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Connecting the Mountains and the Sea: Exploring the Full Release of Touhou Kinjoukyou ~ Fossilized Wonders, Part 1

Now that the full release of Fossilized Wonders is here, I think just about everyone is surprised by the exact direction the incident took, admittedly even my own predictions feel a little quaint in retrospect. And though I do have some reservations with the game, I would be lying if I said I was completely disinterested with the new characters it brought to the table. There is a remarkably interesting network of connections at play with the cast of Fossilized Wonders, one that most fans will be unfamiliar with, that I would like to elucidate with this post.

Due to the sheer size, this has had to be split into two individual posts, first covering Yuiman Asama & Watatsuki no Toyohime, then covering Ariya Iwanaga & Nina Watari, alongside my personal thoughts. I do wish I was able to complete a little sooner, as I’ve already seen some misinformation circulating about the new characters, but I wanted to take my time and ensure my coverage was thorough, rather than just rushing out a half-baked post on day one. With that out of the way though, let's move on to characters themselves…

Yuiman Asama

Yuiman is perhaps one of the deepest cuts ZUN has made in recent memory, save for maybe Zanmu, as she is based on the minor character Yuiman-hime (維縵姫) from the legend of Kōga Saburō. This medieval tale serves as one of the many narratives concerning the origins of the Suwa Shrine’s deity; Suwa Daimyōjin, who is the inspiration behind the character Kanako Yasaka. Though it might not seem particularly daring to draw on a figure already associated with a well established character like Kanako, it’s actually quite surprising to see this subject referenced in Touhou, as such medieval myths and legends are typically ignored by modern media, in favor of drawing on the imperial chronicles of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. Yuiman is certainly a breath of fresh air in that respect, and I would be interested in seeing more medieval oddities drawn on in Touhou.

Many versions of the tale exist, but they can largely be traced back to the Suwa Engi no Koto (諏訪縁起の事), which is provided in the Shintōshū, a fourteenth century collection of tales on various Shinto shrines throughout Japan. A basic overview of the legend will be provided here. Kōga Saburō Yorikata (甲賀三郎諏方), third son of the lord of the Kōka District in Ōmi, while out hunting with his brothers, discovered that his wife Kasuga-hime (春日姫) had been mysteriously abducted in his absence (the culprits are stated in one version to be “three beautiful books” that “transformed into three young boys”). Distraught, Kōga Saburō searched all throughout the land with his retainers, until they at last reached Mount Tateshina in Shinano. Discovering a hole at its base, Kōga Saburō took with him a “Gem of Sustenance” that had been given to him by the Kasuga Shrine, and which offered him supernatural protection, and delved into the mountain’s depths. Therein he found his beloved Kasuga-hime, reciting sutras within a mysterious mansion. Now reunited, the two returned to the surface, in their rush however, Kasuga-hime had left many of her belongings behind in the cave, namely a precious sutra, mirror and book. So, bravely, Kōga Saburō ventured back into Mount Tateshina to recover the lost items.

A depiction of Suwa Daimyōjin in hunting attire, by Miyachi Naokazu.

While Kōga Saburō journeyed back into the mountain, his jealous brothers seized the opportunity to rid themselves of their father’s successor, and so cut off his lifeline, trapping Kōga Saburō inside the cave. With no way out, Kōga Saburō wandered aimlessly through the depths of Mount Tateshina, passing through a total of seventy three countries, before finally arriving at the subterranean land of Yuiman (維縵国). There he was given lodging by the king of Yuiman (維縵国の王) and his wife, who recognized Kōga Saburō’s deep spiritual power, and was offered one of the couple’s three daughters to marry. Though the three daughters outwardly appeared young and beautiful, no older than thirty, they were each many thousands of years old, and Kōga Saburō took for his wife the youngest daughter, Yuiman-hime (維縵姫, also written as Yuima-hime (維摩姫) in some versions). The two lived happily in Yuiman for many years, with Kōga Saburō having long since lost track of the passage of time, but in his dreams he was reminded of Kasuga-hime and his homeland. And though Yuiman-hime was deeply saddened by the thought of his departure, she sympathized with the grieving Kōga Saburō, and recommended that he seek the aid of her father to return to Japan. As it was the custom in this land for people to make their living by hunting, Kōga Saburō impressed the king of Yuiman with his peerless skill as an archer, hunting a total of 1,371 deer, and requested that he be allowed to return to his homeland. The old man obliged, but first showed him many secret places within the realm, among which was the “Gate of the Four Seasons” (四季の門), through which he cycled through all the seasons of the year in a single sweep of the eye. Moreover, the old man took the kneecaps of 1,000 deer and ground them into bone meal for Kōga Saburō to eat on his return trip, carefully instructing him to eat only one portion a day, or else he would never be able to reach Japan. Bidding farewell to his wife and father-in-law, Kōga Saburō made the long journey back to Japan, overcoming yet more hardships, until he surfaced at the foot of Mount Ōnuma (or alternatively Mount Asama) in Shinano. However, things were not as he remembered, hundreds of years had passed while he had been living in Yuiman, and he worried what had become of Kasuga-hime.

