/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>20292786
>>20292798
Perhaps most interesting itself is that ZUN has an illustration of some frogs from the Chouju Giga on his own door. This picture is taken from the MAG.net Touhou Documentary some years back. The Choju Giga is considered by many to be the first manga and is, like Touhou, riddled with many religious and cultural undertones. It clearly holds some personal significance to ZUN. Perhaps serves it as some sort of inspiration to him. Anyway, let's break down Mamizou further. Her first name マミゾウ (Mamizou) comes from 猯/貒 (mami lit. badger/raccoon dog) and 三 (san lit. "three" which can also be read as ゾウ zou). Mami, although having the modern meaning of "badger", references either tanuki (狸 raccoon dog) or anaguma (穴熊 badger)/kan (貛 badger) or both depending on what regional dialect is used. Mami could also come from 魔魅 (deceiving spirit; references the trickster nature of youkai tanuki and youkai badgers). Even 狸 (tanuki) can be read as "mami". Interesting but not related is the 狢/貉 (mujina lit. badger/raccoon dog), another term corresponding to tanuki or araguma/kan or both depending on what dialect is being used. 三 (san, read as "zou" in Mamizou) comes from 団三郎狸 (danzaburou-danuki; in this case 三 is read as "za"). Danzaburou-danuki is one of the three legendary tanuki (bake-danuki) of Japan along with Shibaemon-danuki and Hage-danuki. Danzaburou-danuki is the leader of the tanuki from Sado island and is said to be an extremely cunning (due to his latent abilities in transformation). He famously kept kitsune (foxes) from coming to the island, which is supposedly why the island is so full of tanuki but absent of kitsune today. Mamizou's surname, Futatsuiwa (二ッ岩 lit "two stones"; referencing the giant testicles of a tanuki), is a direct reference to the Futatsuiwa of Sado island, a location where the most of the island's tanuki proliferate. Danzaburou-danuki was so beloved in his island that he was dieified as the Futatsuiwa Daimyojin. People still visit the Futatsuiwa shrine to pay their respects to the god. Anyway, Mamizou claims she is "one of the top 3 tanuki" of Japan and that she sailed from Sado into Gensokyo and that her island was devoid of foxes. Her TD theme is "Futatsuiwa from Sado". All this points to her being Danzaburou-danuki.
>>20292879
After Mamizou I'll do this.