9 @just9art.bsky.social · 19/02/2026Somewhat rambling thoughts on Okina Matara. just9art.tumblr.com/post/8089447...just9art.tumblr.comJust 9What exactly are your thoughts on Okina? My thoughts on Okina are rather complicated, on one hand ZUN clearly did his homework when working on HSiFS, and as such she’s likely the character who has... 021 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 10/11/2025could mention yazatas with sraosha's role in islam, and by extension the rooster angel. 010 0
Reposted by 9#1 Ninshubur fan (not counting Rim-Sin I of Larsa) @ninshubur.bsky.social · 29/08/2025yamayuandadu.tumblr.com/post/7932506... My new blog article, "Tribulations of a “tomboy goddess”, or why you should care about Anat" is out. It's not strictly speaking a Megaten article but I cover Megaten in it because Anat has no other notable modern adaptations for some reason. 075 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 30/08/2025Shōtoku at all with the Honchō Shinsenden, but it's definitely an area where ZUN's lack of familiarity has wound up leaving a sour taste in my mouth. Probably could have brought up simpler issues I have with world-building etc. but I also just really wanted to talk about Daoism in Japan lol. 100 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 30/08/2025I was aware, but if anything it just makes Prince Shōtoku an even weirder figure to take that approach with, someone like Xu Fu would've fit better for a more straightforward Taoism rep. For the record, I still like Miko and the TD cast, and it's cool that there's a precedent for Taoist Prince... 110 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 26/08/2025Thank you! I do feel that there needs to be more meaningful criticism of ZUN, as he's far from an infallible creator. Given my own interests, I can't help but feel dissatisfied sometimes with how ZUN touches on very interesting ideas, without realizing their full potential in the series. 110 0
Reposted by 9RATROCITY @ratrocity.bsky.social · 25/08/2025#thshipweek – stars + ambition #touhou 512472 0
Reposted by 9Bear (ネコリナ) @nklinak.bsky.social · 25/08/2025#thshipweek day 1 (stars, ariyui) I saw another dream; or was it a dream within a dream? 217581 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 24/08/2025part 2 here just9art.tumblr.com/post/7927977...just9art.tumblr.comConnecting the Mountains and the Sea: Exploring the Full Release of Touhou Kinjoukyou ~ Fossilized Wonders, Part 2This is part two of a two part post covering the origins of Fossilized Wonders' characters, if you haven't read part one, then check it out here. Ariya Iwanaga Picking up from where we left of, our... 072 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 24/08/2025Finally got around to writing about the new characters in Fossilzed Wonders with this two-parter. #東方Project #東方錦上京 just9art.tumblr.com/post/7927975...just9art.tumblr.com 262 0
Reposted by 9Bear (ネコリナ) @nklinak.bsky.social · 22/08/2025touhou 20 spoilers // 錦上京ネタバレ注意 help! my wife and I just reunited after 1000 years but she felt so comfortable that she fell asleep right away 0360152 0
Reposted by 9Bear (ネコリナ) @nklinak.bsky.social · 19/08/2025touhou 20 spoilers // 錦上京ネタバレ注意 and yet you yourself, I'm not sure why, but I still can't remember you 222094 0
Reposted by 9Railroadlion @railroadlion.bsky.social · 19/08/2025🛩️Yanmega + Yanma💚 #Pokemon #CopicMarkers 51000347 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 17/08/2025I assume the character Yuiman Asama is meant to be a reference to Yuiman-hime from the legend of Kōga Saburō. The legend notes her as becoming the deity Asama Daimyōjin (浅間大明神) after she followed Kōga Saburō back to Suwa. 010 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 17/08/2025was not expecting possible koga saburo rep in touhou 20, but i'm all for it 130 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 10/08/2025A relatively short tumblr post on the subject of Bishamonten in Touhou. just9art.tumblr.com/post/7915208...just9art.tumblr.com 062 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 10/08/2025Visitor from the Land Hidden by Gods and Immortals - 神仙の隠れたる国の客 但馬 菓（たじまのこのみ） Tajima no Konomi Species: Ancestral God of Candy - 菓祖神 Ability: Capable of crossing countless waves and fording distant rivers - 万里の波を踏み、遙かに弱水を度る程度の能力 A Touhou OC I made for a contest, based on Tajimamori. #東方Project 03513 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 10/08/2025The creature she is accompanied with is based on a depiction of the White Tiger from the Kitora Tumulus. A statue based on this depiction was notably also installed at Chōgosonshi Temple, which is the irl basis for the Myōren Temple. 061 0
Reposted by 9Gabriel Ugueto @serpenillus.bsky.social · 23/07/2025Here it is! Please welcome the AMAZING Mirasaura grauvogeli, a NEW MARVELOUS Drepanosaur published in NATURE today! This astonishing reptile lived during the Middle Triassic in Europe and it possessed an amazing crest made of plume-like structures! I was commissioned to bring it to life #paleoart 20576221 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 07/07/2025Some of this I was aware of from reading "The Mystery of Wealth and the Role of Divinities", but I hadn't checked this out directly. Interesting stuff in any case, definitely goes a long way to explaining what Chimata's deal is. 100 0
Reposted by 9gluttonousyurei @gluttonousyurei.bsky.social · 30/06/2025Okina Matara: Grandma Edition Can you spot all of the fun tidbits? #touhou #okinamatara #collage 02812 0
Reposted by 9#1 Ninshubur fan (not counting Rim-Sin I of Larsa) @ninshubur.bsky.social · 13/06/2025yamayuandadu.tumblr.com/786275029505... The long awaited Gilgamesh article is finally up. 16k+ words, complete with sections of every major period in Gilgamesh's history, sub-sections on other characters, and more!tumblr.comPost by @yamayuandadu · 17 images💬 0 🔁 0 ❤️ 1 · Oldest or greatest? Gilgamesh before, in and after the epic(s) · Gilgamesh and Enkidu by Marek Żuławski (via University Museum in Toruń; reproduced here for educational purposes on… 065 0
