Kasen Ibaraki

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Kasen Ibaraki
ibaɽakʲi kaseɴ
Kasen Ibaraki
The One-Armed, Horned Hermit
More Character Titles

華仙 (かせん) (Kasen)




Guiding animals


Youkai Mountain (Senkai), also seen at the Hakurei Shrine

Music Themes
Official Games
Print Works

Kasen Ibaraki (茨木 華扇 Ibaraki Kasen), who also goes by the pseudonym Ibarakasen (茨華仙) or just Kasen (華仙), is the main protagonist of Wild and Horned Hermit. She is a mysterious self-proclaimed hermit living in the mountains. Possessing an artificial arm and various special abilities, she can often be seen dispensing knowledge to Reimu Hakurei, Marisa Kirisame, Sanae Kochiya and others.

Kasen is also a Sage of Gensokyo and, as of Wild and Horned Hermit Chapter 49 Part 2, is confirmed to be an oni and one of the Big Four of the Mountain.

General Information[edit]

Kasen has appeared as the main protagonist in Wild and Horned Hermit and has appeared in Chapter 16 and 17 of Oriental Sacred Place. She also appears as a playable character in Urban Legend in Limbo, and Antinomy of Common Flowers.





Guiding of animals



Artificial arm


To guide and transfigure youkai



To hide her home using fangshu

This ability Kasen uses is probably only one aspect of fangshu (方書), it's unknown whether she's skilled in the other parts of the art. One must use this sorcery reach Kasen's hidden house, as it is only accessible through a special path opened by fangshu. Even when a blizzard occurs outside, the area around her house was in a clearing. Marisa remarked that it looks as of it were in another world or different plane.


  • The Hakurei Barrier Kasen is capable of creating openings in the barrier to and from the outside world, which she does repeatedly in Urban Legend in Limbo as well as "off-panel" a few times in Wild and Horned Hermit. Notably, in Marisa's storyline in Urban Legend in Limbo, her incantation for opening it up is "In the name of the Sage XXXX, I command: Release the ban of 130 years!" This possibly was a foreshadowing to the reveal of her position in Wild and Horned Hermit Chapter 35.


Kasen owns the Ibaraki Box of a Hundred Medicines, which can cure all illnesses or heal any injury to the person who drinks from it.

One Armed, Horned[edit]

She appeared to have two arms, however, when Reimu Hakurei seized her right arm, as if she it bent flabbily and smoked leaked out of the gaps in her bandages. In Urban Legend in Limbo and Antinomy of Common Flowers, Kasen's artificial right arm contorts and uses the smoke within to attack.

In one instance, this arm touched Reimu's yin-yang orb and reacted violently, scattering away. Consequently, Kasen immediately reconstructed her annihilated right arm. As the yin-yang orb is the shintai of the shrine blessed with exterminating youkai, it is likely that Kasen's arm was made from some sort of youkai essence. When she had the artificial arm, she needed to drink from the Ibaraki Box of a Hundred Medicines regularly so the arm didn't rot.

The "horned" in her title was long since speculated to be related to her hair buns possibly hiding horns of some sort.

As of Wild and Horned Hermit Chapter 49 Part 2, Kasen rejoined with her actual right arm and returned to her true form as an oni. As a part of this transformation, actual horns bursted from the buns on her head, destroying the headwear in the process. After having her arm cut off and sealed away again, Kasen is shown having smaller horns instead.[1]


Kasen is one of the Sages of Gensokyo and was a part of the now disbanded Big Four of the Mountain.

Little else is known about any other details of Kasen's history so far. However, a newspaper article in Symposium of Post-mysticism reveals that she has been known as a hermit at Youkai Mountain since at least 1980, if not earlier.

Unknown to the public, long ago in the past she was actually a wicked oni. However, all her malevolence was contained in her right arm before it was cut off and sealed by the youkai blade Oni-Cutter, and Kasen's arm was replaced with an artificial one. When the seal on the wicked arm finally began to weaken, Kasen found herself at a decisive crossroads. Thus, she travelled down the mountain to see the shrine maiden...

Character Design[edit]

Kasen makes an appearance in Symposium of Post-mysticism.


