Gensokyo Is A Place On Earth?

The idea of Gensokyo being a real place somewhere in Japan pops up every now and then within the Western Touhou fandom, sometimes presented in conspiratorial light. There are supposed rumors of a remote valley in Japan where this place lurks and knowledge of it is being suppressed by the Japanese government. While such speculations are easy to write off as flights of fancy, they might contain a kernel of truth that is even stranger than any conspiratorial speculations.

What if there was a village in Japan where ZUN lived as a child that served as the inspiration for Gensokyo? What if this village wasn't hidden, but in fact had at one point the attention of the world's winter sports fans, blissfully unaware of the then-nascent doujin media empire that Touhou would become? And what if the area around this village was a supposed paranormal hotspot? What if Gensokyo was a place on Earth, a spirit world hiding in the flip side of rural Nagano?

Where the West has speculated, the Japanese have put in the investigative work. Much of the information presented here is based on a machine translation of the information here: Shrines in Hakuba Village - Oriental Holy Land @ Wiki – atwiki. While such a translation is less than perfect, I do think it gives a good enough idea of what is presented. It's possible that some minor errors could have slipped in.

It should also be noted that I haven't (yet) visited Hakuba– experiences presented here are other people's experiences, and I can neither confirm nor deny the supposed paranormal activity within the area. Based on my own experiences, I am not very inclined to go ”hunting” for the paranormal either – I have more than enough proof of such. I would stress that anyone planning a visit should show utmost care and respect towards the locals, including the non-humans in the broadest sense possible.

Whether you choose to believe in any of the more seemingly outlandish ideas presented here is up to you, but the simple fact remains: there is a place in Japan that at the very least seems to have inspired Gensokyo.

Hakuba

Nagano & Hakuba, where it all began

ZUN lived his childhood in Hakuba, a village of about 9000 people in Nagano prefecture. It's an inland town in the foothills of Hida Mountains, part of the Japanese Alps. The village's largest claim to international fame is that it was the main event venue for the 1998 Winter Olympics. The town has a ski resort and it serves as the starting point for hiking trails to Mt. Shirouma and Mt. Goryu. Of possible interest is the fact that Mt. Shirouma is one of the few mountains in Japan with permanent snow. The wider Hakuba valley area, which also contains the cities of Omachi and Otari, offers a wide range of outdoor activities. The picture really isn't some suspicious shady valley suppressed by the government.

Hakuba as a town is relatively young. It traces some history to the Edo period (1603-1868) when it was part of the Salt Road that was used to transport salt from the coast to inland. However much of the area was virgin forest up to the late 19th century. A 1881 census counted only 31 households. The modern village of Hakuba wasn't formed until 1956 by merging the villages of Hokujo and Kamishiro.

While ZUN himself has apparently said that Gensokyo is ”far away in Tohoku (northernmost area of mainland Japan) or Shikoku (the large southern island)”, the culture and customs of Gensokyo are apparently much closer to those of Nagano. I'm not familiar enough with the fine grain details of Japanese culture to make such a judgement, but there are also certain geographic facts supporting Hakuba serving as the blueprint for Gensokyo. Artists being greatly influenced by their childhood surroundings is also rather common. Therefore it's very reasonable to think that Gensokyo was influenced by Hakuba and more widely the prefecture of Nagano.

As documented within the Oriental Holy Land wiki - Shrines in Hakuba Village, there are several shrines around Hakuba. However, one of them in particular is thought to possibly be the shrine that the Hakurei Shrine was modeled after.

Jomine Shrine Ruins

The little remnants of a shrine that may have inspired big things

First off, it should be noted that due to the way Japanese is written and read, there is some uncertainty of the exact reading of this shrine's name. Lacking any better information, the shrine will be referred to as ”Jomine” in this text.

A Touhou fan might hope that if there was a real-life counterpart to the Hakurei shrine that it would have a long, illustrious history with much to write off, but it appears that Jomine Shrine is a humble local shrine with not much written history or grand legends (that are told to outsiders, at least!) behind it.

The Jomine shrine is apparently very small, one of thousands of such small shrines all over Japan and doesn't have a priest's office. The founding date of the shrine is unknown. It's known that the current location was enshrined on May 28, 1909 (Meiji 41). The location of the shrine is apparently known as Ibarayama and was fortified during the Sengoku period between 15th and 16th centuries.

The kami that are known to be enshrined in Jomine shrine are Amaterasu Omikami, Ken Onakata, Izanami Kami, Hakusan Hikigami (speculated to have some connection to Touhou), Aragami, Daikokuten, Ebisuten and a ”rustic kami”, most likely referring to local agricultural deities. There might also be other kami enshrined there, suggested by the ”etc” in the source. Not exactly knowing what kami are enshrined in a shrine is relatively common and normal in Japan.

