As you play Kunitsu-Gami, it becomes clear no one can see Soh except Yoshiro.
At times, even she seems unable to see Soh.
(Listening to Soh + seeing Spirits, Spooking the Maiden)
The villagers can't see her, even when wearing their masks. (Spirited Away)
Some videos of poltergeist activity as Soh:
hehehe...suffer!!!
Proper footage showing they can't see Soh:
Even Yoshiro is spooked by Soh:
As sundown approaches however, the villagers are no longer spooked by Soh.(At the end of the villager video, it's sundown)
Does the world plunge into the 'other' world at night?
Yoshiro can also see Soh at night, as she will sing to Soh.
She looks at Soh a few times in the tent but at other times, it's as if she can't see where Soh is. Perhaps this is why our cursor is a little spirit flame?
To me, it doesn't seem like Soh has a physical body. Her inhuman abilities make it very clear, too. Teleportation, turning into a spirit, etc.
The gender-neutral way of referring to her is one of the reasons why I suspect she has no real body as sex is related to your physical body.
(But she's called 'gozen' in a painting, confirming she's female/a woman. So maybe it was meant to be a surprise? Her body is obviously female. Yes, Soh is a woman.)
But if she has no physical body, how does she touch the tent?
She can break pots with her sword and operate levers with her sword. It seems her body can't interact with it physically?
Rations heal her and villagers, but how does she eat without a body?
(the rations might not even be food. I wonder if they are 'gratitude'? They are offerings, after all.)
Why can't Yoshiro be healed with rations?
Is it because although the offerings are given to Yoshiro, the villagers believe Yoshiro is one with the Goddess and so the offerings are for Soh? Soh can use them on the villagers because the masks belong to the Goddess and so the offerings will work on them.
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| a ration |
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| Using a Ration |
She never touches Yoshiro directly but she has the instinct to.
When Yoshiro is unwell, she has no body.
But dying in combat leaves a body.
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| you can see I was wrong about impurity coming out of her mask |
When she returns, she returns the exact same way she did in the prologue: a shooting pillar of light.
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| Descending |
This means Soh remains by Yoshiro's side all the time, without a body? Then is granted one when it's needed.
Here the Messenger watches over the next Maiden with a body:
There's a flower-shaped light on Soh, reminiscent of the kaleidoscope.
She can also 'die' by falling into the water.
Whenever Soh loses her health, it's because her power has been temporarily depleted or stolen.
(The Seethe steal power and strike with defilement/impurity when they attack. Soh has automatic healing.)
When Soh uses her Butterfly Shot ability to teleport, she appears in a flurry of pink butterflies, much like the ones that surround Yoshiro.
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| reminds me of Soh/Cursed Soh |
(I already had most of these gifs because I'm working on a longer post discussing Soh's identity and the kaleidoscope imagery.)
I mentioned in my post
The statue of the Goddess + a Divine Heir that Soh is not descending from heaven. Rather, the Japanese word means to come down from a higher place. The way it was used in the English translation makes it seem like she came from another world. In a way, she did.
She's the previous Maiden who was enshrined as a Goddess so she's likely descending from where she was enshrined.
But the prequel says she comes from another world, crossing the bridge between heaven and earth.(which can be literal or just means another world)
I've been thinking more about Soh's plaque. I currently believe the Yoshiro mentioned is the former Maiden attached to Soh because if it's our Yoshiro...which world did she descend from? The scrolls show her being 'sacrificed' or chosen as the next Maiden. She does not 'descend into the human world'.
(When Soh defeats Cursed Soh and purifies her old body, which is her spirit stone body holding part of the Goddess, the power that was inside her body is absorbed by her spirit. Because Soh merged with the Goddess, like Yoshiro is doing, she held the Goddess inside her as well. Or part of her. The power combined with the mask gave her enough power to heal Yoshiro and end the cycle.)
There's a Mazo Talisman called Astral Projection which speeds up Soh's ability to recover from Spirit State.
Can we assume Soh is astral projecting from the spirit stone?
When the game begins, I believe Yoshiro has become Soh's new Spirit Stone, because Soh, the Goddess and Yoshiro are all 'one' in the sense of merging or having merged already.
If Soh was still attached to her Spirit Stone, Nanamagari stealing it would have affected her.
(
Yoshiro is Soh's new Spirit Stone)
Although Soh can astral project, it is Yoshiro who is able to give her a proper physical form.
When a Maiden surrenders her body to become a Spirit Stone and lets her spirit wear the mask of the Goddess to allow her to act as messenger for the Goddess(the Goddess acts and speaks through her so she becomes the Goddess but is also the messenger bringing the Goddess)
I wonder if her physical form is the form of the Goddess? Is it the face of the Goddess we look upon at the end?
BUT!
Let's look at the Japanese term used for this mazo talisman!
魂魄
This term is apparently not common and specifically has a religious connotation to it.
Here it is called the 'soul of a deceased person'.
