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About

　Kanako Yasaka

Species: God
Ability: The ability to create sky

The goddess who, together with her shrine, recently moved to the Youkai Mountain.

Because of her name 'Yasaka' (countless hills), she's been said to be a mountain deity, but she's actually a deity of wind and rain.
She controls the rain and the winds. In other words, she's been worshipped as a goddess of agriculture.

The sequence of events that led to her being worshipped as a mountain deity are extremely complicated and the only ones who know the truth are Kanako and Suwako.

Kanako's trademark 'shimenawa' (lit. enclosing rope) represents the figure of an entwined snake. The snake, which continually sheds its scales, symbolizes resurrection, rebirth and eternity.

However, humans came to know mortality and started disbelieving in eternity.
Even in agriculture, they continued to acquire skills that defied the rain and winds.
They learned that mountains were created from volcanos and changes in the earth's crust. They became able to cross mountains easily and without danger.

Yes, humans had begun to believe in science and information.
In tandem with that, the faith they had in gods like Kanako continued to wane.

Kanako searched for a way to regain faith.
And she came up with a big gamble.
And that was, "to make the shrine into a thing of fantasy in the world of humans, and collect faith in Gensokyo".

Although it would mean that she would lose all the faith she still had left currently and thus lose her power temporarily, this way held more potential. She chose a future with potential rather over the crumbling glories of the past.

--And so, her plans seemed to be successful.
The shrine was accepted into Gensokyo more smoothly than she had expected, and she quickly began to be worshipped as the deity of the Youkai Mountain.

Although she had her doubts now and again at the excessive smoothness, once she saw how Gensokyo worked, she believed she understood why things went so well.

In Gensokyo there was a shrine called the Hakurei Shrine.
Although that shrine had almost completely lost all its faith, it was popular with youkai and it was said there was always some youkai frequenting it.

For the youkai, the shrine seemed to have become a suitable playground.

Along with becoming an object of worship, Kanako was also accepted as a playmate of the youkai.
Feasts were held almost every night.

Actually, to play together was what gods wished for. Festivals were venues for humans and gods to play together. By forgetting about everyday life and coming together to play, gods and humans gained the feeling of solidarity within a community. Even if the humans were exchanged for youkai, it was the same.

This was exactly the kind of faith Kanako was wishing for.

However, the knowledge Kanako held of Gensokyo was limited. She didn't know that among the youkai of Gensokyo, there existed a number of powers. Nevertheless, she collected the faith of the mountain youkai, and attained great divine virtue. She did not realize that this meant that the power of the mountain youkai, in other words the tengu and the kappa, were becoming too great.

With that, there was the fear that the power balance of tranquil Gensokyo would collapse. Kanako thought that to keep Gensokyo's balance, she must now acquire the faith of the youkai and humans beneath the mountain.

To achieve that, she must utilize the Hakurei Shrine else things won't proceed smoothly. Much remained before should would be able to regain the same amount of faith she'd had in the outside world.