Characters / Touhou Fuujinroku ~ Mountain of Faith

aka: Mountain Of Faith

Touhou Project characters index
Main characters: Main Characters
PC-98 Era: PC-98 Games (Highly Responsive to Prayers, Story of Eastern Wonderland, Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream, Lotus Land Story, Mystic Square)
Windows Era — Main Games: Touhou Koumakyou ~ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil | Touhou Youyoumu ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom | Touhou Eiyashou ~ Imperishable Night | Touhou Kaeidzuka ~ Phantasmagoria of Flower View | Touhou Fuujinroku ~ Mountain of Faith | Touhou Chireiden ~ Subterranean Animism | Touhou Seirensen ~ Undefined Fantastic Object | Touhou Shinreibyou ~ Ten Desires | Touhou Kishinjou ~ Double Dealing Character | Touhou Kanjuden ~ Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom | Touhou Tenkuushou ~ Hidden Star in Four Seasons | Touhou Kikeijuu ~ Wily Beast and Weakest Creature | Touhou Kouryuudou ~ Unconnected Marketeers | Touhou Juuouen ~ Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost
Windows Era — Other: Side Games | Other Official Works

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This page is for Touhou characters who debuted in Touhou Fuujinroku ~ Mountain of Faith.

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Shizuha Aki

Symbol of Loneliness and Demise

Shizuha Aki

A minor goddess of fallen leaves. The older of the Aki sisters, despite bearing the lowly position of midboss with no dialogue.

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• The Cameo: She and Minoriko are seen observing the kappa's astronomy show in Chapter 25 of Wild and Horned Hermit.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: As the "Symbol of Loneliness and Demise", she is a pessimist who believes that "the end^note of the year will always come."
• Leitmotif: "A God That Misses People ~ Romantic Fall"
• Odd Job Gods: She is a god of dead leaves.
• Meaningful Appearance: She wears a hair decoration made out of red and yellow autumn leaves, fitting with her role as a god of fallen leaves. Her dress also has a red-to-yellow gradient and the hem resembles autumn leaves as well.
• Meaningful Name: Aki simply means "autumn", and Shizuha means "silent leaf". Fitting for a god of autumn leaves.
• Mutual Envy: Of her younger sister. She wishes she did something more productive that humans would appreciate.
• Painting the Frost on Windows: She colors the leaves (by hand) and makes them fall (by kicking the trees) in the autumn.
• Our Gods Are Different: One of the "Yaoyorozu", the countless Shinto gods that are said to exist everywhere in nature. Her power over the creation of fallen leaves does bring to mind Tatsutahime, the Shinto goddess of autumn, in particular.

Minoriko Aki

Symbol of Abundance and Plenty

Minoriko Aki

"Even though you're a shrine maiden, you want to eat a god? How ridiculous! What insolence!"

A minor harvest god. The younger of the Aki sisters, she is often portrayed as being more mature than Shizuha. Both of the Aki sisters love autumn, and get very disappointed when winter rolls around. Minoriko also runs a sweet potato stand.

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• The Cameo: She and Shizuha are seen observing the kappa's astronomy show in Chapter 25 of Wild and Horned Hermit.
• Earthy Barefoot Character: Goes around barefoot to represent her status as a Food God holding a direct connection to the earth and nature. It also carries a hint of Barefoot Poverty due to her being in Perpetual Poverty.
• Edible Ammunition: Her "Baked Sweet Potato 'Sweet Potato Room'" Spell Card uses sweet potatoes for bullets.
• Fertility God: Minoriko Aki is a goddess of the autumn harvest, able to curse or bless harvests made at that time. The Human Village calls her up for the harvest festival to remain in her good graces.
• Follow Your Nose: Reimu notices that she smells like roasting sweet potatoes all the time.
• Food God: Minoriko is a harvest goddess, albeit not a very powerful one due to having to share faith with numerous other deities in the same sphere who are far more powerful than her. However, she's considered one of the friendliest deities towards humans, and she's invited to the Human Village every year in order to guarantee a good harvest.
• Leitmotif: "Because Princess Inada Is Scolding Me"
• Meaningful Name: Like her sister, Aki means "autumn". Minoriko means "harvest child".
• Mutual Envy: Of her older sister. She wishes she did something more artistic and less pragmatic.
• Odd Job Gods: She is a god of abundant harvest. She makes the good crops part, not the fertilizing part.
• Perpetual Poverty: Given that Kanako looks at faith as a kind of currency for gods, naturally she thinks of relatively unpopular gods as being in poverty, suggesting they could try a more permanent potato stand in the human village to keep earning faith. Minoriko is also described as a homeless vagrant because she has no shrine.
• Our Gods Are Different: One of the "Yaoyorozu", the countless Shinto gods that are said to exist everywhere in nature.
• Power of the Sun: Her "Bumper Crop 'Promise of the Wheat God'" spell card uses the power of the sun to nourish crops as they're harvested.
• Signature Headgear: A red mob cap with a cluster of red grapes tied to it in keeping with her nature as a fertility goddess.
• Stronger Sibling: Although both of the Aki sisters are fairly weak (being minor gods with few followers), Minoriko is the stronger of the two.

Hina Kagiyama

The Hidden God Nagashi-bina

Hina Kagiyama

"I'm a friend of humans. I take their misfortune and pass them on to the gods. If you like, I can take on all of your tragedies."

A curse god who can absorb misfortune. She's also known for spinning, which she does nonstop during a large chunk of her stage. Spin Hina spin! Spin for all to enjoy!

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• Bad Powers, Good People: While Akyuu claims that you shouldn't talk to her, that's just because of the possibility of her misfortune leaking out. She's described as quite friendly.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": The squiggle on her dress is a stylized kanji 厄 (yaku), meaning "misfortune".
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: She is only a stage 2 boss and generally does not want to harm anybody... still, her threat level in Symposium of Post-Mysticism is given as "Very High", and that's without her even trying! If Hina wanted to use the curses she has accumulated offensively, little would be able to stand in her way.
• Curse: Not deliberately, but...
• Dark Is Not Evil: She's a yakubyougami - a curse god who would normally spread misfortune and illness - but she absorbs misfortune and curses so they won't affect humans, and in Mountain of Faith she tries to drive away the protagonists so the youkai above won't harm them. However, Akyuu states multiple times in Hina's Symposium entry that despite her friendliness she is still dangerous to be around due to her Power Incontinence.
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: ZUN said the design of her costume is supposed to be in this style.
• The Jinx: She's a curse god who absorbs and spreads misfortune, but she's still friendly by nature.
• Leitmotif: "The Road of the Misfortune God ~ Dark Road" and "Dark Side of Fate".
• Our Gods Are Different: She's a curse god, or yakubyougami in Japanese. Although since she lives off of misfortune instead of faith, Akyuu claims she's technically not a god but a kind of youkai that gets called a god.
• Power Incontinence: Despite her friendly nature, the misfortune she absorbs will still affect anyone who approaches her or even catches sight of her.
• Spectacular Spinning: Moves around by spinning, and fanon even has it that her other special ability is to never get dizzy when spinning. Perhaps she does this in reference to the swirly kanji for "misfortune", the same one that is on her dress. Another common fandom assumption is that Hina spins one way to absorb misfortune, and the opposite way to release it on an opponent.
• The Scottish Trope: Even talking about her is said to bring misfortune.
• Winds of Destiny, Change!: She specializes in storing misfortune, ironically improving the luck of others despite being a creature of curses. However, due to all those curses imbuing the area around her, terrible misfortune may befall anyone who approaches her. Hina herself is not affected and is said to actually benefit from good luck as a result of storing bad luck... somehow.

