I am Yatsu, the earthbound spirit who haunts this area. Long has it been since any have ventured this way.
Yatsu
Yatsu is the ghost that guards the entrance of Gale Shrine. He is later revealed as Princess Fuse's husband and the former priest of the Gale Shrine before his murder at the hands of demons.[1] Although he is blind, with his inner eye, Yatsu can see into people's souls.
History[]
Ōkami[]
Yatsu was one of the priests who protects Kusa Village, being the head priest of the Gale Shrine. Prior to the time Amaterasu met Princess Fuse, Yatsu was vigilantly protecting the village from the demon force lead by Crimson Helm. However, at one point, he was seriously ill, and in that moment of weakness, he is killed.[1] Now, he is a spirit who lingers in the Gale Shrine, still bound to the earth for his persistence to protect Kusa Village. He informs Amaterasu of the Serpent Crystal and the misfortune that Gale Shrine is suffering.
Yatsu overwhelmed by the young Canine Warriors for spoiling them.
When Amaterasu and Issun came upon him in the story, he was the first and only character to point out Amaterasu's true gender, using his innate spiritual sense to see her as a "fair maiden". Comically, he saw Issun as a "supernatural booger", perhaps showing his immature, devious true self at that point in the game before he wisened up and took his job as a Celestial Envoy seriously.
Characteristics[]
Yatsu is a Shinto priest, and as such, is dressed in the robe of one, which consists of a green shirt with long, separate sleeves, bearing symbols of wind and a blue hakama with black footwear. Yatsu has a hat that is a small windmill, on each blade of the windmill is the symbols of either a spiral or loop drawn in red, representing a sacred wind. Hanging around the windmill are several shide, signifying Yatsu's sacred status as a priest. On his waist, Yatsu dons a white belt, tied from a sacred rope and has a prayer slip on it. Always carrying with him is a gohei he used during life for purification purposes, and as a ghost, he still has it.
Trivia[]
- The gohei (御幣) that Yatsu holds is a purification stick used in rituals by Shinto priests which is decorated with shide (紙垂), the two zigzagging rice paper streamers tied onto one end.
- In the original Japanese version of Ōkami, the Gale Shrine's name—"kaze jingū" ("風神宮"; "wind shrine")—has the word "jingū" ("神宮"), which is commonly used in Japanese to call high-status, Shinto shrines connected with the imperial family.[2] This means that the Satomi house's priests that headed the shrine (Yatsu is one of which) are related to certain members of the imperial court at the capital.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "But last year, the fiends attacked and killed the head priest while he was weakened by sickness, and the Gale Shrine fell into their hands."—Princess Fuse (Ōkami)
- ↑ Denshi Jisho's translation of "神" ({{subst:tt|じん|Divine, godly; pronounced jin, which is derived from the original pronunciation しん (shin) by adding a dakuten mark to し (shi), changing it to じ (ji).}}) and "宮" ({{subst:tt|ぐう|Shinto shrine; pronounced gū (it could be written in the Latin script as guu, but since this is a long sound, the double u can be written as a single u with a dash above it—ū), in which the u sound is prolonged because it is a long sound.}})