Given a lack of other images, here’s a depiction of Kōga Saburō from The Case Records of Professor Munakata by Hoshino Yukinobu.

While taking refuge at a Buddhist temple that his father had built in Kōka, Kōga Saburō was horrified to discover that his body had also transformed into that of a giant snake, and so he hid himself beneath the altar in shame. While weeping at his predicament, he overheard the chatter of monks that were visiting the Buddha hall to perform a reading of the Lotus Sutra. The monks recounted everything that had happened to Kōga Saburō, down to his journey to and from Yuiman, and even gave precise instructions on how he could shed his serpent form. Following these instructions, he miraculously regained his human appearance, at which point the monks revealed themselves as gods who had accompanied and protected Kōga Saburō during his journey to Yuiman, at the request of Kasuga-hime. At once he went to Kasuga Shrine, where his wife was making invocations, and the two were at long last reunited, recounting all that had transpired to each other. We are told that Kōga Saburō Yorikata is also known as the Great Suwa Deity, Suwa Daimyōjin (諏訪大明神) of the Upper Suwa Shrine, and his wife, Kasuga-hime, is the deity of the Lower Suwa Shrine (corresponding to Yasakatome). Furthermore, the now queen of Yuiman yearned for the departed Kōga Saburō so much that she manifested on Mount Asama in Shinano, where she is enshrined as Asama Daibosatsu (浅間大菩薩; “The Great Bodhisattva of Asama”), also known as Asama Daimyōjin (浅間大明神).

Now, some of this should be ringing a few bells in the context of Fossilized Wonders. Not only is Yuiman’s name a direct reference to Yuiman-hime, but she is explicitly referred to as the Queen of Yuiman in her omake, and the “Pit of Four Seasons” (四季の竪穴) that appears in stage 4 is likely from the “Gate of Four Seasons” (四季の門) that appears in the original tale. Furthermore, Yuiman’s snake-themed ability and design are almost certainly drawn from Kōga Saburō’s transformation into a serpent, and, interestingly the legend even specifies that it was the clothing of Yuiman that caused his appearance to change. There are also abundant (if not downright excessive) references made to deer-hunting with Yuiman, no doubt inspired by the customs of the land of Yuiman itself, though it is also worth pointing out that the practice was of great spiritual significance to the Suwa Shrine more broadly. Even when eating meat was frowned upon due to Buddhist influence, the cult of Suwa Myōjin still celebrated the hunting and eating of deer. A four-line verse attached to the legend of Kōga Saburō, known as the Suwa Kanmon (諏訪の勘文), even justified the act of eating meat within a Buddhist context as a means of allowing ignorant animals to achieve enlightenment through human consumption. To top it all off, Kanako also refers to Yuiman as an old friend in one of Reimu’s endings, hinting either at Suwa Daimyōjin’s marriage to Yuiman-hime, or to the fact that Kasuga-hime (who again corresponds to Yasakatome) became friends with Yuiman-hime after she followed Kōga Saburō back to Suwa.

Mount Asama, as seen from Mount Tateshina.

Another aspect of the Suwa Engi that stands out in relation to and Touhou’s Yuiman is Yuiman-hime’s deification as the god of Mount Asama, as this is almost certainly the reason for her full name; Yuiman Asama (ユイマン・浅間, as an aside I’m not totally sure why it’s structured the way it is, as two separate names rather than one full name). The subject of Mount Asama, and by extension Asama Shrines, appears to be a major focus of Fossilized Wonder’s theming, and requires some elaboration in its own respect. The name Asama (浅間), also read as Sengen, seems to have been used as a generic name for sacred mountains, possibly originating as a word for volcanoes and volcanic eruptions specifically. By extension, the names Asama Daimyōjin (浅間大明神) and Asama Daibosatsu (浅間大菩薩) were used to refer to the deity of Mount Fuji, Konohanasakuya-hime, who appears in classical Japanese mythology as one of the daughters of the mountain god Ōyamatsumi. More will be said on the subject of Konohanasakuya-hime later, but it’s important to note here that she serves as the main deity enshrined at Asama/Sengen shrines throughout Japan. So does this mean that Yuiman is Konohanasakuya-hime herself? Eh, not really… Konohanasakuya-hime has appeared a few times in Touhou already, with no apparent connection to what’s going on with Yuiman, so it would be a strange decision to completely retcon her to align with a character that only references a name she’s venerated under. In that same vein, Asama is a generic name, and refers more specifically to the Mount Asama of the Nagano Prefecture in Fossilized Wonders, so the implication would seem to be that Yuiman came to be venerated as a substitute for Konohanasakuya-hime, and not that she is identical to the goddess of Mount Fuji. Given who the final boss is, I have no doubt that it was an intentional decision on ZUN’s part to play into the link between Yuiman-hime and Konohanasakuya-hime, but it likely serves more-so as a thematic link, rather than a complete conflation.