Nitori Kawashiro

Super Youkai Warhead

Nitori Kawashiro

"See you, human! By the way, it's dangerous if you go any further!"

A river kappa with a knack for engineering. Initially she comes across as very shy, attempting to scare the heroines away from Youkai Mountain for their own safety, but in her subsequent appearances she's become much less shy and much more sharp-tongued.

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• Ascended Extra: Was just a Stage 3 boss in her debut in Mountain of Faith, a position which would usually designate her as fairly unimportant. She would go on to make a surprise return appearance in the following game as one of Marisa's partners, and subsequent works would go on to expand her role into the representative of the Kappa race as a whole, making her a major recurring character.
• Beehive Barrier: Her bomb in Subterranean Animism.
• Bigger on the Inside: Granted, her backpack is huge, but considering the stuff she pulls out of it (including a mechanical boxing glove, an oversized water balloon/flail, several massive cogs), it appears to be this.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She seems nice enough in her first appearance while asking the protagonists for their help, but will slip and insult Reimu if she doesn't seem to be paying attention. Later appearances have her display more open Jerkass tendencies, but she instantly becomes polite and humble when interacting with Yuugi... since oni are the original rulers of Youkai Mountain, and more than powerful enough to reclaim that position if they ever felt like returning.
• Break the Haughty: As Characterization Marches On, Nitori is shown to be rather rude and condescending to most humans and youkai, keyword being "most": she's suddenly very polite to the people she knows are very dangerous, and she mellows out considerably to those who defeat her.
• Bottomless Magazines: Averted. Her gadgets have a limited amount of power, and if that runs out, many of her abilities become much weaker or outright unusable.
• Bubble Gun: Her "Fire! Bubble Dragon" spell card in Hopeless Masquerade has her pulling one out.
• Characterization Marches On: Nitori's early appearances talked about her being mostly shy and softspoken, with just a few hints to her being more conceited under the surface. Wild and Horned Hermit and Hopeless Masquerade made her an openly arrogant Insufferable Genius who's Only in It for the Money, and her shy side would be never spoken about again.
• Crowbar Combatant: Uses a crowbar for some of her melee attacks in the fighting games (alongside a wrench). She's also seen holding the crowbar in some of her portraits, and references it in her victory quotes.
• Cute Monster Girl: Kappa, according to mythology, look like some Mad Scientist spliced a turtle, a monkey and a duck together. Nitori is a cute girl with a cute hat.
• Denial of Diagonal Attack: Inverted in Hopeless Masquerade, where Nitori can't shoot her strongest attacks horizontally. To compensate for this, it's easier for her to stay near the top or bottom of the screen.
• Depending on the Artist: While most artists make Nitori shorter-than-average among the cast, Moe Harukawa turns her into a full-blown Token Mini-Moe.
• Eye Beams: In Urban Legend in Limbo, her Robo-Nessie has these.
• False Friend: Attempts this after being defeated by the protagonist in Mountain of Faith. Badly. She claims that humans and kappa share a beautiful friendship and have helped each other out for centuries. Oh, and there's some ruffians causing trouble on the mountain, and she could lead you to them quickly and safely, but she couldn't possibly impose on such good friends... Naturally, she is immediately called out on this. Later, when Marisa returns to Youkai Mountain in one of her endings (by which point Nitori no longer wants her there), she first tries to deny ever helping Marisa before admitting she "got that one for free" and shouldn't expect it to happen again.
• Fantastic Racism: She's rude to both humans and youkai, but humans get the short end of the stick.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Kappa combined whatever existing technology they had (possibly Bamboo Technology, Steampunk and/or Magitek) with modern-day technology from outside the Medieval Stasis Field to become the most technologically advanced race in Gensokyo.
• Greed: Tries to extort more cash out of Kanako by exploiting a big flaw in her own technology (which is actually working fine), then gets her to pay for a wholly unnecessary power source and all related expenses.
• Guns Akimbo: They appear to be squirt guns.
• Helicopter Pack: Flies with one in Hopeless Masquerade.
• Inconsistent Spelling: "Kawashiro" is the romanization used in-game, but "Kawasiro" is used in supplementary material.
• Informed Flaw: She's supposedly very shy, but when she does talk to the heroine, she doesn't flee any further, helpfully warns them of the dangers up ahead, and is actually rather talkative. In Subterranean Animism and Hopeless Masquerade, her supposed shyness is nowhere to be seen.
• In Harmony with Nature: Despite their use of technology, kappa are still river spirits and can "read the pulse of the river". With a stethoscope.
• Insufferable Genius: Apparently looks down on humans and other youkai, and is bad at hiding it. In Subterranean Animism and Hopeless Masquerade she shows shades of this.
• Invisibility Cloak: Optical Camouflage, actually. It tends to short out on her, though.
• Jet Pack: Her "Fly! Sanpei Fight" spell card in Hopeless Masquerade has her using a rocket-powered jetpack to charge at the opponent.
• Kappa: She's a kappa, and while she looks like a regular human aside from her blue hair, her outfit does reference the more traditional depictions of kappa; her hat is meant to evoke a plate that kappas traditionally wear to keep the water in their hollowed-out heads from spilling out, with a visor that represents a kappa's duck bill, and her backpack the turtle-like shell.
• The Leader: The Kappa officially have no formal leadership in place due to their nature, but Nitori is talented enough that they usually default to her as a leader anyway.
• Leitmotif: "Akutagawa Ryuunosuke's 'Kappa' ~ Candid Friend", which later receives a remix in Hopeless Masquerade.
• Locked in a Room: Inverted in Touhou Ibarakasen ~ Wild and Horned Hermit. She and the rest of the Kappa gang were at home in the watery depths of Genbu Ravine when a massive whirlpool forms for no readily apparent reason, forcing them all out. It turns out that it's a trap set by one of Hell's Judges meant to get Seiga Kaku. The problem is that Seiga succeeded in escaping and the deity has no idea, keeping the whirlpool in place. The instant Reimu and Marisa realize it's neither an incident nor their problem, they both leave peacefully... leaving Nitori and the gang homeless at the side of the road.
• MacGyvering: Building marvels of advanced technology in a Medieval Stasis land using the power of science? That's her. Somewhat deconstructed in that she doesn't seem to bother with blueprints or any actual design, instead relying on her Mad Scientist talents to do the job. Supplementary manga shows this extends to some degree to all kappa, who ignore approved plans to each do whatever they please, and the consequences have caused several of Kanako's otherwise decent plans to implode.
