Soh's Mask + Wolves and Maidens

Soh's mask is described as representing the relationship with Yoshiro. (X)

Soh is a bit of a special character, and the design of their mask represents their relationship with Yoshiro.

It might a lore thing, with Soh being a former Maiden.

But the very first Soh might not have been a Maiden. So...

It's reminiscent of a knight helmet. A protector.

Her mask is also...a little lupine, don't you think?

The way it extends down is reminiscent of a snout. The arches are ears.

Or...a fox?

I still think this fox looks like Soh lol

The Maiden here drops the fox mask, the scene preceding this is Soh's passive surrender of her mask to Yoshiro. (why did I write it like this? Yoshiro just touched her face and the mask came off...)

If these two like foxes, it would be the cutest thing.

In this capture, it looks like she has white ears

She's also got a fox-like beauty to her, with Yoshiro being more deer or kitten. A doe-eyed feline beauty, as the girls might say.

But I think the mask embodies many animals. Or, Cursed Soh's does.

So, I wonder what the meaning behind the mask is?

When working on a Yoshiro thing, I noticed if you place Soh's mask over her, it marks the eyes and kind of aligns with her crown tip. Maybe it's also a reference to the red marks Soh puts on her?

Wait, let me re-align...

Hm.

Now a little about wolves and maidens...

"Messenger of the True God"

The script

In the original script of the Kunitsu-Gami play, Soh is referred to as the Messenger of the True God.

sigh...the translation...

This is a bootleg translation...yet isn't it a strange thing?

The word used is 真神. Makami/Magami. An archaic form of wolf. 

Yes, Okami. Could it be...?

So not 'true god' but rather...Great God?

Did Amaterasu interfere?
Is it a way to hint at it being Amaterasu? Or another God? A white wolf one?

Is Soh's costume here not just an Okami thing but also meant to hint at this wolf deity the original Soh served?

Japanese Wolf

The kanji for Goddess (大神) can be read as Mikami or O-Kami both meaning ‘great deity’ (though Mikami usually refers to female deities)

 Lovely little article.

This theory mentions it might be a god like the one in Princess Mononoke. They also gave me the confidence to look more closely at this 'true god'.

A wolf god...perhaps it's a hint at Amaterasu, or perhaps 'Soh' is serving this forgotten deity. 

Amaterasu is said to have worn men's armor, or military armor, when meeting her brother at one point. 

Now, wouldn't it make sense for her messenger to be dressed as Soh? If said Messenger must go out and battle evil? Even more so if the Messenger and the one who sent her are one in the same, as hinted by masks.

I've also heard she's very fond of her shrine maidens. Or maidens in general...but I don't have evidence of this. I just read it once. Disregard it.

Here's a very interesting write-up on Amaterasu as a 'masculine' goddess.

More on Amaterasu hints in Kunitsu-Gami.

Cursed Soh's colors being rainbow-like colors...and rainbows are pure light passing through something like glass(mirror) and refracting. A mirror is made of glass but instead of reflecting, the light was refracted?Soh emerges from a place that looks like a kaleidoscope, just like the Unknown Land. But a kaleidoscope is a reflection...

Let's move onto evidence for the opposite: evidence that it might be the Mountain Goddess, the original one and not the ones the Maidens become when they become Spirit Stones. 

There had been numerous other aliases referring to Japanese wolf, and the name ōkami (wolf) is derived from the Old Japanese öpö-kamï, meaning either "great-spirit" where wild animals were associated with the mountain spirit Yama-no-kami in the Shinto religion, or "big dog",or "big bite" (ōkami or ōkame),[ and "big mouth"; Ōkuchi-no-Makami (Japanese) was an old and deified alias for Japanese wolf where it was both worshipped and feared, and it meant "a true god with big-mouth"... (x)

So it might actually be hinting at the Mountain Goddess as well, as she can also use a wolf as a symbol. It's worth noting wild animals and domesticated animals adore Soh and Yoshiro.

But another important thing to note here...the play is a prequel.

This is the very first appearance of 'Soh' who is considered nameless. This isn't our Soh.

It's the very first Messenger, who was sent by the True God. Not by the Mountain Goddess, which used a different kani in the game. It must be intentional then. It has to be a different God.

Our Soh is called Soh because she is an ancestor of the Maiden.

The very first Soh was no one's ancestor.

So, who sent her?

Could it be Soh was sent by the true Mountain Goddess and a distinction between her and the Maiden as the goddess is being made here? Because we know once she becomes a Spirit Stone, the Maiden, as the 'Goddess', sends her spirit as Soh to guide the next Maiden.

