Kasen Ibaraki is a hermit who sometimes comes down from the Youkai Mountain to visit Hakurei Shrine and the Human Village. She mostly does this in an attempt to safeguard Gensokyo from the shadows, but her efforts are often in vain.

Hermits are unaging beings who live in peaceful solitude away from human civilization. However, this is merely an outsider’s perception of them. In truth, they spend their days in arduous training. Kasen can often be seen helping and lecturing people as well as teaching people the celestial path to enlightenment… so perhaps that is all part of her training.

It’s said that hermits idolize celestials and that they train to become one themselves. However, since hermits originally led an earthly existence, it is almost impossible for them to shed their old habits and cut all ties with the material world. This can be seen in the superficiality of Kasen’s idea to teach people through song while wearing a maid outfit at this festival attended by both humans and youkai.

Masked Dancer Rebellion
While Kasen preaches purely out of the goodness of her heart, she was still concerned about how most people considered her lectures to be old-fashioned and boring. She was racking her brain trying to come up with a solution when she heard about the festival. It suddenly hit her like a thunderbolt from the heavens, and she burst into a flurry of motion. She had a song to write, along with a costume and an instrument to acquire.

Her frantic efforts to teach the path to enlightenment were rewarded thanks to the power of music and the power of the stage. The audience seemed enthusiastic about her performance, so all she had to do was keep winning and preach her words to as many people as possible. That was her sole reason for participating, after all… She harshly reminded herself not to get caught up in the fun of the moment and lose sight of her original objective before each subsequent performance.