• Welcome to Touhou Wiki!
  • Registering is temporarily disabled. Check in our Discord server to request an account and for assistance of any kind.

Youkai: Difference between revisions

From Touhou Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
mNo edit summary
mNo edit summary
Line 12: Line 12:
However, despite the danger certain youkai present, humans and youkai can and do live together. Some, such as [[Tewi Inaba]], are even helpful to humans. Deciding if a youkai is harmful to humans or not must be done on a case by case basis.
However, despite the danger certain youkai present, humans and youkai can and do live together. Some, such as [[Tewi Inaba]], are even helpful to humans. Deciding if a youkai is harmful to humans or not must be done on a case by case basis.


While more susceptible to belief, youkai are less susceptible to things of physical nature. It is said that even if a youkai is split into five parts, they will heal right away. It seems that youkai, like [[fairy|fairies]], may not be able to die permanently; [[Hieda no Akyuu]], [[Reimu Hakurei]] and others regularly discuss 'extermination' of youkai as if it were only a temporary measure. This is likely a quirk of language, as youkai are generally known to die eventually. [[Yama]] like [[Shikieiki Yamaxanadu]] are prepared to judge youkai when they pass away, and youkai are noted to merely have a "much longer" lifespan than humans rather than an infinite one. Fairies are still an exception, however. Shikieiki notes that she normally doesn't judge fairies.
While more susceptible to belief, youkai are less susceptible to things of physical nature. It is said that even if a youkai is split into five parts, they will heal right away. It seems that youkai, like [[fairy|fairies]], may not be able to die permanently; [[Hieda no Akyuu]], [[Reimu Hakurei]] and others regularly discuss 'extermination' of youkai as if it were only a temporary measure. This is likely a quirk of language, as youkai are generally known to die eventually. [[Yama]] like [[Eiki Shiki, Yamaxanadu]] are prepared to judge youkai when they pass away, and youkai are noted to merely have a "much longer" lifespan than humans rather than an infinite one. Fairies are still an exception, however. Eiki notes that she normally doesn't judge fairies.


In addition to this, youkai are notoriously self-centered, and thus do not travel in groups very often. Youkai "organizations" such as the [[Scarlet Devil Mansion]] and the youkai of [[Youkai Mountain]] are noted as exceptions rather than the norm. The former are stated in ''[[Perfect Memento in Strict Sense]]'' to live a lifestyle completely different from both youkai and humans, and the latter are described by [[Ran Yakumo]] as simply a half-hearted attempt to mimic the [[Outside World|outside world]] in ''[[Silent Sinner in Blue]]'' Chapter 3.
In addition to this, youkai are notoriously self-centered, and thus do not travel in groups very often. Youkai "organizations" such as the [[Scarlet Devil Mansion]] and the youkai of [[Youkai Mountain]] are noted as exceptions rather than the norm. The former are stated in ''[[Perfect Memento in Strict Sense]]'' to live a lifestyle completely different from both youkai and humans, and the latter are described by [[Ran Yakumo]] as simply a half-hearted attempt to mimic the [[Outside World|outside world]] in ''[[Silent Sinner in Blue]]'' Chapter 3.

Revision as of 08:09, 10 August 2012

Youkai (妖怪) is a term mostly associated with Japanese folk creatures and ghosts. The term can also apply broadly to anything that is a supernatural being or legend, from any culture. Because there are thousands of stories of magical beings around the world, the different types of youkai are endless. Alternatively, it is a common Japanese belief that after a certain amount of time, ordinary objects and animals gain life and personality, becoming a kind of youkai as well. In some cases even a normal human can become a youkai under the right conditions or vice versa.

Youkai in Touhou

Fairies, vampires, tengu, and nekomata are some of the many youkai that can be found in Gensokyo. Youkai such as satori, tsuchigumo, and many of the oni are found in Former Hell.

Gensokyo youkai tend to live within the wilderness, far away from human settlements. Normal youkai seem to behave like wild animals, attacking humans within their territory on sight. Exceptional youkai are less common, but they often enjoy speaking to humans, and are much stronger than an ordinary Gensokyo human, one on one. These youkai are almost always humanoid in appearance, and can be quite unpredictable; friendly one moment, hostile the next.

Many, though not all, youkai are known to eat humans on occasion, if not on a regular basis, however a vampire contract in Gensokyo forbids the youkai there from actually eating humans from the human village. Many youkai are also stronger and live longer than an average human, with lifespans often reaching into hundreds of years (or possibly more in some cases), in addition to not aging after they get to a certain point (their appearances don't change) as in the case of Rinnosuke, Marisa stated that he had not changed since she was younger in Curiosities of Lotus Asia.

