Character guide

Yamanba

major

Also known as Yamanba The Mountain She-Devil, Yamauba, Hyakma Yamauba

Yamanba lives amid the verdant hills as the real spirit behind the capital's beloved song, and she resents the renowned singer whose fame bloomed from that very tune while never pitying her. She asks not for revenge but for dancing and music to release her from the pains of transmigration, promising to reveal her ghastly true form under the moon. Her challenge to repent or delight in anything sets the play's central question: what can a spirit learn from nature itself?

Atsumori

major

Also known as Lord Atsumori

Atsumori is a Taira lord of the fallen house, remembered for his beauty and his flute, whose death at the hands of Kumagai has bound both men across lifetimes. His ghost lingers in the tension between a warrior's honor and the karma that ties him to the man who killed him, a remorse that Kumagai himself cannot shake. His return sets the play's arc of repentance and salvation, where the enemy becomes the instrument of release.

Suma Genji

major

Also known as Shite, Genji

Genji lives in exile at Suma, far from the capital and its pleasures, and he moves through the play as a figure whose true rank is known to the audience but not to the traveling priest who meets him. His tension lies in the gap between his radiant past and his lowly present, a disguise that is both concealment and revelation. His appearance turns the play's landscape into a meditation on fame, loss, and the transient brilliance of the great.

Priest Rensei

supporting

Also known as Priest, Rensei

Rensei wanders the provinces as a monk, but his past as the warrior Kumagai haunts every encounter with the dead he once killed. His desire for atonement drives him to pray for the salvation of Atsumori's ghost, even as the ghost's presence tests whether remorse can truly undo a killing. He matters because he embodies the play's hope that even the gravest deed can be answered by devotion.

The Waki

supporting

Also known as Waki, Nishikigi

The Waki is the traveler or holy man whose curiosity brings him to the strand, the shrine, or the haunted field where the play's true action unfolds. He is the audience's stand-in, asking the questions that let the shite reveal their story, and his presence creates the tension between ordinary sight and the unseen world. Without his willingness to stop and look, the spirits would have no one to address.

The Tsure

supporting

Also known as Tsure, Tsure Aie

The Tsure moves alongside the shite as a second presence, whether as the Dame of Takasago beside the Ancient or as an attendant whose lines echo and extend the main figure's song. Their bond is one of shared memory and shared fate, a companionship that makes the shite's isolation less absolute. They matter because their interplay turns a solo lament into a dialogue, giving the play its texture of voices woven together.

Yugiri

minor

A character appearing in the plays, possibly a spirit or noble figure.

Priest

minor

Also known as the Priest, the priest

A generic priest figure appearing in multiple plays, often as a traveler.

Servant

minor

A servant character, likely an attendant in one of the plays.

Sovran

minor

A ruler or sovereign figure mentioned in the plays, possibly a historical reference.

Shite Cho

supporting

Also known as Shite, the Shite

He appears on the strand of Takasago as a humble old man, companion to a Dame, gathering leaves beneath the gnarled pine and answering a travelling warden's questions about which tree is the famous Pine of Takasago. His tenderest bond is with the tree itself, which he hails as an ancient friend when no human comrade remains, and with the Dame beside him whose long companionship mirrors the wedded pines of Takasago and Suminoye. His quiet, reverent intimacy with place and memory draws the traveller—and the audience—toward the revelation of what he truly is.

God of Sumiyoshi

minor

Also known as Sumiyoshi, Illustrious God

A deity associated with Sumiyoshi, appearing as a divine presence.

Wife

minor

A wife character, likely in a domestic scene within one of the plays.

Kumagai

supporting

Also known as Kumagai no Naozane

Kumagai no Naozane is a Taira-era warrior whose path crosses the young noble Atsumori at the battle of Ichi-no-Tani, and whose later life is shaped by grief over that encounter. The play's notes suggest Atsumori must have done Kumagai some kindness in a former incarnation, which would account for the depth of his remorse—a karmic debt binding killer to victim. His struggle between martial duty and Buddhist conscience gives the drama its moral weight, and his presence as a penitent priest frames the ghostly return of the boy he killed.

Old Woman

minor

Also known as Mad Woman

An elderly or mad female character appearing in a play.

Reaper

minor

A death figure, possibly personified in one of the plays.

Tomonari

minor

A character in the plays, possibly a warrior or attendant, with limited presence.

Young Sakura

minor

Also known as Sakura

A character associated with cherry blossoms, possibly a spirit or young woman.

Genji Hikaru

minor

Also known as Genji

The Shining Genji, a legendary figure referenced in the plays.

Dame

minor

A lady or noblewoman appearing in one of the plays.

Amida Buddha

minor

Also known as the Buddha, Amida, Buddha

The Buddha, invoked as a spiritual presence in the plays.

Tsurayuki

minor

A historical poet, possibly referenced as a character or allusion.

Second Shite

minor

Also known as the Shite

A secondary main character in a play, possibly a different manifestation.

Aborasetsu

minor

A character with limited presence, possibly a demon or spirit.

Hosonuno

minor

A character, possibly a cloth or weaving-related figure in a play.

Tsure Kiri

minor

Also known as Kiri, Tsure

A companion character, possibly in the Nishikigi play.

Murakami

minor

A historical or legendary figure referenced in the plays.