Nitta no Shiro Tadatsune’s encounter with the goddess of Mount Fuji, in the form of a giant snake, by Shirai Toshinobu II.

With that being said, there is another story featuring Asama Daibosatsu that also involves a subterranean journey and a giant serpent, that being the “Tale of the Fuji Cave” (富士の人穴草子, Fuji no Hitoana Sōshi), written during the sixteenth century. I won’t go into nearly as much detail on it as with the Suwa Engi, but the text recounts the journey of one Nitta no Shirō Tadatsune (仁田四郎忠常) as they venture into the bowels of Mount Fuji, where they are subsequently given a tour of hell by the mountain’s deity. In this tale, Asama Daibosatsu appears as a great serpent “with eyes like the sun and the moon, and a mouth so red it seemed to have been daubed with paint. A full twenty fathoms long, it had sixteen horns and a hundred and eight eyes. Its flaming breath rose up a thousand feet in the air”. This decidedly monstrous depiction of the deity is about as far from the conventional image of Konohanasakuya-hime as you can get, but I have to wonder if it was perhaps another inspiration behind Yuiman’s ophidian design and ability. It’s impossible to say for sure, but at the very least it provides another link between Yuiman-hime and Konohanasakuya-hime.

There is one thing that strikes me as a rather strange addition to Yuiman’s backstory however, that being the references made to the gods of Takamagahara. According to her omake, Yuiman was forced into servitude by “the gods that arrived from Takamagahara”, aka the amatsukami, who are also treated as interchangeable with the Lunarians. The conflation of the Lunarians with the amatsukami is nothing new in Touhou, and is a connection I will have a lot more to say about soon, but their mention in association with the legend of Kōga Saburō is rather unprecedented, as the conflict between the heavenly and earthly gods has no relevance to the narrative. This would instead appear to be an allusion to the defeat of the earthly deity Takeminakata (that is, Suwa Daimyōjin), during the “Transfer of the Land”, as recorded in the Kojiki. Here, we are told that the god Takemikazuchi was dispatched to seize control of the Central Land of Reed Plains (another name for Japan) from the earthly deity Ōkuninushi, who directed Takemikazuchi to consult his sons. The first son, Kotoshironushi, readily accepted the demands, but the second, Takeminakata, defied the will of the heavenly gods, and, carrying a gigantic boulder by his fingertips, challenged Takemikazuchi to a test of strength. In-turn, Takemikazuchi transformed one of Takeminakata’s arms into a column of ice, and crushed his other arm as if it was a young reed. Fearful of his power, Takeminakata then fled to the “Sea of Suwa” (州羽海, referring to Lake Suwa) in Shinano, where he at last yielded to Takemikazuchi, stating: “Pray do not kill me. I will go to no other place. Also I will not disobey the commands of my father, Ōkuninushi-no-Kami, and will not disobey the words of Yae-Kotoshironushi-no-Kami. I will yield this Central Land of the Reed Plains in accordance with the commands of the Heavenly Deities.”

A depiction of Takeminakata carrying the Chibiki no Iwa (千引之石, a rock so large it would take a thousand men to pull) as a display of strength.

As established earlier, Kanako Yasaka is herself based on Suwa Daimyōjin, and indeed displays a degree of animosity towards the Lunarians. So this may just be an attempt at reconciling the legend of Kōga Saburō within the lore of Touhou, which itself draws from the conflict between the heavenly and earthly gods, as recorded in the imperial chronicles. But I feel that it’s worth stressing again that this isn’t a conflict that had much, if any, relevance to medieval legends like Kōga Saburō, in fact, even the later rewrites of the Kojiki myth, provided in works such as the Suwa Daimyōjin Ekotoba (諏方大明神画詞), attempted to present Takaminakata as an equal, or even ally, to the heavenly gods. Rather than being overpowered by Takemikazuchi, it was Takeminakata himself who transformed his arms into icicles and swords, and, rather than being forced to yield to the will of the heavenly gods, Takeminakata chose to remain in Suwa of his own volition. Furthermore, according to the Suwa Daimyōjin Yurai (諏訪大明神由来; "The Origin of Suwa Daimyōjin"), Takeminakata agreed to cede the Central Land of Reed Plains to Takemikazuchi and Futsunushi through reason, and the trio of deities then traveled to Suwa to subdue the native god Moreya (aka Suwako).