• Making a Splash:
  • Her ability is manipulation of water. Tends to be overshadowed by SCIENCE!, though.
  • Now keeping up with her SCIENCE! thanks to the spellcard Heavy Rain "Great War Beneath the River".
• Mana Meter: Her gimmick in Hopeless Masquerade - most of her moves draw from a battery, and become weaker or unusable when it runs out.
• Mighty Glacier: In Hopeless Masquerade, her playstyle is fairly slow, but very strong.
• Nerds Are Sexy: One of the few characters that ZUN draws with noticeable breasts, emphasized by the straps crossing her chest with a key hanging from them.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Nerdy kappa who can create Schizo Tech.
• Only in It for the Money: Generally speaking, if Nitori and the other Kappa are involved in something, it's because they're looking to make a profit off it.
• Professional Butt-Kisser: In her Mountain of Faith appearance she tries to convince the protagonists to help her by repeatedly claiming that humans and kappa have been "sworn friends since ancient times".
  Marisa: "For the loser to claim to be a sworn friend is a little strange."
  Reimu: "Are you sure you haven't mistaken an old enemy for a friend?"
  • Likewise her interactions with Yuugi in Subterranean Animism can be summed up as "Please don't come back to the mountain, please don't come back to the mountain, please don't come back to the mountain..." "You know I can hear you, right?" "P-please come back to the mountain sometime, boss, we'd be honoured to drink with you."
• The Rival: 100th Black Market reveals that she and Takane have a bit of a rivalry, which is why she's teamed up with Chimata to take over the black market in Ability Cards, and uses Marisa as the agent to do so.
• Saved for the Sequel: She was originally planned to be playable in Hisoutensouku, but was scrapped. She later became playable in Hopeless Masquerade.
• The Shadow Knows: In Chapter 15 of Forbidden Scrollery, her shadow as cast on a wall by a lantern appears to be that of an especially monstrous-looking traditional kappa.
• Shell Backpack: Well, her shell is a backpack, but still.
• Shout-Out:
  • Her theme music is titled Akutagawa Ryuunosuke's "Kappa" ~ Candid Friend, referencing a satirical novella in the style of Gulliver's Travels which depicts kappa society as materialistic and ruthless. Her portrait in Mountain of Faith also has her holding grass in one hand and a cattail in another, referencing a painting by the author.
  • Her Hopeless Masquerade moveset is filled with references to other videogames:
    • Some of her projectile attacks resemble the Zapper and Blaster weapons from Xevious; the latter is even called Aerial Blaster.
    • Her Photon Torpedo is a reference to Gradius. Likewise Kiku-Ichimonji Compressor is a vertical laser resembling the "Kiku-Ichimonji" weapon from Parodius.
    • Farewell Rubber Ring is a reference to Farewell Umihara Kawase and its protagonist's "Rubber Ring" Grappling-Hook Pistol.
    • Water Bomb Giant Swing ("Mizubaku Daikaiten") is a reference to Liquid Kids (aka "Mizubaku Daibouken").
    • Battle Machine "Fly! Sanpei Fight" is a reference to the Jet Shoot attack of kappa character Sanpei from Oedo Fight.
    • Heavy Rain "Great War Beneath the River" references the title of Kaitei Daisensou ("Great War Beneath the Sea").
    • Her Last Word has her appear in the foreground of the stage and fire projectiles at the opponent, which she aims with a crosshair. This looks almost exactly like Snake's Final Smash in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
• Shrinking Violet: Played with. Nitori is (supposedly) very shy around humans. When the heroines first encounter her, she runs off in shock before reappearing in optical camouflage. However, Akyuu claims she's a racist who's bad at hiding it, and by Hopeless Masquerade she's become much more outspoken and callous in her speech. In Subterranean Animism though, she's both: she speaks rudely about other youkai until the Yuugi fight when she realizes that they can hear her through the speakers, after which she's suddenly polite. No one said shy girls were always nice, did they?
• Shy Blue-Haired Girl: Played straight when she's first introduced in Mountain of Faith, but it's become subverted in her subsequent appearances.
• Signature Headgear: A cap whose flat top and brim are meant to invoke the look of a traditional kappa's head and beak.
• Signature Move: Exteeending Aaarm, since in Japanese folklore it's said that kappa are able to extend and retract their arms. In Nitori's case it's usually a mechanical grabber rather than one of her own arms.
• Stock Ness Monster: Her occult theme in Urban Legend in Limbo. Although in her case it's a robotic Nessie.
• This Is a Drill: Her "'Battle Machine 'Fly! Sanpei Fight'" spell card involves the use of dual drills.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Between Mountain of Faith and Subterranean Animism, then between Subterranean Animism and Hopeless Masquerade. She basically goes from supposedly shy, eccentric, and helpful inventor to racist, egotistical, rude Hollywood Atheist who openly gloats about swindling humans out of their money and plans to install monopolies on things like fishing.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Her favorite food is cucumbers, as is traditionally the case with Kappa.
• Unexpected Character: Sort of; ZUN originally wanted her to be playable in Hisoutensoku, but she was scrapped due to time constraints, so one could say it was only a matter of time before she could really be playable. However, few people expected her to be in Hopeless Masquerade, which is about fighting over religion and popularity. She's also unexpected in-universe, since during Nitori's story mode Mamizou is rather surprised that a "faithless kappa" is participating.
• Ungrateful Bitch: On her defeat in Mountain of Faith, Nitori claims that human and kappa are old friends, and she couldn't possibly impose on an old friend to defeat Kanako for her. When Reimu admits that she'd forgotten why she was on the mountain in the first place, Nitori grumbles something about humans being flaky and says she "should have asked the tengu instead". She is much less friendly when Marisa tries to return to the mountain after the kappas' issues with Kanako have been resolved.
• Waltz on Water: She's a Kappa (a species that lives in rivers) and her ability is "manipulation of water". Fittingly, her Leitmotif is one of the few boss themes in the series to be in 3/4 time.
• Wrench Wench: Her Hopeless Masquerade title is "Handyman of the River" and she's a Magitek engineer who dons optical camouflage, uses extendable robot arms, and is capable of firing missiles. She's also really fond of human technology that falls across the Great Hakurei Border. For bonus point, she literally utilizes a Wrench Whack as her standard melee attack.
• Wrench Whack: Whacking her opponents with a wrench is her standard melee attack in Hopeless Masquerade.

