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| The Spirit Stone Maiden |
This post is to rectify and clear up previous posts about the Spirit Stone.
I am working on a much longer post and decided to extract information from it to make smaller, digestible posts on specific topics for blog organization. (Or to expand further on the idea itself)
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| Beautiful as always |
In my previous posts, I call this Yoshiro 'Defiled Yoshiro'.
This is wrong. She is not defiled. Defiled is what happens to her when she loses all her health in-game.
But she is housing a lot of impurity and defilement within her.
There are lot of statues in Kunitsu-Gami with red bibs.
While researching, I saw this:
Dosojin.
("As deity of the road, the dōsojin protects travelers, pilgrims, and those in "transitional" stages.")
Hokora
Spirit House
(There's a place called Kamikura Shrine. At it's summit, there's a giant,natural rock worshiped as the 'body of a kami')
There's different meanings to the word 'kami'. Things are lost in translation.
The Spirit Stone houses a god that protects the mountain from evil spirits and calamity.
This god is the spirit('kami') of the Maiden who has fused with the Goddess('kami') and has been enshrined as her to watch over the mountain.
Through the power of the Goddess, the Maiden absorbs all defilement and then becomes a Spirit Stone.
Yoshiro is not a normal Maiden. In Japanese, she's called a shrine maiden but she's not like her real-life counterpart. By default, she houses the Goddess and eventually merges with her.
She is a yorishiro, an abode for a god. She is one as a child already and does not need to dance the Kagura to channel the Goddess the way a real life shrine maiden must.
Proof is here that we see Soh with her physical form and the new Maiden, who is not in the ceremonial kimono nor is she dancing the Kagura. She is also just a girl.
Can we assume she is a 'natural' yorishiro'? A place a god naturally resides in?
It might be due to her lineage.
There's a belief about shrine maidens worshiping the mountain god who descended (as the god of agriculture), fusing with her and then being worshiped themselves. (田の神)
There's also a belief about the Mountain God being an ancestral deity.
Kunitsu-Gami puts these two together.
(I wonder if it's related to the meaning of kami and that's why they were believed to merge? The Maiden's 'kami' merging with the Goddess(kami)?
Another way of putting it is to say her spirit merges with that of the Goddess. (This belief is seen elsewhere, merging through worship and meditation) But I don't know...)
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| Yoshiro Plaque |
Yoshiro's plaque says she is seen as a God to humans and a human to the Gods. Because she's a human fused to a Goddess and can act as the Goddess's substitute and abode.
Soh's plaque says Yoshiro descends alongside her but it's not our Yoshiro. Yoshiro is the name given to a Maiden fused with the Goddess of Agriculture.
When Soh descends, it's a Maiden wearing the mask of the Mountain Goddess after having fused with the Agriculture Goddess. It's why Soh is called a 'messenger' despite being the Goddess herself. The Maiden/Goddess is letting the Mountain Goddess act through her.
Soh means ancestor as well, the name Yoshiro calls her although Soh herself is nameless.
Soh is the Goddess descending as a Goddess of Agriculture. The roles of the masks are related to agriculture and society(?), which Soh bestows upon villagers. (Back when the ancestral deities were alive, it's possible Soh taught them the knowledge. It explains why the masks are said to belong to the Goddess. Because the Goddess is also the Goddess of agriculture.)
As Soh, she needs her mask to use her purifying powers that belong to her Mountain Goddess self.
(It's also why without the mask, in spirit form, we can guide villagers(Yoshiro) and bestow masks(Soh) but not purify(Mountain Goddess))
Yoshiro's title was originally the 'Spirit Stone Maiden'.
The Spirit Stone is an auspicious and sacred thing. It wards off evil, misfortune, bad spirits. This is why it's enshrined at the summit and why the Maidens undergo the transformation into one.
The Maiden's body becomes the Spirit Stone, her spirit then continues to watch over the people. Probably while wearing the mask of the Goddess. To own and then wear the mask is to have fully become the Goddess.
The Goddess herself is watching over the villagers once the ceremony is complete. Or it might be the Maiden as we don't see whether her face is exposed or not, which will decide whether it's the Maiden or the Goddess.
(It's quite possible the Maiden retains some of herself and can access this part of her by removing the mask/revealing her face, like in the
Hichigiri image. However, this might also be what the Goddess looks like and not the Maiden)
Yoshiro's symbol is a katashiro, a paper doll that absorbs impurities and sins. They are used in purification rituals, where sins/impurities are transferred into it.
It looks like it's merged with the kanji for 8(八) for prosperity? 八 also looks like a mountain.
(Outside the tent, her symbol is a flower.)
In a response to building defilement, Yoshiro begins to turn into the Spirit Stone through the power of the Goddess.
The stone is not defilement itself.
Yoshiro is absorbing defilement as she purifies it. The defilement affects her negatively.
At first, Soh puts red markings on her body to ward off the ailments suffered by the building defilement and to prolong her change into the stone. Or so I thought.
But when the red markings appear, so does the strip of pale lilac underside her hair.
