Posted by Touhou’s print works gift us with a welcome break from the hectic-ness of the usual gameplay. Let’s set aside flashy lights, upbeat music, and muscle reflexes for just a bit and turn our attention to these strange ancillary tales. ZUN had churned them out one after another, as if extending an ever-inviting arm to his fans, beckoning them to wander further into this little world of his.
The kinds of stories and anecdotes that are apart from the games aren’t limited by the go-out-investigate-incident-defeat-big-bad formula that we’re so used to. While they do span a wide variety of storytelling, I want to focus on one specific kind. The kind that goes deep into the mind of the characters. That’s right. There’s been multiple times that ZUN has been caught red-handed using his own characters to divulge bits of moral wisdom, little crumbs of tasteful philosophical bits that’s sure to tickle your fancy, like a dad that uses his bedtime stories to goad his kids into the right direction. And if you’ve ever entertained the thought of finding yourself spirited away into fantasy, well, the same moral beliefs in these stories can be found governing those both in fantasy and outside of it – they might even be the thing that bridges the two worlds, if you will.
Now, wisdom is incredibly subjective, and you might even disagree with some ideas represented here. But! Part of the charm is being able to understand what leads people to behave in certain ways, as quirky as Touhou characters tend to be. Complete goofballs, all of them.
So that’s what we’ll be doing today. I hope you’re now in a nice, comfy place where you can sit back with a cup of tea, sake, elixir of immortality, whatever. Because obviously, wisdom is never meant to be taken seriously. There’s no point in arguing on what’s right or wrong, good or bad. You can have everyone examine everyone else’s truths, but they’ll all just end up laughing at how funny everything is.
(The following snippets are my own translations of the original, with the Touhou Wiki translations used as aid.)
Rinnosuke on Cherry Blossoms
[Curiosity of Lotus Asia Chapter 14]
In any case, of course, cherry blossoms were featured in the book I was reading yesterday. It portrayed a roundabout way to enjoy flowers. Why did I want to read a book on cherry blossoms while sitting beneath cherry blossoms? Well, you won’t be getting the full experience otherwise. Those who don’t know the proper way to enjoy something are simpletons. Victims of their own whims. Upon seeing the cherry blossoms they say, “How pretty!” or “Isn’t that just gorgeous!” or “Well, there are many different ways to enjoy cherry blossoms,” and expose themselves for their own foolishness. After all, being content with simply saying whatever comes to mind is a sign of one’s own impulsiveness and immaturity. Humans who can’t help but behave as such are not much different from shikigami or tools.
If one can simply take in the cherry blossoms in front of them without comparing them to those they have seen elsewhere or at some other time, only then will they have accomplished a true flower viewing. You can’t call yourself cultured without having this kind of roundabout-ness in your perception.
This is quite something. As much as Rinnosuke is being insufferable here, his spiel does pose a question. During a flower-viewing event, even as you and everyone around you are looking at the same flowers, are you truly looking at the same flowers as everyone else? Maybe looking at flowers with purpose is the factor that separates yourself from the others, as you bring your own standards of beauty, your own idea of what a cherry blossom should look like, what that particular flower viewing session means to you personally, into the mix.
Should you discard all of that in favor of just letting the flowers be? And just have the flower’s beauty speak for itself, with whatever its beauty even means at this point? Hm… that’s a no from me. Not if it means I get that guy’s approval. Actually, ZUN might have written Rinnosuke to be this much of a jerk to argue against his message. There really is no right or wrong way to do flower-viewing, but, for better or worse, now you’re aware of one additional way of doing so.
Yukari on Longevity
[A Beautiful Flower Blooming Violet Every Sixty Years]
The passage of time is slow and gentle for youkai such as myself when compared to what a human would experience. And yet, we are also able to look back on memories of the past as happier times. You see, no matter if you are a human or a youkai – or just about any kind living being, really – life is just a series of painful events. Those who fail to look to the past as happier times resign themselves into always thinking “at least things are a little better now than before” and are content even as their life deteriorates. To perceive the past as being better than it actually was is crucial for longevity. If a creature can only see the past just for its horribleness, it might as well have no future.
I’m beginning to suspect Yukari might have thoughts about the condition known as being alive for prolonged periods of time. When we make up a character, sure, we can slap an age on them, but in doing so, do we always consider what that specific numerical value has done to that character?