Momiji Inubashiri

The Mountain's Telegnosis

Momiji Inubashiri

"I thought that we were the only ones making original rules. I could not believe my eyes to see that the same kind of thing was happening in the outside world as well. It's a bit frustrating."

Another of the tengu folk, specifically one of the wolf tengu who guards Youkai Mountain, and another character with no dialogue. Was fleshed out in later material to be loyal but rather put upon worker with a very specific dislike for Aya.

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• Ascended Extra: Somewhat. She's gotten speaking appearances since her debut and even Spell Cards, but unlike Tei she is still strictly a minor character.
• Bodyguarding a Badass: In the article in Alternative Facts in Eastern Utopia where she, Aya, and Hatate get together to anonymously complain about their workloads, Momiji raises this trope as a point of annoyance.
  Momiji: We're also fed up with the huge work load, especially the meaningless patrolling or making us defend the big wigs. What is the point even? I mean, the higher ups are so much stronger than the average tengu like us, so why do they even need protection?
• Cool Sword: Looks like a scimitar, from what we can tell by her sprite. May be drawn as a BFS Depending on the Artist.
• Depending on the Artist: Differing artists depict her with or without wolf ears. Alternative Facts in Eastern Utopia notably has both depictions in the same book.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: According to The Grimoire of Usami, her Fang Sign "Chewing Satisfaction" Spell Card has her actually trying to attack the player through the fourth wall.
• House Rules: Her article in Symposium of Post-Mysticism is about her discovering Variant Shogi pieces from the outside world and trying to come up with new rules for them.
• Interservice Rivalry: There are some hints that within tengu society the wolf tengu (guardsman corps) don't really get along with the crow tengu (information gathering corps). Or maybe Momiji is just annoyed by Aya personally for whatever reason, as Hatate seems to imply.
• Leitmotif: "Fall of Fall ~ Autumnal Waterfall"
• Little Bit Beastly: She's a wolf tengu, though her wolf features vary by artist.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Holds a shield. Presumably to give her a "soldier" image.
• Man Bites Man: Two of few spellcards include Dog Bite "Rabies Bite" and Fang Sign "Chewing Satisfaction", which according to other people's comments does involve her actually trying to bite her opponent.
• Mook Lieutenant: Momiji's captain of the Youkai Mountain patrol guard.
• Mooks: Wolf tengu are more or less the soldier caste of the tengu, and in Alternative Facts in Eastern Utopia Momiji mentions that she isn't even allowed to leave the mountain like the crow tengu are.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Despite the fact that she and Aya do not get along, Alternative Facts in Eastern Utopia reveals that both resent the fact that despite their loyalty and hard work for Lord Tenma and the other greater tengu, they're both stuck in their respective castes.
• Shōgi: She specifically plays Dai Shogi with the kappa according to her profile. She also develops new rules for the wolf tengus' even more complex version, Dai Tengu Shogi.
• Super-Senses: She has the supernatural power to see across a thousand leagues (sometimes interpreted as clairvoyance, because the Japanese word for that is "thousand league eyes"), but she also possesses an excellent sense of smell. Rather than use these powers to snoop on people for news, Momiji acts as the captain of Youkai Mountain's patrol guards, with soldiers hiding behind a waterfall. She also spies on the heroine and the gods of the new shrine when they do battle, without being noticed by either.
• Tengu: She's a white wolf tengu, unlike Aya and Hatate who are crow tengu. It could be that she's based on the Tiangou, a dog-like creature from Chinese mythology that the Japanese tengu take their name from^NoteInterestingly, while the majority of tengu in Japanese folklore are portrayed as birdlike, the kanji for "tengu" literally mean "heavenly dog".

