| “ | The only people who live on the surface are good men, saints... and True Villains. | „ |
| ~ Kasen Ibaraki |
Kasen Ibaraki is a character from the Touhou Project franchise, who debuted as the main protagonist of the Wild and Horned Hermit manga. She is a mysterious self-proclaimed hermit living in the mountains. Possessing an artificial arm and various abilities, she can often be seen dispensing knowledge to Reimu Hakurei, Marisa Kirisame, and Sanae Kochiya.
Kasen describes herself as "a simple pilgrim" and shows up at the Hakurei Shrine looking for the so-called "arm of the kappa".
Appearance[]
Kasen has red eyes and shoulder-length pink hair with Chinese-style double buns; her right arm is wrapped in ribbons, almost as if it's covered in bandages. She wears a white shirt and a green skirt, over those a brown front panel that has a thorny vine motif and a large rose-shaped ornament just below collar level. She also appears to have a shackle on her left wrist.
Personality[]
Kasen is kind and polite to nearly everyone. She is always willing to lend a word of advice or teach a lesson, but is often seen as preachy and overly critical of others.
Relationships[]
- Reimu Hakurei (Unknown)
- Sanae Kochiya (Neighbor)
- Komachi Onozuka (Unknown, apparent acquaintances)
- Marisa Kirisame (Unknown)
- Suika Ibuki (Unknown)
Trivia[]
- Her family name, 茨 (Ibara), refers to a thorny wild rose, hence the rose brooch and thorn motif on her dress. The characters 華仙 (Kasen) roughly mean "flowery mystic" or "gorgeous hermit". In her other name, 茨木 (Ibaraki) could mean "rose bush", while 華扇 (Kasen) is written with the characters for "flower fan".
- She is introduced in her name panel as "the one-armed, horned hermit," so it is safe to assume she is a hermit.
- During the second chapter, she's shown as able to destroy (exorcise?) evil spirits with her bandaged arm.
- It's believed that she's one of the Four Devas of the Mountains, along with Suika Ibuki and Yuugi Hoshiguma.
- In Chapter 16 of Wild and Horned Hermit, Suika Ibuki appears saying that Kasen is pretending as a hermit. She might be also an acquaintance of Suika and Yuugi Hoshiguma as she said in the same chapter about the improved taste of the sake she brought.
- In Chapter 20 of Wild and Horned Hermit, it was confirmed that Kasen and Suika knows each other, even knowing who Suika is behind her "disguise".
- She was a possibility to be the Extra Stage of Ten Desires along with Byakuren Hijiri.
- She apparently keeps lots of animals (described as "pets" by Sanae) and is told by other characters as well, one of her more interesting animals is a young dragon (appearance in chapter five) in which Kasen states "will do anything I ask of it".
- She is the first and only Touhou character from the mangas to become playable in an official Touhou game.
- Her yellow and brown color palette in Urban Legend in Limbo resembles Mami Tomoe from Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
- Kasen is mentioned in Ten Desires' ending no.4, where it's explaining that Marisa heard from Kasen that the ultimate goal of Taoism is to achieve immortality.
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