BeiKazu

BeiKazu is the het ship between Beidou and Kaedehara Kazuha from the Genshin Impact fandom.

Voicelines
In Kazuha's Voiceline about Beidou, Kazuha tells that he owe Beidou his life because she took him in when he fled from Inazuma, and gave him the courage to return there at the most difficult time of his life. Kazuha mentions that she's a comrade in whom he and all the other sailors can place their trust.

In Beidou's Voiceline about Kazuha, Beidou calls Kazuha 'scallywag' and was surprised that Kazuha blocked a strike from the Raiden Shogun, saving the Traveler. After the battle, she mentions that he'd voyage with the Crux Fleet for a while longer, she was more happy to oblige. Once the day comes when he sets off again by himself within the next stage of his journey, she will send him off with a drink.

Character Story
Within Kazuha's Character Details, it's said that Beidou, ever judge the good character, could not tell that Kazuha could wield a sword with the skill of a seasoned warrior when she took him in. And in Kazuha's first story, when Kazuha was first on board, Beidou, told her crew that he's gonna stay with them for a while, and then told them to take care of him. The two are indicated to be friends by the time that Beidou took Kazuha in, having met each other prior in the scene demonstrated in Kazuha's Character Demo.

Official Media
Kazuha appeared in Beidou’s birthday chibi art, which coincidentally was on February 14th, also known as Valentine’s Day. Very rarely are other playable characters ever featured in a character’s birthday chibi art. Additionally, Beidou made appearances in both Kazuha’s character teaser *and* demo, which is almost unprecedented to have another playable character play such a large role in not just one, but both introductory videos for a certain character. In Kazuha’s character demo, there is a scene which flashes rapidly back-and-forth between Kazuha and Beidou’s eyes, before panning to Kazuha’s burst swirling Electro, demonstrating how like-minded they are.

The official Hoyolab account has previously posted a fanart featuring Beidou and Kazuha together on what can be interpreted to be a date in the Angel’s Share. Beidou and Kazuha are sitting next to each other in close proximity as usual.

For Genshin Impact’s very first anniversary, the game had an anniversary web event called “The Unforgettable Journey”, which featured every single playable character in some context unique to them. In this web event, Hoyoverse chose to feature Beidou and Kazuha together, both giving matching thumbs-ups next to each other.

Kaedehara Kazuha: Moonlit Breeze
The two can first be seen as Kazuha rhythms from his haikus, as Beidou listens she laughs and tells Kazuha about the risks of taking Kazuha in as he's a fugitive from Inazuma. Kazuha explains to Beidou that they shouldn't waste the moonlight until a battle occurs, until mentioning to Beidou that a bottle of sake (alcohol) would make things much better. Confused, Beidou asks what he meant about the battle, he then explains to her about that night when the vision hunters were hunting Kazuha.

Kaedehara Kazuha: Collected Miscellany
Beidou appears not once, but five times separately in Kazuha’s Collected Miscellany video. In fact, she appears at the very start of the video, before Kazuha even shows up for his own Collected Miscellany. Kazuha’s Collected Miscellany starts off with a panning view of the Alcor, flagship of the Crux, and talks about how a gentle flute sound can often be heard from the Alcor, strengthening Kazuha’s ties to his newfound shelter onboard.

Additionally, the text that shows up whenever Beidou makes one of her many appearances in Kazuha’s Collected Miscellany always seems to heavily relate to Kazuha’s connection to the sea or talk about Kazuha’s bond with other people. When Beidou first appears in the foreground at the start of the video while we see Kazuha standing in the background, the text that accompanies talks about Kazuha’s flute music “following the ocean breeze to wherever it may lead,” which is very indicative of Beidou, the Uncrowned Lord of the Ocean. Kazuha is shown travelling around Liyue in the video and going up and down the Alcor, showing how he is following where Beidou and her fleet go at all times.

There is a still shot that shows Kazuha running towards a Beidou using her skill, indicating that the two are in combat together. This is the one of two still shots with Kazuha and another character in the entire video, and that other character happens to be Beidou. This still shot emphasises their synergy and duality. After the still shot of Kazuha and Beidou together, the Collected Miscellany moves on to a fairly long portion featuring Beidou fighting a mitachurl with Kazuha using his support capabilities to buff her. Beidou uses both her skill and her burst within this duration, and unlike with the other instances of showcasing other characters in a team with Kazuha, Beidou’s portion does not switch off to any other teammate and remains focused specifically on Beidou for the entire duration.