Kasen is based on the oni Ibaraki-douji. Ibaraki-douji was one of the oni who ran the oni headquarters on Mt. Ooe and broke into Japan on a rampage. Although Ibaraki-doji is most commonly portrayed as a subordinate to Shuten-douji (who Suika Ibuki is based on), there are also variations to the myth such as Ibaraki-douji being the daugher of Shuten-doji, or as Ibaraki-doji was the only female oni present, there was a variation where she was his lover.

While Shuten-douji's gang was being massacred by Minamoto no Yorimitsu, Ibaraki-douji fought with one of his allies,Watanabe no Tsuna, but fled when she saw Shuten-douji fall in battle.

The survivor Ibaraki-doji assailed humans once again afterwards, and in doing so, even assailed Watanabe no Tsuna. However, Tsuna was able to cut off the arm of Ibaraki-douji, sending the oni running away once again. This is the likely basis for Kasen (formerly) missing her right arm.


Although she introduces herself in Wild and Horned Hermit as Ibarakasen (茨華仙), or Kasen (華仙) for short, this is merely her pseudonym. Her real name is Kasen Ibaraki (茨木 華扇 Ibaraki Kasen)[2][3]; note the different spellings of "Kasen". Her surname, Ibaraki (茨木) comes from Ibaraki-douji and means "thorn bush" (rose bush), while Kasen (華扇) is a real, commonly used Japanese name written with the characters for "flower" and "fan".

Her hermit name, 茨華仙 (Ibarakasen) translates to "rose-flower hermit" and is often just shortened to 華仙 (Kasen lit. "flower hermit", a homophone of her actual name, 華扇 Kasen lit. "flower fan"). "Kasen" is also homophonous with the first two characters in 何仙姑 (He Xiangu, JP: Kasenko), the only female member of the Eight Immortals of Taoist mythology. Xiangu owns a fenghuang, making it likely to be the basis of Kasen's affinity with animals. The name "Kasen" (何仙) also appears in the Japanese detective novel series, 塗仏の宴 宴の支度 (Nuribotoke no Utage, Utage no Shitaku lit. "Nuribotoke's Banquet, Banquet in Preparation"). It's plausible that ZUN, as a lover of mystery novels, may have taken inspiration from there.


Kasen Ibaraki in Oriental Sacred Place Chapter 16

In her original appearance, she has red eyes and shoulder-length pink hair with Chinese-styled buns. Her right arm is wrapped in bandages, concealing a gaseous black smoke. She wears a white top and a green skirt. Over her top is a maroon tabard with that has a thorny vine motif and large rose-shaped ornament just below collar level. Her single-strap shoes are colored the same as her tabard and a shackle lays on her left wrist.

Her severed arm is generally the same in terms of design, with the only notable differences being the pressence of horns, fangs, slit-pupil eyes, claw-like nails and sharper hair. The tabard and skirt she wears is colored different from Kasen's, being two seperate shades of blue. Shackles are present on all four of her limbs, with her leg shackles having iron ball-and-chains attached to them.

Kasen's true form, with her right arm reconnected to her body, has her gain horns were her buns previously were and grow knee-length hair. Both her tabard, now black and golden, and her skirt, now white, are noticeably longer, and her top becomes sleeveless. She retains her shackles on all four limbs, with iron bearings attached to all of them and her slit-eyed pupils.

Other Information[edit]


Kasen's true form in Wild and Horned Hermit Chapter 49

In chapter 49 of the final WaHH arc, Kasen fuses with her separated arm, thus confirming once and for all her true name and title: Kasen Ibaraki - Wile, Cunning/Crafty and Treacherous Oni. However, this does not mean that she cannot be a hermit as well. She may very well be an oni who wants to take the path of a hermit. But, she could also very well be just an oni who knows hermit techniques. The finale of WaHH states it be the former, ending with a statement that Kasen is following the path of the hermit.

Young appearance[edit]



According to Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, pretty much all hermits who have passed five hundred years of age don't need food, and simply ingesting fog or haze will be enough. However, Kasen not only eats food ordinarily but also seems to have a sweet tooth. She is frequently shown eating sweets in Wild and Horned Hermit and Urban Legend in Limbo.

She proposed having hot pot in chapter 2 and ate dango in chapter 7 of Wild and Horned Hermit. Also, in chapter 10, when the stranded Marisa Kirisame strayed into her home, Kasen treated her to something like nikuman, suggesting that Kasen normally keeps a supply of food in her home. Even if supposing she have not reached five hundred years of age, this can be said to be a non-hermit-like trait.