I've said before that Kunitsu-Gami has created its own lore and religion inspired by many others. This seems to take inspiration from Taoism?
Looking up the 1992 version of the 新华字典 published by the 商务印书馆, on page 195 and page 367 we find respectively:
魂 hún ㄏㄨㄣˊ 旧日迷信的说法，指能离开肉体而存在的精神（(连) ~魄）：~不附体. 灵魂1.人的精神、思想方面活动的总称.2.事物的最精粹最主要的部分。
魄 (一) pò ㄆㄛˋ ❶ 迷信指依附形体而存在的精神（(连) 魂~）：丢魂落~. [...]
Therefore, 魂 refers to the 精神 that can exist without a living body, while 魄 refers to the 精神 whose existence depends on a living body. Because they are two different kinds of 精神, they are sometimes used together, as in 魂魄 to mean all sorts of 精神.
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魂 is more related to the 陽 Yang side (the male, the bright, the sun side) of the spirit or soul.
魄 is more related to the 陰 Yin side (the female, the dark, the moon side) of the spirit or soul. (
X)
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Hun and po are types of souls in Chinese philosophy and traditional religion. Within this ancient soul dualism tradition, every living human has both a hun spiritual, ethereal, yang soul which leaves the body after death, and also a po corporeal, substantive, yin soul which remains with the corpse of the deceased. Hun and Po
Lunar associations of po are evident in the Classical Chinese terms chanpo 蟾魄 "the moon" (with "toad; toad in the moon; moon") and haopo 皓魄 "moon; moonlight" (with "white; bright; luminous").
Since pò is the 'bright' soul, hún is the 'dark' soul and therefore cognate to yún 雲 'cloud', perhaps in the sense of 'shadowy' because some believe that the hún soul will live after death in a world of shadows.
I've pointed out Soh is associated with the moon.
Her spirit state uses the kanji 魂. So 魄 is the body that lays unconscious?
Her physical form, mask and all, is called '実体' here. True form. It's what she loses when Yoshiro is unwell.
While googling, I discovered that '魂魄解放(Soul Release)' is the term used when you regain your power from Batsu. It's what's happening as Soh further joins with the mask. Musabi is used to weave things together. It means Soh is further becoming one with the mask? And through it, the full power of 魂魄 is freed.
Onto speculation...
Perhaps there's a subtle implication here that Cursed Soh is the spirit(魄) of Soh? What remained in her body, the spirit stone? Or...Cursed Soh is 'hun', the ethereal part of Soh as Cursed Soh is said to rule from the heavens.
Soh is the moon, so Cursed Soh must be the sun? Or could it be the other way around...?
At first I thought: this information could be confirming that I'm right and that Soh's spirit state is a former Yoshiro merged with the Goddess.
But it looks more like it's saying that Soh is a deceased person whose spirit and soul remain. She needs both in order to have a form that is usable. The spirit defines her the physical form and the soul is her mind/consciousness.
So her body is her spirit and her 'spirit state' is her soul.
Brashier cited several Han sources (grave deeds, Book of the Later Han, and Jiaoshi Yilin) attesting beliefs that "the hun remains in the grave instead of flying up to heaven", and suggested it "was sealed into the grave to prevent its escape."Another Han text, the Fengsu Tongyi says, "The vital energy of the hun of a dead person floats away; therefore a mask is made in order to retain it."
One of my earliest observations is Soh and Yoshiro being Yin and Yang.
Cursed Soh is described as '幽明'. Darkness and light. And she's the Goddess having merged with Maidens.
Is it Soh who is associated with the moon or is it Soh and Yoshiro? As they are seen together in 'Soh under the Moonlight' and 'Prayer on a moonlit night'.
It could be that the Maiden is the Moon and the Goddess is the Sun.
Maybe I'm right and Soh's spirit form is in fact, the former Maiden with the descended Goddess? And the Po is the Maiden and the hun is the Goddess? The earthly spirit and the heavenly soul?
Isn't Kunitsukami a kami of the earth?
This caught my eye too:
According to ancient customs, after a person dies, the clothes they were wearing are placed on the corpse. Because the soul is not in the body, the clothes are used to summon the soul. If the soul recognizes its own clothes, it will find the clothes and return to the body.
???
No idea if this is relevant.
I'll have to look more into '魂魄'. But maybe it's not that deep?
The fanart with Yoshiro wanting to eat with Soh got me thinking about why I think Soh has no physical body.
But is it really that simple?
Her being able to have a body is directly related to Yoshiro, but Soh's body remains if Yoshiro is defiled. It doesn't disappear.
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| Cinematic |
If this is just a gameplay issue overlooked, what else are just overlooked things?
Because so much of the game is told visually and through game-play, everything needs to be correct.
So I will assume it is. After all, Yoshiro doesn't die but becomes defiled.
When you consider Cursed Soh's appearance resembling the merging of Soh and Yoshiro, her body is definitely linked to Yoshiro's body.
In the true ending, her body shatters once more and she ascends.
...
Who is this woman??
