Lady Kasuga

• Primary
• F/GO (Parvati)
• F/GO (Kama)
• Parody
• Other Uses

Sakura Matou

Fate/stay night

Fate/kaleid (Miyu's World)

Fate/kaleid (Illya's World)

Sakura (Shiva's Wife)

(Parvati)

(Durga)

(Kali)

Lady Kasuga

Sakura (Kama)

(Kama)

(Mistake)

(Kama/Mara)

Sakura Matou

Capsule Servant (G-SAKURA)

Capsule Servant (GS-02)

Sakura Matou

NPC (Fate/EXTRA)

AI (Fate/Grand Order)

Lady Kasuga
Japanese name:	春日局
Appearances
Primary franchise:	Fate
Appears in:	Fate/Grand Order
Characteristics
Species:	Human
Gender:	Female
Place of Origin:	Japan
Family members
Father:	Saitō Toshimitsu
Spouse(s):	Inaba Masanari

Lady Kasuga^WP (春日局, Kasuga no Tsubone^?) is a historical Japanese figure appearing in the Fate/Grand Order Tokugawa's World-Changing Labyrinth event.

Profile

Background

Born under the name "Fuku Saitou," and bestowed by the court the name "Kasuga no Tsubone." A famous heroine of the Japanese. She is known as the Edo castle Ooku's princess, or the nanny of three generations of shoguns.

History

Kasuga no Tsubone is the nursing mother of the third shōgun of the Tokugawa Bakufu, Tokugawa Iemitsu (childhood name Takechiyo). Her real name is said to be Fuku. Her father is the chief vassal of Akechi Mitsuhide, who defeated Oda Nobunaga at the Honnō-ji Incident, Saitō Toshimitsu. Her mother is the daughter of Inaba Ittetsu, a commander who achieved many military exploits and was one of the Mino Triumvirate, Oan.

Toshimitsu was later defeated in battle and executed, but Fuku was accepted into the kuge: Sanjōu Nishike, which had a blood relationship with her mother, and was raised receiving a high-level education in song and calligraphy. Later, Fuku married Inaba Masanari. Masanari is a commander that serves Toyotomi Hideoyshi, and that would later become Kobayakawa Hideaki’s chief vassal. Kobayakawa Hideaki betrayed the Western Army in the Battle of Sekigahara and joined Tokugawa Ieyasu’s side, and led the Eastern Army to victory, but Hideaki passed away in the year 1602 and Masanari became a rōnin.

At that time, hearing the Bakufu was looking for a nursing mother for the second shōgun Hidetada’s legitimate son, Takechiyo, Fuku volunteered for it. As a result, she won social status as the Tokugawa’s nursing mother. It is said that Masanari’s merit of war and Fuku’s education, as well as the fact that she had delivered many healthy children and had a good production of milk, were the reasons for her being accepted.

Fuku brought up Takechiyo pouring all her love to make him a great shōgun, the heir of the Tokugawa, and Takechiyo became emotionally attached to Fuku. However because of that, the relationship with his real mother, Oeyo no Kata, didn’t go well. It is said that later, when Eyo no Kata gave birth to his little brother Kunimatsu, and tried to make Kunimatsu the successor, Fuku directly appealed to the retired leading figure Tokugawa Ieyasu and took the pledge of 「Takechiyo is the heir」 (in posterior fiction).

But no matter what Fuku raised Takechiyo to become the great shōgun Tokugawa Iemitsu. Fuku, who had come to seize power as the shōgun’s Court lady with a private chamber, developed the world of「Ōoku」, whose system hadn’t been established that much despite having existed until then, and laid the foundations of Ōoku as 「a firm place (system) for the birth and protection of the heir of the Tokugawa」.

In 1629, as the relationship between the Bakufu and the Imperial Court deteriorated, the Bakufu dispatched Fuku, who had a connection with the Kuge · Sanjō Nishike. That time, the title that was bestowed to Fuku, who achieved an audience with Emperor Go-mizu-no-O, was 「Kasuga no Tsubone」.

Appearance

Lady Kasuga and Parvati are fused together, swapping between the appearance of Sakura Matou in a traditional kimono and Sakura Matou in Parvati's clothing depending on who is speaking.

Lady Kasuga Lady Kasuga in a slightly different patterned kimono.

