Genkurō

Genkurō (源九郎) is a shape-changing kitsune (fox-spirit) character who features prominently in the famous jōruri and kabuki play Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura ("Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees").

Disguising himself as Satō Tadanobu, a retainer of Yoshitsune's, he rescues Yoshitsune's lover Shizuka Gozen from agents of Yoritomo (Yoshitsune's brother, from whom he is fleeing). In return, he is awarded a suit of armor, and also the great honor of Yoshitsune's name, "Genkurō", meaning Minamoto (源, gen) ninth son (九郎, ku-rō). As a kitsune, with no other name of his own revealed throughout the play, he is known only as "Tadanobu" and as "Genkurō".

Separating from Yoshitsune and his party, Genkurō, his true identity still unknown, escorts Shizuka to Yoshino, seeking escape and safety from the agents of Yoritomo. There, they meet up with Yoshitsune once more, both parties having taken separate, likely somewhat circuitous routes, to arrive at the same place. However, since Yoshitsune has now come to be accompanied by the true Satō Tadanobu, Genkurō is forced to reveal himself. His transformation into his fox-spirit form, along with the dance and monologue which follow, are considered the highlights of the play. He explains that the Hatsune Drum, given Yoshitsune at the beginning of the play and playing a key role in Yoshitsune's emotional and moral torment throughout the drama, is made from the skins of his parents, 1000-year-old foxes whose magical spirits still inhabit the drum. Longing for his parents for four hundred years (the play takes place in 1186, and the drum was crafted by the Emperor Kammu as part of a ritual to pray for rain in 786), the drum had been kept in the Imperial Palace, guarded by a multitude of kami, and was thus inaccessible to him. But when it was removed from the palace, he continues to explain, he followed it into Yoshitsune's hands, and took on the form of Tadanobu in order to get close to it.

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