Later on, the second still shot in the Collected Miscellany plays, and features Beidou as well, this time with the Traveller too. We see Beidou standing close beside Kazuha, watching him. The text that plays for this portion talks about Kazuha’s exposure to the elements “[connecting] him with other people who cross his path” instead of talking about his kit abilities like most of the text in a Collected Miscellany should, highlighting the importance of the specific people who *do* cross Kazuha’s path, such as Beidou.

Finally, the video ends just like it starts: showing Kazuha and Beidou together on the Alcor with the rest of the Crux, strengthening their affiliation with one another and demonstrating how important the Crux and its Captain are to the wandering samurai. Beidou is again standing close behind Kazuha and the text that Hoyoverse chose to play at this portion of the video talks about how even a maple leaf blowing in the breeze, if it falls into the right *company*, can learn to sail the storm-winds of the sea to shores beyond the horizon. The repeated emphasis on the sea and the choice to use a word such as “storm-winds” particularly highlights how much Beidou and Kazuha’s character themes intertwine and overlap, as the wind is one with the sea and the storm and none of these three elements can truly be separated for long. The wind is intimately connected to storms and also to sailing.

Overall, Beidou’s repeated and emphasised appearances in Kazuha’s Collected Miscellany, along with his teaser and demo, highlight how important an individual she is to Kazuha and their continued proximity in standing close by each other’s side in all the scenes they are together in demonstrates how much they are inclined towards each other’s company, much like how the subtly-placed words from Dainsleif imply.

Autumn Winds, Scarlet Leaves
The traveler first meets Kazuha and Beidou on The Crux ship, Kazuha and Beidou are seen to be preparing for a tournament. The tournament consists of those who didn't have a vision, as the tournament was basically if the winner can awaken a vision Kazuha found at the time. Kazuha and Beidou playfully jest with each other in the Prologue quest they had together, such as when Beidou says that “flowers” come out of Kazuha’s mouth instead of words, and Kazuha suggests that it would be “romantically irresponsible” for him to not describe the situation with a line or two of poetry. However, they seem to know each other well deep down as Beidou acknowledges that she shouldn’t have put Kazuha on the spot and Kazuha is acutely aware of Beidou’s dynamic with other characters.

In The Name of The Resistance
Beidou went with Kazuha to help his friends in the Resistance. After the battle with the Resistance was over, Beidou and Kazuha can be seen standing very close together for the entirety of the time. While Kokomi talks to the Traveller or while we are given the opportunity to walk around asking the characters about the battle, Beidou and Kazuha are always side-by-side like two peas in a pod, unwilling to depart from each other in proximity, even with Kazuha’s good friend Gorou there. This also applies to the Prologue of the Inazuma Archon Quests, where Kazuha and Beidou are always by each other’s side and are busy talking to each other whenever they aren’t talking to the Traveller.

Kokomi talks about having heard about the Traveller from both Kazuha *and* Beidou, implying that Beidou’s ties to the Resistance run deeper than merely just being a mercenary, and that she is well acquainted with those who aided Kazuha.

Tuned to the World's Sounds
Kazuha emphasises how significant Beidou is to his life when he tells the Traveller that, “Besides Captain Beidou, you are the only friend I have,” indicating that Beidou is among one of his very few friends right now.

Thunder Sojourn
In the Thunder Sojourn event, Muzhen, a technical officer of the Alcor, tells us that the Captain cannot personally attend to technical matters as Beidou then had “priority matters” that certainly should not be delayed. Given the time that this event was released and the prerequisite quests, we know that this refers to fighting for the Resistance, showing how important being there to fight by Kazuha’s side is to Beidou that she has chosen to ignore her regular duties.

Official Content
In Kazuha’s character teaser, he is seen telling Beidou that they “ought not waste the moonlight,” which has been noted by some people to resemble the phrase, “Isn’t the moon beautiful?”, widely regarded as a metaphor for telling someone that you love them in Japanese culture. Additionally, in Kazuha’s character demo, he is seen reciting a haiku that starts with the line, “Solitary cloud.” Solitary cloud translates to “Guyun” in Chinese, and Beidou and the Crux are stationed at Guyun Stone Forest. While this haiku is generally interpreted to foreshadow the events in Inazuma with the Raiden Shogun, it is also interesting how “Guyun” is what stirs “the drifter’s heart”.