In a similar vein to the legend of Kōga Saburō, there is also the King of Hadai, an especially bizarre origin story for the Suwa deity, provided in the Suwa Daimyōjin Ekotoba and the Suwa Kamisha Monoimi no Rei no Koto (諏訪上社物忌令之事), that claims he was once a king from a certain Indian kingdom called Hadai (波堤国, Hadai-koku). After fleeing India, due to an insurrection staged by the rebel Moriya, he came to Persia, where he slew an evil dragon and ruled for a time as “Emperor Suwa” (陬波皇帝 Suwa Kōtei). Wishing to "cultivate the seedling of virtue and realize the Buddhist path", the king then manifested in Japan, where he chose to dwell in Suwa as the deity of the Upper Suwa Shrine. According to the Suwa Daimyōjin Kōshiki (諏方大明神講式), the king of Hadai was also the great-great-grandson of King Siṃhahanu, giving him a familial relation to Gautama Buddha. Additionally, the rebel Moriya, who was also known as Bikyō (美教), served as an incarnation of the demon king Māra, and eventually manifested in Japan as the rebellious deity Moreya-no-Kami (洩矢神).

While I don’t think it was necessarily ZUN’s intent, forcing these kinds of myths and legends to align with the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki comes across, at least in part, as an attempt at de-legimitizing them in comparison to the more “genuine” mythology of the imperial chronicles. This is a mindset that plagues far-more than just Touhou, and likely has its roots in the kokugaku (国学; “national-learning”) movement, which readily rejected narratives it perceived as having foreign (namely Buddhist) influence, on quite blatantly xenophobic grounds, in favor of elevating the significance of the Kojiki and, by extension, the imperial cult. At least speaking personally, I would like to see a lot more of these lesser-known medieval oddities given the spotlight, and allowed to shine on their own merits. Exactly how you would go about having these various origin stories co-exist is another issue of course, but, especially for a piece of media as relatively unserious as Touhou, I don’t think you should need to bend over backwards to accommodate for the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. Especially as the imperial chronicles were themselves hardly impartial collections of history and mythology; being written by, and in service to the interests of, the imperial court.

Watatsuki no Toyohime

As a returning character, it might not seem that Toyohime needs much coverage, but due to the relevance of her basis to the rest of the cast (and the general disinterest people have towards the Watatsuki's in general) I feel that it is necessary to elaborate on the inspirations behind her and the Lunarians. As the name Toyohime (豊姫) suggests, she is based on the figure Toyotama-hime (豊玉姫) who serves as the wife of Hoori, one of the children of Ninigi and Konohanasakuya-hime, as recorded in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. Between the two texts, many versions of Hoori's exploits are provided, but I will attempt to give a general summary of the material here.

There were once two brothers, the older, Hoderi, was favored by the ocean and so was called Umisachihiko (海幸彦; “Man [Who Receives the] Luck of the Sea”), while the younger, Hoori, was favored by the mountains and so received the name Yamasachihiko (山幸彦; “Man [Who Receives the] Luck of the Mountains”). One day, the two agreed to exchange their talents, but Hodemi failed to hunt any game in the mountains, and Hoori failed to catch any fish in the sea. Therefore, the older brother returned the bow and arrows he had lent from Hoori, and demanded that his fish hook be returned to him. However, Hoori had lost his borrowed fish hook, and though he crafted many replacements for his brother, none would appease him. Having invoked his brother's anger, Hoori grieved by the sea shore, where he was approached by the deity Shiotsuchi no Oji (塩土老翁; “Old Man Tide Spirit”), who inquired as to why he was weeping. Hoori explained that he had lost his brother's fishing hook, to which the old man, taking pity on Hoori, granted him a vessel with which to travel to the Sea God's Palace (海神の宮, Watatsumi no Miya) to find it (in one version he is instead brought to the Sea God's Palace by a wani (和邇, also written as 鰐), a kind of draconic sea monster, the name of which can also refer to a crocodile or shark). Wandering the palace grounds, Hoori encountered a beautiful maiden by the name of Toyotama-hime, the daughter of the sea god Watatsumi, whom he fell in love with. Having married Toyotama-hime, Hoori dwelled in the Sea God's Palace for three years, enjoying a life of pleasure there, though he ultimately grew to yearn for his homeland. Taking notice of his homesickness, Toyotama-hime informed her father that Hoori wished to return to Japan, and so Watatsumi asked to speak with him. The sea god inquired as to what had brought Hoori to his palace in the first place, and, by summoning together all the fish of the sea, retrieved the lost fish hook that he sought. He further bestowed Hoori with a pair of tide-controlling jewels, Shiomitsutama (潮満珠; “Tide-Flowing Jewel”) and Shiohirutama (潮干珠; “Tide-Ebbing Jewel”), with which to subdue his angered brother, and had Hoori escorted home by a wani, alongside Toyotama-hime, who was pregnant with their child.

