detail. Died of Being Next To A Volcano When It Exploded.
Tama: Her memory bordering on eidetic, including her cause of death (bad)
Momo: Has many memories but not context. Remembers another little girl (sister?), and living out on a farm with a goat.
Rukia: She was very young, but does have a handful of distinct memories of her previous life, including Hisana making stupid faces at her to make her laugh.
Hisana: Recalls her previous life almost entirely. She and Rukia barely escaped a house fire only to die of hypothermia.
Hollows:
Nearly all lesser hollows remember their previous lives, and what caused their soul chain to rot, but once a hollow is consumed by another hollow, or becomes part of a Menos Grande, they lose all but a few memories, and those tend to be vauge and distorted. By the time a hollow becomes a Vasto Lorde, it's been torn apart and absorbed so many new soul fragments that it can't really be called the same soul at all. If there are Souls that are "born" outside of the living world, it's hollows like that.
A Few Notable Exceptions:
Coyote Starrk and Lilynette Gingerbuck:
They were a Genus Loci (the spirit of a place) that died in a calamity, but since a Genus Loci is functionally a Kami, when they hollowfied and re-appeared in Hueco Mundo, they started out at Vasto Lorde Class hollows. They divided into the 'two' souls they are now out of sheer loneliness and because the memory of the calamity was so awful they hoped they would forget. It sort of worked- Both of them only half-remember who and what they are.
Nnoitra Gilga:
A singularly single-minded individual, Nnoitra forgot almost everything including his Name but not what caused him to become a hollow in the first place. He doesn't exactly have context for those memories until about half an hour before he dies, but he also doesn't care- he's always been a man to tell himself whatever story suits his needs.
Wonderweiss:
Wiess was a soul that absolutely should not have been able to hollowfy but did so because a Divine Power fucked up to a SPECTACULAR degree, and like Coyote and Gingerbuck, started out as a vasto-lorde class hollow. He does sort-of forget who he is for a while thanks to Aizen's Meddling, and while he has the facts of who he is, nobody quite makes the full connection to WHO he is until about halfway through Act 2.
Weirdos:
SOME PEOPLE manage to enter the spirit world in completely ass-backwards and stupid ways, and sometimes this effects their memories:
Ichimaru Gin:
Probably has the MOST understanding of what's going on of anyone in the series but unfortunately, he's fucking stupid.
Mimihagi:
The Second-most-informed person in the series, but turns out getting dismembered, undergoing a catastrophic database error and surviving as a fragment of your previous self does a number on your ability to remember anything with any clarity.
Zaraki Kenpachi:
Developed a soul in the living world when he wasn't really supposed to, reincarnated in a place he should not have been able to, got thrown out and survived a fall that should have killed him, was raised by a being that normally would have eaten him, and has generally been Why-Are-You-Not-Dead-ing his way through his existence.
Quincy:
If, How much, What Version and The Actual Veracity of what any Quincy in the Wandenreich remembers about their previous lives is ENTIRELY determined by Yhwach and what suits his needs :)
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