In a tragic, but perhaps unsurprising parallel to Touhou, the shrine was devastated by the Northern Nagano Earthquake on 22nd of November 2014. For a while the shrine was abandoned, but in 2017 a new shrine was built nearby. On the site of the old shrine a new small shrine hall was built and a sign telling about the history of Ibarayama was installed. It should be noted that Scarlet Weather Rhapsody where Tenshi destroys the Hakurei Shrine was released in 2008 – a grim coincidence or a prophecy?

Due to its location and the complexities of Japanese writing systems leading to the possibility of reading the shrine name as ”Hakumine” have led the Japanese Touhou fandom to suggest that this shrine is what served as the inspiration to the Hakurei shrine.

Why this shrine? Does ZUN perhaps have some personal connection to it? Was it his family's tutelary shrine? Or did he take interest in it for some other reason..?

In Touhou lore, the entrance to Gensokyo goes through the Hakurei shrine – part of it faces the Outside World. In Shinto, it's thought that when you pass the torii gates you enter a sacred space. Is the idea of entering a hidden spirit world an extrapolation of this idea, or is there more to it? One anon who visited the shrine had an odd, but positive, experience there. I quote their experiences here word for word:

Offerings at the shrine – are they from locals or fellow seekers..?

Considering how considerate, humble and kind-hearted that anon was, I'm not surprised in the slightest that the kami of Jomine would bless such a polite and far-travelled guest as that anon was. If you visit, be like him – the deadly ankle pain is optional.

Suwa Grand Shrine and other points and places of interest

It should also be noted that the town of Hakuba is relatively close to Suwa, a city near the 1300 year old Suwa Grand Shrine that is very integral to the lore of Touhou. Yasaka Kanako-sama, Sanae Kochiya-sama and Suwako Moriya-sama are all tied to the myths of the real-life Suwa Grand Shrine. The Suwa Grand Shrine is thought to be one of the oldest existing shrines in Japan, being mentioned in the 7th century Nihon Shoki, which laid out much of Shinto mythology.

The incredibly rich Suwa mythology deserves its own, much longer writeup. However, as a quick summary, the Suwa Grand Shrine enshrines Takeminakata-sama and Yasakatome-sama. In Suwa mythology, Takeminakata-sama is a kami from outside of Suwa that arrived and defeated a local kami known as Moreya-sama using a branch or a vine of wisteria. After being defeated, Moreya-sama swore fealty to Takeminakata-sama and became the ancestor of the Moriya clan. The Moriyas served as one of the priestly families of the Suwa Grand Shrine, and one of them would act as the head priest, considered a living god. Takeminakata-sama is considered a kami of wind, water, hunting, agriculture and warfare, and he is enshrined in the upper shrine of Suwa Grand Shrine.

Yasakatome-sama is considered Takeminakata's spouse, and she is enshrined in the lower shrine. Very little mythology about her survives, but there is a myth where she drops a wad of cotton soaked in hot water and causes a hot spring to sprout. It's thought that Kanako-sama's involvement in the incident depicted in Subterranean Animism might be inspired by this. Yasakatome-sama is enshrined in the lower shrine.

As one can see, Kanako-sama is at the very least based on Takeminakata-sama and Yasakatome-sama, Suwako-sama is based on Moreya-sama and Sanae-sama represents a member of the very real Moriya family. Of note here is also the fact that upper and lower Shrines don't have a honden, a place in which the kami is thought to be enshrined. Instead, they enshrine natural objects. The upper shrine enshrines a whole mountain – a very, very literal Mountain of Faith.

The Suwa Grand Shrine also serves as an extremely fascinating microcosm of the complex development of religion in Japan. While it has always been a Shinto institution, during the era when Buddhism was the more dominant religion of the two, Takeminakata-sama was at times conceptualized as an Indian king who then manifested into Japan as a kami. Other times the pair of deities were seen as the boddhisattvas Fuge and Kannon. Sometimes Takeminakata-sama was seen as the warrior Koga Saburo, who went to the underworld(!) and reincarnated as a serpent or a dragon(!!).

The famous onbashira ritual of Suwa has possibly Taoist influence behind it. The process of cutting down trees and transporting them to specific locations potentially mirrors the Wu Xing cycles, where wood begets fire, fire begets earth and earth begets metal. The custom of hammering ornamental sickles to the trees that become onbashira is possibly associated with the idea of pacifying violent winds, which are associated with the phase of wood.

