Momiji Inubashiri

犬走 (いぬばしり)   (もみじ)
inɯbaɕiɽi momidʑi (♫)
Momiji Inubashiri
Momizi Inubashiri

More Alternative Spellings
Momiji Inubashiri
Sprite of Momiji Inubashiri in Double Spoiler
The Petty Patrol Tengu
More Character Titles
Species

White Wolf Tengu

Abilities

Seeing a thousand ri ahead

Age

At least over 61 years old, said to be especially long-lived [1]

Occupation

Patrolling and guarding Youkai Mountain

Location

Youkai Mountain

Appearances
Official Games
Print Works

Momiji Inubashiri (犬走 椛 Inubashiri Momiji) is a white wolf tengu whose duty is to patrol the Youkai Mountain. Her good sense of smell and sight are helpful for this duty. Momiji does not have an official game portrait, only a sprite from Mountain of Faith, Double Spoiler and Impossible Spell Card. However, she does have some appearances in print works.

General Information

Personality

Momiji has a very cooperative personality who executes her duties faithfully. In her free time, she plays dai shōgi with the kappa.

Ability

Seeing a thousand ri ahead

Momiji has a telegnosis ability that allows her to see a thousand ri ahead (approximately 3,927 kilometres, or 2,440 miles). She also has a superior sense of smell, that combined with her ability makes her able to detect any intruder in an instant.

Abilities as tengu

Akyuu describes tengu as one of the strongest species, both in physical and sorcerous abilities. While nothing about Momiji herself has especially come to light, she is likely to possess some of those traits, such as their (almost) unmatched speed.

Occupation

She works as one of the Youkai Mountain tengu's patrols. Her job is to attempt to stop intruders on the mountain with simple attacks and report any that were undeterred to Tenma.

Character Basis

Momiji's wolf-like appearance may be a reference to the Tiangou, a Chinese version of a tengu that is described to be more dog-like.

Name

 
Momiji as she appears in Oriental Sacred Place.

Her full name is Momiji Inubashiri (犬走 椛). Inubashiri (犬走, lit. "dog run") is an actual used (but very rare) surname in Japan. It refers to the dirt path outside of building or residence used for patrols ("berm" is corresponded to the term in this usage on the English Wikipedia) — the etymology of this word comes from the fact that the path is so narrow that only a dog can rush through it in a very short time, which has effect to give Momiji's image her speedy might. But the word also indicates her simple-but-fundamental social class; she protects the basement of architecture from erosion, like the occupation of white wolf tengu. Momiji refers to maple in general, when read as "Momiji" the kanji refers to maple leaves, which reflected on her design. While the kanji "Momiji" has an alternative pronunciation "Kaba," it has rarely been used in modern Japanese.

Design

Momiji only has a small sprite used in Mountain of Faith, Double Spoiler and Impossible Spell Card, so an accurate description is not possible, but from the sprite, we see that she wears a white, long-sleeved shirt, and a large black skirt with red flame-like designs reaching up from the bottom of the skirt, and that it has a white layer below her skirt. She has short light silver hair and wears a red tokin. She holds a large scimitar-like sword and a white, round shield with a red maple leaf print on it.

She appears in several print works depicted with detached sleeves and wolf ears. However, she is also depicted without wolf ears by Aya Azuma, illustrator of Wild Horned Hermit, in Wild Horned Hermit, Symposium of Post-mysticism[2] and Alternative Facts in Eastern Utopia[3].

Story

Windows Games

Mountain of Faith

Momiji is the stage 4 midboss of Mountain of Faith. When the heroine finally reached Youkai Mountain during Mountain of Faith, Momiji attempted to stop her at the waterfall. Although Momiji was unsuccessful, it seems she did fulfill her duty of reporting the intruder's presence back to the other tengu with record speed, as a reinforcement tengu named Aya Shameimaru had arrived by the end of the same stage to investigate what was going on.

Later, Momiji observed the final battles between the heroine and the newly appeared shrine and its god, apparently without being noticed by either of them.

Spin-offs

Double Spoiler

Momiji is one of the many who has her danmaku photographed by Aya Shameimaru and Hatate Himekaidou, which appears on stage 4.

