The Weird and Untold Myth of the Moriya Shrine’s Other Deities

In the Drillimation Danmaku Universe, Susumu Takajima and Kagami Ochiai are descended directly from Sanae Kochiya and Yuyuko Saigyouji respectively. Did you know that the duo’s background and meeting extends far back into the Edo Period? Sanae Kochiya’s youngest grandson, alongside his youkai-born wife, both became kami on their very own.

During the Edo Period, the Moriya Shrine in Gensokyo was a result of a youkai-born helping one shrine maiden and two descendants of two kami in Suwa, Takeminakata no Mikoto (and Yasakatoume no Mikoto) and Moriya no Kami respectively, defect from the authoritarian Tokugawa Shogunate.

The story begins with a young and well-educated youkai-born man who was able to get across the Great Hakurei Divide and into Japan during the Edo Period. He traveled to Suwa, namely the Suwa Grand Shrine. While there, he talked with a few of the original Moriya Shrine’s residents, being Sanae Kochiya and Suwako Moriya (who are distant cousins in the DDU canon and both descended from Moriya no Kami), and Kanako Yasaka (who is descended from Takeminakata no Mikoto). Yasaka has had an uneasy relationship with the Tokugawa Shogunate and was looking to move to Gensokyo for greater freedom.

The youkai-born man who was visiting decided to get them to defect from the shogunate and into Gensokyo. They were able to get across the divide uninjured. Their goal was to get as far away from the Shogunate as possible. They ended up traveling over 3,000 kilometers away from their original home town, and set the location for the new Hakurei Shrine to be what is now Kinmyou.

Sanae Kochiya ended up marrying the youkai-born man who helped her defect, and they were soon on their way to have two sons, and one of their descendants would be known as Shinnosuke “Shin” Kochiya, with his religious name being Kochiya no Shinnomiya. Shinnosuke met and married one of the granddaughters of Yuyuko Saigyouji, Kyou Saigyouji, whose religious name was Saigyouji no Kyouhime. Shin and Kyou married, but when they tried to have a child, it ended in disaster.

Shin and Kyou’s wish for a child was granted, but the pregnancy doesn’t work as expected. Kyou ended up developing an ovarian cyst that eventually bursts. With Shin struggling to keep Kyou alive, the two sacrifice themselves by setting a forest on fire. When Shin’s brother discovers their dead corpses, he collects and mixes both their ashes into an urn which he brings to the Moriya Shrine. As a result of this loss, two shrines near the Moriya Shrine were built in their honor. These shrines also contain their souls for worship.