Sanae Kochiya

Deified Human of the Wind

Sanae Kochiya

"I see. Then, maybe you should watch and consider the power of a living god... The divine power to cause miracles!"

A human wind priestess from outside of Gensokyo hailing from Lake Suwa in Nagano Prefecture, she runs the Moriya Shrine and serves both Kanako and Suwako dutifully. During her life before entering Gensokyo she was worshiped as a god in her own right, and she has been having a bit of an identity crisis after moving from a world in which her abilities made her special to one where they are mundane.

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• A Day in the Limelight:
  • In Hisoutensoku she's the only character that actually gets to the bottom of what the titular mecha really is.
  • Chapter 19 of Wild and Horned Hermit is all about Sanae. Well, Sanae, sake, and her feelings about missing out on the events of Hopeless Masquerade and Double Dealing Character.
  • Chapter 38 of Wild and Horned Hermit centers on Sanae and the Moriya Shrine's work setting up the cable car between it and the Human Village.
• A God Am I:
  • She won't waste any time in informing people that she is, in fact, a living god. It's practically her Catchphrase. Of course, she can be excused for this because she really is one, what with her power to create miracles and being descended directly from Suwako and all.
  • Her ending in Hisoutensoku and her entry in Symposium of Post-Mysticism both explicitly refer to her as the third god of the Moriya Shrine.
  • Even Wild and Horned Hermit has this as a Running Gag.
• Always Someone Better: Coming from a world that revered her as a living god, she had quite the confidence in her abilities when she first came to Gensokyo. And then she was quickly humbled by Reimu and Marisa.
• Animal Motifs: To represent her gods, she wears hair accessories shaped like a frog's head and a snake (the later of which is, in fact, alive, as seen in Wild and Horned Hermit), and in Undefined Fantastic Object depending on which route she takes she can use either frog or snake-shaped bullets.
• Asian Rune Chant: In Esoterica "Nine Syllable Stabs", one of her ultimate attacks in Hisoutensoku.
• Awesome, but Impractical: In-Universe. Her miracles can do just about anything... but the truly impressive ones have casting times of days. She gets around this in danmaku battles by turning some of the rituals into spell cards.
• Battle Butler: Sanae is the priestess of both the final and extra boss, who are both gods.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • In her A-scenario in Undefined Fantastic Object, she begins her mission of "youkai hunting" with some degree of doubt in her abilities to do so. However, by halfway through the game, she has become particularly enthusiastic about it. This is something which is outright taken notice of in-story, with some characters even worrying she may turn into a youkai herself.
  • While she might not be quite as strong as Reimu or Marisa, she's still a fairly formidable opponent and is just as strong as any youkai.
  • In Foul Detective Satori she gets downright brutal defending the Moriya Shrine from the evil spirit, slinging magic at anyone who tries to enter (that Marisa explicitly says would've killed a normal human) and helping Kanako hold Marisa prisoner. She also suggests killing Marisa to cover this up.
• Blow You Away: She is a wind priestess after all. Her Hisoutensoku fighting style makes heavy use of her air dash's ability to push projectiles around with wind, a la Rachel from BlazBlue.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: "Are you talking about those charms with "P" and "point" written on them?"
• Broken Pedestal: Sanae tends to think Kanako and Suwako are automatically good and the enemies she faces as automatically evil, but there are many occasions in which she finds her goddesses aren't as saintly as she thinks:
  • In Hisoutensoku, she's angry upon finding they were working on the eponymous robot and calls Suwako out for keeping it a secret like they did with the nuclear reactor in Subterranean Animism.
  • In Unconnected Marketeers, Sanae is shocked to find that they were aware of what goes on in the Rainbow Dragon Cave. In her ending she's also appalled to find out about Kanako agreeing to let Megumu and Tsukasa continue with their card business as long as the Moriya Shrine gets some of the profit.
• The Bus Came Back: Is playable in Unconnected Marketeers' demo after her last playable appearance in Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom more than four games ago.
• Can't Hold Her Liquor: Sanae has a very low alcohol tolerance and gets drunk really easily, which is why she tends to avoid it.
• Character Focus: Since her debut as a heroine, she appeared in every main series game up until Double Dealing Character. And then returned for Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom.
• Charged Attack: Her more powerful miracles require long rituals to prepare for their use, though after she came to Gensokyo Sanae was clever enough to make the preparation itself into an offensive Spell Card. In Hisoutensoku she has a unique mechanic in the form of recharging meters for each of her gods, which must be full in order for her to use attacks which channel that god's powers. It's common for fan games to give her some kind of "Faith Meter" which must be built up before she can use certain attacks.
• Characterization Marches On: Sanae was quite serious in her debut, making her come off similar to previous sub-heroines Sakuya and Youmu. Undefined Fantastic Object and subsequent works meanwhile would flesh her out instead into an upbeat Nice Girl with a Ditzy Genius streak.
• Chuunibyou: Sanae is an unusual example in that she really does have supernatural powers, she's just way too enthusiastic about them (and occasionally lapses into If Jesus, Then Aliens).
• Costume Exaggeration: As a Miko, her outfit is even more stylized than Reimu's, especially since real-life miko don't wear blue and white.
• Culture Clash: A lot of Sanae's issues in Gensokyo tend to be based around her different social values as a result of growing up in the Outside World. For instance, in Chapter 19 of Wild and Horned Hermit she and Reimu almost get into a fight over Sanae not wanting to drink during Reimu's Double Dealing Character victory party, and the latter deciding to make fun of her for it.
• Curtains Match the Window: Starting from Undefined Fantastic Object she's given green eyes to match her hair.
• Deity of Human Origin: She's a human turned goddess through faith, albeit not a very powerful one.
• Divine Intervention: Her power over miracles allows her to invoke this, and her title in Forbidden Scrollery is "Theurgist of Wind and Lake", theurgy being the working of a divine or supernatural agency in human affairs.
• Divine Parentage: She's distantly descended from Suwako.
• Drop-In Character:
  • Although many of the series characters visit Reimu's shrine in one capacity or another, Sanae herself pretty much becomes this in Wild and Horned Hermit to the point that she can be considered the next important human after Reimu and Marisa. At one point, she even takes over looking after the shrine after Reimu is whisked away by Kasen for "training".
  • According to ZUN, metawise Sanae's personality is such that she can be easily inserted into almost any plot.
• Dub-Induced Plot Hole: A long-standing mistranslation of Mountain of Faith lore involving Sanae and Suwako's relationship. The mistaken translation said that Sanae was unaware that two gods inhabited her shrine. The actual meaning is that Sanae's not sure why two gods are in the same shrine. The reason being Kanako defeated Suwako in battle but did not kick her out completely from the shrine, instead leaving their human worshipers to believe they were both the same god.
• Dumbass Has a Point: She may not be The Smart Girl, but she does call out Suwako in Hisoutensoku for hiding her and Kanako's plans involving the titular robot from both her and everyone else in Gensokyo, citing how hiding things during Subterranean Animism just got everyone mad at them. The fact that not too long beforehand Reimu blames her for starting the incident likely didn't help matters either.
• Edible Ammunition: Her Miracle "Miracle Fruit" spell card uses exploding miracle fruit and her Divine Virtue "Bumper Crop Rice Shower" spell card uses surplus rice.
• Eek, a Mouse!!: Has this almost word-for-word reaction upon encountering Nazrin in Undefined Fantastic Object.
• Fantastic Racism: She's not exactly comfortable about the eating habits of youkai, and sees the current status of humans living in Gensokyo as oppression, which she makes clear to the youkai in UFO.
• Fish out of Water: She's had trouble adjusting to Gensokyo, at first. Among other things, Gensokyo's inhabitants drink far more than she's used to.
• Foil:
  • To her fellow shrine maiden Reimu in many ways, who both to some extent feel separation from other humans due to their powers and physical distance from the rest of Gensokyo, though Sanae's the weaker out of the two:
    • While Reimu doesn't even know the name of the god her shrine is dedicated to, Sanae directly lives with her two gods.
    • Reimu is a Gensokyo native, whereas Sanae was originally from the Outside World.
    • Reimu loves alcohol, whereas Sanae is The Teetotaler.
    • While Reimu's attempts to gather faith for the Hakurei Shrine often fail, Sanae tends to be far more successful in attracting faith.
    • Reimu only reluctantly gets involved in incident solving out of duty, whereas Sanae has Jumped at the Call for every incident she's been involved in.
    • When it comes to conversation, Reimu's not very talkative, whereas Sanae's a bit more of a chatterbox.
    • They're even contrasted by clothing despite the similar designs of their outfits, since Reimu's primary color is red, whereas Sanae's is blue.
  • She's also one to Sumireko Usami, as while both hail from the Outside World, Sumireko views Gensokyo as an outsider looking in from the outside, while Sanae is an outsider viewing Gensokyo from the inside. Sumireko also represents some of the modern world's more negative aspects, while Sanae represents its more positive aspects.