A depiction of Hoori spying on Toyotama-hime as she gives birth, only to discover that she has taken the form of a monstrous wani. From the Wakan Ehon Sakigake (和漢絵本魁).

Using the jewels gifted to him by Watatsumi, Hoori was victorious over his brother Hodemi, and afterwards, built for his wife a parturition house where she could give birth. Toyotama-hime thought it would be unfitting for the child of a heavenly deity to be born in the sea-plain (海原, unabara, i.e the domain of Watatsumi), but requested that Hoori not look at her while she gave birth to their child. Unable to resist his curiosity, he went against his wife's wishes, only to discover her true form was that of a monstrous wani. Angered and ashamed by Hoori's actions, Toyotama-hime condemned him, and closed the sea-boundary (海境, unasaka), however, she could not stand to abandon her child, and so left him in the care of her sister Tamayori-hime. This child, named Ugayafukiaezu, ultimately married his aunt, Tamayori-hime, who birthed four children: Hikoitsuse no Mikoto (彦五瀬命), Inahi no Mikoto (稲飯命), Mikeirino no Mikoto (三毛入野命), and, lastly, Kamuyamato Iwarebiko no Mikoto (神日本磐余彦命), otherwise known as Emperor Jinmu, the first emperor of Japan.

Although Hoori himself isn't explicitly mentioned in association with her, Toyohime is still played pretty straight as an adaptation of her basis, and even the incestuous marriage of Ugayafukiaezu is acknowledged in Chapter 1 of Cage in Lunatic Runagate. Notably, Toyohime's ability, to connect the mountains and the sea, likely serves not only as a reference to the brothers Yamasachi (山幸; “Luck of the Mountains”) and Umisachi (海幸; “Luck of the Sea”), but also Toyotama-hime's apparent control over the “sea boundary” (海境, unasaka). This term, also rendered as “sea slope” (海坂), refers to the imaginary border that separates the world of humans from the world of the sea god, and would explain why Toyohime's ability is likened to Yukari's manipulation of boundaries. As an aside, Yorihime's ability is also likely derived from the inferred meaning of Tamayori-hime (玉依姫), as something like “spirit-inviting maiden” or “maiden (姫, hime) who becomes a yorishiro (依代) for spirits (魂, tamashī)”, which would liken her to a shrine maiden. This would in-turn explain why SSiB is themed so heavily around channeling gods, and why Yorihime serves as a natural foil to Reimu. More broadly, Toyohime's ability could also be a reference to how the mountains and the sea could function as mirrors of each-other in Japanese religious thought. For instance, mountain gods, such as Asama Daimyōjin, were often grouped with sea gods, due to the role that mountains served as landmarks for navigation. Whether this was a specific inspiration behind Toyohime's inclusion is unclear, but regardless, she's still linked to the subject of Asama Daimyōjin, and Mount Asama, due to her identity as the wife of Hoori, the child of Konohanasakuya-hime, which I would assume is the biggest reason she was chosen to appear in Fossilized Wonders over Yorihime. Her spell cards in the game even reference the tide-controlling jewels that were used by Hoori to defeat his brother, and, though more than likely a coincidence, I can't help but wonder if the extinct Toyotamaphimeia (a genus of gavialid crocodile named after Toyotama-hime) was an additional influence behind her inclusion in a fossil-themed game.

A nineteenth century depiction of Toyotama-hime, alongside her younger sister Tamayori-hime, woodblock print by Toyota Hokkei.

But all of this begs the question though, what exactly are the two daughters of the sea god doing on the moon? This is actually not as random of an idea as it may seem, though explaining the logic behind it requires covering a variety of mythological locales, and how they relate back to the image of the Lunar Capital put forward throughout Touhou. Furthermore, these connections will be valuable in understanding why the Lunarians are involved in the events of Fossilized Wonders.

The Lunar Capital (月の都, Tsuki no Miyako) is a name that originates from the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter as the homeland of Kaguya-hime (かぐや姫), naturally, it refers to a grand city, inhabited by immortals, that was imagined to exist on the moon. This concept is adapted very directly into Touhou itself, with the series making constant use of the term when referring to the residents of the moon. Unsurprisingly, the character Kaguya Houraisan is inspired by Kaguya-hime and her backstory is based, in large part, on the events of the original tale.

Takamagahara (高天原; “The High Plain of Heaven”), the domain of the heavenly gods, presided over by Amaterasu, in the mythology of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. It is typically contrasted with Ashihara no Nakatsukuni (葦原中国; “The Central Land of Reed Plains”), which refers to the land of Japan, and by extension the domain of the earthly gods. Not only has ZUN directly stated in an interview from Strange Creators of Outer World that he sees the Lunar Capital as Takamagahara, but at multiple points, the residents of the Lunar Capital have been identified with the heavenly gods (天津神, amatsukami), such as during Sanae’s Pointdevice/No-Miss ending in LoLK. Additionally, the Lunarians Eirin and Sagume are themselves based off of the heavenly deities Yagokoro Omoikane and Ame-no-Sagume, though the latter is also characterized as an earthly deity in an alternate account provided in the Nihon Shoki, which is reflected in Sagume’s one-winged design.