Kazuha’s banner name is called, “Scarlet Leaves Pursue Wild Waves,” which is very interesting when you note that Beidou is a ship captain who is very much associated with waves and the sea. Additionally, Beidou’s default outfit is called, “Rolling Waves.”

Beidou’s namecard talks about being able to look towards the sky and be guided by the stars in times of doubt, which matches her name as “Beidou” means “Big Dipper”, which was historically the constellation that guided many wandering sailors and other such travellers back before they had devices like a GPS. Likewise, as a Serenitea Pot Companion, Kazuha advises the Traveller to look towards the stars in the sky in times of worry, echoing his Captain’s namecard.

One official CN introductory description for Kazuha includes a waka from Manyo-shu. The waka reads: “A faint clap of thunder, clouded skies; perhaps rain comes. If so, will you stay here with me?” The reference to thunder and water is again, very symbolic of Beidou.

Voicelines
Beidou talks about how despite the fact that we might not stay onboard permanently, there will always be a special place for us. She emphasises how she will never forcibly rope anyone onto onboard, while Kazuha fervently refuses the idea of being forced to stay in any one area for long, lest his blade dull and his wanderer’s instinct fades. Kazuha values freedom and the ability to come and go as he pleases, and Beidou provides him with that freedom. She will never tie him down yet will always provide him a place to stay, two things that he values very much as a wanderer. It is also interesting to note that both of these are the fifth “More About” voicelines, and they hold such a similar theme between them, almost as if they were echoing off of each other.

Kazuha has a voiceline dedicated specifically to talking about how he likes frank people, which Beidou is very much known for being. Beidou is straightforward and honest and few wouldn’t describe her as a frank individual. Additionally, other characters such as Shenhe agree about how Beidou is frank.

Manyo-shu
Kazuha takes heavy inspiration from the Manyo-shu, which is the most famous historical Japanese poem anthology. All three of Kazuha's burst voicelines come from poems in the Manyo-shu collection and the anthology seems to be heavily intertwined with Kazuha's character — it talks a lot about nature and scenery, wandering, loss, homeland, eternity, longing, sailing, all of that whatnot. It even has 13 poems dedicated to celebrating wine/sake, some of which Kazuha implicitly cites when talking about wine, such as on the Uyuu Bulletin.

The most famous poet in the Manyo-shu collection goes by the name Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, who had all of his poems anthologised in the collection. Hitomaro’s most famous poem is “In the sea of ivy-clothed Iwami”. This poem talks about a sea-related lover and this translation also mentions ships, storms, and “fallen scarlet leaves”. There are many variations of this poem’s translation but fallen scarlet leaves and connections to the sea are always a theme in the poem, no matter which version. The lover is always being compared to the sea, and in some translations, the narrator talks about loving this woman as deeply as the sea. The name of the poem anthology, Manyo-shu, literally translates to, "Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves." Kazuha is also known as "Manyo-kun". In this sense, the most famous poem in the Japanese anthology that Kazuha is named after talks about loving a sea-related, China-related woman. Given the fame of this poem and Hoyoverse’s research into the Manyo-shu anthology, it is nearly impossible that Hoyoverse was not made aware of this poem.

Hitomaro also wrote many other sea-related poems, such as a poem on the death of his beloved wife, in which he talks about meeting his lover “like a hopeful sailor trusting on his tall ship.”

Other Poetry
The poem behind Kazuha’s burst voiceline "As one with wind and cloud!" is somewhat obscure and doesn’t have much information on it. But several sources have suggested that it has to do with a woman or wife’s song/message. There seems to be some connection to intertwined fates/messages reaching each other between a feminine partner and the person who the poem is for. The poem can roughly be translated to, "Don't worry just because your country is far away. As the clouds become one with the wind, [my messages/voice] / [our fate] will flow naturally." This would mean that a woman is comforting the receiver of the poem who is upset or worried about his home country being far away, which draws much similarity to the idea of Beidou providing Kazuha with comfort and aid despite the fact that Inazuma is far away.

Food
Kazuha’s Japanese VA often stresses the strength and depth of Kazuha and Beidou’s bond in interviews, and has previously stated that his “favourite cute and interesting moment” was that of how Kazuha and Beidou both prepare and eat fish in a similar manner.