This is the very beginning of her transformation. Could this be when they began to truly fuse?
Or am I mistaken and what's actually happening is that it wards off the defilement enough that it only effects her hair?
These marks glow when she suffers from defilement.
Eventually the defilement triggers the Goddess's powers and begins to turn her into the spirit stone. This prevents defilement from affecting her and thus Soh from losing her body.
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| The spirit stone is emerging from within her and she turns to stone from within |
It starts at the bead on her chest and we see bits of the kaleidoscope, a symbol of Soh and possibly the Goddess's power.
The stone emerges from within her, from the bead. The inside of her leg and hip seems to have crystallized.
But Soh loses her body here because Yoshiro is still suffering from the defilement.
Once she reaches Yamasuso Lodging, she no longer has the red markings because she doesn't need them. Her body is so much of this sacred stone that defilement can't affect her anymore.
The change into the spirit stone leaves Yoshiro very sleepy.
Once she becomes more spirit stone, she becomes very tired. Dozing off in the tent and even in the mikoshi.
In the true ending, we see she has already fallen asleep.
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| Deep Sleep |
In the normal ending, it's possible she falls into a deep sleep akin to death, as her body is not 'dead'.
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| About to enter her Sleep |
When the Seethe attack her, they steal her power. When her health is gone, she becomes 'defiled', as the Goddess's power is preventing this from happening so once it's stolen, she's defiled. The reason she becomes defiled is because of all the defilement being kept within her, not because of the Seethe. No Goddess Power= Defiled.
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| Mikoshi plaque |
The effects of the defilement is the Goddess power turning her into a spirit stone.
This is what I believe but the way it's written makes one assume her crystallized body is defilement. Especially since she resembles Cursed Soh, who is the defiled Goddess.
The mikoshi plaque is another hint that Yoshiro is merging with the Goddess.
Dancing the Kagura is channeling the Goddess but Yoshiro is not always dancing. It's said she 'serves as an abode' which is saying she fuses with the Goddess. So fusing=serving as an abode.
(I kept overlooking the Kagura must be danced to allow possession by the God and that Yoshiro is serving as an abode. These are two different things.)
When she begins to turn, the merging really begins and so it's time to use the mikoshi, a portable shrine used to transport a god from one shrine to another. It's here that the Goddess begins to merge with her - when she begins her transformation into the spirit stone.
The main reasons it can't be defilement is when Soh purifies Yoshiro, the pieces of the spirit stone are enshrined with great reverence.
You don't behave this way towards impurity. The Spirit Stone is remnants of the Goddess's power, so they keep it in every village to ward off evil.
The same applies to the Spirit Stone Yoshiro is worshiping and how the villagers worship Yoshiro. You don't pray to impurity or defilement.
Crab also mentioned the villagers exclaim in wonder and awe at her transformation in Yamasuso Lodging, as if it's a marvelous and good thing.
This sacred stone is also how Yoshiro stops Cursed Soh from using her full power.
She turns the symbol into a spirit stone, weakening Cursed Soh. Eventually Cursed Soh shatters it, unlocking all her powers.
So we can confirm it's part of the power of the Goddess.
Let's look closer...
Flowers! Where she breaks reveals a flower structure.
But not cherry blossoms, plum blossoms!
On the next Maiden's back.
Plum blossoms are singular flowers. Yoshiro is referred to as a 'single flower', but the Goddess is associated with cherry blossoms. Many flowers in one place, a possible hint at having merged with many Maidens.
This flower pattern is visible on this achievement you get upon defeating Nanamagari. Instead of getting an image of the Seethe as you do with all other bosses, you get an image of the Spirit Stone Maiden. The achievement is 'becoming the Spirit Stone Maiden'.
Defeating Nanamagari causes the Maiden to become the Nanamagari in the next cycle. This is why the image we get is of the crystallized Maiden.
In defeating Cursed Soh, we end the cycles and see a rising sun over the mountain with some Maiden flowers.
Could Nanamagari be an embodiment of the Maiden as a God after having merged with Soh? It's plaque speculates 'is it a god?'. The reason could be related to the Maiden's plaque where she is 'seen as a human and a god' and so she doesn't quite seem like a 'god'.
Then perhaps in our cycle, the impurity manages to entangle with the 'heavenly' goddess and not Soh, the descended Goddess?
Returning to the Spirit Stone...
Cracking skin.
It's emerging from within her body.
In the art book, the spirit stone is just a stone! Or was originally. We see this same design on Soh's Outlet outfit.
- Under the Cherry Blossoms
The first time she turns begins to turn, she's frightened and seeking comfort from Soh. But the next time the transformation worsens, there's a fleeting melancholic look upon her face that turns into a smile at Soh.
Her gaze actually changes from looking ahead at the viewer to looking at Soh.
A conversation must've occurred between them, where Soh explains what's happening. This is why Yoshiro is no longer afraid.
Soh talks to Yoshiro, after all.
And the Goddess then awakens Sleeping Beauty with a touch...
