Byakuren Hijiri - Touhou

Byakuren Hijiri (聖　白蓮 Hijiri Byakuren) is a Buddhist priest and magician who was sealed away in Makai by humans because of her kindness towards youkai in the outside world. The youkai she saved many years ago broke her from the seal during the events of Undefined Fantastic Object a she is now the head priest at the Myouren Temple close by the Human Village. She spends time at the temple with many Youkai and other human followers helping both species ascend to Heaven. Byakuren first appeared as the Stage 6 boss of Undefined Fantastic Object then later appeared as a playable character, and possible opponent, in multiple fighting games since Hopeless Masquerade.

Byakuren is 178 cm (5'10") tall.

Byakuren has long, wavy, light brown hair that fades to purple at the top, with hazel or light brown eyes. She wears a black and white dress with long strips of black fabric going across the middle and white fabric across the arms. Along with this dress, she wears a long cape. She also holds a giant, magical scroll called the Sorcerer's Sutra Scroll.

Appearances Games Spin-offs Literature Undefined Fantastic Object

Byakuren's sprite in UFO In Undefined Fantastic Object, she is unsealed thanks to the combined efforts of Shou Toramaru's group of youkai and the heroine. Her fate depends on which heroine is chosen by the player, but in canon, she settles down near the Human Village with the intentions of building a temple there. By Sanae Kochiya's request – the shrine maiden had vouched for Byakuren's character – Kanako Yasaka and Suwako Moriya constructed it for her relatively quickly.

Hopeless Masquerade Main article: Hopeless Masquerade: Byakuren's Scenario Byakuren defeats various religious leader, such as Mononobe no Futo, Reimu Hakurei or Toyosatomimi no Miko, fighting for the attention of the Human Village. After defeating Mamizou Futatsuiwa thinking she was Reimu, Mamizou suggests that the lost of hope is not something normal. After that, she encounters Hata no Kokoro, who explains her emotions are berserk because she lost her Mask of Hope. Seeing how she was and the fact that Kokoro called her a thief, Byakuren fights her. After the fight, she suggests Kokoro staying in the temple to learn how to control her emotions.

Impossible Spell Card After apparently reading the newspaper by the tengu about a mischief-making amanojaku, she becomes one of the many strong youkai and humans to try and stop Seija Kijin in the final day. She uses spell cards that are considered impossible to dodge.

Urban Legend in Limbo Main article: Urban Legend in Limbo: Byakuren's Scenario After fighting Ichirin and confiscating her Occult Ball, Byakuren suspects of their danger and decides to go all through Gensokyo confiscating them fighting. Afterwards, she meets Toyosatomimi no Miko, who was also collecting the balls. However, Miko explains that she does that for investigating and thinking what to do with them. Byakuren then tells her that she is doing it to sealing the urban legends. Miko, after commenting how ridiculous she thinks that plan is, fights Byakuren to obtain the last Occult Balls. After reuniting all of them, Byakuren decides to save them in a Buddha statue. When she turns around, the statue disappears and the balls come back to her.

Antinomy of Common Flowers Main article: Antinomy of Common Flowers: Miko & Byakuren's Scenario In Antinomy of Common Flowers, Byakuren teams up with Toyosatomimi no Miko to investigate and resolve the Perfect Possession incident. They also receive assistance from Ichirin Kumoi and Mononobe no Futo.

Miko brings Byakuren along to the Concert Stage of the Sun where they encounter Yukari Yakumo, who claims she is also resolving the Perfect Possession incident. Miko is hesitant to share the results of her investigation, but Byakuren trusts Yukari and shares what she learned about forced Perfect Possession. In return, Yukari tells the superhuman duo that the mastermind behind Perfect Possession will appear when the concert begins.

The duo then encounters Joon and Shion Yorigami. Joon uses her spell to exchange Shion and Byakuren, and Byakuren is forced to fight on Joon's side.

Symposium of Post-mysticism Main article: Symposium of Post-mysticism: Byakuren Hijiri 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. Forbidden Scrollery In chapter 34, Reimu appears at the Myouren Temple to interrogate Byakuren about the ongoing rumor that is spreading, one about the end of the world occurring before the end of the year. Byakuren refutes it claiming that the legend it's based on says the end of the world would be in 5 or 6 million years, and she adds that the buddha Maitreya is supposed to be a savior, not a destroyer. However, she theorizes they could be a link between Gensokyo and the outside world, and warns Reimu about the danger they can cause.

