Any comments in brackets '[]' belong to Tetris no Miko, who translated these questions for me and you.

Who did the Byakko and Genbu seishi ever fight against?
How was Genbu summoned?
Was there a connection between Genbu and the big Tokyo quake of 1923?
What I remembered when I saw Tatara?

Who did the Byakko and Genbu Seishi ever fight against?

Okuda Takiko and Ohsugi Suzuno became Genbu and Byakko no Miko, and apparently had their battles and struggles leading to calling on their gods. But who in the world were their enemies?

The struggle the Genbu Seishi had must have been a big one since Hikitsu and Tomite ended up dead. We hear that at that time, Kutou had invaded Hokkan, so was the Genbu Seishi's opponent the Kutou army?

So even at a time when the Seiryuu Seishi had not been assembled, Kutou was still a strong, violent force. So does that mean the citizens of Kutou in general (be they Seishi or not) powerful in the supernatural sense? Or were they just brutal and strong? And were they ultimately successful in their attack on Hokkan?

We may not who WHO their opponents were, but we do know for sure that whenever a Miko appears in the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho, it is to save a country from disaster. This may be the fate of the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho. Almost like there is no purpose of a Miko coming and summoning a god with her Seishi to bring peace to the world (the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho, that is) when there already is peace...

How was Genbu summoned?

We are fairly certain that Hikitsu and Tomite died before Okuda Takiko was able to summon Genbu, but Watase Yuu mentioned that Hikitsu and Tomite "were the first of the Seishi to die". This can only lead us to conclude that more Genbu Seishi died before Genbu was finally summoned. We know that Hikitsu and Tomite must have died before Genbu was summoned because if they had been alive when Genbu had been summoned, their fight would have ended and Hikitsu and Tomite wouldn't have had an opportunity to die in battle.

You could argue that even after Yui summoned Seiryuu Soi, Suboshi, and Nakago died in battle, but that was simply because Suzaku no Miko's and Seiryuu no Miko's stories had overlapped with each other. And perhaps Nakago's worship of an outside god brought bad luck to his fellow Seishi and Miko.

So we're probably safe to assume that Hikitsu and Tomite died BEFORE Genbu was summoned. This means not all the Genbu Seishi were present when Takiko summoned Genbu.

Yui was able to summon Seiryuu with the aid of Byakko's and Genbu's Shinzaho. But it's very unlikely that Takiko had possession of both of these Shinzaho when she summoned Genbu. This is because back when Takiko wore her "Shinzaho" as an earring during the summoning ceremony, it was still not technically a "Shinzaho"; just a ceremonial earring.

So now that we've established the lack of Shinzaho's in Takiko's time, how on earth did she summon Genbu without all of her Seishi?

Did they fail to summon Genbu with their lack of Seishi, then went to Taiitsu-kun for an alternative method? That would put them about in the same spot Miaka and her Seishi were when they accidentally burned the scroll in their first attempt to summon Suzaku.

I guess we can conclude that like Miaka and her Seishi, Takiko and her Seishi had to go through several ordeals to obtain some sort of "thing" that would allow them to summon Genbu. Maybe that makes the earring Takiko wore during the ceremony the special "thing" they had to obtain? Or perhaps the way of summoning Genbu is completely different than that of summoning Suzaku or Seiryuu?

So interestingly enough, neither Suzaku, Seiryuu, nor Genbu was summoned with all Seishi alive and present at the ceremony. I wonder if Byakko's summoning ceremony was the way it was supposed to be? or did all the Seishi except Tatara, Tokaki and Subaru die?

Was there a connection between Genbu and the big Tokyo quake of 1923?

The year in which Okuda Einosuke (the translator of the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho in the manga, but not the anime) killed his daughter and then himself was 1923.

On September 1st, 1923, an earthquake marking 7.9 on the Richter Scale terrorized Tokyo. [*I'm not quite sure this is true, but I hear the way they measure earthquakes in Japan is actually different than in the US. So I think by OUR measurements, it was higher than 7.9. I dunno, anyone who really cares can research it ^_-] Over 90,000 people died as a result of the quake, and even more were injured. It was an extremely powerful and ruthless earthquake.

Are these two incidents related to each other, or is it mere coincidence?

According to the anime, Genbu made an attempt to come over to the real world, did His attempt trigger the quake?

Maybe Okuda Einosuke killed his daughter to prevent Genbu from coming over to the real world, but Genbu's presence inside of his daughter, Takiko, set off a large power surge with caused the earthquake? That's not an entirely impossible suggestion, is it not?

Just as when Miaka, Yui, and her Seishi fought their final, harsh battle in both the real world and in the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho, when Genbu no Miko and her Seishi had their final battle, the shock might have caused the earthquake. Since we have already established from Hikitsu's and Tomite's deaths that the battle was fierce, this is highly likely!

What I remembered when I saw Tatara?

[*Note: I have not seen Yuu Yuu Hakusho, nor do I know anything about its characters or storyline or how it was translated. -TnM]

When Tatara hid the Byakko Shinzaho inside a seed and placed it in his ear, and when he used plants to attack Miboshi, I was reminded of a certain manga character. I wonder if anyone else was reminded of him, too?

Yes, the one I am thinking of is Kurama from "Yuu! Yuu! Hakusho!"

The way Kurama can use plant-life as a weapon and how he can hide these weapons in his hair reminds me a lot of Tatara.

And the image of Tatara attacking enemies with his vines is almost identical to that of Kurama attacking with his Rose Whip.

But it doesn't end with that; Tatara and Kurama have something else in common!

The fact that Kurama lost much of his strength when he manifested himself in a human body...Tatara used Subaru's magic to keep himself young and fit to protect the Shinzaho, but if he left the Byakko Mausoleum, his strength would fade.

Though for different reasons, these two characters were never at full strength (though Kurama was able to retrieve his power when he went back to the magic world).

And as a side note, both of these characters are beautiful and easily mistaken for women.

Also, Kurama was a very popular character while Yuu! Yuu! Hakusho! was aired on TV, but perhaps if Tatara had been more of a main character, he too might have been more popular!