Kasen's Appearances[edit]


Wild and Horned Hermit


Oriental Sacred Place
Forbidden Scrollery


Urban Legend in Limbo

Kasen's first in-game appearance is in the fighting game Urban Legend in Limbo.


Reimu Hakurei[edit]


In truth, Kasen was mentoring and training Reimu specifically so that Reimu could be strong and wise enough to seal away Kasen's wicked arm some day. However, it appears that her fondness of Reimu grew beyond that purpose, as during Reimu's climactic battle with her arm, Kasen smiles wistfully thinking that she must train Reimu further even as Reimu failed to take advantage of Kasen's aid.

Reimu too has begun to view Kasen as a genuine friend, unable to bring herself to fight Kasen whole-heartedly until she realizes that the arm battling her is actually a separate entity from Kasen. When she sees that Kasen survived the battle, Reimu expresses relief.

By the end of things, Reimu knows that Kasen is secretly an oni, but partially due to this friendship and partially due to owing Kasen for all the money that one of Kasen's schemes got her, Reimu can't tell anyone else about it.

Marisa Kirisame[edit]


Kasen's Pets[edit]


Ibaraki-douji's Arm[edit]

This is Kasen's right arm, cut off by a youkai blade long ago after all Kasen's malevolence was moved to it. Ibaraki's arm is sentient and has a mind of her own to the point where she can be considered a separate entity of sorts even after the two are re-combined. She even managed to forcefully take control of Kasen's entire body after she realized Kasen's true intentions. Initially Kasen was overjoyed to be re-united with it. However, this was a front, as Kasen actually wished that her malevolence and her arm remain sealed away. Upon realizing this, Ibaraki's Arm forcefully took control of Kasen's entire body before Reimu managed to cut off and seal her again. Kasen currently keeps the arm physically near by in mummified-arm form as a trophy of sorts as well as a reminder, comparing it to being able to see your own death close by.

Sages of Gensokyo[edit]

Yukari Yakumo

It is unknown how long Yukari and Kasen have known each other, but both are youkai sages. The monologue in Perfect Memento in Strict Sense states it was the youkai sages who proposed the Hakurei Barrier, so Yukari and Kasen probably knew each other since at least that time.

After Kasen came down from the mountain in the present day, Yukari assumed Kasen was always "on her side" and that Kasen's actions were intended to help Yukari's ideals. Kasen finally got fed up by the time of Wild and Horned Hermit Chapter 35 and angrily informed Yukari that she wasn't on her side. This caused Yukari a brief visible moment of distress before she regained her composure, but she also stated she would wait as long as it takes for Kasen to come to her side.

Kasen's dream self in Antinomy of Common Flowers calls Yukari a coward who gets others to do her work for her because she's too scared to do it herself. As dream selves are unrestrained exaggerations of the real being, it is uncertain how much of this reflects Kasen's actual view of Yukari, but from Doremy's explanation of dream selves in Reisen's scenario, it does mean Kasen's normal feelings fall along those lines at least somewhat.

Okina Matara

Kasen has known Okina since a while back as a fellow sage, and commented how it was a misfortune getting to know her. She also claims to know how Okina works and acts around others, but any actual interaction has not been shown.

Minor Relationships[edit]

Sanae Kochiya

Sanae Kochiya lives on the Youkai Mountain near to Kasen and are considered neighbors. They meet fairly often and are on friendly enough terms. Kasen is a bit critical of Sanae as well, albeit to a much lesser extent than Reimu. Sanae describes her as living in a large mansion, corrected by Kasen as being a training dojo.

Kanako Yasaka and Suwako Moriya


Komachi Onozuka


Suika Ibuki and Yuugi Hoshiguma


Seiga Kaku
Mamizou Futatsuiwa



Spell Cards[edit]

Additional Information[edit]

  • From a historical perspective, the Noh play suggests that Kasen may not exactly be a hermit, but a rishi, a person who gives wisdom. They are different from hermits in that they are sometimes regarded as Buddhist saints.
  • Kasen is one of the few print work-débuted characters to become a major character in a game. Some others are Aya Shameimaru and the Three Fairies of Light.


Official Profiles[edit]

Official Sources[edit]


  1. Wild and Horned Hermit - Chapter 50
  2. 2.0 2.1 "キャラクター紹介" [Character Introduction] (in 日本語). Ichijinsha. 2011. Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  3. Oriental Sacred Place Chapter 16