The Untold Life of Queen Yukari

What a beautiful name, and monarch too. She was the founding mother of the Democratic Kingdom of Western Gensokyo, ruling from its founding in 1703 until her death in 1753. She had founded and ruled Yakumoshi in the years before the Kingdom’s formal establishment.

She was the first daughter of a family living in Mayohiga, before she was exiled from their residence after the Gensokyo Socialite Order invaded and took control of the town for a period of time. She consolidated control of an area not too far away from Edo (present-day Tokyo) in Japan. This dominion would later evolve into the Democratic Kingdom of Gensokyo, bolstering youkai-born culture across Gensokyo. As queen, she presided over its development and industrialization, and economic growth wouldn’t prosper until after the Scarlet Devil War. She ended up mothering many children, including all the subsequent monarchs of the kingdom until it joined the Federal Kingdom of Gensokyo after the Meiji Restoration.

The Yakumo Dynasty has been a power in Western Gensokyo for over a century and a half. Queen Yukari was born on March 23, 1669 in Mayohiga as the eldest of three daughters. When Yakumo was 17, Crimsonite forces from the Gensokyo Socialite Order conquered and captured Mayohiga, forcing her family to flee as refugees. They continued westward until they reached an area across what would eventually become the Great Hakurei Divide. They stayed there for the rest of their lives.

Following their settlement, many youkai-borns rallied around Yakumo’s call to arms. She was a charismatic leader and would supply them. Over the next couple of years, their new surroundings would be developed into what is now today Yakumoshi. As such, Yakumo was named queen of a new kingdom, and its administration began bolstering the formation of the Democratic Kingdom of Gensokyo.

Yakumo was able to gain loyalty from youkai tribes in Western Gensokyo, such as those from Kyuuto and Saigyou. After the Federal Kingdom of Gensokyo’s administration, Yakumo entered into the Treaty of Kozankyo, making King Kourin her partner, and she gave birth to a daughter named Mirabel Yakumo on November 8, 1703. In 1716, Western Gensokyo was able to defeat the Gensokyo Socialite Order with the help of the People’s Kingdom of Gensokyo and Federal Kingdom of Gensokyo. This caused the Yakumo Dynasty to gain respect among the people.

Yakumo was very tall for a woman of her time and was known for her charming and charismatic personality that earned her respect among people and foreign diplomats. She was described as an affectionate and caring woman. She was also considered to be Gensokyo’s most beautiful woman, beating out Kaguya Houraisan and Marisa Kirisame. She was very close to her younger sisters, ingraining a strong sense of destiny that helped her gain the glory for the Yakumo Dynasty.

She was also said to be very brave and reportedly survived two assassination attempts. The first one was on September 15, 1735, when three former Order grunts tried to take her down during a Shinto ritual. She managed to survive uninjured. The other was in 1751 when a grunt attempted to bomb the Yakumoshi Grand Palace, but the plot was foiled and he was arrested. She remarked on what she knew to avoid and accept for her benefit.

Yakumo was known to sleep a lot, sometimes sleeping up to ten hours. She started experiencing heart disease in her final years, and was also half blind due to hemianopia in the years before her death, in addition to being racked by arthritis. In March of 1753, her health started declining rapidly, and before she slept on her final night, she died in her sleep of a heart attack in the Yakumoshi Grand Palace on May 9, 1753 at the age of 84. Her daughter Mirabel succeeded as Queen. She was cremated and her ashes were buried next to her sisters Ran and Chen.