The Night Country (夜の食国, Yoru no Osukuni) is noted in the Kojiki as the territory ruled by the moon god Tsukuyomi, alongside Amaterasu being given rulership of Takamagahara, and Susanoo rulership of the Sea Plain. Conversely, an account in the Nihon Shoki attributes rulership over The Tides of the Blue Sea Plain (滄海原の潮, Aounabara no Shio) to Tsukuyomi, which relates to the domain of the sea god Watatsumi, otherwise he is said to share joint rulership of heaven with Amaterasu. In Touhou, specifically Chapter 3 of Cage in Lunatic Runagate, Tsukuyomi (月夜見) is noted as the founder of the Lunar Capital, so it would only be natural that the capital would correspond to the territory that he presides over. Tsukuyomi’s dominion over the Blue Sea Plain may also be referenced in how the Lunar Mares are actual oceans in Touhou.

The Sea God’s Palace (海神の宮, Watatsumi no Miya), as established earlier, is noted in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki as the residence of the god Watatsumi and his daughters, Toyotama-hime and Tamayori-hime. This location came to be seen as functionally interchangeable with the Dragon Palace (龍宮城, Ryūgū-jō), a term with ties to Buddhism as the domain of the nāga, ruled by the Dragon King Sāgara, that acquired the image of a paradisical, undersea realm inhabited the gods of the sea. Given that Toyohime and Yorihime are residents of the Lunar Capital, it is reasonable to assume that it is inherently equivalent to the Sea God’s Palace. Moreover, in Chapter 3 of Cage in Lunatic Runagate, the Lunar Capital is identified with the Dragon Palace, as the setting of the Tale of Urashima Tarō, a connection that is further reinforced by an interview with ZUN provided in Symposium of Post-Mysticism.

Penglai (蓬萊, also read as Hōrai in Japanese) is a mountain and/or island that resides far beyond the sea, inhabited by immortal beings, in Chinese mythology. In Japan however, the island of Penglai came to be identified with the archipelago itself, based on the belief that the explorer Xu Fu, in his search for the mythical island and the elixir of immortality, had actually traveled to Japan. Notably, Kaguya’s family name Houraisan (蓬莱山) uses the Japanese reading of Mount Penglai, and, once again, Chapter 3 of Cage in Lunatic Runagate treats the Lunar Capital and the Island of Penglai as one and the same.

The Everlasting World (常世の国, Tokoyo no Kuni) appears in Japanese mythology as an unchanging and idyllic land that lies far beyond the sea, though it has also been interpreted as a world of unending darkness in which the gods dwell, akin to the land of Yomi, or as the “mother land” (母の国, Haha no Kuni) from which the Japanese people trace their descent. In its capacity as a distant and exotic land, which could questionably be placed under the rule of Japanese deities, Tokoyo no Kuni also came to be identified by later authors with China and the Korean Peninsula. To my knowledge, there are no direct cases of identification made between the Lunar Capital and Tokoyo no Kuni in Touhou, however, given its status as the “everlasting world”, and its connections to the other locations I have mentioned here, it may be the single most important location to understanding the logic behind the Lunar Capital. Some Touhou fans may be familiar with the term tokoyo thanks to Tokoyo-no-Kami (常世の神; “God of the Everlasting World”), aka Eternity Larva, though that isn’t particularly relevant to the Lunar Capital.

Pure Lands (浄土, Jōdo) are a concept belonging to Mahayana Buddhism, referring to realms of rebirth, free from suffering, that emanate from the body of a buddha or bodhisattva. Depending on the exact school of Buddhism, many different kinds of pure lands are believed to exist, from those where the unenlightened may strive more easily towards awakening, to those where enlightened beings dwell. The Lunar Capital in Touhou is at many points referred to as a pure land, for instance in (no prizes for guessing) Chapter 3 of Cage in Lunatic Runagate, though Touhou’s usage of the term seems to be more-so informed by the literal meaning of the name, as a land free of “impurity” (穢れ, kegare). According to Chapter 21 of Silent Sinner in Blue, the Netherworld also counts as a pure land. Now, as for how all these different locations interconnect, I think a good place to start would actually be with the Tale of Urashima Tarō. I’ll spare you the long summary this time around, if you’re reading this post then the likelihood is you're probably familiar with at least some variant of the story, but the important part is that the fisherman, one Urashima Tarō (浦島太郎, also called Mizunoe no Urashimako (水江浦島子) depending on the version), was whisked away to the undersea realm of the Dragon Palace. However, not all accounts agree on Urashima’s destination, in the Nihon Shoki for instance, it is written that Urashima no Ko (浦島子) arrived at the country of Tokoyo, where he walked among immortals (仙衆, hijiri). Notably, Tokoyo no Kuni is here written using the kanji for Mount Penglai (蓬莱山), demonstrating clearly how similar the two concepts were considered to be. The association between these two locations is further reinforced by the earlier account of Tajimamori, in his travels to the land of Tokoyo to retrieve the “Ever-Fragrant Fruit” (非時香菓, Tokijiku no Kagu no Konomi). Though not directly conflated, Tokoyo is described in a similar fashion to Penglai, as Tajimamori is said to have crossed the “weak waters” (弱水, an allusion to another Chinese paradise, Kunlun) to reach a land hidden by gods and immortals.

