Overview
| Species | Human(Living Gods) |
|---|---|
| Titles | Deified Human of the Wind(Fuu, Hi, Gu)・Newbie Goddess of the Mountain(Sei)・Newbie Goddess of the Mountain(DS) |
| The Shrine Maiden of Selfish Desires(Shin)・Mountain-Dwelling Living God of Miracles(Kan)・Superficial and Shallow Human(Ibara) | |
| Theurgist of Wind and Lake(Suzu) | |
| Abilities | Causing miracles to occur |
| Threat Level | Low |
| Human Friendship Level | High |
| Main Place of Activity | Moriya Shrineand so on |
| Appearances | FuujinrokuStage 5 Boss・ChireidenExtra Midboss・Seirensen Playable Character・Hisoutensoku Playable Character(with scenario) |
| DSLEVEL EX・Shinreibyou Playable Character・the 7th day of Danama・Kanjuden Playable Character | |
| Theme music | Faith Is for the Transient People・The Primal Scene of Japan the Girl Saw |
※But the threat level and the Human Friendship Level depends on the characterHieda no Akyuu.
Sanae Kochiya is a Wind Priestesses(kazahafuri) of Moriya Shrine.
Kanako Yasaka is a Shrine Maiden and she is Suwako Moriya’s distant descendant.
However, Sanae herself does not seem to know that she is a descendant of Suwako.
Wind Priestesses is a kind of priesthood placed by Suwa, it is like a Shrine Maiden, who protects the harvest by controlling the wind (typhoon).
Moreover, the actual descendant of the god Moriya is the one who succeeded the position of the 78th God Director “Sanae Moriya”. However, in the existing materials, in the early days Moriya adopted the grandson of Takeminakata(the model of Kanako Yasaka) to inherited the ritual, so it was Ohori Suwa who actually inherited the god Moriya ’s blood. And Moriya has a pure blood of Takeminakata.
Appears in Stage 5 as midboss and boss.
Because of the faintness of faith in the outside world, the existence like Kanako who need to maintain their existence by faith became jeopardized. So Kanako moved to Gensokyo’s Yokai Mountain to collect faith, and Sanae and Suwako moved there as well. Naturally, the yokai in the mountain were watchful, however, with the mediation of the protagonists, they kept living in the mountain in the end.
At the time of her first appearance, she had a dangerous idea that seemed to be, but not actually the essence of Gensokyo, which is that “If you get Hakurei Shrine you can dominate Gensokyo”. However, she gave up the idea after being overthrown. From Reimu’s perspective, she cared nothing about the shrine of Sanae, and the two shrines kept existing in Gensokyo together.
Appears in EX Stage as a midboss.
Her shows a feeling of high school girl(※) with remarks and Spell Cards, and she like to appeal herself of being a part of Gensokyo. Players were shocked by her sudden appearance (There is almost no description to suggest it since Stage 6) and outrageous words and behaviors “You can't let yourself be held back by common sense in Gensokyo, right!?”.
※By the way, the setting that she was a high school girl in the outside world has become a common sense, but it is only a secondary setting.
It is a powerful setting at the beginning, but in the purchase privilege of MESSE SANOH at the time of launch of the Seirensen, there is an illustration(classified as a informal secondary picture) of Sanae wearing sailor uniform drawn by the painter alphes from Twilight Frontier , and the setting was generalized decisively. (→advance booking Sanae) is officially living in the outside word, and her actual age and other information is unknown. In the derivative works, fierce discussions are held on whether her uniform in school days is a blazer or a sailor uniform.
She is finally promoted to a playable character. Being recommended by the two Gods, she started the monster extermination to get used to Gensokyo.
She has A equipment(Kanako) and B equipment(Suwako).
The conversation is supposed to be strange that compare to the B equipment which has an unusually high performance as a playable character, the A equipment is ordinary in terms of performance. Maybe it is because she find some fun on the way of youkai extermination??
That's right. We shouldn't make fun of even mice. They are a precious living being required for scientific experiments in the outer world
That must be hard on you. But, well, since I'm starting to see how this is fun, getting surprised would be......