Reposted by 9#1 Ninshubur fan (not counting Rim-Sin I of Larsa) @ninshubur.bsky.social · 31/05/2025en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qingu can you believe it took 21 years for this to be brought to an acceptable level. Given that Qingu is, if anything, overrepresented in scholarship given his incredibly limited relevance this is just hard for me to process.en.wikipedia.orgQingu - Wikipedia 141 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 19/05/2025a title referring to Mahakala (and possibly Vinayaka and Yama!). So depictions that play into that are still really cool to see, there's apparently an identification of the seven mothers with the seven stars of the dipper in Japanese Buddhism too, which would be fun to see in a depiction of Okina. 010 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 19/05/2025Thank you for checking out my post too! It's was a bit off the cuff, and I am needed to write up something more thorough eventually. For what it's worth, while I do err on the side of caution a lot with the post, I personally think it's pretty damn likely that Matarajin fundamentally emerged as... 110 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 19/05/2025is a diegetic mistake, but I don’t know if I’m willing to give ZUN that much credit). Also a shame considering Parsee was a far more clever mix of cultures all the way back in SA. 110 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 19/05/2025Speaking of Nareko she really feels frustrating, she’s got a fun design but winds up feeling like neither a particularly interesting take on a dōsojin, or a tasteful take on Egyptian mythology (not helped by her confusion of the Greek and Egyptian sphinx, which you could argue... 110 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 19/05/2025(like mine lol) wouldn’t have nearly as much to complain about, even if he still wasn't rich in references etc. But as it stands, it feels like he wanted to have his cake and eat it too, make a character with a bunch of implied connections, but just keep it all a mystery anyway. 110 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 19/05/2025It’s definitely one of those issues that compounds over time, especially in light of Nareko now. If ZUN just wanted Okina to be a more general reflection of Matarajin as a syncretic deity, then a design that actually felt syncretic and reflective of both the Japanese and Indian heritage... 110 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 19/05/2025places) do look to be chosen as deliberate reflections of some of Matarajin’s closest associations. But given how up-in-the-air this is left, I almost can’t blame fans for jumping to assert that Okina is “literally Shiva” or “literally Ōkuninushi”, though such claims often do more to misinform... 110 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 19/05/2025taking this logic to its most extreme you could justify identifying Okina with practically anyone you felt like. After which, you’re not really left with a character at all. At the very least this doesn’t seem to be something that ZUN himself ascribes to. Okina’s titles (while dubious in some... 110 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 19/05/2025And as one last aside, the idea of trying to identify Okina with literally every figure Matarajin is even tangentially associated with, just doesn’t work. Medieval Japanese Buddhism is inherently syncretic, and Matarajin is just one deity among a sprawling and complex network of figures, 110 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 19/05/2025As some food for thought with Kawakatsu, its also worth noting that Matarajin has many ties to the Korean peninsula through Shinra Myōjin, Hata no Kawakatsu, and the fact that they generally seemed to have been worshiped among Korean immigrant groups. 110 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 19/05/2025It causes her status as a god of discriminated peoples to again feel very surface level, all while her own control over Satono and Mai is presented as, at the very least, dehumanizing (and fanworks seem pretty intent on making her outright reprehensible). 110 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 19/05/2025Kawakatsu is implied in HSiFS). On that note, while it seems at least that ZUN didn’t want to be insensitive with comparing disabled people to obstructive deities and demons (aka Tengu), he frankly leaves Okina feeling like a much more uninteresting character by not making her actually disabled. 210 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 19/05/2025cult of Tokoyo-no-Kami with her antagonism towards Eterntiy, but nothing is done to follow up on it. So I can’t really blame people for wanting those elements to be more pronounced. (It’s still absolutely bizarre that Okina hasn’t had any interaction with Miko, considering her connection to... 110 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 19/05/2025much with her basis (or certainly hasn’t post-HSiFS), so she’s left with a bunch of vague, implied connections to other figures that aren’t reflected in a particularly deep way. She references the matrikas with her extra boss theme, and vaguely gestures at Hata no Kawakatsu’s quelling of the... 110 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 19/05/2025my own Okina design, while I wanted to go out of my way to reflect Matarajin’s ties to Mahakala and the matrikas, I still did so in a way that was unambiguously rooted in Japanese Buddhism. The big problem a lot of the issues surrounding Okina stem from to me, is that she ultimately doesn’t do... 110 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 19/05/2025make a design for Daikokuten that just sidestepped their unique identity in Japan, in favor of them just being Mahakala. In that respect there’s nothing really wrong with Okina’s design, and if anything is a pretty fun reflection of how the deity was depicted for most of their history. And with... 110 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 19/05/2025Japanese Buddhism. This is actually a fairly prevalent issue in general when dealing with Japanese Buddhist deities, where they are often treated as just extensions of their Hindu origins, in-spite of how radically different they can be from each other. It would be pretty tactless to, for instance.. 110 0
9 @just9art.bsky.social · 19/05/2025My thoughts on the matter are pretty complicated and I won’t go exhaustively into them here, but while I get wanting Okina to lean into the possible Indian roots of Matarajin, doing so can also misrepresent Matarajin as a deity, as they are still a figure that emerged distinctly in... 110 0
