After going back and checking out the last part of this event I got to thinking. You guys saw some of that in my last topic about who I think the next Weekly Bosses are going to be.
So for this one I wanted to talk about where MiHoYo got this story. During the cutscene we got Scara saying to Yoshinori to tell Niwa that he'd chosen the name Kunikuzushi. He took this name based on Kabuki plays he'd been seeing. It just so happens that in our world Kunikuzushi is a real character in Kabuki with the name Otomo no Kuronushi. And also Otomo no Kuronushi was a real person in Japanese history and he was also a famous poet and he was also part of a "kasen" group of poets.
But the differences are also there. Otomo no Kuronushi was part of the Rokkasen or 6 Kasen and besides him none of the other names are part of the group we got. Akahito who he frames here is actually a much older famous poet Yamabe no Akahito. And as far as I can tell the real Kuronushi had no intention of destroying Japan or taking over. Actually it might even just be a misreading of his name that turned him into a villain in Kabuki. Otomo is written 大伴 but is pronounced the same as 大友 which just happened to be the surname of the royal family back in the Asuka period about 200 years before Kuronushi's time. So the idea was that he was related to this royal family and then fanfiction kicked in which made his Kabuki character some arrogant villain trying to take back the throne.
Anyway that leads to Kabuki actually its predecessor Noh Theater where we have several plays featuring the character Kuronushi under the title Kunikuzushi the country destroyer. This includes a play called Rokkasen Sugata no Irodori where the 4 other Rokkasen try to get with the only girl Rokkasen Ono no Kamachi. (Stay strong Ayaka. 
) She eventually dances with Kisen the monk but the most important part of this play is right at the end.
In Kuronushi's part Soshi Arai Komachi he and Kamachi are rivals set to present poems to the Tenno. Knowing how much more skilled she is to him Kuronushi secretly finds out what Kamachi will present and forges a copy to stick into a famous poetry book hoping to pass it off as proof that Kamachi plagiarized her poem. But when the day comes and Kuronushi calls her out on it she just washes the poetry book and the inked forgery of her poem washes away. Then Kuronushi is forced to reveal his true intentions but is stopped by the Four Guardians.
So I think it's pretty safe to say this is where MiHoYo got the idea of this event. They even rehabilitated the story from everybody trying to hook up with the one girl in their group to Sumizome Genshin's Ono no Kamachi thwarting a plot by Kuronushi against fellow member Akahito.
Sumizome actually does appear with Kuronushi in a different play though Tsumoru Koi Yuki no Sekinoto. This time instead of poets Sumizome is actually a spirit and Kuronushi is pretending to be a guard. After a girl Komachi realizes what he's doing Kuronushi ends up doing battle with Sumizome.
Fun fact: Otomo no Kuronushi happens to also be the only member of the Rokkasen to not get his poem included in the Hyakunin Isshu collection of poetry. Maybe that added to reasons why people would think he was trying to take over Japan?
There's actually another thing I found that MiHoYo probably took inspiration from but that actually works out better for a different topic so I'll talk about it next time. It's pretty cool how much stuff these guys look up and research when they make all this content for their games. Their other series Honkai's also chock full of real world tie-ins but in a more sci-fi way.
Tips and Tricks from a Super Casual Genshin f2p
