Biwaki Masashige (正成琵琶気: Masashige Biwaki) is one of the puppets of Kintoru in The Mimic. She can be first seen in Control's Book: Chapter I, in front of the entrance to the Arari Village. She is the daughter of Kaito Masashige and Niko Masashige, and the younger sister of Mihari Masashige.
Biwaki is the third monster to be introduced to Yasu Masashige. She makes her first appearance in the Arari Village and is seen later on the second floor of The Hotel. Yasu encounters her before her friend Kuriko.
Physical Appearance
- Biwaki is a Japanese girl with incredibly pale skin, a white nightgown, and a wreath of pink and red flowers atop her head. She is equipped with a biwa that has two shapes on its body that resemble crescent moons. Her hair is black, and her face is noticeably maniacal—her eyes and eye sockets are dark and deep, and her minuscule pupils are completely white. Biwaki's smile is enormous, she bears yellow teeth and her gum line is exposed. Biwaki's mouth and eyes drip black liquid, which is a common feature amongst Kintoru's Puppets.
- Biwaki is a short, pale, black-haired Japanese girl with a wreath of pink and red flowers gently resting on her head. She wears a white nightgown and is equipped with a Biwa that has two shapes fixed on its main body which resemble the shape and phase of a crescent moon. She has black eyes with black teardrops pouring out of them.
- Biwaki, in village form has black hair which is neatly arranged in a bun, with a few strands falling gently across her face as bangs. Her face, devoid of any discernible features, is accentuated by a crown of pink and red flowers, elegantly woven and encircling her bun. She is seen wearing a pristine white kimono, with intricate patterns of sakura blossoms, and cinched at the waist with a pink obi. Her feet are seen to be bare. Her skin, as pale as paper. In her possession is a biwa, a traditional Japanese lute/biwa, which almost stands as tall as she does. The biwa is distinguished by its pear-shaped body and a shallow, rounded back. It is strung with three white strings, each attached to slender lateral pegs. The base of the instrument is decorated with two crescent moon-like figures on its base.
- Before Biwaki was cursed, she was a young girl with a rounded face, and pale skin, and has black hair, which is neatly arranged in a bun, with a few strands falling gently across her face as bangs. Atop her head sat light pink, rosy flowers which were wreathed into a flower crown, her attire was a paper white long-sleeved dress, the collar which had a crew collar style.
Temperance
Current
Although she retains her aggressiveness from previous versions, her speed has been buffed, and she does not stay still for long periods, unlike before. She can slightly outspeed you if you do not run fast enough. The best way to surpass her is when she turns in a direction in the hallway and runs to the opposite side. Her portion of the hotel has now been lengthened to increase the difficulty. Despite all of the buffs that she got, it is still extremely easy to juke her. The usual strategies to avoid her still work here. Because of this, it is nearly impossible to die from her.
Previous
Aggressive: When encountered, Biwaki plays a tune on her biwa as she chases down the player, but her speed is quite slow, which makes it rather easy to avoid her, and her chase sequence lasts for a short time and will occur only when she is provoked or when you enter her area. She is not very fast and is easy to locate due to her playing music with her biwa. She will take laps around her floor for a short amount of time, but that is the only movement she makes. You can just run to the opposite side of the hall to avoid her.
Gameplay Appearances
Control's Book
Chapter I
Biwaki can be seen near the entrance of the Arari Village. She can be seen playing the biwa, but as you get closer, she disappears, and a static sound plays. The next time you see her, she will be in the hotel (before Kuriko's level). Again, she strums her biwa like before but is hostile this time.
Chapter III
Biwaki is seen in the last part of the chapter, The Ancestors Hallway, where she is held up by gray strings and later on the ending screen, where she is being held by Omukade's strings with her father, sister, and her ancestors.
Chapter IV
She is seen one last time trapped in Saigomo's web, along with her family members and ancestors.
History
Current
Early Life
Biwaki Masashige was born into The Masashige Family to Kaito and Niko Masashige during the Meiji Period. She has an elder sister named Mihari. At some point in her life, Biwaki's mother left her and her family to fend for themselves once their poverty got worse.
Biwaki's Curse
One day, Kaito returned home with a biwa gifted to him by a woman he helped. He taught Biwaki how to play it, but little did they know the biwa was cursed. It wasn't long before the biwa's curse started taking effect. Biwaki started crying while her father comforted her. They then became puppets of the witch, too, floating away as butterfly spirits.
Meeting Yasu
After Yasu escapes Hiachi, he encounters Biwaki playing her Biwa. Then, after he escapes the Shizus, he enters the hotel, where Biwaki chases him but fails to catch him.
