Yashuu Kuze
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| "How could you bring a man into the Kuze Shrine?" | ||
| Japanese | 久世 夜舟 くぜ やしゅう | |
| Alias | Kuze Family Head | |
| Family | Kyouka Kuze (daughter) Amane Kuze (granddaughter) Kaname Ototsuki (grandson) | |
| Occupation | Ceremony Master | |
| Cause of Death | Exposure to the Rift | |
| Date of Death | Unknown (late Edo period) | |
| Encounter | Tattoo Altar, Engraving Shrine, etc | |
| Games | Fatal Frame III | |
| Other Appearances | Zero Shisei no Koe Comic Anthology | |
| Notes | Calico Notebook | |
| Japanese Voice Actor | Nana Yamaguchi | |
Yashuu Kuze was the last Kuze Family Head prior to the Unleashing. Her primary duty was to keep the Kuze Shrine running smoothly to prevent the Unleashing from occurring.
Yashuu had a daughter, whom she named Kyouka, with an unnamed man. Although not specified in the game, it seems likely that this man was brought to the Kuze Shrine for the sole purpose of producing a female heir with Yashuu for the Kuze Family. When Kyouka was old enough she, too, was expected to produce a female heir. Yashuu allowed Akito Kashiwagi, a folklorist, to stay as a guest to the shrine over the winter in order to achieve this. Akito and Kyouka fell in love with each other, and Akito planned to leave the Kuze Shrine and take Kyouka with him when the snows melted. Kyouka was now pregnant with his child; however, Yashuu murdered Akito and hid his body so Kyouka would never know what happened to him.
Kyouka gave birth to a boy, whom she named Kaname. He was a forbidden child because the Kuze Shrine was an exclusively female shrine. Kaname was to be disposed of by the time he reached the age of 4. Kyouka knew this, but couldn't bear to kill her and Akito's love child. Instead of doing this, Kyouka found a way to sneak Kaname out of the shrine to the safety of a nearby village. With Kaname, Kyouka sent one of the Echo Stone Earrings that Akito gave to her. Yashuu seems to have been aware of this break with tradition[1], but allowed it for unknown reasons.
Yashuu brought in many more outsiders to try to produce a female heir with Kyouka. Eventually Kyouka gave birth to a daughter with an unnamed man, whom she named Amane. When Amane was old enough, Yashuu chose her first to be a Handmaiden. Yashuu also "adopted" girls from nearby villages to fill the other three Handmaiden positions. Yashuu took in Hisame, Minamo, and Shigure, who adopted the Kuze surname as their own. Yashuu appears to have favored Hisame above the Handmaidens, probably because she was the most dutiful.
When it came time to choose a new Tattooed Priestess, she chose Reika Yukishiro, the sole survivor of an unspecified disaster at a nearby village. Reika also took on Kuze as her surname. Yashuu also chose two Engravers to carry out the Piercing of the Soul once Reika was able to assume her duties as a priestess. Both the Piercing of the Soul and Impalement rituals were successful. Everything was running smoothly at the Kuze Shrine, until Yashuu found out that Amane had led a man inside to see the recently impaled priestess.
Yashuu went down to the Chamber of Thorns and struck the man down with a hatchet, but she was too late: the man had already awakened his love, Reika, from her eternal slumber. As a result of seeing her lover killed right in front of her, the tattoos etched into Reika's skin entered her eyes and caused the Unleashing to occur. Since she was so close to the Chamber of Thorns during the Unleashing, Yashuu became covered with the pain of holly. It is important to note that Yashuu survived this, and managed to return to the Manor and begin preparations to contain the Rift.
First she ordered the other Handmaidens to impale Amane at the bottom of the Abyss for breaking the Kuze Code. Yashuu knew she had to stop the Rift from spreading to the surrounding area, so she summoned for Shrine Carpenters to come and seal in the Kuze Shrine. As she waited for them to arrive she prayed for the priestess to slumber at the Engraving Shrine.
The Shrine Carpenters failed to prevent the Rift from spreading, even after being sacrificed as Sacrificial Pillars. Everyone in the manor succumbed to the Rift before Yashuu, besides the remaining Handmaidens. Though she felt pity in doing so, Yashuu ordered Hisame to perform the Final Impalement. Hisame impaled both Shigure and Minamo in the Enclosed Room.
It is during this time that Yashuu realizes who the man was that entered the Chamber of Thorns, because she recognized the Echo Stone Earring he wore. The man was in fact her grandson, Kyouka's forbidden child, Kaname. She feels some remorse, and writes at the end of her second diary: "...How sorrowful." Sometime later, Yashuu finally succumbs to the Rift, leaving Hisame alone in the manor.
Yashuu's spirit becomes tainted by the Rift and wanders the dream manor, trying to stop the events that led up to the Unleashing.
Adoption
The Kuze Shrine adopted Handmaidens and Tattooed Priestesses into the Kuze Family to perform the Kuze Shrine's main rituals.
Tattooed Priestesses were chosen by the Family Head. Their duty was to be engraved with the pains of worshippers that visited the Kuze Shrine in the form of the Snake & Holly Tattoo. Through this, they prevented the sorrow of love for the dead from leaking into the dreams of the living. They were usually chosen because they had experienced the sorrow of losing a loved one themselves.
Handmaidens were also chosen from the villages surrounding the manor to attend to the Priestess during this time. They were between the ages of five and nine years and wore priestess garb. They looked after the Priestess and performed the Impalement Ritual. Under dire circumstances, the oldest or most responsible Handmaiden was given the task of impaling the other Handmaidens in order to slow the spreading of the Rift.
Misc. Info
- Yashuu killed both Akito and Kaname.
- It is possible that the hands that surround Yashuu belong to the various Engravers who worked under her.
- Yashuu's spirit comes in two forms; a vengeful ghost known as "Kuze Family Head", and a kneeling, praying ghost called "Praying Senior".
- Due to FFIII's translation inconsistencies, Yashuu's name is spelled 'Yashu' on the Spirit List. Linguistically, both spellings are the same.
- According to the Spirit List, the former Master Builder was in love with Yashuu, but his feelings were not requited.
- In renders, during the Unleashing cutscene and in her appearance in Spirit Camera's Ghost Camera mode Yashuu appears to have only one eye. It is not known how or when she might have lost an eye. It is interesting to note however that her appearance in Spirit Camera is flipped as the eye she is lost is now on the right side rather than the left. (This is further evidenced by the fact that the top part of her outfit's design is flipped also.)
See Also
- For quotes by Yashuu, see Quotes: Yashuu Kuze.
- For more images, see Images of Yashuu Kuze.
- For other members of the Kuze family, see Kuze Family.
- For other Ceremony Masters in the Fatal Frame Series, see Ceremony Master.
- For other rituals in Fatal Frame III, see Fatal Frame III Rituals.