• Friendly Rivalry: Despite Reimu considering Sanae her main competition when it comes to collecting faith, they have a friendly enough relationship that Reimu trusts her to watch the Hakurei Shrine when she goes to train with Kasen in Wild and Horned Hermit.
• Genius Ditz: Is often rather air-headed (pun not intended) personality-wise, but can also give a fairly accurate rundown of cold fusion.
• Genki Girl: Compared to the rather grumpy at times Reimu and laidback Marisa, Sanae tends to be very energetic and easily excitable.
• Genre Savvy:
  • Sanae might be more or less a special case as she's from the real world, thus probably knowing just about as much as any of us do.
  • Her story mode for Hisoutensoku is a good example, where she sees the giant mysterious figure and immediately thinks "Humongous Mecha".
  • In Wild and Horned Hermit she was convinced that the cold fusion experiment would work in the fantasy realm of Gensokyo, even though it failed in the outside world. And she was right.
• Geometric Magic: Uses an Onmyoudou-style pentagram in some of her spells. Sometimes she draws them in mid-air, sometimes she shoots them as projectiles, and sometimes she just traces the pattern invisibly before doing something else.
• Gods Need Prayer Badly: Less so than usual for deities. While most gods perish in absence of faith in them, an arahitogami like Sanae can survive without faith just fine. However, she cannot use divine powers without faith, so she would just be Brought Down to Normal instead of dying.
• Hypocritical Humor: In Chapter 21 of Foul Detective Satori, Sanae tells Marisa that the reason she hasn't tried investigating the current incident herself is because the people of Gensokyo get incredibly insular during a crisis and are liable to attempt attacking and/or capturing her if she tries to approach them. She says all of this to a bound Marisa who had exactly that happen to her when she tried investigating the Moriya Shrine, whose response to Sanae is to subtly snark about the Moriya Shrine fitting in well with the rest of Gensokyo.
• Iconic Sequel Character: She's appeared in nearly every game since her debut, usually as either a boss or a playable character. Said debut wasn't until the fifth main game after the reboot.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: According to her character profile, she wishes to have human friends to keep her company, since she lives constantly surrounded by gods and youkai.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: Much like Reimu her armpits are fully exposed due to her detached sleeves, and her miko outfit is completely nonstandard.
• Improbable Weapon User: In Hisoutensoku she uses her haraegushi as a melee weapon.
• Inconsistent Spelling: "Kotiya" was the romanization for her family name used through Undefined Fantastic Object. From Ten Desires onwards it's spelled "Kochiya".
• Innocently Insensitive: Unintentionally ends up offending Reimu, Nazrin, and Kogasa on separate occassions, although she was from a completely different world and society until before the events of Mountain of Faith.
• Invulnerable Attack: Her usual bomb Frog Sign "Wily Toad" has a delay of a few seconds before it goes off, during which time she's invincible. Enemies also take Collision Damage if they touch the bomb before it detonates.
• Jerkass Realization: She directly insults Kogasa's umbrella in Undefined Fantastic Object, and then immediately regrets it when Kogasa starts crying over it.
  Kogasa: Maybe I should go back to being a normal umbrella...
  Sanae: I don't know if anyone would want an old umbrella that looks like an eggplant...
  Kogasa: That's right, that's how I became an unwanted youkai. Oh, such terrible old memories......
  Sanae: Oh my, it looks like I said something I shouldn't have.
• Jumped at the Call:
  • Greatly enjoys resolving incidents and fighting youkai, in contrast to Reimu who's Resigned to the Call.
  • She also decided to go to Gensokyo in the first place mainly because she thought it would be fun.
• Kaleidoscope Eyes: By way of inconsistent art. They were yellow in Mountain of Faith and her Hisoutensoku sprite, green in UFO, Ten Desires, and Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom, and blue in Hisoutensoku's portraits. Fitting, given her newfound powers in Gensokyo.
• Leitmotif:
  • "Faith is for the Transient People" Noted by ZUN to have a metal/hard rock feel, which is a surprising departure from classical with horns. There's even pseudo-guitar segments!
  • Her theme in Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost is an arrangement of "The Primal Scene of Japan the Girl Saw".
• Making a Splash: Some of her spellcards, like Sea Opening "The Day the Sea Split" are this.
• Meaningful Appearance: Her hair decorations are meant to represent both of the gods she serves; the blue headband with a frog's head on it represents Suwako (though in her later appearances the headband becomes a hairclip) and the snake hair tube around her left bang represents Kanako.
• Miko: Her outfit is even more non-standard for a miko than Reimu's is; no real-life miko wears blue and white. However, it's generally assumed that like Reimu, she does all of a miko's regular duties around the Moriya shrine.
• Nice Girl: Despite her moments of overzealousness when it comes to furthering the ends of the Moriya Shrine, and her moments of Fantastic Racism when it comes to dealing with youkai, overall Sanae tends to be a pretty nice person.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Based on the real person Sanae Moriya, 78th head of a family that claims descent from "Moreya-shin" and has connections to the Grand Suwa Shrine.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: In a fashion. In our world she was used to being considered the equivalent of a deity because of her powers. In Gensokyo Everyone Is a Super (or enough people that she's not unusual, anyway), so she had some trouble adjusting originally.
• Otaku Surrogate: We learn in Hisoutensoku that she digs giant robots, and she's also interested in nuclear physics as shown in Wild and Horned Hermit.
• Our Gods Are Different: She is both fully god and fully human at the same time. This is known as an arahitogami ("living god"), and happens to be what the Emperor of Japan used to be considered.
• Pacifist Wind: Downplayed as it's most prevalent in contrast. Sanae is a human wind shrine maiden and distant descendent of the goddess Suwako Moriya. While she enjoys chasing after and exterminating Youkai, in comparison to Reimu, the main protagonist of the series who is also a shrine maiden, Sanae has a far less aggressive personality and fighting style; her weather in Touhou Hisoutensoku ~ Choudokyuu Ginyoru no Nazo o Oe even causes players to regenerate health, making it not uncommon for fangames to play this up and turn her into a dedicated healer.
• Pals with Jesus: As odd as it sounds, Sanae lives with the deities she worships. What's more, Suwako is, Depending on the Artist, often portrayed as a very young girl, despite being a goddess who's several thousand years old. Sanae is also her direct descendant, and the main priestess of her shrine. This means she lives with her own great-great-great-great-great-etc. grandmother, who is also her god, and is younger than her in appearance.
• Personality Powers: Personality-wise Sanae can be described as flighty, yet also very malleable. Fittingly, her primary powers and associations apart from general miracle-making are with wind and water.
• Power Gives You Wings: In Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost she sports a pair of energy wings coming out of her back.
• Pre-Final Boss:
  • In Mountain of Faith she's the last boss before Kanako.
  • Is the midboss of Subterranean Animism's Extra Stage.
• Recurring Boss: After appearing as the stage five boss in Mountain of Faith, she made a surprise appearance as the midboss in Subterranean Animism's Extra stage.
• Roboteching: Sanae's Sky Serpent shot works like this, producing snakes that travel forward until they're parallel to an enemy, then turn 90 degrees to fly towards them. While stronger than Reimu's Homing Amulets, unlike that shot type it can't hit enemies behind her.
• Separated by a Common Language: Has a brief moment of this with Reimu in Chapter 19 of Wild and Horned Herbit when she tries explaining the concept of alcohol harassment. Reimu struggles to conceptualize the kanji for the word, as Gensokyo has been largely separated from the Outside World for more than a century, which has caused some amount of language drift.
• Servile Snarker: Over the course of the series, Sanae's become more willing to comment on the greed and arrogance of her gods, though they don't tolerate it when they hear it.
• She Who Fights Monsters: In Hisoutensoku, Marisa warns Sanae that she will "become close to a youkai" if she gets too serious about hunting them. Likewise in Double Spoiler Sanae uses a spell card that absorbs the power of nearby youkai into herself, causing Hatate to express similar concerns.
• Shout-Out: Most of her spellcards are shout outs to miracles from various religions. For example, Moses's parting of the Red Sea, or the original Kamikaze that repelled the Mongol invasion of Japan.
• Signature Move: Esoterica "Gray Thaumaturgy", which also serves as the setup for her other Spell Cards.
• Spread Shot: Her usual gameplay gimmick as a player character.
• Star Power: Her spellcard "Daytime Guest Stars" zaps people with starlight. This is presumably a reference to one of various miraculous stories where new stars appeared to guide people.
• Up, Up and Away!: Her sprites in Undefined Fantastic Object have her do the stereotypical flying pose while moving horizontally.
• Vague Age: Like Reimu and Marisa, she could be anywhere from her mid-teens to early 20s. She's often assumed to be a high school girl, but there's no specific evidence for this, especially since several years have passed since her arrival in Gensokyo and she's likely well past high school age by now.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: The power to create miracles is mostly only good for Mundane Utility in Gensokyo.
• White Magician Girl: While her abilities aren't that different from fellow shrine maiden Reimu, she has a much less aggressive personality and fighting style; her weather in Hisoutensoku even causes players to regenerate health. It's not uncommon for fangames to play this up and turn her into a dedicated healer.