Personality

Always absurdly cheerful and vivid, Japan’s proud super-wet nurse. Cleaning, washing, cooking and sewing, housework, childcare, and anything. Since she raised the child of a military family, of course martial arts and horsemanship are her strong point!

She feels proud to have splendidly raised the heir of the Tokugawa, and she wishes for the continuance of a proper Ōoku, in other words that the Tokugawa lineage can continue legitimately. Of course, there is the natural reasoning that it must happen so peace and tranquility can continue.

As the woman of a military family that lost her family and was tossed about by a multitude of wars ——— She only wishes for a peaceful world. Lady Kasuga is initially hostile towards the Master and their group but warms up to them once she realizes they are acquaintances of Parvati. Mash describes her as powerful and energetic based on her voice.

Role

Fate/Grand Order

Event: Tokugawa's World-Changing Labyrinth

On the verge of death from illness, Kasuga wished she could continue loving the Tokugawa. This desire of hers attracted Kama, who was seeking a place to complete maturation as a Beast, to the Ooku. Upon meeting her, Kama showed Kasuga a dream where she can nurture every shogun forever. Afterward, she used Iemitsu Tokugawa’s bonds to collect the souls of Edo Castle, followed by using Kasuga bonds with the Tokugawa to collect the souls of the shoguns across time to use as materials to rebuild the Ooku. Fortunately, Tenkai had foreseen the crisis and had cast a protection spell on Kasuga to ensure her soul wouldn’t be used as materials for Kama’s Ooku. Kasuga then died, which is when Parvati, who was in the process of being reverse summoned thanks to Kama's machinations, encountered Kasuga's soul. On a whim, she rescued Kasuga by allowing her to co-exist in her Saint Graph, which in turn presumably allowed her to escape the reverse summoning. Kasuga took this as a sign she needed to resolve the issues of the disappearance of everyone in Edo Castle and the Ooku turned labyrinth.

When Ritsuka and Kiara Sessyoin arrive, they initially mistake Kasuga for Parvati until Kasuga corrects them and introduces herself. Parvati shows she knows Ritsuka, so Kasuga apologizes for her earlier outburst. She and Kasuga then explain their current predicament and that of Edo Castle. Goredolf Musik then contacts the group, though he has no sense of original identity. He introduces himself as the shogun, Tokugawa Goredolf, and invites the group into the Ooku. Sion Eltnam Sokaris deduces the enemy brainwashed him into rayshifting himself to the Singularity and from there they used his connections to reverse summon everyone in Chaldea. Kasuga then asks the group to rescue Tokugawa Iemitsu from the Ooku. Parvati agrees, saying Kasuga’s knowledge will prove valuable.

Upon entering the Ooku, Kasuga finds it nigh unrecognizable, and explains its other entrances were erased after it was turned into a labyrinth; the Ooku has been spatially reconstructed. The group then notice multi-armed female automatons are guarding the entrance. Kasuga questions if the automatons are attendants and says she would never hire someone like them, asserting the Ooku’s attendants must be proper ladies from noble families. She then orders the attendants to step aside lest she strike them down. But seeing she forgot her naginata, she leaves it to Parvati. The group destroys the attendants and enters the first passageway.

Kasuga corrects Kiara’s misconceptions that the Ooku is nothing than a place to indulge in carnal pleasures. The real Ooku is complex, clean, spacious, and pleasant, and it is reserved for the shogun’s wife and concubines to produce an heir to the Tokugawa. But hearing Parvati had the same misconception as Kiara, Kasuga decides to lecture everyone about the Ooku. Before she can, though, Matsudaira Nobutsuna confronts the group. Nobutsuna sees Kasuga as a stranger until she calls him by his childhood name and scolds him for forgetting the woman who raised him. She also notices he seems younger than she remembers, to which Nobutsuna reveals it is thanks to his new lord. He reveals Iemitsu is no longer available, thus he now serves the Ooku’s new lord, though it isn’t Goredolf. He then orders the attendants to attack, so Parvati destroys them. After Nobutsuna leaves, Ritsuka’s party continues investigating the labyrinth.

