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Sanae

Name:

東風谷 早苗(こちや さなえ)
Sanae Kochiya

Alternate spellings:

Sanae Kotiya

Species:

Human, descendant of a goddess

Abilities:

Power to cause miracles to occur

Age:

Unknown

Occupation:

Wind Priestess, Shrine Maiden

Location:

Moriya Shrine

Description:

  • (Touhou 10-12) Wears a blue and white outfit similar to a shrine maiden's with light blue polka dots and stripes covering the blue areas. Has long light green hair, and yellow eyes (dark-green in Undefined Fantastic Object). Wears a snake-shaped hair accessory wrapped around her hair on one side, and a hair clip shaped like a frog's head (both probably meant to represent Kanako and Suwako).

Relationships:

Appearances:

Titles:

See Character Titles

Sanae is a human, but is also a distant descendant of a god, Suwako Moriya. Her role at the Moriya Shrine is similar to a Shrine Maiden, but with her inherited power Sanae has become more like a deity herself. When humans on the outside world began losing their faith in her and Kanako, the shrine's actual deity, Kanako decided to move the shrine to Gensokyo where at least youkai might have faith in them.

During the events of Mountain of Faith Sanae tried threatening the Hakurei Shrine in order to establish the Moriya Shrine as the dominant one, not realizing how powerful humans like Reimu and Marisa were. In response to the threats Sanae was defeated by the heroine followed shortly after by Kanako and Suwako's defeat. However, the residents of the Moriya Shrine have since come to an understanding with their new neighbors and live in peace with the other residents of Youkai Mountain.

In Undefined Fantastic Object depending on the scenario she is ordered either by Kanako to train her own abilities by hunting Youkai or by Suwako to find the Treasure Ship.

Fun Facts

  • Sanae can mean "rice seedling" or "early seedling", and Kotiya "eastern wind valley". (The same "east" as in Touhou, and the same "wind" as in Fuujinroku.)
  • Sanae is the only penultimate boss of a Windows game not to have red eyes. Sakuya and Youmu both only had red eyes for one game and were given blue eyes after their introductions. Reisen and Komachi have both maintained theirs, and Orin, as a youkai, seems likely to retain hers as well.
  • Since Sanae is originally from the outside world, some fans draw her in a schoolgirl uniform.
  • In fact, there is an old lady named Sanae Moriya (守屋早苗), who is the 78th head of Moriya family. The family were supposed to succeed to one of the priests of the Suwa Grand Shrine, Jin Choukan (神長官, God Director). She is said to be a descendant of "Moreya no Kami" (洩矢神, the god Moreya), the first ancestor of the Moriya, according to the family tree located in the shrine. ("Moreya" is an archaic, alternate pronunciation of "Moriya".)
  • Since Sanae is also a shrine maiden like Reimu, and her sleeves are the same as Reimu's, the armpit joke applies to Sanae as well.
  • Since Sanae's outfit is similar to Reimu's, fans often refer to her as "Player 2 Reimu" or "2P Reimu", a character who, just like in most computer games, will take over Reimu's position if Reimu (as Player 1) is knocked out. With Reimu's red outfit and Sanae's green hair, there are even running gags equating the two shrine maidens with the Mario Brothers.
  • "Sanae is a good girl" has surfaced as a meme as a result of a panel from one of Happy Flame Time's comics, entitled Cold Wind but Warm Winter.

Official Profiles

Sanae

 ○5面ボス 祀られる風の人間
  東風谷 早苗(こちや さなえ)
  Kotiya Sanae

  種族:人間
  職業:風祝
  能力:奇跡を起こす程度の能力

  一子相伝の秘術を持つ人間である。
  性格はいたって真面目で、自分の力に自信を持っている。時には過信
  しすぎる事もある。

  元々は、風の神様を祀る人間だったらしいのだが、秘密の多い秘術で
  雨や風を降らす奇跡を起こしているうちに、周りの人間は秘術を行う
  人間自体を信仰するようになっていった。

  つまり、風の神様が起こしていた奇跡を、いつの間にか人間が起こし
  ていると勘違いし始めたのだ。

  それにより、彼女ら秘術を扱う人間は人間でありながら信仰を集め、
  神と同等の扱いを受けるようになった。現人神である。

  早苗は幼い頃から、口伝でしか伝えられていない奇跡を呼ぶ秘術をマ
  スターしていた。子供でありながら奇跡を呼ぶ彼女は、多くの信仰を
  集められる――筈であった。

  しかし、外の世界は大きく様変わりしていた。神徳の多い神様でさえ
  信仰する人間が激減していた。当然、人間でありながら神となった現
  人神など、信仰する人間は殆ど存在しなかったのだ。