Kanako Yasaka

Avatar of Mountains and Lakes

Kanako Yasaka

"What Gensokyo lacks... is faith in its gods. A shrine maiden like you should understand that, yes?"

The current god in charge of the Moriya Shrine, with dominion over wind and rain and an affection for snakes. The shrine was not originally hers, since she won it from Suwako after they fought each other in the Great Suwa War, though after complications arose they entered into a sort of dual-owner partnership. The two still have a reasonably good friendship despite their past rivalry and the occasional arguments. She moved the shrine to Gensokyo because she could not gather enough faith from humans in the Outside World, and decided to gather faith from youkai as well. Despite clashing with the Hakurei Shrine she has obtained a significant amount of faith from the tengu and kappa, though nowhere near what she once possessed, and so she seeks ways to expand the numbers of her worshippers.

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• Affably Evil: While she will resort to any means possible to strengthen her religion, she also realizes that having an agreeable persona is an important part of gathering worshippers. When Reimu encounters her for the first time, she immediately tries to strike a deal with Reimu.
• Animal Motifs:
  • Kanako uses the imagery of snakes in her symbols - the rope circle represents a curled-up snake (Ouroboros) that invokes reincarnation. She picked up the frog-eating snake motif and a sacrificial ritual where one sacrifices frogs to her after beating the frog-aspected Suwako and conquering her kingdom. One of Sanae's hair decorations is a snake-like hairpiece, which represents her association with Kanako.
  • In Lotus Eaters Kanako is given slitted eyes much like a snake's.
• Author Avatar: A fair amount of her dialogue in Symposium of Post-Mysticism is pretty clearly ZUN expressing his worldview, where she's usually presented as the reasonable compromise between Miko and Byakuren.
• Big Bad: She is indirectly related to no less than three mainline games after her debut. Moriya Shrine conspiracy and all that. That, or a case of The Gods Must Be Lazy.
• Blow You Away: A god of wind and rain, among other things. Her ability is described as "creating Qian", which grants her various wind-related abilities. In Sunken Fossil World she can create small tornados to either directly attack or keep her onbashira aloft for use in attacks.
• Brutal Honesty: In Chapter 13 of Lotus Eaters she bluntly tells Miyoi while in disguise as a normal human that the sake Geidontei serves tastes like garbage.
• The Chessmaster: Comes up with a number of plots to manipulate others and gather more faith, although she's rather bad at anticipating various Spanners In The Works. It's notable that her plans tend to result in incidents, something Marisa called her out on in Symposium of Post-mysticism.
• Composite Character:
  • Incorporates elements of Take-Minakata, his wife Yasakatome, and Take-Mikazuchi who defeated him. However, Suwako also bears great resemblance to Take-Minakata and Yasakatome. Confusing things further, the actual Take-Minakata also exists, and is implied to be sealed in the shimenawa at the shrine's entrance.
  • Akyuu also mentions that Kanako may have been a literal Composite Character, coming into existence from a group of people being worshipped as a single entity.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Somewhat limited by the fact that faith is her currency and therefore she needs good PR, but she does seem to be willing to do anything for a profit. She's also explicitly worried about how environmentalism in the outside world will cut into her business and seems interested in maintaining a somewhat dangerous society (because who needs faith in gods when there's nothing to fear?).
• Deity of Human Origin: In contrast to Suwako (who's closer to a Genius Loci), it's implied that Kanako was originally a human... or maybe a group of humans who were misremembered as a single figure. It's not very clear by this point, and Kanako herself seems more interested in talking about her future than her past.
• Easily Forgiven: Subverted; later material shows Reimu and Marisa still refuse to let her live down unintentionally causing the events of Subterranean Animism.
• Edible Ammunition: Her Forgotten Grain "Unremembered Crop" uses surplus rice crops.
• Epic Fail: Kanako really needs to put more thought into her hiring policies:
  • In Subterranean Animism she gives Utsuho nuclear powers so she can harness them to gather more faith. Not only does Kanako end up with little control over Utsuho who goes on to nearly nuke the surface, her actions release two powerful religious rivals in the process.
  • In Wild and Horned Hermit she tries to make it easier for her worshippers to reach her by hiring some kappa to create an artificial lake at the foot of the mountain. The kappa prove incapable of following the blueprints or even working with each other, leading the dam to burst and destroy the path to her shrine.
• Final Boss: The final boss of Mountain of Faith.
• Game-Over Man: An interesting variant: the music on the Game Over screen from Mountain of Faith onward is a remix of her leitmotif.
• The Ghost: In Subterranean Animism Kanako Yasaka is mentioned in Utsuho's profile and the extra stage, and is the Greater-Scope Villain by giving Utsuho her powers, but never makes an appearance in the game proper. By the time you go to the Moriya Shrine, she's apparently away on a shopping trip.
• God of Knowledge: Kanako is known for constantly trying to adapt to the times, and part of that is becoming a god of technological innovation so that technology can be introduced to Gensokyo without causing the rise in skepticism that led to Gensokyo needing to be created in the first place.
• Gods Need Prayer Badly: Her modus operandi throughout MoF and most of her subsequent appearances. It's why she moved the shrine to Gensokyo.
• Greater-Scope Villain: In Subterranean Animism she's responsible for giving Okuu her powers and inadvertently setting its incident into motion, but doesn't have much of a role in the plot otherwise, with the hell raven's actions not even being part of her plan.
• Large Ham: Normally calm and collected, but Wild and Horned Hermit showed us what she's like when she has a big audience to impress...
  Kanako: Now then! The new experiment is starting! The experiment we are about to perform will put great power into the hands of the kappa of the mountain and the humans of the village. Watch and be amazed, and WORSHIP us!
• Leitmotif: "The Venerable Ancient Battlefield ~ Suwa Foughten Field"
• Manipulative Bitch: While some of her planning could use some work, she successfully manipulates the events at the cable car inauguration in such a way that bolsters the reputation of the tengu, the kappas' profit, and her own shrine's power. For instance, doing a show of her power while the tengu act aggressive not only gives the impression that it's only Kanako's power that keeps them from getting attacked by tengu, but discourages people from actually trying to climb the mountain themselves, satisfying the tengu and other youkai who don't want humans on the mountain.
• Mind Screw: She describes her ability as the creation of "Qian", a nebulous Taoist concept associated with the sky but also the qualities of an emperor. Not even Akyuu is completely sure what this means. Kanako herself even says she's not sure what her divine powers are at the moment, since she's in a period of transition from storm to mountain to technology; Qian most likely describes her personality and mundane talents rather than anything supernatural.
• Modernized God: Yasaka Kanako is a weather goddess seeking to increase her influence (due to waning belief in the outside world), notably by getting into technology. One of these plots saw her feed a three-legged crow (a symbol of the Sun in Japanese mythology) to a none-too-bright raven youkai so as to give Gensokyo a source of green energy. The result was Reiuji Utsuho, a raven girl with the power to control nuclear fusion.
• One Woman Industrial Revolution:
  • Kanako has been trying to introduce advanced technology to Gensokyo (including cold fusion), but she hasn't yet had much success, at least partly due to the tengu's greed and the kappa's incompetence.
  • She has plans to change her divine dominion from "wind and rain" into "technology" by becoming worshiped as the god who brings technology to Gensokyo (while pre-empting the events of the outside world where technology has displaced religion).
• Our Gods Are Different: Noted in Silent Sinner in Blue as unusual for having her own physical body instead of possessing shamans as necessary.
• Pre-Final Boss: Is the midboss of Mountain of Faith's Extra Stage.
• Promoted to Playable: Touhou Gouyoku Ibun ~ Sunken Fossil World marks her first playable appearance, fourteen years after her debut.
• Recurring Boss: Shows up as the midboss of the Mountain of Faith Extra stage.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: She's the Final Boss of Mountain of Faith and her eyes are dark red.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: With Suwako. Kanako's the Blue Oni despite the colour of their clothes. As explained by Akyuu, Kanako is the thinker and negotiator of the duo when it comes to gathering faith, except that her methods of thinking outside this are not good enough.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Confuses everyone in Symposium of Post-Mysticism by using technical jargon in the explanations of her plans. To a modern audience, these are relatively simple terms, but in Gensokyo (which is Feudal Japan-esque), no one has a clue what she's talking about.
• Shame If Something Happened:
  • No matter how they try to spin it, this is Kanako and Suwako's basic business model for faith. Suwako primarily controls curses, so most of what they offer is the opportunity to not be cursed by Suwako. Although Kanako is trying to branch out into other markets, with limited success.
  • In Lotus Eaters Chapter 22 she's implied to have gotten the kappa to help with preventing the rain from spoiling the Human Village's crops by more or less strong-arming them into it in return for allowing the kappa to have shops on the Moriya Shrine's grounds.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: During Sunken Fossil World, Reimu accuses Kanako of causing the oil spills as in her mind, oil is basically the same as nuclear fusion. Kanako spends several dialogue boxes absolutely dumbfounded at Reimu's accusations before agreeing with her.
• Talker and Doer: The talker to Suwako's doer, being The Face of the Moriya gods. Kanako not only has more presence and personality, she also has more sheer combat power, as evidenced by her easily stomping Suwako in the backstory. This makes her the more impressive goddess, which people naturally want to follow. But without Suwako's control over the Mishaguji, she cannot provide food or good fortune for her followers.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Suwako, the two gods being friends despite originally warring against one another and snarking at each other in the present.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Albeit most of it is only fast by divine standards. Whenever any cultural development would render her redundant (and thus eventually kill her), instead of fighting it Kanako reinvents herself to make it her new divine focus. In Gensokyo, this has led her to try becoming its god of technology.

Suwako Moriya

The Epitome of Native Gods

Suwako Moriya

"Today it's my turn to have a danmaku festival!"

The original god of Moriya Shrine, with dominion over earth and mountains and an affection for frogs for some unknown reason, and one of the only beings able to tame the fierce Mishaguji (snakelike curse gods). Suwako lost control of her shrine to Kanako in a duel, where her steel weapons were rusted by a single counterattack by Kanako's divine vines, and only managed to retain the control that she did because of the refusal of her followers to accept a deity that could not control the Mishaguji. Far less concerned about their dwindling faith than Kanako, she nonetheless agreed to her relocation plan and has found many things in Gensokyo to amuse her. She's noted for a love of "danmaku festivals", willingly taking all comers.