Later, Ritsuka’s party agrees to Kiara’s request not to kill the attendants needlessly as they move forward. Kasuga compliments Ritsuka for their kind heart, saying everyone should be sympathetic to the weak, regardless of rank. The fact Ritsuka can remain sympathetic in such dire circumstances speaks volumes for their strength of character. Then, out of habit, she praises RItsuka with head pats. Later, after another battle, Parvati gathers the attendants’ remains and prays over them. She admits it's naive and considered a weakness to pray for the enemy, but she can't ignore who she is. Kasuga believes Parvati saved her because she couldn’t ignore her kind nature, for which she is grateful.

Entering a room, the group meets Kama. She asks the group if they felt pleasure after clearing the 1st floor, revealing she made the attendants so efficiently weak to make the group forget the “do not kill” precept. Ritsuka demands to know her goal, but Kama threatens to kill everyone she captured. She says she may release them if the group makes it to the labyrinth’s bottom. She then summons a large female ghost and escapes to await the group at the labyrinth’s bottom. After the ghost is destroyed, Kiara finds a pillbox with the Tokugawa emblem that Sion assumes to be the ghost’s catalyst. On it, Kasuga reads the name Tsunayoshi, the future fifth Tokugawa shogun. She is pleased to hear the Tokugawa line will continue into the future. Sion notices the pillbox has a spiritual inclusion to it, which can help in the investigation if combined with Ritsuka’s Mystic Code. After Sion finishes modifying the pillbox, the group continues exploring the labyrinth.

While continuing to explore the labyrinth, Parvati notices and picks up a Hanafuda card. Sion reveals it is actually part of the Ooku and asks the group to find more for further analysis. Mash is surprised to hear the Ooku’s residents played card games. Kasuga explains the women of the Ooku kept pets and indulged in all matters of entertainment. Later, the group destroys another ghost and obtains Ietsugu’s pillbox. Kasugas asks what his rule was like, but Sion refuses to give any details about the future. Kasuga understands, surmising knowledge of the future will only disrupt everything that’s supposed to happen.

Ritsuka’s party encounters Nobutsuna again, and behind him they see Yagyuu Munenori being absorbed into a pillar. Sion reveals that everyone from Chaldea and in Edo Castle were transformed into materials for the Ooku, but it’s possible to save Munenori as he’s yet to become part of the Ooku. While Kiara fights the ghost Nobutsuna called upon, Parvati uses the card to save Munenori after Sion said its properties of Ooku can do so. The ghost tries to attack Parvati, but Munenori catches its naginata with his hands. Kiara uses this chance to destroy the ghost. After Nobutsuna leaves, Ritsuka picks up Iesada’s pillbox.

Continuing to explore the labyrinth, Kasuga is surprised to hear Ritsuka knows Chacha and Oda Nobunaga. Munenori is perplexed she didn’t seem surprised to learn he was a Heroic Spirit and that it was RItsuka’s mission to save the world. Kasuga replies she was surprised but has no trouble believing someone like Munenori would help with such a quest. A group of attendants then approach Ritsuka’s party, thinking Ritsuka is the shogun. Ritsuka declares they are the shogun, but the attendants attack when Kasuga takes offense to Ritsuka’s blatant lie. After destroying the attendants, the group comes to a path that splits into two ways, so they follow the path that Kasuga takes. They come to a room where they rest while Sion maps out the floor. Kiara realizes they must “lie” to get through the floor and suggests following the paths that seem incorrect.

While following Kiara’s suggestion, Kasuga is shocked to hear Amakusa Shirou Tokisada is also in Chaldea and wonders how anyone can relax in such a chaotic workplace. Ritsuka and Munenori both assure her, though, that it is perfectly peaceful. Understanding it is all thanks to Ritsuka’s management skills, Kasuga awards them with head pats.

Ritsuka’s party eventually encounters Kama again. Kama leaves after ordering a ghost and attendants to attack the group. Ritsuka’s party destroys the ghost and attendants and picks up Ietsuna’s pillbox.

Ritsuka’s party makes their way to a hallway reeking of alcohol. Scheherazade and Mata Hari approach them, offering food and drink. Kama has brainwashed them both. Kasuga finds their outfits too provocative for her to hire them as attendants, saying it’s possible to be too sexy. Scheherazade and Mata Hari then attack the group when they refused their services, but they’re soon knocked unconscious by Munenori and Kiara respectively. Afterward, Parvati uses a hanafuda card to undo Kama’s brainwashing and the two join the group. Kasuga, feeling the Ooku’s dignity is at risk, asks them to wear a top. Mata Hari and Scheherazade both tell her, though they need to reserve their magical energy for the current situation. Kasuga realizes it will be wrong for her to force the Ooku’s customs on women from different customs, so she relinquishes her earlier request.