As stated in the Oriental Holy Land wiki, there are several branch shrines of the Suwa Grand Shrine in Hakuba. ZUN would have had very early exposure to the institution from a young age. Indeed, he has said that as a child he was taught that the kami of Suwa was the kami of rain. The proximity of Suwa, the presence of branch shrines in Hakuba and the important role Kanako-sama has played in the events of Gensokyo is further suggestive of Gensokyo being modeled after Hakuba. It's also quite worth noting that a real shrine named Moriya Shrine exists and is very close to Suwa Grand Shrine.

One can also find all kinds of other, smaller details that point to Gensokyo being modeled after Hakuba and Nagano. Gensokyo is depicted as a mountain valley with a river running in it, much like the very real Hakuba valley is. Gensokyo has also been sometimes depicted as having three prominent mountains, perhaps a reference to the Hakuba Three Peaks.

There are two lakes near Hakuba, either of which could be the inspiration for Misty Lake. There's also a mountain pond known as Happo pond that has a small branch shrine of the local Iimori shrine. Iimori shrine enshrines Sugawara Michiga-sama, a deity apparently depicted in Wild and Horned Hermit. There's also a local legend of an enormous snake living in that pond. A body of water on a mountain, a big snake – the mind inevitably wanders towards Moriya shrine in Touhou.

Looking more broadly at Nagano, there is of course Suwa, but there is also a mountain called Mt. Tengu near Chino, a town near Suwa. A curiously named ”Marchen Road”, märchen being German for ”fairy tale” is near these two. One can also find Akyuu Ruins, Lake Momiji, Yama Shrine, Mt. Hijiri and Mt. Iizuna in Nagano. Komakusa, the flower Komakusa-dayuu is named after, grows in Hakuba and a species of fish called Wagasaki lives in Lake Suwa. So at the very least, ZUN seems to derive much inspiration from Nagano.

A spirit world in rural Nagano?

This is where things get much more foggy, partly by the sheer nature of the subject itself, partly because we are trying to divine the mythological landscape of a small town far removed from the Western Hemisphere. If there truly is some kind of a spirit world hiding around Hakuba, the locals would probably have learned to live with it over time and would likely not make much noise about it to outsiders.

First off, there are apparently rumors that ZUN got spirited away when he was a child. I have not been able to substantiate these rumors so far. Some have even presented that the events of the Dolls in Pseudo Paradise CD might be something that happened to ZUN. He after all describes himself as ”Illegitimate child of the honest men's village, the most acrophobic of the group” in the CD. While it's unlikely that such an event described unfolded literally, it's quite interesting he went and changed the story of the CD after it's release. Whatever the case, if ZUN truly was spirited away as a child in some capacity, it would immediately recontextualize all of Touhou.

Secondly, the area around Hakuba is alleged to be a paranormal hotspot, including sightings of strange glowing orbs in the woods. These orbs of light are the hallmark of a paranormally active area. Some have gone as far as to suggest that these orbs are in fact the true form of various paranormal entities. Whether one chooses to believe him is up to the reader, but it's widely known among people interested in the paranormal that such orbs at the very least correlate with paranormal activity and cryptid sightings.

A fairy from Hakuba?

What type of places then tend to be such paranormal hotspots? As has already been briefly mentioned, there are several factors. Firstly, various notable forests and natural sites seem to attract – or generate – paranormal activity. Such places can be found worldwide, but include for example the Rendlesham Forest in the UK, and various locations in the USA such as the Pine Barrens of South Jersey. The United States is in fact very notorious for having many paranormally active natural sites, often with ominous names given by locals. For a Fun Exercise!, see how many places named ”Satan's Kingdom” you can find in the USA!

Related to this, around 21% of Nagano is dedicated to Natural Parks. While this is more than well and good, there are certain theories that various national parks and nature preserves worldwide also act as designated living areas for spirits. This is particularly relevant to the United States and the so-called ”Missing 411” cases in national parks. If such a phenomenon also happens in Japan, I don't know, and I'm fairly sure that the Japanese would be hesitant to make much noise about it.

While there is no natural park in the vicinity of Hakuba, the entire area seems rather wild. Remember how much of the area was virgin forest until the late 1880s? If paranormal activity and certain natural locations are tied to each other, could it be that once upon time Hakuba was such a place? Perhaps still is..?

Another geological factor that appears to increase the occurrence of paranormal phenomena is the presence of geomagnetic anomalies. Geomagnetic anomalies are variances, positive or negative, in the Earth's magnetic field. These are caused by variations of the magnetism or chemical composition of rocks. For example, large amounts of iron or certain types of quartz are known to cause such magnetic anomalies.

A map of magnetic anomalies in Honshu, Japan's main island – as much as an eyesore it is, the cluster of anomalies in Nagano is very visible

you look at the map of magnetic anomalies in Japan, you can see a cluster of such anomalies in Nagano. There might be nothing ”extraordinary” per say about this, after all, it's a very mountainous area after all. Nonetheless, as areas with geomagnetic anomalies are known to correlate with paranormal activity, it's something to take not of. One has to also wonder if this could contribute to certain areas being seen as sacred. Japan is known for having many mountains which are considered such, but they are not the only culture to attach spiritual significance to mountains.

