Spirit Stone 3.0

It's (a)Yoshiro.

This means Maidens all look the same and are likely named Yoshiro, after the term 'yorishiro'.

Yoshiro's Japanese biography says she comes from a lineage of Maidens with the same power. 

Is she praying to the Goddess within the stone or is she praying to her ancestor, the former Maiden?

Or both, and this directly contributed to the mixing of the Maiden and Goddess?

This spirit stone body is very different to our Yoshiro, who is covered in cherry blossom motifs(from pieces breaking off). In general, she looks like normal stone more than 'spirit stone'.

Forgotten God has both this bland stone and spirit stone, so perhaps this spirit stone is devoid of Goddess power? And the shiny appearance of spirit stone is what marks it as containing the power of the goddess.

If Nanamagari pulled the Goddess power out of the spirit stone, then it would just become plain stone?

For comparison, our Yoshiro:

Why's some of her foot not crystallized? 

More images of the spirit stone below the cut.

Spirit Stone Maidens: Normal ending Soh vs True Ending Soh.

In many of my old posts, I'm always asking:

Why does Soh poof into white light in the normal ending but in the true ending, she turns into her spirit state and disappears into the heavens?

It finally dawned on me the obvious: the normal ending takes place within Yoshiro.

It's even shown directly.
(God, grant me better eyes so I may stop humiliating myself)

The Soh she meets is the piece of the Goddess she held within her.

Now that her duty is done, Soh leaves Yoshiro's body.(?)

If Soh's spirit that resided within the former Spirit Stone Maiden is returned to her after Yoshiro absorbs Nanamagari(both the defilement and the spirit in its belly) then the glowing Soh in the normal ending is the glowing Soh in the true ending because Soh regains her full powers as the Goddess in both.
(But why nullify the pact in the latter?)

The True Ending occurs because Soh's spirit becomes cursed from the defiled body it's been housed in. The Goddess spirit mixing with the Maiden's putrid body.
Soh's mask contains the pattern of impurity and it is her mask that remains with the Maiden inside her spirit stone.
(Is this what the director meant when he said Soh's mask represents her relationship to the Maidens?)

But this means a piece of the Goddess remains in the crystallized body of the Maiden for there to be remnants of Her power in the spirit stone.

So why does Soh poof away in the normal ending? Doesn't the spirit of the Maiden and Goddess remain together, inside her body?

Or is leaving her mask with Yoshiro meant to be leaving some of her spirit behind?

In the opening, Yoshiro is praying to the spirit stone. We know she prays to ancestral spirits, so is she praying to her ancestor, the Maiden, or is she praying to the Goddess inside? Or both?

Yoshiro comes from a long line of Maidens such as herself, according to Soh's Japanese bio:
(this is a mistranslation. Although it is stated in her plaque that Yoshiro's family made the pact so it's technically true. Google translated Yoshiro's name as the 'long line of maidens'. But maybe it's also a bit of wordplay on her name...?)

本作の主人公であり、山の巫女「世代」の護人。村人たちと協力し、自らも刀を取って巫女を護りぬく。

She is the protagonist of this story and the guardian of the mountain shrine maiden, who belongs to a long line of such maidens. She cooperates with the villagers and takes up a sword herself to protect the shrine maiden.

Yoshiro's:

穢れ祓いの力を宿した山の巫女。穢れに覆われた村々を救うために宗と共に各所を巡る。その力が原因で、人々を脅かす存在である「畏哭」に狙われている。

A mountain shrine maiden possessing the power to purify corruption. She travels with So, visiting various villages to save them from being overwhelmed by corruption. Because of her power, she is targeted by "Ikoku," a being that threatens humanity.

It specifies that Soh took up a sword herself. Does it have meaning for it to be phrased that way? Perhaps t's about Soh descending to help?

The normal ending has people praying to Yoshiro the same way she prayed to the stone. Is this meant to show how the lines blur and the Goddess and Maiden become intertwined through worship?

Then again, she's housing the Goddess so praying to her is fine.

To rehash: 

A Spirit Stone Maiden is a girl who becomes crystallized after purifying the mountain using her body, and then her crystallized body continues to serve as a yorishiro for the Goddess, warding off calamity and misfortune. Because this crystal also houses defilement which accumulates through generations, the influx of impurity in the 7th stone defiled the Goddess.

I made a post claiming Yoshiro was and is and will be Soh's Spirit Stone.

Now I realize it becomes more sensible if I replace 'Spirit Stone' with 'yorishiro'. Or just abode, as I've always called her.

The Maiden serves as an abode until the next time calamity hits. This means she's still housing the Goddess even when she's a spirit stone. This is how the Goddess becoming mixed with impurity occurred. Her vessel was tainted, always. For 8 cycles, including ours.

When the game starts, it starts with Yoshiro activating her powers as an abode, and allowing Soh to occupy physical space in the world. Soh can no longer manifest once the spirit stone is taken and so Yoshiro is the next abode.
(Why does she appear so far from Yoshiro?)

Yoshiro is the 'body of the goddess'. The Spirit Stone Maiden. Her destiny is to become the next Spirit Stone.

