Kanako Yasaka

Kanako is an ambitious woman who treats religion like a business, using whatever means bring her the most "profit" - that profit being faith. She has a natural presence that can seem intimidating or suspicious at times, but also reliable. Unusually for a god she has little respect for tradition - she demands little formality in her worship, and encourages scientific progress. It is somewhat strange for a deity to be knowledgeable and interested about science.

She has no hostility towards humans, though as is the case with all deities, she may curse them if they are disrespectful. She also seems to be rather short-tempered, but she is vulnerable to gifts. Kanako is also a skilled negotiator.

Kanako's ability specifically refers to the element of Qian (乾), the "sky" of Bagua in Taoist philosophy. Qian is associated with creation, leadership, overtness, reliability, and acting first rather than reacting to others. Suwako Moriya's ability to create Kun (坤, earth), refers to the opposite element.

She is at least called "wind god", so it may be a power to manipulate wind, rain, and weather. Her animations in Sunken Fossil World depict her summoning tornadoes. For Kanako to be a god of agriculture, to manipulate the wind and rain and make the soil plentiful would definitely be a way to quickly and easily gather faith.

In Symposium of Post-mysticism, it's stated that this ability of hers is still very much a mystery. She has been seen altering the terrain with Suwako's help, opening holes to the underground, and even creating large structures. She helped build the Myouren Temple, as well.

Kanako is currently the deity of the Moriya Shrine, and lives with Suwako Moriya, the de facto ruler of the shrine, and Sanae Kochiya, a wind priestess. She generally seems to spend her time implementing new ways to gain faith from those who live outside the Youkai Mountain. She tries to control nuclear fusion and does so by feeding Yatagarasu to Utsuho Reiuji and creating a nuclear fusion reactor leading to the underground, which indirectly caused the events of Subterranean Animism, Undefined Fantastic Object, Touhou Hisoutensoku, and Ten Desires. Kanako would later successfully have a ropeway going from the foot of Youkai Mountain near the Human Village to Moriya Shrine in Wild and Horned Hermit.

Kanako's shimenawa represents the figure of an entwined snake, which in turn represents resurrection, rebirth, and eternity through the repeated shedding of its own skin. She also possesses onbashira, which she apparently uses in traditional festivals to toss off of cliffs, and also in combat in Sunken Fossil World.

One of the gods of Yamato (the precursor of the modern Japanese state), Kanako took over the kingdom ruled by the native goddess Suwako Moriya by holding out a thin vine that immediately rusted all of Suwako's iron weaponry. However, the inhabitants of Suwako's kingdom found it difficult to accept their new deity. In order to consolidate her newfound realm, she borrowed Suwako's powers. In reality, Suwako still ruled, while Kanako was their deity in name only.

However, as time went on humans eventually began to disbelieve in the concept of eternity, which Kanako in part represented. They grew stronger and invented ways of getting around the agricultural problems posed by harsh rain and wind. As their belief in science and information grew, their faith in gods like Kanako waned, and thus did her power.

In order to solve this problem, Kanako decided that the most appropriate course of action would be to abandon the human world and gather faith in Gensokyo. It ended up working out quite well, and she started to be worshipped as the deity of the Youkai Mountain. She then realized that, after observing the Hakurei Shrine which, though low on faith, was frequently visited by youkai was the main reason she had been accepted so quickly.

Kanako, however, did not foresee the power of those who lived on the mountain, such as the kappa and tengu, growing greater through their worship of her. Worried about the power balance in Gensokyo, she resolved to rein in more believers from elsewhere, and thus decided to utilize the Hakurei Shrine for her own ends.

Kanako is based off both Takeminakata-no-Mikoto (建御名方命) and Yasakatome-no-Mikoto (八坂刀売命), gods of the Suwa-taisha (Suwa Grand Shrine), which, on the other hand, Suwako Moriya is named after. Several of the myths related to Takeminakata, Yasakatome, and the Suwa-taisha are referenced in Kanako's spell cards.

Takeminakata, also known as Suwa Daimyōjin (諏訪大明神) or Suwa Myōjin (諏訪明神), is the god of wind, water, hunting, agriculture, and warfare worshiped in the Upper Shrine of Suwa (上社 Kamisha), which is two of the four main buildings that make up the Grand Shrine of Suwa.

In the Kojiki, Takeminakata was a son of Ōkuninushi, ruler of the land of Izumo, who was defeated by the god of thunder, Takemikazuchi, acting as the messenger of the gods of heaven, and forced into exile in the "sea of Suwa in the land of Shinano." (Curiously, Takeminakata only appears in the Kojiki; he is absent in other sources that tell the same myth, such as the Nihon Shoki; it is thus speculated that Takeminakata was not originally associated with Izumo and was later artificially grafted into this myth.)