So you lost! That's the power of the living god, Sanae Kochiya!
Huuh? A world without youkai hunting? That's not good
H・E・Y, I’m talking about you. Such an eccentric event (human being eaten) can only happened here(Gensokyo)
and so on. She has much S-like exchanges with yokai.
By the way, there is a END in Seirensen that Sanae reconciles with Byakuren Hijiri and admits that “not all yokai are bad” .
It is a BADEND.
Cirno and Hong Meiling, who believe and trace the huge shadow which appears in Gensokyo is a giant robot of biped walking, and fight against one of the gods of faith Suwako. Suwako is told that “if you win, you can go to monster extermination alone” and becomes more independent from parents(ancestor?).
Moreover, she asked Alice Margatroid if she could make a giant robot, and she was interested in Gundam Statue and showed strong preferences in [[robot]. It seemed that she even wanted to ride it herself.
The reason why she shows strong preferences in robot is depicted as “She believes that the thought of considering it as some kind of meteorological phenomenon is dull, so she decides to consider the shadow as a huge robot attacking the village. And the investigation becomes delightful after she thought like that.”. It seems to be the result of a positive thinking that instead of being trapped in common sense, it is more delighted to think insanely in Gensokyo.
She becomes a subject with Reimu、Marisa in LEVEL EX. With the power that borrowed from Kanako and Suwako, she learned a deadly ability of absorbing mysterious power from youkai and to attack with that power . She becomes an existence which can’t be explain by common sense, and was called as matchless Shrine Maiden with Reimu. This ability was praised(?) by Aya Shameimaru because it the dignity of the mountain god could be maintained, but Hatate Himekaidou was quite wary and said that “she's like something not human, not god, but more evil....”.
She is promoted to a playable character again and becomes a completely regular character.
This time, she want to take the advantage of the overflowing spirit to expand her faith and start the action.
It seems that she has completely become familiar with Gensokyo, and might be the most enjoyable one towards the changes among the four main characters. Moreover, the scene of regular clothing is rarely displayed at the ending, and there is a scene that Suwako urges Sanae to cook and says “dinner! Dinner!”.
The territory of the mountain lake has been occupied by the Ringo and Moon Rabbit units, so she is going to fight back. This time it is a story related to the favorable universe (the moon), so it is more spirited.
Appearance
She has a green long hair close to the chest, a tuft of hair at the left side, and a bang hanging in the front. The color of her eyes varies depending on the works, and there are colors of yellow, dark green, or blue. Her outfits vary slightly depending on the works, but the jacket with a blue border on a white background and the blue skirt with patterns such as blue dots and gohei are applicable to all. She wears a Shrine Maiden outfit with a different design from Reimu Hakurei, but the most characteristic underarms part is the same.Reimu Hakurei
The hairbands of frog and ies on her head are her accessories, which is also a symbol of Suwako (→ frog) and Kanako (→ snake). In the picture which depicts Sanae as a child in derivative works, the decoration of the frog may change to a tadpole. Also, like Suwako's hat, the look of frogs and snakes may change. The purification rod (gohei )in the hand is very different in shape from Reimu's and it is not as shaggy. It is always called saw or hanpen.
Also, in Seirensen, she wears something like a pendant, and in Ibarakasen, she wears a blue tie with white star marks, and her hair top bounces like two leaves. In this work, the clothes are also in a different version with blue triple lines on the sleeves and collar.(→Ibarakisen Sanae’s shoes are are light green or light blue loafers? in the original work, and she wears boots in Ibarakisen and Suzunaan.
There is a theory that the frog accessory is (or was) a hair band. In fact, it can be seen in
the early Fuujinroku and Hisoutensoku’s pixel graphics (not on standing pictures). Also, it cannot be confirmed in recent work Kanjuden or in the official books such as Kanjuden or Gumon Kuju. Whether it is used separately becomes a mystery, but it’s OK because both are cute.
Personality
Her personality is the same as an ordinary human, but because she is a human from outside so she can't catch up sometimes.
She is stupid and has a slightly different sensation from Gensokyo people. (From Symposium of Post-mysticism)
She is honest and responsible, and can be easily influenced by others because of her purity.