A third factor is related to the so-called 37th parallel theory, a paranormal theory related to ufology. To put it simply, a clustering of reported UFO incidents in the USA has been noticed between the 36th and 38th parallels, sometimes even dubbed ”the UFO superhighway”. UFO sightings appear to correlate with other types of reported paranormal activity. The question here is, does this phenomenon extend outside of the United States? If so, Nagano sits between the 36th and 37th parallel. Why would unusual phenomena cluster around the 37th parallel? Nobody really knows.

This all should be taken as a starting point. Japan has an immensely rich history and mythology and Nagano is no exception to this. It just might be that there is a reason for this richness that transcends mere human imagination. If one looks at the geomagnetic map of Japan, Nagano is hardly the only place with prominent anomalies, and much of Japan sits on both sides of the 37th parallel...

Spirit world or no spirit world, it seems obvious that ZUN has derived much inspiration from Hakuba and Nagano. So the next time someone speculates about Gensokyo being a place on Earth, you can point them towards the right direction.

The weird Castlevania connection

Hakuba also has a bizarre connection to the popular Castlevania series of video games. The events of Aria of Sorrow kick off when the protagonist Soma Cruz is visiting the ”Hakuba Shrine” with his girlfriend Mina Hakuba, apparently a miko of the shrine. The reason for this visit is that the two want to witness a solar eclipse. Things go sideways, it turns out that Soma is the reincarnation of a certain ancient evil and that Mina's family was responsible for the death of this evil in a battle fought under a solar eclipse in 1999...

Were there Touhou fans on the development team of Aria of Sorrow who thought to sneak in a reference to the Scarlet Devil Mansion?

Or is there more to it?

Castlevania was once one of my favorite game series, and I have in fact played Aria of Sorrow, but had blissfully forgotten all about its connection to Hakuba. Rediscovering all of this in light of the new information I have learned and experiences I have had was frankly baffling.

Could there truly be something powerful hiding around Hakuba, something that can interact more freely with our world during solar eclipses?

If nothing else, being the site of winter olympics, inspiring ZUN and worming itself into a very popular video game franchise makes Hakuba a town with exceptionally powerful energies and presence for a place with less than ten thousand inhabitants.

Before you go...

At this point some of you might be very itching to go to Hakuba. However, there are a few points to be made. Japan is currently suffering from overtourism, and while Nagano is not likely one of the areas affected by it, I implore you to behave. Please learn the customs of the land and behave accordingly. There's certain things people in the West find pretty normal, such as eating and drinking while walking and being noisy which the Japanese find very rude. Every single tourist that does not know how to behave will sour the local's reception of us all. I also implore you to be considerate towards all the local non-humans in the broadest possible sense. Littering in particular is also very heavily frowned upon in Japan, as it should be frowned upon everywhere.

When it comes to visiting the Jomine Shrine, it should be perfectly fine as long as you follow the shrine etiquette. There's instructions for doing so elsewhere, but it should be noted that since the old shrine is partially abandoned there's probably no wash basin. From what I have gathered if a shrine doesn't provide the wash basin you are not expected to wash your hands and mouth...but if you have gone all the way to meet what could be the kami of Gensokyo, bringing a bottle of water with you so you can rinse your hands and mouth before entering is probably of minimal extra effort. You'd want to make the best possible impression to the kami, wouldn't you?

You should also take some care when exploring the mythological side of Hakuba and Nagano. At the very least you might be seen as a very weird person if you start asking about local legends in a very socially incompetent way. I know that it's very hard for some of us, but please don't fumble your charisma rolls.

As for ”hunting the paranormal”, a very American concept, I suggest that you take a look at the history of such pursuits as ”Bigfoot research” and ”ufology” to see how the phenomena trolls and mocks those who try to crassly dig into it. Not getting anything might very well be the best result for people who approach it in such a manner. While there are some entities that are hostile or predatory towards humans by default, there are also a great many that aren't. There are people who avoided becoming a Missing 411 case by simply apologizing. Showing respect and staying out of places where you probably should not wander into goes a long way. Just as much the paranormal tends to take an interest in you when you take interest in it, the paranormal might just start hunting you if you start hunting for it.

Is understanding the paranormal or supernatural completely hopeless then? No. But it requires a certain attitude that can balance between openness and caution, respect and the determination to move forwards. It's a relationship. Not a spectacle, or a sport.

Next, let's move forwards to increasing our understanding on what exactly these entities might be.