Tsurubami Senri

"I see, so going easy on you was bad...However, if I had used my true power, I would have killed you, you know?"

—Tsurubami in Evanescent Existence

Tsurubami Senri (闡裡　鶴喰 Senri Tsurubami) is a human Shinto priest who runs the Senri Shrine within Mugenri. She is the Extra stage boss of Evanescent Existence, as well as the playable character in the main scenario, disguised as Tsubakura Enraku. She is insensitive and inconsiderate but ultimately a good person who's devoted to her job, although humans and youkai are terrified of her.

General Information
She leads a militant faction, and it appears that she was oppressing the people of Mugenri to some extent. The youkai who were targeted were scared of her, and hid away during the day.

Personality
Tsurubami is confident, energetic and dutiful, sometimes too much so, and tends to get carried away easily. Despite this, she is devoted to her job as a the Senri priest, though she's still too willful and inconsiderate of others.

During Evanescent Existence, she deals with problems by manipulating others to act to resolve things for her. She has a well-deserved reputation of being oppressive, manipulative and a dictator, and thus many humans and youkai in Mugenri dislike her.

Abilities
She needs to write on ink in order to activate her talismans. As shown when she transforms into Tsubakura, she writes an incantation on a piece of paper using ink.
 * Manipulate letters

Tsurubami is capable of raising poultry, but this is mostly a metaphor. According to JynX, she has the "ability to raise potential". Considering almost all of the characters have some reference to birds in their name, that could mean that she's able to stimulate and make use of the true potential of all the protagonists. She releases the latent potential of someone or something other than herself, and after raising it, she makes it so that she too can use that strength. There are some examples and statements which hint at the properties of Tsurubami's power:
 * Raise poultry
 * Disguising as Tsubakura Enraku, by imitating her appearance and attacks.
 * Using spell cards based on each character she battled during Evanescent Existence. For example, Hot & Cold "Dim Room" is based on Hooaka Shitodo's powers and Whirlpool Card "Spiral Galaxy Barrier" is based on Aoji Shitodo's powers.

As the Senri priest, Tsurubami uses ofuda paper charms and is trained in youkai extermination techniques. She also displays aptitude with shikigami, since she owns the familiar of the shrine, Jinbei.
 * Abilities as a Senri priest

Origin
Her characteristics are likely to be from Reimu Hakurei, the shrine maiden from Touhou. As both are a priest or shaman of their respective shrine (Senri Shrine/Hakurei Shrine), and both are youkai exterminators.

Name
Her full name is Tsurubami Senri (闡裡　鶴喰). Her given name Tsurubami (闡裡) is an actual name in Japanese, where the first kanji means a stork or a crane, which are larged, long-legged, long-necked birds. The second kanji means to "eat" or "drink". The kanji in her surname Senri (闡裡) literally mean "clarify" and "reverse" or "inside" respectively.

Design
Tsurubami takes on Tsubakura Enraku's appearance during the game, so like her, she has short wavy black hair and black eyes. She is is dressed in a uniform which resembles Heian Era clothing such as a talisman-covered kariginu (狩衣, lit. "hunting dress") or a suikan (水干, lit. "dried with water"), modified with the addition of a green skirt, with an eboshi (烏帽子, lit. "black-lacquered headgear") made of silk, cloth or paper atop her head, which were originally worn by court nobles in ancient Japan. Kariginu or suikan were worn for everyday clothes by the male Kuge (公家 lit. "people of the Imperial Court") in the Heian period.

Games

 * Evanescent Existence

Tsurubami spirited away some humans to the land of Mugenri. She also took Tsubakura's appearance and picked fights with her acquaintances in order to test who the most capable to replace her as the protector of Mugenri was. She seemed displeased with most of the people she picked fights with, until her fight with Yabusame Houren, a human that crossed to Mugenri by herself in order to find Tsubakura. Tsurubami was captivated by her abilities, calling Yabusame a "flying natural wonder". After dealing with some more humans, she decided to return to the Senri Shrine, which appears to everyone as a sun that casts a shadow. However, on the way she ran into Clause, who believed that the portal was a star and that she would gain power from it. Annoyed, Tsurubami fought Clause and revealed to her that she had been impersonating Tsubakura all along.

The real Tsubakura crosses into Mugenri. Since her impostor and Yabusame had defeated everyone, Tsubaruka didn't have to fight with anyone. She realized that someone has been impersonating her and went to confront that person, arriving at the Senri Shrine. Tsurubami revealed that her reason for spiriting everyone away was to find her temporary successor and had chosen Tsubakura and Yabusame. Angered, Tsubakura fought against Tsurubami and defeated the priest. However, Tsubakura was still upset, because the priest was holding back. In the end, Tsubakura agreed to be her replacement. Shortly after, Yabusame arrived and Tsubakura told her to give her a hard fight, much to the priest's surprise.

When Yabusame arrived to the Senri Shrine, she was transported by Tsurubami to the Mugenri Barrier. Yabusame soon realized that the priest was not Tsubakura, like she had previously thought and demanded the real one. Tsurubami was then defeated again. She went to tell Tsubakura, but the young scientist was already gone, not before leaving Yabusame a mocking note.

Relationships
Jinbei is Tsurubami's shikigami familiar.
 * Jinbei

Tsubakura Enraku and Yabusame Houren are both employees of Tsurubami and both have agreed to replace her for youkai extermination.
 * Tsubakura Enraku & Yabusame Houren


 * Tenkai Zuifeng

Additional Information

 * Her clothing – a kariginu-like outfit with the upper part in white – resembles typical Heian Era clothing, or a stereotypical onmyouji uniform in Japanese pop culture.
 * Youkais and humans from Mugenri seem to be afraid of her, because of her tyranical personality. This is confirmed by Yaorochi and Sukune in Reactivate Majestical Imperial.
 * During Yabusame's scenario Evanescent Existence, Tsubakura uses talismans for her attacks. This is a foreshadow on the fact that Yabusame is actually fighting Tsurubami.
 * She has the "ability to raise poultry", which sounds weird. And according to Jynx, she has the "ability to raise potential". Given the fact that almost all of the characters have some reference to birds in their name, that could mean that Tsurubami is able to use the true potential of all the protagonists.
 * If the spell cards used by Tsurubami when disguised as Tsubakura are indeed hers, then Tsurubami has the most spell cards in a single Len'en game.