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Keine Kamishirasawa
(♫) Keine Kamishirasawa | |
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Keine Kamishirasawa in Imperishable Night History-Eating Half BeastMore Character Titles | |
Species |
Were-hakutaku |
Abilities |
Eating history (as a human) |
Occupation |
Schoolteacher; acts as guardian of the human village |
Location |
The Human Village |
Music Themes | |
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Appearances | |
Official Games | |
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Print Works | |
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Keine Kamishirasawa (上白沢 慧音 Kamishirasawa Keine) is a were-hakutaku that acts as the guardian of the Human Village. During the events of Imperishable Night, she uses her abilities to conceal the Human Village from the heroines. She shows herself again in the extra stage on the night of the true full moon, having assumed her hakutaku form.
General Information
Personality
Keine is loyal to her duties to the Human Village, both as a schoolteacher and as its guardian. As a proper teacher, she doesn't like people who are discourteous, but other than that, she is generally friendly towards humans - except, perhaps, for when she has assumed her hakutaku form.
Ability
Keine possesses a different ability for each of her forms. In human form, she can "eat" history, as she did in the events of Imperishable Night. Though it is stated as "eating", it is clear that she is only concealing history from outside viewers. In her hakutaku form, however, she is able to create history; she is also apparently aware of the entire history of Gensokyo in this state, according to her official profile.
Hieda no Akyuu, however, states in Perfect Memento in Strict Sense that the Hieda clan's history is above Keine's powers, and is thus not "hers".
Occupation
Keine spends her days as a history teacher in a school in the Human Village, but also acts as its guardian, as she did in Imperishable Night.
Backstory
Prior to the events of Imperishable Night, Keine created a history school in the Human Village, but its popularity is struggling.
Character Basis
Origin
Attention: This section is a stub and it needs expanding with more information related to the section's topic. If you can add to it in any way, please do so. |
Name
The kanji characters for Keine translate loosely to "Wise sound" while Kamishirasawa literally means "Upper stream of a white valley." However, the Kamishirasawa kanji can be read as "ue hakutaku" or "uwa-hakutaku" and so likely a pun by ZUN when he named the "Were-Hakutaku" character. "Keine" is also a declensional form of the German word of negative article or negative determiner. Example: "Keine Gurken gibts im Kühlschrank" ("No cucumbers are in the refrigerator"). Although the two words are pronounced differently, Keine's name used in this manner may also be a reference to her ability to conceal history.
Design
In her human form, Keine has brown eyes and long silver hair with blue highlights. She wears a hat that looks like some kind of building with a red ribbon on top and glyphs inscribed along its side. Her dress is dark blue with white short sleeves, and a red ribbon is tied to the bottom of the collar. In her hakutaku form she has red eyes, long silver hair with green highlights, and horns. Her left horn is decorated with a red ribbon. Her dress is dark green with white short sleeves, and a red ribbon is tied to the bottom of the collar.
Story
Games
- Imperishable Night
During Imperishable Night, Keine, being sensitive to the moon herself, sensed the strange events that were occurring. As a safeguard, she hid the Human Village's history, making it as if there had never been a village there to begin with, so that the inhabitants would be protected from any sort of powerful youkai. After being defeated, Keine pointed the heroines toward the ones responsible for the fake moon in the sky. Later, during the Extra Stage, Keine acted as guardian of Fujiwara no Mokou and attempted to stop the player from reaching and facing Mokou.
Literature
Keine comments on an alleged "secret society" that is trying to unveil the secrets of the origins of Gensokyo, saying that it's not what humans should be spending their time thinking about; instead, they should be passing down what is happening now as history to their descendants. Some time later, after opening a history school, she notes in her interview with Aya that it isn't very popular. She also comments on Reimu's ineptitude as a miko in retaining the balance between youkai and humans, and says that she has pretty much taken her place in that role - that is, of being inclined towards humans, rather than youkai.
- Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth Chapter 10
Reisen, Tewi, and Kaguya run into Keine in the Human Village.
Keine gives Fujiwara no Mokou an explanation regarding the origins of the Youkai Mountain.
Relationships
Keine is friends with Mokou, and they are often seen together in various images in the Touhou games.
Minor relationships
Keine doesn't really think Reimu is doing her job, by being inclined towards being friends with youkai rather than to serving humans.
Gallery
Keine's hakutaku form
Keine's portrait from Perfect Memento in Strict Sense
Keine's sigil from Grimoire of Marisa
Spell Cards
Name | Translated | Comments | Games | Stage | ||
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Total: 24 | ||||||
産霊「ファーストピラミッド」 | Spiritual Birth "First Pyramid" | IN | St. 3: E/N/H/L | |||
始符「エフェメラリティ137」 | Origin Sign "Ephemerality 137" | IN | St. 3: N/H/L | |||
野符「武烈クライシス」 | Ambition Sign "Buretsu Crisis" | IN | St. 3: E | |||
野符「将門クライシス」 | Ambition Sign "Masakado Crisis" | IN | St. 3: N | |||
野符「義満クライシス」 | Ambition Sign "Yoshimitsu Crisis" | IN | St. 3: H | |||
野符「GHQクライシス」 | Ambition Sign "General Headquarters Crisis" | IN | St. 3: L | |||
国符「三種の神器 剣」 | Land Sign "Three Sacred Treasures - Sword" | IN GoM |
St. 3: E — | |||
国符「三種の神器 玉」 | Land Sign "Three Sacred Treasures - Orb" | IN GoM |
St. 3: N — | |||
国符「三種の神器 鏡」 | Land Sign "Three Sacred Treasures - Mirror" | IN GoM |
St. 3: H — | |||
国体「三種の神器 郷」 | Land Scheme "Three Sacred Treasures - Country" | IN | St. 3: L | |||
終符「幻想天皇」 | Ending Sign "Phantasmal Emperor" | IN | St. 3: E/N | |||
虚史「幻想郷伝説」 | Pseudo-History "The Legend of Gensokyo" | IN | St. 3: H/L | |||
未来「高天原」 | Future "Gods' Realm" | IN | St. 3: N/H/L | |||
旧史「旧秘境史 -オールドヒストリー-」 | Past "Old History of an Untrodden Land -Old History-" | IN | St. Ex | |||
転世「一条戻り橋」 | Reincarnation "Ichijou Returning Bridge" | IN GoM |
St. Ex — | |||
新史「新幻想史 -ネクストヒストリー-」 | Future "New History of Fantasy -Next History-" | IN | St. Ex | |||
「日出ずる国の天子」 | "Emperor of the Land of the Rising Sun" | IN | Lw | |||
「無何有浄化」 | "Total Purification" | IN | Lw | |||
光符「アマテラス」 | Light Sign "Amaterasu" | StB | St. 3 | |||
包符「昭和の雨」 | Shroud Sign "Rain of Showa" | StB | St. 3 | |||
葵符「水戸の光圀」 | Hollyhock Sign "Mito no Mitsukuni" | StB | St. 3 | |||
倭符「邪馬台の国」 | Japan Sign "Yamato Kingdom" | StB | St. 3 | |||
「20XX年 死後の旅」 | "20XX: An Afterlife Odyssey" | ISC | St. 3 | |||
大火「江戸のフラワー」 | Great Fire "Flower of Edo" | ISC | St. 3 |
Additional Information
- Keine seems to have a strong desire to protect humans and would probably be the safest person in Gensokyo for any human to be around.
- When she becomes a Hakutaku, her clothes change color and she seems to grow a tail.
- Keine fits the description in Perfect Memento in Strict Sense of one who acquired therianthropy, rather than one who was born with it. Her transformation into a were-hakutaku is not a full body-transformation, which she points out to Yukari in Imperishable Night, whereas one who is born as a were-beast takes on a full body beast form during a full moon. If this is the case, it would mean Keine was once human but cursed to be a were-hakutaku.
