Welcome to Maid Spin, the personal website of iklone. I write about about otaku culture as well as history, philosophy and mythology.
My interests range from anime & programming to mediaevalism & navigation. Hopefully something on this site will interest you.
I'm a devotee of the late '90s / early '00s era of anime, as well as a steadfast lover of maids. My favourite anime is Mahoromatic. I also love the works of Tomino and old Gainax.
To contact me see my contact page.
The realm in which the Touhou games takes place is "Gensokyo": the country of illusions. A naturally beautiful secluded valley somewhere in the Japanese Alps, surrounded by a strong magical barrier preventing outsiders from entering: the only way in and out being through the Hakurei shrine. Erected in 1885, the barrier was created as a reaction to the cultural revolution that Japan was undergoing during the Meiji Restoration and the rapid importation of Western technology, industry and culture. The barrier (mostly) protects the valley from the influence of new ideas and from the ever-increasing power of the Japanese government interfering there.
The key concern of the valley was to protect the interests of the "youkai" who live there. Youkai are somewhat equivalent to kami: immortal spirits that derive their vitality from the faith and offerings made by humans. The Shinto belief system has a similar doctrine where kami gain power from the devotion and offerings of humans, and vice versa lose power if people give up their faith. This is in contrast to the Christian God who is transcendent, meaning he is independent from the material world and would exist even if humanity did not. The youkai of Gensokyo felt their lives were threatened by the encroachment of modern technology, as well as the secularism of a modern state, and so locked themselves and the inhabitants of the valley within a protective barrier to essentially pause time, keeping themselves in an everlasting version of Edo Japan where the villagers will retain their full reverence towards kami and youkai alike.
This setting acts as an elegant manifestation of reactionary Japanese politics, one that looks back nostalgically to the "sakoku" isolationism of the Edo period and to a Japan uncorrupted by the influence of the "nanban" Southern barbarians, ie the West. Japan has a culture that holds purity and innocence in the highest regard, the idolisation of childhood and youth can be seen through many of Japan's national metaphors. This fascination can be described with the term "seishun", meaning "the springtime of youth". The focus of Japanese storytelling on children and schools extends from Momotaro to K-On and is an obvious symptom, but even their obsession with cherry blossom or the "land of the rising sun" moniker reflect the implicit connection the Japanese see between Japan and springtime/youth. Many Japanese reactionaries trace a line of causation from the introduction/forcing of Western culture onto the country in the 1880s to the destruction and dishonour the Japanese Empire faced during WWII: after all if the West had never imposed itself on Japan, the shame of defeat in 1945 (as well as the sins of Japanese troops, although this seems less of an issue) would never have happened in the first place.
Touhou also reflects the longing to return to the old system of governance seen in almost every nation which goes through a political revolution (although admittedly Japan has a longer memory than most, much like Britain). In this case the relationship between youkai and the villagers reflects the feudal relationship between samurai and their peasants. While it is clearly not a purely harmonious relationship we do see the youkai protecting the villagers, even the ones that feed on humans have a promise to only capture people from outside Gensokyo to eat. Of course the people of Gensokyo are basically kept hostage by the reactionary elite, unable to leave and denied the pleasures of modernity. In this it mirrors Western vampire stories where villagers are kept as cattle by man-eating lords in their high castle. However, while this fearful dynamic exists in the games and lore, it is near totally expunged from the fanworks, which are obviously the driving force behind the Touhou franchise. It's interesting to see Touhou fans indulge in such a nostalgic conservative fantasy, but of course usually without any notion of this aspect of Touhou: which is natural I think, because, unlike left-leaning movements, conservatives and reactionaries are generally apolitical or even antipolitical by nature.