Beidou and Kazuha both share a common peculiarity when it comes to preparing dishes. Neither enjoys slapdash dishes put together without much care. Kazuha specifically states that if one must eat a fish, then it should be grilled to perfection. Incidentally, Beidou’s special dish is that of a filet that has been specially prepared with tips from Xiangling. Meanwhile, both Kazuha and Beidou state that their favourite dish is fish, which suits their connection to the sea. Kazuha’s special dish is a fish, which not only is very enjoyable to Beidou but also emphasises just how big a part of his life sailing and being on a ship are. Both Beidou and Kazuha’s notable dishes are to each other’s tastes, showing their compatibility not just in general but also in cuisine.

Additionally, Kazuha’s special dish All-Weather Beauty’s CN/JP/KOR name references a poem by Su Shi which continues to romanticise bodies of water and compare the beauty of a body of water to Xizi, one of the Great Beauties of China.

Doves the World Over, Repose Seeking
"A lush and lovely sakura that is known for shining bluish-black under the moonlight. Its light fragrance is particularly unique, and often wafts over to the distant sea or sky. In nights where no people walk, birds will perch themselves upon this sakura's branches and use it as a peaceful place of repose. Who knows where the wanderer who gave this tree its nickname is now?"

The aforementioned is the description for the Realm Depot maple tree Doves the World Over, Repose Seeking which is heavily implied to be named by Kazuha. This description details seeking peaceful repose, which emphasises how the fragrance of the tree often wafts over to the distant sea, much like Kazuha seeking refuge at sea, with Beidou. As Kazuha travels over the distant sea, where does he find his peaceful repose? With the Crux, and with his Captain.

Quotes
"I owe Beidou my life. She took me in when I fled from Inazuma and gave me the courage to return there at the most difficult time of my life. She is a comrade in whom I and all the other sailors can place our trust."

- Kazuha's voiceline about Beidou

"Kazuha? That scallywag actually blocked a strike from the Raiden Shogun outside Tenshukaku! Easier said than done... After the battle he came to the Crux Fleet — said he'd voyage with us a while longer. I was more than happy to oblige. If the day comes when he decides to set off again by himself on the next stage of his journey, I'll send him off with a drink, haha..."

- Beidou's Voiceline about Kazuha

Fanon
Beikazu gained popularity as its shippers believe that the two go together so well aesthetically, metaphorically, poetically, dynamically, and philosophically. Aesthetically, Beidou and Kazuha share colour schemes that go well together. They have something going on with their colours that is just wonderful. Metaphorically and poetically, they have a notable amount of symbolism and imagery going on, and their elemental imagery is beautiful — all wind at sea and storms and wind moving the sails of a ship. Kazuha's banner name is literally "Scarlet Leaves Pursue Wild Waves". They also share common themes of transience and freedom and finding your own path. The shipping community for Beikazu also loves the match of Beidou and Kazuha's personalities: loud, tough woman with a big laugh and Captain's attitude, and the quieter but still lovely poet full of pleasantries and soft-spoken haikus — flowery words and drunken banter, brash sailor's vernacular against masterfully poetic words. People also love the opposites-attract element they have going on as well as the role-reversal aspect, as Beidou and Kazuha both can be noted to break their respective gender stereotypes, with Beidou being rugged and tough while Kazuha is gentle and soft-spoken, which is why a lot of people who prefer less standard het relationships find comfort in Beikazu. This is why the shipping community for Beikazu, although not as big as some of their rival ships, is very devoted and passionate concerning the pairing.

BeiKazu unexpectedly gained traction despite the fact that Beidou is more popular in femslash ships, including one of the famous ones in the western fandom. Therefore, those that don't ship the pair prefer them as platonic.

For instance, they depict Kazuha as the adopted son of Beidou and Ningguang, due to Kazuha's popular reading as Beidou's adopted son and the similarity of his appearance to both women. On the other hand, the appeal of a young male and an 'onee-san' relationship draws in those that like the dynamic. In summary, the pairing is flexible and can be interpreted as both romantic and platonic, thus, serving as a win-win for both sides.

Along with Beiguang, this ship currently rivals KazuScara and TomoKazu.

Trivia

 * Beidou appears in Kazuha's official character demo trailer as a sparring partner.
 * Beidou and Kazuha are featured in the 2022 Genshin x Cadillac collaboration

Fandom
ARTWORK

FAN FICTION