Chapter IV
Biwaki is seen trapped in Saigomo's web, alongside Futaomote, Hiachi, Kaito, Kuriko, Kusonoki, Megumi, Mihari, Shaku, and Shizu. Biwaki hangs from the web while Yasu defeats Kintoru while she is in her Saigomo form.
Afterlife
After Kintoru is slain by Yasu, Biwaki, her father, elder sister, and relatives are freed from the witch's curse and can live happily together in the afterlife.
Personality
Similar to Hiachi, Biwaki was a kind and innocent little girl who loved her family. She is shown to be able to pay attention to things very well, as she closely watched her father play the biwa and later on played it too. She is also shown to be very excited when her father comes home, welcoming him with a smile on her face and warm hugs.
Gallery
Jumpscare
Biwaki smashes the player(s) with her biwa, instantly killing them.
Trivia
- Biwaki is the shortest monster in the Control's Book series with the shortest monster overall being Nagemi having no legs and is therefore the shortest.
- She also has the smallest hitbox out of all of the monsters in Control's Book.
- Her speed and AI have been buffed in revamp, which means that she is a bit harder to avoid.
- Biwaki is also the easiest monster to avoid/juke because she often stops in spots where you moved away when she tries to approach you.
- Biwaki's new jumpscare has herself hitting you with the biwa she plays. This jumpscare is a reference to ItsFunneh[citation needed], with 11 million subscribers, who played the game (very requested by KF, her fans.) This can be seen here at 33:15. Rainbow, a sister of hers, said "She hit you with the biwu" and then Funneh herself said, "She hit me with the biwu". Here is the clip/timestamp.
- The song she plays on her biwa is called "Fantasy of Waves" and can be listened to right here.
- Biwaki was mentioned to be Kuriko's friend. This information can be found in The Mimic: Origins (Chapter X), which is no longer official.
- She was the only monster that used R6. This was changed after the revamp of Control's Book.
- Biwaki is inspired by a Japanese Goddess named "Benzaiten", also known as Benten.
- As of now, Biwaki is the only monster who is inspired by a Japanese Goddess, and in her case is the Goddess of literature and music, Benzaiten.
- Biwaki was roughly around 4'7-4'8 feet tall. Her revamp height is taller than the player(s)'s height.
- She was one of the least "threatening-looking" monsters until the revamp update where the developers changed her face so it would look more terrifying than her outdated version, aside from Yuma who doesn't have a revamp reveal yet.
- The flower crown Biwaki uses is called the Rose Crown made by Erythia.
- Biwaki's village kimono has cherry blossom prints on it and is a ROBLOX clothing item.
- It is revealed in an animation uploaded to MUCDICH's YT channel that Biwaki is confirmed to be Kaito's daughter, as shown in "The Indigent Family".
- Biwaki's biwa may be a chikuzen-biwa, a modern Biwa with five strings and frets.
- Biwaki, when written in Kanji means "Biwa (琵琶)", and "spirit, air (気)".
- Biwaki and Mihari are confirmed to be sisters as said by the Lore Writers on February 2, 2022. There were some speculations before the confirmation, however.
- Users on the Discord server had theorized that Biwaki may be related to Kuriko, or Mihari (Who, as stated above, is confirmed to be her older sister), and/or even Kaito, who is her father.
- The closest to Biwaki's actual name is Hana, however, this may not be her real name as in The Mimic: Origins which is no longer official, it is stated: "Hana forgot her real name".
- It is possible that Kaito, her father named her "Biwaki" after an instrumental due to his enthusiastic passion for music as he was a musician, the name "Biwaki" means "Biwa spirit" with Biwa being the instrument her father uses to perform.
- She is most likely nicknamed Hana because "Hana" (花) means flower in Japanese referring to her flower crown.
- Biwaki is eight years younger than her elder sister, Mihari, which is pretty unusual considering how big the age gap between them is.
- Biwaki, Megumi, and Mihari are the only known Masashige family members with siblings, with Biwaki and Mihari being sisters themselves.
- Biwaki is one of the monsters that don't change their speed when they see a player. The others are Kusonoki, Shaku, Fleshbags, Kazeko and Hanzu
- In a message made by a lore writer, the lore writer states that Kuriko and Biwaki are cousins.[1]
- The two were also born in the same year, meaning they would have been the same age mentally when Control's Book had taken place had Biwaki not been cursed three years before Kuriko.
Resources
Note that these are no longer official lore.
- Official Creature List
- The Mimic: Origins – Chapter VI: Fantajī no Nami
- The Mimic: Origins – Chapter VII: Aruku
- The Mimic Origins - Chapter X: Naga-sa