Kiara reveals the pattern she had noticed thus far, that each floor is themed around the Five Precepts of Buddhism. The group realize they were able to advance through the floors because they broke those precepts. Thus Ritsuka needs to get drunk to pass the current floor. Considering it too dangerous, though, Mata Hari uses her Noble Phantasm to give Ritsuka a simulation of being drunk. It proves successful in exploiting the loophole in the floor’s rule. The group then follows the paths with the least alcohol, but they reach a dead-end, so Kasuga suggests following paths reeking of alcohol. They destroy a ghost and obtain Hidetada’s pillbox.

Ritsuka’s party enters the floor’s innermost chamber. Nobutsuna appears to check if they’re breaking the Five Precepts to advance through the Ooku. He then summons two ghosts to fight the group and reveals Kama created the labyrinth to make it impossible not to fall into depravity before retreating. After the ghosts are destroyed, Ritsuka picks up Yoshimune’s pillbox. Kiara warns they need to be especially cautious going forward.

On the next floor, the group obtains a key from the attendants they recently defeated. Ritsuka finds it strange that the floor has many locked doors. The group soon comes to another locked door when they notice a key on the tokonoma in the tatami room. Realizing Kama is forcing them to break the precept not to steal to advance, Scheherazade suggests finding another loophole like on the previous floor. She then tells the story of Alibaba to take the key from the attendants without the others doing anything.

Passing into the next room, the group notices multiple objects are missing pieces of themselves, such as a handless clock. Kiara realizes the puzzles were designed to force them even more to break the precept. Scheherazade then tells more stories to help find the objects needed to continue. Afterward, they defeat another ghost and obtain Ieyoshi’s pillbox.

In the next room, the group again hits a dead-end. However, the wall is completely blank, unlike the rest of the labyrinth. Before the group continues on, Kiara suggests they should not forget that the wall exists.

In the floor’s innermost chamber, the group encounters Kama once again. Kama becomes a young woman and reveals she created the labyrinth so that the group would feel great pleasure from breaking the Five Precepts. She tries to tempt Ritsuka into breaking the precept of not stealing, but the others defend them. Kama then reveals she has the key to the next floor. She summons a ghost and fights the group. Ritsuka’s party defeats her and the ghost, obtaining Ieharu’s pillbox. However, the Kama they killed was a clone. Kama congratulates them and returns to the deepest part of the labyrinth.

On the next floor, the group encounters several Kama clones. They break through the clones, but soon hit a dead-end. Recalling the floor’s precept is to abstain from adultery, they decide to follow the paths with Kama Clones. Eventually they reach the innermost chamber, where they encounter Nobutsuna again, surrounded by Kama clones. He sends the clones and a ghost to attack the group. Ritsuka picks up Ienari’s pillbox after the ghost and clones are slain. Nobutsuna tells the group to stay on the current floor and tries to warn what will happen if they proceed. He flees before he finishes, so the group gives chase.

Upon arriving in the labyrinth’s innermost chamber, the group finds Goredolf still believing that he’s a Tokugawa. Kasuga demands to know where Iemitsu is. In response, Kama removes a pillbox from her body and reveals Iemitsu’s soul is in it. She then explains she used his bonds to gather souls across time to build her Ooku, revealing the pillboxes are the souls of the shogun. Parvati surmises that Kama’s reach extended to Chaldea, where she used Goredolf’s connections to reverse summon everyone there. She deduces the Ooku is a means to Kama’s goal, otherwise she didn’t need to attack Chaldea. Kama reveals she only found the Ooku by chance, and her goal was Ritsuka. Her karmic bonds with Ritsuka allowed her to reach out to them in Chaldea, but Sion protected them, so she had Ritsuka go through the Ooku of their volition to make them submit to her love. Ritsuka then begins to believe they are a Tokugawa. Kama’s Ooku turns whoever breaks the Five Precepts into a conceptual Tokugawa; Goredolf was Kama’s first test subject. Nobutsuna reveals it’s impossible to escape Kama’s Ooku once someone becomes a Tokugawa. Mata Hari and Kasuga tell RItsuka to resist while Munenori and Scheherazade fight Kama, but attempts are futile. Kama then changes form again and transforms the chamber into a scenery of the universe.

