On the parallels between Yukari Yakumo and Watatsuki no Toyohime, an essay.
Fair disclaimer that most of this comes from my memory of the lore and interpretation I've built over the years. Yes, I tend to be strict about staying away from fanon, but it's not like I went back and checked the sources for accuracy. You understand and agree.
So, earlier one of my new-ish-to-touhou friends brought up how similar Toyohime's and Yukari's designs are, which got me to explain to them that there are indeed some parallels between the two.
[Watatsuki no Toyohime in Fossilized Wonders, Yukari Yakumo in Antinomy of Common Flowers]
Toyohime, as well as her sister Yorihime, was introduced in Silent Sinner in Blue around 2007, the publication beginning slightly before the release of Mountain of Faith. This means that, at the time, there were only a handful of powerful characters in Gensokyo: the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Eientei, Hakugyokurou, and a scattered few like Suika Ibuki, Yuuka Kazami, and Aya Shameimaru (although I believe there was a brief mention of how tengu society worked). Most of these powerful characters do appear in SSiB, in fact:
Eirin is keeping in touch with the Watatsukis and informed them of an upcoming invasion.
Yuyuko is actively plotting with Yukari, although we don't come to know the details of this until much further along the plot.
Remilia wanted to visit the moon, so she had a rocket built with Patchouli and Reimu's help, mainly.
By the time the story started, the narrative emphasis is heavy on Yukari and Reimu, especially with works like Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, Curiosities of Lotus Asia, and Sangetsusei offering some perspective on how they are seen in-universe as greatly powerful and directly tied to the creation and maintenance of the Great Hakurei Barrier, and thus Gensokyo as a whole. Not only that, they have also begun to work together to some extent; most notably, their team in Imperishable Night, although many more instances would come, such as the pair system featured in Subterranean Animism.
Around this time (2006) was also published Magical Astronomy, which I believe to be a strong source of evidence about the Yukari-Maribel connection, especially when considering that Maribel's method to reach the moon with Renko is the same that Yukari used to invade the moon over a thousand years ago - by using the boundary of a reflection upon water. Of course, one was a whim, while the other was a strategy spanning at least a millennium to slowly beckon youkai not to conquest, then slowly drift to Gensokyo, and eventually surround them inside the Great Barrier. This was a very slow plan, as we have seen in CDS that even just the new role of the Hakurei clan caused endless chaos among humans and youkai both.
I can't help but be amused by the thought of Yukari being, essentially, some manner of collector / preserver of fantasy, much the same as there would be collectors and researchers of wildlife during the nineteenth century, contemporary to none other than Lafcadio Hearn.
Enter the Watatsuki sisters, apprentices to Eirin and princesses of the moon (though their title has always caused me intrigue, I mean, they don't seem to be related to Kaguya). Yorihime is an obvious foil to Reimu, being capable of summoning gods to the extent that Reimu's actions in Remilia's rocket were attributed to her, and so they have to invite Reimu to the capital to prove the princess' innocence. Much like Reimu's innate ability to float, Yorihime's ability is so insanely strong that she cannot be properly contained by the spellcard rules, and easily defeats the group.
Toyohime is, then, a foil for Yukari. Her very ability to link the mountains and the sea is mostly treated as a teleportation ability (not unlike Yukari's gaps; we see it in use very clearly during stage 5 of Fossilized Wonders), and its very description is reminiscent of Rinnosuke's explanation about how Yukari's boundary manipulation could define existence - what separates the mountains from the sea if not a boundary?
However, the Watatsukis are written to be vastly more powerful than Reimu and Yukari; not only is Lunarian technology far too advanced (e.g. a fan that can destroy forests to the atomic level, which severely outclasses weapons like Aya's fan that can knock a house down), she also seems to be always one step ahead, dealing with Yukari's crows easily and capturing her, as she believes Yukari to be the invader of whom Eirin warned her.
They are so powerful that they were "banned" from appearing in mainline games, which is clearly no longer the case. Then again, I would liken her role to that of an early game boss - we are massively wrong by heading into the capital, and so she just redirects us. This reminds me of Eirin's role in Imperishable Night, defending Kaguya from the Lunarians, not from us, and already having an end planned to her eternal night. In short, both of them have no quarrel with Reimu / Marisa.
However, Silent Sinner in Blue presents Yukari's victory not as one of strength but as one of cunning, having used Remilia and herself as decoys while Yuyuko waltzed right into the capital. Serving Eirin a cup of Lunarian sake is a display of having outwitted Omoikane Yagokoro, the sage who helped build the capital itself and keep it safe, as proven by her actions to defeat Junko time and time again. Even with Junko's brilliant attempt of recruiting Hecatia, they could not outperform Eirin - what threat could a mere fairy, a mere hell, pose to her? (line from Visionary Fairies in Shrine).
By proxy, it implies that Reimu, too, can grow to incredible levels - ever since, we have seen it happen via the resolution of incidents such as the invasions in Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom and Wily Beast and Weakest Creature, as well as slipping out of Zanmu's control in Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost, and being fully entrusted with Gensokyo's fate in Fossilized Wonders. Outside of the mainline games, Urban Legend in Limbo, Whispered Oracle of Hakurei Shrine, and Cheating Detective Satori show that she excels at her role.
However, while Yukari has proven herself to be an excellent strategist and threatening youkai, she was also once a lonely girl who saw boundaries, cast out by the world and rejecting it in return as well - all but a girl who openly encouraged her to chase after fantasy, Renko Usami.
But she drifted away. From Renko, from humanity, from her identity as Maribel, and even from her original shade of purple. Drifted closer to Yukari.