A nineteenth century depiction of Urashima Tarō, returning from the Dragon Palace, by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.

Much like Tokoyo no Kuni, the Dragon Palace was also closely tied to the island of Penglai in Japanese religion and folklore, as both were considered to be the dwelling place of the goddess Benzaiten, and, in a seventeenth century work quoting the Nihon Shoki, the Jakushōdō Kokkyōshū (寂照堂谷響集), the author remarks on the tale of Urashima no Ko that the land of Tokoyo/Penglai “was probably the Dragon Palace”. A direct identification of the Sea God’s Palace with Tokoyo no Kuni is also made in the Man'yōshū, which further states that Mizunoe no Urashima married the daughter of the sea god, aka Watatsumi, which is likely why Cage in Lunatic Runagate decided to essentially cast Toyohime in the role of Otohime. It can be seen then that all of these places were, to some extent at least, considered to be interchangeable; distant paradises beneath or beyond the sea, inhabited by gods and immortals.

But just as Tokoyo was envisioned as a distant land beyond the sea, it was also interpreted, namely by kokugaku authors, as a kind of shadowy otherworld. Orikuchi Shinobu, drawing on the work of Motoori Norinaga, associated the land of Tokoyo with the concept of marebito, visiting deities that brought wealth and prosperity, and, owing to the alternate spelling of tokoyo as “everlasting night” (常夜), noted the idea of it being a land of perpetual darkness inhabited by fearsome gods, akin to both the underworld (which may have informed SSiB’s decision to present the Lunar Capital as similar to the Netherworld) and the heavenly realm of Takamagahara. At the same time, the historian Kume Kunitake, also drawing from the spelling of tokoyo as “everlasting night”, associated it with the Night Country that the Kojiki notes as being ruled over by Tsukuyomi, though he also claimed that the land of Tokoyo corresponded to the area surrounding the Qinling mountains in China. I would generally advise taking the word of kokugaku authors, and similar Meiji period historians, with a grain of salt, as their writings typically had quite unsavory intentions behind them. But for what it’s worth, these interpretations do appear to have had a significant influence on Touhou’s Lunar Capital, explaining how the concepts of Penglai and the Dragon Palace can be linked to Takamagahara and the domain of Tsukuyomi. As an aside, the Lunar Capital’s distinction as a pure land can similarly be understood due its identification with the Dragon Palace, which could itself be referred to as the “Dragon Palace Pure Land” (龍宮浄土, Ryūgū-jōdo). Frankly the one element I can’t provide a strong connection for here is the “Lunar Capital” of the Taketori Monogatari, though this could be justified more loosely, with Tsukuyomi’s distinction as a moon god and/or the role the moon plays in controlling the tides.

Here Professor Munakata can be seen coming to the same conclusion that Touhou does, identifying the land of Tokoyo with Kaguya-hime’s homeland.

Funnily enough, Touhou isn’t the only piece of media to make this association. Chapter 17 of “The Case Records of Professor Munakata”, by Hoshino Yukinobu, centers on the idea that the homeland of Kaguya-hime is one and the same with the land of Tokoyo that Urashima Tarō visited. Given that this chapter was published back in 2006, while Silent Sinner in Blue started publication in 2007, it may very well be that ZUN took inspiration from Professor Munakata when working on his own depiction of the Lunarians, though I also wouldn’t be surprised if this was a pre-existing idea in actual scholarship that both drew from independently. Whatever the case may be, it helps answer why Kaguya-hime’s Lunar Capital would be associated with Tokoyo no Kuni, the Dragon Palace and Penglai.