Could it be...that the very first Messenger was the Mountain Goddess's spirit?

If the cycle is repeating, and it's why we play as the same Soh and Yoshiro the entire 8 cycles, then the Spirit Stone in the beginning is the Mountain Goddess and Soh is the spirit of her. 

Then Soh is not 'ancestor' but 'esteemed one'.

In the play, Soh is said to take her hand and dance the Kagura with her. During the Kagura, she becomes the Goddess. Could this be implying Soh is the Goddess and during this moment is when Yoshiro becomes the vessel for her?

It also says they 'resume dancing the Kagura'. Was Soh always with her?

Problem is...the kanji. As I said, why use a different one? The Mountain Goddess they made a pact with would use the same kanji as this true god if she were the one being referred to.

That forgotten deity and her colors...and the colors of Cursed Soh...

Another problem is that it's not one cycle being repeated either. Canonically, NG+, with the True Ending, is Cycle 8. The Seethe get stronger as humanity's defilement worsens. It's why the Seethe overtake the summit and the ritual is forced to commence earlier.

The ritual of impurity, where Yoshiro walks the Path, is something that happens every generation. It's a celebratory event. (The script says strange things...like their lifespan being only 7 days? I think the translation on Google is just bad.)

Onto the script of the play that was used.

So, it's the Mountain Goddess

Now, wasn't that anti-climatic? 

An important, well-thought out theory by someone else!

I was translating the Villager's plaque when google showed me the same image on another site.

And lo and behold...someone Japanese wrote a long post on trying to understand the story of Kunitsu-Gami!

https://kanigame.jp/kunitsugami-theory/

Because they got to experience the game in its natural form, their opinions are going to be valuable to me. (why do I sound like AI? hahaha)

Pretty Yoshiro.

Their post was written a long time ago, before I had played the game. But it also means they haven't had a chance to update their thoughts...

But to see someone with the same opinions excites me. Although the translation makes it slightly difficult to understand at times.

Reading through it, they noticed all the same things I did! Such as the spirit stone being gone in the prologue! Even including the flowers associated with the Maidens and the flowers on Soh and Yoshiro. The parallels...the magatama, sword and mirror...

They noticed Soh might be a previous Maiden but their method of coming to the conclusion is different than mine. I can't remember what mine was... I knew Yoshiro became Soh but not Soh was once a 'Yoshiro'.

I spotted this on their post right after I took a screenshot of the Japanese text of the Mikoshi to see what it says. It's from the Mikoshi plaque.

It is said that the portable shrine was prepared long ago, when generations began to take turns as a place for the gods to dwell. 

So I was right, she's an object channeling the Goddess and there were many of them. (I have mikoshi post in drafts which is why I went back in-game to collect things.)

The mitama thing is there!! I mentioned it briefly in another post but I had looked into it and considered it. It's nice to see a different perspective on these things that I'm not familiar with.

They mentioned women and men being called turtles and cranes due to the political trends but I thought it was visual story-telling and not because of the political climate. If this game catered to the political climate I think we would've gotten a very ugly game. We definitely would not have gotten such beautiful girls.

She's pretty. I don't need reasons to put her here.

One of the most important things I saw in their post:

When I translated the play last month, it said Soh was a messenger of the true god(this greatly delighted me). I kept that post in my twitter drafts because it's hard to trust google but this blog mentioned it.

前日譚の人形浄瑠璃文楽スペシャルでは宗のことを「真神の遣ひが、サアサア参りたり」という。真神＝まことの神の他に日本オオカミの意味もある。もともとは『もののけ姫』のモロのような神がいたのかもしれない

Even more interesting...the phrase used is Makami! An old form of wolf.

Messenger of the True God could Messenger of the Great God. The Messenger wears the mask of their ancestor.

Is Soh's ancestor Amaterasu? More on this in the next post(Hint: maybe yes and maybe no. Wolves are also associated with the Mountain Gods in shinto)

Aaaah, I much to say. But this blog has been a big help to me and I'll be sure to credit them when I reference things they noticed that I didn't. (I will keep in mind all the research I've done myself. With the Mikoshi for example. I had just screeshotted it myself already. And I had already looked into the play. What I hadn't understood was the kanji being used. But it's thanks to them I now know about makami.)

I left a message on their post but boy, do I not know how to use the internet anymore. How weird it must be for them to see some random person leaving a long comment on a year old post.