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• Ambiguous Innocence: While she generally acts like a carefree Cheerful Child, it is strongly implied that Suwako's innocent persona is a facade, and her real personality is even more calculating and dangerous than Kanako herself. Foul Detective Satori leans into this by having her sporting a full-blown Slasher Smile while talking about the danger that may be involved in.
• Animal Motifs: Suwako is associated with frogs (though she's not a god of frogs; she just happens to be fond of them). This led Kanako to adopt snakelike elements into her own symbols, even though Suwako officially controls snakes and Kanako controls...actually, Akyuu doesn't know what Kanako controls. In the fighting games, she also hops around like a frog instead of walking.
• Animal Battle Aura: Has one that takes the shape of a giant frog.
• Berserk Button: Does not like people teasing frogs, to the point where she can curse the person for doing so.
• Big Bad Duumvirate:
  • She's actually much smarter than what her personality shows off. In the case of gathering faith, it would be Suwako who would be the convincer, and Kanako the negotiator. However, worshippers have the short end, since it would be Suwako, not Kanako, who has the ability to curse anyone using the snakes, or to promote harvest using the same snakes and fertility to lands using her own powers. Since the general setting of Gensokyo is Feudal Japan-esque, this places her at the top of the chain of command.
  • Kanako's ability is to create Qian (Sky/Emperor/Stability/Overtness) while Suwako's is to create Kun (Earth/Follower/Flexibility/Subtlety); the synergy between their elements means that this arrangement (Kanako as the planner and public face, Suwako doing the heavy lifting) provides far better results than they could achieve on their own.
• Cheerful Child: She takes her own impending death from lack of faith rather cheerfully, and generally seems disarmingly friendly. Akyuu doesn't trust her though.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Implied to be this, between her bizarre fighting style in the fighting games, and the fact she fights the player character in the EX Stage for fun. That is, presuming it's not just another part of her facade.
• Confusion Fu: In the fighting games. She hops instead of walking, her crouch makes her taller, and she can swim through the ground.
• Crash-Into Hello: During Sanae's scenario in Hisoutensoku.
• Curse: Subjugated the native curse gods of Suwa, and can use their power. In practice this makes her a curse god as well.
• Cute Bruiser: Look at her appearance... and now look at the total damage of her melee combo in Hisoutensoku. It competes or maybe even beats half-ghost swordsman Youmu, deadly shinigami Komachi, mountain-smashing oni Suika and even nuclear-powered hell raven Utsuho.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The Mishaguji, and Suwako herself by extension. Despite being known primarily as curse gods who turn the land barren in their wake, they can just as easily create good harvests. Curses and blessings are two sides of the same coin.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Suwako is the lowest tier in Hisoutensoku, but that has very little to do with her actual ability or because she is a Lethal Joke Character - it's more because she has such a non-standard control scheme, even for a character in a non-standard fighter. Good Suwako players, although rare, are extremely dangerous.
• Doppelgänger Attack: Native God "Red Frogs of Houei 4" has a Suwako clone fly around the arena making trails of star-shaped bullets. Likely explained by her ability, as a Shinto god, to split her spirit infinitely.
• Elemental Powers: Being a god of the Earth, she has a variety of tricks up her sleeve:
  • She can curse enemies, but she can hardly be called evil — quite the opposite, it's because she tamed the local curse gods when originally establishing herself.
  • Contrasting with Kanako's Qian, Suwako's powers are described as creating Kun, the Taoist trigram associated with earth. While Kanako's current powers are largely tied to the sky, Suwako's are definitely tied to the earth, such as fertility, drawing water from earth, and lifting rocks. Some of her spell cards in Hisoutensoku attack with masses of earth/stone shaped like animals or limbs.
  • Can control metals as an extension of her powers over earth.
  • She can make trees spring up from the ground.
  • Her Native God "Froggy Braves the Wind and Rain" spellcard has her use a storm of rain droplets as danmaku.
• Everything's Better with Rainbows: Her Native God "Seven Stones and Seven Trees" spellcard has her use bullets in the colors of the rainbow along with seven lasers.
• Genius Loci: Unlike Kanako (who is a Deity of Human Origin) Suwako is a native god composed entirely of faith, and strongly tied to her territory (that is, Lake Suwa). However, her ability to manipulate the area consists of controlling the similar-in-nature Mishaguji to do it for her.
• God-Emperor: God Empress in her case, but in ancient times, she personally founded and openly ruled the human kingdom of Moriya, defending it against other kingdoms and gods. Her reign ended when Kanako out-maneuvered her, leading Suwako to surrender and step down. However, the Curse Gods and humans didn't accept Kanako, so the weather god was forced to settle for jointly ruling the kingdom with Suwako.
• Final Boss: Of Sanae's story mode in Hisoutensoku.
• High-Altitude Battle: Suwako's last boss spell card in Hisoutensoku has you fighting her in a timed battle while falling down to earth.
• Immortal Immaturity: Subverted, since it's often implied that her childish behavior is just an act.
• Leitmotif: "Native Faith"
• Little Miss Almighty: A powerful native god that takes the form of a little girl.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Though she usually acts as childish as she looks, it's heavily implied that she's much more intelligent than she lets on.
  Akyuu: "Unlike Kanako, she acts as if she were clueless, which can be problematic when dealing with her."
• Our Gods Are Different: Mountain of Faith is filled with gods.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Suwako is tiny, with her appearance in Foul Detective Satori showing her barely reaching Kanako's waist. And, being a goddess and former God-Emperor, she's not to be trifled with in the slightest.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: With Kanako. Suwako's the Red Oni despite the colour of their clothes, being the more aggressive of the two.
• Rings of Death: Her weapons are iron rings.
• Shame If Something Happened: Keeps worship with the threat of curses if it stops.
• Signature Headgear: She is most recognized by her wide-brimmed hat with frog-like googly eyes atop of it, fitting with her frog motif. In some fanworks, the hat is referred to as "Pyonta" and is portrayed as sentient. Foul Detective Satori shows that the hat is an Expressive Accessory as its eyes can emulate Suwako's expressions.
• Summon Magic: Her ultimate spell card in Hisoutensoku summons a group of Mishaguji around her opponent, who perform an attack reminiscent of Akuma's Raging Demon.
• Superboss: The EX boss of Mountain of Faith, who is a tougher fight than Kanako and battles the protagonist for fun.
• Supernaturally Young Parent: She is an immortal god and many times great grandmother of Sanae... and she looks about 10. Considering how she's a god and it's often implied that she's Obfuscating Stupidity, it's likely that her youthful appearance is not her real one.
• Talker and Doer: The doer to Kanako's talker, being the one who does most of the heavy lifting, including the cursing of those who won't play ball. But she lacks the charisma of Kanako and cannot best her in combat, so she has to let Kanako be The Face of the shrine and share faith with her in secret.
• Time Abyss: She is at least a good five thousand years old.
• Undying Loyalty: Not her, but the Mishaguji snakes she commands are utterly loyal to Suwako and answer to no one else. They betrayed Kanako when she seized Suwako's land in the distant past, blighting the region until Kanako agreed to keep Suwako as a co-deity.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Kanako, the two gods being friends despite originally warring against one another in the past, and snarking at each other in the present.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Kanako defeated her in the past by causing her iron rings to rust and become worthless.
• The Woman Behind the Man: She's the actual power behind the Moriya Shrine, being the one who controls the Mishaguji.

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