Kama reveals she is conceptually linked to the universe that the Ooku’s innermost chamber is now her self-contained universe, meaning everyone is inside her and thus cannot move as they please. She changes her form again and reveals she is Beast III/L. Her goal is to give everyone in the universe her infinite love, but Kiara says that would destroy the concept of love. Declaring she will give everyone her love no matter what, Kama calls Ritsuka to her. Kama easily repels Ritsuka’s party and then orders Nobutsuna to have Ritsuka drink with Goredolf. The shogun’s conceptual authority is strengthened inside the Ooku’s innermost chamber, a concept Kama's body also shares. Suddenly, though, Kasuga slaps Goredolf and reprimands him for behaving like a true shogun shouldn’t. Kama is baffled that broke Goredolf’s mental conditioning and Scheherazade asks Kasuga if she isn’t afraid to die for her actions against the shogun. Kasuga answers she will go to her death proudly if it meant guiding the shogun down the right path. Kasuga’s words infuriate Kama, who asserts humans only need to accept her love. Goredolf then attacks her, which she easily dodges, and he returns to being a Tokugawa since his reversion to his old self was only temporary. Kiara holds Kama back while the others escape. She tells them to gather the hanafuda cards to counteract Kama, then expels them from the chamber.

The group arrives outside. Ritsuka’s transformation into a Tokugawa stops. Mash and Sion then re-establishes contact. Sion realizes the Counter Force hasn’t recognized Kama because she is still immature and hiding in the Ooku. She then suggests finding a weakness. Munenori and Scheherazade recall Kama has the properties of the Tokugawa and she is linked to the Ooku since it is a recreation of the universe and she linked to that concept. Sion then informs the group that they’re missing a pillbox, that of Yoshinobou, the final shogun. Munenori tells Kasuga to remain calm and reveals the Tokugawa shogunate will end in 200 years’ time. Kasuga is shocked, but she accepts it and asks what happens to Japan after the Tokugawa is gone, concerned it will return to turbulent times. Ritsuka says it eventually becomes a peaceful country and Munenori explains the right to lead is returned to the emperor while representatives chosen by the citizens govern the country. Sion explains since Yoshinobu ended the Tokugawa, his pillbox should hold the concept of that act. Thus it can be used against Kama since she is linked to the Ooku and the Ooku is linked to the Tokugawa. Munenori realizes the blank wall they encountered on the 4th floor might be hiding Yoshinobu’s pillbox. Kasuga realizes to herself that she always knew in the back of her mind that the Tokugawa would end one day. But for some reason she feels relief at that knowledge.

Munenori slashes the blank wall after Sion assures him he will not kill anyone. His slash has no effect, however, since the wall is specially sealed. Sion senses the wall has a keyhole that has been hidden conceptually and with magecraft. She suspects the energy of the hanafuda cards, which seem to exist to counteract the Ooku, will break the seal. The cards are then used to break the seal, and the group enters the room beyond. They find a pillar with a ghost partially fused to it. It becomes violent, and attacks the group. After the ghost is destroyed, Ritsuka acquires Yoshinobu’s pillbox. Sion then adds Yoshinobu’s pillbox to Ritsuka’s Mystic Code to give it Anti-Tokugawa properties, though she warns Ritsuka that they may turn into a Tokugawa again once they enter Kama’s chamber. Kasuga asks with these preparations if they can win. While admitting their chances are low, the others are confident that they’ll win. Kasuga apologizes for casting doubt, but Parvati understands she is only concerned about them. She also vouches for their chances, adding they have also Sion and Mash’s valuable information.

Upon returning to Kama’s chamber, Ritsuka activates their Anti-Tokugawa shield to counteract the Tokugawafication and diminish the constraints on Munenori. The group seems to have the advantage in their fight against Kama, only for her to reveal she wanted them to find Yoshinobu’s pillbox so they may despair when they lost with their only hope. Then, to make it even harder for Parvati to use her Saint Graph, she reveals it was the dying Kasuga’s desire that served as the catalyst for the current crisis. Kasuga is devastated to learn she inadvertently brought upon the Tokugawa’s downfall. Kama then takes the next form of evolution, removes the gravity, and envelops Ritsuka's party in the darkness with the barest minimum of oxygen.