I'll make a few posts repeating some things they've noticed, with credit. Some juicy details...

"Imbued with the power of the Gods"

These masks don't belong to the Goddess.

試遊体験ブースに、ゲーム内に登場する「神の力を宿した""面"

It's not 'Imbued with the power of the Goddess' but of the 'gods'.

It must be a translation error?

Because now this makes sense. It's not the masks belonging to the Goddess but to the Gods.

The masks are imbued with the power of the ancestral deities who were the gods of the mountains that caused all of this misfortune. After defiling the Goddess, their masks(powers) were stolen by the Defiled Goddess's underlings, the Seethe. 

The Seethe drop orbs, which seem to be the Goddess's powers.(if we look at the talismans)
This power is used to carve the spirit path and to equip the masks. But why? 

Because she seems to be the only acting deity now and doesn't need to be 'resurrected'? 

Yoshiro is clearly divine in nature but it might be a shrine maiden thing as they are said to become the Goddess during the Kagura. Naturally, she will become defiled as the Goddess was.

The mask Soh wears...must belong to the Goddess.

Because when one wears the mask, you live as the messenger of said deity. 

I think the reason the term 'The Maiden' is used is because she's the chosen shrine maiden. Here it uses 'designated shrine maiden' but in english, simply saying 'The Maiden' is meant to imply she's the chosen one.

Summary:

The villaers all become messengers of their ancestral deities during this ceremony.

Soh's ancestor is the Goddess as she becomes the messenger of the Goddess and dons her mask.

Yoshiro's lineage made a vow alongside these ancestral deities.

The only way I can figure out what's going on in this game is to get a hold of good Japanese translations on the lore.

Soh's nails were white in the beginning.

 Images from the official website prove this. I've mentioned this before. But here's better quality. 

Her pinky isn't painted, interestingly enough.

They are not painted in-game.

New Yoshiro render!

 

Released on Kunitsu-Gami's twitter today.

The Maiden is cute, as always. Hoping we'll get a Soh one, too.

Soh's 3D Model.

Was a 3D model featuring Soh's face created?

Soh's face only exists in the Normal Ending, which is assumed to be an FMV(Full Motion Video), but in the Hichigiri image, you can see parts of Soh's face.

But the image is such high quality, I wonder if the FMV scenes are actually very high quality 3D models. 

When I say FMV, I'm thinking of those very HQ videos we'd see in older games like Final Fantasy. Those were straight up animated videos.

The reason I say the Normal Ending, the Opening and Soh rewinding time are FMVs is because Soh and Yoshiro's outfit don't change for those scenes. So they are...pre-rendered graphics, I think the term is?

It makes me hopeful for new Soh outfits or DLCs where we see her face again.

But an outfit where we see her face all the time just wouldn't feel right.

Too many problems...

The ancestral deities are called gods of the mountain.

They were gods alongside the Mountain Goddess.

Their behavior brought defilement to both the Goddess and the Mountain itself.

If the ancestral deities are gods of the mountain like the Mountain Goddess, where are they?
Why are their powers tied to the Goddess's powers?
Why can the villagers tap into the power of their ancestral deities using the Goddess's power(orbs)?

Why are the masks said to contain the power of the Goddess when they're the masks of the ancestral deities? 

If the 12 masks are the Gods of the Mountain, then the 12th, Soh's, is the Goddess's.  Soh is the 13th mask.

The Maidens ancestors made a pact with the Goddess, the ritual of impurity, to allow them to live on the mountain.

A Maiden devotes herself to the Goddess and walks the Path of the Goddess, becoming the Spirit Stone and clearing the mountain of defilement.

She inherits the mask of 'Soh' afterwards and guides the next Maiden on the path.

Cursed Soh is the Mountain Goddess. Soh is the previous Maiden.

7 Maidens caused Cursed Soh to emerge.

During the sacrifice, the Maiden surrenders her life and becomes this generation's substitution for the Goddess.

Who guided the first Maiden on the path?

Is Soh actually the spirit of the Mountain Goddess and guides every Maiden...?

What happens to the Maidens in the ritual? Why does it seem like they...are the Goddess? Since Yoshiro can affect Cursed Soh's powers.

Why don't we see Soh's face in the True Ending? Is it a lore reason?

I'm still confused about too many things...

me, losing my mind steadily

A Goddess Reincarnating.

I wanted to make a short post on the Magatama on Yoshiro's chest.

I mentioned it as Amaterasu offspring hint.

The possible relation to Nanamagari.

But there's another one.