- Most of her spell cards are based on the history of the Emperor of Japan.
- Keine is the only character in Imperishable Night to have 2 Last Word Spell Cards rather than 1.
Fandom
- Some members of the Touhou community have jested that Keine's hat resembles a bento box or a house.
- Since she has the ability to change history, some fans make jokes about her having relationships with characters that never came out in any of the games, such as Rin Satsuki.
- As a teacher, she is commonly addressed by the respectful title of 「慧音先生」 or "Keine-sensei".
- In some fan works, Keine is referred to as a cow (complete with milk jokes), due to her appearance in hakutaku form.
- She also tends to be depicted with large breasts with the above as one of the reasons.
- Etymology of CAVED!!!!
- The word "horu" in Japanese means to dig, but another meaning of the word is to have anal sex or gay sex. Some fans thought that Keine would go crazy due to her metamorphosis from the light of a full moon and try to shove one of her horns into someone's anus. One day, some Touhou, or Cave (also famous their shooting games) fan translated a nonsense line, "caved caved! caved!! caved!!! caved!!!!", from English into Japanese in a machine translation site]. The result was "horaremashita. ochikomimashita! ochikomimashita!! ochikomimashita!!! horareta!!!!" (screwed. depressed! depressed!! depressed!!! screwed!!!!). This spread elsewhere because the translation was so silly. When some fans heard it, they associated "screwed" with EX-Keine's attacking others' rear ends. This was posted on 2ch and it became famous. When someone writes something that contains the phrase "horu," they would be summarily raped by EX-Keine. "Horu" got word filtered to "caved!!!!!!!!" in English translations, and so you get "I got CAVED by EX-Keine!!!!!!!!" But because that bad translation was fixed after some time, and because there were people who hated it, Caved!!!! has become less popular.
- In fangames with RPG-style stats, Keine usually falls somewhere between "all-rounder" and "specialised in defense". Her hakutaku form sometimes has high attack instead.
Official Profiles
○3面ボス 歴史喰い
上白沢 慧音(かみしらさわ けいね) Keine Kamishirasawa 種族:ワーハクタク 能力:歴史を食べる(隠す)程度の能力と、歴史を創る程度の能力。
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Stage 3 Boss, History Eater
Keine Kamishirasawa Species: Were-hakutaku Abilities: Eating (concealing) history, and creating history Keine looks like an ordinary human most of the time, but she is actually a were-hakutaku who transforms into a hakutaku under the light of the full moon. As a human, she has the ability to eat histories. As a hakutaku, she possesses all knowledge about Gensokyo, and possess the ability to create history. When she first noticed this incident, she thought it was an opponent with considerably great power, and she decided to seal the Human Village during the night in order to protect humans from youkai. She devoured the village's history to make it unable to be seen. Although Keine is a youkai, she loves humans and always tries to help them. She only uses her ability when it would benefit humans. |
Official Sources
- 2004/05/14 Imperishable Night Demo - おまけ.txt (pre-official profile
- 2004/08/15 Imperishable Night - Stage 3 dialogue; Extra Stage dialogue; キャラ設定.txt (official profile)
- 2005/12/30 Shoot the Bullet - Stage 3 Spell Card comments
- 2005/08/11 Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red - Article and Interview: Keine
- 2006/12/27 Perfect Memento in Strict Sense - Keine Kamishirasawa
- 2008/03/22 Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth - Chapter 10
- 2008/03/25 Cage in Lunatic Runagate - Chapter 4
- 2008/11/22 Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth - Chapter 18
- 2009/07/28 The Grimoire of Marisa - Keine Kamishirasawa's Spell Cards
References
This page is part of Project Characters, a Touhou Wiki project that aims to write proper descriptions for all official characters of Touhou Project. Please keep the character page guidelines in mind when contributing. |