 
Momiji as she appears in Symposium of Post-mysticism.
Impossible Spell Card

Momiji attacks Seija Kijin on the Youkai Mountain on day 6, using a spell card that is considered impossible to dodge. It's unknown if Momiji actually went out searching for Seija like many others, or if she was just doing her job of keeping Seija away from the Youkai Mountain.

Literature

Symposium of Post-mysticism

Back in 1963, Momiji had discovered new Shogi pieces from the outside world in Muenzuka. Having believed that the tengu were the only ones creating unique rules for the game, she became a bit frustrated that the same thing was happening in the outside world. She wanted to see how Shogi had developed in the outside world, then speculated that the game had become simplified, because the pieces she found couldn't be promoted.

Wild and Horned Hermit

Momiji appears throughout as a background character.

Forbidden Scrollery

Momiji appears in chapter 33 and 45 as a background character.

Alternative Facts in Eastern Utopia

Momiji has her own article in Alternatve Facts in Eastern Utopia about the new ropeway at Youkai Mountain. In addition, she was roped into a risqué article complaining about Tengu society.

The Grimoire of Usami

In The Grimoire of Usami, Momiji shows off her spell card, Fang Sign "Chewing Satisfaction".

Relationships

Aya Shameimaru and Hatate Himekaidou

When she meets Aya they often get into fights with each other. According to Aya, Momiji looks down on her and the other crow tengu. Hatate, however, implies that this is only a personal feud between Momiji and Aya.

Tenma

She is very loyal to the chief of the tengu, Lord Tenma.

Kappa

As said in her profile, she's an avid player of Dai Shōgi, which she plays with the kappa when she is bored.

Gallery

Illustrations

Spell Cards

Spell Cards
Name Translated Comments Games Stage
Total: 3
狗符「レイビーズバイト」 Dog Sign "Rabies Bite" DS St. 4
山窩「エクスペリーズカナン」 Mountain Nomad "Expellee's Canaan" DS St. 4
牙符「咀嚼玩味」 Fang Sign "Chewing Satisfaction" ISC
GoU
St. 6

Fandom

Official Profiles

Mountain of Faith - キャラ説明.txt
   ○4面中ボス 下っ端哨戒天狗

  犬走 椛(いぬばしり もみじ)

  種族:白狼天狗
  能力:千里先まで見通す程度の能力

  妖怪の山で見回りをしている天狗。
  視覚、嗅覚共に優れ、侵入者を瞬時に発見する。
  侵入者を発見すると、まず簡単な攻撃で威嚇し、それでも手に余るよ
  うだったら大天狗様まで報告に戻る。

  彼女の部隊は普段、滝の裏側で待機している。
  彼女は協調性の高い性格をしていて、忠実に任務をこなす。
  妖怪としては珍しいが、天狗の社会では良くある事である。

  ただし、妖怪の山には滅多に侵入者は無くていつも暇している。
  待機中は、暇している近所の河童と、大将棋と呼ばれる非常に時間の
  掛かるゲームを何戦も遊んでいる。

  寿命が長い妖怪達にとっては、暇つぶしの手段を探すのも難しい。

Stage 4 Midboss The Petty Patrol Tengu

Momiji Inubashiri

Species: White Wolf Tengu
Ability: Seeing a thousand ri ahead

A tengu that patrols the Youkai Mountain. Thanks to her superior senses of sight and smell, she can detect any intruder in an instant. When she discovers intruders she attempts to intimidate them with simple attacks, and once they cannot handle the intruders, they reports to the Great Tengu.

Her forces are usually lying in wait behind the waterfall. She has a very cooperative personality and executes her duties faithfully. This is unusual for youkai, but not uncommon in tengu society.

However, she usually has a lot of free time, as the Youkai Mountain doesn't receive many intruders. While awaiting orders, she enjoys playing a rather time-consuming game called Dai shogi with the nearby kappa.

It's hard for the especially long-lived youkai to find good ways to pass the time.

Official Sources

Official sources

References

  1. Mountain of Faith - キャラ説明.txt
  2. Uncomfirmed illustrator for Momiji's portrait in Symposium of Post-mysticism
  3. "At last: The countdown to the Aerial Ropeway - A change on the mountain's power relationship?"