 According to legends, a human soul is locked in the magatama and can be passed on. In other words, the strength, power, and authority of the soul are passed on to the heir.

source.

Even more interesting, if you've played Fatal Frame 2, the spirit stones allow you to hear thoughts and such from the people it once belonged to.

Is it...the magatama of the Goddess?

Is the Sacrifice ritual the Spirit of the Goddess taking over the body of the Maiden through the magatama?

Is the soul of the original Maiden passing through Maidens?

Is Soh the part of the Goddess that isn't defiled yet and exists to guide the Maiden to fulfill the pact?

Then...could it be that our Soh always guides the chosen Maiden?

Is there a Lore reason for the Okami collab? + More on Goddess Lore.

"The rising sun will purify the defiled land"

Soh can wear the Amaterasu costume.

Defeating Cursed Soh has this icon.

"The End"

See the Sun?

Now look at the level you fight Soh in.

No sun. Not until you defeat Cursed Soh.

However, this can also be an idea of Cursed Soh as the Mountain Goddess because there's a mountain and we can assume it's a symbol for the goddess.

The sun goddess exists in Kunitsu-Gami. But a name is never given to her.

"But the radiance of the sun..."

So I thought kuntisukami meant a kami created on earth but no, it's actually about what they govern and such. Gods of the earth (mountains, rivers, etc). They are the native gods of the land while the amatsukami came from heaven. A mistake on my part when I previously mentioned the concept.

They are also "spirits of ancestors and local heroes". 

The Mountain Goddess is a kunitsukami then. Soh is called a kunitsukami, in the scrolls.
Yoshiro is as well, in her promotional image. (or is the 'kunitsukami' in question Soh who is awakening from her Spirit Stone, and that's why a voice cries out through the temple?)

Kunitsukami

'The Kunitsukami receives light...a voice cries out'

Even if kunitsukami is referring to Soh in Yoshiro's image, we can assume they're all related to the Goddess because Soh is bound to Yoshiro, the Spirit Stone Maiden who has dedicated herself to the Mountain Goddess.

I thought, in my misunderstanding once again of a kunitsukami, that Cursed Soh might be an amatsukami for she governs from the heavens but I think it's not meant to be literal. I think 'from the heavens' is meant to heavily imply she's a Goddess. Or the defiled Goddess.

I'm digressing...

What is the significance of the Sun in Kunitsu Gami?

magatama and a sword

In this image, isn't she...a little bit Yoshiro and Soh? Holding a magatama and a sword? (I know they are part of the 3 sacred treasures...)

Amaterasu is said to have bit off magatama from a necklace gifted to her and blew them away, creating deities. In the center of Yoshiro's chest is a magatama.

Is she offspring of the sun goddess? The jewelry on her hand looks like the sun.

The Maiden...worships the Mountain Goddess but she herself appears to be a divine entity. Could it be that's why her sacrifice is accepted and why it must be her? On top of it being her ancestors who made the pact for the ritual.

Is the Maiden an offspring of the sun goddess who worships the mountain goddess?

This seems like a stretch. The sun goddess would be an amatsukami (governing from heaven? Cursed Soh?).
But I'll put this aside as an unlikely possibility.

If we decide Cursed Soh is an amatsukami and that Yoshiro is the offspring of one, then Cursed Soh is possibly a sun goddess and the rising sun who removed the defilement from the land is an amatsukami.

Amatsukami  and kunitsukami are supposed to be at odds with each other in myth.

What if the sun goddess was the ancestral deity of Yoshiro who sacrificed herself to remove defilement from the land and then continued to do so through her bloodline?

I don't know about that theory...unlikely, too.

12 masks containing the power of the goddess are stolen. The orbs contain the goddess's power. The talismans related to the orbs have goddess colors. The colors are...prism colors? When light passes through glass. 

We have that 'reflecting off a mirror' line from Cursed Soh's plaque.

Is it...implying refraction?

The white light breaks into 7 different colors...7 cycles...

The Sacrifice occurs in the Narusawa Wind Caves, as we get the scroll after finishing the level.

Amaterasu once fled to a cave where she hid herself from the world.

I'm genuinely curious if something is implied here. Due to the lack of lore and dialogue, things have to be pieced together from the visual story-telling.

After writing this, I decided to translate Cursed Soh's Japanese Plaque using Google, which isn't always accurate.

