Yashimano Hage

Yashima no Hage (屋島の禿, lit. Baldy of Yashima), more properly known as Dazaburō (太三朗), is a character appeared in Pom Poko.

Story
He is one of the three Transformation Masters from Shikoku Island. He was brought to Tama Hills, along with Inugami Gyōbu and Kinchō Daimyōjin VI, at the behest of the messenger Tamasaburo. He and the other masters pledged to help the tanuki by launching Operation Specter, and scaring the humans away from the development.

During his stay in Tama Hills, he celebrated his 999th birthday. At Shoukichi's request, he re-enacts the story of Nasu-no-Yoichi. Shapeshifting into the young samurai, he turns Gonta into a horse and puts on a stunning illusion for the other tanuki to behold.

After the failure of Operation Specter, he becomes senile and starts a Buddhist dancing cult and gets the tanuki who can't transform to join. Eventually, he gets his testicles transformed into a treasure ship and sails out to sea with his followers, and is implied to have drowned afterwards.

Personality
Dazaburō is very mild-mannered, and empathetic to the cause of the Tama Hills tanuki. After he becomes senile, he thinks of himself as something of an arhat.

Appearance
Dazaburō is a small, ancient tanuki with light brown fur, and long fur growing from his chin like a beard. He rarely shows his eyes except in significant moments.

Trivia

 * Along with other two elders from Shikoku and Danzaburō of Sado, Dazaburō is one of the most famous and powerful tanukis in Japanese folklores.
 * The mass suicide led by Dazaburō is presumably based on fudaraku-tokai, a religious suicide by Buddhists and their followers taken place in Japan. Majority of such suicides were recorded among western Japan including Shikoku.
 * Dazaburō's reenact of Nasu no Yoichi is also a jinx as Genpei War is known for its climax of a mass suicide by drowning.
 * Dazaburō's actions have triggered controversies among fans in Japan; while he seemed becomeing senile due to mental pains and led a suicide cult, it is also true that his action was "not completely hazardous" due to several reasons.
 * Sooner or later, normal tanukis would eventually starve and die similar to the case of normal foxes of Tama Hills, according to Ryutaro.
 * There wasn't an option to immigrate to out of Tama because not only other areas were also suffering from environmental destructions (as seen in Hayashi's case), but also respective areas naturally can only sustain local populations of animals (depicted as the battle between tanukis led by Gonta and Seizaemon at the start of the film).
 * In the climax of the film, public opinions for the environmental protections of Tama and Tokyo raised AFTER the number of tanukis were severely reduced.
 * In the end, normal tanukis thrived within limited lands and resources due to this severe reduction of tanuki population.
 * In other words, Dazaburō was trying to reduce agonies of normal tanukis who would eventually suffer miserableness, and help remnents of normal tanukis (who were willing to live) to survive by intentionally reducing the population.
 * It is also somewhat strange for Dazaburō to become senile by the failure of the operation and the death of Inugami Gyōbu; Dazaburō was 999 years old and should have witnessed various tragedies and deaths in his near-millennium past.