/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>43428023
Remembered seeing this theory in another iceberg pic:
>Kikurihime is Hakurei God
The nameplate of Hakurei Shrine's torii gate in HRtP doesn't read "Hakurei" (博麗), but "Hakusan" (白山). I'm not sure about the first kanji, but the second kanji is definitely "mountain". As we know, one of the Hourai Shoujo illustrations is titled as "Training on Mt. Haku" (白山修験). This could indicate Touhou's world, before the introduction of the concept called "Gensokyo", would be located near the mountains of Ishikawa and Gifu Prefectures, instead of modernly known between Nagano Prefecture and Kanto region.
The main shrine of Hakusan area is called "Shirayama Hime Shrine" (白山比咩神社, note the same kanjis), where the deities Izanami, Izanagi and Kukurihime (also known as Shirayama Hime) are enshrined. In addition, the real-life origin and basis for Hakurei Shrine, "Joumine Shrine", from ZUN's hometown Hakuba, has Shirayama Hime alongside other deities enshrined there (source: https://w.atwiki.jp/th_seiti/pages/53.html).). Kukurihime, or Kikurihime, was also in HRtP, as "Kikuri". This could mean Kikuri is in fact a deity at Hakurei Shrine, if not even the Hakurei God herself. Though, it isn't explained how Kikuri can communicate with Reimu when she resides in Hell and why would she fight Reimu in the first place. Possibly a spiritual self of Kikuri has been enshrined to Hakurei Shrine, while the physical self resides in Hell. It would explain why Reimu can't communicate directly with Kikuri, nor know her true identity, as Reimu hasn't seen her in person. Maybe Reimu mistook Kikuri as an enemy in Hell and fought her.
Kikurihime appeared only once in the whole Japanese mythology, in the myth of Yomi, where when Izanagi was exiting Yomi, Kikurihime said something to him, but Kikuri's words weren't recorded (or they were erased). Touhou's Kikuri residing in Hell and being a gatekeeper between the land of dead and the land of living would make sense, but Hell isn't similar to Yomi. While a punishing and torturing Hell concept was introduced through Buddhism, Japanese Yomi was just the land of dead. Maybe ZUN made a compromise between a Japanese afterlife and Buddhist Hell, to create a fitting scenario, including a fight with Kikuri. HRtP was originally ZUN's test project, so his world building was loose and infinitive to create a ground for later works