touhou trivia

[Anonymous No.]

let's have another obscure and esoteric trivia thread. i'll go first.
the "zun005" image that features a random blonde shrine maiden contains a hidden image of a record behind the shrine maiden
this record, titled "angel record", features what appears to be an image of benzaiten (japanese buddhist god of music)
the record can be heard here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj0fu1_Iyqg

[Anonymous No.]

here is a clearer image of the angel record

[Anonymous No.]

it seems the purpose of including the record in the image was a nod to zuntata, the official band of the taito corporation (ZUN used to work at taito). zuntata's logo also features benzaiten. the picture here shows the evolution of zuntata's logos.

[Anonymous No.]

additionally, many fans have long speculated that seiga kaku's design was a reference to the look of zuntata's modern logo (even though seiga herself is not based on benzaiten).

[Anonymous No.]

Okina's first name (隠岐奈) references the okina mask (翁) (old man) of noh plays. The okina mask eventually became a symbol of Matarajin when the deity became intertwined with the performing arts, particularly noh. The kanji that spells Okina, 隠岐奈, however, may have several meanings beyond that. 隠 (o) by itself means hidden, 岐 (ki) means crossroads, divided, or theatre, and 奈 (na) could mean naraka (hell), endure, or a theatre's basement. Altogether the name could translate to something like "to endure hidden crossroads" or "hidden hell theatre" and so on. 隠岐 (oki) combined could reference the Oki islands (隠岐諸島). Lafcadio Hearn (I'm sure you already know his connection to Yukari and Maribel) lived in the Oki islands for about a month and wrote his first book, "Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan", there. Additionally, the classic story of the White Hare of Inaba has the god Daikokuten (a japanese version of Mahakala and a form of Matarajin) (One of Mahakala's forms was a mother demon named "Matara", Matarajin got his name from Mahakala) heal the rabbit when it got injured. It is commonly accepted that the rabbit's species was Lepus brachyurus okiensis (a species native to the Oki islands), it is even speculated that the entire story takes place in the Oki islands. 岐 (ki) by itself could also reference kunado-no-kami (岐の神), a class of gods that must be worshipped in order to prevent pestilence and disaster. One aspect of Matarajin portrays him as a kunado-no-kami. The worship of Matarajin during the ushimatsuri at Koryuji temple supposedly wards off against bad omens and disasters. Two of Matarajin's forms, Gozu-tenno and Susano-o (who were believed to be the same god under the guise of Shinra Myojin, another form of Matarajin) were also known kunado-no-kami. The ushimatsuri involves oni trying to prevent Matarajin from reading a long sutra. It was also said that Matarajin was a form yaksha (considered a type of oni). Due to this 隠 (o) could also reference 鬼 (oni) as the etymology of the oni kanji comes from 隠. It could also explain why Okina hates tengu (oni and tengu are enemies), the ushimatsuri is also a ritual to ward off tengu as well. 天狗怖し (tengu odoshi/tengu intimidation) dances are performed at Koryuji and Enryakuji (another place where Matarajin is worshipped). It can also come from 隠れ里 (kakurezato/hidden village), a single place or recurring concept in Japanese mythology that is usually behind or near a mountain and filled with strange creatures. Tengu are said to live in hidden villages and mayohiga, which exists in Touhou, is also a type of hidden village that is described in canon to be "in the mountain recesses". And I haven't even got to the kanji in "Matara". Basically, Okina's name is super complicated, moreso than Yukari's name. Shame this isn't recognized in the Touhou Wiki.

[Anonymous No.]

>>19810854
To me this looks like any name with 3 kanji will have a lot of possible interpretations. Given the number of different pronunciations kanji have in names means it is not so difficult to just pick 6 or so relevant ones and then find a combination with the desired pronunciation. I'm not complaining here, though; clearly ZUN chose those kanji well. But mostly this makes me wonder whether Yukari would also have a 3 kanji name if she were made today.

[Anonymous No.]

bump

[Anonymous No.]

>>19810854
tl;dr