In Suwa, Takeminakata, as Suwa Myōjin, is instead considered to be a deity who defeated a local god named Moreya (a.k.a. Moriya, the god Suwako is based off) using only a branch or vine of wisteria. After his defeat, Moreya swore fealty to Takeminakata, the new ruler of the Suwa region, and became the ancestor of the Moriya clan (守矢氏), one of the priestly families of the Upper Shrine. The Suwa clan (諏訪氏), which also held offices in the shrine, claimed descent from Takeminakata. The Upper Shrine's high priest (大祝 Oohouri) was always a member of the Suwa clan, and he was said to be Takeminakata's own Arahitogami. The Suwa clan, Moriya clan, and several other clans remained in power until hereditary priesthood was abolished in the wake of the formation of State Shinto during the Meiji period.

The story of Takeminakata's defeat of Moreya is thought to be a mythicization of a historical event in which a group of outsiders settled in the Suwa region and came into conflict with the local inhabitants, who they eventually defeated and placed under their control. One theory places this event around the end of the Jōmon period (c. 14,000–300 BCE), claiming that the myth is based on indigenous Jōmon hunter-gatherers opposing the arrival of agricultural Yayoi tribes into Suwa. Another theory claims that the story may be inspired by an event during the end of the Kofun period (late 6th century) in which a clan affiliated with the expanding Yamato kingdom (the future Suwa clan) invaded Suwa and subjugated a local clan of priest-chieftains who controlled the area, what would become known as the Moriya clan. (Kanako's characterization as one of the "gods of Yamato" may be based on this latter theory.)

While the myth of Suwa Myōjin's entry into Suwa is the inspiration behind Kanako's backstory, Silent Sinner in Blue suggests that a god named 'Takeminakata', a son of Lord Daikoku (modeled after the Kojiki's portrayal of Takeminakata as Ōkuninushi's son) exists as a separate figure from Kanako.

Yasakatome is the goddess of the Lower Shrine of Suwa (下社 Shimosha) considered to be Takeminakata's spouse, and likely the basis for Kanako's surname. Unlike Takeminakata, very little myth or legend survives of her.

In one story involving the goddess, when Yasakatome left her husband's place and moved north of Lake Suwa, where the two shrines that make up the Lower Shrine currently stand, she took with her a wad of cotton soaked in hot water. Upon arriving in her new home, she dropped the cotton ball on the ground; hot spring water gushed out at the spot where the cotton fell. This is considered to be the mythical origin of the hot springs of the town of Shimosuwa. (Yasakatome's association with hot springs could be an inspiration for Kanako's involvement in the events of Subterranean Animism.)

Another legend claims that the pressure ridge that forms on the frozen surface of Lake Suwa during cold winters, the Omiwatari (御神渡り, 'the god's crossing'), is caused by Takeminakata crossing the lake to visit his wife on the other shore.

Kanako's association with snakes comes from the fact that the god of Suwa Shrine was often associated with and even portrayed as taking the form of a snake or a dragon in many legends and folktales. For instance, during the Mongol invasions of Japan in the 13th century, Suwa Myōjin is said to have appeared as a giant snake in the sky who flew westward to assist the Japanese troops. In another well-known medieval tale, the god of Suwa Shrine's true identity is claimed to be that of a warrior named Kōga Saburō, who was transformed into a snake/dragon after a journey into the underworld.

The association of Suwa Myōjin with serpents is due to his nature as a god of water, snakes and dragons being associated with the element. One theory regarding the name 'Takeminakata' is that it is derived from Minakata (水潟, 水方 or 水県), a term denoting a body of water.

Kanako's mirror may be a reference to the Masumi no Kagami (真澄の鏡 clear mirror), a mirror said to have been owned by Suwa Myōjin himself. Other items supposedly brought by the god during his entry into Suwa include a bell called the Yasaka no Suzu (八栄の鈴) (the characters for yasaka are not the same as those in 'Yasakatome' or in Kanako's surname) and horse riding gear. Out of these, the Yasaka no Suzu is currently on display in the Upper Shrine's Treasury.

Kanako has an elaborate red shirt with long white sleeves and a round mirror over the center of her chest. She wears a long black skirt with a red flower print hem. Has poofy intense blue hair and dark red eyes. Behind her is a large twisting rope circle shimenawa with shide.