[Maribel as featured in each successive Hifuu Album, Yukari in Perfect Cherry Blossom]
However, in shifting away from Maribel, she shifted closer toward something, and that something - I believe - is inspired in some part by Okina and Toyohime. She is still herself, she is the boundary-manipulating youkai sage integral to the creation of the Great Hakurei Barrier itself and the wrangling of everyone into Gensokyo. However, even though Maribel does have a specific personality of great distaste toward humanity in favor of herself and fantasy, I dare say that manipulative grandiose only blossoms after she has been influenced by Okina (as of now, that means post-Taboo Japan Disentanglement). Her sage outfit as well, as the tabard is what connects her to the other sages; looking at Okina's personality in her various appearances, it's clearly more dominant in this regard. Fitting for a god!
And well, I don't intend to claim that Yukari based the other half of her wardrobe (i.e. formal purple dresses) on Toyohime's own, but the similarities are clearly there to be observed, and it wouldn't be the first time she draws inspiration from the moon. The Great Hakurei Barrier is many things, one of them being clearly built by the sages we know: Yukari's boundaries, Kasen's hermit arts, Okina's secrecy, the Hakurei shrine itself.
It is also fairly similar to the barrier of reality and fantasy that keeps the Lunar Capital separate from the lifeless side of the moon, which had already been erected by the time Yukari invaded it as a youkai, although I daresay she had already drafted some ideas for the barrier by then. This is a recent interpretation of mine, given by the fact that Chimi - a being older than youkai - knows about the sanctuary barrier but not its Lunarian nature, therefore, this and the Yuiman Processing System (TM) might have served as inspiration for Yukari to develop the Great Hakurei Barrier.
For how pained she always seems to be about the growing relationship with the Lunarians, she will never escape their very influence on her being.
But she did change something fundamental - the Lunarians' obsession for purity and stagnation, which Ariya herself dislikes, is something she renounced from the very start. It is far too similar to the spiritually dead period she lived in as Maribel, and so she cannot allow that sort of stagnation in either herself nor Gensokyo, for that would be the end of fantasy. This is the crucial difference between Yukari and Toyohime.
Then again, Yukari has dulled in her own way, just as Toyohime has grown.
Yukari has allies more than she has friends. Remilia, Eirin, Suika, Satori, Okina, they are her peers and allies; Ran is her shikigami. Mamizou, Kanako, Chimata, they are clear embodiments of what Gensokyo stands for, yet they don't work with her all that much. The only ones who ever truly worked with her, became her dear friends, both hail from a land of death: Renko, from the non-fantastical future, and Yuyuko, from the unchanging Netherworld.
Her dynamic with Yuyuko is very worthy of a post of its own - is her unchanging nature a source of stability? Her cunning beneath the whimsy, how much does it remind her of Renko? Even when Yuyuko doesn't follow her quite as closely. Both are busy, I suppose, as Princess of the Netherworld and as an elusive youkai who stays near the border of Gensokyo, but never quite outside it like Okina and Kasen do.
But that is to be expected. Maribel was always an outcast, to the point of having been put in a sanatorium. I wonder how much of Yukari's character as smug, elusive, and two-faced was a deliberate choice to become who she is now, seeing as old Gensokyo seems similar to Hell in its might-makes-right ways. Yukari, then, remains isolated even in her paradise. Ironically, this is the one boundary she does not know how to cross, as she has boxed herself in.
[Screenshots from Lotus Eaters and Cheating Detective Satori]
No matter how much she may yearn for it, she cannot stand on "even" terms with anyone. Not even enough for her, so she instead spends most of the time sleeping somewhere unreachable. She won't let anyone in, and nobody is particularly interested in seeking her out, either.
A Beautiful Flower Blooming Violet Every Sixty Years. In this monologue, it's pretty clear how Yukari thinks and acts - she finds humans lovable and amusing, but ridiculous and uninitelligent. She says nostalgia and fondness for the past is a necessity for the hope of the long-lived, but how much of her past is truly classified as a fond memory - how much of Renko does she even remember?
She seems saddened that she can only tell Reimu about the sixty-year cycle this one time, and yet so unbothered at large at the same time. She accepts her fading memories and resents it at once. It might be a stretch, but it does remind me of Ariya's complacency with the situation she ended up in; how curious that someone so averse to stagnation, then, is stagnant like this.
It may explain why she favors Yuyuko's whimsy so much, and why she makes her own attempts at it, even if they're not perfect. Telling ghost stories about her "missing" arm, summoning trains via spellcards, and playing up her reputation as a scary youkai, perhaps those are her attempts at socialization.
It's Reimu, after all, the one who befriends her every enemy, despite her job.
Contrast this with Toyohime - with the Lunarians at large, who have learnt and adapted in their own way. Losing Kaguya, then Eirin, forced them to change. The diplomacy that Reimu earnt through prowess and Yukari earnt through strategy forced them to change. Junko's clever but incomplete invasion which called for reliance upon Reimu forced them to change.
It is Toyohime who brings the seed of change to Yuiman and Ariya, even if she has to leave the conclusion to her old master, for her purity's sake.
Touhou is fundamentally a story of self-definition. Marisa becoming an extraordinary magician no matter the effort it takes, Kanako and Chimata adapting to a new land in order to stay alive, Mamizou having the freedom to be anything she wants to be, in and out of Gensokyo, and empowering others (like Kokoro) to be who they want to be.
It is also a story of contradiction; from the meeting of eastern and western as seen as early as the duo of Reimu and Marisa or the entire Scarlet Devil Mansion in Gensokyo, to cases like these: the exterminating shrine maiden who desires a world of peace, the everchanging youkai who has boxed herself in, and the eternal princess who learnt how to grow.
And isn't that, too, a form of self-definition?
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