So she extends her life, but that doesn't necessarily make her an immortal. So the question is, is she enlightened or unenlightened? Will she become a half-ghost, or instead of separating soul from body, she's started turning her body into a soul (explaining her missing arm)?
Very interesting. Would be cool if she had FSN True Assassin's noble phantasm.
Chiral said: So she extends her life, but that doesn't necessarily make her an immortal. So the question is, is she enlightened or unenlightened? Will she become a half-ghost, or instead of separating soul from body, she's started turning her body into a soul (explaining her missing arm)?
Very interesting. Would be cool if she had FSN True Assassin's noble phantasm.
Akyu's description specifies that hermits' "physical bodies are those of aged elders", so evidently Kasen isn't strictly following the usual path. (Or else she's especially gifted, and so achieved Shuugyou very early in her life, I guess - but the bit about preaching at people without them seeking her out first doesn't sound like "normal" hermit behaviour either.)
Also, while it looks like she has bandages or something on her right arm, she quite clearly has two of them, and they both work. (In particular, see the last panel of post #714511.) It'll be interesting to find out what the "one-armed" description is about...
kounishin said: Also, while it looks like she has bandages or something on her right arm, she quite clearly has two of them, and they both work. (In particular, see the last panel of post #714511.) It'll be interesting to find out what the "one-armed" description is about...
Oh really? That said the bandages may either be a seal. Going by this, she could have some sort of intangibility that either affects her whole or only her arm. She could also have many "properties" to her arm which I think would be kind of cool. But in the original legend Kasen is assumed to be based on, her arm is definitely missing.
Anyway, as in Utsuho's case, ZUN sometimes uses a symbolic meaning, rather than a literal one, which could eventually be the case here.
While her bandaged arm is functional, it's definitely a fake. Look closely at the page where Reimu grips Kasen's arm. You'll notice that Reimu's hand grips through Kasen's arm, disintergrating it.
There's also the possibility that the "mummified arm" she came looking for... she might have been searching for her own severed arm, conveniently mummified and thus undecayed after many years of seperation.
Well, this speculation came out from a friend of mine.
Kasen "Could" be one of the Four Devas of the Mountains (Along side Yuugi Hoshiguma). She has quite alot of proofs that she pointed out.
Namely
1)茨木, which both Kasen and the legendary oni Ibaraki(from the folktale “百鬼夜行”), share the exact same name. (Also similar example, Yuugi Hoshiguma, which shares the same name as another folktale of the Four Devas, Hoshiguma,星熊)
2)Other than sharing the same name, Ibaraki lost his/her right arm after being slashed away by Watanabe no Tsuna while Kasen Ibara's "bandaged arm dispeled when Reimu grabbed it" implicating that she either has a fake arm, or a very weak one. Even then bandaging a weak arm doesn't make much sense.
3)Kasen demanded Reimu to show the "Arm of The Kappa", most likely to check if the arm was her real one for her 'fake right arm' as stated above. While in the folkfore, Ibaraki impersonated Toyohime's mother, and tricked Watanabe into giving the detached arm
4)Ibaraki is quite well known to hide in the mountains, and it was told that Ibaraki got the arm of a celestial(hermit) as a substitute until he/she got back the arm later. In ZUN's case, Kasen is a hermit, and she lectures on "ways to live longer" which hermits or celestial usually look for.
5)Given her title the Wild and Horned Hermit, why would ZUN gave that title to Kasen? Does she have 'horns' for now? Was he drunk again when he came to make a title?? Obviously horns refer to what onis usually have. Her horns "may" be under the buns, and she kept her powers a secret from everyone for now.
6)Even if denying that Kasen is an oni and could be anything else like a unicorn youkai, rhino youkai or any similar youkai with horns, the word 'shackles' was right in the description in the Wikia and also in the comic. Now, what items does ZUN associate to oni? ZUN said(or wrote) that right out of him stating that "I always think of shackles to onis."
Copied from her post sometime ago. Following these lines, think we might get to meet the other 2 Deva's on Touhou 13 or the next chapter?
Whoa...your friend might've just discovered Kasen's backstory.
My speculation is that Ibara Kasen is actually an oni who, because of some circumstances, broke her horns or being broken by others so she can become a hermit.
Astrojensen said: Sounds like there is *A LOT* of plot potential by having a hermit character in Gensokyo, of all places... AND in the Hakurei Shrine, even!
I foresee lots of great doujins with lots of fights in the future!
Weirder enough is that hermits are a youkai's favorite....food. Should I be feeling bad for Ibara?
17 hours before a deadline. Felt like taking a break for 15 minutes. Read that. Continued to read more pages. There are now 14 hours before my deadline.
It's not unheard of in Japanese myths for an oni to attempt to change his ways and seek enlightenment. Since oni are in a lower realm than humans, if they are to succeed, they have to undergo truly grueling training. They're creatures of base desires (again, moreso than humans) so they have to forsake all material pleasures - something extremely hard for party animals like oni to do - and that usually means undergoing the same kind of ascetic training that sennin do. So, in essence, oni that actually do devote themselves to attaining enlightenment become sennin as a consequence.
That's my knowledge of myth speaking, anyway. ZUN might have another take on it, as he often does.
Yes, you are right in that last one, Zun's oni are completely different. They are actually wise creatures of great virtue and mental disclipine. Gensokyo's oni are more like a elite race who abandoned the upper world exactly because humans and youkai wouldn't change their ways.
Their sagely nature really shows in Kasen.
And so, the hermit, Ibara Kasen...No way....and how it was feared for the many non-humans that inhabited it and its disorder.By the way, what can you do?That's a secret....came to know about the present state of the Hakurei Shrine...It'll just make the shrine stink of sermons, I think.
