Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura
Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees (Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura)
Japanese title: 義経千本桜(よしつねせんぼんざくら)
Also written as: Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura / Yoshitsune Senbonzakura
The Story in Three Lines
Kabuki loses nothing when you know the story in advance. Start with just three lines.
- 01
After the sea battle at Dan-no-ura, Minamoto no Yoshitsune falls under his brother Yoritomo's suspicion and flees the capital.
- 02
But the Taira commanders thought dead are alive under other names: the master of a ship's inn is Taira no Tomomori; a sushi shop shelters Taira no Koremori.
- 03
And in the mountains of Yoshino, a fox in the shape of Yoshitsune's retainer Satō Tadanobu follows the drum Hatsune—its skin taken from the fox's own parents.
Three Things to Watch For
These three points are all the preparation you need. On the day, simply give yourself to the stage.
Three tragedies in one
Tomomori, Gonta, the fox Tadanobu—three self-contained tragedies strung along Yoshitsune's flight. Any one of them stands complete on its own.
Quick changes and a flight over the audience
In the scene known as Shi-no-kiri, the fox reveals itself, runs the balustrade, and finally flies out over the audience on wires before vanishing.
Tomomori and the anchor
The close of the Daimotsu Bay scene: the wounded Tomomori winds the anchor rope about his body and falls backward into the sea—one of kabuki's great deaths.
Characters
- Taira no Tomomori
- The Taira commander living on under the name Ginpei, keeper of a ship's inn. A leading male role that wears the beauty of a doomed cause.
- Satō Tadanobu, in truth the fox Genkurō
- A fox that has taken human form out of longing for its parents. The role carries the play's quick changes and wire flight.
- Igami no Gonta
- The good-for-nothing son of the sushi shop. The true intention revealed at his end is what the scene is for.
Stagecraft and Highlights
First staged as a puppet play at the Takemoto-za in 1747 and adapted for kabuki the next year, credited to Takeda Izumo II, Miyoshi Shōraku and Namiki Senryū. It is counted among the three great masterpieces.
A five-act work, now most often performed as separate scenes. The fox's flight is a rare case in which stage machinery and the story's feeling—a child's longing for its parents—are one and the same thing.
Sources
This page is compiled by the D-13 editorial team from established, widely shared knowledge of kabuki. Where details such as premiere dates are debated, we avoid definitive statements.
- Author
- D-13 Editorial
- Published
- Aug 15, 2026
- Updated
- Aug 15, 2026