Afterword

Niy here. Ah, finally done...! It was rough as always, but I somehow managed to finish without greater trouble.

So, this was a story about Kanako. "Yasaka Kanako" in the original Touhou Project is a strong and intelligent leader obviously based on the god Takeminakata-no-Kami. On the other hand, there's very little information about his wife Yasakatome-no-Kami, only a short passage professing her good character, which is a shame. But in the end, what I wanted was a story where Yasakatome-no-Kami = Yasaka Kanako, and this was a chance to do just that.

I had to be a bit heavy-handed with the exposition to make it fit the short page count. That's why I chose a dream-like theme for the story, where events and people can be introduced in quick succession, as Kanako is merely reliving her past in the Dream World. I wanted to draw a contrast between the Kanako who reigns as a leader of Youkai Mountain and the one who grieves her past in her dreams.

As far as I know, in the actual myths Takeminakata-no-Kami doesn't actually die, but Takemikazuchi drives him out of Ashihara (modern Izumo) and into Suwa. That leads to the "Great Suwa War", but from then on, he seems quite fine with the situation. However, apparently some people think that "Yasaka" is actually another name for Ashihara. If Kanako's still carrying that name, long after losing the fight for her homeland and being driven out, wouldn't that imply that she still feels homesick even after conquering some new land to live in? It just gets my imagination running about how Takeminakata-no-Kami and Tome-no-Kami might have felt.

Well then, thank you very much for reading "Yasaka Kanako's War".