The Wheel Of Fate Is Turning

The announcer sure got worse in each game. Well before I move on, here's what appears to be the contents page of Symposium of Post-mysticism; looks like the book is divided into six parts which focus on,

1. What the new faction (the Taoists?) brings to Gensokyo;
2. The current status of the world outside Gensokyo; 
3. Youkai before and now;
4. The current status and future of the hated one (Byakuren?);
5. Is religion and faith necessary in Gensokyo;
6. Talks about youkai extermination from now on

...Respectively. It sure sounds a lot more serious than the last book, but certainly there is much tension building up in Gensokyo given the current power struggle between different factions. The Taoists will surely bring some form of changes to Gensokyo as a new faction, but will this lead to an all-out religious war or will everyone somehow resolve their differences and well, go back to taking it easy? I for one hope something BIG happens in the next game preferably with a crazy Byakuren as the final boss.

Moving on, I've transcribed Hina's profile. Unfortunately it is still missing a page or so, but the first section contains some interesting, albeit not really new information about Hina.

As a yakubyou-gami, Hina collects misfortune. She will bring misfortune to those near her, be it humans or youkai. However Hina herself bears no malice against anyone at all, on the contrary (you could say that) she is actually friendly to humans. Collecting misfortune is also so that bad things won't happen to people.

Akyuu then goes on about how there are many taboos regarding Hina, and Ayuu doesn't want to say too much because she does not wish misfortune to befall her. Some of the (many) taboos are "pretending to not see Hina", "not walking the same path as her", and "do not start a conversation topic yourself". If one breaks the taboo(s), misfortune will befall that person. When that happens, the only way to rid of the misfortune is to do "Engacho" by crossing the index and middle fingers and shout "ENGACHO". It's something Japanese children do to ward against bad luck by the way, and there are other hand gestures as well.

Since Hina seldom interacts with humans, it's difficult to know what kind of person she is. However according to those who broke taboos and got misfortune, Hina is cheerful and friendly. So why is her portrait so melancholy?

The reason why she collects misfortune is because they give her power. The negative energy of the misfortune is Hina's driving force. Although yakubyou-gami has a "god" in its name, they do not require (or look for) people's faith. Indeed, they are not normal gods, but rather a part of the youkai.

Using the custom of people transferring their misfortune to dolls that are thrown into rivers to her advantage, Hina recovers these dolls downstream and sucks the misfortune off them. She is surrounded by hina dolls as a result and that's where the page ends.

So despite having a extremely high threat level, Hina seems to be much less dangerous (personality-wise) than some other characters. I never thought Hina was the vicious type anyway, though all the taboos about her are quite something. Another thing worth noting is probably how Akyuu says yakubyou-gami are not normal gods but a part of youkai. Isn't Hina one of the yaoyorozu-no-kami? I guess indeed any normal god would need worship and faith, but since Hina's kind do not require such things, it is reasonable to assume that they are not "normal" gods. To say that they are a part of the youkai though, is an interesting proposition. Are yakubyou-gami a kind of special case where they are youkai who can be considered "gods"?

Spin Hina, spin!