With all this in mind, we can see that although Touhou’s Lunar Capital pulls from a variety of different sources, it is ultimately built on a surprisingly coherent and informed foundation. Additionally, the sources of inspiration that the Lunar Capital draws on are overwhelmingly Japanese in origin, and even with regards to Penglai, it is informed chiefly by the Japanese perspective of it as a place equivalent to Tokoyo no Kuni. Takamagahara and the Dragon/Sea God’s Palace in particular, served as sources of imperial legitimacy, being associated with the origins of the Japanese imperial lineage. These things make it somewhat difficult to understand then, why ZUN insists on the Lunar Capital being a stand-in for China, especially when the only named Chinese Lunarian, Chang’e, is herself a prisoner to what are essentially the ancestors of the Japanese imperial family. It’s possible that ZUN may have only intended for the Lunarians to represent China in a very broad and thematic sense, as an opposition to Hell, who serve as a stand-in for America, but it is still fundamentally at odds with what the Lunarians actually are, and certainly gives very mixed messages. Personally, I think it would have been far more cohesive to have the Lunarians serve as a stand-in for Imperial Japan, as their obsession with purity matches quite well with the xenophobic rhetoric of the kokugaku movement, which quite literally sought to purify the Japanese gods of “corrupting” foreign influence.

Silent Sinner in Blue’s confusing treatment of Takeminakata.

Returning again to Fossilized Wonders, the identification of the Lunarians with “the gods that arrived from Takamagahara” is given a lot more context now, though it isn’t the only case in the series where the conflict between the heavenly and earthly gods is acknowledged in relation to Suwa. In Chapter 19 of Silent Sinner in Blue, it is suggested that the earthly god Takeminakata was sealed away by the Lunarians, mirroring his defeat in the Kojiki and aligning with Kanako’s animosity towards the Lunarians in the endings of both LoLK and FW. However, SSiB also leaves it somewhat ambiguous as to whether Takeminakata is here supposed to be understood as Kanako herself, or as a different deity that happens to occupy the Moriya Shrine. Interestingly, if we assume that the latter case is true, and Kanako instead represents Yasakatome (as her family name suggests), then she would be staunchly aligned with the Lunarians, or at the very least be an ex-Lunarian. This is due to the characterization of Yasakatome as either a daughter of the sea god Watatsumi, making her a sister to Toyohime and Yorihime, or as the daughter of Ame-no-Yasakahiko-no-Mikoto (天八坂彦命), who is recorded in the Kuji Hongi as one of the deities who accompanied Nigihayahi when he descended from heaven. Whichever way you slice it though, Kanako is deeply connected to the Lunarians, either as a strict enemy or former ally. And yet, this isn’t the only way Suwa mythology can tie into the Lunarians. An oral legend associated with the Gozaseki (御座石; “August Stone-Seat”), recounts Suwa Daimyōjin’s victory over a certain “frog god” (蝦蟆神, a likely reasoning behind Suwako’s design and theming), which transformed into a “Great Kōjin” (大荒神, here referring to a category of harmful and insubordinate gods/demons, rather than the individual deity Sanbō Kōjin) and caused all kinds of calamities in the world. After quelling the violent deity, Suwa Daimyōjin then sealed the way to its dwelling, which is noted as being the Dragon Palace, with a large rock that he then sat atop. This could very well be part of the reasoning behind stage 5 of Fossilized Wonders, which takes the player from the pyramid beneath Youkai Mountain, to the Sea of the Moon. But, assuming that is the case, I would rather the Pyramid bear a resemblance to something like the “Stone Throne Pagoda” (石之御座多宝塔, Ishi no Goza-tahōtō) which is actually associated with the Suwa Shrine.

The “Stone Throne Pagoda” (石之御座多宝塔, Ishi no Goza-tahōtō) that was formerly held in the Upper Shrine of Suwa, though it has since been relocated to Onsen Temple (温泉寺). It is said to symbolize the Iron Tower in Southern India (南天鉄塔, Nanten Tettō) where Nāgārjuna received esoteric teachings from Vajrasattva.

As one last thematic connection that ties the Lunar Capital to the events of Fossilized Wonders, it’s also worth bringing up the subject of Penglai. Like I mentioned before, the island of the immortals came to be seen as synonymous with Japan itself, owing in part to the exploits of Xu Fu, which further allowed certain sacred locations to be claimed as actually being Penglai. One such case is the Atsuta Shrine in Nagoya, which, according to the Atsuta-gū Hishaku Kenmon (熱田宮秘釈見聞), “lies on the island of Penglai, built atop a large golden turtle.” As an apparent extension of this idea, it was also believed that the famed concubine Yang Guifei was actually a manifestation of the deity Atsuta Myōjin (熱田明神), who is more typically identified with Amaterasu, and that she returned to Japan during the An Lushan rebellion, where she remained until her death. Another, much more famous, example is Mount Fuji, which made for a rather natural association given the claim made in the Taketori Monogatari that the mountain derives its name from the word for “immortal” (不死, fushi). I’ve already mentioned how Asama Daimyōjin is linked to the goddess of Mount Fuji, but this subject will be of even greater significance with the next character in part 2.

#banger #nice to see this kind of depth of analysis given to the series #shoutouts too a deeper look on lunarians n the capital #the world needs that soooo bad

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