Okami Renders.

 From the game:

Yoshiro has socks on!

I will update when I find HQ renders of the other renders that were released.

"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? 

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?