When playing through Touhou, you might not have noticed this at first, but the “old” characters all have a specific rizz to them that clearly marks them as such – mellow, sagely, but also air-headed to a fault, maybe sometimes even on purpose. Living for a long time is seen as an accomplishment, something to strive for, but imagine living so long without having any meaning whatsoever assigned to your life. If you ask me, being in that position almost feels like committing a crime – to have the gift of time wasted on someone like yourself. To avoid this kind of guilt, you would need to see your life as worth living. You would need to see your past as worth the experience. Truly, the Touhou sages of longevity have an air-headedness befitting of those delusional enough to do such a thing.
Rinnosuke on Fake News
[Curiosities of Lotus Asia Chapter 17]
This newspaper extra that was just thrown in from my window, the “Bunbunmaru,” the things written on it were so exaggerated it was actually kind of cute. Its articles had nothing but hilariously-depicted material that could not be farther from the truth. On top of that, they crammed so much junk into one place as though they were trying to pad out their content – it was awful.
Cramming this much junk into one place would only make those who don’t do a lot of thinking feel as though they were gaining knowledge. If a list of factual information can truly be called knowledge, then what even sets human wisdom apart from a bunch of books and newspapers? If it can be said that knowledge can be gleaned from books and newspapers, it most definitely is not because knowledge itself is written in them. The material recorded in books and newspapers are but an all-too-precarious foundation from which the truth is constructed. It is what’s known as “information” and therefore should not be confused for “knowledge.” It is only when you actually think over such information that it becomes “knowledge.” Now, when you compare the Bunbunmaru against the Great Tengu’s [more truthful] newspaper, the former elicits much more thinking on my part and is therefore a deeper source of knowledge. Well, that is, if you ignore the content itself.
This one is pretty cut and dry. It really is a shame that Rinnosuke’s galaxy brain is only unlocked through reading things he deems to be utter trash. That being said, absolutely no one is arguing here that fake news is an excusable way of doing business. …Well, ignoring how Aya doing whatever she’s doing seeming to have netted her one extra loyal customer.
Wait… how do we know that the Bunbunmaru hasn’t been a reputable newspaper and that Rinnosuke wasn’t just some raging conspiracy theorist this whole time?
Yuyuko on Questions
[Cage in Lunatic Runagate Chapter 7]
[Written from Youmu’s perspective]
I was known for immediately jumping to questions whenever I didn’t understand something. “He who asks a question is a fool for a minute, he who does not ask is a fool for life,” or so they say.
But I couldn’t help but feel that getting in the way of actually understanding something. If there was always someone to tell me something I didn’t know, I would lose the will to think for myself.
I went to Lady Yuyuko one day with a question like always, and was given this lecture:
“Whenever you open your mouth, all I’m hearing is, ‘What’s that?’ ‘What does that mean?’ Do you see these spirits floating around without saying a word? I’ve had more meaningful conversations with them.”
“My apologies. I had thought the saying was, ‘He who asks a question is a fool for a minute, he who does not ask is a fool for life.’”
“(Chuckles) Youmu, do you ever feel foolish when you ask a question?”
“Huh?”
“You should only ever feel foolish about a question that you should already know the answer to. In such cases, ask to your heart’s content. It’d be very harmful to carry forward as though you knew the answer, but never having asked.”
“…”
“There’s actually no shame in asking about the things you’re curious about. For these kinds of questions, there might not always be an answer waiting for you. If it’s something you truly want to know, turn it over in your head for a bit. If you’re around someone who can answer your questions for too long, you become curious about fewer and fewer things. A life that loses all elements of curiosity can only be fraught with unhappiness. Yes… even more so if such a life is long.”
It’s interesting that ZUN picked Youmu to be on the receiving end of this lesson, since she’s portrayed as not really being the kind of character to do any sort of intellectual due-diligence. Youmu having doubts about the way she approaches questions isn’t typically something that comes as an epiphany to most people. No doubt about it, Yuyuko’s the one who conditioned this into her.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with borrowing someone else’s wisdom when it comes to most discourse you come across. In fact, doing your own research is just an extension of “asking questions,” except this time it’s towards someone who wrote an online article or book. The difference is actually going out seeking knowledge for the sake of it, rather than being compelled to do so as part of a broader goal.
Yuyuko having to field this many questions from Youmu gives her the pretense of assuming that Youmu doesn’t really care about half the questions she’s asking. Quite an assumption, if you ask me. For all I know, Youmu might be genuinely curious about everything she asks about. But again, we’re talking about Yuyuko, possibly the laziest character in all of Touhou, who also happens to like teasing Youmu.
@ me here.