She is a serious and confident person, but she plays dumb sometimes.
When she first appeared, she was conquering Gensokyo to gain faith at high pressure, but after being defeated by the protagonists, she was released from her sense of responsibility and turned back to her obedient and sociable personality. Later, she recognized that the common sense of the outside world would not be valid in Gensokyo, so her goal turned to get used to Gensokyo by doing things like imitating youkai extermination under the direction of Kanako.
And in Seirensen she seemed to fully awake in youkai extermination, and enjoyed herself in the battle (the danmaku game). Therefore, she challenged Hiziri’s proposal of a equal world and carried out battles. After that, she seemed to care nothing about self-discipline, such as asking Suwako to practice, or creating abilities that do not rely on the two gods (see Double Spoiler above).
In Ibarakisen, even though she was suddenly entrusted with the management of Hakurei Shrine(rival), her true self was able to be seen in her doings such as cleaning the shrine properly until Reimu came back.
In Hisoutensoku, she showed some hobbies which seemed slightly different from ordinary girls, such as showing a strong interest in robots and recollecting that she had read a lot of occult books in the outside world.
Because she is from outside the world, so she is unusually vulnerable to alcohol as a character in [Touhou Project]], and easily get drunk at a banquet. There was also a conflict at the banquet with the spiritual spirit of Reimu. She also has a confrontation with enthusiastic Reimu at a banquet.
It seems that she was a science student and was not interested in subjects such as history and Japanese. However, after “Shinreibyou”, she became somewhat interested in history. Nonetheless, when she brought the textbook of the sixth grade of elementary school as a study material, you can notice that there is a gap in the sense.
She is good at all science, in addition to the above-mentioned commitment to robots, she often tells about books which talking about cold fusion and prepares serum for snake venom. In particular, she seems to have a strong devotedness to space development, and her devotedness in the space-related stages such as Seirensen Extra and the Stage 3 of Kanjuden.
According to ZUN's comment in Strange Creators of Outer World, it is an easy-to-use character that “can be used in any situation”.
Abilities
The ability Causing miracles to occur is originally an ability that can be activated with the power of [Kanako Yasaka]] and Suwako Moriya]. it can control everything like the sky・the ground・the sea. However, while wielding power for the people, the object of faith moved to the wind priestesses and she became a deity (Living Gods) alive. Later, the boundary between Kanako, Suwako, and Sanae's abilities became ambiguous. It seems that there is no mention of whether Kanako or Suwako's power is involved in this ability to cause miracles, or whether it is a ability of Sanae herself.
Besides the above, she can use some wind priestesses-like power such as Guest Miracle “Star Night with Overly Bright Guest Star”」, and Nine Syllable. In the case of playable character, a danmaku using wind is often used (like spell cards in Hisoutensoku , and normal ammo in Shinreibyou and etc.).According to Symposium of Post-mysticism, she operates miracle of magic level to gather faith even in human habitation. Though miracles are often happened with good luck, but they are also the vertices coincidence, and there can be good and bad results. It has nothing to do with good fortunes or misfortunes (for example, the miracle of fafrotskies, where frogs and tadpoles fall from the sky, has been raised).
In order to perform miracles, preparation (spell casting) is required. The time required for preparation varies depending on the size of the miracle. A small miracle requires only one word of spell casting, but a miracle of a natural disaster requires several days.
In the action game of Touhou Hisoutensoku, she is a tricky type to control the wind in battles. The highlight is the amateur motions of not familiar with the physical attacks.
Spell Cards
※From Touhou Wiki
Sanae in Derivative Works
At first, it was mainly written with a gentle character opposite to Reimu Hakurei. However, starting from Chireiden, she tends to do as her pleases gradually, and from “Seirensen（Star Lotus Ship）”, it takes a close‐up her S part. Because of her straight and easy-to-run personality, it seems that she often leads the human and yokai around her, and moves as a driving force of the story.
Moriya Shrine is often depicted as a struggling person, mostly because of the role of carrying housework or something.
Related Illustrations
