Touhou 14 is announced, but the discussion here shouldn't stop. The same Japanese fan who pointed out about Ise-katagami has some fun theories.
http://www.nebuta.or.jp/archive/ogata/h23/ryoyukai.htmlFirst of all, unlikely to have anything to do with HM's real story, here's a cool painting of a samurai general (
Tamuramaro) with 7 divine-gifted oni masks hovering around him.
About the new character, he thinks she's based on
Hata no Kawakatsu, who according to legend:
- may have come from China, claimed to be a descendant of the First Emperor of Qin;
- brought kagura into Japan;
- was favored by Shoutoku, and made masks for Shoutoku;
- was ancestor to the masters of noh theatre, including the greatest noh artist,
Zeami;
- when people began worshipping
a new god (which is in fact just a type of small worm), he suppressed this new religion;
- according to Zeami's book, he became a sennin (hermit), and is an avatar of Bishamoten who helped Shoutoku (the current wikipedia entry wrote his title as a god wrong, it should be 大荒大明神);
- Toriyama Sekien, that artist who loved inventing new youkai (you should really be familiar with this name by now), drew
this image of Kawakatsu's mask becoming a mask youkai;
- was believed by a 20th century crazy man to be from a lost tribe of Israel.
Also, his name is mentioned
by Cirno in FW.
OK, that's a whole lot of fun.