/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Although she's a tiger youkai, Shou wasn't born from a tiger, as they aren't native to Japan. She was "born" from the fear of people from stories about tigers passed around. Her existence depended on the denizens of Japan's ignorance about real tigers.

While Byakuren was famous in the human world, she found Shou and had her become a disciple of Bishamonten, who Byakuren was currently worshipping, as Shou was a youkai. The purpose of Byakuren hiring Shou was to gain the trust of the youkai that were living on the mountain. While Byakuren knew Shou was a youkai, Shou hid this fact from humans. Bishamonten assigned Shou a servant, the tiny mouse youkai Nazrin, to assist and keep watch over Shou. As the years went on, Shou proved to be an exceptional disciple of Bishamonten. By becoming Bishamonten's avatar, this prevented her from fading away.

When Byakuren was sealed in Makai, however, Shou couldn't do much to help, as humans would discover that she was a youkai. Instead, she continued to serve Bishamonten. It wasn't until she and Nazrin met Murasa and Ichirin hundreds of years later in Gensokyo, where they vowed to revive Byakuren no matter what.