Due to vocalist Sayuri's poor health, Silver Forest is disbanding.
Seiga Kaku
Seiga Kaku | |
|---|---|
 Seiga Kaku in Ten Desires The Wicked Hermit of Passing Through WallsMore Character Titles | |
| Nickname |
Seiga Nyan Nyan ( |
| Species | Hermit |
| Abilities | Passing through walls |
| Age | More than 1400 years old, likely older than her colleagues. |
| Location | Hall of Dreams' Great Mausoleum, Human Village[1] |
Music Themes | |
| Show Music Themes | |
Appearances | |
| Official Games | |
| Show Official Game appearances | |
| Print Works | |
| Show Print Work appearances | |
Seiga Kaku (霍 青娥 Kaku Seiga) is a hermit and is the superior of Yoshika Miyako. She has the ability to pass through walls.
Contents |
Concept
Name
Her full name is Seiga Kaku (霍 青娥). Her nickname is Seiga Nyan Nyan (青娥 娘々, lit. Lady Seiga). Kaku (霍) is a genuine if uncommon Chinese surname pronounced "Huo" in Mandarin Chinese. Likewise, her given name Seiga (青娥), is pronounced "Qing'e" in Mandarin Chinese and literally means "Blue/Green/Youth Beauty". The Nyan Nyan (娘々) part of her nickname is an approximation of "Niang Niang", which is an archaic word for refering to an emperess, a consort, or a goddess.
Qing'e (青娥) is the name of a tale, on the 14th chapter of the 7th volume in the Chinese ghost story collection Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (simplified: 聊斋志异, traditional: 聊齋志異), in which the eponymous heroine, surname Wu (武), follows her father's footsteps to seek Dao but falls in love with a Huo Huan (霍桓) and marries him. She is presumed dead later in the story, but her husband finds out that she became a hermit with her father and seeks her return.
By present-day Japanese naming schema, a lady normally renames her family name that of her husband on the family register. But Chinese couples don't do it; they have different surname even after marriage. So Seiga's actual name is probably Wu Qing'e (武青娥), not Huo Qing'e (霍青娥).
Appearance
In Ten Desires's official art, she has blue eyes and hair of the same color styled with two Chinese style hair loops secured with a relatively large hair stick. She wears a simple teal dress with a floral design with a white and blue vest with Chinese patterns. On her waist is a flower secured by her belt. On her left leg is a talisman likely for Yoshika-related reasons. She sits on a flowing, translucent white cloth.
Ability
- Ability pass through walls
This is not an ability to pass through walls like a ghost would, but rather, an ability to physically cut out and open up holes in walls. Physically, this means:
- With the hairpin in her hair, she cuts the wall, opening a round hole.
- With the hole, she is able to penetrate to the other side. The fragment of the wall passed through is knocked down.
- After a certain time, the hole in the wall disappears and returns to its original shape.
This is just like the retro game Lode Runner.
This ability might refer to the magical plow which can pass through any obstacle in the original "Qing'e" story. In the story, the plow was given to Huo Huan by a passing Taoist, and Huo Huan proceeded to use the plow to open a wall in Qing'e's chamber so he could have a good look at her, which eventually led to their marriage. When Qing'e became a hermit, Huo Huan used the plow again to bring her back when Qing'e's father tried to lock him out of their mountain retreat.
But another reference can be made by reading a chapter in the same book. Looking at the 15th chapter of 1st volume, "Taoist Climbing Mountain in Vain" (simplified:劳山道士, traditional:勞山道士), you can find the character, Wang (王) acquainting temporarily the ability of passing through a wall, although the main theme of it is however his inadequacy for becoming a hermit due to the lack of patience.
Story
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- Ten Desires
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- Main article: Reimu Arc
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- Main article: Marisa Arc
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- Main article: Sanae Arc
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- Main article: Youmu Arc
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Relationships
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She is the superior of Yoshika Miyako who is a guard of Hall of Dreams' Great Mausoleum. She's very fond of her, often calling her "my cute underling". As Yoshika says "We" were revived to protect the Hall of Dreams' Great Mausoleum, there may be more Jiang Shi guards under the control of Seiga (Or simply just people temporarily turned into them by Yoshika).
They are her allies.
Seiga taught Toyosatomimi no Miko the charms of Taoism. It could also be a relationship of respect for her, because in Reimu Hakurei's parallel ending in Ten Desires, Seiga called Miko "Lady Toyosatomimi".
Additional Information
Trivia
- There is an anachronism about her being interested about He Xiangu and her collaboration with Toyosatomimi no Miko. He Xiangu is allegedly born in the early Tang Dynasty. Seiga had to be born during or before the Southern and Northern Dynasties to be able to teach Miko Taoism.
- Even being the one that declares all her spell cards during her boss battle, Yoshika is the one that shoots most bullets. During such, her focus is mostly resurrecting Yoshika every time she becomes disabled.
- Interestingly enough, it seems that while resurrecting Yoshika, her sprite appears to change colors, similar to Kanako Yasaka.
- She is one of the only characters in the series who is explicitly known to have been married. However, it isn't known if she bore any children (In the Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Qing'e had two sons and one daughter.). The other characters known to have been married are Watatsuki no Toyohime and Watatsuki no Yorihime.
- Although not explicitly appearing during gameplay, Seiga "shows" her ability to pass through walls quite literally during Reimu Hakurei's alternate ending where, using her hairstick, she opens a hole in the Hakurei Shrine's wall. It is unknown if that is her true power or just a joke.
- A reference to Jesus Christ was made in Ten Desires by Seiga Kaku to Youmu Konpaku, although he was derogatorily referred to as a "pagan prophet", meaning "country dweller". Seiga could be considered biased towards her own religion of Taoism, however.
- Ironically, the derogatory term was used by monotheistic religions like Christianity against polytheistic religions such as Shinto and Buddhism.
Fanon
- Some fans assume Seiga's hair stick is a chisel-shaped magical digging tool that appeared in the Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio.[2][3] In the original text, it was called (simplified: 镵, traditional: 鑱). It means a type of ancient spade or a herb digging tool. (See also the baidu pedia)
- Ironically, Seiga's fondness for Yoshika isn't that big of an exaggeration compared to most things.
- Due to a mix of being previously married/a mother and her wicked hermit status, she's generally shown in fanart as a seductive type with a nice figure, with the occasional lactation picture.
- She's often shown in conflict with Kasen Ibaraki, who behaves like a proper hermit.
Spell Cards
Show spell cardsOfficial Profiles
- Ten Desires - Settings and Extra Story.txt
Official Sources
Show sourcesReferences
- ↑ Symposium of Post-mysticism: Seiga Kaku
- ↑ enmei (11 September 2011). "Enmei's blog" (in Japanese). http://enmei.sblo.jp/article/47863587.html. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
- ↑ "pixpedia article on Kaku Seiga" (in Japanese). http://dic.pixiv.net/a/霍青娥. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