In the Normal Ending, we see Soh watching a Maiden, which made me think this Maiden was already an abode. Instead, it's more likely that Soh is still tethered to our Yoshiro. Only when the spirit stone is stolen by Seethe for the Goddess power within it, does Soh need a new abode.

(Speaking of stolen power and stolen masks, when Nanamagari stole the Spirit Stone, did it steal the mask of the Goddess that was given to/left with the Maiden? Is this why Nanamagari wears a bastardized version of the Goddess's mask in its first phase? Or did it steal the power, but the power is symbolized as the mask?)

As for the True Ending, I believe Soh turns into a spirit because Yoshiro is no longer an abode.
As she departs, she says something about the mask. Maybe that she's taking it back, if the mask symbolizes a portion of her power?

Is Yoshiro holding the mask within her? Who can really say...but she certainly is in the normal ending.

This nullifies quite a bit of what I've previous said, I think...

The story is quite simple, isn't it? 

The Messenger of the Goddess is the Goddess that's manifest when she uses a yorishiro.

A cursed yorishiro produces a cursed messenger. And when said yorishiro has 'merged' with the Goddess, its form is alike a sum of its parts.

But the mirror part of Cursed Soh's plaque is still mysterious to me.

This represents the normal ending. We receive it when Yoshiro is nearly completely stone.

What battle? Against impurity? But it's a part of life.

Or is the battle against Cursed Soh actually occurring multiple times?

(I have many unpublished posts and in one, I thought the circles on Yoshiro's head were related to her becoming an abode. Rather than it being fashion lol. I have come a long way with theories. It's impressive, the leaps I have made in the past.)

Remember someone calling Yoshiro a Living Buddha? Crystallized alive...

Soh's Spirit Stone. 2.0

I grabbed high quality screenshots from the opening video of the PC version of Kunitsu-Gami. 

Some details that couldn't be seen before...

Soh's Spirit Stone has no face. (Or wasn't rendered one?)

There's a spike protruding from the facial area. We don't know what parts of her turned first but it must have been terrifying for her if it began in her face first.

That gaping crevice on her left arm is unsettling.

She's crystallized in a strange position. Why that pose? It gives the impression of one awaiting something. Sitting, or slightly crouching, on one leg. This post would look very odd in the mikoshi.
It would also look odd if she were watching her Messenger defeat Nanamagari.

Yoshiro's pose is understandable. Sitting on her side.

I wish we could have seen another cycle.

Could we, one day, maybe get a DLC of a previous cycle with a different Maiden?

Because of my previous posts on faces, I wonder if this is really 'Soh's Spirit Stone', or if a Maiden's Spirit Stone is just a way to pray to the Goddess.

Then again, if Maidens merge, then Soh is a previous Maiden having merged and so she is the Goddess now. (And she is, judging by artwork, lore and interviews)

Spirit Stone Yoshiro's Body and Cursed Soh's Body.

Defiled Yoshiro≠Cursed Soh: The Spirit Stone and previous misconceptions.

Building off this post...I noticed something when looking very very close at Yoshiro and Cursed Soh.

I mentioned Yoshiro's Spirit Stone body is to protect her from impurity. There's very faint kaleidoscope patterns on her!

It looks exactly like the sky in the Unknown Land, too.

(PS4 isn't very high quality so I can't get good photos. It's also why I didn't see the pattern at first. That and the lighting made a huge difference.)

look at her glove, too.

Cursed Soh also has these patterns all over her. It's a symbol of the power of purification(or the Goddess) because we see it in Soh's attacks and when she makes her appearance. 

Another detail: Soh has a fox on her glove. Does Cursed Soh have a nine-tailed fox? Is that what those shapes could represent?
(Upon closer inspection, it might a deer, another animal widely considered to be a messenger of the Goddess)

Cursed Soh, the Goddess, is trying to protect herself from impurity and has possibly turned her body into Spirit Stone?

Or is it that the Maidens who become these things and have merged with the Goddess has caused her to turn into this?

When Yoshiro's hair turns pale lilac/grey, we get the scroll 'Birth of a Goddess', signally she's become like the Goddess. Or has merged with her.

She indeed looks like Cursed Soh.

When the pair sync up Yoshiro's movements sync with Soh's, not the other way around.
Yoshiro is becoming like Soh(Cursed) but because the lines have blurred due to Maidens being worshiped as the Goddess, Cursed Soh in turn became like her. (The long hair and outfit changes)

I talked here about the Goddess's behavior when encountering Soh and Yoshiro.

Another detail that rattles me:

Cursed Soh's footwear is symmetrical, unlike Soh's.

But in artwork, it's symmetrical:

A very deliberate change. But why?

Defiled Yoshiro≠Cursed Soh: The Spirit Stone and previous misconceptions.

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)

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:

Source

Source

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...)

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))

• Spirit Stone Maiden

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.

Impurity on her skin. The black tendrils.

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.

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.
(the lilac in her hair was the first 'spirit stone' change we see in her. But Soh used the red markings to ward off the defilement and prevent her turning)

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.

• Yoshiro's Deep Sleep

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. 

Deep Sleep

In the normal ending, it's possible she falls into a deep sleep akin to death, as her body is not 'dead'.

About to enter her Sleep

• Stolen power= Defilement

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.

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.

• Stone Flower

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...