Gyokumen Koushou
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Gyokumen-kōshū is a fictional character in the manga and anime Saiyūki, one of the main enemies of Genjō-sanzō and Sanzō-ikkō ("Sanzo's party") who wants to obtain the Heaven and Earth Scripture to revive her lover Gyūmaō. In the Japanese animes, she's voiced by Shinobu Satou.
[edit] Synopsis
She is based on a demon character in the Chinese novel Journey to the West. Her name is the Japanese translation of Yùmiàn-gōngzhǔ ("fair-faced princess"). A pun on her name is that a homophone of gōngzhǔ means "second wife of an emperor" or "imperial concubine" (the Japanese would be kyūshū; however, another translation of both meanings of gōngzhǔ would be kushū). As we can see, her Saiyūki counterpart considers herself to be just that.
Proclaiming herself as "Lady" Kōshu and sometimes known as "Princess Jade" (the gyoku/yù in her name, alone, means "jade"), she is Gyūmaō's yōkai mistress and is very determined to revive and marry him, despite the existence of his wife, Rasetsunyo.
Kōshu's relationship with Gyūmaō has borne her a daughter called Lirin before Saiyūki. In later stories, it is shown that Kōshu doesn’t seem to have the time and care to give motherly love to her daughter and only sees her daughter as a tool to serve her when she needs it.
In Saiyūki, Kōshu is believed to be responsible for breaking the 500-year-old seal of Houtou castle, freeing almost all of its occupants, except Rasetsunyo, and took steps to revive her lover.
To revive her lover, Kōshu has employed help from a twisted human bioengineer, Dr Ni Jianyi, that enables her to use a forbidden mixture of yōkai magic and human science to revive Gyūmaō. Gyūmaō's body is now stored in a special incubation chamber, and requires the Heaven and Earth Scriptures that comprises 5 sutras to complete the revival process. From the anime Saiyūki Reload, it is believed that Kōshu has two sutras in her hand.
Since she was determined to have obtained the sutras, she and Ni Jianyi release the Minus wave to whole of Shangri-la, brainwashing the yōkai, making them go berserk on their human companions and enabling yōkai to do her bidding (including obtaining the sutras) in the name of Gyūmaō Revival.
She even manipulates Gyūmaō's son Kōgaiji to obtain the sutra for her from Genjō-sanzō by promising him the revival of his mother, Rasetsunyo, from the stone curse. Whether she will keep her promise remains to be seen.
She also invested her resources in many of Dr. Ni's inventions, a product of yōkai magic and human science that were used to track down the sutras and on various occasions used to destroy Genjō-sanzō and the Sanzō-ikkō, which of course the four fighters have survived and escaped many times in the past.
| Series |
|---|
| Saiyuki · Saiyuki Gaiden · Saiyuki Reload · Saiyuki Gunlock |
| Characters |
| Sanzo Party: Genjo Sanzo/Koumyou Sanzo · Son Goku · Sha Gojyo · Cho Hakkai · Hakuryu |
| Kougaiji's Group: Kougaiji · Lirin · Dokugakuji · Yaone |
| Gyumaoh's Revival Group: Gyokumen Koushou · Dr. Ni Jianyi/Ukoku Sanzo |
| Others: War Prince Nataku · Gyumaoh · Kanan · |