Kasuga thinks she deserves to die for what she has done and that Parvati should have never saved her. Now she only wants to die in her beloved Ooku, to which she dedicated her life, even though she’s sure most people disliked her for heavy-handed managerial style. She recalls her journey through Kama’s Ooku and wonders why Ritsuka would say a place filled with mistakes and misconceptions was always the Ooku to them. But knowing an ordinary person like them knows about the Ooku hundreds of years into the future, Kasuga raises from her despair to prove her dedication wasn’t wrong.

She tells Parvati to relinquish her; But Parvati warns her she is a soul only bound to the world because she is connected to her Saint Graph. Kasuga explains that since Kama used the souls of everyone to create her Ooku, the same should apply to her. She then requests Scheherazade and Mata Hari to use their Noble Phantasms to modify her into the Kasuga of legend. Scheherazade says she needs time to recite Kasuga’s tale, so Parvati deploys a barrier to slow the flow of time a bit. After Scheherazade and Mata Hari finish modifying her, Kasuga leaves Parvati then disperses the darkness and manifests a floor at Sion’s suggestion

Kasuga rewrites the definition of Kama’s universe to reestablish gravity, while Ritsuka’s Mystic Code is used to reestablish oxygen. Nobutsuna reveals himself to be a double agent for Tenkai to protect the Tokugawa and they ensured Kasuga’s soul was protected. The cards are also actually his organs transformed by Tenkai. Sion realizes the cards can purge Ritsuka of Kama’s corruption. After Ritsuka is cleansed, Munenori kills Nobutsuna to release his soul, which holds the concept of “one whose actions oppose the Tokugawa” thanks to Tenkai’s spell. The false Muramasa blade, an Anti-Tokugawa weapon, emerges from Nobutsuna’s body for Munenori to wield against the false Tokugawa. Kasuga calls Nobustuna’s actions to protect the Tokugawa a pure expression of his love. In response, Kama tells the group they don't need any love of their own, especially love she doesn't know.

Kama eventually understands Munenori will only kill her if she continues to hold the property of Tokugawa and the Ooku. She thus removes said properties from herself, but that allows Kasuga full control of the Ooku and returns it to its original form. After the others attack Kama, Kasuga tells Kama that love is more than simple indulgence and sometimes tough love is just as important. Though Kama calls herself the embodiment of infinite love, Kasuga expects she never experienced the loves that comes from watching over someone grow and improve. She then uses her authority to banish Kama from the Ooku. After Parvati finishes Kama off, Kasuga admits loving helpless people makes you feel needed and that you matter. But breaking with the desire to love someone forever is a love all guardians must one day embrace. If you truly love something, you must set it free.

With Kama destroyed, everyone will return to where they belong. Goredolf will also return to normal. Kasuga gives Ritsuka the Grail she found inside a pillar earlier. As Munenori is being returned to Chaldea, Kasuga wonders if, by some quirk of fate, she could be summoned with her naginata to fight alongside him at Ritsuka’s behest and continue to act as their wet nurse. Like Ritsuka and Sion, Parvati also hopes they’ll see Kasuga again, given the two of them were the same for a while and considers her a friend. She also still has many questions for her about raising children, like how to console her son after her husband decapitated him and replaced his head with an elephant’s. Kasuga is taken aback but says she’ll think of a good answer when they next meet. Then, feeling she is running out of time, she thanks everyone for their help. She will never their kindness and disappears, hoping to repay the favor someday.

Abilities

When it comes to fighting, Lady Kasuga lets Parvati take control of their shared vessel to defeat the enemies.

Development

Creation and Conception

Lady Kasuga was designed by Takao Aotsuki in Fate/Grand Order.

Comment from Illustrator

"At first I started drawing her thinking on making a form with a round and cute feeling. I remember asking Takeuchi-san or Koyama-san on countless occasions if it wasn’t wrong since I was insecure with the structure of the kimono. The pattern of the haori feels like it was cutely arranged like cherry blossoms or hearts." (Takao Aotsuki)