Kanako Yasaka

"What Gensokyo lacks... is belief in god"

- Kanako Yasaka

Kanako Yasaka is the actual goddess of the Moriya shrine in the Touhou-project videogame series and the final boss of its tenth game, Mountain of Faith. Her pride, her fatal mistakes because of naïveness and use of her powers for selfish means have made her worthy of the villain title. She has the power to create sky.

She defeated the original goddess Suwako Moriya in the great Suwa War and was the one to give Utsuho "Okuu" Reiuji her distinctive nuclear powers which she used to take over Gensokyo. She also tried to monopolize faith by shunning the Hakurei Shrine with help of her devout, Sanae Kochiya. The goddess was ultimately stopped by the heroines Reimu and Marisa.

Appearance
Kanako has an elaborate red shirt with long white sleeves and a round mirror over the center of her chest. She wears a long black skirt with a red flower print hem. She has poofy intense blue hair and dark red eyes. Behind her, for decoration purposes, is a large twisting rope circle shimenawa with shide.

Relationships

 * Sanae Kochiya (Wind Priestess)
 * Suwako Moriya (Fellow goddess)
 * Utsuho Reiuji (Recipient of Nuclear Powers)

Trivia

 * Her surname, Yasaka, can be split up in 'Ya' and 'Saka'. 'Ya' meaning 'eight', and 'Saka', which would mean 'hill'. Yasaka would therefore mean 'Eight hills'. When her first name, Kanako, is divided, it would be 'Ka' meaning 'God', 'Na' meaning 'Wild Apple' and 'Ko' meaning 'Child'.
 * Her surname is also the same as that of Yasaka Shrine (formerly Gion Shrine) in Kyoto.
 * Kanako might be named after Princess Yasakatome, one of the gods of the Suwa Grand Shrine, which, on the other hand, Suwako Moriya is named after.
 * The large wooden pillars that Kanako throws are called Onbashira.
 * Onbashira can literally mean "The Honored Pillars".
 * The shrine pictured in the background image of Kanako's spellcards is 下社秋宮 (Shimosha Akimiya, lit. the Autumn Court of the Lower Shrine), one of the four shrines that make up the Suwa Grand Shrine.
 * Kanako is also depicted with Yukari Yakumo and Eirin Yagokoro. This is due to their family names containing the character 八 (pronounced "Ya") which, when misread, can mean old hag.
 * Kanako is one of only two windows-series characters whose stage has no midboss whatsoever, the other being Toyosatomimi no Miko.
 * Oddly, Kanako's sprite changes colors in rainbow order during the time between when her theme begins and when she starts to battle. It also happens to another character in the PC98 ages.
 * Kanako's last spell card, Mountain of Faith/Virtue of the Wind God, is somewhat harder on Easy than on Normal.
 * Kanako is the first character in the series who was the final boss and the midboss for the extra stage in the same game.