One common trait often seen among youkai is a weakness to various faith based and spiritual attacks, charms, wards, etc. In Gensokyo it's therefore natural for the resident shrine maiden to become involved whenever there's trouble being caused by a youkai.

However, despite the danger certain youkai present, humans and youkai can and do live together. Some, such as Tewi Inaba, are even helpful to humans. Deciding if a youkai is harmful to humans or not must be done on a case by case basis.

While more susceptible to belief, youkai are less susceptible to things of physical nature. It is said that even if a youkai is split into five parts, they will heal right away. It seems that youkai, like fairies, may not be able to die permanently; Hieda no Akyuu, Reimu Hakurei and others regularly discuss 'extermination' of youkai as if it were only a temporary measure. This is likely a quirk of language, as youkai are generally known to die eventually. Yama like Eiki Shiki, Yamaxanadu are prepared to judge youkai when they pass away, and youkai are noted to merely have a "much longer" lifespan than humans rather than an infinite one. Fairies are still an exception, however. Eiki notes that she normally doesn't judge fairies.

In addition to this, youkai are notoriously self-centered, and thus do not travel in groups very often. Youkai "organizations" such as the Scarlet Devil Mansion and the youkai of Youkai Mountain are noted as exceptions rather than the norm. The former are stated in Perfect Memento in Strict Sense to live a lifestyle completely different from both youkai and humans, and the latter are described by Ran Yakumo as simply a half-hearted attempt to mimic the outside world in Silent Sinner in Blue Chapter 3.

It seems like Gensokyo's humans would rather do away with many youkai completely, were they able. However, today, now that mock exterminations of youkai and mock kidnappings of humans are easily executed thanks to the Spell Card rules, relations between youkai and humans have improved considerably.

Due to their susceptibility to belief, it is difficult for youkai to survive in the outside world today. As stated in Akyu's monologue in Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, humans of the outside world have begun to deny the youkais' existence. It is thus rare, but not impossible, for youkai to exist in the outside world. Some youkai, such as Mamizou Futatsuiwa and possibly Shou Toramaru, have managed in the outside world in the present day, although those two specific examples have since relocated to Gensokyo for unrelated reasons. Yukari Yakumo is speculated by some residents of Gensokyo to be a youkai of the outside world as well who merely comes to Gensokyo to play, but this is just one of many speculations about her.

Supposedly, according to Kaguya, the Lunarians are the originators of magic and youkai on earth, creating youkai in order to regulate the earth's 'filth'.[1] However, Yukari Yakumo has an alternate origin of youkai, saying in narrative to herself that it was the moon's dim light which gave birth to the youkai in a manner of speaking, by causing humanity to fear and create legends about them.[2] The two explanations are not entirely mutually exclusive, and may be a result of differing outlooks or parts on the matter. For example, the Lunarians may have purposefully dimmed the moon's light to make humanity's fears create the youkai.

Parallel Evolution

In Curiosities of Lotus Asia Chapter 18, Rinnosuke Morichika mentions that the Kappa are often mistaken to be related to the Chinese river youkai/god known as a Kahaku. He tells Sakuya Izayoi that while they may have similar names (And presumably similar in many other ways to the point of being identical), they are two compleatly different creatures. He states that just because there’s a youkai with a similar name in an country (It is assumed this means outside the Japanese archipelago) in the outside world, to think that they are the same creature is unreasonable.

This is known in science as parallel evolution. This may also be the case of why Oni and Vampires share portions of their name and have identical weaknesses, while they are clearly two different species of youkai. Because modern science is fairly new, similar supernatural creatures may easily be grouped up as the same thing.

Characters under this Bestiary

Majority of the characters in Touhou are youkai. Most belong to a specific group or is a youkai form of an animal; however there are few characters that are only known as a generic youkai such as the following.

Books and articles

See Also

  • Wikipedia entry for youkai
  • Obakemono, an online resource on various youkai and other creatures.

References

  1. Imperishable Night: Scarlet Team's Scenario. "The moon gave many powers to beings of the earth. Many of them, such as magic, were originally the moon's power." "We of the moon turned some on the Earth to monsters, to regulate their filthiness..." Although "monster" uses different Japanese characters than what's used for "youkai", Kaguya's latter statement appears to be referring to youkai, as she then comments about how the humans sealed them away (Gensokyo's creation and/or the myriad of other ways that humanity sealed or lost the fear of the youkai) and youkai have been reduced to "useless creatures that assault humans in predefined patterns." (spell cards).
  2. Cage in Lunatic Runagate: Fifth Chapter. "Under the dim light of the moon, all sorts of things blanket the Earth in shadows, such as grasses, trees, mountains, rocks and buildings. With light as weak as moonlight, it is impossible to eliminate these shadows. And they are the birthplace of humanity's fears, sometimes creating legends of youkai. In a manner of speaking, the moon gave birth to all youkai."