  早苗は別に信仰がなくても、普通の人間として生活できるから問題は
  なかったのだが、早苗が祀っている神様、神奈子はそうはいかなかった。

  神様は信仰を失うと力も失う。神徳も出せなくなる。
  それは神の死に等しい。

  神奈子は決断した。人間から信仰を集めるには限界がある。これから
  は妖怪の信仰を集める事も考えないといけない、と。

  早苗はその具体的な計画を聞き驚いた。我が国には昔から『幻想郷』
  という世界があった。その世界は今でもひっそりと存在しているのだ
  という。幻想郷では外の世界で失われた(幻想になった)物が集まる。
  つまり神への信仰も、幻想郷に移りつつあると考えられる。
  そこで神奈子は、幻想郷に神社ごと移動すると言うのである。人間の
  世界との決別であった。

  人間の世界との別れは恐怖であったが、それ以上に奇跡を起こす力を
  持っていた彼女にとって、奇跡の世界へ行く事は楽しみであった。

  彼女は幻想郷の人間を正直なめていた。唯一の博麗神社を脅せば幻想
  郷自体、自分達の思い通りになると考えていたのである。彼女は霊夢
  に脅しを入れに行き、そして今回のように逆に痛い目にあってしまっ
  たのだ。

  幻想郷に住む人間は、彼女が思う以上に厄介であり、そして力を持っ
  ている事を彼女は思い知らされた。

  ここでは、彼女は特別な存在ではない。
  現人神なんかではなく、ただの人間となっている事に気付いたのだ。
  これからは幻想郷の人間として普通に生きていくしかないのである。

A Human of the Wind Deified
Sanae Kotiya

Species: Human
Occupation: Wind Priestess
Special Ability: Power to cause miracles to occur.

A human privy to secrets handed down through the generations.
She has a very straightforward personality, so she has a lot of confidence in her own abilities.
Sometimes, perhaps a bit too much confidence.

Wind Priestesses were originally a devotees of the wind god, but as they used their secret abilities to create miracles such as summoning the wind and rain, the people around them began to believe in these humans with mysterious abilities.

In short, over time, people began to mistake the miracles caused by the wind god as being caused by them.

In addition, as keepers of secrets, they began to accrue faith and be treated as gods, even though they were humans. They became living gods.

When she was young, Sanae had mastered the secrets to call upon miracles that had been passed down through her family. A young girl that could call upon the power of miracles would certainly collect great amounts of faith --- one would expect.

However, the outside world had changed a great deal. Faith in even gods with many divine virtues had been decreasing rapidly. There were few who would worship even a living god who had attained divinity during their life as a human.

Though she didn't really have much faith, Sanae was able to live as a normal human without any real problems, but this would not do for the god she worshipped, Kanako.

When people lose faith in gods, the gods lose their power. They can't manifest their divine virtues. This is the same as death, for a god.

Kanako came to a decision. There were limits to the amount of faith that could come from humans. From now on, she would have to also look to youkai as a source of her faith.

Sanae was surprised to hear the details of her plan: a world called "Gensokyo" has existed within our nation since time immemorial. It is said that this world still exists, hidden. Gensokyo has collected a number of things that have become lost - or, become fantasy - in the outside world. One could say that even people's faith in gods is in the process of moving to Gensokyo.
And so, Kanako decided to move her shrine into Gensokyo. She would say farewell to the world of humans.

Sanae was afraid of leaving the world of humans, but as a person with the power to call on miracles, the anticipation she felt for going to a world of miracles outweighed her terror.

She did not take the humans of Gensokyo seriously. She thought that if they threatened the only shrine in Gensokyo, the Hakurei Shrine, Gensokyo itself would submit to their every wish. She went to deliver her ominous message to Reimu, and then was in turn defeated.

The humans who lived in Gensokyo were more troublesome than she'd imagined, and in time she learned of the power they held, as well.

Here, she was nothing special.
She realized she had gone from being a god incarnate to just a normal human being.
All she could do now was to live a normal, peaceful life as a human of Gensokyo.


Undefined Fantastic Object

Sanae Kotiya

  ○山の新人神様
  東風谷 早苗(こちや さなえ)
  Kotiya Sanae

  種族:人間
  能力:奇跡を起こす程度の能力

  妖怪の山にある守矢神社に住む巫女さん。妖怪退治は不慣れ。

  普段は神様と妖怪達に囲まれて暮している為、人間の話し相手が欲し
  いと思っているが、麓の人間は妖怪染みた人間ばかり。
  そのうち、自分のああなるのかと少しだけ心配している。
  でも、現人神と慕われただけあって妖怪にも劣らないが、少々惚けた
  所もある。

  神奈子に言われて妖怪退治の真似事をしてみたり……幻想郷に慣れよ
  うとしている。

The Newbie Goddess of the Mountain
Sanae Kotiya

Species: Human
Ability: Power to cause miracles

The Shrine Maiden living in Moriya Shrine in Youkai Mountain. She is not used to youkai hunting.

She wishes to talk to humans more, because she lives with gods and youkai, but most of humans living around the foot of the mountain are youkai-like humans. She is worried about becoming like them. As may be expected of a living god, she is as strong as youkai, but she is also somewhat innocent.

She tries to do something like youkai hunting on Kanako's recommendation, and... she makes an effort to get used to Gensokyo.

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