Miscellaneous Questions 5: Ask Question, Receive Answer

[Drake]

Are all the "classic" Japanese gods Lunarians? If not, is there a location analogous the Japanese "heaven" (as in, the dwelling place of the gods)?

I ask because several stories talk about heaven sending various characters to Earth, such as Ninigi, Kirin, or the Yatagarasu. So if the moon is touhou's version of heaven, that would mean Lunarians send these characters which seems odd to me.

As I just pointed out in the LoLK thread, the Amatsukami (heavenly gods) seem to be closely related to the moon. In the past year or so this has become clearer to me, particularly due to various connections clicking like the story of Chang'e ascending back to the moon and/or to heaven depending on the version, the same going for Kaguya-hime, and the genealogies of Eirin and the Watatsukis.

One big step was understanding ZUN's statements in SoPM's interview; first he states that there are factions among gods, separating the moon's gods and the earth's gods. In fact these are meant to represent the Amatsukami (heavenly gods; the "highest and noblest") and Kunitsukami (earthly gods), and looking at SSiB and the gods Yorihime summons makes this extremely obvious. Moreover, he casually notes that Eirin is one of them, and at the time it seemed somewhat odd and relevatory, but really if people grasped this whole notion earlier, along with Eirin representing Omoikane (another heavenly god) this would have been a no-brainer.

Secondly, his mention that the Dragon King's Palace (previously noted to be related to the Celestials from SWR) does exist and is in fact the Lunar Capital, also plays into this. There is the story of Mizue no Uranoshimako, from CiLR 3. Since the Dragon King's Palace is supposed to be of Ryuujin, who is Owatasumi, progenitor of the Watatsukis, it is extremely fitting that Uranoshimako was told by Toyohime he had come to the Dragon King's Palace. The relationship of the moon and the Heaven "in Gensokyo" becomes a bit clearer when you just smudge together the Buddhist "Heaven" (which we see with SWR) with the Shinto "heaven" (i.e. the Moon): they're connected by this shared sense of heaven, giving the rather strange notion of having the Dragon King's Palace be related to both. There's also SWR's endings where Eirin explains the formation of Heaven from the perspective of the Amatsukami, which happened before Eirin's time. Like I had said a few pages back, the exact relation ZUN is making between the two "heaven"s is unclear (especially since the moon isn't actually referred to as heaven), but that's what's going on.

[Clarste]

Sanae's ending in LoLK specifically says that the moon is inhabited by the Amatsukami, and that the Lunarians planning to invade Gensokyo is analogous to when Nigini descended to Earth. So, yes, it's quite explicit that they're the same thing.

[game2011]

Does Aya have wings or not?

http://tinyurl.com/ngwpw98

That link says ZUN says no, but she is shown with wings in an official artwork there...

Thanks in advance!

[Clarste]

ZUN never draws her with wings, but she sometimes appears with them in official art by other artists. So... she doesn't normally have wings, but sometimes does? I think the simplest explanation is that she can make wings appear if she feels like it, but it's more like a weird art inconsistency.

[Sagus]

Hatate also had wings in the cover of SoPM. I guess guest artists just like to give crow tengu wings and ZUN just doesn't object.

[Shiina Tamai]

If Luna Child and Sunny Milk are weaker when their source of light is not visible, then would they be equally strong if they were in space? Also, would Luna be strongest if she was on the Moon itself?

[Sagus]

Logic would say that the answer to these questions is "yes", but we can't be 100% sure because they never left the Earth in canon.

[Abraham Lincoln]

Is it possible for a human who dropped into Gensokyo from the outside world to gain a special ability because she has a reputation for being a "legend" where she came from?

Let's say Michael Bay's had enough of critics panning his films and decides to commit suicide. In doing so, he lands on the Road of Reconsideration. Is it possible that he might suddenly find himself able to cause inanimate objects to spontaneously explode?

[PK]

Being famous makes one not suited to be a resident of Gensokyo, for the simple fact that they are not forgotten and their existence has not being denied (and not everyone can suicide and cheat death like a shikaisen, or becomes a ghost like Yuyuko). This is also why we don't have people that are actually known to have existed as characters.
As for Bay, in the (impossible) chance he ends in Gensokyo, he would probably develop an ability like "showing illusionary explosions", because no one actually believes he makes things explode for real.

[Abraham Lincoln]

Alright then. Looks like I'll have to be rewriting my character.

Also, would the ghosts of famous people (e.g. Frederick the Great) be able to find their way into and exist in Gensokyo?

Lastly, is Gensokyo accessible by the Bermuda Triangle?

Just some things I need to clear for writing my fan story.

[Prime32]

Is it possible for a human who dropped into Gensokyo from the outside world to gain a special ability because she has a reputation for being a "legend" where she came from?

Let's say Michael Bay's had enough of critics panning his films and decides to commit suicide. In doing so, he lands on the Road of Reconsideration. Is it possible that he might suddenly find himself able to cause inanimate objects to spontaneously explode?

I think the setting you're looking for is Fate/stay night, but even then "Michael Bay, Explosion God" would only really work as a joke Servant.

Also, would the ghosts of famous people (e.g. Frederick the Great) be able to find their way into and exist in Gensokyo?

The man died in 1786. Japan's borders were closed from 1633 to 1853. Gensokyo was created in 1885. Your story is presumably set in 2015. Why on Earth would such a long-lived ghost travel to Japan of all places, and why now? There should still be enough belief in ghosts that his existence isn't under any sort of threat; even if there wasn't, he could just live in one of Europe's many mythical realms (with which he would be far more familiar). Never mind that, as a ghost, he's likely bound to his homeland in some way.

Lastly, is Gensokyo accessible by the Bermuda Triangle?

Gensokyo doesn't have an ocean, so you'd be more likely to end up on the Moon.

[Sagus]

You're assuming people "gain" abilities from landing in Gensokyo, which so far has not been the case at all. Every character shown has either always had their abilities (Miko, for instance, was always capable of hearing a person's ten desires, long before she arrived in Gensokyo) or, in the case of the ones whose abilities are "to use magic" or similar, trained to acquire them (like Marisa, Alice, Futo (who calls her mish-mash of shinto and taoist magic "feng shui"), etc). Kosuzu's the only character that was show to havie aquired her ability spontaneously, and we have no idea on how or why she got it.

As for ghosts of famous people getting into Gensokyo, well, I guess it depends whether or not everyone that dies goes to the same place. There have been no mentions of different afterlifes for different religions, so as far as we know everyone goes through the same processes. Theoretically, then, I guess such a thing could happen, but it's more likely that, if the person had died long ago, they'd already have reincarnated. Ghosts aren't suppose to linger there forever, after all.

[Tengukami]

And that's thread post limit. Thread #6, coming right up!