Who Is Iso no Zenji?
Lady Shizuka's mother, a shirabyōshi dancer
Iso no Zenji is Lady Shizuka's mother, herself a shirabyōshi performer who passed on the art of song and dance.
She is sent to Kamakura with the captured Shizuka and stays by her side on the journey and at the dance. When Shizuka gives birth to a boy in Kamakura, Iso no Zenji begs for the child's life, but her plea is refused. She supports her grief-stricken daughter and takes her back to the capital.
The Kamakura-period essay collection Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness) records a story that Iso no Zenji was the one who began the shirabyōshi art.