Curiosities of Lotus Asia 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. Lotus Eaters Byakuren, first appearing in chapter 16, has her appeasing what was at first, a ghost that haunts Geidontei. Byakuren gives Aya, who's been secretly investigating the ghost that lingers the pub, a tour of her daily ascetic training. Later she has a meeting with an old man whose lingering regrets were the actual cause of the ghost's manifestation. The next day, she reads the fabricated article about her being the cause of Geidontei's vexation, to her dismay.

Whispered Oracle of Hakurei Shrine Main article: Whispered Oracle of Hakurei Shrine: Byakuren Hijiri Reimu Hakurei writes a fortune slip about Byakuren as a way of cleaning up in the aftermath of an incident.

Relationships As a result of her saintlike nature and being an important figure in Gensokyo, Byakuren has gained a wide variety of followers and rivals alike.

Residents of Myouren Temple Ichirin Kumoi Ichirin Kumoi is a youkai who used to live at Byakuren's temple hundreds of years ago. By showing kindness to both her and Unzan, even though she was human, she earned their trust.

Minamitsu Murasa Byakuren saved Minamitsu Murasa from her grim fate of haunting the oceans and capsizing ships. Minamitsu became one of Byakuren's strongest allies, and she used the flying object in Gensokyo to retrieve the treasures needed to revive the nun.

Shou Toramaru Shou Toramaru was a disciple and avatar of Bishamonten who lived at Byakuren's temple. Byakuren had used her to gain more trust from the other youkai living on the mountain at the time, and in order to show her kindness towards youkai.

Nue Houjuu & Mamizou Futatsuiwa It is also known from both Touhou Hisoutensoku and Oriental Sacred Place that Nue Houjuu is currently living at the temple she built. Nue, after learning from the heroine during the extra stage of Undefined Fantastic Object of Byakuren's kindness to all beings, including youkai like her, went there, most likely after a bit of time had passed and nervous because she was attempting to ruin the plans to unseal the nun in the first place. Also, Nue calls in her friend Mamizou Futatsuiwa from the outside world to become a youkai ally. After being suggested by Youmu Konpaku in her respective Extra stage, she decides to take up residence at Myouren Temple with Nue.

Myouren Hijiri She had a younger brother named Myouren Hijiri. However, her brother died.

Kyouko Kasodani Kyouko cleans the Myouren Temple.

Others Toyosatomimi no Miko Miko and Byakuren initially had an antagonistic relationship with one another, with Byakuren seeing her as a threat to the youkai, thus building her temple on top of the mausoleum to keep the former from resurrecting.[2] In the years since, the two have developed a mutual respect for each other; they even worked together as partners during the Perfect Possession Incident, as did their followers Ichirin and Mononobe no Futo.

Seiga Kaku While they have not been seen interacting, Byakuren is highly disturbed by Seiga's activities and claims that she can sense great evil from her.[3]

Koishi Komeiji Byakuren believes that Koishi's present "thoughtless" state is close to enlightenment, and wants her to join the temple.[4]

Hata no Kokoro During the events of Hopeless Masquerade, Kokoro stays at Myouren Temple in order to learn how to control her emotions in order to prevent another berserk at the end of Byakuren's storyline.

General Information Personality Byakuren possesses the typical behavior of a Buddhist nun due to being one for much of her human years. She's infinitely tolerant and never seems to get angry. She preaches and shows unconditional love for both humans and youkai. Prior to being sealed, she had protected youkai from humans out of her own fear and selfishness. Eventually, she grew to genuinely love the youkai she was protecting and formed ideals of Human and Youkai co-existence. She doesn't drink alcohol or eat meat, and because of this, she finds it difficult to befriend humans since the bulk of social mingling in Gensokyo is done via drinking parties. During the events of Symposium of Post-mysticism‎, she displayed some humility in stating she was still in training as a Buddhist.

Abilities Magic Byakuren was once a Buddhist miracle-worker, but after her brother's death turned to youkai-derived magic to retain her youth. Though she is called a saint, these powers are ultimately demonic in nature. Her current specialty is magic that increases her physical abilities, including strength, speed, and sensory perception. In Undefined Fantastic Object, the spell card Superhuman "Byakuren Hijiri" demonstrates these powers, increasing Byakuren's speed of movement so greatly that she can even outrun Reimu's Dream Seal. Likewise, the fighting games show an extensive use of these abilities in several of her attacks and spell cards.

Occupation Byakuren is the chief priest at the Myouren Temple, where her main goal is to bring peace to both humans and youkai. As the chief priest, she teaches the dharma to anyone willing to listen. She also manages funerals and the graveyard. Once a month, she performs an "overnight sutra-chanting live concert", where she sings a song in monotone while keeping rhythm with a wooden fish. The event attracts both youkai and humans.