'mountain paper' is just a mistranslation of mountain goddess

So...is this is actually confirming it's the Mountain Goddess? And that the ancestors of the Maiden made a deal with the Goddess to sacrifice a Maiden for the ritual to cleanse the mountain of defilement so they can live there? It implies that from the very beginning, there was a ritual pact to honor the Goddess as a way to be allowed to live in the mountain after humanity had already destroyed it.

The ancestors of the villagers are called the 'gods of the mountain'. Is it using gods as in, kami/ancestors/kunitsukamis? Why are they less powerful than the Mountain Goddess?

Then it makes sense that Nanamagari's appearance takes the form of the Sacrifice Ritual. Human Sacrifice no doubt creates terrible defilement.

But then...the end of Kunitsu-Gami is indeed the birth of a new Goddess because the Mountain Goddess was purified and her powers absorbed by Soh. Powers of the 6 Maidens before her.

And once together, the 7 colors become purifying white light...

the light of the sun goddess?

Nanamagari: the impure flowers and Soh as a multi-spirit entity.

Defeating Nanamagari gives you 'Becoming the Spirit Stone Maiden' achievement.

Instead of getting an icon of Nanamagari, like you do with all other bosses, you get a cute little Yoshiro as the Spirit Stone.

It's called 'becoming the Spirit Stone Maiden' but in promotional ads, Yoshiro was referred to as the Spirit Stone Maiden already.

So, is it indeed a cycle? She is, was and will be the Spirit Stone?

Remember when I said that Nanamagari's plaque might be describing Cursed Soh?

Is Nanamagari the Seethe that not only represents the Pact of the Goddess, the Sacrifice Ritual but also the Maiden(s) themselves? That the final boss is actually the Spirit Stone itself?

In a previous post, I said the regular cycle is the Maiden absorbing the Spirit Stone laying within Nanamagari's belly(an accumulation of all the defilement of the previous cycle) and then becoming a Spirit Stone.

I was wrong.

She actually absorbs the entirety of Nanamagari! Which means the previous Spirit Stone morphs into Nanamagari! 

But in the true ending, Nanamagari opens up and drops out liquid defilement, which sparkles with white light fragments, that manifests into Cursed Soh.
Within its belly is not the entire spirit stone but the defiled maiden's spirit part of the spirit stone.

Hence why we see a 'Cursed Soh' emerge. Interesting that this happens but even Soh is surprised at this. Soh is the spirit of the Spirit Stone so to see this Cursed Soh is indeed odd.

Can we assume Nanamagari is the spirit stone and held in its belly is the power of the goddess the Maiden held?

In the Normal ending, Soh poofs away but can we actually assume she's absorbed by Yoshiro?

I wonder if Soh is called 'them' to hide their identity, as that's one way we usually use that pronoun, or...is Soh meant to represent Yoshiro and Soh and 'them' is meant to be plural?

 
Or is it because Soh is actually an amalgamation of all the spirits of the previous Maidens?

Especially considering the new Spirit Stone absorbs the previous Spirit Stone in the end of a cycle and the Spirit Stone is a living thing. The stone contains the spirit of the previous Maiden.

The lyrics of the song might hint at it:

The only issue is these translated lyrics aren't a direct translation because in the previous few frames, they don't translate the 'flower of defilement', which is integral to the plot of Kunitsu-Gami because the flowers are the Maidens.

Bootleg translation from google, but also this:

The flower(s) of impurity is the defiled maiden who's become Nanamagari.

If we look at the stories of all the Seethe, many of them have backstories. Nanamagari's backstory is of the ritual. A sacrificed maiden then?

In the True Ending, Soh is the one who absorbs the purified Cursed Soh, which means she absorbs all the spirits of the previous Maidens, who were emanations of the Goddess, like she is.

She ascends to the heavens while Yoshiro remains as the Living Goddess, the Avatar of the Goddess Soh is....(speculating)

An entirely new goddess is born at the end. It's not the Mountain Goddess restored. What does this mean?

Another thought about Soh...

Messenger of the Goddess means emanation of the Goddess. Yoshiro is an avatar for the Goddess, this is why they're linked together.

Yoshiro has a magatama('curved bead') on her chest. Just embedded there. It's a design choice and not the necklace clipping.

I've read it might represent the human soul. Some say it can hold a soul and it represents rebirth.

Maga means curved. Nanamagari... seven curves...

So...7 Maidens? Or a Maiden, 7 times reborn? 

I really am going in circles, huh?

Soh's health display and Cursed Soh's title card are different.

Why the extra flowers?

Is it because Cursed Soh is a mix of all the previous sacrificed Maidens(referred to as a 'flowers')?