I finally found the source on this. The artist is うみがらす, but I don't know if it's the same artist as the Umigarasu that's already here. Here's the commentary, which lists all the characters in it, too.
Tenma, the White Rabbit, an insect person, Yakumo Hakurei, the God of Makai, Kuuko, Douji, etc.. Only like half of them are official, but.. This is a little long but it's summarized from Perfect Memento.
"Dragons. They're said to look like snakes with horns and hands whose girth exceeds those of trees that have lived thousands of years, and are long enough to cover the sky."
"The last time a dragon was seen was when the Hakurei Border was cast. The skies were covered in lightning and rain, and for a short while, the world was cast into darkness."
"When the sages of the youkai swore an oath of peace to the dragon on their own lives, in an instant the rain stopped, the skies parted, and light was returned to the earth."
I thought so...this is what happened when Gensokyo was created. of *course* Tewi's there. She's the only one (Barring some of the more 'out there' theories about Eirin) who may actually be older than Yukari.
I bet she tried to con the Dragon out of some pocket money while he was there.
Tewi is at least 1300 years old. That's still old, but Yukari is likely much older. In fact, there are plenty of characters that fit into that 1000-1400 range. She was definitely in the Bamboo Forest before Eientei was ever established, though.
Thanks for the translation.
I assume Douji is Shuten Douji, who Suika is based off of. But if we assume Douji the one with the horns that everyone thought was Shingyouku, it's not Suika here.
No idea what Kuuko refers to. Rather, 妖狐 gives me Youko and returns for foxes.
Virgorival said: Yea, the legend of the White Rabbit of Inaba i goes back a LONG ways
If I recall, it goes back to either the 3rd century AD or the 3rd century BC. It's the oldest written legend in Japan.
UnderneathTheWaves said: Tewi is at least 1300 years old. That's still old, but Yukari is likely much older. In fact, there are plenty of characters that fit into that 1000-1400 range. She was definitely in the Bamboo Forest before Eientei was ever established, though.
Tewi was already present in the forest before Gensokyo was created, which was at least 1300 years ago, yes. Yukari....I don't think there's any canon numbers to base her age on, but she's at least older than Gensokyo herself, since she was one of the ones who created it.
Most of the characters we know general ages for are rather younger than Gensokyo, or are timeless/ageless and basically eternal (Fairies), but the age curve isn't so much a curve as it is a sharp cliff. We have the ones who are under 30 (Sanae, Marisa, Reimu, possibly Alice, considering her apparent age in the PC98 games), then everybody else (Cirno is at least 60, Chen is at least 200 if the bakeneko legends are right, the Scarlets are 500, Ran is at least 900, if the kitsune legends hold true, Mokou and Kaguya are at least as old as their legends (I'm going to guess at ~1000 years), Byakuren was sealed for a thousand years, so she's at least that old, Yukari and Tewi are at least 1300 years old, and likely far older...Komachi and Shikieiki are old enough that Komachi's 60 year lazy bouts are well known...
That always bugs me about the Mokou 'Boo hoo, I'm all alone and can't make friends because I'll outlive them' angst fests in most of the dramatic Mokou doujins. In Gensokyo, the average age would appear to be older than *she* is, yet she still ends up whining that she's alone...she's only alone because she's too stupid to realize that if she made friends, most of them would still be alive in a couple thousand years. Youkai don't age. Fairies are eternal. Ghosts....are friggin' Ghosts. By *definition* you've *already* outlived them. Yeah, *eventually* they'll die, but you'll have a *huge* amount of time to enjoy their company, you stupid hobo!
I much prefer the ones where Mokou's not emo. She's too badass to be emo.
I think that, by 童子 (douji), he meant "the Douji" (plural), as opposed to a single "Douji". This would be more inclusive of the oni in general, as the known Touhou oni are based on the ones from the Heike legends. Ibuki-douji/Shuten-douji → Suika Hoshuguma-douji → Yuugi Ibaraki-douji → Kasen (probably)
KendraKirai said: That always bugs me about the Mokou 'Boo hoo, I'm all alone and can't make friends because I'll outlive them' angst fests in most of the dramatic Mokou doujins. In Gensokyo, the average age would appear to be older than *she* is, yet she still ends up whining that she's alone...she's only alone because she's too stupid to realize that if she made friends, most of them would still be alive in a couple thousand years. Youkai don't age. Fairies are eternal. Ghosts....are friggin' Ghosts. By *definition* you've *already* outlived them. Yeah, *eventually* they'll die, but you'll have a *huge* amount of time to enjoy their company, you stupid hobo!
I much prefer the ones where Mokou's not emo. She's too badass to be emo.
I think it's moreso the scenario of immortality, because showing the downside of one being immortal doesnt happen much. So artists like to portray it. *shrug*
Tewi is based on the White Hare of Inaba, one of the OLDEST tales in Japan, which depicts youkai and people and such from the BC era. Tewi's probably two or three thousand at the youngest.
WatcherCCG said: Tewi is based on the White Hare of Inaba, one of the OLDEST tales in Japan, which depicts youkai and people and such from the BC era. Tewi's probably two or three thousand at the youngest.
The White Hare of Inaba's legend is 1300 years old. she's the same age as Yukari.
Lord_Enki said: I think it's moreso the scenario of immortality, because showing the downside of one being immortal doesnt happen much. So artists like to portray it. *shrug*
I think it has to do with the fact that she still identifies herself as a human. She doesn't want to hang out with youkai, aliens, ghosts etc. because she doesn't WANT to. Also, it would be incredibly awkward trying to form actual relationships with beings that you've helped to hunt for centuries (if Perfect Memento is anything to go by).
Thus, her dilemma is not that of old age, but of knowing that the people she identifies with will never be as old as she is. And as old as some of the characters are, they're not immortal as a hourai is. The Earth would probably be destroyed and Mokou would just float through space until either being sucked-up by a black hole, incinerated by a star, or landing on a life-sustaining planet.
...one problem with all of this. The Hakurei Border was cast in recent times, 1880's if I remember right. So no one here has to be more than human to still be around now from having been there at the casting.
...one problem with all of this. The Hakurei Border was cast in recent times, 1880's if I remember right. So no one here has to be more than human to still be around now from having been there at the casting.
The prep for it goes back much farther, however. The actual Gensokyo Covenant is what seems to be depicted here, not the casting of the border.
The White Hare of Inaba's legend is 1300 years old. she's the same age as Yukari.
All we know is that the story itself is at least 1300 years old but only because it was in the oldest known Japanese book, the Kojiki (Written by Akyuu's original incarnation Hie). The book itself is a collection of oral traditions that were around for who knows how long. In addition to the story itself probably being older than the Kojiki, keep in mind that Tewi is a character from the story, and thus has been around since whenever the story took place, not whenever the story was written and according to the Touhou wiki the story took place hundreds of thousands of years ago.
So yeah, Tewi is crazy old.
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