Possessions Sorcerer's Sutra Scroll Created while Byakuren was in Makai, the Sorcerer's Sutra Scroll is unique to her. The sutras Byakuren needs to use her power are written on them. It has an automatic mode, which will cause it to recite spells on its own. Compared to a regular paper scroll, the amount the Sorcerer's Sutra Scroll holds is limitless. It is also said that this scroll won't deteriorate over time. Lastly, because it has a "will" of its own, no one except for Byakuren can handle it.

Vajra Byakuren wields Vajra that she could either use as a sword or throw it as a projectile.

Motorcycle During the events of Urban Legend in Limbo, Byakuren gains a motorcycle as a result of the Urban Legend incident. She mostly uses it to ram her opponents with it, however, she also used it as a transportation device as seen in her Urban Legend in Limbo's credits sequence.

Backstory Once a human, Byakuren was a nun who worked with her younger brother, Myouren Hijiri. However, when her brother died, she began to fear death. This fear prompted her to search for some way to maintain her youth. Eventually she did find it; however, its origin was not in the Buddhist art she had dedicated her life to, but rather a kind of black magic.

No longer fully "human", she soon came to fear losing her power. Because of the nature of the world, the magic that she wielded would only be lost if humanity came to reject it as a whole; and because of that, she needed to ensure the prosperity and longevity of youkai. Thus, she came to honor and protect the youkai for her own benefit while simultaneously pretending to exterminate those youkai. People came to look up to her and the threat of youkai lessened. However, after some time, Byakuren started to realize the struggle youkai faced in her time. So rather than protecting them out of her own selfishness, she began to honestly consider the youkai as beings that needed to be helped.

At one time, Byakuren was sent to exterminate the phantom on the seas, Minamitsu Murasa, who had gained much infamy for sinking ships. Rather than vanquish Murasa as she had been sent to do, Byakuren confronted the spirit as a normal human, and Murasa easily capsized her ship. However, Byakuren rose from the sea, riding atop a shining ship like the one Murasa had fallen from. By granting Murasa this ship, she freed the spirit from the cursed oceans and earned her gratitude.

At some point she also welcomed Ichirin Kumoi and her nyuudou companion Unzan, gaining their trust as well. The two of them lived at her temple.

The temple that she lived in was in the mountains; a temple to the god Bishamonten. In order to gain the trust of the youkai living on the mountain, she decided to appoint a youkai to serve under the god. This youkai was Shou Toramaru. Shou excelled at her duties, and it is implied that in doing so, Byakuren came to be liked by the youkai living around the area.

Eventually, her desire to help youkai rather than exterminate them was exposed to humans such as with her encounter with Murasa. She was ostracized for being a "demon in human form", and eventually was sealed away into the depths of Makai, forever locked in Hokkai.

○Stage 6 Boss　　The Sealed Great Magician

Byakuren Hijiri

Species: magician Ability: Using magic (specializing in magic that increases her physical abilities)

Byakuren's younger brother Myouren was a legendary monk. With ease he could cure the illnesses of people in faraway places and send away a flying bowl to carry off the granaries of the miserly rich.

In her later years, Byakuren, studied the way of the Dharma under her brother. She normally lived on the Flying Storehouse, which was packed with Myouren's Dharmic power, and so naturally Byakuren gained power of her own.

But Myouren passed away before Byakuren, and in her grief, Byakuren was filled with a terrible fear of death. To save herself from dying, she learned the power of rejuvenation. But rather than the way of the Dharma, she got this power from youjutsu, a kind of witchcraft.

Having made the gift of rejuvention her own, the undying woman next came to fear losing her power.

The only way her youjutsu could be lost was if humanity were to reject it entirely. In other words, if youkai were to disappear, she would be unable to sustain her own power. Byakuren respected the youkai. On the surface she would accept requests to exterminate youkai, but underneath she would help those youkai.

She respected the youkai, but not out of hostility toward humans. At first was to serve her own desires, but as she learned of the of the youkai's pitiful past, she began to think she needed to do something to help them.

This youthful monk who'd suddenly appeared... Her youth and her magic made her extremely popular among humans. "With Byakuren here, we needn't fear the youkai anymore. We needn't spend our nights in fear," they said.

And so the gap between her wishes and the expectations gave birth to a terrible tragedy. "She's a demon in human guise!" they said. She was sealed away in Makai, never to appear before humans again.