I have been reading Bernard Faure's Gods of Medieval Japan series. I recommend it, but it's not easy text. Reading 50 pages of it feels like reading 200 pages at times, it's so dense. The network of deities he describes is dizzying, confusing, entangling. I won't longpost about it yet, because honestly, I don't get it either yet.

However, I found something in the book two that made me suspect there's been a goddess hiding in plain sight all along in Touhou. The deity in question is Benzaiten, operating behind the appearance of Tsukumo Benben.

Let's start with the following: Benzaiten is a goddess associated with many things, namely "things that flow". These things include music, and Benzaiten is frequently depicted as playing the biwa instrument. One of her alternative names is Benten. The biwa and Benten being very close to Benben are the first evidence.

However, there is something deeper to be found in Benben's spellcards. One of the cards is called Hoichi the Earless, a tale about a blind biwa player who recites the Heike Monogatari. In Hearn's rendition of the story, there is bit of context loss. Rather than the titular Hoichi being some unique individual, he is a representative of a class of blind musician who were called the biwa hoshi. Not only did they regard Benzaiten as their matron deity, they were specalist in reciting the Heike Monogatari specificaly. This text is not only a historical tale, but also showers praise on Benzaiten. Another of her spellcard's is called Sound of Jetavana's Bell, a reference to a Buddhist story found within the Heike Monogatari.

So Benben has a really dense web of references to Benzaiten or things very strongly historicaly associated with her. Perhaps Benben is a manifestation of her, or perhaps a manifestation of some lower deity associated with Benzaiten.

I'm sure others have made these connections before, but I was a bit dense about this. It's no wonder she mogs her sister. A humble koto tsukumogami, as lovely as an instrument it is, can hardly compete with something so closely associated with a goddess...

Touhou games are more mythological than they have ever been. You simply do not recognize that the "modern world" is also merely just re-enacting mythology, just as the world always has, always will.