his story, revealing in the process that he is a kitsune, a fox spirit. The drum was made hundreds of years earlier from the skins of his parents, powerful kitsune whose magic was employed to bring rain. A costume quick-change transforms Tadanobu into his kitsune form, who explains that though he has lived a very long time and gained magical powers, he has been unable to ever care for his parents. Failing to fulfill acts of filial piety prevents him from gaining respect or status among the kitsune, and so for centuries he has sought out this drum. He was unable to get at the drum when it was kept in the imperial palace, he explains, since the palace is guarded against spirits by many gods (kami), but once it was removed from the palace and given to Yoshitsune, he saw his chance. Shizuka and Yoshitsune speak to the fox for a time, and decide to grant him the drum. Thus released, he exits in grand style. Originally this would have been done through a particular style of dance called kitsune roppo (fox six-steps) along the hanamichi (the pathway that cuts through the audience from stage to the rear of the theatre). However, more recently it has become the practice, encouraged by Ichikawa Ennosuke III who often plays the fox Genkurō to exit by flying out over the audience, in a technique known as chūnori (riding the sky). The real Tadanobu then offers to take his lord's place in facing the doom that awaits him at the hands of the monks. The kitsune's magic hampers the monk's schemes, and Kakuhan, the one monk who most strongly opposed the samurai lord, is revealed to be Taira no Noritsune, the third surviving Taira general, in disguise. Noritsune and Yoshitsune clash swords several times before Emperor Antoku appears from the next room. Noritsune, of course, bows low to his Emperor, and both explain how they survived their supposed deaths at the battle of Yashima, and came to be at this monastery. Noritsune then begins weeping, announcing his failure to his clan and to his Emperor. Hōgen and two of Yoshitsune's retainers come in with bloody blades and holding the severed heads of the other monks who followed Noritsune. They seek to fight, but their hearts are calmed by the fox's magic, and Noritsune announces that he shall once again become Yokawa no Kakuhan,