She is said to be the spitting image of a classic god, having no mercy for those who disrespect her and graciously blessing those who revere her. Though described as "hidden", her true form is the same as the face she shows publicly, a chaotic mashup of the aspects of several gods. During and after the Four Seasons Incident, her personality is shown to be that of an ostentatious, confident, and prideful person, making magnificent displays of her power in order to bring attention to herself. Okina seems to be harsh towards her servants, and at the same time, she somewhat seems to pity them, wishing to release them from their position (although it's unknown whether she actually feels this way, as in Hidden Star in Four Seasons, Okina mentions that she has only been pretending to be looking for replacements).

Okina can create doors on the back of anything, even living beings. The back doors act like portals and allow her to travel wherever she wishes, or to send something to somewhere else, as long as nobody is watching. Creating a back door on a living being allows her access to the energy of said living being. The Four Seasons Incident started when Okina powered up the denizens of Gensokyo by pouring life energy into the doors on their back. The effect was particularly pronounced when Okina powered up fairies, beings who are intrinsically tied to nature. Those with Okina's back doors on their bodies are able to further power themselves up by collecting seasonal energy. Okina can take away the seasonal energy from those using her doors and expel them from the Land of the Back Door. She is unable to collect the energy of doyou, the period between seasons, as it would harm her. Each being in Gensokyo has a corresponding seasonal door. For example, fairies like Cirno and Eternity Larva should have summer doors (though, in the case of Eternity, her door actually corresponded to doyou, implying that she may not be a fairy at all). It may be that seasonal doors are interpersonal even within species, however, as Reimu and Marisa (both human), have different seasonal doors in the forms of spring and winter respectively.

The doors can act as portals and connect generally to the extradimensional Land of the Back Door, through which a number of other doors of Okina's creation are accessible. These doors all connect to various places in Gensokyo. They can be used that way as long as no one is looking, it's impossible for anyone to use these doors of their own accord, and without Okina's help, and it's implied that she can cut off access to them and their energy at any point according to Aya Shameimaru's Extra Scenario in Hidden Star in Four Seasons.

Okina possesses the ability to manipulate both life energy and mental energy. She lends this power to her servants Satono Nishida (mental energy) and Mai Teireida (life energy). The two are described as "extensions" of Okina's power. Okina's profile states that she suddenly gained these abilities at some point in the past, likely before the creation of Gensokyo.

Life energy is primarily used by Okina to tamper with nature. In Hidden Star in Four Seasons, she poured life energy into the backs of Gensokyo's residents, powering them up temporarily. When Gensokyo's fairies were powered up, the seasons began to wildly fluctuate throughout the land. The seasonal energy that this created can also be manipulated by Okina. In Chapter 42 of Wild and Horned Hermit, Okina was revealed to be able to create youkai by using life energy. She created Aunn by opening a back door on a komainu statue and pouring life energy into it, turning the divine spirit of the statue into an actual living being. In the same chapter, she offers to make it spring so that the flowers could bloom, affirming that she has direct control over the seasons. She also boastfully states that she can recreate the entirety of Gensokyo if she so pleases. In this light, it appears Okina's manipulation of life energy allows her to create life or take life at will.

Okina's manipulation of mental energy has never been demonstrated or mentioned so far, so its mechanics are unknown. It may, however, have to do with the slave-like devotion her servants have for her as well as the protagonists having slight amnesia about what happened during their first battle with Okina.

She has long, blonde hair and yellow eyes. She wears a yellow-orange kariginu adorned with a constellation pattern of stars representing the Big Dipper, a symbol of Matarajin and other associated figures. She wears a green skirt and black boots, and on her head is a three-point hat. Her particular color-scheme may be based on the somewhat famous painting of Matarajin housed at Rinnouji (輪王寺); painted by the Tendai priest Tenkai, which depicts the god in orange and green garb with the Big Dipper overhead.

Her stage 6 portraits depict her sitting on a "throne" and bearing a mirror-like tsuzumi drum. The throne has a backdoor installed in it, out of which flames in four colors emerge, each representing one of the four seasons: spring on the far left, summer on the left, winter on the right, and fall on the far right.

Her extra stage portrait no longer has the throne and tsuzumi drum, but the flames are still present, representing the seasons in the same order, only the flames of the far sides are now on the bottom corners. Instead, she has a wireframe-like door in front of her that she is looking through and from the front those flames emerge downwards then curve upwards. Her eyes turn brighter, her hair becomes smoother, and she has bigger sleeves.

In Sunken Fossil World Okina has a red cloverleaf knot on her kariginu. She still has no tsuzumi drum, and her throne has no visible doors or flames that emerge from its back.

Okina frequently uses a manual wheelchair, as shown in Lotus Eaters and Visionary Fairies in Shrine. Her wheelchair has a dark wooden frame with decorative wheel covers sporting the same design as the head of her tsuzumi drum. It also features several similarities to her throne, such as the curved armrests and rounded back. However, she can be seen standing and walking without the assistance of her wheelchair in Hidden Star in Four Seasons and Wild and Horned Hermit, respectively. Ultimately, Okina doesn't have a physical disability because she is the personification of disability itself.

More generally, Okina's association with physical disability may be derived from Matarajin's (and by extension her own) designation as a "god of obstacles" (障礙神 shougejin), given that shougai (障礙) can refer not only to spiritual hindrances but also medical disabilities.

Satono Nishida and Mai Teireida are loyal servants of Okina. Vessels of her power, they act as extensions of her and unflinchingly obey her orders. They seemingly lack the free will to question otherwise. They are becoming less human due to Okina's influence and have little memory of their past, yet maintain their personalities. Whether because they're no longer useful or she pities them, Okina periodically seeks to replace them. However, after failing to find any candidate, she says she is fine with retaining them. Satono and Mai do not know they are even searching for their own successors.

It's implied in Reimu's extra stage in Hidden Star in Four Seasons that the two are familiar with each other, and that Yukari helped Reimu defeating Okina by suggesting her to use the "boundary between seasons" to fight her. Okina recognized Yukari's modus operandi, while Reimu said she didn't understand the logic behind the countermeasure method she was using. During the fireworks festival that Usami wrote about in The Grimoire of Usami, the two banter about things as equals.